S E L F - C O M PA S S I O N
PISCES SEASON F E B R U A R Y 1 9 TH - M A R C H 2 0 TH
ESCAPE | INSPIRE M E LT
SLEEP | DREAM RELEASE | COMPOSE
L
ight and shadow dance to noticeable changes as we head toward spring. The days grow a touch longer and warmth becomes an illusion as random spring-like days appear, teasing us into a more fluid approach to life. As we witnessed the world in chilled detachment last season, the step back we took has us willing to go even further. Ice and crystals start to melt in the north, and with that gentle transcending that we witness in nature, we too let go of our boundaries, opening into the great unknown, the cosmic spaces that hold secrets aruond healing and addiction, regenerating and escaping, forgiveness or trickery, and great artistic inspiration through a compassion for the oneness of all. We touch into the unseen, other worlds, spirit, and flow. This is the season to ask for cosmic guidance, to trust that it has your back, and to compose meaning around what the past year (or more) has meant. Symbols, synchronicity, and psychic insights are more available to help us detangle, let go, and feel into the bigger purposes in life. Fantasy, Soft-Heart, Sensitivity. We’ve reached the end of the astrological year, my loves. It’s time to sleep a little longer, to drift off into space, and experience the mystical, unprovable side of life. As we shed some boundaries, our dreams become more vivid, more telling, and we can experience life as feeling dreamlike. For those who like control, this can be quite disorienting as chaos swirls in. This last season is like the dustbin where all of our baggage has been swept into; the closet where we shove everything we don’t want to deal with, and it’s now that we see it all in the sun’s misty spotlight. It becomes newly apparent where balance, imbalance, happiness, shame, ecstasy, guilt, and all shades in-between have yet to be dealt with. It can feel overwhelming, and so this is where we sit down in our piled up messes and decide we have no choice but to open up to things bigger than us. If we need help we can find it by opening our hearts to things we cannot see. Each year it’ll feel different and will depend on how much has been shoved, personally and collectively, into secret hiding places. Like the illusionist who pulls off grand performances, things just beyond our grasp have a thin veil between us, ready to wow with magic and miracles. We can tap into its energy better with a little help. IT being hard to define. But once found, healing, release, and inspiration permeate the very fabric of our being.
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LOOSEN
DECOMPRESS | HEAL
“COMPASSION ISN’T SOME KIND OF SELF-IMPROVEMENT PROJECT O R I D E A L T H AT W E ’ R E T R Y I N G TO L I V E U P TO. H AV I N G C O M PA S S I O N S TA R T S A N D E N D S W I T H H AV I N G C O M PA S S I O N FO R ALL THOSE UNWANTED PARTS O F O U R S E LV E S , A L L T H O S E I M P E R F E C T I O N S T H AT WE DON’T EVEN WANT T O L O O K A T .” –Pema Chödrön
PHOTOGRAPHY & CONCEPT: BRIT T CHUDLEIGH | MODEL: BL AIRE WACHTER | CREATIVE DIRECTION: ALLIE COUCH | PA & PROP ST YLIST: L AUREN V BRADY
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HAIR & MAKEUP: GABBY GABBITAS
The ingredient is so simple yet so complex, a metaphor for exactly how Pisces functions in us, and it costs nothing: Compassion. For some this is all around difficult, with entangled notions of deserving, entitlement, and wanting to quantify things. For others more sensitive, it comes easy, feeling the collective so poignantly with an understanding that all is one. But where I’d bet most of us struggle is in finding compassion for self. And guess what, this is where it needs to start to truly be able to feel it for others out in the world. Ugh, right? How do we give ourselves compassion knowing what we know about ourselves, our secret thoughts, fantasies, actions— our secrets in general? We ask for help, that’s how. We face an illusion in our life and we dispel it with big, kind Doe eyes. No matter how ugly and angry it is, we melt it with kindness and love. We call on guides we cannot see to help us soften to our own demons and we give compassion to those demons. We watch nature and see how it just accepts its own foibles as part of its process, not getting hung up and caught in its own faults. It processes its murkiness and just moves along, and so can we. When working to soften something in us, we can watch nature for clues and metaphors. It’s quite an amazing mirror whe paid attention to. It’ll show us things that we need to know, when we need to know them. This season, walk into your own misty dreamlands and face a demon or two, a secret or two, a place where you are stuck and you need help from something otherworldly to move on. Keep mantras of love in your pocket, read them daily, nightly, hourly if need be, and know that you can melt anything hardened in your heart with this season’s help. Not through critiquing, not through beating yourself up, not through anything but practicing self-compassion.
PISCES MOON
Each zodiac season as the moon spends a couple of days in this sign of dreams, art, and compassion, we feel a stronger pull to get away from the normal daily grind. Loosen your grip on deadlines, possessions, and people. Press snooze on your alarm, catch an arthouse flick, and channel your abillity to forgive, love, and regenerate. This moon has the capacity to heal things. Open up to the greater energies in the universe, the cosmic powers, and the inspiration it holds and see what magic you can channel into your life.
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VIRGO FULL MOON FEBRUARY 19TH | 1 DEGREE VIRGO BALANCE OF PURPOSE When it comes to our last breath in life, what would do you think you’ll meditate on? For many, this comes down to purpose. What was it all for? Did I have purpose? Representative of our old age years on the cusp of death, the degenerative, disintegrating sign of Pisces holds our sun, opposed our moon in the integrating and coming into maturity sign of Virgo. This moon brings our axis of purpose into focus. PRACTICING PURPOSE Over the past 6 months we’ve had much personal time and opportunity to cultivate and hone something about ourselves that makes us feel useful. We’ve had lunar nudges to work on a well lifestyle, on systemizing and organizing our processes, and weaving ourselves into our most adult, whole, and polished selves. Through this we’ve developed strong instincts and personal culture. It’s at this full moon that we are ripened into the most perfected selves we’ll be all year. It’s at this full moon that we must release our use out into the greater world around us. Room must be made and so what’s ripe must fall. As we find new personal passions on one side
of the axis, the other side must let go of its grasp to a more compromising, elegant, dancing, and trusting place. Give of your Virgo usefulness and balance this cyclical moment by feeling alive through art and cosmic dreaming. Both sides finding centering through a connection to purpose. THE ASPECTS: VALUE OF SKILL With Mars playing nice in Taurus, knowing your worth and being assertive about fair exchange will help you let go of some things more easily at this moon. A trine from Uranus in Aries may bring great originality of skill to your surface that you didn’t realize you had cultivated. Turn to the Virgo Story Section (page 144) to write about what seems to be challenging your boundaries in the outer world, that started around the end of summer, and what needs to be released out of your life. Also, look back to our most recent New Moon (Aquarius New Moon, February 4th). If you wrote New Moon intentions at that seeding time, review them. Take note of what feels newly important and gaining traction internally. Turn to the Aquarius Story Section (page 154) to make any notes.
PISCES NEW MOON MARCH 6TH | 16 DEGREES PISCES How do you plan to decompress and recuperate this season? CHANNELING MAGIC It’s been a long road once we reach this new moon. Make time for rest. Give ritual attention to your feet, the part of you that holds it all up. Soak and bathe them in salts and oils, massage them, pumice the worn calluses and polish up those little toe nails. Listen to the stories that the soles of your feet have to tell you as nurture them. You’ll find unique wisdom about how hard you’ve worked and how much you’ve attended to over the past year. They know, they’ve carried the weight of it all. If you’ve struggled to connect to self-compassion, let these magic little hoofs lead the way. With enchantment in the air at this misty seeding time, tap into some memories, real or not, that can explain why you are where you are. Reflection can help explain some of the exhaustion settling in. Think back on last spring’s fresh rebirths. Look through your Aries, Taurus, and Gemini new moon intentions. What do these tell you about the passions that took you into this past year? Look back on summer’s fun loving rays of sun and reread your Cancer, Leo, and Virgo new moon intentions. How do they make you feel about what you made fruitful in your life this year? Recall autumn’s golden leaves and the crunch of death underfoot. Revisit your Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius new moon intentions. How elegantly did you give, share, exchange, and release parts of yourself into the greater world?
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anyone and you can use whatever medium you prefer: paint, pencil, an instrument, a camera, plants. The point is to see what meaning can flow out of you when you aren’t expressing with words and your mind. Let your body take over, let the light of the blurred sun open your heart. Use your compositions to create your Pisces new moon intentions. If you prefer to write a story or a poem rather than using focused sentences for your intentions, this is the season to allow this. Make sure that however you form your intentions, that they hold love for who you are and what you feel life means to you at this moment. Let the seeds you plant now attract softness and ethereal things to your life. Believe and invest in the unbelievable and watch your seeds grow into things that transcend aspects of your life.
Feel into the current chill of winter’s breath. Remember how you felt writing your Capricorn and Aquarius intentions. What authority and detachment have you tapped into, allowing you to take a step back from life? It’s now that we hold all of these pieces as one. It’s at this new moon that words can be hard to find to express what it’s all meant to you, what you’ve experienced, and where it’s landed you.
THE ASPECTS: SOLID COMPASSION Conjunct Neptune, the seasonal ruler, this moon is ripe with all of the magic needed to melt barriers you’ve always wrestled with. What do you want to shed out of your life and newly reach into? Sextile Saturn in Capricorn, it’s through having a plan that these seeds can grow with steady strength. Trine Mars in Taurus, tell yourself what you value about you. Say it out loud and use your voice to own your worth.
To help you find the words you need for your intentions at this mystical and artistic seeding time, make art. You don’t need to show it to
Turn to the Pisces Story section (page 156) to write out what is newly feeling important inside of you around compassion, and transcendence.
DATES OF ETHEREAL SELF-COMPASSION FEBRUARY 24TH A nice connection from Saturn to our seasonal ruler, Neptune, points toward planning, preparation, and structure bringing the solid foundations needed for creating space to dream and find the softness within. The moon in Scorpio sends help through being able to feel the powers at your depth and the knowing that you can handle just about anything. MARCH 16 TH Get clear and be assertive about your material life at this date as Mars in Taurus sends pleasure through valuing yourself. The moon and north node connect from Cancer to both Mars and our seasonal ruler, Neptune. Self-nurturing will go a long way to restore energy levels and feeling the energizing support of the earth underneath us can bring needed grounding.
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XOXO, Me TESSA WOOLF
We live in the era of the self: self-serve, selfcare, and, yes, the selfie. But for all this focus on one’s self, are we really feeling the love? If you’re noticing the urge to indulge in an extra dose of self-care these days, you’re not alone— just look up the hashtag #selfcare on Instagram for proof. Given the current social, environmental, and political climate we find ourselves living in, it’s no wonder we’re all in need of some serious TLC. And while tossing a bath bomb into the tub for a nightly soak, treating your limbs to a deep-tissue massage, or hitting your yoga mat and striking warrior pose are all solid acts of self-care, it turns out the ultimate feel-good remedy is free, accessible, and available to us all the time: self-compassion. Google “self-compassion” and a Wikipedia page pops up with the following definition: “Self-compassion is extending compassion to one’s self in instances of perceived inadequacy, failure, or general suffering.” But Becca Peters, a therapist and teacher of mindfulness, meditation, and compassion, offers the following metaphor: “Think of self-compassion as a healing balm or ointment,” she says. “Just like applying ointment to a wound, over time self-compassion can help heal those deep wounds.” At her Metta Mindfulness + Meditation Center in downtown Salt Lake City, an airy, loft-like space complete with floor-to-ceiling windows and a cozy meditation room, Peters offers courses on self-compassion and guided meditation retreats. Walking into the beautiful space and into Peter’s presence you feel a sense of warmth, ease, and softness—not unlike a big hug, which Peters is quick to offer. I find myself at Metta on a gray January day to chat with Peters about self-compassion—but first, tea.
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Peters brews me a hot mug of mint-green tea and shows me around the space filled with candles, crystals, books, and beads—many items are sourced from her global travels—before we make our way back to Metta’s tranquil meditation room. Before our interview, she suggests we meditate. When in Rome, right? I remove my shoes, plop down on a comfy floor cushion, and Peters proceeds to guide me through a self-compassion meditation. After, I feel calmer, lighter, and softer than I did when I walked through the door—I’m instantly intrigued. We ease into a pair of chic leather chairs and continue our conversation. “Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Christopher Germer, of whom I had the honor of receiving my professional training, together created the MSC [Mindful Self-Compassion] curriculum,” says Peters, who trained at Stanford, UCLA, and UCSD. “I personally define self-compassion as a beautiful relationship with myself in which I treat all aspects of myself with the deepest respect, love, understanding, and compassion. We often say self-compassion is treating ourselves in times of difficulty as we would treat a dear friend.” Think about it: How would you treat a close friend in a time of crisis? You’d likely listen carefully, be understanding and present, and offer a warm, gentle touch of the hand and words of encouragement. “Now, consider how often you treat yourself with these qualities,” says Peters. According to Wikipedia, Dr. Neff defines self-compassion as being composed of three main components: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. “Mindfulness is the core of self-compassion work—we must first slow down and notice, or be aware, that we are having a difficult experience,” notes Peters. If compassion is loosely defined as the awareness
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S E L F - C O M PA S S I O N PISCES RULES A DIFFERENT AREA OF LIFE F O R E A C H S I G N. R E A D B E L O W T O S E E H O W T H I S SEASON CAN BRING DEEP MEANING TO YOUR LIFE. R E A D F O R B O T H YO U R S U N S I G N A N D R I S I N G S I G N.
For Peters, there is an intimacy that comes with vulnerability that she says is freeing, healing, and energizing. “If I can sit with the dark and light aspects of my experience with the belief and understanding that there is nothing I need to change, but rather so much that I can love, my heart moistens and I feel at peace within.” So, how do we find and implement said self-compassion? “Self-compassion is something to remember and live-by rather than to find and implement,” says Peters. “What I mean by that is one of the reasons self-compassion sticks is because it is familiar to us, even for those of us who are the harshest self-critics.” Think about what you already do that is an act of self-compassion: reading a book, enjoying a cup of hot tea, walking in nature, or petting your beloved dog—these are all acts of self-compassion, she says. For further practice, Peters offers the following self-compassion exercise: When you wake up in the morning, check in with yourself and ask, “How am I doing?” If you’re feeling tired, irritable, or anxious about a big day ahead, step into self-compassion by engaging in a small or large act of self-care: make a healthy breakfast, take a hot bath, or call your best friend on your commute to work. On the flip side, if you wake up feeling rested, energized, and jazzed, then focus on really enjoying your day and allow yourself to fully feel whatever it is you’re experiencing.
“In the beginning, I had a very direct practice path which involved checking in with myself every morning to validate all the feelings I had upon waking,” recalls Peters. “I would then offer warm, gentle, and loving phrases to any aspects of myself that that were feeling upset or uneasy. This ensured that I ‘had my own back’ throughout the day.” Over time, she says, this wheel of self-compassionate awareness became a way of living. “The habit of self-criticism and avoidance turned into a habit of noticing, loving, and staying within. There are so many ways self-compassion enters my daily existence, but this is one of the most obvious practices that I have integrated into my life.” For additional self-compassion tips and advice, Peters recommends picking up a book by one of the founders of MSC and reading all about it, or signing up for an MSC course. “Those of us who teach the courses are highly trained and complete a rigorous process to skillfully support anyone who walks in the door, including you,” she says. Visit beccapeters.com for more information about her upcoming classes, courses, and retreats.
ARIES S P I R I T U A L C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Collective Consciousness & Arts
You have the ability to find self-compassion through making art, being around music, and opening up to mystical experiences. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through being open to inspired energies.
TAURUS C O L L A B O R A T I V E C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Groups & Friendships
You have the ability to find self-compassion through detached friendliness to yourself, through the support of friends, and with originality. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through the co-creating I’m inspired to do.
GEMINI A C H I E V E M E N T C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Career, Reputation & Aspirations
You have the ability to find self-compassion through planning, through slowly but securely building toward it, and through your connection to authority. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through building lasting achievements.
CANCER P E R S P E C T I V E C Y C L E Pisces rules over your Seeking, Expansion & Belief You have the ability to find self-compassion through pushing your boundaries, looking at your life from a 10,000-foot view, and through your beliefs. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through adventure and seeking.
LEO E M P O W E R M E N T C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Psychology & Empowerment
You have the ability to find self-compassion through uprooting things, with the help of a therapist, and through intimacy with others. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through uprooting blocks.
VIRGO R E L A T I O N S H I P C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Relationships & Balance
You have the ability to find self-compassion through your partners, in how you relate to and balance things, and through knowing your place as an equal. MANTR A: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through harmonious relationships and design.
LIBRA R E F I N E M E N T C Y C L E Pisces rules over your Work, Processes & Lifestyle You have the ability to find self-compassion through cultivating wellness, in how you move through your days, and through your way of processing things. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through rhythmic and refined daily processes.
SCORPIO C R E A T I V E C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Creative-Expression & Leadership
You have the ability to find self-compassion through your personal style, in being playful and youthful, and through being soft in the spotlight. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through engaging my creative-expression.
SAGITTARIUS N U R T U R I N G C Y C L E
TESSA WOOLF
Tessa Woolf is a freelance writer, editor, and photo stylist based in Salt Lake City. She’s worked in magazine publishing for 10 years, covering everything from home décor and weddings to food and fashion. In true Leo form, she loves nothing more than a good conversation and a good bottle of bubbly (preferably the two enjoyed together). For this edition of CosmoMuse, she loved speaking (and meditating!) with Becca Peters of Metta Mindfulness + Meditation Center about all things self-compassion. @tessawoolf
PISCES SEASON THROUGH THE SIGNS
of another’s suffering followed by an impulse to take action and alleviate the suffering, she explains, then think of self-compassion as our ability to notice our own suffering and to believe that we deserve to soothe ourselves, not to rid ourselves of suffering, but rather because we are suffering. “Mindfulness is the moment when we have the courage to stop living on automatic pilot and to gently look within to see our own tenderness with a deep desire to heal,” she says. “It’s much like the presence required to notice when a dear friend of yours is suffering—a moment when you are “with” him or her and you deeply wish you could alleviate his or her pain. This is the moment of mindfulness, or an awareness of the present moment experience without judgment.”
Pisces rules over your Roots, Home & Family
You have the ability to find self-compassion through family, through tending to self-nurturing, and through growing a comfortable home. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through nurturing my family and home.
CAPRICORN C O M M U N I C A T I O N C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Communication & Community
You have the ability to find self-compassion through your words and ideas, through how you connect to others and yourself, and through how you move. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through words and community.
AQUARIUS V A L U E C Y C L E Pisces rules over your Self-Worth, Possession & Values You have the ability to find self-compassion through valuing yourself, through taking care of your material possessions, and through connecting to your voice. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through valuing compassion.
PISCES A G E N D A C Y C L E
Pisces rules over your Self, Agenda & Passion
You have the ability to find self-compassion through your personal passions, in how you assert yourself in the world, and through self-centering through meditation and breath. MANTRA: Symbolic meaning infuses my life through asserting myself compassionately.
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