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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.
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!”
MONDAY’S POEM: Fishing
I wrote this yesterday, Fathers’ Day here in the US. I was thinking about my father and his father and our times together. Good times.
Fishing
Fishing with Grandfather
Requires a little boy’s
Patience.
Driving to the stream
Seems endless, boring.
Are we there yet?
Hiking to the hole
Is hot, insects biting.
Is this fun?
Casting a plastic lure
Requires skill, practice.
How’d it tangle?
Learning to be still
Is its own reward.
Was that a nibble?
Letting go of all desire
Is the source of joy.
Reel him in boy!
Fishing for small-mouth
In Otter Creek.
As good as it gets!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Blocked? – Part 2
I know; it’s “poem Firday”. But this business of “blocks” is on my mind.
Yesterday I wrote here about being blocked: blocked from listening to my intuition, from changing my language to speak (and think) in positive terms. And I wrote about practice. After 10 years Tenno became a teacher of Zen; he was practiced. Then Nan-in demonstrated how he was not “fully aware.” So Tenno became his student and practiced another 10 years! And I concluded my post yesterday with …another nine years of practice and study and “lessons in lost sunglasses”!
But practice what? OK, I’ve got 9 more years, probably 10! But what am I to practice; what am I to learn; how do I break through the blocks?
Later yesterday I was in one of my practices: Artist Pages writing as prescribed by Julia Cameron. I am fairly disciplined in writing my “morning pages” (sometimes afternoon); and I really know when I skip that something isn’t quite right with my day. I wrote yesterday and came up with some answers to my blocks; not only what is blocking but how to respond; to break through. Here’s what I wrote:
“I wrote my blog post for Rosemary’s site this morning – on “Awareness” again although the title was about blocks. What are my blocks to “full awareness”?
“I think the main one is fear – fear of letting go completely and relaxing into full awareness. If I let go completely I might lose myself! I am not yet fully willing to let go of the ego – that little self that appears to be so important to me. I have no problem with this for moments – while sitting, while doing Qigong, while writing pages when I merge and let come whatever words flow. Practices like these are easy times to let go. But when I’m at a bank ATM my ego is busy in the forefront – considering a number of choices: what’s my balance, how much cash do I need, what do I want to buy at the market, how long will this nice weather last, on and on…
“The conscious mind, the ego, can only handle 7 to 9 bits of information at one time. The thought of the sunglasses on the shelf gets pushed aside. The ego can’t handle all the information. And I am not practicing standing at the ATM. Why not?
“What if I had stood at the ATM in a relaxed but present Qigong posture? What if I had softened my focus moving into peripheral vision? What if I had remembered to breathe deeply and slowly as when practicing Qigong or sitting on my cushion? Would I have seen the sunglasses and remembered?
“Practice can be constant. And there needs to be no fear in this. If we drop our attention and expand our awareness the ego doesn’t disappear, it simply recedes into the background of the 10-million bits of information being processed by the unconscious mind. It is there, aware, processing its 7 to 9 bits, and content to rest, yet ready to come alive as needed. The “full awareness” is in the unconscious mind lifted out of its obscurity through constant practice.
“Blocks are revealed, recognized and broken through by balancing conscious ego awareness with practiced unconscious access.
“Relax, let go, breathe deeply, sink, broaden, move fully into self and become fully aware of Self.”
I think I have my answers! Now to put them into practice…
Happy Full Moon. Have a good weekend!
Blocked? – Richard’s Commentary
It was a bright, sunny day with low humidity and a light breeze – a lovely June day in Maryland. I stopped at the bank on the way home to get some cash for the farmers’ market the next day. Because it was a sunny, bright day I wore my new “reader sunglasses” – sunglasses with a bifocal area for magnification to aid these aging eyes when reading in bright light. I needed to take them off to see the ATM screen at the bank; I placed them on the handy ledge below the machine.
I was halfway home when I realized I wasn’t wearing my sunglasses – my route is shady and the light less bright. I quick search of my many-pocketed vest – my alternative to carrying a purse – turned up empty. Reverse, dash back to the bank – no sunglasses on the ledge. Inside the bank the teller I know by name is free – “did anyone turn in a pair of sunglasses in the last few minutes?” She looks at other tellers and in their lost-and-found area – “no, sorry.”
I am disappointed – mostly in myself. Why these lapses? And when will I listen to my unconscious mind, my intuition? You see, when I placed my sunglasses on that little ledge under the ATM I had a brief glimpse of forgetting them there – just a flash. And I may even have muttered to myself – “don’t forget your sunglasses there.”
If I listened to that voice my unconscious mind heard “forget your sunglasses there.” The unconscious mind does not process negatives. It only hears and processes positive statements – I learned this in hypnosis and NLP training when I went to a few classes with Rosemary when she was earning her certifications.
So, how am I blocked from listening to my intuition, changing my language used in “self-talk” to make only positive statement and become more fully aware, in every moment, of what is going on within me and all around me? And, what do I do about it?
Here’s what Rosemary writes in her post about this subject:
Be grateful for your unconscious mind. It keeps your heart pumping and your brain functioning and your lungs breathing and a whole lot of other processes operating in your life without your having to consciously make things happen. However, that same unconscious mind is operating in ways that can cause patterns and blocks that you might not know consciously, and might not have chosen if you did know, and you struggle with understanding why you can’t get things done or why you seem to be blocked from your successes.
Yes, that seems true for me and does explain the blockage to becoming fully aware so that sunglasses are not lost. Is there a solution to the blocks; a way to move into full awareness?
Rosemary writes: …if you are reading these words, then you are called to continue forward on your path. Take a step in the direction of your dreams. If you feel blocked, if you stumble, rejoice that you are growing. There are ways to see beyond what is holding you back. There are tools to help you and people to support you in your growth.
Another lesson, another growth opportunity. Is this what my lost sunglasses episode is telling me? Here you can imagine hearing a loud groan!
It was just about a year ago (June 28, 2013, as a matter of fact) that I wrote a similar post here titled “Awareness.” In that post I told the Zen tale of Nan-in and Tenno. The master, Nan-in, asked Tenno when he arrived on a rainy day to which side of the door he had placed his umbrella and clogs on entering Nan-in’s house. Tenno could not answer; he studied at the feet of Nan-in for 10 more years to become fully aware!
I guess this means I have another nine years to go, another nine years of practice and study and “lessons in lost sunglasses”!
MONDAY’S POEM: Awareness and Action
I published today’s poem here about a year ago. I publish it again as a reminder and as a setup for my post coming on Thursday: a commentary on Rosemary’s article Blocked? and an exploration of my own blocks that seem to hold me in unawareness.
The poem’s reference to Nan-in and Tenno is to a classic Zen story.
Awareness and Action
A million bits of information
Streaming from a thousand sources.
Are you aware of seven or nine?
Your unconscious mind
Absorbs it all!
Awareness is a nebulous thing:
Seven, nine, ten-thousand things
Add to consciousness moment
To moment even as we sleep.
Absorb it all?
Nan-in asks Tenno umbrella to clogs,
Left or right? Ten-thousand bits
Lost in unconsciousness. Ten more
Years of Awareness practice;
Absorb it all!
Practice in Action. It is all
Practice! For what you ask;
How will you ever know
Bliss if you don’t
Absorb it All?
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Men and The Goddess 