Writes of Passage

Astro Update 1 22 12

2012-01-22T17:10:00.001-08:00

Tonight at 11:39PM (PST)/tomorrow at 12:39AM (MST) we have a New Moon in Aquarius and the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon.
This is a new cycle of self-expression through speaking, writing, communication. Dynamic energies abound. Don’t get caught in polarities of either/or. Create ‘this and that’, meeting in the middle of both.

The Year of the Dragon is about looking at the wealth that you sit on, and how do you hoard or share what you know, what you have. The Dragon year is considered auspicious, expansive, and generous. The fact that this is a Water Dragon reinforces this, yet can also bring water problems.

Later tomorrow, Mars goes Retrograde (Rx) at 5:54 PM (MST), so it is a Mars stationing day, the epitome of martial energy. Mars will be Rx until early April, and will ask us to look again at our energy expenditures, our dreams, and our focus. Working with these parts of our lives will bring rewarding changes, reconstituting our lives with more enthusiasm.

Inside your face the ancient manuscripts
seem like rusty mirrors. Rumi

Mini update

2012-01-21T09:41:00.001-08:00

Mars is stationing today, tomorrow, Monday when it turns Retrograde (Rx), and Tues. Make the most of your energy in these days...places to go, things to clean out, tasks to accomplish...you have the most of Mars' physical plane energy and drive these days...

Starshine News January 2012 Astrology

2012-01-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

On January 7, Mercury enters Capricorn and we begin to think about organizing and setting goals. The Full Moon on the 8/9th brings the feminine and masculine energies to vie for balance. Empowerment around ideas and communication. Mars trines the Sun on the 12th, a dynamic day for movement and doing. The 13th brings insights, and a trust in the flow of things. On the 19th, we push past fears and enter Aquarius on the 20th. The New Moon on the 22nd/23rd: new cycle of self-expression through creative visioning, speaking, writing and communicating. This is the Chinese New Year also, the year of the Dragon. Dynamic energies are afoot. Mars also goes Retrograde today. Very powerful day around health, healing and discernment what works and what doesn’t. Mercury enters its shadow on the 26th and we prepare for Mercury going Retrograde mid-March. Mercury pushes us to examine our values at month’s end.

Full Moon Jan.9, 12:30AM (MST)
New Moon Jan.23 12:39AM (MST)
Mercury enters its shadow Jan.26

Starshine News Editorial and Winter Meditation

2012-01-03T12:27:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends,

Small house finches grip the feeder outside, with snow piling up on the ground. I have covered their food for the snow times by supplying them with birdseed.

I was the conduit for the Universe to cover their needs because I was willing and able to do it.

There are those who are willing and able to help me when I need it, so that the Universe can continue to let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I am loved and supported by something larger than myself. And, in a way, it’s not personal. It’s just the way this huge dance we call life works.

So how are you a conduit for the Universe to work through, for others. Are you the representative of something larger that sustains a lost dog until his owner is found; the hand that stretches out a few bills to a homeless person on a street corner; the word of inclusion that incorporates someone on the fringe to feel included.

How are you a willing instrument of Divine Support so that the human trust factor rises, so that people begin to glimpse a friendlier Universe, a friendlier Creator, than the hellfire and damnation of a punishing God of the older times.

How are you a conscious emissary of Divine Good Will?

A good thought to begin the New Year of 2012.

Blessings,
Jyoti
Winter Meditation

Sitting quietly, picture you family line extending back into the past behind you. Then see those who will come after you extending out in front of you.
Beginning way behind you, see a Light come shining through all those generations behind you, through you, and on into those in front of you, clearing the way for a new world. Wiping out the old ways of thinking and family patterns, erasing them with the Light in you, and then going into your down line in front of you, into the future of life.
Give thanks for this work you are able to do for all of us.

Winter Solstice

2011-12-21T06:58:00.000-08:00

Winter Solstice/First day of Winter/We enter Capricorn...today, at 10:30 PM (MST). Don't overdo. Harness power, own it, and use it for self and everyone.

Be a catalyst for change where it is needed, over this next quarter of the year.

mini update

2011-12-13T06:46:00.001-08:00

Mercury goes Direct today at 6:43PM (MST)...situations stalled out since Thanksgiving now move forward toward resolution...

Astro update

2011-12-09T20:32:00.001-08:00

12 9 11

Uranus goes Direct tomorrow morning at 12:05AM (MST). This brings an evening and day of unexpected experiences, whether an opportunity of grace or facing parts of oneself or life one would rather not see. Uranus has been Retrograde (Rx) since this past July, so there is a sense of freedom of self-expression here and a readiness to move on.

Tomorrow, as well, is a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, visible: northern half of Mexico, Hawaiian Islands, Micronesia, Polynesia, Asia, eastern Africa, Iceland and most of Europe. At 7:36 AM (MST), the Eclipse suggests that we look at how we are nurturing ourselves; are we trusting life to bring us what we need; relationships are possibly transformative over the next 3-6 months.

Mercury goes Direct on Tuesday, the 13th, at 6:43PM (MST) and we bring the issues of the previous 3 weeks to the table and redo what needs to be redone. Communication expands and giving voice to insights and personal /spiritual beliefs is the desire.

“We are the night ocean filled
with glints of light. We are the space
between the fish and the moon,
while we sit here together.”
Rumi

Astro Update 11 23 11

2011-11-23T14:56:00.001-08:00

Today, Mars is trine Pluto, and gives us strength and empowerment.

Mercury goes Retrograde (Rx) tomorrow, on Thanksgiving, Nov.24 at 12:21 AM (MST). Mercury is in Sagittarius and it is a time of self-reflection, meditation, inward looking and reassessing your beliefs about life…your philosophy of life. Remember when Mercury is Rx, there may be misunderstandings, missed meetings, missed calls, etc. Use the time to re-evaluate and focus on your inner life and creative self-expression.

Also there is a Solar New Moon Eclipse on Nov.24th at 11:10PM (MST)…1:10AM (EST) Nov.25. A new cycle of personal freedom to make individual choices. Don’t get caught up in someone else’s argument and feelings. Boundaries are important, knowing where you end and someone else begins. Something to remember around the Thanksgiving Table.

“Give up to grace.
The ocean takes care of each wave
till it gets to shore.”
Rumi

New Book! Unraveling Mysteries

2011-11-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

New Book!
Unraveling Mysteries: An Anthology on Women and Aging
Edited by Jyoti Wind.
$14.99 + $2s/h
(for orders of 5-9 books, just add $8s/h)

You can send check to:
Jyoti Wind
2635 Mapleton #9
Boulder, CO 80304
303.541-9106
jyotiwind@gmail.com

or you can use a credit card through paypal.Search: Jyoti Wind

Authors include: Diane L. Akins Arlene S. Bice Jennie L. Brown. Ann L. Camy Marie Carpenter Deedee Carr Claudia Chapline Linda Del Cielo

Susanne Doucet Nan Fogel Ann Griffin Kate Guilford

Marj Hahne Diane Hindman Elena Hoffrichter Danna C. Kelly

Kathy King Jan Kristiansson Patricia/Trish Lapidus Curtine Metcalf

Cindy Morris Joan Neff Laurie Kay Olson Andi Pearson

Marsha J. Perlman Annette Price Terra Rafael Prema Rose

Sally-Jane Rowberry Dorthy K. Schelske Nancy Schluntz

Kathy Schubert Seemanta Janet Sheridan Jean Stewart

April Bennett Stone Lesley Tabor Leslie Verdi Barbara Vetter

Jyoti Wind

From the back cover:
Beneath the humor of aging, the one liners and bumper stickers is the stress of traversing through the inevitable time of ripening, like fruit on the vine. We know the end result but don’t always have a clue on getting there. This is a wonderful book of real life, presenting different attitudes to alert the over 50s and to advise those under 50.
Arlene S. Bice, Author, Artist and over 50.

From the elegant prose in A Lesson from Loved Ones, to the jolting imagery in Fleshing It Out, a composed, determined strength suffuses this moving and candid collection of thoughts on aging. The messages vary, as do the methods of expression, but whether these women writers reflect on the comic aspects of their lives, or on the sometimes painful circumstances they face, all share their wit and wisdom generously.
Jennie L. Brown, Author of Blue Moon Rising: Kentucky Women in Transition, and Frontier Justice With a Vengeance! The Execution of Clinton Dotson.

A heart-warming and emotionally evocative collection of stories and poems from
women fearlessly, courageously, and honestly looking back on the journey of their lifes. Keep your tissues close at hand for the laughter and poignant sadnesses of lives well-lived, lives lived with eyes and hearts open, lives embraced and reflected upon through the lens of experience. What I enjoyed best about these offerings is the feeling I was left with that each one of these of these women writers came to a deeper level of self-love and compassion in the process of reflection – never relinquishing hope or amazement at the unexpected courses Life always seems to serve up that one is sure one never had ordered. Cindy Morris, msw http://PriestessAstrology.com Host of WomanTalkTV.

Starshine News/Nov. Astrology Column

2011-10-31T21:04:00.000-07:00

November begins with Mercury and Venus trine Uranus on the 3rd: Insightful and lucky, wanting room for your own way of doing things. Mercury enters its shadow on the 5th. The subtleties of Mercury begin to show themselves: changed appointments; missed meetings, misunderstandings. Neptune stations from the 6th – 13th, time for spiritual insights to deepen and sensitivity to heighten. The core of this energy will continue into the next six months.

The 10th brings a Full Moon: lots of communication, far-seeing, intuitions, and travel for some. Relationships need re-adjustments. Look beyond the stereo-typical for answers. The 16th brings energy to make things happen easily, the 20th has us searching for answers, and we enter Sag on the 22nd. The 23/ 24 is a mixed day of luck, freedom and empowerment. Mercury goes Rx at the day’s end, taking us inside ourselves over the next 3 weeks to work on our values, our visions, our dreams.

Thanksgiving gives us a New Moon Solar Eclipse (late at night/wee hours of next day, depending where you live). A new cycle of personal freedom to make individual choices. Don’t get caught up in someone else’s arguments and feelings. Boundaries are important, knowing where you end and someone else begins. On the 27th, there is expansive energy. Only caution: don’t be extravagant!

Mercury enters its shadow…Nov.5
Standard Time begins Nov.6 2AM
Full Moon Nov.10 1:16PM (MST)
Mercury goes Rx Nov.24 12:21AM (MST)
New Moon Solar Eclipse Nov.24 11:10PM (MST)

Some thoughts on 11 11 11

2011-10-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

First. let’s look at the numerological symbolism and then see what astrological influences are occurring at the same time.

The number 11 represents the upright pillars of initiation that we step through. Eleven is a person initiation process.

Two 11s, a 22, represent a social initiation, entrance into a larger social experience.

Three 11s, a 33, is considered the opportunity to bring one’s work forward…one’s ability to influence a larger spectrum of community.

So in the first glance, 11+11+11=33…this date than becomes a triple initiation portal…personal, social and ministerial (like when Christ turned 33 and he took his work to the world).

As an aside, if we add the digits together, 33 becomes a 6…Six is balance, man reaching toward heaven, heaven reaching toward man (the 6 pointed star). It also represents the mother, the teacher, the healer. So here there’s a progression from personal initiation to balance, harmony and healing.

Astrologically, during the week of 6-13 of November, Neptune is stationing, remaining the same degree and minute all week, turning Direct on 9th. It becomes the most influencing factor behind everything else. So Neptune’s influence for that week is one of ‘renting the veil’ of illusion…coming to a deeper level of spiritual awareness, heightening sensitivity, and integrity.

The Full Moon on the 10th brings far-seeing, intuitive responses and potential travel for some.

All in all, the energies around the week of 11 11 11 enhance and expand the potential to step into something that breathes you larger, deeper, wider…and allows others to benefit from your experiences.

Jyoti Wind

“….one day the wind will show its kindness
and remove the tiny patches that
cover your eyes,

and you will see God more clearly
than you have ever seen
yourself.”
Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
(From Love Poems from God by Daniel Ladinsky)

Fall Astrology Column

2011-10-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

October. Learning situations and music are beneficial on the 6th and 7th. The Full Moon on the 11th asks for more spiritual communication in your relationships with children, and creative endeavors want balance with your social life. A great deal of inspiration is available in whatever interests you.

The 13th is a good day to lay foundations and on the 21st, it is time to expand spiritual horizons. We enter Scorpio on the 23rd, taking us into harvesting the deeper aspects of life. The New Moon occurs on the 26th, bringing a great deal of healing potential and opportunities. Some things are clear. Some things are there to learn about.

The 28th brings a variety of energies with possible arguments, feeling empowered, and then by nightfall, wonder what it was all about anyway. The month ends with the thought: Where am I going and what do I wish.

Full Moon Oct. 11 8:06PM (MDT)

New Moon Oct.26 1:56PM (MDT)

Astro Update

2011-09-23T08:30:00.001-07:00

The Autumnal Equinox occurs on the 23rd and this next quarter of the year begins on a dynamic note. Courage, heart and freedom are the keywords. 3:05 AM (MDT).

Today...

2011-09-16T08:00:00.001-07:00

Today Pluto stations...turning Direct...at 12:23 PM (MDT)...a day of intensity, in-depth insights. and changing what doesn't work any more.

Astro Update 9 7 11

2011-09-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

On Thurs. Sept.8th, Mercury is opposing Neptune. So, for the past few days as this aspect has moved in, it’s almost felt like Mercury went Rx (Retrograde) again: lots of changing appointments, miscommunication and general fogginess. Thurs. will exemplify that. Read poetry, day dream, and don’t let it throw you.

Mercury catches up from its Rx cycle (Aug.2nd) on Friday, Sept.9th. Then we move into new territory. Mercury will trine Pluto on Sunday, Grandparents’ Day, and communications should be smooth, deep and insightful.

On Monday the 12th, the Harvest Full Moon at 3:27 AM (MDT) allows us to use the skills, values and understandings of our past. Take opportunities over the next month to grow beyond frustration. Share your insights with others.

Also on the 12th, Pluto is stationing (remaining the same degree and minute) until the 21st, going Rx on Friday, the 16th at 12:23PM (MDT).
This period may feel very intense as we begin to express the inner work, meanderings and realizations of the previous 5 months. Time to bring all that inner transformation into our daily lives.

“Keep knocking, and the joy inside
will eventually open a window
and look out to see who’s there.”
Rumi

Astro Update 8 2 11

2011-08-02T20:41:00.001-07:00

Mercury goes Rx tonight at 9:50 PM (MDT) in Virgo. For the past week and into the next, Mercury is opposing Neptune, so I’m sure you’ve noticed how foggy things seem to be…no clear answers anywhere. Confusion is breathed in with the sunlight.

The upside is that beliefs are being called into question, so that we can dismantle old outworn modes of thinking. What do we know and what do we think we know?

Having a project ready to sink one’s attention into is a good focus for Mercury Rx. It seems to let the consciousness be meditative and focused and not so prone to judgmental errors. Mercury goes Direct on Aug.26th.

Tomorrow, Aug.3, Mars enters Cancer and trines Neptune, bringing opportunities to live our truth that might surprise us.

“The saint knows
that the spiritual path
is a sublime chess game with God

and that the Beloved
has just made such a Fantastic Move.

….whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think

you have a thousand serious moves.

Hafiz

(from I Heard God Laughing
by Daniel Ladinsky)

The Shadow of Mercury Rx

2011-07-19T09:44:00.001-07:00

Remember, we entered the shadow of the next Mercury Retrograde (Rx) cycle last Friday, July 15th...it doesn't go Rx until Aug. 2nd, but can't you feel the re-dos already raising their heads???

Mercury-laden light bulbs

2011-07-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.prisonplanet.com/damning-new-study-eco-bulbs-cause-cancer.html

Good article on the new light bulbs, that will be mandated by Jan.1, 2012...
They give off deadly mercury vapors...

Cut and paste the above url to your address bar...it is not a direct link.

Astro Update 7 7 11

2011-07-07T18:37:00.001-07:00

Uranus is stationing from July 7-17, going Rx on July 9th…expect the unexpected…the unusual finds you for the next 10 days…

Tomorrow, July 8, Venus opposes Pluto, and challenges our values, our finances.

Sunday, July 10th, Venus sits at 9 deg. Cancer, the degree of the Eclipse on July 1st, and sets off the Eclipse energy. So the theme of trusting your own truth continues.

“….and there was a new voice,
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.”
Mary Oliver

Starshine Astrology Column/July 2011

2011-07-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

We begin July with a Solar New Moon Eclipse, the third in a month. This brings challenges from several directions. One of the main ones is about trusting your own truth and being willing to act on it. The 2nd, brings frustration, then movement. The 6th is a good day to get a job done. Uranus begins its station from 7-13 (Rx on the 9th) and you can expect the unexpected all week. Jupiter and Pluto bring empowerment on the 7th as well. Mercury enters its shadow on the 14th and things begin to slow down a bit and change. The Full Moon on the 15th brings expansion of emotions in relationship. A time to set personal goals and expect to make them happen. Trust is part of the monthly tapestry. Sun trines Uranus on the 27th and it’s a day to do what you want to do. The New Moon on the 30th says: expand your philosophical edges; deep insights available; trust your hunches and widen your horizons.

Solar New Moon Eclipse July 1 02:54AM (MDT)
Mercury enters its shadow July 14 (Rx on Aug.2)
Full Moon July 15 12:40AM (MDT)
New Moon July 30 12:40PM (MDT)

The Uranus/Pluto Square

This Summer during the month of July, Uranus and Pluto will square each other by 1 degree. It’s not exact until June 2012. Changes are afoot in the collective, harkening back to the ‘60s when Uranus and Pluto were conjunct/together. Now they square by 1 degree, that 1 degree orb of power, when you can feel something but you’re not in it yet. Close but no cigar.

It’s time to look at some of those post-Victorian ideas of life and family that were blown apart and irretrievably changed at that time. How have our lives changes in these past 45 years.

For those younger and born after some of these changes occurred, it’s looking at what you take for granted. Almost equal wages and positions for men and women; living with a mate without marriage; interracial marriages; rights for women and racial groups; the demonizing of incest; the abortion rights; a truer history taught at schools; women’s studies; etc, etc.

This aspect begs the question: What’s next. What still needs a liberating nudge, and for those aspects of life already changed, what’s the next step in that evolvement.

It is by no means a simple question or a simple time. Personally and collectively, we are being pushed along the evolutionary path with a stronger urging. Kind of like the Hero’s/Heroine’s Journey. The path is taking us to a larger concept of who we are and can be. Some things must be changed or let go of to lighten the load.

The Writing Journey Workshop

2011-07-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Writing Journey

Writing from a Shamanic Point of View

We will use Shamanic techniques for consulting the muse, accessing dreams, and finding your inspiration to expand your writing life.

Come journey and write with me.

$50

Sunday, July 24 from 12:30-4:30

Please bring pillows and blankets, or seat, and something to place on the altar.
Please bring your own writing materials.
No Shamanic experience necessary.

Sliding scale is available.

Directions upon registration. Please respond by July 17 to

Jyoti Wind 303.541-9106

Jyoti Wind is an Astrologer, Writer and Shamanic Practitioner with over 40 yrs. experience in both the Outer World and the Inner World.

Astro Update 6 30 11

2011-06-30T07:45:00.001-07:00

On July 1, is a New Moon Solar Eclipse at 2:54 AM (MDT).

We all come from skirmishes with life, some leaving scars, some tearing our hearts open and only memory reminds us what that felt like. Ecstasies that flung us wide open to a galaxy of new experiences found us as well.

This New Moon Eclipse asks us…what’s next?
Amidst the challenges that life brings us, how do we face ourselves with our vulnerabilities like a halo; with our defenses like dried, cut flowers now only fit for remembered beauty; with our sites set on creating what totally feeds us.

If you know any Cancer people (this New Moon Ecl. is in Cancer), all they want to do is feed you, whether with plates full of nourishment or bowls laden with ideas.

Now it’s your table you are setting. What’s on the menu that you are preparing for your dinner party? Who are you inviting to participate with you. What is the nourishment for this next phase of your life.
What’s for desert at the end of it all?

“The spirit
likes to dress up like this:
ten fingers,
ten toes,

shoulders, and all the rest
at night
in the black branches,
in the morning

in the blue branches
of the world.”

Mary Oliver

Starshine Newsletter Summer 2011

2011-06-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
Those beings that you hold dear to you, are not yours, especially your children. As Kahlil Gibran said, “They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.”
They’re not yours to own nor to hold. They must be set free to pursue the very lives they took birth for.

You taught them how to be here and how to see the world. Now you release them to bring to the world all of their gifts. The world needs them and their goodness. The world will give them the opportunities to grow and mature and become more responsible. The world will give them the arena to do their best work.
Let them go with love and a good heart, and always hold them in the Light.

This summer we are having 3 Eclipses, 2 weeks apart, and a one-degree square between Uranus and Pluto…besides the next Mercury Rx cycle.

It will be a transformative Summer leading into Fall. It’s not about waiting for the changes that some people feel 2012 will bring. It’s about taking responsibility to make those changes and personal transformations now, as they come up. There is no ‘down the road.’ There is only the NOW. This moment. If change is upon you, embrace it, make friends with it, and keep going. It may ultimately be your best friend anyway.

Blessings,
Jyoti

Stay out in the open like a date palm
lifting its arms. Don’t bore mouse holes
in the ground, arguing inside some
doctrinal labyrinth. Rumi

Summer Meditation
Breathe into your heart. Let the cares of the day fall away. As you breathe, feel your willingness to receive all that Life has to offer you. Begin the process of learning how to receive.

Solstice today...

2011-06-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

The Grand Trine in Air on this Solstice day (11:17AM, MDT) brings ease of communication in getting ideas across, over this next quarter of the year.

Astro Update 6 15 11

2011-06-15T12:06:00.001-07:00

Lunar Full Moon Eclipse today at 2:14PM (MDT).

Where is your sense of service and compassion centered?
How do you make room in yourself to see the larger picture and let go of what keeps you small? Nurture yourself.
And get ready to drop what’s getting in your way.

“One or two things are all you need
to travel over the blue pond, over the deep
roughage of the trees and through the stiff
flowers of lightning—some deep
memory of pleasure, some cutting
knowledge of pain.” Mary Oliver

Astro Update 5 30 11

2011-05-30T09:42:00.001-07:00

From May 29-Jun8, Neptune is stationing (sitting at the same degree and minute), turning Retrograde (Rx) on June 3rd. This suggests a week of spiritually and energetically taking stock. It’s more about the essence of things than it is about substance.
Neptune will be Rx until Nov., a 5 month period to work on inner values, sensitivities, and boundaries.

The New Moon Eclipse on Wed, June 1st at 3:03 PM (MDT) represents a new cycle of empowerment. Be clear in your communications. set long-term goals. Be willing to see what’s not working and change it. With Mars, Venus and Mercury all in Taurus, creativity is high. The ability to make things happen is strong.

On Sat. June 4th, Jupiter enters Taurus for the next year and we may have a more practical approach to life, paying attention to finances, how beauty and art feeds us, and where we are stubborn and refuse to move. It’s a good year to get priorities straight and build foundations for future use.

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.
Mary Oliver

Astro Update

2011-05-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

Today Mars trines Pluto (12:20 PM, MDT), Mercury trines Pluto (3:54 PM, MDT) ad Mercury conjuncts Mars (7:20 PM, MDT)…It is a day of empowerment and making things happen, culminating with good conversation and insights by nightfall.

On the 21st, we enter Gemini (3:21 AM, MDT) and for the next 30 days we juggle a variety of things, and appreciate diversity. At noon, Venus trines Pluto and creativity is high, a sense of strength prevails.

The 22nd brings a Sun square Neptune aspect and we are searching for what’s true.

On the 23rd, Venus conjuncts Mars…artistic energies are at full peak. The ability to bring forth a vision is available.

Note:
We are moving into a Uranus square Pluto aspect. It will be 1 degree from exact in early July to mid August (exact June-July 2012). This aspect will push the idealism from the 60s…those dreams of how we could all live together, the environmental issues and being stewards of the earth, concepts of a one-family humanity…We are moved to look at our lives and see where our ideals and dreams match up with our realities and where they don’t. Where they don’t is where the work is…

We seem to be sitting still,
but we’re actually moving, and the fantasies
of phenomena are sliding through us
like ideas through curtains. Rumi

Rapture

2011-05-17T15:39:00.001-07:00

So, I'm a little late to the table on this one...supposedly there are billboards semi-locally that are talking about the Rapture coming this Saturday...my son, a Christian man, told be, in the Bible Jesus says that no one will know the hour and the day of their death, not even Me...So...

Astro Update 4 22 11

2011-04-22T10:14:00.001-07:00

Today Venus is conjunct Uranus at 8:29PM (MDT) and we want freedom of movement. Unexpected choices or changes of direction may occur.

Mercury goes Direct tomorrow at 4:04AM (MDT). Things move, communications happen, and we begin a two week period of re-doing that which didn’t work over the past three weeks. Now a time of movement, new ideas, new sense of direction and purpose.

Happy Earth Day! Happy Easter!

“The stars get clearly drunk
and crazy at night
and throw themselves
across the sky.

Only an insane being or compound
is not going mad with excitement
at this Wonderful Performance
by God!” Hafiz

We Ain't Got Time To Bleed. It's Time for the Revolution.

2011-04-14T14:20:00.001-07:00

We Ain't Got Time To Bleed. It's Time for the Revolution.

"You control our world. You've poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. We fight in your wars, die for your causes, and sacrifice our freedoms to protect you.

You've liquidated our savings, destroyed our middle class, and used our tax dollars to bailout your unending greed. We are slaves to your corporations, zombies to your airwaves, servants to your decadence. You've stolen our elections, assassinated our leaders, and abolished our basic rights as human beings.

You own our property, shipped away our jobs, and shredded our unions. You've profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. You've monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame.

We are hit...we are bleeding...but we ain't got time to bleed. We will bring the giants to their knees and you will witness our revolution! "

-

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, April 12, 2011

Gardening this year?

2011-04-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'm a gardener, yet have given serious thought to planting outside this year...am still thinking about it...the points in this article are some of the same things I've considered...am thinking a tray of sunflower greens grown in a sunny window might be a solution...
Europeans warned to avoid drinking milk or eating vegetables due to high radiation levels
www.naturalnews.com

this is not a link...please cut and paste the above url to your address bar...

Spring 2011 Book Reviews Part 2

2011-04-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

American Taliban by Pearl Abraham A 19-year-old , American surfer boy, consumed with romanticized thoughts of the 19th century adventurer, Sir Richard Burton, immerses himself in the study of classical Arabic to be able to more accurately read Sufi texts. His naiveté and innocence leads him into unparalleled danger. The story highlights his own journey and the ferocity of his mother's love. What a read. I inhaled this book. Reviewed by Cindy Morris, www.practicalpriestess.com
Dead of the Day: An Annie Seymour Mystery by Karen E. Olson. Irreverent court reporter Annie Seymour becomes embroiled in a mystery involving bees, illegal aliens in the U.S., potential bombs and corruption. Interesting. I enjoyed this read.
ISBN 978-0-451-22247-3.

Ghost Walk: A Dido Hoare Mystery by Marianne MacDonald. Present-day England, antiquarian bookshop owner Dido finds a homeless man on her doorstep. Old and frail, he’s recently come into her shop to browse. His behavior make her curious, and with her professor father and her infant son, she treks around England to solve the homeless man’s death. An Egyptian necklace and secrets from post WWII, give this mystery intrigue. ISBN 0-312-19417-X.

A‘EA‘E MOHALA I LUNA O KE KUKUI.

WHITENESS UNFOLDS ON THE KUKUI TREES
Used in reference to a person who grays…*

As I grow gray,
In maturity,
I long for the wisdom
Expected of me—
Flowering forth,
Perhaps in rhyme,
Learned and earned
Through all the time
It took me to grow
This whiteness.

Nancy Izawa

*from ‘OLELO NO’EAU • Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings
By Mary Kawena Pukui

April 2011 Astrology

2011-04-01T08:11:00.000-07:00

April begins with Mars moving into its own sign of Aries and joins Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury and Sun, catalyzing risk-taking and a willingness to try something new. On April 3rd, the New Moon brings confrontation and challenges to communications. Resolution is possible. Important to see where one abdicates and now must own.

Neptune enters Pisces on the 4th where it will be for the next 14 years. Since Neptune rules Pisces, it feels at home here, and spiritual awakenings, a sense of service to one’s community, and the awareness of the suffering of humankind are things one can expect. (Neptune last entered Pisces in Feb. 1848.) Pluto goes Retrograde (Rx) on the 9th and it proves to be a day of intensity. We turn inward for the next 5 months to continue transformative experiences.

The 11th brings challenges. The Full Moon on the 17th shows a need for boundaries, keeping the balance between expansion and contraction, and a good study time. The 18th catalyzes one toward movement, on the 20th the Sun enters Taurus, and Mercury goes Direct on the 23rd. We redo the previous 3 weeks and then move on. The 27th feels very empowering and the month ends with challenges around trust and yet lots of energy to make things happen.

New Moon April 3 8:32 AM
Neptune enters Pisces April 4
Pluto turns Rx April 9
Full Moon April 17 8:44 PM
Mercury goes Direct April 23 4:04 AM

Neptune entered Pisces on Feb.17, 1848. That year:
The Hungarian Revolution
King of France abdicated
Mexican/American War ended
Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY
Irish Potato Famine
California Gold Rush
1st Medical School for Women/Boston
Napoleon elected
Cholera epidemic in NY
Associated Press founded in NY.

Spring Editorial/Starshine News

2011-03-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
I believe in a deeper level of personal responsibility. I believe that we choose our parents; we choose our birth time; we choose the life we are living because it would give us the very lessons and experiences we needed to go through to learn from.
Many times our parents give us a ‘sacred wound’…the very experience that cracks us open so we can remember why we came here, what our own personal soul’s work is.
In looking at the world at this time, I believe we came to help out.

So now, what I truly want to bring to myself is what I truly desire and am capable of creating, from a much deeper place inside myself. I can let go of the fact that I spent years thinking I couldn’t. I let it go that I said I didn’t want it. I let it go that I thought myself less than, when I know I am brilliant, loving, caring and as capable as anyone else.
So I’m releasing myself from past ideas that have gotten in the way. I’m opening myself to new experiences that will help me move beyond the limitations I have said okay to up until now.
I am ready to move on, ready to embrace the life that is before me, that is ready for me, inviting me to join it.
Be well,
Jyoti

Astro Update 3 30 11

2011-03-30T08:33:00.001-07:00

Astro Update 3 30 11

Today at 2:48 PM (MDT), Mercury goes Retrograde (Rx) in Aries (Direct on April 23rd).
Along its Rx path, it will conjunct the Sun, then Jupiter and Mars, and then oppose Saturn. We will look more deeply at how we define our individuality and our fears of self-expression.
Aries is fire and the first sign…the self, taking the initiative to make things happen. Perhaps by the time Mercury goes Direct, we will have a better idea of how we want that to look.

Pluto is stationing from April 2-15th, going Rx on the 9th at 2:49 AM (MDT). When a planet is stationing, it is staying at the same degree and minute for that period of time and takes over other planetary energies. So, for those two weeks, we will be dancing with Plutonian/Scorpio energies of intensity, investigation and transformation.
As Mercury is Rx at the same time, it can give tremendous insights into how to change and transmute those energies that need it, transform what’s not working, rejuvenate and resurrect what will work.

‘Jump to your feet, wave your fists,
Threaten and warn the whole Universe

That your heart can no longer live
Without real love!’

Hafiz

Spring 2011 Book Reviews, Part 1

2011-03-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Writing Through the Darkness: Easing Your Depression with Paper and Pen by Elizabeth Maynard Schaefer, Ph.D.
The author writes from her own personal experience of depression and as a workshop/writing group leader, working with people who are experiencing depression. This book was so surprisingly readable, with great stories and suggestions.

Writing to Heal the Soul: Transforming Grief and Loss Through Writing by Susan Zimmerman. I loved this book. I loved her story, the caring for others and the worlds they live in, that came through her writing. She gives exercises at each chapter’s end to help the reader work through their experiences, their feelings, in an effort to make sense of the cards life has dealt them. ISBN 0-609-80829-x.

Writers and Their Notebooks. Ed. by Diana M. Raab. Multiple authors contributed to this book on notebooks they’ve kept over the years. Whether it was to lay out plot lines or jot down dreams and ideas, they found a writing notebook invaluable. ISBN 978-1-57003-866-2.

Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson. Anna arrives in England, penniless, after the Russian Revolution. Coming from a life of privilege as the daughter of a Count, she must take a job as a maid below stairs in an Earl’s house. She sets about her new life with courage and caring. A delightful cast of characters. Loved this!
ISBN 978-0-14-240865-0.

Under the Eye of Kali: An Anita Ray Mystery by Susan Oleksiw. At a small hotel in tropical south India, which Anita helps manage with her aunt, four American women meet for a holiday. One goes missing, one is poisoned and an old death haunts it all. Loved the setting! ISBN 10-1-59414-871-4.

mini update

2011-03-28T08:15:00.001-07:00

Sun square Pluto today...stay out of power struggles...just let go...

Shamanic Workshops Part 1 and Part 2

2011-03-24T18:37:00.001-07:00

FLIGHT OF THE SPIRIT

Introduction to Shamanism

Learn how to utilize different states of consciousness to gather information, power and courage. Using traditional techniques, we will learn about non-ordinary reality, spirit guides and animal spirits. We will journey to the land of the spirits.

No experience necessary.
Saturday April 23, 2011 12:30PM—4:30PM $60.

Please bring pillows and blankets, or seat, warm socks and to place on the altar. Drums and rattles are welcome as are journals. Drawing materials will be provided.

Sliding scale is available.
Directions upon registration. Please respond by April 16th.

Sacred Journeys
Soul Retrievals and Extractions

When we experience deep emotional and physical situations in life, sometimes we lose pieces of ourselves. It is important that we receive those pieces back to fill ourselves and become more whole.

Learn how to perform soul retrievals and extractions working in partnership with another person. We will journey for each other for their health and well-being. We will also discuss the Upper World, Middle World, and Lower World.

Basic shamanic skills are necessary.
Sunday May 22, 2011 12:30PM—4:30PM $60.

Please bring pillows and blankets, or seat, warm socks and to place on the altar. Drums and rattles are welcome as are journals. Drawing materials will be provided.

Sliding scale is available.

Directions upon registration. Please respond by May 17th to

Jyoti Wind 303.541-9106

Jyoti Wind is an Astrologer, Writer and Shamanic Practitioner with over 40 yrs. experience in both the Outer World and the Inner World.

today...

2011-03-21T10:06:00.001-07:00

Sun conjunct Uranus today...expect the unexpected.

Spring 2011

2011-03-20T10:27:00.000-07:00

. The Vernal Equinox occurs on the 20th and we enter the first quarter of the astrological/pagan calendar. Over the next three months, we will look at where we need to balance self and other, freedoms and agreements. Art, music, beauty soothe.

We enter Spring at 5:21PM MDT.

Full Moon

2011-03-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

Moon is in perigree today, closest to the earth in its orbit...happens every 18 yrs. Some are calling it a Supermoon. This is what it means. Happy Full Moon at 12:10 PM (MDT). Make room for the 'new' to fill you with inspiration.

Caroline Myss

2011-03-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

A Message from Caroline Myss

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 11:07am

As we all know by now, the Earth has shifted once again. Just the slightest change from deep beneath the waters, a crack in the fabric of her lining, and islands quake while tsunami waves rush across shorelines. We awake believing the world – our world – is stable, only to learn again and again that this Earth is as much a living, breathing, moving, active instrument of life as we are. It is the grandest live organism we shall ever encounter, this wondrous Being that sustains us each second of our life. Weeks ago, a cyclone of unprecedented size hit Australia and an earthquake shortly afterwards moved the ground beneath Christchurch, New Zealand. Buildings fell like toys, leaving much of the town in pieces. Who knows what the final death toll will be in Japan?

It would appear that the pace as well as the intensity of long-predicted earth activity and climate change is accelerating. Like many people familiar with prediction-oriented literature, all sorts of reasons can be put forward as to why the Earth goes through a period of increased seismic activity. Scientists will come up with "scientific" data, as expected. From my point of view, if they were so knowledgeable in the first place, the massive abuses to the Earth would have never occurred because they would have used their scientific data to protect the Earth. They're great at riding the caboose on the train of environmental change. Unfortunately, the few who have had the courage to attempt to direct the engine have been thwarted by corporate and political interests who insist that all data suggesting even a hint of climate change activity is a liberal conspiracy.
On the extreme other side, I have heard many people make the comment that, "Mother Nature is angry," and that's why these events are happening. I'm not all that certain that Mother Nature functions from the same emotional system of "anger-vengeance/love-reward" that human beings do. I certainly hope not.

Given that Mother Nature was an active, alive force long before we occupied this planet, I suspect that She is far more of a cosmic system of intelligence, transcendent of emotions such as anger or vengeance. Rather, if anything, I suspect that the way to understand Mother Nature is best found through the study of the Tao – the study of the laws of balance that essentially govern the activity of Nature. When Nature is out of balance, the system itself will initiate whatever action it must take in order to reestablish an environment capable of sustaining all life – not just human life, but all life. Within the realm of Nature, all life is equal. Life is precious because it is life, not because it is human life or wealthy life or educated life or young life – but because it is life.

We are now living at a time when all cycles and systems of life are out of balance, including our system of perception itself. We do not "perceive" life clearly at all and thus, we as a society make choices that are based on endless illusions. And illusions lead to disasters. There was a time not so long ago, for example, when human beings walked more humbly on the Earth and under the Sun, the Moon, and the stars. Before the "Age of Reason,” a person walked into a forest filled with the awareness that the forest was as aware of him as he was of it. He shared the ground with the forest and all the creatures who lived there. They were not his for the taking, for the slaughtering, for dominating. In times gone by, people lived in a type of consciousness in which even the slightest movement of the wind meant something – perhaps heaven was piercing the veil between dimensions, speaking in a soft breeze, moving a branch or a leaf in order to communicate a message, or a warning, or signal its approval. The stars that filled the sky at night were not just pretty, shining objects, but proof of a celestial homeland, the blanket of the Divine covering humanity. Every living creature had purpose and meaning, a place in which it was given a natural dignity because it was created by a God no one doubted existed.

Of course human beings were still human beings in those days before the Age of Reason introduced a love of logic and a God who (obviously) had scientific reasons up "his" celestial sleeve for why all things happen as they do in this whole big universe. Civilization was also a dark and dreary place back then, with disease and the plague, and endless wars … Oh wait, am I describing then or now? Oh, I'm describing their version of then, not ours. Though they also had war, and they also had epidemics, and they also had starvation, what they did not have that has driven our civilization to the brink of madness is an epidemic of narcissism blended with an epidemic of blind doubt about the existence of the cosmic structure that holds together this fragile place called Earth. Back then, no one doubted the existence of this invisible reality. Today, that doubt is an epidemic and the absence of respect and reverence for the Earth is reflected in the choices governments and corporations make as well as individuals.

Is Mother Earth angry? Don't be silly. A cosmic force hardly gets angry. But a cosmic force is seeking balance, just as your individual body seeks balance when it has been struck with a toxin. What is the difference?
The Earth will continue to have an increase in earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, and whatever else is required to reestablish balance in Her environment.

She is a living organism that is, in effect, rebooting Herself. Only the human community has the idea that we somehow live apart from the Earth, that the Earth does not respond to our breathing, to our thoughts, to our actions. It's incomprehensible, to be sure, to even hold such a perspective. But the Earth is that sensitive. Recycling, I assure you, is not enough. Consider the Earth as a family member instead, as a Being that sees you as clearly as you see it. And you are on the "Earth" as much when you are standing in the midst of New York City or London as you are in the middle of a forest. You are still "on the Earth". Standing on concrete or in a building does not make it any less "Earth" except if you hold to the perception that what qualifies for the "Earth" is out of the city in green or desert nature. But that's an illusion. How can you ever be off or away from the "Earth"? It's precisely that perception – that Nature is in the country but not in the city - that maintains the illusion of separateness. You may prefer to be in the country but you always on the Earth.

Having said all this, let me turn to the loss of human life. While earth shifts are essential for the Earth to survive, they are tragic for us. They result in enormous loss of human life and we must all hold in prayer the souls and the families of the people of Japan. The fear, pain, and grief of the thousands of people is unimaginable. We learn from this tragedy once again that the life we awaken to each morning may well be completely different by the end of the day. We kid ourselves by telling ourselves that we are in charge of the length of our lifetime. We are not.

We must treat each day as a gift as well as every person dear to us. We learn from this event in Japan that we can be with the Japanese community of people through prayer, through email, through FB in an instant. We are truly learning an enormous cosmic truth: We are one. And we are meant to use that truth: Pray together, heal our fellow human beings together, and heal our beloved Earth together. Put your soul to work.

Love, Caroline

plume update

2011-03-17T09:46:00.001-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/science/17plume.html?_r=1&hp

Scientists chart possible path of plume from Japan to US...
--
cut and paste url to address bar.

Astro Update 3 16 11

2011-03-16T11:02:00.001-07:00

Astro Update 3 16 11

Today Mercury enters its shadow and begins its next Retrograde (Rx) cycle. Mercury actually goes Rx on March 30, Direct on April 22, and catches up on May 10.

Where are we impulsive and yet willing to be on the cutting edge of new material.
Where are we impatient with ourselves and others, thinking they should know this stuff already.

Mercury in Aries is the fire of mind.
Where is it time to try something new, to bring an innate intelligence to the issue, find other solutions.

So as Mercury enters its shadow today, we will come back to the issues of today the third week of April and rethink some of our conclusions, perhaps have better answers to our problems.

“I bow to God in gratitude,
And I find the moon is also busy
Doing the same.” Hafiz

On another note, not to be redundant, please consider adding to your diet, miso (as soup or tea), broccoli, cauliflower, chlorella supplements. These help with radiation non-absorption.
For those who want to pursue it deeper… http://meditationexpert.com/RadiationDetoxDraft.pdf

Just know that if/when radiation does get carried on the wind, as it did all across the globe from Chernobyl, especially through Europe, that the first things to be contaminated are leafy greens, mushrooms, and the grasses which cows eat and turn into dairy products.
Knowledge leads to making educated choices.

Just a thought...

2011-03-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

Just a thought...I know the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) is downplaying the radiation leakage in Japan, but even the NY Times is saying some things about the radiation that will blow on the wind and hit the US within 6-10 days after the first blow there last Friday...What the Times and others are suggesting, at the very least, is the addition of these foods and supplements into your diet immediately...and the reason is simple, esp. with kelp or any sea vegetables that you can ingest...if there is iodine in the air, even radioactive iodine, the thyroid will absorb it, so taking iodine, kelp tablets or sea veggies, fills that store of iodine in the thyroid and then it will not absorb the radioactive stuff.

The sulphur veggies, Cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, allows any toxins to be absorbed and passed thru...
Eating miso, as soup or tea, allows the body to deal with the free radicals that breathing radioactive substances internalizes, as the people in Japan survived, those who did, the bombings in Hiroshima...

Avoiding dairy for the next six months or more would be a good thing...as the rain will wash these particles into the ground and the cows will eat it...

These are my thoughts from what I have gleaned over the years...working with Rocky Flats, diet, etc. Already both the Boulder and Lafayette Vitamin Cottage are out of potassium iodide, and any other homeopathic/naturopathic remedy that one could take to avoid radiation absorption...

Please think about this...

Astro Update

2011-03-11T09:20:00.001-08:00

Astro Update 3 11 11

Today Uranus enters Aries at 5:52 PM (MST).
Uranus came to zero degrees Aries last Spring ’10. We were given a taste of what might be on the table. Now, today, Uranus enters Aries for the next 7 yrs.
This aspect can bring many different manifestations…here are a few possibilities…
Revolution, Change, Ideals of Freedom, War, Personal Visions that resist limitation, Social Change, Impatience with the slow move of progress, Turbo Charged quick change, The Market will be like playing with fire.

So I began to research what was happening in the world 84 yrs. ago when Uranus was entering Aries the last time…1927. Here’s a list:
British troops land in Shanghai
A 7.6 earthquake in Japan followed by a banking crisis…If you saw the news this morning, there was a 8.9 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. !!!!
The Great Mississippi Flood that affected 700,000 people and was the greatest natural disaster in the U.S. at that time.
Saudi Arabia became independent of the U.K.
Charles Lindbergh made 1st solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight from NY to Paris.
Protests in Austria.

Uranus Retrograded back into Pisces like it did this past year, ending a whole 84 year cycle, and then Uranus came back into Aries and stayed there in Jan.1928 for 7 yrs. 1928:
Flooding in London
Dam fails in CA
2 earthquakes in Belgium
Amelia Earhart starts her attempts to become the 1st woman to successfully cross the Atlantic and succeeds.
Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin.
Drought and famine in China.
Turkey switches from Arabic to Latin-based modern Turkish Alphabet.

Now…we have rebellion in Egypt and Libya, Yemen, and other countries in that area of the world. We have protests in WI in the U.S.

Uranus in Aries, a fire sign, suggests impatience with what is and what is not working. When it squares Pluto in the Spring of 2012, it will be the first aspect since the conjunction of these 2 planets in the 60s that created the revolution of those times. The square will push the dissatisfaction of the status quo and people will rebel, wherever in the world they feel their individual rights are not being recognized.
This square of Uranus and Pluto will occur 7 times between June 2012 and Mar 2015.

The opportunity here is for people to pull together and help each other with whatever chaotic situation may occur.

Next month, the New Moon of Aries on April 3, will have Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus all in Aries. This will be the kick-off of the next 7 yrs. We will be building up until then. A personal, original vision for oneself is paramount.
What is it you’ve wanted to do?
How soon can you begin it?
What is the risk factor that you’re willing to take?
Where is it in your life that it’s time to dangle your toes off the edge of the cliff and see what lives there?

Look for new innovative technologies, new advances in medicine, unrest, daring innovations in art, music and writing…and a stepping into a new, 7 yr. cycle that is the beginning of the next 84 yrs. of Uranus moving through the signs again.

Please visit youtube.com, type in Uranus entering Aries and watch several really good talks on this subject…especially Barbara Goldsmith: All Hell Breaks Loose.

“Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.” Rumi

a thought for the day...

2011-02-28T09:09:00.000-08:00

From David Enke
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it.
~Forest Engstrom

Astro Update 2 18 11

2011-02-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

Today, earlier, at 1:36 AM (MST), we had the Full Moon of Aquarius/Leo.
Mercury, Mars, Neptune all accompany the Sun as it sits in the last degree of Aquarius, with Chiron nearby, having just entered Pisces.

We are given opportunities here for healing wounds, for bringing more and more of our spiritual beliefs into our daily lives, and considering agreements we can follow up on. Bring innovative ideas to the table and see what happens.
Finances may open up a bit, and we move into a month of feelings and intuitions and a call to be of service to those in need.

Sun moves into Pisces at 4:25 PM (MST) later today.

The universe and the light of the stars come through me.
I am the crescent moon put up
over the gate to the festival.
Rumi

Subject: Fw: [BCG] Nicotinoids and seeds

2011-02-18T07:39:00.000-08:00

Vegetable seeds - awareness

Begin forwarded To all our gardeners: I've been researching pesticides in the nicotinoid family and while I know the constant sharing of bad news can be wearing, I truly believe some important issues should be shared.
>
> Nicotinoids are a synthetic group of pesticides that mimic nicotine, a natural toxin associated with tobacco. Nicotine has been used as a pesticide for a long time, with lethal results to both insects and people. It's no longer recommended although some old-fashioned gardeners swear by it. But the new nicotinoids are widespread and systemic. They are coated on seeds and as the plant grows, it pulls up the pesticide into all its cells. This means there is no reason to aerial spray the plants and there is little pesticide drift into other fields. Farmers are happy with this system because, like the gmo crops, they don't have to breathe the spray and it cuts down on their labor. But it's not so great for consumers; it means we cannot wash these pesticides off.
>
> Like the genetically modified crops, pesticides increasingly are becoming systemic rather than applied. Nicotinoids have been around for about ten years and they are implicated in massive bee deaths. Clothianidin, which goes under the name Poncho, is the pesticide that Tom Theobald has been so concerned about. Most of these nicotinoids are owned by Bayer, a German corporation, but Germany has banned this pesticide after a summer of considerable bee deaths. France and Italy have followed suit. The UK is considering a ban and the EPA is under pressure from beekeepers to ban clothianidin here. I doubt that goes far enough. Clothianidin is only one of about seven or more nicotinoids.
>
> Here is one of my concerns: nicotinoids are in nearly every vegetable crop that I have investigated, from potatoes to broccoli. They are not allowed in organic crops so that still is off limits. But their use is common and now seeping into home garden seeds. By law treated seeds must be labeled. This comes to me from my phone calls to the USDA. It's not clear that such seeds have to be dyed or colored in any way to distinquish them, although sometimes they are. This also is complicated by the fact that many seeds come from all over the world now, with each country have differing legal requirements.
>
> Also, I have noticed some regional seed companies are advertising treated seeds. None of the seed companies we have been ordering from carry treated seeds, whether it's nicotinoids or fungicides. But in our seed swaps we will have to make sure our seeds either come from our own backyards, or reputable seeds companies that do not carry treated seeds. Loose seed of unknown origin is not a good idea.
>
> Aside from the ongoing problems with gmo crops, this is a new dilemma and far more serious than I had previously realized.
>
> Nearly all these pesticides collapse in time. After 10 years the Colorado potato beetle, one of the pests nicotinoids was invented to kill, has evolved in the San Luis Valley to resist this pesticide. This is the theory of evolution in plain view: a spontaneous mutation that allows a few beetles to survive nicotinoids ensures their next generation will survive. Once competition from unmutated beetles has been wiped out, this newly mutated group of beetles take over. This is why pesticides and herbicides (plants evolve, too), last for only a generation or less. But that doesn't mean they don't do real harm during that time. By the time we can document the untended consequences, another product is on the market.
>
> So what can we do? We can buy organic veggies, support our CSA farmers, grow our food and educate ourselves. While some conventional growers say that nicotinoids are rated to be less toxic than previous pesticides, I have found that information and complacency often change over time. We can't really understand this group of pesticides until more data are gathered. Already the evidence of bee kill is clear. When and if I learn more, I'll make that information available. Thanks, Niki
>
> --
> Boulder Culinary Gardeners
> Post messages: boulder-culinary-gardeners@googlegroups.com
> Unsubscribe by email:
> boulder-culinary-gardeners+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
> For more mailing list options and an email archive, visit:
> http://groups.google.com/group/boulder-culinary-gardeners
> More info about BCG: http://boulderculinarygardeners.org/

Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

Welcome Year of the Rabbit (metal/yin&yang/east) ~ Tiger's last big roar reverberates long into Rabbit's year, but now more creative solutions and partnerships could benefit all. But nations may draw in to protect against "the other". People and nations will need to know when and how best to leave "something", a calmer, more gracious time, but keep in mind rabbit's kick ..and bite.

Friend, Pam, posted this on Facebook today...

Food Update

2011-02-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

Back in the 70's, the spiritual teachers told their students, it's time to grow you own food...little did we know why...between Monsanto and GE Foods, and the Bills being passed about food contamination/regulating even what you grow, the more you can do for yourself and your friends, the better...
Cut and paste this link below to your address bar...this is not a direct link...So much for the integrity of Whole Foods...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronnie-cummins/the-organic-elite-surrend_b_815346.html

Astro Update 1 22 11

2011-01-22T06:50:00.001-08:00

Jupiter enters Aries at 10:11 AM (MST) today, Saturday, and our desire for adventure and cutting edge material is strong. We’re ready to try something new and innovative, ready for an adventure. Be open to the new. Jupiter will be in Aries until June 4th.

Also, today Saturn begins its Stationing…from the 22nd-30th, and turns Retrograde on the 25th (until June 12th). Preparing us for inner growth is its task. During this week we can be diligent, checking things off our lists, seeing the limitations we’ve helped create in our relationships, and where it’s time to expand beyond that.

“What seems to be changing around us
is rather the speed of our craft
leaving this world.” Rumi

2011-01-17T07:31:00.001-08:00

Mercury conjunct Pluto today, 10:48 PM (MST). Insightful day.

Mercury catches up...

2011-01-16T09:44:00.001-08:00

Mercury catches up today from where it went Rx on Dec.10th...we are moving into new territory...

Mini update

2011-01-15T10:33:00.000-08:00

Today Mars enters Aquarius at 3:41PM (MST), and this opens up a desire to explore, do your own thing, instead of the push and drive from the last several weeks...whew!

Winter 2011 Book Reviews 2

2011-01-12T18:56:00.000-08:00

Sketch Me If You Can by Sharon Papa. A young profiling sketch artist, who works at the Police Department, is given a house and more through her favorite uncle’s sudden death. He was a Private Investigator, and with the inheritance comes open case files and the live-in ghost of an 1800’s Marshall. Put off at first, by each other’s mannerisms and thinking, they try to solve a murder. A great story line and a good mystery.
ISBN 978-0-425-23604-8.

Last Lessons of Summer by Margaret Maron. A mystery set in North Carolina tells the story of a woman who returns to her roots to clear out the estate of her grandmother, who had been recently murdered. Well crafted. Love the surrounding stories with the flavors of the south. ISBN 978-0-446-61422-1.

Last Writes: A Forensic Handwriting Mystery by Sheila Lowe. A young girl is missing from a cult. Her mother is desperate and asks Claudia to find her. Cult infiltration, graphology, and prophecies of Earth’s end create great story lines. The author’s other books include: Dead Writes, The Poison Pen, Written in Blood. ISBN 978-0-451-23110-9.

A Brush With Death: A Penny Brannigan Mystery by Elizabeth J. Duncan. An inherited cottage in North Wales, a packet of letter, a painter’s death and an unexpected piece of art at a retrospective art exhibit in Liverpool all bring our heroine to her deducing capabilities. A good read. ISBN 978-0-312-62282-4.

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman. ”As the United States appears to be making a mess of things around the world, the power of the U.S.,” the author says “is the single pivotal event for the new age.” Considering he’s predicted the present, his dismissal of conventional wisdom, gives a wide view of various nation’s psychology. He uses a country’s fears and friendships to predict how the geopolitical forces will work. An interesting way to learn history and at the same time how the U.S. will play with Russia, China, Japan, Turkey and finally Mexico in light of the shrinking world population and technological shifts. This book is required reading for some Boulder High Schools. Reviewed by Ann Griffin

Winter 2011 Book Reviews

2011-01-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

Blessed Womb: Inspirational Poetry to Warm the Heart and Womb by Helene Rose takes us into the world of birth, motherhood and raising children. She presents life, through her poetry, with a generous heart, touching my own in the process. It seems she wanted to inspire women to love themselves and these intimate aspects of their lives. She’s accomplished it!

Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal by Diana M. Raab. The author uses her grandmother’s journal to chart her own childhood experiences of this woman with her grandmother’s real life occurrences. Her grandmother recounts the historical times in which she lived in the Austro-Hungarian country during WWI. In the writing of the book, the author juxtaposes these entries with her own mid-20th Century life. An interesting read. ISBN0-8253-0575-6.

Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner. Our heroine comes to the New Mexico Territories from England in 1869, a few months pregnant. Unmarried, suffering a stagecoach crash and 2 days in the desert with dead bodies around her, she is taken to recover on a ranchero, amidst a three-brother family. A great western romance. ISBN 978-0-425-23214-9.

The Confession by John Grisham. A young man is on death row with several days left to live for a crime he didn’t commit nine years earlier. In another state, an itinerant criminal confesses to a Lutheran minister that he himself committed the rape/murder. What ensues is a page turner. Excellent Grisham! ISBN 978-0-385-52804-7.

Further Adventures in the Restless Universe
By Dawn Raffel She is a magazine editor in New York City. Short stories as dialogues with a son, father, sister. Call and response lines of present time happenings, description, timeless feeling. Sparse sentence sting with pain and wisdom. It catches my attention. ISBN 978-0-9767177-99-9l
Reviewed by Ann Griffin

Flight of the Spirit

2011-01-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Introduction to Shamanism

Learn how to utilize different states of consciousness to gather information, power and courage. Using traditional techniques, we will learn about non-ordinary reality, spirit guides and animal spirits. We will journey to the land of the spirits.

No experience necessary.

Saturday Feb.26, 2011 12:30PM—4:30PM $60.

Please bring pillows and blankets, or seat, warm socks and to place on the altar. Drums and rattles are welcome as are journals. Drawing materials will be provided.

Sliding scale is available.

Directions upon registration. Please respond by Feb. 19th to

Jyoti Wind 303.541-9106

Jyoti Wind is an Astrologer, Writer and Shamanic Practitioner with over 40 yrs. experience in both the Outer World and the Inner World.

January's Astrology

2011-01-01T11:24:00.001-08:00

January begins with a Solar New Moon Eclipse on the 4th and asks us to bring maturity to our relationships. Redefine values and then expand. New cycle of dynamic business possibilities, yet need to balance energies and not spread yourself too thin. Trust your intuition. The 7th brings a push to look at what’s important to you. On the 13th, there is more organizational skills available. Mercury catches up on the 16th (from its Rx motion in Nov.’10) and we move into new territory. Deep insights on the 17th and the Full Moon on the 19th says balance work and nurturing activities. How to have both. Express feelings. We enter Aquarius on the 20th, and Saturn goes Rx on the 25th until mid June and we take our perseverance inside to work on our goals.

Solar New Moon Eclipse Jan.4 2:03AM (MST)
Mercury catches up (from Nov.’10) Jan.16
Full Moon Jan.19 2:21PM (MST)
Saturn goes Rx Jan.25

Starshine Editorial Jan 2011

2011-01-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,
I decided to look at the New Year’s Eve chart for Washington, D.C. Here is my interpretation of that wheel.

There’s a flow as we enter the New Year with Sun in Capricorn next to Mars and Pluto, and Moon in Sag with Venus nearby, trine to Jupiter and Uranus. The latter aspect allow us to expand our values, our sense of service to those who have less.

We are finishing up a cycle and need to trust that the new cycle will benefit us.
Since this N.Y.’s Eve is just before the New Moon Eclipse on the 4th (see inside), we are in the process of letting go and readying for the new anyway.
The Sun in-between Mars and Pluto is transformation and forward movement.

How do we keep our seat, the still-point within the chaotic flow. It’s one thing to contemplate earth changes ‘out there.’ It’s another to watch our own inner plates shifting and moving; have family and friends go through drastic measures of falling apart and coming together again; have to deal with floods and mudslides on your street.
It’s all very real when it affects you, your community, the make-up of your world. All one can do it try to find that place inside that is the flame, the place that remains when all else falls away.

Blessings,
Jyoti

Astro Update 12 29 10

2010-12-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight, at 12:21 PM (MST) (actually Dec.30th), Mercury goes Direct. We will begin movement again. We will begin to unstick ourselves from the places we have been visiting/visited upon since Dec.10th.

Yes there will be a 2 week period of playing catch-up. But, overall, it’s moving us and reminding us to take what we learned during the Rx time and use it. Make the changes we need to make. Correct the misunderstandings that have occurred.

“Be kind to your sleeping heart.
Take it out into the vast fields of Light
and let it breathe.”
Hafiz

Astro Update 12 17 10

2010-12-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

The Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on Tues., Dec.21st at 12:13 AM (MST) is visible from Northern Europe beginning at sunrise, in North and South America after midnight, and ending at sunset from Japan and NE Asia. This is a Total Eclipse of the Moon, with the Earth passing between the Sun and the Moon.
At 29degrees pf Sag. the Sun and Moon square Jupiter and Uranus is Pisces, Juno in Virgo, and conjunct Mercury Rx in Sag.
While the Full Moon represents peak experiences, this one also pushes the boundaries of faith and trust and a willingness to participate in a new way of managing our lives.
When Pluto entered Capricorn a few years ago, it began to show us that ‘business as usual’ isn’t working anymore.
Now we stand on some of those ashes, looking around for our next piece. Can we call up the stamina of faith to see us through to the next place of knowing where we are going.
Remember that Eclipses take 3-6 months to manifest their messages in and through us, so a quick-jerk fix is not an Eclipse’s job. It’s a trigger point that sparks something, and a few months later, we get the idea.

Hours later, the Winter Solstice finds us at 4:39PM (MST) and we enter the last quarter of the astrological year. Emotional expression, creative outlets, and owning your own power and not giving yourself away to others’ wishes, is key. Creating nurturing environments for yourself is vital as well.

I’ll look at the next Solar Eclipse on Jan.4th, a partial Eclipse of the Sun, in the next update. This Eclipse is opposite the U.S. Sun, and I’m curious as to how this will look over the following 6 months for this country.

“Pulling out the chair
Beneath your mind
And watching you fall upon God—
What else is there
For Hafiz to do
That is any fun in this world!”
Hafiz

Bone Health

2010-12-13T06:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.naturalnews.com/030708_osteoporosis_bone_health.html

An alternative opinion on bone health.

(copy and paste this url to your address bar. this is not a link).

Astro Update 12 11 10

2010-12-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Dec.10th, Mercury went Retrograde (Rx) at 5:06 AM (MST) until Dec.30th.
Mercury will Retrograde out of Capricorn and back into Sagittarius to choices made several days before Thanksgiving.
What is shifting in your viewpoint, out of necessity. What is no longer true for you. It’s the time to mull these things around, to go inward, meditate, self-reflect.

On Monday, Dec.13th, there is a stellium in Capricorn…Mercury, Pluto and Mars are all the same exact degree. The time span when they are exact runs from 9:09-9:13 PM (MST), all at 4 degrees of Capricorn.
This is a powerful day, a powerful evening. Insights into the changes you’d like to make in your life may catch your attention. A good day to pay attention to your speech, your thoughts, what you tell yourself, and what is shifting and changing within you.

Be open to what it has for you.

“Pure Love is no meek priest
or tight banker.
It will smash all your windows
and only then throw in the holy gifts.”
Hafiz

Astro Update 11 23 10

2010-11-23T08:29:00.001-08:00

Mercury entered its shadow yesterday, Nov.22nd. It goes Retrograde (Rx) on Dec.10th and Direct on Dec.29th.
Looking at your assumptions, what you hope/believe to be true vs. what is true will be where this Mercury cycle leads us.
Where do we speak with bravado. Can we back it up.
Are we willing to see a larger picture of possibility without having it take us too far afield.
How do we integrate vaster insights with day-to-day responsibilities and goals.

Good questions to end the year on…Happy Thanksgiving!

“For the Truth has been Divinely Conceived
Deeply within each of us.
Hafiz
(Daniel Ladinsky translation)

2010-11-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1mQbLSIcyM&feature=share

interesting vid on youtube on Crystal/Indigo/Hippie children and why we came here...well done video...
Cut and paste to your address bar...this is not a link.

Writing Quote

2010-11-20T07:34:00.000-08:00

“Writing is an exploration of life. If you happened to live in the milieu of conflict, that obviously is what life means to you, and that is what you will explore." She said that writers are "selected" by their subjects. And a writer's subject, she says, is the "consciousness of his own era." Nadine Gordimer From The Writer’s Almanac.

Astro Update 11 17 10

2010-11-17T09:15:00.001-08:00

Venus begins its station today, turning Direct tomorrow, 11/18/10 at 2:19PM (MST). We have been in a holding pattern, a diving deep pattern since Oct.7th. Today things may feel like they are standing still with movement potential just beginning to show itself. On the brink, so to speak. Tomorrow things begin to move forward.
Now, this is not to say that you couldn’t set something in motion this afternoon. Of course, do it! It just suggests that, for the most part, health, finances and priorities will resume some aspect of resolution and natural flow tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, Jupiter goes Direct (9:55AM (MST). The Sun will have squared Neptune at 2:55AM (MST) and the Sun will trine Uranus at 10:58PM (MST).
All in all, it is a day of tremendous movement and opportunity. It is a day to pay heed to what we believe to be true and use this as a basis for what we want to set it motion.

Opportunities may present themselves over the next few days as we build toward the Full Moon in Scorpio on Sunday, Nov.21, at10:27AM (MST). This is a high degree of creativity being energized and released here. 29 deg. of Scorpio is the degree of the magician. Transform what calls to you and let go of what’s not yours.

“Open the window in the center of your chest,
and let the spirits fly in and out.”
Rumi

Astro Update

2010-11-15T08:46:00.000-08:00

Sun trines Jupiter today, 4:45 PM MST. Enjoy the expansiveness.

Writing Quote

2010-11-13T08:46:00.001-08:00

I’m learning the same lesson every single time. I’m learning to trust the process. I’m trying to remember that writing should be a form of play. I keep saying the fate of the free world does not hang in the balance. Even if I write a book that fails, nothing will happen. I’ll be mortified and embarrassed, but lives will not be lost over this. I take writing terribly seriously, and sometimes that just gets in my way. (Sue Grafton, Mystery Writer, interviewed by Diana Page Jordan, Writer’s Digest, Feb.2010).

The yellow hues of tumeric...

2010-11-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

The yellow hues of tumeric combined with scents of cardamom and cauliflower, curried chicken on the side, and the deep green of saag colored my plate at the Indian establishment known as the Taj.

I love eating here. The three-sided windowed-walls gave views of green colored foothills and deep blue skies beyond. This is my favorite place to eat in Boulder.
The line at the lunch buffet usually isn’t too long, so that once one is seated, actually eating the delicacies of the Indian palate are minutes away.

I joined the ranks of my fellow diners, plate in hand, and scooped the cauliflower and potato subhji from the covered pan, along with rice over which I ladled a deep brown lentil dal, chose a piece of nan with the tongs placed on the tray, and spooned some saag onto my plate. Before leaving the buffet table, I also poured some sweet kier into a small dish. This rice pudding mimicry would be what I ate first.

Never allowed to eat desert first in my life, I now gave myself permission to do that when waiting for that sweet treat at the end of the meal might prove tiresome.

With plate and small bowl in hand, I maneuvered back to my table. Indian food competes with Italian in my palate…hard to separate which takes first place. Today, it’s the plate before me. But first, the kier.

Writing Quote

2010-11-09T21:32:00.001-08:00

The writer who can find refuge in writing has been given a gift.
Writing isn’t just struggle. It is a respite from everything else in your life. Done with intensity, writing is truly time away, time in another place.
Do you appreciate that side of writing? Or do you find it easy to fixate on the sense of struggle and resistance with which most of us start our writing sessions?
See what a positive outlook can do for you.
Can you see your writing time as “a wonderful vacation?”

(from Walking On Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy)

More Book Reviews

2010-11-08T21:06:00.001-08:00

Mark of the Lion by Suzanne Arruda. Jade Cameron goes from the WWI French front lines as an ambulance driver to solving mysteries among the British in Africa. Good read, the whole series.

I Was Vermeer by Frank Wynne is a fascinating account of an exceptional Dutch artist Han van Meegeren. His father’s rigid demands were brutal and infected Han ruining any chance he had to make good of his own talents. It was only in making a choice to save his own life i.e. Nazi collaborator or forger, that he became known as a genius with a paintbrush. Even today art experts still argue over some paintings that may or may not have been his forgeries. ISBN-13: 978-1582345932 (Guest Reviewer: Arlene S. Bice)

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson. The story of two women trying to be true to their hearts while their hearts seem to have conflicting desires. Set in the early Roman occupation of England, these women have chosen different paths. The book illuminates the integrity of both choices. And it shows us that priestesses had much broader roles and responsibilities than we often assume. ISBN 978-0-670-03870-1 (Guest Reviewer: Kathy Schubert)

Astro Update 11 3 10

2010-11-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

Today, Neptune begins its stationing (same degree and minute) until Nov. 10th. We have opportunities, during this time, to get caught by/see through the illusion of things. Be as clear as possible. On Nov. 7th at 12:05 AM MST Neptune goes Direct and our spirituality and clarity are more usable.

The New Moon on Friday, Nov.5th suggests that the mind and thinking process is expansive, electric and willing to entertain new ideas and concepts, yet has a wavering quality. Reading poetry this month will satisfy that wavering, that poetic quality, almost like an astrological/homeopathic remedy.

Venus in its Retrograde motion, goes back in Libra on Sunday, Nov.7th, (will re-enter Scorpio at month’s end) and we re-think our relationship dynamics.

Pluto and the North Node are the same degree on Nov.9th…can we really open up the possible future scenarios we have in front of us and, with grace for all, begin that building process?

I’ve been told that the Sunspots of last week will reach the earth on Nov.11/12 and these were pretty powerful blasts of energy. So we could see temporary internet, technological, electrical, brain wave short-outs…stay tuned.

Venus is still Retrograde until Nov. 18th…there have been illnesses, financial losses, emotional disharmonies…all leading us to one area of our lives…are we living in integrity with our values, with who we really are. Interesting question/interesting answers, I’m sure.

“Though you have not seen them, there are swans, even now
tapping from the egg and emerging
into the sunlight.
They know who they are.”
Mary Oliver/Blue Pastures

Writing Quote

2010-11-01T16:43:00.001-07:00

If you can write a question, you can answer it. When you are writing, if you write a question, that is fine. But immediately go to a deeper level inside yourself and answer it in the next line.
What should I do with my life? I should eat 3 brownies, remember the sky, and become the best writer in the world.
Why did I feel weird last night? Because I ate pigeon for dinner and I wore my shoes on the wrong feet and because I am unhappy.
Where does the wind come from? It comes from the memory of pioneers on the Croix River. It loves the earth as far as the Dakotas.
From Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg.

Thoughts...

2010-10-28T17:51:00.001-07:00

It's an amazing process, isn't it...letting life take what's no longer yours, on whatever dimension it chooses...leaving you with bones, skin and soul...and a giant heart to love it all...

Writing Quote

2010-10-22T07:52:00.001-07:00

Once you have learned to trust your own voice and allowed that creative force inside you to come out, you can direct it to write short stories, novels, and poetry, do revisions, and so on. You have the basic tool to fulfill your writing dreams. But beware. This type of writing will uncover other dreams you have, too—going to Tibet, being the first woman president of the United States, building a solar studio in New Mexico—and they will be in black and white. It will be harder to avoid them.
From Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.

Pluto conjunct the North Node

2010-10-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

Another url to consider checking out...copy and paste to your address bar...Pluto conjunct the North Node in Nov.

http://www.theastrologyblog.com/

Political Astrology article and short vid

2010-10-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on political astrology for the coming election...not a link...cut and paste to your address bar.

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news-elections/article/political-astrology-whats-in-the-stars-for-2010-elections-barack-obama-sarah-palin-glenn-beck/19652426?icid=main|htmlws-main-w|dl1|sec1_lnk3|178557&a_dgi=aolshare_email

Calendars for 2011

2010-10-18T21:15:00.001-07:00

Astrological/Collage Calendars. $20 + $2.s/h. Daily Moon movements, monthly astro blurb, poetry excerpt. jyotiwind@gmail.com
303.541-9106.

Impermanence

2010-10-13T06:18:00.000-07:00

While hiking in the woods last week, I noticed how the colors were beginning to shift and change. The pale mist gathered and dissipated into a deepening blue sky, and I could see the longer-range changes gathering momentum. This was not the season of energy arising out of the roots of deep winter. This was early Fall, the time of descent, of energy slowly dissolving back into those very depths to await the hand of Spring.

I marveled at how touched I felt, knowing that everything I was looking upon that was evoking that appreciation of beauty and gratitude, would soon dissolve into the barren wasteland of winter.

And as I stood on this trail, I realized another small lesson in impermanence. All things dissolve and fade away, whether the beauty of a season or of the human body. All things dissolve. Jyoti

Fall Book Reviews 2

2010-10-11T08:28:00.001-07:00

Girl Sleuth, Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak reveals a brilliant idea for girls coming from a Victorian male. How unusual. Rehak shows all sides of the people who created, coddled and kept this figure alive in books as an icon that young girls could draw from. The book also reveals a woman smart enough to run a huge company but so naïve in a business sense to place loyalty in a company who took advantage of her financially for many years as she took the same advantage of her ghost writers. This book was a page-turner for me. ISBN-10: 015603056X (Guest Reviewer: Arlene S. Bice)

The Murderous Urges of Ordinary Women by Lois Meltzer thrilled me to the very core. Four dear friends, of a certain age, now somewhat invisible in our youth-obsessed culture, right some wrongs in just the ways you proabbly wished you had thought of yourself. I laughed out loud and cried a bit oo with this delightful read. I loved the book so much I tracked down the author to interview her for my Priestess TV audio interview section.
Check out the interview at http://PriestessTV.com Cindy Morris, host of
Priestess Entrepreneur: Kitchen Table Conversations http://PriestessTV.com
When it comes to choosing a book to read, normally we first check what category the book falls into….fiction, self-help, biography, spiritual, healing, how to and so on. Of course, as already well-read souls, a book must leap out and grab one of our peak interest sensors. If not, we rarely do even a brief flip through the pages.
Well I did do this recently, that rare act to look a bit into a book that surely isn’t one of my hot-potato subjects or lifelong attractions. This particular book was on Shamanism. Unless I even knew what this was, or had an interest in doing a soul retrieval, or perhaps felt a calling to become a shaman, then it is unlikely I would give two seconds to this book. What a mistake that would be!

No Center Stripe by Jerry Meyer, available on Lulu.Com Adult Parent-Child Relationships. One of the most difficult transitions in our maturation process is the discovery by us as children that our parents are people and the realization by our parents that we are now also adults. This engaging story of two adult men, father-son, on a cross-country, cross-family-history journey cannot help but make us reflect on our relationships with our parents. In addition to the soul-searing emotions that are evoked as the miles go by, the author provides us with loving descriptions of the various milieus the travelers transverse. Sadly for us readers, the destination is eventually reached and the book ends; let's hope there is more to read from this first-time author soon. (Guest Reviewer: Bob Surrette)

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. This writer’s words stopped me and made me want to savor them like the food her character, Lillian, is preparing for her students in the weekly cooking class she leads. The nuances of food, feeling and memory remind me very much of ‘Like Water for Chocolate’, yet there’s a gentleness here and a strength of wisdom that delights.
You follow Lillian first, as her father leaves and her mother retreats behind book covers, and she is left to deal with life. Then the world of food shows her metaphors, helps her craft a life, simmering gently in order to grow her up well.
This is a book for people who like food, character study, and well-written prose with life’s wisdoms interspersed. I absolutely loved this book!
ISBN 978-0-399-15543-7.

Magical Housekeeping by Tess Whitehurst. Good book that covers a variety of approaches to housekeeping – feng shui, various rituals, faieries, animals, crystals, cleansing and clearing, including a good one for clutter clearing. She suggests useful approaches to keeping house. It is easy to reference. And it is written with a light heart and balanced approach, nothing heavy-handed about it. ISBN 978-0-7387-1985-6 (Guest Reviewer: Kathy Schubert)

Fall Book Reviews, Part 1

2010-10-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Fall 2010 Book Reviews

Shadows on the Coast of Maine by Lea Wait. Maggie has created a business of buying, collecting and selling antique prints, especially from the 1800’s. She takes her business, Shadows, to fairs and on her adventures, in this book, to the Maine coastline. Death, mayhem, and a love interest find her, and crimes must be solved. I really enjoyed this mystery. This is the second book in the series. ISBN#0-7434-5621-1.

Mystery Scene Magazine offers great articles, book reviews, and interviews for the mystery lover.

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier. In his book, Prof. P C explores the world of the population who live on less than one dollar per day. He dives into the dilemma of why the impoverished nations of the world fail to develop despite all the advantages of international support. Despite the non-fiction label, this book flows well and is easy to read. Collier does an excellent job of breaking down statistics for the international political novice. ISBN 978-0-19-531145-7. (Guest Reviewer: Liana Walsh).

Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming by Michael Mann and Lee R.Kump. The Illustrated Guide to the Findings of the International Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC Report Every year the IPCC publishes a report for the intn’l community of the most relevant and sound statistics about Global Warming. Mann and Kump take this very technical report and break it down into an easy read for any individual to understand. With fun exercises and colorful graphs, each page is enjoyable and informative at the same time. ISBN-10: 0-13-604435-2. (Guest Reviewer: Liana Walsh).

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. The book is about a race car driver who has to give up racing for awhile, and it has been his life. The story is philosophical and told from the point of view of the racer's dog. It's a wonderful, funny and sad story, and the end is absolutely wonderful and uplifting. (Guest Reviewer: Ann Camy)

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless
by Susan Jane Gilman This is a memoir based on the belief that there's more to women's lives than just getting a date. The author's stories tell of engaging in some demented and hysterical behavior between her birth in the 1960s and the years in her thirties. Lots of hearty laughs as she focuses on passions and delusions that we all experience in one form or another. (Guest Reviewer: Marsha J. Perlman, author of SPIRIT LIFE). ISBN 0-446-67949-6

Astro Update 10 7 10

2010-10-07T07:19:00.001-07:00

Today is the New Moon in Libra, at 12:44 PM (MDT)...a new cycle of goal setting, study and taking on more serious projects.
Venus goes Retrograde tomorrow, Oct.8th (until Nov.18) and it's a huge time of re-evaluation...do we rebuild; how are our finances, really. What can I live with and what can't I?
Sometimes with Venus Retrograde, since Venus rules money and resources, finances really take center stage...it can be a flow out of nowhere, or things put on hold that would normally give us that flow...or financial outlays that we hadn't planned on...
Keep track of what's going out, what's coming in and what opportunities might be available if we keep track...

Fall 2010 Starshine Newsletter Editorial

2010-09-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
Life comes unexpectedly sometimes…a friend’s passing, a new baby coming, a health diagnosis, a family member’s health concern, the loss of home and identity through fire, flood or storm.
As the Buddhist’s say: How do we keep our seat?
How do we maintain our own sense of self, our center, while changes and challenges roil all around us. How do we take the next step, even when we’re not sure what that looks like. How do we continue.

Keep your heart open. Share your thoughts and feelings so there is a flow moving through you. This can take the form of sharing with friends or family, or any creative endeavor. It keeps the energy channels clear.

Be willing to take that next step, whatever it is for you. Forgive the past and let it slide away from you like a snake shedding its skin Fulfill yourself, so you don’t leave here with regrets at the end of your life, only a full heart.

Blessings,
Jyoti

Soliciting pieces for anthology. Working title:
What We Weren’t Told: Women Write About Aging. Memoir, Essay, Poetry. 300-800 words. jyotiwind@gmail.com 303.541-9106. Deadline: May 1, 2011.

Fall Meditation
Go into nature…a backyard, a park, the beach. If you can, put your back up against a tree or sit next to a bush; lay your heart on the earth at the beach or in a garden or meadow. Give to the earth and trees the energy that churns inside of you, either too much or too stuck.
Just let it flow out. The earth will grow flowers with it.
Then receive the earth’s energies, through the trees or the earth herself,
Breathe long and deep, in and out…giving, receiving. Let it heal you.

My heart,
my conscious awareness
rests in this
Divine Hand.

I would hope
it to be
benevolent.
Jyoti Wind

Fall Book Review

2010-09-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Four Insights by Alberto Villoldo could without a doubt also be classified in the category of “Learning How to Write Fiction, or Write Anything at All”. As you flip through the pages, bold type stand-outs for aspiring writers covering ‘How We Dream the World Into Being”, “Clear the Junk Out of Your Life”, ‘Experiential Knowledge’, ‘Understanding the Energy of Perception’, “Mastering Time,” “Working With the Intelligence of the Universe”, or “The Practice of Fearlessness”, all completely relevant to the peeling out of ourselves the written narrative. Yes, these could also interest those who read spiritual books, or self-help books, or even books about the Quantum Field.

But there was more than these random lines that might seduce a “I-Haven’t-A-

Clue-How-to-Get-It-to-Sound-Like-It-Is-In-My-Head” writer. Whether you sway on the edge of one of a dozen writer-identities such as ‘Anxious Sweating Starving ‘novice’ training in Fiction’, “University Graduate With an English Degree and Blocked’, ‘Journalist-Turned-Scriptwriter’, or ‘Biographer of My Own Non-Ending Story’, you will recognize the high-level pertinence of these above statements. But something else clenched it for me: ‘Letting Go of Your Identity’.

Aren’t we often creating pseudo-identities within the Voice we speak through in a piece of writing? Don’t we labor to clearly give an identity to a character, or a place? Don’t you have to have an identity in this society before most anyone will even speak with you? For example, what is the number one most asked question when you first meet someone new: “What do you do?” Yes! Nail down that identity before anything else. We must know the ‘value’ of the person we are talking to! For me, ‘identity’ is a warning-flag that has been waving more and more in recent months. I have found myself staring frequently into the blank canvas trying to see who I am. For those who do not know me, my identity got neatly ripped away from an accident four years ago.

I have recently been seeking to rediscover who I am, so that I can appropriately tell people when in the social arena again, or even have an inkling of the direction I am best suited to start moving in.

Yet here is precisely a book emphasizing the necessity for us all to let go of our defined identities, which the author Villoldo says is essential if we are to progress in whatever we are doing. Which includes writing, creative endeavors, and eating Madeleines in France with tea!

Villoldo exquisitely speaks about the writer’s craft, as he points to our need to create story, and the stories we live by, as well as the importance of the words we use, the words we think, the way we perceive and the way we create from our perceptions, and from our memories, dreams, and visions.

Of course, those also interested in how to be more conscious and present in life’s day to day unfoldings, and those who desire to find interest in each occurrence and experience, or who intend to live without fear, without judgment, without projection….the sort of concerns involved with self-evolution and spiritual-centering…..will also find this book a sacred tool in the pouch of the shaman that we all are.

Without further word, and leaving you in mystery, a few hours spent in the middle world of this book will find you surfacing with answers that bring you peace as you stare into the blank unknown we are hovering in. (Guest Reviewer: Karen Ann)

Astro Update 9 22 10

2010-09-22T11:15:00.001-07:00

Happy Autumnal Equinox today. It’s exact time is 9:09 PM (MDT). For this next quarter, there may be healing in relationships, and let your emotional intelligence inform your choices.

Tomorrow, Sept.23rd, at 3:17 AM (MDT), the Harvest Full Moon shows the Moon oppose Sun, square Pluto, oppose Saturn…again let go of resistance. Take your power and do something with it.

Sat. Sept.25th, the Sun squares Pluto at 6:24 PM (MDT), and will influence both earlier Sat. and Sunday. Power plays and challenges seem to find you. You can refuse to play! Own your own power and make choices accordingly.

Note: Since Sept.5th, we have been in the shadow of the next Venus Retrograde cycle which starts Oct.8th. So keeping track of your finances is a good pursuit right now and for the next several months.

God is trying to sell you something
but you don’t want to buy.
That is what your suffering is:
Your fantastic haggling,
your manic screaming over the price!
Hafiz

Writing Quote

2010-09-21T10:59:00.001-07:00

It’s much better to be a tribal writer, writing for all people and reflecting many voices through us, than to be a cloistered being trying to find one peanut of truth in our own individual mind. Become big and write with the whole world in your arms.
(Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg).

Astro Update 9 11 10

2010-09-11T10:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Sept.10th, Pluto began to station (stay the same degree and minute) until the 17th, going Direct on Monday, the 13th. During this 7 day period, we dance with Plutonian energies at their strongest, which includes transformation, breakdown and rebuilding, letting go, and diving deep.
Deep insights and in-depth conversations are the key here. Don’t give your power away, even with your own feelings. And don’t try to make things happen that it might not be time for.

Mercury goes Direct tomorrow, Sunday, Sept.13th at 5:09 PM (MDT). Yeah!!! We move again. Things held in a static form for the past 3 weeks, now begin the slow process of righting themselves and moving forward.
As far as mistakes and misunderstandings go, we have the next 2 weeks to rectify those things.

So the crux of this update is that tomorrow/Sunday, and Monday are 2 very intense days, yet there are pressure releases that feel good.

Tues. the 14th, Mars enters Scorpio until the end of Oct., and the prospects of transformation and rebuilding continue.

“I am in love with every church
and mosque
and temple
and any kind of shrine

because I know it is there
that people say the different names
of the One God.”
Hafiz

4Mile Fire Update

2010-09-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

The 4Mile Canyon Fire this morning is still 0% contained. We are expecting wind gusts to 30mph, but also some humidity, possibly 30-50%...possibly rain, which would be a blessing.
As of last count, unofficially, there are 92 structures destroyed, 7120 acres burned or burning, and over 3000 people evacuated.
I sit with windows closed here in town, as the smoke filled air irritates my lungs.
Am waiting to hear the loud drone of slurry bombers beginning their morning runs to drop flame retardant on the line where the fire could move to next and give it a few hours respite.
People I know have lost their homes, or are awaiting word that theirs is still standing.
The winds of fate aren't personal, neither is the fire, but I'm sure it feels like it.
This is the third day, now considered a priority one fire, so federal aid and resources may be suddenly available to help fight this. I've heard firemen have come from SD to help us. There may be others from out of state that I don't know about.
9 local firemen have lost their homes while they were fighting to save other homes.

Send you light and prayers to those displaced and those fighting the fire and for the whole community.

September Astrology Column

2010-09-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

The New Moon on the 8th gives deep insight potential and a new cycle of picking and choosing what’s appropriate/what works.

The 9th suggests living your truth more fully. On the 10th, Pluto begins its stationing process through the 17th, making this an intense Scorpio-like time frame.

Mercury goes Direct on the 12th and we begin to redo the previous 3 weeks, tending to unfinished business.

Pluto goes Direct (Rx since early April) on the 13th and we begin to live out our transformative changes that we have been working on since then.

On the 18th, we can expand into new experiences. The 21st brings unexpected situations.

On the 22nd, the Autumnal Equinox begins the next quarter of the year, building toward the Full Moon the next day. Potential healing in relationship dynamics. Emotional intelligence is high. Let it lead you.

On Sept.23rd. the Harvest Full Moon again reinforces the Cardinal Cross in the heavens. Let go of resistance, take your power and do something with it. Leave old stuff behind. We are moving on.

We end Sept. on the 30th with Sun conjunct Saturn…step up and take responsibility for what’s yours.

New Moon-Sept.8-4:30AM(MDT)
Mercury goes Direct Sept.12-5:09PM(MDT)
Pluto goes Direct Sept.13
Autumnal Equinox-Sun enters Libra
Sept.22-9:09PM(MDT)
Harvest Full Moon-Sept.23-3:17AM(MDT)

Mercury’s cycle:
Enter its shadow-July31
Turns Rx-Aug.2
Goes Direct-Sept.12
Catches up Sept. 27

2010-09-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

The gifts of food and love. The heart knows how to live life in a full way, open to what each day will bring you. Sometimes saying yes to what’s on the table opens you up even more, expanding your experiences.
Sometimes it’s saying no the same thing. The paradox, the balance, the willingness to take the next step, and the forgiving of the past, letting it slide away like a snake sheds its skin.
All these things meet you and lead you…teach you a path that fulfills you…and you will leave here with no regrets…only a full heart.

Writing Quote

2010-09-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

I will say this: no loneliness or solitude matches the fatigue and awful lonesomeness that comes in crowds or in continually being available to others at the expense of your inner voice. Musicians feel it too. Gian Carlo Menotti says that’s why he has a place in Scotland, where silence is inexpensive, because what musicians want is not music but silence in which to listen. The loneliness of artistic creation, after all, is momentary, because the act of creating creates that perfect unity when Time stands still and you experience only stillness, and in utter emptiness the fullness of your Self. (For Writers Only by Sophy Burnham)

My heart...

2010-08-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

My heart,
my conscious awareness
rests in this
Divine Hand.

I would hope
it to be
benevolent.

Astro Update 8 21 10

2010-08-21T15:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Aug.20, at 1:59PM (MDT), Mercury went Rx (Retrograde) until Sept.12th. Mercury is presently in Virgo so the issues to look at are health, diet, exercise, and healing models. Because Mercury rules Virgo, we may also be looking at our nervous system and how we organize ourselves around stress, change and right choices.
We will return, over the following three weeks of introspection and analytical self-examination, to the beginning of August and the choices we made at that time, when Mercury entered the shadow of this Rx cycle.
So, as in all Mercury Rx cycles, be as clear in your communications as possible. Leave nothing to chance or procrastination. It will bite you! Re-check airline connections and car rental reservations, and use this 3 week period to your advantage: study something, engage in a project or creative venture, meditate and pray more.

Today, Aug.21st, is the third and final Saturn/Pluto square (3:47 AM/MDT). This aspect began in Fall ’09 and Feb.’10 and has been helping us wear away at our resistances, those places we need to disengage from and swim out into the deep river waters of trust.

On Tues. we have the Virgo/Pisces Full Moon (11:05 AM/MDT): Strength and empowerment and the ability to make changes all are available for inner work. Creativity is high.

On Wed. Aug.25th, we have Sun trine Pluto at 11:11PM (MDT) and adds to the sense of empowerment. Use this deep energy wisely and transform what needs to be transformed.

“Ever since Happiness heard your name,
It has been running through the streets
Trying to find you.”
by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

A Rune

2010-08-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

I drew the Rune Berkana, the Birch Tree. It tells me that I am on a path to blossoming, ripening and growth, the flow of beings into their new form.
That I must release resistance, go deeply with correct motives, and that patience, fairness and generosity are called for here.
Also rectification. I think that to mean clearing up old business, cleaning out the dark corners of the psyche, the personality, the small places that I justify on some level.

I listen to the cricket’s legs grinding into song outside my bedroom window. It’s closing in on four a.m. and sleep has left and hasn’t returned yet. There’s a coolness in the air tonight that also speaks of change, of patience. We are approaching again, the ‘in-between’ of seasons, no longer the heat of summer, not yet the cooling down of Fall.

I am not yet patient, have not yet flown the cage of my own resistance. I’ll get there just as Fall will arrive. There are certain inevitabilities in life that seem to beckon us forward from their future haven.

We move forward, one foot with patience, one step with generosity and trust. Fall will come. I will blossom.
The cricket has moved on to other pastures of the night and I am left to contemplate the silence.

Here I breathe deeply.
Here I am familiar.
Here I lay the seeds of future growth.

Astro Update

2010-07-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Mars opposes Uranus this morning. Erratic energy. Be mindful with what you do.

Being by the ocean...

2010-07-25T08:03:00.001-07:00

Being by the ocean, smelling her scent, feeling her waters bathing me in salt and her many minerals, I feel the old feelings I used to have when I lived here…the longing for what could be…the love that’s still possible.

It opened my feelings to possibilities. I feel young at her hands, untried at her years, innocent at her vastness, in awe of her power.

I forget every time I leave. I immediately remember upon my return.

Tonight I will sleep near her pounding the sand with rhythmic waves and my inner life will reveal itself to me in easier ways.

I’m always so grateful to be here.

Water

2010-07-24T16:02:00.001-07:00

Water is alive,
full of color
and the energy
of relaxing or stimulation.

It seeps in between
our cells
and moistens
the deserts
of our inner landscape.

It wets our lips
and throats,
and revives us
when we thought
we had died
of disappointments
or desertion.

Astro Update 7 21 10

2010-07-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

Asto Update 7 21 10

Today, Jupiter begins its 4 day stationing aspect as it goes Retrograde on the 23rd at 6:03 AM (MDT). Saturn also re-entered Libra today at 9:09 AM (MDT) as it did last Fall ’09, and continues its 2 yr. passage through Libra.

What all of this means, in the smaller picture of today and the next few days, is that we are drawn inwardly somewhat, looking at our life philosophy, our life belief system (until mid-Nov.) and yet the 23rd is also about personal freedom of expression and what that means to each of us.

On the larger scale, we are getting closer to the ‘Cardinal Climax’ as some are calling it…the Cardinal T Cross from July 24-Aug.6. We have opportunities here to level the playing field somewhat. Transformation is the key, as are new modalities for living and for solving old problems. We get a taste of where everything is…culture, economy, the state of the world, the environment that sustains us. What of it is working and what needs our absolute help.

The Cardinal T Cross:
Mars/Saturn---------opposing Jupiter/Uranus
+
+
Pluto (squaring all the above)

“Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
Rumi