The Year of the Phoenix Rising

This is a summary of my latest video.  If you’d rather watch that, you can do it here.

I have an intentional planning ritual every year to set my direction and identify my six impossible  (REALLY inevitable) things.  Usually, while I’m doing that or before I do it, an animal, a symbol, and a word come to me.  Put together, they set my theme for the coming year.  This year, though, something a little different happened.  My animal, symbol, and word are all the same….the phoenix.  So, 2022 is officially my year of the phoenix rising.  You can see that represented by the painting behind me.  I’ve always loved the story of the phoenix.  It just does life over and over again.  You’ve probably heard me say “just paint over it” before, and that’s exactly what the phoenix does.  When one life ends, another begins.  Some people say that means the phoenix is immortal, but I have a different perspective.  The phoenix simply dies and is immediately reborn.  That’s not immortality.  That’s living many lifetimes to fulfill its purpose.

This morning, I pulled the 21 card from the Oracle of Initiation deck by my friend Mellissae Lucia.  The card is Release and the deity it represents is Pele.  The theme is Sift the Ashes, and it’s all about becoming the phoenix rising out of the ashes to see what has been burned away because it no longer serves you and what remains because it is still serving you.  At the end of the entry, there’s a challenge to be the “purest essence of all that you are and are afraid to be.”

It made me stop and think.  What am I afraid to be?  What magical power or hidden personality trait have I been avoiding, because I’m afraid of what others will think or just how strong I can be?  You know we’re not really afraid of failing.  It’s more likely that we’re afraid of just how successful we can be.  That’s something for all of us to ponder as the new year so quickly approaches.  Then, we can each choose whether or not to take action from that place of knowing.

I hope you’re enjoying the holidays in whatever way brings you joy, but I also hope you’ll take some time to consider what you want to take with you into the new year, and what you want to leave behind, because it’s no longer serving you.  Then, you, too, can become the phoenix rising out of the ashes and BE all that you are and are afraid to be.