Planting intentions to grow alongside the New Moon — we’re on tonight. At 11:47pm EST tonight, the full moon in Libra will be out, not shining over us all. We’re in the midst of stepping from the productiveness of summer into the reflections and hibernation that fall and winter bring. It’s a wonderful time to set intentions for where you’d like to be in a month’s time, and about what you’d like to manifest within yourself to help bring on meaningful change — change which many of us so desperately want to see in the world right now. We are in a time of consequence, and it’s important be able to be here, very fully, right now.

One of the reasons I’m kinky is that I grew up in the woods and fields of Maine, playing outdoors, making up rituals, and being connected to all I was surrounded by. I spent eons watching bugs do what bugs do, imagining the clouds as various characters while they drifted lazily overhead, and running around getting scraped up, jumping in and out of trees, splashing around in mud, and dealing with consistently intense bouts of poison ivy… Mine was not a clean and safe childhood, but a dirty and a natural one.

Dirty and natural.

The difference between good clean dirt and unsanitary grime is vast. Grabbing produce from a field and rubbing it off on my shorts before wolfing it down is different than dropping food on the floor of a train station or on the sidewalk of a concrete jungle. How we communicate with one another in general these days, how we communicate about today’s politics, the social pressure to be recorded/receipted as “right” instead of complex and challenging, and the desire for life to be simpler and more “partisan” — these problems pop up frequently in my conversations.

I believe in giving people chances, that’s plural. I don’t believe in letting anyone walk all over me.

I believe in participating in the process we are tied to, while also questioning it and even redefining how it functions when need be.

I believe in the larger community and all of its moving parts working together to create an arc which bends toward progress, even if it feels in any given moment like we’re regressing.

I believe in checks and balances.

I believe in understanding before rejection. I do not believe in rejection before understanding.

For these ideals to flourish within myself I must remain balanced and continue to do my part.

I am afraid. It’s important to make mention of personal facts such as emotion before critiquing a situation from the perspective of that feeling. If my perspective is “right” and not “my perspective”, there is no conversation to be had. I wish more people would speak of their feelings responsibly rather than pointing their fingers and putting others on the defense. Conversations could develop in new and exciting ways rather than petering out with anger and unhealthy escalation, exhausted by sound bites and the tiring rhetoric of unchecked “facts”. If one wants empathy (and it seems a lot of people talk about that word these days) we must be empathetic with people we wish were less ignorant of or more supportive of our own causes and interests.

Because LGBTQI+ people have been speaking to loved ones one-on-one for decades about themselves, their struggles, and the hardships in their lives, the state of our governing body concerning LGBTQI+ issues has radically shifted during my lifetime. Of course we still have far to go, but looking back can be heartening sometimes. It is this type of personal conversation which helps individual people evolve past ignorance, and helps a person give up old or objectionable stories in favor of wider acceptance and more complex meaning making. When we personalize our politics and talk about our hardships with loved ones, it’s proven to make meaningful change at a mass level over time. It has always rested on the shoulders of those who are not of the status quo to educate society and bring it around to more humane daily practice.

The macrocosm which is the world of Statistics can only integrate meaningfully with an individual’s journey to redefine their empathies when the forest is known from the trees. I make mention of one’s emotional state here again. We must clearly understand our own emotional worlds as separate from the ethics of a society (and other individuals in that society) in order to meaningfully connect with others on ethical subjects. This means we must take a step back and untangle our view from any belief that we have “all of the information we need” in any conversation, or that we are unwaveringly “right”. For every person who rants about or vilifies “minority people as too PC to talk to”, are individuals who would actually prefer to call people out for poor word choices rather than get messy within a conversation by asking questions or endeavoring to educate.

In the US we’re taught to be comfortable judging others and reacting as though our judgements are righteous. Taking a person to task for the indelicacy of their articulations, rather than spending time with self-reflection or cultivating new personal behaviors, is what we’re taught is normal. It’s on each of us to face the uncomfortable reality of sharing this society in order to make it a better one for more people.

Tonight the new Moon in Libra shall shine darkly upon me and I will be paying attention. I’ll take a moment to write about what I’d like to manifest in the coming month. Listening will be on this list, questioning without judgement, and cultivating meaningful change within my interactions will be too. I’m heartbroken by the current discourse and actions of my Nation. I’m part of this discourse too, and it’s my job to plant seeds for change by consciously being that change.

Please join me tonight. Light a candle, consider the ways you would like to effect the world you live in, consider the tools you’re honing these days, and ask for the things you might need. Write, burn paper, or whisper your intentions to our Dark Lady in the sky. Together, open to the energy of the world we are infinitely tied to, we can step forward together, more balanced. We must listen to our own selves first, and grow from what we hear. That we continue this work on our own and together is the hope I have for this world tonight.

From the dirt and messes, the compost of our misuses, may there be education, growth, change, and prosperity. This is the ritual of connection I’d like to share with you, my kinky readers, tonight.

Play On My Friends,
~ Creature

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