I find it divinely appropriate that Venus - the planet most associated with the feminine - chose to complete her 121.5 year journey not in May, but in the masculine month of June.  May has always seemed like a very feminine month to me, perhaps because I associate it with Mother's Day and I spend time preparing the soil.  I tend a lot to Mother Earth in May.  Together we begin to warm up from the colder months and we begin to open to new things that entice us. The decidedly masculine task of planting seeds is also a part of my May celebrations. I simply adore those first moments of plunging into the soil and dancing with the texture, smell, contours and dampness.  Then tenderly planting a seed or start. I associate May with the feminine, but June honors the masculine.

Father Sun is at full strength in June on Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.  We celebrate fathers in June.  And here in 2012 we are invited to balance the masculine by opening our hearts as we move into a new world age.  Venus,by moving across the Sun and infusing a feminine touch in June teaches us the power and ease of working together.

The last world age has been one of separation, the new world age is one of union, co-creation and heart-centered action.  I feel such a relief with this new energy.  I have felt so burdened and tired in the last few years with going it alone.  It simply does not make good sense to me anymore. I'm tired because it's just not sustainable.  I am loving the ease and juiciness of working with my environment, talents, capabilities and community instead of trying to overcome or cut through them.  I'm loving the dance of creativity.  It has its challenges, of course.  We just need to remember we cannot keep doing things the same way.

In the last 5 years I have wondered what's wrong with my ability to manifest.  Previously, I have been able to manifest quickly.  But of late it seems that everything I aim for never quite lands.  While it's true that I have also been in a major life transition and discerning what I truly want has been a more involved process, I've felt there's more to my inability to manifest.  I have found great clarity around what I want in the last 6 months, but still the manifestation process was just not working.

One day, in my Spirit council, I asked about this situation.  My guides showed me how fast things are moving right now.  They showed me aiming for my goal, but by the time "my arrow" flew to the target, it had moved.  This method has simply become inefficient.  "It's harder to hit a moving target," they smiled.  Then they showed me holding a large basket.  In the center of that basket was my intention, which acted as a magnet.  They showed everything moving fast while I held strong with my basket and intention.  Very quickly the basket filled up.  The lesson: instead of going out and making things happen (masculine approach) it is now time to magnetize your intention and allow what you desire to come to you.

I've found this visual very helpful.  And every time I start gearing up and going after something I want - out of habit - I seem to encounter blocks and diversions.  Like the Lover I am choosing to stand strong with my basket and I am discovering that I have chosen away from feeling burdened and overwhelmed.  Things are flowing easily when I honor this choice.

This week the planet Venus crosses the Sun and heralds the great shift of 12-21-12.  We move into a new world age - one of heart-centered community and co-creation.  In 2004 Venus crossed the Sun in the first of a pairing that happens only once every 121.5 years.  Around that time I began - with my dear friend and colleague Michele Cacano Green - a Women's Journal which explored feminine archetypes in a yearly cycle.  We finished the basic work years ago, but it never felt quite right to offer it to the world.  Venus wasn't finished with it yet.

"Now", she says.  "I have completed my journey and complete the work of bringing the feminine energy back in balance with the masculine.  Now", she says.  "It is time for you to teach the ways of the feminine.  Teach it so that it is honored without diminishing the masculine.  Only when masculine and feminine energies are in relative balance can they both be in their fullness.  You have been born to do this work.  Send it to the world beginning today!"

And so I begin.  Each month I will post story, activities, reflections and whatever speaks to me around a specific archetype.  It will be the voice of the feminine, but the teachings will be for all - men, women and children.  Weekly posts will share different aspects of the featured archetype of that month.

Venus speaks to us of lovers.  And the beautiful thing is that Venus has no limitations here.  The expression of love can embrace anything and anyone.  I love the wind, even today when it's fierce and makes life messy.  We joke here in Ellensburg that if you plant seeds on a windy day,  in September you can harvest the plant several miles down wind.  Wind is a part of life here.  We choose whether to embrace it or fight it.

In the Tarot, choice is a key concept for the Lover.  This card indicates that a choice is in the field.  We might acknowledge when we fall in love with someone or something that we are choosing them and often giving them all we have to offer.  Venus reminds us that it's also important to understand that when one chooses to feed something/someone in their lives, they are also choosing away from something/someone else.  Sometimes in the choosing we forget to let go of other. Active choosing away from something does not limit us from being open-hearted and loving beings to all on Earth.  In fact we are being called to be just that.  This choosing is more about a particular focus for our energies in this moment or this time in our lives.  This choosing is in itself an act of love and even of trust.  When I choose and commit, I am trusting that whatever I have chosen away from will be served by someone else.

This concept is so important to us as we move away from ideas of limits and lack.  What is ours to do will find us and we will be filled with joy as we meet it.  We no longer need to chase the seeds we plant or worry where the wind will take them.  What we are to harvest will stay with us.  Others will step forth to harvest the rest.  Trust in that.

I choose this work that has sprouted now and am gleefully - yes, gleefully! - choosing away from the manic efforts of trying to do everything and do it well.  I am of the age that I remember the perfume commercial that sang "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never, never never let you forget you're a man".  I no longer choose to be that kind of lover.  I don't want to do it all.  I want to live community.  I want to play in the juicy co-creation in as much as my life as seems fitting.  The rest of it will be in quiet, grateful solitude.

Venus is here with all of us.  Open to her energies. Choose. Love.

Blessings,
Coleen