The November new moon has potential to help you see a truth about yourself you’ve been in denial of. Sometimes truth isn’t the easiest thing to face, especially in areas of our lives we are struggling with.  I collaborated with a friend to create a journal page to help you ask Spirit what it is you need to see.

Reflect

This new moon offers the potential for great and wondrous Aha moments. You know, those moments when you come to an awareness so magnificent and life-changing your whole world pivots and shifts ever so slightly a few degrees to the right or left. The kind of Aha moment that points you in a direction you were not previously going…a direction that will lead you to experience far more of what you actually want.

That’s the power and joy of a truly great Aha moment; it has the ability to reach deep at the root of your misery and change a destructive belief or thought you’ve carried for years while not even realizing how much damage it was causing you. Moments of revelation have the ability to set you back on course to your truth.

This is necessary since we all carry blind spots. Our minds are these amazing, fantastically powerful instruments but sometimes they get stuck. This is one of the reasons I love working with Spirit. Spirit has this unique way of stretching me to see more than I can currently see. For instance, when I work with Divine Mother, I am inevitably led to look at life through the lens of compassion. Everything looks a lot clearer through the lens of compassion but my mind doesn’t always go there on its own.

On its own my mind gets stuck in stories I tell about myself and other people. I wield these fantastic stories of blame or guilt and they often feel very real and valid. But with a little patience and a willingness to be guided by Divine Mother, my stories of pain and suffering shift and change. The characters in my stories become kind and warm. The way I see myself softens. I see a way out of my suffering that I did not see before.

This new moon I collaborated with a dear friend to create a journal page to help you seek guidance from your own angels and/or Spirit Guides.

Before you follow the instructions below, I encourage you to ask yourself a few important questions. Where are you not happy? What do you want to be doing that you are not currently doing?  Is there an opportunity to be found in whatever unwanted experience is currently showing up in your life?

There is gold to be mined in the uncomfortable and unpleasant circumstances we find ourselves in.

When I find myself experiencing something I prefer not to, my initial response is usually to desperately desire for things to change so I don’t have to feel all the yucky feelings that hang on the coattails of my unpleasant circumstances. If I’m not desperately wishing for things to change than I’m trying to run away and avoid them as much as I can. It takes me a while to remember that being curious is far more effective. What within me can I change to make this experience easier or more pleasant? What is this experience showing me about myself?

Instead of desperately wanting someone or something else to change or choosing to run away to hide, I’ll be using this new moon to heal my wounds and face my shadows so I can walk into the upcoming new year ready to expand and grow toward the life that best reflects my magical spirit. I welcome you to join me.

If you are not on my email list and haven’t received this month’s journal page, visit my homepage and sign up. You’ll receive a link where you can download the hand-drawn page I created for this particular moon. Print it, grab a tea and a cozy blanket, get comfortable then follow the instructions below.

If you enjoy these new moon journal pages, then you may also enjoy the free online Creative Moon Circles that accompany these pages. You can learn more about those here.

Create

If moon rituals are familiar to you, prepare your sacred space and invite Spirit to join you in whatever way works best for you.

If, however, you are new to moon rituals, I’ve included a quick guide to the steps I follow to prepare for my moon rituals in a past blog post. Take a look at it before moving forward.

Print out the November new moon journal page and gather your favorite Tarot or oracle deck.

There are two pages included in this new moon package. The first page is a hand-drawn depiction of a woman laying out some tarot cards on the table. I created this image for Marlene Chapman of theurbanmystic.ca

Marlene asked me to create a cover page for her upcoming Tarot class. Marlene has been reading cards for almost 30 years. She is the most talented card reader I’ve ever met. If you are interested in learning more about Tarot cards, her online Tarot class will definitely be a great investment.

Marlene chose the three cards on the page I drew for specific reasons. Here’s her explanation of why she chose these cards:

The High Priestess embodies the archetype of the Mystic and Psychic. The ability to sense and intuit that which is hidden is strong in the the High Priestess.

The Fool tarot card is helpful when embarking on a new journey (like a new moon cycle). Whether its studying something new, implementing a new regime or really, anything we are ‘new’ at, being willing to look silly and appear naive can be tough for adults. Moving forward, following our inner guidance without expectation and simply enjoying the experience is the wisdom the Fool embodies.

The third tarot card lies flat on the table in the image and it speaks of the ability to rise above our earthly situations which gives us the perspective we require to see everything as perfect in its own way. As the last card in the Major Arcana, it represents the conclusion to our journey of enlightenment.

I love the collective energy these cards hold and will be coloring my page then placing it on my new moon altar.

The second hand-drawn journal page shows four empty boxes, each with a corresponding question from Marlene. Marlene created this spread especially for the new moon in November. The intention on this page is for you to pull a card from your own tarot and/or oracle deck after asking each question to Spirit. There are four questions so in the end you will have pulled four cards.

I like to do this kind of spread in a mindful way by first following the steps to open my moon ritual then spend time in quiet contemplation as I color before I pull my cards.

In the empty box beside the question, you can choose to either simply lay down your card onto of the page or gather your pencil and crayons and draw words and visual elements from the cards you pulled into the corresponding boxes. When I have the time, I prefer drawing elements of the cards I pulled onto the journal page rather than just placing the cards onto the page. I am able to travel deeper inward as I draw and color which allows me to see more about myself and the messages I am receiving from Spirit.

If you end up completing this spiritual art ritual, I’d love to see what you created. You can even post the finished piece on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #danasartrituals or email me at support@danadaponte.com and share with me how it went for you. It’s fun for me to know there are others out there enjoying the moon with me.

with love,

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The November full moon holds helpful energy for closure and resolving issues you no longer need to carry. Some of those issues may center around relationships and how you feel about certain people in your life. Does your heart want to forgive or does it simply need to unburden itself?  I created a journal page to help you explore how you feel about forgiveness and healing during this month’s full moon.

Reflect

Forgiveness is not a simple topic. This explains why this particular journal page is one of the most emotionally complicated ones I’ve created. Forgiveness is a much deeper emotional journey than a lot of candy coated sentiments make it out to be. I can’t just jump straight to forgiveness and especially if there is trauma I most definitely should not do this. Sometimes I have to travel a long spirally road to get to forgiveness. Sometimes it’s not even the appropriate destination.

In order for this month’s full moon ritual to go beyond sugar and fluff, I want to share my thoughts on forgiveness before giving the instructions on how to use the hand-drawn journal page I created.

On this particular journal page, the first task I ask you to do is to write a list of people who have hurt you. I don’t know about you but writing that list instantly makes me feel vulnerable. It’s hard to admit to myself when someone has hurt me. Firstly, it brings up old wounds and sometimes I discover those wounds are still bleeding which requires patience and a willingness to not judge myself for not having ‘gotten over it already’.

Secondly, I’m much better at self-blame than asking myself to acknowledge other people’s destructive actions and behaviors. If I acknowledge their unhealthy behaviors then I can’t be nice or easy-going anymore. I can’t just let things slide and avoid confrontation. I have to take care of my heart and set healthy boundaries and that might make other people uncomfortable or it might make them judge me or it might destroy the relationship. Either way, taking care of my heart will upset the apples in the apple cart and all the apples will come tumbling out onto the ground and I’ll have to be okay with that. I’ll also have to be okay with losing a few apples (because inevitably I will lose the relationships that will not respect how I want to care for my heart), which will force me to grieve.

So right out the gate, making a list of people who have hurt me is challenging.

But next comes the request to consider who I am ready to forgive or who I want to feel differently about. I worded this prompt specifically in these two ways because I don’t believe forgiveness is always the healthiest choice. Sometimes the healthier choice is simply inviting my heart to unburden itself without focusing on forgiveness. You do not need to forgive in order to move on or evolve and grow. Instead, perhaps exploring your deeper feelings is most appropriate. In relation to this person or this hurt, what is your heart tired of carrying? If you are not ready to forgive, what is your heart ready to let go of?

When I skipped this step and practiced forgiveness in a way that completely glossed over how I was actually feeling or dismissed my emotional needs, I was flying over all kinds of steps my heart needed me to take to truly heal and grow. Valuing forgiveness over self-care, causes more damage. I believe my heart is naturally ready to forgive when I fully listen to and take care of what it needs. Until I am there, it is much healthier to allow myself to feel whatever my heart needs to feel including rage, injustice and fear because there is wisdom in those uncomfortable feelings.

If you use this journal page during this month’s full moon, trust your heart and the pace it wants to go. Don’t ignore trauma if it’s there. Get support if you need it. Use this page to help you explore how you feel without judging your heart or forcing it to be different or rushing it past necessary steps to healing. Allow yourself to be where you are then ask Spirit to help you shift what you are ready to shift. Don’t leap all the way to some perfectionist idea of forgiveness if that is not what your heart most needs.

Also, as you contemplate what your heart needs, don’t confuse forgiveness with a lack of boundaries. I did this in the past and it wasn’t helpful or healthy. I can have empathy or understand where someone else is coming from and I can even open my heart to feel compassion for them and see their spiritual innocence but that does not mean I have to think what they did is okay or I should allow the same destructive behaviors to continue to happen. From now on, I only want to invite forgiveness when I can do both things at the same time; forgive and set healthy boundaries.

This month’s journal page might be difficult to complete but the energy of this month’s moon will be a great support. As Forever Conscious states, there is a strong theme of closure around this moon. The energy will help you resolve issues that have been bothering you. If you are looking for a peaceful conclusion to a relationship that is causing pain, let the energy of this moon support you.

If you are not on my email list and haven’t received this month’s journal page, visit my homepage and sign up. You’ll receive a link where you can download the page. Print it, grab a tea and a cozy blanket, get comfortable then follow the instructions below.

If you enjoy these full moon journal pages, then you may also enjoy the free online Creative Moon Circles that accompany these pages. You can learn more about those here.

Create

If moon rituals are familiar to you, prepare your sacred space and invite Spirit to join you in whatever way works best for you.

If, however, you are new to moon rituals, I’ve included a quick guide to the steps I follow to prepare for my moon rituals in a past blog post. Take a look at it before moving forward.

Print out the November full moon journal page and choose a marker or pencil crayon that represents letting go or releasing.

The page features symbolism that is helpful for releasing and letting go. There are black candles for protection, crab apples to represent physical and emotional cleansing, dill as an emotional decongestant (if you’ve buried feelings for a while that will be helpful), basil for purification, holly to bring about sincere forgiveness and dogwood to restore innocence and to address the protective shell we build when we’ve been abused or mistreated.

If you don’t have someone in particular you want to forgive, you might want to explore where you feel you need to forgive yourself. In my life, this has been the longest and most difficult journey of forgiveness I’ve had to travel. Another area many clients who have experienced trauma explore in our sessions is the forgiveness they want to experience in their relationship with Spirit. When we experience difficult things we often feel abandoned by Spirit. We can even feel like Spirit has never really been there for us. Just like in our personal relationships, our hearts can build walls between us and the Divine and it cuts us off from feeling connected to the Love that is there. If this is the case, you might want to use the energy of this month’s moon to explore your spiritual relationships.

On the journal page, you will see a drawing of a smaller piece of paper in the upper left hand corner. This is where you are asked to create your list of people who have hurt you. On the drawing of the larger piece of paper in the middle of the journal page, you are asked to explore who you would like to forgive or feel differently about. It’s a simple page to complete but not necessarily an easy one so don’t forget, you don’t have to shift and grow on your own. There is a universe of Love here to support you even if you don’t feel particularly close to it.

If you end up completing this spiritual art ritual, I’d love to see what you created. You can even post the finished piece on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #danasartrituals or email me at support@danadaponte.com and share with me how it went for you.

with love,

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The October full moon is a good time to look back over the last twelve months and decide what you do not want to carry forward into the coming year.   I created a couple journal pages for this full moon to help you release the thoughts, emotions and experiences from the year that you are ready to let go.

Reflect

My witchy self likes to take things slow. The transition to a new year does not happen in a day. For me, it stretches from Samhain (pronounced sow’wen) at the end of October and beginning to November to the secular New Year on January 1st.  What I love about stretching the new year transition out like this is it gives me so much time to reflect. I get three – four months to move from brushing out the energy of the past year to planting seeds of intention for the new year.

I take my intentions seriously. They deserve thoughtful, considered attention and I can’t do that if I rush or force myself to figure things out quickly. I need time to look back, sort out my feelings, evaluate my results, consider where my priorities have changed, look into my heart and allow answers to surface from deep inside my soul. All of this takes time.

I start looking back over my past year in October. I think about the goals and intentions I set and I consider what actually transpired and how it affected me. I think about what was important to me last year and I allow myself to evaluate whether or not I am happy with the outcomes I experienced.

As I look back over the last year, there are definitely some things I want to experience differently. Last year, I cast a couple new year spells in a determined but impatient energy. The mood I was in when I cast the spell affected my results. At the time, I was feeling sick and tired of dealing with a couple recurring issues in my life. I was determined to overcome them. Determination in itself would not have been a terrible thing but I threw impatience and frustration into the mix. I should not have done that.

I should have been more aware of how I was feeling. I should have sorted out my feelings of impatience and frustration. I should have explored the deeper reasons why I was feeling intolerant of my circumstances. Had I sorted my feelings out, I could have come from an emotionally clear space. I would then have planted my seeds of intention in the softer, stronger energy of self-confidence. But I didn’t do that so all year I carried this frantic energy around my goals and intentions. It wasn’t peaceful. I was constantly moving towards my goals with a willful, single-minded and inflexible state of mind.

I much prefer the gentle energy of an open heart and mind that trusts she is supported by the great big Love that created the Universe and everything in it. This great big Love knows the songs that play deep in my heart and it is always listening to the unique melodies my soul sends out across time and space as it dreams of the world I want to create. I don’t have to will things into being. I don’t have to struggle and fight and hold on with all my might. I can let go of my dreams and send them out into the void then relax and trust.

I will be casting my new year spell in much different energy this time around but before I’m ready to do that I want to release all that frantic, willful energy from last year. This October, I will be using the magic of the full moon to release my feelings of impatience and aggravation. I will ask the earth to absorb my unwanted energy and transform it deep within her molten womb. I will imagine the transformed energy rising up and out from the center of the earth as it nourishes the soil where eventually I will plant new, kinder intentions.

I created a journal page to use during this full moon release.

Please note: The hand-drawn pictures on these two particular journal pages show images of a cemetery which may be emotionally triggering for some.

If you are not on my email list and haven’t received these two journal pages, visit my homepage and sign up. You’ll receive a link where you can download this month’s journal pages. Print the pages then follow the instructions below.

If you enjoy these full moon journal pages, then you may also enjoy the free online Creative Moon Circles that accompany these pages. You can learn more about those here.

Create

If moon rituals are familiar to you, prepare your sacred space and invite Spirit to join you in whatever way works best for you.

If, however, you are new to moon rituals, I’ve included a quick guide to the steps I follow to prepare for my moon rituals in a past blog post. Take a look at it before moving forward.

Print out the two journal pages and choose a marker or pencil crayon that represents letting go or releasing.

The hand-drawn journal pages feature a scene in a cemetery with many blank tombstones. Imagine that each tombstone represents a hole you dug to bury a belief, thought, memory, feeling or experience that you do not want to carry into the new year. Tombstones usually hold a name and a description or epitaph. On each tombstone, name what you are releasing and underneath the name write a short epitaph to describe why you are releasing that belief, thought, memory, feeling or experience.

Here is an example;

IMPATIENCE

released October 2019

I thank you for your lessons 

but I’m now in search of gentler blessings

When you have written on each tombstone, take a moment to perform a cleanse or burn the pages if that feels right for you then write your initial thoughts about the new intentions you want to cast this upcoming year. Think of this initial reflection as your first draft. You have from now until whenever you celebrate the new year to edit and refine your intentions.

If you end up completing this spiritual art ritual, I’d love to see what you created. You can even post the finished piece on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #danasartrituals or email me at support@danadaponte.com and share with me how it went for you.

with love,

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The September 2019 new moon is a great time to dream. The dark night sky invites us to look inward and connect to Spirit. What is it you really want? Is your heart open to receive? The journal pages I created for this new moon inspire you to stretch your imagination so you can better see what is possible for yourself…and the world.

Reflect

I often have a hard time imagining more for myself. It’s hard to stretch my brain to see something that isn’t right there in front of me. My guardian angel Cassandra used to encourage me to be more creative. She would point out when my mind was stuck in a box. In her opinion, too many people are unable to think creatively. I suspect this is because we’ve rarely been encouraged to do so and imagination is probably a lot like our body, it gets stiff and inflexible when it we don’t stretch it.

What I’ve learned from Cassandra over the years is spending time thinking about things that don’t yet exist is time very well spent. It used to be quite difficult for me to imagine my life looking differently than what I was actually experiencing but with Cassandra’s guidance and a lot of practice, I’m now able to visualize an imagined future with a lot more detail and feeling.

I like visualizing imagined futures for myself. I don’t do it because I need them to come true. I do it because it helps me understand myself better. It helps me peel back the layers of obligations and conditioning so I can see what makes me feel alive.

When I get to the core of what I really want, I usually close off a little as if I’m shy or embarrassed even though there’s no one physically present with me. Touching the dreams I carry deep inside my heart is still a tender journey. There are parts of me that don’t yet feel confident or deserving. It sometimes takes me a little while to encourage those parts of myself to open up enough to allow me to imagine.

It’s also sometimes hard to allow myself to imagine in front of someone. I meet with a friend online every week. We support each other by talking out what is bothering or confusing us in our lives and businesses. Before we take turns talking about what we need to sort out, we each spend time visualizing a moment from our imagined future. For the last couple years, I’ve been visualizing the same moment over and over again. Lately, it’s felt alive with more detail and feeling than ever before. It’s like a made a break through in my ability to imagine. My imagination never felt so real before. It’s like before I was imagining in 2D and now all of a sudden I can imagine in 3D. It’s wild.

I like to share that wildness with others. A big part of what I like to do in my work is help people imagine and play. I help them do it in the studio. I guide them through it in my Intuitive Therapy sessions and it’s one of the reasons I draw my full and new moon journal pages. I hope the page I created for this new moon helps your imagination stretch a little further than it is used to.

Create

I like to think of the new moon as an empty canvas or an empty garden plot filled with rich black dirt just waiting for me to plant a seed in.  The New Moon Phase is a time to go inward, be still and dream up what you next want to create in your life. During the New Moon, I like to perform art rituals around manifesting, getting clear on what it is I really want, looking forward, planning and thinking about what I want the next Moon Cycle to look like.

The New Moon is a perfect time to ask Spirit to help you stretch your imagination so you can better conceptualize what is possible in your life. We have a tendency to not see our value or our worth and feel as if we don’t deserve all the love and abundance available to us and consequently we dream and/or think small.   I like to spend some time during my New Moon art rituals asking God, Divine Mother and/or Spirit to help me feel worthy and open my heart to receive all the goodness, magic and adventure that is already there waiting for me.

For the September new moon, I created a journal page to use during my moon ritual to help me stretch my imagination and consider the future I want to create.

If you are not on my email list and haven’t received this journal page, visit my homepage and sign up. You’ll receive a link where you can download this month’s journal page.

If moon rituals are familiar to you, prepare your sacred space and invite Spirit to join you in whatever way works best for you.

If, however, you are new to moon rituals, I’ve included a quick guide to the steps I follow to prepare for my moon rituals in my last blog post. Take a look at it before moving forward.

When you are ready, print out the three journal pages. You’ll notice there is a path that runs along all three pages. Place the pages together so the path winds along all three pages. You can now follow the path from beginning to end or if you like to break the rules, go ahead and start at the end and make your way to the beginning.

As you move along the path you’ll see there are stops along the way. I’m going to enjoy this page by going from the end to the beginning so that’s how I am going to describe it here.

There’s a castle where you are asked to describe your dream. Further up on the path, a dragon guards her eggs. Each egg represents a feeling your dream evokes within you. There’s a village with a house for each person who supports your dreams. Keep winding your way along the path where a group of wild animals await you. There’s space here for you to consider which animal holds the qualities you most need to follow your dreams.

Stop at the picnic blanket and nourish yourself before walking up to the tree and writing about the things you are grateful for on the flags that hang from its branches. Cross the bridge where’s there is a basket of tools inviting you to think about what skills you already have to make your dreams come true. In the garden, describe the kinds of changes you hope your dream causes in your everyday life. A river runs through the second page. In its waters you are asked to describe what it looks like when your life is in flow.

Majestic mountains stand in the horizon and they ask you to write about the challenges or obstacles you might face as you move in the direction of your dreams. You do not walk the path alone. A group of angels awaits for your instructions on how you would like them to help you. Mother Earth is always there waiting to help too. In the patch of crystals and plants, list the natural elements you can call on for support. You were born with everything you need to turn your dreams into reality. As the path winds along, presents are piled on top of one another. They represent the gifts you were born with. Finally, you arrive at an angel. She holds you, as a baby, in her arms. She asks you to celebrate the magnificent being you are. What good is a dream if you don’t feel worthy of it?

If you end up completing this spiritual art ritual, I’d love to see what you created. You can even post the finished piece on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #danasartrituals or email me at support@danadaponte.com and share with me how it went for you.

with love,

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