Rose Lyon is a highly regarded American occultist, psychic and healer residing in Sacramento. She began formal study of the occult in her twenties as a regular visitor to a local curiosity shop. She befriended a local Wiccan priestess who taught her astrology, magic and tarot. This led to her formal initiation into the Craft in 1988. She continued her studies by joining the Clairvoyant training program at Psychic Horizons, graduating as a reverend in 1993. With a hunger for art and history she enrolled at SFSU in the theater program where her training exposed her to the ancient connections between shamanism and theater. Majoring in Drama with an emphasis in World Religions, she studied the history of Greek and European theater as well as Women's Studies. She graduated with a BA in Drama & Performance in 1997. Since then she has expanded her occult knowledge through studies of Irish folklore, Chinese astrology, herbal healing and Feng Shui. She is an adept healer and psychic, and continues her practice of tarot readings, psychic healings and marriage ceremonies while studying Ceremonial Magick and Qabalah with the Temple of the Silver Star.
In this season of Gemini birthdays, it’s good to keep an eye on our thoughts. Gemini, ruled by Mercury, symbolizes the Mind, so while the Sun is in Gemini take stock of your thinking patterns and be present with them. Always try and keep your focus on the positive and what’s working in your life! This article shows it has a physical effect on your body:
“The words you choose to use can literally change your brain.
Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University, and Mark Robert Waldman, a communications expert, collaborated on the book, “Words Can Change Your Brain.” In it, they write, “a single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.”
When we use words filled with positivity, like “love” and “peace”, we can alter how our brain functions by increasing cognitive reasoning and strengthening areas in our frontal lobes. Using positive words more often than negative ones can kick-start the motivational centers of the brain, propelling them into action.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, when we use negative words, we are preventing certain neuro-chemicals from being produced which contribute to stress management. Each and every one of us are initially hardwired to worry; it’s how our primal brain protects us from dangerous situations for survival.
So, when we allow negative words and concepts into our thoughts, we are increasing the activity in our brain’s fear center (the amygdala), and causing stress-producing hormones to flood our system. These hormones and neurotransmitters interrupt the logic and reasoning processes in the brain and inhibit normal functionality. Newberg and Waldman write, “Angry words send alarm messages through the brain, and they partially shut down the logic-and-reasoning centers located in the frontal lobes.”
An excerpt from their book tells us how using the *right* words can literally change our reality:
“By holding a positive and optimistic [word] in your mind, you stimulate frontal lobe activity. This area includes specific language centers that connect directly to the motor cortex responsible for moving you into action. And as our research has shown, the longer you concentrate on positive words, the more you begin to affect other areas of the brain.
Functions in the parietal lobe start to change, which changes your perception of yourself and the people you interact with. A positive view of yourself will bias you toward seeing the good in others, whereas a negative self-image will include you toward suspicion and doubt. Over time the structure of your thalamus will also change in response to your conscious words, thoughts, and feelings, and we believe that the thalamic changes affect the way in which you perceive reality.”
A study done by Positive Psychology further elaborates on the effects of using positive words. A group of adults aged 35-54 were given a nightly task of writing down three things that went well for them that day, including an explanation of why. The following three months showed their degrees of happiness continued to rise, and their feelings of depression continued to decline. By focusing and reflecting on positive ideas and emotions, we can improve our overall well-being and increase functionality of our brain.
What words do you choose to focus your energy on? If you notice your life isn’t exactly “peachy,” try carrying a journal with you to keep track of how often you use negative words. You may be surprised to find how simple the solution to a better life really is- change your words, change your life.”
Full Moon in Sagittarius, May 21st, 2016, 2:14pm Pacific.
This Full Moon is conjunct Mars Retrograde in Sagittarius. Ordinarily this brings impatience and temper tantrums, but Sag’s ruler Jupiter is currently in Virgo – giving us some restraint, maturity and focus on self care.
Sagittarius is the sign of the Centaur, Archer, Wild Horse and Wounded Healer. What are you aiming at? This full moon is about reviewing the goals you set for yourself at the Spring Equinox, March 21st. Or write some goals down on paper. It’s good to maintain focus with all the wild energy flying around this year. I bet the Preakness will be an exciting race on Saturday! Horse energy rules.
The Sun entered Gemini today at 7:36am Pacific. Gemini is ruled by the planet Mercury, which is currently motionless in the skies above us; preparing to turn Direct on Sunday the 22nd at 6:20am. Stay away from making big commitments or purchases – wait for next week when Mercury is moving forward again. The month of May has been slow moving with Mercury and Mars retrograding together. We’ve had to retrace our steps to be certain our dreams have a solid foundation. This will start turning around now!
May 20th Sun enters Gemini
May 21st Full Moon 1 Sagittarius
May 22nd Mercury Direct at 14 Taurus, Sun conjunct Mars
May 24th Venus enters Gemini
May 26th Jupiter square Saturn
May 27th Retro Mars enters Scorpio
It’s a VERY witchy night tonight. April 30th is a huge traditional celebration in many cultures throughout the world. It occurs six months from Halloween, and has the same flavor – but with a view of celebrating Spring.
Halloween is when the veil between our world and the spirit world is at it’s thinnest and it’s easy to see the returning spirits of the Mighty Dead. On Walpurgis Night the world’s are farthest apart.
Most cultures mark these ancient farming celebrations with fire, sex and odes to nature. Spring is about fertility – for ourselves, our animals and our fields. I view Walpurgis Night and Halloween as times to mark the ecstatic energy of life. That we are all here on this planet as part of it, and in tune with it. Celebrate. Face your fears and jump a fire.
The wildest, witchiest celebrations are in Germany (from what I’ve been told) and I would LOVE to see it someday. If you have any further information or images please share them in the comments below! Happy May Eve!
“Unless you’re an audio engineer, you’ll have little reason to know what the term “convolution reverb” means. But it’s a fascinating concept nonetheless. Technicians bring high-end microphones, speakers, and recording equipment to a particularly resonant space—a grain silo, for example, or famous concert hall. They capture what are called “impulse responses,” signals that contain the acoustic characteristics of the location. The technique produces a three dimensional audio imprint—enabling us to recreate what it would sound like to sing, play the piano or guitar, or stage an entire concert in that space. As Adrienne LaFrance writes in The Atlantic, “you can apply [impulse responses] to a recording captured in another space and make it sound as though that recording had taken place in the original building.”
Wonderful in-depth look at Prince’s chart by Zoe Moon:
PRINCE: Astrology of his Life and Death by Zoe Moon
“Here is a look at Prince, his astrology chart, his passing, and some highlights brought through the degrees of his birth. It’s not hard to believe he was a youthful, playful Gemini in the Plutonic sexual, power house of the 8th house or that his Rising was also the sexual, power sign Scorpio. We even find the ruler of his chart, Pluto, (ruler of the 8th house and Scorpio), again about sex, power and transformation, sitting on the same exact degree of his career Midheaven in the sign of love, fun and creativity, Leo, at the top of his chart. The co-ruler of this Rising, Mars, at the door to the fifth house of love, fun and creativity. So he was pretty much exactly as we saw him, a playful, innovative creator in a strong, sexually-empowered, transformational way. He had a Pisces Moon which brought a mystical emotional nature and one that would be private or hidden to some extent. His feelings knew no boundaries and I’m certain this helped in his creative process since music and film are ruled by Pisces. As a Pisces Moon myself I’m sure it was also challenging to deal with some of that boundaryless emotional connection with the Divine Mind that stems from Pisces.
At the week of his passing both co-rulers of his chart, Mars and Pluto, had just come to a stop in the astrological sky and Retrograded within 24 hours of each other, on Sunday the 17th and Monday the 18th of April. Mercury, which ruled his body/Sun was slowing down to Retrograde on the 28th. So most of the personal planetary energy tied to his body was pulling back and in a weakened position. So let’s take a look at what was going on at his passing. I spoke about these points on my radio show here on blog talk radio 8pm eastern, Thursday, April 21st, if you want to hear more about it. We look at these items first to get an idea of what was occurring:
1) Ruler of Death in Prince’s chart is Mercury. Gemini on the door to death can mean a younger death if the Sun is so configured. Prince has his Sun in the house of Death so it would be a theme for him to deal with literally or figuratively. This placement being one of death and transformation, personal sexual empowerment and power. So what was Mercury doing? It had stationed to go Retrograde, putting it in a weaker or reversal setting and in square to his natal Chiron which is about wounds and healing. Then I look at the progressed chart and here Mercury is at the 29th degree of Cancer, a critical degree which means stronger energy and it was upon Juno the goddess of marriage and semi-sextiling Pluto the planet of death and transformation so he was in a year of his life where the potential is heightened.
The Transiting Birth Chart on the day he passed.
2) Ruler of the ‘End of All Matters’ in Prince’s chart is Uranus. Uranus had transited into an opposition to Jupiter for the one time in his life so he was facing something big with another person and it could tip the balance with what would occur. This is a once in 84 year moment. This placement was also putting pressure on Uranus from Chiron that wound and with Pluto the planet of death and transformation. In the progressed chart Uranus had just reached the 4th degree of Libra which put it into alignment with Mercury the ruler of death in his chart for the first time in 30 years. Again it seems as though a key person is part of this story with Prince in his final scene.
The progressed chart on the day he passed.
3) Saturn: In Prince’s chart Saturn was at the opposition to his Sun positioned in the 8th house of Death and transformation. Saturn is a limiter, an ender of things or sets up structures and long term situations, it is a final planetary energy and one that is serious when dealing with it. When we all undergo our Saturn opposition to our vital life force energy once every 29 years we are tested with situations that bring other people into our world to show us what is working and what is not. It can also take a toll on our physical energy since it lags and sometime fails under the alchemical weight of the lead of Saturn. Saturn was weakened or reversing in its retrograde phase and moving into his 1st house of identity and physical being. Saturn at this point was also doing the same thing to his Rising degree in a semi-sextile, also noted in aspects at death. The Rising being half of your physical persona, the Sun the other half, so Saturn was really doing a job on both at the same time. Progressed Saturn was in Aquarius, the sign ruling the end of all matters and it was within 4 degrees/a 4 year build-up to Chiron the wound. It also sat near the mid-point between transiting Pluto and Chiron.
4) Pluto: in Prince’s chart Pluto Retrograding was sending Pluto back to inconjunct his Sun in the house of death and transformation for the last time in his life, the shift possibly pushing him towards this transition. Pluto was at 17 degrees, his Sun at 16 so it had been hammering him between the end of January and the first week of March at the 16th degree, then started to let up just a bit but then stopped and turned around on Monday to start coming back for another round. Pluto in inconjunct is a very testing and sometimes fatal aspect to the Sun. Since his Sun is found in the house of Death at birth one could surmise this would be a challenging period. His progressed Pluto, planet of death and rebirth, was at the Sabian Degree called: AN EAGLE AND A LARGE WHITE DOVE CHANGE INTO EACH OTHER. (This made me think of ‘When doves Cry’)
Quoting from Dane Rudhyar (as I will be for all Sabian interpretations outside my own in this article): “KEYNOTE: The interaction of the spiritual Will and of the Love principle when critical needs arise. This sequence of symbols concluding the Libra phase of the cycle deals with problems met by the seeker for the fulfillment of a higher life of Relationship. Implied here is a kind of Yang-Yin interplay. When the circle encompassing both principles rotates fast, they appear to change into each other. Consciousness operates beyond duality, because the polarized energies of the Soul (or spirit). Will and Love, though ever distinct, work for a single purpose. This represents a new, higher approach to the use of polarized forces within the personality which has been ever so little transformed and operating within a new framework. The Keyword ADEPTNESS fits this phase — but there are many levels of “adept-ship.” So I can see here this strong will of Prince and the ideal of love meeting for a year upon Pluto the energy of death and transformation and his evolving into spirit.
5) Look at the Sun, Rising and Moon: in Prince’s chart we’ve already touched on the Sun and Rising so let’s look at his Moon. In this week the transiting Moon is building to a Full Moon at 2 degrees of Scorpio. He has Neptune sitting at the 2nd degree of Scorpio in his birth chart. So he was having a rare Full Moon upon his Neptune. Neptune is the veil between worlds and can bring a focus on drugs/ prescriptions, chemicals, substances, flu-like issues in the body, fluid problems, delusions, and a hard time pinning something down. It is positioned in the house that rules these same things and both are in the sign that rules death and transformation. At this point it made an alignment with his birth moon at 2 degrees of Pisces that sits in the house of the end of all matters. The transiting Sun had just passed over the karmic south node (loss) in the house of health opposite this position of Neptune in the veil between worlds zone, illuminating it. His progressed Moon had just progressed into the house of health for the first time in his life and in Aries was ruled by Mars which had just Retrograded on Sunday, weakening it or bringing reversals. Here it locked onto another Karmic point called the Vertex also at 27 degrees bringing something fated to the event. It also now began a 2 year inconjunct with Pluto, planet of death and transformation. I would also add that the ruler of health in his chart was Mars and in progression it had come to the end of the 25th degree putting it upon orb of a malevolent star associated with beheadings, losing one’s head, choking, strangulation, hanging, and other things fixed upon the throat. This may have had a literal affect upon his body or it may have played into emotions of feeling suffocated or choked out of something at the time, not a pleasant energy to deal with.”
“Those who know, not only that the Everlasting lives in them, but that what they, and all things, really are IS the Everlasting, dwell in the groves of the wish-fulfilling trees, drink the brew of immortality, and listen everywhere to the unheard music of eternal concord. These are the immortals.”
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
(courtesy of the Joseph Campbell Foundation)
Check this out! Change your view of aging – you’re as old as you THINK you are…
We asked millennials to show us what “old” looks like, and then introduced them to real “old” people. Watch what happened next. #DisruptAging
“Check out Art Nouveau illustrator Alphonse Mucha’s beautiful occult-inspired art from the turn of the century, which drew on themes from Kabbalah and magick
“Here’s what Century Guild has to say about Mucha:
By December 20, 1899, Alphonse Mucha had experienced four years as the most recognizable proponent of Art Nouveau graphics and the most celebrated illustrator in Paris. The massive output of the artist in his first four years in the advertising and decorative world earned much for Mucha’s publisher but very little for the artist himself.
As the end of the century grew near, Alphonse Mucha insisted upon the release of a deeply personal work, and printed 510 copies of what he for the remainder of his life considered his works-on-paper masterpiece, Le Pater.
Decidedly non-denominational, Mucha’s exploration features a female deity protecting humankind and a number of sophisticated occult themes across a series of images of mystical illustrations.
Unlike the advertising art that had dominated Mucha’s output since his “discovery” by Sarah Bernhardt in late 1894, Mucha described this series of images to a New York reporter as “the thing I have put my soul into.” (The Sun newspaper, 5 January, 1900)
Mucha’s previous artworks were lithographed on numerous mediums ranging from paper to silk, in multiple formats; Mucha’s publisher Champenois saw that Mucha was the most printed artist in Paris in the late 1890s. Mucha’s concern, understandably, was likely that the imagery of his spiritual work would be capitalized upon. By 1899, he had earned the right to demand that the Le Pater images would be produced in an edition of only 510 copies, and subsequently saw the plates destroyed- ensuring the work would never be reprinted for mass-market purposes.
The images from Le Pater are mentioned in numerous Mucha books as his masterpieces and are universally acknowledged alongside his massive Slav Epic paintings as his finest work. However, as a result of Mucha’s forced limitation of the publication of this masterwork, the rarity of the lithographs means that most books are limited to mentioning the images in the text and leaving the reader to wonder what these “lost masterpieces” might look like.
The original promotional materials for the Le Pater series name these artworks as of “rare interest and considerable importance”. Over 115 years later, the description continues to ring true.
If you’d like to see all these artworks in one book, captured in high resolution from the originals, please support our project and pre-order the book!
I don’t know how deeply David Bowie was in to Magick, but it’s clear in the 70’s he was immersed in it. I’ve read he was having drug and alcohol issues at the time, but I find this period of his life in Los Angeles very interesting nonetheless.
Like many people, Bowie had an enormous impact on my life and he’s one of my favorite artists. I was born in 1964 and I grew up listening to him. He has always been there in my life. I can’t remember any point in my life where I wasn’t listening to his music.
As a teenager I studied movement and I wanted to be a ballerina. When “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” came out in the early 80’s I was there at the Lumiere theater off Polk Street, watching the movie 50 times over. In my late 20’s I studied theater, movement, and world religions in San Francisco. Inspired by Bowie’s example, I became a guitarist and singer for my own rock persona – Bettie Black. I wrote and released my own music – always inspired by him. I find his exploration of magick personal and meaningful. I also study gnosticism and the Tree of Life from Jewish mystical traditions.
I’ve read many observations from various people, and I’ve come across some interesting insights! I thought I’d put them all here to share with interested folks.
“My overriding interest was in Kabbalah and Crowleyism. That whole dark and rather fearsome never-world of the wrong side of the brain.”
From “Bowie on Bowie” by Sean Egan
from Secret Sun Blog: “Apparently David Bowie, despite being heavily interested in the Occult and even referencing Crowley lyrically in the 1971 song Quicksand, was actually of the mind that AC was a fraud (from a 1997 interview in NME):
Q: “So were you involved in actual devil worship?”
A: “Not devil worship, no, it was pure, straightforward, old-fashioned magic.”
Q: “The Aleister Crowley variety?”
A: “No, I always thought Crowley was a charlatan. But there was a guy called [Arthur] Edward Waite who was terribly important to me at the time. And another called Dion Fortune who wrote a book called ‘Psychic Self-Defense‘. You had to run around the room getting bits of string and old crayons and draw funny things on the wall, and I took it all most seriously, ha ha ha ! I drew gateways into different dimensions, and I’m quite sure that, for myself, I really walked into other worlds. I drew things on walls and just walked through them, and saw what was on the other side!”
I really don’t know much about Waite, but in a bit of research (Wikipedia, so you know, take that as you may) came upon the info that Crowley apparently hated Waite and mocked him publically in his writing. Checked, and in Bowie’s list of favorite books, there are none by Crowley. The only Occult book listed is Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual by Elphias Levi.”
How a 1974 image reappeared in Bowie’s final music video.
BOOK COVER
Imagine getting the opportunity to hold a private photo session with David Bowie at the height of his stardom. We’re talking post “Ziggy Stardust” and “Aladdin Sane,” with “Pin Ups” and “Diamond Dogs” still on the horizon. Imagine you had an entire evening to play dress up with the iconic shapeshifter and capture the manifold personas he embodied so swiftly yet completely.
And suppose, over 40 years later, after the iconic artist’s death, you return to those photos you took so long ago and notice what seems to be a message. A message that reappears throughout his later works, culminating with the “Lazarus” video off his final album “Blackstar,” that perhaps illuminates the artist’s feelings about death and immortality.
This is what happened to photographer Steve Schapiro, who spent one fateful night in 1974 photographing Bowie in his Los Angeles studio. “From the moment Bowie arrived, we seemed to hit it off. Incredibly intelligent, calm, and filled with ideas,” Schapiro recalled in a statement. “He talked a lot about Aleister Crowley, whose esoteric writings he was heavily into at the time. When David heard that I had photographed Buster Keaton, one of his greatest heroes, we instantly became friends.”
DAVID SEATED DRAWING CIRCLES ON THE BACKGROUND PAPER AND THEN THE KABBALAH TREE OF LIFE DIAGRAM ON THE FLOOR. LOS ANGELES, 1974.
The two collaborated on many striking images, each transforming Bowie into a distinct character, as unique and otherworldly as a mythical creature. Yet a particular ensemble, the one pictured above and featured on Bowie’s 1976 album “Station to Station,” holds special significance.
In the image, Bowie dons a navy blue striped body suit and, crouched on the floor, doodles diagrams of Kabbalah’s Tree of Life, a series of 10 spiritual emanations. Lyrics from the title track “Station to Station” echo the language of Kabbalist symbols and beliefs. “Here are we, one magical movement from Keter to Malkuth,” Bowie sings, with Keter (the Crown) and Malkuth (the Kingdom) being the first and last virtues on the Tree of Life.
In his last music video, “Lazarus,” from album “Blackstar” — regarded by many as a cryptic goodbye letter to his fans — Bowie whips out the exact jumpsuit worn in the 1974 image, visible around the two-minute mark. Just as Bowie doodled obsessively in the ‘70s photo shoot, in 2016 Bowie scribbles feverishly in a notebook, heightening in intensity until finally he appears to come to a conclusion, finishing his notes and talking away. (In Bowie style: backward.)
As Albin Wantier interprets in his introduction to Schapiro’s photography book: “He appears to have found the meaning he has been searching for. The connection between both images, 40 years apart, is stunning … He has resolved his enigma, and the curtain can fall at last.”
A close-up of the writing in Bowie’s notebook reveals a trail of symbols. Wantier analyzed these symbols in conjunction with some appearing on a vinyl edition of “Blackstar,” all of which resembled the doodles from the 1974 shoot. The “Blackstar” images, Wantier determined after checking with a friend, were part of a chemical formula depicting the various stages of the nuclear fusion, which leads to the formation of a sun. Or perhaps, a blackstar.
“In the ‘Lazarus’ video, Bowie resolves the enigma of life, which he had been endeavoring to do since 1976,” Wantier summarizes. “His life, which was indistinguishable from his work, led him to enact various characters of his own devising; his life was in itself a work of art. Now that he has finished, Bowie can close the book. However, the last chapter does not end with the artist’s passing — that would be too simple.”
FROM THE PHOTO SHOOT FOR PEOPLE MAGAZINE. WE TOOK PORTRAITS AGAINST A PUTRID GREEN BACKGROUND WHICH WE BOTH FELT WAS THE WORST POSSIBLE COLOR TO USE AS A BACKGROUND FOR A MAGAZINE COVER. LOS ANGELES, 1974
While Bowie’s physical body is no longer with us, his creative energy has catalyzed to create a cosmic eruption, felt around the world, that can never be undone. “David Bowie is not the kind to just disappear just like that from our world,” Wantier writes. “The chemical symbols that accompany the ‘Blackstar’ release point where he’s going: an artistic nuclear fusion of two elements that creates enough energy to make a sun.”
While many acknowledged the poetry in Bowie’s final album, his requiem, and its tremendous impact as his final work of art on this earth, few pieced together the fact that the roots of “Blackstar” trace back to 1974, when a photographer and the world’s biggest rock star became fast friends and spent a single evening creating, contorting and doodling away. As Bowie’s producer Tony Visconti put it: “His death was not different from his life — a work of Art.”
See the image that started it all, as well as the many other never before published images captured that night, in Bowie. A preview of the book is featured below, with all photographs by Steve Schapiro and published by powerHouse Books.
David out of character. One of my favorite photos of David. I particularly like his hands in this shot. Los Angeles 1975. Photographs by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books
David with cigarette on a break from filming MFE in New Mexico 1975. This became a Rolling Stone cover and a popular image.
David relaxed at his house in Los Angeles, 1975. I particularly liked his hands in this photo.
David with goggles and bike. Los Angeles, 1974
Bowie holding a Buster Keaton book near his face, in his dressing room trailer on âThe Man Who Fell to Earth: set, New Mexico 1975. Buster Keaton was one of David Bowie’s heroes.
David took me by surprise when he came out in the red and white striped outfit during the 1974 photo shoot. It was different from what we expected he would be wearing, Los Angeles 1974.
David with Cher on TV show, Los Angeles, 1975.
In the makeup trailer for “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” Bowie puts in his cat eyes for a scene, New Mexico 1975.
Rose Lyon Astrology and Tarot 