New Cycles: New Year, New Moon, New You

Humans have a preference for patterns, rhythms and cycles. And here we are in the first week of a New Year with a New Moon - new cycles to invite intentions, transformations, and awakenings.

2019: A 3 Year

2019 is a “3 year” (here is the breakdown: you take the year and add the numbers individually until you get a single digit: 2+0+1+9 = 12, and 1+2 = 3)

Three is a sacred number - the holy trinity; the goddess as maiden, mother, crone; the heavens, earth and water; the life/death/life-rebirth cycle. In three, a new perspective arises. I invite you to reflect on the cycles of three and to look back over the last three years…

Personally, the past 3 years have fundamentally changed my whole universe. Three times I nearly lost everything. Three times I found again my trust renewed and rebirthed. 

Three years ago I made a vow to TRUST in LOVE. Mike and I dismantled life as we knew it and became “full timers” for a time. Two years ago I lost friendships that I thought would last a lifetime. Within a few weeks, Taliesin lit up my womb with new life. One year ago I became a mother. Motherhood changed everything (almost), leaving hardly anything untouched...except for the parts of my mind still yet resistant, lost and doubting...still yet needing a healing balm...Do you know what I mean? Can you feel that power of 3 and the fullness of life? Do you, too, ache for healing some part of you or your life? 

Here is a prayer for healing: 

For the misguided energies and misbehaviors and misunderstanding and mistakes and missed chances...

Here. Now. I vow to TRUST in LOVE. I trust that love is guiding me even when I feel alone and misguided...I trust that love heals the deepest wounds and regrets...and through this healing, abundance fills any sense of lack...longing is sweetened with tenderness...a balm soothes the aching still sometimes bleeding wounds in the personal, relational and collective fields...I and the world with me, awaken from terror to trust, from hatred to love, from death to life and back again.

Intentions for the Capricorn New Moon

At this new moon, we are setting the tone for the whole year, committing to serving life and allowing for death, looking with the wizened eyes of Winter. Ask yourself: What is dying that I must let die? What is wanting to be born (or reborn) and how can I nurture this new life?

As I feel deeper into the power of 3 in this dark moon time, leading to the new moon, the visual that comes is the Crone sitting in her mountain cave, tending the eternal flame, stirring the cauldron...in the cauldron swirl visions of the future and memories of the past, flavored with dreams from the long winter nights. Her joints ache while her blood and bones sing...her crepe paper skin is worn but delicate...her wisdom sees and holds all life experiences, all the big and little deaths and rebirths.  

Speaking of aching joints, Mike is leading a Freedom from Pain retreat at 1440 Feb 24-Mar 1. 1440 is near Santa Cruz and I’ve been told that the beauty and peace are incomparable. Taliesin and I will be there enjoying the redwoods, and we would love to see you!

And speaking of papery skin...

Magical Ally: Garlic

Garlic, the stinking rose. Susun Weed describes garlic as a friend for the old heart. It's certainly a potent ally to be enjoy daily (especially raw)! Garlic has been known to support those with cancer, heart conditions, immune deficiencies and menopause. As a magical ally, garlic is used for exorcisms, breaking hexes/curses, banishings, passion, courage, healing and more.

• Garlic is sacred to Hecate - a threshold crone goddess of Magick - so, leave a few cloves out on your threshold with a prayer to invoke more magic in your life.

• Chew a clove a day to keep the vampires (and viruses) away!

• Hang a braid of garlic in your home to ward off jealousy and thievery.

• Make some kitchen magic by thinking of the one you love as you chop garlic and stir it in your pot. 

• A garlic braid is also said to keep the nightmares away when hung over your bed...but, I’ve found incredible magic in nightmares even through the immense and intense fear. So maybe instead of pushing the nightmares away, welcome them with curiosity! (My dream course will help show you a way to be with them in a way of curiosity and creativity - COMING VERY SOON.)

And now, a poem for further reflection, meditation and connection:

Mindful by Mary Oliver

Every Day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for—
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world—
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant—
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these—
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

Go ahead then, allow what is dying to fully die, redirect energy and life into the living, and welcome the good as you instruct yourself over and over again in joy. In return, life/death/life in all its fullness becomes more beautiful - achingly, tenderly beautiful. 

Love,
Jennifer

(this New Moon: Capricorn on 1/5/18 @ 5:29pm PST; next Full Moon: Leo on 1/20/19 @ 9:17pm PST; next New Moon: Aquarius on 2/4/19 @ 1:04pm PST)