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.

       

Gathering Our Energy to Speak Truthful Stories

This is the month of Storyteller, the grandmother of the sixth moon cycle.  It seems fitting to have a storyteller as the energetic personality as we begin to work with the energy of relationships over the course of the summer months.  We can tell a story to teach or to share our history, or we can tell stories to deceive and manipulate.  What kind of stories do we tell, and to whom do we tell them?

Just as the waxing moon gathers energy for the full moon, we too gather our own energy to have the courage to speak the truth about what we have been working to create in our life over the past weeks. We also prepare to release and offer up for cleansing what no longer serves us or others.

Are there any stories you need to share-or stop sharing/telling yourself?

In Jamie Sams' book Earth Medicine the reading for June, on page 162, tells of the tale of woodpecker coming to clean the bugs off the White Pine-the Peace Tree, so that the Pine could perform its' duty as peacekeeper for the people without distraction from the bugs that were burrowing under its' bark. This is a good week for cleansing-if you keep or use crystals, set them in a salt water bath over several nights until the moon enters her fullness to clarify and cleanse them.  We too, need clarifying and cleansing so that we can fully shine.  A good sea-salt scrub bath is a wonderful way to clear what is bugging us no matter what the source.

Self Reflection: What is distracting me; getting under my skin?

June Waxing Moon: Speaking Truth, Telling Our Story

To start off the cycle of Speak Truth, Carolyn Shares three quotes from three women who have influenced her love of story as a guiding force in life--and given her courage to keep speaking, even when she didn't think she could.

“Telling a true story about personal experience
is not just a matter of being oneself, or even of
finding oneself. It is also a matter of choosing
oneself..”
-- Harriet Goldhor Lerner (author of The Dance of Anger)

“When the Storyteller tells the truth, she reminds us
that human beings are more alike than unalike....A
story is what it’s like to be a human being—to be
knocked down and to miraculously arise. Each one of
us has arisen, awakened.
We do rise.”
--Maya Angelou (remembering her with immense gratefulness for how she shared so abundantly her gifts with all humankind)

"Storyteller, Clan Mother of the Sixth Moon Cycle, reminds us that if we are willing to expand, growing beyond our former zone of comfort in a healthy way, we must pay attention to all of the events in our lives.  There is a story connected to every living thing and every person in our world. How that story influences out personal Earthwalks is determined by our willingness to see another's experience as a way to learn about ourselves...Storyteller asks us to see the similarities in ourselves and others, finding ways to learn from the stories we all share in common."

--Jamie Sams (Author and inspirer of our circle)

Self Reflection: Whoa are the women in my life who Speak the Truth? 

Speaking a Common Truth

"Storyteller, Clan Mother of the Sixth Moon Cycle, reminds us that if we are willing to expand, growing beyond our former zone of comfort in a healthy way, we must pay attention to all of the events in our lives.  There is a story connected to every living thing and every person in our world. How that story influences our personal Earthwalk is determined by our willingness to see another's experience as a way to learn about ourselves...Storyteller asks us to see the similarities in ourselves and others, finding ways to learn from the stories we all share in common."

--Jamie Sams (Author of Thirteen Original Clan Mothers and inspirer of our moon cycle circle)

...see the similarities in ourselves and others, finding ways to learn from the stories we all share in common. 

All creation is a teaching story. To benefit from and share Creation's story we first must find a place of commonality. This is often not an easy task. But, it is necessary for building up the bravery necessary to speak our own truth out into the world. Seeing where the common places are also builds safety.  It brings mutual respect, or at least, understanding. Feeling afraid or out of place challenges our ability to speak our thoughts or feelings, to speak of the truth of who we are.  We tend to shade our words to be accepted or secure.  Seeing how we are like those with whom we are called to communicate, looking for any small familiarity, similarity, common ground, creates the possibility for speaking in such a way that we may be understood, and that we might begin to understand what it is that is spoken by the other.  

Self Reflection: May I remember that even a very small common thread is enough to begin weaving a truth-full story.  

New Moon for June Brings Gifts Teaching us to Speak Truth

In the gift of June's  moon cycle is an invitation to be willing to  of speaking the truth we become aware of how our words (the quality of our voice, the energy with which we speak-or write)  impact the lives of others, the world around us, and our own growth and prosperity.

One way of thinking of how to Speak Truth is in the embodiment of the archetype of the Storyteller. Thinking of Speaking Truth in this way gives a certain spin on the teaching for the month.  Whether or not we see ourselves as a 'storyteller', the very act of living our lives and having contact with others, makes us a sharer of stories-either through others observation of us as we live our lives, or through our intentional sharing of our thoughts in words or actions.  

There are also other archetypal images connected with Speaking Truth-which you might resonate with more than storyteller: the archetypes of teacher, orator, preacher, writer, singer, Any archetype which uses voice or words to assert herself in the world (or to participate in the world) can claim an identification with the gift/skill of speaking truth. 

This cycle is an invitation to identify our own 'voice', and connecting with an archetypal image is a good way to do that. Explore how we are speaking the truth to ourselves—or not.  We can become open to sharing truth, as we understand it, with others.  

Self Reflection: NEW MOON EXERCISE FOR Speak the Truth.  As a new moon exercise for this cycle: go out in the darkness of the new moon night—and continue this practice as the waxing moon shows her color and light—speak out to the moon.  Hear yourself speak.  Better yet, center yourself, clear your being so that you become a hollow reed open to the song of Great Mystery, Great Spirit, and hear what words come through you, from you.  Words coming from the depth of your heart, from the depth of your soul, from the depth of your longings.  Words, too, that come in the silence with a willingness to hear what is offered as well.  Always with gratefulness.