Month: October 2014

Forgotten Women of History – Angelina Grimke

This week we are using astrological tools to remember women mainly lost to history. I hate to admit it but before starting this, but I never heard of Angelina Grimke or her sister, Sarah, who were tireless agents for the anti-slavery movement. However, that proves the need for this series, sadly.

Angelina Grimke Weld was born into Charleston society on February 20, 1805. Her South Node* or past life personality indicator was in Cancer, the sign of the caring nurturer. However, her Mars in the fiery, stubborn fixed sign of Leo was conjunct (or within 10 degrees) of the South Node. The aspects one planet makes off another help “flavor” our astrological readings. Mars, the warrior sign, with the South Node tells us that she had many lives in which she fought for things that mattered to her.

While the Moon rules Cancer, a sign associated with mothers, home and hearth, we have to remember that it is a cardinal sign, one characterized by determination and leadership qualities. She did not come from a past as some dainty shrinking violet. She knew what she wanted and went for it.

Mars, named for the god of war, is the epitome of raw masculine power. She combined Mars’ energy with the caring of Cancer and became an amazing force in the anti-slavery and pro women’s rights movements.

A 1967 biography of Grimke by Gerda Lerner entitled, The Grimke Sisters From South Carolina had a wonderful description of Angelina who even as a child knew her own mind and paved her own path. “It never occurred to [Angelina] that she should abide by the superior judgment of her male relatives or that anyone might consider her inferior, simply for being a girl.” Cancerians want to help people but they do so in their own way.
The opposite sign to Cancer, and the sign of her soul’s path, was Capricorn, which rules the area of societal structures such as the government. It is not surprising then that her caring and nurturing qualities expressed as her insistence that society care for everyone regardless of race or sex.
Like the other remarkable women we have met this week, she used her South Node qualities in service to the North Node.

Angelina spent her adulthood speaking on the Abolitionist circuit throughout New England and the Mid Atlantic. In February 1838, she become the first woman to address a legislative body when she delivered an anti-slavery speech to the Massachusetts State Legislature. Her book An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South is the only known example of a Southern woman appealing to her fellow Southern women to renounce slavery.
After the civil war, her attention turned to woman’s suffrage and she spent her last years as an active member of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association.

If tasked with cooking for Ms. Grimke I would definitely go with a Capricorn recipe from my book, “Signs of the Tines: The Ultimate Astrological cookbook. I think she would enjoy my sturdy, no nonsense, but delicious Yankee Pot Roast.

Guest Blog: 5 Ways to Get Control of Your Time Today – Julie Gray

5 Ways to Get Control of Your Time Today

When was the last time you complained about being too busy?

It makes sense. You’ve got a ton going on. Between work, school, and family – there is a lot to manage at any given moment.

What I find fascinating about this life-at-warp-speed-epidemic that has spread around the globe is that researchers have discovered the happiest people on our planet are busy.

So what gives?

Why are you running around bemoaning your busyness when it can actually make you happier?

Here is the critical distinction: the happiest people are busy – but not rushed.

As soon as you tip the scale from living a full, productive life to an overwhelming, chaotic existence you’ve lost your sense of control. It starts to feel like life is happening too you not the other way around.

You are no longer in the driver’s seat. As one of my clients put it, “I’m not even in the car. I feel like I am just chasing it down the street at this point.”

As soon as we lose our sense of control, we stress more, sleep less, and the part of our brain that helps us organize, prioritize, and make decisions gets overwhelmed.

As it turns out, managing your sense of control is a really smart time management strategy.

Here are 5 ways to boost your sense of control (and save you a ton of time) starting today:

1. Get more sleep. The power of a good night’s sleep cannot be underestimated. Overnight you can vastly improve your ability to organize, manage your emotions, and maintain a sense of control.

Tony Schwartz, one of my favorite authors on the subject, recently outlined this cold, hard truth in The New York Times:

“Even small amounts of sleep deprivation take a powerful toll on our cognitive capacity. A vast trove of research suggests that 95 percent of us need at least seven to eight hours of sleep to feel fully rested, while 2.5 percent need more than eight hours. The final 2.5 percent — or about one out of 40 people — require less than seven hours.
In other words, you are not likely one of them, even though you may well think you are.”

If there were one silver bullet that can automatically make you a better time manager it would be sleep.

2. Cut your to-do list in half (or more). Here’s one of my favorite tricks: Draw a line across the page of your to-do list. All tasks you place above this line are the items you have to get done today. Everything below this line are the tasks you would like to complete. By zeroing in on your key priorities, you will be operating proactively vs. reactively and will enjoy a stronger sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

3. Get clear on your capacity. It is common to overestimate the time you have available each day to complete your tasks and underestimate how long these tasks will take. This can leave you feeling defeated and frustrated. Look at your calendar each day and get clear just how much time you actually have to get things done. Setting realistic expectations for yourself can greatly improve your sense of control.

4. Focus on small wins. Life isn’t about overnight transformations. What creates true, long-lasting change is the small incremental shifts you make each and everyday. Research has proven time and again that the more you celebrate your small wins each day, the more momentum you create to carry you forward.

5. Own your time. The quickest way back into the driver’s seat is to recognize that you decide each moment of how you spend your time and attention. You are always at choice. Really owning this fact makes it easier to say no to requests that are not your priority – and yes to the activities that really matter to you.

Bonus tip:

6. Take breaks. It can feel extremely counter-productive to take time off when you are feeling overwhelmed. In my experience, this is one of the best time to give yourself a half-day, full day, or even a long weekend to unplug, decompress, and recover. Again, the science backs this up. You will come back to your work with a new perspective, dramatically improving your creativity, productivity, and sense of control.

Now it’s your turn. What tips do you use to stay in control of your time and energy? Be sure to share in the comments below.

Julie Gray, COC is a time coach that teaches creative entrepreneurs and executives how to regain control over their life, have more guilt-free time in their schedule, and live with far less stress and overwhelm. Download her free template and guide on How to Get Out of Overwhelm in 5 Minutes a Day or Less here clicking here.

Forgotten Women of History – Black Activist Ida B. Wells

History is finicky. While some make the leap onto his merry-go-round, thousands, sadly more “hers” than “hims,” fall while grasping at his slippery reins. This week we will astrologically explore the lives of some forgotten women of history.

It is rare to have the exact birth-time of these women. However, we do not need the time to determine the South Node, which shows the personality of our previous lives for which we carry an innate memory. As an astrologer who tracks the progress of the soul from lifetime-to-lifetime, the South Node is an amazing tool of discovery to the current personality.*

Ida B. Wells should be a name every child learns, much as they do Harriet Tubman (hopefully.) She was born July 16, 1862 in Hope Springs, Mississippi as the Civil War raged. Her first job was as a schoolteacher but her life changed in 1884. A railroad conductor ordered her to give up her seat to a white man and go to the “Jim Crow” car in the back of the train. This type of action although prohibited by the 1875 Civil Rights Act was prevalent in the post-war South. Almost 70 years before Rosa Parks, Ida Wells refused to give up her seat. Later she sued the C and O Railroad and while she won the case, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned her victory. This action spurred her desire to write about injustice and she soon took a job with a local newspaper, “The Evening Star.”
After witnessing a lynching of three black men blamed for shooting white storeowners, she stirred her readers to leave Mississippi because it was no longer safe for them. More than 6000 African American’s heeded her call and left the state. Thousands of others boycotted stores until the practiced stopped. She then penned a pamphlet entitled, “Southern Horrors: Lynch Laws in All Its Phase,” and took her crusade to end lynching North – calling attention to the rampant use of this torturous and illegal act.

It is no wonder the Ms. Wells took to the pen as her weapon against hate. Her South Node, (the horseshoe facing up) was in Gemini. (Because we do not know the time, we cast the chart for 12 noon; however, the Node was in Gemini that day regardless of her birth time.)

With her South Node in Gemini, her North Node, indicating the lessons the soul desired to learn in her current lifetime, was in the opposite sign, Sagittarius. We should use our South Node in service to the embodiment of the North to realize our full potential and she did that beautifully.
Gemini, ruled by the fast planet Mercury, is the communicator. It is the sign obsessed with quickly gathering and distributing information. Sagittarius, ruled by the enormous planet Jupiter, is the seeker of spiritual and philosophical truth. Ms. Wells used the communication skills she honed in her previous lives as a Gemini in service to her North Node, Sagittarius. She used her Gemini pen to demand the Sagittarian values of truth, freedom, and inclusion.

By the way, if I had the chance to cook for Ms. Wells, I would chose my “on-the-go” Chicken Lollipops because Gemini is just too busy to take time to eat long, leisurely meals. The recipe is in my cookbook, “Signs of the Tines: The Ultimate Astrological Cookbook.”

Hang onto your Hats, Folks – Funky Full Moon Eclipse Tuesday/Wednesday

eclipse The full Moon eclipse that will peak at 7 a.m. EDT on Wednesday morning is going to pack quite the punch. That time alone is significant. Depending on the skies where you are, it could be possible to see this total eclipse of the moon and the “rising” Sun at the same time. Known as a “selenelion,” it is something that actually cannot happen. An eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are 180 degrees away from each other – the moon is “full” because it is so far away from the powerful Sun energy. Technically we can’t see them both because of this angle but because space-time is a trickster to say the least and with the help of refraction, we can actually see the Sun “rise” and the Moon “set” a few minutes before they do. Pretty neat, huh? Of course, this would be a wild full eclipse as the Moon is in that most determined sign, Aries, while conjunct rebellious Uranus which is still squared with Pluto. All of this is trining expansive, over the top – knows no bounds Jupiter. Didn’t I tell you to hang onto your hats? As if the Pluto/Uranus square has not caused enough turmoil in the world, this Aries Moon eclipse is brining on emotional outbursts and wild unpredictability. Have I mentioned that Mercury has gone into a three week retrograde? Sorry, I did not know any good way to sneak that in. Back up your computers, take ten, no twenty, good deep breaths and just pray that some lunatic or a flock of them does not get some full Moon madness. Remember, the time of the consequences of this eclipse could come a bit later down the road. When I was writing about the terrible effects of the April grand cross I mentioned that it could brew evil that will come back to haunt us later. What did we get later, ISIS and Ebola? This Uranus/Pluto square is the remnant of the Grand Cross. All and all, it is a tough astrological year.