Basking in the moonlight

This week's Rainbow Dreams task evokes the mother archetype in us all. And as I sit here curled up on my lounge with my laptop, a heated wheat bag on my feet and a throw rug wrapped around me, I am to answer the following questions:

1. Are you safe?
   
   Yes. I believe I am. Although there are times when I feel a little nervous, like I'm being watched or followed, I invoke the pink ray of love and silver goddess energy to protect me.
   
   
2. Do you help to create a safe environment in which others may thrive?
   
   I like to think so. I am a nurturer and I like everyone to be comfortable. I also like to think I have a talent for bringing out the best in people, or rather, helping them to discover their true talents!
   
   
3. Are you comfortable in the darkness of your own soul?
   
   This is something I've struggled with for a long time. It scared me - really scared me. But over the last year its something I've confronted. And I've learnt a lot. I guess one of the best things about acknowledging and learning to love your darkness is that you find true self acceptance - you also find out who your real friends are!
   
   
4. Are you protective of those who are especially vulnerable among us?
   
   Yes. I'm like a mother hen.
   
   
5. Do you take good care of yourself?
   
   No. Not enough, although I am learning to. Recently I've started taking care of my skin again, and have now committed to regular monthly massages. Now I have to start eating healthy again and exercising (Trin will love that too).

This week I am working with the Moon Goddess.

Moon Goddesses are always protector deities who lovingly watch over all living beings on Earth. They teach us, by example, to extend ourselves well beyond the boundaries of the individual self into the realm of service to the world. The path of the Moon allows each of us to explore the vast region of the collective unconscious and to solve the deep mystery of the soul.

This is a good week to focus on the first or base chakra. The base chakra is located at the base of the spine and the quality of its energy is represented by the element of earth - solid, dense, secure. It is associated with our physical health, survival issues (eg work, money, housing), family relationships and instinctual energy.

The Dalai Lama says, "The belief that there is a substantially real self, and the cherishing of one's own interest at the expense of others, are the two main thoughts and emotions we have nurtured within us through our many lives. But what is the result of this? We are continually suffering and experiencing negative thoughts and emotions, so our self-cherishing hasn't really got us very far. Also, if we shift our focus from ourselves to others and to the wider world, and if we turn our attention to all the crises in the world, all the difficulties and the sufferings and so on, we will see that many of these problems are direct or indirect consequences of undisciplined negative states of mind."

This is the Full Moon to honor freedom, idealism, humanitarianism, egalitarianism, and the revolutionary impulse toward reform, without causing harm to anyone.

This is the Full Moon to wake up, and get politically/spiritually active (two of the most powerful expressions of Uranus/Aquarius!)

Now more than ever, the world needs our attention and care.

This is, after all, a Full Moon; a time of gathering in groups to celebrate, teach, share, and most of all enlighten.

I'm loving my journey!