Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation

I have never been as productive and efficient as I am becoming these days.  Nursing school is doing this for me.  In the past, I may have needed to conduct one binge night of studying per week – maybe staying up late as I finished a 6 hour lab project for a neuroscience seminar at UVa.  But then I would go back to studying 1-2 hours per day in between those sessions.

These days (and nursing school is just getting started!) I am studying a minimum of 3 hours per day and sometimes more like 4 or 5 – every day.  For instance, yesterday I watched videos for about 3 hours prior to going to nursing skills lab.  Then I came home and studied for another 3 hours as I have a big test this coming Friday.  And I barely feel like I broke the surface as far as what I need to study to be “ready.”

So what in my astrology chart might indicate that I am ready (or what has prepared me) for this level of intense discipline and arduous work ethic?  Honestly, it could be a number of things.  And I am not the expert on this topic – therefore I will just share my opinion.

First of all, I am 36 years old.  I have been through a number of experiences which have molded me to see that I am not going to live forever.  Obviously.  So it is time to get busy and get to work.  Let’s do something meaningful and positive.  Plus I have been working off and on in food and beverage jobs – mostly restaurant serving jobs – since 1998.  Good lord it is time to get out of that business!  Restaurant work is probably the most stressful work for such a superficial end product.  Sure feeding people is important – but occasionally the stress levels would seem to be life or death back in the kitchen…  No thank you!  If my job is going to be stressful, I would rather be providing real life benefit to customers and clients and in the hospital that will definitely be the case.

And I will come back to my astrology chart: what indicators “say” that I am prepared for this level of overwhelming loads of assignments and assessments and care plans and quizzes and tests…?

Saturn is a good place to start looking.  One of the Lords of Karma, Saturn is also on the best indicators for whether or not someone is capable of really hard work sustained over time.  You can look at the Sun’s placement, you could look at the number of earth signs in the chart and are those planets in positive aspects or are they afflicted?  Is Neptune stronger than Saturn?  Is Jupiter stronger than Saturn?

And even if your Natal Saturn is afflicted at birth, you can still develop good discipline and work hard to attain a lofty goal.  Just look to Saturn’s transit location in the astrology chart.  I forget where I read this – probably Jeffrey Wolf Green or Robert Hand or Liz Greene – but Saturn’s house position as it transits the chart is very important.

For instance, when Saturn is cruising through your first house, that is a time of new beginnings.  Some old pattern is dying off (or died off when Saturn was completing its cycle through the 12th house) and a new rebirth is beginning.  Then Saturn comes to the second house and you start learning a new skill, you begin to get images of what is possible within the next 5 – 10 years.  Likewise this process continues into the third house.  But now you have more grounding in this new idea or dream or concept.  You are starting to formulate what will be needed and who to go to for assistance with this new idea.  Maybe you start a new school curriculum during this time?

Then Saturn crosses over the Nadir in the chart.  And if you have a Cancer Sun or Moon, this could be an intense year in your life (or if you have any personal planets conjunct the Midheaven in your chart, etc).  But for most people, Saturn crossing the Nadir is one of the major times for getting down to business.  If you have been lackadaisical up to this point, now you will start to doubt your “it’s all good” attitude.  It would be better if I were working toward a goal!  I would feel more satisfied!

So the time that Saturn is in your fourth thru sixth houses, this is the time when you really buckle down and get to work.  Because you are preparing inwardly to give these skills back to the community.  You are learning a new skill so that you can be rewarded for your hard work once Saturn crosses into your Seventh house – and emerges back into the public arena.  You may not know this consciously, but this is what is going on under the surface.

And that is where I am presently as I go through nursing school.  My Saturn is crossing into my 5th house – having been in or around my 4th house for the past 2 – 3 years.  It is time to get to work.  To buckle down and study harder than I ever have before.  To prove to myself that I am not a lazy Pisces – that I can be disciplined and intuitive and brilliant at the same time  🙂

Well this has been a quick update on where I stand presently.  Maybe in a few weeks I can make another report.

Thanks for reading!

I have never felt that I was an extremely confident astrologer.  Sure, I’m a Leo Rising (Pisces Sun with Neptune in my 5th house), so I fake it just fine.  But I think that due to the complexity of astrology – just Western astrology – I always feel like I could study a chart a little longer and always glean something from it.  I think that is why I am usually (secretly) nervous when I am seeing a new, novel astrology client for the first time.  If all I have to go on is a chart and a voice, then I don’t know much about what to expect when I meet the person.

These days however, I’m beginning to feel like I want to speak my mind more and more.  In the past, I was a charmer, a shape shifter, a diplomat.  I could make terrible news sound like a minor challenge.  I could turn a nasty looking obstacle into a growth opportunity.  But frankly, I am tired of doing this.

I say this because the way I do astrology (in the past?) is draining for me.  I think it is because instead of speaking my truth, I have multiple filters going, so that my truth is run past charm weavers to make it sound less and less abrasive.

But the more I experience samsara, the more I want to tell people: if the way you are doing things is not working (to the point where you are frustrated, down, depressed or angry), then why do you continue to choose the same path over and over again?  I want to ask people – what makes you feel stable?  What activity do you do to be grounded and completely equanimous?  If someone can’t answer either of these questions (if they do not know what it is to feel stable or grounded), I’m not sure what to do – but I know that a lot of personal growth work is needed for them to begin to find some stability.  And now that I am in nursing school, I am probably not the person to be working with them on that!  So I am just left with “Wow!  You need to establish some inner resources in a  big way…”  But all I say is, “Have you considered working with a meditation or yoga teacher?”  Or “Can I point you in the direction of some very skilled body-psychotherapists?”  But inner work takes some incredible motivation and a willingness to stand on the edge of the “cliff.”  Even if what seems like a cliff is just a step down into the darkness, we are still terrified and cling to old out-dated methods which just lead to us pin balling back and forth from defensive reaction to blaming others, etc.

So get it together people.  I’m becoming a nurse soon.  And I can’t really believe I am saying all these things.  You would almost think that I am trying to dissuade clients…  (maybe subconsciously this is true).  Rather, I would prefer to have clients who have a lot of their inner resources in tact or who are willing to do the work and get started and put in the effort outside of sessions.

Or perhaps I am already strained from oodles of classes and studying.  Time will tell.  This fall I am going to be practicing self care, reading chapters upon chapters of nursing material, and learning even more how the amazing human body works.  I’m excited.  I suspect I will pick astrology back up on the other side.  But it will definitely be a changed paradigm for me.  I will keep you updated.

(Thanks for reading my ranting)

I am about to order scrubs for my nursing school clinicals which start in about a month.  And for the past three semesters I have been taking heavy science classes in preparation for nursing school.  Therefore I am slowly creeping toward becoming a nurse.  Of course I cannot officially call myself a nurse until I pass the NCLEX (national licensing test) which is a very challenging adaptive computerized test.  But on the inside, I wonder when I will feel like I am a nurse.

So far I have been doing well in Anatomy and Physiology classes (I love learning about the amazing human body) and I thoroughly enjoyed Microbiology.  Therefore I already know a lot more than mainstream America and yet I am not even a Novice when it comes to health care workers…  🙂    I think that once we start our clinical rotations and we are wearing the scrubs and being called nurse for a while, then the transition will start to complete itself internally.

I also feel that over the past year and for the next 2 years, I will learn more (and retain more) information than I have in the previous 10 years.  There is simply a huge volume of material for nursing school – especially with drugs changing every year, and technology advancing at a rapid pace…  Honestly I wonder how they will pack everything into two years  :-O    I also plan to enroll in a BSN program starting in 2016.  So that will make things more interesting – being in two programs simultaneously.

The only obstacle so far is money.  Due to having graduated with my B.A. from UVa, I am ineligible for federal financial aid for the two year program.  Therefore I will have to work at least two days / week to get through nursing school.  I wonder if I should start a crowd funding site for myself?  Let me know your thoughts if you want.

Thanks for reading!