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The Moon and YOU! – Richard’s Commentary
Do you pay attention to the moon? Right now we are being inundated with rain here in Maryland, so I can’t see the moon. But I know she is waning after fullness last Saturday. We’ll soon be coming up on last quarter and then a week later a New Moon. The cycle repeats reminding us of rhythm. Moon cycles are like breaths; she swells from newness to fullness as with a two-week inhale, and then shrinks from fullness back to newness on her two-week exhale. She reminds us to breathe with her: big, full abdominal breaths.
As some of you may know I cast an I Ching Gua on every New Moon. A gua is a six-line hexagram made up of yin and yang(open and solid) lines. (My last post about this can be found HERE for the last New Moon.) I do this for a number of reasons but the key one is I am curious about what new things the New Moon is bringing in, especially what the energies, specifically the energies of change may offer during the month between the New Moons. It is fun to go back over the month and the “reading” of the I Ching to see the correspondences between the reading and actual events! I am amazed at the accuracy!
Another tool I use in conjunction with moon cycles is my Possibilities Playbook I created during Rosemary’s January Possibilities Playshop. My Playbook is a 12-month notebook filled with pictures, phrases, themes and other guidance that I intuitively chose to go into my book in January. Of course, the book is laid out according to the moon phases. Now I record plans, events, feelings and senses of how unfolding reality aligns with what I set in motion in January. This tool is like a “vision board on steroids.” The pictures, words, phrases are pulled from magazines not with desires, hopes, plans in mind but how I want to feel. Looking back on the process I had no idea why certain pictures appealed to me. Now as I examine the pictures in context of what is actually happening I get it! And I am continually amazed!
There are lots of reasons to pay attention to the moon cycles in your life. Certainly gardening and farming, fishing and boating are activities influenced by the moon. I was pleased to learn, during a tour of Napa Valley a few years ago, that at least one vintner, Grgche Hills Estates, uses the phases of the moon for planting, pruning and harvesting. As they say: “Committed to natural winegrowing and sustainability, we farm our five estate vineyards without artificial fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, rely on wild yeast fermentation…”
The moon has so much to offer us if we let her into our lives. Think of all the songs we would miss if not for the moon! Pay attention. Note the days on the calendar when she fill, empties and goes dark for a time. Keep a diary of how you feel in relation to the phases. Note your dreams and if they are influenced. Be aware of peoples’ driving and how it changes with the changing moon. You too may be amazed at what you find!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: The Moon and YOU!
In honor of the coming Full Moon, here are excerpts from a message I channeled from The Divine Feminine about the Cycles of the Moon:
“Dear Ones,
We would have you look at the Moon, and understand that Moon energy is a part of every person on the earth. There’s a reason why this heavenly body is so closely aligned with what is happening on the Earth planet. One thing is that the Moon, in its travels around the Earth, affects every person on the Earth. It really touches every life on the Earth. It touches every plant that grows on the Earth. It touches all the waters. So, understanding that you are seeing the Moon and the Moon is working on you, is energizing you, but it is also having an effect on everything around you, allows you to demystify this heavenly body into something that is important in your life. It’s not just something to look at out there.
It definitely has a place in an understanding of the energies of your body, and of the planet. But those who choose not to acknowledge it will have, what we would call, “hiccups” in their life; hiccups that would cause them to move in one direction, and then have this slight veering, one way or the other, and not understand what it is that is causing that. So, we would say the best thing to do is to pay attention to these Moon energies and to accept them.
So, when you see the New Moon, for example, and you understand that that is the time, the dark of the Moon, is the time when the most feminine energy is coming to the planet, and anyone on the planet is receiving this feminine energy and the ability to be in feminine power: nurturing, supporting, offering, that kind of feminine power…
So when that energy is happening at the New Moon, you take advantage of opportunities for your creativity to be expressed.
Now what happens two weeks later at the Full Moon is that the fullness of whatever opportunities you have offered from the New Moon can now come to fruition, but also they have demands for the next level. So you have, essentially, those two weeks of the waning Moon in which to decide which parts of that you will beef up or support towards the next New Moon; which parts you need to let go of. And the other things that are in your life at Full Moon start to be illuminated. The Full Moon is the most reflection of the Sun’s energy that planet Earth receives. So, at the Full Moon time you have the light of the Sun and you have the light of the Moon hitting you at the Earth. So, what is this? This is like having a lantern, like one of your laser flashlights, to beam the light on what it is that’s going on in your life.
What is inside of you? What, energetically, do you need to proceed? What do you not need? What is it that is hampering you so that, two weeks from now when there is another opportunity for a new Moon, and an offering from the feminine side, what is it that would keep you from stepping forward? What is it that would become an anchor, a proverbial ball and chain on your ankle to prevent you from really leaping forward; really flowing forward?
And when you start to ask the question that way, it becomes very easy for you to say “I no longer need that in my life. It does not serve me if, in the course of this time, it will prevent me from moving forward the way that I need to.”
So, at the Full Moon making the decision about what it is you’re ready to release is the first step…”
Do you have the Full Moons and New Moons marked on your calendar? The energies affect us for 3 days before and 3 days after each event. Try marking this for the next month and notice how you feel around these special times.
We are Earthlings learning to live in this Solar System. Here’s to your journey with the Moon!
The Divine Feminine via
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Do You Pay Attention to the Moon?
My “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Do You Pay Attention to the Moon?
A FRIDAY POEM FROM RHYTHMS AND CYCLES – “The Molt (Molting by the Light of the Moon)”
Tomorrow is the full moon in Capricorn, when the moon is exactly opposite the sun, still in Cancer. As always I pay close attention to the moon’s cycles; she and her movements around the Earth affect us in so many ways. I like to be aware of these influences, not to look for excuses for my feelings and behavior but to understand them and modify them as appropriate. Sometime it can be like shedding a layer of skin!
The Molt (Molting by the Light of the Moon)
The great moon swells
To her fullest magnificence.
She takes on all we have to give her,
Stripping us of the surplus, refuse.
It can be a painful time
Of loss and grief, of letting go.
Like snakes in their skin, crabs their shells,
We twist and scratch to transform.
In the midst of the molt
We are left wounded and vulnerable.
This is a rough and dangerous time
To release the old and trust the new.
And then we crawl out
Into the light of the Full Moon
Stiffening shells, thickening skin,
Armoring once again our New Self.
The shadows recede
Hiding no longer the threats once held.
The night sky bright light encouraging,
We stand taller in new Minds.
©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!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Cycling
We sometimes forget that we are constantly within a cycle within another cycle within yet another one. Life is a spiraling experience and, when we try to make it linear, going out in front of us in a straight line and looking behind us as if everything happened in a straight line, we diminish the importance of the cycles that we have experienced.
Think about the seasons of every year of your life. How many Springs, Summers, Autumns, Winters have you lived through? Each season of the calendar year brings a different energy, a different feeling to your life that year.
In Spring, life around us starts to blossom and grow. There is a newness, a freshness, to the garden and the birds and the amount of Sun’s light that we receive. The trees start to spread leaves for us. Everything is in ‘growth mode.’ We, too, are invited to grow, to reach for the sky, to blossom, to try something new in the Springtime.
By Summer, the Sun is at it’s peak and the crops are producing bounty for us to receive. The seeds you planted in your life in Spring are coming to fruition and you can watch your efforts grow.
Autumn brings the harvest, a time to reap what you have sown. Prepare for winter. Finish up projects. Gather what you need and bring it inside.
Winter brings, not only colder weather, but also a time to hibernate, not slumbering deeply like the bears, but going inside, doing the inner work, contemplating, planning, examining life.
And then comes another Spring! Rebirth, revitalization, resurrection, coming alive again!
And so the cycle begins again. But this time you have learned more, grown more, shaped your life so that you are seeing from a new perspective, a little bit greater in consciousness and understanding than last year’s.
There are many other cycles in your life. Infant/Child/Teenager/Adult/Senior. Neophyte/Apprentice/Master.
You might think that each of these represents a linear progression, a straight line through the stages, but you can be an Adult in one setting and a Child in another. [Have you ever seen a grown man go home and become like the little boy he was growing up?] You can Master one thing and be a neophyte in another.
The Moon Cycles affect us greatly because we are mostly water and, just as the Moon affects the tides of Earth’s bodies of waters, so the waters in us are affected. Do you pay attention to where the Moon is in her cycle? Did you know that the New Moon is a great time to begin something new, to invite new things/ideas/projects/partners into your life? And the Full Moon is a time of releasing, of letting go of that which no longer serves you.
When you are conscious of cycles like these in your life, you can work with the energies of the cycles to support and assist you as you grow.
What other cycles in your life can you think of? What would change if you became conscious of those cycles and planned how to use that energy instead of allowing yourself to be affected unconsciously?
If you live by the water you know that the tides will respond to the Moon, whether you are conscious or not! Decide today to live a Conscious Life and pay attention to the cycles you experience!
MONDAY’S POEM: Moon Times
We moved through a powerful Full Moon in Virgo yesterday, 1:08 pm Eastern time. Unfortunately by dark and Moon rise we were under heavy cloud cover with the first flakes of snow falling! But I felt her swollen presence even if I could not see her.
In her honor I offer you this poem I wrote a few years ago. The Moon has been our constant companion across the eons; she helps us with time and she helps us remember.
Moon Times
(September 3, 2011)
The Moon waxes
Reminding us of the
Fullness of Time.
The Moon climbs
Reminding us of the
Need for effort.
The Moon appears
Reminding us of our
Inner work.
The Moon sets
Reminding us of the
Need for rest.
The Moon hides
Reminding us of our
Inner dark.
©2014 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Settling In
This phrase has been popping into my life since the New Moon and New Lunar Year. It seems it comes to mind every day as I write my Morning Pages. I catch myself writing it and wonder, what’s this about…
And I realized today, as I wrote it once again, that I am settling in. There are many aspects to this, not the least of which is settling in to the new energies coming in with the New Moon and New Year. It’s different. Is it just me who is feeling and sensing the difference? Do you sense it?
So, I am settling in to this New Year, the Year of the Wood Horse, or Green Horse. In the Chinese Medicine Five-Element system one of my dominant elements is Wood. With the New Moon we left the Water Snake Year of 2013 behind and moved into Wood Horse. There is an energy about this Horse coming in; some have said it is galloping in! And the Wood energy is hitting right on top of my Wood tendencies. What this means is lots of energy for me and I am finding myself needing to dampen it down; adjust. I am settling in to this New Year and I expect it to take more time. After all the Chinese celebrate the New Year for two weeks, until the Full Moon, which is still a week away. Maybe it takes the two weeks to settle in to the new energy.
We are also still setting in to our new home. We spent some time yesterday moving filling cabinets so we can more easily file and re-file paperwork for the business, church and personal lives we lead. We are still finding places to put things and still looking for things misplaced! Settling in.
And it occurs to me that this is what life is really about. We are always settling in. Do you feel this way? And it’s a good thing. Settling in is becoming present. It is sensing our environment and getting comfortable with it. It is getting in touch with our bodies and settling in. It is examining our emotions, our heart-feelings and settling in to whatever arises: joy, sadness, grief, gratitude.
There is also a settling in of our mental state as it ebbs and flows from alert awareness and high functionality to drowsy calmness as we get ready for sleep. I even find myself settling in to the rhythm of time, adjusting to what seems to be shortening days (can they really still be 24 hours long?).
And spiritually I am becoming very settled. No, not complacent nor dogmatic, not fixed in anyway but very open and always questioning. Yet at some level I am accepting that I will likely not find the answers to my all my questions in this life. I’m not settling for this as a final conclusion, but I am settling in to this possibility.
I have a greater sense of calm around this notion of settling in. I’m in this for the long haul – and it could be very long, if the reincarnationists have it right! So, why not settle in and enjoy the journey!
This phrase seems to be following me everywhere. Even in my yoga class last evening we were led to “settle in” to our bodies during shavasana. And I knew just what to do.
I hope you are not settling for anything. But do find some peace and settle in to your life; it’s so much easier that way!
Have a great weekend!
Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse in Aries – Today!
Every Friday Rosemary publishes a “news post” on events in the Heavens as well as events in her life and work. Similarly I post whatever is on my mind on Fridays. Today, Rosemary’s news and my thoughts coincide.
And here’s what’s most important from her “news”:
Happy Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse!
Today, Friday, October 18 at 7:37 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time we experience both Lunar events. The Moon moves into the shadow of the Earth and stirs up our unconscious mind and emotions. What has been hidden that needs to be brought out of the shadows and into the light to be examined? And what old motivations and fears can we now release?
This is a potent time for all of humanity as we are being called to expand our consciousness. What are you doing for your personal growth during this week?
This swelling Moon to fullness here on the east coast this evening is clobbering me. First my body has been whacked. I am stiff and achy with cold-like symptoms, but I know I don’t have a cold. I have not slept well for the past two nights (the filling Moon affects us for three days on either side of her largest); so, I’m feeling strung out. Emotionally I’m feeling stressed and tense, like there’s something I need to do but don’t know quite what it is and am anxious about it. Even mentally I am not feeling very sharp; all I want to do is go back to bed!
What’s going on? The Full Moon always affects me, but usually in less potent ways. I always sense it with minor physical symptoms. When others complain of similar symptoms I remind them of the Moon and always get an “oh, yeah, that explains it.” We all experience these phases.
But this one is hitting hard. Maybe because the Moon is in Aries we are getting that fire and power from this Mars sign. But I think the eclipse is having the most dramatic impact on us today.
As Rosemary observes, the eclipse is the result of the Earth’s shadow falling on the Moon and blocking the Sun’s light. “We’ll be receiving the most pure Moon energy with it blocked from reflecting the Sun’s powerful light.” And we are asked to examine what we have been hiding, to bring it out of the shadow. “What old motivations and fears can we now release?”
This is a time of major transformation. It is time to shed the old husk and leave behind fears, anxiety, stress, anger and grief. This shedding of the used up and ineffective parts of our selves is not an easy process. Like a snake shedding it’s old skin it has grown out of we need to let go; this can be painful. And when the release is accomplished we can be vulnerable for a time. But we have to go through this.
Do Full Moons affect you? Do you pay attention to the phases of the Moon? She is our emotional companion for the journey. She helps us through our shifts and changes.
And we no sooner get through this Full Moon today when Mercury plunges into retrograde on Monday! I’ll say more about that then…
Have a great weekend! Take it easy on yourself and be very careful. As Rosemary concludes:
Have a luminous week! And watch out for the luna-tics who don’t know how to drive during a Full Moon or a Mercury retrograde!
Harvest Full Moon, Autumnal Equinox, Homecoming and More
As I wrote in yesterday’s post I am visiting my brothers on the family farm in Wisconsin. I was here for yesterday’s full moon; it was huge and bright here as only it can be in the countryside where it still gets much darker at night than what I usually experience on the east coast. Here is where I got part of my starry-eyed wanderlust when I was a kid looking up at the brilliant night sky, the dense and bright Milky Way streaking overhead and the astounding constellations of the Wheel revolving through the seasons. I was thrilled to see the aurora borealis occasionally in the cold winter nights. And I always loved the rising of Sirius around the time of my birthday. The sky part of being back here hasn’t changed over the years; I can still come back to that.
To celebrate the Full Moon we were out in my brother’s garden bringing in a pail full of green beans, a few remaining peas, an awesome head of cauliflower and some still sweat lettuce coming back after welcome rain. So we did our harvesting for the day and are now enjoying the bounty.
And I’ll be here for the Equinox on Sunday – equal parts night and day. This will be a time for reflecting on balance. And it is good to be here in the place I grew up to ponder the balance in my life: the maturing urbanite and the farm-boy, the world traveler and the small-town bumpkin, the spiritual seeker with the grounded and earthy dirt-farmer son. It is always a good thing to look for balance, not just at equinoxes, but all through the year. Balance begins with inner reflection; the inner is always reflected outwardly. Outer signs of balance, like Sunday’s Equinox, are there to remind us to go inside to find the balance.
I must admit I am somewhat unbalanced by this visit to the family farm; as I wrote yesterday I have discovered it is no longer “home” for me; not even a little bit. I continue to reconcile, or balance, this finding for myself. I think I will be doing some grounding work when I get back to Maryland; the grounding that may have been a vestige of my youth here in Wisconsin needs to be transplanted once and for all. Or maybe it just needs to be replanted in my heart as the physical grounding to place recedes as an important element in my life.
Sandwiched between Full Moon and Equinox is my 50th High School reunion! I will be joining my former classmates for a dinner tonight. Will I recognize anyone? Yesterday my brother and I had breakfast in the hometown café; a couple was also in the restaurant; I knew I knew them but could not place faces with names. The wife recognized me not by my looks but by my voice! And I thought I had worked so hard to neutralize my Wisconsin accent! Betty Lou, three years my senior, looks much the same as when we rode the school bus together the seven miles into town. But recalling names is quite another matter. I hope they give us nametags so I’m not guessing wrong!
Saturday is the big Homecoming event: parade (my class will have a float of some kind since we are one of the honored classes), football (one of my nephews will play) and the evening “banquet” (I put this in quotes because it is probably not what you think; substitute glasses of milk for a fine offering of wine and you’ll get the picture!)
I’ll spend Sunday visiting and catching up with family. I fly home on Monday to get back to routines, qigong classes and a re-balancing. And I’ll take a piece of my old “home” with me in my heart.
Where do you call home? Do you attend school reunions? How do you balance all the experiences of “home” with your life now? Take a peak inside for the answers.
Men and The Goddess 