Blue Moon

If you are looking in the sky on August 31, 2012 and wondering why the heck the Blue Moon isn't blue...it's because it's a title only. When we have two full moons in one month, the second full moon is referred to as a "Blue Moon".

The Sun will be in the practical sign of Virgo,( the sign of service & details, health & routines) with the Moon in the sensitive and  dreamy sign of Pisces. What an ideal placement to flow with the lunar tides of what is possible and develop a step by step plan on how to get there!

When have you used or heard the saying, "Once in a Blue Moon?" It refers to something that occurs very rarely. We won't have another Blue Moon until 2013. Why not use this energy to throw out some amazing far reaching intentions!

Here is a simple ceremony you could do to align with this energy.

First, spend some time dreaming your dream and getting clear. Remember, now is the time to dream big! Take a moment to reflect and ask yourself; "Why do I want what I want? and keep asking "why" to ensure that it really is what you want.

Write your desire or intention on a piece of paper.

Have a bath or a shower, and while washing, ask that all doubt, negativity, unhealthy patterns and limitations be removed from your mind, body and aura. Ask to be filled with inspiration, clarity, and faith. (or whatever you feel you need to accomplish your goals; courage, motivation, willpower, etc. )

Light a candle (or a fire in a fireplace or firepit) asking for illumination. You could also pray, call in the directions or your Guides,Angels or Ancestors, you could do this now, as well.  Ask for discernment and clear sign posts on your path to support your intention.

Read your intention out loud. Then crumple it up and blow into it three times.

Throw your paper into fireplace or firepit. If using a candle, make sure you place the paper in a fire-proof container after you light it.

Observe how it burns. Is it smoldering and slow burning? If so, you may have a few things to move out of the way before you can make your dream happen. Is it catching quickly and almost burning your fingers? Be wary of being hasty in your actions to make this happen...it could be painful. Does it simply catch and burn? Things should unfold in a timely manner.

Finally, give thanks and appreciation for the completion of this matter, Great Spirit, God, or whomever you called in for support.

This is a really simple ceremony that can be done without much fuss, bells or whistles. What matters most is that you are present and mindful through the process. 

If you dig this little ceremony...you may want to check out my Moon Magick class. We go over the effects of the Moon phases and astrological implications and how we can use it in ceremony.

Later, Creators!

Sandhill Crane

Three years ago, during a telephone conversation with my fitness trainer, I was startled by the sound of my son Riley screaming from the backyard; "MOM, COME QUICK!!!  THERE ARE BIG RED BIRDS IN THE SKY!!!"

Still holding the telephone to my ear, I walked outside to hear the garbled croaking of what was easily 300 large birds in synchronized flight overhead. At the time I had no idea what they were, or their significance as an omen.

The following day I asked around about the birds and was told that they were probably sandhill cranes. Trusting that they were indeed a sign of some sort, I asked Mike if they meant anything to him, considering that they appeared during a conversation about his astrology chart. It held no real significance for him at the time and I soon forgot all about them.

Until a few weeks ago, (three years later, almost to the day I first encountered them) while driving in Edmonton's west end I once again noticed hundreds of sandhill cranes high in the sky. 

This time I had the time and resources to look deeper into the significance of this omen and thought I would share it with you.

From Wikipedia:  "This crane frequently gives a loud trumpeting call that suggests a French-style "r" rolled in the throat, and they can be heard from a long distance. Mated pairs of cranes engage in "unison calling." The cranes stand close together, calling in a synchronized and complex duet. The female makes two calls for every single call of the male."

I would link this to the importance of communication and how a few words can go a long way. The male and female calling in unison is also connected to the balance of yin and yang, stillness and action, giving and receiving and the mother and the father. I think the time has come where heart and mind need to constantly connect to make appropriate decisions.

Wikipedia also says:  Sandhill cranes are fairly social birds that are usually encountered in pairs or family groups through the year. During migration and winter, non-related cranes come together to form "survival groups" which forage and roost together. Such groups often congregate at migration and winter sites, sometimes resulting in thousands of cranes being found together.

I take from this connects to the importance of gathering with like-minded people to stay inspired and on track. There is great value in the exchange of ideas. This omen is saying it may be time to get together, to congregate and be creative. To regroup and reassess. Create think tanks. Make music together. Exercise together. If this world is going to get better, we have to learn to live and work with each other, without trying to make others be as we are. To acknowledge and respect our differences and see the value in each of us singing our own song.  It's amazing to sing in unison, but you should be able to carry a solo as well. Sing your own song. See who joins in.

Another thing about these cranes...they are mainly herbivorous but will eat whatever is seasonally available. A reminder to eat more veggies and foods that are locally grown.

Cranes use their long beaks to dig deep into the shallow wetlands for roots and seeds; a reminder for us to look within our emotional murkiness to examine the roots of our issues and the seeds we have planted.

Wetlands have a lot of standing water. Almost any wetland can provide some measure of flood protection by holding the excess runoff after a storm, and then releasing it slowly.  Wetland soil acts as a sponge, holding much more water than other soil types. This speaks to me of letting your emotions percolate for awhile and not just reacting to the first emotion you experience.  Anger, once accepted and surrendered, can transform into understanding and compassion.  Shame can transform into humor.  Jealousy can give way to love.  We can filter out the toxins, our own personal poison we place onto the situations that occur around us. As we learn to meditate on those situations, new understandings take the place of anger or hurt. We transform the past, take the wisdom and leave the pain and labels behind. 

There is a lot of metamorphosis happening under the surface of wetland water. Your creative process may require some periods of stillness.  Just because you are not in action mode doesn't mean that nothing is happening.  Give yourself time and space to get quiet. You will be surprised what inspirations pop up when you make some space in your mind.

The predators of the sandhill crane are foxes, coyotes, racoons, lynxes and wolves. Birds that eat the little cranes through the plundering of nests are ravens, crows and hawks.  Peregrine falcons, eagles and large owls will eat cranes of all ages.  

As a sign, this mean that your limitations may be your inability to be inconspicuous (fox),  or you may be having difficulty seeing the humor in life's follies and embracing the change that chaos can initiate in your life (coyote) an inability to see the challenging people and situations as the perfect teachers to ready you for the next great experience (wolf). There is a possibility that you need to be more adaptable and use your ingenuity with the resources you already have at your disposal (raccoon) to be more successful. Try to see the positives in the negative (crow) and prepare yourself for miracles (raven).  Pay attention to the omens that appear (hawk) as they are messages from Spirit. Try to see the big picture and don't let yourself get all caught up with the details (eagle), trust your instincts (owl) and when you make your choice, dive in without hesitation (falcon).

I have been asking the Universe for guidance. Thanks Sandhill Crane.  I hear you.  Loud and clear.

The Law of One and the Midnight Pooper

Over the last three weeks I have sporadically heard a song lyric running through my head (also known as an "earworm").  The recurring line is "the shallow end of assumptions." I would hear it play through my mind during the most mundane of tasks, such as picking through fruit at Save-On or washing dishes. But mostly I have found myself singing it as I am walking from my car to my office in the morning. The lyric is from a song entitled The Rapture by Puscifer.

One of my favorite workshops I developed and teach is called Spirit Signs. In it, I suggest that songs in your head may have a personal message for you - perhaps a validation or a reminder of something you should be aware of. Keeping that in mind, I told myself it may be important at this time to be more aware of the assumptions I make.

Well, I arrived at work one morning last week to the macabre discovery of a pile of human feces left on the parking pad near the back door of our building. How did I know it was human feces, you ask?  Well, "Midnight Pooper" had wiped his butt with a couple Quizno's napkins that were left scattered around the offending pile.  Dogs generally don't do that.

  The very sight of that putrid pile invoked many thoughts and feelings. My first reaction was one of disgust and nausea. My second was a sense of total relief with the sudden realization that as a meager tenant, it probably wasn't my job to clean it. Someone else will surely take care of that business. 

In Spirit Signs, I suggest that when something appears in your life that invokes any kind of strong reaction, it has a potential double role as a message sent by Spirit. This message can provoke a new idea or awareness that will benefit you in some area of your life. Sometimes it is a "Yay, You!" kind of message, and sometimes it is a kick in the pants. It's like a nudge from God.

The Universal Law of Symbolism - taken from the Universal Laws of Conscious Creation Wisdom Book by Dana DaPonte, Lara Solara and me - states:
"There are no coincidences, and everything present in your environment is there for a reason.  Everything is meaningful.  The Universe is in constant communication with you through the objects, people and circumstances that make up your environment.  By learning to look more deeply into the symbolic meaning of your surroundings, you can participate in this communication."

To harmonize with the Law of Symbolism, you should ask yourself; "If the Universe were using this object to communicate with me, what would the message be?" 

I thought about that and I wondered who was going to clean that mess up, and how they would feel about it. Poop Scooper...have you been feeling like you have been cleaning up other people's sh*t in other areas of your life? There's a good chance that Poop Scooper may not have seen the gift in this situation, this message from the Universe. But if he/she had, they would have been pushed to examine their roles within some of their existing relationships on another level. Maybe P.S. was being given an opportunity to get up close and personal with their feelings regarding having to clean up after others.  Maybe this is a trend for them, and they are unable to see that they are taking on other people's problems as their own, and it could be costing them financially, emotionally or physically.

But I especially wondered about Midnight Pooper...why poop there? Was this a premeditated and deliberate act? I suddenly recalled a previous day's brief conversation with one of the construction workers renovating a portion of our building. He had mentioned something about a "bum" who had been lurking around the trucks earlier that day. Construction Worker appeared pretty agitated about the whole thing. Was there an altercation? Were there words spoken? Perhaps this was a homeless man's most poetic way to get his point across and make his feelings known.    

If it were a homeless person, he/she wouldn't own a toilet. I had to imagine that scenario for a moment and tried to imagine what that would be like. Everyday would pose the problem of where to eliminate. I felt empathy. Strangely, I somehow wanted to believe in the innocence of Pooper. He/she is simply a victim of his/her circumstances. That somehow, s/he couldn't help himself, s/he just had to go. 

I settled in my mind (because for some reason I needed to settle my mind about this) that this must have simply been a crime of opportunity. Currently, there is large dumpster located behind the building to accumulate the renovation debris. It provides a private little nook at the back wall where one could squat leisurely, hidden from the prying eyes of the other back lane wanderers and tenants whose apartment windows face into the lane. 

The Universal Law of One states that we are all one and interconnected. This means I am One with Midnight Pooper, as well as the Pooper Scooper.

On a metaphoric level, I have experienced some Midnight Poopers myself. I'm sure you have, as well. I've encountered them in business, and also in my personal life. Sometimes it has cost me dearly. I realized that in those cases, I also wanted to believe in their innocence, that they couldn't help themselves and it was simply my bad luck to be there to clean up after them. 

But, wait...according to the Law of One, then I must also be a Midnight Pooper! Does my accountant see me as an M.P. when I dump years of receipts and paper on her lap? And how about my colleagues Lynn and Sarah,  do they see me as a Midnight Pooper when I let the coffee cups pile up at work and leave the workshop space in disarray because I was too tired to clean the night before? How about my boyfriend, who's previously tidy condo is now littered with stacks of books, papers and metaphysical oddities since I moved in four months ago? I suddenly found a new perspective of myself, and some gentle reminders to pull up my socks, wash the dishes and do my paperwork.  

These mirrors were very effective in discovering who I have been lately, rather than who I think I am generally. Our perspectives of ourselves (and others) are easily colored by assumptions and illusions.

By lunchtime, the offending mess was cleaned, the only reminder of the occurrence was a thin dusting of kitty litter spread over the crime scene. 

The following day, I arrived at work, the Midnight Pooper all but forgotten. 

Until...

On my way to the garbage bin that afternoon, discovered a NEW pile of human excrement on top of the kitty litter. You have got to be kidding me, I thought. How bold! What audacity!

Suddenly, the Midnight Pooper didn't seem so innocent. Apparently, by my logic, one random poop was ok, but two poops two days in a row meant something entirely different. The shallow end of assumptions. I came to assume that the identity of the first and second pooper was one person...one villain. Yes, suddenly, the Midnight Pooper was a heinous villain.

Good grief, I thought, why can't you poop in a bag, or on a newspaper and then throw it in the dumpster? Suddenly I was really annoyed. The shallow end of assumptions.

According to the Universal Law of Reflection, what is happening inside of me and what is being shown to me in my outside environment are the same. During that two days, I was myself experiencing anger regarding some old situations where I was feeling saddled with the responsibility of Poop Cleaner. I examined some of my assumptions with the Pooper. In my own metaphoric Midnight Pooper experiences, I have first seen my Poopers as innocent beyond fault, allowing myself to be blind to their hidden agendas and deceit, even going so far as to make excuses for their behavior.

Then suddenly, the scale would tip and the once innocent now become guilty on all counts.

This was isn't working for me anymore. This process didn't fit into my ideals for personal accountability. 

What about my apathy about it not being my "job" to clean up? Ouch. That was a tough mirror to see. Where else on the planet am I not contributing towards the clean up because it's not my mess? 

The moral of this story? I'm not sure there is one. But I'm going to sum it up like this:

1.  Don't leave your poop for someone else to clean up. Take responsibility for your poop. 

2.  If you find yourself cleaning up someone else's poop time and time again...maybe it's time to give them a shovel and walk away. It's time they learned to clean their own mess.

3.  Poop is a part of life. Used correctly, it makes great compost. Used incorrectly, its a pollutant and carries disease.

Places, everyone

Its funny, you know. I have been aware for years that this consciousness shift is coming but I never really thought too hard about what that will mean for us as individuals in our mundane worlds.

We are waking up. Like little babies we awaken from our slumbers...wailing and screaming because we are starving, lonely and seeking comfort. And like babies, we have no idea how to fill the void so we look outside of ourselves. Most of us are not even entirely sure what it exactly is that is missing.

We're trying, though, aren't we? We quit jobs and start new ones, we buy bigger houses, cars, and televisions. We take trips, get cosmetic surgery, get married, get divorced and have affairs. We eat what the television commercials say is good for us, we lose weight, gain weight, and wait for things to improve. We suppress our anger in order not to shake things up or hurt others and then walk around in a Paxil, Zoloft, or Prozac induced sense of happiness...well, an okay-ness. We eat comfort foods with tons of additives and next to no actual nutrients. We get everything done, sometimes at the expense of our dreams and sacrificing valuable time with our families and friends.

Have you ever seen those commercials for cold medications, the ones that mask your symptoms in order allow you to go on with your day as per usual?

I don't get it...
If you're sick, go to bed. Let someone else take care of the crap that needs to get done.

If you weren't pushing yourself beyond your limits in the first place, you wouldn't be sick. Sick is NOT natural. Its a sign that something is out of balance in your thoughts and feelings. If you are sick, you should ask yourself "what am I doing that I no longer want to do anymore? And who am I going to be letting down if I stop doing this?"

Listen to your feelings. If you don't, you will get sick. Your emotions will tell you, very quietly at first "I don't like this." You can't bullshit your emotional body. But we try. Here are some of the ways:

"My work environment is toxic but I need this job. Without it I will be destitute."

Ummm. Get another job. But you better change that victim energy first, or you'll wind up in the same boat.

"I'm not happy but I just can't leave him/her. We just bought a new house."

Then get your ass to counseling and stop moaning about how bad your relationship is.

"I'm struggling financially and can't keep my head above water."

Then take responsibility for your decisions! Spend less money. Or take whatever steps you need to make more.

If you don't listen to your feelings, and change whatever situation is creating your discontent, you will get sick.

Jesus healed people because he caused them to believe in something besides their stories; they saw another way and it resonated as truth.

Or you can listen to the commercials.

We need to start changing things pronto. When we become unafraid of change, we give permission to ourselves to do whatever it takes to make our dreams happen. When we are happy we are healthy. When we are grateful, more things appear that create gratitude. When we feel abundant, we attract more abundance. It starts with a mindset, but it is the emotions that create the flow of fabulousness. Do things that make you feel good. This is a simple and effective place to start.

I'm going to do something that makes me feel fabulous today. Maybe I can make someone else feel fabulous in the process.

"The Call" from keith wyatt on Vimeo.