Navigating Creative Entrepreneurship Without Desperation

Breaking Free from Shoulds

I am rewelcoming everyone with this two part newsletter, and I explain why first in a concise manner (the actual Welcome Email) and then in a longer behind the scenes explanation, the meat of this post from which the title stems.

PART ONE

Subscriber Welcome Email, as of 7/7/24:

I am so happy you are here navigating life with me. Here is what I think will be helpful to you and if you have questions or comments, just email me.

• By default you are subscribed to all 3 sections (note, some of you may have recently been migrated from Maria Luz Astro over to this main section for admin reasons). You can choose which sections to subscribe to. You can unsubscribe to any or all sections at any time.

• Some of you may have ended up here because you subscribed to my website. I tried sending out emails from there, and while I enjoyed the slick look, I didn’t enjoy feeling like a marketer, so I moved that list over here to Substack where I feel more comfortable.

• Maria Luz’s Substack. Personal essays published weekly on Tuesdays. I draw from pretty much anywhere I have felt the rough edge of growth in my acceptance of self. Here is one of my very first posts (also the one with 100% open rate!) which touches upon the content of all three sections.

• My Alcohol Story. Journal entries from my first year of sobriety published weekly on Fridays. Here is the kick-off post.

• Maria Luz Astro. Currently, I am posting written summaries from my podcast, Maria Luz’s Conscious Curiosities, on Thursdays, and from my YouTube on Fridays. The Thursday posts are deep-ish dives into the archetypes that are the language of astrology, for example, this one on Pluto. The Friday posts focus on questions I think the current astrological energy is posing to us so that we may use our free will wisely, for example, this one covering a New Moon.

• How I (am trying to) earn money. I just liberated myself (on 2/2/24) from a 29 year career in the pharmaceutical industry, and am working on growing my Astrology/Hypnosis/Mediumship practice. I love working with people individually, helping to validate your experiences, figure out why you are here, and heal from the rudeness you have suffered through, or remain traumatized by. It is possible to be free to be yourself, enjoy using your unique gifts, and find others who love what you love.

• Paid vs. free subscriptions. I have paused the paid option for the summer, while I embrace my Summer Resolutions! I had been sharing portions of a draft memoir behind a paywall to feel more protected as much of the content is from a time when I was abused and raped. I intend on restarting this in the fall.

• Notes. Monday - Friday, I pull a Tarot card for the collective and write an inspired haiku.

• Chat. I haven’t used this much, but I want to find ways to have some community experiences here, so I may be experimenting.

• About me. In brief, I am allowing myself to grow into something undefined, as I couldn’t comfortably exist in the varied boxes I ended up in. My birth data: 8/20/70, Seattle, Washington. I am a Leo sun, Aries moon, and Scorpio rising. I have collected degrees and scientific publications and newer credentials and registrations. However, I am most proud of my relationship with my three grown children, learning how to be an Akita mom, getting free from alcohol, and overcoming my fear of other realms and the dark.

Thanks again, and please tell a few friends if you feel like this newsletter. My mission here is to help people understand and accept themselves, then live in flow with the universal energy as it converses with their personal energy and chosen direction. Feel free to email me with any comments or questions.

Love, light, & joy to all of you from my heart!

Maria Luz

PART TWO

Navigating Creative Entrepreneurship Without Desperation: Breaking Free from Shoulds

I am not desperate. So why have I been acting like it? On the surface, it makes sense. My cumulative 6 month earnings since leaving my corporate employment at the end of last year have been a number somewhere between my monthly car payment and monthly health insurance premium. But don’t worry, I am not starving or anything. I was fortunate enough to take with me upon my departure enough of a cushion to last about a year, which in theory would be enough time to start something new. I knew it was ambitious to switch from employee to entrepreneur, let alone begin making a living quickly, and it has been, but I am still not desperate. I am still able to pay for my dog’s fancy natural supplements, to order books for my growing astrology, yoga, and herbalism libraries, even to give my niece a generous cash gift for her recent 30th birthday (you’re welcome, S!).

Somewhere along the way, however, I think my naturally ambitious approach to life morphed into desperate actions. Again, I do not feel desperate at all! Yet, the places where I sought inspiration, that prerequisite for action, were steeped in desperation. The mentors in these places have really, really good intentions. They want you to be a financially successful entrepreneur, widely read writer, sought after hypnotist, niche-filling astrologer, etc. They have social media strategies, growth strategies, methods to grow your email lists. None of which feel comfortable to me. I guess if I am being real, I have only half-heartedly tried to sell my services. Me being a half-hearted Leo is just sad, painful, the worst.

So, here I am. Looking for the third door that will connect me to clients. But still not feeling financially desperate. Although I have a track record of being overly generous (part of my particular form of co-dependency) with others, I don’t generally want stuff for myself and live a very low key life. So I can make my cushion remain comfortable until it grows threadbare. I have never not been able to support myself. I have even started growing some of my own food, and am still slightly stunned that I can put together an entire salad every night from my upstart of a garden.

Sometimes I feel like a cartoon character that fell on her head and the birds are flying in a little halo around my dazed head, a dreamy smile on my face and glazed look in my eyes. I can’t remember how I got here, but I am enjoying the birdsong so close to my ears. I have decided to be here in this blissful freedom of amnesia. I have vague memories of being someone else, somewhere else, but all that doesn’t feel important right now. What is important is to feel inspired and act according to that inspiration.

I officially launched my business, Modus Novus, on March 21, 2024. Since then, I have tried a mixture of things I felt I should do (the half-hearted part) and things I can’t help myself from doing because Spirit or my heart or solar plexus simply override my conditioned mind. Not that I have regrets as I look back over the last few months. I used to spend all of my time and energy in a conditioned bubble, where the Shoulds ruled like malevolent Monarchs bossing me hither and yon, their orders droning on and on in my ears. So the fact that I have managed to slip outside of the bubble where I can’t hear the Shoulds for extended time periods is huge for me. And I appreciate it SO MUCH. 

In fact, I need to just sit with this piece of information - that I have managed to bust out of a place I thought was the entire world only to find it was only one small cell - for a while, happily dazed. While I do this, I am going to reach into the stockpile of stuff I have been creating in the last 3 months or so, and re-run some of my writing pieces. The older generation readers can think of it like summer re-runs on TV. What will the rest of my summer look like? I am definitely going to follow my own Summer Resolutions. 

One thing that has become glaringly evident to me since I started mediumship and other forms of communicating with other realms is that we humans have so much free will. We really do. We just forget, because living in that knowledge can feel very weighty. Powerful. Hard. The wrongs we can right because we are in a body here among others in bodies. The truths we can tell that will prevent people, animals, and plants from needless suffering. The gaps we can bridge through vulnerability, and the beautiful things that can be built through collaboration. All of that is a privilege and an honor that many of us going about our ‘muggle’ lives can’t see. I didn’t see it for decades, but I felt it. What if I had chosen to be inspired by that feeling, rather than overcome by fear and desperation to have something I didn’t even want? Well, it is round two for me now and I don’t want to squander it.

I am not throwing in the towel as a self-supporting individual. (See what I did? I decided I didn’t like ‘entrepreneur” or “self-employed”). I am determined to find a way to support my life in order to do what I am inspired to do. Loosely, that is to empower others with practical information and tools to manage their life’s direction and feel awesome while doing it. People must do this before they can meaningfully connect with others. And it is in this meaningful and authentic connection that magic starts happening. We have to feel the magic inside before we can start seeing it outside of ourselves.

Here is where I have been and where I am as of today in my efforts to be self-supporting.

My business. Modus Novus is the space where I help people learn themselves through astrology, hypnosis, and mediumship. I strongly believe it is our right and our privilege to thoroughly understand and care for ourselves. I love this work and am doing it as often as people sign up for it, often free of charge.

Media. This is kind of squishy, but I love it, so I am going to keep letting it grow into its own being. I put my podcast, Maria Luz’s Conscious Curiosities, and my YouTube (name TBD) in this category. I release episodes at least weekly. The podcast is a mix of deep-ish dives into the archetypes that are the language of astrology (and the world as we know it) with some related hypnotic tracks thrown in. The Youtube focuses on questions I think the current astrological energy is posing to us (remember all that free will I mentioned?!).

Writing. I know this could be a type of media, but for me it has its own personality. I started my main Substack early in my liberation from corporate. I didn’t really know what I was doing (very apparent), but this is where I write about finding meaning in life experiences. Spontaneously, a sub-Substack focused on astrology was born when I heard Spirit say, ‘Hey, why don’t you just post those podcast and YouTube notes you develop as written pieces?” Duh. I also create a Tarot card Haiku and post it as a Note every weekday. 

Research & Development. I am busy learning modalities that are going to further my knowledge and ability to help others. I am in an herbalist program. I am doing a 200 hour yoga teacher training starting in September. I am working on my Jeffrey Wolf Green Evolutionary Astrology certification. I am not sure how these things will specifically be offered, but they are in my heart and therefore are already working their way into Modus Novus and my media and writing.

P.S. This is me, in my little house in Des Moines, Washington.

Me, in 2023, celebrating one year of freedom from alcohol.