Following the Blue Moon

 Journal page, Drozda,  2006

It's been a busy time, no?
As it ought to be during this most active 'doing' time of the year.

Celebrate the Full 'Love' Blue Moon with some dancing.

I'm so happy to share with you the 'Life in Transit' project that I've been investing in since last fall and now launched  as a public art initiative in collaboration with dear artist friend, poet/educator Toni Wynn and nonprofit partner, Tidewater Arts Outreach.

'Life in Transit', a public art/education project, honors and respects the strength and vitality of women around the world who have taken creative action to be liberated from domestic violence and poverty.
As a 'think global, act local', venture LiT invites a group of marginalized and culturally invisible women (who have participated in a community shelter support program in our community) to creatively express their inner strengths and inspire courage through personal art made public.

Please visit our new Face Book page, friend us and give the project a LIKE...we're moving toward sponsorship by our public transit system, enlisting their support in making 'Life in Transit' a community outreach...is your life in transit? ...visit our blog and share your courage and strength.

Read more...

And may you dance...

Subscribe to the Luna See   Read the 2012 Lifecycle Forecast

Following the Moon: No Evil

Yama, BD, & Nonnie: Speak Hear No, Speak No, See No

Welcome to Following the Moon and the Full Phase of the Purity cycle. This moon cycle began on February 21 and provides us with 29.6 days to release the residue of all that we would choose to leave behind prior to stepping over the threshold into the new Natural Year at Equinox on March 20.


What a wonderful time of the year this is to take a fast from the intensity that surrounds…take a walk, a nap or a moment to forgive whatever it is that is weighing heavy on your heart/mind.

My maternal grandmother was a gardener and a closet Buddhist…she never spoke of her interest in the loving kindness wisdom of the Buddha but she had several visual prompts, what we students of Buddhism refer to as ‘sight meditations’… such as a small bronze of the Monkey Mind sculpture: ‘Hear no, See no, Speak no Evil’. I loved that compact, fit in your hand, reminder of an exotic and mysterious way of  moving through the world. When Grandmother died I was given a box of treasures including a ‘Hear no, Speak no…” and a dimunitive booklet on the Essentials of Buddhism circulated in 1921…the year my mother was born, and costing one dime.

Read more
Subscribe to the monthly Luna See
Read the 2012 Lifecycle Forecast and find your waiting gift...hint: it's near the end '-)

Lotus Blossom, Drozda: respect copyright

Following the Moon: Who Now?

Full Renewal Moon, Drozda 2012

Welcome to 'Following the Moon'. We began the 'Renewal' Moon cycle on January 23. I hope that you're finding the pace and the purpose of your Art/Life gathering momentum in a way that feels stable and grounded for you. The whole idea of taking this time within the Mystery is to discover the tempo that feels most natural for your Art/Life so that you are well aware of the rhythm that feels healthiest for you.


Monday, February 6 is the last day of the Gibbous Phase. The three days of the Gibbous Phase provide a level of energy that's best for: create, create, create! Create in conjunction with what it is you're attempting to renew.

The Full Phase of this 'Renewal' Moon cycle begins Tuesday, in the late afternoon, and extends through Friday, February 10. At the Full Moon each month cyber friend Dr. Lilan Laishley shares her beautifully designed monthly Full Moon Newsletter. Here's an excerpt from the current issue:

During this Full Moon we continue to work with the creative and innovative energy available during this Year of the Dragon. Dragon combines the visible actions of a bold innovator with the invisible essence of a spiritual mystic. Bold innovation and spiritual mysticism seem like two very different qualities, and our job this month is to figure out how to bring them together in ourselves. Fortunately we have a Full Moon in Leo (bold!) and Neptune in Pisces (mystic!) to help us out. As I contemplate this Moon I have come to believe that only actions infused with spirituality will create the changes we need in this world. Fortunately for us, these qualities are as close as our own heads and hearts.

More

Subscribe to the Luna See monthly newsletter
Read the full article, 2012 Lifecycle Forecast and email me for your 2012 Personal Year energy PDF

Following the Moon: Nature/Nurture: YOU

Standing at the West Gate, Drozda, Ink on Bristol board

Monday, January 9 through early evening (EST) Thursday, January 12 brings you the opportunity to reflect (that's what Full Moon's make room for) upon all that you are willing to face and release as part of the Cleansing of your Art/Life at this time. I'd like to share with you the creative brilliance of my friend Lilan Laishley. You can Google her and sign up for her newsletter at the top of her home page. I put her link in repeatedly and for some reason it wouldn't open. Lilan is a word artist who writes a beautifully illustrated Full Moon journal/newsletter that you may enjoying subscribing to. I know that each month I brighten when it arrives and I am ever delighted by Lilan's gift for word-weaving the 'above with the below'.


This, the Full Moon segment of the cycle, is an important time for nurturing yourself. The Full Moon is that classic space in which we can see our shadow and it can sometimes feel a bit spooky and disconcerting. Thta's for good reason. It's a marvelous time of the Moon/Month to allow yourself the time/space to claim more of who you are now. It's a time to relate to yourself more clearly. Who you are now, in January during the Cleansing cycle is not known because you're in the depths of the Mystery. Yet even in the 'not knowing' you can recognize that you are filled with treasure of enormous value to yourself and our world.

Read more...

IT’S TIME TO BECOME AN AHA ADVOCATE:

January 12…this Thursday... registration opens

On January 24 as the New ‘Renewal’ moon begins, AHA’s for the Art/Life e-studio will open with ‘AGES & STAGES'...THE NATURAL ART OF PERSONAL ENERGY MANAGEMENT 'Ages & Stages' explores YOUR gold mine applying eight focused ways to deepen your Art/Life adventure. In this eStudio we will be getting personally attuned to the gifts and talents that are yours to share... in 2012...specifically. You'll be able to place your Art/Life goal on the Natural Wheel at Spring Equinox and watch the unfolding Moon by Moon.

Read more...

Subscribe to the Moon/monthly 'Luna See'
Read the 2012 Lifecycle Forecast

'Following the Moon': How Does Your Garden Grow?

In the Temple Garden, Drozda 1994

48x48"

Acrylic on Masonite

Private collection

This weekly posting of 'Luna See' is presented as an art/life tool. You may find it useful. It's quite spectacular for relaxing time. You may even become more creative with your conscious movement through time. It's offered as an instrument for affecting the quality of the day as the highest of arts. There is a companion monthly Luna See newsletter published at each New Moon. You can subscribe here.


Welcome to the Full 'Growth' Moon! The Full Phase arrived last evening July 25 at 9:38 p.m. and extends through July 30, Friday at 12:30 a.m. (est). That's five ful days...an unusually long stretch for one phase. Consider it a gift...a time for reflection on the stunning growth opportunities that this year has offered in terms of being a pioneer in some area of your art/life. Tuck into your awareness that the whole year is helping us to grow by learning a new level of endurance.


Now you can look over your shoulder to July 11.  Two weeks have been invested. Remember that Solar eclipse? It created an interesting springboard for the increase and expansion offered to us this year. That Solar Eclipse extends its influence all the way into December. It places emphasis on the way you show yourself  'Out There'. It brings a terrific opportunity to pay attention now regarding what we would choose to grow by then.

You might decide to place your feet flat against the floor, imagine making direct contact with the earth, the Earth Mother, the Divine Feminine. Breathe in the quiet. If we continue to breathe deep as a tool for slowing down at this most active time of the year, we'll have a balanced energy reserve to draw upon in the months ahead. You may think that you don't ever seem to get quiet for long these days but a little bit of 'Luna See' can help you to remember. Quieting time in this way offers a temperate focus rather than a frenetic pace.

A Prayer for the New Millennium

May all beings everywhere be awakened, healed, peaceful and free; May there be peace in this world, and an end to war, poverty, violence, and oppression; And may we all together complete the spiritual journey.

                                                                                                                  Lama Surya Das

Tara, Drozda 2010

8x10

journal page

Between today, Monday, July 25 and next Monday, August 2, the moon's phases (Full, Disseminating) continue to provide creative focus points for reflection as well as sharing. Reflection means that until Friday you might consider what stands in your way from accomplishing your vision/goal for this Growth cycle. What did you choose to Grow during this time? How have your studio projects developed up to this moment? Are they ready to shine out into the world in some way during the next week? Maybe/maybe not...following the moon is not a rigid task master. In fact the longer we spiral on lunar month by lunar month the more a lovely rhythm unfolds; imagine a personal creative tidal inhale/exhale. So relaxed.
At each Full moon you can 'gaze back over your shoulder' and see your vision as it began. AH. Look at all that's happened since July 11. Hindsight being what it is you can observe your trail with clarity. Now, gently notice: what have you not yet addressed. The week ahead is ripe for inserting one more aspect of actualizing your sacred dream for your art/life.
July's keyword of Growth and its attendant idea of opening out will soon turn to Augusts' Trust. Summer each year offers the peak of possibility for the assertive, ambitious, go forth aspect of the natural years' push. Each of the 8 successive phases that unfold from New Phase(July 11-14) through Balsamic Phase (August 5-9) provides a focus. Focus is so helpful in manifesting your vision.

What have you been growing?... can you trust what's to come?

August arrives on Sunday and brings with it the cross quarter day of Lammas also called Lughnasadh. You are at the midpoint of your current 90 day art/life goal. The will to trust what you grow becomes the focus point now. This time of year is referred to traditionally as 'first harvest'. Play with these words and see how they fit into your creative spirit. No one else like you has ever been here before. Again, ask yourself, 'What are you growing?'

Don't you love being the artist who has the courage to express a new view and a true heart connection? Can't you feel this whole year being about feeling what is happening 'in the gut' as you forge a new sense of identity? This renewed sense of identity requires that you know how to do the 'endure-dance'. When you practice conscious endure-dancing you grow stronger. Your strength helps us all grow into new levels of trusting this miraculous opportunity called life. Each of us deserves to celebrate the steps and stages that have brought us to HERE and now.

All the past up to a moment ago is your legacy. You have a right to it.

~Robert Henri

I once had a very difficult time with time. Violence and post traumatic stress can clearly make it difficult and challenging to trust life. I felt pressure. I wondered how life was ever going to happen well enough so as not to be filled with continual unpredictable bouts of panic/fear. Naturally there are times when I still get that demon jumping out of the bushes to surprise me...to test me. Its job is to try to stop me from loving and celebrating my precious life. Twice so far this year that demon has done its dance! That's when I spring into action and do what I call the  'Endure-dance'! Try this: Throw your hands up toward the sky, extend your longest finger on each hand toward the ethers, bounce about, kick up your heels, step out and do your best moves...call up your light heart and then call out to all seen and unseen, known and unknown demons, "You may not enter here!"

'Following the Moon' is for help in remembering to face the heaviness and anxiety that jumps out onto the path of the art/life. Look it in the eye. My teacher called this process 'Getting On Time'. I call it Luna See. I love being a Luna-tic in a world that is ever uplifted by balance and wholeness.

There's a kind of wandering opportunity in the gentle rhythm of the lunar patterns. It isn't another thing to believe in or work at, it's simply natural timing. Tuning into the phases brings a joyful stretch to art/life days.

         Artist Lynne Lofton at Salon    

                 

Between now and next Monday notice how you take stock of your gifts. Create a way to surprise yourself by sharing some aspect of what you've grown during this cycle.


As this most outgoing season of the year unfolds share your awareness with your community/tribe. Be sure that you imagine the possibility. Trust your art/life and its amazing growth thus far. I'm so glad that you're here bringing your wonder to life.

It was 105 degrees today so I went kayaking in my backyard on Lake Smith with good reading:

Alyson Stanfield's

                                                                      I'd Rather Be in the Studio



~Sing the day~

Lunar Eclipse/Luna See

'This is My Home' Drozda 1996

detail of 72x72"

Acrylic/unstretched canvas

A 'Luna See' Special report ;-) ...
This is the exact minute of the Lunar Eclipse as I post. I thought, as artists that we might really really really enjoy and benefit from the share that I am including here. Take out your jouranl and make some notes anchoring your feelings and ideas regarding what is posted below. This information comes through the brilliance of my dear artist sister friend Sandra. She and I are both trained as teachers of moon phase connections to our creative spirit...what I call 'Luna See'.

I felt that we could all bask in the glow of wherever we are as we take this information written so clearly and beautifully by Sandra. Please breathe it in... like a balm... for our time. Read using the intuitive eyes of your heart and you will be enriched in your creative direction and voice.

Sandra writes:
A lunar eclipse is a time of beginnings, endings, exposure and major changes. It always has something to do with "relationships". The changes are tied to how we relate and will have a lasting impression. Emotions run high, causing upsets and feelings of disorientation. Actions taken often do not have the expected results, but they do bring awareness and enlightenment. The energy of an eclipse is at its strongest during the two days before and three days after its occurrence.


At lunar eclipses we: merge, unite, announce, contact, present ourselves, bring something out into the open, make decisions, engage, rise to the challenge, make an effort, change, get a new perspective, join with others, take on greater challenges, travel at a faster pace, feel restless, feel pressured by deadlines and a buildup of emotions, and experience excitement and crisis.


During a Full Moon, the Sun and Moon are in opposition, also called the Full Phase, indicating the linking of soul to spirit and awareness of purpose gained through relationship with another. A lunar eclipse is a supercharged Full Moon. The blocking of the Moon's reflection of the Sun's light by the Earth suggests that our material viewpoint stands in the way of our "seeing the light". It serves as a reminder that we need to realize how we are held in the dark by virtue of our perspective.


The Sun is in Cancer and the Moon is in Capricorn during the partial lunar eclipse on June 26. Mundanely speaking, the corporate or political machine is out of balance with the emotional stability of the public. Personally speaking, professional goals are out of balance with emotional needs. In both situations, authoritative behavior blocks nurturing solutions. The challenge is to recognize the emotions while honoring responsibilities.

Pluto conjunct the Moon and opposite the Sun highlights an obsessive compulsive quality to this eclipse period, which is likely to manifest in attempts at emotional manipulation. Additionally the square aspect between Jupiter in Aries and Mercury in Cancer suggests emotional discourse about the needs of the people vs. the rights of the individual, challenging debates between progressive leadership and the security minded public, and political arguments over foreign concerns. Venus in Leo sesquare Uranus in Aries implies the need to reframe recent discoveries and refine newly-acquired values.





I'll see you Monday for our regular 'Luna See'.
~Sing the Day

Following the Moon

'I Die Daily', Drozda

14x14inches

oil pastel, Acrylic on board

It's Monday (moon day) and today begins the Gibbous phase, the three day phase prior to the Full Moon on Thursday. Between now and then you have the opportunity to analyze and prepare. Last week you hopefully found ways to take action. Now your emotional body needs time to filter and digest. This is a very creative period. The creative process is profound, unique and individual. In Following the Moon you may find this phase one of the most rich and productive. So much can happen as we build up to Thursday's Full phase.

In addition to all that may be flowing with an effortless ease, I also see this time as one of being brave enough to be  facing the demons and facing them down. After all... the only thing, ever, that keeps us from being married to our Creative Muse is the voice that tells us we can't be or do or have that which impassions us, that which brings us a natural creative bliss.

Since the New Moon began on May 14 you've had a vision, nurtured the seed idea, taken an action and now the creative flow reminds you to trust yourself so you can reflect, at the Full phase, on the beauty of what you have to share. Could the reason why we see so much reference to lunacy during the Full Moon be due to our not being taught about the natural ebb and flow of our own creative comings and goings, our own inner tides creatively speaking? This is an opportune time for that sort of monthly check in and check up.

'Moon Flower', Drozda

18x24inches

Acrylic/wood

May you learn to follow your own moon, which, for your creative purpose, can be identified as the flow of your own emotions. I thought this quote from Pema Chodron on page 37 of When Things Fall Apart quite germaine for this Wisdom cycle. "Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice."

In Following the Moon you learn to calm time down. It truly is an amazing concept. You practice allowing all to unfold in gentle three day phases (or segments) of time. Each phase offers a focus point leading you to a natural awareness of how time and emotions create a rythmn that flows through you. Your rythmn is yours. Get to know it. Honor it. Embrace it. Celebrate it. Though it is unlike anyone elses it is necessary and important... an integral part of the whole.

I hope that your studio time in the week ahead brings just the right balance of doing and not doing...so that everything gets done.

~May you sing the day

Following the Moon

                                                                            Dreamboat #1, Drozda 2002

                                                                                                                36x36 inches

                                                                                                            Acrylic on panel

It's the Full Phase of the current moon cycle ... a fine time, each month/moon to reflect and review. Take the three day full phase, to realize that you are half way around the circle for this moon.

I'm investing in something very new this cycle: Blog Triage. I wanted to be able to look over my shoulder throughout the year ahead and see that I took a step toward learning something new and stretchy as part of my Art Life. It's been so fine. My little sweetpea brain is being challenged (hugely) and I love that... but the additional gift is the friendships with the group of  artists participating; a nurturing, stimulating bonus. Thank you Alyson and Cynthia.

How do you follow your dream of being the artist that you know yourself to be? It's a timeless question. One we come to ask in our own way... in our own time. I've reached a certain point in my life where I'm asking the question anew. I made a decision to consciously open a new door. Stepping through I began to look out ahead, to the decade before me, and ask, "What Next? What Now? What Matters?

Since 1989, after returning from an 18 week solitary retreat on a little island off the coast of North Carolina, I've engaged in reading time in a gentler cyclical pattern by following the moon. With the turning of the cycles and the seasons life takes on a gentle kinder rhythm.

The idea of becoming more intimate with the way time moves appeals to me.

While living on the island I invested my days in writing, painting and wandering. I moved easily from working in the studio to meandering through the marshes. In the early morning light I often followed deer tracks. Their soft hoof marks creating a  narrow path through the high grasses...their path stopping at the tideline. All my life I've followed deer paths. Something mysterious resonates when I see those heart shaped impressions in the earth. Yet here, at water's edge, these imprints seemed more mystical...as if these harmless creatures had strolled through the silence of the night marsh under the moonlight to come here to gaze out to sea.

In the Lakota tradition Deer represents Gentle Medicine. Deer is a totem for healing in my Art Life.

What powers and strengths assist you to be whole and centered in your Art Life?

Recovering from any type of trauma/drama requires a deep and gentle care.

There is no way to push the the healing river. Floating, rather than swimming against the current, brings repair with lasting results. Eventually it becomes possible to climb aboard a craft of our own making. I like to travel in a metaphoric mandorla boat. I have discovered that it is actually wiser, for me, to spend a good amount of time floating gently down the stream. I practice allowing my Art Life vehicle to rest in the moment as it prepares to lead me merrily to the opening of the path that lies ahead.

Did I Dream This? Drozda 2003

20x24 inches

Acrylic/found wood

A workshop presenter broke apart the lyrics for the popular Row Row Row Your Boat song. She pointed out that there are three rows and four merrilys. That is clearly the instruction to row gently down the stream. How about we stop struggling against nature. It's an exhausting up stream fight against the current.

I prefer the merrily down the stream approach... whenever possible.

~Sing the Day...merrily.