When we get confused and think that we can't take care of ourselves - as in, we can't let nature take care of us - or that somehow taking care of ourselves comes at the expense of others, we suffer.
The new moon in Taurus happens this week - a beautiful invitation for integration of sensory pleasure, for self-care.
Each horoscope here is a weird suggestion of a ritual for your sign, for this week of the New Moon. Adapt accordingly. If these are not for you, I encourage you to make up your own rituals - the New Moon is a good time for this and especially so in the Earth sign of Taurus. Embodiment! This is what we are doing on Planet Earth, so it's never not necessary as a practice. It's never not necessary to remember this.
ARIES | March 21-April 19
Question - How do you visualize your own learning process?
Meditation - walk in circles.
Assignment - For this New Moon, find a meaningful object in your life, and put it on the ground. Take at least three laps walking or moving around this object, as the Moon moves around planet Earth. Ask three questions, and take a lap around the object to receive the answer for each question. Wear something important while you do this.
TAURUS | April 20-May 20
Question - What will you do to connect with planet earth this week?
Meditation - PLANET EARTH.
Assignment - Taurus on Taurus on Taurus! New moon of Taurus + + Sun in Taurus + you Taurus! All the Taurus! Embodiment. Pleasure! What can this New Moon mirror for you? What can it show you about yourself? What kind of listening to the Moon do you do? If you don't, maybe now is a good time to start. What can the Moon teach you about living on planet earth? Reconnect to the pleasure of being alive on planet earth this week. Try this out without consuming anything, or changing your circumstance in any way, just whenever you think of it, in your body, exactly the way it is, on planet earth, exactly the way it is, both of you in full permission to exist, together. Touch your forehead to the ground and breathe into your precious lungs. Do this many, many times.
GEMINI | May 21-June 20
Question - When do you use the symbol of the twins to your advantage?
Meditation - healing through the imagination.
Assignment - Imagine a duplicate of your body in front of you. Ask this duplicate questions about your health - spiritual and physical. Ask it to show you where the blocks or struggles are. Then gently heal your body duplicate in front of you, with effortless intention, while sitting quietly. You can brush it off, warm it up, cool it off, slide things around, break things up, shift, shake, blow air into, etc. Whatever is needed. Then rotate this duplicate so that it turns around and faces the same way you face, and pull it back into your body, so that the two merge into you, this you, right now, present moment you.
CANCER | June 21-July 22
Question - What do your friends know about you that you might not yet see?
Meditation - inside a garden.
Assignment - Get a friend to go to a garden with you. Sit in the garden cross-legged and hold hands. Close your eyes and read each other. What does your friend see and feel about you in holding your hands? What do you see and feel about them in holding their hands? Read each other and then make promises to each other about how to heal yourselves based on what you see.
LEO | July 23-August 22
Question - How often do you devote time to nurturing your own sustenance and money?
Meditation - a bowl for offering and receiving.
Assignment - Put a bowl in front of you, one that feels good to you, looks good to you. Put it at your feet, and put a few things in it that feel good to you. Maybe a feather or a stone or a flower. Maybe all of these things. Consider this your collection bowl, and bless it before you set it somewhere visible in your everyday space, so that you can remember it as a symbol for the space you make to receive money and nourishment.
VIRGO | August 23-September 22
Question - What do you do with your hands and wrists in one day?
Meditation - hands and wrists.
Assignment - Do a task that you normally do each day, brushing your teeth, cooking, chopping vegetables, writing, or typing, picking up your bag, etc, but at least three times this week ritualize it. Focus as much of your attention as possible on your wrists and hands and notice what life is like for them. Notice what they are doing, and how they are feeling, and how aligned they feel with whatever the task is. Ask them how you can treat them well. Ask them what feels best, how you can nurture them.
LIBRA | September 23-October 22
Question - What happens when you give it away?
Meditation - giving what you want to someone else.
Assignment - Get in the kitchen. Make some food that's really elaborate and good - that you want to eat. And ask someone to eat it with you. Before you eat, each say what you want the most, and then let your eating on this special occasion be a way of consuming what you want right then. Don't wait! Make it, share it, give it away, while you also consume it. Don't over think it. Just be willing to let the inexplicable happen more often, and it will.
SCORPIO | October 23-November 21
Question - When do you let water heal you?
Meditation - water as healer.
Assignment - Soak your feet at least once this week, in a healing foot bath that you make yourself. Let this water, and whatever your intuition tells you to put in it, heal you. The New Moon in Taurus is significant for you because you're always in deep conversation with Taurus whether you want to be or not. So what can this darkness of the New Moon and the stoic, pleasure- and ease-oriented Taurus remind you of right now? Ponder this while your feet are soaking in water, your original home element.
SAGITTARIUS | November 22-December 21
Question - How can your values energize you?
Meditation - embodying values.
Assignment - Write 5-10 of your values on little slips of paper and put them in a jar that you sleep next to. Set the intention that you want to absorb them during sleep. Keep them there as long as you need to. This is a way of living with your values right now, no matter what happens to you.
CAPRICORN | December 22-January 19
Question - When do you touch yourself?
Meditation - faith in your own self-healing.
Assignment - Massage your own body this week. Use oil and give yourself a quiet period of time (ideally on Tuesday, the New Moon) to do this. Ask your body the stories it is trying to tell you as you massage it. What are the messages the material of your body is trying to give your spirit? What can your spirit do to respond to these messages? Spend time on the places that call to you that they need healing, and as you massage, remind yourself that your own self-healing is possible.
AQUARIUS | January 20 to February 18
Question - Where is your body in relation to other bodies and space?
Meditation - the ten directions.
Assignment - Find a quiet few minutes in your week. Sit in a chair or on a cushion and locate your body. Do this by contemplating, picturing, saying hello to each direction. First North, South, East and West. Then Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest. Then Up and Down. Don't effort, just do this until you feel your energy located in your own body, as you perceive it in relation to the directions. When your energy is present in your body, what do you notice? What do you hear about your next step? Let the answers rise up slowly, from this located place in your body.
PISCES | February 19 to March 20
Question - What questions do you want to ask your future self?
Meditation - running in a straight line.
Assignment - Move your body, or your imagination, from where you are right now toward whatever horizon is in front of you. If you move ahead of your body, way way out, as far into the future as you can project, what do you see around you? What fruits of the present come to your life in the future? What do you see about your possible future inheritance that can help you alter current painful behaviors? From this future vantage point that you imagine as physical, when you turn around to see yourself, what do you see? What can your future self tell you about how to act? What symbol can you take with you from this visualization to remind you when you come back to the present? Is it a color? Is it an object? Is it a word or words? Bring wisdom back from your future self to your present right now - you can be your own guide.