Tag: movement

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May’s Full Moon Ritual – Forward and Onward.

The Women's Tribe

moonmayThe Full Moon is fast approaching, on Sunday May 3.  I thought I’d write a couple days early to allow us some prep time for a glorious, celebratory ritual.

So here we go…..

I started the New Moon in inertia, stuckness and overwhelm.  It kept showing up as a re-occurring infection because I wasn’t sitting with the discomfort.  I wasn’t sitting in the stuckness so I could weave my way out of it.  After much dancing, yoga, and movement meditations as part of my commitment to unwind out of stuckness eventually clarity came and danced on my shoulder.  She whispered to me and allowed me to see a much clearer direction and path to take.  I’ve been stuck at the fork in the road for awhile now, wondering, “Should I go this way or that way?” and instead just stood still in non-decision and getting side tracked by anything that would pull me out of the awareness of where I stood. 

I prayed and committed for weeks now for guidance and nowthe time has come to start trekking along and I was happy to discover that really, there are no wrong roads.  We will always be lead back to our path and sometimes we take the longer loop there because we needed to gather more lessens.

This moon for me has been a lesson in my own authority, feeling confident in myself and my dream and really fully believing in it.  I have been making clear and marked choices towards my soul’s call this time 100% not half assed or half confident but full fledged two feet in and going for it.  I have been making active decisions, paying active attention, DOING THE WORK.  I haven’t stood back and waited to be guided, I took steps and allowed the trail to guide me with each step.  

As Danielle Laporte says, “Worship Your Dream”.  Believe in it like no other, believe in being of service to the universe, it’s not really about you but about the universe.  When I got out of my own way the universe spoke to me and whispered what to do when I took myself out to lunch and as soon as I heard it I knew what trail to take.  It’s no holds bar all in.  Finally!  I finally have inner union.

Feel your dream fully, un-apologetically, meaningfully, full of full blown belief in yourself and your life plan.  Feel it in your bones, feel it in your blood like shining diamonds of confidence and radiant sparkle as you see yourself doing your dream, believing in your dream.  You are being guided by the cosmos and they are weaving a trail in front of you.  All you have to do is walk upon it and be led. Walk on forward with no more fucking fear!  Choose to let your heart lead you into bliss, into your fullest expression and just BELIEVE in the steps there one by one. Will there be some challenge…fuck ya! But we walk on never doubting ourselves, just holding our dreams in our vision with certainty and walk on.

Full Moon Celebration – Honoring Forward Movementforward and onward

On this full moon let’s celebrate what feels like an acceleration, a real movement forward…alas!! We have gone through the ringer, endured much, built our strength and character, moved mountains and have stood stuck at the rushing river of the unknown.  We stood stuck on one side of it unknowing how to cross.  So we sat and we sat, contemplating, gathering information and ideas, watching it to see how it flowed.  Some days we turned away from it because we didn’t want to look or see what we have to cross, so we went and played and distracted.  It’s all good, it allowed us room to fill up and gather strength.  Now we start the trek across, we will get there because we believe in ourselves to get to the other side of the stream…right?

Right!

So allow the universe and this glorious Grandmother Full Moon to illuminate and shine brightly on your growth, your momentum and the manifestation of your soul’s glory in form.

Gather some  pieces of paper or cut out words or images from magazines that symbolize your trail ahead.  Write down how you plan to keep trekking forward.  What are you going to keep doing til the end of this moon cycle and into the next to move into the form of manifestation of your soul’s expression?  

Take your papers and read them out loud.  Express to the Universe Divine and Grandmother Moon how you plan to keep moving forward, your vision, the plan, the steps, an your ultimate goal.  Express your dream and allow whatever comes to you.  As you read each paper release them into the wind.  Let the wind help you move and carry your dreams forward and onward.  And so it is .

Lastly write yourself a letter expressing your strength and ability to endure the unknown as part of the process to make it known.  Express all the good you have done for yourself even if is that you simply did not give up or you did yoga or you didn’t have a glass of wine to disconnect even when you really wanted to.  Make this a gratitude list for yourself about yourself.  What are you grateful for about you, your soul, your character, your traits, your heart, your creativity, your gentleness, your thoughtfulness in your life and in the lives of others?  Own it!  Absorb it and allow it to grow your light!  You have done bloody great, own it, celebrate and raise your glass to yourself.

Cheers to your glory and even your dark!

And so it is!

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Image art source :  www.pristessastrology.com  and  www.deviantart.com

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3 Invigorating Equinox Rituals – Indulge in the Energies.

The Women's Tribe

Happy Spring Equinox !!equinox image

The last couple of weeks things have been a shit show with stuff haven’t they? However, even though we went through the valley of the shadow of death, we came out okay in the end didn’t we…didn’t we??!! 😉

This change of season feels somewhat energetically intense yet the shift feels like it will be gentle.  

It’s time to make a change, start that new beginning, dare to dream big.  Take the leap of faith and walk upon an unknown or new path.  Maybe there will be a new baby with this new moon, a new job, a new opportunity or new person in your life.  Something new is on the horizon, fresh out of the gates.

So, enjoy the spring equinox, the change into a new cycle, a new forward movement and ending of the last cycle.  This is the time baby, get out there, try something…do something different…take a risk!  Apply for that new job, ask someone out on a date, start a project or goal you’ve been putting off.  Get out there and DO IT! The time is now.

I pulled a card for this time yesterday and it is bang on Divine.  It’s the Destiny or card or in traditional decks the Wheel of Fortune card.   “Good luck and good fortune are now in your favor.  A cycle of change, success, and growth is imminent.” (It says from the Psychic Tarot Deck by John Holland).  Can I get a “hell yeah”?!  Hell yeah!!

“Believe in destiny as you learn to let go of old issues.”   If you have done your work, sorted through the stuff, good luck, good energy, new opportunities will find you and knock on your door.  All you have to do is be open enough to receive them.  Believe you are worthy, know that destiny is at play here and your soul path is being revealed.  Let the light shine brightly on the path ahead, see it and start walking on it…it is finally time!!  Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Some New Moon & Equinox Ritual Ideas:  Movement is key this month.spring2

  • In many yoga circles they welcome the seasonal shifts with 108 sun salutations. Now that’s a lot and perhaps we can’t do that many but if you enjoy yoga, perhaps do a sun salutation facing all directions.   Start in the South and make your way West, North and then finally East.   As we are in a Solar eclipse that usually heralds, new beginnings and abrupt changes, let’s honor the sun with this sun salutation sequence.yoga sequence
  • Take a sun walk. (okay I totally made this term up but…roll with me).  Take a stroll outside in the evening in walk in a giant circle, honoring and reflecting on the seasons of change and the transit of the sun.  Be sure to walk in a clock wise direction and if you can, start in the south direction.  Maybe walk around a track or even a trail or around your house.  If you’re up for it, do four laps or circles to honor all directions.  As you walk reflect on changes, new beginnings and dedicate yourself to Earth Mother for spring and Grandmother Moon.  Imagine conversing with their energies like they were Sacred Beings as you walk.  What do they have to offer you during this cycle of change.
  • Last but not least…DANCE! I love this one song called Janjara by James Asher.  Let your feet be drums on the Earth and dance in a circular manner.  Again swirl in a clock wise direction and just let your soul move your body.  This is a new moon and new cycle dance, an honoring of the seasonal and lunar shifts.  Allow it to flow out naturally, close your eyes and simply move how your body wants.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bafvarg08lM

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Image source: https://journeyingtothegoddess.wordpress.com/tag/growth/

Image source 2:  www.halfmoon.org.uk

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Teachings from A Grouse for the New Moon & The Winter Solstice.

The Women's Tribe

solisticeFor those of you who do not know my house has a pet grouse.  And we have a history!  It all started last year when this grouse appeared out of the speckled forest in our back yard.  It seemed friendly enough, never flying away in fear, generally just curious.  It always came about and explored what we were up to until one changing day when it hopped on my son’s back and scared the poop out of him. Now you’re messing with my baby Mr. Grouse and mama’s got a problem with that.

I chased that bird away into the bush on countless occasions, one time with a broom, only to have it follow us over and over again.   Last winter we were enjoying a nice day sliding down the hill in the yard and it decided to jump on my back as I slid down.  I jumped off my plastic, green slide in terror and hid under it and using like a shield until my husband stopped laughing enough to chase it away.

This winter the grouse has been M.I.A. and quite frankly I was at peace with that.  But yesterday, as I drove home from a medical appointment I slammed on my breaks and came to a dead stop. The sun glared in my eyes as my mouth dropped open in disbelief.  Twelve, grey, confident grouse strolled across the road with their chests puffed up in the air walking slowly and commanding road.  The hair on my arms stood up and I knew those grouse were sending me a message.

In her book Medicine Cards, Jamie Sams connects the grouse to the sacred spiral.   She asks us, “Analyze the way you move through your world.  How do you picture yourself in the act of “locomotion”…What word would you use to describe the way you move through both the material and spiritual worlds?…is your movement compatible with your greatest desires and goals?”  She also speaks of the grouse being an ancient symbol for birth and rebirth.  The sacred spiral is also a symbol of personal power, a feminine symbol that we used to paint on our bodies for ceremonies and vision quests, a symbol of visioning to the center of creation, down the sacred spiral and towards the center and still spot of a tornado.

This message fit well as I have been really exploring my energy lately and witnessing how much I push myself and how much I pull back.  And in my self-assessment I’ve come to realize that I’m really good at pushing myself and I rarely pull back my energy on my own accord but usually out of collapse. I typically go from a state of pushing, pushing, pushing to a grinding halt…stopped dead in my tracks with inertia and exhaustion.  The experience of pulling back is not gentle or subtle, it’s extreme and fierce. It’s forceful and out of desperation, a need for recuperation and a catching of my breath for survival.  Like everyone else I’m learning to exist somewhere between inertia and a thousand miles a minute and moving away from the extremes.  I do know this, for every action there is an equal or greater reaction.  So when we move to one extreme, there is always the opposite extreme waiting for our arrival.

My yoga class is showing me it’s in the small shifts that we can gently move to and from our edge.  Whether it’s in doing every second sun-salutation instead of every single one or maybe it’s taking a half pose instead of the full pose.  Sometimes it’s using modifications or props for support rather than pushing to the far edge of triangle pose and into injury or exhaustion.  Maybe its letting the dishes dry in the sink every so often or reading a good book instead of doing the laundry every second night.  I found it to be quite playful to try and find balance in a gentle, subtle, loving way in my every day life instead of just pushing and getting through these few days and then falling ill or finishing my weak in a state of depletion.

I’m aware too that I’ve over-done myself to the nards so much that when my body is pushed past her limit just a bit she reacts angrily and with an autoimmune flare up.  So I’ve had to learn the luscious lessons of pulling back from the edge this year and now I find myself wanting to live in the pocket of it, not pushing past it, and not quite pulling back from it either.  Just dancing in the swirling energy of the edge, and following it’s changing parameters on each day, in each moment at each season.

As I reflect on 2014 I realize now this year for me was in many ways about pausing.  It was about stillness, reflection, contemplation, absorption, rooting, grounding, filling up the tank and restoration. Not the easiest of years’ for an over-doer.  This year has been in many ways about sitting damn close to inertia and letting that be my edge.  Our edges move, it’s not always where we think it should be, or even where we want it to be but it is where it is.  It changes daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.  All we can do is simply allow it to be where it is today and do our best to honor it.  I had a couple goals for 2014 I did not accomplish but I can see now as I reflect now that I couldn’t move my energy out to accomplish that goal when I was taking the year to pull my energy in and fill up in preparation for 2015, a year of manifestation.  There is a wisdom to our edges that is supernatural and purposeful.

So as we close this season, may you and I dance the sacred spiral of the Grouse.  Allowing ourselves to at times push, at times pull back, all while being gentle and subtle, not aggressive or forceful.  May we at times simply observe our energies to be as they are without a desire to change them.  I encourage you to allow yourself to fall into a slower, more reflective pace for the winter season and dream the dream like the great dreaming bear who hibernates in the caves of Mother Earth.  Fill yourself up with visions and dreams for the new year ahead.

I genuinely feel that learning about the 28 day lunar cycles and its’ connection to our 28 day menstrual cycles will help us find our edges.   So invite you to witness how as a new moon approaches we are often in low energy, like a seed just being planted into the soil and allow yourself to be softer, gentler and slower during this time.  The moon is dark and requesting us to reflect, imagine, and dream the vision for the seed we are planting.  I always notice that the 3 days before a new moon I am often more tired and low energy as the end of a moon cycle comes to a close and a new moon cycle is preparing for release.  Witness too that generally at a full moon, we are typically more energetic, vibrating, buzzing and hatching our goals and allow our edges to expand further and wider.  We have more energy, we are at our peaks as the moon shines brightest in the sky.

May this upcoming New Moon & Winter Solstice on Sunday be a time for you to sit…reflect…dream…imagine your goals for the upcoming 2015 year.  See them in your mind’s eye, see yourself doing and being in the next year to come.  Dream the dream and dance the sacred spiral of the Grouse.

Aho! And so it is.grouse

Look for more one day classes and short essays on teachings of the Sacred Feminine, Moon Time & Sacred Spirals in the New Year.  It will be a great year. 🙂

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“We are born as wild mountain lions but live most of our lives like sheep, forgetting and denying whole parts of ourselves.”  Lynn Andrews.