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The moon is earth’s only natural satellite, faithfully orbiting our blue-green planet for 4.5 billion years.
Around and around the moon goes, circling the earth, visible to the naked eye, seemingly changing form as it reflects various angles of sunlight in a perfectly rhythmic cycle.
When I started guiding meditations in my backyard in 2011, the first ones I did centered on the new and full moon parts of the lunar cycle.
After I learned a little more, and cruised through various cycles consciously, I really came to also love and celebrate the first quarter moons, third quarter moons and especially the dark moons.
I appreciate the lunar cycle because each “era” comes around the bend so fast. The cycle is 28 days, four weeks, with a new phase to immerse ourselves in week by week - new, first quarter, full, third quarter, dark - and then it all cycles around to new again.
And, the names of each phase are so easy to understand, so linked to the power of each phase; on the new moon we are starting a new cycle, on the full moon we experience fruition and fullness, on the dark moon, we rest, and so on.
Plus, since it is a short cycle, if you miss this round, no big deal, in a week here comes another chance – to try again – knowing what you know now.
This week we have a full moon. Which means we can investigate (or celebrate) whatever “fullness” is illuminated for us at this time. When we come to understand the fullness we can then choose to release or celebrate it - depending on its context.
One thing that has deepened my understanding of the moon is to study it from different angles/modalities.
If you want to try this, on your own, and to your liking, you could honor the moon by exploring one of the following topics (whichever one “grabs” you):
the moon in astrology
the moon in the tarot
the moon in mythology
the moon in history
the moon in poetry
the moon in fairy tales
the moon in stories (such as 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami)
the moon in children’s literature
the moon in science
Another way to spend quality time with earth’s only natural satellite is to find a time to look up at the full moon for a few minutes. (I can’t believe I am writing that – “find a time to look at the moon for a few minutes” – but here we are.) Anyway, this full moon, find a time to look at the moon for a little bit. Expecting nothing, just being in that moonlight. Bathing in it, basking in its silvery reflected light.
Then we can ask ourselves – “What is the full light of this full moon illuminating for me? Where am I experiencing fullness?” and let ourselves be surprised by the answers we receive.
A third, really great way to connect rhythmically to the full moon is to do a special full moon meditation every time the full moon comes around - this one is a classic and one that I return to over and over again…
And, of course, if you are in L.A., join us this Friday at ROAM LA and we can do it the old-fashioned way - people, together in a room, meditating with the full moon.
I know this world is super-chaotic right now. It is undeniable.
At least the moon is still keeping a steady rhythm for us, everything circling in cycles, coming around and around again.
Until next time,
Jess
The soul, like the moon,
is new, and always new again.
And I have seen the ocean
continuously creating.
Since I scoured my mind
and my body, I too, Lalla
am new, each moment new.
My teacher told me one thing,
Live in the soul.
When that was so,
I began to go naked,
and dance.
—Lal Ded, 14th century, Kashmir. Translated by Coleman Barks
“Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life.”
― Marcel Proust
Into the timeless woods I go
where the moonlight illuminates
the infinite peace of things.
- Erik Rittenberry
III.
because it is spring;
because once more the moon and the earth are eloping -
a love match that will bring forth fantastic children
who will learn to stand, walk, and finally run
over the surface of earth;
who will believe, for years,
that everything is possible.
- Mary Oliver
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
- Joy Harjo
“If you can see a thing whole…it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives….But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon.”
- Ursula K. LeGuin
One night when the lawn was a golden green
and the marbled moonlit trees rose like fresh memorials
in the scented air, and the whole countryside pulsed
with the chirr and murmur of insects, I lay in the grass
feeling the great distances open above me, and wondered
what I would become—and where I would find myself—
and though I barely existed, I felt for an instant
that the vast star-clustered sky was mine, and I heard
my name as if for the first time, heard it the way
one hears the wind or the rain, but faint and far off
as though it belonged not to me but to the silence
from which it had come and to which it would go.
- Mark Strand
I’ve come to the house of the Immortals:
In every corner, wildflowers bloom.
In the front garden, trees
Offer their branches for drying clothes;
Where I eat, a wine glass can float
In the springwater’s chill.
From the portico, a hidden path
Leads to the bamboo’s darkened groves.
Cool in a summer dress, I choose
From among the heaped piles of books.
Reciting poems in the moonlight, riding a painted boat…
Every place the wind carries me is home.
—Yu Xuanji