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.

Closing Moon for December: Using Our Senses to Make Sense of Our Vision

When we can  be present with all of our senses, we are present to our Self.  This helps us take full advantage of all the gifts that ultimately show us our vision.  We learn to be fully present to life in the moment and to become more fully aligned with Creator’s purpose for our individual life.  We learn to use our senses as tools for connecting to higher frequencies of awareness.  We are able to have our senses become more acute and sensitive so that we can respond more proactively, rather than from fear or anxiety.  We become more able to use our senses to wake up to the world around us and to our own unique path.  Wise use of senses help us let go of, or at least set down, what keeps our vision from being visible (mostly to us).

Highly developed senses, while they may require our attention and cannot be easily ignored, can bring a sense of ease to our lives once we come to trust them and to use them wisely.  The increased awareness with our senses also awakens our intuition, often called the sixth sense,  Our sixth sense points the way to becoming our vision.  We are at the eve of the New Moon for the 13th Moon Cycle of the year; the cycle of Be Truth. 

Self Reflection: I take time to sit in gratitude for the year that has been. I take time to sit in gratitude for the gifts I have received and for what they portend may already be coming my way. 

Holy Time, Whole Me TIme

This is a post from a year ago on the Circle of Self Muse Blog  It is even more relevant, more true, more important to have these holy times--the Whole Me times as I intentionally spend these last few days in the Thank Truth cycle reviewing what I have come to know of my life.

My early mornings are Holy Time.

Actually, all time is Holy Time,

And I am so distracted

 I don’t recognize the holy minutes and holy seconds

as they flow in and out of me.

But if I practice experiencing my early mornings as Holy Time,

Perhaps it will seep more and more into my days as a WHOLE.

And perhaps my nights will become incubation for Holy Time,

So my dreams will carry more and more a holy message for my life.

And then perhaps my life will have enough holiness

My breath can be a holy mist out to the lives of others.

My early mornings are Holy Time.

Self Reflection: Take time during these last few days of the cycle of Thank Truth to hold sacred and abundant gratitude for your Self and your self.

Another Cycle of the Moon; Another Cycle of Our Becoming More of Who We are in Truth

Carolyn Writes: As we approach the close of the August moon cycle, I find myself thinking about how my desire to Serve Truth has awakened.  It has shown up in my desire to be of more service to many areas of my life.  With this awakening desire to serve, I became aware of how some of my behaviors and fears thwarted my intentions.  In the midst of anger and resentment (toward others and myself) I was blessed with a number of opportunities to let go, ask for help, start over. I found more of me, through doing all these things.

I have come to understand what is  ‘me’ is really my soul energy expressed in my life experience(s), which is the experience of body-being and spirit being, me and more than me!  Me and union with others, and with the Creator of All That Is, of Great Mystery.  

I am more whole.  Yes, I am more whole because I am more able to be all that I am.  I am no longer in the place of ‘what can I be?’, ‘what can I do?’, who am I?’.  Now the questions are ‘What do I do?’,’ How do I do?’, ‘Where do I do?’, ‘Am I willing to be, do?’.    Today I am more whole than yesterday and tomorrow I will be more whole than today.  I now know that experiencing loss and letting go are actually necessary for me to become more whole and more of who I am.  I feel comfort now, rather than fear and angst when I think of letting go.  Letting go no longer feels like a loss.  It feels like the only way my hands can become free to receive—to take what Creative Source/Great Mystery is offering to me.

Self Reflection: Take time to reflect on your journey of this past month.  Speak out loud gratitudes for even small victories of each day.  Speak out loud gratitudes for each bit of willingness to use the tools for support.  Do this in the twilight as the dark of the moon gives over to the new moon, and the next path: to Live Truth.

Preparing for the Closing Moon, Listen to the Song of Life

On this closing moon, we are invited to sit in the darkness and gift our selves the time to listen back to all we have listened for over these past weeks, reflection on what we have heard in our hearts, guts and minds.  What has our practice (not perfection) of listening gifted to us?  This song may help us focus our receiving of Hear Truth's offering.

Libera's 'Song of Life

There's a whisper in the dark

As a new life comes to be

Then a song begins to form

As it finds the harmony

With a chorus of sound

Of the world all around

Now it blends in the tune

Joining the endless song of life

We shall never be alone

As we link our hearts in one

Joining voices from above

All in the miracle of life

Through the ages we will grow

Only time will ever know

As our voices magnify

All in the miracle of life

Love plays along

In our lives yet to come

As we join in the song of life

Now the music starts to build

As the words begin to rhyme

Then another lends a tune

As their voices now combine

With the chorus of sound

Of the world all around

Now they blend in their tune

Sharing the endless song of life

We shall never be alone

As we link our hearts in one

Joining voices from above

All in the miracle of life

Through the ages we will grow

Only time will ever know

As our voices magnify

All in the miracle of life

Love plays along

In our lives yet to come

As we join in the song of life

As we join in the song of life.

Self Reflection: Song of Life (Listen to this song by Libera)

Wisdom Reflection

It is good to look,
With kind and honest eyes,
     at the month just completed.
Truth wears many robes:
It can be found beneath shame,
     Hiding in ego
          Shrouded in fear.
Look for it also in what brings you joy,
     in where you find peace.

Be honest and accepting today
     of where you are on your journey
For all steps are part of your path
To Wholeness

Self Reflection:  I look with kind and honest eyes at my month just completed.

February's Waning Moon Gifts to the Closing Moon.

Carolyn shares: She seems so far away tonight.  Smaller even then most crescent moons, yet intensely bright.  Minute rays radiate brilliance.  I just stood and looked at her in this very silent Winters night, until my feet got cold, and I felt a cold-toes nudge to go inside. Such peace I felt.  Such hope.  And even better:  a surge of excitement to keep going on my path. My Path. 

My Path…the work I do on myself, with myself, for my own growth, healing, happiness, and sense of being...If I do this for myself, honoring my process of growing, I am also doing it for all creatures--and them for me. For we are all connected--because we are all unique.  If we weren't unique, we could not be connected, we would all just be the same. No differentiation.  No boundaries. No unique and personal growth.

These words are my waning moon gift from Wisdom Keeper, looking down from her archetypal home.  I feel blessed for my life, and for the women here in this small and powerful circle, who just by our presence, encourage each other to keep going--for all of us.  

Self Reflection: I will keep going, for myself, for all my relations. I will also receive in reciprocation.