Lunar Love Letter 🌒 - October 14, 2023 — Hunters Moon*

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Important dates this cycle (in EST): 

Lunar Cycle Duration: 10/14-11/12
New Moon: 10/14 ← we are here
First Quarter Moon: 10/21
Full Moon: 10/28 Hunters Moon*
Last Quarter Moon: 11/5

Happy new moon to your wonderful spirit 💜

Today we start venturing into a whole new realm of lunar activity, but let’s first touch base on the last lunar cycle. 

How was your exploration of freedom within your own life? Did anything trip you up? Feel more vibrant? 

I did a lot of reflecting and working with the idea, and it manifested a lot differently than I anticipated. I discovered and honored a lot of ways that I already feel more freedom than your average bear, and I started incorporating more regular gratitude for those things. I also uncovered some ways that I was the reason I wasn’t feeling free in some areas, and there is a lot I can change about that, so I ventured into the shadow work elements that some of us dread.

It’s been extremely beneficial and nothing at all like I thought it would be — so really, it’s been pretty magical. It further magnified my belief in the mystery and wisdom of the universe, and that what we need will come to us when we are ready.

And so here we are, (perhaps) eagerly embarking into our hunters moon* cycle, and this one seems to hold an especially powerful place for me, but I can’t quite grasp it yet. I can feel a metamorphosis brewing, but the cocktail isn’t quite ready. And if that doesn’t make sense to you, that’s cool – it doesn’t quite make sense to me yet either.

But here’s what I’ve noticed — I have a strong desire to further cultivate or amplify how I experience these things in my life:

☕ Ease 
🎨 Creating
🔊 My own voice
🛴 Simplifying

Practically speaking, these all make sense for the season – we’re steering toward colder weather where we must straddle interior and exterior activities with balance. Election day is just weeks away. My body, mind, and spirit feel repeatedly called to make make make things. And I’ve been piling too much stuff on myself. Rinse, wash, repeat. 

And so this lunar cycle, I’m not working on anything new — I’m going to hold myself in this space of seeing what I need, asking myself for those things, and giving them to myself. 

I’m going to romance myself by giving me what I need and crave 💜

I tell my daughter that we have to love people the way they want to be loved. And we need to love ourselves how we want to be loved. 

Sometimes I walk around feeling super guilty for telling others that I feel overwhelmed or overstimulated or that I need time for yoga and movement or to journal or to just be with myself. And I find myself getting so frustrated when I’m not getting what I’ve asked for, or even worse, when what I’ve explicitly asked for is being disregarded. Because to me, that reads as it’s not important — that I’m not important. 

I realize that I have to continue to speak up for me in these situations because every time I do, I’m giving those people the chance to love me how I want to be loved — to meet me where I’m at or work with me for an alternative that works for us both. 

And I deserve to give that same opportunity to myself. And so do you.

✨ What would you ask yourself for? What if there was no reason you couldn’t give it to yourself?

I know I have the capability to deliver on all the things I mention above in some ways — because I’ve contributed to making them hard to obtain. It’s been me overbooking my schedule, me opting for malnourishing activities over what would really feed me, me staying too quiet when I have things that not only deserve to be heard, but will help make the conversations that need to be had even louder, and me making things too complicated.

I’m in my own way 🛑

Does that resonate with you? 

We deserve to treat ourselves better. We’re not asking for the whole world. We’re asking for small things that make big differences. And when we have those, imagine what we can do — how that would be paid forward to our communities and the other people we love.

So let’s get the fuck out of our own way already. Or at least for now (because it’s always a practice 😉). 

Let’s tune in to the energy we experience as we move through this lunar cycle and the beginning of eclipse season. Let’s let it arrive and let’s love ourselves a little something extra 💟

🪄May this lunar cycle see us love ourselves as much as we love others ✨

*The moon names and phase details given here are as given on the Farmers' Almanac website. There are many other moon names and stories from other cultures that are not included here, but I encourage you to do your own research. It’s fascinating!

All resources mentioned in this newsletter are included for research purposes only and are not affiliated with Zenful Mindings LLC.