Suiko: the Abbess formerly known as Betsy
On a sweltering eve of the August full moon, I knelt before my Buddhist teacher in a beautifully-crafted Japanese-style Zendo at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in Carmel, California, surrounded by 70-some monks and visitors and received my dharma name. I had been preparing for the ceremony for nearly two years, sewing a rakusu (patch robe), […]
Moon Questions
Full Moon November 12, 2019 moon questions* Where did you come from? (Which side of which place?) What do you mean, It happens by itself? When you climb the ladder of light, how do you know when you arrive? Why do feelings repeat? How does sound become music? Does color iridesce the same temperature across […]
New Moon October: Counting Stars
My life as an uncounted moon one of uncountable numbers of radiant dark moons Each moment sparks out against a teeming vastness the new presence silhouette/outline defined by absence a momentary star-pass amid dark mountain swells It can be hard to be still— to allow the manifold to manifest wordlessly From looking far and out, […]
More-than-human Moon Song
Full Moon, October 13, 2019 Growing With Death Autumn in the north Spring in the south What is your journey now? The wind in a dream smells like warm grass emergent, recumbent. The More-Than-Human Moon rises at sunset when full then lays beyond the horizon at sunrise. Repetition repeats anew –seasons, birthdays, anniversaries– creating cyclical […]
Super New Moon in Love
September Super New Moon Vows (Spoken To The Beloved Within & The Beloved Without) I vow to return again & again to the space of love: which is defined by a willingness to be vulnerable, naked & real. I vow to return again & again to the space of curiosity: which is a way of […]
Harvest Moon
Full Moon September 2019 Harvest Moon Another unspeakably bright moon. Another friend done gone. Breath breathing breath. Another conscious movement toward opening—inviting relaxation. A recalibration of vision, focal depth, heartspace & resonance with the surrounds. Summer comes down like dusk fowl on a watery mirror: easing into the balance point of light & dark. Another […]
Black Moon: what if there is nothing wrong with you?
New Moon August 30, 2019 You are warmly invited by this Black Moon* to be entirely yourself. A brightly endowed manifestation of the universe uniquely expressing itself as & through you. A new moon thought experiment: What if there is nothing wrong with you, you are not actually fucked up, damaged, or unloveable in any […]
Moon of Peaceful Non-Alignment with the Over-Culture
Full Moon August 15, 2019 Moon of the Anthropocene, Queer Moon, Moon of Peaceful Non-Alignment with the Over-Culture, Ambiguous Moon, Grief Moon, Moon of Accepting the Body We Have, Deep Listening Moon, Forgiveness Moon, Moon of the No-Longer-Young, Moon of Katabasis, Pilgrimage Moon, Moon of Unknown Scents… Our lives often feel as though they are […]
Transformational Moon Mind
July 3, 2019NEW MOON of summer solstice! Here in the traditional Dawnland of Abenaki Territory, oriented to the north/south flow of the Long (Connecticut) River, Artmonks have been exploring the mysterious nuances of Dark Moon—how to honor this phase of her radiance… The wind blows, bees swarm & afterswarm, it is a time of arrival […]
We Live in a Circle: Summer Solstice 2019
We live in a circle. Musings on the Summer Solstice The sun is telling real time, encouraging us to root down, look up & feel out. The Summer Solstice is quintessential paradox: simultaneously the effulgent height of light (longest day of the year) & the beginning of the dimming (every day hereafter is progressively shorter) […]
