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Art Journal with the Moon for January 29 – February 4, 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.
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.
Happy Imbolc
We’re in the waning moon phases this week. The moon is retreating into darkness as it prepares for another rebirth at the Aquarius new moon.
On the Wheel of the Year in the northern hemisphere, we arrive at the celebration of Imbolc (pronounced EEM-ol-ck) on Thursday, February 1st. This is one of my favorite Wheel of the Year seasons. It’s the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s not quite spring but the journey down the depths of darkness has taken a gentle turn toward the light. It’s a time of year when I feel myself lighten up. I love how pregnant with possibility everything seems and the days becoming noticeably longer adds a little sweetness.
I also love the emphasis on ritual cleansing on Imbolc.
As my solitary witch practice deepened over the years and I gained more experience with the MAP Method, ritual cleansing became more important to me. It should have been important to me my whole life. I would have saved myself so many problems with my physical health and emotional well-being had I made ritual cleansing a higher priority – especially since I’ve been a professional intuitive for years who regularly lives between realms and dives deep into other people’s subconscious and emotional worlds. Silly Dana!! But I lived and I learned…finally!
Imbolc, a time of purification and renewal, highlights the need to clear away old energies to make way for new beginnings. It’s a little like spring cleaning except in the emotional and spiritual realms instead of only in the physical ones.
I believe this practice is particularly important for highly sensitive people because we tend to deeply attune to and absorb energetic and emotional information – whether we mean to or not. Plus, when we engage in spiritual practices, dive into the subconscious, and connect with various spiritual entities, we naturally encounter a multitude of energies and emotions. This can be overwhelming and sometimes leave us feeling energetically heavy or clouded.
Ritual cleansing, both of our bodies and spaces, acts like a reset button. It helps in releasing any lingering energies that don’t serve us and purifying our surroundings. For someone who spends a significant amount of time in deep emotional waters and traversing spiritual realms, this cleansing is crucial.
There are a lot of ways to perform a cleansing ritual, such as doing a smoke cleanse with sacred plants or herbs, taking a salt bath, spraying moon water, using sound vibrations like bells or singing bowls, painting or drawing counterclockwise spirals or even simple visualization techniques. These practices help in dispelling negativity, harmonizing our energy, and creating a sacred, peaceful environment where we can thrive. For highly sensitive people, regular energetic cleansing allows us to continue working with the spirit world and with deeper emotions without the burden of accumulating energetic garbage (our own or other people’s).
Ritual cleansing is also helpful for boosting creativity. It’s like clearing out clutter in a room so you have space to think and create. When I talk about ritual cleansing, I also mean getting rid of old, stagnant energies that might be hanging around us or in our creative sacred spaces.
It’s tough to think freely and be inspired when your mind or surroundings are filled with old energy.
Doing a ritual cleanse can be as simple as imagining a bright light washing over you and your space. This kind of cleansing makes the atmosphere around you feel lighter and fresher. When your space is clear, and your mind feels uncluttered, it’s easier to come up with new ideas, feel inspired, and let your creativity flow without any blocks.
Cleansing with the MAP Method
I don’t just cleanse my spaces and my energy. I also work with the MAP Method to regularly dump the emotional and energetic baggage I accumulate in my body and my brain.
The MAP Method works like a deep clean for my mind. Just like a house collects dust and clutter over time, our minds can accumulate emotionally charged memories and beliefs that don’t serve us well. These memories and beliefs can affect how we feel and act in our daily lives, often without us even realizing it.
The MAP Method uses the brain’s ability to change and adapt to help rewire these memories. Think of it like updating old software in your brain. It helps to dissolve limiting beliefs, neutralize fears, and overcome negative patterns. This process is a bit like clearing out old, unwanted files from your computer so it can run more smoothly and efficiently.
The emotional baggage we carry isn’t always our own.
We can also carry the emotional weight of our ancestors and past generations. This means that some of the fears, beliefs, or patterns we have might not have started with us but were passed down through our family. By using techniques like the MAP Method to work through and release these inherited emotional memories, we’re not only helping ourselves but potentially breaking cycles that have affected our family for generations.
The benefits of this kind of emotional cleansing are significant. It can lead to a greater sense of freedom, as you’re no longer weighed down by the past. It can improve your overall well-being, reduce stress and anxiety, and help you feel more in control of your life. It can also enhance your capacity for creativity, joy, and fulfillment, as you’re no longer operating under the influence of limiting beliefs and old emotional wounds.
This week, along with the regular art journal with the moon prompts, why not spend a bit of time in your art journal clearing and cleansing your body and home.
Here’s a step-by-step way of doing a ritual cleanse in your art journal.
Performing a Ritual Cleanse in Your Art Journal
- Open your art journal to a blank spread. Choose cool colors like blues, greens, and purples, as these are often associated with cleansing and calming energy. You can use paint, colored pencils, markers, or whatever medium you feel drawn to and if cool colors don’t feel cleansing or clearing to you, by all means follow your own creative guidance. That’s the joy of being a creative solitary witch after all – you get to do things your own way.
- On one page of the spread, draw an outline of a human body that represents your body. If you feel like you need a really deep cleanse, you may want to draw an outline for each the front and back of your body. If there are certain body parts that are bothering you lately or just ones you suspect you tend to carry a lot of unwanted emotional or energetic energy, draw those in too.
- On the opposite page, draw a simple floor plan of your home paying attention to where doors and windows are. This represents your living space. If weather permits, open the actual doors or windows of your home as you create this page in your journal.
- Set the intention of cleansing your body and home from any unwanted energies and call in any elements, deities or spirit allies you want to help you clear and cleanse.
- Inside the body outline, start drawing counterclockwise spirals. Begin from the feet and move upwards or begin from the head and move downwards – whatever feels right for you. As you draw, focus on the intention of releasing any negative or stagnant energies from your body. Each spiral is a symbol of unwinding and releasing energy.
- Do the same with the floor plan of your home except begin in the eastern part of your home, as it’s associated with air and new beginnings. Gently create counterclockwise spirals in the eastern part of your floor plan, focusing on your intention to cleanse and clear energy from your living space.
- Move to the southern part, connected with the element of fire and transformation. Paint or draw counterclockwise spirals in this area of your floor plan. Think about the rooms or spaces in this section of your home and imagine what kind of energy or memories may have accumulated in these rooms that are now being released with each spiral you paint or draw.
- Head to the west section of your floor plan. The west is related to water and emotions. Here, focus on letting the counterclockwise spirals wash away emotional energies.
- Finally, cleanse the northern part of your floor plan. The north represents earth and stability. Let the counterclockwise spirals cleanse then ground the energy of your space.
- After the directions, go to the center of your floor plan. This represents spirit and the unity of all elements. Imagine the counterclockwise spirals you draw or paint are clearing away anything else that needs to be released then uniting the energies.
- Once you have filled both outlines with counterclockwise spirals, take a moment to reflect on the process and spend a moment in gratitude. Thank the elements and any spiritual allies you called upon. Feel the sense of lightness and cleansing in both your personal energy and your living space.
After you’ve cleared and cleansed the energy, you might want to do a home blessing and protection spell as well.
Enjoy your cleanse and if you can’t get to washing the floors or scrubbing the toilets, may your home still feel flooded with goodness and light.
Only a Few Days Left
By the way, if you’d like to deepen your spiritual and creative journey alongside me, please check out my new “Art and Spirit Quest” program. It’s currently 50% OFF until February 1, 2024. You only have a few more days to take advantage of this offer.
The Art and Spirit Quest program is where I take you on a spiritual journey in your art journal.
These are 60 minute private one-on-one sessions where I guide you to connect with spirit, find your inner answers and practice magic in your art journal.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to have an art journal yet or even know what one is. This is a beginner-friendly journey and I will guide you every step of the way but trust me, your creativity is a tool that will help you connect with the world of spirit and I’ll show you how. If you can color in a coloring book and you can cut and paste pieces of paper and trace your hand, you have everything you need to go on a spiritual quest in your art journal.
The Art and Spirit Quest sessions are about empowering you to find your own spiritual path and open the door to the spirit world, which can sometimes be challenging to do alone. I’m here to support and guide you on this journey, helping you to unlock and explore these aspects in a creative and magical way.
LEARN MORE HERE
Monday
The disseminating moon is in the sign of Virgo. It also moves into being void of course at the end of the day. It is also having a happy relationship with Mars, Uranus, Mercury, Pluto and an opposing relationship with Neptune.
Today the moon is in the disseminating phase.
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, draw, paint or collage an image that represents someone you are ready to forgive.
Tuesday
Today the disseminating moon is in the sign of Libra. It is also having a tense relationship with Venus and a happy relationship with Pluto.
Today, the moon is in the sign of Libra. This brings to light dynamics in our relationships, our experience with balance, and inner harmony. And for the highly sensitive, it offers a gentle reminder to find balance between nurturing our own souls and cherishing our connections with others.
With Libra being ruled by the planet Venus, the moon reflects a little of this planet’s energy as well. Imagine the moon, tinged with Venus’s soft and beautiful aura, inviting us into a space of art and grace.
When the moon is in Libra, it can be a time to have fun with friends, gather and enjoy group activities. Libra encourages us to find acceptance and understanding in our interactions. However, it’s worth noting the delicate dance that Libra plays – while it nudges us towards sociability and connection, it can also lead us to focus too much on others. And there is the challenge: the quest for balance. Especially for the empathic or the highly sensitive, it’s essential to remember to honor your own feelings and needs even as you immerse yourself in the world of others.
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that explores honoring your feelings in a relationship where its been difficult to do that lately.
Wednesday
Today the disseminating moon is in the sign of Libra. It is also having a tense relationship with Mercury and Mars.
The moon is in a tense relationship with Mercury today.
In your relationship with others this can look like moody conversations, disagreements, not considering the other person’s perspective and being overly opinionated or focusing on where you disagree instead of finding common ground.
Internally, this can look like tension between your thoughts and feelings. On days like today, I like to remember that I can’t always believe what I think especially when what I’m thinking is putting me down or coming from a place of fear, hopelessness, anxiety, rage, depletion or defeat.
It’s the kind of day where taking out your art journal and letting your feelings pour out onto the page is more productive than trying to express them in your relationships.
Think about when you felt anxious this week?
Think about when you felt defeated or hopeless this week?
Which challenging emotion have you been dealing with most lately, fear, anger, hopelessness, depletion or anxiety?
What would you like to feel instead?
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents a challenging emotion you hope to express, process or release today.
Thursday
The disseminating moon moves into the sign of Scorpio today. It is also having a tense relationship with Pluto and Mercury.
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, decay and rebirth. She wants to bring kindness, nurturing, novelty 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 compassion.
In this tense kind of relationship the moon and Pluto are having today, challenging emotions can surface and affect how you speak or act. It can stir up difficult issues to process or unresolved issues 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 parts 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. It supports our emotional and spiritual growth by giving us the opportunity to meet the emotional or spiritual needs of our hidden parts.
Think about the last time you faced a hard truth – about yourself or someone else.
What was that experience like for you?
In what way did the experience set you free?
In your art journal, create a page that represents an emotional need that wasn’t met when you were a child.
Friday
The last quarter moon is in the sign of Scorpio for most of the day in the mountain time zone then it moves to be void of course from afternoon until the next day. It is also having a happy relationship with Saturn and Venus and an opposing relationship with Jupiter.
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. After the brilliance of the full moon, the moon’s illumination begins to wane, 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. So, as you look up at the night sky or art journal with the moon tonight, take a moment to remember every ending is a new beginning in disguise.
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 next cycle.
Saturday
The last quarter moon moves into the sign of Sagittarius. It is also having a happy relationship with Mars, Neptune, Mercury and Pluto. It is also having an opposing relationship with Uranus.
The moon starts the day off in the sign of Sagittarius today. Sagittarius is ruled by the planet Jupiter so it’s carrying a little of that planet’s good energy as well.
Sagittarius is a fire sign. It is expressive and positive and humorous, optimistic, adventurous, experimental, adaptive, passionate and fun but it can be focused on too many things. Sagittarius energy likes to help us grow and enjoy ourselves through experiencing all life has to offer. It focuses on personal growth, freedom, expansion, lived experience, learning through trying and doing and embodiment. It’s a curious energy that asks questions and looks for answers.
Let’s use this Sagittarius energy to think about the possibilities of today.
If today could go better than you expected, what would that look and feel like? When you go to sleep tonight, what would you celebrate and be grateful for?
In your art journal, draw, paint or collage an image that represents what you’re grateful for from this past lunar cycle.
Sunday
The last quarter moon is in the sign of Sagittarius. It is also having a happy relationship with Pluto and a tense relationship with Saturn.
Saturn is associated with the earth element and it wants to bring responsibility, seriousness, deep thought, reflection, wisdom, strategy, maturity, structure, sensibility, frugality, discipline, routine and actions that inspire order in your life.
In this tense kind of relationship with the moon, the moon and Saturn can evoke uncomfortable feelings around these topics.
Where do you need to mature more fully?
Where would structure, routine or discipline benefit you?
Which emotional issues is it time to face?
Have you structured your life in a way that supports your emotional well-being?
Are there responsibilities you’re avoiding?
The moon being in a tense relationship with Saturn is often viewed as challenging because it represents a clash between the Moon, which governs our emotions, instincts, and nurturing side, and Saturn, the planet of discipline, structure, and sometimes limitation.
Emotionally, it can evoke heavier feelings. You might feel more introspective or Life might be asking you to face your problems. It’s also a time when you might feel more aware of the responsibilities and the limitations in your life. Saturn and the moon being in this kind of tense relationships represents feelings of being restricted or burdened.
But all this happens because Saturn encourages a deeper look into the foundations of your life. It loves to help you tend to the foundational things you’ve been avoiding tending to and when it’s in a relationship with the moon it’s focusing on your emotional foundations. Are you facing the hard things in your life? Are you setting healthy boundaries? Are you being realistic about your limitations? Are you growing up emotionally? Are you building your emotional resilience? Where do you need more discipline or structure in your emotional life? It’s a call to mature emotionally, to face your fears, and to understand the deeper lessons that come with the things (and the people) that challenge you.
Ultimately, it’s a day to practice patience and self-care. Use your art journal to process your deeper emotions. Take time today to be with your feelings, even if they are heavy.
In your art journal, create an image that represents a heavy emotion that needs your attention today.
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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