How To Manifest With The Moon: The Power Of Deciding

In 2006, five of years after I began living my life according to the phases of the moon, I made a bold choice. I sold everything I owned, sublet my 350 square foot studio in the Inner Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco, and boarded a one-way flight to Ireland.

With little plans made, I intended to circumnavigate the globe. I had less than $5,000 saved and spent two years plotting this adventure and paying off debt with a single-focused objective: to trust that I could do it using the phases of the moon and my intuition to guide me.

As a seasoned traveler, I had done a few similar things before. Like when I moved to San Diego, California with a backpack, via a one-way standby flight. Or the time I moved to San Francisco without knowing anyone in the city and was so broke that I dumpster-dived for furniture. Experience told me that by making a decision, previously closed doors would open. I learned that a focused choice could shift my reality more than anything else.

And while I enjoyed the privilege of a few overseas adventures, my wanderlust pushed me to want more (like a long trip to travel the circumference of the globe). Taking several months to fly around the world fulfilled a promise I made to myself, a non-negotiable commitment I made to my soul: to see the world, and sustain my independence, no matter what. And it allowed me to test my creativity and intuition on a whole new level.

Manifesting By the Phases Of The Moon

Now, when I say I lived my life via the phases of the moon, I mean that for a few years it was just the moon, me, and an altar. That’s how shit got done.

What does this mean, literally?

I developed a practice of honoring my desires as sacred and holy. If something presented as a true desire, something I felt important to my life, I took that very seriously.

My teacher Debbie taught me that honoring my desires was not only critical to my happiness, but imperative to keeping cancer from reappearing in my body, too. This may sound crazy, but mind you I had my uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes and cervix removed from my body at age 19.

I mean? Come on.

I also knew from studying luminaries like Dr. Christiane Northrup that, undoubtedly, my repressed emotions contributed to the development of my disease in the first place.

So, I learned how to identify my desires and create them. Like my life depended on it. Because, frankly, it did.

Living The Lunar Logic Way

I set intentions with new moons. I used every new moon to visualize this reality. I made vision boards. During waxing moons I did more yang activities to conjure my desires—I took tangible real-world steps. During full moons, I connected to the power of the moon to charge and illuminate my vision. During waning moon cycles I released obstacles on my path to creating my desires. I space cleared my home.

Eventually, daily ritual became a part of my practice. I only shared my desire with people who believed I could make it happen. I called on angels and guides. And I acted as if all of this were possible and probable, never really entertaining any sort of contradictory beliefs.

In addition to the lunar ceremonies taught to me by Debbie, I religiously used Sonia Choquette’s book, Your Heart’s Desires. These practices combined with psychotherapy blew open doors for me.

I likened conjuring from thin air to threading a needle. It required all of my commitment. I had to focus every ounce of my being on making this my reality.

To sum it up: I focused all of my energy and psychic power on creating what I wanted, and through that focus, I changed my reality accordingly.

The Power Of Deciding

Yet, when it came to manifesting this adventure around the world, even my best thinking and planning was flawed. Because, no matter how sharp my manifesting skills, my airfare alone could crush my budget, and on top of that I had to live. To add to the challenge, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t put any travel expenses on a credit card. As a twenty-something who just climbed out of a whole lot of college loan debt, credit cards frightened me. I would need to work while I traveled, in some capacity. For years, I made my money through waitressing (and other low paying jobs), and I had very little financial support from my family.

So I prayed.

Thankfully, before I left for my trip through a close friend, I learned about an artist retreat center in Chianti, Tuscany that needed an assistant and program director for the summer. I applied for the position and had the good fortune to accept it. As a part of the job, I received free room and board, a salary, potential tips, and a flight to Rome from Dublin.

Further, when leaving JFK for Dublin, I got bumped from my flight, put up in a hotel near the airport, gifted meal vouchers and a $400 travel gift certificate. (The one-way ticket from NYC-Dublin only cost $250.)

Boom!

Manifesting With The Moon: My Prayers Answered

Imagine waking up on a vineyard in Tuscany to eat incredible homemade food, where your job is to drive artists to beautiful places to paint for the day and give talks about wine at dinner.

(Side note, as massive wine-lover, and a service industry veteran, I seriously considered becoming a sommelier in my twenties. Had I not had a risky health background that would’ve been a top choice, right next to becoming a music journalist! But hey, cancer survivors probably shouldn’t specialize in wine or rock and roll for a living.)

Having the opportunity to talk wine in Italy for a summer ticked the boxes for my dream job anyway.

I remember being in month three of my journey in Madrid, Spain in mid-August, dripping in sweat, wearing a heavy backpack, over-thinking where I wanted to sleep. In the middle of a ruminating fit, I realized that I couldn’t make a wrong decision and I had an epiphany: it didn’t matter! I tapped into an emotion I so rarely felt but desperately wanted… freedom. This hot, ludicrous moment outside of the Prado National Museum, etched itself in my heart. I genuinely got it—I couldn’t make a wrong decision. No matter what I chose, if I didn’t like it, I could change it again. Feeling this in my bones lifted a pattern of control that haunted me for years.

From there I committed to relaxing even more into the experiment at hand: traveling alone, internationally, for months, with zero plans. (Other than to eventually make it to Asia where a dollar lasted way longer than it did in Europe.)

To be able to take such a risk requires a refined skill-set: the ability to manage the discomfort associated with taking a chance.

Travel As A Tool To Cultivate A Deeper Sense Of Self

Having taken that trip—a trip that pushed me so far out of my comfort zone—I learned how to trust my intuition undeniably. While I had trained my intuitive capacity for many years prior (including studying intuitive development), this adventure pushed me to the edge of my capabilities. Through this experience, I developed a rock solid sense of resilience and sovereignty.

I learned how to self-nurture and self-soothe.

I learned how to trust my instincts.

I learned how to auspicate an experience, so I consistently found myself guided by a field of potentiality.

So often travel is seen as an indulgence, something non-essential to your existence. But what if travel provided you with an experience to get to know yourself? What if, through travel, you could develop the capacity to manage difficult (and different) experiences with grace and joy?

Travel can change your whole life.  It stretches the gray matter in your brain and makes you more creative. It opens up new fields of potentiality, and serves as one hell of a game-changing catalyst. As long as you choose your adventure wisely.

My Personal Lunar Logic Revolution

When I returned from my travels, I moved to Brooklyn, New York. Though I had a gaping hole in my resume, it didn’t seem to matter. Within time, I landed a job with relative ease at a big-four accounting firm (a coveted company). This job became a version of business school for me that taught me oh so much. And interestingly, during my interview, the woman doing the hiring mostly asked me about my trip around the world. I later learned that she studied the law of attraction and “knew” I was the hire she intended for.

On top of it, my relationship with my then-boyfriend, now-husband solidified then, too. Though we dated for two years before this trip and stayed committed during my travels, I had no idea where this relationship would lead. While traveling, we fell even more deeply in love. And the rest is history.

This quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe always comes to mind when thinking about what I’m trying to express:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have happened. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

The Power Of Choice

Hands down, one of the biggest lessons I ever learned is the power of my own choice. When I make a decision, I change the course of my life. The power of deciding is by far the most significant power we have.

I know that if I didn’t take that trip, I might be living in a 350-square-foot studio in San Francisco still.

By choosing that trip, many doors opened for me that would’ve never become available otherwise. That’s how we manifest; by choosing something radical and committing to making it happen—no matter what!

Bold Choices Generate Synchronicity

So, remember the retreat center that I worked at in Italy? This year I am going back… and you can consider this your invitation!

I’m taking 24 women through a virtual, six-month group coaching journey, and come summer solstice we are gathering in Tuscany. Yes! We are meeting in Chianti for a week, for a slow travel adventure. Want to learn more? Check it out here. I would LOVE for you to come. You have no ideas the doors this could potentially open for you. Learn more here.

Now over to you. I’d love to hear about a time when you made a bold decision that redirected the course of your life. Leave me a comment below!