Creating Something Out of Nothing
Choosing to believe in human potential.
Hey there. How was your week? Lordy. Here are 5 days from my week.
February 2
It’s Groundhog Day today. When I hear the words “Groundhog Day” I think of the movie in which Bill Murray lives the same day over and over and over again. I don’t feel like any day this year is predictably the same as yesterday. I don’t recognize ever living in a country that feels like this.
As an astrologer, I admit to having an affinity for the “flight into light” crowd. I seek out qualified feather-and-sage spiritual voices to heart-balance my sometimes-exhausted-truth-seeking mind. Just like balancing a hard work week with a soothing sermon on Sunday, I track down insight-provoking, heartfelt reflections on human evolution and self-improvement from good spiritual philosophers - I always have to focus on God-given human potential. What else is there?
Today I found comfort in listening to astrologer Pam Gregory, whose astrology insights are pretty forensic (she considers way-outer planets I’ve often never even heard of) but her focus is always on the heart. In the midst of crazy, changing times, she continually points to the human potential to grow in love, connection, and evolve. She talks a lot about frequency and used a good phrase in one discussion: it’s important find one’s “family of frequency.” And I agree- my first job is to take care of and uplift my personal frequency in whatever way I can. And then bring that frequency of love to the community. Each of us can do this first important action- it means being mindful and intentional about what we immerse ourselves in: healthier habits, better people, prayer & meditation, frequency-raising practices, and MOST importantly, positive thinking. Thoughts and frequency are intimately enmeshed like chicken and egg.
Our thoughts in this moment create every single next moment.
It’s important to find one’s “family of frequency.” -Pamela Gregory
February 3
Listening to the Telepathy tapes!!
LISTEN TO IT. EVEN IF YOU DON’T THINK YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TELEPATHY. This documentary-style podcast series is mind-blowing, hope-inducing, and consciousness-widening in a way I’m still digesting.
Also, I might have booked a gig calling Bingo, which is a whole thing I’ll share with you later…
February 4
It feels a little impossible to write the newsletter I had intended to write when our nation’s democracy looks like it’s being pillaged and destroyed. In the last five days DT has called for wishful and actual war on DEI, Greenland, Panama, USAID, the CIA, the FBI, the Dept of Education, and Gaza. That’s not at all a complete list.
I’m also so disappointed in my wellness community of which I’ve been an active part for 30 years. Every informed practitioner in complementary medicine has been talking about clean food, pharma-alternatives, flouride in the water supply, natural remedies and cautious vaccination schedules for decades, for as long as I’ve been a practitioner in the alternative health community, starting back in the early 1990s as an acupuncturist. I was one of the “kooks” rejecting fluoride use, taking macrobiotic baths in burdock root, slow-rolling our daughter’s vaccines, eating a raw vegan diet… “skeptical” is what the LEFT used to be when it came to Big Medical on the Right.
But now, since the vax-and-mask-fights during Covid, the same people that once actually cared about other people have topsy-turvy values, irrational trust and extreme opinions. Health influencers seem to not care at all if thousands of innocent, hardworking, non-criminal people are deported and imprisoned, families are broken up, if it means they can get their ivermectin easily and drink tap water worry-free. They don’t care if low-character lunatics and billionaires are running (ruining?) the country as long as they’re told child obesity will be eradicated (while they drink $20 Erewhon smoothies and shop exclusively at Whole Foods)… to be clear, I very much care about America’s failing health and environmental pollutants too, but somehow they seem to actually believe the lies from the very people who have consistently deregulated corporate polluters, enabled big pharma, and subsidized processed food. Scratching my head with a bit of a broken heart.
The Right has done a masterful job of appealing to the narcissistic priorities of the wellness (and beauty) influencers, so that somehow…wtf… the alternative medicine tribe got gobbled up by the corporate wellness tech bros, which aligned themselves with the party of big pharma, big corporations, and big profit. The original liberal-minded health perspectives have been taken over and splintered by aggressive tech-bros and arrogant wellness influencers who have made complementary wellness positioning more extreme than it ever was. I find the rageful extremism of “natural medicine gurus” ironic since all alternative medicine rests on wisdom traditions that preach balance.
What happened to balance?
I’m feeling damned-if I do-damned -if-I-don’t. This was not supposed to be a place for social-political ranting. At all. Not really my role in the world. But it would be weird and inauthentic to reflect on my actual week without mentioning the dark dictatorial cloud that’s hanging over everyone’s head. The challenge is this: to stay rooted in reality while also uplifting my personal frequency- all the while being quite aware that “personal frequency” sounds flighty and weak in the context of real alarms going off in the world. But my personal energetic frequency it’s actually the one thing I have agency over. We can all double down on being the strongest, healthiest people we can— and that, in mass, does matter.
There is a powerful tension between changing external conditions, and the always-ripening inner potential within everyone. Each of us has to feed our inner potential, and that looks totally unique to each person. (Once again, I use astrology to get to the heart of what my greatest inner potential might be.)
I’m counting on the power of tension to create massive growth- the tectonic plates of humanity shifting against each other to create new community landforms out of seemingly nothing.
(Interesting observation: this newsletter is weeding out my email list. Some who are not aligned politically have bowed out, and I’m guessing there are some of you who may wave goodbye with all of my talk of frequency, telepathy and other inevitable woo. Is this my “family of frequency” organically taking form?)
February 5
Noticing that this diplomatic phrase is being used a lot in the media: “so-and-so is promoting false claims.” Since this phrase will continue to be used as the years unfold, I’d like to suggest that a more efficient way to say this is “so-and-so is lying.”
Also today, as I painted (escaped?), I binged the rest of The Telepathy Tapes. It’s AMAZING. Listen to it. Every episode gets more interesting than the last. I promise you will love it ALL.
Still on my creative path to switch from an astrologer who makes art on the side, to an artist who does astrology on the side.
Here’s what I’ve been working on this week:
Some lazy Susans with painted feathers:
The joy is real.
February 6
Today and this weekend, I am looking for things to be pleasantly surprised by. And getting into the sun. And diving back into my garage studio, creating creating creating. I encourage you to do the same in your own way!
Also thinking I’ll make spinach artichoke dip for the Super Bowl. YUM.
Lots and lots of love to you, for real.
xoAubrey
P.S. 5 things:
A good quote to put in your pipe:
“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It ia a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the future generations.”―George Bernard Shaw
Here’s a playlist of what I’m listening to this month. Skip The Beastie Boys if it’s not for you- the rest of the list is great for a boogie-down-dog-walk.
I really do LOVE this Korean skincare line: Riman. Passionately. I can see it has done WONDERS for my skin, especially eyes. It’s excellent, clean, effective skincare (and amazing shampoo!) In case you’re looking to improve/help your aging skin (who isn’t?) check it out and feel free to ask me about it.
I’m holding a very noisy debate in my head about offering Amazon links. But to sum up where I am today, I am far too entrenched in the Amazon ecosystem to willingly extract myself this minute, and I’m also on the fence that stopping Amazon use cold turkey does much to topple the axis of evil. This could change, but in the spirit of offering business-as-usual in order to feel like things are not ALL completely off kilter… two things worth ordering:
Speaking of raising your frequency, this is an amazing, beautiful book by a good friend of mine, Laurel Fox, who had a heart-wrenching experience with her daughter— it is a must-read if you want to know what true optimism and faith looks like. To say this book is inspiring is an understatement. If anything, get this short book for anyone you know who is grieving or going through something difficult. I know it will help and uplift:
Always a sucker for blue, and it’s probably too late for your Super Bowl party, but here is something I love to look at and use often as a grill platter or serving anything, in case you’re in the mood to shop (and it looks nice underneath the book cover above, doesn’t it?):
That’s it! Try to have a wonderful week. Love to you all. xo