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January full moon 2020

Creative Journal Page for the Full Moon January 2020

The January full moon is also a lunar eclipse making it a great time to shift and release. This month’s journal page was created to take you on a journey of shifting and releasing using your seven chakra centers.

Reflect

The journal page for this month was inspired by a vision I received from Spirit. Usually I sit and consider the energy of the moon phase we are entering before I decide what I want to create. This month Spirit took over and told me what to create. The image of a woman breathing roses out of her lungs came like a flash without explanation. I was confused. Why did I have to draw lungs? I knew looking up a few things in my books would help. This is what I learned.

In The Secret Language of Your Body, Inna Segal describes issues associated with the lungs to be rooted in a difficulty expressing yourself or standing up for yourself, a propensity to put other people’s needs first, overdoing things, difficulty being independent and an inability to say, “No.” These are definitely things I want to release in 2020.

Reading more about the respiratory system it struck me how similar breathing is to the moon cycle. The in breath being the building or taking in of energy and the out breath being the dispelling of unwanted energy. When you breathe, you take in oxygen from your environment. That oxygen travels into your lungs and goes into your blood stream. Your blood stream releases what it doesn’t need, carbon dioxide, and your exhale carries that carbon dioxide out of your body and into the air around you.

Breath is an exchange between you and your environment.

What if your chakras operate in the same way? What if your chakras draw energy and information in from the environment around you while at the same time your chakras take energy vibrating from inside of you and radiate it outward? What if there is this constant breath-like movement of energy and information between your body and your environment?

For the purpose of this journal page, we’re going to imagine this is the case. 

If you are not familiar with the chakra system, imagine your body is full of hundreds of energy pathways and when many pathways meet, they create an energy center. The centers where the energy pathways meet are called your chakras. The idea of chakras have been described in different ways in all corners of the globe. There is a Hindu chakra system, a Tibetan model, a Mayan energy model where they speak of the seven powers housed in the body, a Tsalagi (Cherokee) energy system, an Incan model, a Celtic model and probably hundreds more. Many cultures have understood the body in terms of energy for a very long time.

I’ve included a photo here of a picture I drew one day while I was meditating on my chakras. The chakras contain the colors of the rainbow, which if you understand prisms and light, is pretty freaking interesting. The sun shines light down on our bodies. If  you put sunlight through a prism, you would the light the sun shines down on us contains all these same color frequencies. When I soak in the sun, it’s like I’m soaking in all these color energies too!

For this particular full moon, I’d like to take you on a journey with the roses I drew on the journal page and your sacred energy centers (or chakras). I am following the journey through the chakras as outlined by Elen Sentier in her book, “Shaman Pathways: The Celtic Chakras“.

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 my hand-drawn 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 January full moon journal page and gather your pens, paints or pencil crayons. Make sure you have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white or gold colors to use.

On the page you’ll see a woman releasing rose vines from her lungs. There are eight large roses each with a large leaf shape beside them. Color one of the roses green. It doesn’t matter which one. Simply choose a rose on the page. This represents your heart chakra, the energy center of your body. Your heart emanates more electricity than your brain does and it beats with a rhythm and sound that connects you to all life. You free your divinity through your heart. Here you break down the barriers between yourself and the world. Imagine your heart beating in unison with the Universe. What memories or experiences are you holding onto that cause you to want to protect your heart from others? What have you been carrying in your heart that has created separation between you and the people you love? Are there stories or beliefs that prevent you from experiencing the kind of closeness and intimacy that feeds your spirit? What, within you, are you ready to release so you can feel safe letting other people close to you? In the leaf shape beside the green rose, write what you want to release so that your heart is able to open and expand so you can let more love in from the world and send more love out into the world.

Next, choose a rose and color it yellow. This rose represents your solar plexus chakra. This chakra is associated with the element of fire and I like to imagine it is a bright yellow sun in the middle of the body. The energies here manage the digestive process and organs but also the nervous system and immune process. This center determines both the health of our bodies and minds because energetically, digestion is the ability to process your thoughts and what happens to you. If you are like me and have experienced early childhood trauma, you might have issues with these areas because your mind couldn’t effectively move through or process the information it was receiving – it couldn’t digest what was happening. In this center is your personal power and hints to fulfilling your greater purpose. When you clear this energy center, you start to move in the direction of living from your spirit instead of living from the pain in your past. In the leaf beside this rose, write what needs to be burned away from your past so you can feel free to move in the direction of your dreams.

Move your attention up to your throat center while you color a rose blue. This center carries energies around speaking your truth. We are not taught how to speak up. As children, we are most often taught how to obey and so we lose our ability to express ourselves – emotionally and creatively. If you are holding yourself back from saying what wants to be said because you are afraid of conflict or rejection, this energy center can experience blocks. When you feel blocked here, your connection to yourself, your heart and your psychic connection to Spirit is affected. The image on this journal page is most connected to the throat chakra center. The woman is opening her mouth wide to let her truth out. She is expressing herself freely and her life force energy is pouring out into the night sky. How have you been holding yourself back from expressing yourself. How can you give voice to your deepest, most divine self? on the leaf beside this rose, describe what you need to release so you feel free to express yourself emotionally, spiritually or creatively.

Now choose a rose and color it orange. This rose represents your sacral chakra. This energy center carries your need to develop your own personality and your need to reach out and connect with others. It is located at your sexual organs. This is your creative center. It is also connected to your desires, passions and dreams. When you feel stuck here, you feel disconnected from what brings you joy and makes you feel alive. You have an inherent need for love and sweetness. These are natural things to want and pursue. Can you allow yourself to receive them? On the leaf beside this rose, describe what you suspect may be stopping you from experiencing deep joy in one or more areas of your life?

Color your next rose choice with white, violet or gold. This represents your crown chakra which is located at the top of your head. This is the chakra that reminds me of oneness because it is where your energy dissolves into the essence of all life. Here you are connected to the Divine. It is where we enter the higher planes and access our highest wisdom. I like to imagine it is the place within my energy system where I draw energy from the moon and the stars. If your energy is blocked in this area, you may feel disconnected from the Divine or experience a lack of connection to the loving spiritual energies wanting to support you. In the leaf beside this rose, describe any thoughts, beliefs, memories or emotions that are preventing you from connecting to the Divine in the way that you most want to.

Color the next rose of your choice red. This rose represents your root chakra which is found at the base of your spine. This energy center is connected to the center of the earth and carries your stories about being in a physical body. It is the doorkeeper of the physical realm. It is symbolic of the life you will live in this particular body. It is associated with our physical survival. If you do not like your body or do not like being in a body, the energies in your root chakra will most likely be holding that information. Those who have experienced violence or traumas that make them feel unsafe, usually feel disconnected from their bodies. When you do not feel safe in your body, the energy is all chakras is affected. In the leaf beside your red rose, describe what you need to release in order to feel safe in your body.

Now color the seventh rose purple. This rose represents your third eye chakra which resides in the middle of your forehead. Energy from both the sun and the moon mix and meet in this chakra which combines earth energies with divine or spiritual energies. I like to think of this chakra as the bridge between the physical world and the world of spirit. This is also the chakra where you get to know your true self. It is the center of higher sight. It is the place where all the energies from all the other centers meet and weave together to create the essence that is you in this lifetime. What stories, memories or beliefs do you carry that block you from receiving spiritual insight or knowing who you really are? Write your answers in the leaf next to this rose.

Finally, color the last rose with all seven colors. Think about your journey through all seven chakras. Can you find a word or a phrase that summarizes what you most want to release as you start this new decade? In the leaf next to this rose, write the word of phrase that comes to you.

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,

Dana da Ponte

 

 

 

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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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