Update! HG Can Also Be Seen on TMW!

[caption id="attachment_106" align="alignleft" width="189" caption="HG + TMW = More Joy."][/caption]

Twice the fun!

In addition to catching great HG info here on our official main site, you can also catch reprints of our astrology info on April Claxton's The Movement Within website. I'm proud and happy to keep the light burning in the Astrology Corner.

Also, if you're friends with TMW on Facebook, I'm now a proud member of the INSPIRE Team. I'll join forces with some other cool ladies (CEO April, Advice Columnist Alisa, April K., and Debbie) to help inspire you to be YOU. And love YOU. The shiny parts. The scared parts. The little parts. The parts that glow in the dark and the parts that get bigger all the time.

And here's the cool part. We're all learning. We're all growing.

Me.

April.

Alisa.

April K.

Debbie.

And YOU!

Think of this as a big massive game - the game of joy and life.

And this is where my 1/5 of the Inspire Team, Mr. Happy Ganesh, gets on his party hat and starts dancing around. Because Happy Ganesh is all about bringing you back to joy, finding your creative spirit, and empowerment through a variety of sources, whether it is through astrology, creative manifestation, or messages from your loved ones.

Twice the fun!

Using Fear As a Bridge

[caption id="attachment_110" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="It's the Journey, Not the Destination, When Using Fear as a Bridge"][/caption]

It's not the destination, it's the journey. How often do we hear that? To focus on the process and not the outcome?

And what about fear? How do we use it? What do we do with it? Do we freeze? Get stuck? Eat ourselves alive?

Do we breathe through it? Allow it to go deep, where fear needs to go? Or do we ignore it?

This weekend, I worked with one of my own fears.

This weekend, HG was happy to be a part of Gilda's Club's Arts Day. Gilda's Club is a cancer support community, named for comedian Gilda Rader, who died from breast cancer in 1986.
To return to Gilda's Club was a personal triumph for me.

Ever since the death of my mother in 2007, Fort Lauderdale is often a very emotional place for me to travel. Both my parents died there and I've had to fight my own grief and fear for years. I've thought of it as the "Square of Sadness." I remember well the harried and frenzied trips to and from hospice during mom's final days. And Gilda's Club? Mere moments away. My logical brain does not often care that I live less than an hour from this area. My brain usually hears "Fort Lauderdale" and goes into shock. Death. Horror. Pain. Watching my loved ones slip away from me, leaving me alone. The root of so much. The crux of it all.

A month ago, I told my best friend I didn't need to go.

"There will be other charity events," I said. "There's one right down the street. Maybe I should go to the one that's five minutes away."
"Or you could go back. Didn't you go back last year? Why is this hitting you now?" he asked.

He's right. I did go back last year. I worked an event and I had a wonderful time. But this time?

Oh, this time was a showcase - a parade! - of all my terrors and triggers. Driving to Fort Lauderdale. Past the place where they died. Driving on a highway I hadn't been on alone since February of 2007, where I drove back from the place where my 50-something year old mother lay dying and inarticulate, in a coma.

So, this was my chance to go through it all again. But I wanted to go.

I created Happy Ganesh because I love what the god Ganesh stands for. I believe in joy and the removal of obstacles. I believe in expansion and growing outward. I created Happy Ganesh because I want to hold space in the world for connection between the living and the dead, between life and grief and back to life. I created HG for others to find their own answers by taking part in these things.

Mostly, what I'm finding is that I've also created HG to also hold my own space in the world.

Going back to downtown Fort Lauderdale took on grand proportions, assuming the depth of an international journey. I started preparations early, about a month ago. I sought professional support. I started making lists of my fears, my outcomes. Why I wanted to go back. Why it meant the world for me to go back. And this year, I chose to go forward. I paid the fee. It's for Happy Ganesh, I told myself. You can do good there. You can help make connections between the living and the dead. It's to get out there, to give something back.

At 2 pm the day before, I was ready to bolt. Why should I go back? Why should I even try? Far better to pull on footie pyjamas and watch my 34th episode of Xena. I'd just call and cancel. That's it. I'll mess with my professional and personal integrity, no problem. They'll never know I'm gone. Maybe I can even put my house up for sale and move to Nebraska. I hear it's nice this time of year.

At 10 pm, I was going again. I'd resolved to myself that I was going back for some kind of nebulous reason, that I was not going to die on the thirty-minute commute, and that maybe, just maybe, moving in any direction towards freedom was better than forcing myself to sit in an emotional space that is so, so, so, so READY to move.

It was creaky and scary. I cried when I drove past the hospital. I remembered my mother. My heart raced when I first hit the highway. But then, something strange happened.

I remembered that this was fun.

That before everything, I used to love this route. Before I knew it, I rolled the windows down. I sang along to whatever pop rock was on the radio. Before I knew it, I pulled into the parking lot.

And I found nothing but joy on the other end of my fear. NOTHING BUT JOY.  I met with old friends I hadn't seen in ages. I lit luminary candles for my parents. I made new friends and helped new clients. I felt blessed and expansive - something inside grew bigger in response to moving through my fear.

How do you feel when you move through fear?

Do you let it guide you? Do you push it away? Drop into it? Ignore it? How do YOU work with fear? It's a powerful tool and a powerful teacher. Do you let fear tell you where the pain is?

New Moon in Sagittarius; Upcoming Mercury in Retrograde!

[caption id="attachment_115" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sagittarius"][/caption]

New Moon in Sagittarius

Whenever the New Moon comes along, it's time to manifest! The New Moon goes into Sagittarius on December 5, 2010. Sagittarius energy looks at expansive growth. It ushers in a perfect time to manifest luck, communication skills, and anything to do with higher education, travel, or publishing. Sagittarius energy is boisterous, fun, and larger than life! Astrologer Jessica Adams once found that several famous travelers, philosophers, and comedians had Sagittarius in their charts. Among them were Robin Williams, Paul Reiser, and the cast of Monty Python. The New Moon in Sag encourages us to dream big and live large! Enjoy yourself, which is a rather perfect message for this holiday season!

Some sample manifestations for this New Moon might be

I ask for the power to directly say want I mean. (Sags are direct!)

I ask to clearly manifest international travel to ____ country into my life. (Sagittarius energy adores travel - and the further away from home, the better!)

I find myself easily attracting lucky and expansive situations into my life. (Sag energy is naturally lucky!)

I find myself easily enrolling in _____ class.  (Sagittarius is the planet of higher education and learning.)

I find myself easily enjoying myself in boisterous and fun situations! (Perfect for the holiday season!!!)

I easily create joy and laughter in my life. (Sagittarius energy loves to laugh and enjoy!)

Mercury in Capricorn (Retrograde) and Mars in Capricorn

Mercury went into earthy Capricorn on November 30th. Now, we're on the cusp of Mercury Retrograde in Capricorn, beginning December 10 and going until December 30.  As with all retrogrades (more about that here) this is going to guide us to focus our attention on the areas of communication and travel. To sum up, during a retrograde

• Don't sign on the dotted line unless it's for something from your past.


• Redo, Rethink, Reflect.


• Back up computers.


• Careful with spoken or written communication.


• Old friends or lovers (with, in this case, Capricorn planets) may resurface during Capricorn Retro in order to heal past events.

However, intuitively, I feel that this retrograde is going to be much softer with us. Why? Because for most of the time that Mercury Capricorn is in Retrograde, it will also be aligning with Mars in Capricorn.

Mars signs bring us our life force. In a natal chart, our Mars sign shows us how we act or react in the areas of sex, motivation, or aggression. It's how we get mad or sexy; it's how we get MOVING. Right now, Mars is in slow-and-steady-wins-the-race Capricorn. Capricorn is a slow climber by nature. Goats achieve their goals carefully and slowly, charting out every step along the way. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn is ambitious and determined. Plug this energy into Mars and we may feel like we're not getting anywhere. The wonderful thing about Capricorn energy is that it moves us along. Just when we think we've not done anything or we're not moving fast enough, we look down and see we've climbed the entire mountain. This may be a very interesting time, career wise for a lot of people for this reason. Mars in Capricorn will keep us moving, while Mercury (Retrograde) Capricorn will remind us (with the natural look-before-you-leap Capricorn attitude) to slow down and check our communication. As retrogrades go, I feel this one will be fairly stable, due to that.

Want to know more about how these planets will impact you? Schedule a reading with us here or ask us a question here.

Happy Holidays from Happy Ganesh!

Image reprinted with permission from the following source: Jacopo Montano (Uranographia, Johann Bode) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Let the Birthday Party Begin!!!!

Happy birthday to yoooooou

Happy birthday to yoooooou

Happy birthday, dear Happy Ganesh....

Happy birthday to yoooooou!!!




Your party favors are up! If you purchase a half-hour or hour-long reading between October 8th at 10 AM (EST) and October 9th at 6 PM (EST), you get $10 off! It's our gift to you because Happy Ganesh believes in hard work -- but he also believes in thanking friends for support.

To take advantage of your party favor, please click here.

Remember, you can have a distance reading even if you're local - or anywhere in the world. Want one but can't get out of work? Stuck in traffic? No problem. Contact us on your lunch hour. Or we'll be at Modern Zen today and tomorrow. We look forward to your visit.

Whether its through fostering communication with the living and departed loved ones, or encouraging self-expression and self-empowerment through manifestation and astrological classes and coaching, we're delighted to be here for you. (For information on the upcoming astrology class, please go here.)

Thank you again for being a part of our journey and allowing us to be a part of yours.

All blessings,

Marissa

President of Happy Ganesh

Balancing Mediumship with Knowledge

Balance is important in every aspect of life. I have never noticed it as accutely as I do being in the "business" of spirituality. If I neglect myself, my heart, my needs or my own ability to stay grounded, I can see a difference in the way I connect to everything around me, including my clients. The way that I connect to myself comes first. It's the cornerstone of this work, so that in my own connection, I can exist. Once that connection is made, I hold space for clients.

Today, I stopped by the library and, now, a huge stack of books awaits me. Everything from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's classic, On Death and Dying, to books about American Medium Edgar Cayce, and books on manifestation. If I see how others navigated their own spiritual questions, surely I can understand my own path.

Books and learning help - but when I step into a mediumship session and it's on and the air is alive and someone's loved one is talking to me, well, there is no book to guide me through that.  There never has been. In those moments, mediumship (or channeling or reading for someone) is like the working definintion of Present. As in "I am present." Being somewhere else is out of the question because I am connected. We are - all three of us in the room - me, the dead person, the client - all connected.

We become connection.

The truth is that we are all connected, I believe. The dead don't leave us, ever. We only think they do. We become fixated on the physical - of course we do! I know that I do, and have. Of course we miss our mother, our father, our child, or spouse. We miss the physical presence, don't we? The holding, the hugging, the words that we can hear, the face we can touch.

In almost every mediumship session, the first question a client asks is "Is my loved one ok?" In my experience, the answer is always yes. Not only do they not leave us, but I believe that if we think about them, they come. All the cliches are true - as close as a breath. Nothing leaves us.

But in that is also very real grief. When people come to see me, it's there. It's a part of this type of work. I understand that. It's also there for me, some days, too - "healer, heal thyself".

I'm committed to this path. I am not sure exactly what it means and I can only see the angles I can see today. But I am here to learn and understand, and to connect, and to hold space for you to connect.

Thank you for reading.