New Moon Journal

Gifts to bring out the Virgo in you

Are you organized? More Virgo than Pisces? Good for you, I try but it doesn’t always work...With a Moon in Aries and Sun in Pisces, I move on pretty quickly to the next project, which outwardly manifests as creative chaos; I need all the help I can get to organize. I thought I’d share some of my favorite tools for managing my creative space and the New Moon SoulCollage® process...you may want to add one or all to your holiday wish list. **smile**

Journaling: I don’t like journaling in a notebook, my thoughts come too fast and hand writing is too slow. When I started writing down my dreams I found Microsoft Word too cumbersome. First off anyone could open up the file, and well I wanted a process with more bells and whistles. Then I found LifeJournal eight years ago and never looked back. This software is easy to use, organizes my dreams, gives me prompts for journaling and my SoulCollage® cards are seamlessly integrated into the writing. If you are looking for a gift this holiday season check out LifeJournal.

Organizing: I love my Collector’s Cabinet! I have two in the studio and the units organize everything into 11x14 photo frame trays. I originally bought the cabinets for rubber stamps (I am a scanner); but now the cabinets hold sorted images waiting to be turned into Soulcollage cards. I can take a tray out and work with it on my desk and the images don’t get lost in the shuffle. One 11x14 tray holds six SoulCollage® card packs. I hung the cabinets on the wall in my studio, but the units can be used on the floor (they even come with little wheels to move around). Here’s another view of two small cabinets used as a sofa table, and one wouldn’t even know the person’s a crafter! Oh and here’s a great resource for storage and craft rooms.

Protect the desk: I use an x-acto knife to cut out images for SoulCollage cards -okay, this I am very Virgo about-no white space! I need a strong surface to cut on. Last month I traded in the little cutting mat for a ginormous 36 x 60 cutting mat from Joanne’s Fabrics (it was on sale at the store, not online). The clear mat is permanently mounted with double stick tape on top of the desk; now I can sit anywhere around it and cut out images. I love it!

This holiday season, what’s on your wish list?

New Moons, Mercury Retrogrades for 2008

Here are the upcoming New Moons and retrograde periods for 2008. Pluto enters Capricorn in January for the first time in 230 years. Expect a shift and track your energy at each lunation.

Each New Moon is a conception point for planting seed thoughts-a new idea or stating a decree. There is an energetic doorway present at the new moon, we stand at the threshold wondering and dreaming. Some go to sleep, numb out and forget to dream. Sometimes it's hard waking up from this deep sleep. It can be scary. I honor that. What I suggest is just play with the SoulCollage® process, one new moon at a time...

Don’t worry about ’knowing’ astrology and the signs, feel into the energies. The New Moon SoulCollage® process is about soaking up the energies on an intuitive level. Finding the mystery of you in bits of paper and glue. To stay informed subscribe [on the left hand sidebar] to the New Moon Journal.

PERMISSION TO REPRINT: Share and share alike means that you give Michele Lessirard credit. You may reprint this post from "The New Moon Journal" but please include the following paragraph in it's entirety with the links back to this site:

"Reprinted from The New Moon Journal, an online e-zine featuring astrological coaching tips, tricks and techniques for using the sky energies for personal empowerment written by Michele Bailey-Lessirard. Subscribe at http://newmoonjournal.com

Revised: 12/05/2007, 12/31/07

The New Moons in 2008:

Jan 8, 2008 06:37 am est at 18° Capricorn
Feb 6, 2008 10:44 pm est at 18° Aquarius*
Mar 7, 2008 12:14 pm est at 18° Pisces
Apr 5, 2008 11:55 pm est at 17° Aries
May 5, 2008 8:18 am est at 16° Taurus
June 3, 2008 3:23 pm est at 14° Gemini
July 2, 2008 10:19 pm est at 12° Cancer
Aug 1, 2008 6:13 am est at 10° Leo*
Aug 30, 2008 3:58 pm est at 08° Virgo
Sept 29, 2008 4:12 am est at 07° Libra
Oct 28, 2008 7:14 pm est at 06° Scorpio
Nov 27, 2008 11:54 am est at 06° Sagittarius

*denotes a New Moon/Solar Eclipse
All times are calculated to Eastern Standard Time (est) using NY, New York. If I made an error please be kind in your comments.

For more information check the right hand sidebar on this page under Categories, click the appropriate sign link in the listing to review that month’s energy on The New Moon Journal®. This is a great way to check-in 6 months later at the full moon to see what you set into motion. It gives you insights into how you are managing your energies-body, mind and spirit.

2008 Planetary Station Points
Note: S/R denotes Stationary retrograde motion
S/D denotes Stationary direct motion.

Mercury
Jan 28 S/R    24° Aquarius        Feb 18 S/D    09° Aquarius
May 26 S/R   22° Gemini          June 19 S/D    13° Gemini
Sep 24 S/R   23° Libra             Libra Oct 15    S/D 08° Libra

Mars
Nov 15, 2007 S/R 13° Cancer
Jan 30, 2008 S/D 25° Gemini

Venus

Jupiter
May 9 S/R 23° Capricorn
Sep 7 S/D 13° Capricorn

Saturn
Dec 29, 2007 S/R 09° Virgo
May 2, 2008 S/D 02° Virgo

Uranus
June 26 S/R 23° Pisces
Nov 27 S/D 19° Pisces

Neptune
May 26 S/R 25° Aquarius
Nov 2 S/D 22° Aquarius

Pluto
Pluto enters Capricorn on January 25, 2008 at 9:38 pm est.
Apr 2 S/D 02° Capricorn
Sep 8 S/D 29° Sagittarius

2008 Calendars

One of my year end rituals is ordering an astrology calendar for the coming year. My choice is the 2008 Celestial Influences Calendar by Jim Maynard.

Quicksilver Productions is pre-selling Celestial Influences and starts shipping them on November 8th. You may want to pick up a copy for yourself (they carry different versions). Celestial Influences is a complete astro calendar with an ephemeris. For those who don’t have astrology software to run charts, this calendar is great tool to have.

My calendar hangs on the wall near the desk...I can easily look up to see what phase the Moon is in, when the Sun enters a new sign. The calendar comes in a couple different sizes/formats and it’s been one of my reference manuals for the last decade.

Every astrologer seems to have their favorite calendar. Llewellyn’s 2008 Astrological Calendar: With Horoscopes for Everyone (Calendar) and We’moon 2008 Calendar: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn also have a date books and wall calendars, but I always come back to Celestial Influences. I do buy a We’Moon Date book because I love the text, poetry and art.

For those just learning astrology a calendar like this is a good resource to have in your library as well. SoulCollage® alert- these old calendars are great resources for both Moon and feminine goddess images.

Calendar Links:
Celestial Influences 2008
Llewellyn’s Celestial Calendar
We’Moon Calendar
Tom Roma’s Weekly Astrological Guide

The sweet smell of success

Here are some New Moon Journal® blogkeeping issues (so very Virgo) I need to address. Subscriptions and Content...

RSS problem- RSS is how this blog is published and sent to you. Over the last month I have been getting rebroadcasts of old posts from The New Moon Journal®. How irritating. If I am getting them, then so are you.

I am sorry.

I have talked to both Feedblitz (my subscription service) and TypePad (where my blog is hosted). No one has an answer for me yet. **argh** I appreciate your patience while I work this out. If you read a lot of blogs I suggest using a feedreader. I use BlogLines and love it. I capture the blogs I want to read by clicking the little orange box (found in the person’s blog) and BlogLines does the rest. BlogLines is my morning paper.

The Sweet Smell of Success- Thanks for the link!

I love writing, creating and sharing about the Moon. After six years of publishing The New Moon Journal® [252 posts, 152 comments] my efforts are paying off. Others are picking up the excitement of working with SoulCollage® and the New Moon energies. I am proud to say this blog is being talked about and I am so grateful.

• Amy Cunningham, from Chattering Minds over at BeliefNet wrote a wonderful review this summer while saying good-bye- Websites to Visit, Blogs to read. Thanks Amy! I miss you!
• Astrologer Molly Nagy on About.com posted an article about the New Moon SoulCollage process here. Thanks Molly!
• My Space News links to the New Moon Journal here.

Are you feeling inspired by this website? Are you a blogger? An astrologer? If so I’d appreciate a link on your blog back to the New Moon Journal® when discussing the New Moon SoulCollage® process!

Please let me know about your SoulCollage® cards and I’ll add them to Flicker with a link to your site in the gallery of New Moon SoulCollage® images. And if you blog about SoulCollage® I invite you to join the SoulCollage® WebRing.

So that’s enough blogkeeping for me today, and yes, the New Moon Journal® is now officially registered and trademarked. Yeah!

Martha Stewart and Me, 6 degrees

Beeswax and SoulCollaging®. Martha Stewart and Me. Six degrees of separation.

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth.-Wikipedia

Do you want to follow an artist and be inspired by not only her talent but also her ability to market and be a successful business woman?

Yesterday collage artist Claudine Hellmuth* was on the Martha Stewart Show. I AM SO HAPPY FOR HER! In 2003 I took a beeswax collage class with Claudine in Orlando. I made several great pieces and got hooked on beeswax. The smell of beeswax is just wonderful as one paints to glue down objects and add color. Those beeswax SoulCollage® cards created a buzz the SoulCollage Facilitator training in February women asked "how did you do that?" Well I have Claudine to thank!!

Here’s one of those pieces turned into a SoulCollage® card using old tissue from a Simplicity dress pattern, wax crayons (red and yellow) and old photograph (that’s my mom’s baby picture**smile**).

The fun of not only discovering new ways of creating but also...

• Community-being in all that creative energy with others of like mind and heart creating art.
• Sharing-Claudine walking into the room with a giant duffle bag of images and dumping the pile on the floor for us to play and create with.
• Observing- I sat in the first row. After getting the class started we got to see Claudine’s process for perfecting and doodling a "new" technique she called Poppets®. Now to see those Poppets® on the Martha Stewart Show was just delicious.

She is a great teacher and I just love her blog, her enthusiasm for the Work and how she keeps reinventing her self and her art. Here’s a snippet from her Beeswax Collage DVD, and if you can catch her on Martha Stewart’s show.

* Six degrees-Holly over at Decor8 (Great blog, great ideas) showcased Claudine’s art a few months back, a Martha Stewart producer reads Holly’s blog and contacted Claudine to be on the show. Six degrees of separation. Yahoo to the power of community and blogging!

Medicine for the Earth

Been on the road getting Dear Daughter off to fall semester but wanted to share this with you. Sandra Ingerman is a wonderful teacher, mentor and friend who travels the world teaching others how to transform toxins* in our environment. A friend sent me Sandy’s u-tube video about Medicine for the Earth.



For more information also visit these sites:
Medicine for the Earth at http://www.medicinefortheearth.com
Shamanic Teachers http://www.shamanicteachers.com
Here’s the link to Sandra’s Monthly Newsletter
Here’s her books...



* Michele’s Testimonial: I have been integrating the Medicine for the Earth principles into my life and healing practice since 2000.
Two years ago at our neighborhood 4th of July cookout Dear Husband was frying fish. The pot got knocked and spilled boiling oil down Dear Husband’s leg. Immediately I transfigured and started doing healing on his leg, it was an amazing experience. While he experienced 2nd degree burns, the leg never festered, nor did it cause him any great pain, and there is very little scaring.

Working with the New Moon energies...

Here is a practical New Moon cheat sheet I created to help readers through the maze of energies… and I put together a SoulCollage slide show from images I have created since 2003… enjoy!

Learn Astrology in South Florida

The South Florida Astrological Association meets once a month in Fort Lauderdale and they bring in great teachers. I felt the need to share their offering for this month:

“A new look at the Moon’s Nodes” with Kevin Burk
Evening Meeting and Lecture
Thursday, November 16, 2006 from 7–10 pm
Cost $20 for non-members

Kevin Burk is author of The Complete Node Book. The Nodes are probably the most misunderstood points in astrology. The nodes are not planets, but the points on your birth chart where the orbit of the Moon around the Earth crosses the ecliptic. The nodes are the key to understanding your spiritual purpose for this lifetime. The South Node reveals the lessons, talents, and abilities you mastered in past lives, while the North Node shows you how to best use your past-life skills for spiritual growth, happiness, and success in this life.

“Education and Chart Reading” with Jeffrey Brock
Saturday November 18, 2006 from 10 am to 5 pm
Cost $50 for non-members

Want your chart read at Saturday’s session? Names will be chosen on Saturday from attendees. E-mail your chart information ahead of time to Alice Kashuba. Then a transparency will be ready if your name is drawn. Go online to the SFAA website for exact directions on getting your chart info to Alice.

Both evens take place at the Wyndam Fort Lauderdale, 1870 Griffin Road~ for directions and map visit the SFAA website.

End of the year rituals- Celestial Influences 2007

Moon Map. Yes, it’s time to begin my "end of the year" rituals (maybe it's that 12th house Scorpio stuff working me **smile**). First off is ordering a 2007 calendar called Celestial Influences by Jim Maynard. The company started shipping their calendars today. You may want to pick up a copy for yourself (they carry different versions). I posted some side bar links.

Everyone seems to have a favorite. Celestial Influences gives me the information I need to follow all the planetary energies during the year. It’s a complete astro calendar with an ephemeris. For those who don't have astro software to run charts, this calendar is great tool to have. My calendar hangs on the wall near the desk so I can easily see what phase the Moon is in, when the Sun enters a new sign. The calendar comes in a couple different sizes and it’s been one of my reference manuals for the past ten years.

Llewellyn’s and We’Moon also have a wall calendars, but I always come back to Celestial Influences. I do buy a We’Moon Datebook to read the text, poetry and art. For those just learning astrology it’s a good resource to have in your library as well. I like to use the images from old datebooks for my collage work.

On another note: Today, October 23, 2006, the Sun enters Scorpio at 9:27 AM est. Tomorrow, October 24th, is the anniversary of Hurricane Wilma hitting South Florida were I live. The storm didn’t get much press, but we as a community are still cleaning up from it. This year I feel grateful that the weather spirits have chosen to head the winds out into the Atlantic. On the home front the hurricane windows are installed, roof is fixed, and we even found a wonderful awning installer last week that saved us $700. Yippee. Life is good!

Today is not a good day to work...

“Part of it has to do with change - I keep changing and growing and what I'm about has to reflect that.” – Jennifer Louden

After catching flack from a disappointed client I felt the need to post this here and on the web site. My year is winding down, sounds strange doesn’t it? Each year I take a sabbatical in the summer to recharge and renew, create and play. One could say summer is the equivalent for winter here in Florida, plants die back from the heat, the hurricanes are like blizzards, the tourist/snow birds leave- there is a winding down and going inward. Ironic isn’t it?

The sabbatical date is earlier this year-May 1st through August 23rd (the New Moon in Virgo)– because of school calendar changes, getting home repairs done and ready for hurricane season, and my travel schedule in May. During the summer I do not schedule teaching sessions or client appointments. The New Moon Journal is published throughout the summer months.