New Moon Musings - Feb. 2023
Hello dreamy Mid-Winter energy...
Have you allowed the magic of this last moon cycle to work its wonders on you?
Did you allow the stillness of the season to create space for new ideas to rise up within you?
We can get so busy with our to-do list that it’s easy to get caught in the doing of life. We forget how to be still enough to welcome in inspiration and innovation when we feel stuck in the status quo (aka: the hamster wheel of modern life).
This time allowed me to feel into the places of rigidity in my life that were strangling me, and doing the healing work to loosen these mental prisons is creating space for new ways to find the medicine in the mess of everyday life.
This month I’ll cover:
🔥 the transformative energy of this time of year;
🍋 how to make Sunny-aid for chasing away winter blues; and
😇 how to embrace trusting ourselves by working with this moon cycle.
Hello, Midwinter 🔥
We have officially crossed into midwinter - is anyone else starting to feel “the itch”? The one that tells you the Earth is preparing to gear up from spring. 🌎
In the north, the sap starts running in the maple trees, while here in the south the Live Oak Trees drop their old leaves for bright shiny green new ones. And humans start to feel restless from being cooped up inside for winter. We feel the itch to get out and move, when really this is the time to start laying the groundwork for what seeds we want to sprout in Spring.
After taking the Yule Season to evaluate how our previous year went, we move into the Celtic season of Imbolc - this is the time of year to figure out how we can innovate our lives, shift things up a notch. When we light a fire in the darkness, it signals the hope of the return of the warm sunshine of Spring.
🔥 I also love this because the Element of Fire represents our creativity, transformation, passion, and creating fertile ground for new growth. Forest fires create space and nourishment for the trees left behind, just as we weed a garden and add compost to the soil before planting. So, what are you ready to burn away to create room for new sprouts in the Spring?
Fire this time of year also represents a light in the dark of winter, a chance to see the darkness within ourselves more clearly so it can be transformed to create space within ourselves for soul growth.
In most traditional indigenous cultures, life is perceived and lived as cyclical rather than linear. Rituals are used to mark seasons of the Earth and ceremonies to mark the passage of a human life through those cycles as it progresses and expands.
🌀 This is the time of year to ask, are we going to repeat the same spiral, or is it time to see our patterns from a higher perspective?
And here’s where life gets fun for me. I literally made up the word for my practice! The name for my practice, "The Alkhemaerie", came from my love of holding containers for deeply transformative inner work (Al-khem is the old Persian word for Egyptian science and magic - the origin of the word “alchemy”) and my love and connection to osprey (fish hawks) who build huge sturdy nests very high up giving them a safe, elevated view of the world (they’re called aeries).
Whenever we get to a cycle of the year where we can take a higher view of our lives to see more clearly what patterns we might be caught in, it is an exciting time for discovery and growth.
Time to trust yourself more than anyone else
🌙 As we welcome this Pisces New Moon (Feb 20), it’s the perfect time to ask how and where we can embrace more trust in the subtle magic in our lives.
Where can view our lives with more trust that what we encounter is helping us grow and/or let go of what we’ve outgrown?
Where can we lean more into our intuitive and instinctual wisdom to guide us in our daily life, rather than be a slave to our to-do list or societal expectations?
What seed of trust would you like to plant that allows you to feel more at ease in your body and your life?
This time of year is when our dreams will do their best to highlight what our blind spots are, before they can erupt in our waking life. Pisces season is a very dreamy, intuitive energy, and at its finest is the energy of compassion and connection with the Divine. (At it’s worst, it’s addictive escapism to avoid reality)
🌙 If your dreams are getting wacky, your soul is doing its best to help you process whatever is shifting in your life.
🙈 The Full Moon on March 7 will ask you where you need to step out of any illusions you’re holding onto so you can begin embodying the life you dream of.
If you’re stuck in a Groundhog Day repeat loop and need some help getting a clear message, I’d love to help!
✨ I’m a certified Dream Worker/Teacher, and offer an intro video series here, as well as Dream Readings over the phone when you need specific guidance.
Ready to get your Kitchen Witch on? 🍋
Between being stuck inside, having the (dry) heat on, and maybe not getting enough sunshine, it’s easy for our immune systems and bodies to take a beating.
I developed my own version of an electrolyte drink almost 9 years ago for the home birth of my daughter, however, over the years it’s become one of our favorite drinks to make when we need hydration or a bright pick-me-up.
🍋 The Meyer lemon trees were in bloom when my daughter was born and I could smell them in the air in the morning sunshine. So they are my favorite way to make the recipe - they are a hybrid of a lemon with an orange so they’re slightly sweeter than oranges and a lovely source of vitamin C.
This recipe is also full of electrolytes that we need to maintain good hydration (when the heat is on in our house it dries out our bodies like grapes turning into raisins), and the honey moistens the body while being a nourishing sweetener.
Recipe: Sunny-Aid 🍋
Makes: Half a gallon drink, or a tray of ice cubes/popsicles. Easily doubles.
Total Time: ~10-15min
Ingredients:
3.5 c high quality coconut water (ideally, the “Harmeless Harvest” brand in the cold drinks section has the most nutrients in it)
1 c lemon, lime, or orange juice, fresh squeezed
1/4 c raw local honey
1-3 c water (1c if freezing for popsicles/ice cubes; 3c for a drink)
.5 tsp Celtic sea salt (*optional in summer for extra support on hot sweaty days)
You’ll need a half gallon container
Directions:
Juice the fresh citrus until you have 1c of juice (depends on which ones you pick). Pick citrus that smells lovely and is a little soft when you squeeze it. Meyer Lemon is ideal, however a mix of an orange and a few lemons will taste similar. Lemon and Lime is a fun twist. Roll the fruit, pressed under your hand, hard on the counter a few times before juicing to loosen the flesh.
Mix the juice, coconut water, honey, + 1c water, until honey is dissolved in a half gallon container. You can first melt the honey in the 1c of warm water to dissolve it. If using the salt, add it here too.
If freezing for popsicles or making ice cubes - pour into molds and freeze. A few ice cubes added to a water bottle for the day is lovely!
If making a drink, add 2 more cups of water here, and store in the fridge for up to a week.