We all require our own space from time to time. A place where we can be alone, quiet, reflective, or creative. I've discovered how important it is to have a space like this for myself, a place where I can retreat to write, read and create. The more I settle into my connection with nature, the cycles of the moon, and using ritual and meditation for manifestation the more I find my sacred space to be just that, sacred. And even if you don't have an entire room to dedicate to such endeavors that doesn't mean you can't sprinkle it among your home-which I do as well!

I have several altar spaces set up around my home, some simple and subtle, others more elaborate. I may set up a spring altar in my main living space with symbols of the season; newly sprouted plants, eggs, bunnies, items which represent fertility and renewal. I place sprigs of lavender and rose petals around the rooms with crystals for creating a peaceful and loving home. I've fashioned my own special curio for my oils and herbs I like to use in my bath and to anoint my candles for meditation or ritual. 

The kitchen is a magical place, as I love to cook and entertain! I put out fresh herbs, flowers and fruit, and when a bouquet of flowers or herbs is on its way out I simply dry them and decorate the table or save for sachets, dream pillows or other uses. I love to sprinkle dried herbs and petals onto candles, to infuse elements of nature into all I can within my space. I feel as though I am embraced in a warm hug from Mother Nature and can find meaningful expression of my moods, my desires and what I honor in life.

I'm fortunate to have my own den at home, where I choose to surround myself with 100s of books, art, and all my treasures. I've created a meditation station/altar space for daily contemplation and sacred ceremony, and have my desk where I can write my classes, workshops, stories and this article! Even if you have a small space in your yard, front porch, or anywhere you can have a special chair or cushion, you don't need much to create your own sanctuary in and around your home.

Here are some ideas on creating a sacred space and bringing a little more magic and nature into the home:

• Create a fairy garden or special space for the birds and creatures to gather in your yard or outdoor area (please be mindful of not feeding certain items to wild animals, do your research for our furry and feathered friends)
• Keep special treasures that resonate with you spiritually in a box or jar and bring out for meditation or ritual
• Celebrate the seasons, set up altars with symbols of the changing energy in nature, see more about that here
• Set up an altar to honor ancestors or a deity you may be working with-I like to leave out offerings to those I honor such as foods, trinkets, etc
• Set up magical protection around your home with protection stones, herbs, plants you can plant around the perimeter of your property. You can hang and old horseshoe with opening faced down to ward off evil spirits, or opening face up to contain good fortune
• Set up a special lunar den, inside or out. Use this space to sit under the new or full moon to set intentions, release what no longer serves you and synchronize your cycles with the moon or offer moon rituals
• Set up a special space with all of your most precious treasure, pictures of family, tokens on inspiration.....have a place to honor all who and what you hold sacred in life
• Keep a sacred journal to note your workings, rituals you create, musings, etc and have a special writing chair with a favorite cup of tea
• Anything that speaks to you, only  you know what will make your space sacred to you. Follow your intuition and live your magic!

Love thyself.....words we all need to hear and probably practice more often than we do. In light of the #metoo movement and the call so many women are waking up to answer, women are stepping back into their power, finding their voice and taking back control over their sacred bodies-who can see them, who can touch them, and who can honor them. In addition to that we often fall into the business of life, taking care of others, or for any other reason, find the beliefs of our own beauty and Divine feminine essence can get diminished, stifled or even forgotten with insecurities, the media and stereotypes, or a disconnection to our sensual nature. Well, no more, I say!

​Loving yourself and feeling good in your own skin is essential to any kind of growth or healing. Our internal power is limitless and we find we can tap into that part of ourselves for self expression, intimacy and yes-self love. Goddess archetypes can serve as an extension of aspects already within ourselves, and whom we can petition to reawaken the spark that already lays smoldering within our being.....so I've taken the liberty (and had fun doing it!) of creating a self love ritual working with the West African Yoruban Goddess Oshun. 

Oshun Altar Tool Ideas:

• ​honey
• bowls of water
• mirrors
• yellow copper bowls or trinkets
• amber resin stones
• shells
• a fan
• peacock feathers
• cinnamon sticks
• river rocks
• yellow and white candles
• *for ritual bath you can use a little honey (mix with a cup of warm milk), herbs of lavender, jasmine, rosemary, mint, chamomile, lavender, rose petals. If large enough place river rocks in your bath with you, as bathing in the sacred river

The Ritual 
First be sure to give some quiet time to yourself, preferably with an empty house if possible. This is sacred space and love is for only you....for now anyway.

• Set up your altar space-can be anywhere or set up in your bedroom for a little more sensual energy. Smudge and cleanse your space.

• Offer ritual bath to cleanse your energy and bring about clear intentions for your ritual
• Offer a meditation in your bath, as though bathing in a sacred river. Allow yourself to take in the luxurious warmth of the sun, the caressing flow of the water over your skin. Feel the heat emanate from your solar plexus or Mani Pura chakra, located between the lower ribs and the navel. Shed anything keeping you from loving yourself and the Divine essence that you are. Fill yourself with confidence, personal power and self-love as well as compassion and healing. You may take your mirror in as well and watch yourself bathing, admiring your own sensuality
• After leaving the bath do not get dressed, light the candles on your altar and anoint with any of your essential oils.
• Keep the mirror on your altar, be comfortable looking at yourself in a confident, loving way
• Call upon Oshun to join you, meditate on all of your unique gifts that make you you. Spend as much time as you’d like here honoring yourself and all that you hold sacred and find beautiful. Find your favorite cream or body butter, nourish your skin in a loving way-feel the textures, let the scents fill your nose and engage all of your senses
• Now here’s where is gets fun…… Put on some music that makes you feel sexy, go to the bathroom or somewhere you have a full-length mirror. Take a few moments to marvel, yes I said marvel, at your body. Every curve, every wrinkle, every dimple. Trace your entire landscape and lather it with pure love. Turn around, look at it all. Know that you are pure beauty, inside and out. Now remember, no one else is around-so now go on.....give yourself a little erotic dance. Or hell…..make it a BIG beautiful one! See yourself move in a sensual, sexy way- close your eyes, then open them again. Stoke that fire in your belly, place your hands on it and love every aspect of yourself in it’s barest form. See if you can lose yourself, move around the room or the house, free and completely confident!
• Then grab your phone or camera and yes, get into the bed! Snap playful, sexy photos of yourself, capture your favorite places and angles, and all of your beautiful edges.....get creative. If you’d like spend some time adding cute additions or filters to your pictures (not to correct any flaws, but to bring out every corner of your beauty and bring out your artistic side!) You can choose to keep these photos just for yourself or share them with someone special….careful of sharing and icloud options on your phones, ladies!

Remember you are a beautiful goddess capable of not only giving but receiving all of the love in the world. We can be forces of compassion and healing, while remaining our strong, independent and bad ass selves. Give yourself some love this Valentine's Day......you deserve it! Want another bad ass goddess to work with for some sensual self expression, check out a new moon ritual working with my other girl, Lilith!

In modern day spiritual evolution and practices we are often told to stay positive, overcome our flaws, and only embrace the light along out path to enlightenment. However, is it possible that if we ignore the darker, repressed, untamed and fearful parts of our psyche that we are robbing ourselves of personal alchemy, cohesion and full transcendence?

Psychotherapist Carl Jung made popular the idea of different parts of psyche-including the shadow, the light, the persona are a ways we become fragmented from childhood to only show what we think the world wants to see and hide away that which is taboo or not socially accepted. The word persona is derived from a Latin word meaning mask, and he suggests that we put on a persona with certain archetypes of roles we play in life, the social masks we wear, if you will. These archetypes are fragmented parts of ourselves to organize how we experience life in different roles, what we would like to be or how we wish to bee seen in the world. (the mother, the co-worker, the spouse, etc.) Some say in today's modern day it's simply our persona we put on social media, not expressing the deeper, darker aspects that may not be accepted. This of course all up for debate, and I certainly don't accuse anyone of not living a full, authentic life, but I find this is something to explore....so let us dive a little deeper.

The shadow according to Jung is the hidden place within our own subconscious that holds repressed ideas, beliefs, weaknesses, impulses, fears, embarrassments, perversions and the untamed and chaotic parts of ourselves. That these accumulate along our life journey and often time ignored causing a block of living a fully authentic life and to truly love ourselves. If we allow ourselves to acknowledge these core wounds and dark spaces with full ownership can we then work to let go of anger, guilt or shame? Can we change the pattern of self-sabotage if learn that we hate to feel vulnerable and weak? 

We've been taught our whole lives to be afraid of the dark, but there is a strong creative energy in that space that longs for you to shed your light upon it. Seeds take roots in the darkness and we can often find a fertile underground just waiting to be tapped. There cannot be light without the darkness, and we are after all the sum of all of our parts...so why not explore, acknowledge and walk boldly and lovingly into our darkest of places? We are all light and dark, weak and strong, and can find a balance of all that we are with love. 

I love to find creative ways to move towards transformation, and I'm all about ritual and Goddess work to bring about aspects of myself I want to explore and shift. So here are a few ways to can delve into the darkness for creativity and exploration, and Dark Goddesses we can call upon when doing our own shadow work.

How to Explore  your Shadow Self:

• I believe your should begin with a strong foundation, support, and love for yourself. Meditation on the first 4 Chakras (root, sacral, solar plexus and heart) can be a good starting point in moving towards shadow work. 
• Open-monitoring meditation-leave yourself open for any and all emotions, thoughts and ideas to come into your consciousnesses. Allow yourself to play the role of the observer, without judgement in exploring your light vs. your dark aspects, see what bubbles up to the surface and accept it with love and never judgement.
• Creativity thought art. Do you have an artistic side? Or even better want to create one? This may be the perfect way to begin to explore your shadow. Grab a piece of paper, pens and pencils. Allow yourself to simply put pen to paper and see what it creates as you open yourself to explore  your deeper thoughts, fears, desires and archetypal selves. Scribble words, let pictures form and thread the darkness within the light to find a sense of cohesion and completion.
• Writing-This is one of my personal favs on ways to express myself and create. Try to create a story based on your shadow self as well as your light. It can be your own personal Jekyll and Hyde or superhero vs. villain story, or perhaps your light self walking in the dark, shadowy woods to find that they are not so scary. Start with words, themes and ideas and fuse together your own shadow v.s light story
• Keep a shadow book, writing down when these aspects come up. Ways to explore these aspects is practice asking why. When you come across a shadow trait or thought, ask yourself the questions, but why? And when you get to that answer, ask again, but why? I find this to be the best way for me to explore and get to the root of a situation......and of course this is never to take the place of therapy or ways of dealing with deep rooted problems or emotions that need extra attention! If you need additional help, seek out a therapist, friends or family for insight. 

Now these woman are not to be feared, but revered! Working with Dark Goddess energy can bring about a sense of personal power, protection and creativity. These Goddesses embrace the shadow, follow the darkness and tread where others only fear. Create your own ritual to call upon one of these bad asses of the dark to illuminate your truest self so that you may wrap your arms around every aspect of yourself-mind, body and spirit. 

Hekate (Hecate)-Queen of the Underworld
The Dark Moon Goddess-of the night, and of the crossroads. Hekate is the guardian of the spirit world, protectors of travelers of the crossroads & Goddess of all witches, magic, ghosts and witchcraft. Her sacred animal is the black dog and she is depicted holding two torches-call upon her for protection, insight and guidance in the dark. Petition her for direction at the crossroads and she will give you the key to taking your own, truest direction.

Persephone-The Balance between Darkness & Light
The story of Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, is one that leaves her another Queen of the Underworld. Abducted by Hades, Lord of the Underworld, she became a symbol of the cycles of the seasons as well as death and rebirth. When first abducted Demeter called upon Hekate to help find her child. This Goddess of harvest and fertility was made to live among the shadows and the dead for half of the year, and each time she left her mother Demeter dried up the earth, creating winter. When she was allowed to return into the Upperworld in the spring, the earth would then come back to live with new growth. She was tricked into eating pomegranate seeds during the negotiations of her return, and she's forever obligated to make this return to the Underworld each year. 

Inanna & Ereshkigal-Sisters of Light and Dark
Inanna, Sumerian Goddess of Heaven and Earth, love and war. Ereshkigal, her dark sister of the Underworld, and represents the unseen parts of ourselves. There tale tells us that neither side is more important than the other. When Inanna ventures into the Underworld her sister kills her, they then merge into one reminding us that that we are both the light and the darkness. Read their full story here. 

To work with these Goddesses follow your own intuition to invoke these energies.
Create your own ritual to petition for guidance and support as you explore your Shadow as well as your Light. Some ideas for ritual can include:

• Ritual bath with herbs and oils to cleanse your energy and prepare to enter sacred space
• Black and/or silver candles to light for the Goddess of your choosing, you may choose to add other candles based on what your work entails
• See what other elements to add to your ritual and how to set up and altar space here and follow your own inner guide...the best rituals are those you create yourself! Be true, love yourself and live your magic. Every day.

        Well this super-charged month of transformation is upon us....are you ready for what it's about to bring? With two eclipses this month, a full moon lunar eclipse followed by a new moon solar eclipse we are being presented with an auspicious opportunity for  a full cosmic reboot. While astrology is not my strong suit, research is. So while I'll not spend this article talking about your sign or what houses the eclipses fall in, I've done the research and have you covered on what to expect and how to use these energies coming forth this month.
        Eclipses are a time of change and transformation, as are the beginning and end of a lunar cycle. Typically the time of the full moon is a peak time for emotions and manifestation, as well as a time to let go of what's no longer working.  The new moon is our reflection time and a time to plant new seeds and set new intentions. The moon is our 'inner world' and emotions (yin energy), the sun is our 'outer world', our actions (yang energy). Lost yet? Stay with me.
​
            Before we get to the nitty gritty on what to expect, let's take a moment for a little Eclipse 101. Here's the basic breakdown of lunar and solar eclipses. 

What is an eclipse? An event that involves 3 celestial bodies and their relationship in position to each other; the sun, the moon and earth.
Lunar Eclipse: An event that happens at night when the earth passes between the moon and the sun. This event is safe to watch with the naked eye.
Solar Eclipse: An event that happens during the day when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. This is NOT safe to view with the naked eye as it can cause serious damage. (see where to get your solar eclipse viewers below)

           Ok, now that we have the basics down, let's explore what can expect with these two celestial events. Eclipses are ways for the Universe to help get your soul back on track. In our human experiences our egos can get in our way and we get off course, distracted by the many things in life. And as Yasmin Boland of Moonology put it, 'these two eclipses act as a portal to a new existence, it's whether or not we choose to go through it or not!' It's important to remember the energy at the time of an eclipse can be 'solidified in the air' on Earth, and this energy can be felt for 3-6 months after the eclipse. The heightened energies being put forth can begin to be felt 2-3 days before the eclipse, so it's important to pay attention and be mindful of our thoughts and actions. 
             
        Let's start with the full moon lunar eclipse to happen on Monday August 7th. This heightened time of energy will work as a SUPER PURGE to ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. Don't fight the change and don't fear the clearing process! The glow during this lunar eclipse will work to illuminate all that is not working in our lives, a time to really see and accept what we need to let go of. So take this time to look at yourself square in the eye, be real, be honest, and get to the raw underbelly of your emotions. Let go of any resistance and consciously work to release what's been holding you back from your true or SOUL purpose. 
          The color of the lunar eclipse can vary, and this all depends on the amount of dust in the atmosphere. Color of the eclipse can be changing shades of gray, dark brown, to gorgeous and fiery red or orange. From what I've found it's said that we will not be able to view the lunar eclipse from North America, but you know I'll still be outside doing my work! Click here to download my lunar eclipse musing and meditation sheet to use during the eclipse! 

        Now it's time for the new moon solar eclipse to take place just two weeks later on Monday August 21st. Times for the maximum view of this event vary depending where you are in the world. If you're in Detroit as I am, the count down and beginning is at 1:00 pm and the max view of eclipse is around 2:27 pm. This event will end 3:47 pm EST, so it lasts for almost 4 hours! The event has a larger energetic effect on us as well as other animals, plus cool effects to really pay attention to. 
        So to begin, think of this eclipse as a SUPER CHARGED new moon. This is the end side of the portal we must choose to move through to find real transformation. The sun and the moon come together, and a brave, warrior energy revolutionary with inspiration will come through! This is the time to close a chapter in your life for good, to see what you have learned up until this point and how you can move forward from this point on. This can also been seen as a disruption in energy flow, so be aware of how you are feeling. Hyper-awareness can emerge and it can be confusing to some, so stay connected to your intuition. 
       And here are some really cool things to look for during the solar eclipse. Remember, you can NOT safely look at the eclipse without proper eye wear, I ordered my eclipse viewing glasses here. 

• In the last few minutes before the total eclipse,  you'll be able to view what's called Bailey's beads. This is the last 'string of light' that surrounds the sun before the moon consumes it completely. It was named for the astrologist who discovered it in the 18th century.
• Look around you to see the 'shadow bands'. You can view them on light surfaces around you as thin, wavy lines that appear due to a distortion in the Earth's atmosphere. 
• There will be a pink glow around the sun during the total eclipse, this is known as the Chromosphere. Also look for red appearing clouds in the sky, known as the solar prominence. 
• You may be able to clearly see stars and bright planets in the sky, look around!
• Stop and listen. During a full solar eclipse the birds stop singing. The animals stop and get quiet. The whole Earth eerily stands still, our own digestion is said to slow down tremendously, so, be sure to eat light. 

Well, there you have it. My breakdown on what to expect during these two rare events that could very well change your life! And to make it extra interesting, Mercury goes retrograde in between it all on Saturday August 12th! But that's a whole other discussion.......Join me in my Goddess Session on Thursday August 31st to discuss our experiences with the eclipses and discuss what Mercury in Retrograde means and how to work with it properly. Good luck and God speed, lovlies. See you on the other side of the portal!

Many Blessings,
Akasha Rae

Resources:
​www.moonconnection.com 
​www.darkstarastrology.com 
​www.moonology.com 
​www.educateinspirechange.org
​www.siddhayoga.com

​Every month we get a change for a fresh start, a clean slate. When we sync our energy with nature we can follow the path of least resistance and learn to go with the flow as oppose to pushing against the tides. The moon controls the tides of the oceans, and since we are made up of mostly water it’s said the moon has a tremendous effect on us as well!
 
The full moon is the height of the lunar cycle, where things come into fruition, built up energy comes to a climax, emotions can run amuck if we aren’t careful. Tremendous yet subtle power is coming at us even if we aren’t aware, so positive intentions are key! Whatever we put out we get back amplified. This transformative time of the month is a time to let go of what no longer serves us and make room for change in our lives. A time to detox, not only physically but mentally and emotionally. Old thought patterns, self-sabotage, toxic or negative beliefs or people can be obstacles for bringing into our lives what we want.
 
Challenging times teach us lessons. We must acknowledge and thank every lesson brought to us, good or bad. Find gratitude in it all then release what you no longer need to hold onto. Take the time of the full moon to do some internal work-reflect, forgive, find gratitude and release! Make room to manifest what you do want and stop giving energy to what you don’t. Keep it positive and remember your given a monthly opportunity to make real changes in the direction of your life.
 
 
Musings for this Meditation:
 
*What is keeping you from bringing what you want into your life?
 
 
*What lessons have you learned? What can you acknowledge, honor and release?
 
 
*What has worked for you this month? What has not worked? How can you make a positive shift to create what it is that you want?