Today is the day of the New Moon. It is the preferred time to plant, both ‘real’ seeds and the seeds of new intentions. The sky is at it’s darkest for the 28 day moon cycle. The moon turns her lighted face away from us, and shows us her dark side. As you look up into the cosmos, which is distinctly different tonight than during the reign of the full moon, embrace the darkness and know that this is the perfect moment for sewing your seeds of conscious shift. When you dig a hole in the earth in which to plant a seed, there is no ray of light beckoning it to descend. The place in which you came into physical form was not one of radiant luminescence, but rather a dark, sacred space of creation. If Persephone does not descend into the dark underworld every winter, there will be no blossoming Spring. In the never-ending dance of Yin and Yang, at the fullest moment of the black, bulb of Yin, when one might just think it will win the game of white versus black, a crack of white appears, and the Yang rises again. The womb is dark, and the place where we plant our seeds, whether in the bowels of the earth, or in the New Moon sky, is inherently black.
And so, lie beneath it, and allow yourself to be enveloped by the darkness, like a seed, surrendering to the process of germination. Allow your mind to settle into the space between your thoughts. Conjure the feeling of being open to the new, the unknown, the adventure, the joy, the fulfillment, the bliss. Rest there in the quiet womb of your personal creation, the place from which there is the potential for any and every possibility to manifest in your life. Let the quiet lull you to place where you can hear your little voice. Your intuition. Your inner voice with outer knowing. The voice of your truth. It is always whispering sweetly to you, but you must be quiet and open in order to hear it, in order to decipher it’s message above, beneath and beyond the chatter of your mind. From the pregnant darkness the voice will sound, and offer you a new direction. A new source of inspiration. A solution. A secret stepping stone which will set you down in exciting uncharted territory. Surrender to it’s guidance. Foster a sense of wholehearted trust in it’s Omniscience. Only then will you be able to fully enjoy the game of the journey into the unknown.
There are trust games we play as dancers and actors, to develop a bond and sense of security within a working group. We allow ourselves to be blindfolded and led about a room, or building. To be walked, run, turned, spun, lifted, carried, laid down on the floor, rolled, lain upon, and dragged about. Our initial anxiety melts. The fears which clung to our skin fall away, and we are led into a state of joyous anticipation. What next? A nervous smile cracks the face of the one who has had his sight taken away. All other senses sharpen to come to his aid. The tension in the muscles slowly softens, and the energetic contraction turns to expansion. Hesitation is thrown to the wind. Exhalation. Inhalation. Sigh. Giggle. Until the blind one is participating fully in the game. Trusting his colleagues with joyous abandon. There is nothing quite so fun as not being able to see where you are going, yet knowing that you are being led, being cared for along your journey by hands unseen, but certainly felt. There is nothing quite so fun as turning a corner sharply and knowing that those in charge will prevent you from colliding with a wall. There is nothing quite so fun as falling and knowing that those hands will catch you. That you will not awaken from your dream as you crash into the rocks below the precipice from which you have fallen; but that your momentum will be arrested by your guardians, and that you will be carried safely to the ground, and alight there in order to continue your journey of trust. It is with this spirit that you must plant your New Moon seeds.
As you gently cover the seed with earth, and walk away to wash your hands, you trust that it is being held in the hands of Gaia and Demeter. You trust that it is being led by the hands of Earth, Water and Sun, and that it will sprout and transform beyond recognition. You trust that one day soon, the earth will give way in this place where you have planted your seed, and an explosion of life will manifest from the darkness into the light. The tender shoots, reaching out from the earth, reaching out from your seed; with that tell-tale green – colour of life and composite images of the deep cosmos – will shout and sing, “I am alive! I am growing! you planted me and trusted the process of life, and I am growing!”. And you will smile as you watch the tendrils unfold, reaching up to the Light. And again you will walk away, trusting the darkness to pull the roots of your seed down into the earth so that the plant, now hungry for light, and climbing steadily up through the air, will be grounded, nourished and strong.
So too, must you give up the whispers from your intuition into the darkness. Release them into the New Moon sky, and curl up and surrender to sleep. Let go of any desire to control them. Trust that they are held safely in the hands of Thesis and Nammu, and all other un-named Goddesses of Creation. Sleep soundly in the knowing that the entire Universe is conspiring to lead you, blissfully blindfolded, along the unfolding journey of your germinating New Moon seed.
