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I write regularly at jessicashepherd.substack.com — soft, human words on healing, astrology & intuition:
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I AM Human, I AM Divine
I have off days. I have days where I am not feeling quite like myself. Days I fall into wormholes of conditioning, conditioning that I’m not sure I know how to work through. I have sleepless nights, nights where I awaken a lot and feel shitty. Nights where I just want the morning to arrive so the darkness will disperse. Days and nights I feel I’ve lost my magic and wonder if I will ever get it back. The only reasonable response I can have for this is compassion toward myself; any other...
Feeling Retrograde?
I was talking with a friend about the cycles of eclipses we are currently experiencing, and had the chance to tell her about Saros cycles – the cycles that begin any given series, and then repeat for hundreds to thousands of years. For instance, this eclipse Saros cycle* (4 North) we've been experiencing during June began in 1389 and ends in 2633! Many are used to thinking about eclipses as harbingers of repetitive cycles, but this span of time puts a whole new twist on our habitual...
The Role of the Healer (there’s nothing wrong with you)
Once, long ago, in a faraway land called Ojai, CA I met with a healer of importance. I had become friends with a client who invited me to a colleague’s house for a gathering. This spiritual teacher was visiting from India, and this event, created in his honor, would allow each invited to share a private moment. As I waited to walk into the guest house where he was staying, to receive an individual blessing, I was so nervous. What would he see? Would he pinpoint that elusive thing causing my...
How’s Life in Your Fourth House?
We’ve had a crash course in the fourth house this Spring, a class none knew we were signing up for, at least not consciously (though intuitively, many did. Look at the way, just the week before, you: knew to adopt a dog, get on auto-subscribe for toilet paper, take a last-minute trip, or write that poetic essay about the lost art of spiritual retreat). On a family Zoom call, I asked my stepdaughters how they were getting along with their fourth house(s). I’d taught them the basics of astrology...
Let It Be Simple
Right-wing Christians say this plague is upon us because God is punishing us. Environmentalists, eerily similarly, say Mother Nature is sending us a warning, an ominous message. Conspiracy theorists say it all began with China, Bill Gates, or who knows what else (I am really not sure- I haven’t been tracking them). Even for spiritual folk working on becoming aware & awake, those of us who tend to look inside for answers, instead of looking for something or someone to blame, it’s often “How...
You Don’t Need to Know What Happens Next
One of the weirdest decisions I’ve had to make recently involved whether I wanted to go to the grocery store. My regular grocery day came and I felt conflicted about THE MASK. I am not going to go into my little internal debate, but illustrate what I did about it. I didn’t go to the store. I foraged through the pantry and extended our booty by another few days (I’m getting good at this. Months ago I started playing the “how long can we not go to the grocery store” game. I had been...
What Feels Safe?
The structures of our lives have dramatically changed over the past few weeks. We are all redefining what it looks like to feel and be safe. Things we used to not think twice about, like saying hello with a hug, going to the grocery, a park, or standing close to someone all now come with potential threats. Structures of reality create safety, and when the structures of our lives quickly change it can be destabilizing. What structures are helping you to feel safe right now? Being energy...
Leave the Red Zone
I’m enjoying a comparatively lovely morning on my yoga mat, feeling into my body, noticing it with fresh awareness and relishing the fact that I’m about to go deeply inward for the first time in a little while…when my husband walks in and interrupts my flow. My first reaction: frustration. Actually, it’s been my first reaction a lot, lately, as those of us for whom social distancing has brought our loved ones and close family members undeniably closer are experiencing. One of the more...
Pandemic: A Crash Course in Neptune
Up until the very last day before traveling, it was moment by moment. I did not know whether I’d take the trip I’d planned on taking now for months. Yet I was not in fear or anxiety about this fact. Only wonder. As in, “I wonder how I feel about taking this journey right now?” When I’d ask myself the question, and get an affirmative answer, I knew everything was in alignment for me- despite topsy-turvy world events. I kept checking in, asking myself multiple times. I was open to canceling...
Coronavirus & Your Cocoon of Light
There is a core light energy within you. When you go inward and feel it, you will know, you will be filled with a sense of rightness: This is your energetic integrity, a strong weave, a fabric, of yes-ness, grace, peacefulness and lightness within your being. Try it. Take a few minutes to relax, ask to be shown what your personal Light feels like to you, so you can identify it. It will feel like a concentration of core energy in your center. In my imagination, this core me energetically...
