Greetings, my friends!
It’s that time – Black (Madonna) Friday, the gateway to the Season of Lights, gratitude, and appreciation; and the sometimes (okay, often) scary Holiday Shopping Season.
What’s more, we’re still navigating some amplified, sometimes challenging astro-energetic transits (passages, activations) with the recent Full Moon and Scorpio-Sagittarius transits, as well as the super-activation of the Galactic Center midpoint, and concentrated energies (slowly shifting into Saturnine Capricorn where a meet-up with Pluto awaits).
Those activations are still underway.
First, though …
I’ve missed you, and I hope you are becoming more and more well — even inch by inch — as we enter what for many around the world are year-end Festivals of Light or other Holy Days.
I’ve missed you and the Sophia’s Children cyber-garden as I’ve stepped back a bit from my online time and stepped more into in-person Sophian work in my community, while continuing to respond to your much-appreciated messages and inquiries.Thank you for being! 🙂
Wisdom does guide us where She will, sometimes leading us into serving-grounds and learning-byways that we wouldn’t have expected and that prove unexpectedly meaningful or, at least, by which we learn a whole lot more than we knew ‘back then’.
I, too, have mixed feelings. I do love the lights and deeper meanings or values that are part of the season, and long-ago started to redefine and reclaim meaning (beyond shopping and commercialism) of the Season.
For me that’s a necessity, because I feel a disconnect from making shopping and buying the sole reason for the season, and as an empath, I definitely sense the isolation, anxiety, frenzy, and joy (sometimes bordering on mania) that gets stirred up in the shared-field.
For many, in the U.S. and certain other places at least, it’s a challenging time of year when quite a few people feel the stresses of the “shopping season” and various familial discords or disconnects.

Many folks shop and celebrate too, of course — as you’ll realize if you hazard a step into a mall or department store this time of year and see the chaotic mess left on merchandise shelves (and floors) that retail workers restore to order after the frenzied shopping days.
But sometimes there’s no way but through it, so may we find our way as mindfully, appreciatively, and as centered as we can — and yes, that does take (for most of us) effort, intention, and practice.
There is, after all, always some beauty, perhaps even miracle, in our midst.
Here are a few Sophia’s Children treasure-vault posts on themes that I revisit at this time of the year (and throughout the year, truth be told), so maybe you’ll find timely inspiration in them as well.
It’s Black (Madonna) Friday, Again
Your Uncommon Skills: Being an Island of Sanity
The Magic of Gratitude, Revisited
And for those of you who are empathically and psychically sensitive,
Be well, and thank you for being the Islands that you are (of calm, sanity … pick your magic-medicine)!
Love,
Featured Image Credit: Lighthouse with lights blazing. ONTARS lighthouse directory website.
November 29, 2019 at 8:13 pm
I agree about Christmas shopping. I’m avoiding it. I like your Black Madonna Friday. Yesterday (Friday over here in Australia) I was arranging my home altar and intuitively decided to add a postccard I had of the Black Madonna of Monserrat in Spain. She feels very active right now.
January 11, 2020 at 6:14 pm
So beautiful, Suzanne. When I revisited this, I felt it anew. I’m feeling the Black Madonna surfacing again, too. Your altar sounds beautiful!
January 11, 2020 at 9:12 pm
Thanks for reminding me of the Black Madonna again. She slips in and out of my awareness. I’m in Australia. I am not personally affected by the bushfires but I feel for my country. I will do a Black Madonna meditation later on today and also some reading about Sophia. These archetypes are re-emerging I think.
January 14, 2020 at 1:55 pm
She does seem to surface and go beneath the surface, and rise again when needed. It seems She’s been coming up strongly for quite a few people (by Black Madonna as well as other names). So many of us watch and weep at the news of the fires and devastation. It’s deeply grief-stirring to be sure.
January 14, 2020 at 9:06 pm
Sure is -they are bringing up some raw emotions. It feels like this is the beginning of true climate change.
February 15, 2020 at 7:32 pm
That does tend to stir up and make vulnerable those raw emotions, for sure, bringing to the surface those hidden ‘triggers’ or wounds for healing (that’s the possibility, anyway!).
November 29, 2019 at 9:18 pm
No wonder she’s been visiting my thoughts lately. 😊 Blessings Dear Jamie love Ashley Lyn
January 11, 2020 at 6:11 pm
Happy 2020, Ashley. I hope you’re more and more well! Blessings to you, too. xoxo
May 5, 2020 at 3:31 am
Thank you 😊😍
November 29, 2019 at 10:05 pm
Reblogged this on dreamweaver333.
January 11, 2020 at 6:10 pm
Thank you for sharing!
November 30, 2019 at 6:06 pm
You can get lost in writing, electronic mind (which sometimes is exactly what’s needed). It’s good to stay grounded/balanced in flesh-on-flesh, spirit-connected-Nature. I try to stay in synch with location of that fulcrum.
January 11, 2020 at 6:10 pm
Very, very true. Thank you for reflecting that insight! I also practice the ‘synch’ with that particular fulcrum – it is practice. 🙂