Moon Ceremonies

This week to get to know about Stephen's metaphysical passions as we discuss his Moon Ceremonies, along with our hot-take on the 2023 alien horror movie No One Can Save You.

Topics covered:

• Our connection to the moon
• Starting moon ceremonies
• How the ceremonies have evolved
• How to join Stephen's monthly ceremonies- now on Zoom
• No One Can Save You (2023)- names and numbers behind the scenes
• How would we react to an alien invasion?
• Would you be good having aliens from out space as neighbors?
• And much more!

Go to linktr.ee/risingphoenixsrq for all these Rising Phoenix and Moon Ceremonies!

Let us know what you think of this switch in format at happylifepod@gmail.com or interact with us on the socials @happylifepod

Until next time, stay happy!

Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.

Transcript

Steve: 0:02

Hello, returning Happies and new listeners. This is Steve Bennett Martin. And this is Stephen

Stephen: 0:06

Martin Bennett. And welcome to A Lifetime of

Steve: 0:09

Happiness, the podcast where we take you on our journey through what is helping to keep us happy while hopefully bring a smile to your face along the way.

Stephen: 0:16

In this month, we're switching our focus solely from movies and TV shows To share more about other areas of our life that also bring us true happiness. And today, we're talking about the moon, as well as the movie, No One Can Save You.

Steve: 0:34

Excellent. And before we moon everyone, what's been keeping you happy, my love?

Stephen: 0:38

Well, last week was my birthday. Yes. And someone did an excellent job of celebrating me. Remy! Well, Remy, and you! I'll take it. Yes, you did a very good job. We did dinner with my family on Friday night. Dinner with friends and a horror themed escape room. On Saturday night. Sunday night was just us. And then Monday night was dinner with your family. The presents were wonderful. You curated a good list from people. And the creative things that you got me off list were amazing as always. Including what Remy got for me. Yes. The horror themed escape room. So we, we enjoy escape rooms. The, like,

Steve: 1:33

for my birthday last month, I think we talked on the podcast about we'd do it, a wizard themed one, and it was a good time, and we had fun, but we also love our horror. So when we found out there was an intense escape room in our area, we said, count us in, as long as we're not buried in a coffin, which was one of the options. Which is one of the options, yeah! Yeah, as long as it's not that one, we'll

Stephen: 1:52

do it. And so we did one that was kind of Bates Motel themed. You know, creepy motel owner, you're trapped there. And there were legit

Steve: 2:02

scares. Yeah, it was very well done, and I was very happy with it. So I'm glad you enjoyed your birthday

Stephen: 2:08

weekend. I very much did. But my darling, what is making you happy?

Steve: 2:13

I have decided to take the extra time and energy that I have from caring and worrying about my day job, to do something that better serves me and other people, which is life coaching. I did a certifications and I've created better SRQ and I'm going to do a focus on sexuality and recovery. And I think that it's a great start for some wonderful things to come in 2024. That is

Stephen: 2:41

absolutely amazing. And I'm very happy for you. I mean, we could just end up being like the helper family. Like, I, you know, I did life coaching things, and I could focus on, like, shadow work and spirituality. You focus on sexuality and recovery. Just think of all the people

Steve: 3:01

we could help. I'm starting it soon. You can start with me. Okay. But one thing that you started long ago that we're focusing on today is your moon ceremony, specifically your full moon ceremony. Yes. Why the moon? Have you always felt drawn to it, or did something change? So,

Stephen: 3:18

I've always been drawn to the moon. From the time I was little, I was fascinated with the different phases and seeing them in the sky. As a small child, I didn't understand why it looked different at different times. We lived on top of a high hill in rural West Virginia. So I was able to clearly see the stars in the moon every night and I would refer to the quarter moon as King Kong's fingernail because that you know, you look at it and it kind of looks like that bit at the top of your fingernail and You know, there were always stories about the man in the moon and how you could see its face when it was full, or that the moon was made of green cheese. And you love your cheese. Yes. And when you'd go to the beach, you'd hear about how the tide was affected by the moons. And then as I got older, I began noticing my moods were also affected by the moon.

Steve: 4:13

Yes, I realized how much not only my mood is affected by the moon, but everyone else's around me when I started working in memory care in senior living. Oh

Stephen: 4:21

my goodness.

Steve: 4:23

Do you miss senior living, full

Stephen: 4:25

moons? No, I do not.

Steve: 4:28

Well, what this love of the full moo So after covid,

Stephen: 4:34

I began t a metaphysical store here I met some amazing people Becca and Sky, Hillary an were doing all these wond I wanted to be part of it what things in the spirit world fascinated me. And And at the time, there was an absence of Moon Ceremonies in Sarasota, Full Moon or New Moon. And, you know, since I started doing it... Yeah, there seems to be many, many more.

Steve: 5:08

Yes, well, for people who are hearing Moon Ceremony are like, What is that? Do they just dance under the light of the moon naked? As much as I wish the answer was yes, what is a Moon Ceremony?

Stephen: 5:19

So yes, there there is not dancing at ours.

Steve: 5:23

And we can't

Stephen: 5:24

be naked. No, for me, the ceremonies are about community first and foremost. It's a group of people, most not knowing each other at the beginning of the evening who find a bond by the time that we finish. You know, at the beginning, we introduce ourselves and we talk about what brought us there that evening. Then we share what's troubling us because too often we keep those things inside because we don't want to borrow bother others with our issues. But I feel some pain is only healed by the gentle act of belonging. Then we go around and we share what's making us happy right now. And it can be anything from a TV show you saw or something that's happening in your life. For the Full Moon Ceremonies, that's all about letting go of something that no longer serves us. For the new moon, that's all about manifesting good things. We want to come into our lives and for each we do a meditation and then a ceremony where we put those intentions out into the universe of what we want to happen. And we close off by sharing my special moon tea. Yes,

Steve: 6:29

and members of your moon crew joke about how people just come for the tea, but what role does the tea play in the ceremony, and just ceremonies in general?

Stephen: 6:37

So, tea ceremonies are a bonding between the host and the participants, and it's also kind of a sealing of the spiritual vows that are made that night.

Steve: 6:46

Yeah, and it has lots of delicious ingredients, but some of them seem random. Is there like purpose or intention behind them? Or how'd you get the recipe to be what it is? Well,

Stephen: 6:55

the tea was definitely a trial and error. The first attempt I did was on a New Year's Eve, and I remember saying to you, This may taste like ass, but I promise it's good for you. And you didn't drink much of it, because it was bad. I

Steve: 7:08

know, as someone who... Ha

Stephen: 7:11

No! But I knew that it had to taste good for the people coming to the moon ceremony, so it was back to the drawing board, trying to match flavors and find the correct balance. Now, some of the things that are in it, without giving away everything Lavender is for protection, healing, and peace. Peppermint is to remove negative energy. Chamomile is for relaxation. And the other ingredients will stay our special little secret. You'll have to come to the Moon Ceremonies to

Steve: 7:41

have it. Even the ones that prompt abortions? Yes. Okay.

Stephen: 7:46

Yup, even those. But

Steve: 7:48

not the intention

Stephen: 7:49

of the tea? No, that is not the intention of the tea. One of the ingredients may cause that. Yes.

Steve: 7:55

Well, of the 12 different names and themes for the full moons and you doing this for quite a while, I only realized that I only realized recently, like there's one for each month and they repeat but like Good show darling. Yeah. But do you have a favorite moon

8:09

that

Stephen: 8:09

you look forward to? So I always love the flower moon. It's in spring. Growing up north, spring is my favorite season because that's when the dreariness and things went away and everything came into bloom. And so the flower moon is named after how nature is in full bloom by that point. And it asks you to allow yourself to fully bloom and I love that idea.

Steve: 8:33

And are there any bad moons like the blood moon or evil moons that are

Stephen: 8:37

bad? No. I've learned that there's nothing about the moon to dread. It's all about personal growth, and that's never a bad thing. Yeah, and

Steve: 8:46

I've gotten the pleasure of seeing your ceremonies evolve over the past couple years. What is one part of the ceremonies today that you weren't expecting or hadn't originally planned for?

Stephen: 8:56

I almost expected them to be more like just a class. I didn't expect people to stay and fellowship afterward. But after being that vulnerable and sharing with each other at the beginning of the ceremony, The moon crew is bonded by the end of the evening and they just want to talk more and I love

Steve: 9:15

that. Yeah. And what is something you'd love to try for a future ceremony but haven't had the chance to test it out

Stephen: 9:20

yet? So I would love to tackle some deeper healing, really diving into the shadow work portion of spirituality. So I'm gonna be thinking on how to. Create that for a moon evening. Yeah.

Steve: 9:34

And speaking of creating more opportunities, we recently added the zoom component where you can attend virtually. And after the last class, I can honestly say it works well and you hear everyone. Well, everything works as expected. So how did that come about and why is that important to you?

Stephen: 9:50

So the virtual option was definitely a learning experience. Our friend Misha, who owns. Cypress Pillar Healing Arts with her husband and friend business partners. They have classes that they do virtually. And I just kept thinking, that's such a good idea, and she's like, you should really think about it. And I want everyone to be able to participate and have a similar experience to those in person. So that virtual option is important because there are those that don't live in town, or maybe just can't make it in person that night. We had somebody that was sick, didn't want to infect people, but still wanted to be there. And I want them to be able to experience this community and the healing as well.

Steve: 10:33

Well, you are certainly spreading the love to friends, family, and people that are finding you alike. Yes. And how has leading the ceremony changed your life?

Stephen: 10:44

In such ways that I never actually thought possible growing up, there was a part of me that wanted to be a teacher and another part that wanted to help people like be a psychiatrist or something. And I'm getting such fulfillment from being able to do. both of teaching and helping people, and I've gotten to meet such fabulous people and I truly feel like we're making a difference. in each other's lives when we do this. Yeah, we

Steve: 11:11

truly are. And if a listener wanted to get more information about how to join us, either IRL or in zoom, how would they do that? So

Stephen: 11:18

the easiest way is thanks to you. You can go to link tr. ee, you know, link tree slash rising Phoenix SRQ. I'm sure that you will be kind enough to put it in the show notes. I

Steve: 11:34

will consider it. That's gonna be a yes. And we also just haven't been spending our entire week working on changing Sarasota and the internet and the world for a better, happier place. No. We have also been watching some really good TV and movies. What is the horror movie you chose for the movie for the week?

Stephen: 11:55

So, I chose No One... Can save you. I loved it. And I did too, and I didn't expect to as much because I didn't realize Alien movies really aren't what I would gravitate towards. Yeah general. This was damn good It was really

Steve: 12:15

good It is a 2023 American sci fi horror film written and directed by Brian Duffield and stars Caitlin Deaver we best know him for writing the 2017 horror

Stephen: 12:28

Comedy babysitter which we absolutely fell in love with and that's where you know, our girl that later went on to do Ready or Not. Yes.

Steve: 12:38

Yeah. And then Caitlin Dever, I, I don't know her, do you?

Stephen: 12:42

So I do she was on the last few seasons of that show, Justified, on FX that I loved.

Steve: 12:47

Yes. Well, the IMDb. IMDBBBBBBB Says, an Exiled anxiety ridden homebody must battle an alien who's found its way into our home Yeah,

Stephen: 13:01

and that's pretty that's a good

Steve: 13:03

start. That's a

Stephen: 13:04

good start. That's all you need right? Because you don't want to give away too much If you haven't seen it yet, but like what I wasn't

Steve: 13:10

expecting was for the alien to like be in her home Like 15 to 20 minutes in like this movie what I loved about it is that like it hit the ground running It had like the couple minutes to be like this is kind of what we're doing with the idea But I just I love

Stephen: 13:27

it Not only is she isolated by living out in a rural area by herself She's also isolated from the town because of an accidental tragedy in her past. Do you think that that isolation she's had to deal with made her more or less likely to

Steve: 13:46

survive? I think in general that The people that like are in that isolation and it's like typically seem to become at least in media survivalists Yeah, so I mean in theory the more people around you the more likely you are to survive something tragic But it doesn't seem that way in TV. And I mean TV is real life. So exactly.

Stephen: 14:05

Yeah, and I agree completely now What did you think of Brianna's a character?

Steve: 14:09

I wanted to know what she did that was so messed up that the whole town hated her and it took a while We said we found out and I was like Okay, fair enough, but like, not, not, but not irredeemable, it's understandable. When you're a kid, and things happen like you're a kid, and I feel like the whole town didn't accept that or understand that, would you

Stephen: 14:31

have sold the house and moved to another town for a fresh start?

Steve: 14:34

I would have done that, like, I mean, and it's... Her parents, I mean, for her parents, why didn't they move after all of that happened? Oh, and I wonder... I know that they're not in the picture by the time that we get

Stephen: 14:44

here, but like... Right, her mom's dead and we don't know where the dad is. I, like, I didn't pay enough attention to her mom's tombstone to see how soon after the tragedy did her mom die, like, did the scandal of the tragedy cause her mom to die? I don't know.

Steve: 15:02

Just too much math, but overall I liked her well enough for a character she fought like hell, and what did you think of the aliens?

Stephen: 15:10

So, the aliens... We're really interesting because they were different sizes shapes and abilities. Yeah, it

Steve: 15:16

starts off very much like the Classic alien we expect except for whatever reason this feet like creep the hell out of me That was the creepiest part, but then yeah, they go into different versions,

Stephen: 15:28

right? yeah, like there's one that was really tall that looked kind of like A giant praying mantis that could crawl over the top of her house. There was another one that was squat and short to the ground. One had telekinesis. One had, like, swords for hands. That was really fascinating that, you know, in all the, a lot of the alien movies they all look the same and blah blah blah. I liked this.

Steve: 15:55

I did like it as well. And one thing that it took me a while to realize, I think you had to say something before I realized, they don't really talk in this movie, like, at all. I think there's one sentence of dialogue, or like maybe one or two

Stephen: 16:06

phrases. And it's not even by a main character, it's someone not in focus, in the background, and you hear them go, There she is. Yeah. Just at that level. And you don't even see who's really saying it.

Steve: 16:21

And near the end I think she said I'm sorry once. But, like, the fact that, like, what I love about when you have so few words is that the words that you do use just have that much more power. Yeah. But it was an interesting experience to see how you could build such a plot and have it develop without the use

Stephen: 16:39

of words. And we were pretty decently far into the movie before we realized there was no dialogue. And that's... It didn't feel unnatural. It did not. Because she was carrying... The performance with her face, her emotions, her movement, the cinematography was carrying the story. Like, everything had a purpose. And it was funny that dialogue wasn't necessary to tell us the story. Like, we got it completely. There was sound, obviously. But

Steve: 17:16

there was no dialogue. And we won't spoil the ending specifically, but we will ask if... Like aliens in general want to take over the entire population it seems but it seems like in this movie throughout the movie that they Have this sort of parasitic symbiotic relationship with them where they can both Survive if you don't want to have the alien burst out of your chest because you're not cooperating But you're like cool alien live inside me You can like live on like how do you feel about living in a world where half of your neighbors are aliens or most? of your neighbors are aliens, so

Stephen: 17:48

Like, do they bring the knowledge and the technology to create a utopia and do you still have, like, even working symbiotically with them, do you have enough free will that you're all not just drones, like, the bell rings and you go out to the field, the bell rings and you come to eat, the bell rings, you go to sleep, that type of thing, if it's more like, You and the alien are existing together and you're going about your life, but things are better. There's not war. There's not hunger. I don't know, that, that sounds better.

Steve: 18:22

I mean, I guess we'll see if there's room for questions and answers in the orientation.

Stephen: 18:29

What about you? Would you, would you join up, or would you be like, oh girl?

Steve: 18:33

I wouldn't mind if half of the people in society were aliens, because we're all already so different and unique anyway, that it doesn't matter where you come from, as long as you're not trying to like, dot, like, As long as you're not nefarious in your intentions, either individually or collectively. Yeah. I don't know whether I would want to be, like, have an alien in me, but I wouldn't mind if, like, Ashley and everyone next door were, like, aliens.

Stephen: 19:00

Yeah, I mean, I would live next door to an alien. Yeah. I'd,

Steve: 19:04

I'd, I'd have one as a friend. I just wouldn't want to be one. Some of my

Stephen: 19:08

best friends are aliens.

Steve: 19:10

Yes. Well, on that note, we'd love to hear what you think of The Moon or about the movie No One Can Save You. You can do that by emailing us at happylifepod at gmail. com. Or

Stephen: 19:22

you can get in touch with us on a couple of the socials, whether that is Facebook or Instagram. Both at Happy Life

Steve: 19:29

Pod. Yes, and until next time everybody, STAY HAPPY!