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Mercury Retrograde Rehab

March 22, 2018 in Astro Matters, Spirit Matters

Mercury retrograde, Mercury retrograde, Mercury retrograde! Sing it to the tune of “Marcia Marcia Marcia!” because we all feel like high-strung Jan Brady when the planet of travel and communication travels backward. The truth, of course, is all astrological transits have strengths and challenges, and this one–beginning today and lasting until April 15– is no exception.

Back up your electronics and release any attachments to business as usual. (Exhibit A: Today’s urine snow-soaked commute.) Choose your words carefully and listen especially well, since this retrograde takes place in hot-headed Aries. And expect a lot of tension, since Mars, the god of war and the ruler of Aries, prefers to forge forward, and this is a better time to revisit old patterns and projects than begin new ones. But Aries is about self-empowerment and personal identity, so these three weeks will offer a very useful crash course in getting out of own way. It may feel like ripping off a Band-Aid, but there’s nothing so gratifying as unveiling a healed wound.

Water and Wind, Fire and Father

February 2, 2018 in Astro Matters, Essays, Ruby Intuition, Spirit Matters

I love channeling people’s best selves–which is all a soul really is–and I love charting people’s baby and big steps as they sometimes awkwardly, sometimes gracefully move into their true lives. But I’m not especially good at promoting my practice. Instead, I’m an old Jewish-Soux-Scot workhorse who does what needs to be done with as much joy and humor as possible, and somehow those who need me find me.

Today, as is the case most Fridays and Sundays, I had clients, and what amazed me most amazes me on every day of readings: Listening to the wind is all it really takes to help people find their way. This is especially true because it is Candlemas, the midpoint of winter solstice and spring equinox. Today Jesus offered himself to the temple while his beautiful mother Mary renewed herself with divine feminine love. In Celtic tradition, this is also known as Imbolic, Brigid’s festival of the holy well and the sacred flame; in other mythologies, it is the beginning of the end of hibernation. So what am I saying? That showing up is half the miracle. The other is breathing and trusting as you do.

Take my father Bernard Harvey, who celebrates his 76th birthday today. Since retiring from a life of math and science—he belongs to one of this country’s first generations of computer programmers–he’s delved into the world of arts and languages. He’s taught himself Spanish. He’s studied guitar and written his own songs. He’s even formed a punk rock band whose tracks are virulently anti-Trump. Apropos for a Candlemas baby, he’s using his personal winter to emerge from hibernation. With the clever latent magic of the water-bearer, he does not believe but still somehow knows. So do you. Come find me and I’ll show you how.

Solar Returned to the Mermaid Woods

January 18, 2018 in Astro Matters, Cat Lady Matters, Spirit Matters

Tomorrow is technically my birthday but astrologically today is my solar return. I always tell my clients: What you do on your birthday sets the tone for your year so only do what feels really really right. On this, my 47th return, I knew, I just knew, that I had to be back in the mermaid woods since I want to be here as much as possible in the upcoming year and all the years after that. So I drove all day to arrive at Provincetown’s Lands End Inn, all soaring ceilings and bold pastel stained glass and Mucha and Erté reproductions and busts of beautiful ladies, with decks and porches overlooking seemingly the whole mermaid world. The building is at the very edge of the continent (hence the name), and I’m wearing one of those lush hotel robes with all the windows open, smelling the salt and wind and wood-burning stoves of the area. I ate very fresh oysters a few hours ago with new friends and now am drinking champagne in a red velvet chair listening to the fire crackle and the wind rustle and the waves crash and am writing to you before I open my book back up. Because that’s how I want my next year to be. The sweet semisolitude of my adulthood, garnished by Venus and the words that somehow always pour through me even when I’m tired, even when I’m sad, even when I’m not sure anyone is there to receive them. Sending my birthday light to each of you because I’m glad we’re all still here.

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy