When the Moon is waning, especially in the second week, she rises in the middle of the night, so most of us are asleep during the hours when the moonlight is visible. This makes it feel like the Moon is dark for much longer than a couple of days.

I’m always relieved when the Moon becomes totally dark, because I know the light is finally returning to the night sky, and that my own energy is about to get brighter. I feel delight when the crescent Moon is first visible near the horizon just after Sunset when the waxing cycle begins.

Some of us are more deeply affected by the lunar cycles than others, depending on the Moon’s location in our birth chart.

I’ve found that tracking the cycles of the Moon has made it much easier to predict my own energy flow. My energy is inward and darker during the last week of the waning moon, and more outward and optimistic as soon as the waxing cycle begins.

Once I began observing this, by intentionally viewing the Moon and taking the moonlight in through my eyes, my physical Moon cycle became perfectly aligned with the actual Moon, making my energy even more predictable. (This is also true when I sleep near a window where the moonlight is visible).

The Spring equinox is in just a few days which means the most intense phase of the waxing Sun is also from now until Solstice. The waxing Sun/waxing Moon weeks are my favorite time of year because this is when we experience the most light overall. I’m celebrating the beginning of these precious 3 months of abundant light!

>>> Visionary Art By R. Blume <<<

The post It’s Always Darkest Before Dawn appeared first on Visionary Readings.

Or that moment when something you *were* a full “yes” to starts to feel “off,” but your mind insists it’s fine, and you don’t want to rock the boat, so you just go along with it?

These moments are seeds of wisdom, asking to be watered with our deep listening, so that they can germinate and take root, growing us into our true, aligned path.

This is our inner compass of integrity, telling us that we are out of alignment.

When we ignore these whispers from reality, our lives get overtaken by a field of invasive weeds. And it takes a heroic amount of effort to clear a field of full-grown weeds!

There are so many times I have disregarded these subtle promptings from reality until they turned into loud, flashing sirens that led to all sorts of painful consequences.

Looking back, all I had to do was take the slightly bitter pill of truth – as soon as the symptoms showed up – to avoid getting the full-blown disease.

This has been especially important with romantic partnerships, business partnerships, new clients, new jobs, new hires, houses, housemates, and other investments of time, money and emotional energy.

When we fail to pay attention to our inner guidance, we create a mess.

When we are living inside of a “no,” we start exhibiting unconscious protest behavior. We may avoid, numb out, withdraw, procrastinate or fail to keep our word.

Or we might get triggered, speak unkindly, or do something passive-aggressive.

We wind up hurting ourselves and other people in ways that are hard to clean up.

This drains our vital energy.

It is very difficult to access our highest vibration when we are unwittingly lying to ourselves and others.

If we feel depressed, flat, anxious, perpetually angry or sick, it’s a sign that we are living a lie.

Usually we are perpetuating this self deception in order to “keep the peace,” avoid upsetting someone, or get around having an uncomfortable conversation, but it always has the opposite effect.

When we finally deal with the situation and get honest with everyone involved, it feels like a massive dam of energy is released and we can experience joy once again.

Looking back we wonder, “Why did I wait so long?”

It is so helpful to have someone who can be our loving mirror in these moments so we can see our blind spots and return to our truth.

I love doing this for others in my Vedic astrology readings and coaching. And I’ve been blessed with people who do this for me.

NB: Do not ever be this mirror for someone without their consent. It doesn’t work. 😉

The Full Lunar eclipse is on Wednesday and it’s an ideal time to peek under the thinning veil of illusion and identify our delusions. Inner vision will be strong with the Full Moon in Cancer.

It is NOT a good time to take new actions as emotions will be amplified and new insights may need time to marinate so we can be sure of what’s real and unreal. (Wait until 2 days after the Solar Eclipse on the 15th if you can!)

I’ll include a link to more information about the meaning of Eclipses in Vedic Astrology in the comments.

~ A huge heaping cauldron of gratitude for my dear friend and mentor, Giovanni Cavalieri, for being the first one to teach me how to read my inner compass, and for reflecting the above to me recently when I needed a reminder). ~

The post The Little Nagging Voice Of Truth That Tries To Warn Us Before It’s Too Late ~ Total Lunar Eclipse In Cancer appeared first on Visionary Readings.

When Venus is the morning star, and shows up just before sunrise, most of us aren’t awake to see her beauty. She is the brightest object in the sky, which is one reason why she represents Beauty.

Fun fact: Venus is never far from the Sun, so if you spot a bright star in the late evening or middle of the night, it’s not Venus.

Enjoy your sunset Venus sightings until October!

The post Venus Becomes The Evening Star appeared first on Visionary Readings.

Psychic powers, ESP and intuition are extremely heightened, which means that those who are empathic will be feeling even more than usual. Visions will be stronger, more vivid, and may even seem to be at odds with reality. It’s best to sit with these visions before sharing or interpreting them, as they may be emanations of the collective consciousness (or the mind) versus pure transmissions of truth.

The post Boundaries, Co-dependence And Psychic Powrs: Rahu in Cancer + New Moon In Capricorn = Get Creative! appeared first on Visionary Readings.

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From Scorpio To Sagittarius

Saturn’s energy, in many ways, is more closely aligned with Scorpio than Sagittarius. Scorpio is the 8th sign of the Natural Zodiac, and Saturn is associated with the 8th house, which deals with hidden things that lie beneath the surface. These are the kind of things that are buried and then resurface and surprise us in a seemingly sudden way, when in fact the situation has been brewing for a long time. Scorpio is not a friendly sign for Saturn, so this was not exactly a match made in heaven.

Now, Saturn will be making its home in Sagittarius, a fiery, feisty and expansive sign. These energies have nothing to do with Saturn’s cold, separative, contracted nature, which makes these two unlikely bedfellows.  They will create a interesting alchemy of these energies and the combination will be more pleasant than what we’ve been dealing with for the past couple years.

Changes And Challenges

More importantly, Saturn will be moving into a different house in your birth chart, which means that a completely different area of your life is going to get the “Saturn treatment.”

In Vedic Astrology, Saturn is known as the King of Dharma and he represents reality, as in impermanence. Wherever he goes you can bet your life there will be significant transitions. Ultimately these shifts are in service of clearing away what is no longer meant for us so that new blossoms can flower, but that philosophical perspective doesn’t make Saturn’s bitter pills any easier to swallow.

These changes are very often our biggest challenges until we learn to “roll” with them. Our maturing relationship to “letting go” is our truest evolution. Our capacity to flow and bend with whatever Saturn brings is at the very core of our spiritual growth.

Saturn will bring these new changes to everyone for the next few years. Many of us will be breathing a huge sigh of relief as seemingly endless challenges in one area of our life are finally resolved! And many of us will also be surprised by big shifts that we weren’t expecting in another area.

In particular, anyone who has Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini or Virgo rising is likely to experience the most intense changes in key areas like their core identity, home and happiness, relationships and career.

The lens of Vedic Astrology helps us understand what’s happening in our lives as we track the movements of Saturn, among other things. This allows us to see changes for what they truly are so that we can make the best of them instead of experiencing the profound pain of resistance.

A Word Of Caution About Saturn Retrograde

Make note of this: Saturn will go retrograde and head back into Scorpio on June 20, then make the final transit into Sagittarius on October 26. Don’t count on the effects of the changes Saturn brings until after this final transit!

Any last bits of karma that Saturn intended for us during its time in Scorpio will bear fruit during this window, and we won’t have a good sense of where things are truly headed until Saturn is completely out of Scorpio. You might want to deeply consider any long term commitments you make before October, since there may be elements of the situation yet to be revealed.

This is the end of one era and the beginning of another (for the next 2.5 years). May we all surrender with complete grace and ease to whatever Saturn brings and transform what’s misaligned into that which is Divinely Aligned.

Are you wondering how this transit will affect you personally in terms of your career, finances, love life, health or living situation? You can get a birth chart reading and find out what’s in store.

The post Saturn moves into Sagittarius appeared first on Visionary Readings.

Her complaint was that every forecast she reads says essentially the same thing: “Everything is really intense right now! Hang onto your hats, it’s gonna be a wild and difficult ride!” She wondered why the stars never said, “It’s all going great! Enjoy!!”

I laughed as I listened, knowing exactly what she was talking about, and immediately thought, “I know why…”

There are two main reasons why transits/forecasts almost always sound ominous.

1) Transits should not be interpreted without looking at our individual charts.

The transits are important, sure. They affect us all, yes, and sometimes in similar ways. But the only way to know exactly how they will impact us is to compare them to our birth charts.

A transit that will be crazy-making for one person will be money-making for the next person. A transit that cause major changes for one person will mean minor changes for the next.

It all depends on whether the transit mirrors something that was also happening at the time of our birth, which brings that pattern back up for us and makes it stronger, for better or for worse.

Read more about this in my article for Elephant Journal.

2) Astrology exists so we can understand our karma. Transits are like a clock that show us when it’s time for karma to ripen. Karma can be intense!

Astrology was created/channeled to help us see the hidden patterns running our lives so we can increase our use of free will instead of being run by our past.

When the transits align with our birth charts, astrology sounds the karmic alarm clock, and we know that certain things are very likely to happen.

Transits = change = intensity.

People who are interested in karma and destiny tend to have lives that are full of big ups and downs (i.e. karmic influences), and look to astrology to understand what’s going on (many become astrologers!)

Therefore, most people writing astrological forecasts are doing so from the lens of having very intense lives, and from their perspective, everything is always happening in an intense way. This comes out in their writing and they rarely tell you that things are going to be all calm and dandy.

So there you have it! If you’ve ever wondered about this yourself, I hope this helps.

Oh, and it goes without saying that everything is really intense right now! Seriously. We have some big transits coming up that are going to blow your mind!!! 😉 (I’m only half kidding – watch out for August 11 and 13 when we’ll have 2 big ones with Jupiter and Saturn – I’ll write again soon explaining those…)

As always, if you’d like to know how these big transits are going to affect you (for real), I highly recommend getting a personal reading with me. You can learn more and schedule that here.

Until next time,

Tara

The post Why are astrological forecasts so intense? appeared first on Visionary Readings.

Saturn moved into Scorpio today. After a 2.5 year reign in Libra, Saturn will bring new changes to us all for the next 2.5 years.

Many of us will be breathing a huge sigh of relief as seemingly endless challenges are finally resolved!

And we may also be surprised by big shifts that we weren’t expecting.

In Vedic Astrology, Saturn is known as the King of Dharma and he represents reality, as in impermanence. Wherever he goes you can bet your life there will be significant transitions.

Ultimately these shifts are in service of clearing away what is no longer meant for us so that new blossoms can flower, but they are very often our biggest challenges until we learn to “roll” with them.

Our maturing relationship to these challenges / changes / reality is our truest evolution. Our capacity to flow and bend with whatever Saturn brings is the very core of our spiritual growth.

I find myself infinitely grateful for the lens of Vedic Astrology because it helps us understand what’s happening in our lives as we track the movements of Saturn, among other things. This allows us to see changes for what they truly are so that we can make the best of them instead of experiencing the profound pain of resistance.

Today I celebrate the end of one era and the beginning of another (for the next 2.5 years). May we all surrender with complete grace and ease to whatever Saturn brings and transform what’s misaligned into that which is Divinely Aligned!

The post Big Life Changes – Saturn in Scorpio appeared first on Visionary Readings.

The changes that started unfolding with Saturn’s movement into Scorpio could pause and head in a different direction than you expected, and you may find yourself revisiting themes from the past over the next few months, going back to cover them one more time.

Was there something you were meant to let go of when Saturn changed signs? You’ll have ample opportunities to do it now (or you might find you have no choice if you’re hanging on for dear life…) Were you counting on something in particular moving forward? Plan on looking deep within for new answers on how to proceed.

Want to know what area of your life this affects? It depends on what house Scorpio is occupying in your birth chart.

For example, Taurus Ascendants may be having an interesting time with relationships, Leos could be dealing with housing, Scorpios with their personal identity, Aquarians with career and purpose…

It also matters where Saturn is located in your birth chart and how it’s affected by the other planets. (Want to know what’s going on with your Saturn?)

Transition points can often be the hardest, so hang on – once Saturn picks up speed, things may start feeling more grounded. Of course, that is, until Jupiter stops and goes direct on April 8…

The post What Saturn Retrograde 2015 Means For You appeared first on Visionary Readings.

When planets (or in this case, shadow planets) stay in a sign for a long period of time, you will notice changes when they move.

If you are deeply affected by Rahu or Ketu, you will really feel it.

If you…
– Have them in your Ascendent sign natally
– Have them in Libra/Aries or Virgo/Pisces natally
– Are running a period of Rahu or Ketu
– Both
– Bonus points if you have a Kala Sarpa Yoga

Then for you, especially, this marks the end of one 18 month chapter and the start of a new one.

And if you don’t have this configuration, someone around you probably does…

In a sandhi period, when a planet is barely out of one sign and barely into another, it’s hard to know how things are going to shake out. If you know you are very influenced by Rahu and Ketu, you might want to postpone any major decisions until the end of the month, when you’ll have a better idea of how this shift is affecting your life.

Next up, Saturn moves in November, an event that only happens around once every 3 years…

The post Rahu and Ketu move into Virgo / Pisces appeared first on Visionary Readings.