The Moon

Feeling the pull

Greetings Readers and Friends,

I’m sending warm wishes of light – both internal and external – on this darkest day of the year. Even though the news has been full of drone sightings in the night sky and people taking notice, I would argue we don’t look up enough. That includes me. In prior years, it was because my night sky was diffused by ambient city lights, but possibly more-so because I wasn’t in the right mindset. Similar to a disconnection from my food source, I was oblivious to the power of the moon, chalking up early civilization’s reliance on moon phases to guide activity and to create our first calendars as primitive.

December 15, 2024 the Full Spirit Moon rising in Park City, UT

Now that I’m living in the Wasatch mountains of Utah during the winter and on our farm in Wisconsin during the summer, much has changed. First of all, it’s easier to admire constellations and the moon against a black night sky. But it’s more than admiration. While researching the different facets of holistic farming, I’m getting enlightened as to the importance of the moon’s pull. Once only noticeable to me by the extreme tides we experienced in Rhode Island, I now appreciate the moon’s effect on everything containing water, ie all living things including the soil.

Performing farming activities in sync with natural forces and the phases of the moon is said to improve outcomes. On a personal level, opportunities for creativity, productivity, and well-being also vary with the phases of the moon. Simply put, the new moon is a time to reflect and set intentions, energy builds during the waxing moon with opportunities to forge relationships and accomplish tasks, culminating in peak energy at the full moon (as well as peak emotion), and during the waning phases of the moon, it is time to let go, regroup, and purify.

Do you consider my modern reach for a Moon Calendar app to be in conflict with a goal of connecting to nature?

To pay better attention to the moon, I’ve begun drawing its phase at the top of my daily journal entry. I also check in with apps that both suggest where farming efforts might be best spent each day as well as personal opportunities. Our culture likes to type-cast the moon as dark and spooky, associated with fear, superstition and danger. A bum rap…. Consider the following list of all the Moon influences by seventeenth century astrologer William Lilly:

Body, emotions, moods, changeability, memory, ethereal, habits, rhythms, down bearing, cold, moist and phlegmatic, organs with contained spaces, feelings, basic needs, your mother, mothering, yin, astrological sign of cancer, stomach, breasts, lungs, meninges of brain, all bodies of water, the stomach and linings of internal organs, the moon rules round things, figures, like our bodies. Moon is related to Sulfur, Pluto, Monday is Moon Day, round vegetables, cabbages, pomegranate, coconuts, trailing plants such as melons, cucumber, corn, salty things, milk and dairy products, sweets, pearls, emerald, moonstone, ducks, cranes, herons, silver metal and white color, Frogs, the Otter, Snails, Midwives, Nurses, Queens, Countesses, Ladies, all manner of Women; as also the common People, messengers, The Moon holds memories, even lifetimes ago, imprinting on mothers, the subconscious, our emotions, and psychology.

Despite not looking to the night sky as often as I should have, I love the moon as a metaphor in literature, even tapping it to symbolize feminine cycles in my 2017 novel, EDEN and ever so slightly in its sequel, DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE. I am currently in a literature class studying JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë. This classic novel uses multiple moon references and imagery to represent change, the maternal spirit, and (sometimes irrational) feminine power.

But I digress. Back to farming… because I sense many of you are more interested in this new adventure of mine :)

….Since 1818 the FARMER’S ALMANAC has been a staple in agricultural homes. Its list of ‘gardening according to the moon’ includes categories such as: plant aboveground crops, plant root crops, transplant, plant seedbeds, plant flowers, kill plant pests.

…. And in the introduction to her wonderful guide (above), THE CELESTIAL GARDEN: GROWING HERBS, VEGETABLES, AND FLOWERS IN SYNC WITH THE MOON AND ZODIAC, renowned Wisconsin herbalist and medicinal plant grower, Jane Hawley Stevens writes, “Timing is everything. Celestial gardening …. is a tangible practice that can help us engage in the larger energy that supports life. When there is too much to accomplish in a day, practicing celestial [farming] guides you to the open doors so you don’t waste time bumping into the closed ones. The idea of making choices based on the phase of the Moon may seem a little irrational, but [farmers] throughout time and across many cultures have found that [working] by the Moon is a practical tool that can improve our [yield] as well as our daily lives. There is much guidance from Nature that we simply overlook. The Sun and Moon are two of the most direct and accessible natural forces that we can consult to help us experience greater ease and joy in everything.”

A similar philosophy founded in Austria a century ago, Biodynamic Farming, can be incredibly prescriptive with regard to working in concert with nature and celestial activity, drilling down to even the time of day best suited for certain activities. Maria Thun, an early adapter of this movement, was full of pronouncements such as “…plants of which we eat the leaves should be sowed, hoed and cultivated on leaf days, that is, on a Water sign (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) and that onions should be sown on leaf days if they were to be eaten fresh in the summer and not stored. Leaf development is stronger with plants sown when the Sun is in Pisces, that is February 19 to March 20. But for later crops of greens, planting when the Sun is in Cancer, June 21 to July 22, when the Moon is also in a water sign.” WOW….

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I’m curious about your thoughts on these philosophies? What is your favorite phase of the Moon? A crescent moon? A full moon? Do you try to live in concert with the moon?

Recent Reads:

RENTAL HOUSE which I reviewed in New York Journal of Books

I have become a great fan of Miranda July. Her latest novel, ALL FOURS, is a big hit. after finishing it, I wanted more and read her debut, THE FIRST BAD MAN. So original, hysterical characters, and premises.

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I want to reward readers who make it to the end with a holiday gift!! The first three readers who reply to this email with the word “MOON” will receive a signed copy of DaUGHTER OF A PROMISE. I will let you know if you are a winner and get your mailing address (US mailing addresses only).