Images Created by Aunt Barbara Merlotti

A Full Beaver Moon on November 30th reminds us to set traps before a long wintry freeze.

Beavers are doers, and they really know how to produce.

May this metaphor warm your soul, and rekindle an attitude of gratitude during the accompanying price tag of stress that the holidays typically bring.

Thanksgiving is also a good time to marinate on gratitude.

But cat consciousness reminds us that there is time for sitting with non-action, and just being curious with an empathic watchful eye is just as important.

After a long, and winding road, we make our way down the mountain by coming down into our souls, and gathering around with our peeps.

Haven’t we all had to come out of our own personal/collective bubbles during the last year especially?

Pretty sure for most of us, it has been uncomfortable at best to step out of our respective comfort zones, break out of our boxes, and find new strategies to replace old ways that no longer serve us.

What once worked, no longer does.

Doesn’t 2020 feel like the year the turtle flipped on the backside of its shell, and the world as we know it stood still?

While that is a naked feeling, there is great release in surrendering to the divine will of the Universe.

In this way, perhaps we are receiving an invitation to attract more energies of vulnerability into our lives that are seen as strengths.

This experience can be hard on the ego, but freeing to the soul.

Like it or not, the global pandemic gave humanity a swift kick that we needed to turn inward, and change the way we operate in our outer world.

I have an old teacher friend who used to follow the saying, “change is bad.”

But in his own transformative process, he has come to see the pandemic, while not the preferred outcome, as a catalyst in changing the way we do Public Education.

There are other teachers, and people who have come to see the virus in this light, even though they wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone.

Humanity has been forced to deal with an inconvient truth of examining our business as usual ways that have largely skimmed the surface, and gone underexamined in the collective dream that we have all cocreated together.

This has not relaxed people’s anxieties!

But with Mountain Lion as a spiritual guide, we can leap into a New Year with a renewed sense of curiosity, mystery, and magic.

After a long December, may we celebrate the darknest day of the year on the Winter Solstice on December 21.

After that, we begin to coax back the light, as our ancestors did many moons ago.

Many people do this by circling around fires, and express what they are feeling gratitude for, and what they want to let go of.

This form of communication can be a powerful way to release old energies that want to be released, and transformed.

In their wisdom, our lineage connections knew to look for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Picture your spiritual DNA, and see its old traumatic tears healing themselves into a new figure 8 sign of infinity transformative wholeness.

From this perspective, we have the awareness that even in darkness, like the small circle of yang within the larger half circle of the yin, there is light.

Speaking of moons, a New Moon on the 14th, along with the signpost of the New Age of Aquarius marks the end of an old Pisces world fading further into our rearview mirrors.

And then at the end of the month, a Full Cold Moon on December 29th is the last Full Moon of 2020.

A New Earth is going through a rebirth.

But this transition is not without its labor pains.

Out of the ashes, the Phoenix Rises.

Relationships that become stagnant need to either transform or sometimes they need to end.

Open communication about these issues can help us work through these changes, hopefully with the grace of a swan.

But sometimes you just have to let nature take its course because mutual attraction cannot be forced.

People have a right to their reactions, including not being pleased with you for living your life in the way that you need to.

For those of you who have struggled with the disease to please, like me, this can be a tough pill to swallow. And the digestion process can be quite bitter.

It is also wise to remember that other people’s opinions are none of your business.

Looking ahead, the Chinese Year of the Ox arrives on February 12, 2021, shortly after the Imbloc or the modern American holiday known as Groundhog Day on February 2nd.

Of course, the Chinese Zodiac still follows the Lunar calendar, which is different from the Sun based Gregorian Calendar.

Sometimes, I wonder why we humans changed from a moon based calendar to a sun based calendar.

And then I remember that we are shifting from a dying sun based patriarchy to a budding new moon based sacred feminine age.

In the New Year, it would behoove us to acquire, and access oxen traits of humility, hard work, and emotional regulation.

Their energies also remind us of the good medicine for everybody to do their part, and that sometimes, it is better to stay in your lane.

In a nutshell, this wisdom can help us have good boundaries with self, and relationships.

Those insights can be particularly challenging for those of us that have strong oppositional streaks, like to march to the beat of our own drum, and have strong free spirited streaks like woodpeckers, and me.

But it can be freeing to accept that whatever “leash” you are dealing with in your life is really about making friends with that on the inside, than resisting whatever outer circumstances make you feel that way.

Even some of our friends that have done hard time in prison came to that spiritual awareness while they were behind bars.

But then again, part of why we incarnate into a mortal body is to know the experience of form, and to play with forms while we are here.

While this is a blessing, it often feels like a curse.

A soul can feel trapped.

Like stagnant water, blockages can lead to getting stuck.

We all get stuck.

“For inside the woods: the poet was renewed and anxiety- stepped aside.”

Here in America, we have elected a new President.

But about half the people voted to keep Trump in office.

For those of you who feel good about the change, and say good riddence to Trump, please remember how bad you felt when he was elected in the first place, and how much you hated that feeling.

Try to remember that’s how many people are feeling now, and see if you can find empathy for those souls who feel differently from you.

You can disagree with someone else’s politics or beliefs. But however radically different they are from your own, they are not to be taken personally.

We are all in this boat together.

We really need to appreciate our differences, and find civil ways to coexist peacefully.

Our survival depends on it.

Till we tweet again peeps,

Ari