A Still Moon | Ritual + Rhythm
The Full Moon in Scorpio came and went, and it stirred up the muck + mire from the depths of my inner waters. I wasn’t expecting to be held so hostage to the emotional maelstrom that ensued, but I find clarity comes from such inner + outer turmoil and can be necessary clearing work before we plant anew. Just like a garden bed needs to be weeded, what is unwanted, uprooted, before those things we want can grow.
I’ve been working hard to pull my energy inside of my body + to ground it in the present moment. It feels fortiutious that this new moon in Taurus, my sun + moon sign, is occurring as our last frost date is here. It is time to plant our seeds for our gardens and for our hopes + desires.
The Scorpio waters of the last Full moon became a mirror for all that I am ready to let go into the depths. To stare in the dark pool and release the hand of those stories, so familiar they feel like friends, the emotional reactions, the mindsets that tell me I am less than you. To let it sink to the bottom of the ocean. For me letting go, often does not mean that particular thing is gone forever, but that I have the capacity to witness the thing with such clarity, when it arises again, and again, and again, it has less power over me.
What I am learning, ever so slowly it seems, is that the more I can continually bring myself back to the present moment, calling my essence back from that fight I just had, from from the sting of the words in a text message, from the dream of what tomorrow might hold, the more freedom in thought, in action, and in joy I possess.
Breathe, ground, witness yourself anew moon.
This weekend, AJ + I worked hard at our land to begin a garden. We brought compost, a rainwater catchment and bulbs. The end stages of a process we’ve been working on this past month and when we were done with our work for the day, we sat down on the ground. As violets sat beside me and the old oak tree in front of me, I fell entranced to nature. The sway of the newly burgeoning leafs, the grasses, the birdsong drifting into my ears. It was the stillest i’ve felt in weeks. We both sat with eager hearts to listen to our land. Maybe ten or fifteen or twenty minutes passed it was hard to say, but in synchronicity, we turned to each other. It has been forever since we meditated with each other. A practice we held dear before parenthood, and were so grateful to find ourselves there together again. We shared with each other the messages from the land.
It was truly in being held captive to the present moment, to the life moving + breathing around us that we felt inner peace. A quiet enough to decipher the messages that are available when we are still enough to listen.
For this new moon in Taurus, I invite you to find a place to sit with the land. It may be a bench at your local park, or your balcony, or backyard. Find a place to sit + ground your body, preferably on the earth itself and get quiet within. Allow your gaze to soften, allow your breathe to come into you and leave you in a natural rhythm. Where you are experiencing tension, give it back to the earth. Sit for as long as your are called to + listen within for what messages arise.
Maybe the land you are on is looking for recognition. What indigenous group lived + breathed on that land before you? What messages does the soil carry or the birds on their wings? This exchange is reciprocity.
What does your body have to say to you? What do you need? This is self recognition.
It is here under the dark, new moon, in the silence and stillness we have a better understanding of what we need, what the world around us desires from us, and what dreams are held deep within our hearts.
When you are done with your land sit, write down what came up + what your intentions are for the next lunar cycle. Intentions mean what you aim or plan to do, but in medicine, intention means the “the healing process of a wound.” What actions can we carry, thoughts in our minds and intentions in our heart to heal our deepest wounds so we can move forward in clarity? For me, my intention for this lunar cycle is to remember that the only thing I can truly control is my own self, my emotions, my reactions to cultivate a sense of safe + security in a sea of change: equanimity.
I’d love if you shared your new moon intentions below.
xx, alyson