This month there is mounting excitement, the sensation of a growing underground wave that is nearly ready to burst free into glorious being. Everything is electric. The very air snaps with joyous expectation. Impatience for trending change is on the increase. Everyone and every thing seems more alive, more awake, more on the prowl for What Comes Next.

Is this you? Did you wake up this morning wondering why the walls around you, your bed, your face all still look the same, because this morning – this morning – you were convinced that in the night, while you slept, you finally dreamed your Real Self and the Real World into being? Are you waiting for the world to catch up with your dreams?

Along with the excitement and anticipation of the manifestation of the growing undercurrent of change comes ... disappointment. Impatience. Disconnection. Sadness. You can feel that you are ready – oh so ready! – to take the reins of your life and to step into the You that you have been dreaming into being, but ... it's not there yet. Not quite. And so there is fear. Fear that the change will never happen. Sadness. Sadness that you aren't yet all that you know you can be. Anger. Anger that the world has yet to catch up with you, anger that the world has yet to catch up with itself.

And joy. Do not forget joy! Underneath all those feelings of lack and disempowerment is real joy. Real joy! Remember why you are here? Why you first took breath in this body? You are here because you chose to be. Right now! In this world, just as it is, in this moment. And why? Because you can make a difference. Your life has meaning. And there has never been a better time to bring that into being. Right now. This month, this week, this day, this moment. This breath. Now.

Take a moment. Close your eyes. Imagine in front of you the most delicious, luscious, juicy fruit you have ever tasted. Look at it. The color of it, deep ripe color, bursting forth with life. This is your harvest! Now breathe in your fruit's delicious scent. Breathe it right into you, the scent of ripeness, of a glorious moment, of Now. Breathe it into you and down into your heart, your feet. Now feel your feet grow roots, right into the ground, soaking up all the rain and sun goodness that the soil has been collecting for years, waiting just for you, in this moment. Hold your fruit now in your hand and feel its weight. You can almost taste it, this delicious heavy ripe fruit just waiting for you, for the right moment. Bring your face right to it and breathe it in again. It is almost time. Almost time to take a bite, one juicy bite, a bite of YOUR fruit, your delicious fruit. You will taste it when the time is right. Know this and feel satisfied at the beauty of your inner harvest.

What to Expect This Month

Personal

Ahh, there is nothing like a little dichotomy to stir things up a little! How did you feel when you read above that you are almost ready to move into your harvest, into fruition, into the What Comes Next that you have been dreaming into being, but ... not quite? Did you feel excited? Impatient? BOTH? When we approach major choice points, points of change that have been long in the making, it can be easy to step into the expectation of that fruition as having already happened. And why not? You can feel it, smell it, almost taste it. It feels real, doesn't it? And yet it has not become its complete self. It is still your dream, and you are still creating it.

So...let it be. Breathe again in the moment. Remember that there is time.

So! On a personal level, there will be, well, impatience. Eagerness to get started. The desire to get the show on the road, to step into What Comes Next. Of course, on many levels you are always already doing this, but as the Equinox approaches this sense seems to hit more strongly. Something is about to change, and YOU want to be in control to make it happen, to initiate, to taste your fruit.

Resist. The. Urge. To. Push.

This may lead to frustration. Fine, be frustrated. Breathe. You may feel angry. Fine! Be angry! Breathe! You may feel afraid. Fine! Feel your fears. Breathe. You may feel sadness. Fine. Feel sad. Breathe.

You MAY feel joyful. Hurrah! Breathe, oh breathe it in.

P.S. Remember that everyone else is going through this as well this month. Breathe for them as well.

Affirmation: I AM the source of all that is wonderful in my life.

Relationships

Oh me, oh my, aren't we having fun? Relationships turn a corner this month. Move into the sublime. People will just seem awesome this month. Really. Spectacular. More beautiful and more perfect than ever before. This isn't your personal set of rose-colored glasses – what happens this month is that you are able to see into other people's hearts. You see them for themselves, as they are, without all the trappings of fears and protections they normally wear. And guess what? People are amazingly, heartbreakingly beautiful. Every last one of them. See for yourself!

And guess what this does for relationships? Where things were good, now they are great. Where things were rocky and challenging, now there is compassion. Where you were once lonely, now you feel the courage to expand your ripples outward and approach others for connection.

This is a month of beginnings, and of strengthening. Make the most of it.

Affirmation: I AM touching the hearts of all who I see around me.

Communities

Conversely, communities face challenges this month. As each of us inches closer to tasting our fruit of dreaming-into-being, we seem to forget how to work in connection with one another. In the flush of love and connection in relationship, we forget how to be with one another in a group. No matter. This will pass into yet another merging and forging time. Extend your compassion of self to others in your communities. Keep your heartlight extended around you to keep you safe when walking lonely streets; communities in flux often attract acting-out of fears and frustrations through increased violence, theft, and other social warfare activities. Keep your wits about you as you travel, and remember to look into the hearts that are worn on the faces you see, for that will connect you to the inner humanity of each and every person you encounter, friend or foe.

Affirmation: I AM the soul of my community.

Global Politics

We are heating up! Increased personal satisfaction brings about ripples of change throughout the planet, which includes political upheaval, activism, demonstration and other surface manifestations of the getting-ready feel we are all experiencing on a personal level. Look for a little chaos this month. Surprising political candidates in the U.S. Political scandal in Europe. Death in South America. Everywhere there is change – as always.

Let change this month be the beacon of what it is you seek for the future.

Affirmation: I AM connecting my political communities to the heartbeat of the planet, with each breath.

Earth Changes

This month is about fire. Underground fire: volcanic activity. Over ground fire: wildfires threatening populated areas. Fires burning in urban places, man-caused and man-hurting. Fire is our way of burning clean, of creating renewal, of nourishing the planet. As the Equinox approaches, remember that fire is the spark of life that we all yearn for, the bright spinning star so far in the heavens that we aspire to reach, to touch, to savor. Let this month's fire spark your own personal renewal.

Affirmation: I AM holder of the spark of creation of the universe.

Global Spiritual Changes

Let this month be part of your personal jumping-off place, your launching pad to your own spiritual greatness. Breathe in the works, the words, the spirit of one spiritual teacher this month, the one that calls to you in your deepest being, that nourishes your soul. Treat yourself to your own spiritual divinity this month by honoring the sacred within you, becoming your own wisest teacher. Allow your breath to wash the faces of those closest to you, washing them in joy and connectedness. Create your template for spiritual enrichment in the future, your plan to honor your inner divine and connect more deeply to your internal compass. Let someone help you with this, to walk with you and be your anam cara, your soul friend. Be the soul friend to someone else. We all walk this path together.

Global changes again ratchet skyward, taking quantum leaps and increasing the overall vibratory levels of the planet. These are exciting times to be alive. Your job is to live as well as you can, to live as close to your own divine state as you dare to. Why not dare to reach the starts? They are within your grasp.

Affirmation: I AM the divine that walks the heavens.

Consider this your coming-out party. A celebration of You, of the You That is Within and the You that you have been keeping from the world. This month, you take the spotlight. You shine forth your beacon of Self. You let the world see you in all your glory. This month, you let your secrets out, the secrets inside you that have been gnawing at you, eating away at your inside bit by bit, and keeping you from being the complete, beautiful, passionate, heart-filled person that lives within you. August is your month to surrender into You. To feel more yourself. To feel more whole.

What secrets have you been hiding? Ferret them out now, for if you do not push them out into the light on your own, they will be drawn from you through one situation or another, and perhaps in ways that leave you feeling alone, afraid and uncomfortable. The lesson this month, then, is to be bold. Be unafraid. Even if you find it impossible to love some dark corner of your soul, bring it out into the light anyway, for there will surely be love for it even if you think you cannot love it. Trust. Be bold and bring your Self out.

This month, then, you alternate feeling bold, confident and strong, laughing with the hilarity of the universe, with feeling cold and alone, afraid and small. Or, worse, hiding from yourself, doing all that you can to keep anyone – even yourself – from seeing into the deepest parts of you that have been in shadow these long years. But what is shadow other than simply a corner that has yet to see light? There is nothing inherently wrong with the dark, with those shadowed corners, other than the loss the world feels by not having all of you to love.

Sigh. You know what this means, don't you? Yes, it's time to 'fess up, to stop pulling the wool over your eyes (and the eyes of the world) and to let down your defenses and take a good long hard look at the You that lies so deeply hidden within.

Go ahead. Do this now.

All year you have been preparing for what is to emerge from deep within you this month. This is the month that you connect with the True You, the fire deep within, the source of power and strength that is inside you and always has been. This is the month that you begin to manifest your True Self, showing yourself and the world the beauty, the perfection, the exquisite imperfect humanity that is you. This is the month you become more of yourself than you ever have been before. This is the month you draw on the power of The Fire Within.

What is The Fire Within? Inside each of us is the kernel, the source, the seed that is the potential we possess to become our sacred destiny. The Fire Within is the source of unlimited power that ignites that seed into being, gives it life and infuses it with infinite energy and passion. The Fire Within is our personal awakening tool, the becoming of our life's potential. Igniting The Fire Within makes us stronger. More self aware. Healthier in our bodies. More heart centered. More connected to all life and to the infinite universe.

Coiled within you has been All That You Are. Waiting. Hiding, perhaps. Resting. Growing stronger and more powerful. This All That You Are is now ready, nearly ready, to begin to make its way upward and outward into the light. Thus begins The Rising.

You may think of this as kundalini. Do you know it? Kundalini is the sleeping serpent that lies within you — your potential, your corporeal life force. Sri Ramana Maharshi said that the kundalini is the natural energy of the Self, the Self being the universal consciousness that lies within every human being. And that is so. The way to expose the kundalini is self-realization, knowledge of one's True Self, awakening of inner knowledge.

Can you not feel this within you? As what was not needed within you was burned away in the inner fires of May, now your True Self lies exposed, vulnerable perhaps, but ready to begin to emerge upward and outward into being and into the light you shine upon it. This process is not happening TO you; you are creating it by inviting your own awareness of Self, awareness of your joys, desires, faults and shortcomings, and welcoming all of that exquisitely human panoply into awareness and being. You are You. That is enough.

This month, what is not needed is burned clean. Many of us will choose to allow layers of held emotions, patterns, and beliefs to burn away into a fiery pyre, sending sparks of intention up into the ethers and sending a message to the universe about – clearly this time – what is needed and what is not. From the ashes of this burning away will rise the new shining you, bathed in golden promise and replete with all the nutrients necessary for strong green growth and glorious prospect.

Think of this. For years, the true You has lain fallow, nourished and protected deep underneath the surface, but longing for sunlight and to be shown to the world. This month, then, your top layers burn away into ash, and from those ashes rise your personal phoenix, wings spread, a fiery branch clutched in its talons, ready to become a symbol of personal and global hope and potential. Just like new growth springs from the ashes of a forest fire, Nature’s way of making way for transformation, your new growth will begin to be in evidence by month's end.

What does the burning look like? Feel like? What can we expect to happen afterward?

Rolling beneath you right now are the reverberations of what has now become years of foundational activity. This manifested physically last month as the devastating and planetary game-changing earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but continues still as movement underneath, behind the scenes, and growing momentum for supported global change. Are you ready?

Whether or not you feel you are now in a position to assume the mantle of your life purpose and to step firmly onto your path, rest assured that yes, you are ready. As a member of a global community, you are already engaged in what it is you need to do in order to play your part in the overall whole and to weave in your thread in the global communal tapestry of creation. How do we know this? Simply because we are all connected, now more than ever and increasingly on a conscious level -- the world response to the Japan tsunami brought that to bear clearly. Understand that no one need be consciously aware of this connection – it exists regardless of individual awareness and will continue to be strengthened by world events.

What does this mean to you, to your family, to your community, and to the planet? Things are moving underneath at a rapid rate. You may feel off balance, as if you are spinning at a different rate than the planet’s motion. Vertigo. Uncertainty. Wanting to feel the ground firmly under your feet. Relationships strengthen considerably or move farther apart in a widening chasm. Political polarization continues, while each end of the spectrum becomes more aligned with itself. Communities strengthen intention through shared experience or begin to fall apart. People make rapid and often dramatic changes.

If you feel personally off balance at any time, try this: