Hello Friends:

I did something super scary.

Well, I've been taking a watercolor class at Laguna Gloria, but that's not scary. More like fun. A commitment to myself to not work 100% of my waking hours.

Instead...

As part of an exercise for creating a lean canvas to build my new company, I asked my community for feedback. It's important to be around our customers--the people we are serving--to make sure they are receiving value from our offerings. But it's even more critical to take inventory of our inner life to make sure we're not on autopilot, staying busy just to get things done.

I'm told staying busy keeps us from having to feel the things we don't want to feel or face.

I asked this of my closest and my clients:

This is not an exercise for the faint of heart, especially if you have intimate, honest friends. I'll share the highlights extracted from lots of comments with you here, and how I created an "Unfair Advantage" paragraph for my canvas.

Top 6 "Positive" Attributes

• Wise Guide (wisdom, insight, teacher energy)
• Warm Presence (welcoming, nonjudgmental, calming)
• Strategic Visionary (deep strategy, clarity, actionable steps)
• Mystical Grounding (bridging intuitive + practical worlds)
• Curious Learner (voracious, endlessly curious, evolving)
• Empowering Teacher (lifting others up, nurturing agency)

Top 6 Contrast Attributes

• Easily Discouraged (especially when vision not met)
• Self-Critical (high internal standards)
• Impatient Frustration (with slower or less-clear others)
• Collaboration Limits (prefers co-creation, struggles with lockstep partners)
• Divided Focus (many talents, hard to pick one lane)
• High Expectations (sometimes grades self/others harshly)

My unfair advantage lies in my ability to bridge the mystical and the practical — to translate deep, intuitive insight into grounded, actionable strategy. I create spaces and systems where people feel profoundly seen, safe, and inspired to evolve. My warmth and wisdom help others access clarity they didn’t know they had, while my strategic vision turns that clarity into movement. Though I hold high standards and see possibilities others might miss, this very intensity fuels transformation and invites those ready for depth, truth, and real progress to rise to the occasion.

This paragraph might just be for my own use as I shape the messaging or tone of my company. An unfair advantage would also include certifications, strategic partnerships, years of experience, publications, unique intellectual property, and so on.

Because I understand the archetypes of my astrology (Triple Cap: grounded wisdom; Virgo Stellium: critical perfectionism, Taurus Moon: nourishing host), my Human Design (5/2, Emotional Manifesting Generator), and know myself in other personality/identity systems, I can take in the feedback practically to improve what I want to.

Of course, only after I feel the searing shame of the things I didn't want to hear, but know to be true. Also, I feel seen and accepted. In both my hard parts and sweet parts.

As you head into the harvesting of fall, gathering the seeds from this intense past eclipse season, I invite you into the Virgo vibe, where Venus and the South Node currently reside.

What will you clean up and organize, and what is easily released because of its overdue "sell by" date?

What can be surrendered to allow you to rest so that all the pieces towards your dreams are connecting behind the scenes?

I'm rebuilding an old dream and reviving it into something I really love. I put it aside after my divorce in 2015, but it is calling me back in a new way. Grieving what it was and welcoming the mystery of what is emerging. And getting support from advisors, mentors, and friends. Thank you for coming on the ride with me as I share the harrowing details of how I'm building it this time.

The Oof of Expectations

If you don't want to go through the exercise I did above for my lean canvas, but would like to know a bit more about yourself, you might find this fun and deceptively enlightening. You can also schedule an Astro-Tarot session with me, but you already knew that.

My colleague Rachel Star had me take this quiz. "We all face two kinds of expectations—outer expectations (meet work deadlines, answer a request from a friend) and inner expectations (keep a New Year’s resolution, start meditating). Your response to expectations determines your “Tendency”—that is, whether you’re an Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel."

Take the Four Tendencies Quiz. It explains four archetypes and their motivations. Why we do or don't do something. No surprise, I'm a REBEL. No one can tell me what to do--even myself. But I do know what motivates me, which is helpful when I'm not feeling disciplined and Virgo-beating myself up about it. It helps me know you more, too.

Let me know what you are.

And if the exercise of Unfair Advantage/Unique Value Proposition helps you.

My belief is that we can't build the things we actually want sustainably until we understand ourselves. We might be building from conditioning (successful but empty), competition (always needing more), lack of self-worth (why you're not getting paid), or alignment (pleasure in the process).

Fun With Gabe In Michigan

Although I'm off socials for a bit, I posted a bit about my visit with Gabe a few weekends ago. He really dislikes it when I post photos of him, but I'm putting this one here because I can't help it. It's his last year at the University of Michigan, so I'm going to visit as often as possible, especially if he gets a part in Oklahoma, performing in early December. We visited his favorite places like the Dixboro Project, Jefferson Market, Argus Farm Stop, and Gallup Park. I needed some specific watercolor paintbrushes, so we went to Eastern Michigan University, which had the only local art supply shop outside of Dearborn. It was on the coolest street of metaphysical shops.

Aries Full Moon Lunation Ceremony

They're back!

Monday, October 6, 2025
6:30 p.m.
Hudson Bend, Austin, TX 78734

Let's gather for the Harvest Supermoon to release some permanent things while gathering the seeds of our new intentions. Swim in Lake Travis or the pool. We'll end with reflection and a sound bath to integrate all the goodbyes from the last intense eclipse season. Snacks and beverages provided. These events are always donation-based.

Cosmic Health for October

I'm sharing my teacher Kira Sutherland's health tips for October's health perspective.

Libra-to-Scorpio Transition: What Your Body Wants This Month

Libra Season (Until October 22): Libra tends the kidneys, bladder, and lower back, your body's equilibrium keepers. Right now, hydration matters more than you think. So does balance: how you sit, how you move, how you rest. Gentle practices like walking, dancing, yoga, or tai chi keep things flowing without force. And notice this: Libra's relationship season often surfaces in the body. Tension with others? Check your lower back. Disconnection? Your system will feel it, too.

Scorpio Season (From October 23): Scorpio goes deeper with the reproductive organs, hormones, elimination, and regeneration. This isn't surface-level wellness; it's a spotlight on what's hidden, stuck, or ready to transform. Perfect timing for gentle detox, immune support, and clearing what no longer serves (physically or emotionally), which we'll do in our lunation ceremony.

How to Work With October's Energy

Channel the Aries Fire – The Full Moon in Aries (Oct 6) wants you moving. Cardio, strength work, anything that gets your blood pumping. Don't be extreme and balance the fire with something cooling afterward.

Honor Libra's Balance – Venus enters Libra (Oct 13) and the New Moon in Libra (Oct 21) both ask: are you hydrated? Is your lower back supported? Are your relationships nourishing or draining? Stretch gently. Seek equilibrium in everything.

Detox When Scorpio Arrives – Sun into Scorpio (Oct 22) turns the focus inward and downward. Support your eliminatory systems. Consider gentle cleansing practices. Tend to hormonal balance. Let yourself renew, emotionally and physically.

Ground Through Mercury's Intensity – Mercury in Scorpio (Oct 6) makes thoughts spiral deep. Protect your mental clarity and digestion with warming rituals: herbal tea, journaling, and restorative movement. Keep yourself grounded when your mind goes dark.

Rest Like You Mean It – Neptune Rx enters Pisces (Oct 22) and everything gets more permeable. Your immunity, your dreams, your sensitivity—all heightened. Take magnesium baths. Practice slow breathing. Go to bed early. Protect your energy field.

Becoming Animal

As we humans are spending more and more time entranced by our artifacts,

caught up in the dazzle of the digital screen,

it enables us not to notice,

not to feel,

what's really going on

in the body's world.

If we were to really turn our gaze

toward the real

in its wonder

open our senses back up,

it would be too painful.

So we hang out in those more virtual spaces

and really lock the doors

and close ourselves in ever more thoroughly,

into that circuit of exchange

with these mirrors of our own invention.

-David Abram

Kripalu Yoga & Sound Bath

As always, I teach a weekly restorative, nervous system reset class on Sundays at The Yoga Common starting at 6 p.m. You can register here. There's currently a new student special.

Thank you for your presence in my life. May you enjoy the fruits of Nature's offerings all along your path.

With much love,

Monica