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I write regularly at jessicashepherd.substack.com — soft, human words on healing, astrology & intuition:
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Aries Full Moon: Let It Rip
I found myself, recently, in an uncomfortable and prolonged state of hyper-vigilance. I could feel the way my body wouldn’t allow myself to fully relax. The tension behind my heart, and in my shoulders, as if bolstering myself, readying myself, for the next fresh hell to appear, the next tiger or bear to attack. It was the compounded stress of many challenging situations in which I had to be the leader, figure things out, make hard decisions and process many emotions and energies –and because...
Libra New Moon: Who Doesn’t Feel Good?
What had started out feeling good no longer did. So, I did the hard but right thing. I decided to take space from the relationship. To adjust the situation, take care of me, instead of adjusting myself. My Ego protested. But I love this friend! Isn’t there another way?! My Soul replied, This isn’t about love. This is about honoring what I feel is in alignment. My Ego kept arguing with me. For days, weeks. This was truly a no-win situation. On one hand, I could stay in the relationship and feel...
Pisces Full Moon: Clearing
I was sitting down to a breakfast I’ve had for 15 years due to dietary limitations. The almond butter was arguing with me. It had been itching my throat lately, so I got the peanut butter and cashew butter out of the pantry. No, no, and no. Dry mock “toast” for me. I burst into tears. I’ve been doing this discipline for almost twenty years, years of cooking and choosing what is good for this body instead of what is yummy, or what is on offer. Retraining my pallet, doing the hard work of...
Virgo New Moon: I’m Okay
I was at a beach in Kauai, topaz blue waves gently lapping, when I overheard a conversation between the two women next to me. “I’ve been so screwed up...something something... Mercury retrograde...something something...I just can't figure things out,” said the younger woman, festive earrings dangling from her pretty but pinched face. Like a mantra, her energy said: I’m not okay. I’m not okay. The next morning outside a coffee house, different people, similar conversation. “How are you?” asked...
Aquarius Full Moon: What If?
I’m so great at anticipating, I told the nurse who was about to jab me with a needle, that if there were an award for the skill of anticipation, I’d have it. In fact, I’d worked myself up into such a state of feverish anticipation over the prospect of seeing my own blood and the possibility of passing out (it’s happened before), that I actually gave myself a slight fever. I'm an amazing manifester. Anticipating, creating emotional expectation and excitation about the future, is central to...
Leo New Moon: You Do You
When I saw, on social media, that the founder of a magazine that consistently rejected my work had died, I felt that old feeling of rejection rise up again. It brought up another more recent interaction, too, when, on the cusp of being super jazzed about being able to apply my creative gifts to songwriting, my guitar teacher told me that my writing confused her, then proceeded to deliver a lecture called “you need to learn how to write so others can understand it”. My jaw dropped. I felt like...
Capricorn Full Moon Lunar Eclipse: Profound Presence
Okay. Wow, that eclipse period was super intense. How was your eclipse? Wait, don’t tell me. I don't want to know. I’m not going to tell you what happened for me, either. For reasons you’ll understand as you read along. When something difficult happens in our life, it's normal to seek out emotional support. To want someone dear to pull near to, to tell our story and who (hopefully) will help us feel better. It’s culturally, typically, what we do. Especially as women. We talk about our traumas,...
Ground Your Body, It’s Eclipse Season
Right now you will hear channels, astrologers, and teachers who closely track energetic shifts on the planet all saying something similar. The language is different around “what” exactly is occurring, depending on who is doing the talking, but most agree that we are in a peak period of energetic adjustment and rapid change. What bottom line advice is everyone giving? Ground. Ground. Astrologers call this eclipse season. Twice a year, with more or less intensity depending on the nature of the...
Cancer New Moon Eclipse: Come Home
A few weeks ago, we moved into a new house; the first house I’ve ever owned. Yes, my name is on the title. Crazy. A homeowner? In Hawaii? How interesting that this a part of “the Plan”! My intention has only always been to listen inward for a sense of rightness, and be guided from that place. The result is often surprising, as I’ve learned to not be attached to the form things take, but the sense of alignment, the way I feel in my energy body. Because conditioning about home and family is...
Gemini New Moon: Feel, Don’t Think
When they found Amanda Eller, who had been missing in the Maui forest for over two weeks, it was a big story, here. Not just for her rescue and ordeal, but her spiritual perspective. It’s rare, in media, to hear someone frame something so difficult as a “spiritual experience,” one in which she felt she was being divinely guided, actually, to get lost. In her initial press conference, she said she relied on “a strong sense of internal guidance” to lead her back to her car – but instead it led...
