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January new moon 2020

Creative Journal Page for the New Moon January 2020

The January new moon is the first new moon of 2020. I created a journal page to help you contemplate and visualize the life cycle of a dream you want to grow in your life. 

Reflect

I often compare the new moon phase to a magical moon made of rich black dirt. I imagine planting the seed of a dream in that magical moon’s dirt. I then imagine Spirit and all the forces of Love in the Universe that are working with me to grow my dreams tend to this seed while I go about my everyday life. I imagine my angels singing to the seed I planted while their loving melodic support coaxes the seed to grow.

But it’s not just their efforts that matter. My actions and physical efforts matter too, of course, as do my emotional efforts. Growing a dream takes a lot of emotional work.  As I work to grow a dream, everything I carry within me that is not in alignment with that dream rises to the surface. Every belief and memory that is working against my dream will show itself and when it does, I have the opportunity to do the work to clear it or transform whatever is in my way.

This was the same with raising my son. I valued gentle parenting and teaching him to follow his own inner compass and so my approach when raising my son was to deal with my fears, anxiety and emotional triggers when they arose instead of trying to control his choices and behaviors in order to make me feel better or happier. It was the hardest work I had ever done. I was constantly faced with my SELF. I refused to control him so every time I was uncomfortable with something he wanted to do or a choice he wanted to make, I had to deal with my feelings until I felt neutral or removed enough from my triggers that I wouldn’t bring that energy into our conversations.

My emotional work paid off. My son grew up knowing how to trust himself, listen to his own heart and follow his passions. He didn’t grow up following the path he thought myself or his father wanted him to take or the path society taught him to value or the path he watched his friends take. He learned to carve his own path and I get to watch him live life HIS way and that is so very much what I wanted for him. Raising him the way I did was emotionally grueling work but it was worth every inner dragon I faced.

One of the inner dragons we face when we choose to grow a dream that is calling us, is believing it is possible. When you touch on a dream that truly comes from your heart and spirit, it may feel like there’s no possible way you could create that experience in your life but what if you can? What if there is the sliver of a possibility that you can? Wouldn’t you want to try?

For this month’s new moon, I created a journal page to invite you to contemplate the entire life cycle of a dream you hold near and dear to your heart. I encourage you to focus on ONE dream at a time. This particular journal page is much more effective when you choose only one dream to focus on. Perhaps it’s the dream of a certain kind of romantic relationship you desire or the dream of travel or the dream of becoming a certain kind of mother or writing a book. If you are a creative person with many projects you want to see come to life, choose your absolute favorite one and focus on that specific one or focus on the dream of being an artist or an entrepreneur or a writer. As long as you have narrowed it down to one thing you can contemplate from beginning to end.  Once you’ve chosen what you want to focus on and printed the journal page, you are ready to begin.

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.

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 new moon journal page.

The hand on the page is holding a seed. In that seed, write the dream you will be focusing on. Once you’ve done that, grab your journal or a page to write on. You’ll notice the page contains 12 circles with images of a rose growing. We will study each circle on its own and as we do we will write about our dream following the prompts below.

Circle 1

Study the circle on the bottom left of the page where a seed planted in the black dirt is depicted. Let’s imagine this seed represents the idea of your dream and the black dirt represents the Divine energy you are asking to help you grow your dream. In your journal, describe what or who that Divine energy is to you. Who do you pray to? Who or what do you want to call upon to grow this dream? Are there certain elements you want to invoke? Are there certain deities you want to call in?

Once you’ve described who you want to ask for support from, in as much detail as you can, write down what your ideas about your dream are so far. They don’t have to be fully formulated or perfect. Just allow yourself to write whatever comes to mind.

Circle 2

Look at the second circle from the bottom left hand side of the page. Notice how the seed is sprouting. Your dream is not yet above ground. It is still nestled safely in the unseen world of thoughts and feelings. What thoughts, beliefs, memories and feelings does your dream need to grow? What ideas, words and emotions do you need to feed it with? Write the answer to these questions in your journal too.

Circle 3

Study the third circle from the bottom left hand side of the page. Notice how the plant is growing out of the dirt. Your dream has moved from the unseen world and is starting to be visible in your physical reality. How will you know when your dream is starting to come to life? What actions will you be doing? What choices will you be making? What small changes will you notice in yourself or the world around you? What do you imagine will be happening in the unseen world of Spirit and energy as your dream starts to come to life in your physical world?

Circle 4

Move upward to the fourth circle where a small bud appears on the plant. This bud represents the sweetness your dream will bring into your life. What kind of magic or synchronicity or connections do you imagine your dream might orchestrate in your life? What kind of people will it bring into your life? As it grows, what kind of experiences will it invite into your life? What kind of person will it inspire you to be?

Circle 5

Study the fifth circle on your journey, the one in the top left hand corner of the page. Notice how the bud is tilting, as if it were trying to follow the sun. Your dream will most likely require you to make changes in your life and to follow a different path than you are used. You may not be comfortable with the places within you that must change. Where do you suspect your dream might require you to stretch or grow? What points along the way might challenge or scare you? How will you support yourself through those points on your path?

Circle 6

The next circle shows the bud opening up. Your dream is getting noticed by other people. What does that look like? How do you want other people to respond to your dream?

Circle 7

The next circle is where the bud has started to bloom but it hasn’t opened all the way.  This is where massive momentum and growth happens. Your dream is almost completely realized. How will you know you’re almost exactly where you wanted to be? What kind of energy will surround your dream?

Circle 8

Study the circle in the top right corner. Notice how the rose is in full bloom. Your dream is fully realized. It is at the height of its life cycle. What kind of rewards does it bring into your life? How do you know you have ‘arrived’? How will you celebrate when you get here?

Circle 9

The next circle shows the petals starting to fall off the rose. Everything, including your dreams, goes through the life cycle. We tend to focus on what it will look like when our dream becomes a reality but I want us to dream a little further. What does it look like when your dream starts to come to the end of it’s life cycle? Where do you imagine you’ll be in your life cycle at that time? How does your life change as your dream starts to reach the end of it’s life cycle?

Circle 10

The next circle show the plant drooping and life continuing to fade from the rose. As your dream continues to transform into something different, what will you be grateful for? What do you imagine you will have deeply appreciated about the journey?

Circle 11

The second last circle shows a wilted rose on a plant that has grown two rose hips. This is where new seeds are growing. What resources or skill will you have earned by sticking to growing this one dream from imagination to reality?

Circle 12

The last circle shows a new seed borrowing its way into the dirt. What new dream in your future do you imagine this one dream will inspire?

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 [email protected] 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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