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march full moon 2020

Dana’s Moon Page for the Full Moon March 2020

The March full moon is a great time to forgive yourself for your weaknesses and discover how strong you actually are. This month’s journal page was created to take you on a journey of helping you let go of whatever is in the way of accessing your inner power.

Reflect

I used to struggle with overeating and binge eating. When I became ill, I immediately blamed myself for my illness. That’s the way it is when you have an addiction; shame makes it easy to attack yourself. The doctors I looked to for support didn’t have answers but many years ago my naturopath asked me to eat a carb free diet because it appeared my system was reacting to the carbs by flooding my body with inflammation. At the time, I was addicted to sugar and carbs so I felt weak because I couldn’t listen to his advice. It seemed like other people I knew could easily restrict themselves if they needed to but for me, it was impossible. For a while, I was really hard on myself about that. I blamed myself for my pain. I didn’t consider myself strong. The changes I needed to make felt like they were too hard for me to make and at the time, they were.

What I’ve learned is trauma trumps will power. The way my body was sent into a trauma response every time my stomach felt empty would always be stronger than my desire to change but when I treated my trauma, I had the strength to do what I needed to do. I made drastic changes in my life. Everything I needed to do suddenly seemed doable.

Addiction isn’t weakness and most things we do that we regret doing isn’t because we are weak. We are eternal beings of unlimited beauty and power. We have inner resources that we haven’t even fully tapped into. Weakness isn’t the problem. Things like trauma and lack of connection and attachment wounds and difficult childhood experiences are the problem.

I didn’t know why I needed to draw a bear for this month’s moon page until I sat down to reflect on it but the events that unfolded this week are making me understand why the symbolism is important. My illness has taken a turn for the worse. My doctor suspects mast cell issues and is referring me to a hematologist. I’ve already changed so much about my lifestyle and diet in an attempt to improve my health. It was so discouraging for me to experience things getting worse. I cried for a few days. I bitched for a few more. Eventually, I found my strength again.

The three things that helped me find my strength again were conversations with my mom who reminded me there is hope, a treatment with Jessica Palik Bray who did a cranio sacral treatment where I felt emotionally held in a way the cells in my body seemed to be longing to feel for a very long time and all the nights I spent drawing this moon page. The imagery makes me feel strong and protected. I plan on making a few copies of this particular moon page and hanging them up in strategic places in my home like my fridge, my bathroom mirror and my office so my subconscious mind can continuously soak in the image that reminds me I am so much stronger than I feel and I am far more protected than I know.

If you are not on my email list and haven’t received this month’s moon 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 March full moon journal page and gather your pens, paints or pencil crayons.

The bear is truly the magic on this page. Bear symbolism is connected to the moon and the unconscious and all those wonderful things that live in the mystery. This bear is protecting the woman in the forest as she releases her magic to the moon. The trees stand tall as they root the energy of spirit and sky into the earth.

When food is scarce, the bear relies on what it stored inside its body to survive. Maybe when we enter our own dark times, we can remember that we have inner powers to draw from. What we need will be there.

The woman on the page is holding an open book. Stars are lifting up from the blank pages and swirling upward towards the moon where they spiral inward. In that spiral is room for you to write what ‘weakness’ you want to forgive yourself for. When you are done, take a moment to stare into the bear’s eyes and ask to be shown what quality or skill you will need to replace your ‘weakness’ with. What inner resources will you need to draw upon? What spiritual forces can you call upon? Who, in the world of spirit, can you lean on?  Then, if you’re okay will doing silly things like I am, speak to the bear. Let it know what you need. Ask it for help. Speak it out loud. You’ll be amazed how powerful the simple act of speaking it out loud can be, especially in ritual.

When you are done, hang this full moon page that now has your magic on it somewhere you will see it often until the new moon or burn the page on a fire and as you watch the smoke rise, imagine Mother Moon scooping it up in her arms and transforming the energy then returning it to your heart in a form that serves you better.

If you end up completing this moon page, 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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