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Art Journal with the Moon for December 25-31 2023
This is a summary of the moon’s energy for the upcoming week and the inner work and magic you can do in your art journal to make the most of the opportunities the cosmos is gifting us with.
Every week the emotional and magical opportunities the moon is sending you are different because the energy she is drawing down from the planets and stars changes moment to moment. Planets and stars and moon phases and moon signs each carry their own unique energy. This is my weekly update of the moon’s comings and goings to support you in aligning with her energy.
Get your art journal or a scrap of paper you see lying around, your art supplies or those pencil crayons you have hidden away somewhere and have fun. Spend 10 – 20 minutes focusing on the themes the moon is supporting you to explore that day while you play with colors and shapes and watch what happens over time.
It’s amazing what a little consistent creative time can do.
Celebrating Belonging with the Cancer Full Moon
We greet a full moon in Cancer this week and what a beautiful moon it will be.
It’s on Tuesday December 26th in the mountain time zone and I’ll be on the road driving home from spending time with family on that day which seems well aligned since full moon in Cancer brings a focus on family, home, memories, traditions, belonging and the people, places and experiences that nourish you and make you feel safe.
This is when the moon, being in her rulership, is at her best condition – fully resourced and shining brightly. It’s a period that naturally points us toward experiences, people, and places that embody safety, belonging, and genuine connection.
During this time, you might find yourself reminiscing about the past, indulging in traditions, and relishing in the ‘warm and fuzzies’ that come with happy memories. It’s a time for keeping to the simple things in life that make you feel safe and nourished. The Cancer full moon encourages us to acknowledge and feel gratitude for the aspects of our lives that are already great and good – those simple blessings that we might sometimes take for granted.
As my mentor Kelly Surtees reminded me, this moon phase is all about comfort, generosity, and taking a moment to acknowledge what’s going well in your life. It’s a perfect time for a prayer of gratitude for the things that nourish you, that make you feel grounded, safe, protected, and supported.
The full moon in Cancer also emphasizes the importance of being with the people you love, whether it’s your family by choice, family by love, or simply being with like-minded individuals who understand you. It’s a time for creating new memories while cherishing the old ones, pondering over what safety and belonging mean to you and who you truly belong with.
Creating a Sense of Belonging After Trauma
For many people, especially those who have survived difficult childhood experiences or have a history of childhood trauma, finding a safe sense of belonging can be a challenging journey. When someone goes through traumatic events in their early years, it can deeply affect how they perceive and interact with the world around them. Trauma, particularly during the formative years, can disrupt the fundamental feeling of safety and trust that is crucial for a sense of belonging.
Such experiences can lead to feelings of isolation, mistrust, and anxiety in social situations. Instead of feeling a natural connection and comfort in a group, whether it’s with family, friends, or a larger community, individuals with a history of childhood trauma might feel on edge, disconnected, or overly vigilant. These feelings can create an invisible barrier, making it hard to feel like they truly belong or are fully accepted. This was definitely my experience – especially with my peers and my extended family.
The impact of these early traumatic experiences can extend into adulthood, affecting relationships, social interactions, and even self-perception. Survivors might struggle with low self-esteem, difficulties in trusting others, or a persistent sense of being different or outside of the group. This can lead to a cycle where the desire for belonging and connection is strong, but the fear and protective mechanisms developed from past trauma make it difficult to fully engage and feel a part of something. When this is your experience, even being in a large family or being surrounded by friends can leave you feeling lonely. If this is your experience, please hold yourself with love and compassion and allow yourself to grieve the losses you experienced simply from living through what you lived through.
Understanding and acknowledging these challenges is an important step in healing and finding ways to foster a sense of belonging. Healing and building a sense of belonging is a gradual process of rebuilding trust, learning to feel safe in social environments, and slowly opening up to the possibility of true belonging.
The full moon in Cancer offers a powerful opportunity to work on your sense of belonging, whether that means healing past wounds, deepening current connections, or celebrating the sense of home and family you have now. Cancer’s energy is deeply tied to feelings of comfort, nurturing, and emotional security, making it the perfect time to focus on these aspects of your life.
Working with the Full Moon in Your Art Journal
To work with this full moon energy in your art journal, start by reflecting on what you need most right now. If you’re seeking healing during the full moon, you might create a page that represents your journey towards feeling more connected and secure. This could involve imagery of a safe haven or symbols that represent healing and comfort.
If you’re looking to deepen your sense of belonging, consider drawing or painting scenes that depict your ideal sense of home and family, or create a collage that includes pictures or words that evoke feelings of belonging and connection.
For those who wish to celebrate the sense of belonging you already have during the full moon, your art journal page could be a vibrant expression of gratitude. Illustrate the people, places, and experiences that make you feel most at home and loved. Use warm colors and comforting imagery to capture the essence of your gratitude.
The full moon in Cancer is also a powerful time to amplify intentions around family, home, and belonging. You can write down these intentions in your art journal, perhaps surrounding them with a lunar motif to symbolize the Cancer full moon. You might also want to include a small ritual, such as lighting a candle while focusing on your intentions, to help solidify them.
By aligning your art journaling with the energy of the full moon in Cancer, you’re tapping into a natural rhythm that supports emotional connection, nurturing, and the sense of belonging so grab your crayons or paints and spend a little sacred time with your journal this week.
If you’d like to work with the full moon energy in a way that is more personal to you, scroll down to Tuesday’s art journal prompt and consider the areas of your life the full moon is illuminating for you according to your rising sign.
Monday
Today the gibbous moon is in the sign of Gemini. It is also having a tense relationship with Neptune and an opposing relationship with Mars.
Neptune wants to help us connect to source energy and experience what its like to reach our divine potential, feel unconditionally loved and feel our interconnectedness. It also wants to open our psychic gifts, help us receive divine inspiration and dissolve barriers so we experience wholeness and unity. It also wants to help us expand and use our imagination and see the unseen or know the unknown.
It’s a planet of intuition, psychic abilities, imagination, spirituality and dreams but it can also represent our delusions or our desires to escape, including our desire to escape our uncomfortable feelings.
In this tense relationship with the moon, Neptune can cause you to feel unsettled and uncertain. It can especially blur the line between your experience and someone else’s – which for empaths and highly sensitive people means you might be more prone to absorb other people’s feelings today, so much so that you get confused about what is yours to carry and what was never yours to never pick up in the first place. It’s a good day to protect your energy field.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents your protected energy field.
Tuesday
Happy full moon.
Today the full moon is in the sign of Cancer. It is also having a happy relationship with Jupiter and Saturn and an opposing relationship with Pluto.
Cancer is a water sign that represents the archetype of the Great Soul Mother and brings a connection to your emotions and your intuition. Cancer is ruled by the moon so the moon feels very at home here. They are both connected to the subconscious and ancestral memories. Cancer is also connected to home, family and the feeling of belonging.
The favorite thing I learned from my mentor, Kelly Surtees, about this full moon is that both the Moon and Jupiter are in each other’s exaltation signs during this time, which means they’re in positions that greatly enhance their positive qualities.
This astrological event is about ‘raising things up’ and seeing the best in situations, fostering peak experiences of the heart and body. The presence of good Jupiter energy brings an abundance of spirit, marked by a generosity that transcends material things. It’s a time when more positive feelings come to the surface, and there’s a strong connection with optimism. You might find yourself feeling ready to grow, expand, or improve something in your life, especially regarding home and family.
With the Moon in Cancer, a water sign, and Jupiter’s energy, there’s a focus on the earth realm, suggesting improvements in your home environment or family dynamics. This might be the perfect time to figure out how to move past family difficulties, fostering warmer and more affectionate relationships.
This period also indicates that things will be a little better than they were before. It’s a gentle, nurturing growth, where you feel supported to make positive changes. Whether it’s healing within your family, making your home a more nurturing space, or simply allowing yourself to feel and express more love and kindness, the full moon in Cancer sextile with Jupiter supports these endeavors.
To personalize this moon even further, let’s get specific and see the area of YOUR life that this moon energy is focused on.
To figure out what area of your life this moon wants you to focus on, you simply need to know your rising sign.
If you don’t know your rising sign (it’s different than your sun or moon sign), then you can read more about it here and you can calculate what it is here. I also show you how to calculate your birth chart using the whole sign house system here. When you create your birth chart in this way, you will see your rising sign is the zodiac sign that occupies the first house in your birth chart.
If your rising sign is Aries, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your family, your ancestors or your home and living situation. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around my family, ancestors, home or living situation in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my relationship with my family, ancestors or my home and living situation?”
If your rising sign is Taurus, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to learning, communication, siblings, peers, the goddess or earth-based rituals. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my relationship with my peers, siblings, the goddess, nature or my learning experiences or the way I communicate?”
If your rising sign is Gemini, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your money, income or livelihood. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my income, livelihood or my relationship with money?”
If your rising sign is Cancer, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to around your identity, body, appearance or your spirit. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my sense of vitality, me identity, my appearance, my true essence or my relationship with my body?”
If your rising sign is Leo, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your subconscious mind or deep inner shadow work. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my subconscious or the wounded parts, memories or gifts and talents that I have hidden in my inner shadows?”
If your rising sign is Virgo, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your friendships, community and your hopes and wishes. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my friendships, the way I contribute to my community or my hopes and wishes for the future?”
If your rising sign is Libra, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your career, reputation or ideas of success. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my career, reputation or ideas of success?”
If your rising sign is Scorpio, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your faith, spiritual practices, long-distance travel or future success. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my faith, spiritual practices, my sense of adventure and travel or my ideas of the kind of success I believe is possible in my future?”
If your rising sign is Sagittarius, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your close, intimate relationships or partnerships. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my close, intimate relationships or partnerships?”
If your rising sign is Capricorn, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your psyche or in the area of your life of debt and taxes. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my psyche, my emotional well-being or my experience with debt and/or taxes?”
If your rising sign is Aquarius, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to routines, work, pets or wellness. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my daily routines or my day-to-day work life, my health, my sense of wellness or my relationship with my pets?”
If your rising sign is Pisces, the full moon is inviting you to heal, celebrate or amplify your sense of belonging when it comes to your children, hobbies, pleasures, romance, your sex life or your creativity. Ask yourself, “What do I need to clear, release or transform around these areas of my life in order to heal, celebrate or amplify my sense of belonging?” Looking at it from a slightly different angle, you could also ask yourself, “How has my sense of belonging affected my parenting or my relationship with my children or my sense of joy or my ability to enjoy myself or my creativity?”
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents your full moon intentions.
Wednesday
The full moon is in the sign of Cancer and a happy relationship with Uranus.
The moon being in a happy relationship with Uranus can mean happy surprises, unexpected events and celebrating your uniqueness.
Uranus, often termed the ‘awakener’, seeks to jolt us from our comfort zones, urging us to see the world with fresh eyes. It thrives on unpredictability, desiring to infuse our lives with moments that propel us towards emotional and spiritual growth. Imagine this energetic force combining with the nurturing and intuitive energy of the moon. The result? Hopefully a few pleasant surprises showing up in your life, the kind that lights you up and warms your heart. Maybe it’s a chance encounter or the thrill of stumbling upon a new hobby or maybe it’s reigniting an old passion, or simply the sheer joy of unexpected good news are all potential gifts of living in flow.
It’s also a day to trust your intuition wholeheartedly. If you feel a pull towards something, an urge to take a leap, or simply a fluttering of excitement at a new possibility, follow that feeling.
The moon and Uranus not only invite change but also champion the idea of celebrating what makes you unique. Uranus reminds you of the beauty of standing out, of embracing every part of yourself that feels ‘other’ or ‘different’.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents trusting your intuition.
Thursday
The full moon moves into the sign of Leo. It is also having a happy relationship with Venus and Neptune and an opposing relationship with Pluto.
In your art journal, create a page that celebrates an area of your life that is experiencing flow and ease.
Friday
The moon is in the sign of Leo and it is having a tense relationship with Jupiter.
Jupiter is one of the more brilliant planets in the sky, only surpassed by Venus. Jupiter brings radiance and luminosity as well as harmony, well-being and kindness. It promotes justice, law, forgiveness and moderation. Jupiter is considered beneficial to life. It brings abundance, growth and balance. It is a symbol of honor, generosity and charity. I likes to help you expand and grow.
The tension created by the square between the moon and Jupiter can create inspiration, motivation and joy. It’s good energy to be in to stretch yourself, take a risk or leap of faith, trust your intuition and push yourself forward in the direction you most want to go.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents moving in the direction you most want to go in your life.
Saturday
The disseminating moon is in the sign of Leo. It is having a happy relationship with Mars and Mercury and a tense relationship with Uranus.
This phase is when the moon is just starting to become smaller. It is a time to rest, relax and rejuvenate and move inward and focus on self. This isn’t a time to start anything new. It’s a time to reflect. It’s a great time for expressing your devotion to Spirit and for presenting offerings to your Divine helpers, your ancestors or the Earth.
It’s also a great time to share the wisdom and knowledge you’ve harvested. There’s a generous or giving back quality to the waning phases of the moon. We’re taking note of the bounty we received as the moon was growing in power and feeling grateful and wanting to share what we learned or received with the people we love and care about or with a greater community we feel connected to.
There’s also a releasing and letting go that happens in the waning phases. It’s a good time to look back on everything that has happened since the new moon and reflect on the abundance you received during the full moon. What were your intentions during the new moon? Did they manifest in your life yet? If they didn’t, did you witness tiny shoots starting to grow in the direction of your dreams?
Think of the disseminating moon like the beginning of a great satisfying exhale. Reflect on what you need to release or let go or who it is time to forgive (including yourself) in order to support your new moon intentions manifesting solidly and confidently in your life.
In your art journal, create an image that represents what you want to release or let go with the waning moon.
Sunday
The disseminating moon moves into the sign of Virgo. It is also having a tense relationship with Venus and an opposing relationship with Saturn.
Enriched by its ruling planet, Mercury, Virgo prompts us to articulate our feelings and experiences with clarity.
Virgo’s energy is both nocturnal and deeply rooted in the earth, giving it a grounded, calm presence. Its mutable nature helps you adapt to circumstances with grace and pragmatism. One of Virgo’s most profound gifts is its drive for efficiency and organization. It pushes you to seek out the most effective methods, weaving a tapestry of practicality, attention to detail, and an unyielding love for quality. Yet, with its magnifying precision, it’s easy to become enmeshed in minute details, sometimes at the risk of losing sight of the broader picture.
The moon in Virgo is a time to pause and reflect: Are you content with what you’ve been manifesting in your life? It’s essential to understand that while not every event or experience in our lives stems directly from our actions, many do. For those experiences you have molded and shaped, which ones bring joy? Which ones perhaps weigh heavy on your spirit? This Virgo moon nudges you to discern, evaluate, and, if needed, recalibrate.
As a highly sensitive person, you are uniquely attuned to your environment and internal landscape. Art journaling during this moon in Virgo will help you translate your thoughts and feelings onto paper, blending colors, shapes, and words, allows you to visually navigate the complex web of your emotions. Through your art journal, you can work with the Virgo moon’s energy, taking stock of what is working in your life and what might need a gentle shift.
If there are aspects of your life you’re not entirely content with, what adjustments can you make? How can you align more authentically with your heart’s desires and the intentions you planted during the new moon?
In your art journal, create an image that represents an adjustment you’d like to make in your life before the next lunar cycle.
Have fun with your art journal and the moon this week.
with love,
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hi i'm dana...
This is a space where art and spirit come together. On the blog, I share art rituals for working with the magic of the moon. I also work with the subconscious mind to lighten your emotional load and follow your creative dreams.
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