The date of the Easter celebration is chosen to align with the first full moon following Spring Equinox. This year, 2018, it falls on 1st April, the day after a Blue Moon, the second full moon in March, and for me it feels like a very significant start to the second quarter of the year.
A group of us gathered last night to celebrate the full moon and connect with the vast, universal energies available to us. Five women arrived, three of whom were new to Richmond House. Of the new women, I recognised one immediately - I had initially met her in Preston around the time that I started my own journey of transformation. We bonded over diets, gym visits and dancing at the Warehouse, and I practised my developing massage skills on her and her husband. I can't remember how long our friendship lasted but I have a strong memory of using a CD she had given me as background to the many yoga classes I taught for Blackpool & The Fylde College. Whilst not physically in my life at that time, her memory and generosity still influenced me. It did not feel strange in the slightest for her to walk through the doors of Richmond House on the Blue Moon.
We settled and journeyed to the moon to meet the Moon Goddess. We were taken into the dark where we were cleansed in fire and robed in white. We climbed a moon mountain, a pilgrimage and a representation of the struggles we all face. At the top of the mountain we were given the opportunity to view our daily lives from a distance - to see ourselves through fresh and objective eyes, to rationally assess what we enjoy, what we get pleasure from and also where we could do things differently to help us feel better about ourselves, and to enable us to take action. We were then taken down from the mountain and wrapped in soft, cloud cocoons whilst the Angels and Ascended Beings sang to us. Finally, we emerged in our true colours and received a gift, a blessing from the Moon Goddess.
Whilst a journey may have a common theme for a group, what goes on individually is different for everyone. I believe that every time we direct our attention to practices such as these: journeying; yoga; meditation; tai chi; working with crystals; channelling reiki; prayer - every time we take our attention from the external to the internal, we are deeply changed and the insights we are given at these times can help us significantly in our everyday lives. But we do need to take action.
Many of us, myself included, will have been round the block a fair few times by now. By this I mean we know what we need to do to help ourselves, we do a lot of it for a while, then we get a bit complacent and a few good habits, a bit of discipline, drops off. We use phrases like "you only live once", "life is to be enjoyed", and the nauseatingly advertised "you're worth it" to justify the expensive beauty products, the lie in, the excess food, the booze, whatever your habit is. And YES, life is ours to enjoy but if we're doing things that make us unhappy then the obvious question is 'Why?'.
As I write this I am watching a film called 'Risen', about the Christ story and I have had a read of the pagan origins of Easter. There is a common theme in all of this, in all of the stories we love: the perilous start to life; establishing and enjoying life; the downfall; rising out of the darkness. We each embody this cycle in our own lives, perhaps many times over. It is the story of life the whole world over, through every age and time, for every being of every shape, form and colour.
Whatever your beliefs, this day is celebrated by an estimated 2.3 billion Christians as the day a man who practiced love and kindness rose from death and left the darkness of his tomb to remerge into the light. The woman from my past, who appeared to me last night, was a reminder of how much my life has moved on and, in some ways, how I have relapsed over the past couple of years. Today, basking in the energy of the Blue Moon, we have a very real and potent opportunity to make positive changes for ourselves, to rise our of our own darkness and celebrate the light.
