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I write regularly at jessicashepherd.substack.com — soft, human words on healing, astrology & intuition:
Blog
Venus-Chiron: Bleed for Love
Venus and Chiron have been dancing together in the sky and this hasn’t been a make-out party. Because Pluto has been square my Chiron, my Venus-Chiron configuration has been dominating my awareness (Venus in Cancer, my chart ruler, is in the tenth house, square Chiron-Aries-Moon conjunct in the seventh house), I thought this might be a good time to write a bit about how Venus- Chiron manifests in our lives, and how I'm working to redeem the painful sensitivity we experience in the slings and...
What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?
“I know it sounds like I’m sticking my head in the sand, but I’ve stopped listening to the news, and I’m just doing what I enjoy...” A client said this to me today, and I replied "good!" But why the self-admonition? Her statement reflected a consciousness circulating in the collective that reminds me of survivor guilt; after every tragedy, we feel guilty. In America, we feel guilty about feeling good when others are suffering. We feel guilty if we’re not reading the paper, if we’re white, if...
Virgo Full Moon: Let’s Lighten Up
It’s a gentle Sunday morning. The cuckoos coo, and the heavily Piscean energy invites lingering over coffee and puttering around the house all day long. Reading comics is a new habit I’ve adopted since moving here. It’s a gauge of how much lighter the energy is, here, how much lighter I am. I can laugh and be silly. Enlightenment literally translates to “lightening up”, which today means taking things less seriously. Not so long ago, a funny moment earned a dry snort. Now, watching a bulldog...
Aquarius New Moon Eclipse: Come In From the Cold
This morning the tropical rain comes down in deluges, pattering against the roof, made all the more loud for the fact that our house has jalousie windows- glass slats that never truly close, creating newfound intimacy with the outdoors. I look out from the high porch, watch the raindrops dance on the delicate white plumeria and purple orchids. My heart pitter patters, too. I am peace, all is well. Yet I don’t entirely trust it. I am wary. I am healing. I am healing from years of living in...
How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count The Ways…
Self-love. It’s the foundation of everything good in our lives. We know we need self-love be fulfilled in our self, and in our intimate relationships. But what is self-love, precisely, and how do we generate more of it? In popular culture self-love has become synonymous with self-care -- which this article honestly explores: “True self care is not salt baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from. And that often takes doing the thing...
Leo Full Moon Eclipse: The HI Life
It’s a rockstar morning in Hawaii. The Oahu sun is shining too brightly as I peel back my eye mask and feel the weight of fatigue. I feel like I went on a bender last night, when in reality I ate a healthy meal, worked out and went to bed. I recollect that we were here in Hawaii during the Leo Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at this time last year (then, having no idea that we'd move here), and today, here we are, new residents of this beautiful island. This change, that felt it was taking place so...
Cancer Moon Meditation
“Come home” calls a distant voice from deep inside. Perhaps you've been feeling more emotional lately, or your attention has been too focused outside your self. Don't worry, this will be easy. Just set the intention: to withdraw from the external world, to let go of concern about what’s going on outside of you, about anything but you, right now. This time is for you and only you. (I suggest putting on headphones and playing this soothing background music.) Start by going inside your body,...
Cancer Full Moon: Clear-Hearted
Holidays generally leave me feeling over-extended, irritable and in need of alone time. It’s not unusual. Overheard in a parking lot, on our “vacation” to Yosemite: “I just want to be at home in my slippers, my new bathrobe, curled up with a good book.” I yearned for the exact thing for most of that trip. It’s the enforced socialization that puts me over the top. For introverts, socializing after exhaustive holiday and meal preparation is not restorative nor rewarding. Introverts recharge by...
Sagittarius New Moon: Invite & Allow
Lately, something has become more clear in my spiritual practice. The more I focus on resolving or fixing anything, the worse I feel. It’s the law of what you focus on grows: Whatever obstacle I think I’m experiencing only becomes more solid. A problem can only remain a problem as long as I believe it is one. The moment I can relax, accept, allow and invite a solution to appear, it will either recede into the background, like the scenery of a painting, or dissolve entirely. Is it magic? Smoke...
Winter Solstice: You Are the Light
Winter solstice, in the Northern Hemisphere, arrives at the holiday season. As an energy sensitive, I am deeply attuned to shadows running amok, and I notice there is often more doubt, sadness and fear in the collective at this time of year, when the interplay between dark and light becomes more apparent not only in our environment, but in our inner lives, too. It's quite a contrast to hold the darkness against the festive fun we're told we're supposed to be having. Yet its an exercise in...
