Full Moon's morning Message.

The full moon and the morning star were in competition this morning. Out above the east facing backporch (were I usually write in the early morning) the morning star twinkled her "hello''even as moon's shadow backoned me back to a  new writing perch. The last sliver had flled out the fullness of grandmother moon's face shortly after midnght and she lit up the crack of dawn sky so brightly it provided sufficient light to write in my notebook as I sat on on my west-facing front porch. 
What I loved about the moon this morning was how defiant toward the sun she seemed.  Her luminosity grew more intense as the dawn sky brightened.

This morning, the moon's fullness reminded me that we too have an opportunity to express our own fullness. If we have been hanging on to an attitude, behavior or longing, the full moon will nudge us to let go of what keeps us stuffed.

Full moon energy is used for cleansing and if we can rest in the light of the full moon we can cleanse our energy fields, our emotions and spiritual energies. Such is the difference between between full and stuffed

WAXING in the September Moon: Vision becomes Action. Purpose become Practice

I want to share my experience of moving from the recent blue moon cycle into the current cycle, as I think it speaks to what happens when we shift from the place of having a vision of what’s possible and into the action of creating what’s possible.

My experiences are showing me the value of remembering and renewing the vision I hold for my life (AKA life purpose) so I can finally bring that vision into substance!  I do believe there comes a time when it is necessary to turn our Vision of Purpose into Acting on Purpose.  This is what I am experiencing as I work with the flow and force of the September moon cycle. 

In moving from the blue moon cycle and into the moon cycle for September, I reflected on the clan mother names referred to in Jamie Sams’ book The Thirteen Original Clan Mothers (see resources above). I worked with these cycles using the clan mothers as teaching and inspirational guides.  I worked with ‘Becomes Her Vision’ as representative of the blue moon cycle and ‘Setting Sun Woman’ as the clan mother for this September moon cycle.  During the Blue Moon, I repeatedly experienced visions of my purpose from many different angles. Beginning the September Moon, I experienced in my body, my feelings, my thoughts and spiritual awareness the process of what it takes to LIVE and ACT my purpose!  Even coming down with sinus infection and doing lots of traveling have not been enough to derail my focus. 

Sams writes of the Clan Mother for September as the ‘keeper of tomorrow’s goals and dreams’.  (pgs. 185-186) Through working with the power of the Will, we are able to bring about the changes necessary to bring our purpose into being through acting with integrity and discipline.  Both integrity and discipline work in alignment with right use of ‘will’. In my training as a Core Energetic Therapist I studied the areas along the spine which are referred to as ‘will centers’.  Areas of tightness or rigidity verses flexibility and mobility can correspond to a person’s relationship with their own ‘will’, other people’s ‘will’ and Divine Will. Through the course of growing into a mature Human-being, we seek to align our own will with Divine Will and not spend our life bent under other’s will.

I had numerous opportunities to step into and out of integrity over the past moon cycle, to act on my own petty will or collapse under the pressure of the other’s will.  Mostly I think did pretty well, though in reading through my Daily Review (Daily Review Instructions) I am aware of how I could have done better and note.  I’m not going to give details here, just want to share how I was surprised by the clarity I saw of my shadow and integrity sides of my behaviors during the blue moon cycle as truly an opportunity to become my vision. A month of these kinds of experiences really prepared me for the onset of this current moon cycle.  I feel so blessed. Despite plenty of opportunity to derail myself, I am using the gentle, yet forceful nature of this moon’s flow to align my own will with that of Divine Will.  The practice of Daily Review  (Daily Review Instruction) is a powerful tool to aid in developing this skill/way of being and doing.  I recommend it for anyone struggling to make a change in their life.

At the end of the October moon cycle, which has as her Clan Mother ‘Weaves the Web’, I will divulge what my ‘Living In Action’ is about!  In the meantime, I prepare for Sunday’s full moon by offering gratitude for how through humbly continuing to align my will with Divine Will (and it is often very humbling) and with the support of community and with gentle, firm self-discipline I am becoming my vision by my daily, moment by moment actions.

Closing Out My Blue Moon Cycle

I'm taking a few minutes to post as a way to anchor and ground myself as I get ready to go to the Sunrise Springs in Santa Fe for the opening ceremonies of the Wisdom of the Origins conference.  I have a sense this will be an amazing 6 days.  I intend to show up with an open heart and an open mind as well as with open eyes. 

It is fitting the conference comes as the Blue Moon cycle ends and we move into the Season of Autumn with the September Moon Cycle.  I will write more about this cycle in the next couple of days.  But I wanted to share a short reflection on how the blue moon energy has shifted the lives many of my colleagues, clients and Circle participants in the personal lives, in their relationships as well as their private and public communities.  I hope some of you will share your experiences.
But I will speak just for myself.

As I move to reflect on my life of the past 28 or so days of this cycle, I had opportunities (invitations) to shift energy in every one of my Aspect and many of the Elements of myself with in the Aspects.  I will admit that at times the energy felt more like a shove than an invitation or opportunity, but I am happy to say I more often than not embraced the shove rather than my usual stance of digging in my heels. 
A short summary: 
     Personal Self- I had a big wake up call about how cluttered my mind had become with a lot of erroneous and old information.  The energy of this cycle seemed to clear out a lot from my head and at times it felt like I had a powerful leaf-blower clearing out the corners of my mind! Not always pleasant, but feels great now!  This lead to so shifts in my
     Collective Self- I totally cleared out and re-arranged my office, which included letting go of more than half of my books and this opened the way for changes in my
     Creative Self- bringing my healing objects more prominently into my office space and creating a VERY supportive space for writing.  This shift brought in new people and monumental shifts in my
    Relationship Self- I am in several new circles of community which is supporting my work, my personal healing and FUN.  This past month also manifested some difficult but healthy lessons on boundaries in personal relationships.

That's it in the nutshell version.  Use the 'What's Happening in My Life Now' document on the Circle of Self Website for a guided summary process. 

I'm off to the sunrise!

I Experience the Power of Illumination: waning moon release and manifesting

I was a guest at a meditation circle Monday night. In keeping with the waning moon energy, the meditation invited release and manifestation at one and the same time.  The woman leading the meditation guided us in feeling the energy field which surrounds each of us- an egg shaped magnetic/energetic field as big as an arms-length distance from our body. We spent some time feeling our energy field and the boundary between our field and the world outside of our ‘egg’.  We were then asked to be aware of what was in our ‘egg’ that was getting in the way of us being on our path.  I admit to feeling some resistance to going along with the experience.  I was often told as a child that I had a vivid imagination, which translated into ‘it’s not real’ or ‘you’re crazy, immature, stupid …So it has taken me a lot of release and re-assessment of the inner workings of my mind to allow my imaging process to flow. 

Back to my meditation experience:  Inside my energy field I felt my right hand holding a hard shiny dark colored, triangular shaped shard.  I felt it held close to my chest, just over my heart.  As I allowed myself to feel it and to see it in my mind’s eye more clearly, I experience the sense of fighting for my life.  I consciously slowed my breathing.  The leader asked us to move whatever it was we had discovered to the edge of our egg.  I felt some feeling of panic as I move the shard away from my body to the edge of my egg.  Then she asked us to push it outside our egg. As I moved the shard through the imagined membrane of my energy egg, I began to experience terrible vulnerability.  The awareness I had at the moment was that shard was my last line of protection when my boundaries (either physical or energetic) had been so violated I felt it necessary to fight for my physical or energetic life.  I was aware the shard represented the use of a sharp tongue or a very sharp mind more so than anything physical.  While I was processing these thoughts, I heard the leader’s words to see, sense and feel what would come in to replace what we had pushed out, that could give us what we needed for our path.  Immediately (no time to second guess myself) I saw and felt immense amounts of light fill my egg.  I felt protected and my energetic egg was totally light filled. I heard the words “blinded by the light”.  Then:”You just need to allow the light (of loving presence) to shine.”  I had an image of the light becoming so bright, that it would ‘blind’ my imagined attacker long enough for me to disarm the situation.  WOW.  The light was powerful, incredibly strong and yet very soft.  It does no harm, yet is protective.  At that moment I felt (and still feel) incredible gratitude, release and relief.  Truly an experience and a gift of illumination!  Thank You Grandmother Moon and Divine Spirit!

Share your own illumination experience with us.

The Blue Moon's Invitation to Become Our Vision

Jamie Sam's Thirteen Original Clan Mothers is a source of inspiration for working in all the Circle of Self moon cycles.In particular, Sam's story of  the 13th grandmother, 'Becomes Her Vision', sheds light on the gifts and calling of the blue moon.  In calendar years without a blue moon cycle the teachings of this 'grandmother' would fall in the final cycle of the year.  This year, the blue moon of becoming our vision is a transitional cycle between the summer and autumn seasons. What does this mean for those of us moving on the path of transformation? It will be helpful to consider the energies of the cycles of which we are in the midst: see moon cycle information


The General Energy of the Blue Moon:

1. An invitation to become YOUR vision.
2. Become clear about what in your personal history may be limiting your process.
3. Focus on ways to increase our connection with/to Divine Energy on a daily, moment to moment basis and with all of life.
4. Work with the general energy suggestions for the moon cycles just before and after the blue moon cycles

Recommended Aspect to work with during the Blue Moon: Personal Rhythms and Cycles

How will this integrate with the energy of the Summer and Autumn Cycles summarized below? 

The General Energy of Summer:
1. Awareness of the subtle energy and the sound of God (Great Mystery)
2. Presence of self in connection with nature and all that is
3. Experiencing the space between the void
4. Connecting wth child energy, our own and of children
5. Fertilizing our potential

Recommended Aspect to work with during this season: Relationships

The General Energy of Autumn:
1. Listening to and understanding our longings 
2. Seeking counsel: humility of asking for help (from others as well as from our own wise self) 
3. Working with our vision(s) 
4. Acknowledge our own wisdom 
5. Practicing personal discernment 

Recommended Aspect to work with during this season: Personal 



I am taking this as a time to re-embrace my vision for my Circle of Self Year.  I am currently reflecting on my journal entries from the past three months. I honor the ways I have learned to listen more carefully to my inner wisdom and to the Divine One.  I also am becoming aware of areas where I have stumbled, been disillusioned and easily distracted.  I spent a good bit of the summer feeling like I was sitting in space in-between what I had accomplished and not knowing what was next.  And, just like the nature around me, I feel as though I have been in some sort of drought.  last week I read a chapter in the wonderful book MOONRISE: the power of women leading from the heart (see resources above). A sentence by Terry Tempest Williams struck literally at the heart of the matter: "...I have seen her reluctance to take her place at the heart of her creation." (pg. xviv) Although Terry wasn't writing about me, her words spoke a truth about me in terms of my own creative process.  This blue moon brings me a new invitation to Become My Vision.  I find myself reflecting deeply longing for enough humility to seek that my vision be in alignment with that of Divinity. The summer nights are quiet here, and cooler now and the silence and dark of the last of the waning moon and new moon opens the way for this kind of reflection.  The blue moon guide outlines a process of moving in the direction of becoming this vision. For me, it is an invitation to explore what needs to be added, let go of, manifest in order to take my place at the heart of my vision. The approaching energy of Autumn is a perfect encouragement to fully embrace and become this vision as it is in alignment with my purpose as I understand it.  

As I  became aware of not having fully 'taken my place in the heart', I have begun the process of creating a circle of support and brought into my life several women who are supporting my intention to step into this heart. I will add to this circle of support both in-person and in-spirit form over the course of this cycle. My waning moon cycle was also spent exploring where and how I have limited myself in the past and releasing some old baggage. I continue to process this holding back with a very qualified and wise mentor (having a witness to our work a critical aspect of manifesting and sustaining change).

How will you use the teaching and invitation of this moon cycle?

Why We Cry

I received an email this morning asking how to get through crying at work.  I immediately related to the problem from my own issues around crying.  I could empathize with this person who reached out for a bit of advice and support.  I used to be embarrassed when I would cry in front of people-particularly people with whom I felt, at some level, insecure with or inferior to.

Over time I got quite good at controlling my tears. However, there were times and situations that would arise when I was not able to control the open/shut valve in my tear ducts. Those times were terribly shaming for me, increasing my experience of being less than, or stupid, or immature, or unprofessional...the list goes on and on.

There are physiological reasons for tears flowing from our tear ducts. The wisegeek.com blog gives a good summary:
There are many theories on why people cry emotional tears. One such is that there are proteins in tears, which are the same components in certain hormone. One of the biggest of these is prolactin, present in greater levels in women than in men. Women use prolactin in large supply when they are nursing infants, and in the first few days after having a baby, breastfeeding that baby may produce very strong emotional response as prolactin levels increase massively. Women also report feeling very calm, sleeping or spaced out during the first few weeks after a baby’s birth because of the high levels of this hormone. Not only does prolactin stimulate lactation, but it also tends to have an overall calming effect. It may be the case that prolactin, and other hormones like it are part of a mood regulation system. When we perceive physical or emotional pain, these hormones may build, and produce greater amounts of tears. Thus people cry, and this release may be calming too, helping to restore mood.
To read more go to http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-people-cry.htm 

There is a profound purpose for our tears flowing that goes beyond the physiological reasons for 'emotional' tears:

Crying is our Soul's way of speaking to us, getting our attention. Through crying, our Soul is asking us to accept the deep inner wisdom and knowing that brings peace and abundance* to our life. If we can but listen for the words within our tears we will experience all we need to get through our current situation.

*abundance [via Old French from Latin abundantia, from abundāre to abound] : 

1. A great or plentiful amount.

2. Fullness to overflowing: "My thoughts . . . are from the abundance of my heart" (Thomas De Quincey).

3. Affluence; plentifulness

4. Benevolence

5. Plenitude of God’s goodness and spiritual gifts  

        Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © Harper Collins Publishers 1991, 1994,
        1998, 2000, 2003
6. Not just referring to having money and 'stuff' (Carolyn Faivre)

When you cry, can you hear the message within your tears? When you witness another crying, can you hear the words in their tears?  If you could, how would/could your experience be different? 

The Full Moon Effect and Water and Air Ceremony; Fire Ceremony

A lot of material has been written about Full Moon-including my own full moon posts.  There's so much information it's easy to get lost in glut of it which shows up on the Internet. Science has largely debunked any idea that the full moon (or new moon or any moon or that matter) overtly or covertly has any effect on humans. For science, what is true depends on what can be measured, analyzed and put into a statistical formula. I think it is not much different than the difficulty science has in understanding homeopathy-what happens in the proofing of a remedy. What's happening can not be measured within the current dimensions of science, but that does not mean there is no relevance or effect. As living beings we are in relationship to everything else that is alive. Being connected, we do and are effect(ed) by all that is, in however a subtle way it might be.  Some are more sensitive and more effected than others. If your are on the more effected end of the spectrum,  the simplest way to work with these energies are to pay attention to your emotions/ behaviors/physical sensations/attitudes.  A very self-supportive way to do that is in ceremony.

Water and Air Full Moon Ceremony: All that is required for this ceremony is water (set in a space which can reflect the moon's light) and your breathe. I'm lucky enough to have a hot-tub and I regularly use that for my cleansing rituals, but a large bowl of water, bathtub,  pool, lake or pond would also work. The idea is to have the moon light reflected in the water. First, do an internal cleansing by taking some time to sit with my face toward the moon and with each breathe invite the moon to illuminate (bring fullness to) all of your senses. Create an image of your breath being the vehicle which connects the earth to the moon, through your body as you breath in and out.  Your breathe  breathing in the light of the moon, imagining it flows down through your spine and with your out breath, into the earth. Continue until you feel ready to begin the next cycle of the ceremony-I usually do 7 breathing cycles, representing the 7 directions, seven embodied chakras and seven sacred sacraments-but follow your own guidance.

Next-the 'spoken' or 'verbal journal'. Say out loud tonight's date, and begin to speak, acknowledging your awareness of  what is needed to be fully in your life.  I use one breath cycle for each acknowledgement.  This is not about self-criticism or judgment, the breathing in of light is an energetic and intentional enlightenment toward change, transformation and movement in whatever form serves your life.

When done, use the moon-energized water to intentionally wash away all that interferes with your desired change.  Immerse yourself in the moon energized water (or if a bowl of water is used splash it on your face hands and feet).  Symbolically, you are now one with the moon...remembering your own cycles just as the tides of water on the earth cycle with their own ever shifting rhythm.  Being in alignment with your cycles, you can trust your movement forward.


Fire Full Moon Ceremony: I  found a clearly written full moon ceremony which works with the fire element for cleansing and releasing by Heidi Kelley on her website:  http://heidikelley.wordpress.com/law-of-attraction/full-moon-cleansing/