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. 

Receiving Guidance: Gratitude as a Guiding Force

Carolyn writes:  I have a journal which I write in only when I am in deep awareness of connecting to Guidance-It is my G.O.D. journal' (G.O.D. is my acronym for Grace of Divine/Guidance on Demand/Good Orderly Direction).
Sometimes I write in it everyday for a week or so, then months can go by without an entry. I began this particular journal in 1994 and there are sill a few pages left to fill!  Here is the page that caught my attention as I sat to seeking and writing for guidance this morning.  What a page to show up, as perfect now as it was the year I wrote it. What is REALLY Truth is eternal.  

Self Reflection: What is my gratitude for Truth list for the year now ending?

Can It Really Be True?

Can it possibly be true that already within us is everything we need to know? How different our lives would be if we acted as if we believed this to be Truth.  Yet is is Truth.  Across the long  timeline of Spiritual Teachers, this message is given repeatedly. The difficulty comes in that there are many layers or levels of 'knowing' within our being.  We can be aware of many things that are 'true' about ourselves, yet 'true' only under certain conditions.  As we dig deeper into our consciousness, we find that what is true in one experience is not true in another experience.  Or what is true in one relationship is not true in another. Just because something is true, does not mean it carries the wisdom of Truth.

Self Reflection: As I begin to discern the difference between what is 'true' and what is 'Truth' in terms of becoming my vision I take all that I have held as true and examine it with a desire to know what is true for me NOW. If I find myself in a negative reaction or feelingintreanched in my self-examination, iit is likely I have come across something 'not true'.  I can acknowledge what has been revealed and set it aside.  If I find a compassion in my reflections, it is likely to be a Truth.  With gratitude, I place these knowings in my heart, and carry-on toward becoming my vision.

Full Moon and Sacred Traditions

The December Moon Cycle is always in rhythm with the holidays and holy days. Moon cycle awareness doesn't hang it's lantern on the mantle of any particular spiritual practice, religious tradition or culture.  It includes and incorporates the sacred present in each tradition, and the agnostic and atheist traditions are included as well.  How we label ourselves, and how or why we have come to hold as Truths what we know from the traditions we embrace is irrelevant to the universe in which the moon ebbs and flows. The sacred is contained within each of us, as a spark able to give light, love and hope out into the world.  If we celebrated the sacred days and nights of all the traditions on our planet, it would be a rare day that was not considered holy, sacred or celebratory. If we looked for the wisdom regardless of the source, how much softer and receiving would our world be.

The teachings of all the wisdom givers, all the traditions, which some might call religious traditions, and some might call philosophies and some would have other names, they all teach us the same elemental Truths.  The language may be different, as well as the nuance. But the Truth is fundamentally the same.

Self Reflection: Take time on this holy day of the Full Moon to have gratitude for the Truth shared. Ponder a commitment to learn and have gratitude for the Truths shared on all the holy days in all traditions.

To 'Thank' Requires Action

I can be grateful for what is true/truth in myself. But, what is truth of myself that I do 'thank'?

What does it mean to thank the truth of myself?  This moon cycle we are instructed to 'thank' truth;  not just being grateful, but actively 'thank'.  It’s easy to be grateful for what we deem to be ‘good’ about our self; more challenging to be grateful for what we deem as ‘bad’.  Being grateful is an internal process.  We just think, 'Oh, yes, I'm so grateful ...."  There is a lovely feeling that arises when we sit in gratitude. But, to thank 'Truth' requires active engagement with that we are thanking-whether it is something within our self or another person, place or thing.  The very act of consciously being thankful for what we accept as 'Truth' opens a space for conscious creation of something even more true. This action invites transformation.  This is what deep personal transformation work invites—getting us look at our current view of what is true about how we experience our life, and opening the door for a bigger and more active truth to be created.

Self Reflection: When I find a way to thank everything I think I know about myself, regardless of how I judge it to be good or bad, I will have freed myself of the binding that keeps me stuck in unpleasant pain, patterns, and distress.  Am I willing to thank ALL of what is Truth of the person I am? 

New Moon, December: Darkness Becomes Apparent When Exposed to Light

Darkness becomes apparent when exposed to light.
On this new moon, darkness is apparent, because, for the moment, the light reflecting from the moon is not visible to us. And in December, the darkness seems even darker as the night continues to lengthen.

This is the month to Thank Truth.  There may be things, rules,experiences, persons and institutions we struggle with, maybe even feel hatred toward, that we we not only don't want to hold in any form of gratitude.  These same 'things' we also repel from even considering that what have is true about them is not true at all, let alone ask with sincere intention to know and be grateful for the truth of these life experiences.

Gratitude is the light that will end the darkness of any situation.
We begin to bring in light by acknowledging there may be a truth in (the situation we are thinking of) that we do not yet understand and are not yet able to accept.  This can take effort and time.

Self Reflection: Am I willing to commit to continue looking for a tiny place for thankfulness, no matter how difficult or horrible the experience?  If not yet, what would I need (within myself) to look?

Noticing Choice

It is important to acknowledge both the light and the shadow in how we live our daily lives.  Our truth is played out in the 10,000 choices we make each day.  When we notice and give ourselves credit for the times we choose alignment with our higher self, we have less need to hide from the shadow self.

Sara's personal share: While I easily acknowledge my gifts and abilities, I find they are often a source of shame:  I feel shame for not living up to my potential, not being as "good" as I "should" be, given how I have been blessed.  My "review/release" circle is filled with choices I made that "could have" been more in alignment with my Truth.  Today, I am reminded that I also need to balance my review with acknowledging the choices I make every day that ARE in alignment.

Self Reflection: Do I carry shame about my gifts, abilities, accomplishments?  If so, how has this affected my ability to align myself in truth? to Share my Truth?