To go beyond what has been done before we need to take a risk, or leap of faith.

One of the risks I have taken with my work is to give myself more permission to express what feels natural and right in a session- because that feeling is how I know the Divine is working through me.

It has been freeing to do this. Yet it’s been a process. I have experienced a lot of conflict about doing my work in the old way versus the new. Because I don’t know exactly what to call it, and also because it’s a change for me, too. In any typical session, many have the conscious or unconscious expectation of being the passive recipient of downloaded guidance and advice. But I like a conversation, to establish rapport, ask questions- that’s how I feel into energy and receive channeled insight. And while I offer guidance, I also recognize I am not the guide; I model how it’s done rather than doing it for you.

As I “do” differently, I may disappoint others’ expectations of me!

A fact, I’ve learned, that always signals new growth and expansion.

Right before I first published A Love Alchemist’s Notebook, a channel told me “Some new people will be drawn to you, but not everyone will like you. You will disappoint some people.” (to my Venus ruled chart :: chills)

As a human being who likes to be liked, when this happens it naturally bothers me.

And yet, I’ve learned, those people are not my people. I want my people to like me; they deserve someone who resonates, too. More importantly, I want to like me, and that looks like me sitting in my Truth and not catering to others’ expectations. Even if the new is temporarily uncomfortable to that very human part of me.

This is a powerful New Moon Solar Eclipse. Jupiter conjoins it, meaning, many of us are reaching for freedom in new ways, and expanding beyond old boundaries if we so allow it. Jupiter is the planet of freedom. Feel into the energy now. If you don’t feel freedom, you will certainly feel restless for it!

This Solar Eclipse/Jupiter falls in my third house of teaching, writing and information. Eclipses bring changes into the area of life they fall. The (astrology) book I’m about to publish in January (yay!) is different, like me. Just because no one else has ever written in the way that I do…doesn’t mean I cannot. Just because I use the ancient art of astrology as a tool…doesn’t mean I use it in the same way as others. As I figure out my authentic way forward, as many of us are doing right now, this feels very much in the Spirit of this eclipse.

Where are you ready to spread your wings and fly, fly, expand into that more authentic direction of YOU?

Another way of asking this question, using astrology:

Where is Solar Eclipse/Jupiter (4 CAP) in your chart? This is where you can get juice by asking Jupiter questions:

-How can I allow myself to experience more freedom, in this area? How am I ready to grow here, and potentially leave something old behind for something new, unfamiliar and exciting?

-How have I been underestimating myself in this area? Where could I take a leap of faith, or do something risky, in order to experience a greater sense of ease and freedom within myself and life?

-Where can I let go of a commitment, vow, social protocol or “should” that is no longer satisfying?

-Am I holding onto a tradition, “the way things are, and have been”, that is now holding me back?

-What ending could give me more freedom than I ever thought possible for myself?

-Where will a commitment to do some hard work (Capricorn) pay off in new opportunities for growth?

-Is this eclipse illuminating a blind spot for me? Can I see that anything uncomfortable I am experiencing is also showing me what I’m ready to let go of, and finally expand beyond?

The shadowy side of Capricorn/Saturn is guilt. That energy tells you that you should conform, be different than who you are, and that if you don’t follow social protocol, you’re wrong. When someone tells me I should be doing things differently, I can still feel a tinge of guilt and shame about it. Yet when I’m willing to simply feel that energy, and re-center into my own backbone and root energy (which shows me the Truth)…it always dissipates. Letting go of the guilt is apart of the process of becoming comfortable with who I am NOW.

Jupiter, transiting Capricorn, potentially frees us up from any strictures of conformity. Uranus is helping us ground into our authenticity, and Uranus is trine Jupiter (and this Eclipse) now. If we are holding onto how things “should be,” or playing into others’ expectations, we are probably feeling really & truly uncomfortable.

But some discomfort is the discomfort of expanding into the new – of never having done this before.

For this discomfort, we can ground, root and center into our True Self, give our self full permission to have the best experience we most want -AND- if we don’t know how yet, vow to figure it out… with persistence, patience, faith and a little work…we will taste the sweet freedom of going beyond what we’ve done before.

And that, my friends, is called growth.

May the old ways and ancient traditions bless and inform the new structures you are birthing in your own life.

Happy Holidays, One and All!