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
Practice
Re-Wilding Your Wolves
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
For best video streaming, please be sure you have a strong internet signal
and that all other applications are closed.
and that all other applications are closed.
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.)
For best video streaming, please be sure you have a strong internet signal and that all other applications are closed.
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.)
For best video streaming, please be sure you have a strong internet signal and that all other applications are closed.
LISTEN: MEDITATION—Say What You Need to Say.
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.
Gate Four
Gate 4: Anahata & Alchemy
Illuminate Your Maha Shadow.
(Please review your WOLF MOON BOOK for full content.)
For best video streaming, please be sure you have a strong internet signal and that all other applications are closed.
LISTEN: MEDITATION—Illuminate Your Maha Shadow.
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.
“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.
New Moon Ritual
January 31 | 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
For best video streaming, please be sure you have a strong internet signal and that all other applications are closed.
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.
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
Together, we create community. Please share your questions, answers, and insights below.
Re-Wilding Your Wolves
An illuminating TED talk given by investigative journalist, George Monbiot, in 2013 reveals that because of their bad rap, wolves became critically endangered in Yellowstone National Park. Their absence caused a disturbing imbalance to the wilderness eco-system that was destructive to the natural landscape and the creatures within it. Once the wolves were re-introduced to the wilderness, and allowed to run free, the landscape recovered and began to flourish.
Similarly, you must embrace the shadows of your internal “psycho-system” to realize wholeness. You must let your wolves run, while mindfully integrating them into the whole story of your human experience. Your shadow stories actually have an important place in your life, once you identify their bones and courageously– creatively–express their most meaningful and liberating songs.
