Harvesting Joy and Balance
Dear ,
I can barely believe it, but it's now been a full year of sending these newsletters out. I do hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them and I am grateful you're here!
As I write this September 2020 newsletter, my heart leaps for joy because we’re coming into my favorite time of the year (yes, I am one of those “pumpkin everything” people). As the days grow shorter – and cooler, I hope – in the Northern Hemisphere where I live, I rejoice! And bright blessings to my Southern Hemisphere friends as the Vernal Equinox and Ostara approach where you live!
The golden days of Autumn are nearly upon us. Tuesday, September 22 is the Autumnal Equinox, and the day we celebrate the turning of the Wheel at Mabon in my tradition! Mabon is the second of the harvest holidays in Celtic lands.
But before that great first day of autumn, on the last day of summer, September 21, we celebrate International Day of Peace. I have been honored to speak at our local Grandmothers for Peace event on this day since we began celebrating this day. My message is always the same: we are all related. Mitakuye oyasin, say my Lakota friends. This year there is no public gathering, of course, but we send out peace around the planet.
As the Wheel of the Year spins and I experience one season flowing into the next, the relationships among us all – two-legged, four-legged, swimming, flying, crawling, standing (plant), and stone people – becomes more evident, and more vital, with each turn of the Wheel. While our connections are important throughout the year, I see the need for them more urgently as fall arrives and we head into winter. In many cultures around the world, it takes a village to harvest and prepare the crops for the coming hard months of winter. It takes a village to care for each other.
The Autumnal Equinox is a day of balance, and we move into the sign of Libra, where the scales offer us an opportunity to weigh what really matters in our lives. Just as we stock up stores from the harvest at this time, we take stock of who we’ve been, who we are, and who we would like to become.
Most of all, for me, the magical day of the Autumnal Equinox is a day of promise. It is a day of hope that love and comfort and peace will be safely gathered in, and that all beings and Mother Earth Herself can sigh a deep breath of gratitude and balance.
Remember to click on the link below for your FREE monthly meditation recording! Here’s the link to the “Harvesting Joy and Balance” MP3 meditation I’ve recorded for September.
I want this newsletter to be informative and helpful to you, and I’m so happy to connect with you! I’m grateful that you have taken a course with me, listen to my podcasts, have emailed me, had a reading with me, or subscribe to my blog!
If you missed my last newsletter, you can read it here.
http://eepurl.com/haTkjL
Upcoming Courses – All Live on Zoom Video!
How To Create Altars and Rituals
Tuesday, September 15
8:00-9:30 pm EASTERN
You’ll learn in this information-packed workshop how to clarify and set intentions for your altars; how to work with symbols from nature, world beliefs, deities, and your personal story; how to work with the elements and compass directions; how to create rituals that enhance your life – and more!
HURRY! Registration deadline is Saturday, Sept. 12 at noon eastern time!
Click here for details and registration:
https://debbowen.com/product/how-to-create-altars-and-rituals-in-september-on-zoom-video/
Working with Candle Magic
Wednesday, September 23 (date change from last issue)
8:00-9:30 pm EASTERN
This workshop covers setting intentions and the ethics of candle work; using candles to help you see your own aura; working with daily correspondents, planetary hours, color and chakras, herbs and essential oils and more!
HURRY! Registration deadline is Saturday, Sept. 19 at noon eastern time!
Click here for details and registration:
https://debbowen.com/product/working-with-candle-magic-september-2020-on-zoom-video/
Unlocking the Mysteries of Tarot
Three-Session Course
Wednesdays- October 14, 21, & 28
8:00-9:30pm EASTERN
If you long to begin your journey into the depth and symbolism of Tarot, this introductory course is for you! We focus on the tried and true meaning of the cards from antiquity. I’ve been reading and teaching Tarot for nearly 40 years, and have taught hundreds to read Tarot. In Unlocking the Mysteries of Tarot you’ll learn to work with symbols from many world beliefs, mythologies, and cultures, and how to lay the groundwork for your work with your intuition in future courses. (Note: This session is nearly full.)
Click here for details and registration:
https://debbowen.com/product/unlocking-the-mysteries-of-tarot-october-2020-on-zoom-video/
AND a Special Time Just for My European Students!
Unlocking the Mysteries of Tarot
Three-Session Course:
Tuesdays- October 13, 20, & 27
2:00 – 3:30 pm EASTERN
(Begins at 7 pm London time; 8 pm Paris time)
Registration Deadline - Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020, 11:55 pm Eastern.
After then, registration open to students from other locations.
See course description above, and click here for details and registration:
https://debbowen.com/product/for-european-students-only-unlocking-the-mysteries-of-tarot-in-october-via-zoom/
What Is Magic?
There are as many definitions of magic as there are practitioners of magic. Everyone who has ever made a wish and blown out birthday candles is a magician. As we move into the most magical of seasons (for me, at least), I’d like to share my thoughts about magic.
There is magic in nature. The evolution of seed to flower and back to seed, from green leaves to golden, the
changing habits of the four-legged and winged people with whom I share my yard, even the changing smell of the air are magical to me. Certainly, you know the ever-changing sea and sky are magical to me. Pictured are autumn berries of the American Beauty Bush.
For me, there is magic in the mundane. The alchemical process of cooking, the rubbing of wooden surfaces when I clean my house, the prayers I offer up and the grace I receive when driving in difficult traffic, and so much more reminds me that there is magic I can’t see or even name all around me in my everyday world.
Here’s one of my favorite definitions of magic, from author Phyllis Curott:
“There is nothing more magical than the presence of the sacred in one’s life. It changes everything. It is gorgeous and it defies the limitations within which we lead our daily lives. Magic is the art of living a creative life that is graced with divine presence. It is the sacred dance we share.”
What does magic mean to you? Would you like to bring more magic into your life? There are many ways to do so, and if you’d like me to create a course to help you, I’d be delighted to do so.
Tarot Key for the Month: Justice
Justice is the Tarot key associated with the sign of Libra. Mother Justice holds the golden scales that weigh thoughts and actions, always seeking balance.
Balance is an over-arching theme in Tarot. Justice sits on a throne flanked by pillars of opposing forces – the same pillars we see in many other keys throughout the deck. She balances the double-edged sword of justice in her right hand (and pointed upward, the sword indicates victory) against the scales she holds downward in her left. There is balance in the folds of the gown and cloak she wears, and in the crown on her head.
Numerology plays a big role in this key, as it does in many others. Justice is the 11th key in the Major Arcana. Eleven is about balance and great, ethical achievements. Her crown has three turrets and the jewel in the crown’s center has four sides, adding to the number seven. Seven is the number of spiritual mastery. (You can see this play out again on the breastplate of the Archangel Michael on the Temperance key.)
The deeper, transcendent meaning of the Justice key is about letting go of those aspects of our lives that weigh us down so that when our lives are out of balance, we can find those parts of ourselves that balance laughter and joy and love.
Book for the Month: Late Migrations
“A Natural History of Love and Loss” is the subtitle of this beautifully gentle, painful book by Margaret Renkl. Renkl braids together the stories of losses in her life, particularly the death of her mother, with an abiding understanding and love for the cycles of relationships and the natural world around her.
Written in brief essays, the book takes us through grieving the loss of love and grieving the pain of that loss in such a gentle, kind way, exploring both the losses of loved ones and the losses of birds and butterflies in our yard and in our world. The essays offer us a window into Renkl’s grief – and our own – in brief touchstones that allow us to approach, and then back away from, pain when it becomes too much to bear. She says, “For in both worlds – the natural one and our own – the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.”
Beautifully illustrated by Billy Renkl, the author’s brother, Late Migrations is published by Milkweed Press. I recommend this book to you highly.
Deb’s Podcasts
Our PsychicTeachers podcast outlets continue to grow, and our Android listeners can now hear us on Podcast Addict. We’re also on Google Play, iTunes, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Spreaker and almost all podcast apps and outlets! Remember listening is FREE!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/psychicteachers/id361910564
NEW!! Deb & Friends: Quest for Connection
podcast has added video-casting (or maybe replacing podcasting with videos!). I’m now uploading videocasts to our Facebook page. Just click on the video, and there we are! Quest focuses on the intersection of culture, spirituality, and science, so please join us for thought-provoking and interesting episodes.
This podcast also is broadcast FREE! Don’t miss a single episode by checking out both our archives and upcoming offerings on many podcast outlets, including iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/deb-and-friends-quest-for-connection/id1330237467?mt=2
Another way you and I can connect is through my Facebook pages. I’d be honored if you’d follow my pages. They are a great way to see up-to-the-minute news!
PsychicTeachers Deb & Friends: Quest for Connection Witches of the Shore
JUST ONE MORE THING BEFORE YOU GO:
While a good portion of my time this autumn will be filled with teaching, writing, and traveling, I’m also making a conscious effort to play. I don’t play enough. One of my goals for this turn of the Wheel is to laugh in abandon while diving into the sparkling sea.
For me, these past few months have drifted by in a cloud of uncertainly, fear, loss, anger, and sadness. I’m determined that autumn – MY time of the year – will not go by me in the same way. I’m working on changing some priorities, my sense of urgency about tasks, and reexamining what I value.
As I sat on the beach watching the Harvest Moon rise recently, I offered up gratitude, of course, for so much in my life. However, I also made a commitment to be more mindful of the treasure of each moment in my life. I’ve been better at this (as I mop the kitchen floor in gratitude that I have a floor to mop!), but I know I can do more. I know I can bring more joy and spontaneity into my life, and that I can share the harvest of love and laughter with you.
This newsletter, my courses, my podcasts, and Facebook pages are my attempt to harvest the crops of love, joy, and peace I share with you on a soul level, and I am eternally grateful for you connecting with me. Deep gratitude to you!
BLESS YOU, , for reading my newsletter!
