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Moon Exercise
By CinnamonMoon
Note: There are 13 Moons during
the course of the year, so while each has its own teachings
this
exercise is to be used with each of them. The exercise is a
monthly process wherein you will
work during the Full Moon cycle and meditate on the teachings.
Once into the meditation ask for the Moon to send you a Teacher
and be still while you wait for
the Teacher to appear. Go with the flow of the lesson received,
and please share your insights.
I have listed out the Moons at the bottom of this exercise there
will be a brief outline of each
month and what it brings into being.
Please note that while this exercise is performed during the
Full Moon, the teachings received are
to be focused on and seen in the physical reality as continual
awareness throughout the month.
This helps you validate teachings, assimilate them, and put
them into practice.
While this is the way of Women's Medicine, there is no reason
men can't do it too. I strongly
believe the time has come to be open about our ways between
the teachings of Men and Women
so that we can see how to balance our feminine and masculine
natures. I wish you all well and
look forward to your sharing experiences.
**********************************************
Find a location where you will be undisturbed for at least a
half hour to an hour.
Cleanse yourself (smudging or ritual bath) and censor the area
(smudge or incense) to purify the
energy that you will be working with.
Center yourself between the 7 Sacred Directions (If you need
help with this please see the
instructions in the Dancing With the Wheel forum).
**********************************************
Now, if you have already created Sacred Space for yourself you
can skip this step and go directly
there. For those who have not done this, please follow along.
You will need to create Sacred Space. Go within and imagine
a place that brings you serenity. It
can be a meadow, forest clearing, a teepee, a serene lakeshore,
a cave, a room in a tower, a cloud
you want to float on high above the world, a huge cavern, let
your imagination go and create the
image of where you would most comfortable working spiritually.
When you have found your location begin letting the environment
take shape. If you don't like
something change it. This is YOUR space, and you can let it
emerge or put it there. If you want a
workroom create one with all the things you need. This is what
I have done, and I have it
furnished with furniture, bookshelves, tables, and chairs.
You will want to bring in the 4 elemental forces so find a way
to do this. You can bring in Air
with a breeze or a smoke-hole at the top of a cave, with an
open window or any other creative
source you like. Fire is easy, you can bring that in with a
fireplace, campfire, candle, etc. Water
can be found in a natural setting, as a fountain in a room,
perhaps an aquarium or indoor pond.
Earth can be fashioned from a cave, the land itself, or potted
plants in a room. However you wish
to arrange things, these four elements need to be present so
that you can focus on them as you center.
**********************************************
Once your Sacred Space is created and you have centered yourself
to enter it, I suggest you recenter
again once you get there. This takes you deeper into the meditative
state and allows you
stronger attunement. At this point you need to focus on the
Moon, so you will have need of
creating a view where the Moon can appear. You will summon a
Full Moon, when it appears
address the Moon and ask for your Teacher to come to you. Wait
and when the Teacher appears
ask to be taught the lesson for that month.
**********************************************
Note: As you progress with this exercise throughout the
year, as the next yearly cycle begins the
exercise continues. Your Sacred Space will grow with you and
your surroundings will be
adjusted or will themselves adjust to accommodate your needs.
Your growth becomes visible and
apparent to you in this way. The Sacred Space evolves as you
do and the more you use it the
more "alive" it becomes.
This is a spiritual use of your own energy and you learn to
weave that energy to create what you
need on a spiritual level. As you learn to use it in this way
you also learn how to apply your own
gifts and abilities in the physical realm for as we create spiritually
we are seeding what is going
to later manifest in the physical sense in some fashion.
As a final issue, each yearly cycle brings an understanding
of the 13 Moons to completion, it lays
the foundation for deeper understanding to take place during
the next full cycle. Year by year we
come to add to our body of knowledge and through experience
we gain the wisdom of
Grandmother Moon. I hope you will find this helpful to you,
and that you will all continue to
undertake the blessings it will bring you through repeated use.
**********************************************
The Thirteen Full Moons
1) January:
This Moon teaches us how to walk within the natural cycles of
nature, the shifting
seasons, the relationship to All Our Relations: Stones, plants,
and all living things. It is the
teaching of interrelationships within the Web of Life and it
is here that we learn about the global
family. We learn to listen to nature and to hear the Voice as
it speaks to us. We learn to enter
Sacred Space...ours, and how to respectfully enter that of others.
We learn to honor these cycles
and feel the rhythms of change so we can move with those changes
in a harmonious flow of
life...like floating with the current of a river, we go with
that flow rather than fight it. In this way
we learn to merge with the spiritual aspects of life and bring
them into the mundane as one,
unified we learn to walk between the dimensions as we come to
perceive these things. It initiates
understanding of dimension and how each aspect of live interacts
to keep the Circle of Life
going. It is about understanding relationships. While the experience
will be different for each of
us to some degree, you will see that it is simply customized
by your Teacher to your needs at this
time so you can grasp the same basic principles in relation
to your own developmental growth
and understanding.
2) February:
This Moon teaches us about tradition, about the Universal consciousness,
remembering the ways of our Ancestors and why they conducted
their rituals, ceremonies, and
traditions. It's about foundation and tolerance, self-development
through taking the old and
modifying it to fit the present ways through expanding those
teachings and seeing how they
serve today. We learn the "art of jiggling". It is
a Moon that honors the truth in all spiritual
teachings and all lifeform relationships. It is here that perspectives
come into play, ours, others,
and those of each life form on earth. Understanding the interrelationships
and what they bring to
the whole. It teaches us to remember to honor the ways of others,
to honor nature and all life
bringing about a sense of unity and co-operative living, friendships
established with stones, trees,
animals, and others. We learn how to delve into the history
of Mother Earth and see her for the
powerful force that she is, learning respect and compassion,
to understand the expanding
awareness pattern and how we go about broadening our horizons.
We yield up our tunnel-vision
here and begin to see the need to take in the overview.
3) March:
This Moon teaches us about being fair, just, and the need to
guard that through the sacred ways
of Cosmic/Divine Law. It is here we learn to shatter illusions,
to see the truth in things, and to
bring forth that understanding. With this comes the insight
to grasp the need to be responsible for
our own actions and reactions to things and situations. We see
the need to take a positive attitude
and bring forth our own light in nurturing ways. We learn to
make our actions and our words
hold value to ourselves and for others through respect for Self
and thus the rights of others to be
respected as well. In this we learn the lesson of equality and
ego begins to fall to the illusion it is.
Integrity becomes important now, and with that we begin looking
at the ethical approaches we
need to take in life. We begin to see the need to heal negative
issues and situations so that we can
transform them to contribute to a healthier whole. Not everything
we see will be pleasant, but we
learn to face the truths and see where our efforts can make
a difference and where they can't. In
this we learn to accept that others have lessons of their own
to learn and we must leave them to
them. You can't force feed anyone, and if someone is not ready
to accept the teachings it is time
to move down your own path and leave them to theirs with a desire
to bless their journey, not
wish them ill.
4) April:
This Moon teaches us the art of Visions and Dreams. It's about
stepping between the Crack in the
Universe, about seeing the inner potential in ourselves and
in others. It's where we learn about
the symbology, interpretation of Dream Lodge work and lessons,
about recognizing our own
sensory input, understanding our feelings and emotions to be
the triggers that point the way to
the issues we need to logically work on. It's where we learn
how to shut off the emotional
reaction and act out of logical compassion and insight for the
greater good of all. We learn to
journey in dreams, through meditation, and through Vision Questing.
We learn about our Inner
Spirit and it's ability to go beyond the physical constraints
of the human condition to take us
wherever we need to go. Our psychic abilities begin developing
and through honoring them, we
work with them to hone our gifts and learn to wield them well.
This is the Moon that teaches us
about divination and prophecy, spiritual self-defense, and Sacred
Space for Self and others. It is
where we learn first to heal ourselves so that we can help others
do the same. It is where we learn
to see truths and honor them, be they filled with pain or joy.
5) May:
This Moon teaches us about going within ourselves for introspection.
It is about looking into the
Great Smoking Mirror deep inside each of us to see who we really
are, and where we need to go.
It's where we learn to look into our own shadows and see our
fears or our strengths and to bring a
state of understanding and balance to the path we are walking.
Here we face our challenges and
are able to begin interpreting the messages we get from the
guidance we are receiving. This is
where we learn to take counsel with our Guides and Inner Spirit,
with our Teachers and we learn
to really listen. It's where we learn what it is to enter the
Silence to hear the soft inner voice that
is the true Self and holds our answers to the truths we seek...to
find the "inner knowing". It is in
this insight that we learn the value in listening to others
who have their own perspectives. It is
where we learn the value of listening to the Elders and the
things they have to teach us through
their life experiences. We learn to "read" others
through their actions, through their eyes that
speak their own language, to see the unspoken feelings and thoughts
they hold. It is where we
learn to listen to our hearts and "do the right thing".
6) June:
This Moon teaches the Medicine of humor, experience, and that
through sharing stories (oral
traditions) we can use parables, fable, myth, or analogy to
teach without singling out others. We
learn about the tricks we play on ourselves, the Dance of Coyote
or the Heyokah, we learn
through irony. Through creative use of humor we learn we can
keep the stories/lessons
interesting and still get the point across, that all life does
not need to be so serious and that even
Spirit has a good sense of humor that is often a bit wry. This
is also a lesson to see that humor is
sacred, and that laughter can often heal, shatter negative energies,
and break down illusions in
ways nothing else can. In this way we shed more of the ego by
seeing that through experience we
learn not to be so judgmental of others and to set aside the
self-importance to see we are all in
school...the School of Life...the School of Hard Knocks at different
times in our lives and we all
have to go there. In this we learn to share our experiences
in humorous ways so that others can
learn from our mistakes. It is the Moon that teaches us to be
both student and teacher and the
importance of that role. In using humor to express our experiences
we learn to laugh at ourselves,
pick ourselves back up and keep walking the pathway, to gain
wisdom through experience and
honor the truth of it by walking our talk.
7) July:
This Moon teaches what it is to love unconditionally, without
expectation, and to see that we are
meant to please ourselves in all ways so long as they harm no
one. In this we learn to respect
ourselves for the things we do. What is right for us may not
be right for someone else but we
need to see that and to accept that it is still right for us.
Thus we respect their space and learn
there are times we need to keep to our own. We learn the sensory
joy of feeling and touch, of
nurturing and warmth shared, and we learn to see that we all
have needs that deserve respect. In
this we discover what it is to be honest, trustworthy, intimate,
and loyal. The many hats of
Woman are worn under the teachings of this Moon: friend, mother,
lover, and person in a loving
way. We learn to nurture through forgiveness of Self and others
and to see that we are all flawed,
all trying to improve, and all evolving as we go. We learn to
see the beauty in all things and love
them for just what they are, not what we think they should be.
We don't try to change them
anymore, learning to respect their right to be as well as our
own.
8) August:
This Moon teaches us about healing, and we may find that in
many different areas of study or
specialize in certain fields, for healing takes place on all
levels. We learn that some are Called to
heal minds, bodies, spirits, or emotions. That some are Called
to serve in the Rites of Passage,
where the mysteries of life and death play an important role.
Some will study and work with
herbs, others with energy, some with combinations of these things
and more. We learn our own
area of skill in the healing arts and begin to develop it. We
learn to use our intuitive abilities in
these areas, to embrace the service we can provide joyfully
with a giving from the heart, not the
head. We learn the lessons taught through the essence of things
and understanding the different
ways healing can take place so that we can adapt them to our
needs. In this way we learn to serve
the greater whole...the planetary society of which we are all
a part and we see that we touch lives
as we cross paths with others...one at a time.
9) September:
This Moon teaches us about the responsibility we all hold for
those who will follow in our
footsteps. The needs of the world become relevant and we see
that the children, and their
children's children are affected by the things we do today.
That influence spans the next Seven
Generations so it is our responsibility to see that our actions
serve them as well as ourselves. Ego
becomes more transparent here as we lose more selfish ambition
and see the need to serve the
whole. We come to see that our intent is important and needs
to bring within its scope the greater
whole. We see the need to protect and serve through guarding
the resources we have so that these
next Seven Generations will have them as well. Looking ahead
we see the need to plan carefully
and guard our reserves. We learn to be dependable, contributive,
functioning parts of our
societies. In this way we live according to the path we walk
and we make wise choices as to
where we place our footfalls.
10) October:
This Moon teaches us to be creative and to open to insipiration.
We learn here to weave our
dreams into reality, to focus our visions and manifest them
first spiritually and then in the
physical sense. We learn what it is to breathe life into those
dreams, to give birth in every sense
of the word. We guard, then, the life force within all that
exists seeing it for what it is. We learn
to tap Source Energy/the life force, and to weave it into our
creations be they mental, physical,
emotional, or spiritual creations. We learn to create the new
from the old, to modify, to adapt,
and to destroy: the power of Woman to do and undo things and
to use this power honestly with
integrity. We see the truth in all relationships be they physical
or other, and we learn to work
from that truth as we take action in our creative processes.
11) November:
This Moon teaches us what it means to be a leader and how to
set examples for others. We learn
here to walk in the Beauty Way with grace and dignity. We learn
to take pride in each step, to
walk gently but with strength, and to make each step count.
We learn to be role models for others
as we demonstrate through our own actions the "right"
ways of doing things. We learn to walk
from our hearts in our own truths and to not be swayed by situations
or issues that we "walk
into", but to react in a dignified way with pride and honor.
We learn to be persistent in putting
forth our best efforts, to give impeccably (all that we are
and can, no more and no less). In this
way we become leaders showing those who observe our actions
or hear our words how to walk
their own path through example, how to carve a new path with
care, and how to grow with
increasing inner strength and character. We demonstrate in this
way how to attract that which we
desire and how to release what we can no longer take with us.
12) December:
This Moon teaches us to be thankful from the heart, to see the
need to show that gratitude
through honoring it in ritual and ceremony, or by praising others
for the gifts they share. We
learn here to count blessings, to see abundance, to encourage
and celebrate both. We learn what
joy there is in giving and in receiving and to see that we need
a balance between the two. We
learn to make room for abundance to come to us by giving thanks
before it arrives. We do this by
clearing space and giving away that which we can no longer use
to those who need it, to clear
space and give away our emotional or mental attachments offering
them up to make room for
that which we will soon receive. This is going to include resentments,
anger, or any negatives
that would hinder our productivity in that manner. Lessons here
are in attaining and maintaining
the right perspectives and attitudes that bring about the state
of harmony and balance we need to
continue to grow and receive as well as share our blessings
with others. We again shed ego to
appreciate and celebrate our blessings and the blessings of
others, taking joy in seeing them
happy and growing too. By doing this we understand more of Grandmother
Moon's mysteries
and the power behind that creative force to manifest abundance
in our lives and share it with
those we care for. We learn to praise the accomplishments of
others so that their own confidence
levels grow and we see that praise is a nurturing force that
strengthens willpower and continues
the process of growth so that others may harvest their own rewards.
Through praise we share
love and nurturing energies and we learn to both give and receive
in this way.
13) Blue Moon of Transformation,
the 13th Moon is the Moon of Unifications where all prior
teachings in this yearly cycle culminate into enlightened
understanding through experience and processes that add to our
wisdom. We see the larger whole through hindsight
and retrospection so that we can transform our lives. At this
point we are bringing it all together, reflecting on
lessons and accomplishments and seeing the foundation of the
past year as it was laid. We gain
understanding in this way and begin the next cycle of Moons
and these same teachings but this
time it comes on a new level. We see how Spirit enters into
our life and how we, as co-operative
individuals can share Spirit's Love with others by becoming
spiritually conscious on all levels.
We see the rites of passage we have been through and thus we
can help those who follow behind
us to understand theirs. We learn to share our wisdom of experience
and the knowledge we gain
along the way. We enter into the past, present, and future stages
of the Now bringing all with us
and come to see the importance of making every moment count.
While we can plan at this time
for the future, drawing on the past and history to help us lay
those foundations and add our own
creative adaptations, we see the right way of doing this and
the need to make abundance so we
can share it with others. In giving we thus receive. We learn
how to BE who we are and accept
that we are only bringing forth our best and in a constant state
of BE-ing more, bringing forth our
Inner Spirit's essence in all our actions, words, and deeds,
we are at this time the culmination of
the year's teachings put into action and preparing for the next
full cycle with that in mind. This
allows us to take on the new cycle with a depth of understanding
that was not there a year ago. In
this way we see our rite of passage when it comes, we see the
initiation and we lose our sense of
fear a little more each time knowing that what is coming is
greater than what we leave behind.
We learn to be the Dreamer that becomes the Dream.
Jamie Sams teaches (in her book "The 13 Original Clan Mothers")
the stages of the 13 Moons as:
1) January: Learning the Truth
2) February: Honoring the Truth
3) March: Accepting the Truth
4) April: Seeing the Truth
5) May: Hearing the Truth
6) June: Speaking the Truth
7) July: Loving the Truth
8) August: Serving the Truth
9) September: Living the Truth
10) October: Working with the Truth
11) November: Walking the Truth
12) December: Gratitude for the Truth
13) Blue Moon: Being the Truth
I don't think I could express it any clearer than that myself
so I'll let her speak for me there.
By doing this exercise each month and opening to the teachings
of that Moon and your Spirit
Teacher you will come to see this demonstrated in those lessons
for yourself. It's important to see
that each full cycle brings another layer of foundation, another
level of understanding, and cycle
after cycle the depth of enlightenment grows as we grow with
it.
It is traditional for women to take 3 days during their Moon
cycle to sit with the teachings of that
Moon...hence the image and use of the "Moon Lodge".
This is perceived as a time where women
are unclean by men for they shed the life-giving blood they
carry in their bodies. This is a
misconception, however, and it is just that the power is so
intense at this time that women can
literally prevent the Men's Medicine from working.
It is a time for women to connect to Mother Earth in the shedding
and to receive from
Grandmother Moon the wisdom. While this is not practical in
most cases in today's society, you
can set aside time during the Full Moon to sit in the Silence
within your Sacred Space and
receive the teachings brought forth to you. You have a full
month to observe those teachings and
hone your understanding of them as they play out in the physical
reality.
Everything is born first in the spiritual sense manifesting
through us into the physical reality
where we co-create with knowledge and wisdom of experience.
Learn to bring things forth
through the teachings you receive, to use the spiritual in the
physical sense. You do not have to
restrict spiritual knowledge to spiritual arenas. It's all ONE.
It will work in the physical world
too. Learn this. Use it. Make it count.
In this way we share, we give, and we receive all at once as
a functional and contributive part of
the whole. Seeing our place, watching our path unfold, we learn
how we can share and that's all
teaching really is...sharing knowledge with those who ask for
it...with those who want to learn,
and learning when not to share with those who are not ready
to receive it. In this way we learn
tolerance for the rites of passage others are undergoing and
we take on the responsibility for
those on our heels so that we can insure the strength of the
next Seven Generations and we can
walk in harmony as we make our way.
I wish you all well with this exercise and look forward to you
sharing experiences on a monthly
basis. I will read what you post and clarify things if you are
confused, and I'll be smiling at your
accomplishments too! Thank you for letting me be the initiator
to a beautiful pathway of
enlightenment!
WalksWith:
Thank You Cinn for sharing these Moon Exercises with Us, and
for the beautiful way you share
your Wisdom and Understanding of All.
elk woman:
Cinn, I'm blown away by the truth of it all. It explains so
much happening at the moment. Having
this as a reference is a comfort for the next steps to taken.
Cinnamon:
WalksWith and ElkWoman, I'm so glad to hear you are finding
the information useful. I hope it
will serve you well. Please feel free to share your experiences
or post any questions that may
arise.
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Libraries
are on this row
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INDEX
Page 3
(Main Section, Medicine Wheel, Native Languages &
Nations, Symbology)
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INDEX
Page 5
(Sacred Feminine & Masculine, Stones & Minerals)
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Text:
© Copyright: Cinnamon Moon & River WildFire Moon
(Founders.) 2000-date
All rights reserved.
Site
constructed by Dragonfly
Dezignz 1998-date
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