New Moon Journal

Virgo New Moon-jumping through transitions.

I am the One who moves
through Resistance
jumps through life’s transitions
even though others
may look on with their
judgments and doubts.

I am the One who trusts
the Presence will show me
the path that lands me on solid ground.

With open arms I find
change is good.

Midway through this Mercury retrograde I decide to unpack and file some boxes unopened since the move…and rediscovered my writings for the last 10 years…seeing the start and stop, bits and pieces of what I want to share and teach left me feeling like I failed.

“The child forms certain wrong conclusions about life, which sink into the unconscious, then mold the life into the adult.”  -The Undefended Self: Living the Pathwork

It didn’t matter that I finished my degree, was homemaker, wife and mother, healer; sent dear daughter off to college, staged, sold the house, moved and wrote some 255 blog posts. With tunnel vision nothing mattered- Virgo can get obsessive and Pisces just wants to stay in the dream.

Homemaker versus career woman were at each others throats- "stay home" "no go out in the world, do more", welcome to my Saturn/Uranus opposition- sitting exactly on my Pisces Sun. With Mercury retrograde it's been a ripe opportunity to start dissecting the thinking and reshaping the clay.

Each month there is a new and full moon. The opportunity at the new moon?  You are called to bring up the childhood ‘wrong conclusions’ and re-mold your self. By the Full Moon the Sun and Moon stand in opposition, it’s there you have the aha's and energy to change the form.

Oppositions offer up a challenge and a release of tension. Saturn who rules responsibility and structure is in Virgo holding a tug of war with Uranus in Pisces the awakener. Uranus wakes you up to the potential, the future you with spiritual purpose and muscle [Pisces].

In book The WAR of ART by Steven Pressfield “Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”

Resistance has been keeping me company and I don’t like it one bit. Yes finding the writings and the abandonment left me feeling hopeless. That dissolved into anger and frustration. That dissolved to grief then moved into acceptance. The energies feel multi-layered and words can’t seem to fit it all. The good news is there’s movement. When I got home from reiki circle last night I found Donna Cunningham's blog post in my mail:

Happening every 45 years or so, the Saturn/Uranus opposition marks a time when we feel we can’t live any longer under certain conditions, limitations, systems, relationships, belief systems, jobs, careers, etc, and a part of us comes tearing out. We seek change, reform, relief and the new instead of plowing on with things that are not working.-Lynda Hill

It’s been all that and more. Saturn in Virgo stands in opposition my Pisces Sun in the 4th house giving me some powerful God-force energy to ‘master fear and conquer resistance'.

Knowledge of who you are emerges the way a Polaroid develops: it takes time to see the image clearly and know what you are working with. Every single one of us at birth is given an emotional acre all our own. You get one, your awful Uncle Phil gets one, I get one, Tricia Nixon gets one, everyone gets one.

And as long as you don’t hurt anyone, you really get to do with your acre as you please. You can plant fruit trees or flowers or alphabetized rows of vegetables, or nothing at all. If you want your acre to look like a giant garage sale or an auto-wrecking yard, that’s what you get to do with it. There’s a fence around your acre, though with a gate, and if people keep coming into your land and sliming it or trying to get you to do what they think is right, you get to ask them to leave. And they have to go because this is your acre. – writer Anne Lamont in her book Bird by Bird.

Dear New Moon Dancers be kind and supportive to the Pisces/Virgo people in your life…we are all being plowed big time. In July I go to make a vision board and nothing happens. Asked myself why? One word pops up Commit.

Commitment brings up fear I’ll be locked into something I can’t change. The quest is safety, don’t move. This resistance isn’t an adult talking and I've been here before…

The AMC television show Mad Men returns, bringing me grist for the mill for my career woman/Virgo and homemaker/Pisces dialog.

Betty and Sally’s mother daughter dance is so rich and deep for me. Mom’s drinking and smoking trying to cope, oh last week she added another baby to the mix. Sally’s body type is similar to mine at the same age- another piece of the betwixt and between.

Forty-five years ago? Puberty came early as I moved from girl to adolescent a bit too early for Mom. Big and gawky compared to my skinny-minny sister, my wrong conclusion shouts ‘fat and ugly’- so much shame for becoming “to fat for little girl clothes”. Mom didn’t love me, sisters and father teased me- let’s say we were not kind to each other. Into the clay went unacceptable. Into the clay went fear of change. All I can say to the Universe...damn this yet again?

In astrology the fourth house represents home, mother, roots- theme is safe and nurturing. The task is to get rooted/grounded in who you are so you can move into the 5th house of creativity, go out into the world, and share your gifts (10th house).

While the childhood needs were met because of the trauma I didn’t feel safe or nurtured; at eight I turned to food, became the ‘little mother’ for control, for comfort, to mask anxiety, to make me feel safe. Can you relate?

It’s been 45 years of starts and stops. I am more turtle than rabbit. Part of me knows to just go with the flow; another just wants this @#$@ Saturn/Uranus opposition to move off and away…out of my 4th house of home/family/roots and 10th house of career/public persona. My emotional acre is being plowed big time…

Tending once again to the eight year old I see a deeper understanding of my journey, my mother and her mother's story; how the trail connects back to my college graduate self (read the Virgo in Saturn ’78-80).

"I am the One who threw us into personal and professional tasks that seemed too much to handle. We learned at a young age to act as if everything was okay when it isn’t. I am the One who is your twenty-something career woman. While I can form a clear vision and set a strong intention; we got lost in the process after things manifested too quickly. That was then and this is now... today we don't need to use food/busyness/spending to dampen the anxiety, you developed better skills to cope. Today we have courage tied to spirit."

Silently in the background of my life these two Neters dance in the shadows giving me tools to go out into the world again. I feel grateful for the new awareness. It’s an opportunity…

"Worthiness, in very simple terms, means, I have found a way to let the Energy reach me, the Energy that is natural, reach me. Worthiness, or unworthiness, is something that is pronounced upon you by you.

You are the only one that can deem yourself worthy or unworthy.You are the only one who can love yourself into a state of allowing, or hate yourself in a state of disallowing.

There is not something wrong with you, nor is there something wrong with one who is not loving you. You are all just, in the moment, practicing the art of not allowing, or the art of resisting."-Expressed by Abraham-Hicks

At this New Moon in Virgo you’ll find me tending my worthiness acre as Saturn/Uranus opposition calls me out of a deep slumber, jumping through transitions and landing safely on solid ground.

What about you at this New Moon in Virgo how’s your emotional acre?

Shadow Dancing: Listen for the inner voices-your mind chatter. Look for black and white thinking then seek to balance the negative self talk and doubt. Look for your issues with FEAR- fear of success, fear of failure are two biggies that dance with me. If you don’t know where to begin Carolyn Myss works with these four archetypes: the Child, Victim, Prostitute, and Saboteur.

Anne Marie Bennett has put together some great resources on her website here: Taming the Inner Critic.

What was life like for you, what happened 45 years ago, to you or maybe your parents? Anything related to today's resistance?

What’s happened over the last 6-9 months?

If you have a copy of your chart, find the Virgo/Pisces signs..there are 12 houses...read the description of the house here: New Moon Zodiac Chart

How is the Saturn/Uranus opposition affecting you today?

24 hours before the new moon set a strong intention, what do you want to create in the Virgo area of your life? What's been up in your face since Mercury went retrograde? What do you need to change? Write or draw your intentions. You’ll quickly see/feel/know your shadow issue, what’s holding you back.

24 hours after the new moon, let it all go. Expect aha’s by the full moon in Aries October 4th. Keep me posted.

Rev. Michele Lessirard, C.Ht. is an artist, inter-faith minister, shamanic practitioner and teacher. Since 1995 she has preformed hundreds of Soul Retrievals, teaches through out the United States and is recognized for her ability to communicate the visible elements with the invisible- the spiritual aspects that are mirrored through one’s day-to day relationships with family, home and work.

Virgo SoulCollage®

Friday we greet the New Moon in Virgo. This is the LAST time Saturn sits with the New Moon in Virgo until 2038. That's a long time. The Universe is clearly telling me don't drag your tired old @#$ Virgo issues into the next sign. It's funny and it's not- more to come but first digest this...

The last time Saturn moved through Virgo? August 1978 through September 1980- you can read more about this in the Saturn in Virgo pdf. Another good Saturn in Virgo post here and five alchemical steps for Saturn in Virgo.

Or if you are a glutton for Virgo energy all the Virgo posts are here.

While Saturn/Sun/Moon keep company in Virgo this week Mercury retrogrades back into the Virgo energies from Libra just before he turns direct on September 29. Libra is the sign of relationship, healthy balanced relating not from the 3rd chakra [force] but from your heart's energy [love]. Who am I in relationship to you? Do I have good boundaries? Do I merge too much? Put up walls?

The Flipping Out side of these Uranus in Pisces energies? Sticking your finger into a light socket, getting shocked and then yelling at the light socket. Okay I've done that...

Saturn/Sun/Moon/Mercury opposes Uranus in Pisces...Uranus is connected to intuition. In our bodies intuition sits in the 3rd (power) and 6th (intuition) chakras working in harmony and balance.

Uranus wakes us up suddenly- like a lightening bolt, it transforms. Uranus is traveling through watery Pisces- the home of the Muse, the Dreamer within who creates magic in this reality. The Flip Side of Virgo.

A true transfigured Magician is able to enter the collective unconsciousness within her Greater Self, create a matrix from the points of light and birth new forms that serve humanity.

The keyword for is renewal.

Mercury retrograde covers old territory to give us all a do-over. Mercury rules our thinking, speaking, the day-to-day thoughts that keep us separate...this week look for what's out of balance. You've had strong indicators since mid-August when Mercury moved into his shadow specifically in relationships and "truth-telling without blame or judgment". (Angeles Arien's Four Fold Way).

This week as we approach the New Moon in Virgo look for the aha's especially at the Mercury retrograde ten day mark - September 16 and 17.

Here are the basics of Virgo's energy relative to the New Moon SoulCollage® process. What you planted at the New Moon in Aries, those decrees and intentions set forth in vision boards earlier this year will have manifested. What were you wishing and dreaming of back in late March? It's harvest time!

How is the Universe responding to your quest? What needs attention? To be edited and sorted?

Here are some themes to Virgo's energy. Virgo is solid, grounded earth energy, the higher octave of Gemini. In Virgo I am the One who....

I am the One who brings you Order. I bring the ability to pay attention to the small details, getting my paperwork completed and showing up on time [punctuality].

I am the One who is clear thinking, I understand my black and white issues and safely navigate the emotional waters of telling my truth to others.

I am the One who is a workaholic. I miss the mystery in life because I am so focused on the mundane.

I am the One who is healthy. In order to create one needs a well body, physical well being. Health/diet/exercise, healers and healing.

I am the One who is the Healer. I bring you the ability to bridge Spirit (Pisces) with Earth (Virgo). I am a bridge builder to Spirit.

I am the One who serves others. I bring a willingness to adapt-practical helpfulness with purity of intent.

I am the One who desires perfection. I process your clutter and bring order out of chaos.

I am the One who is the Critic. The inner critic seeks to focus your attention on worry, criticism, blame and judgment that creates barriers in your life. I seek control.

I am the One who Mentors. I rule all forms of mentorship related to the Ancestors, Aunts and Uncles. Who are you mentoring? Who mentors you?

I am the One who is the Goddess Vesta. I seek to infuse your life through sacred rituals and ceremonies that bestow magic.

I am the One who Restores. I bring up ways your hold yourself back up into your consciousness and out into the light of day for healing; I am the One who frees up your creative energy, the keyword is renewal.

Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever...-- Isak Dinesen

Saturn and Uranus Opposition

This is a time of grand expansion, a opportunity to reconnect with the fragmented self and perform your own soul retrieval. Call back your power. Saturn entered Virgo in September 2007 and dances in opposition to Uranus in Pisces over the next year. This could be fun! (hey my Sun in Pisces is getting direct hits from this energy...)

We have one more New Moon in Virgo September 18th, 2009, next year at this time Saturn leaves and doesn’t return again until 2038.

Connect the dots and embody the Practical Mystic within, especially during the 2009-2010 New/Full Moons in Virgo, Sagittarius, Gemini and Pisces. Take the teachings deeper as Saturn finishes up the journey through Virgo...expect aha’s and shape-shifting.

Virgo New Moon- 5 alchemical steps

Here’s a shamanic journey for the New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo, it’s a five step process. There’s a whole lot of learning going on at this New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo. Look at the players involved..

• Sun/Moon in Virgo
• Uranus in Pisces
• Jupiter/Vesta in Sagittarius.

Vesta¹, the Goddess energy that rules Virgo, is keeper of the sacred flame, representative of hearth and home. Her energy is like sinking into a warm wooly blanket, comforting. I have written about the Virgo energies for the last two posts- Saturn in Virgo and The Babbling Woman. I added new information to the Virgo Journal PDF and this post information is there as well.

Rather than write more about the new moon let’s just dive into the energies. In the next 24-48 hours spend 15-20 minutes in meditation.

If you know how to shamanic journey, then grab your drumming cd and go to your shamanic teacher/helping Ally.

Step 1. Print out the PDF chart of the New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo. The Call- to perfect the mundane through rituals that feed my soul.

Step 2. Reflect on the symbols [don’t worry about knowing astrology, just look at the symbols, feel into them] and ask your Higher Self what is necessary. What do I need at this time? Don’t try and make sense of it all. Trust your inner Muse will step forward and guide you.

Step 3. Meditate or Journey for 15-20 minutes at least 24-48 hours before the New Moon occurs on September 11 at 8:44 am eastern standard time.

Step 4. On return journal about the experiences. Note any images or symbols that may come up, make note of them. Place the
Virgo New Moon chart on your altar.

<<< Wait you are not fully cooked yet. >>>

Step 5. Dreamtime. For the next two days watch your dreams, watch what animals come to you in sleep or during the day. How are you being inspired? What is tripping you up? Be ready to make adjustments. Again make a note these events in your journal. You might be inspired to create a SoulCollage card. Implement a daily ritual that connects you to spirit and heart[h].

With Saturn in Virgo, the energy of this eclipse continues to impact of our lives in a positive way for many months.

Thanks to Diane for her New Moon SoulCollage card- "I am the One who weaves magic."

¹ HESTIA was the gentle, virgin goddess of the hearth (both private & municipal), the home and family. She voluntarily relinquished her position as one of the twelve Olympian’s (which every believer was required to honor) in place of Dionysus. As recompense she was made goddess of the sacrificial flame and granted a portion of all sacrifices to the gods. Hestia is also known as Vesta:

VESTA } : Virgo is the maintenance room of the chart, a mutable earth sign whose symbol is the Virgin, the six pointed star. The Virgin from the Vesta’s perspective is a woman whole unto herself. Virgo rules the higher mind. We don’t really understand the Virgin archetype in our society (see the attached article regarding the highest expression of Virgo Vesta -the sacred Virgin). Vesta in Virgo as an archetypal force represents the principle of focus and commitment. - Demetra George from her book the Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-Emerging Feminine.

The story of a babbling woman

Virgo is the sign of the healer. Virgo is the sign of the mentor. In order to be a great healer one has to have a strong connection to all things Virgo. There are key times in your life where you are forced to open up, to move beyond who you think you are. Most times one can’t see it coming...your inner earth shakes. The experiences leave you feeling raw and on edge.

When Saturn moved through Pisces [February 1994 through April 1996] I became a babbling woman. As past trauma’s cleared and the energy merged within I went on spiritual overload that left me very ungrounded. Later my friend Wendy, a therapist, joking told me that I didn’t make much sense. In essence I was learning a new language... all healers go through this initiation.

A healer must understand their connection to earth [Virgo], all things matter, while being infused with Spirit [Pisces]. This story is important because you may now be called to mentor others, especially if you were part of the group of women who woke up in the early 90’s. I know because I was in the rooms with some wonderful souls, healing our pasts and reclaiming our power in a new way.

It may now be time for you to mentor others who are being initiated. Or as you awaken to your healership, you may be in need of a mentor.

In order to seek new lands one has to let go of the shore. Back in 1994 I leaped out of my body and traveled the cosmos. It was scary for there were very few roadmap’s and I was forced to learn how to trust the world behind my eyes. Collectively we learned how to ride the waves and stay in our bodies to ground the energy in a new way.

And that ability to ground came from understanding and appreciating the relationship to my mother- a Pisces who acts more Virgo, and my beloved maternal grandmother, a Virgo who seemed more Piscean in nature.

One of the key events in that Saturn in Pisces time period was during a guided meditation where I was asked to go to my safe place as a child- I found myself at grandma’s house at the shore.

For two years I had horrible oceanic dreams of drowning, of rendering, of baptizing. At these times the sky was dark, the sea swelled and swirled, but I’d find my way to grandma’s house and then I was safe. I had forgotten that when hurricane Donna¹ hit the Jersey shore my parents took my sister and I on a Sunday drive to see the damage. At the age of five it was devastating for me to see huge houses knocked off their foundations and the world whacked in all directions from wind and water. I remember the utter joy I felt seeing Grandma’s house survived, with only the wooden stairs floating away.

The House stood solid. When my inner child needed a hug, I’d climb the back stairs, hear the screen door slam and walk into the kitchen to get a hug and talk to with grandma. It was as real as real could be. I eventually learned that our loving ancestors are always with us, even after they pass. I just needed to learn how to communicate in a new way.

During that Saturn in Pisces period I craved new colors in my life (yellows, purples and spring greens), I craved hydrangeas. In renovating our new home I unconsciously selected colors from the grandma’s house at the shore (later I found pictures)...I filled the house with baskets of blue silk flowers. I literally was recreating the safe place of my childhood past in the here and now.

Why is this Saturn in Pisces story important? Well 13 years later, it’s like a full moon energy. There is a release, there are spiritual gifts being offered up. So today I share my SoulCollage Community card I created. There’s foundational of earth- the rustic well worn pine wood floors. A picture of the home that offers me sanctuary, reminding me to remember while heading out in life, Grandma has my back. "I am the One who is your grandma, your mentor, I loved my family well." She was a farmer’s wife, a teacher, who infused her family and friends with an innate wisdom that still lives as a legacy through each of us today.

So before Saturn gets deeper into Virgo I invite you to work with the energies [Virgo Journal PDF], to uncover and begin to unfold your myth and discover your mystery.

*In transpersonal psychology rather than medicating the client different modalities are offered that creates a container and allows the energy a voice, it is celebrated as a time of spiritual awakening.

^1. I think it must have been Donna who hit New Jersey on September 12, 1960: Hurricane Donna, the only tropical cyclone to bring hurricane force winds to every state on the East Coast of the United States passed New Jersey as a Category 2 hurricane while moving at a high speed. Damage was significant along the coastline, but was less than in other states struck directly by Donna. The hurricane caused winds gusts of up to 105 mph (169 km/h), heavy rainfall, and a storm surge of 6 feet (2 m).

Saturn in Virgo

At 9:49 am Sunday, September 2, 2007 Saturn enters earthy Virgo for the first time in 29 years and stays for two years. Over the next 10 days I will be discussing these Virgo energies in short posts every other day. My goal is to serve you with a series of constructive creative insights into how Saturn in Virgo may be working and learning you...especially as we approach the New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo on September 11, 2007.

“I am creatively expressing my soul’s purpose that benefits and serves others. Today I seek a clear understanding of my function and role in society.” - A Virgo affirmation from Alan Oken’s Soul Astrology

Get Grounded. Honor what you know. Saturn represents the connection to all things of matter- earth, your 1st chakra, structure, the masculine principle, the Father. Tribal conditioning that may no longer serve you. The will to survive. Something is being birthed, you may not see it yet for it still sits on the spiritual realm ready for manifestation. But only if there is order and structure to give the energy form.

First lets look at your cast of characters and how the vibration of Virgo impacts your life:

1. Where is the sign Virgo in your chart? What house?
2. Are there any planets in that house?
3. Who are those mentors that serve as a Virgo mirror in your life’s journey?
4. Who are the important people born in the sign of Virgo [August 21 through September 22]?
5. Are these Virgo people a challenge or a joy to be around? Look to past relationships?
6. In those Virgo relationships what have you learned?
7. List significant events that occurred in your life around mid-August through mid-September.
8. Look at the last time Saturn was in Virgo. List significant events in your life from August 1978 through October 1980.
9. Look at the Pisces people in your life? Again where they a challenge or a joy to be around? What lessons did these Piscean people bring you?
10. List significant events in your life from February 1994 through April 1996.
11. I invite you to create a SoulCollage Community card to honor these significant people in you life. For more information read The Community Suit in the SoulCollage book by Seena Frost, pages 23-32.

I created a Virgo Journal PDF for use in this exercise. The task is to gather information about how Virgo/Pisces has impacted you life- both the negative and the positive.

Virgo asks you to embrace a common sense practical approach to life, your day-to-day routines infused with Spirit. Spirit and matter working in union brings transfiguration. More light and life rather than more drama/trauma. It’s a choice. Virgo is earthy and grounded.

Working with clients for over ten years in the soul retrieval process I have met several people who get so fixated on their storyline that leaves no room for healing to occur. "How I was wounded" is the negative aspect of Virgo’s analytical quality gone astray.

The story’s constant repeat creates a vicious numbing cycle that can create additional soul loss in your life, in essence you missed the gift of the experience. But when we dance the story, breath the story, infuse it with meaning and magic the energy moves, transmutes and transforms.

What is true for you?

Can you voice that truth?

Can you keep your peace?

When we hold onto a belief, become inflexible, rigid and stubborn we create trauma/drama in our lives. There is so much misrepresentation of truth out in the world right now, so much mind chatter. What’s true for you may not be right for another. How do you embrace and embody the law of allowing?

Pisces and Virgo work together to balance the mystical side of Pisces and the practical world of Virgo. Holding the tension of the opposites we walk the razors edge. Pisces is ruled by Neptune, a water element, fluid and boundless. For a person to work the Pisces area of their life and forget Virgo’s energy can bring a mystical union with the divine yet leave the person unable to function in their day to day world (chaos).

A strong Pisces personality needs to be grounded- two feet planted on the ground!!

A strong analytical Virgo personality needs to be lifted!!

Balance these too extremes and the person is highly intuitive and grounded; one who is able to manifest their dreams in the material world, face their challenges and still laugh like a child. There is faith and trust in their ability to be present in their own lives.

Here is another article about Saturn in Virgo: http://www.astrodynamics.net/Articles/Saturn-Virgo.htm

Go to the Virgo Journal PDF

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

Part 3- SFC*- huff and puff and can't blow your house in

Michele’s To Do List:

• Garage Make-over like HGTV’s Garage Organization Tips
• Tackle project like pros on Mission Organization
• Get the house “Designed to Sell”
• Coordinate PGT Hurricane Window installation.
• Replace canvas window awnings destroyed by Hurricane Wilma.
• Clean and repair leaking roof.
• Select new color scheme for house exterior.
• Paint roof and house.

Read Part 1 *Michele's Summer Fun Camp here.
Read Part 2 here.

Some might be asking "why is she writing this when her blog is about the New Moon?" Well this New Moon in Virgo is about editing and sorting, organzing and getting day to day routines in place for work and health. And if I can tackle what seems to be an impossible project, maybe you too can break through the resistance and bust some clutter. Week Four: Wish I could've found my digital camera to take before pictures, but here’s a shot of one wall, the entrance everyone uses to go inside the house. Before paint-ugly isn’t it. First thing Monday morning I run back over to Plantation Building department to extend POD permit for another two weeks. Takes four hours, so many contractors and so few city employees- I count three working at various speeds. I notice many men send their wives with kids. Good news as I sit and wait I hear the city challenging contractors on their licenses and insurance. Good for us. Lines are not moving fast enough for me, it's a hurry up and wait....don't they know my puppy needs to be walked. No problem she didn’t soil crate. Roxy is settling in nicely. Now roof leaking in Family Room with all the rain, dripping down wood blinds on Dear Husband as he watches TV. Before roof can be repaired it needs to be cleaned. Arrange for Ultimate Power Wash to come and clean roof prior to roof repairs. Ultimate Wash guy wants tree branches off the roof. This guy shows up on time and I like his energy. (that’s how I know who to hire and who not too). I feel such gratitude now with people who do show up in these times of stress. Says he will be back Friday to do the work. I now have 24 hours to cut back 20 foot Crepe Myrtle tree hanging on roof. Dear Husband is out of town on a business trip. Standing on 8 foot ladder with pruning shears trimming the tree. Get most of it down and it looks pretty good. Call to tell Power Wash guy didn’t get all done, he’ll come back on Monday. Roofer called earlier in the week and promised to come by to look at problem. Painter calls and says he is coming next day to paint garage. I have less than 24 hours to get garage cleared of remaining items and ready. Still have to clean garage floors. Saturday Dear Husband and I finish trimming tree and DH spends day grinding up five foot pile of tree limbs. Roofer we love and trust (whose repaired and maintained our roof for over 14 years never shows up), doesn't call. Sad because I like the guy and trusted him. Now I need to find a new roofer. Call around town to find new roofer.

Woman asks “do you have your own roof tiles” “what???, No (what homeowner stocks their own roof tiles?? I silently think to myself.)” The woman replies “Roofers can’t get cement roof tiles and we are only taking jobs where homeowners already have their tile. I recommend that you call around and find a roofer who has cement tile.” There are no supplies of concrete roof tiles to be had in South Florida!! Didn’t know that. What’s a homeowner to do with a leaking white tile roof??? The traditional material of choice for tile roofs in South Florida. This is just crazy!! Dang. Can’t get building supplies or good workers. Painter’s man shows up to paint garage. Fails to prep certain areas. Spends a lot of time taking smoking break and talking to girlfriend on phone. Done by mid-afternoon. Notice next day he sprayed over area of peeling paint!! Painted cabinet doors closed so when I open them the door pulls paint off. I hate this, why can’t they do things right the first time. Now I have to call painter back to correct problems. Before I can make the call…Hurricane-a-coming. I wake up to find Hurricane Ernesto has changed course and is headed our way. Husband is both mad and disappointed because first college Gator game could be canceled due to Ernesto’s track through Gainesville. He heads out to fill up cars with gas and gas containers for generator. Proudly says my truck will get us out of the state if we need to leave and head back up to Kelly's. We are all remembering no water, no gas, no electric of last years storms (Katrina and Wilma). We just don’t know what is going to happen with the weather. Power washer guy calls to say he has to cancel Monday’s appointment due to hurricane Ernesto. He’s leaving for Europe on Wednesday. Roof cleaning pushed back two weeks. No problem. Washer guy will be back to do the work on September 11th. Schedule POD to be picked up. POD can’t be on site during Hurricane Watch. Advised by POD company it has to be emptied by 7 AM Monday morning. The woman on the phone tells me they’ll be here anytime after 7 AM and I better have it emptied and broom swept with no lock. Rich and I wait until dusk and start moving items from POD back into garage, we working into the night. Here’s a picture of the stuff in garage. 70% better than it was. I feel disappointed because everything in POD is put back into Garage wily nilly. Essential pain is I my critical inner voice always want to do things right, so right I end up beating myself up. Sometimes I end up not doing anything- dang you inner voice. Well that doesn't work either. Realize my initial sorting and labeling helps. I still have to go through stuff again to organize it. I envy people who have pristine garages, and wonder 'how' do they do that? My garage doesn't look like an episode of HGTV’s Mission Organization!!

Part 2 Michele's Summer Fun Camp-

Home repair backlog rises, and so do consumer complaints. Complaints about licensed and unlicensed contractors who don't show up or do shoddy work continue to pour into state and county agencies 10 months after Hurricane Wilma battered South Florida. The problem: Overwhelmed contractors who have taken on more work than they realistically complete, a shortage of construction labor and materials and vague state laws.- this mornings headlines by Robin Benedick South Florida Sun-Sentinel Posted September 3 2006

Oh my! Week Two: Feels like I am finally getting nowhere. Why do I have such an aversion to making lists is the question of the week? Bought a calendar to schedule all of this and now can’t find where I put the calendar. Organizing makes me wishfully think of how to do things differently. As I clean out and sort the garage I realize I did not get everything out for bulk day. dang. Make new pile for September’s pick up. Now half way through with all that is in front of me I am wondering what I have gotten myself into. Inner voice says “Stay on track.” Sort through remaining garage items for loading into POD. Load POD in categories MG Car, Cleaning Supplies, Holiday, Tools...etc. Rich helps sort through his car gear. Progress is being made. Garage is finally clear! I can see the floor and I can see and walk to the back wall. Yeah!! Take down old storage racks, peg boards, remove nails from walls. Now need to scrub walls. Daughter starts school on Monday. Time to take care of last minute items for back to school. Back to Garage: Use floor stripper to chemically strip section of garage floor where old vinyl flooring was installed under washer and dryer. We pulled this up in 1992. Chemical starts to eat through black plastic catch basin under water heater. It's melting, it's melting. Oh well guess that goes too. Now have black goo on floor. It’s 95 degrees and humid, while wiping sweat off face I accidentally wipe toxic stripping chemical stuff on face and eyes with t-shirt. Know because face starts burning near my eyes. Oh my. Flood eyes and face with water. Thank god I am near the sink. Trip to emergency room averted!! Call several painters to get quote on painting garage. Hasn't been painted in 37 years. Hire Hart's Painting because he did such a good job painting the house. The man seems distracted when he shows up and a bit disappointed it is such a small job. He can’t stay to give me quote on house painting contract, has to go, it's Friday. At least he showed up. Tom says he can paint the garage in the next two weeks. Keeping my fingers crossed. Will he, won’t he, it’s a game South Florida Homeowners play.

Puppy Time: Ten hour car ride up to sister Kelly’s South Carolina 2 acre spread to puppy sit five adorable golden retriever pups and to pick up our 8.5 week old puppy named Roxy (named after Sting song Roxanne). I wanted to name her Trixie after "Trixie the whore" on HBO's Deadwood. Guess our family has a hooker theme going. Enjoy South Carolina's cool weather and nice people. Fun time with sister and parents. Daughter stops griping because it’s her last weekend before school starts and gets into whole scene. Ten hour car ride home. Fun family time. Puppy great in car. On return Roxy- proof family room to accommodate new dog. Everything is raised above four feet. Go to Vet’s for puppy shots. Start a new schedule -crate training and walking puppy every two hours. Many trips to pet store for chew toys. Playtime, work time. I am becoming more balanced. Letting dogs out can’t move sliding glass door in family room because sliding glass door track is shot. Each time I open it I am reminded to call the window company. Garage project temporarily put on hold for a week to take care of puppy. It’s like having a baby. I fall in love with new puppy named Roxy.

Part 1- Michele's Summer Fun Camp- Too Busy to Do What I Love

Michele's Fun Camp runs from August 1 through September ???. Wonder what it’s like to live in a Hurricane Alley? It means you have to put plans on hold and head in another direction at a moment’s notice. Many of you ask why I am not seeing clients at the present moment and the story that follows answers this question, it is a Virgo/Pisces experience. Pisces is the dream. Virgo gives one the structure and support to make the dream real. I dream of being organized and this is one story through the madness of clutter.

With Saturn in Leo (heart) opposition to Neptune in Aquarius this year we need to face our illusions, take ourselves out of the chaos we created, forge a new healthy structure to work within and from. They tell me the last time Saturn sat in opposition to Neptune was in 1971 (when I moved from New Jersey at 15 to sunny South Florida).

Astrologer Brenda Brush writes: “We need to face things and know the difference about what is real and what is not. Neptune dissolves walls, allowing you to see into your own life and deal with it. You will have to look at yourself and your life with a clear eye. Fix things in a healthy constructive way. With the coming eclipses you will be able to do so like never before.”

Home is a reflection of Self, I wrote my thesis on this for college in 2003. Our garage has not been painted since the house was built in 1969, the space is pretty bad and it’s bugged me for a very long time. Did I mention the Garage Karma…in September of 1992 when we moved into this house a week after Hurricane Andrew hit the garage is the place we forced the drug dealing tenant to move his stuff too as we closed on the house. The tenant was upset he was being forced to move from a house he hadn’t been paying rent on for the last six months, the property was about to go into fore closure!! A nasty scary man and a dishonest seller. The garage is where I stood my ground with the former tenant a month later when he failed to come back to move his furniture (after numerous phone calls and then giving him 24 hours to move his stuff or I’d call Faith Farm to haul junk away). Needless to say the Garage has not been cleared or cleaned properly since we moved in. Yet it’s the space family and guests walk through to enter the house. In Feng Shui our Garage is the area of Helpful People and after reading what I write, this story is about Helpful People or lack thereof. The Garage has been on my to-do list a very, very long time and this August I decided to tackle it. Let the organizing begin!

New Moon in Virgo~ common sense for chaotic times

“I am creatively expressing my soul’s purpose that benefits and serves others. Today I seek a clear understanding of my function and role in society.”- A Virgo affirmation from Alan Oken’s Soul Astrology

Worry-wart’s unite!!! Remember the year 1977!

As a Pisces I can’t say I am in love with this Virgo energy (although I do seem to come out of my shell at this time of year). I was a confirmed workaholic in my 20’s and 30’s. Virgo always seems like a critical voice saying ‘you should’ be doing this, you should be doing that! That leads to worry. Blah, blah, blah… I come from a long line of do-er’s . . Women who must stay working and busy to matter… who struggle with balance… and I admit I have not been “doing” much lately. On top of this my day-to-day routine (Virgo energy) has been whacked by our new lovable puppy (chaos). I am aware of what is and is not serving my highest good.

It’s a head and heart lunation. Head ~ thinking. Heart ~  joy. Work and health issues are kicked up a notch at this lunation…

Earthy Virgo of the New Moon
Wednesday August 23rd, 2006 at 3:10 PM
00 degrees Virgo 31 minutes

• Order, details, paperwork, punctuality
• Analysis, critical thinking, focus, discernment, workaholic, hysterical
• Well being, Health/diet/exercise, healers and healing
• Willingness to adapt, practical helpfulness, purity of intent
• Desire for perfection, processing, order out of chaos
• Worry, criticism, blame and judgment.
• Mentor-ship, Ancestors, Aunts and Uncles. Who are you mentoring?
• The Goddess Vesta and the house of ritual and magic.
• Health- bowels and intestines, constipation and diarrhea, digestion and assimilation, Solar plexus.

With the energy of Virgo at this new moon we are called to a common sense, practical approach to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This lunation is a turning point of sorts, at least for those of us who live in Florida. It is now the time of year when we see the energy of the wind takes on mystical proportions- Hurricane Andrew, Charley, Jeanne, Frances, Ivan, Katrina and Wilma in recent years. It is also the five year anniversary of 9/11/2001.

Every year since 1992, when Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, I noticed people’s energy would ratchet up around August 25th, they were so traumatized by the Andrew, yet unconscious about how it was still effecting them. In shamanic terms this is soul loss, psychologists call it PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

The reason I am writing about this is energy? You may see, feel, hear or just know that these cellular memories are activated in yourself, your family and/or clients. Just be aware.

Virgo asks you to embrace a common sense practical approach to life, your day-to-day routines infused with Spirit. Spirit and matter working in union brings transfiguration. More light and life rather than more drama/trauma. It’s a choice. Virgo is earthy and grounded. This New Moon is at 1 degree of Virgo:

Where is Virgo in your chart? What sits at the 6th house doorway/cusp?

At the Full Moon:  Where is Pisces? What sits at the 12th house doorway? This is where the action is this month with a new moon in Virgo and a full moon in Pisces. Pisces represents:

• Imagination, Confusion and Chaos
• Inner Happiness- Bliss, Ecstasy, Universal Love
• Psychic Sensitivity- Gentleness, Mystical States, escapism
• Trust- Surrender- Channeling of Spiritual Power
• Spiritual Healing-Meditation-Inner Peace, Angelic Assistance
• Compassion-Forgiveness, Understanding, Tolerance, Acceptance
• Releasing Helplessness- characterized by
• Victim Mentality, Procrastination, Panic Attacks, Addiction
• The spinal column, nerve fibers, feet, pineal gland, telepathic functions, white corpuscles of the blood, kinesthetic functions.

Pisces and Virgo work together to balance the mystical side of Pisces and the mundane world of Virgo. Holding the tension of the opposites we walk the razors edge in life.

Pisces is ruled by Neptune, a water element, fluid and boundless. For a person to work the Pisces area of their life and forget Virgo’s energy can bring a mystical union with the divine yet leave the person unable to function in their day to day world (chaos).

A strong Pisces personality needs to be grounded- two feet planted on the ground.

A strong analytical Virgo personality needs to be lifted. Balance these too extremes and the person is highly intuitive and grounded; one who is able to manifest their dreams in the material world, face their challenges and still laugh like a child. There is faith and trust in their ability to be present in their own lives. This month become Soul infused. . .

At this lunation Mercury, the communicator and ruler of Virgo is sitting at 22 degrees of Leo. The Sun which rules Leo is sitting in Virgo. Leo and Virgo are working in harmony as one. Leo represents what has heart and meaning for you, and Virgo provides you the day-to-day routines to make your dreams come true.

Do you focus on the mundane reality or dream a new dream? We practical mystics are disciples woven from fine spiritual threads of a Divinity long forgotten. The signs Gemini and Virgo are ruled by Mercury. Mercury is the messenger. In the sign Gemini the personality is strong, ego driven, ruled by thought. Thinking, thinking, thinking. The lower mind. Mercury in Virgo represents the grounding of Mercury into tangible forms- editing and sorting Spirit’s chaos into concrete forms.

Thus it is time to recognize what is feeding you in good ways, what nurtures you that gives you life. This lunation brings the urge to ‘fix’ things that aren’t working. Better yet. . . trust yourself and let the ‘stuff’ go.  If you are a highly creative person you may start things that then lose speed. You lost interest. Time to shed those old projects and habits. Move On.

Can’t figure this process out, or how to move on then just witness how and what you are doing without your inner critic. Become an observer of your life.

• Write in your journal or better yet do a collage by cutting out pictures that represent the energies you can’t seem to name.
• Does it have a color? Does it have a symbol? Whose in charge? Who’s speaking?
• If you feel really stuck then get help, ask for support.

Saturn in Leo: Saturn is moving through Leo for the first time in 28 years (1977/78). Reflect back on those years, especially the year 1977- what was happening for you then? How are the current conditions related to that time? Saturn rules responsibility and timing. Ever get caught up in being responsible and lose sight of what gives you joy? Saturn’s been working us for over a year in Leo, and there is another year of “Saturn in Leo” to go.  Oh my. Saturn is highlighting these issues, bringing them out of the dark closet you stuffed them into- back into the light.

Lately I realized that I am in a place of shifting and it has been a struggle to be okay with the transition. I find myself in a state of not knowing…asking myself hard questions…taking a different direction because I gave myself permission to go ‘unscheduled’ in May. My day-to-day routines have become more precious and meaningful. I am more conscious.

In my chart Leo and Virgo sit at the 10th and 11th house doorway. 10th house is Career related to work, 11th house is Service to community, so of course my work life is shape-shifting. Jupiter and Pluto conjunction in Leo in this 10th house at 27 degrees. Pluto always demands us to let go, take out the garbage, reclaim lost power. Jupiter is the planetary energy of expansion, taking a risk. When Jupiter is activated we are called to move out beyond our comfort zone.

Almost daily I find myself moving through feelings of guilt (because I am not responding to others) and elated (taking care of myself in a good ways). My workaholic self shouts “why aren’t you ‘doing’ something?” Exactly what is that something? Whose voice is in my head? I am grateful for this awareness. It’s helping me refocus and regroup before Saturn moves over Jupiter/Pluto. I have gone through times like this before, when I did a 90 degree turn and headed in different directions.

My pattern is to get so busy I lose connection to my spiritual self, and that is not a good thing. The essential pain is I can’t do everything and still be grounded/ connected to Spirit. The earned reward of “not knowing” is seeing both the challenge and the sweetness. I am integrating a deeper balance and harmony. Giving myself permission to live an ‘unscheduled’ life (at this moment) is creating a deeper connection to myself, my home and my family. This life chapter I am currently working may sound chaotic to a practical person, but hey I am a practical Pisces.

So at this New Moon in Virgo do some deep listening to your heart of hearts. Be fearless in letting go and moving on by taking a common sense, practical approach to what you want to create now. Fix things. Get a routine that supports your dreams. Wake up if you are asleep. As astrologer Caroline Casey shares “How are you are laying the groundwork for the reality train to follow these next 28 years?”

Let those worries go! Joyfully yours at this New Moon in Virgo!