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I write regularly at jessicashepherd.substack.com — soft, human words on healing, astrology & intuition:
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Uranus Retrograde: Steal Back Your Fire
"Be yourself and you can be anything." -tagline for Katy Perry movie "Love your weirdness." The Daily Love, on the Katy Perry movie We often think of Uranus as the planet of mavericks and geniuses, the Bill Gates of the planetary pantheon. Or maybe as the planet of weirdos and freaks, the rainbow wearing Wavy Gravy guy or someone with a “progressive” style. But those who have paid attention to how Uranus works in real life will notice something paradoxical about the way Uranus, the Teacher,...
The 40 Day Project, Neptune, The Care & Holding Of Magical Space
How do you hold the space to work out your intentions and life problems? I have tried various methods. I've prayed, affirmed, spell-casted and altar-ed my way through some of my life's biggest dilemmas and quandries. Pulling on the power of a spiritual force bigger than I has worked wonders. I've discovered that spiritual work that actually *works* takes discipline, focus, imagination, creativity...and a strong container. A good practice is well-designed. It's design, by nature, cares for and...
Capricorn Full Moon: Unpack Your Baggage
The arrival of summer brings family vacations. We took ours this past weekend when we attended my husband’s family reunion in the Texas town of Weatherford. All Southern accents and hospitality, cowboy boots and freeways, barbecue & TexMex, the 105 degree humid heat stretched across a flat expanse of land that seems to disappear into the horizon line. The family stayed in a ten-bedroom home converted into a B&B, originally built in the 1800's by a family relative (pictured). Our...
Saturn-Venus Transits: When Love Is Not Enough
2004-05. It was a Saturn-Venus transit, Saturn conjunct my natal Cancer Venus and Vesta conjunction, when I began practicing my most potent and life-changing law of attraction work. I knew I wanted to attract the love of my life, and that I was R-E-A-D-Y. But I also knew that wishful thinking, separated from personal accountability and working on the core issues that were keeping me in spin out cycles of attracting, and falling for, the wrong guy, added up to exactly that: wishful thinking....
Gemini New Moon: Short Journeys & Second Chances
As a child, summer vacations were bar none the highlight of my year-- and summer vacations always involved road trips. Scenery moving quickly enough to keep my interest but slow enough for ample reflection time, there’s probably no recipe more freeing to the Cancer imagination than being safely tucked away in a car and watching the world pass by. I’d look forward to Stuckey’s gas stations with their turquoise roof resembling a flying nun habit, and the promise of flat slabs of colorful...
The Plumed Serpent Meditation
All week I’d been walking around imagining a plumage of feathers atop my head. I couldn't help it-- this is what today's Venus-Sun transit inspired in me. I sat down to plan a Venus-Sun transit meditation. I intended to make my own Venus Magic. I wanted to mark this once-in-a-lifetime occasion by giving my desires -for creativity, love, inspiration, flow – the energy and vitality of the Sun. Then I thought – Why not find a way to share this meditation with others? After all, my chart ruler,...
Sagittarius Full Moon Eclipse: Calculated Expansion
Apt for Gemini-Sagittarius season, both relate to spreading the word, I’ve sent out book proposals and getting lots of feedback. I’ve been encouraged by the fact that people are actually writing me back and calling – it's a far cry from several years ago when my emails were mostly met with dead silence. I’ve been amazed at the diversity of opinions. No two are the same, yet all have value. This has the net effect of keeping my head spinning with feedback, advice, sound byte suggestions,...
Venus Transit Sun: The Plumed Serpent Re-born
On June 5th, retrograde Venus in Gemini passes between the Earth and the Sun, forming an inferior conjunction. This wouldn’t be so rare (a Sun-Venus conjunction happens once every 584 days) were it not for the fact that Venus’ nodes, currently in the signs of Gemini-Sagittarius, are also aligned with the Sun’s path. When this happens, visually -with appropriate viewing aids- we can see the ‘transit of Venus’ as she passes in front of the Sun. The last time this happened was 2004; the next...
Gemini New Moon Solar Eclipse: Hard Won Success
Gemini is an effervescent season -- of connection, cross-pollination, information exchange, sharing, storytelling. If we are sitting on the back porch and watching spring turn to summer, we are also looking around and taking note of what’s happening right now. It is the season of listening. How else will we know what’s trending now, what’s in the air, unless we look around, unless we listen to the voices within & around us? Today, the hot commodity in Fairfax, CA is Coconut Bliss, a...
Venus Retrograde in Gemini, Loving The Contradictions
“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.” - William Shakespeare, Venus in Gemini "I am driven. I am. I'm driven for some reason. But I don't know where I'm going." -Courtney Love, Venus in Gemini RX Venus is the Goddess that rules connection, pleasure, relating and our personal responses to what and who we like, and from 5/15-6/27/12, Venus retrogrades beginning at 23'59' and back to 7 degrees Gemini. (Update 5/15/20: 5/12/20-6/24/20, Venus is once again moving retrograde 21'50'-5'20'...
