Moon Reveries — The Power of Lunar Love
Have you ever felt like someone was watching you? Only to discover it was the moon the entire time. You are met by the eerily bright glow of the moon looking down at you from a nearby window and yet still feel as though a person’s eyes looking back at you.
Have you ever been woken up in the middle of the night after forgetting to close the curtains? Thinking that a street lamp is illuminating the backs of your closed eyelids stirring you back to consciousness? But, when you finally open your eyes all you can see is a blaring full moon dangling in a pitch dark sky.
Have you ever watched the moon set? Yes, like a sunset, but instead of a cotton candy creamsicle sky, just a glowing orb descending a dim and monotoned horizon.
I have had many wondrous encounters with great grandmother moon. Sometimes she catches me off guard, stopping me in my tracks, seeming to beg for my attention. When this happens, I courteously obey and offer her my thanks. After all, we are meant to respect our elders.
I remember being mesmerized as a child staring at the moon through the car window. Zooming down the highway, trees blurred from the speed, but the moon hung in the sky seemingly unbothered by our haste. Despite how quickly we seemed to be moving she somehow followed me all the way home.
“Why does the moon follow us as we walk?” I asked my godmother many moons ago, as we passed through the church parking lot one evening. “Perhaps, we are following her,” She replied with almost the same amount of curiosity as I.
The moon, unlike the sun which only illuminates the day, is not restricted to the night. There is something cheeky and daring about bearing witness to the moon in midday as the sun blares loudly in an adjacent corner of the great blue sky. Like a wink or a game of peek-a-boo, she seems to know she doesn’t quite fit there but doesn’t care in the slightest.
What did you see when you were a child staring at the moon? Back when your vision was likely sharper than it is now and could examine the contours of the moons shadowy craters. A bunny always appeared for me in those familiar shadows. The profile of a pointy-eared rabbit sitting contently on the right side of that grey circle.
I never understood the anecdote that the moon was made of cheese. Such a silly comparison that something so great and ancient could be compared to stinky blocks of dairy.
Unlike the sun, which lights up the day regardless of the overcast skies, sometimes the moon retreats into solitude. Occasionally hidden for days on end by thickly clouded skies. Once a month she retreats for an entire night, leaving the sky eerily empty in her absence. However, we respect her changing needs, she is feminine after all and her cycles sometimes require periods of rest and reflection.
The feminine in all of us understands the moon intimately, she is our divinely feminine source. She teaches us how to ebb and flow, to illuminate the world, but also explore our shadows. She reminds us of our mothers, even the ones we’ve never known. She reminds us of our wombs — the ones we have, the ones we’ve lost, and the one we all came from.
Grandmother moon is our wise elder. She is patient, brave, unashamed, and receptive. She moves the great oceans of our planet. She affects the tides within each of our liquid bodies. Divination, alchemy and magic are innate to the moon. She reveals the realness of magic in her silent power over our lives that even the most rational mind cannot ignore.
I lost my grandmothers when I was very young. A bond unlike that of any other kind and one I have largely forgotten. However, when I feel that invisible tap on my shoulder, and turn to see that familiar, wrinkled, ancient, and cracked greyish-white orb in the sky, I am reminded that grandmother moon is always with me — always with us.
She may look weathered and worn, the creases on her face telling stories from a time before words existed to write them. Despite her ancient nature, her spirit grows stronger each century that passes. Sometimes she may look dim, or dull, or invisible. But, we know that in these moments she is only temporarily in retreat.
Every so often she comes out in full glory. Just above the horizon line, a fresh orange tint to her gigantic and perfectly circular shape. Her light reaching far beyond the confines of her perimeter like outstretched arms towards the earth. In these rare spectacles, she is offering her wisdom and magic to us, her precious grandchildren, here on earth. We look in awe as she spoils us with her rare and grand display and we are reminded of the infinite love our grandmother has to offer.
