Category: Denise

(Monday, March 2, 2026) full moon Virgo

I looked up the last name of my great-grandmother Bridget Doyle. Doyle: descendant of Dubhghall, “dark foreigner” or “dark stranger.” The term Dubhghoill referred to Danish Vikings. Fionnghoill (“fair foreigners”) was used to describe light-haired Norwegians. The surname Dubhghall is associated with Viking settlers who integrated into Irish society. Certainly most of my Irish ancestors had jet-black hair, including my mother. Interesting to have this last name when Bridget was born in a territory with many Scandinavian settlers (Minnesota).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doyle

This lovely story also made me think of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of “Sherlock.” Sherlock seemed to show up in one of my recent dreams.

A distant cousin with the last name of Doyle contacted me via Ancestry.com a few years ago.

(Sunday, March 1, 2026) waxing gibbous moon Leo

This morning Cullan and I went grocery shopping at Lakewinds Co-op. He bought some supplements and mentioned he could have gone to Present Moment to have the herbalist make a batch for him. I hadn’t thought of Present Moment for a long time, although in my twenties and thirties I visited very often.

This afternoon I watched one of “Danu’s Irish Herb Garden” videos on YouTube (Danu: Irish Mother Goddess). Celtic herbalist Terry Conroy discussed the healing elements of herbs we use for spicing our recipes. And she mentioned Matthew Wood, the famous herbalist who used to live in Maple Plain (close to my Wayzata house) but now lives in Wisconsin. I looked him up again, as I paid a lot of attention to him when he lived in Minnesota. He began studying herbalism at the age of 13, in 1967, The Summer of Love. Someone gave him Carlos Castaneda’s book “The Teachings of Don Juan,” a huge inspiration for him. Matthew got his master’s degree at the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine and began working as an herbalist at Present Moment in 1981.

OK. I have been writing about Carlos Castaneda. And about my dream guide Edie the Herbalist. I need to pay more attention to herbalism in my summer garden. It seems vital at this stage of my life.

(Thursday, February 26, 2026) waxing gibbous moon Cancer

Last night I listened to Katherine Bell’s podcast (Dream Journal). She interviewed Madi Murphy, who does both astrology and dreamwork. Her website is called CosmicRx and I had a tiny, free astrology reading done online. Here are her results from my birthdate:

I AM A REBEL, Taurus Sun
BUT MY EMOTIONS ARE RATHER FIERCE, Aries Moon
I THINK IN A MEASURED WAY, Mercury in Taurus
BUT EXPRESS MY ENERGY IN A RESTLESS WAY, Mars in Gemini
IN LOVE, I SEEK LOYALTY, Venus in Taurus
MY ROLE IN THE WORLD IS THE HEALER, Cancer Rising

Last year my astrologer Deb O. called out Chiron in my eighth chart. She believes I have been a “wounded healer” for many generations. Madi’s website also states that Pisces at my Midheaven is about healing and art and intuition. Madi says she heals people in her dreams. I am no physician, but I did have a dream a few years ago on the night people were killed in a mass-shooting. They flew towards me, in outer space, begging for me to heal their horrific trauma. Maybe sharing what Jeanne G. calls my “cosmic dreams” can have healing elements for some.

Synchronicity: my aunt who died at 96 was Mary Murphy. She was an herbalist. She began organic gardening/farming in the 1950s.