Meeting the Moon
the magic and creativity of the Moon tells us to start where we are
“I am convinced that the first lyric poem was written at night, and that the moon was witness to the event and that the event was witness to the moon.”
Mary Ruefle
This newsletter is part one of a series on the magical-creative properties of the planets, as well as how to begin embodying them yourself.
So much of astrological study nowadays is confined to book learning but my understanding of the planets improved dramatically when I began engaging them with my five senses. With the Moon, for example, this means not just moon-gazing, but partaking in herbs and foods of the moon, wearing moon colors and jewelry, as well as taking part in rituals and activities that are sympathetic to her. By doing this, I could conjure feelings, deeply-impressed images and great meaning behind the words I used.
This newsletter offers you a portal to have your own connection to the Moon. It’s one thing to say the Moon is about feeling or instinct but it’s another to be in the midst of taking a night walk or making a big pot of soup for your friends and realize “the Moon would like this too”.
This writing is intentionally not technical and meant to be understood even by those who have not studied astrology but want to connect more deeply to their world and themselves. Remember: these planets all describe fundamental parts of us. Whether you try to or not, you embody the Moon everyday. By learning what functions and activities with which the Moon corresponds, you learn more about yourself and your life, with nothing added but attention.
By reaching this felt understanding of the Moon (and the other planets), I believe we are also able to be better magicians and artists— two categories whose differences are slowly shrinking in my eyes. Do we not need the same centeredness and momentum to create a piece of art as we do to create a spell or scry into the future? Aren’t we vessels for something beyond our small self in both? This essay also delves into where in your creative-spiritual practice a dose of the Moon could serve you well.
Stay tuned for a Part II on the Moon and installments on the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (but no necessarily in that order).
🌙For more Recent Bedrooms on the Moon see—
“Practical Dreaming: On ‘Parable of the Sower,’ and the Moon”
Part 1 of my Interview with astrologer and translator Shuly Rose
Lunar Correspondences
Ways to bring the Moon closer:
Temperament: Phlegmatic (cold and wet)
Astrological Rulerships: Cancer (domicile), Taurus (exaltation)
Sect: nocturnal,
Herbs: milky oats/oats of all kinds, jasmine, skullcap, passionflower, moneywort, clary sage, night-blooming flowers, poppy
Foods: melons, cucumbers, dairy products (non-dairy substitutes too!), mushrooms, fish, pumpkin, cabbage
Animals: Frogs/amphibians, rabbits, bears/hibernating beings, owls, lobsters, otters, ducks
Objects/Activities: silver, mirrors, glass, pearl, white and ivory colored things, baths, boats, canals, common clothes, collections, dew, evenings, lamps, kitchen utensils, light houses, bodies of water, spectacles, rain, selenite, sleep, wells
In her essay on the Moon, poet Mary Ruefle reminds us that “[t]here is a greater contrast between the moon and the night sky than there is between the sun and the daytime sky”. She uses this fact as a reason the moon often invokes sorrow in poets, but I think it says something else: the contrast between the night and the moon is probably the first thing that caused us to look up.
Those who know nothing of astrology or the historical use of the Moon in mystical workings can still spend their whole lives looking up and adoring our constant celestial companion. There is something primal, instinctive, about lunar worship.
If you are a Lunar person or the Moon particularly influences your magical or creative life, then this essay will be especially helpful for you. But everyone has a Moon; everyone can experience her nocturnal power. This newsletter is for anyone who doesn’t just want to be able to list a bunch of facts or correspondences but can point to a lived experience of this planet, how I believe astrology should be taught :)
If you want help figuring out your moon, your magic, your creativity, my books are currently open :) The magic created in a one-on-one consult with me flows freely between myself and the seeker; it must be experienced to be believed
In the Beginning
One of the first distinguishing features of the Moon is its closeness to Earth. It is the nearest of the 7 visible planets in our Solar System and thus was given a special role; according to Plato, after our souls were born amongst the stars, they passed through the spheres of the planets to gain matter and a material existence fit for earth. The celestial level we pass through is the sphere of the Moon, or the sublunar realm, which acts as both the gate to the Heavens and the part of the heavens most shaped by earthly things.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “as above, so below”. This adage is a major reason why the Moon was so important in timing for ancient astrologers. “Since she conveys heavenly things generally, frequently, and easily to things below,” Marsilio Ficino explains, “the safest way will be to do nothing without the favor of the Moon”. The Moon has a hand in both pots; the mysterious heavens and the “mundane” earth. The Moon, thusly, is given dominion over the beginning of everything, from the life of a seed to the start of a relationship.
Ali Olomi compares the Moon to a crystal or prism through which light, or the influence of the other planets, passes and refracts: “No influence can be felt on earth except by the grace of the moon”.
Whenever you have a stroke of inspiration, a sudden mood change, a revelation, though it may come from other sources, the Moon is always involved, at the very least as the primal filter or screen for other influences.
This is the reason we date our rituals and art projects; take note of our moods before and during— to understand where we begin. To find our baseline on a given day.
An exercise
I have been experimenting more with the twilight between sleep and wake, when you start to fall asleep and begin to wake up. I find this version of me less guarded, perhaps more vulnerable and impressionable, her responses less covered by the daily thoughts and anxieties of waking life. Spend some time simply breathing and feeling into your body when you first wake and notice the ambient temperature; what are you thinking about? What is your mind instinctively reaching towards? What does it feel like to consciously become “you” again? You can take notes if you want to keep track of the patterns in your moods. Bonus if you keep track by moon sign.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Recent Bedroom to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.