Lunar Eclipse Soother: Sleeping Goddess

It’s an eclipse and the first full moon of spring. Some full moons are slow, rich and sonorous, making it easy for us to slip into meditation and communion.  But a lunar eclipse is more electric and unstable.  Plus, at the beginning of a season, the weather is still changing and changeable. Our bodies are still adjusting.  Full moons are a great time to drop into the divine feminine, but how to do that when it’s too cold to sit under the moon comfortably–or maybe the temperature is fine, but it’s cloudy?

Here’s a lovely indoor full moon practice that begins as you drift off to sleep. We’ll use imagination as our mind hack–a simple technology to alter consciousness and merge our with mother moon.  We could close our eyes and imagine a luminous moon–but when our image doesn’t have eyes or a mouth, it’s hard for the subconscious to connect with the living quality of the deity. So we imagine her as a woman, in a pose that’s safe and relaxed. I’ve often used the Sleeping Goddess of Malta, but lately I like this earthy contemporary sleeping goddess pictured above, from the Lost Gardens of Heligan, England.  Note that both goddesses are sleeping on their right side.  The pose is meant to advise us. When we lie on our right side, we energize our moon channel, empowering it to do the moon’s nightly chores while we sleep.

Try this experiment. Use your imagination to reach the goddess on the night of the full moon. First, see her floating in front of you. Once the sense of that image feels alive and stable, let it grow bigger, then merge with it, so that you and the goddess are now one. Don’t worry about how this happens, just allow it to happen. Let your thoughts merge with hers. Surrender into her body as you drift off to sleep.

During an eclipse, many of us are kept awake by the wild energy in the atmosphere. Collecting that energy into this sleeping form is an effective way to tame excited Shakti.  Imagine yourself as a sleeping goddess, rising and falling with the world breath.  Notice if you feel your system calming down as you do this.