Hello Friends:

My last newsletter was back in February, before my retreat in the UK to study with my teacher Dr. Sharon Blackie, before I considered a vineyard for Soil to Soul Commons, and before Gabe graduated from the University of Michigan this past weekend.

It has been difficult finding the words.

The more I wanted to write about my experiences, the more my body resisted.

Symbols, stories, movements, dreams, and sounds became my expression.

Unsharable in their raw form.

Unexplainable in their strange beauty but lack of apparent meaning.

So I have put off writing, even resisting journaling, my container for making sense of the world until I had something I could say with a bit more coherence.

And even this may not be it.

Uranus has moved from grounded, fixed, values-based Taurus into fast, multitudinous, communicative Gemini. Today, with the Sun conjunct Mercury, ruler of Gemini, communication has become necessary.

Many astrologers have been watching the movement of the outer planets into new signs throughout 2025 and 2026, a collective metamorphosis marked by endings, nervous system overwhelm, identity shifts, and the dismantling of structures we once relied on. I feel it personally. Perhaps you do too.

Did I mention I am in my second Saturn return? Perfected on April 9th and the exhaustion has been overwhelming most days.

We are saturated with content, predictions, commentary, opinions, carousels of advice, and memes that I wonder if I might just be adding to this noise.

My hope is that you find some inspiration here. Or perhaps some solace or tools to cope or thrive.

The New Moon in Taurus

Generally new moons are for seeding intentions, beginning again, and especially in Taurus, taking pleasure and enjoying the delights of the body--food, sex, luxuries, and love.

This New Moon in Taurus harkens back to the New Moon in Scorpio on November 20, 2025, conjunct a retrograde Mercury cazimi, opposite Taurus. That's when I committed to the 30-day moon cycle to clean up my internal mess, and 117 days of the Mercury cycle to figure out what my next project would become.

Now the Moon is in Taurus conjunct a direct Mercury cazimi, but it sits on top of fixed star Algol, also known as the Eye of Medusa. It is also square to asteroids Hecate & Sedna, archetypes connected to exile, betrayal, and feminine rage. I'm noticing a nationwide movement to support gender-violated survivors.

The Modern Myth of Medusa

The myth of Medusa is one of the most psychologically layered stories in Greek mythology, especially when read through modern mythological, feminist, and astrological lenses like those of my teacher, Demetra George.

The older versions of the myth portray Medusa as born a monster, but the later and more widely known version, especially from Ovid, tells this different story:

Medusa was originally a beautiful mortal priestess devoted to Athena. While serving in Athena’s temple, she was violated by Poseidon. Rather than protecting Medusa, Athena transforms her into a Gorgon, with serpents replacing her hair and her gaze turning others to stone. Medusa is then exiled, cut off from society and human intimacy.

Why would Athena punish the victim?

Mythologically and psychologically, Athena is not simply “cruel” here. Athena represents a highly defended form of feminine consciousness: strategic, intellectual, sovereign, rational, armored, self-controlled. She is the daughter born from Zeus’s head, not from a mother’s body. She emerges fully armored, associated with civilization, law, order, and Intellect over instinct.

In this reading, Medusa becomes the part of the feminine Athena cannot integrate:

• sexuality
• instinct
• vulnerability
• rage
• embodied feminine power
• trauma
• emotional chaos
• chthonic wisdom of the body

Athena’s “banishment” of Medusa can therefore be understood symbolically as a dissociation or splitting-off. The violated, instinctual feminine is cast into shadow because it threatens Athena’s carefully maintained identity as invulnerable and controlled.

Hello, me.
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Athena lives by disowning Medusa.

But the story does not end there.

Enter Perseus, the masculine, the animus.

Perseus is often understood as the hero who slays the monster. Symbolically, however, he functions more like a mediating consciousness between opposites. He does not confront Medusa directly. In fact, he cannot look at her directly without becoming stone himself. Instead, Athena gives him a reflective shield, Hermes gives him winged sandals and a curved blade, and he approaches indirectly, through reflection.

That detail is essential.

Perseus succeeds not through force alone, but through mediated awareness. Reflection. Conscious witnessing without being petrified. He courageously chooses to do what is necessary.

Psychologically, Medusa represents trauma so overwhelming that direct contact freezes consciousness. To “look directly” at the unintegrated wound risks becoming immobilized by terror, shame, rage, or identification with victimhood. Perseus uses reflection because some truths can initially only be approached symbolically, ritually, artistically, therapeutically, or through myth.

This is the “missing middle” in many interpretations.

Perseus is the ego or heroic consciousness capable of approaching the exiled feminine without being destroyed by it.

And Athena helping Perseus becomes deeply meaningful: she is unknowingly participating in the recovery of the very feminine power she once split off.

After Medusa’s death, Athena places the Gorgon’s head on her shield, the aegis.

What was once exiled as monstrous becomes integrated as protective wisdom and power.

The image of Medusa no longer lives only in the underworld or wilderness. Athena reclaims this necessary part of herself.

This is why many contemporary mythic and astrological readings see the story not simply as a victim punished by patriarchy, but also as:

• the split between intellect and instinct
• the exile of embodied feminine power
• trauma transformed into protective consciousness
• reclaiming the rejected feminine as sacred power

In astrology, mythology and narrative psychology, Medusa has increasingly been explored through themes of:

• sexual trauma
• feminine rage
• shame becoming power
• the demonization of female instinct
• the sacred monstrous feminine
• the return of exiled psychic material

While Athena archetypically rules strategic intelligence and sovereignty, Medusa carries what happens when embodiment, sexuality, grief, and rage are severed from consciousness.

The completed image is not Athena defeating Medusa.

It is Athena eventually wearing Medusa and accepting all parts of herself. Her shield suggests that she no longer banishes this part of her power, but uses it to protect her as a whole being.

Perseus is the transformational bridge that makes that integration possible.

When Perseus decapitates Medusa, two beings spring from her body: Pegasus and Chrysaor.

This is important symbolically because even through violence and tragedy, Medusa remains generative. Something divine is born from the severing.

Working with myths, fairy tales, folktales, and fables can be very healing. They serve to teach us how to live and give us access to the deeper parts of ourselves if we allow them.

Health & Healing

I bring up this story because I have been noticing friends, who have received very difficult health diagnoses.

Since January, these 'fire horse' months have been action-packed. Now, one-by-one, whether it's a health diagnosis or financial issue, grieving endings of relationships, or simply an old way of being, we are in the Taurus season of slowing down and confronting the "Medusa" of our lives.

What have you been afraid to face?

What have you banished, thinking "out of sight, out of mind?"

Where did you become disassociated from your body through scrolling, drinking, or other distractions?

Why have you been ignoring or suppressing your libido, sexuality, or life force?

There is the fear that if we feel the gravity of the situation, we will be paralyzed like stone. Helpless and immovable forever.

We'll have to make the hard decision and let go of the thing that we thought was sustaining us.

And all the plans and everything you believed are called into question.

An ego death.

The waning moon before the New Moon in Taurus on Saturday, May 16th is a helpful time to give thanks and release that old self, the one who refused to admit the codependent relationship, the over-functioning, the unhealthy eating habits, or the excessive drinking/spiritual bypassing/dating/scrolling/working, etc.

On November 9, 2025, I went to the ER because of tingling sensations on my entire left side. In all the doctor's visits I was referred to for testing, nothing came back conclusive as the cause. In an MRI, I did find a tiny pituitary lesion, common in 20% of the population. It is no coincidence that the pituitary is the "master gland" the body's "control center." I got the message loud and clear that my propensity for mastery and looking "put together," and need to feel in control have been harming me.

I immediately started improving my diet and exercising more with neuro-vestibular movements, and diving back into my holistic methodologies as taught by my teachers Dr. David Hawkins, Sajah Popham, Judith Hill, and Kira Sutherland.

Although I have a variety of metaphysical practices, I must address my body, which has been calling for my attention for quite a while now. I kept ignoring my animal being, too afraid to confront what I feared. I am now approaching my healing by not being an "optimized healer" or "perfect patient," and instead fostering steadiness of my nervous system and stillness. Finding some joy and pleasure in it (Taurus, after all).

During my string of expensive doctor visits and lab tests, I am understanding that we live in an institutional system that requires us to be sick. Profit machines for pharma, insurance carriers, bureaucracy, and so on. People staying in jobs they hate, which makes them sick, so they can have insurance, to be able to go to the doctor for their chronic illness and pay for their expensive, lifelong medications (and the cycle continues).

My recent health journey has shown me the need for healthier soil, clean water, more nourishing food, sleep hygiene, movement, and supportive community.

So although I have experienced a slow-down in my progress with Soul to Soul Commons, due to exhaustion, I am taking these next two months to be the steward of my vitality.

There are two things I'm practicing in case they help you, too.

1. Lagom

This is a Swedish word and philosophy meaning, "enough," balance and moderation. It's why IKEA feels so clean yet functional. In my mentoring sessions with clients, when we set a vision as a North Star, I ask:

"What is one thing you can stop doing?"

"What is one thing you can keep doing?"

"What is one small thing you can add?"

All in service towards moving you in the direction of you desire. So even if you simply stop doing something that self-sabotages, or keep walking after meals, you're already progressing without having to do one more thing!

Here are small things you can add with the inspiration of Lagom:

• removing 5 objects daily that you don't need
• taking 3 deep breaths outside first thing in the morning
• do 5 squats while washing dishes
• drinking one more glass of water
• walking in silence (instead of earbuds in)

Let what you do and who you are be enough. Lagom.

2. Visual Language

I am painting, drawing, creating sigils, and participating in Dream Studio as part of Dream School at This Jungian Life to create my own Red Book. I draw images I remember from my dreams; I collage to gather images from my unconscious; I practice active imagination with the characters that show up in Tarot pulls. This is to make my unconscious conscious so that I can access more intuition, awareness, synchronicities, and healing. Meditating on these images allows new understanding to unfold over time.

Visual language and movement are the Perseus "bridges" to approaching Medusa, the traumas and things we've banished or disassociated from and are too afraid to confront directly. We can reflect upon them in artistic ways.

I am planning to host a private mark-making event in June to share some of the techniques and insights that have facilitated my own healing. If you are interested in attending to add something new to your self development toolbox, reply to this email and tell me what you're currently working through.

Psyche the Size of Earth

At the end of February, I attended Dr. Sharon Blackie's retreat that featured talks about finding ourselves in fairy tales, depth psychology, and our sense of belonging. We experienced embodiment exercises, a sound bath, and plenty of time on the land for reflection. You can see my photos and more details here.

Among many insightful questions, Sharon asked:
1) What do you think your place needs from you?
2) What does your place see in you and what would you like it to see?
3) What part do you play in its mythology?
4) How can this place contribute to your calling?
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Place includes the geology, flora & fauna, landscapes, human history, senses, weatherscapes, directions, and skyscapes. They are all alive as you are. I am developing an experience that I'd like to share over a weekend so that you can experience the cathartic nature of the heroine's quest (vs. the hero's journey). Her new book, Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales will be released this month.

Broughton Sanctuary is a 900-year-old family estate that sits on 3,000 verdant acres in the Yorkshire Dales in the UK. It has a 16th-century manor house (the Hall), 23 vacation homes (I stayed in cozy 'Manse'), a wellness center, and gorgeous dining hall. Roger is the 32nd generation steward and along with his wife Paris have been re-wilding the land, restoring the flowers, trees (currently 300,000 natives), and returning species of animals like the beavers. They have buildings that house startups and businesses that office on the property. They have asked me to do some astrological rectifications after they have researched significant dates in the land's history.

Archetypal Tarot

As I work on Soil to Soul Commons, collaborating with other farm stops like Radish in Minnesota and Argus in Michigan, I have limited my schedule for sessions.

I am pivoting my Tarot practice to incorporating more of a Jungian and depth psychology lens, while still including the mystical and spiritual aspects. Readings are less about divination and more about individuation, integrating conscious and unconscious elements, such as the shadow, anima/animus, and persona, to form a whole, authentic self.

In Jungian psychology, archetypes are not personality types but rather something we can identify within ourselves, but not something we can identify as. According to Mariana Louis, author of Tarot and the Psychology of the Soul, "Archetypes are primordial images, the universal thought-forms residing in the collective unconscious. They can be adapted to different cultures and historical periods but their fundamental essence is unchanged."

Once you experience this type of reading, something inevitably shifts in a meaningful way for good.

As always, you can Book a session if you'd like some cosmic guidance or strategy.

You can find photos and short descriptions here of what these few months have done to change me profoundly. (I know I said I'm trying to get off socials, but it has been the easiest way for me to quickly jot down an event. That's no excuse and I own that I am part of the problem/machine for now.)

Thank you for being part of my world and for your support of my work.

If there's anything you'd like me to write about, let me know. I'd love to know how you are.

Plants & Planets,

Monica