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Art Journal with the Moon for February 26-March 3, 2024
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.
The Moon This Week
On a bad day, I struggle with insecurity and I’ve noticed that these insecurities are attached to results. Have you ever felt this way?
Sometimes, when I witness other people achieving what I want to achieve in less time and with more ease, I get frustrated and impatient. I wonder what is wrong with me. I start to think that I’m doing something wrong and I can’t quite figure out what it is and maybe I never will or I doubt myself and think I should reconsider all the decisions and choices I’ve already made. I no longer trust myself or my path.
Watching others achieve what I’m striving for is hard, especially because I’m deeply committed to my creative dreams and I suspect, like you, my creative dreams are interweaved with deeply soulful longings.
When you pour your heart and soul into your creative pursuits, each step of the journey feels incredibly personal.
Seeing others achieve what you want to achieve can stir up a mix of emotions, including envy, self-doubt, and frustration.
Hard to Admit Feelings
I know it’s natural to compare my progress to others and wonder why my path seems harder or longer but, when I slip into that mentality, it does take the joy and fun away from the creative journey. I don’t feel this way all the time but as I said, on a bad day, I do have to contend with the ugly monsters of comparison and doubt.
When I compare myself to others and judge myself as less lucky, less deserving, or less magnificent, it’s hard to feel a sense of belonging because these thoughts and emotions create a barrier between me and the world around me. I swim in feelings of not good enough and feel bitter and resentful. I perceive myself as lacking and I focus on that instead of seeing what I do have, how I contribute and where my true value is. I also feel ashamed of feeling these ways. I expect myself to be better than that – but I’m not.
Feeling jealous, bitter, and resentful creates a barrier between me and everyone else, making it hard to feel a sense of belonging. It makes me feel isolated and disconnected. It causes me to pull away or close myself off, fearing further hurt or disappointment. I experienced this a lot in my teenage years and from time to time, I still feel it as I’m moving toward my creative dreams. I see someone else achieve what I long to and I slip into this way of perceiving my progress.
How to Work with the Wisdom of Pisces to Follow Your Creative Dreams Even When You Feel Like a Failure
We’ve entered Pisces season and we’ll be greeting a Pisces new moon next week. Pisces, the twelfth sign of the zodiac, holds a special place when it comes to understanding your interconnectedness and the deep, warm sense of belonging that comes from recognizing your own value.
As a water sign, Pisces is inherently linked to the emotional and intuitive realm, embodying the fluidity and depth of your feelings and connections with others. This sign symbolizes boundaries dissolving—especially those boundaries you’ve built between yourself and the world around you. It teaches you that, at a fundamental level, we are all made of the same cosmic material and share a universal bond.
Pisces’ energy encourages us to tune into our compassionate and empathetic selves, allowing us to feel a profound sense of unity and belonging. It reminds us that everyone has value and a place in this world, emphasizing the importance of understanding, acceptance, and love.
Through Pisces, we learn the beauty of connecting with others on a soulful level, recognizing the shared human experience that binds us all. This sign’s influence helps us to see beyond the superficial differences that might seem to separate us, guiding us towards a deeper recognition of our collective humanity and the universal need to belong and be valued.
When I tune into this wisdom, my heart melts. I feel open and spacious. I remember we all struggle, we all strive and we all succeed, each in our unique way and in our own divine timing. No one is more valuable or worthy than anyone else and there is nothing I have to do or achieve to belong.
I belong because I exist.
When I remember I belong exactly as I am now, I feel more confident and secure. Accepting myself and my path for what it is right here and right now brings a strong sense of acceptance and understanding. I’m able to take risks, explore new ideas and express myself more freely.
I’m less afraid of failure because I’m not placing my value on results and I know I’m loved for who I am not for how I succeed. It’s a lot more liberating which allows my creativity to flow more naturally without the fear of judgment holding me back. And it releases the need to prove something.
It also helps me trust myself, my path and the forces of love that support me.
Surrender and Trust
The truth is, I don’t know if I’ll ever achieve the things I want to achieve. I might. I might not.
I’m not in complete control of my destiny. I’m here to participate and work my magic in all the ways I can but my soul and the powers that be also have a say in my journey and I’m not always privy to what lies in store for me.
What I can do is keep listening and following my heart. Whether or not I experience the results I would LOVE to experience, listening to and following my heart and allowing myself to be guided by my spirit is important to me – as is dissolving the barriers between myself and others that I created when I was young and insecure.
When your creative dreams seem far away, let the wisdom of Pisces remind you that you are part of something larger and your creative contributions matter regardless of how insignificant they may feel to you at times. Stay true to your creative vision because you’re already succeeding. Even if you haven’t reached the place you hope to be.
Your creativity, kindness, and ability to dream are gifts that hold immense value.
Don’t give up. See your own light and move forward with faith in yourself.
Believe in Your Creative Dreams
I’ll be exploring and working with this Pisces energy in preparation for the upcoming Pisces new moon in the next Held by the Moon gathering which will be held on Friday, March 1st from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm MT. Our theme is How to Work with the Wisdom of Pisces to Believe in Your Creative Dreams
In this Held by the Moon online creative gathering, we will art journal with the waning moon and work with the MAP Method to process, digest and release challenging thoughts, beliefs and emotions that cause you to doubt yourself and your creative dreams.
Pursuing a creative dream demands treating yourself with kindness, patience, and compassion, especially when those dreams seem far off. For highly sensitive people with a history of difficult childhood experiences following your creative dreams can feel daunting. The sensitivity that enriches your creativity with depth and insight also makes you more vulnerable to doubt and fear. It can be hard to keep believing in yourself and your creative dreams.
I understand this journey well. Living with MCAS, POTS, and a history of childhood trauma, alongside chronic anxiety, means my autonomic nervous system is acutely sensitive. Years of recovery and healing have shown me how important honoring my sensitivities is to making my creative dreams a reality. This journey has made me a late bloomer in the creative world, but it has also taught me the unparalleled value of persistence and self-care.
It’s easy to feel like giving up or to become discouraged, but that’s precisely why the emotional healing and magical work we do when we art journal with the moon and work with the MAP Method is so crucial. These practices help us navigate our sensitivities, clear subconscious blocks, transform unhelpful beliefs and thoughts, build up our confidence, repair our self-esteem and help us believe in ourselves and our creative dreams so we can make progress towards them.
Don’t forget – your sensitive nervous system, though requiring more care, also grants you unique strengths and depth.
If you have a creative dream and could use help overcoming creative blocks, reigniting your motivation and believing in your potential and you like the idea of tending to the beliefs, memories and thoughts that cause you to doubt yourself and your creative dreams or you just love to hang out in sacred space with your art journal and the moon, I’d love for you to join me.
These classes are held in my online Zoom meeting room and they will be recorded. A recording will be emailed to you later in the week if you cannot attend live.
Don’t worry. You don’t need an art journal or art experience to enjoy these online gatherings. The exercises are simple and more about the process than the end result. Pencil crayons or markers on whatever paper you can find are perfectly fine.
Learn More or Register Here
Monday
The moon is still in the full moon phase but it moves into the sign of Libra today. It is also having a happy relationship with Pluto and an intense relationship with Neptune.
Libra is ruled by Venus so the moon is carrying a little of that planet’s energy as well.
Libra is an air sign. It is fluid and dynamic. It brings energy that is soft, beautiful and artistic. It likes to help you be sociable and enjoy friendships, gatherings and groups. It also likes to keep things balanced and looks for equality in relationships. It brings an energy of acceptance and understanding but it can also be too outwardly focused or, in other words, have you focusing on other people’s needs at the expense of honoring your own feelings and needs.
Highly sensitive people with creative dreams often have a natural inclination to focus on others’ needs before their own, stemming from their deep empathy and ability to tune into the emotions of those around them. This sensitivity, while a gift, can sometimes lead you to neglect your own feelings and needs, particularly when it comes to pursuing your creative dreams.
You might find yourself giving away your time and energy to support others, leaving little left for your own projects and dreams. This habit of putting yourself last can make it challenging to make progress. You might struggle with setting boundaries around your time and energy, fearing you might disappoint others or be seen as selfish. This can lead to a cycle where your own needs and dreams are constantly placed on the back burner.
Working with the moon while it is in the sign of Libra offers a beautiful and supportive way to address this imbalance. When the moon is in Libra, it’s an opportune time to reflect on your relationships, including the one you have with yourself, and to seek a healthier balance between meeting your own needs and those of others.
The moon in Libra encourages you to consider how you can honor your feelings and needs without sacrificing your creative dreams for the sake of others. It’s a time to practice setting boundaries, particularly around your time and energy, to ensure you’re allocating enough of yourself to what truly matters to you, like your creative dreams.
By aligning your actions and choices with your values, you start to see your creative dreams as equally important as the needs of those around you.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents honoring your time and energy.
Tuesday
Today the full moon is in the sign of Libra. It is also having a happy relationship with Mars and Venus.
This feels like a nice flowing lunar energy day to create with. The moon is in the sign of Libra, which is ruled by Venus, while it’s having a happy relationship with that planet. Both the sign of Libra and the planet of Venus love to support our art and creativity. They also emphasize beauty, harmony and love.
The moon represents our emotions, inner world, and what brings us comfort. Mars, on the other hand, is all about action, drive, and desire, while Venus governs love, beauty, and what we value. A happy relationship between these three archetypes allows the energies of these planets to flow together smoothly.
The energy reflected down to us today is one of balanced passion and harmony. It’s a happy blend of Mars’ assertiveness with Venus’ grace, making it a perfect time for pursuing what you love with enthusiasm and confidence, while still maintaining a sense of harmony and peace.
Emotionally, this might manifest as feeling more in tune with your desires and more easily able to express love and affection. You might also feel a surge of creativity, alongside the motivation and courage to act on your passions and your creative dreams.
Spiritually, this alignment can help you align your actions (Mars) with your values and what brings you pleasure (Venus), all while staying true to your emotional needs and inner selves (Moon). It’s a powerful time for self-reflection on what truly matters to you and for taking steps towards achieving those desires in a way that feels authentic and fulfilling.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents the moon, Mars and Venus (or your actions, values and emotions) working in harmony.
Wednesday
Today the disseminating moon is in the sign of Scorpio. It is also having a tense relationship with Pluto.
The moon is the queen of the night. She wants to illuminate the darkness, bring about change, be a mirror to reflect us back to ourselves and awaken our receptive and intuitive powers. She represents your body and emotions and reminds you that life is an ever-changing cycle of birth, death, transformation and rebirth. She wants to bring you nurturing and adaptability.
Pluto wants to illuminate what is hidden in your subconscious realm to help you transform. It can bring endings, new beginnings, deep spiritual growth and rebirth. With Pluto’s energy influencing us, its helpful to face your shadows and your inner darkness – and hopefully you can do that with the nurturing compassion of the moon.
In this tense kind of relationship the moon and Pluto are having today, challenging emotions can surface. It can stir up difficult circumstances to process or unresolved issues or memories that still need to be tended to. It’s like facing dark truths that ultimately set you free.
Personally, I see this as an opportunity to address those exiled parts within our psyche. The ones we’ve hidden away because of shame, fear or the worry that we won’t be loved or accepted. Those inner parts of ourselves get activated in this kind of moon energy and yes, it can cause challenges in your life and relationships but its hard to tend to those deeply hidden inner parts without them being activated so there is a blessing to this kind of tense moon energy – especially when we art journal with the moon. The moon being in a tense relationship with Pluto supports your emotional and spiritual growth by giving you the opportunity to meet the emotional or spiritual needs of our hidden inner parts – such as your wounded inner child parts, past life memories or generational trauma your body is still carrying.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents diving deep into your emotional depths and transforming something you find there.
Thursday
The disseminating moon is in the sign of Scorpio. It is also having a happy relationship with Saturn and Mercury, a tense relationship with Mars and Pluto and an intense relationship with Jupiter.
When the moon is in the sign of Scorpio, it brings a deep, intense energy. The moon represents your emotions, instincts, and the subconscious, while Scorpio is known for its depth, intensity, and focus on transformation. This combination invites deep emotional insights and powerful spiritual transformations.
On a day when the moon is in Scorpio, the energy it reflects down to us is one of deep introspection and emotional intensity. It’s a time when feelings we usually keep hidden might surface, giving us the chance to confront and understand them better. This can be a period of significant emotional healing, as Scorpio’s influence encourages us to look beneath the surface and explore the depths of our inner selves. Spiritually, this energy can lead to transformative growth, pushing you to let go of old patterns or beliefs that no longer serve you and embrace rebirth and renewal.
During this time, you might feel more sensitive, intuitive, and connected to the unseen realms of your psyche. It’s an excellent opportunity for any work that involves diving deep into your emotions, such as therapy, meditation, or reflective journaling like we do when we art journal with the moon.
To align with this energy and support your emotional healing and spiritual growth, consider asking yourself the following questions:
What emotions or memories have I been avoiding, and why?
In what areas of my life am I seeking deeper truth and transformation?
How can I release what no longer serves me to make space for new growth?
What parts of my shadow self need acknowledgment and understanding?
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that presents an emotion or memory you’ve been avoiding.
Friday
The disseminating moon is in the sign of Scorpio. It is also having a happy relationship with Neptune, an intense relationship with Uranus and a tense relationship with Venus and Mars.
The disseminating 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, your ancestors and your spirit allies and for presenting offerings to the gods and goddesses you honor and 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 generosity 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 goals and dreams manifesting solidly and confidently in your life.
In your art journal, create an image that represents an offering you want to make to someone in the spirit realm who has supported you during this lunar cycle.
Saturday
The disseminating moon moves into the sign of Sagittarius. It is also having a happy relationship with Pluto and Neptune.
The waning moon is a time for reflection, release, and gratitude, focusing on what we’ve learned and how we can share that knowledge with others. Sagittarius, on the other hand, is a sign associated with exploration, adventure, and the pursuit of truth and wisdom. Together, these energies encourage us to look inward for growth and understanding.
Sagittarius likes philosophical reflection and a quest for meaning. When the moon is in this sign, it’s a good time to consider your beliefs, the experiences that have shaped them, and how you can use this wisdom to guide your future actions.
Emotionally, this can be a period of liberation, as you’re encouraged to let go of outdated beliefs or perceptions that may be holding you back. Spiritually, the moon in Sagittarius invites you to seek higher understanding and connect with the BIG and BOLD visions you have for your life.
This moon phase and moon sign combination invites you to explore your personal truths and how they align with your actions. It’s about understanding your place in the wider world and how you can contribute to it in meaningful ways. The energy of Sagittarius infuses your reflections with optimism and a sense of possibility, even as you release what no longer serves you.
To align with this energy and support your emotional healing and spiritual growth, consider asking yourself questions like:
What beliefs have I outgrown, and what new understandings am I embracing?
What is my vision for the future, and what steps can I take now to align with that vision?
How do I find meaning in the challenges I’ve faced, and how have they contributed to my growth?
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents a believe that you’ve outgrown and a new one you are ready to embrace.
Sunday
The last quarter moon is in the sign of Sagittarius. It is also having a happy relationship with Venus and Mars and a tense relationship with Saturn and Mercury.
The last quarter moon, also known as the third quarter or waning half-moon, is the second to last phase in the moon’s monthly cycle. The moon’s light is waning, drawing inward once more. The last quarter moon stands as a symbolic crossroads, a time of reflection, release, and inner transformation.
The last quarter moon is viewed as a time of introspection and surrender. As the moonlight diminishes, we too are invited to draw inwards and assess our inner landscapes. It’s a period of letting go, symbolizing the release of old beliefs, habits, or emotional baggage that no longer serve us.
Emotionally, this phase is about acceptance and forgiveness. We are encouraged to make peace with our past, cultivate forgiveness towards ourselves and others, and create space for new possibilities and growth.
To enhance your experience of the last quarter moon, consider these questions:
What lessons have I learned in this past moon cycle?
What am I ready to let go of?
How have I grown and changed over this moon cycle?
Who or what do I need to forgive to move forward?
What seeds of intention do I want to plant for the next cycle?
The last quarter moon invites you to pause, look inward, and clear away what no longer serves you. As you align with this lunar rhythm, you nurture your ability to adapt, release, and prepare yourself for new beginnings.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents what you need to let go of before you consider what seeds of intention you want to plant during the new moon in Pisces.
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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