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New Moon, New Lunar Year, New Beginnings!
Hello Dear Readers!
I hope you have noticed I have been absent for the past couple of months. Rosemary and I have been regrouping and revamping during our hiatus, but now we are back – the Goddess is returning!
We have begun publishing a revised newsletter based on the phases of the moon. We will publish updates about twice each month just before the new and full moons. Why? Because the moon is a very important influence in our lives and awareness of her importance is a key to living a more conscious life.
The “Chinese New Year” based on a Lunar Calendar was celebrated about two weeks ago. The sun was exactly conjunct the moon Wednesday evening, February 18 at 6:47 pm Eastern. The year transitioned from a Wood Horse year to a Wood Sheep (or goat) year. We are now in this new energy.
As I begin publication of “Men and the Goddess” again I will draw material from the MoonLetters Rosemary and I publish, I continue to cast I Ching Gua (Hexagrams) on each New Moon which I’ll publish here and I continue to write poems which I will share here from time to time.
Meanwhile here are some excerpts from our MoonLetter published just after the New Moon and New Year:
Moon Message
“At the time of the Lunar New Year, each individual is invited to create a vision for the coming year that encompasses new wishes, new desires, new dreams, new delights. It is a time to lay to rest the past, the ups and downs of the past 13 Moon Cycles, and allow everything to start afresh. Let go. Detach. Dissolve that which holds you back and look forward to your new creations. Happy New Year!”
Moon News
Happy Lunar New Year!!! The New Moon is ushering in the New Year according to the Chinese calendar and we are ready to move into the Wood Sheep year.
According to Feng Shui Grand Master Lillian Too, “The energies of this year of the wood sheep are very favourable in terms of business and other opportunities. It is important to begin to live in a state of greater awareness so that these opportunities don’t pass you by.”
This New Moon happened on Wednesday, February 18 at 6:47 pm Eastern Standard Time in the very last degree of the sign of Aquarius in the very last minute – 29 degrees 59 minutes. This is a powerful time for manifesting something new in your life, and this Lunar New Year gives you a fresh start for the next 13 Moon Cycles.
Three minutes after the New Moon was exact, the Sun and Moon were both in Pisces, moving us from consciousness of all humanity to a sense of interdepence with all – nature, plants and animals. We also look toward the spiritual aspects of situations and ourselves during the Sun’s time in Pisces. The Moon in Pisces invites us to connect deeply with our emotions.
What new dreams are you dreaming for yourself? What new ideas do you have for your life this year?Celebrate! Take advantage of new opportunities by committing to act in the direction of your dreams. You will be supported.
This New Moon is also a Super Moon when the Moon is closest to Earth and in alignment with the Sun and Earth. Its impact is enhanced when this is the case. Have you noticed that this week you are feeling a lot of energy? Or more drained than usual? I did an ‘electronics fast’ for a couple of days before the New Moon and it was exhilarating! Try it some time.
Get ready for the Full Moon which occurs on March 5 at 1:05 pm Eastern Time. The Full Moons are times to let go, to release the old.
You’ll be receiving another MoonLetter at the Full Moon! (But only if you subscribe.) We’ll also publish bits and pieces here on the blogs.
If you want to receive the MoonLetter each time it is published you can do that at TheScientificMystic.com When you subscribe you will also receive a meditation on the phases of the Moon given by Rosemary.
I hope you have been well while I’ve been “away”! 2015 is coming in with very different energy; enjoy!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Take Stock
The video for today’s post not only has a message for you to consider it also announces that my husband, Richard, and I are taking some time to reflect. We are “taking stock” of many things during Solstice time, as the light here in the Northern Hemisphere dims and we retreat inward. With the Sun the MuseLetter and this blog will dim for a time.
My “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Take Stock:
Have a wonderful holiday time!
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM RHYTHMS AND CYCLES: Winter Solstice
This past Wednesday Rosemary and I hosted a meeting of our Consciousness Exploration Community for sharing some good food and excellent conversation. Our theme for the evening was sharing something meaningful about the holidays; a story, a song, a poem. So I wrote today’s poem which also fits my “Rhythms and Cycles” theme very well.
I hope you have wonderful memories of your Holiday Celebrations and are making new ones this year. Be sure to share them!
Winter Solstice
They say we are on a spiral journey;
We spin on the Mother,
Spinning around the Father,
Spinning at the edge of a Milky Way
Wheeling along the fringe of reality.
The effects of this circling seem small:
Summer Solstice spins through Fall
And on to deepening Winter.
As light recedes in lowered sky,
Spirit dips so close we feel the Love.
The cycle is grounded deep in Mother’s core,
The energy follows graceful lines of
Magnetic force, lifting consciousness
Along soft grooves of innocence,
Natural paths of vision and expansion.
Spiraling Consciousness follows
These graceful lines of attracting energy,
Mapping courses for the Transformations
That continue to carry us higher,
But never away.
Earth bound and sky grateful, we rise,
Ever seeking, always believing there is more;
We are more.
We stretch our plastic minds beyond,
Resisting brittle breakage on our destined way.
Each turn reveals more, creates new
Perspectives, new vistas pulling up,
Onward to next dreams, exposing
Even then, the next turn, inevitably ahead
Around the bend.
Solstice deep to Solstice high
We spiral from choice to choice
Knowing the journey, seeking
The cycle through consistent course, yet
Rising through transformation with every change.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
THANKSGIVING TRANSFORMATION: Richard’s Commentary
The title of Rosemary’s post of her poem, Butterfly, holds deep meaning in itself. Thanksgiving and Transformation aren’t words that go easily together, but if we give the pair a bit of thought there is more there.
We are now moving well into the last month of 2014. All the turkey trimmings are gone or put away. Is your sense of “thanksgiving” also put away with the November decorations, thrown out with the bones of the bird? Or do you practice gratitude all year long?
Rosemary’s second butterfly in her poem says: “Nothing is static. Nothing stays the same. The only constant is change.” Can we be grateful for every change? Can we look at every change as part of a greater transformation as explained by the third and smallest butterfly? This is the challenge the poem presents. It is the every day, small changes, moment to moment, that generate the transformations of our lives. And gratitude every day, moment to moment for those small changes leads to “thanksgiving transformation.”
Can you hear the vibration that rings between these two words? There is an echo between them, they are “light shadows” – we are thankful and we transform; we transform and we are thankful – every day and in every way. Thanksgiving Transformation is a state of being – continuous gratitude for the continuous state of change we experience. Thanksgiving Transformation is Life!
There is another pairing of words the squirrel of the poem brings to us: Presence and Preparation. These set up another vibration, the echo between being present in the moment, experiencing it fully, and being prepared for the next moment, that moment of change. It’s almost asking that we exist in two states at once; the dynamic about being prepared for tomorrow’s change while being fully present today is the challenge.
And this dynamic, this vibration is present in every breath, every heartbeat. As we inhale we breathe in appreciation, gratitude, thanksgiving for everything, especially the change of our body chemistry with the intake of fresh air. As we exhale we prepare for the next breath, exhausting the stale, used up air and the byproducts of our metabolism.
From the smallest change in our body chemistry, moment to tiny moment, to the great transforming changes in our lives, day-to-day, year-to-year, we are blessed. At the microcosmic level every moment is a miracle. And at cosmic scales, the beauty of the remnants of a supernova, as just one example, pictured here, are mind-boggling! I am in constant thanksgiving for all of it and all the blessings. I may not always be prepared for the coming changes, transformations, but I can truly give thanks for them!
Thanksgiving Transformation. You can’t have one without the other!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Start with Gratitude
Now that we are in the full swing of the Holiday Season Rosemary offers some good advice for the whole month of December in her “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Start with Gratitude
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Thanksgiving Transformation
A little something different from Rosmary for this week. A poem for you!
BUTTERFLY
A butterfly flits back and forth
Then back and forth again
Before my face
And perches gracefully on the grass at my feet.
It says, “I am the symbol of change. Accept me.”
“That’s funny,” I think.
I had just been thinking about what the future would bring.
Another butterfly, smaller than the first,
Flits by my face and settles on the grass at my feet.
“After each change comes the next one,” she says.
“Nothing is static. Nothing stays the same. The only constant is change.”
“OK, I get it,” I think.
A squirrel joins us, posing on the fence post to look at me and says, “Prepare.”
Now I’m wondering if all of Nature is conspiring to get a message to me.
Have I wondered overlong about the future and forgotten to be fully present in this moment now?
Am I somehow blocking the changes to come by not preparing today for whatever tomorrow brings because I refuse to focus on today?
Am I lost in concern for a moment that hasn’t happened yet while missing the gift of the moment at hand?
I start to walk back into the house
And the third butterfly appears, identical in markings to the other two but tinier than they.
She says to me,
“It is not mere change that we represent.
It is TRANSFORMATION.
Right now, right here, IN YOU.
Be blessed and IN-JOY.”
I get the message.
©Rosemary Bredeson
September 19, 2007
MONDAY’S POEM: Qigong in Winter
From corn planting under Butterfly Maiden’s watchful eye to deepening winter my poems Friday and today span the seasons. Qi, too, spans the seasons and all that we sense and know. Let the Qi rise and flow through all the seasons of your life!
Qigong in Winter
Relax shoulders, take breath to belly,
Slowing and expanding with each intake,
Holding;
Releasing downward through body,
Feeling the cleansing exhaustion
Of the stale and spent.
It feels good to sink into self,
To become aware, at the cellular level,
That the Qi is alive
With Light,
With Love.
If feels good to be home,
Fires burning, caudron bubbling,
Steam rising upward.
As the snow falls heavy like moths
Fluttering to Earth, Heavenly Qi
Feeds wooly worms
In some strange reversing
Metamorphosis:
Renewing, shifting, transforming,
Always new!
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM RHYTHMS AND CYCLES: Butterfly Maiden
Today I am reprising a poem from late spring 2013. On Monday the reason will become more clear with a new poem. My thought today, post Thanksgiving here in the US – and “Black Friday” when Rosemary and I stay home to turn our attention to our vision for next year – and as we head rapidly now to Winter Solstice is to dream of spring, and corn planting.
Butterfly Maiden
The corn is planted;
The spring rains have come.
The holy ground is rich;
The loam warms the seed.
Soon there will be a splitting;
Soon the full moon will shine.
Soon the earth will feed that seed;
Soon the sprout will reach for sun.
Moon watches through the night;
Moon wanes through a fortnight.
Moon withers toward rising sun;
Moon winks out as the sprout sees dawn.
Butterfly Maiden sheds her cocoon;
Butterfly Maiden warms in the sun.
Butterfly Maiden grins at the grinning moon;
Butterfly Maiden guards growing corn.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Evolve Your Light – Richard’s Commentary
As I was writing my Morning Pages the other day it came to me that I want to go deeper with Qigong. Why? I had raked leaves the day before and loaded 15 bags from the front yard – heavy work. As the evening descended my muscles and joints began to remind me that I am older than I think. But I did some breathing and reminded my body that I practice Qigong; all the twisting and pulling motions of raking leaves is not unlike certain Qigong moves I make in practice. In fact I was very mindful of these motions as I raked.
Last year when I raked leaves from that front yard I ended up with stiff muscles in my back for a week afterward. This year I woke up the morning after and felt great. So, I raked more leaves ahead of the East Coast storm we enjoyed yesterday. There is no question in my mind that my body practices are keeping me younger in body than my age in years would indicate.
My plan is to Evolve My Light, or I could say “Evolve My Qi” and take further steps down this path of growth. Why? Here’s how Rosemary answers this question:
Now, at whatever your current age is, those souls are looking to you for your light to shine on the path that you are sharing. How do you shine your light? By living your soul’s purpose, by being the light that you already are.
“Those souls” are everyone in my community. They include you, dear reader. My “soul’s purpose” is to build community. And my approach is to build community around Qigong. Qi is Life Force; it is Light; it is Love. By continuing to go deeper with my Qigong practice I am answering the call that Rosemary reminds us we are here to do.
I am reading some excellent books on Qigong and Taiji. And I am putting the word out I am looking for deeper instruction. At this time I am between classes that I have been teaching because I am feeling this call to go deeper before developing my next series of classes. Naturally I always learn more by teaching as well; a new class will be offered early in the New Year.
What form does your light take? How are you “Evolving Your Light”? This is the most important question you can ask yourself! Why?
YOU are in charge of the development and evolution of your own consciousness. No one around you can do it for you. You were not born to find answers and then stagnate. You are here to learn the next thing, to study, to grow, to evolve.
Never stop. There is no end here, no bottom to the deeper!
I am grateful to Rosemary for this important reminder! Enjoy your “gratitude day” today as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the US.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Evolve Your Light
When you became a human being, when you took your first breath of Mother Earth’s atmosphere, you began a journey of evolution. The journey of a lifetime is the evolution of your consciousness, from the moment you are born until the moment you take that last breath of air. At every moment in your life you are growing in your awareness of the world around you.
The question today is, ‘Are you evolving or are you attempting to stay where you are?’
So many people are struggling in this world because they are focused on using the tools they already have, on following the thoughts and beliefs from earlier days, on listening to what someone else is saying is true instead of going inside to seek their own truth. The shift that is needed is a shift in consciousness, an evolutionary approach to solving problems and to living life.
You were born as a bright light on the horizon of humanity. Everyone around you was waiting for you to come into the world. Even if you have a belief that you were unwanted, know that the souls around you then and now asked for you to arrive when and where and to whom you did.
Now, at whatever your current age is, those souls are looking to you for your light to shine on the path that you are sharing. How do you shine your light? By living your soul’s purpose, by being the light that you already are.
I see too many people choosing to hide. It appears to be so much easier to shrink from the spotlight and to stay on the sidelines of life. I don’t just mean refusing to get on the stage – I mean shrinking back from the enormity of what you feel is your raison d’etre, your reason for being here, your soul purpose.
It can feel like a tremendous burden or too huge a task to fulfill that purpose. Good. That means that you have tapped into what you are really here to be and to do!
No matter what form your life is taking at this moment, you are here to be the Light in the life of those around you. Lead by lighting the way for them to follow. Show by your example that you are willing to live your purpose and to be a Light in the world.
You don’t have to be famous, or on the stage, or find medical cures or solve world hunger, although you might. You DO, however, have a responsibility to the world to be the brightest light that you are able to be, right now, today, in whatever circumstances you face.
YOU are in charge of the development and evolution of your own consciousness. No one around you can do it for you. You were not born to find answers and then stagnate. You are here to learn the next thing, to study, to grow, to evolve.
How are you doing this?
This is where hiding does not serve you or the evolution of human consciousness. Reach out to learn what you can, to connect with others who are also on the path of the evolution of consciousness. Shine your light for them and allow them to shine their lights for you.
Take a class. Read a book. Join a group. Have a conversation.
It is especially important that you do your personal growth work. Clear negative thoughts and limiting beliefs that are holding you and your light hostage to them. Explore possibilities that will take you outside your comfort zone.
Evolve and shine the bright light that you are!
Men and The Goddess 