~Full Moon Lunar Eclipse~

The goddess of the night is waxing, ready to reach its fullness on New Year's Eve. This sensitive, protective, and family-oriented Moon reminds us that we are all emotionally interconnected. The Moon represents the mother archetype and during this particular planetary configuration this nurturing archetype is shedding its cosmic light upon all of us!!! It is time to 'feel' its empowering light so that we can choose to become the best we can ever be, we can choose to work hard in order to achieve our personal as well as our professional goals and make our dreams come true. This strong, symbolic mother archetype helps us build a firm emotional foundation so that we can face our daily challenges coming from place of integrity and wholeness able to dissolve old and outworn feelings of shame, guilt, and blame back into raw material that will allow to co-create our own realities.

At the time of the eclipse, spiritual warrior Mars and logical Mercury, the divine messenger of the gods, are apparently moving backwards in the sky. They are in their retrograde phase which is indicative of a time to dedicate to introspection. According to the Gregorian calendar, we are starting a new year and the cosmic weather reminds us to live 2010 from a new light-filled perspective, it reminds us to think before acting, to contemplate before making a drastic decision, to breathe in deeply before answering to a hurtful comment in ways that we may deeply regret it later because we are all emotionally interconnected way more than we ever realized up to now. We are becoming more and more conscious about how our own decision-making authority can affect other members of this planet.

If you are in need of practicing Emotional Alchemy, a great idea is to grab some scratch paper, colored pencils and sit next to the fireplace and write all your emotionally charged thoughts, your feelings of anguish and your frustrations onto the paper and without reading it back throw it to the fire. You may realize that the real fire becomes intense while melting away your heavy emotions. This is a great exercise, I personally practice it before MoonJournaling, it is a empowering exercise that will help you release residual and probably unresolved emotional thoughts. You can vent and vent all you need until you achieve a place of clarity. Then, you'll feel light-er and ready to write from a loving and compassionate heart. After practicing 'Emotional Alchemy' it will be much easier for your 4th chakra to emanate loving-kindness.

Happy Full Moon Cycle to all of you!!!

"May the brightness of this Moonlit Cycle allow you to honor and cultivate all your soulful gifts."

Be courageous, allow your heart to participate in dedicating time and focusing energy to nurture and nourish all your own gifts, talents, and abilities. Your own inner light is much needed and appreciated.

~Maru Dana, Ph.D. ~

Your encouraging and loving comments are always welcome at: mooncycles@sbcglobal.net

~ Being in Self-less Service to the Gods~

Spiritual teachers, healers, leaders and every human being whose conscious intention lies in making this world a better and peaceful place for everybody to enjoy life, is honoring and is in self-less service (seva) to the gods.

Please allow me to introduce the mythological Greek and Roman Gods to you in a very simple and yet profound way.

Sun symbolizes the conscious sense of Self, the personality vehicle, the ego.

The goddess of the night, the sensitive Moon, represents our reflective, emotional self, our receptive feminine and nurturing energy.

Venus/Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty represents feminine energy.

Mars / Ares, the god of war challenges us to transform our anger and frustrations into creative endeavors. He also presents the opportunity to transmute our aggressive nature into a non-violent one being able to communicate our needs in an assertive way. This god represents masculine, active energy.

Mercury/Hermes, the divine messenger of the gods, allows us to communicate our soulful divine message. It represents the logical and rational mind.

Jupiter/ Zeus, the king of the gods, this benevolent energy, brings us all kinds of opportunities to expand our self-limited horizons.

Saturn/Chronos, the lord of karma, the taskmaster invites us to build a firm and solid foundation where we can give tangible form to our creative ideas and manifest our goals while learning and integrating our karmic lessons.

Kiron, the wounded healer, represents the bridge between the personal and the transpersonal, between the known physical world and the world of images that emerges from archeytypes, from universal energies; the presence of Kiron helps us heal our dual nature, its energy brings spirit into matter.

Uranus, the SkyGod, unexpectedly comes to us like lightening to disrupt the status quo and make our lives spiritually miserable until we finally break free from the old-self-destructive habits. It represents the energy of awakening to the true self.

Neptune/Poseidon, the god of the ocean, opens up a new divine perspective by inviting us to delve into dreams, visions, and imagination. Neptune rules the angelic realms. This ethereal energy allows us to experience self-transcendence.

Hades/Pluto, the god of the underworld, invites us to descend into the depths of our own unconscious in order to face, trans-form, transmute and purify our deep-seated fears and dark emotions back into raw-creative material.

Last, but not least, Prometheus, is the so called god of fire because he stole fire from the gods (Zeus) and gave it to us, humans, to keep us warm and connected to Spirit. His name means forethought. He also represents the energy of awakening to the divine spark which lies deep within our 4th chakra.

Maru Dana, Ph.D.

~Sagittarius New Moon~

12-16-09 Happy New Moon Cycle to all of you!!! This Universe is so generous that allows us to start anew all over again, planting new seeds of intention. What a wonderful opportunity to 'feel' the enthusiasm and optimism of this Sagittarius fire!!! The spark of the divine loves to expand enjoying traveling to foreign lands, tasting different foods, experiencing different cultures, becoming immersed in their philosophies, their religions and their ancient languages.

Zeus, the king of the gods, later named Jupiter by the Romans, rules this freedom-loving fiery sign. This adventurous energy loves traveling abroad which a great way to expand our consciousness. Another fantastic way of exploring the world is traveling mentally, spiritually or even in the astral realms. The choice is always yours to make!!! Since the spark of the divine is found deep within our 4th chakra, traveling within can also turn out to be a great and ineffable hero's journey seeking only to shine the inner light far and bright.

Jupiter is the planet that rules philosophers, professors, great spiritual teachers including the guru. As you already know, the guru can be found inside ourselves. The guru is the wise spiritual teacher that can dispel our darkness so that we can 'feel' and 'see' our own light and start emanating our own true colors. By diving deep into this conscious-expanding energy, we'll be able to access our own wisdom, our inner inner guru, the master within us. By listening to our guardian angels, and spiritual guides we'll be able to establish a fluent and intimate dialogue speaking only the soulful language of love and com-passion.

I will keep you posted about the planetary changes, there is a lot of activity in the sky right now, and it is extremely important for all of us to become aware so that we can make life decisions in a more conscious way. By allowing yourself to shine your own inner light, you are also allowing others to do the same. This New Moon Cycle culminates on the 31st with a Full Moon Lunar eclipse in the family-oriented sign of Cancer. What a great opportunity to start thinking about humankind as a big family.

Heartfelt Moonlit blessings to all of you!

Maru Dana, Ph.D.

~Emotional Alchemy~

11-16-09

This particular New Moon Cycle presents a wonderful opportunity to practice Emotional Alchemy, what a great invitation to contemplate the endless cycles of life. During the new moon phase the universe invites us to start anew, to set our seeds of intentions to begin a new cycle bearing in mind that we are all undergoing the most wonderful, profound process in which our outworn beliefs and e-motions can be trans-formed and transmuted back into raw creative material.

We are ready to start working together in cooperation, allowing peace, harmony and diplomacy to lead our new way of communicating our personal needs. We are giving birth to a new way of contemplating this human life in which respect, tolerance, and freedom are essential ingredients to this new recipe; spirit is evolving and we are all co-creators, we are all active participants. It is necessary for each one of us to assume responsibility for our own emotional re-actions.

In 'Astrology & Meditation' gifted astrologer Greg Bogart invites us to experience the fearless contemplation of change; he eloquently defines astrology as a tool for the evolution of consciousness. He further comments that we do have the power to choose the meaning of our own planetary placements and transits.

Are you ready to take full responsibility for your own emotional reactions?

Are you ready to dive deeper and find ways in which Emotional Alchemy can help you transmute your fears into raw creative material?

I personally practice Emotional Alchemy in my backyard, weeding out my fears can turn into a long and tedious process, so I take small baby steps knowing that the weeds will keep coming back unless I figure out a way of uprooting them completely. I do not use any chemicals, I practice organic gardening and I love to feed the earth worms. I marvel at how nature reacts to my loving and caring touch. Practicing the art of composting on daily basis became my way of transmuting the impurities of my human personality and, in this magical way, mini roses are being happily born as well as green onions, tomatoes, and colorful swiss chard.

Another way of practicing Emotional Alchemy is Moon Journaling, since the moon represents our emotions, writing about what we 'feel' can allow us to 'see' our feelings from a completely different perspective, a more objective one in which light illuminates our path and a wave of enthusiasm suddenly envelopes our 4th chakra (anahata).

Always remind yourself that this world is a better place because you are alive ready to shine your unique creative light far, ready to share your wisdom with the rest of us.

There are 13 Moons in a year, I wrote 13 Moon Journals that can help you develop an intimate and fluent relationship with your deeper self. Once we come full circle with our karmic lessons, we spiral up into light-er dimensions. Practicing Emotional Alchemy is a way of taking full responsibility every time those shadowy emotions spring up to the surface only to be cleared, transformed and transmuted back into raw creative material, you will feel light-er and ready to happily co-create your life into being.

May this New Moon phase help you uncover the essence of your

own true loving nature.

Feel free to share your emotional thoughts.

The Moon Journals can be purchased at www.moonjournaling.com

'Astrology & Meditation' can be ordered at www.dawnmountain.com

Besides being a licensed psychotherapist, Greg Bogart is a prolific writer; I've been reading his work for the past decade. His other book that I love is ''Astrology & Spiritual Awakening'. His sweet, passionate, and spiritual approach to 'Astrology' will invite you to explore this sacred art finding your personal way to become an awakened human being. I certainly became a conscious astrologer empowering people to awaken to their true Self.

Maru Dana, Ph.D.