In 1784 in Paris, Benjamin Franklin presented a paper called “ “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light”, suggesting that Parisians could economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning. As usual Franklin was ahead of his time. The world finally caught up to the idea of altering time to save energy in WW1.
The rationale is that adding an extra hour of light at the end of the day saves on using energy. FDR actually instituted daylight savings (DST) for the duration of WW2 …and called it ‘Wartime’ But several studies have suggested that Energy consumption actually increases during daylight savings mostly due to increased air conditioning use. We are in throes of global warming after all! Some people hate daylight savings (Haters!) and there is actually a website dedicated to eradicating it called standardtime.com. Why would anyone hate it? Maybe it’s because there is a significant increase in traffic accidents the Monday after the spring shift forward. But then there is an equal decrease in traffic accidents when we turn back the clocks in fall. Hmmm…Robberies fall by 7% the day of the spring shift, but heart attacks increase by 10%.
 In the 1960s, the United States created the ‘Uniform Time Act’ which created the time zones (can you imagine living without time zones?) and allowed states to exempt themselves from DST. At present only Hawaii and Arizona have exempted themselves. If you go to the Hoover Dam, Arizona is on one side of the dam and Nevada on the other. When I visited, their clocks were set an hour apart. I kept walking back and forth between the hour difference. It felt so arbitrary.

 April
​As we transition out of winter and into spring it is time to seriously throw off anything that is weighing us down! Especially anything that has been causing heartache. It may be hard, but honesty and direct communication can help speed up this process. In the year of the Dog, the only currency is honesty. You may need to tell someone how you feel, even if you are afraid of the outcome. Most importantly we need to be totally honest with ourselves if we want to move through to the other side of an emotionally difficult situation. We cannot control another person or many external situations, but we can control ourselves. We can choose to spend our energy healing and progressing in order to fully embrace life!! If you let it, April can be a turning point in your life, where you choose new possibilities for emotional and cosmic connection. 

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10 Wands x 3 Swords

May
​May continues the theme of freedom! After the intense energy of April, asking us to be honest about what needs to be healed and released, the new energies say take a risk! Risk is what it takes to grow. There is a special bent to this months message: the biggest risk of all may be to call it a day and keep moving. There is such a huge emphasis on 'follow-through' in our culture. I think it is because in capitalism our worth is tied to our production value. But if you find yourself in a situation (career, relationship, project, program, religion, JOB) that is at odds with your true authentic self, you may need to risk what others may think of you or some level of security to be in alignment with yourself.

The Fool x 7 Swords

 June

June will be serving  up a nice big helping of romance! If you are interested in a relationship, the Two of Cups rules partnerships and the combining of heart energy between two people. The energy that flows between two people is special and different from the energy that flows between three or more. If you have been looking for love June should be a lucky month. If you are already in a relationship this influence will add a magical element to your day to day life with each
other.
There is another energy hanging around as well, having to do with starting a new project and allowing yourself to be a beginner. Sometimes this feels scary because we get judged in this society and our ego usually feels safer being a 'know it all'. Don't let the fear of looking foolish stop you from starting something new.

Page of Pentacles x 2 of Cups

​I believe in magic! I have seen miracles, synchronicities, successful outcomes to spell work, and  True Love!!  That is all ‘blow your hair back’ magic. This article is about another kind of magic…I call it practical magic.
What is that?
It’s goal setting for something that will have a big effect on different aspects of your life. It is the opposite of just getting chores done (unless that fits into a bigger goal). So many people spend their energy working to earn money to pay bills and endlessly consume (media, clothing, meals,). If we aren’t careful we can get caught in this whirlpool of energy exchange and never actually end up swimming anywhere.
Practical magic is about being a creator rather than a consumer. Capitalist society forms us into consumers, but we can take our energy and magical souls back from the machine.
Here are some examples of practical magic:
*Track your money for a month and see where it goes. I did this and discovered I was spending $300 !! dollars per month on coffee and lunch. Now I make my lunch and coffee and have devised an envelope system to fund my dreams with that $3,600 I was spending mindlessly on consumption. Here is a link to a video I made about it. I call this Magical Budgeting.
*Learn a Language. It will save your brain and create a bridge to another culture’s reality. There are words that don’t exist in our language that exist in other languages.
*Learn an art form. Spend time creating rather than consuming and maybe even make money at it down the road.
 
So what is on your To-Do list? Is it a mundane list of chores? Or is it an ever increasing set of skills and experiences? Our time on this planet is short and our energy is limited. Where are you directing yours?