Hearth and Home Vol. 8 – Refilling the Cup

iracles,

Happy October!!! On the night of September 30th, as I was cleaning up from the Archangel Michael Feast Day, I glanced at my October calendar, and nearly started to hyperventilate. Oh. My. Goodness. We are now full-on in the season of magic, which means that I am full-on busy, add to that all of the school functions that happen in October, the birthdays (mine!!!) and anniversaries (also mine!!!) that also occur in October.

Looking at October, I began to feel what I can only describe as dread at all the busy-ness, which is NOT how I wanted to go into the month. So I stopped before panic mode truly set in, and I asked myself: OK, Bri – you know you have a lot going on this month, so what practices do you need to be really vigilant about in order to enjoy your favorite month of the year?

I thought about this question, and I felt into it just as I have my students do. I realized that I needed to commit to practices that really support me in feeling expansive when it comes to time and space. The month had not even started and I was feeling like I did not have either! For me, these practices are active imagination journeys – the kind we do in Spinning Gold and the kind I have taught in the Miracle Tree Sessions for several years now. They always begin with cultivating calmness, then my working place in the Otherworld always starts at the crossroads and I go from there. I was telling a friend of mine that the first part of the year, right up to this month, has felt like a huge out-breath. It has been so active. I have been so active. Writing a book, having a baby, traveling quite a bit over the summer, a full roster of students that I work with one on one…all really good things that I absolutely love and also all very outwardly active experiences.

Now that the skies are grayer and the weather will (maybe? hopefully!) start to cool down, I was struck so profoundly with the need to go inwards. For me that is more quiet time in my daily practice and prayers, planning with an eye to next year, and reading, reading, reading. I stayed away from reading books while I was writing my own because I needed to WRITE, but now I am making up for lost time and averaging about a book a day. Not even kidding. I’m reading fiction, non-fiction, and everything in between. I am spending time listening to podcasts and just soaking in inspiration and ideas and gorgeous words. This is better than any ten thousand dollar retreat – holding Heath, reading or listening to something interesting, then turning to my husband and talking with him about it. This, my friends, is pure gold in Briana-land.

So I’m reading, I’m cooking more, I’m making time and space to write, I’m playing with my three month old, I’m snuggling down with my seven year old and telling him a different version of Blue Beard or the Twelve Dancing Princesses or Iron Heinrich every night. I’m listening to my Holy Helpers. I feel the next wave of creative ideas and inspiration coming. I can see the shadows that wave is casting – good, robust, luminous-on-the-inside shadows. I can taste its depths, and I am taking care of myself, re-filling my cup, so that when it is ready to crest I will be ready.

These realizations turned what was looking like a pretty scraggly cat of a month into something glossy and plump, wild, and wise. A time of year that I am actually going to linger through and savor and enjoy. My birthday is this month on October 13th and on that same day Heath turns four months old. He continues to be a really happy child, reminding me to RELAX and PLAY and have FUN. Our seven year old, Jasper, teaches me how to be patient and to live within my creativity. J is a deeply artistic child (I’ve shared some of his drawings before and those of you who have met him in real life know what I am talking about). He is the kind of child who does not do something creative, he lives it. By which I mean, he has to be reminded as all 7 year olds do, to put on shoes and brush teeth and feed fish, but he does not have to be asked to play the piano from hi heart or to sit down and draw or to build something out of Jenga blocks. He just does it, as naturally as you please. And sometimes it is funny and sometimes it is weird, and sometimes it is deeply divine and makes you feel like angels striding through your living room. That is living within our creativity. My 7 year old is an excellent teacher and I am trying to keep up with the lessons.

This is also the month when I celebrate being married to be the most incredible man – for twelve years now! David is the best husband, best dad, best partner is business and in life I could ever have been blessed with. He is without a doubt my person, my guy, my love. Both my birthday and our anniversary will be celebrated with good food and forays into the forests as soon as the weather cools down and the mosquitoes become a little less blood thirsty. As I dance into my 38th year I just feel so grateful. So grateful to our gorgeous community, so grateful that I get to wake up and do work that I love with people that I love every single day. So grateful that my beloved and I get to spend our days together, working, wrangling, and loving each other as we do. It is not always easy, this magical, enchanted life; but I would not trade it for anything, and I cannot pretend to be anything other than deeply blessed. So many of you who are reading this have helped make that possible in countless big and small ways. My gratitude to all of you is truly boundless. And I have so many fun things coming up in 2019 to help show that gratitude. I cannot wait to tell you all about them – soon, soon!

A bunch of you have asked about the book and what is happening with it now. So we are now in the copy-editing phase of the production. This is a different kind of editing than what we were engaged in before – if book production was compared to a manicure, then this part is the application of the clear, fast drying top coat. It is important because it brings yet another level of cohesion to the entire manuscript (and it has us all bowing down in devotion to the Chicago Manual of Style). We are now in the last leg of the book formation journey. Any small changes I want to make to the book have to be made by October 31st (yes I know, how perfect is that?). After that day, any changes start to slow down the next leg of the book birthing process. So I am lingering over my book this month, spending a lot of time with it, taking it for walks, for long baths, going over every word and sentence, story and idea, because once it is out in the world on shelves and in hands, it is not mine any longer, it becomes yours, all of yours, and I want to give you something lovely and thought provoking and well-made.

I am also in the endorsement gathering phase. Getting endorsements is straight up going out into a neighborhood and knocking on a bunch of doors, and asking people who are known to be gifted in seeing and assessing and blessing if they will spare the time and the effort and take a moment to bless you, to bless your work. That’s what you are doing: you are asking for and gathering up blessings. It takes courage. Sometimes the answer is no. But often the answer is yes and the blessing received is so much more than the seeker could have ever imagined. There are more pieces around the book that I will be asking you about soon as I need your input and opinions.

I’ve also turned my attention to writing new material, starting with a long article about Witches that many of you emailed me about and generously shared your thoughts. I love those exchanges. It usually takes me a few days to get back to all of the emails but I love them. It means so much and it is such a blessing to be able to hear what you have to say, what my words encourage you to think about and speak out about in your own lives. That is, hands down, my favorite part of the internet, and we do not even have to do it through social media! I can just write something and send it out to y’all and y’all show up with brilliance every single time. How stellar is that?

So I wrote earlier about re-filling my cup, and here are some of the ways I have been doing it. I have been reading this and this and this. Listening to this. Playing with this and covering myself with these. And I have also made some things for you because I love making things for you. I wrote a little guide on how to incorporate astrology into your planning processes – I call it Planning by Starlight and you can snag it here – totally free: enjoy! I have a blessing for the New Moon in Libra right here for you. And I also want to remind you that I have a litany of blessings if you ever need to be washed over with blessings. Theresa and I have a new podcast episode up. There are also a bunch of articles on working with, honoring, and celebrating our Beloved Dead as we enter into Ancestor Season. And reminder, if you want to know what the latest offerings are, you need to sign up for this email list as I keep this one commercial free. And I wish this for you: a decadent, delicious, sweet as honey, October for you – a time that you are really able to enjoy and appreciate and dive into.

magic, miracles: receive my lunar letters

ARRIVING on full moons each month.

20 Question
Tarot

Why Walking Away is Rarely the Answer

Lunar Letter

ear Miracles,

If you remember in the August Lunar Letter, we looked at what it takes to be a soulful seeker. In a word, we saw the need for an “eyes-wide open” faith, which stays alive to our deepest and our sharpest questioning. In response to this Letter, I received several thoughtful messages from you asking me to write/speak on a related topic: what should we do when soulful seeking becomes a divisive wedge in relationships?

This is a question I receive quite often, in many different forms, and all of you who wrote to me are right. This is a problem that needs to be addressed in our sacred arts communities.

One person finds herself trying to explain why she would like to have an area of her home dedicated to candles, prayer and contemplation, or to divination practices, and her spouse looks at her as if she’s sprouted a second head. She can take only so much of this, and begins to wonder if she should divorce him.

Another person tries to tell his secular Jewish parents that he would actually like to attend the neighborhood synagogue regularly, not just during the high holidays, and they roll their eyes at him, and his relationship with them suffers. They always seem to do and say things that undermine him.

Someone else finds herself unable to explain to her Baptist grandmother the finer points of her astrological chart and becomes worried that at any moment said grandmother may begin talking about the Devil’s handy work. She used to spend long afternoons with her grandmother, but it is becoming more and more difficult to do so – and she is even wondering if it wouldn’t be better for everyone if she stops visiting all together.

Yet another person finds herself making excuses and covering up when talking to intellectual friends who are skeptical of spiritual matters. She worries she’ll lose her friends.

Someone else no longer can talk to family, has becomes estranged, because she feels they stand on the other side of a vast unbridgeable canyon.

In order to belong, we can often feel we need to cover over our eccentricities. But if we do that, in some way it feels like we are betraying ourselves. If – on the other hand – we try to proclaim our differences proudly, then we risk destroying our relationships and isolating ourselves in unsupportable ways.

This is a tough one, people! And it is a very, very old conflict. One of the toughest things is that every relationship is different. That means that there’s no silver-bullet, one size fits all, solution. But the good news is that you’re not alone.

So what should we do? To approach this problem, let’s begin by identifying a trend. We see more and more commonly in our sacred arts communities today something like the following solution to the problem:

You come first. Do what is right for you no matter what the consequences. When conflicts arise the choice is clear: keep the spiritual teachings and practices and leave the relationship – even if it is your beloved, your parent, your sibling or child.

Now let’s buck the trend and see what happens. Try this on for size:

Relationship is first. Do what is right for you in the deepest and truest sense. When conflicts arise the choice is clear: if your spiritual teachings destroy your relationships – if they do not teach you how to approach relationships with greater wisdom and understanding – go back to the drawing board, seek wisdom, and ask, what is right relationship here, what does it look and feel like?

Why might this alternative approach interest us as soulful seekers? For one thing because the greatest mystical and sacro-magical teachings the world over emphasize one thing more than almost any other: right relationship.

Right relationship with the mysteries and powers of a magnificent cosmos.

Right relationship with our dear neighbors and loved ones (not to mention with strangers.)

Right relationship with ourselves.

There are times when certain relationships do indeed need to come to an end, or at the very least be re-assessed. And it is true that in some cases weaving spiritual practices into our daily lives can appear to create conflict.

But if certain relationships need to end, could it be because of – and not despite – the real need we all have (all of us, without exception!) for good and genuine relationships in our lives? If conflicts appear to be stirred up by practices, could it be that they were already there in the first place, but that somehow we were not acknowledging them properly?

The single greatest problem with the simplistic “you-centered” remedy is that relationships can never be avoided. Try as we might to make ourselves numero uno, we find ourselves again and again having to live and work with people. Stubborn, intractable people!

Instead of trying to escape from this conflict without success, we might do well to consider the alternative. What if the very people who best push our buttons – the ones we love the most – and the very deepest conflicts in our lives, are our best teachers, the ones who grant us an perfect opportunity to seek greater understanding and wisdom, therefore to do soulful work? Just as we would never wish away our friends and best teachers, so we might do well to cease trying to escape from, or rid ourselves, of these conflicts at the roots of our life as human beings and as soulful seekers.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, one of the most valuable things we can learn from divination practices such as the Tarot as well as so many other sacred arts such as the storytelling tradition of faerie tales is not how to flee from conflicts, not how to put “ourselves first” no matter what, in order to soothe away conflicts temporarily. We learn, rather, how to fight well! We learn how to embrace the unknown and get out of conflicts and difficult times with more grace and wisdom, more wholeness and holiness, than we had before we went in. That is, we learn true sovereignty, and how to enter into a deeper more objective and vital engagement with relationships, facing conflicts with compassion, understanding and greater insight…and, above all else, a “can do” attitude characterized by inspired and wise action.

magic, miracles: receive my lunar letters

ARRIVING on full moons each month.

20 Question
Tarot

How to be the greatest lover ever

Lunar Letter

He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast — Samuel Taylor Coleridge from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

(Listen to this lunar letter by clicking here).

We yearn for one thing more than good health, wealth, power, or influence. What we desire most of all is love. We want to make it, give it, and receive it. If our jobs are upside down and we find ourselves in a financial mess, it doesn’t matter as long as there is love. And when we feel the absence of love, everything else in our lives can be wonderful and amazing and that doesn’t matter either. Without love everything just seems flat, dull and lifeless.

What does it take to be a really good lover? Flat abs? Regular romps in the bedroom? A little blue pill? Lightning striking the first time you kiss or touch? No. What about the practical stuff: agreement on the fundamental questions, ability to communicate with one another effectively, mutual respect and admiration? Again, no.

To be the greatest lover ever there is only one thing you need to do:

Pay Attention.

It sounds really easy, right? Pay attention…I can do that, anyone can do that! And this is true, anyone can do it, but all too often we don’t. Why? Because paying attention means looking beyond your beloved’s strained smile when they get home from work, seeing the stress around their eyes, and even though you have dinner to make and a dog that wants to go for a walk, stopping everything, taking their hands in your own and saying “tell me, my love, tell me what’s going on.”

Paying attention means putting down the phone, the computer, the baby and saying “honey, let’s go out to that new place you’ve wanted to try.” It means touching, holding, and kissing not the way you always have, but the way that your beloved needs you to — right now, today.

John Duns Scotus, a medieval theologian and philosopher, defined love in this way: I will that you are. To understand love in that way, as I will that you are, is to say that I love you — I want every single day for you, I want every moment for you, I love your existence in this world, I love your being in and of itself. To will that someone else is, is to pay attention and embrace all that they are, all that each of us is…our shiny parts, our dark places, our stories, our scars. Love that pays attention sees the miracle of the beloved’s existence every single day and is resolved to be responsive and alive to it.

Something more happens when we pay attention as well. We begin to fall in love over and over again. We fall in love with our beloveds, our partners, our spouses every single day. But more than that, we fall in love with the world…with the way that sunlight falls on this branch of ivy after an afternoon rainstorm, with the way that fat purple crocuses surge up, up, up to the light through the ice and snow, we fall in love with the sound of a hawk’s cry on the cold north wind, and with the squawking of fat baby blue jays filling their bellies with blackberries. And so it is that it doesn’t matter whether you are in a love “relationship” or not. We are all lovers. There is something or someone that you hold precious, something or someone that is your very own beloved, something or someone that is no less than a daily miracle.

This lunar letter was brought to you by the poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the devotion of Jim Henson, and this album of Cantos de Amor by the Gipsy Kings.

magic, miracles: receive my lunar letters

ARRIVING on full moons each month.

20 Question
Tarot

Something Wicked this Way Comes: 13 Points About the Evil Eye

Alchemy and Magic

ear Miracles: The “evil eye” or mal ojo as we call it here in San Antonio, is a pan-cultural idea that encompasses a host of beliefs regarding negativity, bad luck, and misfortune. Quite a few scholarly articles have been written on the evil eye but here is the low down information you absolutely need to know.

The first thing to recognize about mal ojo in our current time is that we can carry it with us, in us, and not even know it. Anytime we are seeing incorrectly — with envy or pride or lust or selfishness we could rightly be said to be suffering from the evil eye –our eyes are literally being taken over by an evil force, call it energy, call it spirit, or simply bad will.

In traditional spiritual work the best cure for one who has the evil eye put on them is a limpias — a spiritual bath, and that is the best way to cure oneself of incorrect seeing too — it is a time of cleansing and reconciliation to the self and your true purpose, it can be a time of recommitting to the work you have to do in the world. May it be so. With that said, here are other facets of this idea which may be of use.

1.) The evil eye is everywhere. In every culture that is. The belief that people can intentionally or unintentionally wish you ill or harm is found throughout the world and throughout time. Usually people focus on the beliefs surrounding the evil eye found in Judaism, the Mediterranean countries, and Middle Eastern countries like Turkey or Iran, but plenty of beliefs about the evil eye can be found in Western European, Central and South American, and African countries too.

2.) Most often the evil eye is believed to be given to someone unintentionally. There are plenty of cases of people feeling that someone has deliberately decided to try to ruin their life through negative thoughts, malevolent prayers, or outright destructive workings. More frequent, however, is the belief that someone called down the evil eye through their own jealousy and was not really trying to harm the object of their attentions.

3.) Symptoms of the evil eye vary from time to time and place to place–but many of them include a general idea of “drying out.” Water is generally associated with life and life giving forces. When we are too dry we are not as generative, fertile, prosperous, or healthy.

4.) Children and older people are traditionally believed to be the most vulnerable to the evil eye as are women who have just given birth.

5.) Salt is a world wide curative for the evil eye and is also seen as protective against it. So are the colors blue (featured in many of the apotropaic charms we find for the evil eye today) and red–which is favored as a cure and protective color against the evil eye in parts of Africa, Italy, and the UK.

6.) Sugar is second only to salt in its curative abilities as the evil eye is believed to make someone’s life bitter as well as dry. Sugar brings moisture and sweetness to the situation.

7.) Along with sugar and salt, Spiritual Cleansing, is seen as another essential step in both warding off and combating conditions resulting from the evil eye.

8.) The evil eye does not necessarily only come from other people. Many traditions believe that it can be cast on a person by spirits who are displeased or offended for whatever reason.

9.) Rue is the herb most popularly called on to address and combat cases of the evil eye–perhaps because of it’s tiny eye-shaped leaves.

10.) Blessed water/Holy Water can be used to wash someone down who is believed to be afflicted with the evil eye. Start at the head and work down to the feet then dispose of the water at a four way crossroads.

11.) Gold jewelry is a potent ward against the evil eye in many countries.

12.) Conditions brought about by the evil eye can be chronic/repetitive or acute and isolated events.

13.) In Western Europe one old and favored trick to use, is to immediately turn your clothes inside out and walk backwards or in a widdershins (counter clockwise) circle.

magic, miracles: receive my lunar letters

ARRIVING on full moons each month.

20 Question
Tarot

A Blessing of the Body

Prayer and Blessing

ear Miracles: I am really honored that this blessing which I wrote years ago inspired Diana of the BunnyKissd blog to put it to one of her gorgeous photos. In the midst of your hectic Holiday it is our prayer that you too will take a moment to recall how blessed and beautiful you are!

magic, miracles: receive my lunar letters

ARRIVING on full moons each month.

20 Question
Tarot

Many Branches–The Awesome Alexandra Franzen

Learning and Community

ear Miracles,

When I started doing business on the web I quickly discovered that writing for a website was different than any kind of writing I had ever done before. For the first time, I had to write a sales copy and I had to write emails to people I admired asking if they would be willing to…gulp…collaborate with me. I have yet to receive a NO and I think one of the big reasons why is because early on I learned about the remarkable Alexandra Franzen. Alexandra helped craft much of the copy on my site but she helped with so much more than that. With her scripts, her excellent blog, and her classes, I have learned how to be the best possible writer for my online audience. She is wise, kind, and super whip-smart — kind of an unbeatable combination!

In her own words:
ALEXANDRA FRANZEN wants to live in a world where emails are short, love letters are brave, and every “thank you” note is scribbled by hand.

A sought-after writing instructor + communication specialist, she’s been spotlighted on The Daily Love, The Daily Muse, MindBodyGreen, Fast Company, Forbes and The Huffington Post.

When she’s not scribbling up a storm, you can find her re-reading the collected works of Oscar Wilde, watching obscene amounts of television without a trace of shame, and optimistically checking her mailbox for brown paper packages tied up with string.

Her first book — 50 Ways To Say You’re Awesome — hits the shelves in October 2013.

Learn how to write with style, simplicity + astonishing ease at AlexandraFranzen.com.

Discover Alex at the following hot spots:

Site: AlexanraFranzen.com
Twitter: @Alex_Franzen

I know people ask you about the ins and outs of writing and communication all the time — why do YOU love to write? What about the art form gets you hot and bothered?

The philosopher + linguist Ludwig Wittgenstein once said: “That which cannot be said cannot be thought.” I like to say: “That which cannot be said cannot be done.”

What I mean is this: If you have got a fantastic idea, but you can’t put that idea into words — words that other people can see, grasp and rally behind — then your idea doesn’t really exist. It’s just a fuzzy notion in your head. It’s got no shape, in the physical world. So: when you wrap words around your dreams, it’s the first step towards making them touchable + real. Words set everything into motion.

How HOT is that?

Write Yourself into Motion workshops — tell me everything!

It all started with a magical walk in the woods. (Literally.) I was strolling along the coastline of Vancouver Island with my dear friend Hiro Boga, and I said to her, “You know? I’d really love to create my own writing workshop.”

She smiled and said something wise + profound like, “And so you shall, young grasshopper.”

The very next morning, I woke up to find an invitation from two women back on the mainland, sitting in my inbox.

“Would you like to teach a writing workshop at our retreat in New Mexico?” they asked.

Oh, universe. You’re the BEST.

Fast forward to this year: I’m teaching my signature workshop — Write Yourself Into Motion — in 8 different cities for over 200 people. It’s a weekend of business and career-focused wordsmithery with me + 20 new friends.

It’s ridiculously fun. I cry almost every time. One time, my mom + dad came to watch. They cried, too.

Yeah. It’s like that.

You love brevity, but your words go deep. What’s your favorite trick to packing a punch with few words?

Before I sit down to write anything — an email, a blog post, a text message, a love note — I ask myself three questions:

1. How do I want my reader to feel?

2. What do I want my reader to know?

3. What do I want my reader to do?

Once I’m clear on those three elements, the rest is relatively simple: it’s just a matter of stringing words together in a way that feels lyrical + pleasant on the eyes (and ears).

Another technique? I often pretend that I’m writing a short poem, like a haiku — even if I’m (really) writing a newsletter or an article.

The end result is usually much tighter + leaner than it would’ve been, otherwise.

You have a new book out: Fifty Ways To Say You’re Awesome. What happens when we learn different ways to express our awesomeness?

Every human being on earth craves appreciation, recognition, and affection. We are all waiting for someone to look us in the eye and say, “You’re awesome. Really, truly awesome.”

Fifty Ways To Say You’re Awesome is an invitation to BE that person — to be a bright spot of gratitude in someone else’s day. To say “you’re the best,” “I see you,” “I get you,” and “wooooow.”

And if you can’t figure out the right way to say “thank you” to someone who deserves your complete + total adoration … well … you’ll find 50 bolts of inspiration, inside my book! ;)

If you could give one piece of wisdom to my readers today, what would it be?

Knock everything off your to-do list, except for the one thing that matters.

And then shelve that task for later, too … and instead?

Just write a letter to one person you’ve been meaning to thank, for a very long time.

magic, miracles: receive my lunar letters

ARRIVING on full moons each month.

20 Question
Tarot

Many Branches: Divine Alchemy with Hiro Boga

Learning and Community

ear Miracles,

Alchemy is often presented as a difficult to understand (to say the least!) concept best left to Renaissance-era mages and the Sacred Arts are seldom seen as having anything practical to say about business and our work lives. How wonderful it is then that we are going to spend time with the one and only Hiro Boga today. Hiro and I have worked in the same circles for quite some time — I admire her approach and respect the reverence with which she approaches ALL facets of life. Soak in her wisdom!

In Her Own Words:

Writer, teacher, business strategist, and energy alchemist, Hiro Boga teaches transformational programs and mentors creative women who want to shape a world in which soul and entrepreneurship, passion, and profit walk hand in hand. For the past three decades, she has helped thousands of clients and students reclaim joy, freedom, success, and creative sovereignty in their businesses, their relationships, and their lives. As a mentor and teacher, Hiro blends transformative energy technologies, the magic of a story, and grounded spiritual practices with pragmatic business strategies. Hiro offers two signature group programs each year: Become Your Own Business Adviser and How To Rule Your World From The Inside Out: The Art Of Inner Leadership.

She also works privately with a select few creative entrepreneurs and visionary leaders to unfold the miracle of their lives and businesses. Explore her online Deva Cards, and a wealth of other free resources at HiroBoga.com Connect with her on Facebook, & on Twitter @HiroBoga

One of the descriptions of your work is “energy alchemy.” What does that mean?

Everything that has its being in our three-dimensional world, emerges from patterns and potentials held in the subtle energy realms. In other words, our physical world is intimately interwoven with the subtle energy matrix that gives birth to it. If you want to create something new (like a business, or a book), or transform a pattern that no longer serves you, the most powerfully effective way to do this is by working with the subtle energy matrix from which it arises. Energy alchemy is a set of skills, practices, and above all, relationships through which existing patterns are transformed, new patterns are created, and dreams and wishes are given concrete shape and form in the physical world. I help people articulate and create their soul’s deep desires in ways that seem miraculous, but that is grounded in the practice of energy alchemy.

Something I really enjoy about your work and the particular way you express your gifts is your focus on business. I think much of the time we have this sense of: “My soul work is over here and my business is over there.” What is the connection between business and soul knowing for you?

Business, too, is a physical creation that has its roots in the subtle energy realms. Your business has its own soul essence, its own life, which is separate from yours. The pattern for the perfect unfolding of your business’s life is held by its Deva. But its Deva (or soul, if you will) cannot act in the physical world without you. Your business can only come into being when you choose to partner with its Deva to bring it to life. You lend it your desire, imagination, creativity, heart, time, money, energy and resources, but ultimately it is a soul creation – a collaboration between your soul and its soul. North American culture creates artificial divisions between soul and body, soul and business, soul and “the real world.” This severing of soul connection from daily life is at the root of the epidemic of loneliness, isolation, despair, overwork, stress, fear, and violence from which our society suffers so profoundly. The truth is, everything is an expression of the soul. Our bodies are made of the same soul stuff as our souls. Our businesses are made of the same soul stuff too! When we meet our businesses with open hearts, as expressions of love and wholeness, we grow businesses that are in harmony with the inner pattern of their being. And, through our businesses, we serve wholeness in the lives of our clients and customers. Through our businesses, we help grow a culture of love, peace, creativity, abundance, safety, and delight in which everyone can flourish. Growing a business in this soul-infused way is a lot like raising a child. Rather than imposing your vision of who your business should be, when you meet it as a living soul, with deep love and respect for its sovereign being-ness, it becomes your joy and privilege to help it to grow into its own best self.

I love cards — tarot, playing, Lenormand, and oracle cards. Tell me about the Deva cards. How did they come to be, and how are people working with them?

I love cards too – they are portals through which you can enter and play in the subtle energy realms sensually, intimately. I first created them for the folks who participate in my programs – initially, as a way for them to connect with their deepest desires and intentions, and to meet and partner with the Devas of soul qualities that could best help them fulfill their desires. One of the main principles we practice in all of my programs is that you create by becoming the person who embodies your creation. So to create a prosperous business, for example, you infuse your own inner being with prosperity. You become part of the activity of the Deva of Prosperity. My deeper purpose, in creating the Deva Cards, was to offer a simple, easy and playful way for people to develop deeper relationships with the Devas. These are beings of tremendous power and radiance. Their presence infuses our world on every level. As we get to know them, we begin to understand the depth of what’s possible for our planet when we partner with the Devas to co-create the world in which we want to live. People are working with the cards – and the Devas whose presence infuses the cards — to grow themselves; to become more resilient, more trusting of themselves and the world around them; less reactive, more creative. They are growing healthy relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and customers. They are growing vibrant, prosperous businesses that support them in living in harmony with their own being, and in harmony with their world.

Become Your Own Business Adviser is an offering that I have heard stellar reviews about. How did it come to be and what does it help people accomplish?

This program emerged from my thirty-plus years of teaching, research and exploration into the nature of desire, power, business as a force for good, and the methodologies and relationships by which we shape our lives, and the world around us, as conscious creators. I’ve spent most of my adult life as an entrepreneur. To me, entrepreneurship is a sacred calling — a living expression of the creative power of the soul at work. I see a profound need, among our tribe of creative entrepreneurs, for practical skills in working with subtle energy to grow soul-infused businesses that emerge from, and support, our deepest values. Without that, being an entrepreneur can become an exhausting, scary and lonely journey. People get lost in all the hype around marketing and sales, money and systems. There’s so much “Do this! Do that!” that drowns out their own inner voice and leaves them depleted, disconnected from their own sources of wisdom and nourishment. I designed this program as a way for folks to come home to themselves; to trust their own wisdom; to develop discernment about their own values, and clarity about the kind of business they want to create. The program is designed to help them make decisions from a place of sovereignty, strength and inner guidance; to learn energy alchemy skills and build lasting relationships with the Devas of their businesses. In the process, they discover that doing business in this way changes everything.

If you could give one piece of wisdom to my readers today, what would it be?

Trust yourself. Trust your soul. Trust the Love that brought you here, into this beautiful, complex, bewildering life. You are a living expression of the Sacred. You are in constant relationship with everything around you. You are safely held; you are loved. You are powerful and wise beyond anything you can imagine. Trust the wholeness of which you are apart. Trust that you are safe. Trust that everything you need is already within you, like a seed or potential that you can nurture into full bloom. When you’re faced with a choice or decision, ask yourself: If I trusted myself — right here, right now — what would I choose? In your deepest heart, you know what you want and you know how to become the person whose life includes it.

magic, miracles: receive my lunar letters

ARRIVING on full moons each month.

20 Question
Tarot