Sunday, August 8, 2010

Follow the Moon: Trust the Process

Bee Goddess, Drozda 2000
8 x8 "
Media Blend on wood
  

Welcome to the New Trust/Love Moon! The New Phase arrives at 11p.m. (EST) Monday, August 9 and extends through Friday, August 13 at 3:30 a.m.(EST). From Friday August 13 until Monday August 16 we move through the Crescent Phase. I trust that you will find new creative avenues to explore as you journey through the coming four weeks.


'Luna See' is presented as an artist's tool to help you find a gentler and kinder way to work with time. It will do no harm and may bring you much joy. I offer it as an instrument for affecting the quality of the day as the highest of arts.

The Trust cycle visits once each year and with it comes a deeper level of awareness. Have you found this to be a demanding time to be living on this beautiful planet? You are a cell in Her body. Is your body speaking to you in ways that cannot be ignored? Your task and your opening now is to attend to your needs in a balanced and joyful manner.

Persephone's Dream, Drozda
72 x72"
Acrylic on canvas
Private Collection

  
TRUST

Express yourself completely,

then become quiet.

Open yourself to heaven and earth,

and be like the forces of nature,

trust your natural responses.

Everything will fall into place.

Lao Tzu

 
Between today, Monday, August 9 and next Monday, August 16, the moon's phases (New and Crescent) bring  opportunity. It's time for a new aspect to be added to your current 90 day goal. Until Friday hold the intention for your vision/goal for this Trust cycle. Place your goal into your solar plexus. What might you put your trust in during this time? Then on Friday you can begin the planning or research and development aspect of your goal. Some struggle is natural at this point. You might picture the crab who has to shed one shell and be vulnerable before the new casing hardens.
 
At each New moon you can look out into the four weeks before you, or even further than that, and connect to your vision. Imagine what will be coming to meet you between now and Tuesday August 24. That's just two short weeks away and the Full phase where there is the most light for reflecting back on what you've made space for. Take a moment to picture what it is you want to create. This week is ripe for seeing in your mind's eye what you are ready to invent.
Augusts keyword of Trust and its attendant idea of confident expectation comes as a result of what you invested in during July. Summer each year offers the peak of possibility. Consider the positive, determined, venturing forth aspect of your natural innovative powers.
The 8 moon phases that unfold from New Phase (August 9-12) through Balsamic Phase (September 5-8) provide innovative focus. Single-mindedness is helpful in manifesting your dream during this busy time.

In The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler there is this thoughtful commentary that can supply motivation:

Trust

Trust is the daughter of Truth. She has an objective memory, neither embellishing nor denying the past. She is an ideal confidante; gracious, candid, and discreet. Trust talks to people who need to hear her, she listens to those who need to be heard; she sits quietly with those who are skeptical of words. Her presence is subtle, simple, and undeniable.

Trust rarely buys round-trip tickets because she is never sure how long she will be gone and when she will return. Trust is at home in the desert and the city, with dolphins and tigers, with outlaws, lovers, saints. When Trust bought her house, she tore out all the internal walls, strengthened the foundation, and rebuilt the door. Trust is not fragile, but she has no need to advertise her strength. She has a gambler's respect for the interplay between luck and skill; she is the mother of Love.

 
Determine the places in your art/ life where you could 'tear out some internal walls, strengthen your foundation, and rebuild your door.' Feel the way that this year is helping you to fashion your new character. It's not necessarily comfortable is it? Yet it's necessary to be reconstructed from time to time. Trust that.


Journal page, Drozda 2010
collage/media blend
primary image by my dear pal O'So Sweet

I'm going through an overhaul at this time and I have a 'big problem'. I keep hitting unexpected snags. The more I stretch the more I have to face down the parts of me that want me to stay in my comfort zone. I feel the energy get 'damned up'. I call these blocked parts my 'dancing demons'. They've been having a field day. I really don't mind. It's timely and paradoxical: exciting to sense the possibility / unnerving to feel the resistance to change. The more I look at the fear of change the more the undercurrents bubble up and bring with them the force to break me through. I look forward to that sensation happening during this quadrant of the year (between June 21 and September 22). I need it. I don't always like it yet I know that I have to work through the snags and then be pulled into the stream that will ferry me along to the next open waters. Before I had the tools to 'go with the flow' I would get tossed and buffeted and bruised and baffled for longer periods of time. Now the choice is mine. I decide. Snags and detours or clear sailing.

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
                                                                            Eleanor Roosevelt


Between now and next Monday lean into the vision of your life as you would choose it.


As artists we have a right and a responsibility to 'be different'. How is that going for you? Are you all snuggled down and cozy with your process or are you 'all shook up'? Trust your process. Yet at the same time keep in mind the expansive and natural urge to explore.There is a new frontier ahead and it's natural to open to it in this area of the years wheel.

As the busiest season continues: share your vision with one trusted friend. Ask them to be a witness to your process during this four weeks. Imagine the possibility as you trust your current creative evolution.


Blue Bird Eggs, Drozda 2010


 
~May you trust the quality of your day~

Iona

16 comments:

  1. So Beautiful!

    The "waters" are mirror still right now. I am going to carry your thoughts out to meet them.

    Will be back. thank You.

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  2. what a great post, with so much to ponder.... been feeling a bit stuck lately and wanting to move forward, but i have been working so hard for so long that I really need to rest... guess I will TRUST that the next step will come to me as they all have before...
    your work is awesome!! love your goddesses and your journal page is fabulous too!! grazie!!

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  3. I've just spent an hour with your words and your art (I started to write "heart" which would've been as appropriate.) I need to find a way back into the loving, creating sphere of your work, life, sharing.

    Marybeth

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  4. Dear Iona,

    There were numerous words of your I identified with and took to heart and I wish I started reading your entrees earlier, but then at least I started. Now I just need to go back a number of posts and see how the past few months have been influenced by my birth planet.

    Thank you so very much,
    Egmont

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  5. Enjoyed today's post as usual.I am such a fan of your art and I love these two pieces. Very powerful. I don't know where I am today. Certainly not in the studio. Totally unmotivated. Guess it's my time to "chill" and practice the art of doing nothing. :O).

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  6. Wonderful & timely post again Iona! Thank you so much. Such a great wealth of information for my artistic soul.

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  7. Your paintings and words are so gentle. I spent yesterday reading this blog and your Lifecycle Newsletter. Thank you; I'm finding my place.

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  8. Sycronicity~~I made a strong decision this morning that is in complete rhythm with this Luna See.

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  9. your post struck the bell in me, the ring is true, powerful. i had to read and reread your words - it's like a part of me doesn't want to hear. that is the part i'm looking at, observing. the part that says "i don't know how to vision anything for myself". i know different. but it continues to make claims and muddy my water, diminish my confidence and cause emotional turbulence. there is a voice who can claim something, vision something, small. that is good enough. thank you!!

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  10. your words wit with perfect timing, as always. i'm taking trust, with love, into my week of opportunities and challenges, doing what i gotta do! thank you for framing this time in the circle so beautifully. I love your supporting images, too :) xox K

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  11. I love Ms. Bee Goddess-she seems so bzzzzy with life, love and affection. Also very much like your suggestion that we need to trust--but also perhaps do some much needed renovation. And oh, what do we discover behind the sheetrock when we want to tear down a wall? I'm finding that making a transition from an active time to a restful one turns out to be a mindful pursuit. Thought you'd enjoy this writer/ astrologer's piece about this New Moon in Leo: http://www.examiner.com/x-2773-SF-Spiritual-Examiner~y2010m8d10-Astrological-survival-tips--New-Moon-in-Leo-arrives-tsquare-continues?cid=examiner-email

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  12. I like the concept of trust-- trust yourself as an artist-- be brave and trust that you can do no wrong-- there is no right or wrong-- just what feels good as an artist.

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  13. Love your kayak picture on ArtBiz. So cool.

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  14. wow, so much to take in here. I love the thought of visualizing your life the way you want it to be, trusting yourself that you are going in the right direction. I hope your week is a beautiful one and your direction true. Thank you, roxanne

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  15. Your inspiring words and beautiful images are always food for thought, and a feast for the eyes. Have you ever read "Trust the Process" by Shaun McNiff? your title brought it to mind; I read it years ago.

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  16. Thank you All for the wonderful insights...I have been out 'trusting the process' (read the next post for my whereabouts) and couldn't quite make it back to say my individual merci to each of you.

    huge hugs...Iona

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Thanks for stopping '-)