New Moon Journal

Sagittarius New Moon Audio

It was a great session, did you miss it? No problem, here’s a complimentary audio of the Holiday Hoopla TeleClass held December 3rd, 2007 with Michele Lessirard.

< Just click the New Moon SoulCollage® card on the left. The audio will be posted on the website until December 11, 2007.

Michele talks about the magic of the moment (Sagittarius), and the mystery of you found in bits of paper and glue through the SoulCollage® process. You are invited you to join the next Teleclass

"Let’s paste the New Year!"
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
7:00 pm EST (New York)
Cost $15

Can you believe it’s been a year of New Moon SoulCollages! I am grateful to all of you who read and enjoy The New Moon Journal. You inspire me with your courage, insights and creativity. Blessings to you at this holiday time!- Michele

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?

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

Dancing with the Stars

Just a friendly note the New Moon in Libra begins at 1:01 am Thursday morning and Mercury goes retrograde at 12 midnight on the October 12th at 9° Scorpio. Libra represents the fine art of relating. I created this SoulCollage for the Libra New Moon.

I am the One who dances, in sync with my sacred Other.

This SoulCollage® card is full of that rich juicy vibrant 2nd chakra energy, spinning with vitality.

24 hours before the New Moon look to see where Libra sits in your chart, what is necessary in that area of your life. What’s been in your face? Set three intentions [wishes] you want to manifest based on the Libra energies in your life.

24 hours after the New Moon release your intentions through a ritual. You could write them down and burn them. Dance your intentions-put on some music and swing them into being. Become the Manifestor. Create a SoulCollage image around the desired outcome- what do you want to create- aka The Secret.

Expect a shift.

First expect to see what is holding you back from living these intentions. Become the Observer. The first 10 days of a Mercury retrograde you’ll see what needs fixing[October 12-23], the rest of the Mercury retrograde [October 23-November 1st] get down to business and take action to balance the chaos and bring order. It’s a do-over. You’ll get insights especially by the Full Moon in Taurus on October 26th.

Remember you are harvesting seeds for planting next Spring on the Full Moon in Libra on March 21st, 2008.

Sun enters Libra-moving to get it

Autumnal Equinox. For those living in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun enters Libra at 5:52 am on September 23 2007 and we collectively begin the fall harvest- of letting go and surrendering. Death of the past to manifest the future. It’s time to give your creative life new form, to disintegrate, purify and regenerate.

During the summer months we may have been imbrued with new direction, a creative project was revealed in the inner world that now seeks attention in our outer world.

Here’s a quick scenario of what happens energetically when you seek to build.

I am inspired with a new idea or project (last spring, New Moon in Aries).

I start to create from that seed thought. The idea is manifesting within my psyche. I plan it, I speak it. [5th chakra] I love it. [4th chakra] I edit and sort my inner and outer worlds to make it real. [Virgo] My dream begins to build power within me and around me. [Mars,3rd chakra] I move to get it.

How good are you at moving it???

To get it, I have to move. I have to stand in my power, be authentic. In order to move I’ll meet others along the way-my partner, my friends, my family [Libra] and as I share my precious idea, those people might not see my vision or understand what I am about.

• How do you meet with naysayers and doubters?
• Do you abandon your creative projects?
• Do you rear up?
• Do you push through it? Again...

How do you move to get it?

It’s now time to temper my response..do I expand and take a risk- feel it and drive it home, or do I contract, retreat- to feel it and drive it home. Each task is a death. Each task is sacred.

The Fall Season- Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius

In the Fall we harvest the seeds for planting next spring. What you planted in March 2007 is now ready for harvesting. If I planted weeds then I am harvesting weeds. If you planted corn you are harvesting corn. Cycles and rhythm and balance are what this astrology stuff is about. Bringing the sky and the earth together and honoring the rhythm of the seasons and the rhythms of the day and night forces is mirrored back, within you, around you. In that regard issues I may be dealing with issues that are ready to be taken to the next level, released and surrendered too (Scorpio) based on the way I think (Mercury). Plus at the Autumnal Equinox there is a Mars/Pluto opposition (see Lynn Hayes post here) at play taking the intensity up a notch. Mars goes retrograde in November 14th and jabs back and forth at Pluto until Spring 2008.

What did you wish and dream of back in late March? Harvest it now. Here are some themes for the Libra energy and your SoulCollage® cards for the next new moon. In Libra I am the One who....

• I am the One who Partners. I am the One who is a Wife. My energy relates to healthy agreements, sharing and interdependence.
• I am the One who Balances. My energy relates to issues of fairness including balance, equality, appreciation of opposite views, negotiation and counseling.
• I am the One who Counsels.
• I am the One who is Beautiful. I seek harmony representing peace, beauty and art. Refinement- luxury, elegance, pampering, good taste, grace are things that attract me.
• I am the One who builds Teamwork- giving and receiving, collaborating, supportive relationships, cooperation.
• I am on the One who is the Diplomat. I love being social- being companionable, tact, getting along with others, one-on-one interactions, diplomacy, affinity for others. On the world-wide web think of MySpace and Facebook.
• I am the One who is Co-dependent. I feel lost in my relationships- loss of self-identity, appeasing behaviors, indecision, aimless discussion. I represent entanglements that bind.
• I am the One who Harvests. Restoring health- adrenal glands, buttocks, diabetes, kidneys.

Michele’s SoulCollage® card for the Fall Harvest
Death Stalking...

I am the One
who is Death.
You walked
and stalked with me
as a child
learning much.

I bring changes
to the inner and
outer worlds.

To render
to release,
what no longer serves.
To renew.

Walk with me now
see what I hold,
where I go
there are lessons.

-----------

Fall catalogs arrived in record numbers this month, and this One wanted attention. Jennifer Louden’s blogs about resisting her own inward retreat. The death of mommyhood I faced this summer and the renewed energies I have found in letting go reminds me once again how we are collectively called to face the little deaths to be reborn anew.

You may now find yourself dealing with issues that are ready to be taken to the next level, released and surrendered too (Scorpio) based on the way you think (Mercury). Who and how are you going to partner with another to make your creative dream happen?

Thus, as we turn the wheel from summer into fall, Libra’s energies call us to bring our creative life back into balance- in all our relationships. To ask what has heart and meaning for me now? How do I hold myself back? Am I supported? What needs to be let go of so I can move freely into the future?

Saturn’s now in Virgo, demanding change, attention to details and the structure of health and work.

You’ll see pretty quickly what needs attention, what needs to be let go. The archetype of Pluto, the Transformer as death [also Saturn] is often depicted as a dark form holding a sickle. Saturn represents the structure, the status quo, the ego. Fear. Pluto is the cosmic garbage collector, he takes away in order to transform. Something needs to change or be surrendered in order to go to the next place. Restructure.

Harvesting your seed thoughts means that Death is stalking. Fall is a time of disintegration, we surrender and let go to move to the next place. Expect resistance, expect disintegration and then renewal. The Moon and the seasons reflect this cycle of birth, death and renewal. Our own birth chart mirrors this dance with death (8th house, Scorpio) and at the turn of the wheel we begin the Fall. Namaste.

Some resources to share:

A retreat Discovering your Authentic Self, November 1-4, 2007 in Delray Beach, Florida is a four day psycho-spiritual retreat with both integrative breathwork and SoulCollage® offered by my friend, Noreen Donahue, LCSW.
Jennifer Louden’s September Newsletter is full of insights.
The Alchemy of Social Transformation by Lenore Norrgard. Visit Lenore’s website for more about her ritual Dreaming the Dark Solstice Ritual.

About: Rev. Michele Lessirard, C.Ht. is an astrologer, SoulCollage Facilitator and shamanic practitioner providing healing, counseling and instruction since 1993. She writes, shares her thoughts and art online at The New Moon Journal®.

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!

The story of a babbling woman

Virgo is the sign of the healer. Virgo is the sign of the mentor. In order to be a great healer one has to have a strong connection to all things Virgo. There are key times in your life where you are forced to open up, to move beyond who you think you are. Most times one can’t see it coming...your inner earth shakes. The experiences leave you feeling raw and on edge.

When Saturn moved through Pisces [February 1994 through April 1996] I became a babbling woman. As past trauma’s cleared and the energy merged within I went on spiritual overload that left me very ungrounded. Later my friend Wendy, a therapist, joking told me that I didn’t make much sense. In essence I was learning a new language... all healers go through this initiation.

A healer must understand their connection to earth [Virgo], all things matter, while being infused with Spirit [Pisces]. This story is important because you may now be called to mentor others, especially if you were part of the group of women who woke up in the early 90’s. I know because I was in the rooms with some wonderful souls, healing our pasts and reclaiming our power in a new way.

It may now be time for you to mentor others who are being initiated. Or as you awaken to your healership, you may be in need of a mentor.

In order to seek new lands one has to let go of the shore. Back in 1994 I leaped out of my body and traveled the cosmos. It was scary for there were very few roadmap’s and I was forced to learn how to trust the world behind my eyes. Collectively we learned how to ride the waves and stay in our bodies to ground the energy in a new way.

And that ability to ground came from understanding and appreciating the relationship to my mother- a Pisces who acts more Virgo, and my beloved maternal grandmother, a Virgo who seemed more Piscean in nature.

One of the key events in that Saturn in Pisces time period was during a guided meditation where I was asked to go to my safe place as a child- I found myself at grandma’s house at the shore.

For two years I had horrible oceanic dreams of drowning, of rendering, of baptizing. At these times the sky was dark, the sea swelled and swirled, but I’d find my way to grandma’s house and then I was safe. I had forgotten that when hurricane Donna¹ hit the Jersey shore my parents took my sister and I on a Sunday drive to see the damage. At the age of five it was devastating for me to see huge houses knocked off their foundations and the world whacked in all directions from wind and water. I remember the utter joy I felt seeing Grandma’s house survived, with only the wooden stairs floating away.

The House stood solid. When my inner child needed a hug, I’d climb the back stairs, hear the screen door slam and walk into the kitchen to get a hug and talk to with grandma. It was as real as real could be. I eventually learned that our loving ancestors are always with us, even after they pass. I just needed to learn how to communicate in a new way.

During that Saturn in Pisces period I craved new colors in my life (yellows, purples and spring greens), I craved hydrangeas. In renovating our new home I unconsciously selected colors from the grandma’s house at the shore (later I found pictures)...I filled the house with baskets of blue silk flowers. I literally was recreating the safe place of my childhood past in the here and now.

Why is this Saturn in Pisces story important? Well 13 years later, it’s like a full moon energy. There is a release, there are spiritual gifts being offered up. So today I share my SoulCollage Community card I created. There’s foundational of earth- the rustic well worn pine wood floors. A picture of the home that offers me sanctuary, reminding me to remember while heading out in life, Grandma has my back. "I am the One who is your grandma, your mentor, I loved my family well." She was a farmer’s wife, a teacher, who infused her family and friends with an innate wisdom that still lives as a legacy through each of us today.

So before Saturn gets deeper into Virgo I invite you to work with the energies [Virgo Journal PDF], to uncover and begin to unfold your myth and discover your mystery.

*In transpersonal psychology rather than medicating the client different modalities are offered that creates a container and allows the energy a voice, it is celebrated as a time of spiritual awakening.

^1. I think it must have been Donna who hit New Jersey on September 12, 1960: Hurricane Donna, the only tropical cyclone to bring hurricane force winds to every state on the East Coast of the United States passed New Jersey as a Category 2 hurricane while moving at a high speed. Damage was significant along the coastline, but was less than in other states struck directly by Donna. The hurricane caused winds gusts of up to 105 mph (169 km/h), heavy rainfall, and a storm surge of 6 feet (2 m).

I am the one who Blows-a rant

I am the one who blows.

Blows alot of air. Horns in the background. Critical inner voice speaking so loud I can't hear myself think. In essence this is energetically what it feels like when my mind runs amok, and my spiritual self is not given a voice or legs to stand on. The legs with rock really says it all. Now I hear another hurricane may be heading through South Florida. Rita. This really blows.

Added Tuesday 9/20/2005- I created this image two days before the weather guys said tropical storm Rita was headed our way. Was I having a psychic moment or what? See all the horns in the back ground. So loud one can't hear their spiritual self think!! Energetically our community goes into a state of overdrive from fear. . .not knowing what is going to happen. Weathermen banging their drums on the air stirring up peoples emotions and fears. After hurricane Andrew in 1992 made one weatherman and station a national star other local stations started making hurricanes an event. Now after Katrina it is happening at the national level.

Are we getting the storm or not? Do I need to go get supplies or not? What do I already have on hand? Do I need to put the shutters up or what? Do we evacuate? Is the car gassed up? Do we have enough cash? Where's the generator? Did we get enough water? Are the phones charged? What to do! What to do! What is enough. A lot of people in the media get all puffed up marketing the hurricane and promoting a level of fear to sell their television station. Coverage 24 hours a day of the same s$#%^t on every local station, telling the same story. I have had enough. Enough of a lot of things. Ready to surrender. This times different. I'll go create another collage.

My Big Fat Life. . .

Collage card created 6/2004. I am the critical inner mother. I went shopping yesterday with my 14 year old daughter. She is beautiful young woman, full of fire. She wears a size 7, I don't ever remember being a size seven. I was always a size 13/14. Nothing ever fit me because I had hips and a waist. At the age of 12 my measurements were 36, 24, 37- a woman in a child's body.

Across the way from the store we are shopping is Lane Bryant. I remember being so happy to find a place where the pants finally fit me. In the 70's nothing fit me- I had hips and a waist. This is where I shop because I am a full sized woman. Standing in the teen store with my daughter waiting for her to pick out a pair of shorts was an experience in itself.

I remember our daughter would get to a certain point in her development and then gain weight. She would react and get all negative with herself but at least she communicated with me about it. I shared that is what your body does just before it makes another leap forward. It gathers weight as strength to make the shot upward (she is 5'7"). Last year when she wanted to diet I asked her to just follow her life pulse, eat when you are hungry (try nourishing foods) and stop when you are full. Check in and find out if its mouth hunger or stomach hunger.

So here we are shopping. Across from Lane Bryant. And I feel sad. I am sad because there was no one to tell me I looked okay as a child. I feel sad because no one was there to explain how my body was working. I feel sad because I thought something was really wrong with me.

I remember standing in the fitting room of the only children's store in our small town. Hearing my mother and the sales lady talking about how 'fat' I was through the curtain (Like I wasn't even there!). In reality I was just growing. I was not fat, but I was growing out of the store. There was no other place to go and nobody took the time or the energy to take me shopping where I could find something to wear. Basically I was a woman in a child's body just like my daughter. By the time I was 13 I was shopping on my own because I Mom didn't want to go, or I didn't want her around making me feel so bad. There was nothing wrong with being a size 12. I feel fat any size I am. I could be thin and I'd still feel like I was fat and I am sick of this. My big fat life. . .

Mom, my legs weren't too fat, my hips where not big, I was just right. I was beautiful. I am beautiful. How dare you say that to me! You Mom who smoked, drank every night and took nerve pills every day, and threw up when you ate/drank too much. I am sad because you were a very sick woman. I feel sad for me, I feel sad for you and I feel angry. I feel hurt. I feel shame. I hate you for doing this to me as a child.

I feel sick of this. It is pure madness.

I am crying now, really feeling the sadness and weight of this responsibility. I am sad that no one was there for me. I feel sad.

I feel sad that I felt wrong in my body. I feel sad that I felt wrong all of these years.

I feel guilty that I didn't look the way my Mom wanted me to.
I feel guilty that I was never comfortable in my own skin.
I feel guilty that I abused my physical body.
Its okay now, I know the truth of this. I feel grateful that I can see both sides.
I feel grateful that I can support my daughter and try to stop the madness. She in turn mirrors apart of me that needed healing and I am so grateful for her being in my life.

I am proud that I can feel the feelings, the good, the bad and allow them to wash through me. I feel grateful.

My expectations where that my mother would mentor me. My reasonable expectations I can mentor myself with love and compassion. I can share this pain and not feel shame.

Essential Pain: I was a full bodied woman in a child’s body with no one to share. I was betrayed leaving me feeling I am not good enough. I am never enough and I am not worthy of anything. There was no limits and no support. I didn't mess up.

Earned Reward: No matter what size I am - I am a wonderful woman. I have courage to feeling and express myself.

Power and positive: I am a beautiful full bodied woman, passionate and vibrant.

What do I need? Tender Morsel's are great. Did this happen to anyone else? Do I need support? No I had a good cry just now. I am going to go collage this. Thanks!