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Hello Reader,
Here are the shifts in tone, emotions, focus (Sun), and energy (Mars) this week. All times are given in US Eastern Daylight Savings Time (US EDT).
If you prefer reading this letter in Google Doc format (along with all previous editions), here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZlbqBgcbrA0s-2HG36Ezealg0mCDK13WXa9uVNFVrgU/edit?usp=sharing
This week in the sky
Sunday, May 17: The Moon entered Gemini late Saturday evening, and Mercury enters Gemini on Sunday morning at 6:26 am. Add Uranus to the mix, and the Gemini energy will feel amplified and highlighted not only on Sunday, but in the weeks ahead.
Mercury rules Gemini, so you may notice an increase in mental chatter, scattered focus, and the urge to jump quickly from one idea to another. On the upside, Gemini makes perception and communication nimble, curious, and fast. The challenge over the next couple of weeks will be not to overtax the nervous system with too much information flowing back and forth.
Monday, May 18: We have three shifts today, and together they may help soften some of Gemini’s nervous restlessness.
First, Mars leaves its home sign of Aries and enters steady, grounded Taurus at 6:25 pm.
Then, at 9:05 pm and 9:45 pm, Venus and the Moon both enter Cancer. So, within less than three hours, we move collectively from the quick air of Gemini and the fire of Aries into the slower, calmer energies of Taurus and Cancer.
Tuesday, May 19: There are no major shifts today. Enjoy the softer presence of Venus and the Moon in Cancer.
Cancer rules emotions, so you may still feel many things — and that is okay. Give yourself five minutes to feel whatever arises as fully as you wish. Then check in with yourself: do you want to continue carrying that emotion, or are you ready to move on?
Often, we are ready to move on the moment we realize there is nothing we can do about the external situation that appears to bother us, and we might as well release it and continue forward.
Wednesday, May 20: We shift toward air and fire energy again.
At 8:37 pm, the Sun enters Gemini and brings its light to all Gemini-related themes in your chart. Over the next month, you are given an opportunity to notice what Gemini concerns are active in your life and bring greater awareness and clarity to them.
Gemini is about curiosity, quick explorations, solving puzzles, finding the news, and telling stories. It is a democratic energy - it doesn't judge but accept the information without categorizing it. Gemini just wants to be in the know.
Use the light of the Sun — both literally and metaphorically — to illuminate the area of life Gemini represents in your chart.
Later in the evening, at 10:48 pm, the Moon enters Leo and it's time to play.
Do you know where Leo is in your chart? If yes, I have a challenge for you: go to your favorite AI tool and ask, What should I expect when the Moon is in Leo in my ___ house? (Fill in the blank with your house.) Then see what comes back. Did you discover something interesting? Does it fit your personality?
Thursday, May 21: There are no major shifts today, so we continue with the Moon in Leo.
Leo is fixed fire energy and is closely connected to the inner child, creativity, and playfulness. These are the days when we are collectively moved to do things simply because we enjoy them — not because they are productive, strategic, or necessary.
Friday, May 22: No major shifts today, but the Moon enters Virgo early Saturday morning at 2:57 am.
Saturday, May 23: At 2:57 am, the Moon moves from playful and expressive Leo into tidy, practical Virgo, and we are suddenly hit with the realization that we have to clean up after ourselves — literally and metaphorically.
At 7:11 am, the Moon also squares Sun and marks one quarter of its cycle till the next Moon. If you planted a seed or hatched new idea last week during New Moon, today may be the first day when it becomes visible.
Virgo is mutable earth energy and is closely connected with facilitating and organizing our daily life experience. It naturally focuses on nourishment through cooking, baking, tidying up, decluttering. Virgo simple takes care of matters. The old Zen lesson might as well have been written for Virgo: if you are done with breakfast, wash your bowl.
The goal for Moon-in-Virgo days is to discover our middle line of “good enough.” Virgo tends to go overboard when unchecked — perfectionism, hyper-analysis, and obsession with details are all Virgo gone wild. Life becomes tedious, overwhelming, and exhausting.
If you catch yourself in an overwhelmed state, a little Pisces antidote could help. Listen to music. Relax and accept that it is not your job to tidy the entire world. Most of all, remember that you are Spirit temporarily in matter, not a slave to the material world responsible to fix everything gone wrong..
Sunday, May 24: We continue under the Virgo Moon with a focus on practicalities and comfort. Check the house that contains Virgo in your natal chart, and you may get an idea where you will feel especially attentive to detail, planning, and decluttering.
For me, Virgo is in the 12th house, and I tend to want to clean the kitchen and bathrooms. I suddenly become aware of every dust bunny in the house and how I am apparently the only one cleaning. Well, that is what my whiny Virgo-in-the-12th-house says, which (a) isn't true and (b) is really a Piscean trait — to see yourself as a martyr. Given that the 12th house is the natural Pisces placement, it is no wonder the two become jumbled in my psyche.
What I do love about Virgo days, however, is that I receive a lot of intuitive hits and insights during that time — again, probably because of that 12th-house placement.
Go deeper – Moon in Leo, Sun, and the Solar Return
When the Moon is in your Sun sign, you often receive a natural boost in vitality, energy, and enthusiasm for life. For me, that sign is Leo, and on several occasions I have even gotten sick because I overextended myself in my exuberance. You can read the stories in my book, Effortless Reality, or more recently, I mentioned the Moon-in-Leo effect in this video I recorded last week on my way to work:
So, how do we work with the Sun in our chart? Here are two easy entry points:
First, track the days when the Moon is in your Sun sign. How did you feel? More energetic than usual? Less? More centered in your inner core? More confident?
The second option is to track the once-a-year entry of the Sun into your Sun sign. We tend to associate birthdays with childhood, family celebrations, and gifts — and all of that is valid and true. But there is another important layer to the picture: your Solar Return.
Every year, the Sun passes exactly over the degree it occupied at the moment of our birth, and our subconscious often experiences that as a renewal of energy, vitality, and alignment with who we are.
At the moment of your Solar Return, the Sun is once again in your natal Sun sign, but the event happens in the present moment and therefore has its own Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant, and IC, along with a completely new arrangement of houses and planetary placements. The chart cast for that moment becomes a map of the themes and energies for your upcoming year.
The house containing the Sun shows where your energy and focus will naturally concentrate. And all the planets, serving their king — the Sun — bring their own qualities and energies into support of that focus.
In my natal chart, the Sun is in the 11th house. In this year 2026 Solar Return, Jupiter in 8 Leo will be in loose conjunction with my natal Sun in 13 Leo, thus expanding and amplifying my Solar focus.
This year, I also had a choice - to stay at home and have my Solar Return chart with the Sun/Jupiter conjunction in my 8th house of inner work and personal transformation. Or, to travel to Sedona, AZ and thus have my Solar Return chart Sun/Jupiter conjunction in my 9th house of outward work, travel, adventure, and teaching.
If you had a similar choice, what would that be? Vote in the poll below.
| If you had a choice, would you rather have the next year revolve around expansion (Jupiter) of your identity (Sun) along themes of |
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I'll share what I chose in my next letter.
Steady the system – Anterior Descending Energy (Stomach FE)
We are bombarded with information daily — some of it legitimate, some of it false, but in almost all cases designed to provoke fear, anxiety, and emotional reaction.
Do I sound like a conspiracy theorist? Consider this:
Over the past month, I have been recording weekly reflections on work, life, the world, and how I try to remain calm and sane in what often feels like an insane world. Every time I upload a video to YouTube, however, the algorithm combs through the recording and almost invariably selects the most animated and unflattering emotional expression possible as the thumbnail.
The first time I noticed this, I asked Riverside — my video editing program — to generate the thumbnails instead. It did exactly the same thing: disheveled, emotionally heightened expressions.
So, I realized something larger was going on and asked ChatGPT about it. It patiently explained that algorithms are optimized to amplify highly emotional states because those states generate clicks, engagement, and ultimately advertising revenue.
And that brings me to the JSJ flow I want to offer you today: Stomach Function Energy.
This flow begins at the cheekbone (SEL 21), circles through the face, and descends through the throat, chest, and stomach. Along the way it branches and divides multiple times — very Gemini-like — before continuing down the opposite leg and eventually washing out through the big, second, and middle toes.
When this flow moves harmoniously, it can help wash some of that upper-body rumination downward and out of the system, bringing much-needed peace of mind.
Here is how to do it:
Left Side
Place your right hand on the left cheek (SEL 21) and your left hand on the left clavicle (SEL 22).
Right Side
Place your left hand on the right cheek (SEL 21) and your right hand on the right clavicle (SEL 22).
If you would like to explore the full flow, you can find it in Self Help Book 1 (page 43) or The Touch of Healing (page 137). In both books, the Stomach sequence appears under the name Anterior Descending Energy and contains eight steps.
An added bonus is that this flow keeps excellent care of our face skin. It's one of the two "plastic surgeon" flows that I know in JSJ.
Hindsight
Someone recently asked me how I manage to keep my “zen” calm all the time. Well, the answer is: I don’t.
When I lose my cool, I usually become forgetful, procrastinating, and whiny. Yes, occasionally I get angry and you might hear me use some strong words, but more often than not, I end up in a corner sulking and ready to check out of the “stupid” world around me.
The point here is that personal growth and spiritual awakening are not linear. They move more like a three-dimensional spiral, with ups and downs almost to the very end.
We measure progress not by becoming permanently “good” or “evolved,” but by noticing how much farther apart the ups and downs become, how much shallower the lows grow, and how much faster we recover from them.
And this is where journaling your thoughts and experiences becomes incredibly useful.
When I feel down nowadays, I simply circle back to my journals and to the two books I wrote in 2021 (Meditations and Effortless Reality), and reread parts of them. It always calms me down.
When I wrote those books in 2021, I never imagined I would eventually publish them. At the time, they were simply messages to myself — reminders for how to navigate the difficult years of the pandemic. I assumed that once the pandemic was over, the reflections would become obsolete.
Ah, was I wrong on that account!
Not only are they not out of date, but they seem to become more relevant by the day. A commentary on the political situation around the globe, I suppose.
— Tatiana