New Moon in Taurus Intentions

As part of my medicine wheel journey, I am setting intentions at each new moon and following up on them at the full moon. The New Moon in Taurus was exact last night, which is why I give myself three days on either side of the new and full moons to fulfill my contract. I like being aware of the moon's phase and sign so I'm pretty good at keeping close to when the aspects are almost exact. The aspect of the new moon is a conjunction of the moon and sun, when they occupy the same space on the eclicptic from earth's view. The full moon is when they are opposite each other (180 degrees apart) on the eclipitic, when that old full moon magic comes alive.

One of the websites I find invaluable in tracking the moon's phases and signs, and to read great articles on the new and full moons each month is Mooncircles. Here is an excerpt from an article by Jean Linson Hall on last night's new moon:

The Moon, the Mother of all, is exalted in Taurus: it is here in the Fixed Earth sign that her birthing, nourishing and sustaining activity can work to greatest effect. Taurus describes our primary experience of the material world through the senses. Think of the way a baby discovers its own body as separate from that of the mother and learns what brings pleasure and what brings discomfort or pain. A child who, in this phase of development, is physically nourished, affirmed, comforted and soothed will learn self-care, self-affirmation, and self-soothing - essential skills for a healthy and fulfilled life. These Taurean experiences provide the basis for a stable, embodied sense of self and a confidence in the reliability of one's perceptions of the world. As the Sun and Moon meet in this sign each year, we can renew or repair our connection to the senses, our joy in the body, our sense of proportion and our trust in the physical world. Venus teaches not only the proper appreciation and care of the body but also the soulfulness of stuff and the spirituality of everyday existence. Proper attention to her rituals helps assure that our big projects will serve the Earth rather than exploit and harm it.

Perhaps you already have your own Taurean rituals: gardening, painting, singing, writing poetry, hanging out laundry, baking bread. Even more fundamental is the care and adornment of one's own body. If you feel tired and stressed, it would not be impious to organize your New Moon meditation around a restorative bath!

From this foundation of love, imagine the things you hope to create in the coming year. Commit yourself to doing your small but significant part in the renewal of the world. Ask the Earth for support and the heavens for continued inspiration. Picture the first steps you will take. At the end of your meditation, do one thing - make a sketch, a schedule, a phone call — to launch your project into tangible existence.

Tonight, all the moving, and packing, and painting, and stress is stopping. My intentions for this new moon are:

1) Maintain the self-care routines I've begun in the past month; i.e., exercise, nutrition, downtime, etc. beginning with a new moon bath meditation/ritual tonight.

2) Focus on getting to know my new job and doing it well.

3) Continue LSR Safe, AA meeting attendance and sign up with Flathead County CD.

I've posted a vision board before. Here is one I made while in the hospital:

And here is one I made Wednesday evening:

I love doing vision boards and will have to do a post on them soon. I've decided to make a vision board for each of the four directions on the medicine wheel. The one above is East, which is where I am now through Summer Solstice.

Wishing you all a safe and peaceful dark of the moon.

Full Moon in Libra

I've done well with following through on the intentions I set at the new moon. As part of my time in the East, from the spring equinox to the summer solstice, I have been practicing very, very good self-care habits. I exercise several times a week (okay, usually 3), sauna 3-4 times a week, I'm eating whole, healthy, organic as much as possible - lots of fruits and vegetables (okay, and some chocolate), I'm allowing myself to rest as much and as often as I need to and I'm taking long frothy baths and shopping with friends and painting my toenails fire-engine red and okay, better stop right there.

But the most important thing, the main thing, priority #1, is I'm staying sober.

It's a good thing I've given myself this time because it's all going to change very soon. Like immediately! I obtained a job managing a little hotel in Lakeside, MT called the Sunrise Vista Inn. The name is something of a joke because it's really the owner's house that now constitutes what once was a very sweet view of Flathead Lake. Now you get to watch the sunrise over the rooftop of his gigantic house! The job starts May 1st. It looks like I will move the weekend before that - which is only two weeks away!

I can't begin to express how excited I am about this and how grateful I feel for the opportunity. The job runs from May-September and comes with a rent-free house all year round for the manager. Um, that would be me. The next two weeks will be a whirlwind of packing and moving and I groan now to think of it. But I hope that once I'm in there will be a breathing period before the busy months of July and August.

Also, this puts a serious kink in my outside treatment plans. I know I will continue to see a therapist, but I'll have to get a new one in the county where I'm moving. I don't think I can do any additional groups or other therapy. I'll be lucky to get to the occasional AA meeting. I am not going into any fear over this, but I want to stay very aware of the choices I'm making and monitor how well I'm responding to those choices. And of course how everyone around me is responding as well! My commitment to sobriety is stronger than ever.

I feel an affinity with nature that grounds me to the earth and tells me that she needs healing as much as I. I want to grow a few simple clean vegetables and live simply, working hard and enjoying the fruits of my labor. I want to cultivate peace and good will and cooperation. My heart is a repository. Of course, there is always that batshit thing I could do. Sober, of course.

The Sober Kitchen

I've recently reacquainted myself with The Sober Kitchen: Recipes and Advice for a Lifetime of Sobriety, by Liz Scott. The Sober Kitchen is not only a great coookbook - it's a great recovery tool. Liz is a professional chef and a recovering alcoholic and she speaks candidly about the daunting prospect of abandoning her career to protect her sobriety. Luckily for us, she decided to create a context in which her sobriety and her love for cooking, and sharing healthy and nourshing food, fit together hand in glove. Everything following in italics is a direct quote from the book.

I also know that developing healthy eating habits and attempting a new lifestyle are goals that need to be attained through small and significant steps if they are to have any long-term impact. Changes in diet cannot and should not be thrust upon us, particularly as some magical solution to our addiction. We all know there is no quick-fix dietary answer to getting and staying sober and enjoying the recipes from this book will not guarantee your sobriety. What I am hoping is that you will discover how including good food in the recovery process may play a significant and often overlooked part in its success and, at the very least, help to make the ups and downs of the journey a bit easier to understand and accept.

We are often told that being proud of our recovery is an important part of our progress, but being proud implies that we shouldn't feel ashamed of our disease. Too many of us are compelled to make up socially acceptable reasons why we no longer drink rather than admit to the reality of our illness. Maybe having a cookbook and eating guide that addresses the specific issues we face will convince us , as well as the rest of the world, that we have nothing to be ashamed of.

Liz divides the cookbook into three phases of recovery:

Phase One - Saving Your Life and Staying Sober includes beverages, snacks and sweets, soup and easy dinner solutions. During this early stage of recovery, which lasts anywhere from six months to a year and a half, there is only one real objective and that is to not drink.

Phase Two - Getting Comfortable and Feeding Your Inner Child has breakfast and brunch recipes, comfort food, side dishes and desserts. By Phase Two, what has changed is nearly everything! Cravings are fewer and farther between. Time away from home to attend programs or meetings has lessened. We're hopefully feeling a lot more confident and healthier by having removed alcohol from our lives and are discovering the satisfying and happy life of sobriety. This isn't to say that we feel great every day of the week, but it does get better.

Phase Three - Enhancing Your Health and Becoming a Sober Gourmet showcases salads, vegetarian cooking, food as medicine and sober makeovers of classic recipes. By Phase Three, generally reached by the third or fourth year of sobriety; we have come to an important point in our recovery when, more often than not, life is good, physical and mental health is greatly improved, and we are easily able to face the trials of life without reaching for a chemical substance to get us through them.

Exploring this cookbook has been so much fun and every recipe I've tried has been great! I'll post a few here in the coming weeks starting with the one below. This rediscovered tool fits in perfectly with my East work on the medicine wheel and the self-care I'm implementing. I would recommend this cookbook/recovery tool to anyone.

The Road to Recovery Trail Mix

Simply combine all the ingredients in a canister or zipper-lock bag and toss well. Store any bags of unused nuts and seeds in the fridge or freezer to retain freshness.

2 cups roasted soybeans

1 cup shelled pumpkin seeds

1 cup shelled sunflower seeds

1 cup dried banana chips

1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts

1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Makes 12 1/2 cup servings.

New Moon in Aries

Once a month the moon goes through her dark phase, also called the New Moon. This occurs when the moon and sun are conjunct on the ecliptic. When they are so joined, there is no light from which the moon can reflect and so she appears dark in the sky. As the two bodies slowly begin to pull away from each other, she once again begins to reflect the sun's light, in a sliver of a crescent at first, gradually, each night building light on her surface until she rides full and round in the night sky. Today the moon is conjunct the sun in the traditional astrological sign of Aries, heralder of spring, new beginnings and awakening life. In the northern hemisphere of course.

This morning there is a skiff of snow on the valley floor, the sky is clear and blue and the Swan Range in the distance across the lake is proud and stunning. It's cold, but the sun is beginning to carry warmth here and the days will continue to lengthen until they last 18 hours. Dawn and evening will stretch on and on like the taffy of the gods, creating more of those in-between times like twilight and dusk and slow morning; more time for the human soul to integrate the lessons of the earth mother, more time to celebrate the life we have here, more time to heed the call.

It's an auspicious time to begin a medicine wheel journey. Because the medicine wheel is a cosomos-viewer created by indigenous peoples in different parts of the world, there are different meanings for the directions, different animal totems, different lessons to be learned, different tools with which to manifest spirit. Which means of course that it's up to the individual to intuitively decide where to begin, what processes to use and how long to spend with each direction.

I've decided that my initial journey around the wheel will begin now, in the spring, in the east. I will journey once around the wheel in the coming year, seasonally and with the rhythms of the moon. The element of the east is air where the power of the mind comes to bear on the creative forces alive in the universe and begins to work in harmony with the elemental muses. I will use my time in the east, which will last until the summer solstice in June, to begin to heal my body from its various abuses by practicing extreme self-care and to prepare for the remainder of the journey.

I will post more about how I'm going about this as I go about it, but for now I've decided to continue my exercise program and hopefully notch it up a bit as well as adding weekly saunas to the routine. My dear friend and employer, Roberta, has a FAR infrared sauna that is available to me almost any time. I've used the sauna, but not in any disciplined way and not with much intent behind it. That's going to change and I intend to sweat. A lot. Sweat is purifying and I want to assist my body with the healing that good old-fashioned sweat can provide. I will rest, as long and as often as I need to. When I can afford extras, I will do them: massage and yoga come immediately to mind.

This seems like a good time to say that I'm up for any and all suggestions about how to implement better self-care. I know nutrition will play a huge part for me.

Another thing I'm going to do is use the new and full moons to write out intentions each month and follow-up with how I'm doing on them. I've done this before, but once again not in a disciplined or meaningful way. My intentions for this cycle are:

1. Stay sober
2. Sweat 5-6 times a week whether through exercise or sauna.
3. Continue with my outside treatment protocol which includes group and individual
therapy, medication management (for depression and anxiety which continue to
show up), relapse prevention, AA attendance and LSR e-mail list participation.