I becomes we
something is happening here
I am seeing something and I am wondering if you see it too?
In our video for the Leo Full Moon (2/1/26) I mentioned the famous Mr. Rogers story - about how, when he was a child, his mom told him to “look for the helpers” when there was suffering or things gone wrong.
That is a very good bit of advice, but now, I think we are going one step further.
What I am seeing lately, is that we, as a collective, are moving from looking for the helpers to BEING the helpers.
My fellow Americans – have you ever helped out and pitched in as much as you have in the last year? Have you ever enjoyed such deep connection with neighbors and local people before? Have you ever in your life seen this much helping between strangers?
In daily life (off-screen), have you ever seen less fakeness and more realness?
I’ve never seen this level of camaraderie in ordinary life, but it shouldn’t surprise me.
I have been reminding us for a while that humans are pack animals – we are not like a snake, or a reptile - we need to be among our kind to have a truly good life.
Basically, we do better when we get our hearts together. Especially when times are hard, like now.
I could see from last autumn that February 2026 was going to be A BIG, IMPORTANT TIME.
To wit, next week we will have:
a solar eclipse (big new moon, new beginning)
the year of the Fire Horse begins (fast, far, strong, hot, dry, quick)
Saturn Neptune conjunction at 0 Aries (GIANT beginning signature)
Venus conjunct the north node (centering love, care, truth and beauty IS THE WAY)
I do not know all the things that will happen in the next few months, but I can see by the upcoming cosmic weather that we are in an era-defining time.
Lots of things have happened, are happening, will happen.
Some of it we will co-create, some of it will flash into (or out of) existence.
What we do now matters, a lot. Or, as Pam Gregory says about this specific micro-era:
“These pivotal times matter more. They magnify your effort.”
She also says:
“Eclipses catapult us into the future.”
I do not know all the things that will happen, I do not know what future we are being catapulted into - but I do know that these are good times to get our hearts together.
If you want to bring your heart to join our hearts in the internet - I’m teaching an Eclipse Season magic class on Zoom next Monday, Feb 16th* and for the first time ever I am hosting a low-cost 1/2 day Mini-Retreat (also on Zoom) on Sunday, Feb 22.
*please note I decided I will record the Eclipse Season session so if you can’t make it in real time, you can still “bring your heart to meet up with ours” via the recording.
From my heart to yours, I want to thank you for your presence here.
There are about 1000 people who actually open this message each week. Each one of you means a lot to me. I recognize your names and email addresses, I remember your face if I’ve met you in person, I cherish and save any notes you send me.
Even, here, in the internet - you keep showing up with your heart, I will keep showing up with mine.
May we bring our hearts together as often as we need as we traverse this historical MOMENT.
Until next time,
Jess
p.s. Since the Eclipse class is on Monday, next week I will send this weekly letter out on Monday instead of Tuesday. The following week we will be back to our regular schedule.
INVITATIONS
Change yourself in the way you want everyone else to change
Love your enemies in case your friends turn out to be jerks
Brainwash yourself before someone nasty beats you to it
Write a love letter to your evil twin during a lunar eclipse
Fool the tricky red beasts guarding the Wheels of Time
Locate the master codex and add erudite graffiti to it
Dream up wilder, wetter, more interesting problems
Change your name every day for a thousand days
Exaggerate your flaws till they turn into virtues
Kill the apocalypse and annihilate Armageddon
Brag about what you can’t do and don’t have
Get a vanity license plate that reads KZMYAZ
Bow down to the greatest mystery you know
Make fun of people who make fun of people
See how far you can spit a mouthful of beer
Scare yourself with how beautiful you are
Stage a slow-motion water balloon fight
Pretend your wounds are exotic tattoos
Sing anarchist lullabies to lesbian trees
Commit a crime that breaks no laws
Sip the tears of someone you love
Build a plush orphanage in Minsk
Feel sorry for a devious lawyer
Rebel against your horoscope
Give yourself another chance
Write your autohagiography
Play games with no rules
Relax and go deeper
Dream like stones
Mock your fears
Drink the sun
“Defy sub-optimal circumstance. Be non-receptive to negative transmissions. Trophies matter but your opinion of your self is the most valuable of all. Self-Validate. Exfoliate. Floss. Every day. It’s easier to scale back down a grandiose goal than it is to try and energize a feeble one. Reclaim Your Version Of Ultra. Make your bed every morning. Use all of your mind, even the Lizard brain. Start again again. Music is Fuel. Creative Will is a secret super-hormone. Mentor and Role Model to those behind you. Think about the deeper Jungian (Jung = Leo) meaning of how trolls lurk beneath bridges in fairy tales. Run your schedule to Einstein Time. False modesty is toxic. “Shallow” is a moral judgement not a reliable measurement of your depths. Subtlety can be turgid. Take your dreams out of storage. Burn excess for energy. Own your awesome. Eclipse your own dark shadows.”
to eclipse
to surpass
to move beyond
previous form
:
Deep within the fertile darkness,
awakened by the dream of Light,
new life finds its form.
This is the place of possibility.
In this space of transfiguration,
between the darkness and light,
through our desolation and longing,
beauty is revealed.
It is through these cycles of regeneration
that we come to know the heart of life,
awakened.
~May we move gently toward our thresholds,
at one with ourselves and with the shifting tides~
“How then does light return to the world after the eclipse of the sun? Miraculously. Frailly. In thin stripes. It hangs like a glass cage. It is a hoop to be fractured by a tiny jar. There is a spark there. Next moment a flush of dun. Then a vapor as if earth were breathing in and out, once, twice, for the first time. Then under the dullness someone walks with a green light. Then off twists a white wraith. The woods throb blue and green, and gradually the fields drink in red, gold, brown. Suddenly a river snatches a blue light. The earth absorbs color like a sponge slowly drinking water. It puts on weight; rounds itself; hangs pendent; settles and swings beneath our feet.”
— Virginia Woolf, The Waves
“I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves - we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each other’s destiny.”
- Mary Oliver
“There are so many unsung heroines and heroes at this broken moment in our collective story, so many courageous persons who, unbeknownst to themselves, are holding together the world by their resolute love or contagious joy. Although I do not know your names, I can feel you out there.”
- David Abram