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Upcoming New Harvest Moon 2024
The next New Moon will be a ‘Harvest Supermoon’, and what a time to be breaking down old things, and preparing to begin anew! We are in the midst of cleaning out and packing up ahead of our sale of our coastal home… for a move towards mountains in mid-October. At the same time, I continue addressing chronic health issues, and not the least – my goal of assessing and culling practices in my spiritual life.
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New Flower / Plum Moon 2024
This coming Tues/Weds brings us the New Flower (or, in Chinese – Plum) Moon, and begins the ‘Plum Flower Month’ according to the Chinese Lunar calendar. I am certainly excited for a chance to practice some Cha Dao for this occasion, but even more pleased to be turning towards renewal. This is also the time of the Chinese calendar node of ‘Start of Summer’ or ‘Summer Begins’, which is certainly true where I am currently living on the coast. We were all breaking out the shorts this weekend! Dragonflies have reappeared, and so much is really in bloom! I believe that adherence to a seasonal calendar brings us that much…
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Inward Bound
I am thinking quite a bit about the Osho quote I noted in my last post. A number of other spiritual concepts have since surfaced (one that was rather starkly predicted in a card reading before the new moon). I am willing myself to be open, and to follow the Dao / Spirit wherever she leads me. At this juncture, I am inclined to turn inward in my spiritual life, and return to a more eremitic/monastic lifestyle.
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The Lotus Moon 2023
The incoming lunar phase of this period, according to Chinese Daoist tradition, (Deng Ming-Dao, The Lunar Tao), is the Lotus Moon. It is known primarily in the USA in its fullness as the Buck or Thunder Moon, and the latter certainly makes the most sense for my region: this is usually a time of some wild storms here on the Southeastern Coast! For this 2023 Lotus Moon period, I hope to spend time evaluating my lifestyle and practices to see if they are really in alignment with the three Daoist treasures of Simplicity, Compassion and Humility. Am I ‘following nature’ and ’embracing virtue’? I fear that I have been responding…
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Retreat and Ordination – April 22, 2022
I was ordained as a Daoist priestess on Earth Day, 2022. This was one of a number of coincidences, or perhaps ‘synchronizations of the Dao’. Traveling up to the incredible Black Mountain Retreat Center in Cazadero, California, were six of us Daoists from various home states. The drive became rainy, dark, and nerve-wracking as the road narrowed and curved continually back and forth up the mountain. Even with the white-knuckled journey, one could not deny the absolute beauty of this place.