Feel It All: Waking Dream

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0% 0 0 0″]Dream, escape, diffuse, compose. Florist, Katie Chirgotis of Eothen, poetically guides us through the deeply feeling seas of Pisces Season with her empath connection to the natural world after hosting a dreamy floral design workshop, deeply embedded in the mysticism of Mexico and it’s historical artist, Frida Kahlo. Photography by Katie Chirgotis

My recent travel to Mexico gave life to my notion of a Waking Dream. Drawn in by the inner and outer worlds of Frida Kahlo (a major influence), mysterious ruins of Mesoamerica, mysticism of sacred plant medicine, the karmic span of Teotihuacan weavers, saturated cascades of bougainvillea – all a tapestry of warmth and vibrancy. It’s all true. So, too, is fear of Montezuma’s revenge, stilted language barriers, and the lack of kale in my life for half the month. Dreaminess and inspiration countered by confusion and disillusion. Piscean to a fault. The line between the two called to be dissolved, the colors of daily reality to bleed and swirl to a hue where I could be both myself and Other. To re-connect to a core pulse so often dampened by email pings and to-do lists.

Since the Roman Calendar new year, many of us have been hyper-active in the practice of
Awareness. Vigilant of shifting sands beneath our feet, so difficult to find balance and move quickly, so we looked towards one another. During Aquarius, we connected to each other and formed community and new identities of Relationship – all just on the cusp of creation! Yet there’s expressed frustration and confusion of wanting to do so much, to act strongly, yet strangely feel mired in a viscous energy drag.
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[two_third padding=”4% 0 0 0″]And so sweeps in the school of Pisces, dissolving that sand beneath our feet into water. A colloidal liquid, filled with particles of this life and the last and the next, in which we may be suspended. Ourselves and Other. Land and Sea. Earth and Cosmos. Caught in a gentle whirlpool, cyclically turning like fish swimming head to tail. YES there’s fear, to be unsure what’s below and above you is almost too vast to bear. But with these softened lines of our experience, this allows for creativity to come coursing through. A chance to be new.

Within the microcosm of a floral design workshop I guided in Mexico City, I witness this state of being first hand. I watched student’s hands move untethered. Using gestures somewhere between shaping clay and fanning air, art flowed from fingertips like water, like music. To be lost in The Process is like a trance, time doesn’t matter, hunger unimportant. All that exists is creating existence. Once a piece was complete, the eyes refocused and one comes back into the body. Like waking from a dream. There are few experiences as validating as guiding others to the realization of their inherent magic. A shared healing that loops like infinity, two fish swirling in the stars. It can be felt in parenting, deep friendships, love – it’s lifting one another up so they can See. [/two_third][one_third_last][/one_third_last]

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[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”8% 0 0 0″]Soon, this colloidal mix of sand, spirit and cosmic water will settle to form the earth beneath our feet. The increasing warmth from the sun will warm it, causing the soil to swell and the waters to evaporate back to the skies. We will collectively refocus our eyes and return fully to our bodies to plant, work, grow. Exciting stuff.

But, for a little while longer, let your hands move by forces unseen. Become a channel, with boundaries between you and the next person, this life and another, be liquid. Let us open our eyes under the water to See the vastness that surrounds us and, rather than fear it and struggle for air, allow it to hold us. Pass through us. Become Us.[/two_third_last]

A Shift in Seasons: Scorpio to Sagittarius

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last]CosmoMuse’s Seasonal Astrologist, Allie Couch, takes us through a poetic transition of our ending autumn month from Scorpio’s reign to Sagittarius’ dark night.

I awoke this morning to mist covered mountain tops and fields, a drizzle in the valley, birds aflutter and nearly all that was left on branches now fallen. Scorpio Season comes to and end today (November 21st) and with it a shift – or should we say a ‘letting go’ in true Scorpio fashion. It was a season where we may have felt intense loss that unhinged our own hidden passions and emotions. Release and intense sharing brought much to the atmosphere, one for the books with an unprecedented election as well as a deep swell of protests around important shared resources—sacred Native American land and water sources facing an oil pipeline that would traumatize it’s history and sustaining powers. If ever there were Scorpio themes, these two events brought them to light as the sun blazed through this season of power and mystery.

The sun grew ever dim and we turned further inward as the nights weighed longer than the days. Our psychological health may have been tested but with that, new insight into our own and shared mysteries brought about transformation. Endings and beginnings flooded the depths of our souls as we bravely plunged into the reflections that the current events brought up in our emotional bearings. Stubborn streaks and battles of will created many a stand off. Farewell, Scorpio and thank you for the lessons in self-control, sharing, secrets and rebirth.

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[one_sixth][/one_sixth][one_third]The Mystery | Paul Laurence Dunbar
I was not; now I am—a few days hence
I shall not be; I fain would look before
And after, but can neither do; some Power
Or lack of power says “no” to all I would.
I stand upon a wide and sunless plain,
Nor chart nor steel to guide my steps aright.
Whene’er, o’ercoming fear, I dare to move,
I grope without direction and by chance.
Some feign to hear a voice and feel a hand
That draws them ever upward thro’ the gloom.
But I—I hear no voice and touch no hand,
Tho’ oft thro’ silence infinite I list,
And strain my hearing to supernal sounds;
Tho’ oft thro’ fateful darkness do I reach,
And stretch my hand to find that other hand.
I question of th’ eternal bending skies
That seem to neighbor with the novice earth;
But they roll on, and daily shut their eyes
On me, as I one day shall do on them,
And tell me not the secret that I ask.

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[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last]As we greet Sagittarius Season tonight, a golden beam of optimism and hope shows through as we enter our longest nights. This may seem like a paradox but that’s what this sign is so masterful at tackling. We are complex beings, capable of holding two seemingly unfriendly ideas and seeing both as valid. Find this quality with Sag as your cosmic guide to understanding others who are wholly different from you.

“The deeper the dark, the closer the dawn. However profound the suffering that envelops you, never forget the inner spark of hope and courage. Never lose the capacity to wait with patient enduring.” — Daisaku Ikeda

You may come up against new philosophies, concepts, cultures and worlds this season, and the challenge is to understand; to learn the ‘language’ of this unknown element. This may not change your passionate stance around ways of thinking and being but it will help you bridge divides and have compassion for another story that is fully different than yours. You can hold both compassion for those who seem ‘dark’ to you as well as keep your convictions in tact.

Go ahead and ask someone to share their story of why their ideals are so different than yours and then share your own—as an offering, not a debate. I dare you to leave that conversation without greater understanding and more perspective on how to move forward together, with hope.[/two_third_last]