In my moon post shortly after coming back from Japan last month, I erroneously said that the June 2016 full moon was in Capricorn – probably because of a bit of wish-fulfillment fantasy. I was wrong: it was a somewhat rare astrological “blue moon”, when we have two consecutive full moons in the same sign. The Donna Cunningham affirmations I have been using include these lines for Sagittarius:
I rejoice in my capacity to understand advanced ideas.
The growth of my mind and spirit is ever unfolding.
Although I have been yearning for some Capricorn groundedness, that bubbly fizzing and expansive Sagittarius energy has continued unabated for the last few weeks. For me they have been an experience of accelerated spiritual and mental growth in many directions (much of that documented in the preceding few posts; there is more beside).
So: Moon, in a couple of days you are about to slide at last into the grounded, steady, growing zone of Capricorn. I am ready for you!
I willingly let go of the sorrow and sadness I’m holding.
I release the fear and negativity that is blocking me.
I find joy and hope welling up within me.
I accept my capacity to plan wisely for my goals.
My abilities find their highest expression.
I want to focus particularly on one of these affirmations for the next four weeks, during this Capricorn full moon cycle:
I accept my capacity to plan wisely for my goals.
As I look forward to the next four weeks, I want to take this Capricorn-ish opportunity to re-establish and clarify my intentions going forward. I am wrapping up my work on the Orchard Oculus (on display next Saturday!) and it looks like a burst of fairly intense activity at my day job is becoming more manageable. The new Soul Cartography class is going great, and is helping me to think again about my own priorities and trajectory.
“Planning wisely for my goals” relates to intention: what do I hope to accomplish? There is overarching goal through which I view everything I do. It’s an intention I set every day:
- That those who are to work with me will find their way to me.
- That I wisely and consciously continue my work.
- That I focus on healing, blessing, and wisdom as I do my work.
- That I let go of outcomes as I do my work.
Now, at the moment there is a lot swirling for me around my personal spiritual path, as I gain further clarity on what I need to find nurturance and sustenance on my own journey. But the intentions above aren’t about that; they are about being a resource for others. So a part of “planning wisely” is to understand that distinction; to make my work in service of others free of the limitations of my own path. That is why Soul Cartography is really starting to grow within me as highly suitable vehicle through which I can do my work – it’s not about my path, but strictly about the individual paths of participants. I love that! I’m finding also that shamanic healing is much more about the path of my client than it is my path – and in fact the more I can get out of the way and be a “hollow bone” in service.
This was driven home to me in a vivid way a couple of weeks ago: I was contacted by a spiritual musician of the highest caliber, someone whom I respect very much and who has a very good following, asking me if I would be willing to teach Gregorian chant to him and some other musician friends of his. This opportunity seemed to push all my buttons at once: my longing for acceptance, my desire to be a cool musician working with other cool musicians, my ongoing ambivalence about walking away from Gregorian chant and all its satisfactions. So I was surprised to find, after I had reflected on the possibility for a while, that the idea had absolutely no real energy for me, and that it was in fact the completely wrong thing to do.
The insight that locked into place, as I reflected on this, is not just that I’m done with teaching Gregorian chant: it no longer feels right for me to teach traditional spiritual practices to others. Instead, I want to support people in developing their own practices, their connections with their inner sources of power, their personal mythic potency. This includes the classroom context (as with Soul Cartography) but also one-on-one healing work.
Suddenly this frees me up in two important ways:
- For my work with others, I can stop trying to figure out how to package up “shamanism” as a practice to share – along with any other packaging and positioning work for any of the paths I have explored or might yet explore.
- For my own journey: now I can focus on what I truly need to take care of myself, to be taken care of, to prosper, heal, grow, and find blessing. I don’t have to keep one eye on the question “how can I share this with others?” What freedom that brings!
May I plan wisely for my goals, and through Soul Cartography and my other work (including, in fact, my day job, which has much the same character) may I help others to plan wisely for theirs during this Capricorn new moon season.