Inanna, from The Burney Relief, c. 1800 BCE

Such is the way of things, life got busy and in the process of prioritising my limited energy the whole writing a blog a week thing was soon on the chopping block.

More broadly though, the decision to change tact with respect to what I'm doing here was very timely as Venus had just begun her descent into the underworld the time when such choices we being made.

In light of that, I figured the best thing to do would be to close up shop entirely for the retrograde and give myself, and my chart ruler, all the space and time needed to recollect and reorient. Well here we are, renewed after 40 days and nights of darkness (sorta lol)

This year has seen some big changes for me, as I transitioned from the work-from-home freelancer context I had been in for 5 or so years, into full (realllly full) time work. For the most part it has been great – I'm enjoying not having to do my own taxes, for example, and it's also nice to be back in the caring professions.

Though at the point at which I decided to abandon the weekly writing thing there were particular challenges at my workplace that were asking a great deal of me. Happily I've developed some strategies, dusted off some others, and got realistic about what I can do and where my boundaries lie – and these, combined, have carried me decisively into a more sustainable context.

So much of managing modern life seems to be about prioritisation. Go back to when our fight or flight response was working as intended, and I think it must have been much less of an issue. There's a sabre tooth tiger, the priority is now to run or hide lol. The first snow is falling, the priority is to seek shelter, fire wood etc. So on and so forth.

When the adrenals are firing though, the priority today can often feel as though it is simply the next task to do, irrespective of what that task is. That works, sometimes. Other times it keeps one on a conveyor belt of energised momentum that goes far outside the realms of utility.

At work I have to keep several plates spinning but what I found was happening, was I began placing similar pressure on myself to sign a document, as I would have meeting the fundamental needs of those I cared for. That's not on me haha, that's just what having a job can be like. But it was this failure to prioritise that was making my job, and thus my life, much harder than it needed to be.

The Task Mandala

I developed this idea of concentric rings to work from though – in which the innermost circle was everything to do with the people I support, with the rings further out each declining in immediate relevance/import to that primary goal. It sounds so obvious, but that's the point – stress can make you forget how to think, so having guide ropes can be very valuable!

What I wasn't expecting was that I would quickly begin to use this method on myself in my own life, to great effect there too. This is sorta the attitude of putting your own oxygen mask on before helping others. It's been great, and adding bits back in, like writing here – which certainly sits higher up Maslow's pyramid, wouldn't be possible without this rubric.

So yeah that monster cluster of transits that characterised March has, undoubtedly, had an impact on my processes and outlook and I'm so grateful for the pressure I found myself under for forcing these concessions and strategies out of me. And I'm proud of myself for maintaining my boundaries and conserving my resources thus that I didn't expose myself to burn out. We all have limits, that's natural and so often we get into trouble by failing to acknowledge where they lie.

Luckily this isn't my first rodeo, but it's probably the first in which I've not ended up on my arse in the dust at some point. Progress✨

You know, I've got stuff I want to do. Stuff that this new job is enabling through the stability and income it provides me. I want to do a good job, and I am. But it needs to serve the rest of my life, otherwise what's the point?

You got to keep the fire burning!! don't let it burn out, don't let it splutter along. It's not easy to keep that steady burn going in your hara sometimes, but then that's the work isn't it? That's practice.

In case this sounds too much like a victory lap, I know I'll get knocked down again at some point. Impermanence demands it. But my gladness is coming from a sense that I've worked through and stress tested some new approaches that'll mean I'll get be able to get back up that much steadier when it inevitably happens.

A Fair Shake

In light of this, I would like to give a shout out to the Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) method developed by Dr. David Berceli. I'd known of this kind of stuff for a while, and had seen spontaneous use of it occur among people everywhere from ayahuasca ceremonies to yoga classes. The basic principle is sound – the body shakes to release pent up energy and stress hormones that it gets flooded with during moments of heightened anxiety and nervous system arousal.

Animals do this all the time – like when a dog shakes during a thunderstorm. It's the nervous system regulating itself. However, humans are conditioned out of doing this. Consciously and otherwise, we hold ourselves taut. That's not in of itself maladaptive – I wouldn't want to be flailing my limbs around in an emergency lol, but the point is we don't reliably do anything to release the tension afterwards.

TRE is a set of exercises designed first to fatigue certain muscle groups to facilitate access to this shake response, and then actually induce this shaking. It's honestly wild when it happens, when your body takes the reins and begins processing this trapped energy. The effect is incredibly similar to forms of mediumship seen in traditions like ATR, and for similar reasons – you're handing control over to something other than your conscious mind.

For me at least, it has been extremely valuable when coming off a shift in which there has been a crisis to manage. These methods are frequently used by some first responders, and other professions in which huge amounts of stress hormones are just a part of daily life.

There's a deeper layer to this though – as the name suggests, this method is about surfacing and releasing deep seated trauma held in the body from previous events. So I say this with a very strong disclaimer – try this stuff out at your own risk, or with the support of a professional, as when trauma is surfaced in the body, this must be tended to very carefully lest you risk re-traumatisation.

As such, this isn't the first method I reach for, and it works alongside good food, ample rest, yoga, meditation, cbd – what have you. But for when I'm literally wired haha, it helps get me back into my body (and then able to access those other, more foundational forms of self care)

Going Forward

So, looking to the future of this blog, here's my new plan. I'm going to write when I want to write! Revolutionary, no? Yknow the idea around the weekly blogging thing in the first place was just to get me into the swing of doing it, and I've got the bug now.

I'm excited to write some things I've got in the pipeline and having the extra space and time to chip away at those will result in me producing stuff I'm that much more satisfied with anyway. Like I'm not here to produce content, per-se, so much as I am keen to share my experiences, show other people things I'm excited about learning, and all that good stuff.

36 Faces of the Natal Promise

Finally, to conclude I want to thank mich for this post,

seeing your entire chart as the tarot cards associated w each decan where you have planets, the asc, and the MC....is eye opening and a very cool way to visualize your natal promise

— mich (@libramoongal.bsky.social) April 14, 2025 at 9:08 PM

I don't know why I've never done this before, it really hits. The natal promise, among other things, a story – and the imagery of the tarot is such an immediate way to gain access to some of its underlying themes.

Relatedly, thanks must also go out to Mister Bo ✨️ (@mister-bo.bsky.social) for producing this excellent graphic that maps the tarot pips corresponding to each decan to the zodiac, making the process of doing this super easy:

The decans and their tarot card correspondences

wonderful work everyone xx