Jun

30

Exhilaration Practice for Cancer New Moon

Filed Under New Moon | 1 Comment

It’s as easy to catch feelings from other people as it is to catch their colds, especially if you’re an energy sensitive. That’s why developing good boundaries is crucial. But there are some feelings worth catching–which may be why certain videos go viral (in spiritual circles, this is known as “transmission”). Recently, along with a few million others, I found this little guru who had just learned to ride his bike. With the supportive witnessing of an encouraging parent, the boy’s exhilaration blossomed. It’s delightfully infectious. If you like infusing your New Moon rituals with positive qualities, let this coach lead you in a wonderful practice for this Cancer New Moon. Ground yourself into the center of the earth. Open to the vast possibility in the sky. Tune into your heart. Then watch the video and catch the joy. Let it flush through your system. Send it around the world. And repeat this mantra in the coming week: “I am happy of myself!” I know it’s eclipse time. All the more reason to practice your joy.

Postscript: Your energy practice is working is when it initiates a new conversation between your own rivers of memory, emotion, and energy. Notice what happens hours later. You may feel suddenly joyful–or you may begin weeping. You may feel more spacious, opening to new possibilities–or a dark cloud might descend (read my “Calling Cancer” piece on the Dark Mother). There is an art in trusting whatever appears. Know that it is the perfect next step for you in gaining emotional maturity. Be the encouraging witness. Keep observing the flow. Receive its wisdom.

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Jun

13

Graduation Day

Filed Under Holy Days | 7 Comments

Life is moving so fast these days, I can hardly keep up with the parade of calamities. I wonder… how do you survive having your baby ripped out of your arms during a tornado… or learning that the maid who helped raise your kids also had a baby with your husband? And what is it like to have your home and farm drown in the Mississipi River… or to be an international VIP shackled in court as a sex offender? How does one bear life’s unbearable surprises… like being a president lying in a hospital room with burns over forty percent of your body or a mother who’s just lost her son in Afganistan? And how do you live with yourself after you’ve torpedoed your career and your marriage by tweeting images of your weiner, especially when your last name is “Weiner”? How do you not notice the irony a little sooner?

There are so many ways to implode or suffer these days. But every once in awhile we enjoy a small respite. This weekend my son graduated from high school. And while graduation ceremonies can be mind-numbingly tedious (we attended three in one week!), I enjoyed every minute of this one, not just because my son was graduating, but because the officials kept their speeches short–so that every one of the 140 graduating seniors could be honored by a special teacher or mentor. About each senior, a story was told, a gift was celebrated, effort was applauded. In such a ritual-poor society as ours, sometimes, very occasionally, we get it right.

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Jun

13

The Eclipse Dance of the Centaur

Filed Under Full Moon | 1 Comment

Last month, Bekah’s guest blog piece about Venus and Pluto meeting in a bar offered a fine perspective on the plethora of wild sexual indiscretions that made the news last month. This month she invites us to dance with the Sagittarian Centaur!

Solar Eclipse in Mutable Air + a Total Lunar Eclipse in Mutable Fire = … Marshmallows, anyone?

Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign, representing the transformation of spirit. Sagittarius is the gypsy, the mythological Centaur, and the wild bonfire around which we dance and tell our fantastic stories.

Lately I’ve been noticing the strong relationship between the elements and the Moon’s cycle… floods trumpeted the water-sign Scorpio Full Moon, tornadoes blew in the air-sign Gemini New Moon, and now a volcano ushers in the fiery Full Moon in Sagittarius. Of course, 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, who calls us to dance with him at this Lunar Eclipse.

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 Full Moon is in late degrees, 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 such an impressive 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). But 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. And it’s especially nice, if you feel the impulse, to do a little dancing.

Bekah Finch is a Yoga teacher, shamanic practitioner and moon devotee. For more information on her work and writing please visit www.sacredwayyoga.com

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