Sophia's Children

The Wisdom of Nature, Cycles & Spiral Time

Ahhh, the wisdom and occasional wincing of cycles and spiral-time!

I found a box of journals that I'd stowed away at my sister's house. In it, I found the journal I'd kept during a trip I'd taken in October 2005 to France and Barcelona, to immerse in the tradition of the Black Madonna, Sacred Feminine, and Magdalene (see various other Black Madonna posts for more on that).

As I read through the journal, I found myself smiling as the words connected me to the places and experiences I'd had in Paris, Vezelay, Rocamadour, and Chartres, and my surprise encounter with the Black Madonna at Montserrat and Barcelona in Spain.

A mentor's words came to me as well, when she said recently that she'd gone back through a journal from 3 or 4 years ago and found that she was still living into, grappling with, the same general themes, and she joked that she wasn't sure whether to feel kind of depressed about that.

I thought the same as I read through my notes from during, and then after, my Divine Feminine immersion trip.

Then again, that's conditioning speaking. The Way of the Feminine -- the Via Feminina -- is anything but linear. It's more, even, than circular; it's a spiraling experiencing, in which we don't so much circle around again to the same issues, as spiral into them for new insight, new depth and, we hope, new wisdom.

I'll write more as I revisit the notes -- they're ever so relevant to what's emerging now with my Feminine Mojo work, and the Feminine Mojo Mystery School that 'spirals off' in October.

In the meanwhile, I wanted to share an entry I wrote about 5 weeks after I returned from that very formative journey into the Black Madonna back in Autumn 2005.

As is the case with so many of us now, I was musing then on the wisdom of cycles that were ending, cycles that were beginning, and the unfolding spiral as I opened more and more to the remembering of the Feminine.

"November 27, 2005 - San Francisco - Cycles ending, cycles beginning. This is what Nature teaches us to navigate, to understand more fully, so that we don't give way to fear at the endings and choke the new beginning at its most tender place.

 In withdrawing from Nature, we have starved ourselves of this wisdom and allowed the roots and gnarls of our fears to overgrow the garden of our own nature, our deepest essence.

This is changing, as Wisdom re-emerges from Her hiding places, and brings the gifts cultivated in the darkest places into the light."

And on into the Great Spiral we journey...

Love and Blessings on the Via Feminina!

Jamie

Join me this October in the Feminine Mojo Mystery School, to reconnect with the roots and shoots and sparks of your own Divine Feminine nature and liberate your Feminine Mojo (clear away the 'roots and gnarls of fear that overgrow the garden of your authentic nature, your Divine essence). What's your Feminine Mojo? Take a peek...

Photo Credit: Nostra Senyora (Black Madonna) at the Iglesia de Betlem in Barcelona, Spain. Spiral - Ascension/Descension - By Raggio (ALL4HIM)productions, Creative Commons permissions. Raggio(ALL4HIM)productions

Celebrating Life & Love at May Day and Beltane

May Day falls on the first day of May, and Beltane 'proper' is when the Sun is at 15 degrees of Taurus -- usually around the 4th or 5th of May.

Beltane celebrates the beginning of Summer on ancient calendars, and marks the halfway point between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. Spring has sprung, and Summer is on its way.

Beltane is a celebration of Love and the Life blooming and ripening from Spring, which promises an abundant, fertile Summer and a good Autumn harvest.

Given the Great Shift that's underway from head to heart, now is as good a time as any to recommit (or commit for the first time) to being more and more heart-centered.

It's also a time of releasing that which may have collected or grown stagnant over the Winter (seasonally or life-cycle). It's a time of purification and clearing out 'dead wood' and things that are no longer growing to make room for what has Life.

This brings to mind what the Sufi's call "polishing the mirror of the heart," so that we're able to see and hear through the heart -- an intention common to most (and possibly all) spiritual traditions.

How could you not celebrate and love Life and Nature when, after a long, dark, hard Winter, you look around at the fertile blooms of Spring emerging everywhere?

This is where Nature, as always, is giving us clues ... and plentiful inspiration.

Beltane literally translates into 'fire of Bel', which referred to the name given the power of returning Light -- the solar force, and the fire that kept people warm, cooked food, provided light, and served as a force for inspiration and transformation.

We might also see it as a 'return of the Fire within' -- whether our heart-and-soul-centered passion for life and purpose, or a renewal of the Divine Spark within. Perhaps they're more related than we might think?

The ancients had a deeper appreciation for these things, and a richer connection to the cycles of Life and the causes for celebration and deep gratitude. They celebrated things that we have learned to take for granted.

At Beltane, ancients celebrated all of these things, in all of their manifestations. They feasted, danced, sang, celebrated, made love, collected flowers, and rejoiced at Life. Since sex had not yet been demonized and repressed by the Church, such celebrations also included a celebration and expression of sexuality, joyful and healthy, since it too was a pathway for enjoying and creating Life.

So what are the Beltane themes? Life, love, joy, fertility, greening, generosity, beauty, renewal. Yum.

Celebrating May Day through Beltane

* Dance, even if it's by yourself (or maybe particularly when you're by yourself, dance and laugh with wild abandon, giving the proverbial finger to the "You shouldn't do that!" voices!)
* Drum and make music
* Listen to music that makes you joyful and makes you smile
* Start a mantra practice - there are mantras that help clear out the funk, and mantras that help open your heart, fan the joy, and raise your vibration
* Feast - prepare a meal using fresh, locally grown food; consider having a potlach dinner with friends, savoring the flavors, Life, laughter, and community
* Plant a tree or other plant in your garden, yard, or indoor 'urban garden'
* Tend your plants and garden
* Collect a bouquet of herbs and flowers, or appreciate those that grow wild
* Contemplate your appreciation for Life - rejoice in how Life expresses itself around you and within you
* Meditate on plants emerging from the soils of Winter, and blooming richly.
* Light red, orange, green, and yellow candles to symbolize the solar force, Light, Life, illumination, and transformative force of Fire that takes us from 'seed' or idea into 'Earthly manifestation'
* Walk in Nature and draw or journal the ways that Life amazes you
* Attune to your senses as you move through the day, walk in Nature, eat your food, etc. Beltane, as with many ancient festivals, celebrates sensuality -- sense awareness
* Enjoy sacred sexuality with your beloved, celebrating the Divine Lifeforce that is in all things as it moves within and between you
* Take a good look at what's growing in your life, and what has run its course and no longer feels alive. Reflect, journal, and brainstorm how you can give more of your energy to what has life, and gracefully bless and release what is no longer growing.

Enjoy, rejoice, laugh, dance, be merry and well!

Love,
Jamie

Image Credit: From the U.S. National Arboretum

Rebirth - Spring New Moon, Eclipse, Equinox

The week starting on Sunday, March 18, is rich with an opportunity to give yourself an inner Spring Cleaning, to reveal and 'weed out' what's time to release and heal has come, and allow richly fertilized seeds and new shoots to grow.

When we do these things individually -- tending to our Inner Landscape -- we cultivate and activate our higher, more heartful potentials and become the change we wish to see in the world (which, as we know, the world very much needs!).

There are some wonderful resources to spark inspiration and offer wonderful ideas for ritual, which I'll include at the end of this post. But for now, here's a little snapshot of the energies and rhythms of Nature that you can attune with for a healthy, vibrant season of Spring and inspired service to all.

The macro-view sees us coming from Candlemas in early February, thought by the Ancients to be the first light of Spring, into brighter days and the Spring Equinox. Here we have not just the hope of Spring -- that inner knowing that the seeds and shoots are pushing up through dark soils, even though they may not yet be evident on the surface -- but the actual presentation of Spring as what was within and beneath manifests itself to us visibly, in all of its glory and awesomeness. Is it any wonder that there was such a reverence and gladness in those who were aligned with such things?

Sunday evening, March 18 (or Monday, March 19, depending on your time zone), features not only a New Moon in Pisces, but also a partial Solar Eclipse, leading into the Spring Equinox on Tuesday the 20th (or Wednesday, per your zone). The Ancients -- and the Moderns who keep the flames of ancient wisdom alive -- saw such times as powerful opportunities for alignment with the energies associated with such cosmic rhythms and events. There are quite a few rare planetary alignments as well, which some of the links below offer more on.

One of these factors is that this is the seventh New Moon to occur late in the month's sign, in this case, Pisces. That late-degree appearance indicates completions, and the specific completions are in areas associated with the energies of the sign. Think of it as a cosmically designed and supported cleansing, healing, purification, or intitiation.

Suffice it to say, it's a great time to move inward, delve deeply into your InnerLands, and receive guidance on what old patterns of belief, thought, and behavior need to be blessed and released -- as gracefully as possible -- and then allow guidance on what visions, dreams, gifts, and offerings want to more brightly infuse and shine through you for the benefit of all Beings. MoonCircles, one of my favorite sites for attuning to the rhythms and energies of the Lunar cycles, offers a beautiful ritual for this (the link is below).

Planetary configurations have, in alignment with the Mayan calendar and prophecies for these times, been encouraging us to 'see our stuff' -- particularly that which was inherited, implanted, or absorbed along the way -- which doesn't serve our own highest purpose and deepest joy, and inhibits, rather than supports, our ability to let 'our deep gladness meet the world's deep need'.

At the same time, these very alignments -- while shaking loose all that unhealthfully restricts, limits, oppresses, represses, and harms -- activates the higher levels of awareness and desire to be of healing service and inspiration, in small and large ways, depending on who and where we are.

Rituals to align with the cycles and energies of Spring

So on Sunday, consider 'preparing yourself' throughout the day for this time of 'great completion and release' and 'new Spring and rebirth', growing quieter and more meditative as the evening comes. In California, the new moon and eclipse are timed at 7:43 p.m. or so; if you're elsewhere, adjust your timing accordingly.

At about 5 or 5:30, reflect on and journal some of the things you'd like to release and allow to 'Spring forward'. Then, at 7:15, begin acclimating yourself towards meditation by preparing sacred space, and actually sitting in meditation during the new moon and eclipse -- perhaps from 7:30 to 8:00, or 7:15 to 8:15 if you're so moved.

Following the eclipse, allow whatever new guidance you've received -- you may or may not have specific ideas about it surfacing at this time -- to incubate quietly. If there are specific things that have come to mind -- ideas, insights, guidance -- jot them down in your journal, efforting as little as possible. Just jot and release.

Allow yourself to stay in this sort of 'zone' until you go to bed, so that Dream Time can deepen the Inner Wisdom accessible to you.

Monday morning, allow yourself a brief meditation, with the intention that you'll gracefully and effortless recall any and all wisdom and insight that's most helpful at this time, and will meet it halfway by jotting it down when it comes to your attention.

Other New Moon practices include jotting specific intentions, in alignment with the particular energies of the New Moon -- in this case, Pisces. Jan Spiller's work on New Moon astrology offers a good bit of insight into this, but so does the information you'll find at MoonCircles and Daykeeper Journal online.

Ultimately, such rituals help us to find a new relationship with time -- which the Ancients, such as the Maya, prophecied would literally be 'speeding up' during the 5th Day -- this time in history (and to many of us, it seems that it truly is!). Instead of being frantically 'out of time' or 'behind time', we find a new rhythm in time by realigning with the rhythms of Nature. Working with the Lunations and other astro-cosmic cycles offers one nourishing and practical way to do just this.

Handy links for inspiration and guidance:

MoonCircles

DayKeeper Journal Online (founded by the late Maya del Mar, who died last December, it's sometimes updated late, but the information and rituals are powerful for the period between the New and Full Moon or vice versa)

PlanetWaves Weekly (an excellent blend of astrology and astute political/cultural commentary. Excellent!)

MoonSurfing.com

Barbara Hand Clow's AstroFlash and Mayan Calendar site (another spicy astro-political/cultural commentary, with writings and links about the Mayan calendar and prophecies)

Wishing you 'happy weeding', and may your love, joy, and awe in the Mystery that life is be born anew. And may it benefit you, and all!

Love,
Jamie