Aquarius Full Moon Saturday 8/13

The moon is waxing beautifully in the summer skies. While the full moon is still days away, I think most of us can't help but draw our eyes to the heavens this week as things may feel like they are not unfolding as planned in front of us. 

The new moon in Leo came in with a fiery roar, and we were happy to hear it; there was a night or two of excitement, eagerness, playfulness, courage and fun... then Mercury went retrograde and that roar went inward. Perhaps some of you felt like you were coughing up a fur ball or two? All the intention of moving outward, and suddenly, communication is off and we just want to pick up our toys and go home.

That is okay. The retrograde cycles are always a time for powerful teaching. The energy moves backwards and since so many of us are constantly wanting to move forward, it is a real challenge to stop in our tracks and allow those steps back. Our outward fun may turn into inner reflection and our big parties may become quiet picnics under the stars. I was hiking with a dear friend today and she was telling me how a teacher just told her that sometimes creativity is not about making a piece of art, but rather, when things aren't moving the way you want, can you use your creativity to respond in a fluid way?

I think that may be the teaching of Leo/Aquarius this month. 

Aquarius is fixed air, (maintain creativity) which often makes it feel more watery since when air is contained it feels more like waves, as does its symbol the water-bearer. I never quite understood or related to what a water-bearer was and so I looked into it:  The symbol for Aquarius is the Water Bearer, symbolically and eternally giving life and spiritual food to the world. The water from the vessel washes away the past, leaving room for a fresh, new start. The sign of Aquarius is forward-looking and growth-oriented. Concerned with equality and individual freedom, Aquarius seeks to dispense its knowledge, and its vision of equality and individuality, to all. (from cafeastrology.com) 

Aquarius is always outside the box. So maybe Leo inspired some traditional summer fun activities, and now with mercury retrograde and the rising emotion of the full moon we have to back track and find a way to use our creativity and passions in a different way, a more fluid and unconscious way, maybe one that is focused on bettering ourselves and the world around us, rather than having a final summer hurrah.

If you are feeling depressed, angry, unsettled or frustrated, that is still Leo energy waiting to be channeled, and now the Aquarius full moon asks us if we dare to channel that creativity in a new way? A way that gives new life and energy to all beings? Just as sitting under a waxing/full moon nourishes the soul, so can your Leo/Aquarius intentions. The retrograde cycle can make it difficult to start something new, so let that air energy move backwards into other intentions you may have set this year that didn't get fulfilled. Do you remember the intentions you made back at the Aquarius new moon this year? Both air and fire have the flexibility to go in any direction we want. Become an air-bender this week and heed the Aquarius call.

As always, the choice in responding to our celestial teachers lies with you. Every month, in each part of the lunar cycle, we have an opportunity to learn, grow, transform and create. The planets, elements, signs are all just guides, suggestions along the way. There is no right or wrong but these times offer really powerful opportunities to each of us. If nothing else, pay attention to your feelings, to nature, to the sky and just do one thing that your intuition guides you to do this week, even if it seems really weird (that is the Aquarius calling card;))  Obviously, be sure it harms no one and again, no big life changes during retrograde... but a subtle change in your reaction, a whim to do something a little differently, to use your creativity in a new way, that will be enough to honor this cycle and please both the Lioness and the Water-bearer.

Have a beautiful waxing week and a sweet Aquarian Full Moon weekend. I leave you with a quote from a famous Aquarian, Francis Bacon, "He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator."

Capricorn Full Moon Thurs July 14th

I don't think I have ever been more pleased to see Capricorn. Wow, that is a statement you do not often hear coming from a Gemini, and while it is true that I have had more challenges with the Capricorns of my life (from childhood to present) than any other sign, I have also experienced some of the deepest connections.

As I mentioned at the Capricorn new moon last winter, this sign is symbolized by the Mountain Goat. I had the opportunity to watch those guys at the living desert in Palm Springs and they are remarkable creatures. They are so firmly rooted to the earth that they move up, down and around the rockiest terrain with ease. Capricorn is Cardinal (initiate) earth (form) and it is the most intense of the earth signs, which I think, is much needed after the crazy eclipse cycle.

Think about it, this is the first major lunation in 6 weeks that hasn't had an eclipse attached to it; but it is in one of the most challenging but beneficial signs for manifestation. The eclipse cycle was focused in Air (Gemini) Fire (Sagittarius) and water (Cancer) so we desperately need earth right now, and we need an earth energy that will bring us back to our roots and firmly on our path.

I don't know how the eclipses affected each of you, or how this current Cancer cycle has been flowing, I know for me it has been really intense. I have had all kinds of old patterns, thoughts and fears coming up, I have had to look at my primary relationships and honestly inventory them and I feel almost at a cross roads emotionally. But it also has been amazing, I have been a part of powerful rituals, circles, new connections, old connections and wonderful opportunities have been presenting themselves. It is overwhelming, to say the least, like a big ocean wave, which is appropriate for the Cancer month.

My intention for this full moon, as the full moon is our best time for reflection, illumination and celebration, is to get up a mountain. There are plenty of full moon hikes this time of year (Treepeople, Stough Canyon Nature Center, Griffith Park) or you can make your own.

Embody the mountain goat and get your feet moving on the earth, climb up to a place where you can soak up the full moon and with your feet planted, let the waves of emotion from the new moon wash over you, offer it to the earth, focus your mind firmly on what you really want, in the midst of all the stuff arising, see it, sense it, like that vital next step up the hill, and then give in to the beauty of challenge, accomplishment, be grateful for the climb, the opportunities and the clarity we are receiving. We need each element equally, and now is the time to honor the earth, not the sensual, steady Taurus earth, or the mutable Virgo earth, but the hard, rocky, unyielding Capricorn earth. It is only through this connection that we can gather the strength to move forward, to continue cleansing, releasing and transforming. 

Here is a poem from this year's We'Moon by Rosemary Wyman that I found fitting:

Sometimes I need to feel like I can move mountains and

I'll grab something heavy to heave, shove or pull.

I wanna prove I'm strong-like I wanna prove I'm useful like

you know, to carry one grain of sand from

here to there, and then another, and then another

it aint gonna ever satisfy me like- it caint never ring my bell like

it sure as hell won't float my boat

You see these boulders? You see these troubled lives?

Sometimes the futile feel of the slip-slop endless process of

my immoderate unenlightened life totally terrifies me like

when I encounter a mountain and know the thing needs moving and

can feel my hands are tied and can see the money's almost gone then

I despair- that my wee pea-size intelligence is inadequate after all.

The ensuing squirm is pure pathetic like

a loud fly stuck-dance angry in a spider's wiggling web

but sometimes when I smack into a mountain

I can re-member myself in time

and I can get out of my own way long enough and

I can plant my flat feet firmly on the floor and

I can put my freakin' hands together and

I can set my blazing beating heart behind them.

Then my belief begins to MOVE my mountains.

For this full moon, think earth, think mountain, think honoring challenges with love and gratitude, think asking that Mountain goat to guide you through the rest of this cycle.

Our next new moon gathering will be in Leo on Saturday July 30th hosted by Sascha; and the following month, our Virgo new moon will set the stage for our first ever MOON CAMP! We will be having a camp-out in Ojai from Saturday afternoon August 26th to Sunday morning August 27th~ I am so excited and will send a special email out soon with more information; but if you know you are interested in coming, go ahead and email me so I can start getting a sense of how many ladies to expect.

Also, I am teaching the next Sacred Female Flow workshop, which honors the full moon and seasonal celebration of midsummer, on Friday August 12th 8:30-10:30pm at Yoga Blend. The last one was so fun and magical and I am looking forward to the power we will create this time.

Have a healing and grounding full moon!

Sagittarius Full Moon/Total Lunar Eclipse Wed 6/15

Solar Eclipse + Mutable Air + Mutable Fire + Total Eclipse=

 

Marshmallows, anyone?

 

Sagittarius is Mutable fire, the transformation of spirit, symbolized as the mythological centaur, recognized as the gypsy and equated to a wild bonfire around which we tell our tall tales and fantastic stories.

 

I am very interested in the relationship between the elements and the moon, and recently, the earth has been manifesting the lunar cycles as they start... the floods trumpeted the Scorpio full moon, tornadoes blew in Gemini new moon and a volcano ushers in the full moon/total lunar eclipse of Sagittarius. Now, there is no legitimate proof that these things are related, but to ME, they have felt connected. If anyone understands that kind of far-reaching thinking, it would be Sagittarius.

 

The dance here is of the last call variety, right before the club closes. The partners are your mind, which is probably still racing from the Gemini new moon/solar eclipse, and your spirit, which may feel like it has either gotten too big for your body or you can't find it at all. It is a fast dance, not a slow one and neither party can touch, yet they must somehow come together....

 

Argh! It's impossible, it's too hot and sweaty in here, I can't catch my breath, it's too loud and I don't want to dance with you anyway, you smelly horse man! I just want to go home and get away from all these people, all these possibilties and everything that has brought me to this point... just. leave. me. alooooonnneee!!!

 

(Anyone else kind of feel like that? Just me?

Here is the thing, an eclipse HEIGHTENS everything, and the lunar eclipse specifically heightens emotions. This moon/eclipse is in a later degree, which means it is time to let go of the old feelings, hang-ups, resentments, fears, thoughts and pretty much everything else plaguing mind or spirit.)

 

I threw a tantrum on the dance floor and ran dramatically out into the parking lot. The big full moon is staring down at me, illuminating my pain, embarassment and all the other stuff I don't want to look at. I glare back at her as the Centaur saunters up to me. He laughs a full belly laugh and says "That was pretty impressive back there." I ignore him and turn away. Suddenly he scoops me up, and starts galloping off into the night. "Hey!" I cry indignantly, "You are not supposed to touch me!" He chuckles again "I pretty much do whatever I want, sweetheart, I am always changing." His whole body emanates heat and I add to it, fuming silently as he takes me further into the full moon night.

 

We stop suddenly in an alley where some homeless men have created a small fire in a battered grill. "Uh, excuse me?" I start to complain when he cuts me off. "Sorry, boys, can we use your spot for a few?" No one argues with a centaur and the men wander away. "Take me back." I demand. "Give it up." he responds. "Give it up, and give it to the fire. Everything you are so angry about, everything you are afraid of, give it away so I can have my dance with you."

 

I refuse and stare into the fire. Give it up? All of it? Where would I be without my old fears and head games, my control issues and old tapes? "You will be free." he answers softly. I stop resisting and start to empty out my pockets, my purse, my shoes. I offer to the weak fire all that has been living rent free in my head for so long. The fire grows higher, hungrier, accepting every old thought willingly.

Suddenly I feel light, so light, like I had no idea how much these things were weighing me down. I look at him in disbelief. He laughs that horsey laugh and I begin to hear the sound of drums, then a flute. He starts to circle me and now I laugh, because I am ready to dance this dance of mind and spirit. I am ready to move like magnets, without touching physically, but in perfect harmony. The eclipse has begun.

 

I don't actually expect anyone to run off with a centaur Wednesday night (though that would be cool.) I would recommend taking time to let your mind and spirit work things out; perhaps through some silent meditation followed by prayer and a burning ceremony. Burning ceremony is where you write down all the things you are ready to release and then consciously and ceremoniously feed them to the flames. You can also burn old items but please do it safely and consciously. It is nice if you can do all of this under the full moon. I often just light a candle in a bowl, feed my paper to the candle and let it burn out in the bowl.

 

But as usual, even if you just glance at the moon for a moment and light a candle before bed, take some time to honor this lunation, because it does affect all of us. I may be bold in trying to connect lunations with floods and volcanos, but there are powerful changes afoot and the more we are aware of them and the more we honor them, the better able we are going to be at transforming physically and spiritually.

 

In the waning cycle between this full moon/eclipse and the next new moon/eclipse, I would like to recommend two special events: the first is my Summer Solstice Celebration at Yoga Blend, Tuesday June 21st. I always love holding these workshops and have some special things planned for this one in particular due to all the eclipses. The weekend after solstice, Saturday June 25th & 26th, we are so honored to host my teacher and one of the women responsible for bringing female shamanism into our culture, author, teacher, healer and yogini, Vicki Noble, at Yoga Blend! She will be sharing her powerful Dakini practice, which combines Shamanism, Buddhism and Goddess roots in a simple yet profound teaching and ritual. You can come for just Saturday night or Sunday afternoon but I highly recommend both! More info for both events can be found at www.yogablend.com.