It was early spring twelve years ago when I walked into Rainbow Bridge, a local Lake Tahoe new age/metaphysical shop. The winter was winding down, my job teaching ski lessons at Squaw Valley was coming to an end, and my 3-year relationship with my boyfriend who held my hand through cancer was also wrapping up. Transition loomed like a scary storm out in the distance: wild dark clouds threatening vicious rain and gale force winds creeping in. Big choices awaited me. Serendipitously, I noticed a short tarot reader with long dark hair offering sessions in the back corner of the store. Without much thought I, wandered back and asked for a reading.
The tarot reader seemed like a fairy embodied as a woman. Her name was Debbie and her petite frame and rhythmic voice spoke to a refined sensitivity informed by her deep connection with nature. Turns out, she had only made one visit to a city ever. Otherwise, her life was spent entirely on the west shore of Lake Tahoe and on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. She fully embodied the connection people can have with the Elementals and Nature Spirits. Within minutes she earned my respect as she offered spot on insight about my life and we formed a fast bond.
The timing couldn’t have been better and meeting Debbie equated a significant turning point in my life. Over the years she’s given me far more direction, mentorship, and alignment than I could have imagined possible. One of the biggest transformations I’ve experienced has to do with what Debbie taught me about the importance of following and creating with the phases of the moon + remedying my relationship with money.
Debbie came from a Gaelic background and practiced lunar ceremonies that her family passed through the generations for centuries. Plus, her time with the Hopi enhanced her knowledge of earth-based traditions and fortified her ability to lead and teach ceremonies.
A few months after we met, I remember Debbie telling me that she wanted to take me under her wing and show me how to develop my relationship with the moon. Though I’d already had a few readings with her and inherently trusted her at this point, my brain and intellect began jousting over the proposition. It was like the banter between Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers on their infamous Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update Report” sketch, Really!?! http://www.hulu.com/watch/13828
“Relationship with the moon? Really? Praying to the moon is going to change my relationship with money? Really!?! Come on. Honoring the phases of the moon is going to heal my body from cancer + hysterectomy? Really!?! Really!?!”
This skeptical disbelieving repartee went on for some time in my brain until I finally surrendered. I accepted an offer to go to Debbie’s house the next new moon. She had a teepee in her back yard, and was planning to perform a full sweat lodge ritual at her house that rested far up the side of a mountain. The whole event epically screamed magic, so how could I resist? After all, what did I really stand to lose?
You see when I first met Debbie I had an attitude around money that she quickly called me on the carpet about. I hated money. I blamed it for the problems in the world. I resented it deeply and swore it off as something I didn’t need and or want. Debbie wisely advised that unless I shifted this, it would be really hard to sustainably create money or keep it once I did, ultimately limiting my choices in life and how I could express my purpose. Though Debbie did not have one cosmopolitan bone in her body, she understood abundance, and made it her mission to help me really redefine my relationship with it.
On top of that, she explained that my lack of alignment with feminine cycles + feminine receptivity kept me locked in a cycle of disconnect from my true nature and intuitive voice. (When I met Debbie it had been almost three years since my last menstrual cycle.) For most of my life, I hated being a girl and had a very contentious dynamic with my gender. To help shift my relationship with my femininity, Debbie taught me sacred rituals to honor the phases of the moon so I could move into a place of receiving, play and grace.
The new moon eclipse we are having today at 8:28 pm EST, asks us to redefine our relationship with abundance and our bodies. We are auspiciously aligned to call a new wave of abundance into our lives and simultaneously give up our old stories around abundance, and our bodies, that keep us small or hold us back.
New moons are sacred times for initiating change. When the moon and sun are conjunct in the sky (i.e., new moons) there is a heightened potency of creativity and fertility. Things started during new moons are supported in their creation. As the moon waxes into full, its energetic pull increases the support for seeds planted at the time of the new moon (farmers use the moon phases for guidelines on planting, and it’s common knowledge that the moon deeply affects the ocean’s tides, too). This is a fabulous time for putting things out into the world and celebrating.
When the moon wanes from full to new again, that’s time to go within and listen deeply to the voice of the soul for what our most true next steps ought to be. It’s a RHYTHM and a cycle that I learned to consciously connect with and create through. And roughly twelve years later, I can confirm with certainty that Debbie was right. Developing my relationship with the moon substantially helped me cultivate abundance. Plus I was able to support my body with new behaviors that enhanced my health, helping me heal post hysterectomy + cancer.
(I have experienced many ah-mazing things in my life by honoring the RHYTHM of the moon and so have many of my clients.)
New moons are particularly strong times to do visualization exercises or affirmations, but here is a pointer to help you with this. When you do your visualization or make your statement that reflects your intended life, make sure you take into account the steps you need to take in the real world to make this happen!
I know. I know this is counterintuitive to new age philosophy that tells you that what you think becomes your reality, so focusing on steps or obstacles reinforces the notion of work + struggle. However, as someone who has been actively working this sort of magic for more than a decade and has studied the evidence-based research about how this stuff works, I will tell you: it’s crucial to include your action steps and strategy to overcome obstacles when doing visualizations and affirmations.
To take advantage of the new moon, here are 8 steps to shift your relationship with money and your body:
- Get really clear on the intended outcome you wish to create. As Danielle LaPorte would ask, what feeling do you want to experience as the result of your intention? Get crystal clear how you want to feel in your relationship with your money and your body.
- Write it out. Take the time to spell your intended feelings out on paper. If writing takes some effort for you, here is a prompt to use: “If absolutely everything goes as well as possibly could with my intention for _________ my life will look, feel and be _____________?
- Read this out loud three times. There is magic in the number three.
- Make a list of action steps. Write a list of some concrete steps you can begin to take today that will align you with your intended outcome?
- Make a list of potential obstacles. Once you know the steps you need to take, identify what could potentially hold you back from moving forward with them.
- Develop workarounds for each specific obstacle. Say your goal is to make 1k more per month, and your action step is to raise your rates. Your obstacle might be your fear of losing clients. Your work around might be, “I’ll add value to my services so I can raise rates without losing my client base.”
- Identify your highest leveraged priority and make a solid commitment to taking action on this particular step. Using the example of increasing revenue by 1k per month, a high-leveraged step could be to invest in support. That way you could have a mentor give you advice on how to add value to your services so it’s a win for your clients as well. From there, you can begin to seamlessly increase rates while keeping current clientele happy.
- Create an affirmation that conjures the feeling of having accomplished your action step. For instance: “My clients are thrilled to pay my increased price because my value to them exceeds their expectations, creating a ripple effect of extreme positivity in their lives!”
The most important thing to understand when shifting your relationship with money or your body is that both are a reflection of the way we value ourselves. When I was struggling with my relationship with money, I was really struggling to understand that I had any worth whatsoever. By learning to reframe my self-image, and actively doing the work to reclaim my worth, I created a life of tremendous abundance and rock solid health.
The moon, my mentors and elbow grease all became part of a recipe that blew open realities for me that quite honestly, I never thought possible for myself.
May this solar eclipse help you discover and bring to fruition the abundance and health that awaits you.
As always, I send you my profound love.
Big hugs,
Jenn
P.S. Meet Meggan Watterson + a host of inspirational and passionate spiritual leaders, in NYC on May 18, for REVEAL: The Event. Connect to the wisdom within, claim your body as sacred and become a soulful agent of positive change in the world. Grab your ticket at http://revealtheevent.eventbrite.com/. Act now and enter discount code REVEAL2013 to receive $75 off!
P.P.S. Big things are coming in the next couple of weeks for my mailing list, so if you haven’t signed up yet please do. I am happy to report I’ve assembled my support team (Thank you, Erin Blaskie and BSETC.com!) and I look forward to sending regular updates to your inbox starting soon!
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