Between the Moon - 14. Translating the Light of Solar and Lunar Consciousness with Bronwyn Simons

Episode Date: November 26, 2023

On today's episode of Lunar Currents Bronwyn and I explore the unique qualities of solar and lunar consciousness and how many of us have been trained to be more solar without knowing the difference.We even catch ourselves trying to understand and talk about aspects of the moon on the sun's terms! Practicing self-study and lunar tracking helps loosen this and be able to see from another perspective completely.This conversation is a candid and though-provoking musing that covers a lot of fertile ground. There is a whole wisdom transmission happening between the spoken words. Notice if you can sense it.Links mentioned:Lunar in Nature Waitlisthttps://astrologygoddess.mykajabi.com/lunar-nature-waitlist2024 Astrology Forecast and Planning Retreat Use Discount Code: LUNARCURRENTS for $27 off https://astrologygoddess.mykajabi.com/a/2147720910/iqyGRbijMaeg Keane: The Sun, Our Unfixed StarLooking at solar consciousness from the lunar perspective Shout out to ⁠Alexandria, A Woman with Flowers⁠ for flower attunements! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themoonismycalendar.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome, dear listener, to Lunar Currents, a special feature on the Between the Moon podcast, with myself, April McMurtry, and predictive astrologer Bronwyn Simons. Lunar currents is a moonly conversation about embodying the living sky, exploring how astrology helps us enter into the mythic nature of our life story, and musing on our relationship with time, creativity, intuition, and many other magical connections. Okay, should we jump in? Yeah. Yeah.

Let's jump into the lunar current. I'm excited to be in this conversation with you. I'm Bronwyn. I'm a predictive astrologer and astrology mentor and moon priestess like yourself. And really excited to be in the flow of these conversations. The moon brings us into like private spaces that not everybody, has access to. And you and I had talked about what is lunar consciousness? What is solar consciousness? And something that just occurs to me even in this moment is how a lunar conversation like this

enters into the solar space of the internet and the podcast streaming. And so those, you know, there's this like, I don't, it's not like a blending necessarily, but there is, Is this maybe like overlapping? Yeah. I wonder how you've experienced that or think of that. Of bringing the sometimes nonverbal intuitive body wisdom of the lunar space out into the light where we can look at it and define it and articulate it and share it. It's exciting and tricky.

It's like the full moon space, right? where every little crevice is lighted up and your usual dark spaces. You look out into your backyard and it's not the usual nighttime. The dark spaces are light and you can describe them and name them. I've been sort of inquiring again into how I define those two things, lunar and solar consciousness. And working to get myself out of the habitual. I can get into a habitual space with the way that I think about and define things.

And I find that I need to shake that up sometimes and really think about, it's like the balsamic moon, right? Like, what do I really want to carry forward around these ideas? And how can I be in a constant state of renewal while holding onto lunar values, which I think are so important in such an unbalanced overly solar culture? But I read a really beautiful article by Meg Keane, who I was not familiar with her work before. And it's a long sort of poetic inquiry into the nature and definition of solar consciousness. And she was sort of calling herself out about how she really leans into lunar consciousness.

And sometimes to the point of even sort of overlooking the sun when she's reading a chart with a client. And I really resonated with that. And she was nothing definitive. It was sort of like looking at solar consciousness from a lunar perspective, but she was talking about ideas, like the ideas of the solar God and how there is an idea of death and rebirth woven into that. But it's more sort of more masculine and more heroic and more violent in some ways and just like the violent intensity of the solar story.

I'm paraphrasing. That's sort of where I went from what she was. was talking about. There's a really interesting inquiry and that idea of the way the sun does indeed die and rise again, right? And is actually the root of all of those solar myths, including the Christian solar myth. And sometimes when we're coming from a lunar space, we forget that aspect of solar consciousness because we're just kind of tired of that blaring light, right the sun rebirths herself daily musings these are my musings yeah i love that's it makes me want to even go into that space of defining and definition which you know even the mind

that wants to sort of categorize that mind of like oh well what even is lunar consciousness and what even is solar consciousness and like you were mentioning and i'll put the link to the um that you mentioned, those cycles of death and rebirth that are often attributed to the moon and to lunar consciousness and to, it's maybe illustrated in a different way because the moon goes through phases of fullness and emptiness. Yeah. And the sun has more of that steady persistence without the fluctuation that is more maybe extreme or visible with the moon?

It's this or that with the sun. It's alive or dead. It's night or day. It's light or dark. And the moon is all those gradations of the darkness, really. What do we do when we enter into that? The sun dies for the day. And the moon takes over.

And it's like us sleeping and opening up into dream space. when we're in it, it isn't just half of the day. It's expanded and bigger than that. And that's sort of how I feel into the lunar consciousness. It's not just day and night. It's day and night and then night opens into something bigger. Night opens the door to dream and to bigger, bigger, more continuous, timeless spaces. Well, here's something that just occurred to me is how the moon actually overlaps in a way with the day and night.

That the sun is giving that definition. Like no sun sets, it is nighttime. Like the sun defines something. And the moon then wanders in and out of daytime, nighttime, depending on what phase and where the moon. is in the cycle. And so there is this overlapping space. Just at the start of the conversation, when I was thinking about bringing a lunar,

more intimate conversation out into the solar space of the internet. And where that overlap is, like the moon actually does overlap and weave in and out of the two spaces. And isn't limited, right? Isn't limited by whether the sun is up. or not because right because half of the cycle the moon is in the daytime sky along with the sun

and so i'm just you know i'm because i haven't this is like this new musing for me to think about in my own mind then when is that happening when is the the moon the lunar consciousness when and where does that overlap because it doesn't have to be separate like that categorizing of like it's either the sun or the moon. It's the solar way of looking at it. It's all the creating all the taxonomies and making sure that there's a clear line between things. And that's the solar way of looking at it.

And in that solar world, we have, it's like a yin yang symbol because we have the day with the sun disk. Then we have the night with, we imagine that full moon disc. And that's what we're, one night of the month. Right.

Right. One out of like 29. The night is the realm of the moon only. And the rest of the time she's here, there and everywhere. And not afraid to come out in the daytime and not afraid to rest at night. Mm-hmm. The other day. Yeah.

So, oh, yeah. So the lunar consciousness, that space, And so maybe, I don't know, maybe we could attempt to give some words or language to define that or talk about it in a way that communicates like what that space feels like and what that space offers and opens up. Maybe even kind of doing our own look into when we became aware of that being a distinct space that maybe not everybody. accessed or occupied or lived in or even when that sort of, I'm thinking about for me when that space awakened or I became more aware of maybe a distinction. And I even in saying that, I'm like, well, the childhood space is a lunar space. It's just entering into the world in, in,

with lunar consciousness, children often occupy that lunar imaginal realm where there isn't so much a distinction about my imagination and then what's the actual reality of? Because there doesn't need to be. And then at some point, we move out further into the world and move out into solar space. And for some people that's exciting and stimulating and stimulating and a relief and expansive. And for others like myself, and I think this is still true of me that I prefer to stay in that lunar space. And part of it is my neurotype, which means I have extreme light sensitivity. So the sun shining brightly is not my friend. I don't look forward to sunny days. The sun can trigger a migraine. I'd rather be in a cloudy, rainy cloud.

climate. I'd rather be, if I'm going to be outside, I want to be sheltered somewhere in the forest or, I mean, I have a day chart, right? It was born during the day, but I'm a very lunar type. And by that, I mean, I'm, I'm a magical thinker. I'm a symbolic thinker. My mind moves laterally all over the place. I respect dream time as much as I respect awake, rational time. My work is magical. I'm just like closing the blinds as I'm talking to you because I'm like, I don't need to be sitting here in the bright glare. If I'm giving a video presentation, I like to have that bright light shining on me so people can see me. But it's an endurance test. And as soon as I'm off the call, I shut everything down and I shut the blinds and I turn off the lights. Because that's a

comfortable space for me and it always has been. And that transition as a child out of the imagination the lunar space of the imagination, the privacy of lunar time. Because solar time is very social, and the sociability of lunar time is a little bit different, more comforting and intimate. And I've just always struggled to move in the solar world, which is why I love doing the lunar work, because really coming into early adulthood and having some models for that, hanging out with witchy people and learning astrology.

I was like, okay, I'm not the only one. This is a way. This is a path. And it's a path that's contrary to what's encouraged in our culture. How was it for you growing up? What was your initiation into lunar or solar consciousness? I mean, I love this question and this inquiry. I think about it both for myself and then for my own children.

I went to a very magical elementary school that encouraged, like, you know, go look for fairies and gnomes in the trees. You know, so there was time and space that was spent in a lot of imagination and sheltering that space because it does fade. It does go, like the bright light then comes in. It's like fairies aren't real and all of these things, these messages that that, that could. and come in to like, I got a lot of time in that space. And then I think the harshness of the transition from elementary school to middle school was very, that was very harsh. And that was like shut it down.

Don't go talking about fairies. The more sort of social, like, oh, okay, I have to figure out how to navigate this social space. and maybe even went too far in that extreme. I grew up in an area that's often referred to as Sun Valley. It's like in the valley of a mountain and it's very hot. We get heat waves. But I grew up swimming and I feel like swimming and being in the water was something that kept me connected to the lunar space,

even in the heat of the summer. and also because of that connection of the moon with the breath. And with swimming, there was a lot of focus on breath and breathing patterns. And without even, I'm just even kind of thinking this through as I'm speaking. You know, it's like this out of the water, in the water, out of the water, like navigating both of those spaces. and I think of sometimes magic as the possible, like, that anything is possible. And to then enter into a solar way is like, okay, but what do you want to actually do?

Like, of all these possibilities, then, like, choosing which seed to plant. Yes, there's all the magical seeds, all of those possibilities, but actually making a choice and deciding. that moves out of that more like fluid space into this one or that one. Yeah. And something just occurs to me with that about timing and the solar, like thinking about the solar year versus the lunar month and how doing the right thing in the right season,

whereas there's this sort of timelessness and continuous magical opportunity with the lunar cycling. With the solar cycling, there's the right time and there's just the right time and the wrong time. You are not planting seeds in the Northern Hemisphere right now in November. And that's a reality. That's like a solar reality. Yeah. The choice making isn't just about ego or focus.

It's like it's about the solar reality and the right thing in the right time. But then that opens into. Yeah, it's so interesting because they're both cyclical. And we talk about that word syncopation and the cycles are syncopated and we need both. And why? Why is it easy to reject one or the other? Why does our culture so reject the lunar cycling and those of us that lean deep into it sometimes can reject the solar consciousness because it becomes the enemy somehow or it becomes too representative of the culture. And then we leave behind what is so potent and magical and life-giving about the solar light and the solar seasons, you know, rewriting that heroic story.

Yeah. What there is to access. And, yeah, what it is that the sun and maybe has come to represent about like linear time that maybe even other things that became like tools of domination. would try to rid, rid out, to try to rid us of, right, that more of the, um, imaginal, magical, spiritual places that maybe it's in embracing the solar consciousness or in like welcoming that in as, as not an opposite. even though the night and the day has that like those duality polarities of opposites even in creating for me in the in the process of creating the new moon calendar and journal

this came up with me and my husband because I had painted this watercolor image of I want to make a circular moon calendar and so my prototype was this very fluid watercolor color image. I brought it to him and said, could you help me to translate this onto the computer into something that's, you know, maybe more precise. And so lunar tool and then a solar tool. Yeah. And he brought this precision and this exact, like to the millimeter exactness, where I think I would have, I eyeball things. I'm like, that looks good. I don't want to measure it. even though the moon is actually a tool, not a tool, but like the moon measures, like lunar time measures time.

And so there is this measuring, but that measuring has wiggle room to it. It's soft and wiggly. I like that kind of measuring. And yet there's a, when there is a precision, you know, and it's what my husband had to, had to really offer as support, that I would. sometimes feel like confined by of he's like how do you want it this way or that way and I'm like I'm still feeling it out and I'm you know it would created a lot of friction because of these different modes of operating or approaching the project of either knowing what you want

ahead of time or not knowing necessarily like wanting to go on the journey to find out I wish that we had had this language or a framing of some kind to understand, to navigate and negotiate where it wasn't like, well, this is my way, like, do it my way, or there's your way, or that one is somehow because I make a moon calendar that means that the sun is somehow bad. And I'm like, I don't even think in those dualistic terms, so that doesn't make sense to me, but I feel like there aren't enough moon calendars around. And that's the world I want to live in is one that really, especially in the Western and in the United States and in my experience

of public school education and places where the moon is like maybe only studied as part of a scientific like exercise in, I don't know, most kids don't learn that much about. about the moon and when they do, it is more about that. Yeah, it always shocks me. People don't have that lunar literacy. They're very unaware even of, you know, when does the full moon happen and what, what do you, what, what, they don't know. And then these pervasive myths like there's 13 lunar months in the year and things that just,

it's not that complicated, but it's, there's a need for literacy. and then that literacy, of course, one of the reasons that we love to share that lunar literacy is because it carries with it a whole way of being and thinking and living in the world

that does have that the wiggle room and the magic and the sensitivity that we might sometimes feel is lacking in that clear, clear solar light. even I would say that part of that sensitivity coming from a practice. So if I go back to that first year that I created the wall calendar, not the wall calendar.

The wall calendar came later, but the journal of the new moon calendar calendar journal really was a tool that I needed to develop that lunar literacy because I didn't know. I knew about the full moon, but I didn't quite, I even thought like, oh, when the full moon moon rises when the moon rises that's when it's full like at at moon rise yeah that's full and i was like why does the moon sometimes not look totally full when it's rising but it's supposed to be full and then and then it's like oh because it's actually full at 4 a m a different moment right because we don't realize how completely shaped our thinking is by the solar by the first of all by the solar calendar just by the activity of the sun.

This is, I see this confusion a lot with people entering into the study of astrology as they assume that all cycles are annual without that understanding that only, no, that's like the definition of a solar cycle. It's the year that that's, that is a solar cycle. And everybody else has their own cycle, including the moon and all of the planets. And the only things that happen predictably annually are solar things. But scientifically, calendar-wise, our brains are trained to divide things, to look at time, to look at cycles, to look at recurrence, cyclical recurrence as a solar thing.

But we don't even know that that's a solar thing. Mm-hmm. Right. It's, that's the solar orientation that then gets applied to everything else. Yeah. Right. To every other planet or every other cycle. And so, and I would say practicing that self-study and working with the moon is a way to kind of to loosen that up and actually have more agility to hold multiple cycles that overlap. And now we're going, like thinking about all. of the planets where there's these overlapping places where sometimes there's this meeting up and correspondence or, you know, particular connections and understanding how some of those are very rare and some of those are repeated, but it's not like every Mercury retrograde is always going to happen in April and May and then, you know, like not repeated. It's going to be its own cycle. It has its own life.

And they each have their own dance and their own very specific length of cycle. And it's really the moon that can best teach us about that rather than the sun because of the way, first of all, she moves so much more rapidly through her whole cycle. And because she moves so visibly through all of her cycle and teaches us by showing us visually in the sky what it is we're feeling inside. So then we learn in an embodied, intuitive way what the planetary relationships are, because those lunar phases, all planets have phases in that sense. That's what the aspects are. That's every planet as it goes through.

Its cycle, whatever, the length of the cycle is going to have those same stopping points. The conjunction, new moon, the opposition full moon. The opening and closing square, first quarter, last quarter. And if we learn the moon, I don't even want to use the word learn. If we align with the moon, then we feel, experience, and embody what each of those phases feels like what happens in the world, what happens in our hearts. And then when we have something rare, like you're in a soft position, which happens to everybody when they're in their early 40s. But it only happens once in your life. But you're already intimately familiar with what.

an opposition is because you've lived through many, many, many full moons. So in that way, the moon teaches us astrology, both in a kind of an intellectual sense, like what is an opening square, what is an opposition, but also in that really intimate, what does it feel like to live through an opening square or an opposition or a conjunction? And we can transfer, translate all of that information and, and embodied wisdom into our relationship with the other planets. We don't need any other teacher, really. The moon shows us everything.

And she does what the ancients called translating the light, which is both literal and symbolic. She is like translating the light of the sun in a way that we can look full upon her face. Feel that solar light. We can't do that with the sun. But she also serves that function, astrologically of I was compared to mother's milk right it's like through her body the moon makes the light and the the wisdom and the energy and the um meaning of the meaning of the the planet

is the stars and the sun digestible by us understandable by us so she's really it's really interesting how you see in the astrological community that it's a little bit like oh yeah the moon but she's everything and we can learn everything from her that's so beautiful how you just how you um it brings it down like it brings it to the body it brings it onto like oh this is right here rather than something like that's very far out or maybe even more like a, you know, intellectual, gymnastic kind of a thing. The moon is like, you just, just open up and feel and observe and be witness to. And even I've just even this year started sort of shifting my own language about like aligning with the moon to attuning. Is something about alignment.

And I think even in like yoga practice or like physical. It's kind of solar, right? Kind of solar. Oh, my gosh. Which only till this year, and I do actually, you know, I was probably picking up on that in a very lunar consciousness way in many places, sort of like shifting this, my own awareness. But I'll just shout out to Alexandria, a woman with flowers, because she has talked about also attunings, both that we can receive from flowers. and plants like the attunements that we can receive and attuning ourselves. And that, I'll say one of my children at school, they have the instrument they bring home

is the ukulele, which is constantly being tuned. So that also feels, you know, it feels lunar in this way of like we're constantly being attuned and constant, I don't know, at least for me, going out of balance and finding my way back and forgetting and then remembering again that feels very lunar, whereas coming from more of a solar consciousness is like, well, no, you have to always remember. And it's always like there's something wrong if there is a fluctuation or a, yeah, so something that just started to kind of shift, whereas alignment also it can. And I've seen it for some, for some people.

women that I've worked with that it can go into this place of, well, if I align, then there's a right way to do it. And if I'm not doing it right, right. Yeah. Yeah, it makes me think of like the ancient temples and how they align with the solstices. And there's just that one moment when the light comes in, everything has to be perfect. It's, it's the, the math is, is perfect. And that's beautiful. and it's very solar. And I love what you say about attunement and how that instrument is going to go out of tune. And it's that, it's that, you know,

if you even call it up in your mind, listening to an orchestra preparing and listening to all those instruments coming into attunement and how it's like, it has that sort of experimental and playful and the continuous need to get there. There is that perfection,

that moment where it's exactly attuned, but then it falls away. And that's very lunar. I love that. Okay. I'm going to, that's a change. I'm ready to make. Well, and it part of it comes more, more, it just expresses it more. It's a more accurate expression of what's really happening. And I'm glad you brought in that, like, Right, that alignment of the, what's it called, archaeological, astrological, archaeological, like all of the buildings and temples and places and spaces that would have to be so precisely aligned. And that's that measuring of like, you can't necessarily eyeball it. Right, because then it doesn't align.

It doesn't have that like magical precision or even like. an eclipse of like that is this there is alignment that's happening and with the practice then of self-study and part of why I created the calendars I didn't have the language at the time but that was oh I need to attune myself to something that will help me understand cycles of rest and activity that will help actually you know teach me like I need a mentor and it didn't come in like a human form. It actually came in the form of the moon of like just show me so that I'm not operating in this solar go, go, go like not turn the lights off, you know, those things that are encouraged in Western world of everything on all the time. So I knew that I needed some,

where's that, you know, something to like reference or learn from? And it was the moon. And that first cycle of the first calendar was 2015, started on a new moon. So 2014, actually, was the first, the new moon on winter solstice. And that was this other like alignment, right? I didn't know that that was unusual for the new moon to correspond with the winter solstice, both of those like moments of like the opposite of peak, right? the there's probably a word for that the nadir right the lowest point of of of the year and of the

the least amount of light but those two things corresponded and and it wasn't something that was planned but looking at that as um quite the synchronicity of that but that first cycle you're going to add something oh just that that's you're in your um the nodal reversal you're at a important turning point in the life of your relationship with the calendar because that's the first nine years right that's a that's an important cycle yeah and the nodes are based on the sun moon relationship so there are reflection wow yeah so many so many lessons and i took it upon myself that first cycle to draw the moon to go to look in the sky to find, and so I would invite this as a practice for anybody who doesn't already have it,

to find the landmarks, to find the trees, to find the rocks, to find the places, to see where the moon is rising, and then places to look in the sky at different times throughout the lunar cycle and take note. I think I even took a photograph. I think it was like this self-portrait project. And it was in winter, so it was like me bundled up and like with the moon blurry and the background, but I needed to somehow reference and like, I guess, solidify to make somehow, but maybe more of like to embody to bring it in. So I didn't have to think or read because anything I read about the moon, I was like, I just don't get it. Why don't I get this? And maybe it was from more of described in a way that wasn't lunar. And the lunar way was actually

to just go outside and to have a direct. experience. I think doing that and looking back, I feel like it just started to kind of channel that consciousness or channel that wisdom in a way because of the paying attention and the noticing and the getting outside of the more of a solar consciousness that maybe has an element of like, oh, well, I can control the situation. I'll study it because I can control it somehow. It's like, no, you actually. and develop a different awareness, that that just opened me up to be able to access something

that and give language to the experience of cycles and the moon because I took the time to, like, dedicate myself, like to put myself at the feet. Yeah, to put yourself at the feet of the moon. And it seems like such a simple thing. And it's an assignment that I often give, and I imagine people don't take up very often. It's one thing to say, go out and watch the sunrise every day for a month. It's completely another thing and a much greater commitment to say, go and watch the moon rise every day. You're going to learn so much.

First of all, you're going to learn that some days, the moon doesn't rise at all. Like, surprise, there are a few days when she doesn't. And then you're going to realize it's a different time and a different, slightly different place every day. And that's, you express that so beautifully because I don't think there's anything else. There's no other learning we can do

that brings it home quite the way just getting out and having a daily relationship with the moon in the sky. because she is not what you think she is. And until you commit to that practice, and it's a big commitment because it's not easy. Well, it's not convenient, right? It's not.

I guess that's it is easy, but it's not at all convenient. You're going to be up in the middle of the night sometimes. You're going to be looking around for something that you can't find. You're going to be confused and illuminated. And it's an initiative. process. I wish everyone would give themselves that gift for at least one month to, even if you're not committing to seeing her at a certain time, I'd at least go out and find the moon in the sky every day. You will learn so much from that because you would think because of the regularity

of the sun, she changes over the course of the year, but we pretty much know where to find her. Well, she can't miss her, right? Even on a cloudy day. But the moon, on the other hand, go out and try to find her every day or every night and you'll get confused and very quickly drawn into lunar consciousness. It's like the bait. We're like setting the bait. You'll be drawn in to lunar consciousness. Except our challenge.

Yes. Find the moon every day in the sky. Something that helped me was some of the moon math that helped me was sort of estimating the moon rises about an hour later every day, that there is within it the steady rhythm. And that fluctuates, but I feel like that sort of hour-ish. So sometimes, and I think it's near the equinox, I think it gets shorter to even maybe half an hour, that the moon rises sequentially close to the equinox, maybe just 20 minutes or half an hour. And then I think during the solstices, this is something again, like I learn every year.

I forget every year. And then I have to like observe and like, yes, okay, the moon's rising, like the harvest moon rising near the equinox in the fall. And then around the solstices, I think there can be up to maybe an hour and a half between sequential moon rises. I haven't dialed this in. So again, accept the challenge and then maybe, you know, if there is a curiosity of, okay, around the solstices, and why would that be probably something with the tilt?

It's beautiful to witness and to see even if we need. know something intellectually, yeah, just to witness that. Since we're talking about the relationship between the sun and the moon and tracking them throughout the month and throughout the year, is there anything we'd like to mention about learning that or attuning with that? Yeah, something lunar in nature, which is revealing itself. And as this conversation of the solar consciousness and lunar consciousness, lunar in nature, I think, wants to be this overlapping coming together of the moon phases

as they express and are in relationship with the wheel of the year. Yeah. Yes, a year-long loony solar mystery school. Oh, that sounds so yummy. Oh, my gosh. With art. With art. with creative expression, with embodied practice, with marking, you know, marking time in the most

beautiful way. I love this way of working with you, Bronwyn, because there's this allowing for this, like, some ingredients to go in, to like cook a little bit to so, okay, and then like, you know, sort of smell and be like, okay, this needs a little more this and like just things that are starting to add to this pot that's like just bubbling and brewing. And it starts to smell really good. And you're like, when do we eat? I know.

Is it time? Is it dinner time? Yeah. And for those of you who don't know, both Bronman and I studied art history. And just have a love of visual, the visual language. That's what that communicates. That's beyond language that we can have fun with describing and writing poetry about. But to drink in imagery of the moon.

Yeah. And so it's so far the plan as it's revealing itself would be to have eight gatherings at those. So the solstices, equinox, and then the cross quarters. So those eight and getting to go deep and explore the lunar phase that corresponds with that time in the solar cycle. So it's this way of bringing together the two and living with that. and having time and space in between each to really like to be with the wisdom of you each of the phases of the moon and each of those the times of the solar year. And a variety of practices for each of them, right? Artistic practices, intellectual practices, ceremonial practices, embodiment practices.

And it's still in, it's still cooking. right it's still in in the process of um honestly this is something that kind of feels like it chose us i think we've both been sort of separately brewing on something similar to this but for whatever reason not undertaking it and then it's just something happened during this eclipse season and this wants to be this wants to be brought into the world by us that's It's such fancy, but it's really like this is what's happening. Yeah. Yeah, it is.

And what's beautiful is there's this allowing for the unfolding and the mystery of it. I think that's the other part is like to be with the mystery of it, to find each of our own way with it. Because this is, it is a relationship. It's how we relate to time, how we relate to change, how we relate and understand life through this, the lens of the lunar cycle and live that. how that comes to life over the course of a solar year. Yeah. And a mystery school isn't just a beautiful way of naming something. It implies that it is something that will, it's a process of initiation into lunar wisdom

and something that will unfold kind of in its own way and work through all of us in its own way. It's bold to undertake something where we're coming so close to the edge of that lunar mystery and opening up to it. So it will be a beautiful and mysterious experience in which we'll all grow in unexpected ways, ourselves included or maybe even most of all. Yeah. Yeah. To be changed, to be changed by the experience and to be responsive to it and to be open in this way of what we've been talking about to that lunar consciousness of like being receptive to really receiving and even with these conversations with lunar currents it's being in the space with you those words it was actually just something I was doodling and writing and I wrote down

lunar currents and it came so easily it wasn't something I had to think about and what are we going to name it. It just in the space of lunar consciousness, it just came, came through. And I had to just put my pencil down and, and write it. It's all I'm going to unfold like that. I mean, it already is. Yeah. With ease and also with challenge, right? Yes. Right. And that's that other place of like growing through, ooh, not easy. It's both. It's both. It's tough. And there's a wait list linked below, right? Linked somewhere adjacent to this. Yeah.

There's a wait list. So if you want to know more about what this thing is. Yeah, Lunar in Nature. We'll put the link there. I know you have the astrological timings coming up. Yeah. So every year in early December, I do a Sunday afternoon online planning retreat. It's planning.

its ceremony to release the old year kind of energetic preparation for the coming. So it's a little of all of that. And this year, you're going to join me and teach a workshop inside that on our lunar phase returns to help us to really live into our own power cycles throughout each month. So I think that's just going to really deepen the experience for people. and give yet another tool that you can use throughout the year to to attune. I'm practicing to a tune. I don't know about anybody else, but probably if you're listening, you like planners.

I'm a little bit of a planner freak, like the literal physical stationary item and also preparing for things, or Gemini brain. but what if we bring lunar consciousness into that? This is the purpose of this retreat. We're doing both. We're looking at our year ahead. We're marking some important moments in time in terms of planetary transits, what to expect mood-wise energetically to help you prepare for those bigger windows of time in your year.

When is it great to travel? When should I be launching things? When is it a good idea to stay home with family and just nurture ourselves over the scope of the year, but then also doing that energetic preparation, which I think we can get a little lost in the new year planning and like a goal setting. And mind you, I'm, you know, I'm a fan of goal setting. But again, it's like striking that balance and taking that opportunity to not only check in with ourselves, our intuition, what we're ready for, what our bandwidth, as they say, is, but also checking in with the zeitgeist, which is actually a word I love in terms of astrology,

because it translates literally to the ghost of the present time, right? It's the spirit of the times, and that's what astrology shows us. So we align with that. Ah, we attune and align. I mean, in this case, it's both. We're going to attune and we're going to align the upcoming energies with a greater understanding of what they are, but also tourists here. with some really specific practical tools for how to get your linear solar calendar

to function for you in a way that's a little more expansive, a little more energetically attuned and aligned with what planets are going to bring us for the year. So I do a little forecast. We do some work together, some sharing, some journaling. We do some actual like month by month. Let's get it in our planners. And people come back year after year because it's just a really, I think it's a great way to begin the year that's kind of balanced between planning

if you've got some Virgo placements and you love that. And then it also for the other side of that axis, which is Pisces, where we just want to know what energies are we going to be swimming in. So that's on December 3rd in the afternoon Pacific time. I think if I recall correctly, we're going from 11 to 230. and you'll be teaching a workshop inside that. And we are going to have a really beautiful time. I'm really excited about the breath of fresh air that you're going to bring to.

I love what I create every year, but I think this is going to expand things in a way for people. Yeah. And I hope to, yeah, to personalize it, to have that kind of even what we were talking about before, that more ritualized experience. with the moon, embodying that in a way and having the connection to our own personal moon and that moon phase, it's this doorway, right?

It's this doorway into the whole cycle. There's so many, you know, every day is significant. And yet when we connect with, okay, well, this is my moon. So let me start. Here's a starting place with my, my moon. And how can I deepen my understanding of that particular day and phase each cycle? So important. It really is.

Yeah. And I think attuning with that lunar return, that particular lunar return, lunar phase return, and I think it's helpful in an emotional way. But there's also really practical things that go along with that, like fertility, like energy cycles, what you have the energy for. And for some people, it's a real light bulb moment of, oh, I understand. like maybe it's maybe it's not attuned with your menstrual cycle it's its own sometimes it is but it's its own cycle and that we feel i think sometimes as profoundly as we feel those hormonal shifts and knowing what it is is so empowering that's what i'm trying to say on both a practical level and a deeper psychological level yeah so it's going to be great information for us to have it's not it's not like for people who may not be that familiar with astrology they're not going to have difficulty learning this no we don't have to calculate the arc ourselves it can all you just put in your yeah put in your date and it will give you all the dates and we'll we'll get to um highlight that's what

i do that's the one thing i do in my moon calendar every year is i highlight that date of my natal phase return um so that i'm practicing self-study with with that day in that moon phase and and and and then doing the planning ahead of how do I want to be in relationship with that and with myself on that particular day. Yeah, so beautiful. And I think we had mentioned putting in a discount code for people who are listening because if I was listening, I'd be like, I need to go to that. Yeah.

Yeah. I need to be there with all my calendars. Yes. All your calendars. I have too many. I'm reminded of one of the beautiful lessons of the moon that teaches about. beginnings and endings and even seeing where that is for each of us where we may feel challenged of like starting something out or ending something and coming to the end of a

conversation of all the different ways that each of us approaches and navigates, okay, it's time to end now. It's time to close. And when the lunar cycle, that balsamic moon and that space that I know that you're so familiar with, I don't know if you'd be willing to share, like, how is it that? that space can teach us about endings and closing so that you even think sometimes that a discomfort with endings will keep us going with something past the point where we should. I mean, this is why I have, you're talking about self-study and this is why I have really worked

to understand and embody the balsamic phase because. the art of ending things with grace escaped me for so many years. There's a few reasons for that. I don't like transitions. That's my neurotype. I have a lot of fixed in my chart. So I really just would. And Gemini, I just like, you got to press a stop button sometimes.

The balsamic phase has come to be so beautiful to me, though. And I think what has helped. me with those goodbyes, the little ones like right now and the big ones, is that idea of the balsamic essence, that idea of allowing whatever it is, an hour that we're spending talking together the month, a lifetime, allowing it to distill down to the very potent, thick essence, and knowing that you can carry that over into the next cycle. And that gives my like fixed placements a lot of comfort but then also just that process of letting the rest of it just evaporate away and knowing that it's going out um so just that a very simple metaphor of distilling

down that balsamic just like the vinegar down to that really rich really beautiful essence and that yes you can you're allowed to carry that over you're allowed to carry the most important the most impactful and maybe also the unfinished bits. You get to carry those over to the next cycle. We always get another cycle. So that gives me comfort with the balsamic and also just the beauty of going to a place of darkness and rest, which we need so much sometimes,

sometimes, which we need so much as a part of every day. Just to get dark and quiet and comfortable and soft. And the balsamic phasal. allows us that too. I have come to, in my approaching elderhood to really love that part of the month. It just feels like a big out breath and permission to let it all go. So carrying that little essence over until the next time. Yeah. Embracing that. Thank you so much, Bronwyn, for this conversation.

Thank you so much for creating this space for this conversation. Yeah. It's the container. The moon helps us to create that container and then we can step inside. It's beautiful. Yeah. All right. Until next time. Until next time.

If you like this podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, share it with a friend, all the things to help it reach more people who will benefit in some meaningful way. I'm April, and I'll be with you next time on Between the Moon.