Sparkling Lotus Ink

Why This Particular New Moon Was So Significant

The new moon is always ruled by the same astrological sign that's ruling the sun at that time. In this case, the new moon/sun was ruled by the cardinal fire sign of Aries.  And this New fire moon is the beginning of the astrological year.  When it's possible to burn brush on that day, we do so.  It activates a kind of elevated, hyper-reality vibe out in the field and I've come to the conclusion that's a perceptual skew aided and abetted by the fact that we both have an Aries ascendant.  A lot of sympathetic magic seems to compound itself as a result.  Elemental pieces come together in a flowing effortless way if we're outside doing this particular activity in sequence with the lunar cycle.  

  Normally it's raining, or sleeting, or snowing, or hailing on that particular day of the year.  But this year we burned less than a day before the new Aries moon rose.   And the special, hushed sense of pending release that many are able to experience on New Year's Eve, or Samhain, or the timeframe signifying the last few hours before they were born, each year on their birthday -- all of that same incredible energy was there in the field's atmosphere.  I wandered around rattling, weeding, clearing away spent branches, and such.  As I was moving I was also considering the Pam Gregory video I watched about this new moon cycle, and the idea of setting intentions/seeding our consciousness with the coming year in mind.  I felt called to seek out a stone from the general landscape.  Something to represent my amped-up commitment to the land and our gardening endeavors.

As regular readers are aware - I'm currently immersed in a really wonderful class with Deb Soule.  It's been an astonishingly grounded and grounding experience which has also elevated my sense of virtually endless possibilities related to both soul and spirit nourishment, as well as caring more mindfully and in a deeper sense of shifting balance with the four primary elements as well as the year's lunar cycles.  Am positive that raised and upgraded awareness is a large part of why this particular Aries moon felt as sacred and elevated as I've ever felt on that day since my mid-to-late 30's.   

but there was a lot more BIG tree magic fueling my sense of vibrational upgrade:

The red maple tree flowers hit peak.  Their brilliant, ruby red energy field was vibrating everywhere around the property, and that omnipresence felt like a wonderful enhancement of the Aries Sun & Moon energy.  For five days the sky and landscape was flooded with sunlight and mild-temperatures while these wonderful hardy trees brought the first sustained burst of flowering life (including masses of pollen) to our locality.  Oftentimes the maples bloom in cold and inhospitable weather.  But this year the flowers where plump and fluffy.

You see the red haze here and there in the tree line above.  Now the elms are also flowering. 

and the shallots I planted last fall are up and lookin' hardy.

Many people do not enjoy working with indigo, particularly if they skew towards certain forms of depression - especially seasonal affect disorder.  If this is you, try adding a little red to the blue and work with deep purple instead.   It's actually a much better color-ray choice if you want to get some depth-within-depth perception going.

stones you might like for this month:  Tektite, sodalite, grape jelly amethyst, azurite.  Hematite is also nice as a grounding and protective agent.  Something about its mirror-like properties of protection are a really good fit for Mind.

what to expect:  at some point this month you're going to be invited to know yourself in a new way. it might be something familiar and recurring that needs to be seen from a different calibration arc, or it might be something previously unsuspected.

How to stay grounded:  eat high quality root vegetables a few times a week. Cook with Garlic and Ginger.  Add a slice or two of burdock root to your spring broths and soups.  practice alternate nostril breathing.   it makes such a difference. Try it for the rest of this month and see if you don't agree.

This is the rock that called to me from the edge of the woods. It wishes to represent the new astrological wheel-year.  Seems likely that will come to mean any number of things.  I found it ...

right after I took this picture

and this one, by the old well. 

Then I wandered all over for a couple of hours while J. burned brush and I got better acquainted with my projected roles in this year's various gardens.

May the eternal firelight of new beginnings guide and guard you well throughout this year's wheel-around.

What do you want YOUR wheel/house to be?

Decide now

and follow through

.

an exercise of sorts

Two days in a row now I have had a text from Miles:  Where's the Zinn post?

I've been waiting for an internalized sense of the jump-off point to the Sixth Chakra.  Because for me, Zinn was primarily a visionary, although I clearly grasp he comes to it by way of Fifth Chakra notoriety.

here's the exercise:  follow this link

Look at the banner picture.  Then look at the three visible book titles over his left shoulder.  Look back at his face.  And then come back here or scroll down until you see the same picture, as well as the one to its right.

and then

soften everything inside

and have a bit of a think

concerning au courant/Trendy booklist forms of paying attention

and

the real deal.

If you really want to get real

about being white

and actively

dealing with

(rather than simply 'acknowledging')

racism:

read Zinn

I say it all the time

specifically because he paid attention

all along.

He spoke out - and waaaaay loudly -

during a time

when it was seriously risky

rather than de rigueur fashion

to do as much.

have a think on that too as well

as your reading and speaking habits

in relation to specifically what guides both.

and then:

Go to your nearest mirror

look at who you are

right now

and answer this question:

where do you want to be as we leave this chakra and move on to really paying attention to that which is equally Within and Without You

?

Figure that out and stand tall in it

Be what you say.  Listen through ears that are committed to making an ongoing choice

to hear or not hear

whatever.

To speak or not

and

why

.

something's changed for you this month

because of this month

including the trial I refuse to watch

because I'm not letting my

heart break any farther

simply because my Other half

isn't willing to sit by

(not any more)

while my white half

does what all the other

"good" white people

are doing.

simply because

good white people

are telling me

I "really should"

.

speaking this truthfully

and directly

with the sense that all my chakras

are pretty well in balance

is completely new territory.

I've done it as I intended

on my other blog

and now I'm getting around to what Miles really meant

by The Zinn Post

here and now.

***

please don't set it aside:

this moment

in our collective

experience

as a mere

experience

.

Let it set a good strong root

that sustains the rest of your life

as well as collective experience

instead.

***

returning to source

Am trying to incorporate more daily trips to contemplate moving water.  It's right on the other side of the back dooryard.  Sometimes I tell myself that without actually crossing the short distance.  It doesn't just feel like a with-holding form of energetic unkindness to myself, and a dereliction of co-creative duty, it also feels like an ongoing wasted opportunity to ever so easily move closer to living the life I've imagined since forever.   

Ever since the sun moved into my ascendant sign of Aries I have been energized with a capital E especially at the mental level.  This happens every year and I've noticed the flow and productivity rate of how it goes is directly relational to how closely I pay attention to what Aries means and reflect/notice afresh the details of how the energy tends to manifest in my awareness and embodiment of it. 

Cardinal fire energy wants to MOVE.  andiamo, baby.  As in three weeks ago come ON what are you waiting for???

J also has an Aries ascendant.  We embody what I just typed out with words in completely different ways, and within totally mix-and-match spheres of influence.   And usually we are quiet on the outside, except with each other.  A lot of times we reach for grounding and re-alignment by standing together on the bridge over the stream.  Just being and breathing with the ever-moving water.  Yesterday we noticed the Peregrine Falcon is back. Also of note: Select Seeds sent out a notice they'll begin shipping plants in three weeks but I doubt I'll see mine for a further three.  They sold out.  everything.  

Above is last night's moon.  I went out to see the rise and enjoyed bearing slow breathing witness to Luna peak above the White Pine that I have named The Cherished Daughter.  The tree and I had a very meaningful encounter last week and then last night we had another.  This time there was triangular energy because the moon rose in the same alignment. 

Here are my springtime books.  Am excited to dive in to the book on the left this evening.
Have decided to continue reading poetry first thing in the morning.  Incarnating in this manner is something I used to practice in my early twenties.  It's nice re-membering to grow old with it here in the Now.  Tomorrow I'll start the volume above.

And my chosen re-read.  It's been about fifteen years.  But I look at the sketches I made for some of the exercises every two or three...

full moon harvest

Libra's power and majesty has been roaring its way up and down the ridge were we live.  I went out when things were calmed to a dull roar and retrieved my stone allies.   It was pretty fab.

Stopped to get a documentation shot of the garden still vibing with full moon energy. You can see I have been working.  The objects I attached to the gate have been indoctrinated into their new surroundings through the typically dramatic weather shifts. Everything seems happy to have a purpose.  And I am considering (this seems like quite a Libra thing, actually ...) 

Elegance of Purpose.

Tonight's the second class with Deb.  I may take a few days off screen afterward.  Just to see what that shifts ..

amazing daze

Today I saw three hawks - the first of the season for me though I have seen a lot of turkey buzzards.  The hawk above had a partner and the other was solo.  Their cries are a happy addition to my garden time.  I've been outside a lot - poking around in the woods, doing chores, and spending a lot of time really bonding with this new growing season as it asserts more of itself.

The white pine tree I call The Treasured Daughter is really bursting with life force.  This tree was about eight inches tall when we moved here...

Day before yesterday I was called to make a 'surprise' crown chakra remedy for the Dive people and continued life in the SLI repertory.   Below the all important act of reciprocity has been implemented.   Poured excess matrix back on the colony after returning the nine bowl flowers to the ground  with each bloom tucked into the edges of the grouping.

Every year that I co-create in this way, the process becomes deeper and more layered at the same time it gets increasingly straightforward.   By now it's a form of muscle memory as well as an ongoing prayer.  Sent the captains a text with a pic of the bowl once the mother stock had been harvested and shaken to life.  Later, in the early evening enlivened by late slanting sun, Rory dropped by and played his harmonica for the colony.

I think they liked it!  This morning every single bud had opened and the colony seemed jubilant.

Mama holds lynx aspirations ...

Today I visited the special portion of the field's rock wall to repair the stone prayer stacks and a few new layers to one of the stacks.  While I was putting stones back into stacks I happened to notice one of the rocks has grafitti'd a crossroads symbol - must be from the mineral deposits that run right alone the fissures of the rock.

I made this sun ornament during a family Summer Solstice crafting endeavor to commemorate our first Summer 'in the country' after leaving Boston.  It's hung somewhere in the garden ever since.  While living in this place, I've changed its location every year but I think it will hang on the gate from now on. I also added some miniature cowbells and a few crystals that had been a bundled gift from a friend - with each item equipped with individual hanging ribbons and rope.  Didn't get this far last year but this year there's the luxury of more time.  I plan to embellish the gate a lot more over time, providence willing.

There are three bells and three crystals.  I hung the amethyst point so it's in shade for all but the earliest morning sun part of the day.   etc.

Am getting the feeling this may be a year when the local rocks are going to vibe a lot. 

Wakey, Wakey ...

Spring Magic

Ms Hellebore has risen overnight ...

i was delighted to discover a self-seeded foxglove in a part of the property where foxgloves haven't grown in 10 years.  She's growing right at the base of a flowering quince.  Have noticed the volunteer foxgloves like to cozy-up close to an existing plant.  While I was out on this morning's perambulation, I paused to weed here and there - to greet many returning colonies of lemon balm, to plan removal, nurturing, and later transplanting of rose campion seedlings rising from the brick walkway. 

Yesterday J cleared up some brush in the evolving sanctuary bed and adjacent frog pond area.

I've been standing on the middle of the bridge at the stream to watch the sun go down and engage with portions of Deb's Equoinox meditation.   The excitement rising among class members as the clock moves closer to our first lessons with her at 7 p.m. is a very tangible energy.

We had a worksheet relating to the Equinox presentation.  I chose to write in sky blue ink.  and something true:  I will indeed need that extra note book for additional journaling room.  This morning I moved into the additional notebook I'll be embellishing with the half-size copies of the class journal.  Wrote about stuff that happened in the yard today - things I noticed/approached/amplified cognitively and energetically because of shifts the Equinox work afforded with effortless ease. 

As you can see, the very gorgeous volunteer 'crown' of last year's mid-summer garden still has some things to say.  We had a long conversation.  I spoke aloud.  It embarassed me for years - the way some of my more expressive friends would announce and proclaim and just generally act like humans were the swing vote in it all.

I'm speaking quietly.   Sometimes with tender gestures. 

It's a big step for me.  And I had to, in good balanced blue conscience delete some unplanned opinionated asides concerning why that is.

Also of super Blue interest to me:  I was psyched to this really insightful piece in The Guardian yesterday.  The headline alone had me clicking on swift reflex.

i deleted what i 'said' about it (by way of relating quite tangentially to recently re-upped marketing of the book on the above left).

the piece itself

speaks more than eloquently.

The book on the right is just me reading ahead with the 7th chakra in mind. 

***

I feel a lot of shifts and shedding skin.

I keep having totally out-of-the-blue and previously unimaginable fictional breakthroughs that somehow aren't wreaking havoc with my pre-ordained weekly deliverable schedule.  I don't know how it's happening but assume it's open-crown/kinda-sorta cosmically driven

I feel like this had to happen during Blue month or I wouldn't have known how to hold it steady

while the world wakes up and Persephone rises to the surface to evoke all her glorious subjects to bloom everywhere.

 sometimes I feel like I'm just this close to losing all control of my original vision but somebody who's writing I love

and greatly respect

once told me that's the only time you're writing worth a damn.

Right on that edge.  No exceptions.

Sometimes I know exactly how to hold steady

but it will mean sooooo much work

and additional thinking

during a time of year when all I want to do

is be outside.

I claim I don't know anything

but really I'm saying I obviously

know and choose to imagine I don't.

After the sense of not knowing anything

builds up enough fire&water steam

I stand in the doorway of J's office

and talk myself through various forms of dismay, uncertainty, elation and utterly victorious a-ha moments.

sometimes he's 'there' ...

sometimes he wishes I wasn't.

equinox: blue-balanced light & dark

Giving myself this day of immersive relationship to the energy, yet also sharing the experience.   Usually I go all-in or just kind of dabble here and there throughout the day.  Now I'm considering everything that happens part of the medicine walk.   "sacred time isn't separate time"  Am considering making a painting to resemble a cross-stitch motto.  for substrate, use a piece of salvaged wood and hang it in the mud room.

J will remove another layer of leaves from the pond today.  We will rattle and sing.  Others have been by per loosely arranged schedule. 

At sunset we'll stand facing west and absorb the shifting light of this new season on its first day of life.

As is my way I am going all in with The Healing Garden class material.  There are many altar spaces in and around our home but I wanted something especially dedicated to the energy work for this course - and in a place where I could see it alot - that was grounded in our home's energetic structure rather than my studio space.   Set up a wooden folding tray just by the door of the living room leading to the kitchen and downstairs hallways.  Built the altar slowly over an hour's worth of time and gentle contemplation of my inclusion options.

building an altar is always rewarding, elevating, and above all else intentional BLUE in living action.  Deb's exemplar featured a backdrop.  Haven't worked altar space that way in decades.   So, yeah.  Let's re-ignite the horizontal axis.  This is SO BEAUTIFUL and smoothing for the entire house.  Planning to smudge with all the doors open.

Included on the wall:  my layered red square from 'way back at the beginning of the Dive.  The other three are literal as well as more spiritual guardians and guides in the field.  J's fox tribe.  My song dog howlers.  the bluebirds that travel with goldfinches during the winter from their thickets in a nearby overgrown orchard.  During the summer both birds nest and roost in the field. A goldfinch peeps around the edges of special stone and crystal friends. Raven spirit led me directly to the eye-portal stone at the Quabbin Reservoir about 30 years ago. Also included with what's to come in mind: citrine, danburite, larimar, amethyst, chrysoprase, lemurian seed crystal, ruby matrix, chrysocholla, obsidian, and a tiny bit of emerald matrix.  And of course an aventurine egg gifted quite long ago - in another century/millenium, in fact.

My grandmother's beloved snowdrops teacup.  Later I'll fill it with beach sand and just as the sun has settled out of sight we'll light the silver and gold candles.  Also my grandmother's spring rabbits.  I wound up switching-out the basket for my mother's willow basket with a grapevine handle.  that way there are three generations of my bloodline to tie me to my personal mother-line as well as Gaia.  A small Tree of Life talisman that was original gifted to me by the piscean dive captain's mother on the day she learned she was pregnant with his younger sister.  It just felt right to her, as a memorial of that shared moment in our Time.   And the talisman has found a special protected home in every summer's garden since.

go outside and breathe as deeply as you can.

we've made it this far.

and now find ourselves surrounded by Blue.

(hopefully this post is helpful for the few who have written asking what to do, how one might arrange, etc. for an altar space that's organically developed in a manner that's equally Spirit-and-self directed.)  Below, Gaia waits to be recognized through this working.

pro-tip:  if you're sharing on social media and whatnot - post pics that don't show all of your building & intention work.

it's an energetic and magical boundary thing.

and it makes a great deal of difference what frequency vibrates and how.

let Blue have its way with you.

 

approach BLUE from the bridge connecting the upper chakra to the central anchor of heart.

bring with you everything of value from the primary chakras, their bridge to the heart, and the heart itself.  Allow your arms to fill enough that bits and pieces drop along this new bridge to be crossed.  Later they can serve as road markers and short cuts to lessons and insights gleaned throughout the process so far.

Consciously open your mouth and your ears.  Prepare to bang a gong if that's what it takes.  Because the fifth chakra is our singular and collective center of communication. 

  The fifth chakra is about Clarity.  It's also the spinal column's first energetic opportunity to receive and reflect messages from Spirit on Spirit's own terms.  Once Blue is introduced into conscious energetic work, Clarity and Spirit have an opportunity to enter, and inform, the heart and primary chakras.  Sit with Blue's entry and let it find it's own flow.  Let it infiltrate the thinnest tendrils of Root before you slowly bring it back up again to its house of resonance and resonation.

Spirit and Clarity (and Blue) are everywhere in our daily lives.  Throughout this month, imagine every instance of BLUE you see to be an indicator of holiness in our everyday landscape of meanings and purposes.  Consider it a friendly spiritual hello reaching out to you.

Deliberately place Blue in places where you'll see it a lot and the color can be further known to you through a fusion with light.

  Follow Blue to the places where you already know and love it best.

 

**Namaste**

Heart of Impeccability

not completely the right color range in the blooms but this image pretty much insisted on being the lede.  assuming it will resonate with somebody.

We're on the brink of another full moon.  This one will beam down upon us saturated in Virgo energy.  Like all the zodiac signs, the sign encompasses a lot of depth and nuance.  My long-standing awareness of the energy always leaves me leaning into the keyword: impeccability.

The Virgo full moon will bring us in touch with fast moving mercury-driven energy as well as an opportunity to bathe our consciousness in Luna's radiant reflection of impeccability, analytic prowess, and an ongoing invitation to move deeper along an individual and collective path of service.  Virgo's ruled by the planet mercury and the full moon's radiance may include swiftly re-written inner programming.  Stuff that hasn't made sense may suddenly fall into place.  Things that seemed insurmountably important may become less so or fall away altogether. 

Virgo's natural home is the sixth house.  This is the house of Service.  You heart chakra is, on certain levels, Service's primary temple of manifested illumination.  Try this, just now, as you're sitting to read:

Put your arms straight out in front of you so that your shoulders are straight but your arms slope down just a little bit.  Hold your hands out straight with the palms equally straight and facing each other.  Take a few cleansing breaths and then slowly open your arms while inhaling at the same pace you're opening your arms.  See how full and far you can fill your lungs.  Let your opened heart chakra breathe as if it, too, was a lung.  

imagine the universe breathing in unison with that kind of high quality energy flowing everywhere that sentience was equally open to project and receive.

light & love

rose

deep carmine

emerald green

magenta

jade - to rest and restore central, sympathetic and electric nervous systemste

chrysoprase to soothe and remove damage.  equally effective for land healing.  The Dive members and other friends are working with a blended red clover essence and chrysoprase elixir.  to repair and restore as and where needed. 

rose quartz to heal, period

sphaerocobaltite to strengthen bonds with a true friend

rhodochrosite - especially if your heart hurts enough to curl inward towards childhood response to such pains

rhodonite for self-acceptance just as you Are.

Think of these things and others that are personally relevant.  Pay attention to anything that appears or presents itself spontaneously.

 

 breathe through your heart and work with what you have that's been working so far to open and illuminate and heal the all-important primary chakras. 

 

try doing this every day for about a week.  Maybe two or three times a day.

see if you don't feel and perceive your heart center - and how limitlessly BIG it is - a lot more clearly after that time.

keep doing it, maybe ...

Meadowsweet is my favorite heart chakra toning and clarifying agent.  I work with this essence year-round as a constitutional of sorts.

thank you, Larry

Lawrence Ferlinghetti 1919 -2021

for all the words and all the rest

best and most wondrous afternoon, never to be forgotten, at City Lights Books with J. after living out of our van for about a month or so in '82.

this is the man who made me certain I could and should write poetry simply through the way I was electrified by his own work.