Something Changed

A few people responded to my last post with concern I am going to stop writing and sharing about “cosmic stuff.”

In fact there were SO many lovely voicenotes and messages triggered by my soft return to this space. My slightly crumpled midlife heart holds such GRATITUDE for all your words - please know you can also share them here in comments, whether you and I are new to each other or not!

If you are heard for other things and don’t know that I’m a sound therapist and practitioner, and I teach people how to play gongs, crystal bowls, and the whole symphony of sound healing tools, well now you do. My sound practitioner trainings are based on three key pillars - SCIENCE, ENERGETICS and MUSICOLOGY. I always say that all three are equally critical, in my view you simply cannot become a sound facilitator, especially a good one, without clear and balanced knowledge across all three. Which I mention here, because although the science and focus on the nervous system is my updated front row focus for life and Substack, I’ve still got plenty to say about energetics and the cosmic realms (and music, for that matter)!

So in response to the aforementioned concerns - well have no fear my friends, the universe is working its divine magic in this little corner of Goa. Despite my patent awareness of my own shift away from intense daily altarwork and woo-woo ritual over recent months, and best intentions to focus more fully on all things super-science nerd; I’ve undergone a week or so of one of those moments of astrological timing that really do prove as above so below is more than just a quotable piece of content carved in a 1600 year old stone…

With roots in Hermeticism, the phrase (actually, paraphrase) AS ABOVE SO BELOW was initially found on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus dating back to 200-800 BCE. The original inscription translated to, “That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.” The Emerald Tablet, aka Smaragdine Tablet, holds a series of crypitic alchemical treatises attributed to an avatar of the Greek God Hermes and Egyptian God Thoth, it’s fundamental in the understanding of the ancient philosophical and religious world.

So the BIG astrological headline this week has been the Sun and Uranus in conjunction (a much argued cazimi, which technically is when you can SEE the two planets in question with the naked eye) at the critical point of 1° Gemini. The aspect was exact last Friday 22nd May, and here’s why it’s of note:

Uranus is the planet that represents seismic change, sudden provocation, curveballs, and the uncomfortable surfacing of the unseen or unexpected. The Sun, when in direct alignment (astrospeak: conjunction) with anything, will fairly obviously throw a giant spotlight across its temporary roommate. In editorial language, I mean that under this energy, we’re collectively likely to undergo a phase of sudden changes and awarenesses, and being as this aspect is happening right at the top of the sign of Gemini, that spotlight shines in matters of the mind, intellect, and communication. So broad strokes, expect things to come to light that change how you understand the world, or what you think about how you’re approaching it intellectually. Ithink this translates a lot to how we consume news media, how we choose to communicate (are you a voicenote, a texter, or a leave a post-it on the sider?) There’s also something big in there about self-talk, and the hard truths and possibly habitual lies we tell ourselves

It’s also always worth checking which house Gemini rules in your natal chart, as in ADDITION to spotlighting all things archetypally Gemini, this astro-action will also stir up matters relating to that particular house for your unique human vessel.

If you need to check your chart to identify which house contains Gemini, I recommend casting it for free at www.astro-seek.com. Although I rarely advertise it, I do still offer 1:1 Cosmic Alchemy readings - embodied evolutionary astrology - so if you’d like to dive into the practical application of how energetic shifts and patterns can be understood and utilised in your daily life, click here:

https://www.silenceandnoise.in/cosmic-alchemy

In the last week I’ve felt some shuddering shifts deep within. You know the ones, the way you get the first kick of a cramp a week before your period, or the flicker of lights behind your eyes just before an inconvenient migraine begins to manifest. You JUST KNOW something is landing.

Gemini is predominantly across my 5th house of creativity and self expression. It makes sense that the Uranian activity would flashpoint around my feeling the urge to write again, to create again. I’ve been what you could only call PROLIFIC this last week, launching 7 events and trainings with three more pending, rewriting almost the whole Silence & Noise website, rescusciatating this Substack, scribbling pages of business plans, proposals, endless notes and bullet points for posts, stories, books…. it’s been pouring forth.

Which is unusual, because I’ve felt like a dry as a bone creative desert for months. The Death Valley of creativity . I wrote in my diary this morning that the last 18 months has been like sleepwalking through my own life, and suddenly I’m just waking up from an elongated bad dream. Not ‘bad’ in the night terrors sense, but ‘bad’ in the “I know I’m misaligned and I can’t quite get a handle on why or find a way to fix it’ vibe. I’ve been putting it down to messy mid-forties, and the key astrological transit of our 5th decade, the Uranus opposition, which lands for us all somewhere between ages 41-45 and is joyfully dubbed the Midlife Crisis Transit. Go suck on that with your Saturn return, kids. Uranus now safely in Gemini (my opposition was late stage Taurus - 25° which will be similar for anyone born 1977- 1982 or thereabouts) - I feel like I’m just emerging from the vortex.

I’ve felt my perspective shift. I finished reading a book, only second one this year (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, a book about ostensibly about video games which I detest, but somehow with a Shakespearian title and so moving and clever it made me cry). I am suddenly noticing colours differently. I’ve had the repeated urge to leave my phone at home and go for long walks. An urge I’ve gladly responded to. I’ve gone into a peculiar vow of silence. Perhaps because I’ve stopped being terrified of my upcoming Vipassana and started leaning eagerly towards it. Most importantly, I’ve felt something REALLY big shift inside me - a movement towards a new strata of self-awareness, and a sudden sense of being able to step back into purpose again.

This is how astrology works. Subtle energetic exchanges between ourselves, our biosphere, our emotional frequencies and the space around us, are constantly ongoing. You notice these all the time when you actually LOOK for the evidence - when you’re in a crowded room (rare these days, right?) and it feels bulging with other people’s energy. When you walk into a room where two people have just had an argument, or illicit sex, or shared a secret - you SENSE it. Energy moves constantly. When a place seems to hold some magic you can’t quite understand but it’s magnetic to your very soul. Energy magnetises, connects, and also pushes away, and apart. Astrology is simply the art and science of identifying the patterns and cycles of what’s going on within, and without, inside your head and in the world.

Back to the Sun x Uranus and their happy possibly-cazimi-but-at-least-conjunction.

I realise that my very outlook on life has shifted this last week as this astrological powerhouse has gathered pace and force. The scales have fallen as I’ve looked at my own behaviour and attitude to certain things, or maybe I just got new glasses (on my third new prescription in a year, THANKS, 45). Maybe it’s worth examining if you’ve had any noticeable realisations or shifts this past 7 days or so. You might be surprised what suddenly surfaces. A subtle decision about perspective, or how you’re going to deal with a difficult work situation. An awareness of a long held habit that suddenly feels different. A newfound forcefield of focus on a matter or task you’ve been dumping at the bottom of your to do list.

As well as all the writing, reading and launching, I’ve done a lot of listening this week - the flip of Gemini’s communication focus. We all talk about Gemini and the WORD, our language, how we speak, text, use our voice, land our truth, amplify… but I rarely notice anyone talking about Gemini as a listener (I mean do you know many who do…? An actual question! Answers please!)

I listened to Radhi Devlukia’s ‘A Really Good Cry’ podcast a couple of times this week, and found an episode with the spiritual coach David Ghyiam. I’d never heard of him, although it turns out he has a 1 million+ followers in Instagram. One of my recent notable shifts has been a gentle lean towards a fresh understanding of spirituality and prayer. 25+ years into a cycle where I replaced the Catholicism of my childhood with yogic philosophy, astrology, and some sort of Buddhism, it’s interesting to contemplate what the ideology of the Creator means to me now. What it means to pray, to manifest, to become aware of the need to ask not FOR something but to become someone, for the tools to create the thing, rather than be gifted it without effort. It’s the old fishing rod rather than fish parable. I’ve reflected quite a bit on what he shared, and especially about how to flip perspective on a shitty situation, how to change it’s frequency with words.

So, Uranus. The distant planet will be in Gemini now until 2033, bar a couple of mini retrogrades at either end of his stay. Eight years. I’ll be 53 when he leaves the sign of the twins for Cancer. So most of my midlife thought processes are at stake here - all of ours are.

This transit is here to ask us to think differently, to reset the dial of what’s really important now, to work out how and where to raise our voice and when to fall into silence. To decide what you want to talk about, what value your words hold, and to whom you want to speak. It also invites a deeper LISTENING. To be ready to change your views, to be surprised by feeling your mind shift states, to be ready for a new paradigm to land.

This is your invitation to be open to the same.

This big Uranian action is the perfect prologue to a major full moon, one of my fave of the year as it falls in my own moon sign of Sagittarius. The moon peaks in fullness at 9.44am (BST) on Sunday 31st May, but of course luna will be glowing above 97% full from friday to Tuesday - it’s a CYCLE not a peak, something we can apply to literally every aspect of life, especially in midlife, when the pursing of peak everything has lost it’s shine somewhat, and more subtle joys feel so much more relevant than the rush.

I had planned to share a live sound session but travel plans make that impossible, so instead I’m recording the sound for you, bookended with deeper chat about the full moon, the prevailing energy and how to channel it into your own life and being. I’ll stream it here - or maybe just post it, let’s see - on 30th May.

Although I can’t do the session itself live, I’ll be joining live to do a Q&A afterwards with anyone who’d like to get involved.

Incidentally, the moon signals the end of a cycle for me, the end of the ‘season’ here in the tropics. The following week the monsoon will arrive, bringing hibernation and regeneration energy, and the following morning on 1st June I’ll be disappearing into a monastary in Nepal for 10 days of silence - Vipassana. I can’t think of a better way to spend Gemini season!

Love to hear your thoughts, feels and responses to these words. Tell me how you see it?

Janie xx

Still my fave full moon in Sagittarius artwork. Flick that hair girl! »»»