Follow the Moon: Astrology of intention and mindfulness

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Follow the Moon: Astrology of intention and mindfulness by Teri Parsley Starnes

Teri’s interest with astrology lies with helping people see how following a practice of intention and self-awareness leads to a fuller relationship with Mystery. Astrology is a wonderful tool for this. Her weekly column orients readers to the seasonal energy of
each month’s Sun sign in order to set magical/mindful intention for the lunar month beginning at the New Moon.

Each week Teri will write about the unfolding energies that support and challenge our intentions. The ebb and flow of the lunar cycle resides deep in our souls. Through following the phases of the Moon, we remember the natural cycles that guide us.

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Author interview: Manifest Divinity is spiritual, not religious

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Earlier this week Immanion Press released Manifest Divinity, a book by area author Lisa Spiral Besnett.  PNC-Minnesota interviewed Ms. Besnett at Sacred Harvest Festival about this book, which is aimed at “open[ing] up the readers understanding of the wide variety of Divine presence while respecting their personal religious framework.”

  Book:  Manifest Divinity
Author:  Lisa Spiral Besnett
Publisher: Megalithica Books
Price:  $18.99
Pages:  116, paperback
ISBN: 978-1-905713-80-6
Genres:  Religion & Spirituality
Available at Amazon.com

PNC:  Thank you for taking time during the festival to chat with me about your new book.  When did you first get the idea for this book?

Lisa:  I have been working on this material for a really long time and in some ways since I was first introduced to the concept of Drawing down the moon.  But framing this in the context of writing a book?  That was something that took a lot of people telling me I needed to write it before I finally accepted that.

PNC:  So how long have you been developing this material?

Lisa:  I would say I have been actively developing this material for over 20 years.  I’ve been interested in this material for thirty.

PNC:  You wrote this book not for a Pagan specific audience, so when you originally developed this material, was that developed for a Pagan audience or not?

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Restorative Justice II at Sacred Harvest Festival – Editorial

Thursday, August 9th, the second community Restorative Justice (RJ)  circle was held at Sacred Harvest Festival,  a year after the first. The festival was a lot different place this year, it was observable that an immense amount of grief resolution and healing had taken place over a year. A focus on the festival theme of the sacred in our lives, and the power of love, had seemed to replace a sense of anxiety, hurt, grief, and fear that many had felt a year ago.

The Circle was much smaller this year, down to 15 participants, with 6 having their first experience with RJ at this circle. The feelings of the nine who returned were softened,  and reflected a feeling of a return to normalcy, which in this case is defined by the tribal sense of family this festival has generated based on the feedback of thousands of individuals over fifteen years.

Crystal Blanton had offered to facilitate this RJ circle again.  Crystal began with establishing a talking stick. This year she used a personal Phoenix tradition piece because:

“What we are doing in this community. We are rising from circumstances, regardless of what those circumstances have been, and where everybody falls in that. Taking where we are at, and using it as a catalyst to grow into something beautiful and bigger, and in some ways unimaginable.”

Crystal solicited;  “Any questions before we begin?   None were asked.

Crystal Blanton

Crystal:

“We open with two pieces to set the tone for where we have been, and where we are going :”

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence, when mindfulness embraces those we love they will bloom like flowers. “

And from an article: “Contact beyond the Gods”

Crystal read a quote about the spiritual importance of connection, and the connection we all have with each other. Acknowledging the importance of the process we are in, how we integrate the lessons we have learned into our spiritual being, and into the path before us. Not only learning how to work in community, but teaching how to work in community, for our children. Preserving what we have worked so hard for here.

Crystal begins the RJ circle offering two values she brings, asking each participant to state a value they bring to the circle.

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Ubaka Hill at Women’s Drum Center – Interview

Ubaka Hill

Ubaka Hill is appearing in Minnesota this week, sponsored by the W0men’s Drum Center.

CONCERT: Rhythms for the Trees: A Concert of Percussion, Poetry, Song and Vision

Featuring Ubaka Hill and with Drumheart. Open to the general public Saturday, August 25, 2012

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. for the Marketplace , Performance begins at 7:00 p.m.

Jeanne d’Arc Auditorium, Whitby Hall, St. Catherine University 2004 Randolph Ave., St.Paul, MN

Ubaka’s 2-day Workshop: Drumsong: the Art and Spirit of Drumming

(for women and girls)

Friday, August 24, 2012, 6:30-9:00 p.m. & Saturday, August 25, 9:30-1:30p.m.

At Carondolet Center, 1890 Randolph Ave., St.Paul

Register for workshop ($60) at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/258804

Ubaka arrived Monday to prepare for a week of appearances around Minnesota, we talked by phone.

What brings you to Minnesota?
The Women’s Drum Center ( WDC ) is responsible for brings me out and setting up the workshops and concert, and setting up the Million Women Drummers Gathering 2013 , what we call, “Meet and Greets”. One of those will include a workshop but these are primarily to speak about the Million Women Drummers Gathering 2013 initiative/movement and how local and global communities and individuals can be a part of it.

What is the Million Women Drummers Gathering 2013?
It is a two tiered, tow levels, and two phased program. There is a gathering planned for October 11-13th, 2013. Between now and that date it is about raising our consciousness, and becoming more awake and aware that our wooden musical instruments are trees. As simple as that is, it is quite profound to become aware that we are participating in the deforestation of our old growth forests, our third world local woods, and of our wooded areas within the US and around the world. I have been drumming on the wooden drum for over thirty years. There was a point where I was not as awake and aware, and mindful of my participation indirectly, by being a consumer of drums, in the deforestation and the senseless cutting and disrespect of the trees, and the woods. In the sustainability of our future. Around 2007, something awakened inside of me. That awakening had to do with our unconscious consumption of wooden instruments. I am including all wooden instruments, from acoustic guitars, to upright bass’s; pianos, marimba, clarinets, flutes, violins, cellos harps, all the instruments. If we do not sustain the trees that our wooden instruments are made from, we do not have a future for those instruments that we love to play, and listen to, that we enjoy dancing to. We won’t be able to sustain the music of those trees and so won’t be able to sustain the folkloric traditions of our various cultures. Generations that will follow us, will also not have the trees or the wooden instruments for those trees to play.

The Million Women Drummers Gathering 2013 initiative is essentially about creating a new mindful model as musicians and listeners, and players of wooden instruments. This call is coming from the leadership of women who love drums and who love trees. The Gathering in 2013 is a celebration of our new awake and aware selves, and our effort to create a new mindful model through planting trees, through having conversations about trees and creating a sustainable future, and to celebrate this by creating local rhythm circles including all players of wooden instruments while we plant trees and while we begin to create new technologies, ideas, and new approaches to a sustainable green policy for manufacturers, new traditions and new ways to approach the trees and the forest with gratitude and appreciation and the their replenishment.

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