New Lotus Moon

Detail from "Connect", acrylic

The Chinese call the sixth new moon the Lotus Moon. The lotus is the "flower of open-heartedness", an emblem of purity, fruitfulness (because of its many seeds) and creative power. And since lotus leaves protect the goldfish under them, the lotus also symbolizes abundance year after year. 

A lotus flower grows out of the mud, and blossoms above the muddy water surface; Buddhists teach that, like a lotus, we can rise above the suffering and conflicts of life.

The Lotus Moon, then, is the natural time to sink into the mud of my life, and seek out the best ways to grow above the fray.

Agenda for today:
1. Play in the Mud
2. Make a shiny mud ball
3. Journal Queries
4. Lotus Meditation
5. Plan small steps to take

Tanabata

Tanabata is a Japanese summer festival, observed on the evening of July 7th. Tanabata means literally "Evening of the seventh", but it is also known as the Star Festival, because it celebrates the story of two heavenly lovers.

The story goes that Shokujo the Weaver (Vega), and Kengyu the Cowherd (Altair) were two young star people who worked for the gods, making cloth and milking the heavenly cows. They fell so much in love that they forgot to do their chores. The gods became angry when they found they had run out of cloth and milk, and put the two lovers on separate sides of the Milky Way.

The lovers were so sad to be separated that the gods eventually took pity on them and agreed that they could meet once a year on the night of Tanabata, if the sky was clear. It is said that the birds fly up to make a bridge so that the lovers may cross.

Agenda Today:
1. Shinto prayer
2. Hang Paper Streamers
3. Make a tanzaku wish
4. Kigan-sai (Wishes Ceremony)
5. Make Hiyashi Somen (Cold Noodles)

Maidyoshahem

The Zoroastrian community honors the six seasons of the year by celebrating six Gahambars- the word gahambar means "proper season". Each of these six festivals is celebrated for five days, and each honors one of the six material creations: The heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man.

Maidyoshahem (may-eed-YO-sha-hem) is the second Gahambar, the Midsummer Rain feast, and it takes place each year from June 29 to July 3. This Gahambar celebrates the creation of water on our earth, and the last day is called Tirgan (pronounced Teer-gone), in honor of Tir, the angel of rain.

Iranians celebrate Tirgan with dancing, singing, and by swimming and splashing water on each other.

Agenda this week:
1. Recite a Prayer
2. Make a Persian Salad
3. Get wet!

Full Strawberry Moon

Tonight is the full moon called the Strawberry Moon. Sweet, ripe strawberries are a gift from Mother Earth that remind me of the springtime renewal of life, and the creative power I have to make my dreams real and visible. 

This is is a highly yang time of movement and strength, the season of completion, abundance and fulfillment. I have hope that I will reach my full flowering, begin to enjoy the fruits of my visions, and relax in the richness of success.

Agenda for today:
1. Update my altar
2. Journal queries
3. Depth practises
4. Take action

Summer Solstice

The season is turning. Today the sun exerts its maximum energy on our part of the earth; the powers of outward expression are at their greatest, and the powers of inner contemplation are at their lowest.

And of course, just as we reach the point of maximum yang energy, yin energy is reborn and begins to gain strength: The next days will each be a little shorter again, until the winter solstice in December.

This transition from spring to summer is a big deal: If I celebrate the start of summer with enthusiasm, the rest of the summer will become richer and more wonderful, and I will reconnect myself to the great cycle of the seasons and the rhythms of nature.

Agenda for the Solstice:
1. Plan a fun first week of summer
2. Make Kanelbuller (Swedish Cinnamon buns)

3. Make flower crowns

4. Build a Solstice Fire

Dragon Boat Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is an ancient Chinese celebration that always falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese calendar- that's five days after the new moon of May or June. It’s the third largest festival in the Chinese calendar, and it’s considered to be the start of summer. 

On this day everyone watches the spectacular dragon boat races, with the paddlers moving their oars in one fluid motion while the drummer thumps out a rhythm. The races might have begun as a symbolic way to encourage the dragons to fight in heaven and bring rain, so farmers would have good crops. Today, the races are held everywhere from Rome to Seattle, and if you are near enough to see them- how wonderful!

The Chinese call this the Duan Wu Jie (pronounced Dwan woo-oo Jee-eh) or Highest Meridian Festival. A meridian is a high point, as in the sun at the solstice. The Chinese celebrate the solstice today, according to a lunar calendar, so it varies every year. Traditionally this day is dangerous and unhealthy because it’s so strongly yang, putting the forces of ying and yang out of balance.

2018 xiangbao sachets

Agenda Today:
1. A Chinese chant
2. Egg-balancing
3. Make a xiangbao sachet
4. Make zongzi (dumplings)

5. Throw zongzi in the water