Newspapers, blogs and newscasts are bursting with images of the past decade and best of 2009 lists. I’ve participated in some of it. I enjoy the retrospection and introspection of it all, but today, I’m cranky.
I was going to write about the blue moon, the eclipse, everything appearing to go backwards in the sky and how that will impact our resolutions. I was going to write something about creating intentions for the new year, the new decade. I was going to suggest various activities including collages, stories and letters to self. I kept putting it off because, quite frankly, it was boring me; all this coach-speak.
New Year’s Day is my favorite holiday. It’s a bona-fide do-nothing holiday that one is not required to spend with family. That means, I get it all to myself, at home, in the woods, and that’s usually how I spend it. I plot out what I know about the year ahead, I hike, I put birthdays on the new calendar. I dream into an entire year in one day and then I pop back again to the present. Most often I end up completely disoriented by all the “time travel.”
I pull an angel card and two Spirit Cards (I AM and I WILL) for the year and I will pay attention to how they speak to me all year long. Early in January, I attend a Tarot Pilgrimage with Pamela Eakins and I pull a Tarot of the Spirit card for every month of the year. I divine the year and then I see what unfolds.
I have intentions. I intend to make more money. I intend to find a larger home. I intend to play more music and I intend to fall in love at least long enough to have some fun. None of these intentions are new. I’ve been intending them for many months if not the entire prior year. (OK, my whole life.) I put my spirit, heart and mind into these intentions, but it takes awhile for physical form to catch up. So, while I wait, I try to keep up with the Twitter and Facebook feeds.
Here’s the thing. With all the astro-activity going on, we don’t stand a chance! Mercury is retrograde until January 15th. That means we will over-research things before acting, we will over-think things and our electronics and our communication will be out of whack. Travel generally suffers then as well. Additionally, Mars is retrograde and that leaves us with lower energy. Mars tests us. As astrologist Risa D’Angeles points out:
“When retrogrades occur it means the information and energy we’ve built up since the last retrograde now needs to be assessed and reviewed. The entire world is to go into a contemplative phase. It is a time of retreat and quietude.”
January 1st or not, we are in a portion of the cycle that is not conducive to starting new behaviors and ventures in an active to-do way.
Now, if that’s not enough to deflate one’s resolution balloon, perhaps science will. It seems that will power is handled by the same part of the brain that handles short term memory. The more we are trying to do in any one moment, the less will power we have. If you want to know about the studies that show this, read the Wall Street Journal article, Blame it on the Brain. Meanwhile, if you can be like Buddha and sit under the Bodhi tree, you might stand a chance of having enough will power to stop eating sugar, stop smoking, and keep that daily dose of wine to 4 ounces.
Finally, New Year’s Eve sees a blue moon; the second full moon in a month. This is the first one to happen on NY Eve in 20 years and the next time this occurs will be in 2028. We say once-in-a-blue moon because it means something that rarely happens. This blue moon will be partially eclipsed and eclipses mean some things will disappear from our physical reality. This might be a good thing and it might not. It depends upon what it is that disappears from your reality and how attached to it you are.
But wait, there’s more!
Risa explains that the moon goes void-of-course on January 1st and the impact it can have is that our lives and routines may feel disrupted. Perhaps this is good if we want to change habits. Perhaps it is not.
If you are able to follow through on your resolutions from day 1, it will truly be a once-in-a-blue-moon miracle.
So here’s what I intend to do about it:
Very little!
Very little steps
Very little effort
Here’s how I intend to be with it:
Very aware
Moving with ease
Gentle with myself
I plan on making every day New Year’s Day, evolving my capacity to bring exquisite awareness to each moment and mindfulness to activities. I plan on making every evening New Year’s Eve by reviewing the day, forgiving myself for failings and celebrating successes. I’ll calibrate and re-connect with my heart for improved navigation. I’ll regroup and reground, so that whatever winds may blow, I’ll be in touch with that which centers me.
Things change when we place our awareness upon them. Our once-in-a-blue-moon miracles stand a chance if we cast our intentions from our brilliant imaginations and open hearts and become present enough to be response-able in each moment.
I plan to fail and flail and sail and I intend to have a good time doing it.
After all, it’s not about control. It’s about Love.
Here’s a little Blue Moon song for you, dear readers!
Copyright (c) December 2009, Kathy J Loh, All Rights Reserved
It’s wonderful writing back,
as I listen to “once in a blue moon”,
now I know why I’m extra tired and slow to rev up!
Mars is retro, too. Holi Moli fuse!
What can we do but lean back and laugh,
like a specter on a front porch rocker!
Never mind that we’re a jogger,
or a super woman dancing juju’s at Nia’s
for our She is
hell,,, if I may say so, we’re already accounted for
by the energies,
now I’ll relax a little as I plunge forward
into the thick of the moon’s toward,
more than a new year,
we’re rounding the corner of another extreme cycle
of Love,
cycle in, cycle out
let me continue to trust that what She brings me,
after my santa list,
is what brings me my greatest satisfaction
into serving my purpose,
and loving my Jeweled community…
I must trust.
Let go of a lot…
Spain, the desert,
my spacecat Principe
to come back to the Americas,
which I never dreamed that I would be here…
nor with my father…
where right republicanism marches on the tv screen…
Holi Moli, I’m a lesson in perseverance,
and not letting any thing, any thing,
affect me, pull me down into the mire
of the wire.
until my mind/emotions become simply my beckon call,
and I’m no longer separate from it all!
hugs,
Annie
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Annie – you blow my mind! Holi Moli is right! Beautiful writing… hugs and love and laughter to you!
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i know so little about astrology and tarot cards, i’ve read several times trying to take it all in. learning about tarot is on my list for 2010. i’ve dusted those card sets long enough.
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How funny! We were reading each other’s blogs and commenting at the same time!
I highly recommend Tarot of the Spirit and Lightning Spiral Mystery School for your dive into Tarot. Pamela has a number of courses starting up soon, some on-line. https://tarotofthespirit.com/Tarot_Workshops.html
I’m new to it all myself and find it the perfect companion for those of us who dance in the Mystery.
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I love how you spend New Year’s – it sounds totally blissful!!!!
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Hi Beth! Thank you – yes it is blissful, if I let it be so (hee hee). Happy New Years to you wonderful one!
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Love your post. Indeed a turning to something totally new and I suspect in a new way too.
Little steps, slowing down, enjoying, diving into the richness of the moment. I feel as I move into 2010 I am putting my face to the wind and allowing the wind and rhythm of the earth to move me forward. Maybe it’s turning 50 yesterday……….
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Happy Birthday Karen! 5-0 – a big one indeed! I’ve always known you to be someone who honors the rhythms of the earth and your own heart. I like what you say about turning to something totally new in a new way. All part of the great shift perhaps? Even if we can’t always articulate what we feel, we can still honor it. See you on the path!
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