Moonful Musings by Phoenix of Elder Mountain – Greetings Dreamers, Artists and Magical Souls of Earth, this full moon begins Tuesday, December 13, 2016 and starts off our three Winter Moons. Winter Solstice is December 21st and a world-wide celebration by spiritual people, pagans, some religious and naturalists who all celebrate the return of the Light. I work with this time of the year as the Return of the Night – a return of our inner light. If Autumn/Halloween is the Season of the Witch, then Winter and its long winter’s nap is  certainly the Season of the Dreamer.

Winter’s Magic is our first powerful influence of nature when we are children, it teaches us about endurance and the need for warmth. It also shows us what nature looks like in her dress of emptiness in a positive way. Since she is the opposite of fullness and fertility of summer solstice, her stillness touches the wisdom of the time of peace when the oceans still at their greatest point which effects the collective humanity.

For eons the old souls have agreed upon this season as stillness and quiet and those who practice that with peace, stillness, silent retreats all honor a very feminine tradition called the great circle of life. So honor your moon cycle and join with those who practice the ways of peace by working with our own conflict or inner struggles.

There is a bit of extra magic this moon cycle because one of the Behenian fixed stars is conjunct this full moon and that is the  fixed star Capella at 21º conjuncting the Gemini Full Moon at 22º. Any conjunction 1 or 0 degrees apart, falls into the magical and becomes more powerful.

Capella is one of fifteen stars called the group of Behenians and considered especially useful for magical applications and good luck in the western Medieval and Arabic astrology. Their name derives from Arabic bahman which means root, and the root of anything is magical when its clear.

Ancient rituals even in the older shamanic cultures and pre-shamanic dream cultures relied on the power of many offerings nature gives us. In modern times (after 2200 bce), talisman, powerful circles, dream amulet or like my Slavic effigy Marzanna are all made or created for the whole of community, tribe or clan. After the middle ages, the winter moons, when karma energy is high, from millenniums of destruction before that, began to be used for protection against living humans’ shadows that roamed during the winter months. Our sacred ceremonies of prehistory turned into winter solstice protection ceremonies and today they are mainly town or village festivals.

Saturn is our applicable and personal influence this moon cycle. The New Moon/Capella alignment is opposing Saturn/Sun. Saturn means Structure and the Moon means Emotion or Structure in cooperation with Emotion. Structures of Saturn are authority with accountability, you cannot have one without the other, otherwise its imbalanced and corrupted even in simple people. An collective example right now is the corporate power of an oil pipeline and the police protecting it.

Its opposition is Emotional power of peace is playing out with Standing Rock Lakota, which great spirit chose them in particular to lead because of their commitment to peace. They set the intention for their land with peace and the collective whole world agrees with the Lakota. That is a lot of energy to contend with, so the forces of power and shadow enters the Moon’s emotional magic with the power that is in balance (accountable) or imbalanced. As long as the Lakota can hold the wildness into its peaceful structure it will be successful. This energy will last until the Winter Solstice when the Capricorn moon shifts the month again into a new layer.

Agrippa, discussed this fixed star in his Books of Occult Philosophy as the Behenii,  which is the occult magic of Hermes Trismegistus, which in other traditions is Thoth or the Hawk Messenger, which is a common tradition of the Middle Ages. In Greek mythology Capella is the Goat and the Cart, associated with Zeus who broke off one of its horn. This is where the horn of plenty folklore comes from.

Obviously these are all tied in with the Winter Solstice and winter’s survival folklore and myths. The Nordic peoples, Swedish, Norway and others always have the image of a tomte or nesse which is a hobbit, gnome or domovoi in the Slavic tradition in their more pagan Christ celebrations. They have as their symbols, a cart being pulled by a goat. This pagan tradition is popular based on the goat of Dionysus which is also Pan the tricksters giving gifts. A cat is also the symbol of the shape shifting Tomte or Nesse’s power as a forest clan.

In the Slavic folklore Capella is called Jastreb who is the messenger in the form of a Hawk, who flies high seeking the Mother Hen (the Pleiades) and the Rooster (Nath) which is the same story about the importance of abundance in the time of winter to stay nourished over the long dark nights and challenging weather.

Capella is also connected to the Sapphire stone and the wonderful herb Thyme. So when your speak your personal Full Moon ‘release or letting go intention’ hold some thyme in your hand or sprinkle in your circle or around you or add it to your ritual. Capella involves both the rulerships of Jupiter (expansion and knowledge) and Saturn (authority and survival), so if you do any magical art, amulets or talisman work, prayer work, rituals, ceremonies, please include Capella into your night for some magical energies.

With magical enchantment Full Moons we must be careful with what we “release and let go of” this full moon. This can be any negative attitude, or a self sabotaging behavior, a struggle, an addiction, or an unconsciousness that you wish. What makes it somewhat more powerful is because the unconscious expands into our conscious for healing purposes. Have you ever had a broken heart? Well its that kind of energy you truly let go of on an inner soul level with your intention or something current. We let go each full moon of what our issue is until it releases, for some that maybe three years, for others longer or shorter amounts of cycles, it depends on what it is.

So be wise with intention work on the new and full moon, now or in ten years, don’t bite off more than you can chew which means, let go of small things moon cycle after moon cycle and trust that you will know when you’ve reached a bigger cycle of release. Same too with karma, we must experience it in order for it to be real.  You must be willing to be flexible when you work with full moon release medicine, otherwise the rubber band of tension will snap back if you don’t let go what you set in the intent for letting go. This is because our unconscious emotional fear is the ruler of this spiritual wellspring.

After doing this practice a few decades, I experienced the fears to heal them, and they got bigger not smaller, because I was getting closer to core issues and the more I became conscious with awareness, the more I could experience. The deeper one goes into their fear, the more frightening it becomes when it touches our karma. But the structures over chaos in this practice holds you tight and you learn by doing it because each moon cycle you build each brick to your foundation of trust, clear judgment, emotional self nourishment and so forth. Real lunar work is divine but also very intense, ask any of my apprentices!

I attended a Women’s Visionary Counsel yesterday, which included a circle of maidens, mothers and wise women. It gave me a powerful obsidian mirror (collective mirror) of all the women’s circles I had lead exactly like this one each and every month from 35 years old until I was 57. The facilitator used the same things I did and I applied them each moon cycle: the dreamer’s water bowl in the center of the circle altar; the alignment with the practice of the power of working with intention; calling herself facilitator as I had done for 30 years; adding to my monthly moon cycle, I did my shamanic group ceremony and soul retrievals and dream journeys on the summer/winter solstices and the spring/autumn equinoxes. So I felt right at home and peaceful the entire day and it was a mirror for my closing of my 30 years as mother, closing those doors, all karma, teachings and integration and practiced disciplines, sacrifices etc all completed.

Last week I got four wrong numbers in four days from a man named “Zero” and after the third conversation I said its the zero that is important. The forth conversation I asked him not to call again and that our time was complete. He didn’t think it was a wrong number and I assured him it was. I then waited for the synchronicity of the unmanifest to manifest in this world, of why the kind alcoholic man brought his magician’s message to me.

It manifested at the Women’s Visionary Counsel gathering when a beautiful spiritual woman did her presentation of the Mayan work and spoke the word I had been anticipating in the synchronicity … ZERO Chiefs.

A 40 year energy wave moved within me at that moment, as I remember well Temple Doors, the prehistory woman Chief told in the story of Hyemeyohsts Storm’s book “Seven Arrows” published in 1972. It was my first introduction to Spirituality that was outside my own family  or personal shamanic experiences up until that point (I read it at 19),  it was a gift from my Sagittarian boyfriend (and four years later my husband), who gave it to me on the Winter Solstice that year.

The Magic of Winter and the enchantment has already enchanted me, so why not let it do the same for you the remaining of this moon cycle. Whether its your own shadow work if your having difficulty in your larger cycle right now, or your light that is seeking some connection. The circle of family, friends and spiritual friends all benefit from your journey because we suffer at being truly authentic in our processes of doing healing work and working with healers. We make others confront the uncomfortable things in life, because we have to.

I made an intention that I would do my healing work not only for me, but for my entire family line, I was going to suffer in my shamanic issues anyway for along time, and it was not going to stop until my initiations were complete, so I added that to my path and never regretted any of it. You must make your agreements as well in your path to develop spiritual maturity at the level and depth you can handle when making sacrifices of an emotional kind if it contributes to an increase in understanding and awareness.

Weaving our emotional life into the moon structures requires rest, rejuvenation, sobriety and hibernation is especially critical in winter moons. Slowing down in the age of Industrialism and Technology which keeps our mind-body “on” as if it were summer solstice all year long. Its a wise practice to turn this “off” in the Winter Moons and the younger you are, the easier it will be as you get older.

Gemini rules the hands, and as a symbol our hands mean our purpose. A palmist knows what every single tiny line on your hand means and then we experience it in action manifested. This is palmistry power, but looking at our hand without understanding or understanding symbolism is meaningless and disempowering. When it come to our emotional life the same applies and when it comes to our souls its impossible to do the work without it.

Set your “one letting go intention” of something that no longer serves your highest good and do your ritual with Thyme this moon cycle if you feel called.

See you at the next new moon and don’t forget we are still in the 28 1/2 day lunar cycle of Sagittarius so watch out for coyotes and heyokas that don’t get their lessons also, because it must be both, otherwise the coyote steals your energy and your left with none.

This was a more personal story this full moon, it was my final closing of my temple door of my maiden and mother stages. The transit took four years but I am finally standing at the zero mark of my new door to elder on this Winter Solstice! 2017 solstices and equinoxes will be a dreaming year to gather 13 Ceremonial Women Elders to create for community, rich in wisdom, ceremony and ritual circle for maidens, mothers and wise women.

Blessings, Phoenix and Elder Mountain

via First Full Moon of Winter — Elder Mountain Dreaming