inner voice
The Power Of Ansuz During Mercury Retrograde
Mercury is going retrograde again today and, as always, I am already seeing many issues with miscommunication, unnecessary conflict, and misunderstandings come up in readings. I am also picking up a lot of nervous energy with clients.
Mercury Retrograde really affects our ability to communicate, and especially to listen and understand each other. My best advice always in these times is to not get sucked into arguments to easily, as both parties usually got it wrong to begin with. Stay calm, pay attention and find out the facts, before you lose it prematurely…only to regret it later.
The next retrograde begins today and lasts until November 29, 2025. The full shadow phase around this retrograde (both pre-shadow and post-shadow) spans from about October 21, 2025 (pre-shadow began) to December 16, 2025 (post-shadow ends).
If you are looking for new ways to support your energy during this retrograde period, try my go to technique. I connect with the energy of understanding and patience using a specific rune, which I use for meditation in these times, and as a symbol to carry with me until the retrograde is over.
The rune I am talking about is Ansuz. It’s the rune associated with the throat chakra, because symbolizes the energy of clear communication and using the right words. It carries the powers of convincing, powerful speech and writing, wisdom, analytical thinking and reason, and the ability connecting and network with others.
I frequently used this rune when I used to be work in the corporate world. It helped me a great deal to calm my nerves when I had to speak in front of many people at meetings and presentations.
Tune Into The Guidance Of Your Emotions
I believe our emotions are an additional ‘sense’ we use as a means of interpreting our life experiences, in the same way the normal five senses enable us to perceive and understand the world around us. Our ‘emotional sense’ help us make decisions about our preferences all the time.
For example, I love chocolate. My sense of taste tells me that chocolate is for me! It’s a very clear and obvious signal from my taste buds to my brain. We receive and process stimuli all the time and our senses help us to ‘make sense’ of that input.
Your emotions are also giving you information about your preferences and if we listen and pay attention, we can gain a lot of guidance from it. Our emotions don’t just come from nowhere. They arise in direct response to stimuli or input, just like our senses do.
I have also heard emotions described as an internal guidance system, or our inner compass, which helps us decide what we want to create more of, and less of, in our life. We sometimes get confused though, because just like the other senses, we have different preferences.
For example, some people love coconut desserts, but I detest then. Not thanks, keep your coconut out of my chocolate! The thing is, I’m not confused about the fact that I don’t like coconut. I also don’t feel I have to change my preference because other people love coconut. And I also don’t force myself to eat it, just to make other people happy.
When one of our five physical senses tells us something we tend to listen, because it’s visceral. We feel it undeniably in the body. Emotions are no different!
Reclaiming The Voice Of Your Inner Child
I always sing with my yoga students at the end of class. I used to work in the entertainment industry as a singer, dancer, and actress. Because of that, I feel confident singing in front of people.
Growing up, I was always full of joy despite my dysfunctional and rather glum family. Of course, they didn’t appreciate my natural exuberance. They certainly didn’t like that I sang all the time because it represented a lightness of being they had long since given up on.
Like many dysfunctional families, they put me down all the time. They told me that I couldn’t sing and that I sounded awful. But, as with all the other negative, hurtful things they tried to convince me of, I did not believe them.
I kept singing anyway, which irked them. I continued to sing and dance, and I even wrote, produced, directed, and starred in my own musical when I was eleven.
Now I’m not saying I had a good voice as a kid. I really don’t know if I did. But, loving to sing, some voice lessons and lots of joy certainly helped me become a relatively good singer.
One day, after my yoga class, a student came up to me and told me I had a beautiful voice. I thanked her. I often have people compliment my singing voice after class.
The student then told me her family told her she had a bad singing voice when she was a child so she stopped singing. She then mentioned other abuses she received by her cruel family.
Just What Exactly Is Your Higher Self?
Do you keep hearing the term “Higher Self” and wonder what exactly it means? You’re not alone.
For a spiritual term that gets mentioned so often, the concept can feel surprisingly vague. Depending on who you ask, it might refer to your soul, your intuition, your divine essence…or even a more perfect, higher-dimensional ‘doppelgänger’ version of yourself.
Confusing? Absolutely. But also fascinating.
So, let’s explore and unpack what the Higher Self actually is.
From my own perspective, I like to think of the Higher Self as my soul’s GPS. For me it is an ever-present, intuitive inner voice gently guiding me toward choices and paths that align with my spiritual evolution.
Like an inner GPS, it may repeat itself when I’m off track, whispering that familiar message: “Recalculating route.” Sometimes, we don’t want to hear it, but when we listen, life flows more smoothly.
Our bodies also serve as translators for the Higher Self. That “gut feeling” when something is off? That’s your Higher Self warning you.
That heart-flutter of excitement when a choice feels right? That’s your inner GPS saying “yes.” When we treat the Higher Self like a best friend, who is loving, honest, and always rooting for us, we begin to live more authentically.
Over the years, I’ve come to recognize my Higher Self as a quiet, consistent presence that urges me to become more of who I truly am. It has helped me navigate challenges, offered insight during moments of uncertainty, and nudged me toward experiences that ultimately helped me grow.
Simple Guidelines For Real Spiritual Growth
Spirituality is a wide-ranging concept with many diverse perspectives. In essence it is the process through which our inner being seeks to relate to something bigger than ourselves. It is the search for the meaning and purpose of our human existence.
Spirituality is about our soul or spirit, and the unseen realms, as opposed to material things and physical life. It is also the life-long pursuit of inner peace, unconditional love, and existential wisdom and understanding.
Many people believe that the secret to spiritual growth and development can only be found in a book, a lecture, dogmatic belief system, or some other product or service that will magically unlock the doors to spiritual insight, happiness, joy and fulfillment.
However, spirituality is a unique, personal path that each of us can explore on our own, from within. The following guidelines may be helpful on your journey towards spiritual fulfillment.
Reflection
The first step in personal spiritual growth is reflecting on your life journey. To be spiritual is to be questioning and inquisitive. Spiritual growth is a process of constantly learning and improving. One must be willing to open yourself to personal and spiritual growth, and by doing this your world opens up and things become less scary.
Holding on to past events keeps us from experiencing new adventures, and the emotional baggage will only weigh you down. Accept your past mistakes and learn from them. Reflect on what changes need to happen for you to move forward.
We are all teachers. We are either teaching someone, or they are teaching us – both good and bad. Learn from your experiences and move on with life.
Seeing The Real World Of The Heart
As a woman and mother, I have questions about things happening in my world. As an intuitive empath, I receive questions that others have about things happening in their world. A recent experience sums up what I consider to be the most reliable source of inner wisdom, and where answers can be accessed by all of us.
I was awake one night with the energetic sensation of a specific situation permeating my experience. I could feel the energy in each expansion of my chest, as I inhaled. It filled my every breath, my every sense. My mind questioned, but I heard the guiding whisper of God in my soul say, “The real world is in the heart.”
There are spiritual dimensions of reality that are deeper, finer, subtler, more substantial than what is evident on the surface in the physical world. The door that opens to them is within the heart. There is truly more than meets the eye.
This realization reminded me of the illustration plates in the anatomy section of my parents’ encyclopedia, which fascinated me when I was a child. It wasn’t the human body per se that so intrigued me; it was the way the transparencies overlaid one another to form the whole picture.
At the top of them all was the skin, creating a picture of a human the way I was accustomed to see. As I turned the first page, I got a glimpse of something I had felt but never seen directly before with my eye, namely muscles. Page by page continuously showed deeper levels of anatomy beneath the surface, including the circulatory system, organs, and skeleton.
All Hallows Month Is Ideal For Self-Reflection
I did a reading for a new client yesterday, and during the session, I kept hearing the word “roots.” I told her, “You should get back to your roots.” She confirmed right away that she’d been thinking about moving back to her hometown to be closer to her family and friends.
That got me thinking about how October is often a time to think about where we really belong in life and in the world. This season, we’re thinking about place, direction, and home. It is the ideal time to reflect on whether it’s maybe time for a change, or if we should return to our roots.
It also got me thinking more about my spiritual roots and ancestry. October is a time to think about our physical lives and the spiritual truths, values, and principles that have been passed down to us. Are we still following those principles? Are we living in a way that reflects the wisdom of those who came before us? This is the kind of reflection October brings out, encouraging us to reconnect with our roots and the bigger picture of where we’re headed.
October, also known as the All Hallows Month, has always had a special kind of magic about it. It has always been a big deal in many spiritual traditions, because it is seen as a kind of in-between month.
This month is a time when the physical and spiritual worlds feel closer to each other, synchronicities multiply, and messages from the unseen find their way more easily into our lives. It’s no coincidence that so many cultures honor the dead and celebrate the mysteries of life and death during this season.