Mercury retrograde epiphany day is here—have you had your epiphany yet?

If you’ve read my blog much, you probably know by now that Mercury moves in cycles lasting four months, or three cycles a year.  Mercury moves retrograde (or backwards) for about three weeks of that cycle, and forward for the rest.  Twice during each cycle, Mercury crosses (conjuncts) the Sun, once while both are moving forward, the other while the Sun continues forward but Mercury is moving backward.  Those days when Mercury conjuncts the Sun are days of epiphany.

The Sun, by the way, is always moving forward, never backward.  If an astrologer ever tells you that you have the Sun retrograde, they are pulling your leg.

The Mercury cycle is great for working on projects.  It is a cycle of nature that has a flow that is good for various parts of a project; using the Mercury cycle can be like getting on a ride that helps your project get done.  Mercury’s retrograde period is a reflective period, during which it’s best to slow down and meditate on your project or do research, but to not expect to meet deadline or sign contracts.  It’s also a good time for cleaning up a project in anticipation of beginning a new one.  During Mercury retrograde, deep thought builds up pressure and insights can break through in the right timing.  The day Mercury conjuncts the Sun is a day when clarity has a good chance of descending on those who are watching for it.

Today is May 18, 2009.  Mercury is now retrograde, and crossed the Sun this morning around 3 am Pacific time:  today is Epiphany Day.  Maybe you’ve had your moment of clarity already; maybe there is more to come.  Ruminate on it, let it all come together in your mind.  Let the wave break and carry you to the end of the Mercury retrograde period and the fruition of your project.

As my readers well know, Mercury goes retrograde every 4 months for a period of about 3 weeks, sowing disorder most times it does so.  Here are some brief tips on how to handle things at your desk while the silver-tongued rascal is doing his backward jaunt:

•    Expect interruptions. Prepare for them by cleaning up your desk and your to-do lists whenever you have the opportunity to do so.  And when those interruptions come if you are already expecting them they don’t need to surprise you and knock you off-center.
•    Don’t panic. Panic makes everything worse and nothing better.
•    Hold your center. And when you lose hold of it (as will inevitably happen), return to it as soon as you can.  If you don’t know what it feels like to be centered, you can learn that from a martial art or meditation practice.
•    Ask yourself if this interruption is a true emergency.  Does it really need handling now?  Might it go away if ignored?  Can someone else handle it?  Develop a clear sense of what is (and what is not) truly urgent.
•    Clean up as you go. Regard any task as finished only after it has also been cleaned up and your desk surface is once again empty.
•    Close attention loops. When doing deskwork, it is normal to be interrupted in the middle of something you are doing.  You then have to finish Thing 2 in order to go back to, and finish, Thing 1.  During Mercury retrograde these attention loops can multiply until you suddenly find yourself inside the 6th nesting open loop, dying to finish it and get back to loops 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1.  Focus on closing loops as soon as possible and making interruptions wait until you don’t need to interrupt yourself to handle them.
•    Screen calls and don’t answer the phone unless you can really connect with the person on the other end.  Keep your tone of voice warm and relaxed.  If you can’t be warm and friendly, let the call go to voicemail and return it when you can be that way.
•    Stop to share love with those most important to you.  A five-minute concentrated petting session with your cat/dog, loving conversation with your partner or spouse or rough-and-tumble play with your child can save you hours of screaming anguish/recrimination/reproaches later.  End those loving interactions with the promise of more later–then keep that promise.
•    Take opportunities to clean up the past. During Mercury retrograde it is highly likely that some old past communication, miscommunication or noncommunication will come back to haunt you.  Recognize it when it arrives on your doorstep.  Do your best to handle it in a loving way, to yourself and the other person.
•    Forgive yourself if you fail at any of these suggestions.  Then get back into your center and try again.

Good luck!  For more about the current Mercury retrograde period, look here.

My previous post was about how Sagittarians got to be so lucky—and how you can too, whether you’re a Sag or not.  Here are some more Sagittarian luck-generating habits:

Sagittarians are hopeful.  They are naturally optimistic and are willing to invest hope in possibilities.  They see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty.  Sometimes a Sagittarian will even point out that the glass is always entirely full, regardless of how much water is in it, because if it were truly empty, it would contain a vacuum and collapse in on itself.

Sagittarians expect good things to happen, but they are not attached.  This is because Jupiter’s children understand that opportunities come and go and they instinctively trust that today’s opportunity will be replaced by a fresh one—or two—tomorrow.  They are used to a constant flow of possibilities, like a siphon of goodness.  This lack of attachment is the heart of Jupiter’s gift, and it is the thing that makes the siphon go.  Everyone knows desperation is unattractive, and that grasping, miserly behavior does not inspire generosity in others.

Sagittarians look for the deeper meaning behind things.  They are constantly on the hunt for the principles behind the ways things work in the world.  They feel that once these principles are grasped and lived by, that their life will flow.  Sagittarians can find the design of life in a number of ways:  religious experience, exploration of philosophy, higher education, personal growth, or by throwing themselves into a variety of cultures in order to apprehend what is human behind the differences.

Sagittarians assume that the intentions of others are good.  In part they assume this because their own intentions are good and they project this intention onto others.  This can sometimes get them into trouble and lead to being taken advantage of, but a happy-go-lucky, trusting Jupiter person will slide out of trouble as fast as they got in because they are non-confrontational.  Instead of meeting aggression with more aggression, they tend to evade and lighten up any potentially dangerous situation with humor and can win enemies over with a well-timed and well-aimed joke.

With all the luck and abundance that surrounds Sagittarius, you’d think all Sagittarians would be wealthy, wouldn’t you?  But not necessarily.  Sags (pronounce that “Sadges”) are not so much wealthy in money as they are wealthy in monetary flow.  This is because Jupiter’s people tend to have such faith that they can create what they need when they need it, that for them, money and goods are “easy come, easy go.”  Many Sags would rather live on the financial edge than carry dead weight (money that’s not in motion).  They are spenders, not savers (this drives the Taureans and Cancers of the world crazy).  Some Sags experience themselves not as a receptacle for things and money, but as a space through which things and money tend to move, a living stream of resources.  They have gotten what they needed when they needed it so often that they have become unattached to having things around when they are not needed.  A Sag will give you their last dime today because they know someone else will offer them one tomorrow.  And they don’t just believe it—they know it.

So how can you be a lucky Sagittarian? There’s a simple feedback loop that Jupiter people participate in:  be generous in giving, be appreciative in receiving. You can jump into that loop anywhere and start the process going.
Have trouble asking others for help? Decide it’s ok to make yourself vulnerable and ask—despite the discomfort.
Feeling too poor to give? Find something you are rich in (time, friends, information, attention, praise, wisdom, books, social contacts) and give that. You are starting the siphon.
Can’t imagine good things coming your way? Decide to hope, to take the risk of believing that what you want is possible and watch resources pop up right in front of you.

Sagittarius is sounding pretty good, isn’t it?  But every sign has a shadow side and in my next blogpost, I’ll list a few things every Sag should look out for.

Sagittarians, how about a special birthday present?
Your birthday is your own personal New Year’s Day.
Having an astrology reading at this time can help you clarify
and pursue your life’s greatest inspirations in the coming year.
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading or put one on your wishlist.

Sagittarius is rumored to be the “lucky” sign of the zodiac and it’s true that people with a lot of Sagittarius in their chart (or people who have Sagittarius’ ruler, Jupiter, placed strongly) tend to get their way an awful lot in life.  Today I thought I’d write about why this is, and how anyone who doesn’t think of themselves as typically lucky can become so.  As you’ll see, luck is not a gift of God, it’s a way of being that results from specific habits—habits which can be understood and practiced until they become natural.

What do I mean by a lucky person?  Someone who . . .
•    easily attracts good things, people and experiences
•    just seems to have things go their way, sometimes without really trying
•    has a lot of friends and resources
•    is well-liked and well-received
•    is often in a good mood, cheerful and upbeat
•    . . . and who takes all this in stride, as if this is just how life is.

In the life of a “lucky” person, Jupiter, known to astrologers as the “greater benefic,” is at work.  Jupiter is the astrological cornucopia of goodness and knowing how to work with its energies can open up endless possibilities.

If you examine the phenomenon of “luck” closely and you look at the habits and behaviors of Sagittarians, you’ll quickly see that it’s no coincidence that Sagittarians are lucky.  It’s actually by design.  There are things Sagittarians do that attract good things into their lives, and these are things you can do, on purpose.  What are those things?

Sagittarians are gregarious.  They are very social creatures and they spread themselves out over large groups of people, mixing with many different kinds of people and forming connections within and between communities.  In their social interactions, Sagittarians are tolerant.  They not only tolerate the differences between people (both individual and cultural), but they actually enjoy those differences.  They are pleasantly stimulated by talking with someone from a different background or perspective.  They don’t respond by feeling threatened, afraid or invaded.  Instead they are interested and curious.  Therefore, they have a way of inviting others to open up and express themselves.  Jupiter-touched people are socially welcoming.

Sagittarians know that opportunities must be spotted and pounced on.  They are alert to possibilities and ready to follow up when something arises.  They know that opportunities do not arrive ready-made and that a seemingly imperfect opportunity may be turned into a perfect one with the right kind of cultivation.  When presented with lemons, what they actually see is lemonade-in-the-making, and that vision of possibility is what they respond to.  They respond with gladness and praise, which makes the lemons want to become lemonade, speeding the process.

Sagittarians see themselves as part of something greater.  This makes them helpful and cooperative.  They have no ego invested in not asking for help.  They are willing to ask because they know that they have something to give back.  Sagittarians are aware of their good traits and have self-confidence.  Since they know they have something to contribute, they are comfortable taking.  This, to them, is all just part of the grand design:  sometimes you give, sometimes you take.  They are comfortable with both sides of the transaction.  This makes them generous.  They enjoy giving.  They like the way it spreads resources around.  They like having a positive impact on your life.

Take a minute to think about how you live out these ways of being and how they positively impact your life, and the lives of others.  Read on for more Sagittarian “lucky” habits.

Sagittarians, how about a special birthday present?
Your birthday is your own personal New Year’s Day.
Having an astrology reading at this time can help you clarify
and pursue your life’s greatest inspirations in the coming year.
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading or put one on your wishlist.

There’s been a wonderful alignment of planets in 2008 that I want to tell you about because it’s almost over, and this way you can take advantage of it before it ends.

The alignment is a trine between Jupiter and Saturn.  Jupiter has been moving through the sign of Capricorn, generating a sense of joy in hard work and discipline.  Simultaneously, Saturn has been moving through Virgo, pushing us to get better organized and to handle details more efficiently.

This trine is a harmonious relationship between planets in practical, grounded earth signs, causing Jupiter and Saturn to easily agree and to enjoy working together.  Ordinarily, Jupiter scorns details, but while traveling through Capricorn, Jupiter is casting a fond eye upon Saturn’s meticulousness.  Saturn rewards those who take advantage of this time with a cornucopia of work-related goodies—such as promotions, new job titles, more clients, and a profound feeling of accomplishment.  Aligned this way, they are a formidable team, causing a tremendous feeling of reward in a job well done and bringing luck, self-confidence and opportunity to those willing to do that work.

How Does This Affect Me?
If you are building a business or working on a major project this year, this trine has probably been helping you to get organized.  If you’ve found yourself adopting new work practices and learning to work in ways that feed your ambition and if you’ve been feeling particularly inspired about long-term goals this year, this trine has probably had something to do with it.  If this alignment feels pertinent to your life, it’s because it affects your chart in some way, probably because some planet in your chart is being triggered by the movements of Jupiter or Saturn or both.

How The Conversation Goes:
Jupiter:  Hey Saturn, I’ve been discovering that work is an adventure.
Saturn:  You don’t say!
Jupiter:  Yeah, I do say.  This year I’ve been working hard and really enjoying it.  It’s amazing how good it feels to work hard, accomplish things of substance and enjoy the fruits of self-discipline.
Saturn:  I knew that already.  What I’ve been developing this year is a better relationship to details.  I’m finding that when I’m really well-organized I get a lot more done and it furthers my long-term goals in a wonderful way.  It’s been going so well that I’ve gained a tremendous sense of ease and flow, where everything is handled and moving along smoothly and I can actually relax.
Jupiter:  That’s really cool.  Relaxing is not something you do a lot of.
Saturn:  That’s true, but when you support me by taking pleasure in work, I feel a huge load off my shoulders.
Jupiter:  I’m finding so much meaning in work lately that I’m incredibly inspired.
Saturn:  That’s great.  You be the inspiration and I’ll be the perspiration.  Working together, we can accomplish absolutely anything.

Use This Transit by:
•    Growing into new ways of working.
•    Getting organized so that you can accomplish more with less effort.
•    Putting structures in place that will help you to continue being more and more effective.
•    Asking yourself:  how can I be of service?
•    Setting long-term goals that inspire you.

Timing Of This Transit:
The trine has been exact twice this year and is just now having its third and final peak.  The first peak was in January, the second was in September.  This transit peaks for the final time during November 15-25, 2008.

If you have been feeling the drives I’ve described here, then be aware that this period is almost over.  Take advantage of it through the end of November, because after Jupiter moves on into late Capricorn and ultimately into Aquarius, this will no longer be a major theme.  Other things will grab your attention.

So work hard and enjoy!  The structures you put in place now could support your business for years to come.  And remember that work can be fun and that enjoyable work is often work done well.

Be Afraid—Be Very Afraid!
In astrology’s infancy, about four to five thousand years ago, eclipses were a terrifying phenomenon. The experience of day suddenly becoming night, of the moon covering and temporarily hiding the sun and the sun inexplicably disappearing brought terror to human beings. Early astrologers sought to understand and ultimately predict this phenomenon. They did become able to predict it, and ultimately became able to manipulate kings and peoples with this knowledge. Their ability to predict an upcoming eclipse and to predict also the rise and fall of crops and nations gave them unprecedented power, power which was rooted in their understanding of the natural world, but which ultimately became political. If there is a reason why astrology is hated and feared today, eclipses may well be wrapped up in it.

Interpretations of ancient astrologers were highly fatalistic, focusing on physical events to come and predicting human behavior, even death, with surprisingly consistent accuracy. But that’s not how astrology is used today. Modern western-world astrology is much less fatalistic and much more psychological. Today it is about human motivation and a person’s inner experience. We have all but lost some of the most ancient predictive techniques because of their extreme fatalism. Modern people do not want to know the date of their death, even if an astrologer today could predict it, which is not likely. It’s possible that a Vedic (Indian) or a Chinese astrologer could, but not a Western one.

The interpretation and use of eclipses has changed with the times. Although astrologers who focus on politics do continue to use them to predict the fates of rulers and nations, eclipses are more commonly used to interpret personal, individual experiences in psychological ways. And eclipses today generate more fascination and less fear.

What Is An Eclipse?
The Sun and Moon are by far the brightest objects in our sky; thus they are called the luminaries or “lights.” An eclipse is an occasion when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up so precisely that one of the luminaries becomes shadowed, and therefore goes dark.

A solar eclipse is only possible during a new moon. During a new moon, the Moon and Sun are on the same side of the Earth, so close to each other that the Moon fades from sight. This is a familiar phenomenon—it happens every month, and gradually. A solar eclipse is a special type of new Moon, one where the Moon and Sun are not only in the same general area of the sky, but also in exactly the same plane. From our view on Earth, the Moon covers the Sun and hides it from us, darkening the sky. Compared to the new Moon, this is a sudden and rare phenomenon.

It is not, however, as rare as you think. A set of eclipses, usually including a solar and a lunar, happens every six months. Not every eclipse is visible in every area of the world. This is one reason why the ancients found eclipses so fearsome—they seemed to occur at such irregular intervals. Astrologers today interpret an eclipse as having more effect in the areas where the eclipse can be seen.

A lunar eclipse is only possible during a full moon. During a Full Moon, the Moon and Sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, and the Moon is at its brightest. A lunar eclipse is a special full moon where the Earth is in the same plane with both luminaries and the Moon is therefore shadowed by the Earth. This too, is a relatively sudden and rare phenomenon and not visible to everyone on Earth.

What Is The Shadow Agent?
Sometimes during an eclipse, another planet will be close by (within 5 degrees of arc), close enough to be drawn into the themes of that eclipse. I call that planet accompanying the eclipse the “Shadow Agent.” It assists the eclipse by pointing out your shadow in its area of life. For example, Mercury points out your shadow by means of communication while Neptune points out your shadow by means of dreams and spirituality.

According to Wikipedia, the shadow side in Jungian psychology is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. Jung developed the idea of the shadow to represent that side of a human being which is held back and not consciously expressed. Some aspects of a shadow can be positive as well as negative, as some human beings repress positive traits. Jung said that the shadow, if ignored, is often projected onto other people. He also said that it can be brought up into consciousness and integrated with the rest of one’s personality.

One way to describe an eclipse is “a luminary is occluded such that we see a shadow.” Psychologically, eclipses represent the appearance of the shadow and the occasion of an eclipse contacting something in your natal chart is the perfect opportunity to get a good look at your own shadow. The shadow is, by definition hard for you to see, because it is behind you. An eclipse can bring it out and make it easier to see, thus giving you a chance to stop projecting it, own it, accept it as part of yourself and integrate it with the rest of your personality. This is uncomfortable, but it is also a gift. Much human energy is wrapped up in avoiding, projecting and hiding our shadows. When you integrate your shadow, you reclaim that energy.

The Shadow Agent is a planet (or planets) which is an agent of the eclipse and is therefore asking you to look at your shadow. It will do so according to its planetary nature. Sometimes a person in your life may take the role of the Shadow Agent for you, acting out the agenda of this planet and forcing you to look at things or areas you don’t ordinarily look at.

How Do You Know If An Eclipse Will Affect You?
You’ll feel an eclipse if it falls within 5 degrees of one of your natal planets. A good astrologer can tell you that. An eclipse’s effects are also likely to be stronger if you live in the part of the world where it can be seen directly. And an eclipse will be stronger if it is total, rather than partial. These things taken together and with a few other factors added in, will tell you the generic nature of the eclipse, the area of your life where it’s likely to affect you, and the strength of the effect. A strong eclipse is likely to be felt, at least in a background way, for six months until it is replaced by the next same-type of eclipse (solar or lunar). According to Georgia Stathis, a San Francisco Bay Area expert on eclipses, there is also likely to be a resurgence of the eclipse’s themes during the same-type lunation (New or Full Moon) three lunar cycles after the eclipse and a foreshadowing of the themes of the eclipse will happen during the same-type lunation three lunar cycles before. More on that another time.

Does the Shadow Agent make life uncomfortable? Yes. Will human beings ever enjoy looking at their shadows? Probably not. But the gift of energy returned to us when we embrace our shadow and the gift of conscious self-knowledge and acceptance are great, when we are courageous enough to accept them.

This article is part of a series of articles on Power Tools of Manifestation, which begins here.

Detachment—a power tool of manifestation.  Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?  You have to pour your passion into this thing and then let go of attachment to the outcome.  Funny thing is, it works.

Remaining attached to the thing and how it manifests will only slow the process down.  Perhaps so much so that it slows to a crawl and the cynical part of your mind can congratulate itself that manifestation does not work, as you secretly thought, and you can go back to the same old hard reality you were used to.  How very comfortable.

It is a human tendency to worry at the future like a dog worrying at a bone.  When you find yourself doing this, just stop.  Take your attention off the fussing, the worrying, the negative possibilities.  If breaking this habit is hard for you, try this experiment:  make a deal with the part of your brain that worries.  Agree to worry concentratedly for a few minutes a day.  Do that, then after your allotted few minutes, stop.  Don’t tolerate worry between your ears during “worry off-hours.”  Nip it in the bud.  Ignore it and eventually it will go away.

Worrying about whether a thing you want will come to pass and exactly how it will come to pass and whether or not it can come to pass . . . all of this is irrelevant and only slows the process down.  It is useless to hold off on pouring hope and passion into a thing simply because you cannot imagine how it will happen.  The universal mechanism behind manifestation has every resource in existence at its disposal in bringing forth the thing that you want.  You don’t.  Why not leave this in the hands of the universe, instead of your own puny mind?  Instead, make the bold leap and love the thing you want passionately, no matter how absurd and impossible it is.  Then let go, detach and let the universe do the rest.

In a previous article I told you about the necessity of passion for the thing you are manifesting.  Today I’m telling you about the necessity of detachment.  How to reconcile the two?  That’s where the art is.  Manifestation is essentially an emotional maturation process.  The more you learn to powerfully wield your emotions, the more powerfully you can create.  This means learning to have emotions, detect your emotions, correctly interpret your emotions, channel your emotions, sort out and eliminate negative emotions and intensify positive emotions.  It’s a tall order.

Once you stop caring how the thing looks or what path it takes to get to you, it will come to you faster, and from unexpected quarters.  Those quarters will be unexpected because you had no expectation about them.  And what a blessing that will be, to discover that miracles do happen.

This article is part of a series of articles on Power Tools of Manifestation, which begins here.

Feelings are the Engine of Manifestation
Manifestation requires passion, plain and simple. When there’s something you are trying to bring into your life, you need to feel great in your body while imagining this thing. Feelings are the engine that brings the thing into existence, and the more powerfully you can have feelings and the more powerfully you can rouse positive feelings, the more powerfully you can manifest the life you really want.

You need to be able to feel great in your body. This means getting to know your body and all its feelings, good and bad. Many people are so shut down that only the strong sensations register (hatred, fear, romantic infatuation). And for many people negative feelings are stronger than positive ones. It helps if you can become sensitized, so that small feelings (like delight, admiration, and the shiver of intuition that tells you when to avoid something or someone) catch your notice too. Most people live in reaction to their feelings like a boat tossed on ocean waves. To manifest consistently, you’ll have to learn to be in control of your feelings, to let them flow when you want to and transform them into something better when they are ruling you. If feelings are the engine, most people’s engines require a tune-up and better care.

Creating Negatively and Creating Positively
Fear and hatred are feelings and create as readily as love and joy. You can create with love or fear, but whatever you create will be permeated with the same feeling you saturated the visualization with. If you want to be happy, saturate your manifestations with happiness; if you are content being fearful, saturate your manifestations with fear. If you are comfortable with anger, you’ll easily saturate your manifestations with anger and create more situations to be angry about. Fueling your engine with negative feelings creates a downward spiral in which negative feelings create negative realities, which in turn create more negative feelings. Fueling your engine with positive feeling creates positive realities, which create more positive feelings. Fear creates fearful situations which create more fear. Joy begets joy. Manifesting is a spiral which will go forcefully in whichever feeling direction you fuel it with—and you can change direction whenever you like, simply by changing the feelings you are focusing on.

Here’s an example. There’s someone in your life that you just hate. It’s someone you are forced to interact with periodically, and you dread it. Your dislike of this person is so strong it’s palpable. When you think of them, your body becomes saturated with bad feelings. You are continually anticipating the next unpleasant encounter, even as you hope to avoid it. And then, when you actually do meet up with this person (which happens far more often than you’d like), of course it goes badly and you walk away with your dislike strengthened and validated. And feeling a little bit good because you were right about that person. Again.

So how much of that experience did you create? And how much of it will you create again next time? If we assume that the whole world is a dream inside your own head, then we can say that you created the whole experience from start to finish. This is an annoying but useful point of view, because it gives you responsibility for everything you experience, and with responsibility come power and control. This point of view implies that there’s something you can do about this kind of situation, some way it can be prevented in the future. Which is true, because there is.

Turn It Around in Two Days
Creating from negative feelings like anger and hate is a habit most of us have. It’s hard to break this habit, but it can be done, and it requires becoming aware of your feelings and your self-talk. Try this: spend a day being as aware as you can of everything you feel and everything you tell yourself about how you feel. On the first day just observe. Resist the temptation to act on what you are learning about yourself. Just watch what goes on inside your own head that first day.

Separate your thoughts and feelings. Notice which of the things you are experiencing are thoughts and which are feelings. Thoughts happen in words or concepts. Feelings are usually wordless and often are accompanied by physical sensations. If you hear yourself talking to yourself in your head, turn up the volume and start really listening to what you are saying. For example: “Oh there’s that awful woman again, I just hate her.” Notice the feelings you are having, the words you are saying to yourself about it all, and also notice the person herself. She is not your thoughts or your feelings about her. She is her own self, with her own life, her own thoughts and feelings, her own perspectives and perceptions. Separate these things.

On the second day, you are ready to start making changes. Observe yourself again, but this time, start to question your process. “I hate moon pies.” Why do you hate moon pies? Notice the feeling of hate. Where does it dwell in your body? Is it in your gut? Your throat? Your chest? If instead of moon pies you’d like to be offered soft pretzels, ask yourself what you love about soft pretzels. Take your focus off the dreaded moon pies and bring it to the beloved soft pretzels instead. Imagine yourself enjoying the pretzel and the good feelings of that. Do you love the saltiness, the softness, the warmth? Focus on what you love and then notice the lovely feeling that fills you. Then focus on that feeling itself. Strengthen it. Expand it. Blow it up. Ah, how I do love soft pretzels! Then hold it for at least 30 seconds and up to 5 minutes. You may be amazed at how fast soft pretzels will appear. Not only that, but at some point, probably much later, you may realize in retrospect that moon pies have not come around for quite some time. In delight, you can go on forgetting about the anguish of moon pies and focusing on the joy of soft pretzels.

Naturally, you cannot change a lifelong habit in just two days. However, two days is long enough to see the habit for what it is, and to begin breaking it. In two days you can get enough reward for changing that habit to motivate you to continue breaking it. Eventually the old negative-focus habit will be broken, replaced by a positive-focus habit and your ability to manifest will accelerate. It will become much, much easier to create larger, more challenging things faster. Most people need time and practice to grow into this.

The Fear-of-Disappointment Trap
When you haven’t had much practice, deliberately holding positive feelings can be downright uncomfortable. For many, hope is an uncomfortable feeling-state to be in, because it implies the possibility of disappointment. It is all too easy to grab onto that possibility of disappointment and make mental pictures of all the ways what you are hoping to create can go wrong. But once you head down that tunnel you are creating the very thing you are hoping not to create, and fueling it with disappointment and fear. This is a process that happens almost instantaneously for many people, especially those who are habitually cynical. Some folks will seek out and rehearse again and again all the things that might go wrong out of a mistaken notion of preventing negative outcomes by “thinking them through.” They have no idea that they are actually creating the negative outcomes they’d like to prevent and no idea that they are actually being ruled by their own fear and behaving like an emotional robot that can only run one program (a fearful one). They believe they are being logical. Then when what they want fails to appear, it’s only what they knew would happen. Then they get the side-benefit of being right and having accurately predicted what would happen. But getting to be right is a poor consolation prize compared to getting what you want. Such people tend to develop a chronically cynical or complaining tone of voice.

I’m not talking about ignoring possible consequences or deliberately cultivating a false naivete. Believe me, I’m in favor of exploring and preparing for all possible contingencies, including negative ones, but after a certain point it’s important to stop pouring negativity into what you are creating by obsessively going over and over negative possibilities in your head. And when it’s become a habit, you no longer have control over it.

If you are willing to be wrong and to be surprised by what the future can hold for you, if you are willing to feel hope and focus on that hope despite the magnetic pull of disappointment, you can break this habit. Clamping down on hope to avoid disappointment will only hamstring you. You’ve got to let yourself feel the hope, despite how uncomfortable it might sometimes be.

Create From Love and Passion
The best way to create powerfully is to passionately love the thing you are creating. If you do not love the thing itself, find something about it or something about having it that you do love. For example, I do not love parking spaces with a passion, but I do love the rush of validation I get when I find one, especially in difficult circumstances. So instead of focusing on the parking place itself, I focus on the moment of pulling into the parking place I’ve found, right in front of my destination, and the rush of joy that happens when I realize I did it. Again.

If you are having difficulty believing that what you want to create is possible long enough to have positive feelings about it, you must be able to rouse a good feeling which approximates the feeling of having what you are creating. Any good feeling, no matter how small, can help you, as long as you focus on it. Look for an aspect of what you are creating that you have absolutely no conflict about. Focus in on that and fill your body and being with that good sensation. Imagine the thing in as many sensory modes as possible (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch) and place yourself inside the picture. Imagine it all from inside it: be there, in the future, with things as you want them. Go back to the good feelings. Notice all aspects of the good feelings. Roll them around on your tongue, so to speak. “Wow,” you may notice, “this feels good about it, and that feels good too, and so does that. . .” Dwell on the good feelings. Remember: they are the engine which makes the manifestation go. Hold them very purely as long as you can, for at least 20 seconds and up to five minutes. Do that every day. Then watch the thing begin to coalesce in your life, right before your eyes.

Why Is Your Imagination a Power Tool?
Daydreaming is important, not just a waste of time. More than that, it is a skill, which can and should be developed. If you are serious about manifesting your desires, you must be able to create detailed, realistic internal sensory experience of the thing or state you want. What you are imagining must feel real and possible, and it should feel good to generate these imaginings.

Your Own World Between Your Ears
Your imagination is your domain. Nobody can tell you what to do there. In the world of your imagination, anything is possible. You can dream freely, uninhibited by the hard “facts” of the world outside your own head. Through the medium of your imagination, it is also possible to make those dreams into realities. But first you have to make the dreams as vivid as possible. “Vivid” means alive or full of life. Infuse your dreams with life.

Using Your Inner Senses
It helps if you use as many sensory modes (sight, sound, touch, etc.) as possible. This comes with practice. If you imagine what you desire on a daily basis, you will become more and more able to easily generate full-bodied, waking dreams, bursting with sensory experience. Most people come to this practice with natural ability with one or two sense modes. Then you will want to fill in your skills by developing the sense modes that are missing.

See It
Learn to see clear, vivid images of what you are creating. What will your life look like when you have what you want? See it, in living color, larger-than-life. Make the colors brighter, get out of black and white. Practice by looking at a bright, easy-to-perceive color with your open eyes. Then close your eyes and try to reproduce the color in your mind’s eye. At first you may succeed for just a second or two. Practice holding it for longer time periods, until you can imagine scenes in color for minutes on end. If you get distracted, let your mind wander a bit, then bring your attention gently back to what you are doing and focus again on seeing color and shape. When you are not meditating but are simply out enjoying life, notice color and shape. This will give you something to play with next time you are meditating.

Hear It
If sound is an unfamiliar sense mode, try imagining sounds. Let music run in your head. See if you can run through your favorite song, start to finish. Find out how many of the musical details of it you can remember and replicate in your inner ear. Then listen to it and hear how close your approximation was.

Another aspect of the sound mode is inner self-talk. Do you have a voice inside your head that tells you what is possible and what is not? Try adjusting the volume on that voice. Is it a male or a female voice? Is it a literal recording in the voice of one of your parents? Suppose it’s your father saying, “You’ll never amount to anything!” Suppose then that you speed it up so it sounds like Alvin the Chipmunk. It’s a little hard to take that kind of message seriously when it sounds like a chipmunk. Suppose it’s a teacher saying, “What a good student you are!” Turn up the volume. Play the recording over and over. Let it drown out other, more negative, recordings. It may take years to play positive messages as many times as you’ve heard the inner negative messages, but eventually that old stuff will fade.

Now go back to your dream. Ask yourself: What sounds, noises or inner self-talk are associated with what I am creating? Replay them in your head. Talk to yourself, internally or aloud. Encourage yourself, as if you were a beloved child and the voice is that of a loving, supportive adult who believes in you. Talk yourself into the dream, and don’t tolerate voices that speak fear to you, whether they are inside your head or outside of it.

Feel It
The bodily sense mode has two parts: one is kinesthetic, or inner-body and the other is touch, or outer-body.

Touch is easy. How would the world feel to someone who had the life you are creating for yourself? Would you wear silk? Can you imagine running your hands through piles of money? Have you test-driven that car you want—do you know the feeling of its steering wheel in your hands? These are the building blocks of manifestation. Become familiar with these sorts of sensations, run them over in your mind frequently.

The kinesthetic mode is a little more complex. It covers internal body sensations like balance, weight, gravity and “intuitive hits.” The feeling of swallowing is kinesthetic. So is a stomach-ache. Menstrual cramps are kinesthetic. The feeling of satiation after a good meal is kinesthetic. So is the sensation of balancing on a bicycle. And the feeling of the hair standing up on the back of your neck is kinesthetic.

Ask yourself how having the life you want will feel to your inner body. Will you be more balanced? More grounded? Will it feel solid in the tummy, instead of like the butterflies you feel when you are imagining something scary or something beyond your reach?

Smell and Taste It
If you like, and if it’s pertinent, add in the other sense modes: smell and taste. Does having what you want mean gourmet dining? Fine chocolates? Is there a food, a taste or a scent that symbolizes for you this thing you are creating? What is the “richest” scent you can think of? Lavender? Roses? Cheesecake? Try weaving that into the dream so as to create a tapestry of experience in which you are surrounded with congruent, enriching sense data.

Create a Signature Moment
After you have gotten some practice with all of the sense modes, try creating a signature moment around something you want to manifest. In the future, I am wealthy. How do I know I am wealthy? I look out the window of the bedroom of my fabulous home and see a beautiful sunset over the bay. I hear the sounds of my children playing. I feel a sense of strength and groundedness in my belly. I feel that I am wearing silk pajamas and look up to see that it is six in the evening, but I am still in pajamas because I am retired, yet the sounds of my children tell me I am still young. I feel my leg-muscles pleasurably burning because in the dream I have the leisure to run every morning. It is all happening in one sense-moment and all my senses conspire to tell the same story and point to the same reality.

A signature moment can be brief but also contain lots of meaning and back-story, all compressed into that moment. And you can draw on it anytime you have a few minutes free. Just a few minutes at a time, several times a day over weeks and months can move you powerfully along the road to what you want.

What Advertising Does That You Should Do
The main purpose of all advertising is to hijack the imagination of the viewer. Notice how ads use attractive models with warm, fond tones of voice. Everything is larger than life. Colors are bright. Objects are large. Faces are in close-up. The camera pans in quickly on the object being advertised. You may not be able to smell things on TV, but look how the steam rises! That burger must taste good.

The advertiser is trying to create your dream for you, on his own behalf. He knows that it is a very short trip from imagination to action and thus to reality and so he pumps up your imagination in hopes that it will lead to action, i.e. you buying the product. And preferably as quickly and as often as possible. Your imagination is yours—take back control of it! Why should McDonald’s get better use of your imagination than you do?

Put Yourself Inside the Dream
It’s best to place yourself inside your vision. When you imagine a thing or a lifestyle, see-feel-hear the aspects of that. Make it big, bold, beautiful, colorful, like advertising. Then get into the picture. Don’t just see scads of cash—see them in your hands, see numbers in your bank account, touch them with your own fingers, look at the dead presidents on the bills. If you find yourself slipping out of the picture, climb back inside.

Your Lizard Brain Doesn’t Know The Difference
Why is it important to do all this? Why do sense modes matter? Because your hind brain, your lizard brain, does not know the difference between imagination and reality. And your lizard brain is what will create the thing you are manifesting. Once your hind brain gets used to the idea of you having what you want, it won’t be long before it happens.

Your hind brain also does not comprehend time.  All times are now to the lizard brain.  Therefore, place yourself in your dream and tell its story as if it’s happening now.  Your hind brain will get busy manifesting it, especially if it starts to feel more real than the negative things in your life that you’re hoping to let go of.

Practice, Practice, Practice!
These skills may seem elusive and hard to measure, but really all that you need to do is practice. Just try it. Then try it again. Then keep trying it until you find suddenly that you are now dreaming in color when previously you only dreamt in black and white. Suddenly you are hearing symphonies in your head where previously you could barely hold a tune. And then—voila! Suddenly your external life responds to the internal shift: it becomes sweeter, richer, brighter than it was. And you are the one who made it that way.

It is an ancient theory in astrology that the signs of the zodiac parallel the parts of the body.  They do so in sign order, from head to toe, from the spring equinox sign of Aries which launches the solar year through the tail-end-of-winter sign of Pisces which ends the solar year.

Additionally, while the zodiac rules general body areas and external body parts, the planets of the solar system (which rule and are of parallel natures with the signs) rule the various internal organs and systems.  As we come to better medical understanding in the modern era of how our bodies work, we are gradually coming to see why some of the ancient attributions of planet-to-part exist, and we become able to understand which parts not heretofore attributed to a planet might go with a particular one.

The Homunculus
In traditional astrology, which has techniques and theories dating back to ancient Greece, the concept of the homunculus, or “little man,” describes this parallelism.  The homunculus is a little man envisioned as stretched over the circle of the zodiac as if doing acrobatics in mid-air, feet touching his head.  The image of the homunculus illustrates the parallels between body parts and the zodiac.  Astrology is not the only discipline that uses the concept of homunculus—in modern conventional medicine, the human brain has been similarly mapped by placing a “little man” over it to show brain regions which parallel parts of the body.   (look here)

In alternative medicine, the homunculus concept is called reflexology and acupuncturists are well aware of the parallels among parts of the body.  They have discovered a “little man” in the human foot, ears, hands and even the tongue.  When an organ or other body part is in need of healing but is too damaged or in too much pain or discomfort to be treated directly, often an approach to its corollary on the foot, hand, ear or some combination of these will help the healing speed along.

The Zodiac, Head to Toe
What follows is a very brief description of the zodiacal associations for parts of the body.

Have you ever watched a film of two rams fighting?  It’s the very epitome of head-banging.  You may have heard that Aries rules the head (which it does) and since rams are so head-oriented, this comes as no surprise.  Human rams like a little head-banging too—life just isn’t as interesting without a little conflict.  Aries rules the head and all of its contents (brain, skull, etc).

Taurus rules the throat; this is said to be connected with the Taurean tendency toward musicianship and a love of music.  Taureans love not only music’s sound, but also the feel of music in the throat when one is singing, and the vibrations of music when they hit the whole body.  Inside the body, Taurus also rules the thyroid gland.

Gemini rules shoulders, arms and hands.  Gemini is the Twins and shoulders are the first place the body splits into two when you are proceeding from the head downwards.  The hands in particular are twins of each other, a matched set, even to having a “good” (dominant) and “evil” (nondominant) twin.  You probably already know that the word dextrous comes from the Latin word “dexter” which means right, while “sinister” was left.  Being left-handed has been highly discouraged at frequent times and places in human civilized history.  Gemini also rules the nervous system; people with strong Gemini influence tend to be jumpy.  And Gemini is associated with the lungs and breathing (it is the first air sign in the zodiac).

Cancer rules the breasts, which is appropriate for the sign most associated with mothering, feeding and nurturing.  Large-breasted women are generally assumed to be both more motherly and more fertile.  Cancer rules the stomach and alimentary canal–the feeding theme continues here.  Cancer is also the first water sign to appear in the zodiacal order, linking it with the realm of emotions and intuition.

Leo rules the back and the spine, appropriate because Leo is the lion and is thus associated with a certain sense of royalty.  What better part than the spine to convey this sign’s sense of dignity and noblesse oblige?  Leo’s “planet,” the Sun, rules the heart, appropriate for the sign that is also associated with love, romance and a sunny disposition.

Virgo rules the belly and the digestive tract, which is appropriate because Virgo is all about sorting and separating.  The stomach belongs to Cancer, but Virgo gets the small and large intestines, colon and rectum.  Virgos are highly conscious of dirt and disorder.

Libra rules the hips and, through the ruler it shares with Taurus (Venus), the kidneys.  The hips are like a scale inside our body from which right and left legs dangle, balancing us as we walk.

Scorpio rules the genitals, whether male or female and also, paradoxically, the nose.  That these would be connected through the sign of Scorpio makes sense because the nose detects pheromones, allowing attraction and reproduction to happen.  I am of the opinion that Scorpio rules all the mucus membranes of the body, because these areas allow intimate connection which joins one human to another into a single biological system.  Since Scorpio itself rules the function of sex as intimate connection and bonding between two, this makes sense—humans bond at the genitals and mouth.  The sense organs are given to Taurus, which is a sign that represents the age of life (babyhood) in which we are exploring the world through our senses, but the mucus membranes of them (nose, eyes, etc) should belong to Scorpio.

Sagittarius rules the buttocks and thighs.  These are the major muscle groups of the body, which makes sense because these are the parts most involved in locomotion, and Sagittarius is the sign of travel and exploration.  Through its ruler Jupiter, Sagittarius also rules the liver.

Capricorn is all about structure and thus rules the skeleton with all its bones, including the teeth.  The skeleton is the framework on which the rest of our body is built.  If we were exoskeletal creatures, our exoskeleton would be ruled by Capricorn.  The skin is ruled by Capricorn too—you see the theme here of boundaries and structure.  This sign also governs the knees, as is appropriate for a sign associated with the theme of hierarchy.

Aquarius rules the ankles, which seemed to me for many years like an afterthought until I learned that Aquarius rules all the joints.  This makes much more sense, because Aquarius is all about networking and connecting things to each other into systems.  Also, when you crack your joints, you are actually popping a bubble inside your body.  Joints build up small amounts of gasses inside their tiny spaces, and when you crack your knuckles, you are releasing gas, like popping bubble wrap.  That this air-filled area would be ruled by an air sign is appropriate.

Pisces rules the feet, a body part which is both humble and sensitive.  It makes sense that the feet themselves would be a homunculus, because Pisces is generally regarded as a repository for the qualities of all the signs that came before (thus the Piscean tendency towards confusion and dispersion of identity).

In the last few hundred years, new planets have been discovered (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) and astrologers are still figuring out their attributions.  Also medical science has advanced tremendously in understanding of the parts of the body and their functions.  This leads to such interesting questions as:  what rules the lymph system?  What qualities in the physical function of the spleen parallel the medieval concept of “venting your spleen?”  Why are some body parts venerated while others are reviled?  It is an ongoing study and a fascinating one.

The Moon Sign and Body Sensitivity
One useful application of the connection between zodiac and body parts is to be aware of one’s Moon sign, because the Moon confers sensitivity to that part of the body belonging to the sign it is in.  So, for example, I have the Moon in Taurus and had many sore throats as a child.  A person with Moon in Virgo should take good care of their digestive tract and a Moon in Sagittarius person, already attracted to and prone to excess, should avoid drinking too much because of stress to the liver.

Find out your Moon sign and protect that part of the body.  It may well be extra-sensitive.

Another application involving the Moon is around surgery.  Medical astrology is a large and detailed branch of the field unto itself, and shouldn’t be practiced by anyone who isn’t also medically trained, but there is a thing that most astrologers know, even without special training.  That is that you should avoid having surgery on a body part when the Moon is moving through that part’s sign.  This means you should avoid having heart surgery when the Moon is in Leo and reschedule that boob job for a time when the Moon is not in Cancer.  Dental surgery involves two signs to avoid:  don’t have root canal work when the Moon is moving through Aries (because the teeth are inside the head), but also avoid it when the Moon is in Capricorn, because the teeth are bones.

Why would the Moon affect surgery, of all things?  This is because a body part is sensitized by the passage of the Moon through its sign, making it more vulnerable to infection.  Another reason is that the risk of hemorrhage during surgery is higher because the Moon pulls the tides of the Earth—and also of our bodies.  The Moon moves our blood, hormones, neurochemicals, etc. and creates stronger flow (higher tides) in any particular body part when it moves through that part’s sign.  To open up that part surgically is more risky than to wait until the Moon moves on.  The Moon only spends 2 and a half days per month in a given sign, so it’s often not difficult to avoid an inauspicious surgery date, if you have any control over the date at all.

In most metaphysical bookstores you can find a pocket calendar, which will tell you the daily Moon sign, along with a bunch of other astrological and astronomical data.  Also, most metaphysical bookstores can recommend an astrologer who may be willing to simply tell you dates to avoid over the phone for free.  It is easy to look up and takes just a minute.

Naturally, this article has only scratched the surface of medical astrology, which is a fascinating field all its own, but the bit of information I’ve given you today is enough for anyone to use to their benefit and without harm.