Could ya feel the eclipse? I sure did. I could certainly feel the energy of everyone making a big deal of this thing. All the weirdo premonitions. The astrologers. The pilgrimages to see totality, dude, totality... The hullaballoo on social media. I think the technical term is tizzy. I could also feel the sensations of the eclipse itself quite clearly. The temperature dropped by about 10 degrees. The wind was cool. Everyone was outside and talking and looking up. ​I just observed and tried not to let too many words in the way. I had lunch with my favorite university professor as the eclipse began because I wanted to chat about the whole Aurah name thing. The insecurity that creeps in. The crippling self-doubt. The drama and theater of making a choice of this variety - that is, adopting a spiritual alter-ego-pen-name to support the earnest effort to release my ego. A thorn to remove a thorn, as they say. Why can't I be quiet and shy about my personal spiritual journey like any normal person? As we walked back to the school to join in the social viewing on campus, we walked on the moon shadows.  

The moon danced in front of the sun and everyone looked up to see her creating a giant collective shadow over all of us. It was wonder-full. And the energy was thick. A ton of  doubt kept creeping in. What am I doing? GAH!

​And so, after a year of studying the Full Moon with the Full Moon Salon (tome forthcoming), I crept over to Aujah's house around 7 and we ritualized the New Moon with a despacho. I think I need to study her (meaning the New Moon) next. I don't know what form that study will take, but the discipline to do it is totally there. May it be so. 

A despacho is a creative exercise that hails from Peru but it has some cross-cultural elements to it that lead me to believe it's not isolated to the Andes Mountains. There is no wrong way or right way to do one. It's a commonsense endeavor that isn't a bunch of bullshit when you understand how it works. We set up our table with tried and true accoutrements and made it as beautiful as possible. It was a strong combination of masculine and feminine energies and symbols that lead into the central despacho-making vortex. The despacho base is simply a sheet of paper. Onto it, we placed all the elements - earth, ether, vegetation, hair, blood, other essential ingredients of the physical world. We spoke into it. We placed intentions. We articulated things we want to give up. Most importantly, we spoke into the despacho our gratitude. Gratitude for the mysterious pronoia that the Universe is conspiring to support us. For life. For the audacity to make such a beautiful thing to be a container for our intentions. That the desire to embody kindness and truth and presence and clarity is a worthwhile endeavor for all of us. 

Aujah and I called Audah and patched her into the circle so that her voice could also reverberate into the despacho via speaker phone. She had made the journey to see the eclipse totality and could not be there with us in person. After many good laughs and conversation, we took the despacho packet, now tied up with ribbon, out to the fire pit and burned it.  May it all be so! 

It's beautiful to say goodbye. To release. To die to what no longer serves me. And, it's a joy to be baptized into what does. The photo above was taken on July 4 - Independence Day. I whopped off the hair a few days later on the July 8 Full Moon. Seemed obvious. All of it. 

Now? The boy-child and I are home from our epic explorations on the other side of the planet. Many words have been written about our adventures in Myanmar - longhand and in my journal. And with the viewpoint of someone with freshly-shorn antenna (my hair) in the heart of Theravada Buddhism. I'm pretty sure I started another book in the process. The third in a series, I might add. Unified Field Theory of Oz (the school paper that sits on this website as a podcast), Full Moon Salon (drafted June 2016-June 2017) and now this one, title to-be-determined.

So with that said, I harness the energy of Tortoise. There is no urgency to sprint to some finish line to make all these things so by some specific deadline. My challenge is to slow down, with intention, to articulate what it is I really want to say. THAT is the luxurious task at hand with all the new work. I'm fulfilled at the day job drafting planning documents and spreadsheets and to have this juicy writing project to work on too is so fulfilling. As a friend recently shared At the end of this life, I'd rather regret doing something than not trying at all... That's how all this feels. May all beings be happy and may it begin with me.  May it be so! ​