When you wish upon a star

While I was moving wood yesterday, I saw a small cricket perched on one piece.

Crickets are not the rarest of animals, but I do not see them very often where I live, on a wooded lot in a suburb northeast of Seattle. I saw them a lot growing up in California, and cricket songs filled the air every night in the summer in my youth.

It always catches my attention when I see an animal that I don't see every day. So, like a good symbol-watcher, I visited my favorite "animal symbols" website (www.starstuffs.com) and checked out what cricket represents. I especially appreciated this part of the description:

"Cricket will attune to new vibrations and will aid in heightening intuition, sensitivity and awareness. Crickets can teach effective communication techniques and subconscious communication cues to obtain what is needed or wanted. Crickets are about resurrection and transformation from stages as in the molting process. Is it time to shed old ideas to make way for the new? Expect changes and new developments that will bring growth through reflection and patience as the sensitivity to mental, emotional and physical challenges are coming your way."

I share this with you today because another piece of the puzzle clicked into place this morning, that I believe makes the message of Cricket one we should all hear.

My dog and I were taking our early-morning walk in the nearby woods, and I started wondering what I might write for this week's Journal. In particular, I started thinking about the New Moon in the very early hours of Monday morning, which happens to align with the star Sirius.

Click.

Cricket ... Jiminy Cricket ... "When You Wish Upon a Star" ... the star Sirius ... New Moon ... "shedding the old to make way for the new" ...

Click click click.

If you participated in my recent teleclass, you've already heard a bit about Sirius and this New Moon -- and I will, of course, write more about it in tomorrow's Journal. But I wanted to share my cricket experience with you and encourage us all to contemplate the importance of this upcoming lunation. As the Sun and Moon align, they will bring through and enhance the energy of Sirius, which has been called "the great star of initiation," "the source of wisdom," and "the Great Instructor of humankind."

Not a bad way to start the new lunar cycle, eh?