Intention
On Friday, October 16th the moon was New, so eight days ago I was called to find a focus for this cycle. The last cycle saw my attention move to Stillness. Before speaking, I wanted to ask myself who or what would I be speaking for? Was I speaking an actual truth, or simply my truth? Would there be a benefit to these words or actions beyond my own ego?
There are a lot of words flying around these days. Politics has a way of convincing everyone that they are the ones with the moral high ground. Myself included. But I also believe that there is no such thing as a moral high ground – that everything is a matter of perspective. You are not absolutely right about anything. Neither am I. So that is where we can begin.
Finding this cycle’s focus was amusing. I asked what the Intention should be – and the word I got back was Intention. It’s a word I found trouble with some years back – I learned the hard way that it is dangerous to act and react without knowing what your Intent is. That differs from motivation – we act on motivation all the time – but to what end? And do we really examine the cost? We post something snarky on social media because we’re blowing off steam, but what if the eyes that see the post don’t share our snark? Words are powerful. And words are actions.
We know that every action has a reaction – but I want to share something from an old spiritual path. When we throw a stone – we change, the stone changes, the medium the stone passes through changes, and the place where the stone lands changes. There is impact to more than we initially see – this is why Intention is important.
It’s not enough to know what we do and why we do it – but it’s important, especially right now, to understand all the nuance around us.
No song this time – and that’s done with Intent too.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Intention
Stillness
This morning at 7am (ET) the moon was new again – filled with possibilities for the upcoming cycle.
Last month I chose the Domino as a point of focus. As part of last month’s post, I was asked what happens if you get out of line, or get into a new line. I replied that being the Domino is more about what happens when we’re at choice. That we can arrive there when waiting is filled, or we can create our own inflection point. Either way – when it’s time to act, it’s time to act – even if action is inaction.
There were many opportunities to focus on that point of choice this past cycle. Whether to act or observe, whether to speak or be silent, whether to be in motion or to be still.
This is a time when many of us are moved by our passions or beliefs to rise and defend or proselytize our positions on the events of the day. Passions are running very high and there is little to no room for compromise.
In March of 2014, I locked into the spiritual path that I’m currently on, and one of the lessons that the Universe has been trying to teach me is to know when to “sit down and shut up”. It sounds a lot more coarse than it is – but that’s to provide emphasis. Can something really be gained by acting or speaking publicly or are we just looking to stand on a soapbox and be heard? Our opinions always matter – but that doesn’t mean they should (or even need to) be shared.
There is a four-step path to action in my faith – To Know, To Will, To Dare, and To Keep Silent. In my interpretation, this translates to having a thought, to decide or will to put the thought into action, to actually dare to commit to the action, and then to keep silent and not be boisterous about it. Energetically this last part sends the action out to its own fruition – where speaking about it might draw it back to us. It also dovetails nicely with my mantra to ‘want without expectation’.
To me, this silence is the most important piece – without it, none of the rest has much hope for success. So for this lunar cycle, my theme will be Stillness. Before speaking, I want to ask myself who or what am I speaking for? Am I speaking an actual truth, or simply my truth? Is there a benefit to these words or actions beyond my own ego?
Many paths allow for meditation or silent reflection, and this year has certainly brought its share of opportunities for solitude – but I have to wonder if I’ve actually used that effectively. For all of these reasons, I feel that it’s important this month for me to really learn to be still.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Stillness
Domino
It’s been a week since we were last visited by a new moon – making me seven days overdue in posting the focus for this coming cycle.
I had ruminated a lot on topics of Faith last month, and the role it plays in both shaping and distorting our reality. When I was wondering about this month’s focus, I was thinking about how Faith can help lead us toward answers in our lives. As I was thinking the focus could be answers, I started to reason that just as data leads to information, with the right perspective, answers can lead to solutions. So was the focus to be Answers or Solutions? When looking at that choice I thought, “well, maybe I’m supposed to be looking at Questions”?
I sat with that for a few days. I was reminded of an event during my first Christmas break from college in 1981. I came home for the holiday, flush with new ideas and new ways of thinking, and went out to lunch with my girlfriend. As we sat and I was thinking about my first semester philosophy course, and as we were surrounded by the trappings of Christmas in a shopping mall, I asked her “why do you believe what you believe”? When she answered “because they told me to”, I should have known to run then.
How can Faith exist without being questioned? How can we do or be anything in our lives without pushing the limits, without testing, and without probing? Faith is a great path – but it is only the hypothesis, it is not destined to be its own proof. For the New Testament fans out there, we can even look at John 20:27 where Jesus beckons Thomas to test and prove rather than just rely on Faith.
Questions lead to theories which lead to answers which lead to solutions. Each are Dominos – one knocks down the next which knocks down the next. Following the path is predestined, but what we take away from the experience isn’t.
So after all that, the focus for this month is Domino – and yes, it was partially inspired by pizza too – but I want to turn to the band Genesis for a set of lyrics queued up in the attached YouTube clip (“Domino Part Two – The Last Domino” from Invisible Touch):
There’s nothing you can do
“Domino Part Two – The Last Domino” by Genesis from the album Invisible Touch
when you’re the next in line
You’ve got to go domino
Do you know
Do you know
Do you know what you have done?
Do you see what you’ve begun?
‘Cause there’s nothing, nothing, nothing
There’s nothing you can do
There’s nothing you can do
Do you see, do you see what you’ve done?
What’s the next step? What’s the next challenge? Where do we grow from here?
There’s nothing you can do when you’re the next in line.
Have a safe month!!
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Domino
Faith
The moon was New at 1:33pm this afternoon, and while thinking about this coming cycle, I realized that I had no idea how to follow up last month. The last focus was on Light – which brought thoughts on the power of illumination and the contrast offered by shadow and relief. It also enforced the realization that our perception of a thing is governed at least in part by the Light with which it is viewed.
I feel like a lot of things have been exposed to Light for all of us in the last month, and for the months before that. I’ve always believed that bringing something to light was the first step in healing. So I had held a silent intention last month that by focusing on light, on discovery, and on revelation that we would all start to collectively rise out of the malaise and make positive changes in our local and global realities.
That didn’t quite work. Entropy has a lot of influence this year – and while we try to excise some of it, it counters and tries to grow back like weeds invading a garden. Weeds make use of the light so that they can grow too. Welcome to the paradox.
Even though I don’t follow an Abrahamic tradition, I still believe the bible is a fine ‘book of ancient wisdom’ – so in that spirit, I found myself quoting Hebrews 11:1 to a friend last week, which reads: “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As I was relating this conversation to Laura during a phone call on Sunday, it occurred to me that this might be a solution to the paradox, and the focus for this lunar cycle.
Sometimes when reality doesn’t work, we need to transcend truth. To me, Faith is an active word – having Faith in an outcome is not “letting go and letting god”; it involves effort, attention, and intention. We can’t just say “I have faith that everything will be okay” and then go make a sandwich. If you put more effort into the sandwich, that’s what the gods will focus on too.
To me, any reward from Faith is based on our treating Faith as a roadmap and then building the necessary infrastructure around it. As Sophocles is purported to have written in Philoctetes: ‘And heaven ne’er helps the men who will not act’ – or more colloquially ‘God helps those who help themselves’.
To look beyond the obstacles that confront us, and see the paths to transform our realities, I believe we have to start with a Faith that our destination waits for us. Whether that destination embodies good health and peace of mind, freedom to be accepted as ourselves without prejudice, or simply the enjoyment of the benign influence of good laws under a free government – Faith can be our walking stick. We still need to take the steps and do the work, but maybe the Faith that there is ‘better’ can offer a bit of support along the way.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Faith
Light
Last weekend brought us another New Moon. To steal a line from “What’d I Miss?”, from Hamilton: “there is no more status quo / but the sun comes up and the world still spins.”
There aren’t words I can use that will be thoughtful enough, descriptive enough, or delicate enough to include here about everything that’s transpired since I wrote my last New Moon post on May 24th. In fact, that’s been part of the reason that this post is so delayed – I kept writing… but I’d get two pages in before I ever got to the point of this post. So I am deliberately narrowing the focus. I am mindful of all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that is about to happen in the world – this post doesn’t address any of that directly. This is intended to be about my path and how I work with the changing cycles of the moon.
Last month, as I shifted my focus from Chaos to Conflict, I wrote:
“Conflict, and the tension that is part of it, is what propels us forward. It doesn’t have to be mean-spirited or aggressive, but it has to be genuine and asserted. There is nothing wrong with the initiation of conflict if it comes organically and is part of an over-arching process. If it moves the game forward and is mindfully woven with threads of compassion, then it is a natural, and essential, part of this thing called life.”
Again, I wrote that on May 24th.
Personally, I ran headlong into that sense of Conflict with my brother’s passing – my grief expressed itself as anger toward a variety of targets. I kept meditating on the concept that Conflict and tension were necessary regardless of how uncomfortable they were, but there has been a lot of it.
In addition to being a New Moon, last weekend brought the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, our longest day of the year. This is where this month’s focus comes in – but in a reversal of sorts. For this cycle, the song gave me the theme:
Give me the lights, precious lights
Give me lights
Give me my hope, give me my energy
You can turn the wrong into right
Precious lights
illuminate me, carry me away
~ “Lights” by Styx from the album Cornerstone
Light can be so many different things – it can be a candle or a flashlight, it can be solar, chemical or bioluminescent, it can be harsh or it can be calming. Light is also nothing without the relief brought by shadow. This afternoon I was talking with a trusted soul about how difficult it’s been to write this – when I remembered my brother talking about Astronomical Spectroscopy – how we can study the physical manifestation of celestial objects by the wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum they radiate.
This reminded me that it can never be just one thing. You can’t have purple without blue and red. You can’t have orange without red and yellow. You can’t have full and brilliant sunlight without every color that makes up the rainbow – plus so many more that we can’t even see with our human eyes. And while we’re on the subject of rainbows this month: happiness and peace to all my LGBTQIAPK friends!!
Shining a light on our troubles is all well and good – but I think it’s important to be mindful of the properties of the Light we’re shining. Not all Lights are reflected in the same way, or seen similarly through different lenses. As we move through this cycle, it remains my goal to try to see as many shades as I can – to appreciate both the joys and frustrations through more than just my own lens. But I also want to echo that chorus – that Lights might give us hope and give us energy, transform us and our circumstance, and help to illuminate all of us.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Light
Conflict
At 1:39pm on Friday the moon was new again, marking the time to roll into another theme of focus.
The last lunar cycle saw me looking at Chaos – fitting since it seems to be more obvious these days. Over the past week I’ve felt more caught in the maelstrom than I remember being in a long time – as I said last month, I’ve been easily irritable lately, just very unsettled, and it doesn’t take very much at all to set me off. Usually, it’s “we need you to…” and I’m off. Requirements and expectations have taken a lot of effort for me to fold into the mix.
This led to me tilting at windmills a lot – fighting without direction or opponent. Then, last week, I started to apply a different analogue.
I used to think of chaos in terms of the [fundamental physical forces](https://www.space.com/four-fundamental-forces.html) (electromagnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and gravitational). I used to envision things veering close to one another and then peeling away – always swirling in the eddies of everything. It was gentle, it was elegant, and it was fascinating.
The new perspective is more of a pinball machine. Sure, there is the occasional magnet in the table that causes the ball to change course, and there is a strong reliance on gravity – but for the most part, progress is determined by what you do with the flippers, the angles of reflection off the bumpers and kickers, and how well you can manage all of them to hit the targets and advance the score.
And that’s when it hit me. Literally.
I have been conflict-averse all of my life. I needed to be. You can’t make everyone happy if you are in conflict with them – you have to be amenable, you have to be conciliatory, resistance isn’t just futile – it’s bad form.
But really – Conflict, and the tension that is part of it, is what propels us forward. It doesn’t have to be mean-spirited or aggressive, but it has to be genuine and asserted. There is nothing wrong with the initiation of conflict if it comes organically and is part of an over-arching process. If it moves the game forward and is mindfully woven with threads of compassion, then it is a natural, and essential, part of this thing called life.
So the theme for this month is Conflict. And no – you know me – this does NOT mean I’m going to pick fights every chance I get. But I will try to be more mindful of when I am feeling resistant, or insistent, and do a better job of advocating for myself.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Conflict
Chaos
Tonight at 10:26pm the Moon became New again, signaling the time to explore another theme.
Last cycle I said I was going to be looking at themes of Solace – particularly revolving around Solace in solitude. I am blessed and privileged to be able to ride out this pandemic in a safe environment. I am blessed that my career continues to move forward without putting me in the path of any physical harm. I am grateful beyond words that when a 10% pay cut was announced this month that it was manageable – and yes, infinitely preferable to a more drastic alternative. Solace in a physical sense, was not hard for me to find and cultivate, and I give thanks.
Spiritually has been another story entirely. Dreams have been a cascading series of troubling non sequiturs. I find that I am easily irritable and don’t have the emotional stamina that I’m used to from myself.
Through conversations with trusted souls I began to see that I was still holding on to a sense of “normal”. I’ve worked from home for nearly four years, I’m naturally an introvert, and my day-to-day really hasn’t changed all that much. But we are all subject to eddies and currents beyond what we can perceive with our conventional senses. Even absent that, we are all subject to the unknowns that lay out ahead of us.
My mind goes back to the scene from “This is Spinal Tap” when Nigel is explaining the amplifiers that go to eleven. We all have settings that we operate under – calm, anxious, happy, irritated – we usually find ourselves dialed into these settings. But can it also be possible to choose where we set our frames of mind? Can we turn the dial ourselves?
Which brings us to this cycle’s focus. Chaos. Why can’t there be a setting on our panels where “Chaos” is the new “normal”. Having a set of prescribed actions for a “Chaos” setting would, by its very existence, provide us control in uncontrollable times. We would no longer expect to know what’s next because the status quo would be not knowing. In this way I feel like perhaps I can leverage my generalized anxiety and OCD and use them as tools to contend with the unpredictable emotional swings of the day-to-day. I’d no longer feel like I have to be in control, because today’s normal is such that there is no control.
So how does this work in a practical sense? I firmly believe that magic exists at the intersection of intent and Chaos. So for this lunar cycle, I’m going to try to explore the act of letting go of rigidity and just sail on the seas of Chaos – guided by the rudder of my intent.
Normally I end these with a song – but I want to share a video that might illustrate the finding of joy in this approach. It’s a video of a woman spinning cotton candy – the strands spin in Chaos, but the stick is her tool of intention. The result? Joy.
It’s all in how you look at it.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Chaos
Solace
Well – this is different, right?
This past Tuesday morning at 5:28am the moon was new again, so I knew it was time to write another of these – but then I thought ‘nothing is normal’, and is it just going to be irritating to publish this now? Then I decided to not take that decision away from anyone – I wanted to see what words came out and if someone else needs a different kind of distraction they can stop reading now.
The theme for the past lunar cycle was one of Resonance, and when I think about it I can see examples of resonant effect in many places. The way that the harmonics of this virus and response have hit a crescendo and reverberated through every area of our lives is indeed resonant – but certainly not in the way I would have imagined. There’s anxiety, fear, loneliness, and uncertainty. I went through my challenges and know there will be more to come before this is over. This is a long game. It’s not unlike the ADSR envelope in music, where ASDR stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release. We’re still in the Attack stage – but hopefully soon we’ll be on the other side and be able to see “the curve” Decay – before Sustaining for a short period and finally Releasing. Then, hopefully, there will be quiet from the anxiety, and brighter days.
So what about this cycle? I thought about our collective isolation and about our solitude; I thought about the warmth of the sun and how the proper name for our sun is Sol. So what about Solace?
Exclusive of our current planetary emergency – Solace would, and has, come from the resolution of Resonance, so Solace fits as a step on my path. There are numerous references online to “solace in solitude”, and while I would normally gravitate toward that, I like my solitude more when it’s my own idea and desire. I’m an admitted agoraphobe, so staying home is my preferred state – but even I am missing being out with other humans these days.
So how do we find solace in these times? For me, it’s been a result of the past months of Curation – of keeping only those things in my life which sustain me, and by focusing on where my life is most Resonant. I’m trying to stay in touch with a myriad of people through a variety of methods, working on oft-delayed creative projects, and keeping as close to a normal schedule as I can. For me, there is Solace in consistency – so where some of that has been robbed, I reinforce it in other places.
For those of us who may be blessed enough to not have this virus hit too close to home yet, there is an opportunity to sit with ourselves – to listen to the intuitions that drive us and see where we might have opportunity for change. I’m not saying this is the Universe saying “go to your room and think about what you’ve done” – but deep self-reflection doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
May you find Solace in these times in whatever way serves your soul best!!
Resonance
Now that I’ve got most of my faculties back, I feel like I can finally write this month’s New Moon post. The moon was new at 10:32am this past Sunday morning – while I was enjoying a brunch cocktail with a friend and former work colleague who was visiting from Denver. It was good to see him, and a good reminder that there are professional relationships that transcend the profession. Souls meet, they react, then they sustain or they fade. I’m grateful for all the souls who touch mine – regardless of whether they linger for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
The focus last month was on Curation, and in the post I justified my concept of Curation by saying that “there are times when we welcome the energies that resonate with our own, but there are also times when we need to let energies wane that no longer have a place.” I think I’d done well in the last cycle of creating the appropriate distance from elements that are not healthy for me. There is still work to be done – and I need to be cautious not to make the firewall too strong – but I think we are finally on the other side of self-sacrifice for someone else’s good. That doesn’t mean abandoning responsibilities or being selfish – but it does mean weighing the merits of participation and determining if they warrant the personal cost.
When looking for “how” to do that I went back to my very justification for Curation and found my focus for this month. Resonance. For these purposes, I’ll take a definition from Wikipedia, which reads, “In physics, resonance describes the phenomena of amplification that occurs when the frequency of a periodically applied force is in harmonic proportion to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts.”
There are moments in our lives of which we are certain. The frequency of those moments act in harmonic proportion with the natural frequency of our intent and reverberate in our souls. The same can be said for the souls that we meet. We connect with someone and feel an instant kinship. We must be aware of course that just because “we” feel that, doesn’t mean they do. Just because their “periodically applied force” on us causes reverberation does not mean that the inverse is also true. But when we get what I’ll call reciprocal resonance – factors of both create self-sustaining harmonies, then that’s something to hold on to.
To me, this is like singing with the band. I used to just sing and hold on for dear life to my part. But lately, when I sing and another voice is in harmony with mine, I find myself floating and adapting to their nuance, and feeling them do the same – and we create a thing that is independent from each of us – but that we each become part of.
So this month I will look for where there is deep resonance in my life, and try to find ways to better appreciate and cultivate it. I will also look for places where I may have been too eager to declare resonance and continue to curate those.
It took some time to settle on a song this month – but this version of “Monday, Monday” by The Mamas & The Papas fits well. It’s a live version from 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival, so it’s not studio-perfect. You can hear them working to find what resonates – they know it’s there, but sometimes it takes a little finesse to find just the right blend – but once the frequencies are in place, they weave and adapt with harmonic gentleness and compassion. Something I want to continue to try to do.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Resonance
Curation
At 4:42pm this afternoon we have another New Moon – and another chance to pick a facet and devote some intent attention to it.
This past lunar cycle I focused on Balance – and through it, I wrote that “finding Balance in the dark will involve a lot of acceptance. I can’t fix everything, I can’t keep everyone happy all the time, I can’t do everything right.” I came to understand in these past days and weeks that making those kinds of choices does come with a cost, but part of the process is weighing cost versus benefit – again, another example of balance. Overall, I think I’ve been doing well – and despite some disappointments, I do feel healthier.
So now as we enter the Year of the Rat, I’m going to take Balance to the next level and move to Curation. This act of Curation is much like the cycles of the moon herself – there are times when we welcome the energies that resonate with our own, but there are also times when we need to let energies wane that no longer have a place. These energies can be personal, professional, musical, or spiritual. In many ways, the process of welcoming and releasing has already begun as part of the cycle of Balance, but now I am turning my awareness and intention to it.
There’s no song this month – but in honor of a work friend, I’m going to include an image they sent me today – further evidence that resonance can be found in unexpected places, we just need to remain open to it.
Topics: New Moon | Comments Off on Curation
