Hello Friends:

It has been an intense July. I had made the choice to work on a farm for the month and really know if my dream project is something I actually want to, and can physically, do. I also wanted to understand Soil to Soul Commons' farmers and know how to handle their products with care. The first week was intensely hot and I was not as fit as I thought I was. The second week provided challenging torrential rains and flooding. The third week was humid, hot, and buggy.

The Sunday before I was supposed to begin, a heavy light had accidentally fallen on my head as a parishioner was trying to reverse her wheelchair in church. Her chair handle got caught on the back wall panel, and as I tried to release her from it, the emergency light high above became dislodged and fell on top of my head and scraped my temple. That day, Mars (aggression, cutting) was conjunct Uranus (surprise, disruption).

I had already done a week's worth of meal prep and had packed my suitcase ready to leave by 6 a.m. the following day. I asked my friend Brian to await a text from me by 6 a.m. to make sure I woke up, in case I had a concussion.

Determined to have my experience, I arrived at Wild Candy Farm on July 6th at 7:30 a.m. ready to begin. The headaches from the head injury took a while to heal, especially since my body was trying to keep me alive with the intense heat and physicality of the work to weed, harvest, wash, lift, process and pack produce. They say it takes at least three weeks for one's body to acclimate and gain the required stamina for farming. I have loved every difficult but rewarding moment, working with a team who loves what they do, and learning as much as I can about running a 2.5 acre farm that also has beautiful lodging options on its 51-acre homestead.

I dream of building intentional community with a venture studio, farm stop, wellness center, commercial kitchen & gardens, Nanabodes, and educational programs with writer and artist residencies. I’ve traveled to and stayed at various models that I admire. I have the book knowledge, plans, and pro formas, but, like many, tend to romanticize what it’s like to live on a farm. This month I am embodying, taking on the identity, of what it is to be a land-steward and farmer. I've noted my progress with photos here. This will be my last week.

This past Saturday, I had the honor of co-organizing the Austin Yacht Club's end-of-season dinner for the summer series awards ceremony. Each fleet hosts an EOS dinner, and this time it was the Ensign 30 fleet's turn. I planned an elevated Taco Bar theme with fresh ingredients and complex recipes, and the many volunteers who showed up created something extraordinarily delicious. Linda, a fellow sailor from another fleet, said it best: "Always the fun and friendly fleet! Plus amazing sailors." As a bonus for the day, Moondance(r) took 2nd place to Molly & Tom's Joya 1st place for the summer series.

Lastly, Gabe has moved and started his new job as a Global Marketing Analyst working on corporate branding at Goldman Sachs. He's currently living in Harlem and enjoys a 30-minute commute by subway where he gets his reading time in. He's met so many friends volunteering, going to dinner meetups, taking pottery lessons, and reconnecting with friends from his Sloane & Company and GS internships. He calls daily to let me live vicariously, recounting the new restaurants, cafes, shows, and exhibits he's been experiencing. It alleviates missing him, knowing he is living a full and fulfilling life.

As I continue looking for our home for Soil to Soul Commons and finishing my experience at Wild Candy Farm, my newsletters have become really sporadic. I notice my open rates have dropped from 75% to 51% and I imagine I'm landing in more spam folders or Promotions tabs. Please know that with all the noise and things dropping into your Inbox, I'm grateful that you have decided to spend some time here. I hope there are helpful things below that will make it worth your time.

Please reach out and let me know how you are.

Cosmic Timing

It might be feeling like too much is happening at once, like Saturn stationing retrograde and the nodes shifting, a full moon in a few days, with an upcoming eclipse season, beginning August 12th, but already being felt. We've been living in an unusually charged time since the Saturn-Neptune conjunction back in February, and will feel the same themes rise up again. If you might remember, this Saturn-Neptune time is one for committing to making our vision a reality by doing the hard work it takes, one difficult step at a time. With this retrograde, we'll hear the question: "Are you sure?" Strip away everything that doesn't allow you some some silence to hear the answer before you move forward in this bold Leo season.

This past Sunday, Saturn began its annual retrograde, and the lunar nodes (after eighteen months in Virgo and Pisces) moved into Leo and Aquarius on the same day. Mercury stationed direct from its retrograde from June 29th to July 23rd. These shifts ask us to pause before we push forward.

Saturn in reverse, like any planet in retrograde, means review. This is the season for asking whether your commitments still hold, whether your boundaries are doing their job, whether the plans you made in confidence six months ago still feel true. Between now and December 10th, Saturn will move back to seven degrees. The house where this falls in your own chart provides the invitation for your consideration.

The nodal shift is the deeper current underneath. The south node is the shadow material we're here to distill, purify, and eventually integrate. Leaving Virgo's exacting, service-oriented south node behind for Leo asks something tender of us collectively: can we lighten up, create without needing it to be perfect, and love one another without keeping score? Leo's shadow, the hunger for attention and the need to be seen, is the price of its gift, which is generosity without strings. If you're afraid to be seen, ask how can you best serve (Aquarius).

And the north node's move from watery, intuitive Pisces into Aquarius is recalibrating hyper-emotionality. Don't stop feeling things but instead feel all of it, then act without needing the drama to validate the feeling. Individuation always asks us to hold both halves of a polarity. Increase your capacity for paradox.

All of this builds toward Thursday's Full Moon in Aquarius, Moon conjunct Pluto, Sun conjunct Jupiter, both squaring Chiron at 0° Taurus. Eclipses have always frightened people because they reveal what's been hidden, including what we've been choosing not to look at. Things tend to move fast in eclipse season. Because the nodes moved into Leo and Aquarius just days prior, this full moon acts as a preview or teaser for the major eclipse themes that will unfold over the coming 18 months.

The Sun conjoins Jupiter in Leo just before this full moon, refreshing Jupiter's expansive, beneficial qualities in this cazimi. You might think back to June 2014-2015 when Jupiter was last in Leo for a year. I had just hosted my first big culinary retreat with Chef David Bull in Tuscany after graduating from culinary school. We then went on to our family vacation in Greece and Turkey, only to return to a house flooded by a broken refrigerator water filter, and the start of our divorce proceedings.

So this is a big full moon for me to see how the story progresses. Use the Sun's proximity to the south node and clear away what doesn't allow you to feel your bold agency, including all the disabling narratives and beliefs (Jupiter). Then keep planning the foundations of your vision for when Saturn turns direct on December 10th.

Systems Theory Perspectives

As someone who provides integrative strategy for mission-driven clients, I combine the metaphysical, mystical, and eco with systems thinking and design thinking.

I wanted to share this premiere episode from Phanta Rhey. His channel is described:

System thinking in general is becoming more and more popular, perhaps because of the growing search for spirituality. Perhaps more people are asking about the larger connections in the universe, asking for answers that the dominant scientific perspective hasn't been able to give them. Patha Rhey sets out to explain the system's theoretical perspective. He describes the ecosystem that has to be included when thinking about a single entity, such as a tree. This fits with the eco-heroine's journey.

This particular episode discusses the quiet scientific revolution in systems theory, which is characterized by a shift towards a holistic view of the world. Systems theory, unlike traditional revolutions, lacks a single figurehead but is evident in various fields like psychotherapy and holistic medicine.

It contrasts with reductionism, which dominated modern science since Descartes and Newton, by breaking complex systems into parts. However, reductionism fails to capture emergent properties, like consciousness or a hurricane, which arise from interactions between parts.

Pantha Rey discusses the system theoretical perspective, emphasizing its interdisciplinary value and the need to unify diverse terms and theories. They outline three key terms: system theory (hard science), system thinking (applied to specific areas), and systems philosophy (exploring metaphysical and ethical implications). A funnel model illustrates theories from reductionism to mystical perspectives. Key scientific theories include dissipative structures, chaos theory, game theory, and cybernetics. he highlights ethical implications, advocating for environmental protection, social equality, and cautioning against technocratic control. He stresses the importance of understanding complex systems before advancing technology.

The funnel begins with the scientifically established at the bottom, all the way up to esoteric and mystical perspective at the top, which he has deliberately included here as a holistic perspective. He believes that "people tried long ago to grasp the world as a complex fabric of systems and using symbolic and maybe rudimentary, non-scientific, magical language. With the rise of the reductionist science we discussed earlier, these older holistic ways of thinking fell into oblivion. And yet, for me, they remain fascinating to these days because they keep reaching back towards the fundamental questions of being."

This is why the symbology of astrology, Tarot, herbalism, runes, and fairy tales hold the key to our deeper understanding, our gnosis, and I strive to keep these mantic arts alive in my practice. Although they are ancient in their wisdom, with the newer technologies and research and our expanding consciousness, we can apply them to our modern concerns.

The end of the episode has an uplifting theory as a solution to our current situation...within chaos theory, of all places.

Ways To Gather

I'll be hosting a Sound Bath and Potluck on Thursday, July 30th for the full moon in Aquarius. It begins at 6:30 p.m. on Lake Travis. Let me know if you'd like to attend and what you plan to share. Bring a swimsuit, sunscreen and towel if you'd like to jump in the lake ;)

I'll be giving my AstroTarot readings at the upcoming Witches Market at the Brewtorium in August. As I continue to deepen in my studies of Archetypal Tarot through the Jungian lens, I want to use this time to get as much real feedback in one day. Come join me to experience these new ways to explore our inner landscapes to improve our outer experiences.

Reimagining the 3 of Swords

Besides the Tower and Death, the card that causes the most consternation is the 3 of Swords: heartbreak, betrayal, and grief of loss.

Yes, life will break our hearts sometimes and because it is the suit of the Swords, air, the thinking function, we can tend towards rumination or believing something "should" have been something else. "This shouldn't be happening!" The gap between our expectations and reality is where our suffering resides.

When we think about the Ace of Swords gifting us with a new idea or thought, we then move onto the 2 of Swords, which provides a contrast to that idea. We have to decide what is right for us. Sometimes our choices don't turn out the way we had hoped, which brings forth the 3 of Swords, the disappointment of not getting what we wanted. If we think about the 4 of Swords, that rest period of integration and preparing for the next leg of the journey, we don't stop at the 3. Especially reversed, the 3 of swords can point to a grief that is passing or an over-identification with unhelpful stories we've made up or believed. If we keep it up, the 5 of Swords points to true conflict (Venus squaring Mars tomorrow before the full moon) and having to work through those entanglements...and so on.

The suit of the swords cause us the most distress because it is the suit of the mind. Uranus, the planet of breakthroughs and disruption is currently in Gemini--the mind, thoughts, ideas, hands, and communication. I'm seeing the 3 of Swords quite a bit in client readings, indicating a need to feel all the feels, picking up what is still worthy of our time and energy, and then moving onto the 4 of Swords for rest and integration. The Pluto opposition in all of this Jupiter in Leo energy speaks to this need to let go of those pesky things "stuck to you like spinach in your teeth" to claim your sovereign self with courage.

The Yoga of Individuation

I am attending intensive coursework with the Centre for Applied Jungian Studies on The Yoga of Individuation. We move through the core of the body’s subtle anatomy, learning how to connect with the many aspects and transformations of our vital life-energy, how to read its symbolic messages using the language of Jungian psychology, and how to understand the implications of these messages for the direction of our own path in life. It blends my two favorite subjects, and we are guided by and practice through the chakra system.

This has been a unique experience of learning how to practice asanas, breathwork and other yogic techniques to express and release inner tensions, then encouraging reflection on our experience afterwards. We also explore how specific archetypes or complexes might live in the body, to discern inner images, listen to emotions, connect with somatic memories, and to treat the body with compassion as the threshold to the unconscious. I'm excited to integrate this into my future yoga, sound, and narrative classes.

Phew! This was a lot. Thank you for allowing me into your reading space. I know your time and attention are valuable.

I'd love to know what you've been up to. What lights you up and eases you into deep sleep at night.

So many in my community are doing great things. I'd like to feature your thang if you let me know what's meaningful to share.

As always, you can Book a session if you'd like some cosmic guidance or strategy. Past and recurring clients get 20% off all single sessions. Reply to this email for the code :)

Love, Plants & Planets,

Monica