Cocoon Time

Jax's kindy project! It's been so cool watching the silkworms plumpen up, and now they are forming their golden cocoons!

I'm sure a lot of you can relate to feeling like you've been in a cocoon in between "who I was" and "who I'm becoming", in between an old chapter and new, in between relationships ending and hearts healing, career paths changing, beliefs shifting.

Only the world doesn't see our golden cocoon, and in most ways we have to keep on trucking through the cocoon process getting on with paying bills, making dinner, looking after the kids etc. 

Wouldn't it be great if we could from time to time hold up a yellow card that meant: "I'm in my golden cocoon, get back to me when I'm out!"

Where do you need to hold up your yellow card to allow yourself some cocoon time? It might mean just acknowledging to yourself, a good friend or your partner: I'm in the middle of some sort of transformation. I'm not sure where it's leading but I'm no longer able to be/do/function as I used to.

During cocoon phases everyone needs different types of support. Some need to be heard, others held. Some need time out, others are in ideas central and have a huge creativity spurt that they need to get out. It can be all these things.

Unsupported, our cocoon breakthroughs stall in breakdowns, and so it is vitally important that our cocoon processes are nurtured and respected not pushed away.

This doesn't mean it's easy to hold that yellow card up. But it is important to ask yourself what that yellow card represents to you. What is it that you need? It makes it a lot easier then for people to give you the support you need, and for you to receive it.

(c) Dana Mrkich 2015

Transformation from inner and outer travels

Back home after an awesome 3 months based in Mexico and the US!

Travel is always so transformative, a kind of world between worlds, a pause between life chapters.
Being in a different environment, and this can happen in trips just days long, gifts you with the opportunity to remove yourself from your usual life. Stripped of much of your daily routine and surrounds, you get to BE anew. 

This pause is often the circuit breaker that has people coming home to realise parts of their old life no longer fit, while new pathways and expressions of self beckon. 

The accelerated energies of our present times being what they are, our 3 months felt like a year. Creatively, spiritually and physically it feels like we've gone through an inner systems re-boot, and I know many of you are feeling the same way. 

Martin Luther King Jr once said you don't have to see the whole staircase. You just need to shine your light on the one or two steps ahead of you. I'm using those words as inspiration as I create a brand new website, more reflective of what I now want to focus on. Life changes can be overwhelming, but if we take them one step at a time they feel more do-able.

If you are in the middle of a big life change, or want to make one, the one step at a time approach takes the fear out of it, and some time away even if you can just do a weekend, brings fresh clarity and opportunity for an inner and outer re-set.

Who is going through a big life shift and re-set right now? Who wants to? Share here, your tips and stories can help others. 

(C) Dana Mrkich 2015 

One phase closes, and a huge door opens

This week we find ourselves at the end of a major astrological chapter, and at the beginning of a major new one. Since June 2012, Uranus has squared off with Pluto not once, but 7 times. Both these guys are transformation specialists.

Working in tandem, Pluto acts kind of like a building inspector, going through a high-rise building, entering every room from top storey to basement, inspecting, checking things off on his clipboard. Pluto likes everything functioning at optimum power. If there is anything amiss, anything not in alignment with occupational health and safety standards, anything a bit dodgy or untoward going on, if the foundation is not solid, or if the walls were created using low-quality plaster, Pluto will not hesitate to make a note on his bit of paper: Marked for demolition! Needs an upgrade and refurbishment!  Light wattage to be increased!

He calls in Uranus, the trigger-happy electrician/explosives expert. Uranus opens his coat and asks 'What do you need? I've got new wires for re-wiring, I've got sparks for extra shocks, and I've got dynamite if you want the whole shebang to come tumbling down."

Pluto issues his directions and the rest is, well, what is now your history of the last almost 3 years.

Depending on where these Uranus/Pluto meetings were happening in your personal natal chart (I have included a list below of the signs/degrees), you may or may not have been consciously aware of what exactly in your life - inner and/or outer - was being transformed. For some it may have been subtle, for others extremely direct, but we've all experienced this influence on some level because we all have the related signs/degrees somewhere in our chart. (You can get a free chart at www.astro.com)

As we pop out the other side of the final 7th meeting, it may only be now that you can look back in hindsight, look at the dates below (even if you don't know your chart specifics) and ask yourself: What was going on during those times? And what theme has been playing out over this period? 

You may find that something quite specific started to play out mid 2012, that has gone through several metamorphosis's and shifts. You may also feel, or will soon, that whatever was playing out has come to a final conclusion, a final resolution or realisation. Perhaps a full circle moment has happened. Something that was out of balance is now balanced or coming into balance in a clearer way. Something that needed addressing has been acknowledged. A healing or outcome that perhaps wasn't possible before is now possible. A particular story of your life is now being put to bed, and you can move forward in a new way: transformed, with a new feeling of power in some way. All of these things are examples of how we may feel in this 'After' phase of this series of alignments.

Uranus Square Pluto Exact Alignment Dates 2012-2015

    June 24, 2012: Uranus 08° 23' Aries/ Pluto 08° 23' Capricorn
    Sept 18, 2012: Uranus 06° 57' Aries, Pluto 06° 57' Capricorn
    May 20, 2013: Uranus 11° 14' Aries, Pluto 11° 14' Capricorn
    Nov 1, 2013:    Uranus 9° 26' Aries, Pluto 9° 26' Capricorn
    April 21, 2014: Uranus 13° 34' Aries, Pluto 13° 34' Capricorn
    Dec 14, 2014: Uranus 12° 35' Aries, Pluto 12° 35' Capricorn
    March 16, 2015: Uranus 15° 18' Aries, Pluto 15° 18' Capricorn

Now, as they say as one door closes another one opens and as timing would have it, this Friday we have the opening of a huge door: The New Moon Solar Eclipse on 29° 27' Pisces, a whisper of a hair away from 0 degrees Aries which represents the beginning of the astrological wheel, is immediately followed by the 21 March Equinox. 

Being so close to the end of a sign could definitely represent huge endings for some people, but a) being a Solar Eclipse and b) being so close to the forward-momentum oriented Aries, the ending will very quickly make way for a new beginning. Anything that happens during a Solar Eclipse is one of those destined things 'written in the stars' so to speak, and knowing that can make some things easier to deal with.

Others will feel the push of the forward movement almost immediately. The time period of Thursday night through the weekend is a really powerful 'portal' time, where you can truly set some amazing intentions into motion, and receive clear insights as to the best directions and actions to take. Sit down with your journal or meditate for 10 minutes each of those days for maximum benefit.

What has your Uranus/Pluto theme been?

(c) Dana Mrkich 2015

Relentless transformation

Emotional releases are likely right now - it is the Full Moon after all, and a super-charged one at that. Releases are cleansing and transformational, helping you to see yourself or another in a clearer way, allowing you to let go of some sadness or hurt, and move forward with more space for greater freedom, and love for yourself.

This Full Moon in Virgo is absolutely pulsing with Transformation Energy. Partly because Pluto, Mr "Get in your Power" is aspecting it. Partly because Uranus, Mr "I will come out of left field and move you ten squares across the chess board before you know what hit you" is aspecting it. And partly because it feels like the Shift has decided to kick into high gear this year, moving us all along at super-speeds at every given opportunity. 

In many ways, I feel like more has happened in the past 2 months than in the past 2 years. For some of you this may mean dramatic external changes, for others it is all about inner changes and for a lot of us it is both.

If you are experiencing this, you are probably finding that there is not a lot of daytime down-time. That is, days where the waves of change aren't so intense allowing us to integrate all these changes. However you can be sure that integration is indeed happening - most likely when you are asleep at night, and your conscious mind is nicely snoozing and out of the way.

Even though the theme of the year so far seems to be a relentless push to take 'who we are' to a new physical and vibrational level, there is simultaneously a very calm energetic influence within and around us. We are riding the waves higher and faster than ever, yet doing so in a kind of zen way, trusting where the wave is taking us, knowing it will take us where we need to go, knowing it will all unfold in the perfect way, at the perfect right time.

As much as we are being compelled to move forward, we are also being urged to take time to stop and smell the roses along the way. This may seem contradictory but the two actions are now coming from the same source: high-vibrational waves of love that do not have the same rule book as our former head-based frequency. Our momentum forward is being fuelled by synchronicities, divine guidance, heart-led intuition, heart-based feelings, and a more easeful, vibrational attraction of all that we truly need.

How are you feeling?

(c) Dana Mrkich 2015

In between the Eclipses

The irony of growth is that right before a leap forward, you can often feel a heaviness or restriction. If you can imagine energy trying to expand beyond the space it has previously been confined to, before it can bust out of those walls it has to breakdown or breakthrough them. 

As we find ourselves in the midst of two eclipses, you may be feeling like you are halfway between leaping free of something finally, yet full of frustration, anxiety, mood swings and heart palpitations as the old comes up to be released first - and it keeps coming, and coming and coming.  And this isn't just in the midst of any old eclipses - this is eclipses 2014 style.

We are picking up speed now in our new evolutionary cycle, and as much as you might look around and wonder if anything positive is actually going on with regards to our evolution, it's safe to say we are not in Kansas anymore. Our inner and outer worlds are spinning, picked up by the tornado that is this evolutionary process....where it will set us down and when is anyone's guess.

You may have experienced some restless nights and fatigue filled days lately as these latest energy waves are pushing us like never before to finally break free of yet more stuff - or more accurately at this point, finally break free of any remaining illusions that we even have stuff! In the process this energy is pushing our faces and bodies up against any remaining walls holding up our illusions.

This can feel like physical pressure coming up from within you and surrounding you, and you can often feel it around the chest area, literally like there is a tightness there. (Obviously see your health practitioner for any health concerns).  Our heart, our soul, our entire energy field is expanding, and we can feel it: we feel it physically and emotionally via the parts of us that are being pushed against, being called to expand, break, collapse and transform.

Your soul is saying "Woop, I am coming up and out!!!", meanwhile your mental and emotional defenses are on over-drive, saying "What the heck is she/he doing?????!!! Doesn't she/he know she is going to get herself/himself killed/persecuted/killed/abandoned/fill in the blanks?" Meanwhile the soul is on a roll now, high on high-vibrations, "I'm coming out and I'm talking all your fabulous, owned and disowned aspects with me, woooohoooo, freedom and expression here we come, yee-ha!" 

We have all outgrown our old versions of our selves. Hey, we've outgrown who we were last week, let alone old beliefs and wounds that have their roots in our childhood, in our ancestral DNA, in our collective stories and past lives. Our energy is expanding rapidly, wanting to head out into that big, open, limitless meadow where anything is possible, free of our restrictive stories.

Yet, in the process, we keep bumping up against these walls. They are thinner than they used to be, but strangely enough the frustration and emotion they trigger is tsunami-worthy, because we can see so clearly what lies beyond them! We know now that our beliefs are just tapes we choose to keep playing. We can press stop anytime. We know that our wounds are born from the way we choose to perceive something we experienced, but we can adjust our lens of perception anytime. We know that many of our emotional reactions are old habits and addictions that are holding on for dear life. We know that we no longer have to be defined by anything that doesn't feel good, or right or true for us. We are, at this stage, a little bit like the elephants who have long outgrown their tiny chains - but after so long being chained up we haven't quite realised just how free of our 'stuff' we can be if we choose it.

It is natural for all that isn't in alignment with who we really are to come flaring up for a last hurrah as we shift up and into who we really are. The challenge is this: not to get sucked up into all that dust, believing that the existence of this dust must be evidence that nothing is changing, or that clearly you really are identified by that dust. The dust is a good sign. It's a sign that you just smashed a big hole in some wall, or even demolished one fully. The dust is an opportunity to turn to those suffocating thoughts and emotions that have come up and say: Hey, I don't choose you anymore...thank you for leaving now.

May many of your walls come down at this time.

May you blow the dust away with your breath. I mean that literally, just stop, inhale, exhale, let it go.

Breathe freedom in and out of your heart and chest. Feel that area opening and expanding.

Repeat if you resonate: I am free now on all levels, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, cellular, DNA, ancestral and etheric, across all time, space and dimensions. Thank you.

(c) Dana Mrkich 2014