Join Nancy on Sunday April 13 and explore healing in a space of tree dreams and moonbeams. Learn how to consciously connect with your dreams and use them to heal what ails you. Click here to find out more about Dream Flow.
Explore your dreams, reconnect with your Soul, heal yourself. Everyone welcome from novice to experienced dreamers.
When: 3:30 – 5:30 PM on Sunday April 13, 2014
Where: Boulder Community Acupuncture 3405 Penrose Place, Suite 202 Boulder, CO
Suggested Donation: $10-20
Please RSVP and let Nancy know you’re coming. Send an email to: nancy@nancylankston.com. Or call Nancy: 720-378-1729.
“In order to heal themselves, people must recognize, first, that they have an inner guidance deep within,
and second, that they can trust it.”
When people question what my religion is, I want to say that I believe in Taoism mixed with a large serving of gnostic Christianity and a side of Tibetan Buddhism thrown in for meditative measure. Or perhaps I could offer a brief lecture on the common threads in all religions….
Maybe it’s more honest to just say that nature is my true religion. And share this beautiful poem by J.L. Stanley as a way of explaining:
Catechism for a Witch’s Child
When they ask to see your gods your book of prayers show them lines drawn delicately with veins on the underside of a bird’s wing tell them you believe in giant sycamores mottled and stark against a winter sky and in nights so frozen stars crack open spilling streams of molten ice to earth and tell them how you drink a holy wine of honeysuckle on a warm spring day and of the softness of your mother who never taught you death was life’s reward but who believed in the earth and the sun and a million, million light years of being.
These are the questions that come to mind when I gaze at the night sky. Maybe it’s because I’m female. The ancients claimed that all women are creatures of the moon. Or maybe it is because I was born in the early morning hours before dawn, just as the moon became full. And on that night many moons ago, the moon rose in the sign of Scorpio, the keeper of the night and the dark mysteries of life, death and rebirth. I am a moon baby.
For whatever reason, I have been fascinated by the moon for as long as I can remember. My ancestors used the cycles of the moon to track the passage of time. And I still do the same – in fact, it stuns me that the Gregorian calendar in use all over the world is not linked directly to the cyclic movements of the earth and moon. That’s why we have a silly Leap Year day every 4 years – we need to “correct” the errors in the Gregorian calendar! Whoever thought it was a good idea to ignore astronomy when creating a calendar?!
In every solar year (the time it takes mother earth to go all the way around our sun), the moon goes through 13 cycles. There are 13 lunar months in each year, not 12. And within each lunar cycle, the moon slowly shifts from the dark phase of a new moon, gradually showing more and more of herself (waxing) until she complete reveals herself at the full moon. Then she slowly wanes, showing less and less of herself in the night sky until she is not visible at all. Then the moon cycle dance begins again.
These cycles where the moon is constantly shifting and dancing with how much she reveals of herself seem quite female to me. There is nothing linear about the moon! And I find that women are typically more changeable and moody and rhythmic than men, whether we care to admit it or not. 🙂
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant,
and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance…”
~Ecclesiastes, King James Bible
Our ancestors planned their sacred rituals around the cycles of the moon; they knew that each moon phase holds a specific power. So, when the moon was fully revealed in her full moon state, the ancients celebrated and worshipped the divine feminine energies of birthing and completion. Even today, wise midwives plan their schedules, knowing that many, many babies are born when the full moon exerts her pull on pregnant wombs! Full moons are times of completion.
In contrast, when the moon is hidden from view in her new moon state, the ancients saw it as a potent time to plant the seeds for new projects and begin new ventures. Even the timing of farm planting and sowing was tied to the moon cycles in ancient times; not so silly when we realize that the waters and tides of planet earth feel the pull of the moon as well.
The next time you’d like to start a new project, try starting it during the dark phase of the new moon. And when you are ready to celebrate an accomplishment or rite of passage, hold your celebration during full moon time. Synchronize with the rhythms of the moon and see how much potency organic timing can add to your life.
I love watching the moon go through her dance from dark to light and back to dark each month. I am definitely a moon baby! And I plan to continue my love affair with the rhythms and cycles of the moon until I leave this earth. It keeps me connected to the cycle of the seasons in a deep meaningful way.
“We have all but forgotten that life is a rich and mysterious coming together of many worlds. We have lost sight of what the ancient priestesses and shamans knew, that the forms of our visible world have their roots in unseen dimensions, and that it is in these unseen dimensions that the primal energies of life lie. In our forgetting, we have lost the wholeness of life, and we have cut ourselves off from the real forces that shape our world.
But when we are present in life, free from demands or agendas, when we allow life to unfold according to its own inner principles, we open up a doorway again between the worlds. Within our consciousness the inner and outer, the visible and the unseen worlds, can come together and speak to each other, and our split-apart world can become whole again.”
May you recognize in your life, the presence, power and light of your soul. May you realize that you are never alone, That your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe. May you have respect for your own individuality and difference. May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique, that you have a special destiny here, That behind the facade of your life there is something beautiful, good, and eternal happening. May you learn to see yourself with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God sees you in every moment.
December 21st marked the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. And today is Christmas. This is the time of year when Mother Earth seems to be dead and lifeless. It can be difficult to believe that spring will ever return when a cold wind blows all night and icy sleet covers the ground. And yet, the days will slowly lengthen from here; the earth will warm and six months from now, we will awaken to the longest day of the year. Nature’s rhythmic seasonal cycle is one of the innate blessings of life on Earth.
For me, winter solstice is about embracing Mother Earth as she rests for a season. It’s about learning to love the dark, quiet energies of winter and death.
My Celtic ancestors called this dark season Seed Time; long, cold, dark winter nights are the perfect time to dream of the life we want to create in the new year. Just as Mother Nature gently holds flower seeds safe in her dark soil until it is time for them to stir and grow, we too can honor our dreams for the new year by holding them safe within our hearts in these dark cold days. We can gently love each little dream and nurture it until the right and perfect time comes for it to grow into a new reality.
To everything, there is a season. And now tis the season to dream big and seed the new year. This song by Enya celebrates dreaming in the dark quiet of winter:
O mor henion i dhu: Ely siriar, el sila Ai! Aniron UndomielTiro! El eria e mor I ‘lir en el luitha ‘uren. Ai! Aniron…
[Translation]From darkness I understand the night Dreams flow, a star shines Ah! desire EvenstarLook! A star rises out of the darkness The song of the star enchants my heart Ah! I desire…
☾ ☽
Composed and performed by Enya,
Lyrics by Roma Ryan
“If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees. ” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
Can we live joyfully in harmony with nature?
Most modern city dwellers are completely out of touch with the cycles of nature. And we have created such a long path between natural cause and effect, that it is difficult to see what we are doing to ourselves. It is far from obvious to a suburban family that the water coming from their tap started out as rain or snowmelt flowing into a nearby reservoir. The water flowing from their tap seems endless no matter what the weather does.
Most of us have no idea where the wheat was grown that made our morning bagel, much less if it was a good year or bad for the wheat crop. Did river water diverted to a low reservoir near Denver hurt the wheat crop in Garden City? The trail from cause to effect is so long that the average person has no idea what effect their actions have on the natural environment. And this disconnect is at the root of many modern problems.
We have become blind, deaf and dumb to our role in the natural world.
No matter how much we try to tame and “civilize” this world with all of our technical wizardry – and no matter how smart we think we have become – we are still animals governed by the laws of nature. And I wonder what is truly civilized about dishonoring and destroying the planet that feeds us?
Insulating and removing mankind from nature is not the answer; it is the problem! From disastrous weather changes like the recent floods and typhoons to radioactive pollution so toxic it will haunt our grandchildren for generations, we end up hurting ourselves every single time we choose to ignore the laws of nature.
The answer is to reconnect with the natural world. The answer is to shut up and listen to Mother Nature.
I want to embrace and understand my natural connections. And I want to honor the beautiful and gracious mother that provides for me; I want to pause and be grateful for the snowfall that becomes the water I drink. I want to spy the first shoots of pale green prairie grass pushing up out of the spring earth, and remember that the cattle herd on the hill will consume them and turn them into food for me. And I want to take the time to honor the trees that stand silent in the meadow and offer the oxygen I breathe.
I want to pause each day to acknowledge the many gifts Mother Nature provides for me.
