I love quotes and affirmations. They so neatly and powerfully illustrate the essence of the idea they’re designed to help us ‘get.’ Dr. Mardy Grothe said it best when he explained his love of them– “At every stage of my life, well-phrased aphorisms from a wide assortment of writers have stimulated my thinking, challenged my preconceptions, provided new perspectives on challenges I was facing, helped me find my way when I was lost, and in general inspired me to become a better person.” June marks the halfway point in the year. It’s here that you must review your processes, your projects and yourself before moving on to the last half of this year’s goals. This month your message comes in the form of a quote or message designed to help you ‘get’ where you are and where you’re headed. Venus, the planet of self-value, beauty, relationships and money is retrograde for the next few weeks, so pay special attention to your own needs, wants and desires. This is not a good time to buy expensive or decorative items such as jewelry or furniture. If you can, postpone getting major beauty treatments or signing any partnership agreements until Venus moves forward on June 27th.
THE EMPEROR (March 21 – April 20) “Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work, your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.” Leonardo Da Vinci
THE EMPRESS (April 21 – May 20) “In our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life…but couldn’t everyone’s life become a work of art? Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, and not our lives?” Michael Foucault
THE LOVERS (May 21 – June 20) On perception and stress– “Rule 1. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule 2. It’s all small stuff. Rule 3. If you can’t fight or flee, then flow.”
THE CHARIOT (June 21 – July 20) We do not truly serve the world if we give to others but neglect our own truth and our own needs. It’s only when our own needs are fully met that we can generously and whole-heartedly give of ourselves. It’s not selfish to look after ourselves — it’s essential! “To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart.” Pearl S. Buck and The Daily Guru
THE SUN (July 21 – August 22) “Every person with an ideal faces the danger of being called a fool or a madman. Every great cause must be ushered into the world by a small minority of persons often denounced as ‘crazy.’ Someone said, ‘Nobody can be genuinely in earnest without appearing eccentric in a world where intensity is considered bad form.’” Rev. Paul Osumi
THE HERMIT (August 23 – September 22) How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk that way to anyone else? Our thoughts create our reality. How do you typically think about yourself? Do you berate yourself for being stupid, sloppy, forgetful or insensitive? Do you watch yourself with interest, respect and compassion? Stay alert to your self-talk and let go of judgments that don’t serve you. “Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself.” Nathaniel Branden and The Daily Guru
JUSTICE (September 23 – October 22) “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” Ernest Hemingway
THE MAGICIAN (October 23 – November 21) “Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a Nelson Mandela. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he’ll never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham — who set the world’s one-mile record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver. Call him a slow learner, “retarded,” and write him off as uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein. As one man summed it up: Life is about 20% in what happens to us and 80% in the way we respond to the events.” Ted Engstrom
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE (November 22 – December 21) “It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity that never comes than to be unprepared for an opportunity that does.” Les Brown
THE WORLD (December 22 – January 19) “The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.” Ernest Newman
THE STAR (January 20 – February 19) “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.” “Auntie Mame” Dennis
THE MOON (February 20 – March 20) We never have enough information to enable us to fully understand the truth of the reality around us. And there is never only one correct perspective about anything. Knowing this helps me let go of my tendency to label things as good or bad. I suffer least when I can accept reality just as it is. And I benefit most when I open my heart and mind in appreciation. “If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.” Marcus Aurelius and The Daily Guru