By Albert Guillaume – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36888758

Our beliefs, our social lives, our creativity, our fantasies, will all be measured against those things that are most important to us, and we engage in this exercise for three reasons: we want to know what to do, which way to go, as we move into the future; we want to ferret out those hidden influences that may be stopping up the flow of Love or Money; and we want to get ourselves in perfect alignment with what really matters to us–and we have the smarts to realize we can only do that if we know what may be exerting an influence from the unconscious, or from our own denial of something. It’s a time when we intensely scrutinize how and where we dedicate our energies, with a better than even chance that we will define things in such a way that our ‘next step’ becomes unavoidably clear.

Though our wish to flee isn’t as dramatic as this Biblical scene, we do have the urge to just ‘get out of town’, one way or another. ‘The Flight of Lot and His Family from Sodom’ by Peter Paul Rubens c1614 {{PD}}

Today’s word image is really just an urge: the desire to escape. Pressures seem to be building for everyone–so much for the eclipses dissipating ambient energies–and even when things are going well, there seems to be a weight hanging over everything. Focus helps, by narrowing our field of vision in such a way that matters are more easily addressed, one at a time, and also helpful is reminding ourselves that stress over what might happen is counter-productive–live in the moment, for best results.

Thank you, and have a wonderful weekend-eve!

‘Miss Auras’ by John Lavery c1900 {{PD}}

Somehow we just know the powerful idea or thought that expresses both the essence of our authority and that supports our highest values or most important commitments. It’s as if we’re handed the answer of exactly how to, in making our statement to the world–and it just so happens to fulfill our ambitions or desires, as well. An odd sort of day, where things go remarkably smoothly, and we should take advantage of this, as the 31st comes along tomorrow (who knew?) and (mostly) puts the brakes on, hard. If you’re running into upsets, then it’s straight up because you are in some way denying your values.

‘Pigs’ by Franz Marc 1912 {{PD}}

Today’s word image is an archetype, ‘The Attention Hog’. This can come in many forms–we’re usually primed to think of someone loud, trumpeting their accomplishments or ‘virtues’, someone who sucks all the air out of the room–but today it takes a very particular shape: the person who, like a dripping faucet, demands little bites of your attention. It may be through the making of repeated, irrelevant or obvious comments, the offering unasked of little bits of ‘advice’, through mysterious and vague remarks meant to elicit questions in the listener, or through small, jabbing ‘challenges’ to those they see as holding some sort of power or authority. See this for what it is, a screaming demand for attention that is underlined by a kind of magnificent arrogance and entitled rage. This person doesn’t even realize that you don’t owe them anything–they would never face their own neediness by asking directly for your energy–and your job today may be to refuse to hand over that piece of yourself they think they deserve.

Read  —  Donate  —  Enjoy your day!

‘Spanish Dancer’ John Singer Sargent 1879 {{PD}}

What’s the big story today? The queen of the gods, Juno, conjoins Hygeia, indicator of what’s healthy, and we get–healthy Self-assertion? An unhealthy inclination toward vengeance? Or possibly something more subtle in-between. Here our current power and empowerment position (our status, our ability to reach out and get others to comply with our wishes and goals, and our sense of respect given and received within relationship) meets up with a gold standard of ‘what’s healthy’, and our position and choices are judged by us from there–and not necessarily accurately. There are difficulties with seeing through the fog, with sorting real from imagined, with perhaps a little too much hope that something is ideal, in spite of the reality behind it. Listening to instinct will help; deep inside we know how things really are. It’s just a matter of seeing that reality, and accepting it–easier said than done, but possible, nonetheless.

Mars as Seen from Deimos by Howard Russell Butler {{PD}}

Today’s word image is a pair of things observed in real life: a bright green billboard that reads, ‘It’s time to show off’, and then a man wearing a t-shirt with one word on it: Mars. Seen in quick succession, I took these to suggest we need to assert ourselves, to put some part of our essence ‘out there’, particularly something that at one time or another we may have been chided for, told that nice boys and girls don’t ‘Show off’–but behind the showing off was really a need, to express an innate talent or ability. Today, express that thing you do very, very well. You’re not showing off, you’re offering what you’ve got, and that’s the way it’s meant to be.

Albrecht Dürer – ‘Wing of a Roller’ 1511 {{PD}}

Have we seen what’s good for us, and in implementing it, expected to change ourselves, our values, and our interactions? Or have we expected our relationships and what we care about to adapt to us and the changes we’re going through? Today we’re not quite processing accurately our relationship to the social sphere, the facts, or our true empowerment position; our thinking is frizzled by interference and so largely static, indecipherable. This unsureness in our approach will create some (possibly unfortunate) change–but it will only be destructive if we cling to the idea of ourselves as individual islands in need of defense in a hostile social sea, that is, if we expect the world to uncomplainingly accommodate any changes to our viewpoint or behavior. We can’t forget the interconnectedness of all Beings, and we must in particular remember our own commitments and alliances, if we want to get through today without stepping on any feelings or burning any bridges.

Today’s word image is a wing, detached from its owner, lying in the grass. What kind of wing did you see? One from a bird, one made of paper as from a kite, the large metal wing of an airplane, the wing from a costume, one from an angel? Take this as an indicator of some assistance you might be asked to render in the near future, the nature of which is shown by the kind of wing you imagine. For instance, if you pictured an angel’s wing, you might be asked to be someone’s angel, to come to their rescue in some way; the wing of an airplane might, by contrast, suggest someone needs your technical help, or possibly that someone needs your assistance ‘to fly’.