Moongazy

The moon was full at 4.52 today, just half an hour ago as I begin this!  So somewhere out there it is large and glowing.  Hopefully when it is dark it will not be hidden by the clouds and I can enjoy the sight of it riding through the sky when I am out catching the slugs who are trying to eat my veggies.  I throw them over the fence into the small wood behind the house.  I know they will only make their way back at some time, but, slimy though they are, I don’t like the thought of killing them with salt.  Time to get the slug pub out again - at least then they die happy - hopefully.

It has also reminded me that it is 3 years since my vision quest on Dartmoor.  That was an amazing experience, which gave me the name ‘Moongazy’ and a vision that I wasn’t sure of at the time, but it has come more into my understanding in the past few months.  The quest itself gave me confidence as it showed I could prepare and spend 3 nights fasting on my own  in an open place.  It also proved that the darkness has nothing in it to fear except things in my own mind and that I like to eat at regular intervals!  I had a drink of water when I was hungry and it  kept me going.

The preparation beforehand allowed me to decide that the reason for the quest was to say goodbye to my old life, which was changing in many ways and to welcome what the future had to give me.  The past three years have been an exciting journey of gaining knowledge and living in a new way.  It is not  reccomended to share your visions, but suffice to say that I knew that I was protected by many loving things and that this has become clearer since.  A new, more confident person has emerged from the experience, someone who starts each day with thanks and looks forward to what may come with the knowledge that we can always cope with what we are given if we let go.

Life lately has been a round of therapies and gardening with family stuff in the middle.  I ran a short course on meditation, introducing people to the basic methods so that they can start their own practice.  It went well and I feel happy that they have a skill that will last them throughout their lives and bring many benefits.  My own meditations have been varied.  Some have gone well, while other days the world seems to float around in my brain with thoughts buzzing everywhere.  I do look forward to my time in the mornings now.  However they turn out, it is a calm start to the day.

I decided against looking for a teacher and I am still working through things in my own way.  I want guidance occasionally, but things seem to turn up when they are needed.  So I try to let go and see what happens.  I met an artist who has been working with women’s issues around spirituality for many years.  She has introduced me to some writers on the subject of the place of women in the world.  The main consensus is that we are still struggling against the male domination in the majority of places with progress in some areas of the west.

There is a lot being written now about 2012, the end of the Mayan long calendar, and what it will mean for humankind.  A great shift is predicted, though there are many variations on what it will mean for us all, from a change in perspective to the end of the world as we know it.  It is also talked of as the return of The Great Mother.  There is much to learn in the next 3 years and it is hard to know what is right from the stuff out there at the moment.  Possibly we just need to wait and see what happens.