New Chapter

I gave a ninety-day notice at my university job at the beginning of June, and tomorrow, August 30th, 2019, with the new moon in 6° Virgo, is my last day. You’d better believe I will be doing a major New Moon ritual. This is 9th House for me, I’ll by grounding deep roots in my offerings as a teacher and workshop leader where my intention is to travel, and to live by my life’s philosophy of creativity, curiosity, and play as a form of healing and wellness, connection, growth, and human sustainability.

How will I make a living?

So much of what I already do will be a part of it, and, over the coming days, I will be rearranging my site so my offerings are easy to find and available. I will be sharing more about:

• music
• art
• writing
• somatics
• workshops
• yoga
• tarot reading , and
• reiki

It seems as if so much is falling into place. I have been doing heavy transformational work over the last couple of years, and my life has changed in wonderful and surprising ways! One of the best outcomes is an upgrade to my self-worth (that topic is an entire post, if not an entire book) – and a direct result of that is the amazing relationship I have with my partner, Paul. I didn’t believe this kind of love was was possible – and it’s because I had to love myself first. (Check out my post 100 Things that Made Me Grow)

God/dess, my life is so much better than it was just a couple of years ago!

My job, for a long while, worked for me. I never fit in to the work-a-day slave culture, but I am good at many things I don’t like to do. Slowly, I realized I was embroiled in a toxic situation. Since I made the decision to leave, for the first time in my life, people have been saying things like, “Congratulations!” and “I wish I was brave enough to leave,” and “I can’t wait to take your classes . . . see your art . . . hear your music, etc.” In the past, when I have left jobs, people would say, “Oh no, what are you going to do now?” and, “How are you going to survive?, and, “I know the pay was terrible, but what about the benefits?”

Being

Since I began this being of who I am, this is happening:

1. I am ready to make my own ideas become tangible reality
2. People in my life are more in alignment with who I am 
3. I love and respect myself
4. My deepest most personal relationships are filled with love and respect
5. Music is filling me with tremendous joy! I am in three bands:
   1. all-girl spooky power-pop garage band – the Lofi Sofias;
   2. new-Americana group – the Conduits; and
   3. duo Holly and Pauly

Finding Grace

Another surprising new thing I began in the last couple of years was life drawing modeling. After a lifetime of being uncomfortable in my body, I now get to celebrate it! I started modeling at Coconino Center for the Arts and have branched out to private sessions with people I like.

This week, I posed for three local artists after taking quite a long break from the work. I had forgotten how my mind sort of spins as my body becomes a landscape. There is a shift in my perception, like I am taking in light.

This group of artists was wonderful to work with, such kind people. Posing for them was meditative in a way that was a relief to my mind – as I arranged my body, thinking of grace and flow and line, my vision softened, and outside the sliding glass door of the studio the garden took on the shimmer of a Klimt landscape.

We talked about:

• Egon Schiele, and his beautiful work with hands and the figure.
• Making art and writing – Does our work cross over to all generations? Does it have to?
• Health, love and grief
• Climate change
• How I began modeling
• The contributions of our different generations to our culture.
  • It felt like the 60s generation was being hard on themselves, and I said, “Talk about collective grief, there was so much hope and then RFK was assassinated, Martin Luther King was assassinated, and then there were the Manson Murders. I imagine that must have shut down the energy of the 60s. So tragic!”
  • I mentioned my generation, Gen X – it was also like something was about to happen in the 90s and then, fizzle. Rigged elections? Inflation? All of the sudden it cost too much to be an artist. But so many of us are coming back, after choosing the safe route of getting a “real job” and still ending up broke – we have come to the realization the we might as well be artists after all.
• How to combat useless “busy-ness”. Slow down and make art, write, do life drawing, ride your bicycle, meditate, talk about these things and connect. They are real, they are important.
• Giving in to who we really are

By the time we were done, I said – “I should record this next time. This would have made a fascinating podcast! Thank you all so much for the art and thoughtful conversation!”

Of course, with so much synchronicity happening in my life these days – I heard this Podcast – The Power of 3: Numerological Predictions for 2019 : Guru Jagat and Remington Donovan from Reality Riffing With Guru Jagat in Podcasts. It goes deep into the energy of change, being authentic in our consumer culture, and creating cultural shifts.

New horizons

Valid during several weeks: During this time you should attempt to broaden your horizons in every way possible – through study, new and unfamiliar experiences, travel or by meeting people from totally different backgrounds. Strive to make even the most trivial encounter a positive learning experience. The same function can be served by doing things that are different from your normal routine. This is not the time to retreat to your home, except for reading or study, as mentioned. If you cannot get interested in a new mental activity, recognize that you are still eager for new understanding and satisfy this need by breaking out of your everyday mold and getting out into the broader world. Travel would be a good way to do this, if you can arrange for it at this time of year. But you should go somewhere where you can also learn something.

The interpretation above is for your transit selected for today:
Sun in 9th house, activity period mid-August 2019 until end of September 2019