August brings Adjustments

August 1st marks the Cross Quarter Day of Lammas or Lughnasah which represents the halfway point between Summer and Fall. In my own practice of shamanic month minding, I endeavor to align with the currents energies as they present. Keeping in this flow of cosmic alignment helps me to better embrace the sometimes challenging energy of any given month. August offers a reflection of both Acceptance and Adjustments. We gain wisdom this month if we are willing to take a step back to notice just how far we have come and take stock in any adjustments that we may now need to make.

While looking back through my old journals, August seems to be the month that presents another road, another option or choice of how to best move forward. This is a time to look up, listen and notice the synchronicities happening all around us. Many miss these messages that arrive each and everyday in varied ways.

Ponder the number 8 for August, vertically it reminds me of "as above so below" energy, all being a reflection of above. Yet if you turn it on it's side it now becomes an infinity symbol or lemniscate. Life continues on, the energy reminding us the ending is the beginning. This helps put the shamanic energy of this month into perspective for me, for if we are willing to accept and adjust to all views of any situation, we may better move forward in the right direction, both grounded as Earth humans and connected as Divine beings. Look beyond the obvious this month, listen deeply to the call of your spirit and embrace those alternate views to seek those deeper meanings of your own journey and story.

Adding to the mix is the planet Mercury, which is still retrograde for another week or so reminding us to tap into the "re" energy; ie rest, redo, revisit, return, remember, re-evaluate, re-schedule, reset etc.....anything that begins with "re" is the "good medicine" being offered during this time.

I'm re-evaluating things this month. August 1st reminds me that summer is half over so it's a good time to get outdoors more and enjoy Mother Nature's beauty. I'm also re-visiting grief as our best furry friend Sailor recently crossed the rainbow bridge. He came to us 5 years ago from a neighbors' house while we were on vacation. We came home to find him in our yard acting as if it were his own. Long story short and with approval from his original family, we took him in and thus began an extraordinary friendship that will remain in our hearts forever.

Fair winds and following seas Sailor <3

Whenever someone crosses out of our earthly boundary, be it a friend, family member or beloved pet, it stops us in our tracks and yet there are always messages to let us know they are ok. But we have to look up and be open to see them, thereby allowing those synchronicities of spirit to enter into our hearts and souls.

Part of my Medicine Journey on this earth is to share these kinds of reflections or synchronicities with you. Those of you who have been in my back yard may have noticed a large Medicine Wheel that I created years ago that has a big heart stone in the center and is divided into 4 quadrants with smaller stones. The base is cedar mulch and Sailor loved rolling and laying in this Medicine Wheel, specially the South quadrant which is relative to Summertime, or now. After picking up his ashes, we stopped for lunch at a tavern on the way home that we'd never been to before. It sits on a thin spit of land with the East Pond on one side and West Pond on the other. The road ran North and South. As we sat there overlooking the water it hit me that we were also sitting in a Medicine Wheel. The sign on the marquis outside said "Keep calm and drink beer". Ha! Show me a sailor who doesn't love a beer. Some may brush this off as a coincidence but we knew it was a spirit message or synchronicity aligning us with some greater divine knowing and a knowing that he indeed was still with us and ok.

It is also no coincidence that I received an email on the day Sailor died from a friend's sister in law who is a grief practitioner. Her email title was "What is a Grief Wheel?" It immediately struck me as does the number 8 when you turn it sideways, to see something differently now, and to perhaps allow our grief to move ceremonially through each quadrant of his beloved Medicine Wheel. More to follow on this I'm sure.

My point being, death is a part of life and it's hard to feel those feelings and allow grief it's process. Maybe the new path opening to me is an End of Life Doula practice, something that's called to me for some time now. I'm so grateful to Beth Erlander for not only sharing her personal grief story but finding a way to honor that journey and share that reflection with others. I'll re-visit that email now and listen for my messages.

Please check out her website should these reflections call to you as well.

https://betherlander.com/

Aho.

"We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails"

(Cora Hatch - 1859)