Eclipse Day

 Happy eclipse day.

Worm Moon 2021

The moon is just gorgeous tonight, as bright as a spotlight, making shadow puppets of the trees.

 

Moonlit Morning

 

Summer Names

June, the month without roses now known as "Lotus," saw Writing & Workshops.

July was "Thunder" and "Corn," filled with court cases and cover letters.

August shall be known as "Lightning" or "Snake." I think I'm going to remove all deadlines and due dates until September, the month of "Singing," "Barley," or "River."

The Way stretches before me, and I don't need much on this journey. I don't know quite where the road leads, just yet, but I'm betting that there will be flashes of lightning along the way. 

In the meantime, I'm focusing on resting, healing, and knitting. It seems ridiculous to think that I need to slow the pace down, but one of the things I learned in T'ai Chi was that when you think you know how to do a move, try doing it as slow as you can, then even slower than that. 

I miss T'ai Chi.

One of the insights of 2020 for me has been to discover what I miss most from The World That Was. The list is different from what I thought it would be. More than ever I'm thinking about going up a mountain and not coming back. The Cabin In The Woods calling. I have a lot of gratitude these days and I don't feel I need more than I have, or the need to rush about and do more, be more, learn more. I'm enjoying reading, taking the conversation wherever it leads me, from Jon Krakauer to William James to Parker Palmer to James Joyce. It's a fine meandering. 

There is less physical writing lately, and more knitting and still thoughts on simplicity. August always has been a time of gathering inward for me. It feels like a time to sweep up and clean out. August is the month of lightning, but also of lighten-ing, a time for walking with the Spirit and letting go of the map, for listening and for being led.

July

June blinked by, a hush of absent roses.

July shall be known as Corn or Thunder

An offering of lore and trembling.

Pink Moon

The bad news: You're falling through the air with no parachute. The good news: There's no ground.

     — Chögyam Trungpa

May the Light of the Full Moon

The full moon in May has many names:
Colonial America: Milk Moon
Cherokee: Planting Moon
Choctaw: Panther Moon
Celtic: Bright Moon
Medieval England: Hare Moon
Neo-Pagan: Grass Moon
Wiccan: Hare Moon
Algonquian: Flower Moon
English: Milk Moon
Siouan (Assiniboines) Tribe, Montana: Idle Moon
Inuit of Northern Canada: Goose Moon
Chinese: Dragon Moon


Flower Moon Folklore
Clothes washed for the first time in the Full Moon will not last long.
The Full Moon is an ideal time to accept a proposal of marriage.

Super Blue Blood Snow Moon

I hit the steam room this morning to settle and meditate before going out to watch the full moon rise before the eclipse.

The washboard clouds parted just in time to be bathed by the moonlight, so strong that I could see my shadow on the wall behind me.

Happy Super Blue Blood Snow Moon.

May your path be revealed in the darkening of the light.

Happy Pink Moon

I stumbled across a lovely intention for this month's full moon. Bonus: While Harvey and I were driving in this early morning, there was a band of pink behind the full moon that shone down.

April Magic: The Pink Moon 

The fertile soil has been watered and plants have grown. The Green conquers the land until Flowers begin to bloom. Mother Nature celebrates its resurrection with vivid colours. Another reason that Pink was picked for the April's Moon is because it is also the color of Venus, the Governor of Taurus. Egg Moon is an alternative name given to April's Moon due to its close connection with Ostara (Spring Equinox). Let the Pink Moon affect your romantic life. Trusting the energies of the Pink Moon will help you in Romantic spells. It's the time when two become one. Moreover, it's a wonderful time for beauty spells too! Work your magic then and enchant your love life. Let your life bloom!

In the delicate light of the waning moon

The note about the moon phase today struck a deep note of serendipity:

The Last Quarter Moon phase points to some sort of crisis of consciousness. After basking in the awareness symbolized by the full light of the Moon at the time of last week’s Full Moon, we disperse our knowledge and come to a point when we need to sort out what works for us — and what doesn’t — in preparation for next week’s New Moon, when something new is born once again. This is not the best time to start a major project, as the decreasing light of the Moon symbolizes a descent into unconsciousness. It’s time to begin finishing up the details of that which was conceived at the last New Moon. What revelations did you have last week? What did they mean for you? What can be done now?

The questions at the end captured my attention and imagination, and I find myself answering them on and off throughout the other tasks of the day. This past week has been momentous and centering, and the feeling of starting something New is everywhere, yet something that was Old in its way, merely uncovered, pulled into the delicate light of the moon for compassionate acceptance of the bedrock Truth that it is.

What revelations did you have last week?

What did they mean for you?

What can be done now?

Indeed.
There is enough mental fodder in those three little questions that I could fill an entire journal delving through the answers, and perhaps that what i will need as the moon grows toward full.

 Add to that the moon's shift into productive Virgo and we have quite the little list-making energy going on. As the Sun shifts from secretive Scorpio into bright, active Sagittarius, we are more than willing to do the work to achieve for the good of all. Jupiter beams in some assistance, making our Sagittarius inclinations toward great expectation more available than ever.

When the moon is in Virgo, we instinctively gravitate towards practical activities under the influence of a Virgo Moon. In an urge to set things right, we might easily find ourselves re-organizing and rethinking plans. Emotional satisfaction comes from solving problems, making order out of confusion, and helping others. Health matters might come into focus. We notice the smaller parts that make up the whole, and instead of letting nagging details bother us, we might work on ironing them out so that we can feel more confident moving ahead.

The Moon in Virgo generally favors the following activities: Mental pursuits, work activities, services, and routines. Activities that would benefit from tending to details.

Solstice Lunar Eclipse

Barring cloudy weather, astronomy enthusiasts and sky gazers across North America will be treated to the only lunar eclipse of the year tonight. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be seen for a few moments from any specific spot, a lunar eclipse can be viewed for several hours and is safe to view without special glasses or equipment. If the sky is clear, experts say the show might be extra spectacular, as the moon will have a reddish glow, and just to add to the spectacle, a minor meteor shower is expected to send a few shooting stars through the darkened sky during the height of the eclipse.

According to NASA's notes on the eclipse, the total phase should last about three and a half hours when it begins as a partial eclipse at 1:33 a.m. ET and it will finish at 5:01 a.m. ET. The totality phase -- when the moon is entirely inside Earth's shadow -- will last approximately 72 minutes. This year's only lunar eclipse actually coincides with the winter solstice, meaning that the moon will appear high in the night sky, aiding visibility for revelers. The last time that we had a total lunar eclipse occur on the same calendar date as the winter solstice takes us back nearly four centuries, to Dec. 21, 1638, when the full moon was in total eclipse from 1:12 to 2:47 UT; the solstice occurred later in the day at 16:05 UT.

Astrologers and moon-based religions are paying attention to this once-in-several-lifetimes occurrence, as “a Lunar Eclipse affects us on a deep, emotional level, generally over the upcoming 6 -9 months. Pay attention to themes, people, and events that may enter your life a few weeks prior and during this time.  Remember to look back just about 19 years ago for similar themes.  What were they and how do those past events and themes relate to what's happening in your life now?” I even found a ritual posted for the event. The whole thing is sort of creepy when you think about it from the ancients' perspective: On the same day that the Sun Father symbolically "dies," the Moon Mother that should be at her full power is instead eclipsed and goes dark - in this case, for over an hour as seen in North America. What will you be introspecting?

For our part, the boys and I will be ceremonially lighting the tree, hanging ornaments, and wrapping presents, all with a laden table and baking confections. We spent this weekend in preparation for exactly these events, and we are looking forward to them, complete with getting up in the wee hours to watch the moon disappear. Well. As long as it's not too cold.

yes, i read the almanac

Thanks to Nate for sending along the picture of the lunar elcipse from the other side; pretty, isn't it? While David and i were driving home Saturday evening (after a much-needed trip to Sam's Club), I pointed out the emerging crescent. The boys and David and I watched the eclipse finish its path across the moon as we made our way up the mountain. My face pressed against the cool glass of the passenger window, I confessed: "The full moon in March is called the Worm moon. I meant to look it up, but I didn't." David asked me how it was that i knew the eclipse was coming up, and that it was a full moon that night. "Uh, i read it in the Farmer's Almanac?" I felt like a dork, but it's true -- the almanac provides a lot of my random farm-based information, and it's not really more sophisticated than that. I'm a weird-information junkie, and i like knowing stuff about the world in which i live; the two come together to produce a fascination of named things. In the case of the names of the full moon, i found a list online. For the latest on what is going on, i tend to visit more authorative sources. and while i was visiting, i found what i'd like to get Tiger for his birthday in July. my mind has an endless capacity for useless information.

Cool things this weekend:

• On Saturday morning we went out and rode Nitro (the Freesian). Everyone got a turn except David, who was doing the lead-around-the-field thing. We meant to ride longer and share more, but Nitro was slipping in the still-wet grass, so it was a brief outing. Satisfying though. Note: Nitro is one heck of a lot of horse. At 17 hands and over a ton-and-a-half, it seriously changed my approach to riding when i was in the saddle. He got a little frisky, jumping and swishing a bit, and it was noticable in a way it simply isn't in smaller horses. I felt small and insignificant, but in a nice way.
• After riding, we went to town and looked at furniture. We need a new dining table and the boys need height-appropriate dressers. We were more of the get-ideas-and-go-home-and-make-it mindset, and i think we might have figured out a solution to the boys' organization at long last (yes, it involves the woodshop and not a credit card).
• David introduced us to the age-old board game Careers and we had a ball. The game he has is so old that all the little score sheets are used up and have been erased and re-erased into onion skin. I hopped on the computer and made a new set, which we tested on Sunday night while the clothes finished washing and the boys fell asleep. David won, but i was only a hunderd dollars from victory. [A hunnerd!]
• The Sam's trip did my heart good in a way that i simply find difficult to describe. We have twelve pounds of rice and a big honking case of Charmin. We are beginning the Pantry Stock, and such are the things that calm me, especially as i haven't found a contract yet. (Yes, they keep saying there are tons of things out there for me. None of them comes through, though. It's that overeducated, overqualified thing again.)
• We had dinner on Friday night with Michael, which was a treat for us all. As he came in, Tiger looked at him and said "Did i mention that I think of you as a brother?" Michael was telling him yes, and that it was cool when Tiger then informed him that he could now join him in playing The Mime Game.
• Sunday was mostly calm and quiet, with house chores and movies and tree removal (when the axe broke, David got to show off the chainsaw before literally man-handling the tree into submission. My own personal superhero.)

this morning was a comedy of near-errors, but that's another story for another time. Hopefully, the day is on track once again.