Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Last Night's Full Moonrise

We sat on the beach for three hours or more, watching in awe as the huge orange orb rose in the southeastern sky.   She shimmered and danced for us as the tide went out in ripples and waves.  Her reflection on the water sometimes looked like an undulating snake and sometimes like a bellydancer,   We sang to Her, and in response Sister Heron came flying out of the darkness to circle round between Her in the sky and us on the beach.  Later we were graced by the presence of Owl and Bat and Mouse.  We lifted our stones nestled in a clamshell up to Her and asked for boons to be granted.  We thanked Her for the blessings of our lives.  We giggled and laughed and played in the warm water.   We left before midnight with our hearts very full.

It all comes down to Gratitude.

I'm honing in here on the idea of gratitude.  I'm beginning to think that all the spiritual practices in the world and all the strategies we devise to get us through rough times all come down to this one: gratitude.

Gratitude changes the way we view the world.  We see the same events through a different lens, a rainbow-colored lens, as it were.  Not "rose-tinted glasses" in the sense of being in denial or ignoring the ugliness in the world.  But choosing, every moment, where to put our focus.  Do I focus on the things that make me scared or anxious or bring me pain?  Because if I do that, I'm going to miss out on all the beauty, joy, kindness and generosity that surround me.

Gratitude brings us into the present moment.  We can't be brooding over the past or fretting over the future if we're noticing what's around us right now, right here.  What else do we have but the present moment?

Gratitude attracts more things to be grateful for.  Not to get all Law of Attraction on you — but it is true: when you are looking for things to be grateful for, you will find them.  And then you'll find more. And more.  And more.

How do you work your way out of an emotional meltdown?

An appropriate topic for a New Moon in Cancer, don't you think? 

I've been making notes for a couple of weeks on this topic, then yesterday responded to Lunaea's post along similar lines.

My current anxieties have to do with a new cycle of grief over leaving my island home, as we prepare to put the house on the market for the upcoming holiday weekend.  I'm also feeling the familiar powerlessness and angst over the state of the planet, especially after a scientist friend wrote to a group of us a couple of days ago that the global warming crisis is actually much worse than the general public has been led to believe.  

I'm usually able to keep myself on a fairly even keel, but a couple of weeks ago I completely lost it.

HMOTD: Island Twilight

I've been posting my #HMOTDs (Happiest Moment of the Day) on Twitter, and quite a few folks have joined me.  I thought it could be a micro gratitude journal, and would help me to focus on the blessings in my life instead of focusing on my complaints.  Another way of going complaint-free.  I didn't realize, however, how much I would enjoy reading other people's HMOTD. TarotbyArwen says it's subversive, and PeelAPom suggests it could become a meme. It's very fun. If you feel so inclined, please join in!

what i miss most about the island

watching the full moon rise over mountain

the quiet

the fresh salt air

the darkness at night and the brilliant stars

my neighbor colleen

the feeling of safety when I walk alone late at night

the water’s edge

the herons and eagles

the community

watching the full moon set over water

the quiet

the dark

the fresh salt air

the quiet

the water

the moon

These are the Tweets of Our Lives

Have you ever noticed how there's a direct correlation between the amount of sunshine and the number of blog posts that get written?   At least for me, I mean.  I have not wanted to spend hours here at this screen, just enough to keep up with Work for Clients.   I have, however, been Twittering. Because! it's! so! short!

In case you are one of those folks who have wisely decided to avoid this distraction, here's a few of my Tweets from the last few days:

Rainbow Alert! Late afternoon sun + prisms in clerestory windows = rainbows dancing everywhere. Then poof! they're gone. Until tomorrow.

Headed into the studio for an Art Day . . . working on the Eights, Air and Fire.

@almatierra I want some sparkling cranberry ginger mead!

Just in from an afternoon of weeding out front. Communed with Mother Sun and made friends with the neighborhood canines & crows.

Listening to the wind rustle leaves in the alder woods, and to birdcalls and birdsong wakening the morning.

Just sent out Waverly's newsletter - love the article on Complaint Free Zone! 

@caryszina I wish you were part of our Tarot group too. I'm cogitating on doing something like it via webconferencing . . . we'll see!

Overheard in the pool this morning: "Do you think Obama will bring down the price of gas?" Conservative senior citizens want to know.

This mermaid is completely, utterly and totally thankful that she gets to spend several mornings a week in the water.

Have a wonderful near-Solstice MoonDay!

Random Thoughts on Earth Day

(Earth Day morning!  This is the same view as the photo I took two days ago. Welcome Spring!)

I have a few thoughts and links for you today, on Earth Day 2008.

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, makes a good case in this NY Times editorial for why we should bother to “go green” these days, in the face of discouragement and despair that whatever we do won’t be enough to turn the tide of global climate change. 

It’s about a change in consciousness. 

“Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will,”  Pollan writes.   “That, after all, was precisely what happened in Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland, when a handful of individuals like Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik resolved that they would simply conduct their lives ‘as if’ they lived in a free society. That improbable bet created a tiny space of liberty that, in time, expanded to take in, and then help take down, the whole of the Eastern bloc.”

The Power of Joy

I’ve been reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle the last few weeks along with millions of other folks. I’m watching the video podcasts, writing in my journal, doing the exercises, discussing it with friends.   I’ve found that doors are opening in my psyche because of it, and a fresh wind is sweeping me clean.

Yesterday, during my morning devotions, I was listening to the audio file of Kim Eng’s Breath Awareness meditation.  As I watched my breath, my mind drifted over to the YouTube clip I had just watched of Brother David Steindl-Rast discussing the importance of gratefulness.  The interviewer asked him:  “Why is gratefulness important?”  Br. David answered that gratefulness brings us joy.  Many people have many things but they aren’t happy because they are not grateful for them.  “Joy,” he said, “is that happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.”

His statement reminded me of Eckhart Tolle’s image of a lake.  The surface of the lake might be calm and smooth, or very rough and stormy.   But the bottom of the lake is always vast and still and peaceful.   Be like the bottom of the lake, he advises us.   Come into presence.   

"Trapped in Paradise!"

Some faraway, online friends have recently asked me why we decided to move off the island.  "But you loved it so much," they say.  Yup, we did. 

Well, I could say it's because Craig's Pluto in Virgo is conjunct my own South Node.  An astrologer told me many years ago that he'll always be dropping bombs on my comfort zones . . . with the corollary, of course, of pushing me — kicking and screaming at times — towards growth and my destiny (North Node in Pisces in the 10th).

Or I could say that our decision to move last August coincided with the onset of Saturn in Virgo squaring my Moon in Taurus (translation:  complete restructuring of one's home life).  And that transit ends in May, when we'll be nice and settled in at Cedar Hills House.

But astrology, like Tarot, only points out the timing of opportunities and challenges in our lives.  It's up to us what we do with the bundle of energy that's available to us during those transits and progressions. 

Movin' on, movin' in . . .

All of our sorting, purging and packing is beginning to pay off.  We moved into a cycle of loading, unloading and unpacking boxes at Cedar Hills House (our new home) and doing a bit of nesting.   (Yes, all those boxes you see in the photo are the after-purge boxes!)   

Nora and I did a cleansing too, with a cauldron lit with native sage and a pocketful of island lavender for blessing.   We cleansed and blessed each doorway and window and room in the entire house, releasing the old and bringing in the new.  We especially blessed Craig and his hard work (he has turned the master bedroom into a righteous studio for me, with new paint and wooden floors.)  We ended our ceremony on the back deck (which you can see through the French doors), in front of Grandmother Cedar, undoubtedly the guardian spirit of this home.   She seemed pretty happy that we were moving in and was definitely pleased with the offerings of sage smoke and dried lavender. 

We'll be moving the furniture next week or the week after.  So, for now, we are between and betwixt, neither here nor there, or rather both at once.  Blessed be!