In the predawn hours on thus particular Wednesday, August 28th, the planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn were aligned in their orbits around the Sun with the Earth as an observer in a planetary parade.
During this time, I was lying in bed, drifting somewhere between sleep and waking, unaware that the planets were parading in an unusual way. I was supposed to be swimming laps in a dark cool pool, but I hadn’t wanted to get out of my warm bed to do it. As I lay there, half-dreaming with my eyes closed, an image came to my mind. A large circular golden pendant, laying across my throat, pulsing with energy. It seemed to be significant, but my mind wasn’t sure if it was something I was supposed to be seeking or if it represented something already a part of me. Maybe it represented my throat chakra being activated with high energy. Perhaps this was only Neptune speaking to me through a sleep state, bringing me an alluring fantasy.
As evening fell to twilight on this day, seven women gathered at seven pm in the large room in Lighthouse, assembling in a loose orbit around the spiritual leader and a black Great Dane puppy. At some point, we were asked why we each were here. Some were seeking, some were open to new experiences, some were along for companionship and some were looking for a tribe. Perhaps Jupiter was calling to us, because we were all drawn to the offering of higher spiritual expansion.
The conversation started with the leader Misty questioning how the Mercury Retrograde was affecting us. Mercury is the planet of communication and expression, and during the retrograde, there can be a breakdown in these areas. Some responded with big energy and some shared empathy. Some were taking notes. Not all of us were comfortable sharing what was on their mind. Secrets of our hearts spilled out, safe in this circle. Spiritual insight was shared, a balm for the soul. A feeling of community persisted, although all were mostly strangers.
I shared a story I had been dwelling on for close to a week, wrestling with what to do. Our leader made it all seem so clear. I had a psychic wound that I had to heal, a karmic debt to make right. Saturn was doing a shadow dance, mistakes recast as life lessons. I would have to do some work with my inner child healing this and making it right in order to move on to the next spiritual level.
Another woman shared a story of trying to find her people/ Her desire spoke of Mars energy, a call to action. Another woman talked about leaving Santa Fe due to spiritual warfare, chaos and upheaval in all she tried. Uranus was illuminated with her as she liberated herself from this blockage and found a new home in Colorado.
There were stories on what kind of offerings to make to various spirits to accomplish a particular goal, tales of fairies that emerged during readings, the virtues of gnomes, and of spiritual warfare between a weird spiritual leader and an ancient ancestor guide. There were explanations of what kind of spirit guides existed and what they existed for, what the lower world and upper worlds were. So much information, our minds were trying to make sense of it all. One thing we knew for sure, this felt like a safe space and we couldn’t get enough.
However, it was time to leave, the night was getting late. We stopped for tacos and to discuss some of our thoughts on the night. It was almost too much to even wrap our heads around.
Some parts of the night took me back to this oracle reading I had received earlier in the day and I shared the reading with my friend. The oracle had been broken into three parts: the essence, the invitation and the medicine. The essence section describes the lower world, where we “discover the gifts and lessons from the past…the realm of the collective unconscious. Here we can meet our demons and transform them into pure energy, our source of personal power”. This speaks to me about this psychic wound, and my own spiritual awakening that I tapped into to help strengthen me for a promotion at work, but through the process, discovering that where I really wanted to put my energy was in my words. A source of personal power. Maybe this is the golden pendant that appeared in my dream that morning.
The invitation said, “It is time to unearth your hidden treasures”. This line reminded me of a conversation I had with my husband recently. I was telling him that I felt that for so long I had been hiding my treasures by sharing them only with myself, writing only for myself in an audience of one, and that now I felt this pull to share with the world as a whole. There was also a line about “It is time to honor your past and recast your life as a heroic quest”. This is another synchronicity, as I had been talking to my gym friend about finding the book I started to write years ago, along with notes on how to craft it as a hero’s quest. She was counseling me that this time I should rewrite the story with myself as the hero. I can’t ignore the synchronicities that keep flowing in my life right now.
For the medicine section, the part that called to me the most was the past that said “The only way to become unstuck is to honor everything that has transpired in your life, reflect on the lessons learned and move on. If you bear witness to your past and learn its lessons, it will stop haunting you”. The haunting is the part that I am ready to let go of. My friend pointed out tonight several times that for so many years, she has heard me talk about this particular issue, the wound that I needed to heal at this time.
The last line of the reading said “As you embrace its gifts, you will recover a missing part of your soul.” My friend asked me after reading this part, “Do you feel like you are missing a part of your soul?” I don’t think I feel that way but I am not sure. It reminds me a bit of something that happened a lifetime ago. I had gone to get my tea leaves read, and the reader said to me, “You have lost something very important to you”. I wasn’t even sure what it was, but in that moment when she said that to me, I felt that loss keenly and began to weep. Maybe I have been living without it so long I am not sure what that missing piece feels like.
That night, as I was pulling into my neighborhood, I had to stop to allow an animal to cross the road in front of me. I recognized it as a possum, and I found this odd because I have never seen a possum in my neighborhood before. I looked this up to see what this could mean. Seeing a possum cross your path could be a warning to protect yourself from negative people. I am not sure right now who those people would be. It’s not these women that I had spent the past two hours with, I knew that much. And it is not my little tribe of women that I spent most of my free time with either. It might be more work stuff, as I try to transition to become a more assertive leader. I need to bring on that Mars energy for that battle.
This evening, I had shared some pieces I wrote with these ladies. It seemed a little odd, in that no one else was doing that. I wanted to share with them. I was building connection through my words, a gift that I had reflected on earlier this week swimming in the deep end. As we left, I continued to try building connections by calling the women by their names and asking about the other communities they belonged to, with a desire to link their community up with mine.
I am at the point where I keep seeing these spiritual leaders pop up on my “People You May Know” tool on Facebook. One of them friended me earlier this week, and I am tempted to add the others, connecting all the leaders by six degrees.
Seven women, six degrees of separation, six planets in alignment, five women in a bonded pentagram, the earth, the moon, the stars, the creator and me.
And don’t forget the possum.
