Welcome to a new newsletter-style series of writing I’ll be releasing corresponding to and inspired by the cycles of the moon. 🌙
My intention is to help you connect the spiritual with the physical in your own life. Don’t be surprised if the themes, quotes, books and podcast recommendations, etc. correspond synchronistically to what you’re currently going through. That’s the idea.
I tend to work with people who are driven towards success in the material plane. My role is to guide them towards connecting their worldly success with a wider mission and a more fulfilling way of inhabiting time (which pretty much always corresponds to increased worldly success).
Everyone has varying degrees of resistance to the alternative energetic or spiritual pathways that we explore, and I welcome all of it. In fact, I insist upon it. You would be missing out on an incredibly important piece of the puzzle if you just accepted anything new as truth without first wrestling with it. Be skeptical. Get your hands dirty. Instead of asking, “Is it true?” ask, “How might it be reflective of something in my life?” or, “How might it be practical, valuable, or physical in nature?”
Without further ado, here is the 1st edition of this new series, inspired by none other than our nearest celestial body, in her current state of fullness.
an interesting idea:
Erik Assadourian, founder of “Gaianism”, has an alternative proposal for anyone invested in environmental activism, including those of us who simply love our planet and care about its maintenance.
Rather than maintaining a defensive posture, trying to “save” the planet from the harmful effects of unmediated consumerism, Gaianism is modeled after the most effective movements that have shaped the world throughout time: religions. Assadourian contends that the barrier in the way of environmental movements making any notable cultural shift is that they’ve kept the shame and guilt from religion, but got rid of the celebration and joy.
So if you love this planet and your only way to celebrate that is by making an extra trip to the recycling bin, this new religion might be for you. To hear a conversation with Erik Assadourian on the “For the Wild” podcast, click here.
a quote I’m inspired by:
"Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.”
- Terrence McKenna
hope vs. trust:
In my recent race report, “The Black Canyon 60k: a point to point migration from certainty to bliss,” I alluded to “flimsy self-aggrandizing coping mechanisms like hope and expectation.” While I am partial to the dramatic in terms of my language choices, I’d like to offer a brief exploration of how I see hope and trust, with the intention of providing a useful grounding mechanism for anyone navigating a new path forward or in the midst of an unsettling time. The primary difference lies in how each one lands in the body.
Hope can be seen as pinning your expectations on a given outcome, even if that outcome is as general as your preconceived notion of a positive result. I want to be clear that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being hopeful. But inherent in the orientation towards a certain outcome is the possibility of its opposite: the negative result or the undesirable experience, and no clear guidelines for how to proceed.
Trust, on the other hand, is physical rather than theoretical in nature. You can say that you trust someone or something or even want to trust, but unless your body is on board, you can’t actually lean into it.
Whenever we have a full moon in Virgo ♍️ (like we do today), the sun is in the opposing sign: Pisces ♓️. Pisces is the dreamer of the zodiac. It’s a water sign that can be linked to intuition, spirituality, and the vast ocean of consciousness.
🎶 When the world seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine, that’s Pisces.
Virgo, on the opposing end, has its feet on the ground. It’s an earth sign whose best kept secret is that there’s magic in the mundane. Few are willing to walk the path of repetition and daily practice that is truly required to make anything happen. Just ask Beyonce. But, as with all polarities, these two need each other. If we have no expansive and beautiful dream, why would we bother doing the mundane work of manifesting it? And, if the dream is left as a pie in the sky, unanchored in the repetitive footsteps of physical existence, it will remain unexperienced.
Trust has a grounding quality to it. If we can know that everything is working out for our highest good - not by theorizing about what that highest good should look like and then comparing our current reality to our ideal, but by leaning in and showing up in daily service of it - it has a settling effect on the nervous system.
The invitation of the Virgo Pisces axis says: don’t compromise. Imagine radical worlds of light. And then let go of expectations and focus on the work. Also, do the dishes. Walk the dog. It’s all part of this exquisite opportunity we have to be alive.
💚
Coach Laura
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