Go Deep Under a Scorpio Moon

moonphases

New Moon in Scorpio,

 Transformative Ruler of Deep water and Deeper emotions.

As we head into the dark of winter, take time alone with yourself.

Take time to go Deep within.

Embrace your strengths and your flaws.  

Embrace it all, light AND dark, pain and joy, confidence and fear.

Accept and Embrace it All.

☾☽

Calling All Warrior Women

Dancing with Fire

Tomorrow’s full moon is in Aries, the fiery sign of the spiritual warrior who champions
Truth and Justice. 

Hundreds of thousands of women are feeling the fiery pull of this moon. They are fired up & fed up.  They are taking to social media to speak out against sexual aggression and assault. They are standing in their power and calling men out for dishonoring and disrespecting girls and women for far too long. They are shouting ‘No More!’

A tsunami wave of fierce feminine power has been unleashed. Sexism is being uprooted and brought to the surface. 

To warrior women everywhere: Take a deep breath, find your inner balance and GO!

Speak your Truth.

Embodied Love

Ripe Peach
Peach by Nancy L

We all have direct access to the totality of spirit; it is breathing us right now.
There is nothing we have to make up or believe in in order to realize our true nature…

Merely watching other people feast at the table will not relieve your hunger.
When you bring teachings into embodied practice,
you eat the fruit, you digest the fruit, and you become the fruit
–that is real spiritual transformation.

~Chameli Ardagh

Eat the fruit, digest the fruit, LOVE the fruit, become the fruit… and transform. 

In the end, Love is key.  Love is what transforms us.

A Prayer for Today

Dancing Flame

…When the light switch turns let me feel

how my small life leaps into being in the One Life,

the way a flame becomes itself in the fire.

My life has known how to do this

from the start. It wants to do it.

Help me live what is already true

Help me to know it.

☀️

excerpt from Ironing in
Being Home; A Book of Meditations
by Gunilla Norris

 

Legends of Imbolc and the Cailleach

Ceann Caillí (‘Hag’s Head’) Lightmatter Cliffs of Moher in Ireland

At the beginning of February, we celebrate a strange and wonderful holiday known as Groundhog Day. We are told that if the prophetic groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, sees his shadow on this day and runs quickly back into his burrow, winter will last at least 6 more weeks. Today Phil did NOT see his shadow, thus predicting that winter will end soon. How ironic that this prediction occurs when much of the country is buried under piles of snow!

The idea of waiting and watching for the first inkling of spring is not new. The ancient Celts celebrated Imbolc in early February long before Groundhog Day existed. Celtic stories tell us that the Cailleach—the divine hag Goddess who rules over winter and death—gathers firewood for the rest of the winter on Imbolc. If the Goddess Cailleach wishes to make the winter last a lot longer, she will make sure that the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. But, if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.

The Cailleach was worshipped by the Celts as the sacred Earth Mother in her bare winter form. And she is not just a dark and evil hag who arbitrarily decides how long winter will be. The Cailleach is also the Bone Mother who collects the bones of the animals that die in the winter. The Bone Mother is said to sing or pray or sleep over the bones all winter long. She does this out of love, so that the animals will cross over and can return as new life in the spring.

The Celtic tribes lived in the far north where winter is a brutal season. They had to burn huge quantities of wood to keep from freezing every winter. They also had to rely on their own stores of food to get them through the long winter months when no crops could be grown or harvested. There was no corner grocery store to run to if they ran out of bread. Is it any wonder that the Celts were quite focused on the return of spring?

The Celts watched and waited for spring. And they noticed that the ewes began to lactate and prepare for the birth of their lambs in early February. The Celts saw this return of mothers’ milk as reason to celebrate. The flow of milk and the birth of baby lambs meant spring was definitely on its way. The harshness of winter would soon end. The Celts celebrated Imbolc because they understood that their lives depended on the grace of Mama Earth and her seasons.

There is a magic to Imbolc and the early days of February. It is there, running just beneath the surface. Can you feel it? Mama Earth holds the seeds of spring safe for us all winter. As the cold wind blows and the snow piles up, she holds them safe in her soil. Now it is February, not quite time for the seeds to sprout. But the days are definitely lengthening. The wheel of the year is slowly turning towards spring and new growth. And beneath the surface of Mama Earth, the seeds are beginning to quietly stir. Spring is stirring in the ground beneath your feet. Listen with your heart. Can you hear the stirring?

☾☽

Imbolc is traditionally celebrated at the halfway point between winter solstice and  spring equinox.  In 2016, this halfway point falls on February 4.  Here is a way to celebrate Imbolc at your house: Light a candle or two tonight. Then offer up a simple prayer of gratitude in honor of Mama Earth and the return of spring.

Shakti Power

New Life
Weed Love by Nancy L

“There is a deep intelligence intrinsic to all of us that we call Shakti: a creative life force pressing through all things. It wants to grow, to become. It is powerful beyond comprehension. It moves the planets; it erupts volcanoes; it allows the butterfly to burst out of the cocoon.
 
This same Shakti is what awakens you and brings awareness into the frozen, rigid places. It is the longing that presses through you, telling you some of your old ways of being are too small for you, like old clothes that don’t fit anymore.”

~Chameli Ardagh
Awakening Women

How Will I Be in the World Today?

What is Compassion?

“The problem in America isn’t just that hate is speaking so loudly;
it’s that love is speaking too softly.”  

~Marianne Williamson.

I am not responsible for other people’s happiness or healing, I am not responsible for their problems or pain. And yet every interaction I have with another person can be healing or hurtful depending on how I choose to be with that person.

Am I open hearted and authentic? Am I distracted and disinterested? Am I mean and hateful? I chose. And what I choose affects my entire world.

We ‘do’ so much to get praise, we ‘do’ to distract ourselves, we ‘do’ to convince ourselves of our own worth – if only we could relax and just BE! Just BE our big beautiful selves in this moment. Stop trying to get somewhere else or be someone different. Just BE.

The cosmic joke is that all our pushing and striving to accomplish so much matters far less than how kind we are to other people – and to ourselves. But we’re so busy pushing to finish our to-do list that we lose sight of basic love and kindness. We don’t have time to be kind, we’re too busy to stop and open our hearts. In the process of hurrying towards our next goal, we strip our lives of what truly matters.

Love is the Force that Binds the Universe Together.
Love is the Source of all Things.
Love is God. God is Love.