Astrology Workshop with Carolyn Leigh

Note: Today's post is from Carolyn Leigh, licensed acupuncturist, clinical supervisor for Yosan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Being Alive, and an accomplished astrologer.

After years of study, preparation, test runs and being almost ready, Jupiter is finally in my 5th house of self-expression transiting opposite my natal Sun in the 11th house, the House that rules astrology (if you don't know what this means, come learn, discover and grow with Astrology)...

...because I am proud to finally present my first set of Astrology workshops...
Introduction to Astrology for Self-Growth!!!

This workshop is a two-day series offered at my abode in Hollywood. The workshop will be offered from 10AM til 5PM with many breaks and a variety of activities to keep the energy flowing. I promise that it will not feel overwhelming or exhausting.

Day 1 will be offered on three Saturdays:
January 10, January 17, and January 24th.
You pick one Saturday.

Day 2 will be offered on Sunday, January 25th...
if you can't make January 25th, we will arrange dates for Day 2 at a later time that work for you.

The course is $100 unless you attend Day 1 on January 10th, in which case the course is $50. Either way, this is a steal!!! ...and I promise you it will be one of the best courses you have ever taken for self-growth and understanding of yourself in relation to the cosmos! (ok, this is my Jupiter talking, and as you will learn Jupiter can over-expand things... but then again, I tend to be modest so I might have it just about right this time.)

Astrology is my passion and I am so excited to share it with the world in my own unique way.

The workshop is meant to embed within your being and not just your mind... the foundation of astrological study... the currently known planetary bodies (and a few asteroids) of our solar system, and the 12 zodiac archetypes and houses. We will be using meditation, movement, note-taking, discussion, journaling and artistic expression (painting, sketching, and/or collaging) to build the foundation of astrological relationships and interpretation. You will be working with your own natal astrology chart throughout the workshop.

Astrology is a mirror for the evolution of your soul... and it can speak to your individual soul journey like no other system I have ever encountered. It is an ancient system... and still evolving as we as a species are evolving... as both a science and an art of interpretation. Our scientists tell us that the process of observation changes the very nature of that which we observe. I believe and have experienced that the process of self-observation through astrology has accelerated my own evolution and inner peace.

Thanks... and much love!

-Carolyn
310-365-6855

Microcosm/Macrocosm

I'm not sure the origin of these pictures, but they were found at totallylookslike.com, one in the family of lolcat websites.

One of the principles of Daoist medicine is that the body is a microcosm of the universe. Just as there are five planets visible to the naked eye, so there are five major organs in the body, each corresponding to one of those planets (Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury to go with the Liver, Heart, Spleen/Pancreas, Lung, and Kidney). Click here for a fun website where you can check other Five Phase correspondences.

In some systems of Daoist meditation and cultivation, there are techniques for bringing the universe inside yourself, harmonizing your energy with that of the universe, and ultimately gaining the awareness that there is no separateness between your "self" and everything else that is.

These lofty ideas have not been included in modern, materialist TCM and certainly would seem out of place in any American university science course - it sounds too much like astrology. The closest you'll find is the idea that the weather has an influence on your health. If it's cold, you could catch a cold. But the link is there - if the sun, at least 91 million miles away, can grow plants here on earth, why shouldn't Jupiter and Mars have some kind of influence on us as well? Why not the moon, smaller and colder but so much closer? We already know the moon influences the tides and menstrual cycles.

It's easy to dismiss these ideas because there is no scientific evidence for them yet, but it's quite possible that our instruments just aren't advanced enough yet. In the Daoist tradition, your body can be the most finely tuned instrument in the universe, and physical practices such as qi gong and dao yin are the methods of refinement.

Medical traditions across all cultures, until recently, put higher value on the doctor's ability to wring information from the body with her questions, hands, eyes and nose than the ability to order tests. What will you do if you have no X-rays, no MRI machines? Throw up your hands and give up? In TCM, we learn to pull information by palpation, feeling the abdomen and the pulse, looking at the tongue, even observing a particular patient's odor. There is a wealth of information there - it's just a matter of sorting and ordering it with this system we call Chinese medicine and giving a diagnosis, which then gives us a roadmap for treatment.