It was in 1972 that I first set foot on the trail leading to this book.  It was in that year that I became aware of the amazing possibilities of astrology.  Wandering aimlessly through the streets of Ashland, Oregon, having momentarily lost my sense of connection to Spirit, but open to any and all cosmic omens that should chance to come my way, my eyes were magically drawn to the following notice:

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Journey Inside via the Star Tongue

Rediscover Yourself Through

The Wondrous Science of Astrology

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Unable to resist the sense of adventure this intriguing invitation evoked in me, I called the number listed, answered a question or two about my time and place of birth, and within a couple of days, found myself on the doorstep of one Sunny Blue Boy, journeyman astrologer and speaker of the Star Tongue.  Over the course of the next five hours, I found myself revealed to myself in all of my cosmic, mythological and mundane wonder with an intimacy no mere stranger could ever assume.  How, I had to wonder out loud, could a circle full of mysterious looking symbols, so unintelligible to me, say so much?  Sunny Blue Boy could only grin and point me down the road, but that was all the push I needed to begin a journey central to my life.

 

Reading the best of contemporary astrologers - Dane Rudhyar, Michel Gauquelin, John Addey, to name a few - I soon traveled as far as books could take me.  This is not to say that new insights and potentials aren't revealed annually by a creative cadre of contemporary practitioners, but for me, the heart of astrological wisdom is to be found in the speaking of the language.  Even now, 22 years and many hundreds of astrological birthcharts later, I learn something new with each reading it is my privilege to give.  The exact configuration of planets that existed at the moment of a birth will not come around again for another four billion years, and no two configurations teach exactly the same truth.  With this kind of variety in the universe, I could easily spend several lifetimes exploring astrology and still come nowhere near to absorbing all it had to teach.

 

After ten years of moving in this direction, I began to experiment with another astrological possibility.  Born at the time of the full moon, and increasingly aware of its cyclical rhythm in my life, I began to observe that other significant events also seemed to coincide with the full moon.  Reading I began to do at the time also seemed to confirm that a great variety of phenomena - everything from ocean tides to the growth rate of plants to the frequency of admissions to mental hospitals - seemed to follow a monthly pattern closely parallel to the waxing and waning of the moon.  Other reading of a more esoteric nature pointed toward the full moon as a point of revelation in the learning of lessons through experience.  Whole societies and cultures, I learned, had oriented their religious ceremonies around this recurring time of maximum possible attunement to the all-knowing voice of Spirit.  What could I learn, I wondered, if I read the skies for the exact time of full moon each month with a language as already rich in potential for significant revelations as astrology.

 

Coincidentally, or as the astrologer in me would say, synchronistically, I also happened to be spending regular time in meditation and general celebration of the Spirit with friends during this same period.  Quite naturally, as an outgrowth of our work together, monthly meetings were arranged, and I began experimenting with and sharing my full moon meditations, as they came to be called, on a regular basis.  The lunar muse, I soon found out, had its own unpredictable way of working through me, and as I learned to trust its mysterious ways, I could only stand in awe and wonderment at a process I only gradually came to understand.

 

It soon became apparent to me, in reading the full moon charts, that the usual methodology of astrological interpretation did not apply.  The fact that nothing written anywhere in any astrological cookbook could supply a clue of relevance to the planetary picture I was trying to read did not bother me, because I had long since abandoned the cookbook approach as inadequate, even within the realm of individual chart interpretation.  The fact that each full moon chart had to be approached with fresh eyes, using only the most flexible, most transparent associations to previous interpretation was a much greater challenge.  There seemed to be a point at which I was forced of necessity to venture beyond the territory in which astrology could serve as a guide, into a new, more open-ended domain where the interplay of symbols served only as a catchpoint for inner voices bearing gifts of previously unconsidered truths from a deeper realm of consciousness.  At least, this is how I currently perceive this process of astrological "channeling" I have opened myself up to.  My job, as I perceive it, is to maintain a purity of intention in my desire to serve the planet and its conscious inhabitants, and to faithfully transcribe what the inner voices working together with me wish to convey.

 

I do not believe that these voices come from anywhere else but the deepest recesses of my own soul.  They do not exist apart from me.  They are not beings from another planet or star system, nor spirits of disincarnate beings previously alive in some ancient time or place.  They are parts of me, remembered in the moment that I invite them to speak.  They convey a wisdom that I know in some way derives from my own experience, whether in this life, or some other, but their message is not always one my conscious mind recognizes as its own.  Reading later what I have written when they are speaking through me, I often register as much surprise, delight and wonder as anyone else.  As much a student of these words as anyone who might read them, I too seek to extract what is relevant and apply it to my own life.

 

At a certain point in my process, some time after the publication of my first book, The Birth of the Shining One (goes to READ: Books: The Birth of the Shining One), I began to realize that I could access the wisdom of these inner voices without the aid of an astrological birthchart.  At first the transmissions were awkward, as I had no familiar symbolism o which to lean, but over time, my full moon meditations began to flow unaided by any external crutch.  The meditations and articles in this book measure my passage through this uncharted territory, as you will see, from the abstraction of untried theory to a more tactile sense of the magical undercurrents of real life experience.

 

The book is laid out chronologically.  Section One begins with a series of articles I wrote in 1977, before the meditations  began, outlining an approach to therapy based upon observations of astrological cycles, and incorporation of various concepts I had adopted from my seven-year study and practice of kundalini yoga.  Section Two, thee main body of this book, begins with an introduction I wrote at the beginning of my work with the meditations, the includes a few early meditations never before published, then proceeds to the progression of later meditations I wrote from December 1986 to the end of the cycle in November 1991.  Section Three includes three installments from a short-lived column, View from Redwolf Mesa, and a postscript taking a look at some recent astrological phenomena and their implications for life in the 21st century. 

 

In offering these meditations in book form, I can only thank my lucky stars (all the many billions of them, seen and unseen, known and unknown) that although my cycle of work with the full moon meditations has ended, the magical journey I embarked on 22 years ago still continues with no endpoint in sight.  Recently returning to the practice o astrology after a four-year hiatus, I am delighted to discover that the circle of mysterious symbols I know so well shines more numinously than ever, and continues to reveal the mystery that has no bottom.  If can but share a mall portion of that numinosity, the unveiling of that mystery in my life, with you through these meditations, and the other articles in this book, Full Moon Meditations will have served its purpose. 

 

If you've enjoyed the Introduction and want to read more,

you can purchase your copy of Full Moon Meditations here.