...You Must Face Your Demons

Hello friends,

We’re still under motivated skies—no retrogrades in sight. Forward motion is available to us, and the astrology this week (April 21-28) invites bold clarity about what we want… but not without a reckoning.

This is a week of commitments—to your truth, your body, your business, your creativity. But in order to claim what you truly desire, you may have to face the very parts of you that are afraid to want it.

We open the week with Saturn conjoining the North Node in Aries, urging responsibility and boundaries on our path forward. There’s momentum (especially if you still need to file your taxes!), but there’s also gravity—what are you building toward, and are you aligned with it?

Midweek brings emotional tides and powerful questions. With Venus conjunct the North Node in Pisces and squaring off with Pluto, what you love, long for, or crave may rise to the surface—but so will the fear that’s been guarding it.

Thursday’s astrology asks: What do you really want? Not the polished answer. The one that might knock every chess piece off the board. The one that could change everything.

Venus conjunct Saturn (for the final time) gives us one last chance to name it—and mean it. Put a contract around it, make a vow, establish a ritual, or shout it into an echoing canyon.

By Friday and Saturday, the Moon brings us into the realm of action, but Mars’ opposition to Pluto means there may be resistance, sabotage, shadow. The heroine’s journey has begun. Will you go?

And by Sunday’s dark New Moon in Taurus, it’s time to root again—into your body, your desires, your truth.

This New Moon ceremony will be combined with my Kripalu Yoga & Sound Bath class, which happens to be on the same Sunday evening.

Healing the Negative Inner Voice

Before we can heal a negative inner voice, we have to find it. This is from Alain de Botton.

It often hides in plain sight: in the way we speak to ourselves, the tone we use, the assumptions we carry. It’s an internalized echo from the outside world—formed by past experiences, relationships, culture—that quietly shapes how we view ourselves and our chances in life.

To surface this voice, try simple sentence or story completion prompts:

• Men are...
• Life is...
• I want...
• When I meet someone...

Say the first thing that comes to mind—then pause. Ask: “Where does that come from?” and “What led me to believe that?” More often than not, you'll trace it to a moment or influence outside yourself—someone else’s story you’ve been carrying as your own.

This isn’t just an exercise in excavation—it’s a process of returning to your own voice. This week as you are determining what it is you really want, this is a little tool to help you distinguish what is true.

Venus Rising: A Playshop of Erotica and Embodied Words

On May 15th, I’m thrilled to be hosting a special edition of my Medicine Words: Erotica Writing Playshop at the sweet new Flutter Romance Bookstore, in an enchanting white house with a pink door across from the lake. (Yes, it’s as adorable as it sounds.)

In this immersive experience, we’ll be guided by Venus/Aphrodite and the archetype of The Empress to explore writing as an erotic, creative, and liberating force. Erotica is not just about sex—it's about truth, power, and transformation through the life-force of desire. It’s about saying what you’re not supposed to say, and feeling what you’ve been taught to suppress.

Through tarot, journaling, and visceral writing exercises, we’ll access the parts of ourselves that are ready to be felt, seen, and expressed—boldly, sensually, honestly.

🕯 Bring: your favorite journal, a pen, and a Tarot deck (I have a few if you don’t)
🍓 There will be refreshments, books, writing exercises, and cozy vibes​
🌹 Space is limited—join us in Taurus season, where embodiment is the portal to magic

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Stretch, Soothe, Reset

Every Sunday I lead a Gentle Kripalu Yoga & Sound Bath class from 6-7 p.m. At The Yoga Common on 11210 Spicewood Club Dr, Austin, TX. There is always a new student special.

You can also book an Astro-Tarot reading or a strategy session with me.

Some Random Thoughts

National Poetry Month

There’s a beautiful story Alain de Botton tells about Picasso. Watching a child paint freely, Picasso once said, “When I was his age, I was painting like Raphael. It took me my whole life to learn to paint like a child.”

By the time he was 90, Picasso’s art looked deceptively simple—like a child’s drawing. But behind every line was a lifetime of inquiry, technique, and letting go.

De Botton notes how Western culture tends to valorize the dense and difficult—those who speak in inaccessible ways like Wittgenstein, Hegel, and Kant. Complexity signals seriousness. But in the East, especially in traditions like Japanese Zen poetry of Matsuo Bashō, the opposite is true. The simplest words—just four on a page—can carry entire worlds.

The difference? Collaboration.

In the West, if a poem seems empty, we assume the poet failed.
In the East, if we don’t see anything, we ask ourselves: What am I bringing to this?

To truly experience something simple, like a haiku or a circle drawn in ink (the Zen enso), we must bring our full presence. The art is not complete without us. The beauty isn’t in the complexity—it’s in the encounter. The willingness to sit with something that seems small and let it work on us.

This is also how healing happens: when we stop looking for grand solutions and start listening for the subtle truths we’ve ignored. When we become mature enough to bear the discomfort of simplicity.

And perhaps that’s the most radical thing of all—to trust that the deepest healing might come not from adding more, but from bringing more of ourselves to less.

Watch the interview with Alain de Botton on Chris Williamson's podcast here.

Deep Truth

"And do you know this notion in physics of deep truth? So the idea is that the definition of a deep truth as opposed to a merely factual truth which can be tested, is that its opposite is also likely true. -Krista Tippett, On Being​

"After being an atheist thinking there was nothing to it, it was all sort of random chaos, I was in Barbados and I was sat on a rock on the ocean...and it was the sunset, and it was so fucking beautiful, and I thought to myself, 'If there is nothing else, there is no God, there is no nothing, why do I feel the profound urge to say thank you?'" - Jeff Goldstein, co-creator of Ted Lasso & Shrinking.

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Thank you for reading this far and supporting my work. I am very grateful to be able to share what is possible.

What Venusian things are happening in your world?

Big love,

Monica

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