In the Northern Hemisphere, November can be a tough month. Things start to get colder and darker. Snow may or may not have arrived yet, but the trees are bare, seeming to shiver in the wind. The cheer and playfulness of Halloween is over, and we’re not yet into the holiday break, especially if you are in Canada, where Thanksgiving has already passed.

In ancient times, before our modern calendar, people tracked the time and seasons by the moon. November’s full moon has been called the Frost Moon by the Cree, the Freezing Moon by the Anishinaabe, the Dark Moon by the ancient Celts, and the Snow Moon by the Medieval English. November marks the true beginning of the cold season, and it can be a difficult one to get throu

According to heaps of archaeological evidence, the Goddess was once worshiped all over the world by many different names. She was often depicted in three forms: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Sometimes these three goddesses were sisters, sometimes separate goddesses reflecting different archetypes, and sometimes as the same goddess in different life cycles.

The Maiden

The Maiden embodies the new moon, springtime, and the dawn, as well as moments of new potential and possibility. She is the Greek Persephone, originally referred to as Kore, which translates to “maiden.” She is also Brigid, the beautiful red-haired Irish goddess of early spring, representing the energy that pushes the very first shoots of grass and flowers up through the snow. She is birth and rebirth after death in the Goddess cycle.

We all know that having a connection to our intuition is a good thing. It can help us differentiate a good friend from someone who is trying to take advantage of us. It can help us move toward what we want even when other people might disagree with our choices. It can help us know whether we should go up or down, right or left. Or can it?

Intuition is, essentially, our sixth sense. It’s a feeling of knowing beneath our cognitive understanding. It’s knowing without being able to explain how we know. But what if our intuition is broken? What if what we’ve been feeling all along is actually something else, like fear?

In the classical protocols for addiction, abstinence is king. Twelve-step programs and other strategies help people quit a certain substance or behavior and stay off it forever. While this strategy absolutely works for some people, it doesn’t work for everyone. According to the American Addiction Centers, only about five to 12 percent of people who go through a 12-step program actually succeed in recovering from their addiction. So what if there’s another way to work with addiction? What if abstinence isn’t the only option?

We might take our thumbs for granted most of the time, but when thumb pain shows up, we remember how much we need them. They are involved in many of the everyday tasks that we do, and it is our opposable thumbs that separate us from many other animals, making us able to grasp and use a wide variety of tools. If your thumb pain is severe and ongoing, you may need to speak to a health practitioner to see what kind of treatment would help your thumb best. In the meantime, let’s explore the spiritual meaning of thumb pain.

Plant medicines have been used for generations in many cultures to heal mental and physical health issues. When talk therapy was not an option (and before it existed), spirituality often met that need, helping people put their problems into a larger context to find hope and faith. Plant medicines have often assisted with that journey.

Healing from a surgery or illness is not a linear journey — some days may feel harder than others. Fortunately, tools like meditation can support your healing and ease the difficult emotions that accompany the process. 

In this blog post, you’ll discover a self-healing meditation designed to nurture your body and calm your mind. Join Julie Peters, one of Insight Timer’s beloved teachers, as she guides you in restoring balance and harmony within yourself. Follow along to reconnect with your body, release discomfort, and promote healing.

Shame has got to be one of the most uncomfortable experiences of human life. When I’m working with my clients on shame and I ask them what shame feels like, they might tell me it’s a sickness in their stomach or a thick, sludge-like energy that makes them want to crawl out of their skin. Shame has the power to make you want to do almost anything to get away from that feeling.

And yet, every feeling that we are capable of feeling has a purpose and a reason. Sometimes that reason goes back to our very survival. So, what could be the upside of shame?

Snoring is common enough: Most of us snore a little bit at night, and it can come and go, especially when we’re experiencing allergies or nasal congestion. In some cases, snoring is a symptom of sleep apnea, which should be ruled out by a healthcare practitioner. Clearing the sinuses, elevating your head at night, avoiding sleeping on your back, and doing oral myofascial physiotherapy are all ways to address and hopefully improve snoring.

But what might snoring be telling us about our emotional and spiritual states? If the body is trying to tell us something, what is it saying? Let’s explore the spiritual meaning of snoring.

Seasonal allergies, known also as hay fever, are common enough and usually relatively benign. They can include sneezing, runny nose, hives, and other cold-like symptoms recurring around the same time each year. There are over-the-counter medications that can help short-term, and if your allergies are more serious you may want to talk to a doctor about treatments that can help. In the meantime, it could support your system to consider the spiritual meaning of allergies and hay fever and see if we can approach the problem more holistically.

Anxiety is one of the most common experiences we have as human beings. It can be a natural reaction to occasional stressful events, but for some of us it is a constant state. Many think of it as a version of fear, and fear may certainly be present with anxiety, but anxiety is more complicated than that. Anxiety has a few functions that can be helpful to understand. When we understand that anxiety can be a teacher, we may be able to soften it a little bit and find out what it’s trying to teach us.

All of our ancient ancestors ate intuitively with the seasons. Learn how to tap into these methods for greater health and well-being

Intuitive eating is a simple enough practice: It essentially means eating in accordance with the signals of the body. Eat what you crave when you are hungry, just to the point of fullness.

Because of the culture many of us live in, for some, this simple practice has become so challenging that they seek out dietitians who specialize in intuitive eating. This approach to eating would have been the way we consumed food before there were diets or ever-changing social media-fueled beauty standards; we would have eaten for pleasure and survival, and that’s about it.

While the female body has a deep connection with the cycles of the moon, anyone can work with the cycles of the moon for healing. Learn how.

Hormones affect everything from menstruation to digestion, immunity to skin health, and even weight loss or gain. Stress can have a major impact on our hormones, and we live in a culture that is highly stressful and doesn’t offer a lot of time for rest and recovery.

Some stress is normal and healthy, of course. But when stress is constant or we experience ongoing stress related to a past experience, that stress can become toxic. We can address stress with counseling, lifestyle changes, and other support (like a 40-day nervous system protocol). It’s also possible to support hormone health by working with the moon cycle.

This frustrating skin condition may have much to teach us about boundaries, anger, and irritation. Explore the spiritual meaning of eczema.

Eczema is a common chronic condition that can show up anywhere on the skin at any time. It’s generally noncontagious and nonlife threatening, but it can be extremely irritating, distracting, and itchy. It can go into remission for years at a time only to flare up at seemingly random times. See your doctor or health practitioner if you are concerned about your eczema and how to treat it.

But sometimes our bodies are communicating something to us through our symptoms. Learning about this communication could give us a sense of how to care for these conditions and help guide us on our life path, even if the issues themselves don’t resolve. So, let’s consider the spiritual meaning of eczema and see if we can understand a bit more about what the body might be trying to tell us.

When we take time out of our lives and focus on healing, chronic pain and illness may become easier to manage.

Chronic pain and illness are complex and incredibly challenging to live with, especially in a culture that expects us to be constantly productive. Chronic conditions are frustratingly mysterious, and while the medical system might be able to help us to a degree, we can often feel abandoned when we don't recover quickly.

We do know, however, that chronic conditions likely have some relationship to the nervous system. A balanced nervous system tends to support balanced hormones, healthy digestion, and a well-functioning immune system. What if we could reset the nervous system and find healing there?

Medusa may be remembered as a fearsome serpent creature, but upon deeper inspection, her story holds truth about ancient goddesses and the power they still have.

Medusa is an incredibly popular figure from ancient Greek mythology. She’s known as a snake-headed monster, so ugly she can turn you to stone with a single glance. But there’s more to Medusa than that. In fact, her myth may tell the story of what happened to an ancient goddess who was once the primary deity all over the world.

Laryngitis can be deeply challenging, but losing your voice can teach you valuable lessons about what you should be saying no to. Discover the spiritual meaning of laryngitis.

There are many reasons you may have laryngitis. It can be a symptom of a cold or flu, overuse of the vocal cords, or some other inflammation or irritation of the vocal cords. It essentially means you can’t speak. As always, talk to your doctor or health practitioner about any medications or interventions you may need. But in the meantime, let’s consider the spiritual meaning of laryngitis.

You might need to break the “rules” in order to fully heal yourself. Learn how healing is a radical act—one that might rock the boat in your life.

Healing is powerful. We do it to help ourselves and to make our lives feel even just a little bit better day to day. And when we change our patterns to be more loving to ourselves, we can’t help but become more loving to others, the land, and to our community. When we stop the cycle of certain intergenerational patterns related to trauma and pain, we heal not only ourselves but our ancestors and the future generations that come into contact with us. Healing is a powerful process, but we often encounter resistance when we choose to heal. As physician, author, and trauma expert Gabor Maté puts it, “Healing is a highly subversive act.”

Recurring headaches can be a sign that there are imbalances in both the body and mind. Learn more about the spiritual meaning of headaches.

Headaches are rather common and can be caused by a number of factors, and can range from slightly annoying to debilitating, especially if you suffer from migraines. Sometimes headaches can indicate an underlying issue, and if you’re concerned about your headaches, it’s a good idea to see your doctor to find out if there’s something else going on. In the meantime, let’s consider the spiritual meaning of headaches.

While the common retelling of Persephone’s story may seem heartbreaking, a deeper, more powerful truth lies within.

In the classical Greek myth “The Rape of Persephone,” Persephone, the daughter of the agriculture goddess Demeter, is abducted by Hades, god of the underworld. Demeter grieves Persephone so bitterly that the world stops producing food, and winter falls. In order to bring abundance back into the world, Persephone is returned to her mother, but because Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds while she was in the underworld, it is decided that she must stay in the underworld for six months each year, causing the cycling grief of her mother to bring on winter once a year.

Demeter was likely one of the pre-Hellenic goddesses who was worshiped before the northern Zeus worshipers arrived. “The Rape of Persephone,” as well as many other Greek myths we know today, may actually tell the story of this conflict: The masculine invaders work to subdue indigenous feminine spirituality, leading to uneasy alliances and unhappy marriages in myth.