My journal...

When the Muse knocks, all too often I ignore her (to my own detriment!)

But after the New Moon Dreamboard yesterday, there's still some creative energy floating around...

A page from Toast's Spring lookbook, on which I wrote random words - which could become a poem...

dark, moist earth

rich compost

Bulb - orb

of new life

like an egg

bright strong stalks

pushing their way

through tp the Spring air

And here, small suns

trumpetting the arrival

of life.

Then poetry by Mary Oliver (Wild Geese) and Jeanne Lohmann (Invocation) - so integral to making my Dreamboard yesterday...

This journal is my Book of Me I'm making in a year and a day with Angel Sullivan. I've been a tad lax with entries, but I have till October to finish it :)

New Ash Moon Dreamboard...

... on Ash Wednesday, no less :)

Another powerful board, which came together very easily...

Somehow, I knew this morning as this landed in my mailbox from the lovely folk at Panhala.net, this would be a GOOD Dreamboard. And yes, I read it aloud as an invocation as I prepared myself to make this New Moon Dreamboard

Invocation

Let us try what it is to be true to gravity,
to grace, to the given, faithful to our own voices,

to lines making the map of our furrowed tongue.
Turned toward the root of a single word, refusing

solemnity and slogans, let us honor what hides
and does not come easy to speech.  The pebbles

we hold in our mouths help us to practice song,
and we sing to the sea.  May the things of this world

be preserved to us, their beautiful secret
vocabularies.  We are dreaming it over and new,

the language of our tribe, music we hear
we can only acknowledge.  May the naming powers

be granted.  Our words are feathers that fly
on our breath.  Let them go in a holy direction.

~ Jeanne Lohmann ~ 

(Between Silence and Answer)

As always, I use Amy Palko's Bloom by Moon to learn about the Ash Moon...

The Ash has very deep roots to draw up the Earth's goodness. For the Celts it was the Tree of Life, for its roots went down so far into the Lower World, its branches reached so high into the Upper World, and its tall, straight trunk stood tall in the Middle World.

Left-hand page

Water and emotions are strong in this New Moon of Aquarius, but Amy also ties in the 'soft animal of your body' (from Mary Oliver's Wild Geese poem) as the outer expression of those emotions...

As the Ash tree connects the Worlds ('As above, so below'), can we in our animal bodies connect our deep, inner worlds and share them truthfully and honestly. Can we, as Mary Oliver says 

let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

I plan to ponder these things each day until my next Dreamboard on the Full Moon.

I'd love to know if you have any thoughts/insights...

And I just had to share this, taken this morning

Molly-cat knows her soft animal body loves to sleep in the warm sunlight (even though it's freezing outside!!)

Full Moon Dreamboard

What a morning! Flipping Google is making my online life a misery **ggrrrr**

But now I've finally been able to log into both Blogger and Picasa, and I can post my Rowan Full Moon Dreamboard, even if I can't get the image of the whole spread to upload... *sigh*

Left-hand page
Starting top-left is this year's We'moon Diary page for Imbolc which begins...

The NEW ONES are stirring. Feel the vibration of Nature in February. Every-thing in potential, teeming underground...

And underneath is an image from a card called 'Replenishing Her Spirit' by Laurel Porter-Gaylord, and I'm certainly feeling this deep in my belly as I make this Dreamboard...

Then, top-right is an image of a woman communing with a tree and the words 'A Walk on the Wild Side' from a magazine advert. Underneath is an image of a raven in the snow from a card and finally a gorgeous image of a winter goddess, her face illuminated by runes...

Right-hand page

At the top are pages from old We'Moon diaries showing a woman drumming a painting by Melissa Harris (2010) called 'With Soul', a wee image called 'Ancient Moonlight' by amara hollow bones (2009) and this powerful poem by Robin Rose Bennett (2011)

The Times We're Living In

It is not so easy to see what is birthing

Beneath the surface of the world, 

Getting ready to emerge

Like a newborn crowning.

As old ways of domination and violation

Fight to hold sway,

A great birthing has begun,

The birth of a new way

Of being in the world

A way of re-connection and shared power,

A way of cooperation and love.

We are flowering out of the mud

Of our darkest time of separation

Evolving from the time of me

To the time of we.

This time is difficult, yes,

But it is also juicy and joyous.

It is not easy to soar through mud

But mud is rich and fertile

And out of mud

The lotus blooms.

At the bottom of the page is another We'Moon image by Autumn Skye Morrison called 'A Keeper's Promise' (2007) and two quotes from last year's calendar, which just sum up this whole Dreamboard

There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.

Han Suyin

and

In the end, it's all about Love.

Before the end of this moon's cycle, we will encounter St Valentine's Day - not a day I've ever chosen to celebrate, for me Love is just so much MORE then romance, and flowers, and chocolates...

It is THE truly BIG concept, which covers every human interaction with the world in which we live - starting with the Love we have for ourselves... *eek* Probably one of the hardest loves to practise...

I don't see it as a coincidence that this is the 13th Full Moon Dreamboard I've made... It is the number of the goddess, of feminine spirit, and I can just feel the energy seeping out of it... Can you??

Happy accident...

I overslept and almost missed seeing Mama Luna as she slipped over the horizon behind the trees...
In my rush, I fumbled with the zoom button on my wee camera, and some how discovered EXTRA zoom!!

Now, if only I can figure out what I did...

I'll be making my Full Moon Dreamboard today and will share later. Who knows what other happy accidents will occur :D

Happy Imbolc!

What a day!
There is bitter cold and death...

... and there are sunny spots and life.

It's the feast of Candlemas, the story of presenting the baby Jesus at the Temple and the prophecies of Anna and Simeon.

And it's St Brigid's Day and Imbolc, the time of 'stirrings in the belly'. The time for making reed crosses and bridie dolls...

What a confluence of stories and traditions across times and cultures...

It is a powerful, in-and-out-of-time, kind of day! 

In the northern hemisphere, it is the beginnings of Spring and lengthening days. And I, for one, am so glad the long, dark month of January has passed, and the light is returning! 

I love how the sun's rays are just catching the head of the wee bridie doll above to give her a halo!!

Here's the closing blessing of Christine Valters Paintner's Stirring in the Belly mini retreat for today:

May you feel the seeds in your belly rumbling

as they yearn to break open and release new life.

May the breaking open of these seeds be

an earthquake shifting the plates of your soul.

May you notice the tiny green shoots

breaking through the ground of your awareness.

May you feel the pull of your very being

reaching toward the abundance of God,

as the stem is drawn toward the sunlight.

May you experience the unfurling of your petals

one by one in a blaze of color.

May you feel yourself stretched wide

in a posture of welcoming to all that is yet to be spoken within you.

As your petals fall gently to the ground

May you remember that after blossoming

Comes the journey toward fruit.

Amen!!