Shake and Bake 81: New Calming Moon New Calming Practice?

Shake and Bakes are my quarterly check-ins (CHICKENS!). I use these posts to … shake out the happenings of my work and my  life in general in an attempt to Shake off the bad and Bake in the good. It’s about … gratitude, paying attention and living by the moon. Much thanks to HAVI over at the Fluent Self for inspiration and to APRIL at Big Sky Astrology for her monthly Working with the Moon booklets.  This is Shake and Bake #81 and because it is a New Moon post – it is more about intention than the shaking and the baking.

~~o~~ New Moon of Calming (in Cancer) ~~o~~

July’s Moon is known as:
Buck Moon (Algonquin) and Full Thunder Moon
Moon of Calming (Celtic)
Hay Moon (English)
Mead Moon (Medieval England  And Wiccan)
Rose Moon  (Neo-Pagan)
Summer Moon (Colonial America)
Ripe Corn Moon (Cherokee)
Crane Moon  (Choctaw)

Mmmmm the moon of Calming… doesn’t that sound lovely?  Sure does to me.

Shifting into the new moon zone a bit…late this moonth.  She actually arrived on Friday.  Shifting into a new habit/practice over at Sea Change and into a new way of paying attention to said habit as I posted about yesterday.

I’m going to keep this one short and simple.

~~o~~

Habit/Practice we are playing with this month:

De-cluttering.

Yerk.  I was resistant to this one.  Knowing full well that I have MUCH to de-clutter and yearning instead to spend some more time with Self Compassion and solidifying my Rising Early practice and…and… and… any fricken thing other than facing the dreaded CLUTTER of my life.

But as I grow and learn that it is all about Letting Go for me right now…. de-cluttering has arrived right on time.  And Leo’s approach is, as always, gentle, simple and do-able.  We start out with 10-15 minute chunks of time.  And the concept of de-cluttering involves all aspects of our lives… not just that bookshelf over there.  The plan is to begin with the physical and then move to other areas while still keeping up a 5-10 minute per day habit of de-cluttering our homes.

Works in fabulously with my new idea of using the Elements to deepen my practice.

So here’s how I’m gonna do it.

~~o~~

Week ONE – Θ (theta) earth – home – touch – body

• New Moon to 1st Quarter
• Focus on the doing – I have a few ideas of physical things to do around the house – clothes, the porch (as we are getting new windows I have to clear the decks anyhow), and those big book shelves in the living room that we need to clear off to put up the new curtains (hopefully before my SiL arrives for her summer visit).

Week TWO – Φ (phi) air – relationships – scent – mind

• 1st Quarter to Full
• Focus on the thoughts that rise up and also on … incoming information – be it online or off.  How much am I trying to cram into my wee brain?  Can I let go of some of it?

Week THREE – Χ (chi) fire – work – vision – will

• Full to Last Quarter
• Take time for a review, see if I need to tweak my plan for the moonth, see what there is to Release.
• Focus on Work – clearing up files on the computer and papers or simply continuing the de-cluttering of Sanctuary (AKA – editing).

Week FOUR – Ξ (ksi) water – health – taste – emotions

• Last Quarter to Dark Moon
• I’m thinking this would be a good time to work on becoming aware of which emotions are mine and which I am absorbing/taking on from those around me.  If possible, I would also like to practice letting go of these emotions that don’t rightly belong to me.

Ψ (psi) quintessence – spirit – hearing/listening

• Just before the Dark Moon
• I’ll do a separate review of the moonth’s four posts and see how it went, what I learned and how I plan to move forward with the practice.

~~o~~

Whew!  I better get to it, eh?  Especially as I’m late off the hop and the 1st Quarter chicken will be due on July 5th.

Before I go, I have to share this Weepingly Wonderful thing I read today over at Big Sky Astrology:

It’s a big round table that we’re all sitting at, more or less together, and even those of us who grew up with wise elders and stable households are still frightened children, sometimes. And sometimes there are bigger, stronger people protecting us from life’s harshness, but sometimes we’re the ones who have to fry the chicken and set the table. Even if you don’t have happy memories and protectors to make you feel cherished, here’s an unexpected truth: that taking care of other people can heal the part of you that no one looked after properly.

So at this New Moon, I wish you a good dinner at a strong table with people who care about you. I wish you memories of how you’ve been loved and places where you’ve been happy. And if you don’t have those things, go ahead and set your table, and make supper, and invite someone you know to share it with you. We’re strangers, most of us, but we’re sitting at that big table together, just waiting to become a family.

Isn’t that good?  So good.

Sending you wishes for a delicious July.

Go easy ~p