This Friday, June 30th, Neptune stations Retrograde in Pisces until December 6th, 2023.  Find your Rising sign below to get a mini download on how this transit will affect your personal life.

ARIES RISING/ASCENDANT

This year’s Neptune Retrograde is happening in your 12th house of past lives, secrets & privacy.  You may be experiencing a lot of dust being kicked up around your past and the deepest secrets you’ve been keeping.  Use this transit as an opportunity to open up about some things that you’ve been keeping to yourself about your past & spiritual gifts out of fear of rejection or failure.

TAURUS RISING/ASCENDANT

Neptune Retrograde is making its annual transit in your 11th house this year.  The 11th house is our ruler of community & humanity.  You may have been feeling trapped in a certain community group hasn’t been feeling supportive for quite some time, but afraid to take a step in another direction due to perceived responsibilities to that community.  This retrograde period asks you to re-assess and let go of the limiting narratives that you have to stick with it out of “social responsibility.”

GEMINI RISING/ASCENDANT

The 10th house is where this year’s Neptune Retrograde will be landing for Gemini Ascendants - activating the realm of Career & Reputation.  Have you been holding back in terms of your ambition?  Making big moves to affirm your authority can feel a little scary, but Neptune Retrograde says “it’s time.”  Take a deep breath and make the change you’ve been daydreaming about.

CANCER RISING/ASCENDANT

Neptune is stationing Retrograde in the 9th house for Cancer Ascendants, the house of Philosophy & Adventure.  You may think that your view of things is the only way that works, but Neptune Retrograde is coming through to open your field of perception and asking you to see things from a different perspective.  Instead of staying stuck in your ways, take some time during this transit to study new spiritual points of view, philosophies, and ideas.

LEO RISING/ASCENDANT

Leo Ascendants will be experiencing Neptune Retrograde in the 8th house of Sex & Death this year.  This transit can be extremely activating for your nervous system, causing you to feel a lot of fear around loss & financial situations.  Pause, take a deep breath, and call on Neptune’s Retrograde energy to help you see the reality of the situations at hand and dispel that fear.  You’ve got this, Leo!

VIRGO RISING/ASCENDANT

The 7th house of relationships and commitment is where Virgo Ascendants will be experiencing this year’s Neptune Retrograde.  Are there aspects of your closest relationships that you’ve been avoiding confronting?  Neptune Retrograde is saying it’s time to stop putting yourself last and to reaffirm your commitment to yourself.  Step up to the plate and say what is needed in order to prioritize your own needs.

LIBRA RISING/ASCENDANT

Neptune Retrograde is occurring in the 6th house for Libra Ascendants, the house of health & ethics.  It’s time to get back on track with your basic physical needs.  You may find yourself living in a cycle of self-neglect lately, and this transit says that making time to priorities your well-being is the only way to quell the waves of chaos & overwhelm you’ve been experiencing.  Let go of the illusion that you don’t have time to tend to your basic needs - making time to prioritize them is life or death.

SCORPIO RISING/ASCENDANT

Scorpio Ascendants will be experiencing this year’s Neptune Retrograde in the 5th House of Creativity & the Inner Child.  It’s time to give your creativity the freedom to soar.  Neptune Retrograde removes the lenses that make your wildest ideas feel like they’re just a fantasy.  Use this transit to activate the spark of your Childlike wonder and give yourself explicit permission to play.

SAGITTARIUS RISING/ASCENDANT

The 4th house, realm of Home & Family, is where Sagittarius Ascendant will experience Neptune’s annual Retrograde this year.  Forgiveness is a big lesson for you this year.  How can you tend to forgiveness within yourself and your most intimate relationships for the traumas you’ve experienced?  It’s time to release blame and take responsibility for your own healing.

CAPRICORN RISING/ASCENDANT

For those with Capricorn on the Ascendant, Neptune Retrograde will be traversing the 3rd house of Communication & Travel.  It’s time to let your words match the resonance of your heart.  Remember, your word is an act of creation, and Neptune Retrograde says that it’s time to stop holding in your words of power.  Sometimes the truth is painful to share, but your tears are your liberation.  Releasing the heaviness of your heart through the spoken word will give you space to explore the world in a whole new perspective.

AQUARIUS RISING/ASCENDANT

Aquarius Ascendant’s 2nd house of Money & Material Possessions will be highlighted by this year’s Neptune Retrograde.  This is a time to disconnect from immediate gratification.  Neptune Retrograde is telling you to be grateful for what you have, and release your need for “more.”  The harder you try to gain more than you need, the harder it will be for you to achieve your desires.

PISCES RISING/ASCENDANT

Neptune Retrograde is triggering the 1st house of Self & Personality for Pisces Ascendants this year.  You are perfect just as you are, and this Retrograde transit is here to remind you of that.  It may feel like you are constantly having to redefine yourself to fit in with society, but in doing so, you’ve lost the essence of who you are.  Neptune Retrograde is an opportunity to remember yourself, and to share the realness of you without fear of abandonment.

Want to dive deeper into your personal Neptune Retrograde transit?  I’m offering full Neptune Retrograde Transit Write-Ups to help you navigate the complexity of this Retrograde period, and find remedies to assist you on the path.

“Greetings and gratitude to you, Breath of Life.  Giver of Clarity.  Maker of Peace.  Purify me that I may be a clear vessel in service to Cosmic Law and Cosmic Truth.”

I’m not going to lie, I spent way too long this morning trying to take the “perfect” shot for this post…I tried using scarves, veils, blankets.  I tried different backdrops.  I tried different angels.  Nothing was turning out how I wanted it to.  And that’s when the transmission came through.  I surrendered to the wind, dropped the theatrics, and let her guide what was intended to be recorded.

The winds of West Texas are a force to be reckoned with, and when they come there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.  “You can’t stop the wind,” as my old friend Adam Wright says.  It’s out of your control.

The tendency toward perfectionism is futile on windy days like this.  Your hair will be a mess, your yard will become a dumping ground for just about anything, resistance will bring windburn, and anything you try to build will be broken down before you’re complete.  The Wind teaches us the beauty of patience, surrender, and imperfection.

There are times in life when we feel swept away in the wind, blowing around like a tumbleweed with nowhere to go.  These are the moments that are honestly the most formative in building our reality.  What we offer through thought, word and deed during times of what feels like utter chaos is defining of our character.  Do we curse the wind and fight against it with all of our strength?  Or do we acknowledge that we must surrender our need for control and conserve our strength for a battle that we can actually win?

Listen to the Wind.  Honor it.  Pray with it.  Love it.  When we surrender to the boundless force blowing us about, suddenly it becomes like dancing.  Instead of fighting to keep on our masks of pretension, instead of gripping our hats of false identity to prevent them from blowing off of our heads down the street, when we surrender to the Wind and to the Primal Will-to-Good within that eternally creates and sustains the universe, we flow and shift effortlessly.

So today I give gratitude for the Wind.  I give deep bows of reverence for the sheer power of destruction that is carried in her current, tearing down the structures that aren’t of service to the greatest good and ripping apart the fabrics of dishonesty.  I praise the Wind for her eternal wisdom and the reminder that I too must take time to surrender to simply being in order to nurture my expansion.

Ankh Neteru.  Blessed Be.  And So It Is.

In service + reverence,

Alexis Nichole Smith

New year, new ideas (right?).  This moment of in-between, the liminal space in the dead center of January, has be thinking about how to share my own practices more with the community.  Starting with this initial download for the month of February, I will be sharing with you all the simple practice that I utilize to connect with the archetypes of the year.  Each month, I sit with the Numerology, important Astrology transits, and divine a Major Arcana + Neteru Archetype as guidance for the month ahead.

The second month of the year of 2023 comes in with a numerology of 9.  This attunes us to the frequency of Spiritual Foundations, Selflessness + Peace.

How can we best be of benefit and service to the elevation of peace in the collective through our spiritual practices?  February is a good time to get back to the basics - realign with your morning preparatory rites, touch base with your spiritual advisor, have a chat with your guides + ancestors.  

Our first Archetype of the month is The Hermit.  The Hermit carries the frequencies of Stillness, Solitude and Wisdom.  It also carries the frequencies of the number 9, its position in the order of the Major Arcana.  This card coming forward in a number 9 month is a powerful alignment.  The Hermit is a seeker of wisdom, but he is also a guide - sharing his light with others on the same path.  What was once hidden is revealed.  In order to elevate peace in the collective, we must shine our light brightly for others to see while we work to feed that flame by doing our own inner work.  The Hermit once again reminds us to return to our basics - to tend to our foundation so that our light may shine even brighter as we emerge.

In the Book of Doors Divination Deck, the archetype that I have drawn for the collective is Atum.  Atum represents the continuation of life and creation.    He is the original impulse to create - the very potential.  Atum illuminates both creative energy and the shadow.  Just as the Hermit is guided by by the light of his own wisdom, Atum illuminates the path forward with the light of our creative potential.  He asks us to attune to our emergence from the “Hermit Cave” with an energy of Self-Projection.  We are the light that we seek, and only by projecting our own light may we find the path forward.  This too shows us how we may serve peace in the collective: by being a lighthouse, a beacon of selflessness, strongly rooted in our spiritual foundations.

IMPORTANT ASTROLOGICAL TRANSITS FOR FEBRUARY:

2/5/23 - FULL MOON IN LEO

  The Full Moon in Leo is one of major celebration.  Reflect on the journey thus far as you prepare to step into the shadow.  Look at how far you've come, and pat yourself on the back.  There is much work to be done, so this is a moment for us all to shine brightly before turning inward to tend to the flame.  Take time to release everything from the previous cycle that has dimmed your light.

2/11/23 - MERCURY ENTERS AQUARIUS

  This transit attunes us once again to the importance of being of service to the collective, and shines a light on how we may do so.  Through thought + word we can have a profound impact on the frequencies of the collective.  By maintaining our spiritual foundations + practice of selflessness, we amplify peace in our hearts and minds so that our thoughts + words may carry that transmission out into the web of life.

2/18/23 - SUN ENTERS PISCES

  Pisces season is a time of mysticism + dreamwork.  Through attuning to our spiritual foundations, we send ripples into the subconscious minds of all beings, allowing the collective to step forward into their own spiritual path and express their dreams and ideals freely.

2/19/23 - VENUS ENTERS ARIES

  Venus falls within her detriment in the fiery sign of Aries.  As we enter this transit this will be a test of our integrity - all of the work that we have been doing to maintain our spiritual foundations will truly come in handy here.  As long as we continue to tend to this work, we may go forward with peace in our hearts and on our tongues.  Practice deep self awareness and forgiveness during this time, especially in your closest relationships.  Passion is a good thing - but a fire too hot will burn out of control until there is nothing left.

2/19/23 - NEW MOON IN PISCES

  Here we are once again, planting seeds.  The New Moon in Pisces asks us to hone in on all of the inner-work we have been doing this month.  How do we want to step into the next cycle?  What dreams are we cultivating?  What are our visions moving forward?  Set your intentions and get ready to start the journey again.

My books are open for February!  If you are looking to go deeper, schedule a Spiritual Guidance Council, Tarot Reading, Astro-Consult, or Plant Spirit Healing.  All services are available in-person or online.