Creative Stars

A fresh and insightful guide to using astrology to nurture the creative spirit.

Few aspects of life are as mysterious, or as rewarding, as expressing our creativity, in whatever form it takes. Writing, painting, dancing, designing, acting, inventing, teaching—these and other creative pursuits require courage, determination, and visions, qualities that can be elusive, for beginners and professionals alike.

Astrologer and writer Trish MacGregor offers more than words of encouragement; after years of astrological study and practice, she delivers concrete advice, meditations, and exercises to help each of us find and develop our creative voice.

Covering Sun, Moon, Ascendant, and Jupiter signs as well as the houses and other aspects of an astrological chart. Creative Starts paints a new picture of astrology as a system for understanding our natural creative strengths and challenges. With the insights in this wise and supportive book, we can learn to summon the muse, quiet the inner critic, develop clarity, work through blocks, conquer burnout and self-doubt, and connect more deeply with the ever-renewing force of our own creativity.

Available now on Amazon, $4.99

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The Law of Attraction

 

In late November, while I was writing a blog post on the upcoming Mercury retrograde – December 29 to January 18, 2023, in Capricorn – I think the law of attraction kicked in. Here’s what happened within a period of about three days.

On Friday, our router died and then our Internet followed. It seems like this kind of thing happens a lot on Fridays, which means you’re stuck the entire weekend without a TV or Internet. In the meantime, we’ve had a water leak somewhere in our house a have had 3 plumbers here, trying to isolate it. Our usual water usage runs about 3000 gallons month. This past month, it soared to 27,000 gallons.

Guys with sonar equipment came out and after 4 hours on two separate days, they couldn’t find the leak either. We hired another plumber, a guy who works for himself, and he was able to isolate it to the back bathroom. He changed 2 outside faucets, too. No sonar equipment, just years of experience. Because of the holidays, he can’t return until the Friday after Thanksgiving for the final verdict.

Then, on Saturday, we got home from the dog park and my iMac wouldn’t take my password for the computer. All my work is on it. So tomorrow (Monday) it goes to the computer doctor.

On Sunday, since we still didn’t have Internet, we had to postpone our interview with our guest.

So, within a weekend we had a slew of Mercury retro type events.

In the meantime, I turned in the article and am hoping that ends this stuff. My focus is now on Thanksgiving and, well, getting my Mac back intact.

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The Mystical Underground: TMU Time Machine: Alex Marcoux: The Unsuspected Heroes

A new episode of The Mystical Underground is live! “TMU Time Machine: Alex Marcoux: The Unsuspected Heroes”:

Join Trish and Rob for a conversation with…

Alex Marcoux writes visionary fiction and spiritual self-help. She was welcomed into a world few people see, the sacred mysteries and magic of autism. When asked by three nonverbal autists to make known their truth, The Unsuspected Heroes, the first book of A Journey to the New Earth book series, emerges.
She’s also the author of Lifesigns: Tapping the Power of Synchronicity, Serendipity, and Miracles, the Royal Secret, a Matter of Degrees, Back to Salem, Facade.

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Synchronicity at Jung’s Castle

 

In the summer of 1975, I had saved enough money in my job as a social worker to travel to Europe. I went with another social worker, Chris, who had just lost her husband in a private plane crash. Our itinerary was loose, flexible, but we had certain countries we wanted to see.

One of those countries was Switzerland. In those days, there were no cell phones, no Internet, no personal computers, no social media. Everything had to be arranged through a travel agent in terms of flights, then I bought books on traveling in Europe to educate myself. My main interest in Switzerland was Bollingen, where Jung had built his now famous castle on the shores of Lake Zurich.

It wasn’t a castle in a Medieval sense or even in terms of Games of Thrones. From what I’d read, he had built it from stone, without electricity or running water, and it had four distinct towers that represented the solidity of the psyche. He bought the land in 1922, after his mother’s death, and a year later built a two-story, round tower, a stone structure that could be lived in. Additions to the tower, according to Wikipedia, were constructed in 1927, 1931, and 1935, and resulted in a building that has four connected parts.

After the death of Jung’s wife in 1955, a second story was added to the 1927 addition. To Jung, it meant,”an extension of consciousness achieved in old age.”

The place in the top photo is what I saw in 1975.

My friend Chris and I stayed in Zurich for a night, then set out the next day to take a train to Bollingen. I remember the Swiss train system as complex, especially when you didn’t speak German or French, and there weren’t any signs in English. Maybe there are today, but back then, no. We missed our train.

We caught the next one and arrived in Bollingen, I think, in the early afternoon. Chris didn’t understand why we were taking this detour, she wasn’t familiar with Jung. But I credit her for being willing to explore.

The town wasn’t large, but I didn’t have any idea where Jung’s castle might be, so I asked the first pedestrian I saw and got directions. Turns out the locals knew. The memory of coming upon the castle in those first few moments is shockingly clear. I kept thinking that I was here because of the I Ching – specifically Jung’s introduction to the Richard Wilhelm edition, where he introduced his concept of synchronicity. The I Ching is a Chinese divination system that is at least 5,000 years and since my discovery of it – with the Jung intro- I’d been practicing with it.

I recall how strikingly simple and beautiful the castle looked, there on the shores of Lake Zurich, beneath a beautiful blue sky, and then I noticed that within a fenced backyard, a young man was with a dog. I walked up to the fence, introduced myself. The young man turned out to be Jung’s grandson. If we had caught the first train out of Zurich that morning, he would not have been in that backyard. A synchro, I think, in terms of timing.

We talked for maybe 30 minutes – about the castle, how after Jung’s death, electricity and running water had been added – about Jung and his friendship with Wilhelm, and about synchronicity. Chris, I recall, hung back during this exchange. But she later asked what the hell we had talked about. I didn’t even know where to begin. With synchronicity? She considered coincidences to be completely random.With the I Ching? She thought divination was silly. You can see where this is going, right? By the time we got to Scotland, she and I were no longer speaking to each other.

But one evening we sat on a hill that overlooked Edinburgh and she said that today marked a year since her husband’s death. She wished he would reach out and try to communicate with her. I said nothing. I had  no idea where her dead husband might be now,  but I hoped she has discovered the reality of synchronicity.

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Book Bans

 

The latest book ban craze in this country prompted me to take a deep dive into which books now and in the past. In Florida, this book banning is facilitated by our ridiculous governor, voted back into office by a large majority of voters as deluded by him as they were of trump.

Okay, the books. For a mean of comparison, let’s look back. In the 60s & 70s: To Kill a Mockingbird, Slaughterhouse Five, A Wrinkle in Time, Rabbit, Run, Catch-22 Tropic of Cancer, Forever, Lord of the Flies. These titles and others were were identified by the American Library Association. On a Reader’s Digest site, you’ll find the alleged reasons these books were banned.

In 2022, the most banned book has been – no surprise! – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Penguin Books UK in 2019, said this about the ban of the 1985 book:

“Margaret Atwood’s fable about women’s power, fertility and the patriarchy may be so well-known that people dress up as its titular Handmaids for Halloween, but that hasn’t stopped it from being repeatedly banned over the past four decades. The Handmaid’s Tale has been criticised for a long list of reasons – for being anti-Christian and anti-Islamic and for its portrayal of sex and violence, among others. It remains the seventh-most challenged book on the American Library Association’s list of frequently challenged books.  But, if The Handmaid’s Tale – and its author – teach us anything, it’s that resistance is power. “

They note that with book banning and gag orders becoming so prolific in Republican-led school districts across the U.S., Penguin Random House took did an unusual thing: they created a flame-proof copy of The Handmaid’s Tale. The You Tube video they made is at the top of the page.

Other books banned in 2022? To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Kafka on the Shore, Beartown, Thirteen Reasons Why… Every banned book holds a core idea that conservatives find offensive. A theocracy where women are used as sex slaves, teenage suicide, LGBTQ, racism, anti-war, book burning in an autocracy…

Here in Florida, the main idea is that removing certain books will make  white kids and their parents feel better about themselves. DeSantis abhors what he calls the “woke”  and passed a law – Stop Woke – that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in colleges.

“The law  prohibits teaching or business practices that contend members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilt for past actions committed by others. It also bars the notion that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by their race or gender, or that discrimination is acceptable to achieve diversity.” wrote the AP.

The AP was  reporting on how a federal judge in Tallahassee – a judge appointed by Obama – issued a temporary injunction against the Stop Woke act. He called it “Positively Dystopian.”

Since Covid, a lot of people have moved to Florida. Some came during the pandemic because they bought into the governor’s insistence that Florida was the freest state in the union – no required masks, no required Covid tests, no more lockdowns. Never mind that Florida  lost more than 80,000 people to Covid.

So welcome to Florida, y’all, where we ban books, have election police,  and love liars (trump) do nothings (marco rubio) and alleged sex traffickers (matt gaetz). As long as you fall into line with the governor’s vision, you’re welcome here.

 

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The Mystical Underground: Rob MacGregor: The Shift: Rob’s Vision

A new episode of The Mystical Underground is live! “Rob MacGregor: The Shift: Rob’s Vision”:

Join Rob MacGregor for a reading from Trish and Rob’s new book, The Shift!

Just out of sight and mostly outside the awareness of mainstream media, a shift in consciousness is underway that’s beyond religion, politics, and science as we know it now. It’s an accelerated perception shared by millions worldwide: we are all energetically entangled. What affects one affects all.

Here in this sea of evolving awareness, we perceive intuitively, through the heart, and often experience astonishing coincidences or synchronicities. It’s here we might momentarily connect with a lost loved one, catch a glimpse of our future, or be nudged unexpectedly onto a different path. These wake-up calls alert us to a deeper matrix of reality.

Welcome to The Shift.

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Sharon Catley’s Frog Legs Synchro

 

It seems that whenever I post about frogs, I get at least one really good frog synchro story from someone.  That happened today with my post Frogs as Totem Animals. Sharon Catley, a Canadian blogging friend, sent me this story:

I enjoyed your Frog Syncro this morning and would like to share mine. I don’t have many (synchros) anymore and I miss them. Hope all is well with you. 

Frogs legs 

I made a number of good friends when I was hanging out at the Deepak Chopra Forum.  One of these was a large, blond, studious young Sufi who lived in Calgary.  Frank was going to come to Vancouver for a vacation and asked if all those from Vancouver who also participated in the Forum would come to see him.  Two other ladies besides me decided to take him up on his offer of dinner while he was here. 

Over the next few years we (he and I) saw each other often – I would meet with him and his father when I went to see my parents in Calgary and he would meet with me when he came to Vancouver for his annual vacation. On his last trip (he later moved to the Orient to teach English and we lost contact) we met in downtown Vancouver and decided to go to the seafood restaurant that was on a paddle wheeler boat in North Vancouver for dinner – We needed to take the sea bus over to it – which was about a 20 minute ride in total.  

While we were on the sea bus for some reason our conversation had turned to cartoon characters who sang that we had watched while we were children.  For example bugs bunny singing opera (a parody of the Barber of Seville) and then singing “We are the boys in the chorus” and the dancing frog who sang “Hello my baby”, among others.The discussion topic lasted a few minutes then turned to something else. 

Later in the evening we were finishing our seafood when all of a sudden the strangest thing happened.  At the table next to us there was a group of six to eight Asian persons. We had not noticed them until they began singing which caught our attention  – we looked over and they were eating frog’s legs and singing loudly in perfect English “Hello my honey, hello my baby, hello my rag time gal – send me a kiss by wire – baby my heart’s on fire.”  This was one of the songs that we had been discussing on the sea bus – the one that the cartoon frog always sang. It was like being in a surrealistic dream. 

We tried to determine how this could happen.  We thought perhaps the Asian people had been on the sea bus and had been listening to our conversation but they did not look familiar. Also,  they had come in later than we had as they had just received their food and we had dawdled over our meal for an hour or so. 

This synchro is an odd one but powerful. It involves music, a particular cartoon character, and FROG. For me, frogs usually signify transformation. But what did it signify for Sharon?

Here was her response:

This happened over 20 years ago.  I wish I could say my life changed in some way afterwards but all I can think of was how shocked I was. I think that this event showed me that perhaps we are more connected to the common fabric of the universe than we might think. maybe the frog singers were thinking of the dinner they would have when my friend and I were on the way to our dinner but we picked up on their thoughts.  The singing cartoon characters of our youth were an enjoyable experience and helped connect us with the diners. Sorry I don’t have a better answer. Have a great night. 

I actually think her answer fits!

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The Water

We’ve lived in the same house since June 2000. Our electricity comes from Florida Power & Light and our water comes from the city of Wellington’s utilities department.

For most of the time we’ve lived here, especially since our daughter moved to Orlando, our total water usage is about 3000 gallons a month. In October, it jumped to 7000 gallons, even though we were gone for several days.. But for November, our usage jumped to nine times that, 27,000 gallons a month. That’s enough to fill a swimming pool!
Rob and I both jumped to the obvious conclusion: a leak, somewhere!

We hired a plumber to come out to the house and check. He found no leaks. A leak detection expert arrived the next day with his sonar equipment and spent hours here, running sonar on every toilet, shower, the washing machine, the water filter device, the ice maker, the pipes outside. Our sprinkling system is well water, so it doesn’t figure in to the gallon count. The expert found 0 leaks.

So we decided to monitor the water meter ourselves. Before we went to bed, we turned off all the water to the house. This morning’s reading said we’d used 30 gallons during the night. How, if there aren’t any leaks?

Later today, a friend sent me the copy of a post from the app Next Door – a woman whose experience was similar to ours. Apparently the city upgraded their meters several months ago. Upgraded to what? Meters that are flawed?

So on Monday morning, I’ll be headed over to the utilities department with the leak detection report that says no leaks were found. And now is it, exactly, that two people, two dogs, and two cats are using 27,000 gallons of water a month?

When this was going on, Rob had been going through old files and ran across a synchronicity about this. The article is from Newsweek, August 8, 1988. The headline is: The Disappearing “Memory” of Water. I think this one is a trickster synchro.

The article is about how in June 1988, researchers announced that independent experiments in four countries “had shown that even when a solution of antibodies is dilated to the point where only water remains, the water acts as if the antibodies are still present.”

In other words, water has a memory. The article was published in Nature and as Newsweek noted, “seemed to validate homeopathy, which holds that minute traces of substances can cure disease.

Keep in mind that all this was written before 2004 when Masaru Emoto wrote Hidden Messages in Water, which contended that human consciousness could affect the molecular structure of water. Emoto, a Japanese businessman, was often referred to as a pseudoscientist by skeptics- the same type of skeptic who back in 1988 claimed this water memory business had “no substantial basis.”

The sleuths included magician James Randi, the guy who debunked anything and everything paranormal and who made his living as a skeptic. When we were freelancing for OMNI Magazine in the late 1980s, we met him. Not impressed. He was full of himself. He died in 2020 at 92. I’ve often wondered what he encountered on the other side, this guy who believed in, well, nothing.

Randi and his fellow sleuths John Maddox and Walter Stewart of the NIH saw this whole thing as a mass delusion. They argued that the researchers had used poor controls and ignored experiments that “didn’t jibe with the ‘water memory’ theory. The lead scientist of the theory, Jacques Benveniste at the University of Paris-South called the investigation a mockery. “He says his inquisitors ignored experiments that worked and used dubious methods to replicate his work.”

So I’m wondering if our water usage issue is related, somehow and somewhere, to this “memory of water.” Thing is, I’m not even sure what that might mean.

PS An update. The guys with the sonar equipment didn’t find a leak. But a master plumber with decades of experience has isolated it to the cabana bathroom. He returns this afternoon to locate the exact spot of the leak. Stay tuned…

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The Mystical Underground: Trish MacGregor: Star Power For December 2022

A new episode of The Mystical Underground is live! “Trish MacGregor: Star Power For December 2022”:

Join Trish for the December 2022 astrological forecast!

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Acupuncture

 

Today, I went to an acupuncturist for an arthritic ankle. Left ankle. It’s the result of multiple sprains over the years. Since the left side of the body is controlled by the right side of the brain, I suspect the arthritis is also connected to the walls I’ve run into with my writing – the story, the characters, the agent, the editor.

I’ve had two cortisone shots in the ankle, have gotten remote healing from a Reiki master, take Tumeric and Curcummin and other vitamins for it. I’ve never tried acupunture. When I mentioned it to my orthopedic, Dr. Sama, he nodded. “It depends on the acupuncturist. They have to be good.”

Years back, Rob had gone to an Asian acupuncturist and still had the business card. Today that clinic is called J&K Acupuncture Medical Center and my GPS found it easily. The clinic is tucked back to the side of from a car dealership in a newer shopping center with more than a dozen stores. When I walked in, I immediately felt like I had time traveled.

The smell of the air was different, more fragrant than outside. I felt like I was in an Asian culture, where the level of wisdom and knowledge surpasses what western medicine has. An older Asian woman hunts for my name in the appointment calendar. Behind her stands a case of medical supplies.No one else is in the front room with us until a masked Asian woman in a smock appears and gestures for me to follow her.

As I find out later, this is Jenny Lee, who shares this practice with her partner, Keh-Nan Fang. I follow her into the first room on my left – chair, bed. I slip off my orthopedic sandals and for moments stand barefoot on the floor.

It hurts to stand barefoot on any floor.

As I stretch out on the bed, Jenny examines my ankle. I tell her about the recent cortisone injection. She brings out a packet of needles, opens them and begins inserting them in my left foot. Four or five of them, I think. The one I really feel is at the bottom of my foot. She also uses a needle on the inside of my left wrist and one in the middle of my left leg. The needles vibrate. She turns on a heat lamp.

She mentions that I should avoid certain foods – bananas, watermelon, mango, cheese. I should eat more beans – black beans, kidney beans. How about fish? I ask her.
“Fish is okay, so is chicken. Papaya is good. Strawberries and blueberries are good.”

I make mental notes of all this, then she turns out the light and leaves me alone in the twilight. I shut my eyes and doze off, my left foot warmed by the heat lamp.  While I’m laying there, I hear an older man in another room saying, “I never believed in this stuff, you know. I got my marijuana medical card and weeds helps…but these magnets and the acupuncture…really help.”

When Jenny returns to the room, she shows me how to massage my leg so that the toxins that create the inflammation leave my body through the sole of my foot. At least, I think that’s what she said. Her English is difficult to understand and I don’t speak Chinese.
When the treatment is done, the swelling in my ankle has shrunk. It shrank after the cortisone shot, but now it looks even smaller. I feel no pain as I stand. As I walk. As I pay my bill. $86.That includes several herbal patches that I can wear on my ankle from six to eight hours at a time.

What is most interesting about this is that throughout the time I was in my little cubicle, I never felt like I was in 2022. I felt timeless, untethered, the recipient of some kind of ancient knowledge.

After this treatment, I was able to walk barefoot, which I haven’t been able to do for months. I was able to walk like a normal human being. Will I be returning?
You bet. Cortisone shots can be given only every 3-4 months because more frequent shots can result in necrosis – death of the tissue, otherwise known as gangrene.

In between, I plan on using acupuncture. It’s the shamanic cortisone treatment.

 

 

 

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