The Hoodwitch: Weekly Horoscopes 5/10-16/2017

Artwork by Victoria Siemer

Written by Jessica Lanyadoo

Witch Tips

It's Full Moon time again, kiddies, and this week is likely to bring hella chaos, so get ready! 

The Moon will be full at 20 degrees of Scorpio on the 10th at 2:42pm PST. Expect feels to be at heightened levels of intensity leading up to this event. It’s is a dangerous time for building up resentments, developing grudges, or obsessing on your ex, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Scorpio is the sign of death and regeneration, healing and destruction; whatever happens with this Moon, it isn’t likely to be chill. You’re going to want to get deep, and that can be complicated if things do go your way, which I’m sad to say they probably won’t.

On the 10th fierce and combative Mars will form a Square to idealistic and devotional Neptune (in transit astrology you can think of the Square aspect as a bit of a curve ball or sucker punch). While the high point of these vibes will be felt on the 11th, you can expect it to intensify the psychic and messy nature of this Full Moon. The best way to manage this is to rely on your spiritual values and tools for staying in alignment with yourself, both emotionally and in your actions. Mars wants to have its energy be known. It wants power, revenge, and validation. Neptune couldn’t care less about any of that; it’s the planet that governs the interconnectedness of all things, or on the dank side, checking out and giving up. The danger here is that your feelings will be so scattered that you end up more overwhelmed than you can handle. The best advice I can give you for these next few days is to hold yourself accountable to the same standards that you hold others to and vice versa. Don’t be a martyr, and don’t think that you’re owed more than anyone else. Thinking that you’re the worst and thinking you’re the best is kinda the same problem – it’s thinking too much about yourself.

The jittery, restless Mercury conjunction to Uranus is still active until the 12th. This means that we all run the risk of gabbing at the mouth about every paranoid theory and defensive feel we have – so watch out! If you can, wait until after the 15th, when Mercury moves into stabilizing Taurus, to draw your conclusions. From the 11th-13th, activating Mars will give butterfly kisses (that’s a Trine aspect for bb astrologers) to expansive Jupiter. This can be great for getting things done in a major way, or it can just make it easy for you to run with le cray much farther than you otherwise would. Be willing to check your entitlement this week, lovers, or you may end up putting something into motion that you can’t stop.

PRO TIPS for A World Gone Wonky: 

1. Breathe

2. Align yourself with reliable emotional resources

3. Connect to and honor your spirituality

Life is complicated and beautiful; be here for it all.

ARIES

March 21-April 19

If you can accept that you’re not in total control of most things, your work gets a lot clearer, this week. The Full Moon on the 10th is an opportunity for you to release something or someone that you’ve been clinging to that you know is no longer right for you. Sometimes your task is to heal, and others you need to make a call and walk away. If you stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken you can start unpacking what you need to let go of, my love.

­TAURUS

April 20-May 20

Not everything that hurts is bad, and not all dynamics that feel good are healthy for you. Your relationships are an organism – they live and breathe, needing sustenance and care. If you ignore them or mistreat them, they can grow in gnarled directions. Take stock of how you’ve been showing up with the people you’re closest to, Taurus. The first half of this week is an opportunity to have compassion for the people in your life, even if you have to assert some potentially painful boundaries.

GEMINI

May 21-June 21

It’s not enough to know what you are, you’ve got to know what you’re not, Twin Star. This week you’re in for a major lesson in boundaries. The trouble is that it’s hard to know what’s enough, too much, or not enough, when you feel wonky about your own value. Prioritize getting grounded in your worth so that you can make the right calls in love and work. Know your rights and your responsibilities and act in ways that reflect them. There’s so much to be gained from setting sustainable expectations, sweet one.

CANCER

June 22-July 22

Something that’s been bugging you and tugging at your insides is about to come to crisis, Moonchild. If you’re committed to situations that don’t really serve you, you can expect to have stuff come up this week that requires you to deal with them. Be especially careful of being passive aggressive - if you’ve got something to say, spit it out! If you’re asking someone to be humble about their part, lead by example. While you have the right to your feels, you’ve also got to own your part.

LEO

July 23-Aug. 22

Expect the Full Moon on the 10th to kick up some family drama, Leo. You may have some old feels from the past come up with surprising strength, or perhaps a new emotionally intense situation will emerge. The key in either case is for you to show all the way up. If you’ve been acting in ways that aren’t true to you, it’s time for you to own up to them. It’s OK to say you’ve changed your mind, or that you’re wrong. The thing you shouldn’t do is to defensively try to rewrite history. Step up.

VIRGO

Aug. 23-Sept. 22

Be careful what you say, Virgo, because you’re likely to spend the first half of this week brimming with feelings that scramble your brain. It’s important that you honor the yearnings of your heart so that you don’t project them out and make mountains out of molehills. It’s easy to weave a narrative to match your feels, but that doesn’t mean that you’re telling yourself a true story. If you slow down and take the time to investigate your heart, you’ll able to figure out what’s really going on for you.

LIBRA

Sept. 23-Oct. 22

Don’t let your fear of conflict distract you from the central issues in your relationships, Libra. You don’t need to be defensive in order to defend yourself, and things don’t need to be terrible in order for you to stand up. This week your ego is gonna get triggered, and it’s on you to not shut down or act out. Be here for honest conversations, even if they’re super awkward and hard. Place authenticity over accommodation, my love.

SCORPIO

Oct. 23-Nov. 21

The Moon is only full in your sign but once a year, when it’s time for the rest of the zodiac to see what it’s like to live with such intense feels, Scorpio. Take an actual break from the busyness of your life and do a real check-in with yourself. If you’ve been holding it together, it’s OK to fall apart for a minute. Don’t wait for something to trigger your feels before you take care of them. Show yourself a little love this week and place your emotional wellness in high regard as a form of self-care.

 

SAGITTARIUS

Nov. 22-Dec. 21

Things are likely to get a little murky this week, ‘Tarius. Your feelings are likely to be all over the map and while that doesn’t mean that they’re unreliable, it does mean that you need to allow space for things to play out before you jump to conclusions. It’s not just OK to have limits - it’s essential, but it’s also really important to be informed. Breathe through your reactions so you can figure out what you really need to reach towards, and what you need to let go of.

CAPRICORN

Dec. 22-Jan. 19

Where do you belong, Cappy? You’re ready to be more involved with community or group ventures, but you’ve got to be choosy about where and with who. This week’s Full Moon on the 10th is going to bring up all kinds of feelings about your place in the world. This is a fertile time for letting go of past entanglements and attachments, and for seeing things as they really are. This is the first step in a process of feeling more connected to others in a way that gives you life, instead of drains it outta you.

AQUARIUS

Jan. 20-Feb. 18

Where are you going, Aquarius, like really? This week’s Full Moon is an opportunity to get real about the track you’ve set yourself on. If you’re not happy with the choices you’ve made in recent months you’re likely to feel the weight of it now. It may be tempting to check out and lose yourself in daydreams and distractions but that would be a waste of an opportunity. Challenge yourself to make healthy decisions, even when disassociating seems easier. 

 

PISCES

Feb. 19-March 20

You don’t need to take on other people’s dramas as a way of showing support. It’s not on you to know some magic solution that works ideally for everyone; all you need to know is what’s right and healthy for you. This week your mantra gets to be: “those are not my monkeys, and this is not my circus”. Manage your own sweet self, and let others do the work of figuring their own selves out, Pisces. Know your limits and honor them, my love.

Becoming the Earth: Contemplation, Visioning & Aesthesis.

Artist Paige Bradley

Written By Alicia Bello

I wanted to write an erotic love article to you. I wanted to write love to you by saying: May all kinds of milks, honeys, fragrant oils and flowers fill your home, altar, and bath. Let there be Eros possession in which every word rolled off the tongue is a spiced nectar. Let there be every lush nude sensation. Let every body in whatever sensual embrace undulate, hum, shudder and drunk on rhythm and ecstasy … whether crying out or soft sigh of respiration, mouth the genuine expression of ecstatic release (and please do always). Hopefully that article will want to be written soon because, well… what a sensation. Instead this article transformed from body in relationship to body into body in relationship to earth… a different kind of body, of intimacy.. the same and different.. but kind of the same. I have found myself outside significantly more than being inside anywhere. My hands and feet have been constantly investigating and trampling through the tropical landscape of Florida and so the intimacy running through me has been the aesthesis of shoots of new green covered in dew, balmy air scented with salty wet earth, and bees pressed deep into the center of flowers… and all of this is happening in the wide open, no shame, Nature needing no permission to burst with her blatant sensuality.

Connecting to the earth is not a new concept for those who practice the craft (to each and every guardian of the directions, the elementals, Hail and Welcome). It is a foundation of study and also a potent remembering. Within every natural witch lies dark earth, fertile, lush with the protected seedcrets of ancient ways, alive with mystery and kept sacred and untainted from the “normalization” of the status quo. No matter how we practice, each and every expression of the work that we do is beautiful to behold in its own right. Our earnest devotion to our practice is the catalyst to what peels away the layers so we begin to see the world completely differently. The earth is living, breathing, pulsing and we perceive it perhaps as our ancestors have, not in the grandiose Hollywood kind of way, but magic in the very real sense that begins to show itself when we learn(remember) how to look (be in relationship to it).

The Anima Mundi, the spirit of the world at this point is no longer a concept but so much more. It is perceived in the body and felt in the depths of individual experience. We, in turn, interact with our planet instinctually, in which in any given moment we turn on and tune in, and allow the power to course through our very body vessel. We can play the subtle vibrations like an instrument that opens the gates to other perceptions and other realities. The relationship that we cultivate with the spirits of the land is so very vital and just like any important relationship we’ve got to keep in touch, forget the small talk so to speak, and nurture it. We know the state of earth right now and quite obviously to say that it’s not healthy is a gross understatement. Just being with the understanding is like a glacial shower and it’s a beginning. We start right here, right now, with what is right in front of us. Without projecting rage or blame on anything, or fear, for the current state of the earth but to just be in a state of heightened mindfulness about say, the decline of bees or the poisoning of water… The Mother is where she’s at just as we are. Just to be in a heightened kind of mindfulness before any practice in which we evoke the elements, and contemplate their actual current state is incredibly important because we have to start where we are at. That being said, magic works non-linearly. No matter how we are working we can heal through coming into contact with root essence of the elements. What I am offering, however is to maybe initiate any ritual with that kind of present acknowledgment and then move into connection with the spiritus, gennii loci, and/ or Anima Mundi.

Visioning

I practice this visualization outside with meditation and contemplation either at sunrise or sunset, but as I usually instruct: if it feels right to practice it in ritual then do it. If you feel inspired to practice on the spot totally do it….except if your driving…listen to your intuition.

Demeter, just one name for Earth Mother is birthing and dying and birthing for us constantly...

Photo: Alicia Bello 

Vision your body/full self becoming Demeter by dissolving into the earth completely and merging with her creative chaos and order. Lie down on the earth while practicing. If you can, be completely naked or partially naked. See the shape of your body turn into dirt. Watch all of what you were dissolve into the earth completely. You are gone, but now you are also the whole of the earth. You are reborn in spring. See your blooms opening and the bees drinking your nectar. Smell sweetness of the season on the wind. Go through all the seasons of the earth in this way over and over. See the earth, which is you, floating in space. Place the periphery of your attention on the rhythm of the breath of your body. See the earth in your visioning breathing, the rhythms are in synch. Draw the scope of your vision to the place within the earth that you inhabit. See you where you are envisioning yourself as the earth while you are also the earth. Draw this harmonic image into the vision of your heart and let the vision pulse with your breath as you bring your attention back to your physical body. Enjoy your breathing still seeing the earth pulsing with your breath as your beating heart. Start all over again. Do it as many times as you can.

• Take notes on how this practice affects you after two weeks and a month.

 As you move through your day, contemplate aesthesis as drawing in the essence of the world, the Anima Mundi with robust sensory perception. Drink in everything.