New Moon in Aquarius Intentions

It's that new moon time of the month again and time to set desires/intentions for the coming moon cycle. This new moon is in the sign of Aquarius and falls in my 4th house.

The Aquarius influence in the fourth house implies a strong demand for freedom in the affairs of the home. The native has some quality that marks him/her as distinctively different from others, although this may not be immediately apparent. This is far less obvious than when Uranus is in the first house but is perhaps even more explosive and far-reaching in the fourth. The native conceives ingenious methods and techniques with which to tackle his/her objectives.

I found the above at this site and I have to say it really rings true for me. I've always been reluctant to share my living space and have found it somewhat confining when I shared it with one other person. I especially like to be able to decorate my space in a way that resonates with my soul and conveys my personality. It's hard to do that when there's another person trying to do the same thing.

Which makes it especially interesting that I find myself liking the communal living situation as well as I do. I think it's because I do have my own space, albeit rather small, which I can create as my own and retreat to while sharing the public spaces with my peers.

And of course my home life is in big question right now. Brent is ready for me to come live with him and a big huge part of me wants that to happen. Not only because I love him but because I'm so ready to be someplace for awhile, someplace where I feel rooted, someplace where I can grow food and do ritual and just be for awhile. The problem is that it's Brent's place and I can have a problem with turning over too much power in situations like that so I need to be really clear if that's what I decide to do. I need to make sure that we're agreed about the equality of the relationship, what we both want and expect from it, and most importantly, how committed he is to supporting my recovery.

So with all of that in mind, here are my desires/intentions for this new moon:

Meditate daily to get clear about what I really want for my next living arrangement.
Be patient while my ruling planet, Mars, is retrograde in Leo, in my 10th house of career,
while I'm looking for a job.
Hold weekly meetings for the women here in the home (I started this last week - it was
great!)
Remain sober and practice with my tools: chanting, creative visualization, journaling,
DBT skills, astrology, tarot, meditation and prayer.

I think that's enough for this month. I'll follow up on the full moon on February 28th which falls in the last degree of Leo conjunct my natal Uranus. Look out.

Right now I'm headed up the mountain to hopefully catch a glimpse of Venus and Jupiter.

New Moon in Capricorn

Tonight's new moon is a powerful one, coinciding with a solar eclipse. Because it conjuncts my natal moon in Capricorn, it creates a doorway, a portal of sorts, an opportunity for a deep emotional transformation. The moon is our emotional life and with mine conjunct Saturn and in Capricorn I came in with my share of emotional seriousness. This new moon/eclipse is offering me a chance to move beyond the weight of my early emotional life, to integrate the lessons I've been working on for awhile and to take what I've learned to a new level of awareness. I love it when the planets step in to help and when I'm present through my recovery to work with them. Here are my intentions/wishes for this new moon:



1. Remain sober.


2. Start imagining the rest of my life.


3. Explore education/career opportunities.


4. Blog daily.

5. Believe.

In two weeks, at the full moon, we'll see where I am with imagining a brand new life, what I'm doing to make it happen and how I'm faring in my sobriety. In the meantime, I'd like to hear some of your intentions/wishes.

New Moon Intentions

Lately I'm very overwhelmed with life but not at all the way I was overwhelmed last February, when I visited a local psychiatric ward under guise of detox. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude that the Universe spit me out of Lakeside and right back to Polson. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. And absolutely do not get out of jail free card. It's like awakening within a dream; realizing that what I've always needed was right here within me, if only I would allow it. Challenges have made me stronger and the patterns in my life are repeating much more quickly. They demand to be dealt with and dealing with them consciously is no small task!

So when I get in a hurry and want to rush out and save the world by tomorrow, my body goes "Hey!! Slow down!! Allow. Rest. Love." And my community? Oh, forgetaboutit. From Montana to Georgia and back again; I feel it from all corners.

Just to help me keep track, these are the things I'm interested in assisting to manifest:

• A garden of my own and participation with a community garden with the intention to assist the earth back to health even as I continue to seek my own healing.



• Roberta has some exciting ideas which may develop into a wonderful project.

• Continue networking and developing relationships through writer's group, book club, Treasure State Mercantile, the Health Food Store, CD treatment and Circles of Trust (which I will write more about later) and all the places and people that haven't been discovered yet.

• Continue to improve my health.

• Continue to nurture my connection to Source.

And about that pain I was mentioning: much of it has simply disappeared and my next post will explain why.

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.

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.