......Moon 101

Yogis,

The moon is a powerful force. With the strength to move oceans, she also moves our lives and moods. We are 95% water so it’s a good idea to understand how the moon works!

Let’s begin with the new moon……the beginning. On that night the sun and the moon travel as a pair. Hand in hand they both rise in the eastern sky in the early morning. Together they travel across the sky throughout the day, the sun’s bright light keeping the cooler light of the moon out of view, until they both set at sunset. Throughout the night the sky is dark. Quiet. Still. Empty.

Moving forward, each day the moon rises about one hour later and appears slightly larger. This is the waxing moon.  For the first few days the sun and moon are still so close that again we don’t see the moon since it is above us during the sun’s time to shine. Only if you are out during the first couple of hours after the sun has set in the west, will you see the crescent moon there as it follows close behind.

Eventually with about a week, and therefore seven hours between them, as the sun sets, the moon is sitting directly above us. With the darkening sky we can see the half moon, referred to as the first quarter, as we are now one quarter of the way through her cycle. We are now entering her time to shine.

So it continues with more and more hours between them…..until about a week later there is enough space that as the sun sets in the west, the moon is seen rising in the east.  This would be the full moon. Her most powerful time of the month. Fertile. Bright. A time for celebration.  She shines over us the whole night as we dream.  Setting just as the sun rises.  Ahhhhhhh……..

Then the waning begins. She continues rising an hour, then two, then three……later.  Each night smaller.  Each night a little less bright. During this time the moon pops up from the east late in the night lagging way behind the setting sun, her crescent now facing the other direction.  When we wake, although she still sits above us, her glow is again outshined by the sun. Until finally, just shy of a month later, like old friends the moon and sun unite once again. Another new moon.

Think of them as friends running track together. The sun bigger and faster than the moon gains more distance from the moon on each lap. Until finally he catches up to her again. The moon has been lapped.

We can work with this cycle to flow more effortlessly with life. The waxing moon is a time to move toward what you want. Visualizing, stepping forward, active. The full moon the time of manifestation. Creating. Then as the moon wanes, we too can let go and release. Slowing down. 

Finally, the new moon is the time for quiet. To go inside. A time of introspection and uncovering what it is that you want. Planting seeds which are once again watered, fed and fertilized through the next waxing moon. And so it is.

Know her, watch her, learn her ways. In return she offers to make you feel more deeply. I will take that deal any day….and I do.

“And the sun and the moon sometimes argue over who will tuck me in at night. If you think I am having more fun than anyone on this planet, you are absolutely correct.”
               ― Hafiz

Dropping from the thinking mind to the feeling mind,
SARAH