✨This week’s Golden Opportunity is to be someone completely different with the Sun and Uranus in Taurus.✨
Sometimes change is gradual.
Eight years ago I experienced a full body burn-out, and I remember going to a yoga class for the first time in one of many contemporaneous efforts to cool down my flamin’ hot nervous system. It was a humorous lesson in humility, and my body was so tight that I could barely do a forward fold. But it didn’t feel right to leave my hands hanging there lonely in the air, so I resolved that I would keep coming back until I could touch my toes.
The idea of a simple, physical and (at least ostensibly) achievable goal felt deeply nourishing, and in fact - class by class, inch by inch - my hands got closer until one day the tips of my fingers came to rest comfortably on the tips of my toes. It was such a gradual process that I didn’t even notice when it happened. It was simply the natural result of a regular practice, and even now I don’t give it much thought when I reach down and plant my palms on the floor.
Sometimes change is sudden.
I spent a huge portion of my childhood trying to do a handstand. I remember watching epic Cold War gymnastic competitions for inspiration, showing myself again and again that it’s fully possible to turn the world upside down. But as much as I’d practice - as many times as I threw my upper body towards the ground - I just kept falling down. I’d be up for a second, maybe a second and a half. And then I’d be flat on my face.
So I carried this dream into adulthood, and then I brought it onto the yoga mat. It turns out I also brought the same fantastic legacy of failure, and it feels like I’ve now kicked just about everything around me in the most creative of ways. But then one day something happened. I was hanging out in the kitchen with my friend’s kids (my friends who are kids?) being thoroughly impressed by their their armless entry into full lotus position.🧘 Then it was my turn to do a cool trick, so - without thinking - I leaned forward, put my fingers on the ground and pushed myself up into a perfect handstand.
I don’t even know how long I was up there, it felt like a lifetime. Of course at some point my brain realized what was happening, freaked out, and insisted my feet go back to the floor. But I was lucky enough to have a gobsmacked adult witness nearby, and we exchanged a series of unintelligible question marks and exclamation points to confirm that it had happened.
However change comes - gradual or sudden - we know that it is an essential part of life. Every breath moves us through time to a new moment where things have permission to be different, where we have permission to be different. But most of the time we don’t notice this because we’re busy doing what we’re used to doing, thinking what we’re used to thinking, feeling what we’re used to feeling, being what we’re used to being. We are, as Dr. Joe Dispenza would say, in the habit of being ourselves.
And then something slaps us out of this habitual hypnosis with a snap, crackle, pop. We find ourselves upside down in the kitchen with no rational explanation of how we got there, and we know that life will never be the same. So we look to the sky for guidance, and we thank the extra crispy energy of Uranus for bringing us this expanded awareness. Uranus has no interest in the gradual when the instantaneous is available, and - whether we’re ready or not - it will hastily hurtle us through a portal of possibility into the eye-watering great beyond.
In our lives, Uranus is associated with surprises, upsets, turn-arounds, disruptions, reversals and all manner of swift and unexpected change. Its job is to blow our mind out of its normal waking trance and into an awareness that Our Universe is a place of total creative freedom. Uranus loves to remind us that change makes anything possible by smacking us in the face with it, and it will happily pick up your house from black and white dustbowl Kansas and drop it in a technicolor land of dangerously magical creatures if it will wake you up from the conditioned boredom of your daily existence.
Uranus is currently in the late degrees of Taurus, the sign where it has spent the past seven years upending all things bull-ish. It has sent innovative shockwaves through our food, monetary and labor systems, and it has introduced inspirational instability to promote greater choice in how we relate to these systems. Taurus is the place where we crave material stability, and Uranus in Taurus has also shown us that true stability is available only when we bring ourselves to the calm center of a raging storm. You must remember that you are the greatest resource of all, and the winds will always bring you what you need if you learn to trust this.
Uranus will soon be trying on its dancing pants in Gemini, but first - this weekend - it has its last date with the Taurus Sun until the year 2103. The Sun shines an unmistakable spotlight on whatever it touches, and no doubt you will see Uranus in Taurus themes splashed on the Sunday paper. This Sun/Uranus conjunction is also a great chance to celebrate the collective ingenuity of humans, who are remarkably brilliant at figuring something out when they need to. It’s a welcome reminder that nature always knows how to evolve a way forwards, and we are - of course - part of nature.
On an individual level, the Sun also represents our notion of identity, our sense of what makes us special, our personal pathway to originality. These things can all get remarkably distorted if we spend our lives trying to fit into a particular mold, and our ideas about what we are allowed to do, think, feel and be can start to become like the bars of a cage when they get too small. Mercifully Uranus is arriving to unlock that cage on Sunday, so take the invitation and - even if just for a hot minute to show yourself that something else is possible - step out of your house that morning as something vastly different from the norm.
It’s like that handstand. I haven’t held one since, but the cage is forever unlocked because now I know that I can. I can apparently even do it without kicking up, much to the relief of my furniture. There is just something so awesome about those moments when we are forced to accept what once seemed impossible. They bulldoze right through the rules you set for your reality, and they require that you make space for more of yourself - for more of everything - in this batshit crazy universe.
This weekend is also the perfect astrological weather to flush out some of those limiting thoughts and constricting emotions, and I encourage you to check out the latest energy tool in my encyclopedia: the Body Flush. It’s a remarkably simple and effective way to drop some of the BS you might be walking around with; I even do it on the street. And if you’re in/around London, I invite you to join me for a Summer Solstice Workshop on Saturday, June 21 at 9:00 am.
Full details on both below, and - in the spirit of the Sun and Uranus - now for something completely different.
Love,
Patrick
Summer Solstice Workshop
Saturday, June 21 at 9:00 am @ Three Age Moon in Dartmouth Park, London
The Summer Solstice is the perfect invitation to embrace this, to (re)connect with the life force that runs your body in every single moment of your day. Join us to calm your nervous system and align yourself with full vitality through restorative yoga, energy work, guided meditation and an optional sacred walk to a powerful Earth energy site in nearby Hampstead Heath.
We’ll honor the Summer Solstice together with seasonal and astrological wisdom, and we’ll celebrate the fullness of the lives we already lead. You’ll leave feeling more alive, and you’ll be ready to enjoy the longest day of the year.
Energy Encyclopedia: B for Body Flush
Feeling overwhelmed or mentally cluttered? The Body Flush Energy Tool is a simple yet powerful technique to release excess energy, clear your mind, and feel more grounded.
By visualizing the flow of energy down through the root chakra and foot chakras, you can effortlessly flush away mental noise, emotional heaviness, and unwanted energetic residue—just like pressing a button to flush a toilet! 🚽✨
🌟 Want to explore more? Watch the full Energy Encyclopedia playlist here: https://shorturl.at/tJa4P