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Omenwalk 2023

Omenwalk 2023

12/31/23

For the second year I am participating in Hawk’s Omenwalk and I can already tell it’s going to be very impactful for me this time around. Essentially, the practice is to use the liminal space around this time of the year to ask for omens to guide you in the coming year. In Hawk’s guidebook they encourage experimentation for those who feel relatively confident with omen work, so that’s what I’m doing this year.

I recently started approaching my life from the point of view of the twelve-week year (more on this in another post) so it felt more aligned for me to request omens for each of these four seasons instead of the more typical twelve months. I also felt attracted to ditching the alarm clock (where whatever is happening at the pre-determined time *is* the omen) and instead picking omens that felt more OMENNY, whatever time of the day they arrived.

The encouragement to be more specific with my overall question was also super helpful. I put out a petition to a guide I want to work with more directly this year to send me omens that would help me to hear their voice and understand their language better.

Hawk’s other advice, which I think will stand me in good stead, is to really pay attention during the timeframe the omen is for and listen for the correspondences. The omen itself is only half the language – the other half is in how it plays out.

The omens I have received so far have been nothing short of a specific curriculum in all the different types of omen available to me – I assume I will be spending each season of the year in omen school for a particular omen genre.

Crowmens

Hawk actually mentioned this in their guide so it was cool that it showed up as an omen for me. I’ve had a strong relationship with crows for decades and have definitely taken their appearance and activities as omens in the past – often as affirmations of a decision or chosen path. I’ve never gotten as granular as to try and tap into their language before though and am looking forward to getting more intimate with how my guides might send me specific messages encoded in particular numbers of caws, or different vocalizations.

Inanimate objects doing things seemingly of their own volition

Two holiday ornaments fell on the floor in swift succession and seemed to tell me “it’s time to take down the decorations”. When this omen’s season comes around I’ll be looking out for this kind of unexpected happening and trying to learn its language.

Color

I walked into my room and saw two red books sitting on my desk that I hadn’t consciously paired and just felt like “OK, the omen is red”. This is a new type of omen for me so it’ll be interesting to explore how that unfolds.

Brain Jukebox

I don’t know about you but I almost always have a song going in my head. Sometimes it’s nothing to write home about – just something I listened to recently. Other times it’s like excuse me but where the fuck did *that* come from? I’ll play through the song in my head and get to the chorus, or a particular line and it will be super pertinent to something going on in my life. I love it when this happens!

Alexa as Oracle

As anyone with an Echo or other pseudo robot in their house will attest, they spontaneously do unrequested stuff about as often as they refuse to do the thing you want them to do. On multiple occasions Alexa has misheard one of us and started playing a song we’ve never heard of. I pretty much always pay attention when this happens because it feels very omenny. During this year’s omenwalk she randomly started playing Video Killed the Radio Star which, for the youngs, is a song from 1979 about the tension between progress and nostalgia. I was super excited when it came on because it is a JAM, but then was quickly disappointed when I realized it was a different song from the 2010s that heavily samples the original. When I realized it was an omen I cracked up at the meta nature of my reaction – guess the winter of 2024 is going to have some themes around being a cranky old Gen Xer complaining about how much better music was in my day.

Unexpected Beauty

Every morning I grumpily walk out into the back yard to hang up the suet for the birds and this morning my grump was lifted by the sight of these amazing leaf/feather shapes in ice in the bird bath.

The Omen Omen

Hawk referenced this in their guide and I honestly love this kind of omen, where you sort of say “omen?” and the universe responds back with “yes, omen!” According to Hawk, this practice of requesting omens for the coming year was originally done during the intercalary days between one year and the next. The same day I learned about this concept from Hawk, I was reading the chapter on the Twelfth House in Demetra George’s Ancient Astrology Volume Two and she referenced the intercalary days! It felt like a nice little “yes” from my guides – yes you are on the right track with this omenwalk, go you!

Anyway, I hope this was interesting and maybe has inspired you to do your own omenwalk. Either way, wishing you a very happy and magical 2024!

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More Moon Blessings

More Moon Blessings

12/03/23

Nobody warns you that when you become an astrologer you’ll most likely end up setting your alarm for very weird hours of the night just so you can catch the best election. I started studying Electional Astrology with Chris Brennan in July and recently felt I knew enough to have a stab at electing a time for an important milestone in my business. I wanted do do The Thing at some point within a 2.5-month window and went through the many complex steps required to find some good options. I settled on one that I felt pretty good about and, for fun, checked to see which day and time Chris & Leisa had picked for the Electional Astrology Report for the month in question. I couldn’t believe it when I found that my election was just a few minutes off from theirs – what a result!

When the auspicious night rolled around I crept out of bed at 1:55am and sat in my robe at my computer, saying a few prayers and making my intentions as clear and heartfelt as I could with the level of consciousness I had available to me at that hour. Then, when the stars were literally aligned, I clicked the pertinent box and The Thing was done.

Feeling a bit too antsy to go right back to bed I wandered around the house for a bit and, remembering that my election had the Moon up in the tenth house, craned my neck to look up through the skylight and see if the night was clear enough for me to see her. It was quite cloudy but sure enough there was a bright glow in one area and, as I gazed up, a little patch of blue emerged in the clouds around the glow and there she was. I gasped a little: it continues to thrill me to do my nerdy calculations in the theoretical realm of apps and screens, and then go to the actual sky and see things right where they’re supposed to be. Thank you once again Luna, for blessing me and my path as I stand quietly in my dark house gazing at the sky.

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Moon as Community, Moon as Memory

Moon as Community, Moon as Memory

11/25/23

Last night I woke up at 4am all full of thoughts and got up to nap on the couch with the help of a podcast. When I walked into the front room I was greeted by this amazing waxing gibbous Moon in Taurus, just minutes away from setting behind a bank of cloud.

I was inspired to dip back into one of my favorite astrology podcasts, Luminaries In and Out of Sect, specifically the episode on Taurus Moon as the Luminary Out of Sect, with Steph Koyfman. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to this particular pod, and once again I was reminded of how much nourishment and inspiration I get from hearing other people talking about their astrological practice.

After two intensive years of astrological study I made the choice to take 2023 off and it’s been good to have a bit of breathing space. However I’ve also noticed that my energy and enthusiasm for astrology have waned a little without that regular input of classes and conversations. I was reminded of a tarot reading I had a few years ago with the amazing Kelly-Ann Maddox around my lack of inspiration for my Dharma practice. One of her invitations, based on an intuitive read of one of the cards she pulled for me, was: “pay attention to what you are taking in”. In fact, with some reflection, the takeaway for me was around what I wasn’t taking in – I hadn’t been on retreat for a long time and wasn’t doing any listening to or learning from other Buddhists about their practice. Apparently even though I’ve been practicing a long time, I still need some input of inspiration from outside to keep my energies up. Unsurprisingly it turns out the same is true with astrology. Even just 20 minutes of listening to Steph and S.P. talking about the Moon was enough to get me thinking in new ways and feeling pulled back into my own lunar devotions.

So this is just a reminder to me that however much my Aquarius Moon may think I can sustain myself just fine all alone out in space, I do actually need community and the energy that other people sharing their practice (Dharma, astrology or otherwise) can ignite in me. Thank you Taurus Moon for helping me remember.

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Creating Space for Simplicity

Creating Space for Simplicity

01/03/23

When Twitter seemed like it was going to die a sudden death a couple months ago I panic-followed a bunch of my AstroTwitter mutuals on Instagram, as well as setting up my own accounts on Mastodon, Post, Tumblr and probably other places I’ve since forgotten about. Unsurprisingly I’ve found myself feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of words and images and thoughts that I scroll past as I peruse my various feeds. Even though most of it is actually really good, thoughtful stuff that people have clearly poured a lot of time and wisdom into I find I just don’t have the bandwidth for it all. So, I did some radical pruning a couple of weeks ago in an attempt to honor what is slowly forming into a pressing need for quality over quantity.

Photo by Tom Crew on Unsplash

When I first learned about the aesthetic aspect of Wabi Sabi, I was struck by the concept of placement. Things need space to breathe. You can have a house full of beautiful objects but if they’re all jumbled together in chaos, you can’t appreciate them properly. Better to have a small number of treasured items and enough space and time to truly take them in.

I’ve started thinking about content consumption in the same way lately. Left to my own devices I fail horribly at simplicity, despite it being a quality I claim to value highly. Every tiny crack in my day, every moment of boredom or confusion is immediately filled with a torrent of tweets or Instagram stories or what-have-you and nothing has room to breathe, least of all me. Since I discovered ancient astrology a couple of years ago I’ve filled all the larger spaces in my life with lectures, books, study groups and homework, ever hungry for more information on the philosophy, theory and practice of this modality I have fallen in love with so very deeply. Truthfully it’s been one of the happiest periods of my life, but as I peer into the coming year and see my current round of formal training coming to an end soon, I find I’m not rushing to sign up for the next intensive class. Rather I am desirous of a period of time to integrate and let settle everything I’ve learned so far. I’ve even been very gently venturing back into meditation again which has largely been shelved in favor of more mentally stimulating activities in recent years.

It’s my Gemini placements that fuel the constant hunger for more words, ideas and concepts, and my quieter Aquarius Moon that craves open space and simplicity in which to sit still and let the magic of the universe speak to me in its own language. With three planets in Gemini, including my Sun, that part of my chart can be pretty overpowering and yet if my life is to feel balanced and nourishing I have to let my Moon have what she needs as well.

I’ve been pondering what kind of astrologer I want to be and that’s a journey which is only just beginning. For now, I know that I want my client sessions to feel deep and open. I want them to have that Wabi Sabi quality of simplicity and thoughtful placement – a cherished vessel in which my clients feel that they, too, have room to breathe.

So, I quietly declare 2023 to be a year of spaciousness, of daring to be quiet and finding nourishment from and for my lunar self, and sharing that goodness with clients and loved ones and others I meet along the way.

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Reflections on Year 1 of Astro School

Reflections on Year 1 of Astro School

05/09/22

This morning I sat in a Zoom call with 99 other people and cried my eyes out. I assume most of my cohort were bawling too. They were happy tears, tears of gratitude and appreciation. It was the last of thirty-eight meetings of our year-long Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic course and everyone was sharing their experiences of the class: what they’d learned, how they’d grown, how life changing it had been for them.

I’ve been interested in astrology for many, many years and have loosely attempted to dive more deeply into understanding it several times, only to be frustrated by the seemingly piecemeal and contradictory cookbook-style astrology I was trying to learn. However many times I tried to commit keywords to memory for all the planets in all the signs, I couldn’t get it to stick. Probably because I was never given any underlying rationale for the descriptions. It used to drive me crazy to read about one of my chart placements meaning one thing and then learn that another placement had a contradictory meaning and I could never figure out how to reconcile the two. As for the houses, it was massively confusing to me that they seemed to be just like the signs only somehow different. I knew there had to be a way of integrating it all into a big picture that actually made sense but try as I might I couldn’t find the way in.

Around the time of the Great Conjunction in December 2020 I reconnected with an old friend who pointed me to some astrology YouTube channels they were into and I started watching these regularly as well as listening to The Strology Show podcast. A couple of these channels were proponents of traditional astrology and through them I learned about whole sign houses and the idea of only using the traditional planets (Mercury through Saturn) and traditional rulerships. Although I was resistant, I was intrigued and the more I listened the more it all seemed to make sense. I was particularly inspired by and envious of the conversations Kirah would have with her astro pals on The Strology Show in which they all understood their own and each other’s chart placements so well that they could have these mind blowing discussions about their experiences in the world as seen through the lens of their astrology. I wanted this too: I wanted in on this deeply magical and satisfying language with which to connect with other beings on our mythic journeys. Anyone who has listened to more than one Strology Show will doubtless have heard about the legendary NORWAC of 2019 during which Kirah apparently met hundreds of astrologers with whom she is now in regular and meaningful contact. So I decided on a bit of a whim to sign up for a day pass to NORWAC 2021, even though I felt it might be a bit beyond my current level of understanding.

NORWAC was amazing and overwhelming. I attended a bunch of lectures and had some great discussions with folks in between including a brief but memorable interaction with esteemed astroceleb Demetra George which I will doubtless recount at some point. I got in on a Discord group that a bunch of people formed in one of the lectures on astro community and, in the ensuing conversations, learned that a couple of folks in the group were signed up for the Nightlight Astrology Year One class. I was already very familiar with Adam Elenbaas from his YouTube channel and I felt all the telltale signs of an impending “impulsive decision” of the best kind. Within a few days I was signed up.

It would take too long to describe chronologically all the ground we covered in class but there are several themes I’d like to mention which all contributed to my current feeling of awe and gratitude for this experience:

Depth & Breadth

This course provides an AMAZINGLY thorough grounding in ancient astrology. As Adam often says, it’s like a mandala. We learned about planets, houses, signs, aspects and dignities and, as promised, the more we learned about a new topic, the more the previous topics started to make sense and everything connected in with everything else in a deeply pleasing way. In addition to the material taught in class, we were also given pertinent bonus material to study each week as an option for those with sufficient bandwidth.

Philosophy

The second class in the syllabus was a deep dive into the various philosophies that underpin ancient astrology and included fascinating material on the esoteric ways in which the sun and moon are connected to the primary and secondary motion of the planets and in turn represent deep existential truths around eternity and time, the one and the many, the unconditioned and the conditioned. For me personally this has been one of the most stimulating aspects of the class and has caused me to ponder deeply the ways in which these philosophical teachings intersect and can be integrated with my own Buddhist world view. I’ll definitely be writing more about this another time.

Spiritual Dimension

One of Adam’s unique gifts is the way he embodies an astrological practice that is inextricably rooted in and interpenetrated with his spiritual practice. Although the Bhakti Yoga tradition in which he practices* has some fundamental differences from my own Buddhist practice, the encouragement to infuse our astrological work with a deeper spiritual dimension resonates hard for me and Adam’s humility and devotion to something larger and more profound than his ego self is refreshing and inspiring.

* Adam no longer practices formally within this tradition

Community

I have been longing for astrological community since my first encounters with The Strology Show and I have found it in my Nightlight cohort. Not only have we gotten to know one another during Q&A sessions and formal study groups, many of us have participated in an online forum throughout the year where we’ve shared our inspirations, confusions, care and encouragement. As Kirah is fond of saying, astrology is a language and it’s important to get to spend time with people who speak your language.

Help with Questions

One of the draws of this class was the promise of access to Adam and his team throughout the year for help with questions on the material. When learning a subject as deep and complex as ancient astrology one tends to have a LOT of questions and I have found it extremely helpful and supportive to have carte blanche to ask them all without feeling self conscious about being too demanding. The tutoring staff monitor the forum daily and have responded thoughtfully to every question I’ve posed to them.

Live Client Readings

After twenty-one classes and eight study sessions we finally made it to the part of the course I’d been waiting impatiently for. Every other week we got to sit in on Adam doing a live reading with a client and learn from the master! It was amazing to see all the theory we had learned being put into practice and observe various ways of structuring a client session, deciding what to focus on, delineating placements and being in compassionate dialogue with the person actually living out the birth chart. After each client session we got to discuss the reading with Adam and ask questions which was incredibly helpful.

So, here I am at the end of this year-long journey feeling full up with inspiration for astrology. When I started the course I desperately wanted to be able to look at a birth chart and make sense of it and it feels so satisfying that I’m now able to do that. I’ve started doing donation-based readings and it is such an honor to put my learning into practice in a way that helps people make sense of the archetypal currents of their lives. Of course this is just the beginning and I have the rest of my life to expand and deepen my understanding of this deeply profound practice. I start the Nightlight Year 2 course in June 2022 and am excited to learn how to integrate outer planets, transits and other timing techniques into my practice.

With deepest gratitude to Adam and the rest of the Nightlight staff and my amazing Nightlight 22 cohort.

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A Love Letter to The Fool

A Love Letter to The Fool

03/20/21

It’s the first day of Spring and it’s got me thinking about the Fool card – some would call it the first card of tarot’s major arcana whereas others consider it outside, in a class of its own. Card zero. The archetype of the traveler on a mythic journey through all the ups and downs of existence. 

The Smith Rider Waite image of the Fool depicts a person about to step off a cliff. They are seemingly oblivious to this fact, merrily going along with their bindle and their little dog. And yet the Fool does not stand for foolishness or stupidity – the Fool is wise, the Fool has faith. The Fool knows that to stay on the beaten track is to have one’s soul wither away and that even if there are falls from cliffs to navigate, the only real way to live is to learn to follow the subtle directions of the inner compass. Have you ever felt inexplicably called to explore an opportunity that defies logic  but just makes your heart do little excited leaps when you consider saying yes to it? Have you ever had an experience where the same word or symbol keeps showing up in unexpected places until you can no longer ignore it? I start paying attention when I see the same thing twice and if it appears for a third time then I really stop and take notice. What is it telling me? Where is it leading me? I put up a picture of it on my shrine or my desk and let it work its magic. Sometimes it’s not the end point but just a breadcrumb on the trail to something else. To me there’s nothing more exciting than having a breadcrumb trail like this to follow. 

Over the past 25 years or so I’ve experimented with various ways of going about life and I’ve found that it never really works to follow paths that I feel I should be following, or that seem like a “good idea” or that other people tell me will be good for me. I can keep going for a while in those directions but it never pans out unless my heart’s in it, unless my soul is whispering “yes” to me on a regular basis to let me know I’m on the right track. 

I find it really beautiful that we all have this capacity but that each of our paths is different – the magical breadcrumbs dropped for me to follow will likely be quite different from yours but the following of the trail will give us both a feeling of being in touch with life in a deeply nourishing way. To be clear I’m not necessarily talking about epic life changes here – I know many people don’t have the privilege to be able to “follow their bliss” into a different job or a new location. But have you ever heard 3 different people mention the same book in the space of a week and then picked up a copy and found some wisdom in it that changes the way you think about things and moves you a couple of steps further along your path? That’s an example of following the call of the Fool that’s just as valid as quitting your job and driving across the country to start a new life in Idaho because you kept having potato synchronicities. 

Maybe you’re already in a nourishing relationship with your inner compass in which case, yay – keep going! If you don’t feel so connected though, and feel you’d like to be, here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Set an intention and speak it out loud (bonus points if it’s a new moon or full moon but really any time that feels right is good) that you want to connect with your intuition and be more open to signs and messages from your inner compass
  • Start a tarot practice and get in the habit of regularly asking for guidance from your deck
  • Try some automatic writing – I find putting on some slightly hypnotic music helps get me in the zone – drop into a dialogue with your inner self and just write whatever comes through your hands without letting your brain get in the way. You can start with something like “hello inner self, what would you like me to know about you in this moment?”
  • Go on an intentional walk for an allotted amount of time with a question in mind, or something more open-ended like “I am asking to be shown a symbol or an image which will help me on my path” and be as open and receptive as you can to what shows up
  • Google “tarot fool” and choose an image that speaks to you in some way. Save it as your phone’s background image for a week or so and use it as a kind of talisman reminding you that you want to connect with your inner wisdom 

My heartfelt wish is that everyone on the planet be in touch with and open to their inner Fool in this way, deeply nourished by the  relationship and moving through life in contact with a sense of meaning and magic. 

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Listening

Listening

04/12/20

I’m starting to find my rhythm during this “sheltering in place” thing. I understand I am hugely privileged to have a relatively spacious house with a yard, and a partner who I enjoy spending time with. We don’t have kids so we don’t have to navigate all the challenges of that, and we are both fortunate to be working from home and have not lost any income as yet. So many blessings! One of the things I was already learning how to do before the pandemic and which I now have even more opportunity to practice is “dropping in” before I make a choice to do the next thing. Dropping in is a practice I learned from Lindsay Mack, my esteemed tarot teacher and which is a real game changer in this world of productivity and work ethic. Previously, even during my “free time” I tended to choose how I would spend my time based more on a previously compiled to-do list and a large menu of “shoulds”. What I’m learning is that, for the most part, a time will come when I actually want to do a certain thing, so it’s much better to wait until I have that urge than to force myself to do it when my heart’s not really in it. Again, I recognize the immense privilege of having the freedom to make such choices at least some of the time.

So, what is the “drop in”? It’s a pause, a conscious choice to unplug the autopilot and really check in on a soul level with what is in alignment to do (or not do) next. The more I do it, the more trust I develop in myself that if I truly honor my body and my soul, I will not become a blob of duvet-dwelling abandon but will indeed still be a functional human. In fact I will most likely be an increasingly well-rested human whose life feels balanced and who feels in touch with what matters most deeply.