I’ve been using this period of mercury retrograde and this time in between eclipses to decluttering, reorganize, reevaluate, to let go of attempts at relationships and objects that are no longer in service to my highest good. My focus of late, has turned towards downsizing and making space in my heart + home.

This week on June 10th we will have a lunation steeped in the potent energy of change. Eclipses often mark potential for shifts and new pathways.

An adjustment moon. A moon of disintegration to find integration. A moon to move slowly. A moon to encounter innermost duality to perceive oneness.

The archetype of gemini, the twins, carries its ruling planet mercury, the planet of communication. Alas communication is comes in many forms. Writing, spoken word, internal dialogues, listening, conversation, conflict, movements, body language, are a few that come to mind. How do we communicate with ourselves + how we communicate with others: both internal and external expressions? The energy I feel streaming in with this new moon solar eclipse in gemini how can we create sacred space listen to ourselves and hold space to listen to others? What is the meaning behind our communication, ie, how does our will + our inner light, inform, connect and spill out through our throat chakra, the energy center of our communication? This moon holds a collection of queries around how we express ourselves, how do we express our experience of beauty + pain? What dualities do we contain as microcosms of the universe?

Gemini holds the duality within us, conversation between the seen and the unseen.

Gemini loves questions. Lets ruminate….How do those aspects communicate with each other? How can we hold our opposing energies to find integration? How do we express our own unseen? What is the force behind the emotions we carry? This mirrors shamanic work which works to bridge the divide into the unseen. How can we come into communication with the duality that exists within us?

When we recognize what lies within, this “x, y, and z” is how I’m currently feeling but through the mere expression I can transmute the energy behind an emotion to one of healing potential and pure awareness. My “x, y, and z” most recently has been a heavy frequency of self doubt, back into the muck of perfectionism and self hatred I experienced when I had disordered eating and body dismorphia in high school. Thought forms that once were so familiar, but I hadn’t had in years have been arising in and out of my field of consciousness for the past three weeks. Expression can take the power away and speak intentions into being.

This gemini new moon eclipse is asking that we bring awareness to how we communicate with our selves as a portal to transformation. Do I speak to myself with kindness, compassion, or do I belittle myself? Do my thoughts originate in my own inner light or do are they messages from unwell systems that I have taken on as my own?

Are you feeding yourself loving thoughts and words? We consume the energy behind our thoughts and words. Are we taking in the negative and forgetting about the positive? How can we shift our focus so we are personally digesting warmth and tenderness with ourselves, so we can hold that space for others? 

Communication for clearing toxicity

I feel as a person in this more forward facing line of work, I vacillate between showing up in a way that is pleasing to others and working more fervently to speak my truth and share my authentic expression of myself. I often bite my tongue and hold myself back from the words + experiences I really want to share out of fear they will be misunderstood and an ancient fear as a black woman in a dominant white society that if I truly express my experiences I will be perceived in a certain way, or that I am not safe to do so. There have been many situations in which I tried with as much sincerity and compassion as I could muster to express my experience for it to be turned around and used against me, there is no safety there. But at some point I must ask myself what do I fear about using my voice? How do I allow one aspect of myself, the one that seeks validation, acceptance + approval from others to win over the truth speaking and full + whole expression of my experience? In shamanic practice, when words are left unexpressed, toxic thought forms can wreck havoc in our bodies as the form of illness and spiritual blockages. Negative thought forms and unexpressed emotions can lead to blockages in our minds, bodies and spirit. Our statements, thoughts and words, how we use and consume them, about ourselves and others shape our worlds, within and without.

To ritual or not, that is the question

Usually during a new moon I would be setting intentions, but with the culminations of these aspects in the sky, I’m using this lunation as a period this as a period of reflection, reevaluation, revising + to listen more closely. I soften and let go of the need for control.

Instead of holding my ordinary ritual of setting intentions + planting proverbial seeds with this new moon in gemini, I will be meditating + practicing deep listening for the words and stories I tell myself, and writing a stream of consciousness list of stories that hold a negative charge (fears, self doubts, negative thoughts) and stories that feel life giving (my joys, gratitudes, desires, accolades). Stories I readily share about myself (the seen) and stories I keep to myself (the unseen). Instead of dwelling on old, heavy, words and thoughts i’m spelling new mantras, new stories, and new neural pathways for a new vision ahead. Writing these list as a transmission to myself so that I can come to know the duality within with crystal clarity. To observe how my mind and heart communicate with each other, to hold space without judgment.

Bathing, restoring myself, refreshing in my own inner light, personal power, and the growing light of the sun as we make our way towards the summer solstice. Supporting my mind and body with plants.

Plants I’m working with:

Burning Wormwood energetically to clear parasitic energy, protection and communication. 

Bathing in Rose for self love and boundaries.

Sipping Chamomile easing the digestion, supporting the nervous system through change, and boosting our solar plexus. 

Gemini is about holding the duality within us, between the seen and the unseen. How do those aspects communicate with each other within you?