July’s new moon happened on July 28th and is in the zodiac sign of Leo, the lion. This new moon has particular potency when it comes to energy. Not only because it is in the sign of Leo but also because it is in a trine with Jupiter in Aries. This trine adds a cloak of good luck, optimism, and so much potential overall of our intentions and actions!
(*I’ve read that Jupiter is all about expansion! Bringing faith, optimism, and hope to all zodiac signs on this new moon.)
So what does all of this mean for you?
This means that this week, even a few days after the new moon as the energy is still vibrating, is a good time for you to get clear on your intentions. New moons always are inviting us to turn over a new leaf, to revisit our intentions, to revisit our dreams, and to realign with ourself.
Realigning with your Higher Self requires space and time. Before I dove into learning what this new moon particularly represented, I had been connecting with this quote from Morgan Harper Nichols from last week’s classes:
“In this ever busy world, there is still time and space for us to explore who we are beyond the messages we thought would define us.”
How powerful.
Can you remember when you were a child and thinking that you would become (add your vision that did not actually come into fruition)?
Can you remember being young and thinking that you would act and speak and be a certain way when you grew up, that isn’t true today?
Even now, at whatever age you happen to be today, and if it’s your birthday, happy birthday, can you set aside all the messages of what you thought would define you and ask this question…
If you had no limitations, what would you want?
For a moment, release all the ways you define and know yourself. As best you can, step into the Unknown in which everything is possible, you are limitless, you are infinite, and you hold an unprecedented positive potential! Go ahead, add a physical stance and embody it, make a sound or noise, scream out that most awesome mantra like the rock star you are!
How does it feel? What feels possible here, now?!
Again, what do you want? How do you want to feel? What do you desire most? What is your heart’s burning desire? Take a moment at this point, put this blog down, pick up your pen and paper and write it all out!
Writing is such an embodied practice.
Place the paper you wrote on at your altar space. Post it where you can see it every day. Make a ritual with it if you want; You could even light a candle or just simply give gratitude to the energy of the universe that is supporting you along this entire journey that is your life; your intentionally lived life.
Intentions can help support a movement of action towards our dreams. Intentions can help us see the next actionable step. Intentions infuse an energy of positivity in our everyday lives.
Exercise:
In a standing position, let your arms rest by your sides. On an inhale, raise your arms out and up to the sky as you breathe in. As you exhale, spread your arms out and down, back by your sides. Do this a couple of times. Notice what you notice.
Now, set one clear intention as you’ll do the movements a second time.
Let your intention be short so that you can say it in one sentence. Let your intention be very clear and simple. Let your intention come from your heart. An example of an intention might be, “I intend to stay present during my movement.” Another example might be, “I intend to breathe with my body.” Maybe your intention is, “I feel ease and peace as I move.”
Keeping your intention in your heart, move your arms up and down in rhythm with your breathing a second time. Notice what you notice.
Did your movement change at all? Did your experience shift in any way? If so, in what ways? How was it to have an intention versus no intention? Feel free to write to me and let me know.
Having an intention can support us in many ways. I wrote about intentions and you can read about it here.
*A little side note about how intentions can support us in getting back into that space of actually experiencing what Morgan Harper Nichols was getting at, that sense of “time and space for us to explore”. Goals can often be finite and have some specific number attributed to them. Intentions can open us up to the vastness of how we want to feel in our life, what we want to experience in our life, and many other things.
Journal Prompts:
-How would you like to feel in your life?
-What do you want to be experiencing in your life?
-What do you want?
-What do you desire?
With this new moon in Leo, the Lionheart really invites us to stand in our power and truth!
To roar out loud our place in all things, and to explain our heart centered intentions. It invites us to make our passions a reality. To listen to our intuition, revisit our dreams, reimagine the changes we so desire, and to create the vision forward. The essence of the sign of Leo invites us to really go big, to cut away our fears, and most of all to be willing to do this!
Experience:
Clasp your hands together in front of your navel, and press palm to palm with all fingers in her lace. Extend only your index fingers forward. Soften your shoulders but lift your heart. Sit here breathing deeply for 5 to 10 breaths. Feel what you feel, notice what you notice.
The Kali mudra that you have in your hands symbolizes the strength, courage, will, and power energy that you possess in order to destroy your fears.
To really slice away the worry and trepidation. To aim directly at that which you seek from the clarity of your own knowing. And to do this with your fierce and compassionate heart! With all the fiery energy and actionable steps that this new moon is inviting us to dance in, this is why it’s important to come at it from the heart center. To bring your intuition, heart, and compassion and gentleness into all of this explosive energy of possibility and potential!
This too is the embodiment of your gesture, mudra, and the essence of the Goddess Kali.When we evoke the energy of a God, Goddess we are evoking all that they stand for that we already possess within ourselves.
So in the next week or so, become clear in your intentions. Really embody your most “feisty and fabulous version of yourself”! Read the article here by Nina Khan.
And as Nina wrote in her blog:
“Trust your ability to make miraculous things happen!”
Ground yourself, listen within. Remember that you are universal as much as you have the potential to manifest into this physical realm what you desire and seek.
*Apologies for not writing a blog around last week’s intention about really appreciating and seeing the beauty of the finer details of what makes each of us up. At the bottom of the blog I’ll add in some powerful quotes from that week’s practices.
All my love,
Shawna
P.S. Thanks to my dear friend Victor who really brought in the idea that we have no idea of who someone really is until we study them more closely. Until we listen to them with an open heart and a non-judging mind. May we reflect that same essence and offer the same love to ourself.
Powerful quotes from that week’s practices.
“To see the details of our own personal tapestry of our own self, to accept and integrate the light and the shadows with equal love and gentleness, and to come to embody that first opportunity to practice compassion, which is with oneself, is to become mindful” -Shawna
“Mindfulness is attention. It’s a non-judging and respectful awareness.”
-Jack Kornfield
“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
-Mary Oliver
“Devotion simply means connectivity. It’s an unquestionable connection. And it depends only on you.”
-Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Buddhist psychology 7th principle states:
“Mindful attention to any experience as liberating. Mindfulness brings perspective, balance, and freedom”
Shunryu Suzuki writes, “The beginners mind gives us the benefit of curiosity and openness. We pay attention with respect and interest, not in order to manipulate, but to understand what is true. And seeing what is true, the heart becomes free” (I think of parenting with this.)
“Mindfulness is all helpful.”-Buddha
I also use the Morgan Harper Nichols quote in this blog above, during last week’s practices.
And as last week’s class was wrapped around offering this mindfulness and attention to oneself in order to acknowledge all parts of our truest natures. I closed with a quote from Alok Vaid-Menon.
They wrote:
“Surrounded by the people who loved me for me, I realized I finally had other people to support me in my journey. That made all the difference. Even though the bullying never stopped, I finally had people around me to process it with. There’s magic in being seen by people who understand–It gives you permission to keep going. Self-expression sometimes requires other people. Becoming ourselves is a collective journey.”
(LOVE THIS!!)
All my love,
Shawna