Sunday, January 2nd
New Moon in Capricorn 12°20’ 10:34 am PST

Be Your Own Love Mirror by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener

This year begins on the last day of the Dark Moon period. New Year’s Eve and the first day of the Gregorian year could feel more akin to letting go than beginning again. On Sunday morning we welcome a New Moon.

Time is a construct, infinite and non-linear. Logically, we understand that resolutions can occur at any time, yet the idea persists that January is a collective turning of the page. Resolutions are cool, but it is ongoing devotion that turns love into a discipline.

The year will never be fresher. You’ll never be younger. You’ve learned all the lessons needed to make the most of this time. Make the mirror of yourself crystal clear, not based on the past, but who you now choose to be.

Spirituality is full of contradictions and curves that can only be lived to be understood. A potent act of showing up for the Self is surrender. (This practice is also connected to the acts of trust that are allowing and receiving.) Surrender often facilitates peace, which makes space, energetically and literally. Support flows in. This connects us to trust, which allows us to cultivate hope. Once we are in a state of renewal and awakening, we are also made aware of connections to a greater whole, other forms of intelligence, a deeper well. The whole, the web, the energy field: all that is larger than us and also a part of us.

Ironically, it is self-FULL reverence that often facilitates this understanding. We have to be completely filled up with our own love, trust, and connection in order to fully understand how we belong as tiny universes within an expanding universe. Being open to support and love from other energies and/or people affirms the knowledge that we are meant to be exactly as we are. Trying to be something else for someone else to avoid humiliation or rejection only creates more disconnect, only adding or accelerating suffering.

We learn this in extreme and subtle ways. The true spiritual test is to be able to take the lessons from these heightened experiences and hold the vision, memorize the wisdom, and embody the deep Self until the mirror emanates love.

The knights that went searching in the woods in fairy tales were seeking adventure, answers, and rewards, but what they were mostly after is love. Sure, it might be in the form of a special cup, a treasure hidden in a witch’s hut, or a beautiful damsel that has been turned into a tree, but these metaphors are symbols of belonging and self-knowledge. Love, of course, being a metaphor for respect, connection, intimacy, dignity, freedom, safety, security, and belonging. Not weaponization, separation, control, or violence. Too bad that so much around us highlights so much suffering, abuse, and disconnection as a route to love. Think about the constant messages we receive about how we must contort in order to be deserving of kindness: disembodied, obedient, servants, self-abandoned, perfect, other. The spirits and the trees laugh at us. We make it so hard when it could be easy.

What would love feel like without urgency, without conditions? Imagine love without jealousy, worry, competition, transactionality, expectations, extraction, or insecurity. Think of love without manipulation, projections, possession, baggage, social media, or trauma bonds. Imagine what would change if care, altruism, and spaciousness flowed out of all of our encounters; if simply wanting the best for one another was normalized; if we bonded over good news and collaboration as much as we did strife and pettiness. What would change if we remember that most likely, the friend/lover/coworker/sibling might be a different person since our last encounter with them. Remember that you have as well: you aren’t the same person you were a year ago, so renegotiate your behavior accordingly. You don’t have to perform—true relationships don’t require auditions.

To meet ourselves fully, in love, with love, is our birthright. If you have to suspend assumptions and step into presence, slowness, and deep listening in order to change the gaze through which you behold yourself and others this year, make that promise.

—Excerpt from the 2022 Many Moons Lunar Planner. To read the rest of this essay and access the exclusive Building An Altar To Yourself Love Spell, buy a copy of the Planner or download the January 2022 Guide.