ch-ch-changes...and growth and little deaths

To be honest, I have been struggling to write, like I’ve been struggling to sleep and not sleep. I thought I had some kind of deep illness and my cancer was back a few weeks ago, because I couldn’t get up and go. I had to nap—once, twice, three times a lady. I called my primary care physician and asked her to test me for anything that causes fatigue—anemia, infection, mono, Lyme disease…anything. Turns out there is nothing wrong with me.

But all I want to do is sleeeeeeep…and rest me eyes, like a pirate on holiday on a deserted island.

Maybe it is depression, then I was like, of course it is depression. So, yeah, that is the conclusion I came to. It is situational as my life has been chaotic this year. During my yearly tarot pull, I have been using the Alleyman’s Tarot, which is my current favorite deck…Goddess bless, that deck is perfect. (Sidenote: the Alleyman pulled cards from all kinds of decks to make one chaotic, strange, and totally insightful deck of mismatched cards and cohesive interpretation. I pledged on a whim on his Kickstarter, and fell in love with it when it came.) This is a deck with an insane amount of Death cards, or Death-like cards, and out of the 9 cards I pulled, 6 of them were Deaths or Death Adjacent, like a card called Bone Fire, which is equivalent to the Tower. As a Tarot Reader, you sort of start laughing and shaking your head. By the end of the reading, you can only say, “What. The. Fuck. Seriously?” Or “I am fucked, seriously.” Or some combination of those words.

Then February came, and the bomb dropped in my life, and I go—okay, Angelica Maria de las Vulturas, you picked the word Change for the year, then pulled Death 9 times, and you are surprised that devastation is here? You asked for it. The truth is, I root for Death when my clients come to see me—it is about release and letting go of the dead things, but when Death comes for me, I freak out. “Why do things have to change?” I whine at the same time I am lighting the fire on the bridge of life. Don’t get me wrong, I love to be on the other side of change. I love when things shift and evolve and grow to meet me. Everything that has happened to me in life has led me to the place I needed to go.

One of my favorite sayings is Stop Watering Dead Plants. And as a plant lady, I have watered plants past their death, begging like Kisa Gotami to bring back my baby. I have watered so many dead things, like Persephone, praying my Goddess of Spring era works in the underworld only to see flowers die from being overwatered, then the water keeps coming and coming and coming, until the whole of Hades is flooded.

Things are changing. They needed to change. I just hate not know how it will look at the end of the changing.

I must change too. I have babied myself, nurtured me, taken deep care to rest me, and nap me, and feed me good things. But all that time away from work, made me realize that I miss work. I miss holding space for people in real life, or sitting with a client and pulling cards, drawing on their beautiful spirit and desires. I love distant work too, which puts me in contact with so many amazing humans around the world.

But the act of Death and change and transformation is ultimately an act of creativity. Resurrection is all the rage. Transformation, death, creativity, art, and rebirth that is kind of my vulture-like jam. And by jam, I mean, I want it on every little bit of toast that I eat. I want that jam on surround sound. Creativity breathes and moves. It draws people in and connects us more deeply that anything else…think of your favorite song or poem or painting and all the other people who connect through that world…we need art and creative energy. I need art and creative energy like water.

Maybe I have been feeling like a “mostly dead” plant, because you can start watering a mostly dead plant, and slowly watch the green come back. Yes, maybe some brown and dried leaves will be gone forever, but if you repot, give her some new soil, attention, sunlight, care, love, and just the right amount of water, the plant will thrive.

I am burying the lead again, as I am wont to do, but all of this is to say I have some news. I am opening my in-person practice again at Alta View Wellness Center. I will be taking over the lower level classroom to see clients, do readings, and sell some items in a retail space. My idea is to have more handmade, recycled, used, and upcycled items than new. I thought that a metaphysical thrift shop would be ideal for me to handle. I won’t be open everyday all day, but have weekly hours that are semi-regular on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but I will also open by appointment if needed. I will post weekly hours on my website and on my FB page.

But right now, it is just slowly coming together, but I am planning a Grand Opening celebration-y thing on May 3rd where my shop will be open 10 am to 2 pm. At Noon, I will do a guided meditation, then go into a Tarot Gallery, reading for whoever is there. I hope to see you there. This event is free, and my ten-year-old son Zachary will have a bake sale/pop-up café at the shop to raise money for Four Diamonds Mini-thon, which empowers K-12 students to raise funds and awareness to help conquer childhood cancer. Actually, Four Diamonds covers 100 percent of all medical expenses related to cancer care not covered by insurance for eligible Four Diamonds children. Because of the community’s steady and generous support, Four Diamonds has assisted 100 percent of the childhood cancer patients who have been treated at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital. Zach is a Mini-THONs leader, so he is spearheading this, and I am excited for him.

I have an RSVP if you are reading this and might be able to come. Just click here:

So, that’s what I have been up to. No worries, distant clients and members of the Moon + Stone membership, I am still going to be there for you too. I am still doing monthly Full Moon and New Moon readings, sharing the earth medicine knowledge and holding my weekly coffee + cards circle on Monday morning. If you want to join the Membership Group, check out all the deets on the Membership page

One change that might affect you is that I have set up my online scheduler to accept in-person clients as well as distance clients. So, check in and make sure you are scheduling the correct appointment, but otherwise, I am so excited to be reconnecting in person with clients and watering myself just enough. Schedule an appointment with Angie at this link.

Much love,

Angie

Healing your Inner Child, a conversation

This conversation on Healing your Inner Child with transformational healer Walking Crow, renowned author and mystic Katye Anna and I was such a beautiful experience. Walking Crow and Katye Anna and I explore what it means to be triggered, how to recognize it is happening and then how to heal from trauma and wounding from a young age. It was a beautiful experience. I hope you give a listen and then comment below. Follow Etheric Connections on FB for more of their powerful conversations. Lloyd and Leslie also have an awesome crystal shop, that is currently closed due to the state regulations, but they are selling online and are happy to look at inventory and help you shop. Support Local Small Businesses closed for the foreseeable future. Comment below to continue the convo.

Mothering Grief and Humanizing Healing: A podcast convo with the Biz Bruja

Though I live in the middle of Pennsylvania, we have some amazing healers, practitioners and leaders in the global psychic and healing community. I work alongside one of the strongest channelers of energy with my healing companion Sharon Muzio, the owner of Alta View Wellness Center. Sharon leads the Spirit of Oneness Holistic Expo too, which is the largest spiritual gathering we have in Harrisburg. Vanessa and I are both present in this circle. We mention Sharon in this episode, so just want to give her a shout-out. Because Vanessa touches on this a bit in the beginning, we live in a community that feels small compared to New York City, but we have a vibrant community of gifted healers here. And the beautiful thing about being in a smaller community is that we find each other—the brujas and curanderas and mystics and medicine people.

When Vanessa Codorniu came to one of my circles, her dynamic, earnest energy lit up the room. She had been working in the huge community of New York City doing shamanic work, psychic work and ancestral healing. She had just moved to our community, and we have been fan-girling each other ever since. I take her circles. She takes mine. I have been blessed to have her in my circle of friends and healer colleagues. She is a gifted practitioner, circle leader, psychic and more. This conversation was so rich and expansive. it is because we speak the same language. She is not afraid of a little shadow and magick. She had interviewed me for this podcast in December, so pre-COVID-19. I want to say that because we mention nothing about what is happening in the world. I think we would have a very different conversation today. But I love the conversation we did have. We had some connectivity issues, so if you hear a blip or two, it clears up in a second.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with me and Vanessa. Let me know what you think by dropping a comment below, or sending me an email at angie@themoonandstone.com.

Etheric Connections's Divine Collaboration Virtual Expo

On Saturday, May 2nd, I was honored to be invited by Lloyd of Etheric Connections (like their FB page to keep updated on these awesome live events) to participate in a live Panel Discussion on how to transmute fear into love, and what exactly is the nature of this time of fear. It was a very cool conversation. We are actually having a more detailed discussion on Healing your Inner Child with transformational healer Walking Crow, renowned author and mystic Katye Anna and I on Friday, May 8th at 8pm. Follow the link for more information! Post any questions or comments in the comment section.

changes

We're so grateful for this deeply precious life. Looking around, we see your love in all things. Allow us to feel more blessed than baffled, more clear than confused, and to let go of the ropes we've bound so tightly around our own fighting arms.
-- Pixie Lighthorse From "Honoring Release" a prayer in her new book, Prayers of Honoring
 
My mentor Pixie Lighthorse just came out with a book of prayers called Prayers of Honoring. The humility in each word, the grace, shifts me. It makes me want to write my own prayers and songs, particularly of change, release, and transition, and so I do. As Vulture medicine comes in, transformation and change pushes right on my heart chakra, right on my back in between my shoulder blades. I sit to catch my breath sometimes. Shifts, reinvention, transformation, I mistake it for a person pushing, sometimes. Urging me forward. I have been looking at my offerings and classes, my ways of doing things, (including this newsletter,) my parenting and partnering, my self-care and diet. I can feel shifts, major earthquakes, within me, breaking me open, helping my spirit soar. It reminds me of what my friend Delfina says, "The ego cannot tell the difference between annhiliation and transformation." 

Nearly a year ago, I saw my first client at Alta View Wellness Center. We had just bought our wee farmette, and I was three months pregnant. I knew virtually no one in the area, yet Sharon Muzio took a chance on this earthy, knocked up, goofball mystic. She gave me an opportunity to offer crystal healing to Central Pennsylvania, offer classes in Tarot, art, and crystals, circling up women seekers on the moons with the deep medicine of the Earth. I will always be grateful for her trust in me. I have met such incredible women and healers here, learned about deep reserves of wisdom and medicine keeping within me.
 
As I began, Kate Pruiett and I partnered up just as she was finishing up her crystal healing certification with Hibiscus Moon. We have had an incredible first year here at Alta View Wellness Center, offering classes on crystals, monthly workshops and crystal healing events. It has been exciting to build this presence in Central Pennsylvania, and gather men and women who resonate with crystals to delve deeper into their connection. Through this year, Kate and I have enjoyed a fun and comfortable working relationship, building on each other's strengths, honoring the other's cycles and trials. Through co-teaching the crystal classes, we have shared our love of stone medicine with many people here.
 
As happens, life shifts and morphs, obligations from afar call us, and we shift and flow with life. Kate and I honestly looked at our work together and our future. Kate decided to step back from Crystal Healing at Alta View Wellness to focus on her passion, Reiki.  She teaches all of the Reiki curriculum at Alta View (Reiki II is offered this August 8), as well as leads the Reiki Shares and offers sessions throughout the week. I so enjoy teaching with her, but also honor her decision. We gratefully move forward as colleagues and friends. 
 
For my clients, I will still be offering crystal healing sessions as I always have. I will still be teaching the crystal workshops on the first Thursday of the month, albeit alone, and leading all the crystal healing events by myself. I anticipate they will also shift and change as I move into a rhythm of teaching and presenting as one person instead of two. I know I will be offering more Crystal Healing Events which are great ways of experiencing a group meditation and crystal healing session while I play bowls. I feel called to do more meditation and channeled work for those events, so stayed tuned.

from my last medicine bundle circle, our tools laid out for us.

For my other Alta View Classes, I am going to be revamping my medicine bundle circles and creating a more connected circle for those souls who choose that path. We will meet more often during the bundle work, as well as be connected throughout the process. It will be more expensive, but well-worth the money. The medicine is powerful, and those who sign up for that work need more support and more mentorship than I had been offering. In that vein, I will also be offering more moon circles that incorporate journeying and work with the cycle of the moon. These will be love donation circles so we can welcome more sisters into the fold here. It is a great way to connect with like-minded people. I was also asked to offer a monthly art workshop, and this is something I am still kicking around, but hope to start in Autumn. I have also revamped the Introduction to Tarot class offered in October of this year, making the classes longer and more in-depth. I am also publishing my newsletters as blog posts, so that you may comment on them there, joining a discussion. The link will be at the bottom of the email for you to connect to.
 
For my newsletter and on-line presence, I am committed to offering on-line Tarot classes in the upcoming months, so if you are interested, let me know. As always, I offer distance Tarot readings, and crystal healing sessions for those who live far away. They are powerful gifts. I also wanted your feedback, as I have been sending out my musings newsletter separately from an events newsletter. I have lost quite a few non-local people after my last events email, saying it didn't apply to them. I have created a local newsletter list for those who want information on my classes and events. If you want to opt into the Local Events, listing basically all my classes and events at Alta View Wellness Center, please fill out this opt in sheet. Otherwise, my events will always be listed at my website and on the sidebar of my email. And in case you missed it, my crystal mentor, Hibiscus Moon, interviewed me for her blog. You can read more about my philosophy of healing there. 
 

Thank you, Great Spirit, for this amazing holy day. Thank you for the dirt and the seeds, the fruit and the compost. Thank you for the bird and insect songs that fill the air--songs of family, of growth, of warning, of summer. Thank you for the process of emerging from shells, as difficult and uncomfortable as it makes us. Thank you for the process that builds our strength. Thank you for the mysteries and knowns and all that I experience in between. Thank you for the discomfort with those places, as I remember my own smallness in the wake of your large, unspeakable love. Thank you for the moon moving within me. Thank you for the heat, which makes us easy with each other. Thank you for this most amazing day.