MOON TALK – Part One

 

 

 

 

Our home planet is actually a binary system consisting of the Earth and our Moon which completes one orbit around the Earth approximately every 29 days in an intimate relationship explored here .....

 

The Moon, we are told, is lifeless, uninhabited and devoid of water. This description of the sky’s much-beloved luminary reminds us that we too have no light without the Greater Source, for without some reflective ability we too may feel 'lifeless and uninhabited'. When disruption and chaos threaten our material and emotional stability, attunement to the Moon’s cycle helps cultivate a sense of participation in a deeper cosmic rhythm. Her reliable waxing and waning reminds us that change is the only constant in our lives, and is linked with a higher order implicit in our experience, even if invisible to us.

 

Water and the Moon

 

Paradoxically, there is an ancient association of the Moon with water, and with the life cycle of birth, fertility, development and decline, as portrayed in the cyclic rebirth, increase and dying away of the Moon’s light. The gravitational pull between the Earth and the Moon creates the tides, drawing the sea into rhythms that also demonstrate the elemental power of tide, wave and storm. Our very bodies are mostly fluid, and we too are thus drawn. Familiarity with our lunar nature helps us feel more clearly the shape-shifting of our own and others’ emotions, and thus to be intelligently aware of the undercurrents concealed under an apparently smooth sea. Water is the carrier of memory, where the traces of our emotional experiences live on. It also symbolizes the power of imagination to dream, envision and pre-configure what we seek to manifest in our lives.

 

Dark of the Moon

 

As the Moon disappears, these imaginal realms open. We may revisit the past and release it with new understanding, and also prepare our future through investing the promptings of our spirit with life-force and intention. Just before and after the New Moon, the Moon is invisible. Astronomically, the Sun and Moon are located on the same side of the Earth, so in fact the Sun’s light is shining on the dark side of the Moon which we never see, symbolizing the light shining unseen in the realms of darkness within. Twice a year this relationship moves into an alignment which results in a Solar Eclipse, always at New Moon.

 

Just before New Moon, our physical and emotional energy levels may lower, as the out-going lunar month gives way to the in-coming cycle. Because we live in a culture which values speed and activity, creating endless pressures to perform, it is easy to miss the cues and over-ride these subtle rhythms. This can result in feeling out of sorts, as energy is lost through pushing against this rhythm.

 

Allowing the out-going Moon cycle to be released through rest, ‘down time’ and introspective nourishment can be profoundly refreshing and bring significant gains of energy after the New Moon occurs. So when the Moon disappears, dare to ‘veil yourself’, embrace your solitude, review the previous month, sit awake in the dark and feel the presence of ‘what is’ in your soul. Curl up on the sofa, allow yourself to dream, waking and sleeping, as you prepare for the turning of the cycle into renewal and fresh initiative. This is the time to write your journal, develop intentions and plans for the forthcoming month, take inner action to resolve issues lingering from the previous month. Do this through reflection, forgiveness work, prayer and any other method which helps you to allow stuck energy to move again. To meditate at the actual time of the New Moon may bring the wondrous experience of sensing the precise beginning of the new cycle. Clarify your goals and consecrate your intentions to the highest good of all as you enter the new phase.

 

The light increases

 

The enchanting sight of a thin crescent Moon greets us every month, hovering delicately in the dark night as a sliver of luminosity, often revealing the outline of the whole Moon still unrevealed. Allow yourself to feel the waxing of your own energies, carrying forward the impulses, decisions and dreams born at the New Moon; let its nightly increase of light bless and encourage you. Activity is easier with less resistance, confidence increases along with our feeling of availability to others. Awareness is directed naturally into doing, relating, achieving. Emotional and mental energy intensify, flowing faster and more powerfully, and peaking as the Full Moon occurs. We are often more outwardly expressive around the Full Moon, for good or ill, and knowing this can help us make wise decisions about communication in our relationships. Greater access to our feelings may bring strong experiences of insight, joy, ecstasy and heightened creativity but may also put us in touch with anger, reactivity, impatience and intolerance. Consciously slowing our pace can help.

 

Illumination

 

In many traditions, ancient and modern, the New and Full Moons are celebrated through meditation and often accompanied by ceremony, fasting and/or silence; this practice builds momentum as the very passing of time is rendered sacred. At Full Moon, if we allow the energies to register inwardly, we create an oasis of calm as the illumination of the Sun, reflected by the Full Moon, is received into the soul. At this time, the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the Earth, which stands in the middle like the much-loved Earth-child of its cosmic parents, Father Sun and Mother Moon. How might it change our life to feel this sense of deep participation in the unfolding cosmic mysteries, as a ‘child of the Universe’?

 

Part Two continues exploring the Moon’s themes.

 

 Image Credit: NASA