var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-23506266-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Loves many things. Tarot and astrology and knitting and good food and grooming dogs. Also five string banjos played well not used as implements of torture.
Do you struggle with feelings of unworthiness? I think everyone does at times and some signs and astrological configurations are more prone to it than others. Those with Scorpio or a strong Pluto signature in their chart will feel like they have to earn their keep and the task seems insurmountable.
Likewise, anyone can go through a period of feeling unworthy when Pluto plays hardball with their chart. What makes it worse, Pluto moves slowly so if it's affecting you, sit back and get comfortable. You're going to be digging up your own dirt for a while to come.
Here's the trick. No one loves you because you deserve it. You do not have to earn love. You simply must allow it, if you want it at all. There is no need to justify and no one is keeping score. They aren't if they genuinely love you. But if due to your own feelings of unworthiness you repeatedly push them away and create pain and distance, even the most loving and devoted will have to weigh the cost.
Do you have Pluto issues? Pluto will take you through the depths of hell and return you to the surface, whole and newborn and forever changed. If you have Pluto issues in your natal chart as I do, you must learn to be like Demeter's daughter Persephone. Go where love takes you and map out the journey carefully so you can find your way back again and again.
If you are just getting to know Pluto through a transit (those with planets around 11 degrees of any cardinal sign are most affected right now - Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) you may feel overwhelmed, lost, hopeless. I know it feels like death right now but it only feels that way. It will pass and you will cross through. If you aren't facing literal death, you will rise from these ashes and dance again in the light of day.
Has anyone ever told you that you will never do something. That it's just not within your realm of possibilities? My step daughter is a woman who was handed this message over and over. The adults in her life had her convinced that she was stupid. Some of them believed she was lazy but she knew how hard she was trying to understand.
I've only known her a few years but I read her chart and wrote this about her for her birthday shortly after I met her father:
"She is a study in contrasts. Her life is equal parts charmed and cursed. She was dealt a hand of cards that could win or lose any game and her edge is her fighting spirit. When she wins, you know she earned it and thanks to her upbeat and somewhat quirky spirit, everyone was rooting for her all along."
I've only known her for not quite two years but I have come to respect her tremendously. I think when I wrote that original reading it was so different from the messages she had always heard that she thought I was trying to flatter her. She knows me well enough now to know that I never flatter.
You see without the bias of being personally attached to her outcome in life, I could read the potential in her chart. The beginniing of our relationship was rocky because I had no idea how many strings held her down and she had no idea why I thought she could and should do anything she wanted to do.
We've come a long way and now I am teaching her a skill that can support her the rest of her life if she wants, or it can support her while she finds other fascinating endeavors to pursue. She is steadily snipping away at the nasty little strings that tied her down. And I think she's mostly forgiven me for pushing her so hard to start cutting them at the start.
Do you have strings tying you down? I can help you identify some of them and start mapping out the way forward. I am willing to bed that your potential is so much greater than you imagine.
Do you need help mapping out a plan? Contact me at [email protected]. My current specials are as follows:
$5 gets you a one card tarot reading via email or Facebook.
$10 and you’ll get 3 cards pertaining to one question.
$25 a card and a single astrology related question via email, Facebook or a 15 minute phone or video consult.
$50 up to 1/ 2 hour video or phone consultation, your choice cards or stars.
$90 for one hour and fifteen minutes of my time, your choice of mediums. This is my normal rate for one hour and you are welcome to use it all at once or split it up. Clients choice.
$200 gets you two and a half hours phone or voice plus a blog feature on a subject of your choice that you can share as you like.
$500 and I’m yours for a year. Five different charts of your choice examined, full tarots spreads or a combination, up to an hour per chart plus up to twelve short tarot readings or single question astro consults on the charts we have been working with. Must be used within twelve months.
She’s a champ and she’s a star. She fights for love and she loves to fight but better if the fight is all in fun. Aries women have a warrior spirit. They are more likely to choose red over pink, jeans over skirts and boots over heels.
This warrior girl has a Leo ascendant and Leo is the...
The moon is full in Pisces today, near Neptune and Chiron in the sky. And tightly conjunct my natal Saturn in Pisces.
Pisces is the martyr of the zodiac. Keywords for Pisces include imagination, belief, dreamer. And also prison, addiction and illusion. Pisces has faith, believes in the better days to come and sometimes gets completely lost in that hope. Pisces can lose sight of what is real and tangible. Pisces can lose itself completely, forgetting where the edges of one begin and end.
My life is a study in sacrifice at the moment. I don't say that for sympathy. It is a very good life, privileged and comfortable. And every decision I am making now is for the benefit of those I love. There is a payoff, months from now but if it were just me I would fly and not look back.
When the moon is full it's energy is balanced by the sun. Full moons always draw us out over an axis. Today's axis is Virgo/Pisces. Virgo says put your actions where your beliefs are. Pay attention to the details. Serve in genuinely helpful ways, and not just by doing whatever feels nice in the moment. Know where you are going and how you will get there.
Do you need help mapping out a plan? Contact me at [email protected]. My current specials are as follows:
$5 gets you a one card tarot reading via email or Facebook.
$10 and you'll get 3 cards pertaining to one question.
$25 a card and a single astrology related question via email, Facebook or a 15 minute phone or video consult.
$50 up to 1/ 2 hour video or phone consultation, your choice cards or stars.
$90 for one hour and fifteen minutes of my time, your choice of mediums. This is my normal rate for one hour and you are welcome to use it all at once or split it up. Clients choice.
$200 gets you two and a half hours phone or voice plus a blog feature on a subject of your choice that you can share as you like.
$500 and I'm yours for a year. Five different charts of your choice examined, full tarots spreads or a combination, up to an hour per chart plus up to twelve short tarot readings or single question astro consults on the charts we have been working with. Must be used within twelve months.
Today’s card is the Eight of Cups. In this card we see a weary traveler struggling along his way. Behind him are the eight cups. You would like to give up and walk away from everything, but of course that is no solution for your current problems. The pressure is on and you must decide where your commitments really lie. Break the chains dragging you down unnecessarily and use your freedom to serve the things or people in your life that matter most to you.
The Six of Cups, our card of the day, is a happy scene of children and flowers and nostalgia. Part of you would love to go back to an idyllic time from your past. The thought of moving forward is a daunting one and the past looks so sweet through your rose tinted lenses. It’s only fear. There are flowers and sunshine and beautiful days ahead but you will have to face the next few with courage in order to see yourself through to them. Take heart!
Ace of Swords appears for us today. A new idea is rising to the surface for you. Out of all the noise in your life at the moment, one thought speaks louder than the rest and will not be ignored. Get out pen and paper and write it down. Tell someone. Give it some light and see what it becomes!
The Knight of Swords shows a man on horseback, charging into battle, sword raised above his head. This is not a card of blind passion. This is a harbinger of exciting news carried on swift feet. Words travel fast today, and if you are going to battle with your words, choose them wisely. Let your words be a champion of excellent change and look forward to receiving a thrilling message today.
The Ten of Wands appears for us today, depicting a muscular gentleman carrying a huge bundle of sticks. Perhaps you can go on indefinitely carrying the load you bear, at the pace you’ve been setting, but that seems unlikely.. Stop ignoring your own limits. Decide which of your burdens have the greatest priority and even more, which bring the most gain. Just as you wouldn’t want to spend your money foolishly on poor investments, be careful to invest your time and energy in the most efficient, beneficial ways.
The Three of Swords is our card today and with it’s graphic image of blades through a heart, it is one of those cards that can give us pause when we see it. It’s message today is not a prediction of fresh pain, but rather acknowledgment of all that we have suffered. The message is an admonishment to tend your own wounds. Take care of your tender and bruised spots. You have been carrying around some pretty deep wounds. Today take a moment to recognize that if there is pain, that is the area of yourself that is calling for your attention. Deep healing is possible if you can allow yourself to look at the source of that pain.
Jupiter is so strongly positioned at the link between the grand cross and the grand trine. These are the words playing in my head when I think about Jupiter's protective influence during these times of dramatic transition.
Cash is home as of yesterday and doing very well. He is eating more easily each time, though he still requires small frequent meals and is on several medications.
Sadie, the dog who attacked him, has gone into rescue. We are confident that they understand her issues and will place her responsibly.
Follow up appointment to remove the drain and check his healing progress is tomorrow morning. At that point we will have a better idea of the final tally on the cost of this crisis and I will edit the fundraising page. In the meantime, if you've read our story and would like to chip in, or share here's the link for that.
The building cardinal grand cross is on the minds of everyone who follows astrology. First let me remind you what those words mean in case you aren't sure. The cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. If you drew a line from Aries to Libra and Cancer to Capricorn you would have a perfect plus sign or cross. When we see planets in this kind of evenly spaced formation on four points of the zodiac we refer to it as a grand cross. It is essentially a fortress. Or a prison. Where ever you turn, there is something guarding or blocking the way. Whether this is good or bad depends on how well you like where you are right now.
If the signs we were talking about were mutable signs, you might be able to negotiate with the guards. If it were fixed, you would certainly be staying put. With Cardinal signs, you are probably moving fast, but more like a high speed locomotive on a track than an off road vehicle. The course is set and the conductor and the engineer are not open to negotiating.
Curious about how this will impact you personally? You will have to look at your own chart to find out or consult a pro. Those with sun or moon near 13 degrees Aries, Libra, Cancer or Capricorn will be most personally impacted. Looking at which houses are affected will tell you how it might play out in your own life.
There is a lot of gloom and doom out there. The sky is not falling. You will most likely survive this and many will even thrive under this event. If you aren't sure yet what track you are on, expect that to be revealed by next week's full moon, though by that time your course over the next several weeks is likely to be set.
Our card for today is the Five of Wands. The card depicts five men engaged in mock battle using tall wooden staves. Amidst all of the activity in your world right now, you feel like you are spinning your wheels. Despite great effort, things just aren’t coming together and you are ready to throw in the towel. A better option than quitting all together or drastically changing course is just to make some small adjustments. Wiggling the key in the lock produces better results than smashing the door down.
Sadie is we believe a boxer Rhodesian ridgeback mix. She is a quirky, funny, affectionate girl. She doesn't understand herding behaviors and would occasionally react when Cash was particularly herdy. None of us saw the attack happen, but we can only guess that it was this sort of misunderstanding between two dogs with very different styles of body language. She is going to the humane society today and they believe they can place her. She is young, healthy, spayed and well trained. She is not reactive to other dogs when on a leash or under verbal command of her person. I have made the decision to have an aggressive dog put down when it was the only choice. This time, it is not the only or the best choice. It is our fervent prayer that Sadie finds the perfect home and becomes someone's best friend, just as she's been Victoria's best friend for the last two years.
When I said in my previous post, this is what I do, that includes helping dogs like Sadie. We can't save them all, but we do not stop trying to save the ones we can.
Warning, there is a graphic picture of injured dog at the bottom of this post so don't click if you don't want to see that.
I typically try to stay on topic with this page but events of this week mean I'm going to have to break my rule this one time. This is Cash, my border collie. Sunday he suffered a brutal attack by another dog in our family. They are normally great friends, and have lived together for nearly a year. There has been the occasional scuffle, but for the most part seemed to have stabilized into a reasonably calm pack. Sunday afternoon that changed in an instant.
My step daughter, Victoria, went outside with the dogs, threw the ball for Cash and hung out with him and Sadie, her boxer/ridgeback mix. Then she went for a walk and returned after about fifteen minutes. Upon her return she discovered Cash, covered in blood and dazed. She ran inside and got the rest of us to come help. When I first saw him, my first thought was to take him and clean him up to assess the damage. I think in my state of shock I believed that if I could make him clean and pretty again it would all be ok. It quickly became apparent to me that the wounds were severe and he needed to go straight to the emergency vet.
We arrived and they took him straight back. Though only a few minutes could have passed between the attack and getting him in the car, he had already become somewhat dehydrated. The doctor got him started on fluids and once he was stable, performed the repairs under general anesthesia. I was able to pick him up around eleven pm that night. The next few days became a blur of trying to get meds and food and liquid into him. Yesterday we took him to the regular vet for a recheck and while we were there it was discovered that there may be a breach of his esophagus. He had also become severely dehydrated so they gave him fluids. The doctor quickly realized that his injuries were beyond the capacity of that clinic so she sent us back to the specialists at the emergency vet.
Cash remained there last night to be evaluated. I'm expecting a call from the surgeon this morning, however it seems very likely he will need surgery to repair the damage to his esophagus. At the least he will need a temporary feeding tube to allow the area to heal. The damage is extensive and the punctures and tears to his skin are the least of it. There is significant injury from crushing, so the bruising and swelling is unbelievable. The worst case scenario involves death of tissues from crushing injury that could potentially result in the doctors being unable to repair him.
I've set up a fund raising page. Cash touches the hearts of everyone who meets him. Every single vet tech and doctor has commented about how good he is. As hurt as he is, he manages to wag a tiny bit for everyone who pets him and he is so calm and patient with the painful procedures. I think every dog deserves a fighting chance and Cash is certainly not a dog any of us can give up on.
I want to tell you all a little about who I am. Astrology is a passion of mine, as is tarot. I feel they are higher callings of a sort for me. The highest calling though is what I do every day for the dogs in my care. I am a groomer. Grooming can be about making dogs pretty and sometimes it can be indulgent and silly. For many breeds, grooming is a necessity for quality of life. I have a deep commitment to caring for pets in a gentle, compassionate way. Of course the dogs and I sometimes get a little frustrated with each other but I am constantly aware that these are living creatures in my care. I handle each pet with regard to it's needs and limitations. I educate their people about the best way to care for them and if they can't afford grooming as often as I would like, I make sure they have the information they need to stretch the grooms out while still keeping their pets comfortable and healthy.
Once in a while I get a call to help a rescue who has gone way too long without grooming.
This little guy was one. Want to see what he looked like when I first saw him?
And once I had freed his head.
This dog was so good. He seemed to understand that I was trying to help, even though the process of getting the hair off was very uncomfortable for him. He was so happy to feel our hands petting him once we got the hard shell of matted hair cleared away from his head and ears.
The matt came off in one piece, except where I needed to cut it into segments just to get through to his skin.
This is my highest calling. My shop is located within a kennel and the owner is a wonderful behaviorist and rescue advocate. She knows I'm willing to help and she will text me "Matted shih tzu, can you help" knowing full well I'm never going to say no. This is it. It's why I'm on the planet. It's the thing that makes it all worth while.
I am asking for help for Cash right now and my pledge is to continue serving dogs in need in any way I can.
http://www.gofundme.com/helpcash
I will likely be posting more pictures of Cash, as well as stories and videos. I promise we will get it on camera when he is well enough to play fetch again.
The picture below was taken the morning after we brought him home from the first vet visit.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Please consider helping us get him back in top form. And just to thank you for reading all the way through here's another pretty Cash pic.
Even a dollar or two is greatly appreciated and if you can't chip in, consider sharing the post. Thank you all so much!
