Following the Moon: Wisdom Wonder

Wisdom Wonder, Drozda, Encaustic, 2010, 6x4"

'Wisdom Begins in Wonder' Socrates

Welcome to 'Following the Moon'. Today, Monday, May 2, we're on the threshold of the 'Wisdom' Moon cycle which begins tomorrow.

In May there is the deepening opportunity to visualize the wisdom that you carry into your Art/Life walk. Each year at the time of the Spring Equinox we begin again, we're re-birthed if you will, and the canvas, the slate, the stage is clear for starting a new twelve month segment of the Art/Life journey.

The New Moon begins in the early morning hours Tuesday, May 3 and extends through late Friday night, May 7 (EST). Each month during these few days you can reboot your project and visualize where you intend to go during the coming four weeks. As you move into this first week of the cycle use your ability to hold an image of what your goal looks like.

These days are always well spent in looking forward. Gaze toward your biggest opportunity to stretch. This entire year is asking a great deal of us and as artists it's important to be inventive and courageous and...as this moon's keyword suggests: wise.
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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

Following the Moon

'Who Then?', Drozda, 2003 

19x18"

mixed/paper

"Always be ready to see what you haven't seen before." Corita Kent

The new moon will be here on June 12. Between now and then we have a period of time, called the Balsamic phase, to release all that has built up since May 14. In playing with the gentle and harmless symbolic rhythms of the moon's time frame we come to this place each month where we can consciously:
Drop it.
Let it go.

For these next few days the time is best invested in resting quietly. Of course none of us are going to stop our lives yet we can take some time now to dream. We can remember to meditate. There is something so nurturing and kind about setting aside the last days of the cycle to simply rest...to simply dream...to imagine what is possible...to consider what is worth our time and commitment. I often imagine that each Balsamic phase is similar to floating, waiting, quieting while dreaming the next piece of the dream called 'my life' preparing to birth itself into the new. Notice how this time feels for you.

The new cycle, the June 12 new moon, carries the keyword of  'Illumination'. Near the mid point, or Full phase there is a shift and the keyword turns to 'Growth'. Where would you like to have more light coming into your creative life? Think of the natural level of illumination taking place now as we move closer to summer solstice. Plants are burgeoning and there is a riot of activity going on beneath the surface of things. Here at the studio I watch, day by day, as the combination of light, earth's nutrients and water produce growth in every direction. I see if there are ways that I might emulate these natural patterns and fold them into the rhythm of my work.

'Wren House Garden', Drozda 2010

'Canada Goslings', Drozda 2010

today in the garden

This entire week can be devoted to clearing space and beginning to prepare for the new vision that you would like to create in the coming cycle. This creative vision is yours alone. Respect it. Embrace it. Your vision may be a continuation of what's currently unfolding or you may sense something rising up to meet you like new flowering growth. However you feel the energy, you may enjoy taking the time to honor it and journal/draw the way you're observing its patterns. The new moon phase will stretch through the coming weekend. During that time it can be very relaxing to collage a vision page or treasure map, to add color and pattern to the dream of the days between now and then.

For many of us the beginning of a cycle can also be a fine time to seek inspiration. Having a vision and holding steady as its nurtured is a great skill. Shakti Gawain's classic Creative Visualization might offer some excellent reminders.

Experiment and see how it feels to create in harmony with the phases of the moon. Doing so becomes a simply endless opportunity to chart the flow of time with a sense of grace and ease as you allow engagement with luna's calming rhythms.

Canada's and Guard Goose, Drozda

today in the garden

Each New Moon I send out my Luna-See email newsletter. You can sign up here.


~May you sing the days

Walkin' the Wheel for 2009

I've been living and working with the cycles of the moon since 1989. Each year during the first lunation I post an article on the energy of the coming year with my friends David and Sandra at Zodiac Arts. Below is the first paragraph for 2009 plus the information for this first lunation...

2009: THE YEAR TO PATIENTLY OPEN TO RECEIVE

Welcome to 2009 and to our collective opportunity to: patiently open to receive. As we walk through this year we are invited to work with our passion and sense of belonging particularly as these qualities spring from our urge to create.

The creative and sexual urge spring from the same zone within the chakra system. Each of these desires helps us to manifest, in their unique ways, a depth of love through devotion, commitment and dedication. We all start life as creative/sexual beings. The ways in which we channel this combined energy will show itself this year. The goal, of course, is to open these centers, one by one, until we are fully functioning and able to contribute to the better world we yearn to see. To connect readers with excellent information on this topic of opened and healed chakras I suggest the book Awakening in Time by Jacquelyn Small. Her book would be a perfect companion for the year.

First Lunation: December 27, 2008 - January 25, 2009:

I of myself can do nothing. It is the Spirit within who expresses and manifests as true success in my life. -- John Randolph Price



Happy New Year! The quality of this moon cycle is that of relinquishing our hold. The Universal Year #29/11 tests us by providing the chance to practice a patient surrender. That yielding allows us a return to our original state. It's a huge concept but 'In the beginning' there was innocence and no need to feel separate and alone.


During this cycle focus upon belonging to your Self. This won't happen through wishful thinking it happens through a rigorous personality review. It comes about by being patient enough to weigh your strengths and relinquish your weaknesses. The reason for this focus is to 'flip' the way you've been pushing yourself.


Now is the time to prepare for an infusion of connection to Inner Self-direction. Be quiet and listen so as to determine your values and establish priorities. This first moon has a lot to do with endurance. It isn't possible to develop, much less give birth to, a new level of Being without endurance. This cycle is really showing us a natural process. The seed cannot sprout without letting go of its hard casing. The baby cannot grow without the right timing. During this moon cycle play is as important as any other responsibility you can think of. All year we are being asked to entertain a light heart and here at the start is a perfect opportunity to practice daily by being with that which you enjoy.


KEYWORDS for attuning to this cycle: abundant, art, attractive, baby, beauty, choose to act wisely, day, humor, innocent, optimistic, passion, playful, poetry, self expression



KEYWORDS that take your energy away: betrayal, exaggeration, fear, hurtful words, inconsiderate scattered, intolerant, jealous, self-centered, superficial, whining



HOMEWORK: Since the year is readying us by placing a spot light on a healthy sense of self through our creative/sexual passion this is a good cycle for beginning a prosperity program. Why? 1. So often we work at a job that robs us of our creativity. 2. Humans have been known to project sexual energy onto someone who they imagine will provide for them. Keeping in mind the acronym for money mentioned in the article above, you may want to select a prosperity program to follow through the year. There are many excellent ones; I'll offer John Randolph Price, The Abundance Book.Lifecycle Forecast 2008 © Donna Iona Drozda

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Into the Rabbit Hole

It may be the best of times and the worst of times...new moon in Scorpio...trip on down to the Underworld. If you're looking for an infusion of the best of what can Be please visit my friends Sandra Mosley http://www.zodiacarts.com/index.shtml and Gaye Nelson http://www.gayenelson.com/

both of these wonderful women of power turn our attention to cycles of death and rebirth and all that is possible in these naturally 'dark days' of the year.

Speaking of moon cycles my favorite Lunar calendar of all time (and not just because my art is included for the 7th year) is the Lunar Calendar edited by the marvelously 'Luny Lady', Nancy Passmore: http://www.thelunapress.com/ check it out and as Nancy says, "Look up!"

I've been a student of the moon cycles for many years myself...here's this moon through my filters:
I call this my Lifecycle Forecast...read it in it's entirety at http://www.zodiacarts.com/index.shtml

November 9 - December 8
"There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control." "Leo Buscaglia

In November and December the visiting energies continue to circle back around to the way things started out in the early part of the year. The quality of the energy has adjusted itself and now offers us a higher octave in which to connect with our most compassionate nature.

Who are you now compared with who you were back then? Have you made strides to reinvent the best of your abilities?

The power of this period comes through the wisdom to share the peace that you are with others. Be a diplomat, a mediator, a peacemaker in whatever arena you find yourself.

Don’t be shy, sparkle, and give something back that demonstrates your ability to listen to your gut and proceed with a sense of limitless reach. Shine. Our keyword for this moon cycle is strength. Believe that you have plenty and express gratitude to yourself for investing in such a way that you can identify this quality as a real and deep aspect of who you truly are.

Return to February in your minds eye and reconnect to the best of what you allowed into your experience at that time. Pay it forward and ask for the dividends to be made apparent.

Become Light.

Stepping into December take the time to celebrate the success of the year. Be aware of the balance of your own inner climate. If it’s necessary to blow off a little steam… find a creative way to do so. Most of all be about calling your spirit back so that you feel the strength of connection with your core. If your life circumstance requires that you move through crisis know that this cycle's assistance will come with your willingness to endure whatever visits.

We’re being given a chance to experience success, a time of optimism, humor and play. Take advantage of the gift by expressing what would otherwise bring depression.

Look the word endurance up in the dictionary and apply the meaning to your life.

Exercise: Honor your strength and your ability to endure as you invest this cycle in forms of self expression that lighten hearts and minds…beginning with your own and extending the gift to all you meet. Laugh whenever possible and when situations feel least likely to inspire levity find a way to flip it and then laugh all the more. You’ll be uplifting the planet.