Preparing for the New Moon Eclipse - LET'S MAKE MORE ART!

El Oraculo Celoso, Mariana Palova 2011

Hello beautiful people,

well Mercury goes Retrograde today in the Dark Moon as we prepare for a New Moon Eclipse in Sagittarius tomorrow - wow, how much can we handle?! The answer: EVERYTHING, we can handle everything. The key is to handle it in your own individual way. Some of us are going into Hermit mode while others are feeling the glorious Fire of Sagittarius and gearing up for the party season. I believe this incredible period of time we are living in where the Divine Feminine is rising from the depths again is about discovering, exploring and living your own true authentic spirit. So do what your spirit is urging you to do!

In the Dark Moon tonight is a perfect time to work with your Tarot cards to gain clarity and understanding of the changes that are happening and to create conscious pathways to a radiant future. I am so in love with the Gaian Tarot at the moment and have been using this nourishing and healing deck with all of my clients and in my own readings for myself. Here is The Seeker (The Fool) from the Gaian Tarot - an inspiring visual of the energy of this New Moon Eclipse.

Eclipses tend to activate breakthroughs and insights and sometimes illuminate and bring forward issues that we've been trying to hide from or avoid. And partnered with the energy of Sagittarius it could get fiery so be aware that with Mercury in Retrograde, mis-communication is a theme. I'd be giving difficult types a wide berth and instead focussing this creative and fire-filled time of rebirth into creative projects - tomorrow would be perfect day to create a new Vision Board for your dreams for 2012.

Below is the vision board I created for 2011 - I had no idea at the time that I would be working with water essences and healing with water, working with clients to bring light to the shadow-self or even to discover my own Black Moon Lilith in the Fire Sign of Leo - but here it all is waiting to be brought forward from the dreamworlds and very present in my unconscious. By engaging with our creativity we create portals to explore the magical and inspiring realms of our Inner Knowing. Let's make more art!

My Vision of 2011

Tomorrow Tony and I will be heading back into the Wombat Forest to draw water from the forest wells for new plant essences to be made at the New Moon Eclipse - I can't wait to see how the essences become energised on this potent day! 

Wishing you all a wonderful New Moon tomorrow, may you all be birthed anew in the warm embrace of Sagittarius.

Deepening the Connection - New Classes and Workshops

I welcome you my sisters to join me as we celebrate music, mythology, symbology and reawaken our Wise Woman gifts in warm and friendly circles dedicated to remembering the Ancient Worlds of our Ancestral Memory. As we rediscover our deep bond with Mother Nature we naturally develop our forgotten gifts of prophecy, creativity and healing. Join me as we celebrate the Moon Mysteries of Mother Nature in all of her wild and abundant beauty. 

Join us in the music, transform in the sound.

As we journey on our Immramma (Irish for 'Wonder Voyage') we will enter a realm of mystery, magic and healing. On these journeys we will encounter the Wise Teachers, Healers and Guardians that all reside within us. We already know these helpful energies intuitively as you will discover as we reclaim our Ancient Ancestral Wisdom and Mythic Story.

Who will step forward to guide you along these ancient pathways? In this 6 week course of Journeying and Oracle Reading you will gently bring your focus to your new companions, begin to trust your Intuition and learn to have faith in the messages your receive from the natural world around you, to your animal messengers and plant guardians. 

When we connect to the Wise Healer Within, like the wise Shaman, we begin to understand the patterns and signs of the daily Oracle of our lives. In these warm and relaxed circles you will widen your own circles of friendship and develop your own daily shamanic practice of finding and keeping Sacred Space so you can remember your beautiful and ancient relationship with Mother Earth. By journeying with the music we connect to the elements through sacred smudging and water blessing, forming deep bonds with our Spirit Guides and Animal Totems. After each journey we will explore further learning with various oracle systems to helps to understand and heal from the messages and symbols we receive for ourselves and for others. 

Void Moon in Pisces - Dream a little Dream

From this 6.30pm this evening until Wednesday 10am, there is a very long Void Moon in the sign of Pisces. This is a particularly dreamy and potent time for meditation, dreaming, creating and drifting in to other dimensions. Reading Tarot for yourself and others is a good idea at this time as it is a highly intuitive and psychic period - especially if you are Pisces. Last Friday I picked up my 'Reverie Harp' from the very lovely and talented Peter Roberts. I am looking forward to making friends with this beautiful new instrument in tomorrow's Neptunian dreaming. 

May your dreams be sweet.

Healer, Mystic, Creatrix - Women's Course in Celtic Spirituality

Hello Everyone,

I hope you had a beautiful Full Moon in Aquarius. We are still experiencing Mercury in Retrograde so I hope this is not causing too many obstacles or problems for you all - check and recheck all contracts and financial forms (on the weekend I read that thousands of people had filled in their Census forms online and without pressing 'send'. Can't get more Mercury Retrograde than that!). And of course please remember to back up your computers.

This week we are back after a relaxing break where we spent time recording our new guided meditation CD: Beyond the Ninth Wave and creating new plant essences combining Sacred Water from wells here in Victoria and Findhorn in Scotland (you can read more about that here). I will be using these essences and sacred water in private healing consultations, Celtic Women's Course: Healer Mystic Creatrix and in our Spring Equinox Circle: Healing Waters, Sacred Wells where we will be donating all funds again to the Koalas (Water Animal Totem in Australia) at the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter (www.samthekoala.com.au).

In 3 more days we will be passing beyond the Ninth Wave, the mythic wave that takes you beyond this world and into the Celtic Otherworld. In the five weeks that we will meet together we will develop healing and intuitive abilities to help us to heal and balance the Five Elements and the Seven Chakras or energy systems of our body as well as learning to read with oracles, connect to Animal Totems, Spirit Guides and Ancestral Wisdom.

Week 1 - EARTH: Returning Home, Travelling Beyond the Ninth Wave

Goddess: Rhiannon the Sovereign, Airmid Goddess of Healing and Herbcraft

Tools: Healing with Stones and Plant Totems 

Week 2 - WATER: Sacred Wells, Healing Love and Creativity

Goddess: Beg the Wisdom Keeper, Vivienne - Lady of the Lake

Tools: Energy Healing, Oracle Reading, Water Blessing

Week 3 - AIR: Oran Mor, Wisdom, Past Lives and Creating a New World

Goddess: An Cailleach the Crone Mother, Arianrhod the Silver Wheel

Tools: Shamanic Healing, Ancestral Totem, Past Life Regression

Week 4 - FIRE: Building Fire, Tending to our Sacred Flame

Goddess: Brighid the Exalted One, Scathach the Warrior Queen

Tools: Animal Totem, Candle Magic, Healing Movement

Week 5 - ETHER: You Are We, Embodying the Celtic Goddess

Goddess: Danu Mother Goddess of the Tuatha, Sovereign Queen

Tools: Rites of the Sidhe, Channeling Messages from the Goddess and your Guides

I have 2 places free in this Celtic Circle of Healing. If you feel this one of these places is for you, you can phone me: 0421 249 183 or email me: julia@sacredfamiliar.com.au Please let me know as soon as you can so that you have time to prepare. 

Warm Wishes for the Journey, Julia

Escape into Life by photographer, Rodney Smith

Happy World Tarot Day! Tarot Gift for Subscribers

The Path Within 3-Day Tarot & Healing Course

We still have a couple of places left in the 3-day Tarot Intensive. Here is the link to the full brochure. This will be a small group only to ensure that everyone receives personal attention as they step upon the Path to the Inner Self.

New Moon in Aries

On Monday we see Neptune move into it's  Master house of Pisces for the first time since the mid-1800s. This is a time that will herald in an era of appreciation and creation of art, intuition and healing. On this auspicious day we will also have a New Moon in Aries - perfect for inspiration about new projects, creativity and new life!  This weekend we are experiencing the Moon in her Dark phase and this can feel like a very heavy and emotional time for some of us. If you are feeling stuck, prepare yourself for monday by de-cluttering in this Dark Moon, particularly old letters, anything that you have not worn in the last 12 months  or broken or chipped items that you have been meaning to repair for ages and are just gathering dust. It's time for the new, for the real, for the true self to emerge, why not make a little more room so you can pass through this golden doorway with grace?

Or perhaps it's a good time this weekend to rest and take some time to smell the flowers before you begin this new adventure.

Here is one of my favourite Tarot spreads called the Horseshoe or Advice Spread. I use it look into so many different elements. Why not use this spread to ask for the best advice for you to prepare for this New Dawn:

Here is the fiery Queen of Wands by Ciro Marchetti from his Tarot of Dreams (www.ciromarchetti.com) The suit of Wands in the Tarot are linked to the element of Fire and will help you to raise your energy to meet this beautiful Aries Moon

Spinning the Threads of New Learning at the Full Moon

When I woke up this morning I felt as if a weight had moved from my shoulders. Ah, the full moon! On Friday we finally experienced Venus going direct after being in such a tough retrograde for the last month. Venus has not completed all of her 'Shadow' work yet (she will move back into Scorpio on 30 November for her last dance with the shadow until mid-December) but there is no doubt that we can enjoy some flowing movement for the next week. Tonight we will see and feel the Full Moon in the last degrees of Taurus as the Sun moves into the dynamic sign of Sagittarius at around 9.15pm.

Rebekah Holguin

So what has Venus been showing and helping you to face during her retrograde? Venus is the Goddess of Love - have you noticed any relationships from the past popping into your mind to be examined, remembered, released? When Venus is in retrograde I liken it to the image above - she has to step into the waters of the past to retrieve the deeper and hidden wisdom that we hold around relationships, boundaries and love for ourselves.  Now that she has gone direct, use the intuitive flashes, new understanding and hopefully healing that Venus has facilitated to make that final reach for the gold that waits deep within our inner knowing. The gold of acceptance and then release from the past.

I see the full moon tonight as an enormous spinning wheel - a symbol of transformation. We are always growing and learning and evolving just like the moon, the earth and nature's cycles. I have been fascinated with the image of the spinning wheel since working with Venus. I like to imagine that with all we have learnt last month that we can now spin the strands of the past, with the present to create the future that we truly desire. In the Tarot we see a similar movement in The Wheel of Fortune - a card that reminds us that sometimes we just have to trust that the Wheel of Life will turn regardless of not knowing what that turn will be.

The Wheel - Gaian Tarot

Has Venus been asking you to think about the need or desire to control relationships in your life? Surrender and open your heart to the full moon tonight as the great spinning wheel in the sky helps to weave together the threads of your life to bring symbiosis and integration and most importantly, to create the gold that will be waiting for you once this process is complete. Next month we will feature the amazing art of Nadia Turner in our newsletter and below is her exquisite sketch of 'The Weaver' - may the threads turn to gold for you this evening.

The Weaver by Nadia Turner www.waywardharper.com

Artemis Rising on the New Moon in Scorpio

"Lady of Ephesus', Artemis

“I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, ‘Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.”

Antipater, Greek Anthology (IX.58)

Today is the birth of the new moon and yes, it's in Scorpio! So more deep insights still to come but if you feel you have been through all the soul-searching you can handle in the last month, take faith in the energy of the New Moon today to help you to plant the seed of new wishes and dreams. We are also going to experience a welcome reprieve as Venus (whilst still in retrograde) moves into the more flowing sign of Libra from 8th to 30th November. The Goddess I feel around us at this time of deep introspection is Artemis. She is coming in to help us gain focus and clarity and to understand the true meaning of freedom. When Venus finishes her work as the Dark Goddess in December, will you be ready to embrace freedom? In Greek mythology the goddess Artemis was represented as the huntress, a symbol of the natural world, and the goddess of childbirth, children and young women. She can be both beautiful and dangerous - just like nature. I have often called upon the wisdom of Artemis to help free myself of old patterns or to embrace new challenges. As the goddess of freedom and independence she is also a courageous energy to call upon to first create a healthy relationship with your own self-worth so that you can go on to develop respectful and honest relationships with others. Artemis will also help us with clarity and focus - focus on what it is you truly desire and release the arrow. Now keep moving forward just like that arrow and trust that the universe will provide you with exactly what you need. 

To plant the energy of the New Moon tonight, this is a simple Tarot spread (you may also use any oracle cards) to not only show you where you may need to focus attention but also to check in on the sacred balance of the 5 elements needed to create harmonious growth:

The Gifts of Artemis New Moon Spread

1. Air - East - New ideas, memories, cutting ties. How can I best embrace the element of Air at this New Moon?

2. Fire - South - Passion, courage, intuition. How can I best embrace the element of Fire at this New Moon? 

3. Water - West - Healing, relationships, creativity. How can I best embrace the element of Water at this New Moon?

4. Earth - North - Caring for the body & environment, finances, grounding. How can I best embrace the element of Earth at this New Moon?

5. Spirit - Centre - What is the message from Spirit at this New Moon?