Winter 2022 Starshine News

Starshine News Vol.26, # 1 Winter 2022 wind.jyoti@gmail.com www.jyotiwindastrology.com

Dear friends, From an email I sent to a friend: “I think these times we chose to live in, we will be asked to shed all that we held important before, and reclaim our authenticity...and that takes disruption and difficulty, most times. These are not easy times to be alive here. I think this will continue to be the case for a good while yet. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes says: (badly paraphrased): ‘You are cut from the long timbers of the forest. You are a boat that can navigate the deep waters. You were made for these times.’ So here we are. I think we find each other, people of like mind and heart, and support each other through those times. Like Rome burned while Nero played his violin, I think we are aware of the burning while other people seem to keep playing and having a great old time...but it's not real, because real structures are crumbling...life is changing...and in bigger ways than before.” So I wish us all well as we navigate these times, as we move into 2022. It looks to be a different year than the last two. More expansion, perhaps some things easier to deal with, But make no mistake, there is no going back to ‘normal’. This is the new normal. Things are changing around us. The roller coaster weather, the ‘seasons’ as we’ve known them, the ways people interact or act out. As any species will tell you, we either adapt or… So looking at our adaptability, our flexibility, our willingness to drop what’s not working, our humanity and how it extends its hand to help…these are all attributes that will make this transition time easier. Be well, Jyoti Winter Meditation Take some nice deep breaths. Send your mind and body down into your feet, relaxing your feet, coming up through your legs to your hips. Relax these parts of your body. Send mind and breath down into the small of your back, coming up through your spine and across the broadness of your back, relaxing all the muscles and ligaments. Send mind and breath down into your belly, coming up through your trunk, relaxing all your sacred organs, your heart, your lungs, to your shoulders. Send mind and breath down into your fingertips, coming up through your hands and arms to your shoulders. Relax your shoulders. Send mind and breath into the back of your neck, coming across your scalp, down into your facial muscles to your jaw line. Relax. Send mind and breath down into your throat, across your neck, up into your ears, and across your brain. Just breath and relax. (I use this relaxation prior to every shamanic journey I lead. It is a great yoga meditation for the body.)

Astrological Services Consultations are $120. They include: Natal, and Transit Reading. Relationship Charts. Astrocartography Maps. Shamanic Journeys. Spiritual Consulting. Children’s Charts: $60 under 14 yrs. Sliding scale available Winter 2022 Book Reviews A Guide of Sprits: A Psychopomp’s Manual for Transitioning the Dead to the Afterlife by Chris Allaun. The author leads us through his own approach to working with the souls of the dead, who may be reluctant or stuck in moving on, and presents various ways of suggesting this work can be done. His main message is working through kindness and compassion. He draws on various learnings of his own including witchcraft, magik and ritual. For myself, I was more interested in his approach to journeying, working with the Ancestors, traveling to the Land of the Ancestors, and finding your Psychopomp Teacher in non-ordinary reality. His values resonated with me and my own sense of integrity. I picked up some confirmations about my own work, along with suggestions in how to expand it, especially Group Psychopomp work which I had never considered before: a group journey to a specific place to do Psychopomp work, especially after a disaster. This book was a good read and I recommend it! Rainforest Home Remedies – The Maya Way to Heal Your Body & Replenish Your Soul by Rosita Arvigo & Nadine Epstein This time-less book came to my attention again. It is a compendium of self care and family care routines from the Maya people. Their views on nature and health coordinate with those of other cultures close to natures ways. It includes soul healing with ceremonies as well as problems of children and women’s health. There’s even a guide to doing Maya Abdominal therapy on yourself, which is priceless in itself. If you’re interested in your holistic health, this is a great source. Guest Reviewer: Terra Rafael A Hunter Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century by Heather Heying and Bret WeinsteinWritten by two evolutionary biologists, this book is Far from academic. It looks at various life concerns through the eyes of evolutionary science. Not just for those on a paleo diet! It explains how humans are unique animals and how culture is a part of our evolution as much as DNA…. Worth the read. They also offer podcasts, if you, like me, find them both useful and endearing. Guest Reviewer: Terra Rafael Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo ISBN 9780393248531 Joy Harjo is an American writer, poet, playwright, storyteller, artist, musician, and member of the Muskogee Cherokee Nation in her third term as US Poet Laureate In her second memoir she brilliantly weaves the magic and wonder, the reality and the ephemeral, the light and the darkness, the history, the stories, and the remedies to help heal our generation’s future -handling the big issues with the dexterity of a poet warrior, she reminds us to remember. Guest Reviewer: Bonita Cid Courage is the measure of our own heartfelt participation with life, With another, with a community, a work, a future. To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere Or do anything Except to make conscious Those things we already feel deeply And then to live through the unending vulnerabilities Of those consequences. David Whyte Winter 2022 Astrology Column January begins with Sun trine Uranus on the 1st. A desire for freedom. The New Moon on the 2nd at 11:33AM/MST calls for that same energy: opening, expanding, wanting more freedom to know, to explore. On the 11th, be open to the truth. Mercury turns Retrograde (Rx) on the 14th at 4:41AM/MST. We begin 3 weeks of inner looking. Good to have a project ready to work on. On the 15-22, Uranus is stationing and we can expect the unexpected. Power day on the 16th. The Full Moon on the 17th at 4:48PM/MST brings a very powerful energy, pushing for emotionally transformative experiences and freedom of self-expression. On the 18th, Uranus turns Direct and we want to make our lives an outward expression of who we are. Mercury conjuncts Pluto on the 28th, a day of deep insights. Venus turns Direct on the 29th at 1:46AM/MST and we begin to implement new values and priorities that we arrived at over the previous 6 weeks. On the 30th, unexpected occurrences. The New Moon on the 31st at 10:46PM/MST is a real push for change, for moving beyond the old, leaving it behind, for creating new structures and perspectives. February begins with the Lunar New Year of the Water Tiger on the 1st. The Water Tiger has passion and self-determination, can be forceful, quick-tempered, and can change quickly, yet is brave. Don’t overspend to native Tigers. Yet these qualities affect all of us this year. Mercury turns Direct on the 3rd at 9:13PM/MST and we begin to implement our insights. Day to see self-limitations on the 4th, some healing on the 6th, courage on the 8th, and insights on the 11th. The Full Moon on 16th at 9:56AM/MST suggests for the next several weeks, things may feel frustrating. It carries a Fixed Grand Cross. Take it in stride. We are in the Pluto return of the U.S.’ chart and one might watch their economics, the U.S.’ past behavior as a country, and the fears it may be pushed to face. Mercury catches up on the 25th and we enter new situations. March begins with a New Moon on the 2nd at 10:35AM/MST. Good time to explore the shadow, the blind side, the hidden side of things. Immense creative energies afoot. Expand your views and look to larger and different possibilities. Very intense day on the 3rd with Mars and Pluto together. The Full Moon on the 18th at 1:18AM/MDT brings spiritual insights and a willingness to see the truth of things. Be willing to drop your identifiers if you’ve outgrown them. The Spring Equinox on the 20th at 9:33AM/MDT is the beginning of the Astrological New Year. Keep the material and the spiritual in balance. Freedom needs important. Erratic energy on the 22nd, trust issues on the 28th, and a New Moon for the west coast of the U.S. on the 31st at 11:24PM.PDT. Insights and impatience. (For the rest of the country, it’s April 1st.) Happy Spring!

New Moon Jan 2 11:33AM/MST Mercury turns Rx Jan 14 4:41AM/MST Full Moon Jan 17 4:48PM/MST Venus turns Direct Jan 29 1:46AM/MST New Moon Jan 31 10:46PM/MST Lunar New Year/Water Tiger Feb 1 Mercury turns Direct Feb 3 9:13PM/MST Full Moon Feb 16 9:56AM/MST Mercury catches up Feb 25 New Moon Mar 2 10:35AM/MST Full Moon Mar 18 1:18AM/MDT Spring Equinox Mar 20 9:33AM/MDT New Moon Mar 31 11:24PM/PDT Home I’ve always lived in my mind. I visit the world from time to time. I take vacations into my heart when something moves me. I read, I think, I muse, I analyze, I mull things around like a good cider, Some spicy content, yet a continued smooth flavor. I know there’s a balance Between day-to-day life And those lovely vacation spots We go to for a break. For me, that’s nature. My mind takes a back seat, Allows this basic green energy To have its way with my nervous system, My breath. Perhaps I’ve been seeing this all From the wrong vantage point. Perhaps Nature is my true home, And my mind is just an apartment in the city, That I rent in order to work. Perhaps when I retire, if ever, What I consider a sanctuary now Will be the home I live in permanently, A green home that breathes with me And runs brooks and pine-scented air Over my face, And speaks to me in the ferny shade Of gentle thoughts and poetry. Jyoti Wind ----------------------------------------- Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. Ten years after Laurel’s daughter, Ellie, disappeared, her back pack is found. Shortly thereafter, Laurel meets Floyd and begins an affair that has twists and turns, especially since Floyd’s daughter is the spitting image of Ellie. I picked this book up every chance I had. Classified as suspense fiction and it certainly was.

Dipa Ma The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master by Amy Schmidt. Dipa Ma: (1911-1989)

A truly wonderful book about a remarkable women. Schmidt begins by offering a swift but engaging outline of Dipa Ma's life, including her marriage at age 12, her struggle as a single mother to practice meditation, her mastery of such "supernatural powers" as mind reading and time travel and her eventual establishment in a tiny Calcutta apartment as a gentle, playful and world-renowned teacher of mindfulness. Schmidt then highlights a number of Dipa Ma's teachings, such as "the mind is all stories"; "you can do anything you want to do"; and despite strongly patriarchal economic and religious systems, "you should not think that women are helpless." https://dipama.com https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780974240558 Guest Reviewer: Karen Stewart Bluebirds by Margaret Mayhew. Marching in heels and summer frocks. There weren’t uniforms when Winnie, Rose, Gloria and a few others joined the WAAFs (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) in England. WWII was just beginning to be felt in western Europe and the WAAFs were an unknown entity. No one knew what to do with them and didn’t want them around. They wee given sub-standard quarters in a leaky Quonset hut. Jobs were peeling potatoes and serving the RAF men. They weren’t treated seriously. Little by little, they were entrusted with jobs the men held, so that they proved themselves invaluable as the bombings got closer to England, and most of the male personnel became pilots or tended the Spitfires and Hurricanes. I really enjoyed this story of the women who began the WAAF with nothing more than courage and loyalty.

The Inspector Graham Mysteries by Alison Golden. I read the first set (1-4) on Kindle. They were advertised as British mysteries with no gratuitous violence or sex. Just a good mystery. Chief Inspector David Graham carries his own sorrows as he investigates a small town crime and then moves to Jersey, a smaller town on Guernsey. He’s new to the area, meets his second-in-command, and his two new patrol officers. This fearsome foursome tackle a sudden uptick in crime with his arrival. His penchant for Oolong and other Asian teas follow you through the pages along with his brilliant mind.

A Rumor of Bones by Beverly Connor. A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery. As a forensic anthropologist, Lindsay finds the body of a woman on an ancient dig site. She reconstructs the face on the skull, adds a wig and everyone is surprised as to who it is. It is someone who disappeared decades ago? Children’s bones are surfacing in other areas and she wonders who the killer of children is outside this small town. She sets out to find out. A Blessing May you be well in body, mind and spirit. May you be joyful. May you be free from harm and from harming others. May you feel safe in your body. May you have space to rest. May you have space to play. May you be free to feel all of your feelings. May you be nourished by pleasure. May your voice be met with kind and receptive ears. May your grief be a testament to how deeply you love. May your life be a testament to the light of your spirit. May you feel the protection of your ancestors’ prayers. May you trust the wisdom of your body. May you know that the love you have given was never wasted. May you receive the abundance of love that is available to you. May you love freely and deeply. May you be love. By Gina M. Puorro (from The Wild Will Call You Back) The Henna Artist and The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi The Henna Artist is Joshi’s debut novel, with Lakshmi as the central character. She is a 17 year old from a rural village in India who escapes an arranged abusive marriage to make her way to Jaipur. It is a story of a young woman who struggles to pursue her dream of an independent life as 1950s India and is torn between tradition and a shift towards a more modern society. As a gifted henna artist she becomes the confidante of wealthy women of the upper class of Jaipur. Her helper is a young boy, Malik, who is a Muslim street urchin, who learns to be devoted to Lakshmi and to quietly observe what happens in the upper class society. The Secret Keeper of Jaipur is the sequel. This novel takes place about 12 years later and it is Malik who is the central character along with all of those from the first book. Lakshmi’s independence has come with a cost, but you see her develop and grow into the healer that she was born to be. I look forward to the next book, which will complete what will be “ the Jaipur trilogy”. It will be about Lakshmi’s sister who is now in Paris, developing perfume essences. This will surely build on the already established love of the sensual— of delicious Indian food, the colors of beautiful clothing, the scent of herbs, and the wonder of the pink city of Jaipur. Guest Reviewer: Nancy Overton. The Night She Died by Dorothy Simpson. British Police Inspector Luke Thanet has a penchant for staying with a case until he solves it. Called to a crime, a young woman dead in her front hall, coat on, purse missing. Several suspects and past trauma add to his adventure. Workshops Gathering Courage in a Time of Change Workshop. Jan.2022. (See schedule on last page). This shamanic online workshop will introduce you to The Morrigan, the protective spirit of the land in the Celtic tradition; to The Volvas, the seeresses of ancient Scandinavia who saw the future of each person and nation; The Swan Maidens/Battle Maidens who stood between life and death; and Freya and the Valkyries who were Queens of Light and Dark. We will enlist their knowledge of courage and heart to find our own and stand for what we believe in, in these times. Flight of the Spirit: Basic Shamanic Journey Workshop January 6, 2022.4 sessions, $100. Learn how to access your helping spirits and go on adventures and healing journeys with them. Gather tools to help yourself and others. See my youtube channel: Flight of the Spirit audio, It gives a good description of Shamananism. Gatekeepers at the Portal: A Psychopomp Workshop, Feb.2022 (See schedule on last page). This shamanic online workshop will teach you how to work with gathering your crew to help you help souls who have crossed over and are looking for the Portal of Light. This is a Psychopomp Workshop and having a facility with journeying and working with spirit guides is a must. It is considered advanced study. Psychopomp comes from the Greek: psyche, soul…and pomp, guide. If you feel called, let me know. It is a service shamans and shamanic practitioners have been called to do since the beginning of time. There are a lot of souls caught between the worlds from wars, crimes, mass world events, and climate change. We need to answer this call if possible.

Gathering Courage in a Time of Change Workshop Jan.6, Thurs evenings, 6PM 4 weeks $100. Shamanic experience needed wind.jyoti@gmail.com 2nd Sunday Shamanic Study Group with Jyoti Jan 9 Free 10AM/MST RSVP for Zoom link wind.jyoti@gmail.com Flight of the Spirit Basic Shamanic Journey Workshop Monday evenings 5PM/MST Jan.10 4 weeks $100. wind.jyoti@gmail.com 2nd Sunday Shamanic Study Group with Jyoti Feb 13 Free 10AM/MST RSVP for Zoom link wind.jyoti@gmail.com Psychopomp Workshop Feb.17 6 weeks Thurs evenings 6PM $150. Shamanic skills needed Advanced course Let me know if you are interested wind.jyoti@gmail.com Jyoti Wind 2635 Mapleton Ave.#9 Boulder, CO 80304 303.541-9106