The Summer of ??? Dealing with Mars Retrograde in Aquarius

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Mars Retrograde and Out of Bounds: All Bets Are Off

That’s the phrase I keep hearing in my mind whenever I think about the astrological storm brewing over the next two months. Meaning (I think):

No one knows what’s going to happen. A lot of what happens will be beyond my control. So I’m going to make up my mind right now that I’m going to roll with the punches, keep my expectations light, stay limber, keep grounding and centering….and trust that it’s all proceeding according to the master plan.

Mars retrograde: activate your inner warriorI’m sure you’re feeling the energy already, especially after the Capricorn Full Moon conjunct Saturn on June 27/28 (depending on time zone). I’m going to give you my take on some of the major astrological events happening between now and September.

If your mind glazes over at the mention of aspects, retrogrades and the like, just know that (a) this time period promises to take us on a pretty wild ride and (b) there are things you can do to improve your experience of this summer. Besides drinking heavily or rocking yourself to sleep in the fetal position every night.

Mars Retrograde and Out of Bounds

Expect frustration, delays, unseen obstacles, angry people projecting their shadows onto you, and weird energy patterns (such as heavy fatigue punctuated by bursts of manic productivity).

When the red planet goes retrograde, our assertive, aggressive, anger energy gets turned inward and backwards in time. Generally speaking, Mars Rx periods are not good times to launch a new business, roll out your new membership program, or start a brand-new creative project. Continue reading →

New Workshop: Touch Yourself In Ann Arbor!

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Don’t Let the Word “Yoga” Scare You

Come Home to Your True Self:  Saturday, July 7 – Purna Yoga Ann Arbor

This “workshop” is going to be really chill. And also really deep.

Seriously, if I were designing a workshop to include yoga, this is the kind of yoga I’d include. Oh, wait a minute. I did design this workshop! Sweet!

Ann Arbor Workshop - DK Brainard and Raisha Love - Purna Yoga, Music & Nature July 7 2018

And I designed it with my good friend Raisha Love, who is way more of a physical bad-ass at yoga poses and shit than I am. But who totally shares my sense of what yoga really means, and who is just as committed as I am to facilitating an incredibly safe and nurturing and delicious environment where you can feel supported in touching yourself.

(No, not in that way, you perv!)

What we’re talking about is setting up a sacred space where you can naturally-come into contact with the real you. The eternal, timeless consciousness within you, sometimes called the I AM presence or the essence, or essential Self.

We’re going to do some gentle yoga positions to get our hearts and minds and bodies relaxed and receptive. And then I’m going to play some mellow music while you relax just a little bit more deeply into a place where you feel so good. And while the music keeps on flowing, seemingly as if guided by unseen hands of light, I’m going to invite you to allow my voice to lead you into an even softer space within yourself where you can see so clearly who you really are. And where you can feel better and better as you’re now seeing this image of the real you so clearly you can actually feel the immense lightness of your eternal truth saying something like, “Wow! It’s all gonna be just fine. Because I’m me! I AM who I AM, and that’s all that I need to feel good and feeling good lights up my soul and my soul lights up the world around me and…”

You get the picture.

Next we’re going to choose an image from Raisha’ deck of soul cards to help us attune even more deeply with our essence self. Then we’re going to do a little walking meditation through the woods and down to the river.

We’ll come back up to the studio (probably noticing for the first time since we arrived a couple of hours ago how it sits on a carpet of green grass that stretches invitingly to the trees all ’round) and do a half hour of gentle restorative yoga.

And then we’ll close our time together by sharing how amazingly wonderful it felt to feel so nurtured and the sights, sounds, colors and feelings we discovered in our lives as we lounged in connection with our true selves.

The workshop runs from 1-4 pm on Saturday, July 7 at Purna Yoga Ann Arbor.  The studio is quite petite so if you want to join us, please call or email Raisha using the digits on the flyer above to reserve your spot.

You May Never Know

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The Lives We Touch When We Live True to Our Souls

So, I went to Minnesota last weekend. I love Minnesota in the summertime. The trees….the trees! (I’m a big tree-hugger, in case you didn’t know/hadn’t guessed.) The water. The energy of the land. Yummy.

Celebrating Cathryn Taylor’s life on the occasion of her 70th birthday.

I was invited by my friend and colleague, Cathryn Taylor, on the occasion of her 70th birthday celebration. Cathryn and I met through the Edge magazine, where I was the monthly astrology columnist for a few years. She is a true pioneer in the healing community, author of The Inner Child Workbook and several other books. She’s also a generous, kind, honest, funny, and curious soul.

So when Cathryn asked me to come and call in the directions for her celebration…well, how could I refuse?

My initial plan was to do what I usually do – let people know I’m going to be in town and schedule readings around the main event. But this was one of those trips where almost nothing went as planned. I hadn’t visited the Twin Cities since 2011 — when my organizational skills were worse than they are now. So when I looked up my Minnesota contacts, I only found a handful of names.

Cathryn booked me at a hotel near the airport for my return flight on Monday because we both thought the flight was departing at 8 a.m. When, in fact, it was really scheduled for 8 p.m. (And, true to form, didn’t leave until much later because of thunderstorms in the area.)

Anyway, there was a lot of driving back and forth, uncertainty about hotels, general low-level chaos, no clients, and…IT WAS A GREAT TRIP! Continue reading →

“Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People”

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It’s Father’s Day. It bugs me that I have to even think about my kids doing “Code Red” drills at school, preparing for the day a shooter might walk in and take out his anger on a bunch of innocent children. After the Parkland shooting in February, I started thinking about all of the pro-gun slogans I heard on endless repeat growing up. This little ode to America’s love affair with guns is what came out.

I originally performed this version of the piece on Facebook Live on Sunday, June 3. This video is a couple minutes shorter with added infographics showing how our society’s obsession with “the right to bear arms” affects women, children and black people.

And, for the record, as a Galactic citizen with an Earth visa, I am not a Democrat. And I’m certainly not a Republican. But I would love to hear one right-wing nut job try to convince me that it was the intent of the authors of the Second Amendment to protect the rights of 20-year-old white boys with daddy issues and a headful of Zoloft or Paxil to buy semi-automatic rifles at Walmart or the traveling gun fair. These weapons were developed to enable soldiers to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible.

Sell the kid a top-loading musket – I’m OK with that, see?

Out of Bounds – Mars Retrograde in Aquarius 2018 Preview

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Roseanne Barr’s Natal Chart and Transits and the Astrology of June – September 2018

In this video I explore the upcoming Mars retrograde in Aquarius through Roseanne Barr’s astrology. The Sagittarius Moon on May 29, 2018 was exactly conjunct Roseanne’s Mercury and was opposition her Gemini Moon during her early morning Twitter session. Her show was cancelled during the Full Moon later that morning.

This is a fascinating study in how transits can trigger underlying themes in the chart, especially when supported by aspects from progressed planets.

The other fascinating thing about Roseanne’s chart is that her Ascendant (persona, identity) is conjunct the USA’s natal South Node at 7 Aquarius. And, guess what else is happening at 7 Aquarius this summer? Continue reading →

The Pleasure Revolution – Gemini New Moon 2018

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Debunking the Myth of Sacrifice with Corin Grillo – The Naked Songwriter Podcast #27

Corin Grillo talks about the "fear virus" with DK Brainard - The Naked Songwriter PodcastToday’s Gemini New Moon falls at the midway point of the Great Attractor and the Galactic Center, suggesting a cosmic upgrade in consciousness is on offer.

Psychotherapist, healer, and fearless role model Corin Grillo knows a lot about consciousness – and specifically what it takes to move out of depression, despair and poverty consciousness and into authenticity, pleasure, and bliss.

In this interview, Corin and I talk about the parasitic fear virus that has afflicted humanity for thousands of years and how we can free ourselves from it. We discuss the curious case of “born-again” Doreen Virtue and the cost of refusing to face our shadows. Corin talks about the dead bird that regenerated before her eyes and convinced her that the angels are real. And a whole lot more! Continue reading →

Burning Down the House – Uranus in Taurus

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When Things Go Boom – The Naked Songwriter Podcast #26

Uranus blows things up. It burns things down. But always with the intent of setting us free to be who we really are. Uranus in Taurus is determined to recreate society so we are free to actually enjoy our lives. In this podcast, I share a talk I did recently on Uranus in Taurus plus thoughts on the Sagittarius Full Moon and Roseanne Barr’s chart.

The fabulous Corin Grillo invited me into her Inner Sanctum group to talk about how this is likely to go down over the next seven years….and what we can do as individuals to benefit from Uranus in Taurus. In the interview I talk about:

  • How Uranus in Taurus is likely to affect us as individuals and as a society
  • What we ‘spiritual people’ tend to get fooled into believing we need to change and what Uranus will truly be trying to blast out of us
  • The upcoming Mars retrograde and long-running Mars-Uranus square
  • And the story of John Varley, the painter who was also an amateur astrologer and was obsessed with understanding Uranus’ astrological influence after its rediscovery in 1781.

[podcast]

PS – I told Varley’s story with a few wrong details He actually stayed home instead of going out that day, because he was absolutely convinced something dangerous was going to happen. Sure enough, his house caught on fire. According to his son Albert,

“He was so delighted at having discovered what the astrological significance of Uranus was, that he sat down while his house was burning, knowing though he did, that he was not insured for a penny, to write an account of his discovery…Although he lost everything in the fire, he regarded that as a small matter compared with his discovery of the new planet’s potential.”

Source: A History of Horoscopic Astrology by James H. Holden

 

Can You Handle the Truth? – Sagittarius Full Moon May 29 2018

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Questioning the self-shaming inner voice

The Book of Spells - recognizing the self-shaming inner voices in the head are not yours!

One of the most valuable habits I’ve developed from the Book of Spells webinars is questioning the self-shaming inner voice statements I hear myself saying (or thinking).

Listen to these statements:

  • “I’m still beating myself up for that.”
  • “I wanted to play my guitar but I kept sabotaging myself.”
  • “Every time I get ready to ______, I just ‘should’ on myself. I stop myself in my tracks.”

Chances are you say the same or similar things – out loud or in your head – fairly often. But are these true statements?

Sagittarius tells us that if we know the truth, the truth will set us free.

The current 18-month period of eclipses in Leo-Aquarius aims to awaken us to our inner divinity. Since the nodes are the ‘trigger points’ for eclipses, the trine between today’s Sagittarius Full Moon and the North Node in Leo signals a creative opportunity to take another step in your own awakening. Continue reading →

My Journey from Identity to Essence

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Seeing through the false reality and embodying the Authentic Self

Journey from Identity to Essence - Embodying the Authentic Self

For most of my life, I believed I was a flawed, weak, neurotic self who had to work hard, be spiritual, and overcome my defects. Why? So that one day I would finally be good enough to have my dreams come true.

Then one day, in the process of reluctantly – yet again! – going into my body to clear some painful, stuck energy, I experienced a profound insight.

I actually saw my life from the point of view of my consciousness sitting inside my “flawed self.” From that perspective “my ideal Self” seemed like another person, somewhere off in the future.

DK Brainard - Feeling the feels. Photo by Julie Jaycox.

Feeling the feels. Photo by Julie Jaycox.

For so long I had searched for the the right spiritual formula. If I could just find the best form of meditation, overcome my addictions, harness my desires (or make enough money or have enough success?), I could finally become that self.

In an instant, I felt  the truth: my ideal Self is who I really am, who I always have been. The suffering, “not quite good enough” self? That’s just my identity.

I saw that my identity is an illusion, a shell I created in childhood to try to win love and approval and avoid pain and suffering. All my life, I had accepted my identity, my personality, as the real me.

When the Shell Starts to Crack Open

You probably already know that for many years I wrote weekly and monthly horoscope columns. They were read by thousands of people around the world. I had astrology and coaching clients on every continent but Antarctica.

I became far more successful as an astrologer than I ever could have imagined when I started out. But one day I woke up and realized I wasn’t happy. I was starting to fake it – I just didn’t feel the juice, the enthusiasm I used to any more. At the same time, my income was steadily shrinking. I drove myself to work harder, to try harder. But nothing seemed to work.

Finally, I admitted the frightening truth to myself: Continue reading →

Uranus in Taurus: Radical New Values Around Money & Pleasure

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The Naked Songwriter Podcast #025

Experiments in Micro-Economics with Artist/Activist/Yoga Teacher Bear Hebert

bear hebert talking about micro economies and social justice on the naked songwriter podcast May 11, 2018Uranus in Taurus is going to radically reshape our societal values and change how we relate to money, food, and pleasure. The last time Uranus the Awakener transited the sign of Taurus, in the 1930s, a lot of bad stuff happened. Much of it involving money, food security, racial oppression, and the politics of scarcity. Why should this transit (2018-2025) be any different?

I tackle this question with one of my current favorite bloggers and grassroots/futuristic thinkers, Bear Hebert.

Bear teaches yoga in New Orleans. She’s a life coach who specializes in working with post-capitalist entrepreneurs. She runs a theater company. She writes a provocative blog encouraging healers and spiritual people to take action on social justice issues. (Her current life coaching program is titled “No Lazy Cowards”…) Listen to the podcast: Continue reading →