New Ways in a New Moon; the Worm Moon

The Worm Moon?  Farmers Almanac must be joking.  We still have feet of snow and more is coming tomorrow...

But hey, a title implies a general truth; not a weather guarantee, so I will remain hopeful.

In Sedona, a few weeks ago, I stumbled onto a website and a moon practice that resonated strongly for me.  I'll paraphrase here, but visit the site when you can.  It is practical and interesting.

The author called it "Connect with your inner goddess: Flow with the moon phases"
It is a cycle for initiating progress.

Goes something like this:
New Moon: jot down what you wish to work on or make progress in. SET GOALS.
Waxing moon:  use the growing light to work hard on the issue
Full Moon:  celebrate accomplishment, or understand the obstacles
Waning Moon: set your house in order for next cycle, clear obstacles as able.
New Moon: start again.  Same goal or new goal.  There is no failure, only progress; however slow.

I am working on a design for a sort of 'Moon Diary Page' template.  When I have it done, it will be offered here and on S6 as a free post.  If it assists, please use at will.

Here is the site I mentioned:
http://www.goddess-body-mind-spirit.com/Moon-Phases.html

Happy New Moon!

Bunny Bodhisattva; the Full Bony (Cold) Moon

The Legend of the Bunny Bodhisattva

Once upon a time, there was a girl...well truly she was a woman, nearing Crone...but her heart was of a child.  She traveled to a mythical land named Sedona as she heard a fancy tall tale about vortexes that healed and this girl...um...woman...was all about the quick fix.

Synchronicity placed her in the path of a trail guide named Akal.  He was knowledgeable and connected to the spirit world.  He guided her and then offered her a soul retrieval.  She was thrilled. Wow. Instant healing. Just add a smudge fan.

All fairy tale fodder aside, something did happen to her. A place in her head that was dusty and forgotten opened up and art poured out.  Goddess art at first. Female power art next.  And on and on.  A story formed in her head about a small bunny.  The bunny was her as a child.  She put this particular art aside; she knew that when it was begun it would consume her.  Two years later, in Sedona, she was guided to bring this story to life. It required her to put aside her previous livelihood and guilt mixed with exhilaration.  She worked fervently. She worked tirelessly.

A book was born.  Quirky and cute, her Bunny became real and she enjoyed its company.

But soon enough...well truly it was two years...the book was finished.

She found she wanted to share the story and the Bunny, but resistance was great to her goal.  And she works still to find this Bunny a voice...

But she knows this much...
The Bunny will show her how to grow...
The Bunny teaches patience...
The Bunny teaches persistence...
The Bunny teaches humility....
The Bunny teaches her to not react to criticism...even when it is family...
The Bunny will teach her how to pursue her joys without regret...

On a full moon, on Valentines Day, she realizes that besides her partner and daughter...she has the most eloquent of friend...a small Bunny born of the soul.

A Monk walks into a Starbucks...

Lazy defines you.  You know it is true; yet the man you share this journey with claims that to be rubbish.  But you know better. You know your heart.  You know that when you ask him if he'd like more wine, what you are really hoping for is for him to offer to get it. Lazy.

You know how to work, and do so when necessary. You don't complain, but you avoid it when there is a choice.  Well, that is all true except when it comes to your artwork.  There you strive, and falter, perfect, and over manipulate. There you do your penance.  There you persist until it takes form.  It really is ART WORK.  Not ART accident or ART almost what you wanted.  No. Here you are a perfectionist.

But back to being lazy...
You surprise yourself by going out to Starbucks for you and him while he sleeps.  This surprises you on many levels.
1.  You are up before him.
2.  You aren't worried about your funky bedhead hair.
3.  You aren't worried about driving the rental car.
4.  You are UP before HIM.

You drive a bit sleepy-eyed the whole quarter of a mile that Starbucks is from the room.  You berate yourself for not walking, but Hey...you are doing this at all.  You feel some sense of selflessness.  He will be pleasantly surprised and this pleases you.  Perhaps you aren't selfless at all.  Just not lazy.  Just this once. Not lazy.  You smile.

But then you enter the Starbucks and the female Monk from the Stupa is there buying coffee.  You look down, avoid eye contact.  You feel a desire to thank her for yesterday balanced with a need to turn and run.  You briefly wonder what she is doing there.  You feel she shouldn't drink coffee, least of all Starbucks.  She should be purer than you. Better than you.  After all, she has spiritual meat.  Not just bones.  She should be something....MORE...

But she is just human.  Well, just human, but also, not lazy.

But you aren't lazy this morning either.  You nod to her on your way out.

Intuitive Super Oneness; Waxing Bony (cold) Moon

Author note: the moon names I refer to are typically from the Farmer's almanac, which slants towards a north eastern view of Indian and early settler life.  This moon name, The Bony Moon, is Cherokee and is in many ways an accurate depiction of my current spirituality. The name is a reflection of starvation; the native people's utter desperation for sustenance requiring ingestion of boiled bones...bone marrow soup.  A hard diet, but life sustaining. 

You have come to Sedona like a neighbor trying to steal a Wifi signal from next door.  Try the stairs?  Signal too weak.  Try the upstairs office?  Close.  Try the empty closet in your daughter's room?  So close...so close...

You have a notion that the Universe will speak to you and guide you if you can get a signal.  You expect this like a petulant child and grow ever anxious by the day.  Where is the sign?  Where is the path?

You seek the Universe's sign on. Choose a network.  Where is it?  It isn't listed...so fly to Sedona. The Universe hub. The modem. All will be solved. Watch your inbox. Check your mail at gmail or aol or yahoo or one of your so many pseudonyms.  Dear Universe, Instructions, please. ASAP. When silence is the answer, assume it is the connection.

But once a signal thief, always a thief...Seek the universe at one of the many drive-by locations.  Bell formation, Cathedral rock, or the Chapel. Before you know it, you've walked smack into a Buddhist prayer service at the Amitabha Stupa in Sedona.  You understand it is some kind of service but you assume you belong.   So you sit and quietly meditate.  Please, oh, please, Universe, tell me what to do!

The folks around you are chanting to a drum. It is beautiful and moving and you feel lucky to have come at this moment.  But more people arrive and block your stealthy egress. Panic sets in. How long will this service last?  And you begin to know you don't belong. Yet, when something like Communion occurs, the Monk offers you their blessings in the form of what appears to be water and cake.  You politely decline, feeling out of pace, feeling shame because it finally occurs to you that no one gets free answers.  Something offered free loses it's value.  And you know that you will restart your spiritual practice with the meatless bones that you lazily discarded.  You will make soup.  You are good at soup.  The broth will sustain you until you find your own answers.

And you acknowledge the truth that you purposefully ignored...there is no Intuitive Super Oneness. It requires work; and fortunately, you are no stranger to it.

And if the Universe feels like sending you a sign, you will welcome it.

Coy Boy: the late rising Wolf Moon

So, you think you can stand me up?
I was there at 10.  I was freezing, I might add.
Do you really think you can treat me this way, Mr. Wolf Moon?

What was that? I stood you up all month?
You expect something more in effort...say meeting you when you are actually rising?

Well, perhaps you make a valid point.  What time would that be exactly?

Are you freaking kidding me?  You are rising at 12:36 am?  

Uh Uh.  No. I'm not doing it. I'm not getting up at 3:30 am so I can see your shiny moon ass rise over my neighbor's house. Nope. Nope. Nope.

What?  I can see you at 6:30 am or 7:30 am?

Oh. I can do that.  You mean I can see you while I drink some morning coffee?  

Well yes, I agree. Just because it is daylight doesn't mean you aren't as beautiful.

So, we've made up then?  Aw. really? the next full moon is Valentine's Day?  How sweet!!  

I'll save a candy heart for you "Call Me" or better yet, "Let's Kiss".  
I so very much need your kiss.

Hey Dude; the late waning Wolf Moon

Hey! There you are. I finally found you.  On my way to an appointment, late as usual, racing up a snow covered street and WHAM! There you are, the moon, large and bright in the lower sky over Randall's house. I'm actually not sure that is his name, as he and I have never met; but he looks like a Randall as he mows his lawn or trims his cherry tree.  We wave. Our "intimacy". 

So, yeah, back to you Mr. Wolf Moon, sir...
There you were, in vivid Moon glory and I thought you were waxing for a sec... but then I was sure your were waning.  Either way, you were gibbous, pregnant and full of moon surface.  

Then I wasn't sure you were the Wolf Moon at all and panic struck that I have strayed so far from my rites and rituals.  I am unborn- a kind of 'born again' in reverse-  something has pulled nature from me and I feel unfamiliar to its rhythms.  I am the lost.  

But not so fast, Mr. Wolf, don't write me off just yet.  The fact that I noticed you at all must mean that I am not beyond redemption.  So, how about a date, later, after dark? when the neighbor children are asleep? Let's say 10 ish?  I'll meet you where I have always, in my best birthday dress.  You and I can stare at each other a bit and then perhaps I might coax you to envelope me, caress my darkness with your light?  Just a little flirt to remind us that we both still exist...
a kiss of light to re-awake my soul.

Warranty Expiring

I missed the New Moon. I missed the Full Moon.  To make it more clear how out of touch I have been, I didn't even know I missed these events until the Buddhist told me so.  Oops! My bad.

I'm preoccupied with a truth...
I am running out of time. 
Not death...No, not that final.  
But I am talking about aging, or more to the point, a very specific female type of aging. I'm referring to menopause.

My body seems to be on one mission right now and it has taken me by surprise.  I am consumed by a need to have one great last fling, an overtly sexual flirtation, a clandestine encounter of naughtiness. I love my partner, the Buddhist. He is a good, solid partner providing what I need in all forays.  And he pleases. 

But my body has some other idea.  The clock is ticking to some end, and my body is craving validation of its virility.  It whispers "Last Call" and like a late night drinker, I desire an elixir to stave the crave. 

I sense that the me that I have known is quieting ever so slightly daily.  Do I hold out hope of resisting?  Do I pretend that I will not change?  As we are mostly chemicals, and mine are definitely shifting, I can't see that change won't occur.  So, my body also screams "HURRY" in the growing quiet and while I am loyal and true; I'm also antsy. Fidgety.

My internal odometer is about to shift out of the warranty period and I finally understand what moves a  fifty year old man to discard their wife and take up with a young filly.  It is what I seek too-

Youth. 

And since I can't have it, I'll accept a costume to hide my truth.  Blonde highlights, a little lipstick, a touch of foundation, a smile, a flirt...
But nothing will stop this body from the warranty end.