Earth Mother Moon Journal, Issue 11 New Moon February 17 in Aquarius
This month's journal is about surrender. It is a month we don't want to focus on any of the negative- but instead, focus on the highest good and outcome. Its a time for idealists! And sometimes the best thing an idealist can do is accept things as they are in order to move forward. Letting go, which means letting go of control, can often be the most liberating and growing experience. One of the things we can surrender to, or accept- is to see who we are truly, and find love and peace within. To me, this is a huge part of our health- body, mind, and spirit.
Enjoy the journal this month!
Blessings,
Calesta Ana
Blessings,
Calesta Ana
The Aquarian New Moon
The New Moon begins another cycle for us, this time beginning in the sign of Aquarius. Below is a little information about Aquarius and the Moon. After reading it, I encourage you to take a bit of time to think about what you'd like to focus on this month. What do you need to let go of? What long term things do you need to be focusing on? What creative pursuits have you not made the time for but are calling to you deeply this month? Allow yourself to take the time to listen.... The Aquarian New Moon
Aquarius Message "This lunation brings us selflessness and impersonal love, the ability to care about our fellow humans. At this time we understand that creativity is a problem-solving tool. Violence of all sorts feels especially abhorrent now. The high vibrations of Aquarius filtered through the Moon make us all think of relationships and friendships and our highest and most altruistic values. Respect and compassion are highlighted by the Aquarian Moon: respect for life, compassion for one's contemporaries, respect for the arts and creativity. This is a good time to practice any artistic talent you may have, read philosophy, debate and brainstorm. Celebrate this seasno by doing your share and volunteering for your favorite life-oriented causes. What is sown when the Moon is in Aquarius will not rot easily; sow and plant everything from which blossoms are taken. Preserve fruit, dry and store fruit as well. Pluck marigold, the healing herb tea for your menstrual irregularities. Aquarian moon is not a good time to plant trees or cut them. Just pile up wood and store it. Moving to a new house is good now. Do only things that should last a long time. The time is favorable for business deals, correspondence, and writing books. If you are thinking about going on a diet, start it during this lunation in the Waning Moon. " Quoted from Grandmother Moon by Zsuzsanna E. Budapest
Surrendering To What Is
I came across the following in a book, discussing a little about Buddhism, and in this section, the four agreements. These are that that we suffer, the cause is our grasping or desire, the cure is nirvana or release, with the prescription being the word 'marga' which means the steps (eight fold path) of Buddhism. I've not quite seen before a description so simple on the essence of this path... like riding a bike. I felt I had to share this one with you:)
The following is quoted from the book Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life collected talks 1960-1969 by Alan Watts
"And finally the Buddha describes marga, the path that leads to awakening. I'm not going to go into all the details, the eight steps, or the eight folds of the Buddha's marga, or path, instead for now I'll just touch on the spirit of it. Buddha called the path the Middle Way and so you might say this is the path of the middle road. This is often misunderstood as a way of what you might call compromise... But the Middle Way does not quite mean a compromise between these two extremes. It has a somewhat more profound sense than that, and I think the easiest way of understanding what the Buddha meant by "the middle way" would be to call it "the balanced life" - avoiding falling into one extreme or two another extreme. When you ride a bicycle, you do something that is very much like following the Middle Way, because to stay upright as you go along you balance to avoid falling to either side. But the curious thing about riding a bicycle, which is so difficult for beginners to understand , is that when you start falling, say to the right, you have to turn the handle bars and the wheel to the right, to the direction in which you're falling. And as a result of this, surprisingly enough, you come upright. One would ordinarily think, perhaps that if you start falling to the right you should turn your wheel to the left, but if you do that you'll collapse.
Now if we apply this analogy of riding the bicycle to Buddhism it sounds something like this: supposing we are falling into fear and we resist fear. Then what happens? If we resist fear we begin to be afraid of fear and this leads to what we call worry or anxiety. After all, worry is being afraid of being afraid. And then being afraid because I'm afraid I'm afraid, so it goes on in a vicious circle indefinitely... When you are worried an you say to yourself, "All right, worry, get with that worry," it neutralizes the worry because you are not worrying about not worrying anymore....
And, just as it is a surprise to the beginner on the bicycle to regain control over his machine when he turns in the direction of his fall, so it is an enormous surprise to human beings to find that when they accept themselves instead of fighting themselves they're in much better control of themselves. Somebody who is divided against themselves is like a person trying to ride off in two directions at once, and lives in contradiction. So the ultimate experience of Buddhism is that when we come together with ourselves again, as a result of coming together with ourselves we find that we are together with everything. We are not separate, cutoff beings, but that this whole universe is our self."
Prayers
There is a new ministry section on the website, and in it I decided to include interfaith prayers. I thought it might be nice to share a few prayers not on the site already. And, what better way to find acceptance, than to ask for it and let that be your intention.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change... the courage to change the things I can... and the wisdom to know the difference.
Prayers to the Goddess:
http://www.spiralgoddess.com/Homage.html
http://www.egreenway.com/meditation/goddess1.htm
http://www.northernway.org/sophia.html
Believing in Ourselves (Self/Spirit)
This next quoted section is from the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. I read it the same night I read the Buddhist information above. When i read it, it struck me as being the same message of surrendering and acceptance to what is. An acceptance of who we are, light and dark.
"In order to take control of our lives and accomplish something of lasting value, sooner or later we need to learn to Believe. We don't need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that's within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things being to work for us... (and he goes now into examples, one of which I'll share) In 1854, a boy was withdrawn from school in Port Huron, Michigan for 'causing trouble'. He had been there for three months. That was to be the only formal education of his life. He later worked as a laboratory assistant. The job ended when he blew up the laboratory. His employer picked him up and threw him out into the dust, saying he would never amount to anything. But he had a plan and he wasn't going to let a little problem or two stop him. he wanted to learn the mechanical applications of natural laws. He eventually became the foremost inventor in American history, with over thirteen hundred domestic and foreign patents registered in his name, a name synonymous with problem-solving genius, the name of Thomas Edison.
At first I thought of my own children while reading this one... my curious 'trouble making' children at times:)... and my own trouble making over the years:) But what this really made me think of is how when we stop defining ourselves by what other people want or expect, we allow ourselves to truly walk in who we are- and it is in that we can meet our highest purpose.
I wish you the best during this Moon Time:)
Feel free to email me using the contact form.
<< Previous Moon Journal Entry
Next Moon Journal Entry >>
The New Moon begins another cycle for us, this time beginning in the sign of Aquarius. Below is a little information about Aquarius and the Moon. After reading it, I encourage you to take a bit of time to think about what you'd like to focus on this month. What do you need to let go of? What long term things do you need to be focusing on? What creative pursuits have you not made the time for but are calling to you deeply this month? Allow yourself to take the time to listen.... The Aquarian New Moon
Aquarius Message "This lunation brings us selflessness and impersonal love, the ability to care about our fellow humans. At this time we understand that creativity is a problem-solving tool. Violence of all sorts feels especially abhorrent now. The high vibrations of Aquarius filtered through the Moon make us all think of relationships and friendships and our highest and most altruistic values. Respect and compassion are highlighted by the Aquarian Moon: respect for life, compassion for one's contemporaries, respect for the arts and creativity. This is a good time to practice any artistic talent you may have, read philosophy, debate and brainstorm. Celebrate this seasno by doing your share and volunteering for your favorite life-oriented causes. What is sown when the Moon is in Aquarius will not rot easily; sow and plant everything from which blossoms are taken. Preserve fruit, dry and store fruit as well. Pluck marigold, the healing herb tea for your menstrual irregularities. Aquarian moon is not a good time to plant trees or cut them. Just pile up wood and store it. Moving to a new house is good now. Do only things that should last a long time. The time is favorable for business deals, correspondence, and writing books. If you are thinking about going on a diet, start it during this lunation in the Waning Moon. " Quoted from Grandmother Moon by Zsuzsanna E. Budapest
Surrendering To What Is
I came across the following in a book, discussing a little about Buddhism, and in this section, the four agreements. These are that that we suffer, the cause is our grasping or desire, the cure is nirvana or release, with the prescription being the word 'marga' which means the steps (eight fold path) of Buddhism. I've not quite seen before a description so simple on the essence of this path... like riding a bike. I felt I had to share this one with you:)
The following is quoted from the book Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life collected talks 1960-1969 by Alan Watts
"And finally the Buddha describes marga, the path that leads to awakening. I'm not going to go into all the details, the eight steps, or the eight folds of the Buddha's marga, or path, instead for now I'll just touch on the spirit of it. Buddha called the path the Middle Way and so you might say this is the path of the middle road. This is often misunderstood as a way of what you might call compromise... But the Middle Way does not quite mean a compromise between these two extremes. It has a somewhat more profound sense than that, and I think the easiest way of understanding what the Buddha meant by "the middle way" would be to call it "the balanced life" - avoiding falling into one extreme or two another extreme. When you ride a bicycle, you do something that is very much like following the Middle Way, because to stay upright as you go along you balance to avoid falling to either side. But the curious thing about riding a bicycle, which is so difficult for beginners to understand , is that when you start falling, say to the right, you have to turn the handle bars and the wheel to the right, to the direction in which you're falling. And as a result of this, surprisingly enough, you come upright. One would ordinarily think, perhaps that if you start falling to the right you should turn your wheel to the left, but if you do that you'll collapse.
Now if we apply this analogy of riding the bicycle to Buddhism it sounds something like this: supposing we are falling into fear and we resist fear. Then what happens? If we resist fear we begin to be afraid of fear and this leads to what we call worry or anxiety. After all, worry is being afraid of being afraid. And then being afraid because I'm afraid I'm afraid, so it goes on in a vicious circle indefinitely... When you are worried an you say to yourself, "All right, worry, get with that worry," it neutralizes the worry because you are not worrying about not worrying anymore....
And, just as it is a surprise to the beginner on the bicycle to regain control over his machine when he turns in the direction of his fall, so it is an enormous surprise to human beings to find that when they accept themselves instead of fighting themselves they're in much better control of themselves. Somebody who is divided against themselves is like a person trying to ride off in two directions at once, and lives in contradiction. So the ultimate experience of Buddhism is that when we come together with ourselves again, as a result of coming together with ourselves we find that we are together with everything. We are not separate, cutoff beings, but that this whole universe is our self."
Prayers
There is a new ministry section on the website, and in it I decided to include interfaith prayers. I thought it might be nice to share a few prayers not on the site already. And, what better way to find acceptance, than to ask for it and let that be your intention.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change... the courage to change the things I can... and the wisdom to know the difference.
Prayers to the Goddess:
http://www.spiralgoddess.com/Homage.html
http://www.egreenway.com/meditation/goddess1.htm
http://www.northernway.org/sophia.html
Believing in Ourselves (Self/Spirit)
This next quoted section is from the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. I read it the same night I read the Buddhist information above. When i read it, it struck me as being the same message of surrendering and acceptance to what is. An acceptance of who we are, light and dark.
"In order to take control of our lives and accomplish something of lasting value, sooner or later we need to learn to Believe. We don't need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that's within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things being to work for us... (and he goes now into examples, one of which I'll share) In 1854, a boy was withdrawn from school in Port Huron, Michigan for 'causing trouble'. He had been there for three months. That was to be the only formal education of his life. He later worked as a laboratory assistant. The job ended when he blew up the laboratory. His employer picked him up and threw him out into the dust, saying he would never amount to anything. But he had a plan and he wasn't going to let a little problem or two stop him. he wanted to learn the mechanical applications of natural laws. He eventually became the foremost inventor in American history, with over thirteen hundred domestic and foreign patents registered in his name, a name synonymous with problem-solving genius, the name of Thomas Edison.
At first I thought of my own children while reading this one... my curious 'trouble making' children at times:)... and my own trouble making over the years:) But what this really made me think of is how when we stop defining ourselves by what other people want or expect, we allow ourselves to truly walk in who we are- and it is in that we can meet our highest purpose.
I wish you the best during this Moon Time:)
Feel free to email me using the contact form.
<< Previous Moon Journal Entry
Next Moon Journal Entry >>