Archive
New Moon in Cancer I Ching Divination
For each new moon I cast an I Ching Gua – a six-line hexagram composed of open and closed lines. I do this using the yarrow stalk method. I do this to capture the nature of the moon’s energy and what she will bring to us in the way of benefits, changes, guidance and vibrational tone during the month ahead (moonth).
The moon was new (exactly conjunct the sun) in the sign of Cancer last Friday at 4:10 AM Eastern time. She is now waxing and as this is the third day after the conjunction look for her smiling crescent on the western horizon this evening, just after sunset.
The initial Gua I cast for this month is Jian, which means “Hardship” according to my main reference, The Complete I Ching by Taoist Master Alfred Huang. I have included a picture here.
The first thing to notice is the three changing lines in this initial Gua. There are two 6s (Yin) and one 9 (Yang). In this situation Master Huang suggests reading only the middle line, in this case the 9 which then changes to a 6, an open Yin line. With all these changing lines I think we can expect July to be a month of some change. But I don’t think this is necessarily a concern.
The second thing to notice is the initial Gua, “Hardship” follows Kui or “Diversity” in the order of the hexagrams in the I Ching. Diversity was the accomplished Gua from the previous New Moon Divination (link). Master Huang observes that Hardship can arise out of Diversity.
And here is the response that may be appropriate to this Hardship message. This comes from early 3rd Century BC philosopher, Mencius:
If one loves others and they do not respond in the same way,
one should turn inward and examine one’s own love.
If one treats others politely, and they do not return politeness,
one should turn inward and examine one’s own politeness.
When one does not realize what one desires,
one must turn inward and examine oneself in every point.
This hardship coming from diversity requires inner work. Notice that the lower trigram of the Gua is Gen, meaning mountain. This is a time to be still, like a 
mountain. The changing line at the third position also indicates a time to be still. Go inside to examine the diversity that led to this hardship. There is good news here: in this case the third line is the changing line that moves to a Yin line. Keeping still leads to “rejoicing and union.” When the third line changes it forms a new “accomplished” Gua – Bi meaning “Union.”
The new Gua is pictured here.
This accomplished Gua overcomes the hardship indicated by the initial Gua. Union is about love and harmony within a group of people, especially within one’s intimate relationships. To understand and strengthen these relationships this divination suggests that we go within ourselves to find the love and harmony. Then extend and reflect the inner love to the outer, close relationships. Choose wisely here. There are those who don’t necessarily want to be in relationship. Loving relationships can’t be forced. Release those who wish to go their way.
PS: My friend and astrologer, Gloria Hesseloff, writes this about the New Moon in Cancer: “Cancer brings up in all of us a yearning for a safe haven. The Cancerian feminine force calls us back to home and family. Give birth to new forms. Cultivate life. Cooperate. Be creative. Build community.” And she adds: “Life seems more mysterious than ever and Cancer energy invites us to probe deeply into our inner experiences, pressing toward the heart. A Cancer period is a time to penetrate the dimensions of our inner life.” This certainly sounds like a time for Union and for inner seeking. Astrology supports the I Ching in a most satisfying way!
Have a wonderful moonth!
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – New Moon Goddess
The moon is new today, Friday, June 27. She is exactly conjunct the Sun at 4:10 AM Eastern in the sign of Cancer. As my readers know I pay close attention to the moon cycles. Just after the New Moon, sometime today, I will cast an I Ching Gua to “read” the energies for the coming month using this ancient Chinese method of divination. I’ll post my results here on Monday.
Meanwhile here is a reworked poem from four years ago. Yes, I was celebrating New Moons back then too!
New Moon Goddess
New Moon Goddess is dark,
Casting no shadow.
She is gone now, licking
Bloodless wounds down under,
Her return, anticipated
But never quite certain.
Will she be there, two-days’
Peering through slit curtain?
Will she wink in the west,
Then slide out of sight
Still tempted to remain down,
Under, through the night?
Or, will she return, more robust,
Ever bright, casting lengthening
Shadows across two-weeks’
Passing until, as we trust
She stands once again
Opposed to the Father,
Glowing her fullest,
Casting love in the bargain?
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Dream-Makers or Dream-Takers? – Richard’s Commentary
This past Saturday Rosemary offered a Possibilities Playshop to celebrate the Summer Solstice. And once again we all had a wonderful time exploring Possibilities. In a way this Playshop is like exploring our dreams, or exploring what our unconscious mind would like us to be doing! It is a “dream-maker” for us.
And during the Playshop we do use our unconscious minds, our intuitive minds to create a Playbook that we can use to guide us along our dream-paths. Rosemary’s process is very effective in getting our egos and our conscious thinking minds out of the way for a short while in order to get in touch with our dreams. She invites participants, after several exercises to quiet the ego, to make “bodacious wishes” for ourselves. Wishes are then planted on our timelines, set as goals or destinations out ahead so we can move along toward wish fulfillment, that place where we can live our dreams!
In short Rosemary, through her guidance during the Playshop, facilitates our dream-makers and we then capture those dreams and build roadmaps toward fulfilling them.
It is a lot of fun to participate in this Playshop in a group. We all support each other in the process, commenting on how the Playbooks come together, the meanings or interpretations of various components as they are added to the books. We come together as a support group and can then help one another through the months as our dreams unfold. Our intention is to come together again around the Winter Solstice to extend our Playbooks, add to our dream timelines and continue the support. It is good to have others supporting our dreams. As Rosemary wrote in her post:
There will be people who want to be your champions, your cheerleaders and who want to help you make your dreams come true. There are others who, for whatever reason, don’t want that. Choose consciously those you allow to surround you. Dream-Makers or Dream-Takers?
All the participants in our Playshop group are my champions. That feels good!
I don’t share my dreams with just anyone. Often they are “bodacious.” And I don’t need anyone to tell me how improbable they might be! No dream-takers for me! The fact is I am enough of a dream-taker for myself.
I think this might be true for a lot of us. We can often be very effective in sabotaging ourselves and derailing on the path toward dream fulfillment. After the Playshop it is back to “reality.” Our egos kick back in. We start questioning. We begin procrastinating. We get wrapped up in the routine of living. We start making excuses, choosing an interruption or a side-track to re-route us around the dream. Yes, I am my own biggest dream-taker.
The solution? Rosemary’s sums it up nicely:
Own your vision. It comes from connecting to your Purpose, to your Soul Mission on Earth. Continue to Dream Big and the support you desire will show up. Stay committed no matter what or who around you tries to take that dream away.
Choose and commit! Then surround yourself with support for your dreams, your dream-makers!
Stay courageous. Move in the direction of your dreams, no matter what. If you look around you now and can’t find friends to support you, seek out new friends. Find those who uplift others and hang out with them. Speak to loved ones and share that you want their support as you go ahead to pursue your dreams.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Dream-Makers or Dream-Takers?
We all have dreams, visions, plans, goals. Some of them we voice to others and some we keep close to our hearts without sharing, but we all have them.
Have you ever shared a dream with someone and then felt as if all the air was sucked out of you when they reacted with a comment like, ‘You can’t do that!’ or ‘That’s impossible!’? We shut down and believe that they know something true about our dream and we move away from it.
Or sometimes we get rebellious and think, ‘I’ll show you! I’ll make it happen.’ And we get caught up in showing them and lose the ‘juice’ of doing it for ourselves.
Think of a dream that you have, maybe even something that might seem impossible but that feels like a dream, a vision of you that you are seeking. Really feel it in your body, in your energy field. Feel how it will feel when it becomes a reality. Ramp up the feeling and smile. It feels so good.
Now remember that feeling and invite anyone with whom you share that dream to share in that feeling. Don’t let anyone deflate you! Don’t let anyone try to steal your dream or say that you can’t do that. Don’t let anyone try to take your dream away from you.
There will be people who want to be your champions, your cheerleaders and who want to help you make your dreams come true. There are others who, for whatever reason, don’t want that. Choose consciously those you allow to surround you. Dream-Makers or Dream-Takers?
This is not about judging others and deeming them lacking or bad. This is about YOU and your choices in life. YOU choose the folks you spend your time and energy inviting into your energy field. YOU choose what you share and what you keep inside. Choose to be with the people who support you, no matter what. Choose to surround yourself with people who will challenge you to grow into the big vision that you have for yourself and your life. Choose to let the others live their lives without trying to influence yours.
The Dream-Takers are probably not being malicious or mean. They are just stuck in their own ‘stuff’ and can’t accept that you choose to dream big, to reach for something beyond what they can see. Their choices aren’t yours. And they are probably operating out of a fear that they then try to project onto you.
Stay courageous. Move in the direction of your dreams, no matter what. If you look around you now and can’t find friends to support you, seek out new friends. Find those who uplift others and hang out with them. Speak to loved ones and share that you want their support as you go ahead to pursue your dreams.
Own your vision. It comes from connecting to your Purpose, to your Soul Mission on Earth. Continue to Dream Big and the support you desire will show up. Stay committed no matter what or who around you tries to take that dream away.
Surround yourself with Dream-Makers! And be one yourself!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Who are the Dream-Makers in Your Life?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Who are the Dream-Makers in Your Life?
MONDAY’S POEM: It is What it is
I am an Enneagram Type 1. This type is sometimes labeled “The Perfectionist.” Anger is often the first emotional response of a Type 1 person. In the Chinese and Taoist approach to “labeling” people they offer a “five-element” system. I am predominantly a “wood-type” person. Anger is often the first emotional response of a Wood-type person. Yes, I have been known to feel and display anger. But what’s the knowing that can be revealed by these systems that point at me with the same label?
My spiritual path coming out of this introspective approach and the tools I use for self-knowing is acceptance. As a perfectionist I need to accept the way things are. As I wood-type I need to learn to be flexible (like a tree bending with the wind). Acceptance, forgiveness, patience and letting go are the key words that I pull into me and work with toward resonance.
It is within this spirit of resonance that I wrote today’s poem:
It is What it is
Acceptance, letting go, realizing
It is what it is.
This is no easy row to hoe,
And yet it is the only path home.
Breath, inhaling deeply, noticing
What is, this natural state.
Open posture, belly breath
And relaxing on this path home.
Choice, accepting, admitting
There are options, nothing’s fixed.
Relaxed, deeply at peace
And knowing this is the path home.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
A FRIDAY POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AND CYCLES” – Two Wars?
I prefer not to get involved in politics here on this blog, about the Goddess. But I went back in my archives a few years to find the following poem. It seems as relevant today as when I wrote it; in fact there seem to be more than two wars now. Do we really want to go back into Iraq? Do we know whose side we are on? I would rather be fighting the war against environmental destruction. I would rather honor than horrify the Goddess, Gaia, our Mother. But then I’m a dreamer.
And, yes, this poem does seem to fit the Friday theme of “Rhythms and Cycles.” When will it end?
Two Wars?
The Defense Industry is out of control.
Is there no stopping it?
The arms must be expended:
Sell them, arm the world;
Against?
Shoot them, kill the terrorists;
Enemies?
Humanity is out of control.
Is there no stopping us?
The Earth must be plundered:
Dig for her bones, pump her blood;
Survive?
Burn it, consume everything;
Locusts?
These wars are one war.
The genocide is suicide;
The ecocide is suicide.
We look in the mirror of our
Neighbor’s face, point, pull, shoot
Ourselves.
We look in the mirror of our
Planet’s face, drill, pump, burn
Ourselves.
The Human Race is in a race
Away from itself.
It can only lose.
When the Mother turns her face
Away from us
We can only lose.
This one war cannot be won
By us.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
What’s Your Umbrella? – Richard’s Commentary
My “umbrella” has always been work. When I was in the corporate world I worked hard. I traveled a lot. I had responsibilities. I shouldered them well. As I look back on those 40 years I realize that I was often running away from the lessons, the real part of life I needed to learn.
Oh, sure, I needed to earn a living, keep the family secure, move ahead, up the corporate ladder – that’s what we do, right? But at what expense? How many of us escape into our work with these very rational motivations and miss why we are here in the first place, miss our real purpose?
I am retired now, still working hard, enjoying the work a great deal more and, yes, sometimes I still continue to use work as my umbrella. Why? Rosemary hits on one of the reasons:
All you have is NOW. The lessons don’t go away. The Universe wants you to have that success, satisfaction and fulfillment and puts lessons on your path so that you can clear the blocks and achieve your dreams. Why delay that?
It’s usually fear. But the rewards of doing the work, of learning the lessons, are so much greater than the pain of getting there that it’s worth it to start now.
Yes, it’s usually fear. I wrote about this in a post just last Friday, the 13th when I commented on the blocks we face:
I think the main one is fear – fear of letting go completely and relaxing into full awareness.
I believe my main purpose in this life is to become fully aware, to become enlightened. This is not an ego thing; I believe this is the main purpose of every human on the planet. I, at least on some unconscious level, have known this for a long time. And I have escaped from this, from the lessons that would bring me closer to enlightenment, and worked on all the other things humans do: job, family, earning corporate merits, duty, …
But the Universe wants me to have that “success, satisfaction and fulfillment…” The Universe wants us to become enlightened! The lessons are all there, strewn in our path to bring us into the light.
The ego doesn’t get this. The ego would rather escape into work and feed itself with the rewards of a job well done. So the Universe continues to offer the lessons. And I am beginning to listen. Sometimes the lessons are loud; we can only miss them if we continue to distract ourselves with our umbrellas. Sometimes the lessons are whispers. I’m learning to listen more closely.
I’m following the advice I wrote for myself in the June 13 post (link). And I am ready to “happily dance in the rain!”
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What’s Your Umbrella?
Or, to look at it another way, what are you using to protect you from the storms of life?
As I look out at the heavy rains that are falling, I wonder how often we rush to our raincoats and umbrellas to make sure we don’t get rained on. Metaphorically, we do the same thing. We rush to protect ourselves from whatever is happening around us so that we don’t have to deal with the depths of the implications or meanings.
Sometimes this can be as simple as avoiding making a painful phone call or finding an excuse to procrastinate on handling something complicated. But I also find that it is easy to stay on the surface and avoid digging deeply into the personal growth work that is available to us in the midst of a storm of life.
For example, have you ever had the experience of being in the middle of turmoil in your life and you find yourself searching for the quick fix, the way out, the end to the pain instead of seeking the deeper meaning and the personal lesson that is hiding inside the situation? We’ve all done this, but as we move along our spiritual journey we learn to seek out the deeper lessons and to get those lessons learned before they return in a more insistent way.
That is what they do. The lessons are there for you to learn what you need to learn to grow into your highest self. They are presented in different guises so that you have plenty of opportunities to figure out how to grow from them. And they don’t go away until you really get what you need to learn.
So your choice is always to learn it now or learn it later.
May I give you a piece of advice, based on personal experience? Learn it now. When lessons return because we’ve been hiding out from them they usually come in a more powerful way so that they are sure to get our attention. I jokingly say that I am focused on finding the lessons and learning them when they are subtly appearing without waiting for them to turn into two by fours to the head!
In what ways you are avoiding the work that can advance you on your journey? Are you thinking about doing some journaling but can’t seem to find the time? Would you like to meditate but you don’t want to learn how just yet? Do you know that you are not being as successful, satisfied, fulfilled as you wish and yet you don’t feel ready to get the help that might bring you that success, satisfaction, fulfillment?
All you have is NOW. The lessons don’t go away. The Universe wants you to have that success, satisfaction and fulfillment and puts lessons on your path so that you can clear the blocks and achieve your dreams. Why delay that?
It’s usually fear. But the rewards of doing the work, of learning the lessons, are so much greater than the pain of getting there that it’s worth it to start now.
Get the help. Do the work. Learn the lessons.
And, when the next storm comes, you can happily dance in the rain!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: What is Your Umbrella?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: What is Your Umbrella?
Please enjoy!
