Recommended Books
Images of Soul by Hadley Fitzgerald and Judith Harte
The Astrology Sourcebook by Shirley Soffer
Recommended Websites
Jessica Murray www.mothersky.com
Steven Forrest www.forrestastrology.com
Brene Brown www.brenebrown.com
Some Favorite Quotes
“Reaching our limit is not some kind of punishment. It’s actually a sign of health that, when we meet the place where we are about to die, we feel a trembling. A further sign of health is that we don’t become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it is time to stop struggling and look directly at what’s threatening us.” –Pema Chodron
“Re-examine all you have been told…dismiss what insults your soul.” –Walt Whitman
“How much we know and understand ourselves is critically important, but there is something that is even more essential to living a Wholehearted life: loving ourselves.” –Brene Brown
“Everything I’ve let go of has claw marks on it.” –David Foster Wallace
“Be who you are and be that well.” –St. Francis de Sales
“Remember that your soul’s birth cannot come from any other belly but your own.” –Sara Beck
“You know, people come to therapy really for blessing, not so much to fix what’s broken, but to get what’s broken blessed.” –James Hillman
“We do not grow absolutely chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past or present mingle and pull us backwards, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.” –Anis Nin
“You get there by realizing you are already there.” –Eckhart Tolle
“Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?” –Mary Oliver
“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit”. –Helen Keller
“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.” –Michael J. Fox
“There are a number of very important irreversibles to be discovered in our universe. One of them is that every time you make an experiment you learn more: quite literally, you can not learn less.” –Buckminister Fuller
“The broken pomegranate is full of stars.” –Seferis
“Let everything happen to you…beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” –Rainer Maria Rilke
It’s time again. Tear up the violets and plant something more difficult to grow. –James Schuyler
“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.” –Natalie Goldberg
“If I don’t have red I use blue.” –Picasso
“Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.” (From Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert)
“Never give up, and never, under any circumstances, ever face the facts.” –Ruth Gordon
“I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life, and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I’ve wanted to do.” –Georgia O’Keefe
“The important thing is this: to be able to sacrifice what we are…for what we can become.” –Charles Du Bos
“Who do you want to be in your one wild and precious life?” –Mary Oliver
“The world is more malleable than you think. It is not all set in concrete. And where it is, at least stick your fingers in it before it dries.” –Bono
“Never play for safety. It’s the most dangerous game in the world.” –Sister Corita Kent
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” –Walt Disney
“After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.” –Chinese Proverb
“There is no set path. Just follow your heart.” –Unknown
“But if you travel far enough, one day you will recognize yourself coming down to meet yourself. And you will say – yes.” –Marion Woodman
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your soul according to fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” –Franz Kafka
“Live as if you expected your prayers to be answered.” –Edgar Casey
“I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me.” –Herman Hesse
“Life is too short for bad coffee.” –Unknown
Some Poems
Oh, there is no translating
That ocean
That music
That theatre
That field of ponies.
–Anne Sexton
Ten thousand flowers in spring.
The moon in autumn, a cool breeze
in summer, snow in winter.
This is the best season of your life.
–Wu Tien, 1183-1260
How to be a Taurus in New York City
By Virginia Bell
My Sun and Moon are in the sign of warm scones, French lilacs,
Clear mountain lakes, fields of lavender and lemon grass
Yet I wander in a forest of skyscrapers and apartment complexes
Not under stars but city lights, not surrounded by silence
But among strangers, sirens, and yellow cabs.
By day I walk on concrete longing for wet sand and open spaces
Negotiate subway tunnels instead of bridal paths
At night I dream of lush gardens, desert sunsets, and endless sky
I ride bareback on deserted beaches, dance naked in Greek temples.
Did I tell you that my Sun and Moon are in the 8th house?
Like Persephone I am driven down into the underworld
Exploring the shadows and in-between places
Living in two worlds, serving both Hades and Demeter
Finding the peace I crave within the chaos and the loss.
I am an urban witch; I fill my apartment with poetry and plants
Sacred statues, Chopin sonatas, the scent of jasmine and rose
My language is astrology; my world consists of planets and stars
I draw inspiration from mythology, magic, and ancient symbols.
Outside I find nourishment in small, secluded places
A hidden garden in the West Village, a waterfall in midtown
The chapel beneath the Citicorp building
The boat house in Central Park, the farmer’s market
I could go on and on.
My longing has transformed me into a detective of natural beauty
Daily I seek out each blade of grass and piece of sky
Daily I bow my head to every flower pot and passing tree
Thanking them over and over again for their humble presence
Without which my Taurus Sun and Moon could not survive.
©Virginia Bell
