Mother Touch Healing Arts

08/23/2025

Virgo is ruled by Mercury, as is Gemini, so using our words becomes important at this New Moon & all through Virgo Season. Journaling is a good way to express what needs expressing & explore what's been left unsaid, unaddressed. Using our words now helps us reflect on what calls for big changes or a simple tweaking. Here are some journal prompts to get us started....♍️♍️♍️♍️♍️♍️♍️♍️♍️

08/23/2025

NEW MOON IN 00 degrees VIRGO 23'
August 23, 2025 at 2:06 AM EDT

Since this New Moon has my dance card pretty full, the time to write a new moon article has slipped away. SO, I am offering a link to an article by Jill Wintersteen in Yoga Journal that might be helpful. Virgo Blessings! 🌞🌚♍️

Time to rethink who you truly are.

08/22/2025

WELCOME TO VIRGO SEASON!

Sun moves into Virgo on August 22 at 4:34 PM EDT and the change in energy is palpable! After the fun & frolics of Leo Season, our minds turn to schedules & to-do lists as September & the first day of school approaches here in the Northeast USA. Even if our own school days & those of our children are long over, the conditioning to get back into a healthy, smooth routine in September each year remains. I think this Virgo Season is a much better time to set goals & re-do our daily routines than in winter's often harsh environment of New Year's Day! It's time to organize & clear clutter in our spaces & our bodies, make some medical, dental appointments & schedule whatever health screenings are coming up due. Maybe we need to get a grip on our diets, donate items in that overpacked closet or garage that haven't been used in years. Let's streamline our lives & nurture our bodies! Let's reconnect with Nature & the Wisdom of our Inner Teacher.
I don't know about you but Virgo Season always ushers in a fresh perspective for me. Let's embrace the changes ahead & vow to see the Light in each. 🌞♍️

08/21/2025

LEO SEASON'S LAST HURRAH

As Leo Season winds up, take some time to own your full radiance, release whatever shades your Light & get clear about what your heartfelt desire is, then claim & proclaim it! Sun moves into Virgo on August 22 at 4:34 PM EDT, when we get down to the work of re-organizing, step into a healthy, rhythmic routine & apply our unique skills to manifest those Leo desires. 🌻🌞💥💛

08/19/2025

CRYSTALS & GEMS FOR LEO SEASON

We have learned that Leo is all about an open heart, generosity of spirit & leadership. But Leo is also joyful, self-expressive & creative. Leo is a big energy that benefits greatly from many crystals. The memes give us some good pointers about what to carry through the Lion's Season or anytime you need to roar.

My favorites are Citrine for its sunny outlook, its ability to restore joy, open our childlike wonder and attract prosperity. Putting Pyrite together with Citrine attracts abundance with a touch of luck, a fine-tuned focus on how worthy of abundance we are & the will to experience all life's good things. Sunstone brings strength that supports Leo's big shine & originality, along with its bountiful creativity. Of course, Ruby is at the top of the list for me. It has the ability to help us feel safe, loved, rooted & ready to let Love heal self-doubts, grief or depression & calls up our passion to share the best of Who We Are.

Peridot is another optimistic stone in harmony with Leo. It opens wide the heart, invites luxurious growth & eases our troubled minds with its soft and gentle, green comfort. It is truly a beautiful heart chakra gem too often overlooked, & helps us remember how loved & lovable we are. Peridot enriches our relationships as well by deepening the moments of shared joy & ease.

Yellow Tiger's Eye can be added for self-confidence & courage; Golden Calcite helps us stay in integrity and the sweet Rose Quartz soothes & softly nudges us to remember to love ourselves. Self-Love is, after all, the source of the famed Leo generosity.

Enjoy these last radiant days of Leo Season: Virgo is making "to do" lists & waiting in the wings. 🌞♌️

08/15/2025

WHERE'S YOUR LEO?

We all have Leo somewhere in our birth chart, even if it's not one of your Big 3: Sun, Moon Rising/Ascendant. For example, Mercury in Leo likes to be heard; being dismissed before they have their say frustrates them. And, when it counts, Mercury in Leo are good listeners. Venus in Leo treats their loved one like royalty...but if their generosity & attention is not reciprocated, they will move on without a backward glance. Venus in Leo also attracts attention & financial stability. Leo Mars acts in controlled & strategic ways, expressing frustration by removing their sunny light from the source of that frustration! And of course, even if you have no planets in Leo, we all have a house with the sign of Leo in it. Find your Leo & let it roar! 🌞🌛💫♌️

08/11/2025

Thankfully, Mercury stations direct today, August 11, 2025 at 3:29 AM EDT! He will stay at 4 Leo until Friday when he confidently sets his new pace for the rest of summer. YAY!!!!

08/09/2025

FULL MOON in 17 degrees AQUARIUS 0’
On August 9, 2025 @ 3:56 AM EDT

Astrologer Jill Wintersteen describes this lunation as follows:

“The full Moon in Aquarius is a time to release any habits and patterns that block authentic expression. Aquarius helps us align with our inner truths and find a sense of belonging with people who share these truths. And it helps us understand when we’re doing things to merely fit in versus sharing our unique perspective no matter what others might think of us.”

Aquarius prizes its individuality but also opens the way to build community with others whose vision makes room for the gifts of each member, without judgment or pressure to conform. Aquarius values the freedom to be & express the individual, authentic self, which then supports the greater good, growth & enrichment of all selves. We need to ask ourselves: 'What habit or pattern keeps us from shining our truest light? What fear dims our light, over & over again? What secrets do we hold deep in the vault of our unconscious & how are those secrets sabotaging our ability to express our Truth?' The Leo Sun opposes the Aquarian Moon to remind us that the courage & confidence to be Who We Are is as close as our heartbeat.

This is a complex lunation with so much going on at once, that our minds may be spinning on overdrive. There is an Air Grand Trine involving Mars, freshly landed in 1 Libra, Uranus in 1 Gemini & Pluto in 2 Aquarius. That’s a formidable flow of innovative & transforming mental energy for sure. Mars in harmony with the unpredictable Uranus can bring genius insights into focus or sudden, unforeseen actions & shocking events. With Pluto in the mix, upheavals of hidden content & secrets may be suddenly unearthed to shift the current momentum. Consequences of past actions come home to roost as they say. Trines are often described as beneficial in influence, but they often simply indicate that the planets are in synch with each other & support the unfolding of mutual energies.

On top of the Grand Trine in Air is a Kite Formation joining the Saturn & Neptune conjunction in Aries to the Air Trine by opposing Mars in Libra while also sextiling both Pluto & Uranus. This is a power-packed set of aspects that feel larger than all of us. BUT, if we hold onto the kite’s tail (Mars in Libra) and find balance in our actions, motivated by the reach for justice & equilibrium restored– individually & collectively—then the beneficial stream of the grand trine may be personally accessed. With Pluto in the whole mix, our willingness to unearth shameful secrets, accept responsibility & clear our mental clutter will make the imminent transitions worthwhile. And Saturn rewards that kind of maturity. Neptune’s role can open us to Higher Love & Spiritual Beauty or lead us back into old patterns of addiction & dysfunction to numb the pain of transforming. If you have planets at or near 17 degrees of Air, Fire or Fixed Signs, this Full Moon calls you personally to surrender (Neptune) to higher passions. The Air is rare, pristine & feeds the fires of radical change. Release outworn routines, habits & mindless patterns to make room for whatever lies ahead.

Unfortunately, the two planetary benefics, Jupiter & Venus, are totally un-aspected with the rest of the Full Moon Chart. The planets that bring us beauty, abundance, pleasure, joy, love & expansion are out of reach as if they are snuggled up within the mansion of Cancer together, baking cakes, sipping wine, listening to music, cocooned in their own little world, safe from the chaos whirling outside their cozy embrace. We are on our own & called upon to ascend above the swiftly shifting circumstances with the wings of our Best Selves. Through August 11 – 14, however, Jupiter & Venus will join with Sirius, and rise before the Sun, leading the rising Sun in a triple heralding of something profound at 15 degrees of Cancer, the precise exaltation of Jupiter. We are called to embrace the sacred balance of Mind & Heart in the days immediately following the Moon’s fullness. We are being asked to blow our minds wide open & ride the waves of destabilization into the Cosmic, Etheric ‘WATERS OF CREATION’ rolling through our One Mind & Heart. As we open to & embrace the potential of the days ahead, it will become clear what powerful creators we are indeed.

“As our eye is illuminated by the light of the physical sun, so our mind is illuminated by the light of the Spiritual Sun.”
–Emanuel Swedenborg

Sirius is our Spiritual Sun. Let its light, joined with our Solar System’s Benefics, open our minds & hearts as it Leads with Love, Only Love, Always Love.

Aquarius values the future, seeks freedom, and authentically shares gifts with the community. Let’s find our tribe or build one & focus together on waking to a brand new dawn.

Peace to all in True Brotherhood ☮🌝♒️🌞♌️

"Do not look upon the darkness alone. Bring your Brother to look upon the darkness with you..." -- Excerpt of Message Channeled from The Mother

07/31/2025

LUGHNASADH: FIRST HARVEST CELEBRATION

Lughnasadh means the feast of the Irish grain god, Lugh, & is also known in many traditions as Lammas, or ‘mass of the loaf.’ This feast is mostly celebrated on or about AUG. 1st -AUG. 2nd each year but astrologically only begins on the day in which the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Leo, which this year falls on August 7th. Traditionally, it inspired massive gatherings that included religious ceremonies & rituals, athletic contests, great feasting, matchmaking, & trading. It’s a time to revel in the bounty of the first harvest of grains, fruits & vegetables & indicates the midpoint between the summer solstice & the fall equinox. It is one of 8 annual festivals that mark the rotation of the year’s wheel of time, each asking us to be present with the cycles of life. Being mindful of the gifts offered by each seasonal turn keeps us in tune with nature & its rhythms. Knowing when to act or refrain from acting, when to give or to receive, to make a shift or hold your ground, to shine your light outward or gather it inward for reflection, is fundamentally tied to the ebb & flow of the natural life force in which we live & breathe & have our being. Knowing in which direction the wind blows can help us to bend with the changing tides of time & spurs us to grow deeper roots into the timeless. “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

There are many ways to celebrate these seasonal occasions & we are all familiar with such common rituals as stringing Christmas lights or igniting Chanukah candles near the Winter Solstice festival of welcoming the return of the sun’s light - the time at which the days slowly begin to grow a little longer. It brings us glimmers of hope to hold onto through the dark days of winter while the infant light matures. Just so, at Lughnasadh / Lammas we might bake breads, brew (or just drink!) beers & ales, do some canning, freezing, or grilling of vegetables, make fruit jellies, jams & preserves, or bake berry pies. We might fashion some corn husk dolls, weave a wreathe from braided wheat shafts, pop corn kernels for stringing to adorn tables & mantles. We might eat, sing, dance & laugh around the fire pit, bonfire, barbecue grill or lit candles, exalting in the manifested fruits of our labor. Be creative, express your heart, join with loved ones & find your own way to savor this first harvest. Feel the free flow of ripe blessings all around & within you; take a deep breath & bask in the balanced grace of this abundant moment. Let your gratitude rise & steep in its glory.

There is yet much of summer before us, so let’s make the most of the warm sunshine still to come! But be aware of the encroaching call to ready ourselves for the colder months ahead at this first harvest. Already, the long days of sunlight are slowly shortening & shopping for back-to-school supplies will soon enough be in full swing! Feel the changes & let them guide your actions toward harmony with this shifting moment’s needs.

First Harvest Joy to all! Blessed & abundant may your harvests always be. 🌾🌻🍐🫐🍓🍞🍺

07/27/2025

Leo Season invites us all to shine! We need to summon our courage, let our heart lead & express our most radiant self. And of course, we do it all by summoning our generosity of spirit & gambling on our beautiful self's ability to pull it off with confidence & brilliance. 🌞♌️🦁

07/23/2025

NEW MOON IN 2 degrees LEO 8’
July 24,2025 @ 3:11 PM EDT

The Leo lunar energy wants us to claim & embrace how beautifully unique we each are, without apology to anyone, including ourselves. It’s a time to bolster our ability to look in the mirror & say out loud, “I am proud of you!” Count the ways we make brighter the lives of those we love or lead & let that counting fuel an even greater generosity of spirit. Leo asks that we give of ourselves generously & with joy. We can only do so if we first see our own individuality as worth sharing. Now is the moment to own our strengths & turn away from a focus on our perceived weaknesses; to spotlight our heartfelt passions & shift our focus away from any mediocrity we believed was our lot in life. Where we focus our attention is what we offer of ourselves. If we offer the best, the best grows better & gets more widely sprinkled around to enrich all in our circle of perceived influence & beyond. All on Earth are One Tribe. Leo truly wants the whole “family” to be happy & it starts with being happy with ourselves. Let the Leo self-confidence sprout & bloom in all areas of life. Even if Leo isn’t your Sun, Moon or Ascendant sign, we all have Leo confidence, compassion & creativity somewhere in our birth chart. Find where Leo is in your unique chart, note what house it occupies & any planets placed there to begin to unearth your own Leo treasures. Then share what you discover. It enriches all of us.

The Moon-Sun joining in 2 degrees Leo directly opposes Pluto in 2 Aquarius which lets us know that we are dealing with a transformational axis coaxing us to shine our inner light for the greater good of our community or tribe. We all have unique gifts, and none are too small or seemingly insignificant to showcase right now. As we each allow our inner lights to shine, we encourage others to do the same & we evolve together to a place of higher love, creativity & expressions of beauty. Pluto, of course, excavates what has been hidden within so the process is not without growing pains. I’m sure the caterpillar is not free to become a butterfly without some discomfort along the way. Don’t let that discomfort dissuade us from lifting our wings. And there is some big help along the way as the Moon/Sun forms a harmonious trine to Saturn & Neptune in Aries. Through this lunation, Saturn can give form & structure to our Neptunian dreams & wishes, making this New Moon a perfect time for our intentions to manifest in forms that stand firm through the test of time. A lovely sextile from Moon/Sun to Uranus in Gemini, opens wide the door to inspiration, sudden insight & innovation. But unlike the trines which are aspects naturally allowing ease & grace without condition, the sextile delivers ease & grace only when we take a tangible step toward the opportunity opening before us. Trines simply indicate areas of ease, & sextiles require some action to free their grace. With the latter positioned in Leo & Gemini, we need to use our heartfelt words to set the sextile’s help in motion. Asking for what we need is the way to get the ball rolling toward that need’s fulfillment. With Leo’s confidence we can declare what is true for us & watch it unfold. The New Moon is in aspect to all the transpersonal planets, so it informs us that whatever transpires in our personal lives is deeply felt & impacts our collective reality. This is an empowering influence! Let’s make the best of it and bring our most radiant selves front & center into the spotlight.

Venus is too deep into Gemini to aspect the Moon/Sun for this lunation, but it is important to note that she squares the Lunar Nodes. Mars in Virgo sits at the South Node so Venus squares Mars as well and points out that we have karma to deal with & tend to. Venus challenges Mars to dissect our karma, labeling it precisly for what it is, then freeing us of its hold in the process. Venus challenges us to reach for our Higher Spiritual Destiny by owning our shadow, integrating it & loosening its hold on our daily movements. Venus lets Mars know that his reactivity to anger with aggression needs to be tempered and strongly suggests that he use all his fiery passion to lovingly unify & not hatefully separate. Venus calls her mate to put the brakes on reactivity, take a breath & wait a beat or two to respond appropriately. Venus in Gemini wants us to lighten up & not get tied up in egoic power struggles. Both planets are in Mercury-ruled signs so conciliatory words can support our joining in heart, mind, body & spirit. The importance of Venus’s message is also affirmed repeatedly by all the Aries planets either currently in retrograde (Saturn & Neptune) - or about to be (Chiron turns around on July 30)- at this New Moon. “Put the brakes on now and let that s**t go!” the retro planets proclaim. We cannot reach our destiny as consciously embodied Spiritual Beings until this warmongering, us against them behavior, is resolved, first in our personal lives which then expands to our collective expression. Mercury, although just out of orb for a significant conjunction with this New Moon, but in the sign of Leo also, is in his retrograde. Our Winged Messenger descends through his retrograde motion into the Underworld of our Unconscious Mind for Conscious review & resolution of internal conflicts. Until August 11 (when Mercury stations direct), we have this opportunity to unveil & shift in some way our perceptions about what we thought our path forward might look like. Beneath the anger & aggressive assault on our planetary unity is perhaps a major call for Love & Compassion, not War & Polarization. Let’s be willing to dive deep, have a meaningful look within, transmute whatever obstructive energy we find there and forge ahead to a more peaceful & abundant future, individually & en masse.

Jupiter, one of the two social planets along with Saturn, is un-aspected for this lunation. He is floating alone in the waters of his beloved Cancer, surrendered to the feeling currents of The Great Mother’s Sea, self-soothing & rocking to the rhythm of whale song, taking some spa time for self-nurturing & renewal while he waits in the wings for his big moment in Leo Season. He’s getting ready. On August 13, Jupiter’s moment arrives as he conjuncts Sirius, the Spiritual Sun of our Sun, our Solar System’s Binary Star & Center of Truth. I will perhaps talk more about this at the Full Moon in Aquarius on August 9. But understand that the Greater Benefic will amplify the Sirius spiritual light surrounding & infusing our Earth. Let’s open our beautiful hearts, anchor their lights on Earth and leave our shadowed past far behind. There is no more highly supported energy to lay the foundation for a bright new beginning than in this lunar cycle – and it skillfully sets us up for the eclipse season ahead.

May we feel the grace, breathe it in & let everything else fall away, as we turn to face the building blocks of Unconditional Love placed before us. It’s time to reclaim our Radiant Power & structure our tomorrow with Joy. Moon & Sun in Leo wouldn’t have it any other way.

Smile & Shine on! 🌚🌞♌️