September Third Quarter Moon

The September Third-Quarter Moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work and self-care.

Agenda today:
1. Renewal plan for next month

2. Evaluation House

3. Read "The Earth Path"

4. Monthly journal brainstorm

5. Surrender, rest, recuperate

1. Renewal plan for next month:

I try to renew all four dimensions of my life (body, mind, heart, and spirit), as Stephen Covey taught: I spend about an hour each day on a combination of physical, mental, and spiritual regeneration activities, plus work to improve my social skills and relationships. Today's waning half moon is my opportunity to review how I'm doing, and make note of new ideas for the month ahead.

From my journal: I've been (very slowly) reading three heavy books. I'd like to finish at least one of them in the next month. Also, I'd like to be more intentional with my art practices, and integrate them into my morning routine.  

2. Evaluation House:

Today I get to reflect back on the first 3/4 of the Harvest lunar cycle that I'm passing through. I review the intentions I set at the new moon and draw a house with 2 rooms: 

• A room for celebration of all I have accomplished already this month.
• A room for discerning what to do with the unfinished parts (Some of these I will finish in the next couple days, some I will save for next month, and some I will release because they have become irrelevant or didn't go as planned.)

Looking at this, I realize I was wholly unrealistic this month with my goals, and though I accomplished a lot, I have a lot of great stuff to move forward for next month.

4. Read "The Earth Path":

I'm reading Starhawk's book, The Earth Path (2004), which is all about how to connect to nature. I'm in the middle of Chapter 3, The Sacred: Earth-Centered Values, where she outlines her framework for her earth-based spirituality. I left off last week with a list of ways to use natural systems as a model for how to live in a community.

"When a system is whole and healthy, when it is based on relationships of interdependence and cooperation that further resilience, diversity, abundance, sustainability, creativity, and freedom, it exhibits that balance we humans call 'justice'".

Next, Starhawk creates a synthesis of the guiding principles of magic, systems theory, permaculture, and ecology to explain how to judge whether our acts and decisions are beneficial to the whole.

"The universe is a whole, made up of many smaller wholes, circles within circles. How we define those wholes and draw their boundaries profoundly affects how we perceive them and how energy moves within them."

She explains that every whole is an interplay of consciousness, energy, and matter - how, for example, having enough to eat affects our sense of well-being, and how feelings we have affect our actions. "Magic teaches us that consciousness can direct energy in both overt and subtle ways and that energy-flows set the patterns that result in manifestation or form. Because everything is interdependent ... everything we do affects the whole."

"The universe is infused with consciousness - is consciousness, shifting and changing and dancing. Every consciousness is always communicating. The more we open ourselves to hear and understand that communication, the more we can begin to speak back. The language of that communication may not be words; it may be emotions, energy, scents, images, events. In speaking back, we also need to move beyond words."

I'm thinking about my grandson now, who does not yet use many words, but communicates with noises and signs. How frustrating it is, when we can't understand! When he wants something, he is pretty patient with us, insistent, repetitive, and creative in his expression, and we try hard to understand. I wish I could have the same focused intention to understand what my garden needs, or the vast earth that supports me.

4. Monthly journal brainstorm:

At the new moon (next week) I will transition from one focus to another, and a whole new field of opportunity. This week I'll take time to write down my goals, dreams, and exciting ideas for the next 30-days. This exercise has three parts:

Part One - collect information. Brainstorm goals, dreams, and exciting ideas for the next month without judgement - include at least a few crazy, improbable notions.

Part 2 - reflect. Have a little chat with myself on paper about the next month of my life, and what my best month would look like, moving me in the direction of my most important reasons for living.

Part 3 - weigh the possibilities. Take a break for a few minutes. Get a fresh cup of coffee or go outside to look at the sky, then come back and read what I wrote. Write a very brief synopsis of the next month of my life.

5. Surrender, rest, recuperate: 
The next few days of the week are a time to be empty; the time for striving is past. As the moon’s light fades into darkness I get to relax and surrender to the universe. 

Some things will always be out of my control. As the moon's appearance dwindles, I let go of useless beliefs, unreasonable expectations, grudges, defensiveness, projects that don't fit into my life, and anything else that isn't working for me. I turn these all over to the Divine and give thanks, my way of opening to receive new intentions in the new month.

Then I give myself permission to rest!