MOON RHYTHMS

Egyptian Moon God Aah-Tehuti

Earlier this month the New Moon pulled away from a setting Sun and the planet Venus dressed in her evening splendour. The sky was dark and threw the celestial bodies into strong shining contrast. How marvellous in the quiet, clear and crystalline air of a Southern Winter's evening.

A friend asked why does the moon keep changing its shape and does its rhythmic dance affect us?

The Moon spins around our planet Earth once in 28 to 29 days and we see this happen in the sky by viewing the Moons changing light disc, which is really just the light reflected from the Sun. Each month there is a New Moon from which point the disk of light appears to grow bigger till it is a full disc in the sky. Then the disc of light starts to shrink back to nothing again. The cycle is called a Lunation and goes from one New Moon to the next. Our ‘month’ derives its name from this cycle of the Moon. Many calendars still use the Moon cycle of 13 months rather than the solar cycle of 12 months. In the dance of the Sun and Moon is seen a cycle of basic life energy, the yin and yang of Chinese philosophy, the fire and water of Western Alchemical Tradition.

 In viewing the sky, once a month the moon, who travels faster than the sun, appears to catch up with the sun. The two orbs are then together in the sky from our perspective. This is called in astrology, a conjunction of the lights, and a ‘dark moon’. As the faster moving moon pulls away from the sun, and we see a thin crescent of the light of the moon, it is called a New Moon. The sun represents our spiritual impulse and the moon its reflected light. The Moon is the communicator between the inner and outer life.

As the moon continues to increase its distance from the sun following New Moon, the moon disc increases in reflected light from the sun. This is called the ‘waxing moon’. Waxing means to grow bigger or to increase.

The moon’s light continues to increase until it reaches a full disc of light as seen from earth and it is then known as a ‘Full Moon’. In a general way the Moon collects and distributes cosmic and planetary energies to the Earth and all life on Earth. The Sun is the source of an impulse of energy; the Moon is the mother and nurturer of that impulse.

The Moon’s journey continues through a ‘waning moon’ or decreasing phase as it moves towards another conjunction with the Sun. The Moon’s refected light gradually wanes or disappears and we enter a few dark days of no moonlight. The reflected lunar light is withdrawn.

 Greek Moon Goddess Artemis

In the moon’s approximate 29 day journey or cycle, two points are of greater significance in the 8 phase cycle. These are the New Moon and the Full Moon phases of a Lunation, the point of meeting and the point of maximum separation; both of which indicate a time of changing currents.

A New Moon indicates a starting point, as in a new beginning.  As the moon grows in its waxing phase, there is indicated a growth phase of whatever was being considered at the starting point, it is a period of outward moving activity which reaches its peak or fruition at Full Moon. As the moon shrinks in its waning phase, there is indicated a phase of retreat, it a period of withdrawal and reflection as the process moves towards a new beginning indicated by the next New Moon. Each New Moon will occur in a successive sign of the zodiac, each sign indicating the activation of a different kind of energy.

As the moon moves around in its monthly cycle it represents the fluctuating responses of life on Earth as seen in the sea tides or the moods and habits of people. The visible moon in its journey of changing phases indicates cycling human and cosmic energy. Dane Rudhyar in is book ‘The Lunation Cycle’ talks at length on this pulse of life. The Lunation Cycle: a key to the Understanding of Personality (orig: The Moon, The Cycles and The Fortunes of Life)

Moon over Water