One of the most rewarding spiritual practices is to cultivate the ability to bring love into all aspects of our life and to all people we encounter. This entails learning how to include love’s presence while we speak to others, are in conflict with others, and are living with others.

                                                                                                  Gil Fronsdal

Co-Creative Mandalas have a vibration that
anchors, activates specific qualities, and
represents something about ourselves,
the natural world, and the energy in the Universe
at a particular time. This year the mandalas support Choosing Love’s Presence within,
with the rhythms in nature,
and with the Great Mandala.

The mandala archetype for this month is Affection.

It's been fun, illuminating, and surprising to explore Affection and all the ways it supports
Choosing Love’s Presence.

Love’s Presence within mind, body, and spirit is seen, felt, and experienced by listening to
your inner guidance
and finding joy, peace, and wonder.

How is Affection calling you to embrace
Choosing Love’s Presence?

This Co-Creative Mandala--Affection--from a photograph of Peruvian lily (symbolizes positive energy), sea holly (symbolizes strength), chrysanthemum (symbolizes solar energy), and baby’s breath (symbolizes affection) and is associated with all the chakras. This mandala reminds us to love without keeping score. Give with all your heart, without expecting anything in return. When you choose Love’s Presence, people feel safe, seen, and connected. Hold space for yourself and others with kindness Your gentleness, openness, and warmth are your strengths.

Welcome to a new seasonal focus: Affection
A little love note from my corner of the Universe.

As we’re immersed in the heart and heat of summer, it’s easy to get caught up in the outward energy of the season. I invite you to take a sacred breath and pause.

This is the time for balance between the intense, rapid growth of the season (inner and outer) and the softness of Affection...a beautiful expression of loving kindness (metta), compassion, and Love’s Presence. True Affection is both inward and outward and includes compassion and gentleness with ourselves and others. This is season for inner work like mindfulness and loving kindness meditations with outer work of making this a better world—how we treat people, how we show up.

Every morning, I start my day with a ritual that feels good. I wake up, kiss my sleeping sweetie on the forehead, and head out to the garden to care for the flowers and veggies. Sometimes I weed--very meditative. Sometimes I water--very nurturing. Sometimes I sit on a bench and marvel at all the beauty that surrounds me--very soothing. Always there are bees, bumble bees, dragonflies, finches, yellow and black swallow tail butterflies enjoying the beauty right beside me. Sometimes I'll spot a tiny rabbit, that was likely born in the garden and will stay there, feasting on the bounty all around it until nature takes it's course and it finds greener pastures and meets its destiny. There is often a hawk flying overhead...ready to swoop down as soon as I’m out of sight. Then I wait and watch for whatever magic unfolds. It's like I'm a child again, following in my grandmother's footsteps, exploring the world with wonder and curiosity.

There’s something healing about caring for beings– flowers, plants, humans and animals alike. I'm reminded that we can make our small corner of the universe a little better and that caring is a form of therapy. It feels good to be kind, to show Affection.

Sometime back in January, you probably set an intention (or more than one) for the year ahead-- a quiet promise to yourself. I know I did.

Is the year I will take better care of myself? The year I will stop listening to the old, limiting beliefs? Finally, will I give myself the same Affection I give everyone else?

When we pause and look back, we can often recognize the ways the Universe has been guiding us, supporting us, and helping new possibilities take root.

As you dive more deeply into this season of rapid growth, it's time to pause, reflect, and honor the journey you've been on.

It reminds you to let the light in as you go through a very deep spiritual journey. Clear what no longer serves you. This is the time to celebrate how you’ve grown, acknowledge the wisdom you've gained, and listen for what the Universe may be inviting you toward next.

It’s time to give yourself some Affection.

If your intentions slipped somewhere beneath the busy months, the distractions, the inner and outer world that has been so intense...here's the good news:

Today is the perfect day to begin again. Every moment brings an opportunity to show up for yourself in a new way; to Choose Love’s Presence.

Where is your energy better invested right now: pushing harder or nurturing yourself with Affection?

Over the past few months, we've been exploring the themes, the archetypes of Choosing Love’s Presence--Wholeness, Reverence, Loyalty, Optimism, and Clarity, reminders to stay open to what wants to emerge, even when we can't yet see the full picture.

And isn't that often how growth unfolds...through small moments of awareness, unexpected opportunities, gentle course corrections, and quiet acts of trust?

That's why Affection matters.

Affection, for self and others, is another word for compassion. It isn't about lowering your standards. It's about creating the inner support that helps you learn, grow, and keep moving forward, especially when life doesn't go as planned.

When we respond to our set backs with  Affection instead of harsh self-criticism, we can learn from those set backs and begin again more easily.

What is one small way you can offer yourself Affection today? Share your answer in the comments.

Your reflection might inspire someone else.

I’ve always said that love is a practice, and like most things we practice, it is difficult. That truth contrasts with everyone thinking love is easy, but what about when we encounter people we don’t want to love? There are times I get up in the morning, and I think, ‘Okay. Who am I to love today?’ That is not a choice based on who I think is cute, or who I want to spend time with, but it’s the recognition of the hunger we all have for love.
                                                                                bell hooks

May this sacred pause offer you clarity, gratitude, and a deeper appreciation for all that has been unfolding during this season.

Love, Light, and Blessings,

Sacred Mandalas: Mandala Messages for Aligning with Inner, Nature, and Universal Wisdom have a vibration that anchors, activates specific qualities, and represents something about ourselves, the natural world, and the energy with the Great Mandala at a particular time.

This year each monthly mandala supports Choosing Love’s Presence, our intention for 2026.

The June mandala archetype is Affection.

The roses make the world so sweet,
The bees, the birds have such a tune,
There's such a light and such a heat     
And such a joy this June...
                                                                                      George MacDonald

Happy Summer Solstice, Kindred Spirit:

It’s wild to think it’s summer solstice! I know people (and I) say this every year, but I truly feel like the first five months of 2026 have felt like an entire year itself - I barely remember January, February, or March.

June brings a very different energy than the months we've just moved through.  

Summer solstice isn’t just a day that marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and the longest day and shortest night, it’s a sacred and powerful energetic turning point that marks the beginning of a new phase of growth, expansion and expression that is supported by the light - literally.

It’s a time where hope, possibility and potential, wonder and joy, and a more open and receptive heart and mind can more easily take the lead. Even the astrological influences of this time of year are lighter and more nurturing (i.e. Gemini and Cancer season, for example).

The word “solstice” comes from the Latin “solstitium,” which translates to “sun stands still” - so it’s also a sacred time for stillness, to pause and acknowledge all of the blessings and the challenges thus far this year, and who you’ve become through both.

I encourage you to take a sacred pause today to reflect on and tune into this. The answers you come up with and feelings you tap into will impact what happens for and through you for the remainder of this year.

In other words, you get to decide how much light you let in from here.

After all the intensity, momentum, and big shifts, this month and summer solstice offer us a chance to slow down, regroup, and lovingly reconnect with ourselves before the energy ramps up again later this summer.

Between everything happening in the world and everything unfolding within our own lives, we’re living through a period of profound change, awakening, and emerging. And if there’s one thing I’ve witnessed over and over again in client sessions, and within, it’s this: 

Something remarkable is happening.

Something new is ready and trying to emerge.

This isn’t transformation...when something comes from something old.

This is about emerging...something new, different, never experienced before is coming forth. Kind of like a caterpillar emerging into a butterfly—not a transformed version of a caterpillar.

Sometimes it arrives first as a “breakdown before a breakthrough” (or ten, as many people are reporting an uptick in this experience), sometimes it’s a crossroads, a life transition, a relationship shift… Or a growing sense that the life you’ve known no longer fits who you’re becoming.

Like a caterpillar’s fuzzy body no longer fits a butterfly’s delicate wings.

Yet, what I’ve seen on the other side of these experiences is something beautiful: greater clarity, deeper self-trust, allowing Affection--for ourselves and others that opens us to a more embodied relationship with Who We Truly Are.

A version of yourself that is aligned with Wisdom- a version who can be with the hard stuff without running, spiritual-bypassing or numbing out, and who can also hold more light.

This is exactly how the Sacred Mandalas: Aligning with Inner, Nature, and Universal Wisdom oracle card reading for the collective is designed to support our emergence.

This is the time for curiosity and allowing.

What story do you tell yourself about what has happened to you, what you're capable of, and what you hope to achieve? Is the conversation in your head each day empowering and encouraging you, or holding you back?

What do we need to know this month about thinking differently, what we’re learning, and how we speak to ourselves?

In this month's Oracle Card Reading for the Collective we explore the energy of Affection and what it means for each of us as we move forward toward Choosing Love’s Presence.

There is something in the reading for everyone. This oracle card reading blends intuitive insight and practical guidance to help you understand the season you’re in, what it’s asking of you, and the most aligned path forward.

During and following Sacred Mandalas oracle card readings, clients report that they feel more grounded, inspired, and connected to their Wholeness. They are able to move forward with greater ease and confidence because their experience is validated and clarified in a way that finally makes sense.

I like to think of it as an infusion of Affection with Alignment with inner, nature, and Universal Wisdom. The readings offer a burst of remembering our Wholeness.

When I sit down to do these readings, I ask the Universe and Archangel Ariel to show me/us where there is Affection in our life and to reveal a map that helps us navigate our lives with hope, and intention as we choose Love’s Presence and move toward living our soul-guided purpose.

When I pull the oracle cards and I sit with them and intentionally see the colors, the essence, and absorb the mandala meaning, something shifts within. Everything settles. The noise in my head becomes quiet, followed by clarity. I can see truths I may have been too overwhelmed to notice before.

This card reading supports Choosing Love’s Presence, receiving guidance as you grow into your next chapter, and discovering new ways to bring the magic, mystery and power of Affection into your life.

Come back to this reading whenever you’re feeling stuck, seeking clarity, or when you're ready to Choose Love’s Presence—and experience Affection within, in nature, and with the Universe.

This is a three-card reading. Before I pulled the cards I asked:

How does Affection support moving forward toward choosing Love’s Presence—today, throughout June and the year ahead?

The first card, the Focus Card, is selected from the Chakra Suite—Inner Wisdom--practical wisdom, and reveals what we are called to cultivate and expand.

What do we/you/I need to cultivate that supports Affection and moving toward  Choosing Love’s Presence in June and beyond?

The 2nd card supports the Focus Card, the allies and helpers who guide use and is selected from the Archangel Suite—Universal Wisdom—cards. 

What guidance are we/you/I ready to receive that supports expanding Affection as we/you/I move forward toward Choosing Love’s Presence?

The 3rd card supports our next steps toward moving forward toward Choosing Love’s Presence and is selected from the Seasons Suite—Nature Wisdom—cards. 

What do we need to know that supports a possible future?

This reading is perfect for summer solstice energy that gives us permission to see ourselves differently, with Affection. To tell a more loving story about ourselves. And, with an open heart, to trust that we have new chapters to write that tell the story of who we really are.

May you trust your voice, and set intentions that help you tell your story with Affection, greater confidence, and deeper authenticity.

May this turning point offer you moments of stillness and spaciousness, along with renewed wonder for what is quietly emerging within and around you. May the light illuminate what is ready to grow, and may you continue to trust the gentle unfolding of your path.

Summer solstice blessings,

For a limited time, with the purchase of our Sacred Mandalas: 48 Card Oracle Deck with Guidebook we offer a personal, complimentary oracle card reading.