When I was preparing to move back home to Cape Cod from California where most homes do not have basements, I was excited that our new house has one.  We used to call it “the cellar”.  When I was a child, we would play down there when the weather was foul outside.  Wonderful memories………..  And as an adult, I now have a vast area to store things and work on projects. Yay!  

Our basement is divided to about half finished living area with a fireplace, and half unfinished storage and furnace area.  When we purchased our house, the basement was dark and full of mold.  The plan is to have an art studio and office in the finished area and maintain storage and a small workshop in the unfinished area.

But starting the day that the moving truck arrived, we would direct furniture and household items that we didn’t know what to do with down to the basement.  And without a garage, all of our tools, bicycles and extra patio furniture ended up there.  Then when it came time to start remodeling the space, we were broadsided with the unexpected dilemma of what to do with all of the stuff that has accumulated in just a year and a half.  Ugh! 

In the practice of Feng Shui, a basement is considered an area where potentially the flow of energy can be blocked or come to a dead end with limited windows and air circulation.  As it happened to us, it also becomes a place where items that no longer have a use or represent the past can come to lay to rest.  Basements can lack a balance of Yin and Yang where they become overly Yin (Dark and Sluggish) and lack Yang ( Light and Energetic).  The basement resides within the foundation of your home.  The foundation is technically and energetically considered the support of the home and the lives within it.   A weak and unhealthy foundation cannot support a home and the lives within it. 

Our plan is to firstly clean out the clutter, organize the space, have a yard sale and give away the things that no longer serve us.  We are adding a window for more light and air flow.  The walls are going to be painted light, warm colors.  We will introduce art and fabrics to compliment.  This will increase Yang energy to the space and create balance. The art studio and office are creative and productive areas which will offset the more stationary storage area.  This will all create a balance and harmony which builds a strong foundation for our home and lifestyles.  Now that is good Feng Shui!

In my next articles, I will discuss the design of our art studio and office as it relates to supporting the use of those spaces through Feng Shui.  

Lately I have had some congestion in the back of my neck. I noticed it most obviously when I had the privilege of taking a master class with Rama Berch, creator of Svaroopa yoga, which is a more passive therapeutic style of yoga. As I lay on my back with my legs draped over piles of yoga blankets, my sinuses became stuffed beyond the beyond. The two relaxation points at the back of my head/neck began to throb. I hurt! After class I approached this lovely teacher(who by the way, is a beautiful healing presence) to ask her about this neck/sinus event. She smiled gently and told me “This is not new. You have just become more conscious of it.” This indeed, was not new information. Except…. On some level I had not yet been ready to really hear it in my body.

 I took this piece of information to my meditation. I began to be silent, waiting for the feeling behind the sensation. I tried to stay out of naming it , at least at the beginning. I decided to feel it, really feel it –the physical, the mental, the emotional, the spiritual.  As I sat with this neck of mine,  I was flooded with the impact this congestion was showing me. First came tastes in my mouth- metal, salty, old. Then came the words- “holding things up’ “holding it together” “ holding on tight so I don’t fall down” “exhaustion”. I took each phrase as a mantra and noticed the impact these words had on my being. “Holding things up” seemed to be begging for support from my feet and a feeling of resentment swam over me which led to anger, slit eyes, rage in my fingertips. ”Holding it together” brought tears, lots of tears and a huge pain between my shoulder blades, in the back of my heart. “ Holding on tight so I don’t fall down” caused my neck to stiffen like a metal rod, then the taste of metal in my mouth and tremendous fear , a feeling a separation between my body and my head. Finally “ exhaustion” brought numbness, as if I couldn’t allow myself to feel that feeling because somewhere in my psyche, my family patterns, somewhere in this energy body of mine, exhaustion meant giving up, failure, so the easiest solution ( my old contract) seemed to be to go full circle , back to “holding myself up”. What a cycle!, all within a few minutes of scanning the congestion in my sinuses and the back of my neck. This is the deeper work of the truth of our body story, laid out in front of me if I was willing to see it. The sense of honesty in the experience helped me breathe more deeply , to sigh into the caverns that have wanted to be heard for a very long time.

It seems so simple- scan the body for stuckness, tightness, limited movement, fatigue. We all want to relieve stress, don’t we? But what if we went deeper, beyond the body scan into a life scan? How do I hold myself up in the world? Why do I feel so tired? What is the message of the tears coming from the back of my shoulders? There, there is where the real truth comes out, the place of feeling, the place of LIFE.

Understanding the Luminous Body is a tool, not only to reduce stress in our lives but also to become more of who we are, to let go of the hidden parts of our selves that lodge in our energy bodies and keep us from being fully alive. Our energy bodies hold every truth we have or will ever experience-the contracts we made on unconscious levels  that get carried out in our lives, the traumatic events that caused our bodies to respond in certain ways, even a word or a phrase said innocently enough that changed the course of our lives. All of this is in our energy body.

The energy body has many layers. We move in and out of these layers all the time.

The role of an energy healer is to help the client access all these energy body layers( the luminous body) so they can feel whole and full of life.

Try this activity. Sit comfortably. Take a few deep breaths.  Experience you as an emotional body, living. How do you feel? What information are you receiving? Trust it all.

Thank your body for always telling you the truth. Sit in silence for a few moments.

 BE.

BE YOU.

 ALIVE.

If you would like to learn more about your luminous body, join me on Friday, April 11 at 7pm.

I’d love to help you access your luminous body and heal any places that feel out of flow.

Tower or Treasure?

When we experience a powerfully shifting change in our lives, this can sometimes be associated with what I would call a “Tower Event”.  As pictured in the Tarot Card ‘The Tower’, something has shaken us to the core, we may feel as though the carpet has been ripped out from under us so to speak.  Things have been shaken up and the news is not good, carnage has occurred and the bodies are flying.  This can denote such unexpected changes as a marriage ending, getting laid off or fired from a job, major plans falling through or having to pick up and move your business to a new location.

These abrupt changes, though they may appear to have come out of nowhere, have actually been brewing for quite some time.  The marriage or job didn’t just end on a whim one day.  Though we may not want to admit it, there have been problems there for a while.  We may have been unhappy in the job,  relationship or space but have “reasons” for staying.  The more fearful we are of the change, usually the more reasons we can come up with not to change our current circumstances.  Though we may have been “dealing” with it, our head has been buried in the sand to the fact that we need to grow.  Things are stagnant, we have outgrown our current circumstances in some way.  The Universe gives us chance after chance to make a change on our own, we receive sign after sign that something in our lives isn’t working and needs a shift.

But change can be scary, so if we don’t take the plunge out of the nest on our own….along comes Mama bird to give us a push and the Universe delivers us a Tower Event in a nice little package of forced change.  The messier and more dramatic the event, the more intricate the planning that went it the creation of the event.  The exact people, places and circumstances must come precisely together in a perfect storm to clean the slate for us.  Karma may be being played out to be cleared as well.  This event would have been coordinated in every way down to the last detail.  The horrifying moment can be realizing we are actually the creators of these periods of seeming chaos in our lives. 

The good news is there’s a treasure in there somewhere.  We can play the martyr, the victim, have a pity party wondering why the whole world has conspired against us.  Or we can look for the treasure…...and wonder how the whole universe is conspiring to help us.  It’s in there somewhere amidst the dust and rubble.  This shining precious treasure is what we take with us as we learn, pick up and rebuild.  The treasure is the lesson, the experience, the journey.  This is a tremendous opportunity for learning and growth.  I often think of the child knocking down his block building to restart and build again, something newer, bigger, better.    You can’t build  a new house on a shoddy foundation so down it all must come.  We rise to the challenge and create something new that matches our current vibration, needs and circumstances.  This is the Phoenix rising from the ashes, more beautiful and ascending to the next level of existence. 

With every ending comes a new beginning and while our little space chosen by the Fairies 3 years ago has served us so well, it is time to spring from the nest and transform to the next level of our evolution of as the Cape’s best metaphysical store, intuitive healing center and school.  Thank you for your support, business, referrals an friendship over the last 3 years.  I have learned and grown in ways I couldn’t have even imagined at the time The Sanctuary was being created.  I can’t wait to see what is to come next and I hope you will continue this beautiful journey with us as a new sacred space is created you.  This girl is on fire so watch out world as this Phoenix rises to new heights! 

Love & Light, Amy

I have discovered so much after breaking my arm at the end of February! I never realized how much of daily life requires two hands. So now I’m truly grateful for my everyday life.

I’ve also discovered in this time that seems so challenging that this is all here to teach me some important lessons. One obvious one is simply to slow down and not try to do so much. One handedness slows you down!

But here are some of the other lessons that I now see as blessings:

·       things can change in an instant and you never know what will happen

·       go with the flow and make the best of whatever situation you’re in

·       ask for assistance; people are always happy to help

·       trust both others and your spiritual guides and angels - you are supported

·       let go of control, since your life is unfolding just as it should

·       be grateful for your everyday life and capabilities

These are not new lessons these are ones that all of us have learned over and over our lives. But when you have a misfortune that brings them to the forefront. Recognize that everything that goes wrong is a way for you to better notice and learn those lessons.

A practice that might be useful is to simply notice every time something doesn’t go the way you’d like it to what the lessons might be for you there. Understanding the lesson allows you to better learned and see it as a blessing.

So during this past month being one-handed has been truly my biggest blessing. I do wish you these learning opportunities in the blessings that they bring. I wish you all an easier path for learning your lesson and one with less pain involved.

The light in me sees and salutes the light in each one of you. Namaste.

Astrological highlights for April 2014:

April 2014 is a very intense month, astrologically speaking!  We have two eclipses, an exact square between Uranus and Pluto, and a major grand cross pattern activated when other planets trigger the exact Uranus-Pluto square.  Sun, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter will all trigger this revolutionary aspect.  Mid degree cardinal signs of Aries, Libra, Cancer and Capricorn (11-15 degrees) will be most impacted by sudden shifts of direction, unexpected developments, amplified ambition, and ongoing transformation of the status quo.  Both personally and collectively, the planetary energies are extremely active and volatile this month.  Expect turning points, possible radical changes and at the very least, pressure to let go of what’s no longer working.

4/11-4/12/14 – Venus in dreamy Pisces conjoins Neptune in Pisces, in harmonious trine to expansive Jupiter in Cancer.  Compassion, imagination, intuition and healing are amplified at this time.

4/14/14 – PLUTO STATIONS RETROGRADE AT 13 DEGREES OF CAPRICORN AND WILL GO DIRECT LATER ON 9/22/14.  A Pluto station facilitates intense emotions, endings and beginnings, transformation, letting go and purging that which is no longer serving our soul’s intentions.  Mid degrees of cardinal signs Aries, Libra, Cancer and Capricorn are deeply impacted by this station (11-15 degrees of each sign).

4/15/14 – FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE AT 25 LIBRA AT 3:43 AM EDT (SEE BELOW)

4/21/14 – URANUS IN ARIES SQUARE PLUTO IN CAPRICORN.  This is number 5 of 7 exact squares between 2012 and 2015.  This infrequent pattern is all about overturning the status quo, radical change and rebellion.  Changes are irrevocable, and the daily pulse of life is full of sudden developments, inventions, letting go of the obsolete, breakthroughs and breakdowns.

4/20- 4/23/14 – MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION, COURAGE, AGGRESSION AND SOMETIMES WAR, TRIGGERS THE URANUS-PLUTO SQUARE.  Mid degree cardinal signs of (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) are wired for integrating conflicting energies and making them work together to effect change on various levels. Willpower and the desire for freedom are very strong at this time.

4/29/14 – NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE AT 9 DEGREES OF TAURUS AT 2:15 AM EDT.  (SEE BELOW)

Eclipses are extremely charged New and Full Moons which affect the gravitational pull of the Earths electromagnetic field.  When the balance of the light of the Sun and changing light of the Moon are significantly impacted, we can expect celestial surges or outages influencing our life affairs, personally and/or collectively.  Personally, it depends upon where the eclipses are located in our natal birth charts.  Some are mild and some are dynamically aligned with our birth planets and angles in our one of a kind natal birth charts.

The Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Libra amplifies the opposition between Libra and Aries, suggesting themes of peace and war, collaboration versus rebellion, diplomacy, legal matters, mediation, partnerships, contracts and alliances.

The New Moon Solar Eclipse in Taurus will impact Taurus ruled matters such as the earth, weather patterns, stock market, world currencies, banking, farming, world food supplies and agriculture.

Eclipse effects can last for months: 3 months prior and 3 months after.  Also, when the eclipse degree is later triggered by other planets, we notice developments occurring that are related to the theme of the eclipse.  Again, it depends on our natal birth charts as to whether we will be personally affected by this month’s eclipse patterns.