As I’ve been on my spiritual awakening journey, I’ve turned my attention to the stars. Yesterday, the new moon met with the sun in the constellation Cancer, for the second time this year.
Yep, this is gonna be a woo-woo post.
Beyond knowing that I’m an Aquarius (Stuck in my own head? A bit less every day, I think. Stubborn? I’m not stubborn, you’re stubborn. Into writing? Um, obvi.) I don’t know much about the stars, or what their positioning signifies. I’ve got an appointment to have my natal chart read (I think that’s the term – I’m not sure about a lot of the terminology) at the beginning of next month, and I’m excited to gain more knowledge and insight into why I am the way I am. Like why do I love ketchup but hate tomato soup, or why do I think Oreos taste delicious dipped in apple sauce? Try it – you’ll thank me later.
This year, I’ve been doing the rituals found over at Forever Consciousness for each new moon since January. It’s a nice little way to take some time out of the day, reflect and recenter. Plus, you often get to burn things!
I like doing mine the night of the new moon. First, I’ll watch a forecast for the month and take notes in my journal. I get mine from One Sky Astrology. In addition to being a time of “struggle and strife” (and doing hard, important work related to that), it seems this lunar cycle will be a time to focus on self-care.
Self-care was also the focus of last night’s ritual. Step-by-step instructions are included, but you’re free to do whatever feels right to you in the moment. As I’m new to this, I follow along pretty religiously (I see what I did there). I cleansed my aura and my space, then I did this interesting heart drumming guided meditation. For about 5-6 minutes, I beat my loosened fists on my chest in an attempt to break up any stagnant energy (it was the exact opposite of that scene in Fear). I’d never done a meditation like this before, but I appreciated the physical aspect of it, especially as the next step was to look at your reflection in the mirror to connect with your Inner Self. Normally, I only look in the mirror when I’m having a wank. This time, however, I connected with something inside me in a way I’d only briefly done before. Something bigger, unlimited. I cried, and I understood what this person told me once when they said gazing into each other’s eyes was a waste of time. There’s a LOT of intensity there. I can’t blame them for not wanting to look. If I wasn’t learning to love myself, I’d have probably blinked, too.
Speaking of self-care and self-love, right before I sat down to write this, I was transcribing notes for my review of The Secret (coming Friday…or maybe Saturday) and this passage came up. I think it’s relevant here:
I have found in my own life and in others’ lives that we do not think well of ourselves or love ourselves completely. To not love ourselves can keep what we want from us. When we don’t love ourselves we are literally pushing things away from us. Everything we want, whatever it may be, is motivated by love. It is to experience the feelings of love in having those things. Youth, money, the perfect person, job, body or health. To attract the things we love we must transmit love, and those things will appear immediately. The catch is to transmit the highest frequency of love you must love yourself, and that can be difficult for many. If you focus on the outside and what you see now, you may trip yourself up because what you see and feel about you now is the result of what you used to think. If you don’t love you, the person you see now is likely to be full of faults that you have found in yourself. To love yourself fully you must focus on a new dimension of you. You must focus on the presence inside of you. […] It is a feeling of pure love and bliss, and it is perfection. That presence is the perfection of you. That presence is the real you. […] As you do this, all imperfections that have manifested in your life will dissolve because imperfections cannot exist in the light of this presence. […] Focus on and love the presence within you and perfection will manifest.
Rhonda Byrne, The Secret
The presence I felt inside me was pure love and bliss. It was ease and contentment. It was satisfaction and acceptance, and I fell in love with the feeling.
After I wiped my eyes, I just held myself, offering love. The ritual ended with suggesting I write down ten things to do to be more loving and supportive to myself, or what I could do to nourish and feed my mind, body and soul.
Here’s what I wrote:
- Take time to read (not just audiobooks)
I love reading, and while I love that I can do other things while listening to a book, I miss holding one in my hands. - Take time to listen to music.
In today’s video over on my YouTube channel, I mentioned how when I first listen to an album I like to sit quietly with it and read along with the lyrics. I want to do more of this. Some of my fave bands have put out albums recently that I haven’t listened to simply because I haven’t been able to give them the time they deserve. - Play the ukulele more (learn”The Wind”)
Strumming always makes me feel good. - Reintroduce meditation
I’ve been doing a lot of guided meditations recently, but I want to get back to the stillness of self-guided meditations. - Learn something new (van life, cars, bikes)
I spend a lot of time on a bike. I want to know more than just the basics of changing a tube or brake pads. Also, I want to be a travelling nomad so I gotta get up on that #vanlife content. I should probs get a van first tho… - Watch for negative self-talk
Obvi! - Focus on boundaries
The Brené Brown video from the third volume of Journal nuggets has got me thinking more about boundaries and how they relate to trust. - Reach out when you feel like it
Does this ever happen to you? You feel like texting a friend – or heaven forbid calling – but you talk yourself out of it because you don’t want to bother them? I want to bother my friends more. - Explore what it means to be open to love
I understand that I am love (and you are too). I know that I’m worthy of giving and receiving love, but I want to explore why I sometimes sense dissonance around that. - Focus on getting enough sleep
We’ll see how well that shakes out today.
One last thing. This ritual recommended grounding yourself before working with these Cancerian energies, so I did this meditation while holding my Apache Tears obsidian:
What are your new moon rituals? How do you practice self-love daily? Have you ever had the triple-stuffed Oreos (don’t – they taste like they’re filled with cheap toothpaste)? I’d love to know your practices. Let me know in the comments below!