October New Moon & Navaratri Wisdom + Creative Ritual

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The October New Moon arrives late in the day on Monday the 8th, just as the two week Vedic celebration of Pitru Paksha ends. This celebration of the ancestors awakens and supports our connection with Spirit, helping us align with our ancestors, their wisdom and gifts. As Pitru Paksha closes and the New Moon passes, the most powerful ten days of the Vedic year begins. Maha Navaratri starts on October 9th and closes on the 18th with Vijaya Dashami, the celebration of Durga's victory over the demon Mahishasura. This special nine days supports transformation, healing and release. Pay close attention to needs surfacing and be intentional with your healing process.

Monday's new Moon arrives at 21:47 MT while in sidereal Virgo and Hasta Nakshatra. Virgo represents the sixth house of the zodiac, which has to do with conflict, healing and debts. It can also bring support, alliances and companionship through animals, as well as overcoming enemies. Virgo is precise, meticulous and often very critical. Ruled by Mercury, Virgo tends to stay in the mental body and needs reminders to sense and feel in a more embodied way. This new Moon will require us to focus on healing and awakening as Hasta nakshatra brings the dawning, the light. In the days ahead, stay out of the mind and get into the body. Speak, communicate and express. Find your words and let them awaken you and others.

Hasta nakshatra is ruled by the deity Savitr, the god of dawn. The sliver of light that arrives on the eastern horizon just before sunrise is his domain. He offers hope and vision through his illumination. This portion of the dawn is particularly potent, magical and powerful. It navigates the liminal realms, the netherworlds- neither worldly nor entirely spiritual, but both.

Savitr brings the light to us in this coming cycle so get ready to wake up! His bright light brings consciousness, evolution and enlightenment. This will require a willingness to see, notice and look- even if you don't want to. Notice the spectrum of your inner landscape- emotions, thoughts and unconscious grief- as this will support your healing and transformation process. Even if you don't want to see, it will be impossible not to look. When the darkness is touched by the light, we can't help but see it. Savitr brings light and awakening whether you want it or not.

Hands come alive under Hasta nakshatra. Let them be a guide, a resource and a support for your healing process. There is some magic in the hands asking you to look more closely. What are your hands saying to you? What do they need?

Use Gayatri Mantra to enliven the light and wisdom of Savitr in the coming days.

Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ
tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ
bhárgo devásya dhīmahi
dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt

Mercury moves out of its favorite sign, Virgo, as of October 6th, and into Libra- joining retrograde Venus and sandhi Jupiter here. Jupiter is on his way out, now at the edge of Libra and preparing to make his year long transit through Scorpio. The combination of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will create a need for balance and harmony on the level of mind, body and emotions. All three are desperately seeking integration and stability- and yet it may feel impossible to find. Women's issues take front and center and will be demanding focus and attention. Women get a boon with this extra long cycle of Venus in its own sign.

Watch out for extremes, binaries, contradictions and confusion. Reassess and reevaluate parts of yourself and your relationships that need more of your focus. Attend to comforts, needs and nourishment. Gather your parts and pieces and seek wholeness, the middle way. Find least force and increase life force energy.

The waxing cycle ahead will ask you to look more closely at your darkness. As the light shines brighter, as the dawn arrives, your shadows will be more present. Are you willing to lean closer, or will you bypass and avoid?

The increased light may feel challenging, uncomfortable and even fragile. Don't avoid your trauma, let it be the resource for your deep awakening. Remember that your trauma and shadow work directly correlates to your dharmic path; there is no separation. If you are willing to acknowledge your pain and lean closer to your disconnection, you have the possibility of healing through the medicine of wholeness. The cycle ahead supports deeper awakening and will require your willingness to see even more than you have before. Don't go back to sleep.

The Vedic celebration of Maha Navaratri arrives just after the new Moon. On October 9th, the powerful battle of Ma Durga and the rakshasa (demon) Mahishasura begins, ending with victory day, Vijaya Dashami, on October 19th. Durga defeats the demon, a reminder to us all that Durga always wins. This is a powerful turning point in the Vedic Calendar when the Divine Feminine awakens, enlivens, transforms and heals.

It is through the powerful dance of the Divine Feminine that the seasonal shifts take place. We are embarking on the magical transformation between seen and unseen, straddling the material and spiritual realms. This is a gap, a portal, that invites in depth, awakening, awareness and powerful inner wisdom. Stay alert and awake to inner and outer changes taking place. Notice conflicts within yourself and your environment. Seek resolution and healing.

The Navaratri celebration is an expression of what is taking place within Nature, through the Laws that govern Nature, marking an important transition within us and around us. Align with Nature and Her powerful energy of change and transformation during Navaratri. Ritualize your connections with Nature- in order to land more closely to your own inner wisdom, to Her wisdom. Strengthen your connection to self and Spirit.

Navaratri is a poignant time in the Vedic Calendar. This ancient calendar is one that is dedicated to Nature and her cycles and rhythms, the planets, and most importantly the Moon. In the Vedic Calendar, time is connected to what Nature and the cosmos are doing, and these elements are intimately related.

Navaratri occurs multiple times each year- in the "gap" seasons of spring and fall, as well as other important junction points. These times are considered sandhi times; delicate times that feel like you are neither here, nor there. We might call it the netherworld. This time, though delicate, is considered sacred- so use it wisely.

Read More About Navaratri the power of this sacred time of year.

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Creative Ritual

As grief continues to rise to the surface, individually and collectively, it's an important time to do our grief work. Use this simple process to help you harvest a message from your grief and support its movement and release.

1) Take a few deep breaths and lean closer to your body sensations. Take your time and go slowly.

2) Notice the emotional body. What are you releasing right now? What losses have you faced in this past cycle? What grief is stirring within you? If you could find this grief living in your body, where would it be? Where do you feel this grief in your body?

3) Lean closer to this grief in your body. How does it feel? What colors, textures or images do you notice? Ask it to share with you. If your grief could talk, what would it say? If your grief could share a need with you, what would it say?

4) Create an image of your grief. How does this grief feel in your body? Create an image using paint, craypas, collage or any medium that inspires you. Spend at least 20 minutes with your grief image. When it feels complete, give it a title.

5) Harvest from your grief image. If it could speak to you, what would it say?

Use my short podcast to support your inner resourcing and discover the message of your grief.  Read More

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