The First 13 Moons Lunar Cycle at Full Moon

Today is the Wolf Full Moon. Yesterday I captured a few photos of it rising in the east just as the day faded. There is something quiet and mysterious about the edge of nightfall and moonlight reflecting on the snow. Nothing ever holds still, but for a moment it seems I want it to stay this way longer, the liminal space filling with quiet magic.

First 13 Moons Official Full Moon Cycle

I have made an executive decision. This is now the first lunar full moon creative cycle in my 13 Moons project, mainly because December was a wild ride of holiday preparations and fun events. Maybe we'll call it the Introduction or Prologue. The little creative time I did have focused more on planning and research than implementing ideas. January is a much quieter time to create.

My first task of this Wolf Moon cycle has been to create a handmade journal to serve as a container for this cycle's treasures, like: excerpts from my daily journals, quotations, resources, photographic images and drawing/painting/collage samples. I am choosing to make a new book for each lunar cycle - it can be the same or a different style; trying some different types of paper and cover materials could be a good learning experience.

From the New Moon on December 30 to this Full Moon on January 13th, I have felt a settling in and a lot of pleasure in the doing that is deeply affirming. I am more aware and more at ease with whatever may happen next. My senses feel heightened and I am becoming more observant.

Daily Recording of Moments

What calls to me this month is to practice recording random, ordinary moments from each day. No matter how mundane, simple, or deep, my job will be to pay attention and record them. Ideas are flowing and I love the safety net of knowing each lunar cycle can build on the one before or shift totally . I am free to try new ideas and jettison ones I feel aren't working for me.

For example, I have been making samples - ten so far, mostly 6" x 6" and also several 12" x 12" pieces using Derwent Inktense pencils and pastels (both Pan Pastels and soft pastels). I'm drawn to the winter landscape and to the moon, so I'm taking photos, manipulating them and then using them as references, not to duplicate the scene but to help me make some basic compositional choices about values, shapes and relationships. When my imagination takes over, I listen to what it suggests. like: ways to attach the samples, make notes about their process, materials, what I like or dislike, what I'd like to do next. I act and then reflect, contemplate and act again, all the while saving bits and pieces of details, hoping they will form a map that charts my trail through a given place and period of time in a particular season of the year.

Each cycle a timeline and entries might be linear, even include dates, starting with the New Moon and charting the progression through the four quarters until the moon is totally hidden again. I might divide another cycle into topics and keep track of those separately somehow. I feel open, no requirement I have to stick with any particular structure if I am inspired to try something different. That total permission to follow my instincts feels very special. I am not just creating a journal, a project, etc., I am constructing an illustrated map of my life and experiences each day. Soon it will be evident where and how they repeat and where they might connect to form patterns and meaning.

Each day is bringing so many thoughts and questions about what to do next. What do I wish to choose to document and record as this lunar cycle continues into its third and fourth quarters? The small, everyday details seem powerful - the delight of watching a black-capped chickadee pecking at the seed snowman hanging next to the feeder, flying away and then returning over and over - or the stunning downy and red-billed woodpeckers pecking at the suet cakes (one at a time of course, they don't seem to like to share).

Other moments I might include: the exploration of a new recipe. Last night I made a mustard glazed salmon over oven-roasted red quinoa and French green lentils (it was delicious). Maybe include a photo and recipe? Or the samples I made using Derwent pencils and then worked back into with water and a brush (once you wet them, when they dry again they become permanent).

Or the notes I made about materials and what I discovered in using them that worked - and didn't.

Condensing it All Down

The practice. The discoveries. A variety of drawing and markmaking tools and my growing comfort with all of them. Almost daily insights. The ability to laugh at my own childlike delight at a new (to me) discovery. Embracing happy accidents. Smiling. Observing. Gathering. Recording. Open. Vulnerable. Wild. Sturdy. Grounded.

Yes, it is the Wolf Full Moon and I appreciate the progress I've made in bringing my ideas to fruition - and I look forward to the waning moon as a time for completion. I will keep debating the small choices - do I print or write in the book, do I print out typed sections, or freely combine them? There will be countless options and choices to make - perhaps each lunar cycle I'll explore a different medium, like diluted sumi ink and brushes, or gel plate prints - whatever calls to me.

I hope this first month of the New Year is starting to bring into your life what your heart is beckoning - and that you will listen to your inner guidance when it whispers inside you. I wish you wonderful adventures ahead.

I didn't include the Metta prayer last time, but in the wake of the LA fires, here it is again and I hope you will join me in saying it aloud each day.

Metta Prayer

May I be peaceful. May all beings be peaceful.

May I be happy. May all beings be happy.

May I be safe. May all beings be safe.

May I awaken to the light of my true nature. May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.

May I be free from suffering. May all beings be free from suffering.

Namasté,

Jeanne

The Magic in New Beginnings

" I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” ―J.B. Priestley

New Beginnings Abound

This week is the beginning of a new month, a new year and a new lunar cycle. A trifecta of newness!

"The magic in new beginnings is truly the most powerful of them all." -Josiyah Martin

As the new moon cycle begins, I feel ready to put my full energy into paying close attention. How will the lunar cycle affect my creativity? Each year there are 366 dawns and dusks and 13 moon cycles. The lunar cycles today are very similar to ones that ancient civilizations viewed in the sky; how powerful it is to recognize we are connected to all of the cultures who have come before us.

As I pay more attention each day to being present, I'm equally aware of my connection to my ancestral lineage. Part of my 13 Moons practice will be to strengthen my appreciation and stewardship to all the living, sentient and other-than human beings I share this world with; we are all interconnected.

Winter Solstice Celebration

As I considered how to celebrate the Winter Solstice, I thought about what it meant to pre-industrial civilizations who faced the cold and dark of winter and the very real prospects of starvation, illness or death. For several days around the longest night, communities banded together to feast and share food and drink. Often they stayed awake all through the Solstice night, keeping the fires lit to ward off evil and gathering to tell stories against the darkness, a time when fears were strongest and the fires and the presence of others offered comfort.

I decided to take bits and pieces from what I had read about Winter Solstice practices, to take time to honor my ancestors, the land and beings I share it with and to celebrate the shift from the longest night to the promise of the light returning.

Among other things, I brought in live evergreen boughs, which symbolize eternal life, since evergreens never turn brown or lose their foliage. We decorated a live tree. We kept the bird feeders filled with seeds and I strung garlands of cranberries, apple and orange chunks in the spruces for them. I filled the kitchen with fragrant spices as I baked gingerbread to honor my German heritage. We gathered together as a family and feasted, laughed and forged stronger bonds.

As Winter Solstice neared, a new friend sent me a link to the live stream Winter Solstice ceremony that is held at Newgrange in Ireland. Newgrange is a massive passage-grave about 26 miles outside of Dublin, Ireland. It was built as a burial crypt about 3,200 BC, which makes it at least 1,000 years older than Stonehenge.

I woke up around 3:30 AM and started watching the event unfold online, listening to the narrators talk about the site's history while waiting for the sun to rise. Shortly before the sunrise was anticipated, a group of people selected by a lottery were quietly led through the narrow corridor to the chambers that once held the cremated remains of important people (possibly the tribe’s leaders), who lived in those lands.

The opening to the burial site directly aligns with the Winter Solstice sunrise and at that particular time sends a ray of sunlight through an opening above the doorway. The light, over a period about 17 minutes, reaches down the long, narrow corridor into the burial chambers. It was a masterpiece of construction accomplished by a stone-age civilization, using only stones and stone age tools to build with.

I loved the experience of projecting myself into another time, another part of the world and a place where artifacts of ancient civilizations still coexist with the new.

I finally went back to bed around 5 AM. When I woke, I felt a deeper connection to the ancestors.

Year End Ceremony of Honoring, Releasing and Beckoning

I attended a powerful session led by poet Holly Wren Spaulding and ceremonialist Georgia Wall where we wrote about what we wished to release at the year's ending, to honor what we might imagine into being, and desire to beckon into our lives and creative practices in the New Year. The writing exercises and quiet contemplation filled me with gratitude as I recognized how much has shifted in my life and art practice this past year, and I now look forward to 2025 without fear or hesitation.

Here are a few of the questions we wrote about:

What will you honor as the year end? What have you imagined into being?

What will you release as the year ends? What no longer has a place in your life?

What would you like to beckon as you approach another year? What do you yearn for?

The Prospect of a New Day, A Fresh Try, One More Start

Here is a link to a lovely story and poem on YouTube as you enter 2025. May it be a year filled with kindness and compassion for all beings.

The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper and Carson Ellis

https://youtu.be/xGlIDHAebNE?si=MWvkbjFIRtiBEa-d

To Know the Dark: New Drawing Exploration

The Night of the December 15th Full Moon Was Magical

I woke up at 3:30 AM and then again at 5:30 AM and got some interesting photos of the moon surrounded by clouds as I stood outside in 24 degrees and total stillness. Peaceful and other-worldly to experience. I loved how the moonlight refracted into so many colors as the light passed through the clouds.

To Know the Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark.

Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

 and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings

by Wendell Berry

Settling In to a New Practice Takes Time

Once December was underway, I began to feel unsettled. The days grew shorter and colder and darker. There are only 14-15 days between the new and full moons and I wondered if I had made a mistake to write posts at each junction when I didn't know how this adventure would turn out. I had to remind myself this process is based on exploring, not producing. I am heading into this unknown in the darkest months of the year, the most challenging time for me personally and I am, as Berry writes, going without sight. I don't know where this will lead and while I love the not knowing, I can't help but be aware some readers may not.

Eventually I reassured myself that new ideas take time to unfold. I am committed to listening to my intuition and wisdom and trust that everything is moving along just as it should. I felt like I was gathering lots of wonderful information, but questioned how I could connect it all into some sort of cohesive form. I did a lot of research when the month started into lunar cycles (I soon discovered how little I know about the moon!) and every bit of information I discovered seemed to lead to more. The learning curve is exciting, but I was eager to begin trying out my new ideas.

Happily, between the new and full moon this month, I started settling into my intention to connect my art practice with my love of the natural world. I have continued to take photographs in the early morning or late at night when possible to capture some of the beauty of the moon, the landscape and to provide me with reference photos to translate into drawings.

Taking that First Leap of Faith

I took a deep breath, having never worked from reference photos before, and started.

I chose this photo of the hedgerow beyond the back field after a recent snow, and began to draw some samples from the reference image, above. I picked this image because it was easy to see the shapes and values. I knew staying simple was important to what I hope to create, inspired by the region where I live.

I began with a simple line drawing at the upper left of the top row and then started abstracting the reference photo more with each successive one. That's when it started to get really fun, when I stopped trying to make it look real.

While I kept trying variations, I had to continue to remind myself to relax, loosen up, enjoy, play - all those things we tell ourselves to do when we realize we are tense and barely breathing. But over the three or four days I worked on these, I started to see I could keep playing and improvising more and more. The reference photo was just an entry point! I played with: value, shape, warm and cool, intensity, edges, texture and line. I'm quite pleased with these even though at the same time I feel I am just scratching the surface of what it will be possible to imagine and create.

One of the next ideas that popped into my head is how I might do a daily warm up that could be a chronicle of each day of each lunar cycle, so next I divided a large piece of paper into 2" squares with some irregular ones along a few edges and started to fill each square with a simplified suggestion of a landscape. These too had tape around them, although some we media seeped under the tape - but hey, I liked that effect as well!

Again, I noticed when I felt relaxed and when I started tensing up. Doing samples worked best when I was fresh and felt receptive and just followed my instincts. I even began to add more color and that was definitely fun, working with water-based colored crayons, ArtGraf, graphite and sumi ink. There's thin washi tape between the squares that I'll remove when the whole piece is done and those will become white borders. If I want to, I can go back in and change anything I don't like before I take off the tape.

As I moved from being very organized and linear at the top of the piece to just responding and working in squares that spoke to me, I also shifted to ideas of rock and cliff formations using more color. That was definitely enjoyable as well. The marks on the background are Art Graf on wet paper and I find it easier to work in the squares that already have some marks in them - another type of entry point.

The piece in the middle was an unfinished 5 x 7 from my Full Circle Around the Sun appreciation project that I had the best time revisiting today. I suggested rocks and cliffs with a moon overhead and a petroglyph drawn in the rock shapes at the bottom.

It is more than reassuring to have fulfilled my intention for this Full Moon to actually start getting ideas on paper. I have a nice structure starting to develop so I can step into my studio each morning, grab a reference photo (or just use my imagination) and do a warm up. We'll see where that takes me between now and when the next New Moon arrives on December 30th. I definitely want to eventually make the pieces larger.

In the interim, while working on these I will also be: planning a Winter Solstice celebration for December 21st, celebrating Christmas Eve lunch with our children and grandchildren, learning more about Yule celebrations in Central and Eastern Europe, (where my German and Russian ancestors lived), writing a year end review of all the gifts this year has brought and seeding intentions for what I hope to see grow in the New Year!

Metta Prayer

May I be peaceful. May all beings be peaceful.

May I be happy. May all beings be happy.

May I be safe. May all beings be safe.

May I awaken to the light of my true nature.

May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.

May I be free from suffering. May all beings be free from suffering.

I say this prayer daily to support and uphold all the goodness we are capable of creating in this world, if we just choose each day to express loving kindness to all beings.

Peace to all,

Jeanne

I