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I write regularly at jessicashepherd.substack.com — soft, human words on healing, astrology & intuition:
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Venus Meets The Uranus-Pluto Square: Peeling The Onion
We really don’t know what we’re getting into when we fall in love with another, do we? We fall under the spell of love, we fall for someone trustworthy, kind and true, and trust that no matter what comes our way, the tender feelings we have for one another will insulate and protect us from what inevitably comes next. Given the right person and barring red flags it would be silly to think it's not worth the risk. Love is the ultimate reality, and many know that God is Love, too. We take a vow,...
Gemini Full Moon: Messenger Moon
“He doesn’t listen to me,” said a client with a Gemini Moon. “He acts like he’s listening, but I can tell he’s not.” I could relate. I have a Gemini Moon partner. Constantly multi-tasking between science fiction videos, shopping and work, catching his attention is like trying to catch a butterfly in motion. As a result, I’ve learned a few tricks to keep him engaged. For instance, a bold statement will always get his attention; so will anything whimsical or intellectually interesting. I’ve also...
Sagittarius New Moon: A Lighter Spirit
In the Pacific Northwest, it’s raining as I write this. The gentle pattering of rain is drenching the Earth with wetness, making up for all those days of having to go without. And so it goes with astrology. Those of us who study it know that astrology flows with the cyclical seasons of life. Just as spring follows winter, yang follows yin, each zodiac season relieves the former. The good and the bad news is: Everything changes. Nothing can last forever. And so on the heels of the shadowy,...
The Final Degrees of Saturn in Scorpio: The Last Gasp
Last Monday (at the Mars-Pluto conjunction), my cousin’s wife’s young sister was murdered by her boyfriend- who then suicided. Mid-week, we heard sad news of Thich Nhat Hanh's precarious health. Saturday, my maternal grandmother died. Though I didn’t know my cousin-in-law’s sister, and since their move to the West Coast, from Ohio, we’re still just getting to know her, my heart trembled with horror. Overnight, jokes about violence have become distasteful. A picture of Annie Oakley on my...
Neptune Station: Awaken From The Dream
We all need to dip into Neptune’s waters of just being from time to time, as a measure to the time we spend doing. Losing all sense of time and space, for a bit, is a welcome and necessary reprieve for an overly busy world. Meditating, a day at the beach, a day of watching movies...even staring at the ceiling for hours can be therapeutic. We all need to dip into the timeless dimension, if only to remind our Self that we are an Eternal Soul. Yet as with all archetypes, Neptune can be as much...
Halloween Costumes by Astrological Sign
What's so fun about Halloween? You get to dress up, and wear an aspect of your personality people may know about - or not! The cool thing about the zodiac is that each sign contains universal archetypes, universal energy patterns available to us all (for instance, Aries, the Warrior), making it really easy and fun to tap your birth chart for costume inspiration. Want to enhance your natural creativity and give your energy a lift? You could go with your Sun sign, and your urge to shine, be seen...
Full Moon Aries Lunar Eclipse: Warrior Moon
Confession time: I’ve always had a fear of not being liked. Caving in to social pressure, via the desire to please another person rather than bare the uncomfortable pain of disappointing them, is probably my biggest and most persistently troubling life lesson to date. For me, this is no small problem, no minor flaw that I can brush under the carpet. I’ve sustained psychological and physical damage to my body from “people-pleasing.” I have a list of self-abuses. Like the time I jumped off a...
Eclipses: Moving Beyond the Four Walls of the Known
I am not going to give you a destination. I can only give you a direction - awake, throbbing with life, unknown, always surprising, unpredictable. -Bagwan Shree Rajneesh Eclipses make waves. Some are big waves like the sea at high tide; others are more like small ripples. In breaking waves, eclipse season can deliver difficult news, like the announcement of death or illness, or wondrous, a birth or true love. Others are quieter, but carrying no less impact, for if our life resembles a placid...
Equinox: Autumn’s Bittersweet Turning Inward
Walking the streets, the air feels different; people's expressions are growing starker, more reserved. The Autumn Equinox signals the time when our psyches prepare to go inward. Whereas the dance of summer is an outward & external play of expression, like Matisse’s celebratory painting Dance, autumn's portrait is the bittersweet mortality of life. Steven Forrest links Last Quarter Moon phase people to Autumn Equinox’s Mabon. Mabon is the pagan ritual of thanksgiving; the last quarter is...
Pluto in Capricorn Station-Direct: Purge, Release, Renew
I had just made a pilgrimage the scene of my own personal nightmare, a place where I was once taken by the darkness, stripped of illusions, lost my personal power (& almost died): I attended my 20 year High school reunion. Eventually, many years later, I realised I had been under the slow burning influence of Pluto (in Santa Fe, my natal Twelfth House Pluto relocates to my Ascendant) explaining why every time I returned to Santa Fe over the years it was like jumping from the frying pan...
