Welcome to day three.
What is the moon?
What is she all about?
And why do we bring our attention to her?
That's what we'll be discussing today for the first few minutes and then I'll drop us into a meditation.
So the moon quite literally is a floating mass cycling in our orbit.
Or perhaps we're cycling in her orbit.
Who's really to say,
Right?
The moon is cyclical and the Sun is what gives her directionality.
And also the Sun gives us linear time.
A teacher of mine named Robin Wall Kimmerer invites us to call living beings,
He,
She,
They,
Kin,
To describe beings on the planet.
Instead of calling the Sun an it or the moon it,
Look at it in the sky.
What does it do for us?
Robin suggests that personifying and bringing this quality of beingness to what we have typically considered objects,
Brings more animacy and brings these beings,
These living beings,
To life for us.
So another teacher of mine named David McConaughey shared with me that across many cultures,
The Sun is seen as masculine and the moon is seen as feminine.
So that is why I am using the specific he pronouns for the Sun and she pronouns for the moon.
La luna in Spanish,
La is feminine,
El sol is the Sun,
El is masculine.
Right?
So in many languages and many cultures,
This is very common.
And so throughout this course,
I will be referring to the moon as she.
And I invite you to try that on,
See how it works for you.
See how it feels in your body,
In your awareness as you say she.
So the Sun is zooming through space and it's dragging all of the planets with him.
The moon orbits him,
Creating cycles.
The combination of the two is what makes time a spiral and not as linear as us human beings might think.
And the moon gives us really rich information about how to spiral with her.
And so the invitation today for our meditation is to see if we can feel somatically in our bodies,
The spiral,
The pull,
The centripetal force of how we are a part of the universal cycle.
So today we will with the pull of the moon and tune into her power.
You know,
The moon controls the tides and we are 80% water.
So we are intimately tied in with her.
And I believe there is value in following along with her cycles.
So we just might be able to ride the cycle to ride the ride with a bit more ease spiraling up.
So when we are sitting still in meditation,
We are still flying through time and space,
Spinning and orbiting,
But it's subtle.
And so let's tune in to that subtle spinning,
That subtle orbiting and just notice what happens today.
Find yourself in a comfortable position.
I will ring the bell to begin and I will ring the bell to close offering some guided meditation.
As you settle into your space,
I invite you to make yourself really comfortable,
Noticing what you get to offer yourself to make yourself just a little bit more comfortable.
I invite you to flip your palms so they are facing up to turn on the senses and to start to feel what it's like to sit still.
I invite you to notice your breath,
How it feels in your body right now.
Focusing on the inhalation and exhalation or finding an anchor that works for you.
With every out breath just releasing any tension,
Any thoughts,
Any stirring that might be underneath the surface and invite in some slowness.
See if you can invite in some space,
Noticing the rise and the fall of your chest.
And perhaps you are curious to play into inviting that breath down into your diaphragm and then maybe you drop the breath even deeper all the way down into the low belly.
So on the inhales we're expanding out like a balloon and on the exhales we are contracting.
Expanding and contracting the flow of all things.
Expansion and contraction.
I invite you to turn on your creativity hat,
Your imagination for a while and in your stillness see if you can feel while you continue to breathe the spiral that is happening right now on this planet.
As you notice or if there's anything to notice,
What do you observe?
Which way are you spiraling?
Which way are we turning?
See if you can play with it.
It's subtle,
How much can you tune into the subtle nature of this universe?
Simply breathing and feeling,
Feeling this centripetal force.
Invite some play.
Invite curiosity.
What if we could feel ourselves moving the rest of our solar system?
Beyond our solar system.
During this time of the new moon,
The moon is on the other side of the earth traveling with the Sun.
And there are three days where we cannot see the moon because the Sun is blocking her.
The last day of darkness for this phase.
So as you breathe and as you feel into the movement,
Allow some darkness to be there.
We can't see the moon yet.
Really allowing anything to be there.
It doesn't have to be the darkness,
But just being open to what's arising in connection with the moon cycle.
Expansion,
The breath in,
And contraction,
The breath out.
Expansion,
The light,
Contraction,
The dark.
I invite you to offer compassion to yourself,
No matter what's coming up.
And on the inhale,
Noticing what's present in your body.
And on the exhale,
Just letting it go,
Dropping your effort.
Inhale,
Noticing.
Exhale,
Releasing.
Can you sync yourself with the moon?
Can you bring mindful awareness of the moon into your life?
I invite you to carry this forward with you throughout your day.
The expansion and the contraction as we spiral right here on this sacred,
Magnificent planet Earth we call home.
Thanks for joining.
See you tomorrow.
