Mars represents how you assert yourself and seek to attain your goals, as well as your energy levels, feelings of courage, strength and confidence, and sexuality. It stands for the masculine side of the psyche, and sometimes shows the father figure. Mars represents the life force – a selfish, but necessary drive to survive and… Continue reading How to Interpret Natal Mars
“The first time an Ashaninca man told me that he had learned the medicinal properties of plants by drinking a hallucinogenic brew, I thought he was joking. …But he was not smiling.” The Cosmic Serpent is a fascinating exploration of the links between DNA and molecular biology by anthropologist Jeremy Narby. While doing fieldwork in… Continue reading The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
Venus represents how you relate and connect with others, and how you attract things you value and desire, as well as what you find attractive. It shows the need for balance, harmony and happiness, and is also linked with the arts, finances, your social life and feelings of attractiveness and sensuality. Venus by Sign The… Continue reading How to Interpret Natal Venus
Mercury represents how you think and communicate, your mental faculties, nervous system and reactions. It also shows how you learn. Mercury is the meeting point between the Sun and the Moon, so it connects the unconscious with the conscious mind. Mercury by Sign Mercury’s sign placement shows how your mind works, how you think, learn,… Continue reading How to Interpret Natal Mercury
“I keep remembering this strange little story I heard in Sunday school when I was about the size of a fire hydrant. It takes place in China or Korea or someplace like that. It seems there was this old farmer outside a village in the hill country who worked his farm with only his son… Continue reading David Foster Wallace on Writing & an old Chinese Tale
The Moon represents how you respond instinctively without thinking, your unconscious patterns and conditioning, habits, feelings, emotions and memory. It shows how you relate to your body and health, as well as your heritage, family and roots. The Moon shows what you need in order to feel secure and safe, where you belong, and the… Continue reading How to Interpret the Natal Moon
“Oh boy! Oh boy!” cried the monk-on-probation who had just cracked the Zen Master’s favourite (and valuable) drinking cup.
The frightened youngster went to the Zen Master and asked, “Why must there be death?”
The Master answered, “Death is natural. It comes to all persons and things. We should not greet it with fear or meet death with anger. Why do you ask?”
“Because, Master, death has come upon your cup.”
– Zen Fables For Today
There are loads of exercises you can do that use acrostics to give your writing brain a work out. These kind of word games rarely produce anything useful but they can help you to get unstuck if you don’t know what to write. They’re also good for encouraging you to think of a variety of… Continue reading Writing Exercise: Fun with Acrostics!
The Sun represents the ego or sense of self and the way you express yourself as an individual. It reveals your creative potential, physical vitality, feelings of hope, and sense of personal authority. The Sun mediates between the inner self and the outside world, and stands for the male role model, such as the father… Continue reading How to Interpret the Natal Sun
The Dalai Lama describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. Today he turns 80 and to celebrate, here’s some great quotes to inspire you on a Monday morning… Happy Birthday Tenzin Gyatso! Image: Dalai Lama (Click images to make them larger if you can’t read them ;) )
This exercise uses a newspaper headline as a starting point for a piece of writing. It’s not about trying to write something perfect or even interesting, just take a headline from a newspaper or online and see what ideas it triggers. Allow your pen to go with the flow of whatever comes up and write… Continue reading Writing Exercise: Newspaper Headline
This writing exercise is a way to challenge yourself and have fun at the same time. The idea is to pick three random words, the more disconnected from each other the better, and then add an emotion. Then you write for ten minutes and incorporate all the words in a way that conveys the emotion… Continue reading Writing Exercise: Random Story Generator
Jessica Davidson 