KALI MOONS: The Wolf Moon
WOLF MOON BOOK
Wolf Moon Orientation
January Self-Care
Songs & Bones
Kali Initiation
Gate One
Gates Two & Three
Gate Four
New Moon Ritual
Gate Five
Gate Six
Gate Seven
Practice
WOLF MOON BOOK
The Wolf Moon Book
Your Wolf Moon Book is now available to download.
Click the cover image, below, to access the full copy!
Click the cover image, below, to access the full copy!
Wolf Moon Orientation
Wolf Moon Orientation
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Wolf Moon Soul Stories & Objectives
Activate Your Courage.
Identify Your Songs & Bones
Run Your Wolves!
Identify Your Songs & Bones
Run Your Wolves!
January Self-Care
Ayurveda Selfcare: Vata/Kapha Balancing
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WATCH: Two Shots & A Chaser
Your first Self Care Challenge. 🌖 |
Self Care Objectives for January
Hydrate from within.
Moisturize dry skin.
Increase circulation.
SLEEP!
Moisturize dry skin.
Increase circulation.
SLEEP!
- Begin each day with the morning ritual: oil pulling, ashwagandha, warm water.
- Practice the Warrior Vinyasa with mindful, rhythmic movement.
- Fuel up with a restorative breakfast.
- Get outside during the height of the sun.
- Make lunch your largest meal of the day.
- Eat an early dinner (before the sun goes down.)
- Enjoy an evening abhyanga (self massage) for moisture and circulation.
- Go to bed by 10:00 pm and wake up with the sun.
Songs & Bones
LISTEN: Songs & Bones—The Story of the Wolf Woman
Soul Questions & Action Steps
- What is your most limiting belief today?
- Where did this belief come from? What is the story surrounding this belief? Did this belief come from something you experienced?
- What are the bones of this limiting story: the facts that cannot be changed?
- What is the song that you have been singing over your bones?
- Take time over the next three days to contemplate and rewrite your story with new meaning and purpose that transforms limitation to liberation.
- Use the comment box below to share your new story with your Kali Moons Community.
Kali Initiation
PRACTICE: Kali Invocation & Japa Meditation
Kali's bija mantra is "kleem." This is an invocation of courage.
Hear the story of how the fierce goddess devours the gruesome demon, Raktibija.
Your Kali Moons work is to awaken your own unwavering courage to face your suppressed shadows and transform them into creative power.
Hear the story of how the fierce goddess devours the gruesome demon, Raktibija.
Your Kali Moons work is to awaken your own unwavering courage to face your suppressed shadows and transform them into creative power.
Gate One
Gate 1: Death
This is it.
(Please review your WOLF MOON BOOK for full content.)
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LISTEN: MEDITATION—This is it.
Once you fully embrace the truth that you will eventually die, then it is time to decide: HOW DO YOU WANT TO LIVE?
In the United States, our cultural relationship to death is strained, at best.
In general, it seems we suffer from deep denial and suppressed fear.
It is not something we often talk about in a healthy, embracing way. On one hand, we glorify gore with gratuitous horror movies. On the other, we strive for eternal youth and longevity.
The shadow of the Sahasrara chakra is found in the Classical text: Yoga Sutras, as one of the five klesha (afflictions) called abhinivesha, or clinging to life. Although this is a deep dive into the heart of courage, death is something we must befriend in order to experience true freedom from suffering.
Perhaps there are bones around your chakra stories here—real and factual experiences that have influenced your relationship with death. Perhaps you have a song that can create something useful, something dynamic of your fears.
Please spend time with your personal myth in honesty and Self-love.
Know that you are not alone and reach out for others when you need to connect.
Sahasrara is a pretty big chakra. It is imagined as a 10,000 petaled lotus that opens to the universal Reality There are some pretty big questions to contemplate at this first gate.
The courage of Kālī guides you into the first gate as you ask yourself:
In general, it seems we suffer from deep denial and suppressed fear.
It is not something we often talk about in a healthy, embracing way. On one hand, we glorify gore with gratuitous horror movies. On the other, we strive for eternal youth and longevity.
The shadow of the Sahasrara chakra is found in the Classical text: Yoga Sutras, as one of the five klesha (afflictions) called abhinivesha, or clinging to life. Although this is a deep dive into the heart of courage, death is something we must befriend in order to experience true freedom from suffering.
Perhaps there are bones around your chakra stories here—real and factual experiences that have influenced your relationship with death. Perhaps you have a song that can create something useful, something dynamic of your fears.
Please spend time with your personal myth in honesty and Self-love.
Know that you are not alone and reach out for others when you need to connect.
Sahasrara is a pretty big chakra. It is imagined as a 10,000 petaled lotus that opens to the universal Reality There are some pretty big questions to contemplate at this first gate.
The courage of Kālī guides you into the first gate as you ask yourself:
Soul Questions & Action Steps:
- What is my biggest death story/experience?
- What are the bones of that story?
- Is my current relationship with death different from what I was taught to believe?
- What will I miss most about being alive?
- Do my beliefs around death serve to empower my experience of life?
- What in me needs to die, in order for something new to be born?
- How can I embrace death in a way that brings deeper meaning to my life?
Together, we create community. Please share your questions, answers, and insights below.
Gates Two & Three
Gates 2 & 3: Regrets
Say what you need to say.
(Please review your WOLF MOON BOOK for full content.)
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Regrets generally involve missed opportunities. People regret what they did NOT do more often than something they did. Regrets have to do with lacking insight and failing communication.
You didn’t see what was coming.
You envision things going a different way.
You didn’t communicate your full truth.
You did NOT say what you wanted or needed to say.
When you courageously hold your biggest regrets—I mean, wear them like a badge—you become increasingly more aware of what stops you short of your full potential.
When opportunities arise, you are equipped with balanced vision. You do not have to repeat the same habitual patterns from a limited perspective. You can make new mistakes and add them to your amazing repertoire of growth experiences.
Honor your past mistakes, so that you may go on to make new ones.
In the Sumerian poem, Neti removes Inanna’s necklaces at the second and third gates. We can imagine the gatekeeper at Ajna and Vishuddha chakras, demanding that we release all attachments to past mistakes—that means letting go of the threaded beads of both embarrassment and denial. We begin by declaring what is true.
You didn’t see what was coming.
You envision things going a different way.
You didn’t communicate your full truth.
You did NOT say what you wanted or needed to say.
When you courageously hold your biggest regrets—I mean, wear them like a badge—you become increasingly more aware of what stops you short of your full potential.
When opportunities arise, you are equipped with balanced vision. You do not have to repeat the same habitual patterns from a limited perspective. You can make new mistakes and add them to your amazing repertoire of growth experiences.
Honor your past mistakes, so that you may go on to make new ones.
In the Sumerian poem, Neti removes Inanna’s necklaces at the second and third gates. We can imagine the gatekeeper at Ajna and Vishuddha chakras, demanding that we release all attachments to past mistakes—that means letting go of the threaded beads of both embarrassment and denial. We begin by declaring what is true.
Soul Questions & Action Steps:
1. Is there one big mistake that haunts you when you say “no regrets”?
2. What are the bones around that mistake?
3. What is the song you sing to give your mistake meaning?
4. What would it look/feel like to completely own your regret with compassion?
5. What self-defeating stories contributed to your mistake or missed opportunity?
What self-defeating stories accompany it?
6. In what way is your biggest regret connected to how you speak your truth?
7. What has previously remained unspoken that you are NOW ready to say?
2. What are the bones around that mistake?
3. What is the song you sing to give your mistake meaning?
4. What would it look/feel like to completely own your regret with compassion?
5. What self-defeating stories contributed to your mistake or missed opportunity?
What self-defeating stories accompany it?
6. In what way is your biggest regret connected to how you speak your truth?
7. What has previously remained unspoken that you are NOW ready to say?
Together, we create community. Please share your questions, answers, and insights below.
LISTEN: MEDITATION—Say What You Need to Say.
Gate Four
Gate 4: Anahata & Alchemy
Illuminate Your Maha Shadow.
(Please review your WOLF MOON BOOK for full content.)
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LISTEN: MEDITATION—Illuminate Your Maha Shadow.
“The alchemical secret was not a substance but a state of consciousness,
a perception of the archetypal level of reality.”
(Edinger, Ego and Archetype, 205)
a perception of the archetypal level of reality.”
(Edinger, Ego and Archetype, 205)
If you were to describe yourself in an autobiography, you would most likely mention your favorite characteristics. These qualities make up your persona. Your persona is like a mask. The harder you cling to it, the less authentic you become. The stronger you deny your opposite tendencies, the more powerfully those shadows will retaliate.
Bringing your Maha Shadow into light is a foundational step in transformational development. The alpha wolf must be courageously, patiently, and compassionately approached. It must be embraced and integrated in order to realize wholeness of Self. Until then, you will hold limiting stories of judgement or shame within your psyche. And you will most likely project your shadow onto the world around you. People will continue to “show up” in your life as “carriers” of these traits until you face them within your Self.
Bringing your Maha Shadow into light is a foundational step in transformational development. The alpha wolf must be courageously, patiently, and compassionately approached. It must be embraced and integrated in order to realize wholeness of Self. Until then, you will hold limiting stories of judgement or shame within your psyche. And you will most likely project your shadow onto the world around you. People will continue to “show up” in your life as “carriers” of these traits until you face them within your Self.
"The shadow may carry the best of the life we have not lived.
Go into the basement, the attic, the refuse bin. Find gold there.
Find an animal who has not been fed or watered. It is you!!
This neglected, exiled animal, hungry for attention, is part of your self.”
~Marion Woodman
(quoted by Stephen Cope in The Greatest Work of Your Life).
Go into the basement, the attic, the refuse bin. Find gold there.
Find an animal who has not been fed or watered. It is you!!
This neglected, exiled animal, hungry for attention, is part of your self.”
~Marion Woodman
(quoted by Stephen Cope in The Greatest Work of Your Life).
Soul Questions & Action Steps
- What do you tend to most often criticize or judge in others.
- Do you tend to attract a single “negative” quality (or family of “negative” traits) in friends and partners?
- What were the personality traits that you most disliked in your caregivers as a child? …Your mother? …Your father?
- Do you remember your caregivers gossiping or judging anyone (including you) for their/your particularly “bad” qualities? What were those traits?
- What are the story bones that identify your relationship to being “bad.”
- What is the song that you have sung around those old bones?
- If you could sing a new song around your Maha Shadow–one in which the shadow’s quality became helpful, productive, and positive–what would that song be?
Together, we create community. Please share your questions, answers, and insights below.
2018 COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
“Wow. I just finished the work on the 4th gate, and it was very powerful and revealing. I discovered that my Maha Shadow is weakness. When I answered the last question to uncover it, I realized that it is my attachment to being strong that holds me back from really being open and accepting of love, nurturing, help and even fully feeling. That makes me feel sad. BUT this work also made me realize that my partner is in my life to show me these exact things. He has come into my life so that I can feel loved, nurtured and supported--and learn how to accept them. Thank you again, Shakti for this coursework!”
—Julie Scott, Laguna Beach CA ( [email protected] )
“THANK YOU, Julie, for this insightful share. I am imagining your shadow as it comes into the light—radiant, beautiful—as vulnerability, openness, and self-Love. ...and I am celebrating that you have a supportive partner. <3
—R.R. Shakti, Vail CO.
“Wow. I just finished the work on the 4th gate, and it was very powerful and revealing. I discovered that my Maha Shadow is weakness. When I answered the last question to uncover it, I realized that it is my attachment to being strong that holds me back from really being open and accepting of love, nurturing, help and even fully feeling. That makes me feel sad. BUT this work also made me realize that my partner is in my life to show me these exact things. He has come into my life so that I can feel loved, nurtured and supported--and learn how to accept them. Thank you again, Shakti for this coursework!”
—Julie Scott, Laguna Beach CA ( [email protected] )
“THANK YOU, Julie, for this insightful share. I am imagining your shadow as it comes into the light—radiant, beautiful—as vulnerability, openness, and self-Love. ...and I am celebrating that you have a supportive partner. <3
—R.R. Shakti, Vail CO.
At the fourth gate, Neti (the gate keeper) demands that the Sumerian goddess, Inanna, remove her breast-plate, the armor that guards her heart. Here, you are asked to confront your Maha (grand) Shadow, so that it may be reintegrated with your whole psyche like an alchemical union.
New Moon Ritual
January New Moon Ritual
Love Light shines brightest in the darker spaces.
Construct your Alchemical Altar by floating a small candle inside a bowl of water.
We will add more elemental details to your altar during the Hunger Moon. For now, keep it simple so that you may focus on the fire/water relationship.
These two elements (fire and water) are the foundational components of the alchemical process. The Sun King stands for fire, while the Moon Queen is a symbol of water.
Together, they cook, purify, and transform the prima materia into gold.
We will add more elemental details to your altar during the Hunger Moon. For now, keep it simple so that you may focus on the fire/water relationship.
These two elements (fire and water) are the foundational components of the alchemical process. The Sun King stands for fire, while the Moon Queen is a symbol of water.
Together, they cook, purify, and transform the prima materia into gold.
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List your limitations.
Take a moment to contemplate ten stories of limitation that have been holding you back from your full creative power. Write them down, so that you have them handy for your New Moon Ritual. Gather a small bowl of rice. During your New Moon Ritual, you will use ten grains of rice to symbolize your ten limiting stories. We will ceremonially integrate them into your ego personality and let them "burn" in the fire of your heart's wisdom. |
WATCH: Integrating the Maha Shadow
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LISTEN & PRACTICE: January New Moon Ritual
SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE: How was it for you?
Sharing is a HUGE part of this Kālī Moons process. It moves energy, cultivates COURAGE, builds community and provides clarity. Take a minute to share what comes up for you in our private Facebook Group or in the comments below.
Gate Five
Gate 5: Manipura & The Power Play
Run Your Inner Victim.
(Please review your WOLF MOON BOOK for full content.)
If no one plays the victim, the entire paradigm collapses.
Soul Questions & Action Steps
- What habitual patterns have you experienced as the Rescuer?
- …Perpetrator?
- …Victim?
- Which role do you tend to assume when you feel most threatened?
- How do you deal with emotions of anger?
- Where in your life (or with whom) do you feel a need to establish healthier boundaries?
- What are the story bones (and meaningful songs) that spontaneously arise when you allow yourself to sit with these questions?
- Review your Wolf Moon Book to see the shift from "victim" to "creator" in the Empowerment Triangle. You will be invited to activate the dynamic of your inner Creator within next month's Hunger Moon.
Together, we create community. Please share your questions, answers, and insights below.
2018 COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
well this was very eye opening.......... the last sentence in the Victim list hits home hard. I do not have to be right and I do not try to come to the rrescue so the last one I read is the victim and there I am.
Although, not long ago someone had said some real hurtful, hateful things to me, and as I started to spend the evening stewing and building up the walls around my heart, I did not like the feeling (feelings that have happened over and over again in my life) so I finally spoke up and told this persecutor that what was said was wrong and it hurt, no attach or retaliation, just what you said hurt me, and it was not necessary and that I deserve more respect than that!
The wall was pushed down from around my heart and we are not in the emotional void that so often happens when I have continued to stew and build walls.
More work to be done, and continue not being a victim, if nothing more than when hurtful things are said to me, saying out loud "that hurts"
Great and eye opening journey.....thank you
–Karen 1/24/2018 04:35:07 am
Wow. Loved this drama triangle concept. Brings clarity to so many different times in my life. 🙌🏻🙌🏻 –Erin G, 1/29/2018 05:55:35 am
Wow, wow, wow, this was a very powerful gate for me. Thank you for this Shakti. So much love to you and everyone <3
–Erica ( [email protected] ), 1/30/2018 09:13:42 am
well this was very eye opening.......... the last sentence in the Victim list hits home hard. I do not have to be right and I do not try to come to the rrescue so the last one I read is the victim and there I am.
Although, not long ago someone had said some real hurtful, hateful things to me, and as I started to spend the evening stewing and building up the walls around my heart, I did not like the feeling (feelings that have happened over and over again in my life) so I finally spoke up and told this persecutor that what was said was wrong and it hurt, no attach or retaliation, just what you said hurt me, and it was not necessary and that I deserve more respect than that!
The wall was pushed down from around my heart and we are not in the emotional void that so often happens when I have continued to stew and build walls.
More work to be done, and continue not being a victim, if nothing more than when hurtful things are said to me, saying out loud "that hurts"
Great and eye opening journey.....thank you
–Karen 1/24/2018 04:35:07 am
Wow. Loved this drama triangle concept. Brings clarity to so many different times in my life. 🙌🏻🙌🏻 –Erin G, 1/29/2018 05:55:35 am
Wow, wow, wow, this was a very powerful gate for me. Thank you for this Shakti. So much love to you and everyone <3
–Erica ( [email protected] ), 1/30/2018 09:13:42 am
Gate Six
Gate 6: Svadhisthana & Deep Sadness
Embracing Tragedy.
(Please review your WOLF MOON BOOK for full content.)
You cannot be free from your sorrow until you stop running from it.
The last Monday of January has been called “Blue Monday” and is considered to be the center of the winter doldrums. It is the perfect time to run your wolves at the sixth underworld gate.
At the sixth gate, you encounter deep emotions —guilt, grief, pain, sorrow.
When you touch the heart of sadness, you may find that salty tears flow naturally and reason or rationality has very little place here. You must dive deeply into these waters...in the depths of the unconscious, because only then can it be healed.
At the sixth gate, you encounter deep emotions —guilt, grief, pain, sorrow.
When you touch the heart of sadness, you may find that salty tears flow naturally and reason or rationality has very little place here. You must dive deeply into these waters...in the depths of the unconscious, because only then can it be healed.
PRACTICE at the 6th Gate: Move Stagnant Emotional Energy
Your practice for this week is to enjoy a glorious, ugly cry.
- Begin with your favorite tragic movie, book, or memory.
- Allow yourself to explore the depth of feelings this brings up for you.
- Resist the urge to judge, justify, or over-simplify those feelings.
- Know that you are supported. (Reach out to loved ones if you feel overwhelmed).
- Use your voice in our community forum, below, to share what treasures you find in the depths of your beautiful ocean of emotion.
Soul Questions & Action Steps
Read the complete content in your Wolf Moon Book, then use the following questions to run your wolves. Share your answers in the comment section below. Together we create community.
- What are your personal bones beneath the topic of good grief and deep sadness
- Can you find some value in courageously touching the heart of tragedy?
- What does that look like for you? What is that song?
- Do you allow yourself to feel your sorrows?
- When was the last time you had a really good cry?
- Do you feel that your sadness is truly supported by those you love?
- How do you respond to other people’s sadness?
Gate Seven
Gate 7: Deepest Fear
“A life truly lived constantly burns away veils of illusion, burns away what is no longer relevant, gradually reveals our essence, until, at last, we are strong enough to stand in our naked truth.”
–Marion Woodman
–Marion Woodman
LISTEN: The Snake & the Jewel
The Sumerian goddess, Inanna, must remove all of her garments as she passes through the final gate. She arrives into the underworld completely naked. There, she confronts her sister who is the symbol of her deepest shadow–her deepest fear.
The goddess must face her fears in a state of open vulnerability.
Before you can move forward–in order to realize the power of your visionary heart–you must also allow yourself to be fully open to your deepest fears.
Like the black snake in the "Snake and the Jewel" story, above, your fears will continue to destroy your creative power. They will “gobble up” your visionary potential until you pay them the jewel of your attention.
The goddess must face her fears in a state of open vulnerability.
Before you can move forward–in order to realize the power of your visionary heart–you must also allow yourself to be fully open to your deepest fears.
Like the black snake in the "Snake and the Jewel" story, above, your fears will continue to destroy your creative power. They will “gobble up” your visionary potential until you pay them the jewel of your attention.
Soul Questions & Action Steps
- There is only one question at this final gate: What is your deepest fear?
- Activate your courage and pay attention to what scares you. Drop the jewel of your awareness into the snake hole of your fears so that you can root out the one thing that most limits you.
- Use the yoga practices to guide you. (Find them under your "Practice," tab). The Warrior Vinyasa helps to build unwavering strength, and stability. Dirga Pranayama calms and soothes your nervous system. It will help you suspend the limiting monkey-chatter of your mind so that you may embrace new insights rising from the depths of your unconscious psyche.
Practice
Warrior Vinyasa & Dirga Pranayama
Krishnamacharya was the foundational teacher of many of the west's most famous yoga teachers: BKS Iyengar, T.K.V. Desikachar, Indra Devi, Pattabhi Jois, and my teacher: Mark Whitwell.
The Warrior Vinyasa was one of Krishnamacharya's favorite practices.
Move through this sequence first thing in the morning.
Begin very slowly and gradually build to a moderate pace.
Remain mindful and breathe deeply throughout the entire practice.
Coordinate your breath with the movements.
Follow with a seated practice of Kapala-bhati Pranayama to further awaken your senses, cleanse your body and prepare you for an amazing day.
End with a restorative seated meditation or short savāsana (corpse pose)
The Warrior Vinyasa was one of Krishnamacharya's favorite practices.
Move through this sequence first thing in the morning.
Begin very slowly and gradually build to a moderate pace.
Remain mindful and breathe deeply throughout the entire practice.
Coordinate your breath with the movements.
Follow with a seated practice of Kapala-bhati Pranayama to further awaken your senses, cleanse your body and prepare you for an amazing day.
End with a restorative seated meditation or short savāsana (corpse pose)
PRACTICE: Dirga Pranayama–The Long Breath
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