Thanksgiving

Thoughts on Home, Family and the Fourth House

At the holidays there is a focus on family which often necessitates an examination of what family means to us as individuals.  Many of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s remember the paintings which turned Norman Rockwell into an adjective as well as a painter “the Norman Rockwell family, the Norman Rockwell holiday.”  For those of us in a family experience which was less than idyllic, which I would guess is most of us, these images evoked a fantasy of comfort and security and safety in the bosom of a group of people who loved us unconditionally.
This is the ideal that lives in the fourth house in the astrological chart.  In the fourth house we look for a sense of home and family that nourishes and nurtures us and which offers a sanctum from the outer world.  In the fourth house we discover the essence of who we are by becoming deeply integrated with our inner selves and the core essence of who we are.
In the fourth house we also discover the ancestral roots that have fed our genetic history, and our psychological history from those roots also play a large part in forming the inner selves that are deeply protected within us.  From the core Self within we build a home and network of family relationships, and these are also found in the fourth house.  Sometimes we are rejected by our family of origin, or we detach from them and create our own family; however, it is the actual family lineage that lives in the fourth house rather than an adoptive family.
The sign on the cusp of the fourth house (which we also call the “nadir”) and planets in the fourth house describe our relationship to this family lineage, our […]
Share this article...
By |2022-10-09T13:29:50-04:00November 27th, 2009|Astrology|Comments Off on Thoughts on Home, Family and the Fourth House

The Real Thanksgiving: The Power of Gratitude

gratitude1.jpg

Not too many of us in the United States are left with the illusion that the first Thanksgiving was a romantic feast where native Americans and white folks forged a beautiful friendship that lasted hundreds of years.  Most of us know the tragedy and devastation that European settlement of the US brought.  And lots of people don’t celebrate Thanksgiving as a result.
But if we forget about the Pilgrims and gorging on the traditional 10-course meal from which it takes weeks to recover, we end up with a day to give thanks which is a valuable part of the spiritual path.
Finding something to be grateful for, even in the midst of a miserable time in our lives, is one of the most healing things we can do.  Back in 1910 metaphysician Wallace Wattles wrote, “Gratitude brings your whole mind into closer harmony with the creative energies of the universe,” and since then this idea has really taken hold and become a part of daily rituals for many of us.
I’ll leave you by quoting myself from my Visioncrafting book, and send you my warmest wishes for a full heart and a desire to look forward to a brighter tomorrow.

When we experience gratitude we open our hearts and minds and counteract the contraction of fear and doubt.  A gratitude practice is a very useful tool.  It is human nature not to pay attention to the good things in our life and to take them for granted; a daily review of the things for which we are grateful can help to refocus our attention and help us to build the positive attitude that is the foundation of […]

Share this article...
By |2020-11-03T14:11:30-05:00November 25th, 2009|Holidays|Comments Off on The Real Thanksgiving: The Power of Gratitude