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.

Hearing Truth in the Time of Covid 19; May Moon is Listening

       May is the month to hear truth.  This new moon came in true to the color of her cycle - black and in the dead of night. Her arrivial marked the beginning of my household's 6th week of sheltering at home.  We had been doing well as a family of three adults manueving ourselves around in our 'cozy' 7 room house.  But, upon entering another week with our lives still in limbo, as Illinois' numbers continued to climb--I felt left in the dark--the dark of  black moon, black night and black mood.
       May Moon invites us to listen, and listen, and then listen ever deeper.  I like to think that the color black, the imagery of a 'black' moon, inviting us to hear intently during these weeks of the waxing moon to what is deep within our own hearts and psyches.  This kind of hearing is the kind of listening that happens in times of  blackness (like this current experience of being in the dark about the path of the pandemic).  If we we are patient enough to learn to listen in this way,  we will be amazed and guided by what we hear.
        This is the truth John of the Cross listened for and finally heard during his Dark Night of the Soul.  Jacob wrestling with the angel in a night so black he could not see his foe, listened and heard his true name. This is the transformation toward truth that happens on Vision Quest, sitting in prayerful silence in dark nights of solitude.
        If we can practice hearing the truth within our own being during these days of the waxing moon, we will be better prepared to hear what is truth in the cacophony of words in media, politics, and promoters.


   

Integrating my own Song of Life on the Close of May's Moon

I

Listen!

Remember!

Feel!

Honoring my inner voice,

I am preparing to Speak My Truth.

I listen and I remember I am connected.

I trust guidance comes.

I honor my unique calling to be, to do.

I take my place in Creation’s flow.

I am ready, able and willing to add my voice to the Song of Life.

Self Reflection: Commit to writing what this Wisdom Teacher of Hear Truth has guided me to Hear that is becoming part of my personal 'Song of Life'.

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)

Learning to Hear Truth by Listening to the Stone People

Having surrendered to the sound of love emanating from and through all of the universe,

We are finally able to hear the vibration of our life force beating her resonance with Creator.

When still enough we sit with it and rustle up the courage to act upon the messages felt/heard on the breezes of the earth mother, in the songs of her creatures, in the pulse of the heart of every being…especially the heart of the stone person, a gift of the Mother, broken loose from the soil of her being and landing, seemingly hap-hazard in our hands.  We all have them.  These little stones that caught our eye, our fancy and we picked them up and brought them home with us.   For many of us this fascination with little stones (or not so little stones) begins when we are children, bringing home a pocketful of stones from the park or a trip to the beach. Perhaps the young ones know something we have forgotten.

Jamie Sams' book Thirteen Original Clan Mothers  the May Moon Cycle offered up the story of Listening Woman and her relationship with Hagehjih-Old Man, the Stone Person (pg. 113-116). The story tells of how Listening Woman learned to listen and hear the ancient, non-verbal language ‘spoken’ by Hagehjih-Old Man. How she came to honor the resonance of guidance coming to her through this humble, tiny stone.  How her discerning and listening pointed her always in the right direction and right timing.  Have we opened our awareness and released disbelief to hear in this way?

Self Reflection: Have I taken time to listen to the stone people hanging out in my own house?  If I were willing to take enough time to sit in stillness and silence and listen until I heard my Rock Person speak, what do I hear? 

Re-membering How to Hear

As we move through the last few days of the waning moon phase, the offering of this Truth Cycle becomes clearer--if we are able to tune in.  This month the truth cycle offers up Hearing Truth and we have been offered, instructed and had daily experiences with listening, hearing and being heard. We are learning to listen with the ear of our heart. For us, who read these daily inspirations and live with the Cycles of Truth as a guiding force, listening, hearing and being heard may have taken on a different meaning than when we started out the month,

Perhaps we have come to experience the deep, still, dark space within us that is void of all our preconceived beliefs, ideas and fears, as a source for deeper knowing and intuition.  If so, we are having the experience of returning to the original way of hearing--the ancient ones' way of non-verbal communication-this is the ultimate gift of Hear Truth.  As beings of Creation we inherit this divine gift: the ability to hear without a spoken word.  We have merely forgotten how to hear in this nonverbal, vibrational way.  We can learn to remember (re-member/to come together again).  It is our birthright.

Self Reflection: What am I re-membering? As I listen with the ear of my heart, I come together again as is my birthright.

Slow Down and Listen

When we listen with the whole of our being, the patience that comes with this practice brings with it balance and right-timing.

We learn to live in balance with the whole of our self: the physical, emotional, spiritual and mental aspects of our being. We come to know how to listen to all these aspects of our being. We become able to respond to our needs in wholly and healthily.

This brings wisdom and harmony within ourselves, which allows us to bring wisdom and harmony to the world. We Listen with the whole of our being to others as well.

Slow down and listen.
Slow down and hear.
Slow down and live more in balance, more in harmony, more in wisdom.
Slow down; Hear Truth.

Self Reflection: I will slow down and listen to hear the Truth for my life.

Prayer of Gratitude for Being Listened To and Heard

I first heard this prayer from Lee Nitsch, the daughter-in -law of Twylah Nitsch the Seneca Elder who brought the wisdom of the Truth Cycles out into the world. This is the way I pray it as part of my morning prayer and contemplation practice.  I have attached a recording of the prayer as well: Morning Gratitude Prayer

  

I say good morning Creator; thank you for being. Thank you listening. Thank you for hearing me.  A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful.

I say good morning Mother Earth; thank you for being. Thank You for listening.  Thank you for hearing me. A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful.

I say good morning to the East; thank you for being. Thank You for listening.  Thank you for hearing me. A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful

.

I say good morning to the South; thank you for being. Thank You for listening.  Thank you for hearing me. A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful.

I say good morning to the West; thank you for being. Thank You for listening.  Thank you for hearing me. A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful.

I say good morning to the North; thank you for being. Thank You for listening.  Thank you for hearing me. A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful.

I say good morning to all my relations, (the standing people, the two legged and four legged relatives, the winged and finned ones, the creeping crawling creatures, the rock and mineral people and all the elementals, and the celestial beings) thank you for being. Thank You for listening.  Thank you for hearing me. A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful.

I say good morning to my own being; thank you for being. Thank You for listening.  Thank you for hearing me. A million, million times thank you.  Your being allows my being and I am grateful.**

**A colleague of mine uses this prayer and adding gratitude to the ancestors for hearing and listening as well.  Thank You, Vicki for sharing your wisdom.

Self Reflection:  Praying the Morning Gratitude Prayer

The Gifts of Hear Truth

When we practice listening with the whole of our being, after a time, these are the gifts we receive:
Patience,
Intuition,
Tolerance,
Guidance,
Wisdom,
Humble knowing.
An awareness of being wholly loved.
The awareness we can can wholly love as well.
An ability to offer comfort
An ability to be with the sorrow and suffering of the other
An ability to share another's joy and triumph with humility and grace
Awareness of our path forward
and directions for our path.

Self Reflection: What directions for my path forward am I hearing?

Practice Listening With the Whole of Your Being

How do we listen with the whole of our being?

Whole being listening is an intentional practice.
First be still in a posture of attention, all senses alert, yet relaxed.
Steady in our stillness, aware in our body, true listening begins to make itself known to us.
A likely first reaction is impatience, our body becoming restless; the quiet is uncomfortable.
Some will hear a pulsing in their ears; some will be distracted by the sound of their breathe.
Some will doze off, impatience overcome by fatigue (or distracted boredom).
Begin again, stay the course, the payoff is worth it.
Overtime, your presence with this way of listening will become comfortable and sustainable.
The ability to hear in this 'remembered' way may take a few days or nights of practice, or it may take weeks, maybe longer. The timing for receiving the gift of whole being listening is not up to us.
It is worth the wait, worth the practice.

Self Reflection:  What is my awareness of how I listen with the whole of my being?

Hearing the Vibration of Truth

Carolyn Shares: I have a deaf friend who hears better than anyone I know. He explained it to me in the only way I, as a 'hearing' person, could understand:  he 'hears' through his acute awareness of very subtle vibrations. He is feeling the sound waves with his whole being. He tells me he is rarely wrong in assessing the nuance of what he 'hears'. In nature, this very subtle and powerful ability to interpret the subtle vibrations and respond is naturally present--even those parts of nature that don't have 'ears' (check out Can plants hear?).  Perhaps us human beings who have the gift of hearing with our ears could learn to 'hear' this way as well.  If we did, would our words be in more alignment with our truth? Would we hear without so much mental interpretation?

Self-reflection: I let down the barriers of my preconceived beliefs to 'hear' the vibrations of Creator's creation washing over me--I see, I hear, I smell, I taste, I feel; my body tells me truth.

More on Becoming Receptive to Hearing Truth

How to become present enough to Hear Truth in the world:
Show-up,
Listen to what is being asked of you,
Ask for more input, more wisdom, more guidance.
Truth is always available to those who are willing to listen-long enough.

Humble asking along the way of the path of intentional listening reveals more truth in everything else. Oddly enough (or maybe not odd at all) especially to what is seen.

Self Reflection:  I listen to what is being asked of me.

On Becoming Receptive to Hearing the Truth of the Universe (as spoken through a million different voices)

What does it take to become receptive to hearing the truth of Universe spoken through a million different voices?

The waning phase of the May moon cycle enlists us to really listen. This listening is not only to the voice of others human beings, but to other sounds that come to us from our expansive universe. The sounds of animals, insects and birds; their songs, and cries effect us, perhaps awakening a memory, bringing us joy, stirring compassion, instilling fear.  The sound of the world humming, whizzing, crashing, grinding, ringing--an infinite number of words for the kinds of sounds that come to us from our world-all inviting us to respond in certain, usually preconceived, ways.  The natural world,too brings her own sounds for us to hear: the rushing of water over rocks in a river, the rhythm of waves on the shore, the wind rustling the leaves of trees or whistling through the screen of my open window, the thunder of a summer storm.

All these different voices in our universe enter into our consciousness, mixing with our experiences, memories, beliefs, and dreams. How can we be assured we interpret them accurately? How can we know what is the Truth of each?

Receptive hearing (really listening) requires the use of all of our senses. Perhaps that is why in the Truth Cycles, the first five cycles of each  year, teach us consciousness of each of our five body senses-touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. Through our growing awareness of each, we become more conscious of our universe and our place and role in it.  Awareness is a first, necessary step.


Self Reflection:  Practice listening with all your senses.  Notice how different the information you receive is with this practice of 'receptive hearing'.

Fine Tuning Our Listening and Not Multitasking

Patience, commitment and discipline are what is needed to fine tune our auditory skills.
Listen in stillness, listen in silence, listen in vulnerability, in open-heartedness.

Real listening takes time. We can not listen while multitasking. When I was a girl I would work in the kitchen with my mother.  I would often help her prepare the family dinner. It was a good time to talk. One thing I remember is that when I was talking she would often stop peeling potatoes or chopping onions and turn toward me to listen. At those times, I knew I was  heard; one of the gifts my mother passed to me, how to listen.

Self Reflection: I will practice patience, commitment, and discipline in my listening.

Prayer to Hear Truth.

Creator of All That Is; let me hear the vastness of your truth that I may step out of my own small self-sheltering world and into my true life.  Let me hear the truth of Divine Guidance rather than the voices fear and ego have contrived as my reality.  Help me become a listener for wisdom and guidance and the much bigger life that awaits when I embrace Truth in all her forms.

Self Relfection: What is my prayer to hear truth?

Contemplation Tunes our Ears to Truth

Sometimes we must listen for a long time to hear the Truth, as if we are listening to the din of a crowd, straining to hear one pure voice.  Through the practice of contemplation, we train our ears to hear the perfect pitch that is Truth. Like a piano tuner, a choir master or orchestra conductor we listen for the sound of resonance and to what is out of tune with Truth. We come to hear the difference.

Self Relfection: Contemplation helps me hear through the din when my own mind is cluttered, static, out of tune.

Coming to Trust One's Soul and Inner Voice

Carolyn shares:  My soul and my inner voice are in conversation.

I listen, as if an outsider, trying to pick up on the gist of the conversation, 

without them knowing I am eavesdropping.

I can tell they are talking about me and I don't want them to stop.

I sense that if I listen carefully there is something I might come to know,

Something vital or critical that would help me on my path.

I do learn something:

Soul doesn't quite trust inner voice--too many years of outside influence make it difficult to know what's truth and what's distortion.

Inner voice thinks soul speaks in code and feels frustrated--she might fail to make the 'right' interpretation.

Soul doesn't feel safe in making her needs known--she speaks in guarded, yet imploring whispers-"let me grow! Let me grow!"

Inner Voice, ever more claiming her own essence can hear soul's call.  

Over time she has sorted out her truth from fears 

and the external directives of what she should think and say. 

She answers as best as she is currently able.

She asks her soul for clarification, more information, deeper connection.

Self Reflection: Over time I will come to know I can trust  my soul and my inner voice.

Listening to Self First

May moon cycle invites us to listen to ourselves first-our inner voice. Is our inner voice whiny, seductive, open-hearted or compassionate? Does it change depending on who we are speaking to? 

Learn to listen from the metaphor of a ‘blank slate’. The color of the may moon is obsidian or deep black, in this blackness, there is no influence to what we hear-other than ourselves. 

The Celtic medicine wheel for the season of Spring invites us to have compassion for ourselves during this third cycle of spring.  Only with compassion can we know how to really hear ourselves above all the din and distraction of ruminating thoughts, worries, unfounded fears, etc.  All this takes practice, and having enough compassion for ourselves to keep recommitting to the practice of listening. 

Self Reflection: I take time to listen to myself first, listening until I enter the space of an open 'blank slate'. Only then am I in a wise place to listen  to others. 

The Art of Listening

I listen to myself:  What is
it that I am REALLY saying? ...to myself? ...to others? 

I listen to what is really being said. 

I listen to my intuition. 

I listen to my conscience, to the voice of the Divine. 

I listen for the real NEED underneath the WANT from myself, 

and from those with who I am in relationship. 

Am I willing to listen?



Am I willing to hear, and am I willing to take action on what I
hear? 

What are others are saying? There are so many levels of
communication. 




Self Reflection: Can I discern the differences in the voices of my ego, my
spiritual essence and Divine voice? What would I need to change in my life to develop the skill of

discernment and use it in my abilities to listen?  

Stay Present; Hear Truth

What do I hear when I listen?

Whose voices call to me in the stillness?

I will hear the voices inside my head.

I will learn to discern the source:  

My own wisdom, hard earned, speaks to me.

She reminds me of the lessons of my past, the vision for my future.

She nudges me to stay in the present moment, which is the only way my human ears can hear Truth.

And, I might also hear the  voice of my fears and worries. 

There is distinct quality to these words. 

Fear has a distinct sound.  

It seems to pull at me, a warning bell that does not ring true.

Self Reflection: Staying in the present moment, I hear and discern Truth.