PLEASURE FOR PLEASURE’S SAKE // SAGITTARIUS FULL MOON

Right now we have Venus traveling through Taurus with the earthy archetypes of sensuality, pleasure and beauty.  In alignment with Sagittarius and Jupiter, which are expansive, confident and embodied, we are being invited to accept that pleasure is vital for our wellbeing.

That choosing beauty is nourishing.  That what we focus on expands.  And that our bodies are the direct portal to experiencing pleasure in our being.

When planets go direct in their own signs (like Venus and Jupiter are right now), they lend more ease in allowing us to realize and manifest our desires. Pair that with the positive and instinctual nature of Sagittarius and the sensual delights of Taurus and we have a potent time to deepen into experiencing the sensual pleasure of being in a body.

Sag is the Centaur and as part human, part animal, she has equal access to her intellect and her instinct.  As the ruling sign of this full moon, Sagittarius begs leave your intellect behind for awhile to let your sensual instincts speak up.

Sag asks you to utilize the Earthy and Sensual energy of Taurus, the Beauty and Pleasure of Venus, the Expansive and Embodied Sagittarius to PRIORITIZE PLEASURE for no other reason than pleasure is an inherent part of your nature.

YOU DESERVE TO FEEL GOOD

The word pleasure carries heavy weight - so if allowing yourself to experience pleasure is a challenge, your invitation right now is to lean into the innocence of what pleasure means to you.  Take away all negative connotations, and what does it mean to you to FEEL GOOD?

What does it mean to FEEL GOOD IN YOUR BODY?

If any limiting beliefs come up, continue to return to the INNOCENCE that is rooted in whatever pleasure you seek, and remind yourself that you deserve to feel good and that pleasure is innocent and natural.

Your body is completely natural.  Sex is completely natural (not to mention, none of us would be here without it).  Your desires are completely natural.  Experiencing pleasure is completely natural.  The only thing that isn’t natural is the idea that pleasure (aka FEELING GOOD) is bad.

The suppression of pleasure leads to distortion and imbalance in your life (perhaps you can see where that has been true for you)?

So this moon asks you to FEEL into what feels good for you.

Knowing that you don’t have to “do” anything to deserve it.  You don’t have to “prove” you are worthy of it.  You don’t have to “earn” it.  

You just have to let yourself desire it and experience it.

This moon gives you PERMISSION to explore what pleasure means to you by allowing your body (not your mind) to guide you.  

Sag has a fierce sense of optimism, so if you lack confidence or lean towards cynicism and doubt, call on her to lend positivity and determination in engaging the sensual wisdom of your body.

Because your body is an animal and her sensual wisdom knows what you need.  Tune into your SENSES and allow this sensual intelligence to guide you.

LET GO OF IT BEING SEXUAL

When most people hear the words SENSUAL or PLEASURE their minds immediately go to sex - and that gets everyone into a big pickle when it comes to experiencing pleasure in general. 

The truth is, most of us are limited in allowing ourselves to receive pleasure sexually because we are limited in experiencing pleasure in our lives: the more you allow yourself to receive pleasure in one area of your life, the more it will increase your capacity to receive it in another (let me say that again: the more pleasure you experience in your LIFE the more pleasure you will naturally experience in your sex life).  

((But, let’s be real, because this IS a sexy moon: if you do choose to experience pleasure sexually, experiment having sex with yourself.  As my teacher Psalm Isadora would always say, learn how to make love to yourself first.  Knowing how to bring yourself pleasure will allow you to deepen your pleasure with a partner and in the rest of your life)).

WHAT DOES PLEASURE MEAN TO YOU

This moon wants you to determine what pleasure means to you.  

Get to the root of it.  Write it out.  Reflect on it.  Get clear on what pleasure means for you (not what you were told it should mean).

Is it sexual?  Is it sensual?  How do you experience it?  In nature?  Through beauty?  Through creativity, design, self expression, movement, meaning?

How does this pleasure nourish you?

Where have you been denying yourself this nourishment?

The bigger invitation this moon is to feel into, how much pleasure you can give yourself. 

How much pleasure can you allow YOURSELF to RECEIVE from YOURSELF? 

Your body gets left out of so much, include her on this journey.  Honor what makes her feel good.  Give her more of what she needs.  Pamper, touch, love her, engage her.

If you’re wondering how to start to experiencing your sensual wisdom, it’s as simple as your next breath. 

BREATH IS THE PRECURSOR TO PLEASURE

A lot of people avoid pleasure or sensuality practices because they think it has to be one more “thing” they put on their to-do list.  

Far from it.  

You have access to experiencing your senses and enhancing your pleasure right here, right now - the most powerful way to access it is completely free and it’s something you already have - your breath.

Sensual pleasure is available to us in every moment - the key is to allow your senses to stay alive.  The BEST WAY to deepen sensually is through the pathway of your breath.

Don’t let the simplicity of this sway you from experiencing deep presence, pleasure and connection to your body. 

Breath deepens sensation.  It calms the nervous system.  It grounds you to the present moment.  Its expands your ability to observe, feel, to BE in your body.

GET OUTSIDE AND BREATHE

Nature is incredibly sensual. This moon invites us to go outside and play.  To sit and observe.  To be overwhelmed by beauty.  To FEEL the simple and overwhelming beauty of being in a body.  To use our breath to deepen into each moment.  To find peace and nourishment in the pleasure. 

Practice long, slow deep breathing (known as Ujjayi), allowing yourself to feel the air pass through and create a hissing sound at the back of your throat, as you inhale to the count of 3 and exhale to the count of 3.

Connect to your breath while you walk, while you move, while you sit, while you pray, while you pleasure, while you create, while you hike, while you play.

If you’re ready for more, let your fingertips travel your skin.  BREATHE.  Feel the sun and wind on your skin.  BREATHE.  Feel your body respond.  BREATHE.

Let it all be sensual.  Put on sexy music, get lost in smell, sound, taste, touch, sight.  Let yourself be immersed in sensual awareness.

There are no rules.  Pleasure is simply what makes you feel good … use this moon to give yourself time to experiment and implement what works for you. 

SAG TAKES AIM

The biggest hing we have to be willing to do when we seek to incorporate more pleasure into our lives is to be willing to ACT on what brings us pleasure.  

As the Archer, Sagittarius she sets her sights on the target, she takes aim, and she is relentless in the pursuit of what she desires. Let her help you get back to your body. Use her tenacious aim to your advantage.  Choose where you want to experience more pleasure, then take action to make it happen.

If you’re ready to learn how to activate your Shakti and embody your sensual power, TAKE ACTION and sign up for my upcoming 2 Day OYoga Workshop in Denver on July 22 and 23 by clicking HERE.

If any limiting beliefs come up, continue to return to the INNOCENCE that is rooted in whatever pleasure you seek, and remind yourself that you deserve to feel good and that pleasure is your birthright.

And here are your Full Moon Tunes to get sensual to :)

With Sag Swagger + Sensual Innocence,

Ashly 

SCORPIO FULL MOON // ROOTS + BLOOMS

This moon asks if you’re willing to look under your covers to see what you’ve been hiding from.

Scorpio lives in the deep watery shadows of our psyche - and the full moon (the illumination from the reflection of the sun) brings what’s been kept hidden deep down up to the surface to show us what needs to be SEEN.  It takes away the illusions we tell ourselves and gives us the true reflection of where we’re at and what we need to get to where we want to go. 

As a water sign, Scorpio is connected to the intuitive, emotional, watery, feminine shadow landscape of our psyche.  It has to do with our individual identity (our true identity, not who society says we should be). 

The shadows of this feminine landscape also carry our biggest wounds, all the ways we’ve disconnected from ourselves, from our personal (and sexual) power and all the negative things that we think about ourselves but don’t want to admit.

Scorpio asks us to bring our awareness to this inner landscape and to reclaim the taboo or secretive parts of ourselves that we’ve sent into exile.  

These are generally the parts of our bodies, parts of our psyches, parts of our power the we have disowned in order to avoid shame or pain.

The problem is, when we disown parts of ourselves (regardless of the reasons) suppression takes root - and suppression is the mother of all imbalance.  

This suppression creates distortion - and this distortion silently (or not so silently) creeps into you and creates a cascade of physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual effects.

Because the shame and shadows we carry from our past are really never forgotten - they become like seeds.

Nurture them and tend to them, give them what they need to heal and grow and thrive, and one day, despite their hardships, they will bloom into something beautiful.

But neglect them and they will turn to weeds with invasive and winding roots that wrap their way around your body and your mind until they invade every possible space (your sense of self, your relationships, your career, your sense of purpose, happiness and meaning).

Pain will keep taking your power away until you are willing to shine the light of your awareness on it.  Until you are willing to face it and heal it. 

So Scorpio asks, what’s affecting the nutrients of your roots?

What seeds of wisdom in your body or life desire to be revealed?  What wants to be REVEALED in order to be HEALED?

As an archetype, Scorpio aligns with the 2nd Chakra (which is typically also where we carry the most shame connected to our bodies and psyches) so this is where I invite you to shine your light of awareness on this moon.

This full moon will help you access your inner wisdom as you reflect truthfully on these questions, revealing the taboos you've been avoiding or the shame you've been suppressing: 

What’s your relationship with your body?  

With your sexuality?  

With your feminine cycles?  

With your blood?  

With your feminine power and sexual expression?  

Do you love and honor yourself or reject and suppress yourself?  

What’s the quality of your relationship with yourself as a woman? 

What’s your relationship to the parts of yourself that you (or someone else) labeled as bad, taboo, shameful or secretive?

What are the shadows that shape your thoughts and perceptions of yourself (what do you secretly wish no one would find out about you)?

And, because we must also celebrate how far we’ve come, give yourself some credit, what are you celebrating in relationship to those questions?  What have you healed? How have you shown up?

Taking that into perspective - allow yourself to move forward with AWARENESS INSTEAD OF JUDGEMENT for everything that you led you here to right here, right now.

All of your shame and shadows are just as worthy of your love than what makes you shine - and so this moon shows you your light and your shadows - and shows you where you need to shine more light.

As OSHO says: 

Darkness has no existence of its own, it is only the absence of light. When the light is present, how can its absence also be there?

In this way, your darkness and light are not separate, they are the same, just on different spectrums of experience.  Just like you are not separate. You are not a segmented being.  Everything within you is connected; healing in one part will bring healing to the rest, dis-ease in one part will bring dis-ease to the rest.

Scorpio is a sign of transformation - it’s said that this astrological sign goes through life stages, that it starts out as a scorpion, rises into a serpent and then eventually evolves into the Phoenix, the mythological creature that in Greek Mythology is a long-lived bird that would cyclically die and emerge reborn RISING from the transformative fire of it’s own ashes.

Your invitation this moon is to choose 1 area based on the questions above (or based on your inner wisdom) that you are ready to heal - and to choose 1-3 Meaningful Actions that will lead to the Change and Transformation you are ready for.

If you want to heal your cycle, your sensuality or your relationship with yourself as a woman, make sure you are signed up for the newsletter, I’ll have resources coming for you soon.

In the words of my late teacher Psalm Isadora, “I promise, you can be more powerful than before you were wounded.”  But in order to experience this, you have to choose to heal ... because THIS IS HOW YOU RISE.

I'd love to hear your insights and what you choose to take action on!  Comment below or send me a message <3

May you heal + bloom into being,

Ashly

Also, if you want to hear about my own journey of healing and transformation, check out my latest podcast interview on Untangled HERE.

SENSUAL RECLAMATION | PINK MOON

This Full Moon in Libra we have Venus dancing with Chiron, the wounded healer. If we look at her archetype, Venus, the Goddess of Love, Beauty, Sex and Fertility also covers all the taboos less talked about but strongly associated with those key words, for instance, she was also the patron of prostitution and famed for her ability to seduce.

In the mythic stories she had many lovers, divine and human, and in all of her attributes, is known for being indelibly sensual - a Goddess who uses the range of her feminine embodiment to express her desire through the sensual pleasures of beauty, sex, her body and the ability to create.  The world is her oyster (literally, with pearls often being associated with her), water is her element and she stands for the sensual Feminine in all of her expressions. 

This Pink Moon we have Venus illuminating our sensual and sexual feminine power and we have Chiron, showing us the wounds and taboos that keep us from it.

Put it all together, and this Libra Full Moon is about Feminine Reclamation ... and with all the signs dancing in the sky right now, specifically, Sensual Reclamation. 

So my invitation to you is, TO FEEL INTO the feminine wounds that want to be healed around your sensual and sexual power as a woman,

And instead of going down the rabbit hole, feeling shame or guilt (about whatever the wounds may be or wherever they may have arisen from) invite the light of awareness to show you how those wounds are here to here to incite aligned action in service of your highest feminine expression.  

.... You know the woman you want to be? This moon is saying COMMIT TO HER.

Nurture her. Act in service of her. Be just with her.  Own, love and honor ALL of her. 

As Chani Nicholas says of this moon, "Venus’s message as ruler of this full moon is one of deep release through relentless commitment. Venus’s station direct speaks of attaining the wildest of freedoms through the most rigorous of responsibilities. Venus’s station direct speaks of the kind of redemptive love that awaits us when we are willing to wade through the difficulty that must be faced when dealing with all matters held in the heart.

A full moon conjunct Jupiter is a blessing. An affirmation of all that we have been able to expand into and out of. Revealing the importance of opening up to optimism, outgrowing the old and moving into a greater faith in life’s ability to help us help ourselves. In Libra, this exploration is done in a beautifying style. An amenable approach. A harmonious and justice oriented tone."

The question posed by this sensual moon is, in relation to Chiron and Venus, what if your feminine wounds were seen as portals of discovery to deepen into the woman you're really here to become?  What if they were loved and nurtured instead of shamed and avoided? 

What if they were seen as divinely orchestrated opportunities to lead you back to your power instead of taking it away?  What if you could see the beauty hiding behind them, unfolding through each and every experience, all orchestrated to guide you back to your true, feminine nature?

Wouldn't it be worth it to "attain the wildest of freedoms through the most rigorous of responsibilities"?

So what does it mean to be sensual and to take self responsibility for our own sensuality?  First off it's releasing the notions that it has to look a certain way, that it's only in relation to sexuality or we feel unexpressed if it doesn't fit the image we think it should.  

Then, it's realizing through experience that the essence of our own unique sensual expression is incredibly unique; and so can be the process of discovery as that expression unfolds.

That's what this moon is all about: to reclaim *your* unique feminine power, by addressing / integrating / owning ALL of yourself.

To see your wholeness as a woman (and how it's not separate from your wounds or what they've taught you) and to see the beauty and meaning even in the smallest mote of each experience, all as leading you back, more deeply to the unique feminine expression of your feminine sensual power.

This means letting go of what you've clung to (the stories, identities, armors, ways to numb out that we used to cope or escape along the way.  Because in order to RE-claim your feminine power, we have to be willing to RE-lease what's been keeping you from it.

It wont happen overnight. It might be something you work the rest of your life towards, but it WILL happen if you keep showing up for yourself. 

So this moon says, feel into the woman you want to become. Get to the root of why you want to be her. Plant the seeds. Let her bloom. And then fucking fight for her.

I love this perspective from Eva Mendez, I this quote read years ago in Marie Claire (before I had really come home to my body and sensuality) and was so struck that even she had to work for it. She said, "it doesn't matter what you have or what you look like, everyone has to work at being confident" ... and the same goes for any sensual quality that you want to cultivate within yourself as a woman.  You have to work for it. 

This moon asks you to ACT on behalf of your feminine expression.  To be JUST with yourself, your desires, your embodiment. Get SENSUAL with your body and your cycles and your expression as a woman.

If you're not sure where to begin, go where you least want to. Have the courage to feel into what that is, be willing to explore your edges and heal what you've been avoiding ... because this is what allows permission to feel (aka your sensuality) and your power to return.

Have patience.
Let it be soft if it needs to be soft. Let it be provocative if it needs to be provocative.

Feed yourself beauty, keep engaging your senses and practicing breathing and being in your body and observe what wants to open up for you over time.

Full Moon Blessings from Bali,

Ashly

ARIES NEW MOON | LET IT BURN + LET IT BLOOM

"The creation Mother is always also the Death Mother and vice versa. Because of this dual nature, or double-tasking, the great work before us is to learn to understand what around and about us and what within us must live, and what must die. Our work is to apprehend the timing of both; to allow what must die to die, and what must live to live.” - Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

This moon asks, what within you begs to live?

Maybe you know, maybe you don’t.  Whichever it is, as we enter into the newness of spring, as we see from the birds and the bees and the grass and the tress, what lives needs time and s p a c e to grow.

Your task this New Moon is to tend to what will it take from you to let your life bloom.

What are you passionate about? What really truly brings you joy, meaning, pleasure and presence? 

Cultivate more of that.  Seek it out.  Find what you need and direct your energy and nourishment there.  Let it grow and take root within you.

If there’s something you’re holding onto that’s keeping you from budding into bloom: someone you need to forgive (yourself or another) or something you need to release, use this New Moon to let it go.  

It’s not your place to carry what’s no longer living with you.

What must live can't do so if you are clinging to the branches of the past or dragging around old ways of being that no longer serve you.  

 Allow what must die to die in order to allow what must live to live.

So clean out your closets (literal or metaphorical).  Honor your body and shift your diet into local, seasonal Spring foods that work for you.  Use this Aries New Moon to take action on what desires to take root within you as you MAKE SPACE to bloom.

Because, just like spring, life isn't passive.  It's active.  It requires energy.   

In yoga there is Tapas, the inner fire.

These are the flames, the embers, the smallest sparks that live within us, that we keep tending to, to keep our inner fire (the fire of life) burning.

This heat is how we  digest life (food and experiences), how we burn through the imprints or experiences that once bound us (sort of like karma, but known as samskaras), its how we heal the somatic trauma that lives in our bodies and how we take action to live the life we desire.

Fire is the fastest path to transformation, and this moon, the energy of Aries (a fire sign) urges you  back to your inner fire.  Let it burn away what's no longer needed so that you can raise your wings towards what's waiting for you.

Use this moon to stoke the smallest spark that desires to burst into flame, because (just with all the sacred cycles of life, death and rebirth) this is how the phoenix rises.

Let it burn + let it bloom,
Ashly

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