LunarMusings

Self Portrait Tuesday: Elements ::Water::

I love this months SPC theme of Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water.  I could spend an entire month on each!

Each element has its own vibratory rate, its own unique magical property and gift.  And water for me is such a potent healing element. 

Water is clarity, cleansing, emotion, psychic abilities, union, nourishment, renewal.  Water is the amniotic fluid we were created in for 9 months as we were one with our Mothers.  And its the reflective pool that reveals the deeply unconscious secrets of humankind.

For me, water is also about gratitude.  I'm not entirely sure why, but whenever I'm in a bath full of water, or in the Ocean, or a River, I feel such an overwhelming sense of gratitude.  And not just because I'm actually in this particular body of water, but I actually feel moved to gratitude for the life I have.  Its an energetic resonance that occurs within me. 

Even though I am without a doubt ruled by an Air sign, Water seems to activate my inner need for offering gratitude in a way that is visceral.  It pulls forth from me the expressions of beauty, and peace.  In water I become deeply rooted within, and all things seem to calm.

As I type this I am inspired to dive in deeper with the exploration of water.  My mind is swirling with all the symbolism and uses for and by water, all the Goddesses, the rituals, the secrets of water.  I will have to keep you posted as things bubble up to the surface.

I set these petals afloat as a message of deep gratitude and honoring.  Whispers of intimate gifts set off to touch the world.

Self Portrait Tuesday: B & W#1

Feeling pretty introverted today.  Just stirring with awarenesses, and needing time for them to settle into some type of new way of being. 

For more Self Portrait Challenges go here.

Self Portrait Tuesday: New Year's Resolution week 4

These are Mala beads given to me by my sweet and talented friend Franscesca a few years ago. 

I have been studying Sanskrit Mantras for a few years now and have a daily morning practice.  I feel that I was called to this by some long ago connection to a culture that continues to draw me in, and its a practice that continues to reveal more and more to me as I dive deeper.

In Hindu tradition, there are 108 beads per mala.  There is also the end bead and the 2 spacers that divide the 108 into three parts.  In a mantra practice you repeat a mantra 108 times in order to energetically activate the 108 energetic pathaways, or Nadis in your etheric body.  Each Mantra in sanskrit is made up of seed syllables that activate our chakras and access specific slip stream intentions. The last uncounted bead is the receptacle of all the chanting ever done with the mala, and therefore over time potently enfused with divine energy.

For instance the mantra Om Shantiyea Namaha, invokes the embodiment of peace within you because it salutes and engages Peace. Or  Om Shri Dhanvantre Namaha, is  "greetings and salutations to the Divine Healer..." 

I've learned that the act of "greeting and salutations" is in essence turning your face up towards this specific slip stream of healing, or peace, or whatever it is that the mantra calls for, thus opening a channel between your being and this energetic essence.  It has made my intention setting and meditations potent and amazing.  It has also given me a great tool of focus when putting into practice the law of attraction so many of us have learned about by watching The Secret.  What I love about sanskrit mantras is that they have been chanted for hundreds of thousands of years, thus feeding the collective unconscious over and over again with the potentcy and meanings of these words.  So when I "turn my face" to a particular intention, the entirely of existence that has also repeated the mantra and "turned their face" to this energetic is in support or sponsorship of me and my intention.  There is a mystical alchemy that takes place, and not a morning goes by where I don't feel the magic happening in and around me.

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to dive deeper into the mysteries of this practice.  I have intensified my readings on this subject, and am also setting my wish into the universe to find more keys to this practice while in India.

Here are some of the mantras that I have been working with:

(please note that these are not direct translations as many of the "words" are seed syllables with no translatable meaning, but with an energetic result and manifestation.)

Om Shrim Klim Maha Lakshmiyei Swaha
Om and salutations to she who provides abundance.

Om Satyei Namaha
Om and salutations to She who empowers truth.

Om Shrim Shriyei Namaha
Om and salutations to the creative abundance that is the form of this universe.  (This always gets my creative juices flowing!)

Om Radha Krishnaya Namaha
Om and salutations to that single being of Love, manifesting as the lovers Radha and Krishna.  (This is a mantra prayer for conjugal love relationships to call in divine sponsorship to the couple and elevate them to an enhanced state of intimacy and love.)

Ahum Prema
I am Divine Love.

There are so so many more.  The most accessible western teacher on mantras that I have found is Thomas Ashley-Ferrand.  There are some really great articles on this site, and his book Shakti Mantras has been a wonderful read!

Jai Ma!

Self Portrait Tuesday: Red #3

In the last month I have been having these dreams.  Dreams that come with old faces, old themes, transposed over my present life reality.  There is one in particular, three times I've had this dream. You know those dreams that stay with you long after you have woken up and gone about your day?  It was as if I was wearing an old heavy, musty outfit from so long ago, I had forgotten I had it.  I just couldn't figure out why I was dreaming about this old stuff.

Then two days ago, after having another one of these dreams, I woke up, and the first thing out of my mouth was the answer to why. I woke up, sat straight up in bed and said out loud, in one sentence, exactly what was going on.  The message my subconscious was trying to give me, came flying out of my mouth as if it was my conscious mind saying, "Aha!  I get it now!"

To go into the whats and whys and hows here would take forever and I just don't want to now.  I rather sit in the Truth that is trying to help me move past old and deep belief systmes. 

But more then that, I found such comfort in the sweet reminder that the answers I seek are all in me.  Waiting to come out at the right time when given an ear that will listen.  Namely, my own. 

For more Self Portraits go here.

 

Self Portrait Tuesday: Red #2

Red is the color of the deep Feminine Wisdom that comes forth when invoked in the potent moments of a woman's life.  Red is the color of the thread that links us to one another through space and time, generation after generation... red is the color of our "bloodship". 

Red are the Pearls of Wisdom.

For more Self Portraits go here.

Self Portrait Tuesday: Red #1

The solar flares of passion can be exhausting.  Solice, refuge, restoration and a return to normal states of existence can sometimes only be found in the company of One's Self. 

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Self Portrait Tuesday: Glam

Gypsy-Pagan-Bohemian Glam that is...

Not quite back in the game, but hope to be in the next few days!   I am sooooo missing all of you, and can't wait to finally answer all of your emails, and read up on your lives. 

Muah!  and love to you all!!!

More Self Portraits here.

Self Portrait Tuesday: Imperfections??

So this picture is a bit old... well, about 2 years or so.  And the story behind it is that I was sitting down having an ice cream cone of yumminess after a hot and sticky day of site seeing around New Hope, PA with Jon, when he snaps a picture of me mouth open diving into the ice cream.  So I immediately put it down and give him one of my looks.  You know those looks that say, "Nice." dripping with sarcasm... And then he took ANOTHER PICTURE!!! And this is what he caught. 

And so today while trying to decide whether or not to do a Self Portrait Challenge with the theme of "Imperfections", I felt just like this picture and decided to pull it out of my facial expressions tool box.  Only rather then thinking "Nice."  I am feeling more like "Wha????"

After lifetimes of being given negative messages about our bodies, our abilities, and our value, and then taking all of that energy or ammunition and turning it on ourselves, do we really need to spend an entire month trying to find creative ways to tell the world about all the things we think are wrong with us?  No. In order to define an imperfection, we need to know what perfection is and what is that?  There is no such thing.  We are all perfectly ourselves and the challenges we face in life, and the inner conflicts we hold within ourselves are opportunities to find out more about who we are in this world and who we can be. 

What gets me here is that there is also this subversive lie going around that tells us its meek and humble to be aware of these imperfections.  To be aware and out right own the things that we do well or are really great about us is somehow labeled as narcissistic, full of oneself, arrogant.  So its OK to keep ourselves small and boxed in by remembering how we don't measure up to standards made up by?, but somehow being our own best friend and advocate, our own admirer is bad. 

We have Shadows, we have blind spots, we have whole areas of life that we don't know about yet, we each have habitual patterns that serve us and those that don't, and we have skills like choice making that we have yet to get the full hang of.  Those aren't imperfections, those are the threads that make up our unique expressions of humanity.  They are universes to be explored and mapped out for future adventures that cover ever growing terrain.

So no imperfections here.  Just me.  Me with my face.  Looking at all of us and thinking, "Hello? Why would we do this?"

See you next month on the Self Portrait Challenge! I am going to continue spending time looking at the things I am loving in life right now especially those things embodied in me!

Edited to add:  This is in no way meant to be a criticism on the great job thats being done over at Self Portrait Challenge.  I love the monthly challenges and the community we all have there.  This is just me, girl blogger, exploring the motivations and processes that come up while creating self portraits!  Ok... thats all.

Self Portrait Tuesday: Imperfections #2

Here's another little Imperfection.  Yesterday's dirty dishes.  Simply put, I'm just not that into washing my dishes after I have cooked something.

I love to cook and consider myself an artist.  And artists cannot be bothered with having to clean up after a flurry of creativity.  After the work is done, one must sit down with the delicious meal and savor.  One of the things that Jon and I agreed on in the beginning of our relationship was that I do all the cooking (save for breakfast, as he is the king of breakfast cooking) and he would do all the cleaning up.  Well, poor guy, after he got a clue as to how incredibly insane a kitchen looks after I have been cooking, he had to set some boundaries with me!

But for the most part, when I'm alone and only preparing food for me, the mess really isn't all that bad.  But the dishes just get put off until tomorrow, or much later.  Somehow it tends to ruin the whole experience if I have to toil in the sink after getting a meal together.

So, there they are - yesterday's dishes, that I just cleaned up right now after taking the picture. 

I just don't wanna!

As a side note though:  I am feeling a bit resistent to this months theme.  I am admittedly skimming the surface of what my imperfections are, because quite frankly if I were to unleash all the things that are just dying to burst forth, I may find myself in a seriously dark place.  Exploring my imperfections when I am feeling good about myself, is a very different excercise then doing so when I am feeling pretty down, and if I can even go further, a bit depressed.  I don't how much of my resistence is that I feel that I will go over board and dive into a serious pity party, worsen my state of mind, or give to much energy to things that are not in any way uplifting for me right now. 

I believe in going there.  Meeting your shadow face on and letting yourself lose your mind in order to find a deeper, stronger self, but I am not sure how to do that here.  I am curious about your thoughts on this, and if any of you are going through a similar process.  Because honestly, dishes and piles of magazines, although very real in my life, are just great ways of playing it safe.

Self Portrait Tuesday: Imperfections #1

This months theme is challenging.  I don't want to use it as a way to bash myself, which I have been doing all day with the list of "imperfections" that keeps adding to itself in my head. At the same time I recognize that in some way its a theme I could have fun with when out of this particular mind frame.  I am in a challenging space today, so I decided to start gently and hope to continue the exploration as the weeks move on.

So here we go!  Imperfection #1 (which may give clues to others)

What you see above in those two messy obstructing piles are my "to be read, finish reading, need to read last months because this months has arrived" pile.  Now the big confession is that they are generally not in these piles near my bed.  No, these piles are usually mini piles throughout the house, in my car, my back pack, purse, and work. They are every where because I figure that no matter where I'm at, if a minute or two presents itself where I could read them then I would get through them faster.  It just makes for cluttered counter tops, or book baskets.

The truth is I am a magazine WHORE.  There.  I actually typed it.  Whore.  I love magazines and subscribe to more then I will readily admit to.  In this pile is Scientific American, Gourmet, Bon Apetit, Food and Wine, O, Vogue, InStyle, Living, Yoga International, Vanity Fair, WholeLife Times, Yogi Times, and a few poor books waiting for their turn as well.  Oh, and catalogs!  Garnet Hill, West Elm and Pottery Barn! 

But I am always behind, they are always piling up and then it crowds into my book reading time.  I tell myself to just stop buying/subscribing to them and stick to books, or hand-me-downs from the office I work at, but I can't.  And the pile up continues.  Its like this greedy addiction.  I love to read, I love periodicals, and I love the glossy images and the snippets of d.i.y. advice.  I love Martha Stewarts October issue with all its Halloween dreaminess, and cooking!  I love my food magazines!  Vanity Fair... I love Vanity Fair!  I am hopeless.

The truth is I spend a fortune on so many magazines.  I think that if I were to add it all up, I would freak out.  And in the last month a few renewal notices have come in and I decided to let go of 2.  Just two.  I am trying to motivate myself to adding it all up in order to give up a few more. 

I'm not there yet.