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KOTA: Knowing Ourselves Thru Art

~a creative ezine~

This Just In...

  • Sunday, August 21st, Hero's Journey with Sherene Zolno, Jane Valencia, and Kara Jones, Vashon Island, full day retreat. Full details will be announced on our calendar!

  • We are now relocated in Sedona, AZ, so if you want in-person consults for Creativity Coaching, Reiki, or card readings, please get in touch! And keep your eyes peeled here for upcoming details about an October 2011, Sedona Grief Retreat hosted by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, Hawk & Kara Jones.

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Full Moon Blessings...

a creative prompt & coaching tool
from Kara L.C. Jones

You've heard of sun tea, right? You put tea and water in a glass jug outside in the sun and let it steep to make a perfectly brewed tea. Well, have you ever thought about what the light of a full moon might do? You may not be able to have water warm up and brew tea in the moonlight, but you can use the moonlight as a ritual for blessing sacred items or intentions.

In a full moon, the Earth is bathed in a light that throws shadows. The full moon is often so bright here in Sedona, I've heard you can walk the trails at Bell Rock and see clearly. So what if we took our grief, or representations of our grief, out into the moonlight to allow them to be bathed, blessed, ritually renewed?

Are there sacred things from your grief path you might put out there? Stones, seeds, bells, things you've gathered that have a special meaning to you? Or maybe the items from your grief path are more metaphoric? In the image I'm sharing here this week, I created a piece where I took my broken and unbalanced grief self out into the moonlight. I asked for wings to find balance and I put out a repeated YES. I felt that so much of my grief journey has been about "no." No you can't see your son. No you can't get his body back. No you can't concieve again. No you can't. No. No. No. I, in fact, felt my YES was gone entirely at one point. So as part of dreamboard for a full moon one month, I created this YES cascading out over the endless sky. I wanted the moonlight to act as a blessing or to clear the heaviness of "no" or to clean the path before me with light.

I also have lots of rocks and seeds and such on the memory altar we keep for our boys in the house. Sometimes I fill a glass jug with water and gently place all the rocks and seeds and such in there, leaving it out overnight in the full moon. It cleans the month's worth of dust off things, but it also seem to re-light the items. When I bring them in the next day, it gives me a chance to rearrange or re-energize the space we keep for the boys. It's a small bit of the parenting time I'd have spent with them if they were here.

So now consider your own journey. What of your grief path would you put out into the moonlight? Either physical items or some sort of intention or a piece of artwork to express intention? What would you want from the moonlight? Blessing? Healing? Light? Clarity? Renewal? Just try it and see what it feels like. Maybe it will become a monthly ritual for you as you re-create a life of meaning in the face of grief!

As always, please feel free to share your process and results with us by leaving comment, posting links or images on MotherHenna.blogspot.com or Kotapress.blogspot.com or at the MISS Creation Station forum!

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Blessing to Each of You!

Reiki to you:
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN

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TAKE A HOME WORKSHOP

Our home workshops (click here) are set up for you to explore creatively at your own pace. We've heard from artists, bereaved families, pastors, grief support volunteers, creative therapists who have all found great benefit, both personally and professionally, from the materials and experience of our home workshops. Registration is only $35/participant this summer - start today by clicking here....

 

COACHING FOR YOU!

It's a practice, not a perfect. We often need to get creative as we learn to: give ourselves permission to grieve in our own ways, take new risks, understand how grief is not mutually exclusive to living life again. Coach Kara offers Creativity support as you live your practice, not your perfect!

 

Divine Guidance Readings...

Madame Zolda has launched her own Facebook page to offer you a free insight each day. If you want a personal session that includes Reiki meditation, card reading and creative prompts, click here to schedule today...

 

DO YOU PRACTICE PERMISSION?

1,000 Permissions Granted is collection of creative permission slips.

See photos of the real book in hand, click here...

Get copy of press release plus free 40-page PDF excerpt of the book, click here...

 

OUR ART IS NOW YOURS!

See the heART-works now available as postcards, folded cards, matted prints, framed prints, mounted prints, and posters via MotherHenna's RedBubble shop. Check it out! Perfect for unique gifts; for interior designers shopping for clients or building resource idea folders; for heART-full meditation images! Come browse in our Gallery.