09/01/2026
Queens, Kings and Heroes
I woke up this morning from a dream, the lingering words.
Hero. She-ro. Heroes and She-roes. All of us have these archetypes within us. The In-Dwelling greatness.
It’s been quite a week. Dolly Parton, iconic hero and Queen of Country. Tim Curry, as a teen seeing the Rocky Horror Show at the 8th St. Playhouse was life. Yayoi Kusama, the princess of polka dots. King Harald of Norway. King Oyo of Uganda, crowned at age three, gone at just 34. Hayden Panettiere, a hero on the show Heroes.
Two kings. Two queens. A hero. A princess of art. People who despite their circumstances did something great. People who shaped so many of us, in so many different ways. This moment has a way of asking us to see what has been hiding in plain sight.
I’m realizing something about heroes and she-roes. There is no need to look to a crown or a screen to find one. To a child, the first hero they ever know is a parent. The first king or queen a kid ever meets is the one who shows up, believes in them, feeds them, kisses the boo-boos, who holds them when they are scared. This is where the feelings of heroism start, in a kitchen, in a car seat, in a pair of arms at two in the morning.
Which is what makes it so important how we see the people we LOVE.
Earlier this week I had a text catch up conversation with a dear friend. She asked after my aging mom and how I was surviving this eclipse season. My response, one breath at a time, ohmmm. She told me about her teenage son. He does not want to be seen with her. He is short with her, distant, sometimes rude. Typical teenager stuff, and also not so typical when you are the one living it.
We all want the best for those we LOVE.
As we talked, I recognized something I hear all the time. When we worry about someone we love, when we speak about them from a place of what we see is wrong, we are not protecting them. We are boxing them in. Worry is a kind of prayer in reverse.
I shared with her what I used to tell my own mother about my brother. You are his mom. You brought him into this world. You are his biggest blessing. What if you saw him as strong? Whole? Taken care of? My mom would push back every time. He is not, Tony. How can I see him that way when he is struggling right in front of me?
Here is what I told her, what I told my friend last week and some of my clients. Bless them instead. See them surrounded in light. Put them in the center of the universe’s heart, the creator’s or God’s heart, whatever word feels true to you, and hold them there for a minute or two each day. Cleanse yourself first. Let your own light expand. Connect to that higher part of you. Then let that blessing pour out and surround the other person.
Because the algorithm is always listening, the next morning an AI avatar reel showed up on my friend’s Instagram talking about the exact same thing. Feng shui, blessings, worry as a form of the evil eye. It said worrying about someone pours a low vibration into their energy field. It limits them. It brings chaos instead of protection. Fear is not love, even when it wears love’s clothes. Children feel that pressure. They pull away from it.
Worrying is not protection.
I do not know if that avatar was channeling something real or reciting a script. It does not matter. The message landed twice in a day from two completely different places, and that is usually my cue to pay attention.
So this month, here is the practice. Think of the people and things you worry about. Someone you love so much the worry has started to feel like devotion. Notice the story you have been telling about them, where they are struggling or stuck or not okay. Flip it. Bless them instead of bracing for them. See them as the hero, she-ro, and success they already are, whether they can see it in themselves yet or not.
Whisper into the field of possibility, greatness. Remember this isn’t just for the people or situations we worry about. It’s for ourselves as well.
All of this loss and change has landed now during this eclipse season, a Pisces eclipse that astrologers have been calling one of the most significant in years. It is tied to what they call the Nodes of Destiny, the points in the sky connected to fate and higher purpose, which is why eclipses tend to hit differently than a regular full moon. This last one, in particular, is being described as the closing of a cycle that actually started back in September of 2024. What we began to see clearly two years ago is now asking us to finally act on it. What no longer fits who we have become, we are allowed to leave behind.
There is a language of completion here. It happens to land in the same window as something I have taught every September for years.
My friend Elizabeth taught me that the ninth month gives us a concentrated look at the whole year. September is completion energy. End of summer, preparing for harvest, back to school vibes. Transition energy. A chance to choose a new path if the old one is not fitting anymore.
An eclipse about closing a cycle, landing in the one month of the year built for closing cycles. I was not sure if those two things were related when this idea first came to me. Now I think they were always going to meet right here.
I remind myself that this Fire Horse year was never going to be gentle. It is missing the water element entirely, and water is what regulates us, financially and emotionally. Without it, everything runs a little hotter. More reactive. More polarized. That helps explain why this moment feels like so much all at once. And it lands inside a larger arc, 2026 is a 1 Year, the start of a brand new nine year cycle. This moment closes one chapter and opens the very beginning of a bigger one.
Queens, Kings and Heroes, how are you going to show up?
LOVE your way,
Create a beautiful day,
T
