It Is Time To Break OUT of Your Shell!

Did you ever feel like this chick?

It's getting uncomfortable in here. It's dark. You feel like you are all alone. In reality, you don't really know that you are in the dark because you have never seen the light. Then one day you have a compulsion to start pecking at the wall that has been surrounding you for all of your known life.

You begin to peck, peck, peck, a little at first. Soon it becomes a compulsion. Furiously, you begin to peck some more. At first it seems that the task is daunting, and you don't even really understand why you have this obsession with breaking out of this shell. This shell has kept you safe. It has kept you warm. It has been your security all of your life. But it's dark in here! You know, deep down in your soul, that there is something really great on the other side of this shell! So you peck.

"Why doesn't someone come help me? I am stuck inside this insidious shell and no one will help me to get out!"

So you continue to peck. For an eternity, it seems.

One day, you see a small hole begin to form where you have been pecking. An then a crack! You frantically begin to peck a little harder  now, with more passion and intent! You are making progress!

And then, OH MY GODDESS!! (ha that got you thinking, huh?) (not trying to step on any toes, just getting you to think outside of your shell a little)

There is light on the other side of this darkness! What is it? It is SO very BRIGHT!

(this photo came from this awesome site: http://incubatorwarehouse.com/incubating-eggs/getting-started-egg-incubating )

This photo shows how you might look while you have been furiously pecking at your shell! A little harried, a little worn out.

Have you been pecking at a shell that has seemed to surround you? It may not have been there forever, as is the case for this newly emancipated chick. It may be a shell you constructed yourself to keep yourself safe, or it may be one that has been there since birth, and you just now discovered you have been trapped inside. Up until now it has kept you safe and warm. But one day you just woke up and found that you had outgrown it. It had become cumbersome and stifling.

Are you beginning to break out of a shell? This shell might represent many things. It might represent some deep set belief that you have embraced since you don't remember when. One that you possibly inherited from your parents. One that they may still embrace. It could be a religious belief, like mine was. (you can read about it HERE.) Or it may be many other things. It could be a job or career that you once loved but now abhor. It could be a marriage or relationship. It could be a location. It could be, as I believe was the case in the client who I originally got this message for, a societal tendency. My client has been pecking away at a common misconception by society at large for a long time, and I told her that I saw a crack in the shell and that new beginnings were just around the corner.

Here is the clincher. If a person or some outside force comes along and breaks the shell for the little baby chick and lets them out, guess what. The baby chick dies! It needs that activity of pecking away at the shell to make them strong and able to face whatever lies on the outside of that shell!

My message for you today is to keep on pecking away at that shell! A crack has formed and there is light on the other side! You may not see any light at this moment. You may see just a tiny little sliver of light where you have been pecking. Or you may see a crack in the shell! Keep up the good work! There is light and life on the other side!

As I mentioned, I originally got this message for a client who I was privileged to read for at the recent Paramericon in Manassas Virginia. If you are in need of a message from Spirit, please do not hesitate to contact me HERE. I offer many different options for receiving your own personal message from Spirit. I believe that October is set to be a month of new beginnings for many of us! We are collectively breaking out of the shells that have incubated us for not only days, months, and years, but centuries. It is time for us to collectively break out of those shells and begin to experience life in a new way!

Keep pecking away!

All We Need is Love..

Ever have one of those days, or weeks, or months, where nothing you planned turned out the way you wanted it to? It seemed like it was hard to get up in the morning, you drug through your day, forced yourself to do those things that were necessary? Everything you tried to accomplish seemed just beyond your reach?

I can't really say every day this month has been this way, but let's just say that there have been a few difficult days. Getting up at 5 a.m. just has seemed to be harder than usual. I force myself outside to run. Sometimes getting things accomplished has been like pulling teeth.

This morning I got up and it just seemed like I could not wake up. I drug myself into the bathroom to get ready for work, and my mind was just REALLY complaining. My warm bed kept calling me to come back come back!!

I am one of those proponents for what you think in your heart, that is what you create in your life. At first my mind was too groggy to start this early creating anything, but my spirit was wide awake, and began to call my mind to come into line!

Okay, Joy, I began to quietly talk to myself, it is only your mind who doesn't like getting up this early. You begin to think and believe that you enjoy getting up, that you are happy to do it! That you LOVE getting up to go to work.

Immediately my mind came into line!

I created in my mind the intention that I enjoyed getting up to go to work! I began to feel better!

When I set my intention that I loved to get up and that it was not a hard thing to do, but I really LOVED it, my attitude immediately changed!

It was then that Spirit prompted me that my assignment today was to send love to anything and everything that came to my mind or that came across my path. I sent love to my warm bed and that sweet man that lay sleeping in it. That was easy.

Then I sent love to my soul. Then to my toothbrush. Throughout the day, I would remember and once again send love... to the mail I was weighing, to the computer, even to the trash can. To the floor under my feet. To the air I was breathing. To all the people who touch my life, whether on purpose or by default.

I have often said that every thought you think is a prayer. My question for you today is, what are you praying for?

When we spend our time sending love to all those who come across our path, whether they be loved ones or challenging ones, whether they be human or plant or animal or even non-breathing, then love cannot help but come back to us multiplied! 

Do not send love with the intention of getting something in return! Just send love with the intention of sending love for love's sake! Go throughout your day, enjoying each moment, whether you are doing something that is easy to love or whether you are choosing to love what you are doing, your mind does not know the difference! 

You will be amazed at how differently your day unfolds!

Just for today, send love! Send love intentionally, and send it arbitrarily. Remember also to send love to yourself! If you want love, then BE LOVE.

And love is all there is anyway.

Cleaning out the Closet, and Thoughts About the Dark Moon

Yes, the new moon is upon us. If you have read my previous posts on the new moon, you know I like the term dark moon better, because it describes the actual state of the moon. In my way of thinking, the moon is not "new" until you see that first little sliver of moon after the dark moon. The energies are completely different.

According to my calendar, the moon will be dark on the early morning hours (2:14 a.m. specifically) of September 24th. This is why you may see some discrepancy as to the date of the dark moon. Depending on where in the world you are, you may experience the dark moon late in the evening on the 23rd.

We all experience the moons in different ways. Up until the dark moon, the energy has been about releasing what is no longer helpful, healing, and in your best interests. This may be relationships, jobs, or, in my case, all the crap that has been accumulating in my closets. Yesterday, I decided it was time to release all of the no longer useful things that have been taking up space in my closets. I am really trying to get it done before the new moon early Wednesday morning.

Here is what I like to do. Whenever I am impressed to take on a project, I like to think about what it may represent in my life symbolically. To me, closets represent things that are hidden from view. I am one of those people who stuffs things in closets and drawers when I know company is coming. I may or may not immediately go back to those closets and drag out those things that I have hidden there right away after the company has left. This results in losing a lot of stuff!

So while I am busy cleaning out my closets and drawers, symbolically I am releasing those things in my life that are not necessarily open to public view. Maybe even things that I hide even from myself.

We all like everyone to think that we have it all together, all the time. Cleaning out closets represent to me the part of myself that I have stuffed away out of view.

What I have discovered from my project of cleaning out my closets is that a lot of little things end up cluttering up your closets! Things that I don't necessarily need or want, but I just can't seem to part with.

We are all familiar with the term: coming out of the closet. Long before it represented "coming out" about a person's sexual identity, it represented revealing a secret of some kind.

Today, while my husband was cleaning out his portion of the linen closet, he found a dainty necklace with a heart on it. He asked me if I had forgotten about it. I admitted I had never seen it before. There it was, for at least the eleven years since we have lived in our home, hanging in the back of the linen closet, forgotten. It must have belonged to the previous owners.

What treasures do you have hanging in the back of your heart? Forgotten amidst the clutter, waiting to be discovered? Sometimes in order to find the treasure, you have to clean out the shit!

Do you have forgotten treasures that are waiting for the clutter to be removed so that they can be revealed?

 What is it that you are ready to release? Anger? Resentment? A relationship that has outlived its time? Get ready, I am thinking now might be a good time to do that!! September is a "nine" month in Numerology. Nines are about releasing things, completing unfinished projects, endings, and surrender. In the tarot the nine card is the hermit. Go within yourself and find the wisdom you need. Take some time apart. I am finding personally that the "nine" energy has been particularly strong this month. And Spirit has indicated that October is set to be a month of new beginnings, and major changes. October is a "ten" month. The card in the tarot which is a "ten" is the card of the wheel of fortune. Things are going to change. It is also a month of new beginnings. Sometimes change is at first difficult if it is to bring new things into our lives. When a baby is born first there has to be that painful birthing process.

Let us spend some time releasing those things which no longer serve us so that we can be ready for the upcoming changes sure to occur in October. Remember, you can't pour water into a cup that is already full! It is time to empty your cup of all those things that are no longer useful to you so that your cup can be filled with new things!

Just for today, I encourage you to spend a little time thinking about what is no longer serving you and what is in your life that you no longer love? Release those things so you can be ready for what's coming up!

As always, I am at your service! Please do not hesitate to contact me for a personal session. You can contact me HERE. Happy Dark Moon!

The Fool...

I'll be honest. I almost never draw this card.

This is the card of embarking upon a new adventure. The person in the picture is happy go lucky, excited at the possibility of a new day, a new life! He (or she) has his traveling bag containing all that he will need for his journey. Not a care in the world. He has no idea he is in danger of walking right off a cliff!

Luckily, when we draw this card, Spirit is taking the role of the small dog in the picture, warning us to watch where we are going, lest we fall!

This card is telling us that adventure awaits us! We have the world at our beck and call! The sun is shining. There is not a cloud in the sky. Everything we need to take the next step in our journey is at our disposal. The only warning is that we need to open our eyes so that we can see where we are going.

Many of us who embrace our spirituality don't like to face the fact that we do, in fact, live in a physical world. We have a mortgage, or rent. We have bills. We find it necessary to work for a living. We would rather meditate all the time and our bills just mysteriously get paid. Well, that may work on occasion, but I am here to tell you that you can sit and meditate all you want, and when you open your eyes, there is still a physical existence we have to be aware of! If we don't eat, we will die. Oh, I know there are monks who can meditate for months and stay alive, I know this is possible. It doesn't happen to the everyday Joe, however.

Even Jesus made his living as a carpenter, at least for a portion of his life. Many of us who do spiritual work find it necessary to have "day jobs." This card, to me, is saying, "yes, there is value in having a spiritual outlook on life. But keep your eyes open. Don't fall off the cliff while you are creating the life of your dreams."

Am I saying that you should not go after your dreams? Absolutely not!! Go for it! But keep your eyes open. Do the necessary work. Put feet to your prayers.

In this picture you will notice that there is no one in the picture intentionally trying to sabotage the "fool." He is the only one in the picture. It is his own absentmindedness that is causing him to be in danger of disaster.

Yes Yes Yes.... go for your dreams!! Be led by Spirit. But don't live in a dream world. Realize that you are living a physical existence in a physical world. Yes you are spirit. But you are also flesh and bone. Keep your eyes open. Watch where you are going. Spirit is there like the little dog to warn us when we are about to fall. Heed the warning.

If you would like a reading or consultation, I am here for you! Contact me HERE and we will set up a session that works best for you!

Messages from the Tarot... the Death Card

In my last post I hinted at the suggestion that I read the tarot a bit differently from the suggested, traditional meanings of the cards, although sometimes the traditional meanings are quite spot on.

I draw a card almost every day. The card I draw always has some sort of message for me. Sometimes I can't quite understand what it is trying to tell me right away, but usually by the end of the day I have gotten the message. Let me give you an example from this week.

Yup. You guessed it. This week I drew the death card.

I will admit, when I drew it, I was a little anxious at first. I know that normally the death card does not have to mean that someone is going to die, but sometimes it does. When I was in Florida last month at my father's bedside as he transitioned, I never once drew the death card, but my sister did, maybe a day or two before he passed. Obviously, the apparent meaning of this card is that some sort of death is going to occur. But what does that mean? Well, it could mean a physical death, but usually it means that some part of your life is ending and something new is ready to be born. Now that I am writing this blog about the death card, I keep noticing the priest praying and the sun behind him that is either coming up or setting. The other day when I drew this card I will have to say I never noticed the priest.

My biggest tip on reading the cards is this:

Notice what you notice!!

The other day when I drew the card what drew my attention was what to me looks like a woman lying on her back on the ground. This to me represents surrender. Spirit told me that day that it was time to surrender all my plans, my intentions, and my goals to the Universe. Be open to change. Don't be attached to an intended outcome. I had to be willing to put to death anything that I want and surrender my will to Divine Will. Not always easy.

We all have goals, dreams, aspirations. We all come into this world with a creative mind, heart, and imagination. It is our right and our duty to dream, and then to put feet on our dreams and work towards bringing them to pass. But there is that fine line between manifesting our dreams and being willing to surrender our plans to the will of Spirit.

I had done a reading for a client this week and part of the message was that if you find yourself beating and beating a door and it won't open, maybe it is time to look for another door. In other words, if you are trying and trying to manifest something and it just continues to allude you, maybe it is time to surrender your goal or dream to Spirit and be willing to change your plans and even do something different. Maybe the cards were telling me the other day that it was time to surrender my plans. Be open to a different outcome. Don't be too attached to what I want to occur.

Why would they put a priest praying on the death card? Is that sun coming up or going down? It could be either one. What do you think?

When my dad was on his death bed, a minister came to pray. Well, actually  more than one minister came. Probably the priest showed up on this card because he had come to deliver "last rites."  Why did I not notice it until today? Must mean something.

The first time my dad's minister came to pray for him I left the room, but from outside the door I seemed to be hearing him compelling dad to wake up. I understand. Jesus commanded Lazarus and he rose up. This minister loved my dad. He believed that dad could be healed.

Not that I don't believe that dad could be healed. I used to believe that I could command things to happen in the Spirit world and they would happen. And sometimes they did.

Now I take a bit of a different view. 

I still believe in miracles. But I am more inclined to surrender my will to Divine Will. So I suggested to the minister that we just pray for whatever was best for dad's soul at this point in his journey. I figured if he wanted to pass I didn't want anyone's prayers getting in the way. After all, I do believe in the power of prayer. Sometimes I believe it is possible to pray and for things to happen that are not necessarily in our best interests. I was not sure if dad wanted to stay or go at this point. I just wanted what dad wanted. And what was best for him.

Have you been praying or setting intentions or saying positive affirmations for something that just has seemed like it was not happening?

Maybe today's message is that it is time to surrender your will to Divine Will. Be open to change. Be willing to change your plans or reset your intentions in a different direction. Ask for Divine Guidance.

You know, it is said that when Lazarus died, his sister had called for Jesus four days before and Jesus didn't come. Jesus apparently waited until Lazarus died before he came. Why? Would it not have been easier to heal a living Lazarus than to raise a dead one?

We don't always know what is best.

If something in your life is not working, maybe something greater is being born. Sometimes you have to let something die in order to birth something else.

It is okay to grieve over what is dying.

At some point, though, you just have to get up and go on living.

Whatever in your life is not working, I encourage you today to let it die a good death. Grieve, if you must. But after you have grieved for awhile, look yourself in the mirror and say, "okay, it is time to get up now and go on living." Allow whatever is ready to be born to come.

Remember that nothing really dies anyway. It just changes form.

Are you ready to give birth to something new in your life? I am available for consultations, by phone, skype, email and in person. Click HERE to set up your appointment today!

9-9 Thoughts from the Tarot- the Hermit

Today is September 9th. The energy of the full moon is still upon us, and I woke this morning, as I do every morning, at 5 am to prepare to go to work at my part time job at the Post Office. I was thinking about the nines, which in numerology represent endings, completions, and being of service to others. In the tarot the nine card is the hermit, which represents withdrawal and going within to find wisdom.

One of my rituals which I began years ago when I first began studying the tarot, is to draw a card every morning and think about it, look for signs of its meaning in my day, or perhaps see it in someone who I happen to come across in my journey through my day. This morning, I drew this card, the four of cups:

Now some interpret this card to mean withdrawal, being closed off, since the man is sitting with his arms crossed and seemingly ignoring a gift from the Universe. Not me. Every time I get this card, the Universe is telling me that He/She has a gift for me, if only I will take some time to sit and meditate. I like to think that this card and the Hermit card are closely related, because in both cards the underlying message is that there is wisdom to be found from going within oneself and opening up to the wisdom that comes only from quiet contemplation. Cups specifically have to do with relationship, and to me, the relationship to Spirit is the most important one we can have. Sometimes it is so easy to get busy with all the things that life throws our way, or our own agendas and schedules and "to do" lists that we don't take time to connect with Spirit and see what wisdom might come from just sitting quietly and allowing inspiration to come.

The four of cups remind me of the story of the Buddha, who sat underneath a tree until enlightenment came to him. Sometimes the sitting is the hardest part! I tend to fall asleep, or think of everything I need to do, or I am reminded that the fish have not been fed, the laundry has not been done, or some other really important detail that up until now had not entered my mind.

So today I sat. I released each thought as it came to my mind. There will be time to do the laundry. There will be time to write this blog, send out that email, go for a run, and write that wedding ceremony. Right now I am sitting.

The gift the Universe gave me was the knowledge that good things come to those that wait. The day to begin something new is not today. Today is a day to quietly contemplate. To surrender all my plans and ideas to the Universe and be okay with whatever occurs.

Just for today, I encourage you to spend some time in quiet contemplation. Allow the good to manifest in your life before you pick up and try to "make" things happen. Flowers do not bloom before their time. There is a time and a season for everything. If you have tried and tried to manifest something and the answer seems to be just ahead of you, just out of your reach, may I encourage you to take a break. Stop and sit underneath your tree, whatever that means for you, and wait. The Universe is always on time; never early, never late.

If you would like to schedule a phone, Skype, email, or in person reading, or are interested in my classes and events, I invite you to check out my website HERE. Sometimes we all just need a little encouragement from our Source. I look forward to connecting with you!

I'm Back!! And Thoughts About the Full Moon

My last blog was almost a month ago. I wrote about my trip to Florida and my dad, who had taken a fall and was in the hospital. At the time we were not sure if he would stay here or go on to his next adventure.

I was in Florida for the biggest part of the month, sitting by his bedside until he took his last breath.

It was interesting how the Universe works things out. There was relatively little scheduling conflicts. A few little lost emails and I seemed to have very few hiccups to work out.

Dad sent me a song on the radio to let me know that "everything is going to be all right."

There were tears. I am not a person who cries much, really, so the tears were a little hard for me to take. But grief is a natural function of our humanness, so I allowed it to flow freely, for awhile. And then I picked myself up by the shoestrings, so to speak, and rose up and said to myself, "okay, it's time to go back to living now."

So I thought that this full moon was the perfect time to jump back in with a message from Spirit.

The message is... sometimes we think that the world is just going to stop. It won't. The moon will continue to wax and wane. The rain will fall. The sun will shine. The flowers will bloom and then they will fade. Life goes on whether we are ready or not.

Our lives are made up of moments. I think back on the moments that reflect my relationship to dad. Most of them are fond memories. Some more than others. Watching him struggle to take his last breaths are not the moments that I like to think of fondly, but those moments too are part of the whole of my experience with my dad. We have to take the good with the not so good.

I think it is all about acceptance. Sure there are some experiences in life that I choose to reflect on over and over with fondness. And there are others that are not so fond. But the sun and the moon continue their trek across the sky. I breathe in. I breathe out. And life goes on.

Full moons are all about manifesting. And celebrating what we have already manifested into our lives. When the new moon came in August I was preparing to leave Florida and come back home. It was a perfect symbol of leaving the past behind and starting anew. Sometimes the moon is there to whisper its song to us, " it is time to start again. It is time to rise again."

And then eventually it shines in all its glory. And then, once again, it begins to wane again.

Life is all about cycles. I am in the place now where I seem to know that time is not linear. It doesn't start at one point and go in a straight line into some point in the future. Many thought a couple of years ago that the Mayan calendar was indicating an end, like a point in time when everything stopped. But we got up the next day, we went to work, and life went on. However, I can say that on some level, it could have been the end of a cycle.

In the course of our lives, we will experience many such cycles. Something will end, and something else will be born in its place. Life will go on, in some form.

Just for today, let us celebrate all that has been born into our lives. Yes, sometimes something has to go away in order for something new to come. It is okay to grieve over what is going away, but don't let your grief last too long. Something new is waiting to be born.