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The new Moon is on Sunday, December 21st, Winter Solstice, at 19:36 CST. Moon is in Sagittarius and Mula Nakshatra at this time, joining Sun in this same position. Sun and Moon conjunct Mercury and Venus, who are both in PurvaAshada nakshatra. This is a particularly unsteady new Moon, with a lot of movement, shift and restructuring potential. It is also a particularly dark, inward and demanding empty Moon- which will ask us to dive deeply into our beings, let go and release from a very core level. The release is necessary in order to increase flow and fluidity, change and movement in the coming cycle. In order for deeper nourishment to arrive in the coming weeks and months, we must be willing to deeply release and let go of any parts of ourselves we have been clinging to. This is a time to be re-tracing our steps, enliven our deepest needs, and awaken our innate truths. This new Moon is also intensified by Winter Solstice, the darkest night of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, and is marked by a natural turning inward, towards our depth and darkness. The need for this turning inward, touching the depth of our darkness, is as natural as turning towards the light. Nature reminds us with her cycles and rhythms, the potency, power and necessity of both light and dark, and our dance with both. This is an ideal time to be working very intentionally with our shadows, our own darkness. Please join me for my free online class this Sunday, Resourcing From Your Shadow on December 21st at 6pm CST. The coming waxing Moon cycle will continue to stir our deepest longings, truths and inner wisdom, while digging up some dirt in the process. As we expand our depths and our darkness, we also expand our container and capacity to hold truth and light. The willingness you have to explore your depths and dive deep, will determine the gifts and awakenings you will be able to enliven and hold in the coming cycles. Your efforts are not futile. Working consciously with your shadows is not for nothing. Strengthen your ability to dance with both your light and your dark parts with more awareness and life will expand in all forms. Creative Ritual for the Waxing Moon Cycle
Expanding our container, our capacity to hold and to release, can physically and metaphorically be done through the breath. Jupiter's retrograde motion through Cancer, is allowing us to retrace steps within our heart, work intentionally with our emotional body, our capacity to feel, while also giving us new opportunities to work with healthy boundaries. The open and close dynamic of boundary work (yes and no) is signified by our inhale and exhale. Below is a breath dance, designed to enliven and maximize your breath awareness and your container for sensing and feeling. 1. Breath Dance. Begin standing, lying down or sitting. Bring your awareness to your breath as it moves in and out of your body. Filling and letting go, opening and releasing, like waves moving in and out of the body. Track the movements and sensations in the body and let these guide you. The sensations will guide you into the physical body impulses, the messages of the body. As you continue to breathe and become more and more aware of the movements of the ribcase, let these movements exaggerate. These exaggerated movements are the making of your "breath dance". Continue to move from and with the movements of the ribcase as you breath. Explore, expand and develop your breath dance for at least 10 minutes. Let it evolve and as it does, continue to self track, noticing the body parts most alive and awake as you explore your body part sensations present. As you bring your breath dance to a close, ask yourself these questions: I sense, I feel, I imagine. 2. Create an image of your ribcase. What colors, textures, shapes and images arrive on the page as you draw your ribcase? I encourage you to get your hands involved in this process whether it be through painting directly with your hands, or smudging the craypas with your fingers. Let the hands be sensitized through the process. Get messy. Let the hands and fingers fully engage in this image. (Working with clay may be an alternate medium to work with). Title your image. Take at least 15 minutes for this. 3. Harvesting. When your image is complete, use it to harvest with further inquiry by asking it these questions: Ask your image if it has anything it would like to share with you: If your image could speak, what would it say? I am I want I need What am I opening to? What am I closing to? Need some extra guidance and clarity? Schedule a session with me. Plan your week in tune with nature. Never miss a planetary update. Sign up for my weekly newsletter. Was this post helpful? Please share it with a friend! Thank you.
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Expansion and Contraction: The Ribcase
The planets are charged, poised and ready for take off during this next waxing cycle. Can you feel the expansion taking place within you and your life? In your relationships and desires? This is a perfect opportunity to work with the rib case and our experience of expansion and contraction. Using this theme of expansion and contraction, we will work specifically with the ribcase in this Creative Ritual. The ribcase provides protection for the body's vital organs- heart and lungs specifically. Every breath we take is connected to opening and expansion as well as letting go, releasing and contracting. The breath is the greatest metaphor for boundaries, and it's no mistake that the lungs literally provide us with the ability to live and "take in life" as well. Our ribcase is the protective case that houses these sacred physical tools of the body that allow us to expand and contract our life. When we work with the ribcase, we can explore these themes more intentionally, while letting the body direct our experience. Start standing or lying down. Begin by bringing your attention to your breath. What is the quality of your breath on the inhale and exhale. Do you feel the breath staying in your chest or moving into your belly? Don't try to force this to change. We are just being a witness to "what is" right now. Continue this focus for a few minutes, then add another body part to this open and close momentum that starts in your chest. As you expand on the inhale, let another body part become involved. As you exhale let the body relax and surrender to a neutral. Rise and fall. Open and close. Expand contract. Continue working with these expressions and notice what other body parts naturally join. Let the body move like a wave in harmony with the breath. Use a time frame of 20 minutes for this ribcase/breath exploration. Then come to your drawing pad and do a 10 minute sketch of your experience. A "snap shot" of your embodiment process. What colors arrive? What textures? What types of lines and shape? Give a title to this piece then answer the harvesting questions below. Harvesting Questions: If my ribcase could speak, what would it say to me? What am I opening to? What am I closing to? What am I expanding towards? Where am I contracting? Where am I letting in life force? Where am I resisting life force? What does my ribcase need? Never miss a Creative Ritual, sign up for my weekly newsletter. Want more Creative Rituals? See my current virtual workshop offerings here.
{Movement Explorations} -SJM So much movement within the planets this week. As Jupiter moves back into Ardra nakshatra, Rudra energy will be enlivened. This is a powerful and forceful energy that brings movement and changes with it. Destruction and chaos as well as emotions and anger. The symbols of Ardra are a tear drop and perspiration- the internal waters flowing; inner tides moving and offering changes. Change requires that there is an ending but also a beginning.
This week we will play with the image of "stepping into something new" and the movement and changes that come as a result of this forward momentum. Feet bring stability and grounding. They offer us the ability to "step forward" both physically and metaphorically in our lives. We sense and connect to the earth (the ultimate support system) through the souls of our feet which helps us find our overall balance, nourishment and resiliency. It's a new year and the time of Makar Sankranti in the Vedic calendar. Time to step forward with momentum and spring into new actions in order to harvest new growth, wisdom and abundance. Use the feet as a starting point for your movement exploration, but let this be a starting point only. Spine (flexibility and support) as well as chest (expand/contract and open/close) can also be important resources for self tracking this theme. Move through space starting with your feet awareness. Wake them up! Call upon them for activation! Let them move you forward! Let your feet speak to you! Then let that wisdom rise up through the rest of your body. Harvesting: What am I stepping towards? What am I moving away from? As I move forward, what do I need/want? As I close old doors, what do I need/want? What are my actions steps for growth and change? This week? This month? This year? As you think about your 2014 intentions/goals that you created last week, what image comes to you? Put this image on paper using a medium that connects to your theme. Example: water color for fluidity and change, oil pastels for commitments, collage for healing old wounds. The ribcase houses our heart and is both expandable and able to contract. Its movement is vital for breath, reaching, rolling, folding and bending. The physical connection to expansion and contraction correlates to these experiences on the mental and emotional levels as well. When we breathe in, it symbolizes our taking in of life/life force, while our exhales offer a letting go/release experience. The ribcase is literally like a door to our heart space, offering opportunity for both opening and closing. Especially important right now as Venus is about to go retrograde and we begin to re-evaluate our relationships and our relation to others in a more exact way.
Begin by walking and rolling your shoulders, noticing the connection to chest and ribcase. Roll your shoulders forward and collapse the chest while you exhale. Inhale, roll the shoulders back, open the chest. Repeat several more times until you make some new connections. How do you feel as you open? How do you feel as you close and collapse? Notice the differences and continue to check in with your breath. Try this simple awareness activity for at least 5-10 minutes. Then rest on your back with eyes closed to integrate. Come to your drawing pad and capture any images that came to you. What are you opening to? What are you closing to? Who and what is invited in and who and what is uninvited? When you have completed your image, answer these base line statements ::: I am___ I want___ I need___ Circle at least three key words. Then write a haiku with your harvesting. |
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