Maidyozarem and Waning Gibbous Moon

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.

Maidyozarem, the first Gahambar of the Zoroastrian year, means "mid-spring", and it celebrates the creation of the sky, heaven, the stars, and the hot nebulous cloud of the fire of the Universe. It takes place each year from April 30 through May 4th.

Also, the moon is waning now - getting smaller - until it is new again. During the waning moon, the moon's energy changes, and we move gradually into the yin phase - slow down, go within, and focus on inner work. I back off a bit on actively pursuing my goals, and allow the ease of being a loving, thoughtful person to carry me towards my dreams. 

At the waning gibbous moon I practice opening to receive blessings, feeling and expressing gratitude, and generosity with giving (towards others AND with myself).

Agenda this week:

1. Journal queries

2. Generosity practices

3. Gratitude journal

4. Recite prayers

5. Make Kachumber Salad

Full Hare moon

Tonight is the full moon; this one is called the Hare Moon, because it's the month when rabbits leap and play and mate.

Carmella and Toffee

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon. But today it's time to CELEBRATE! The full moon is a time of fruitfulness, creativity, and completion, and also strong (sometimes overwhelming) emotion. This month I feel hopeful, energetic, and also hesitant, and I want to acknowledge and embrace the whole spectrum of my emotions. 

Today I will celebrate how far I've come and give thanks for the lessons learned and the blessings received.

Agenda today:
1. Journal queries
3. Celebrate my theme of Balance

3. Finish Braiding Sweetgrass

4. Full moon ceremony

Earth Week Friday and Waxing Gibbous Moon

This week I plan to post an agenda of activities for each day, to show my dedication and love for the earth.

Also, today the moon is a waxing gibbous, the not-quite-full moon: Waxing means getting larger, and gibbous means humped or protuberant. This phase of the moon has the high-energy that provides a push towards completion. In four days, at the full moon, we will turn again towards the yin time of inner activity, so I make an effort in these next few days to finish my tasks that require greater physical effort. The waxing gibbous moon is a time for reevaluation, refinements, and creativity.

Agenda today:

1. Journal queries

2. Creative visualization

3. Earth Week petition walk

4. Finish Braiding Sweetgrass

Agenda:

1. Journal queries:

Right about now in the moon cycle, things in my life might feel like they are aligning into a good order, and I will clearly see those things that are out of alignment. It's a good time to take a new look at my goals, reevaluate and refine them, and adjust my plans.

Do I still want to complete all the goals I listed at the new moon?

Which can appropriately be saved to complete in the waning (yin) phase, and which should I make an effort to finish now?

Which can be put off until next month?

What new habits will help me to nurture my ideas and projects? What creative shifts in thinking or acting can I take now?

2. Creative visualization:

At the gibbous moon, my last push for action, I call on the practice of visualization to help bring my goals to fruition. Today I choose my top three action goals to shine a light on:

1. Clerking our Meeting for Business

2. Sewing a Raven

3. Cleaning windows

Creative visualization is a technique that uses my imagination to create change. It has three steps:

• First, center and relax each part of my body; count from 10 to 1, then open a connection to Spirit. Feel a soft warmth begin to grow and spread through me, until I am radiating quiet energy.
• Second, create a clear, detailed picture in my mind, as though the objective has been reached. Paint a vivid mental image of exactly how the business meeting will progress, the raven will look, and the clean windows will shine, and put as much positive energy into the image as possible. 
• Lastly, affirm that this is what I want with a short positive phrase in the present tense; for example, "I am calm, listening well, and sensing the condition of the Meeting."

The thought-image is like a signal-flare that guides the physical thing or deed to manifest in my life (or it's just a good way to keep my intentions in my mind). I will carry the vision of the completed goal with me, and focus on it often during the day, in a gentle manner.

3. Earth Week petition walk:

Each day on my walk this week I will repeat this prayer of petition:

That the Earth be cared for, I pray. 

That we learn to live simply and lightly on the Earth, I pray. 

That we stop poisoning the soil and seas, I pray. 

That global warming is halted and reversed, I pray. 

That protection of the Earth becomes the political priority, I pray. 

Amen.

4. Finish Braiding Sweetgrass:

I've been reading this book for several weeks now, and I'm nearing the end, so this week I will give attention to the last chapters, and the questions and themes.

Today I finished the chapter called Collateral Damage:

"Collateral damage: shielding words to keep us from naming the consequences of a missile gone astray.  The words ask us to turn our faces away, as if man made destruction were an inescapable fact of nature."

The chapter is about salamanders, one of the most vulnerable groups on the planet. Subject to habitat loss as wetlands and forests disappear, amphibians are the collateral damage we blindly accept as the cost of development .... because amphibians breathe through their skin, they have little ability to filter out toxins.

Earth Day

 Today is Earth Day. 

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970, and it still remains a big event in the environmental movement. Interest and participation in Earth Day has increased and spread around the world, with millions of people taking part. 

Agenda today:

1. Watch videos

2. Earth Week petition walk
3. Finish Braiding Sweetgrass

4. Attend a webinar for the Living Earth Project

5. Attend a rally

Earth Week Wednesday

This week I plan to post an agenda of activities for each day, to show my dedication and love for the earth.

Agenda today:

1. Watch videos

2. Earth Week petition walk

3. Finish Braiding Sweetgrass

Earth Week Tuesday and First Quarter Moon

 

This week I plan to post an agenda of activities for each day, to show my dedication and love for the earth.

Today is also the First Quarter Moon, when we are one-quarter of the way through the Sleepy Moon cycle. The moon is waxing - getting larger - until it's full again. Now is the time to remain flexible, use my obstacles as fuel for growth, and show full effort for priorities.

Agenda today:

1. Journal queries

2. Make a full effort plan

3. Earth Week petition walk

4. Plant a bee garden

5. Climate Revolutions by Bike Meeting