Announcing your March spirit animal: Hello, deer

So, what is the spirit animal for this month? That’s a question that “RockStar Shaman” Alyson Charles meditates on for Well+Good readers, as she divines each energy forecast for the next 31 days or so. And for March, it’s all about the sacred deer.

After a month of many energies shifting and scrambling at times, we enter into March with a beautiful opportunity to step even more onto the path of the heart. In my walk as a mystic, one of the teachings that has presented with ever-increasing clarity, importance and power is being able to access your heart and its essence and feel. As you do practices and live a lifestyle that allows your heart to open (thus allowing you to get more in touch with it), you can begin to clearly feel the difference when you are making decisions from your mind, desires, attachments, or from your illuminated heart.

While the mind is obviously vital for humans to function, to learn to be in communication with and take steps forward in life from the messages of your heart is a main factor in living a life that feels in alignment with what your soul really wants for you (which allows you to feel deep gratitude and fulfillment) and learning how to step with the light. This is all about making decisions that are not based on what your ego wants for you, or what you think will make you “look good” or “look successful” to others. Instead, you’re walking on a path that lights up your true personal joys and is ever-guiding you into greater growth, enlightenment, and true happiness.

Where this path sometimes gets difficult is that the instructions your heart gives you sometimes drastically vary from what you think your life should look like, so it can be scary! And very vulnerable. The path of the heart is courageous and bright and speaks to a truth buried deep inside of you that may not make “sense” in other ways.

The spirit animal with us all month in supporting this work is the sacred deer. Deer medicine is that of gentleness and unconditional love.

So, how do we get more in touch with our heart? How do we access it and be able to discern what our heart wants for us versus our head or ego? The softening and opening of heart can come both in gradual, perhaps even unnoticeable waves or there are occurrences in life that just blast your heart wide open! Think now for a moment in your life where maybe it was through a very challenging experience or one that was so miraculous and astounding that it rocked your core and expanded your heart in a very noticeable way. Where all of a sudden you were feeling emotions you never had before, at depths you never felt, and you were really blown away by your capacity to feel. This is our heart.

While there are moments that unexpectedly burst our heart open, the energies of March ask of us to be consciously aware of heart every day and choose to do practices that support living a lifestyle that further opens and connects you to your heart space. These practices can include offering forgiveness to yourself or another either through ritual or ceremony or direct conversation. They can also include yoga, meditation, breathwork, shamanic journeying or sacred ceremonies, traveling, asking how you can be of support to someone else (strangers included!), or working with copal incense. You may also consider lighting a candle and setting it where the flame is at equal height to your heart center, gazing into the flame (try holding the gaze for two minutes gaze, then closing your eyes fo 30 seconds, and repeat that four times).

See what it shows you, and also really get honest with yourself on where you’ve got some work to do—devote yourself to facing and healing yourself. Through being committed to your own personal healing, this naturally opens your heart, allowing self-love, respect, and honor to activate, which is the most vital component for you to truly love anyone else!

We will begin this process of accessing our heart by doing this practice now: Close your eyes, let your shoulders release down from your ears, gently pull your shoulders back just a touch, letting your chest and heart expand maybe an inch. Begin to draw long, slow deep breaths into your belly and become even more present on each exhale. Once you feel centered and relaxed, begin to direct each inhale into your green heart chakra in the center of your chest, and with each heart-directed inhale you let your heart soften and expand more. See your heart as a bright, very illuminated and healthy emerald green and say, “My beautiful heart, thank you for all the love you give to me, thank you for your guidance, thank you for speaking to me so clearly. I am inspired by and trust the path you illuminate for me. I ask that you continue to show me the way.”

The spirit animal with us all month in supporting this work is the sacred deer. Deer medicine is that of gentleness and unconditional love, one of moving through life connected to the spirit of love for all beings, for nature, which allows separation to dissolve and the magic and true spirit of ourselves and our most miraculous and wildly fulfilling life to take shape. It wraps us in the greatest, warmest embrace ever known. I can say with absolute clarity, that being in touch with your heart is the greatest power you will ever feel, so be with it this month and keep asking, “Heart, what do you want me to know?”

Alyson Charles, AKA RockStar Shaman, channels ancient, sacred knowledge and divine energy through her work as a wellness guide to celebrities and CEOs. Charles merges her work as a conscious lifestyle expert, shaman, and international TV host with the world of media to share the most transformational products, practices, and tips and teach people how to awaken their power. 

Want to catch up on Charles’ advice? Here are her predictions from February and January.