June Moon Cycle Begins Speaking Truth

Red Moon Madonna and the Storytellers Speaking Truth.
Painting in Process; CJ Faivre; 2018-2020
30x30 Acrylic on Canvas 

June's moon cycle brings opportunities to practice Speaking Truth. I think this is the perfect medicine to follow the cycle just ended (see: Closing Moon for May:what truths we have heard ). The legacy of the storyteller comes into play as we step into June's moon cycle. 

On Wednesday, I finished listening to The Great Influenza by John M. Barry.  Barry is a researcher and historian.  I don't know if he would refer to himself this way, but he is a storyteller who Speaks Truth. There is a lot of story in 560 pages of the book-and a lot of history. History that appears to be repeating itself in our present experience of the COVID19 Pandemic. I began listening to The Great Influenza while I was sewing masks for front-line workers and family, shortly after we had begun to shelter at home in mid-March. I thought Barry's book could offer me a context for what was happening, and did it ever!  But rather than being depressing, Barry's story helped me know that I/we are not alone; this has happened before; the suffering and loss is real and far reaching; there is a way forward; what I/we do makes a differrence. Barry's book also gave me a renewed awareness of how important it is to Speak Truth and to discern those who are the Truth Speakers. 

During this June Moon for Speaking Truth, I hope to do my part as Storyteller and Truth Speaker through my painting.  The painting above I started two years ago as Red Maddona. I couldn't find a way to finish her, and she has hung dormant on my wall for the past year.  As I sat in meditation on the night of May's Closing Moon, the vision of who she is became clear. Red is the color for the moon cycle of June. The Madonna is scattering sacred stories to the world.  Storyteller grandmothers are behind her; a child, with no face/or every face, reaches for her.  Totems of the drum, coyote, trees, whale and crow (or tucan in you live south of the equator) are beginning to show themselves. All these totems have their own part in teaching us humans what it is to speak truth.  I can't wait to see what unfolds, for I often feel the painting paints herself, and that I am just the tool for creating. I'll share in the blog as I paint and I learn.  Thanks for reading.

       

Closing Moon for May...What Truths have we heard?

Image: cj faivre; May Moon: Hear Truth 
2020 Acrylic on Canvas 10X30

This is a long post-It's been a long cycle!

The fifth moon cycle invites us to become willing and attentive to Hearing Truth. The gift this moon cycle offers is the practice of patient listening.  In our current time of upheavel and uncertainty in our communities and countries, many voices are coming at us from many directions and sources.

I know that for myself, it has not been easy to be patient when those voices are loud and persistant about their version of 'truth', or when the voices speak for and devision. By the time May's new moon began (April 22nd) there were already so many voices from so many sources, I often found myself in a state of uncertainty about where to set my trust for helpful guidance.  My days end in a weary kind of exhaustion.

In inspiration for the May moon cycle painting came on an evening walk at the end of one of those days. It was the first non-rainy day of the cycle and the moon was showing a sliver of crescent. May's new cresent moon rose just above a convergence of electric poles, wires and an ancient elm at the
corner of Illinois and Summit streets; the planet Venus hung in the background, as if in witness.  I stopped and looked up, struck by the symbolism. Poles reaching to the sky as if in competition to reach the moon first. Wires crisscrossing in all directions, grandmother tree appeared to arch away from the chaos.  May Moon- Hear Truth-hung present, rising above, resting above, it all.

I sensed this a powerful image, a lesson from Mother Moon. I determined to paint the visual gift she offered me.  As I painted over the course of the next ten days, her message for me became clearer:  In this age of quantum technology, there IS an onslaught of voices, from all directions.  Hearing what is Truth is complicated during this time. 

May moon invites us to move through the cycle we are experiencing as she moves through her cycles. First by recognizing the newness of the cycle; next, in the waxing phase, take time to take without attachment what is being presented.  Then, in the light of the full moon we can focus and begin to discern what we are hearing. During the time of the waning moon as this cycle moves toward closure, she teaches us to shed what does not resonate as truth.

Were are now at the the time of the 'closing moon', or 'dark' moon. we are invited to rest, to integrate what we now know, or perhaps to reflect on questions we may need to ask for more clarity. There will be time for this asking in the new moon to come when we experience the Moon of Speaking Truth. But for now,  Moon's message is to be patient, to observe what is unfolding, to let go of what does not resonate, to rest, and to listen for questions that will rise as we prepare to learn to Speak Truth.