River of Time, Drozda, 2007, 14 x14", Acrylic on wood
Welcome to the Balsamic Moon….this is the phase that signifies the end before the next beginning. Here is where wonder opens.
Shhhh. This week offers a quieting time.
It extends from today Monday, October 4 through Thursday, October 7.
Thursday, October 7 brings the New ‘Experience/Introspection’ moon cycle. The New phase lasts until October 10, when Sunday’s Crescent phase enters….we’ll catch up with that next Monday.
Let’s take a look at what this week’s energy offers:
Each month you and I receive the Balsamic period so that space is made for rest and release. Think soft lights, pajamas and a cup of tea. It’s a period of time to engage in closure. It’s a wonderful time to let go and dream. Placed into context: take time to release what you’ve been building since the last New Moon on September 8.
If you’re feeling motivated stretch time out and release whatever has visited you since the Spring Equinox. Consider what you don’t want to carry into the six months ahead. Once that’s done begin to dream.
Gently hold your vision and the image of what it is you will create as the New Experience/Introspection cycle enters on Thursday, October 7. What is your dream to create during the ‘Experience’ of your art/life at this time? When the New phase arrives it might be very soothing to create a collage of what quieting looks like to you. You may find it empowering to write a poem or an essay to express to yourself, and to a trusted other, what you visualize your 2011 to look and feel like. It’s a time of year when present is fed by the future in an alchemical fashion. This moon cycle is a time of shape shifting. Take some time to intuitively sense the full range of the creative gifts coming to meet you.
October is an exciting energy month. Visualize the natural circle of the year. The circle of the seasons is a calendar based upon natural rhythms. Recall how at the Spring Equinox you stepped into something new. There may have been a dynamic freshness opening up to your creative skills and capabilities. There may also have been challenges that would test your strength to persevere. Throughout the spring and summer you were able to see how you lived out of a natural drive or ambition. Something required your motivation. There was something that only you could address. You had to keep at it and you were dedicated to see it through, to make it happen. It may have been an expected or an unexpected focus yet there you were…a sense of ‘keep on keeping on’ kept you going.
Spring Dance: Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Drozda 2010
How excellent to be able to look over your shoulder and see how you made it through. It’s natural during the spring/summer to experience the sense of beginning. There’s a fledgling quality. A childlike exploration that carries the height of the masculine/out-going/assertive vibes. Come Fall Equinox, and the half-way point of the year circle, a natural shift occurs. A vibrant maturity settles within. You can dance for the joy of it! You can simultaneously breathe quieter and more relaxed. The inherent energy now becomes feminine/inward/receptive.
Rapture of the Veil, Angela Stroup, Artist and Dancer, Watercolor
Yesterday I went to a wonderful celebration called ‘Sisterhood of the Dance’. There were dozens of beautiful women expressing themselves. My friend and fellow artist Angela danced solo. She reminded me of how artists give the natural rhythm of the season a place to live. It’s intuitive. There is a pulsing with the rhythm of the earth and her seasons. Feel it within your heart. Continue to Tap Tap Tap. We’re now quietly sending out a signal that ‘all is well’ as we focus upon the inner work of the creative turn into the underworld. We’re not deluding ourselves, as artists, we have a wonderful vocation….we build a better world.
Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like a brick; re-made all the time, made new.
Ursula LeGuin
OCTOBER IS THE PERFECT ‘ACT AS IF’ MONTH. Imagine each day that you are experiencing the best creative art/life. Keep a journal. Note the ways that you love your life experience. This month is the entrance into our six months of ‘working behind the scenes’. Here you can quietly meet your true nature. Your True Nature is always reaching to meet you. You are never completely formed. What will come to meet you in the coming year? Continue simply sitting and gazing softly for 15 minutes as you visualize the very best of you calling you forward into 2011. This week gives you time to set the dream into your heart.
At Wren House, Drozda, 2010
It may appear that this stone is just sitting there…let’s imagine that we each hold a stone, a natural piece of the ancestral earth, and that we’re building the best Art/Life in creative unity.
Art is the creative play of the human mind.
Gary Snyder
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May wonder open to meet you~
Iona
Virginia
Beach,
this is so fascinating…earlier today I wrote to a colleague that I am working form “as if” mode, preparing to lead meditation this weekend, even though at the moment I cannot sit up without my head jerking about…and I wrote to another friend…and the word verification that came up was “listen”…so I am listening and praying that all will be well…and acting as if all is (because ultimately, all is well, as it should be, needs to be… in this moment)
gentle steps
Donna – I do love October + it has an added energy for me being my birthday month. Thank you for your posts and one day soon I hope to see a book with all the amazing work of yours! xoxox
I love this october time of year so much, and maybe the combo of balsamic moon with october feels the yummiest of all right now. Your messages resonate, I’ll practice to dream
I love the powerful beauty of Angela, owning the rapture!! gorgeous. and the adorableness of the little ones? too cute!
xoxox 2u K
A quieting time …. I imagine art in calming pebble colours.
That we are never completely formed is a wonderful thought.
The gift you gave yourself
and now give to us, is truly blessing.
You do this thing you do beautifully.
tap tap tap…
yes, doing things in “unity” we will change/Rock the world
Donna,
I like your words: “When the New phase arrives it might be very soothing to create a collage of what quieting looks like to you.” I’ve been looking for that perfect antidote that can help me to quiet and I think I’ve found it in your suggestion. Making the ineffable visible helps me to internalize it. Gracias amiga.
For awhile, I was taking time to write each morning and it was such a liberating experience, but as things often go, I eventually stopped. Now you have given me the incentive to begin again. What a wonderful idea to begin each day noting the way one loves their life experiences and to think about the possibilities, not only for 2011, but for that day.