106: TEMPER TEMPER!
THU 01 OCT 22:05 - Mooning Monthly keeping the lid on a simmering cauldron....
Happy Harvest Moon dear ones Let's make this one short and not so sweet. First and foremost this full shiner is traditionally known as the Harvest Moon. To a degree all full moons are harvest moons. They are periods in which the chickens come home to roost, where the fruits of our intentions and labours put dinner on the table so to speak. We are best placed at full moon to assess whether we like what we've served up. Do we still have a taste for the menu we've turned out year on year, or does the range of our culinary skills need reappraisal and expansion? Under a full moon we get to chuck out the bits and pieces moulding away at the back of the fridge in preparation for a new carte du jour, one more in keeping with our present palate and appetite. This can be a turbulent, messy process at times, the food can fly and bring putrid chaos to our hitherto sterile, well ordered kitchens but it's generally accepted that one can't make a light and fluffy soufflé of life without breaking eggs. So let's get cooking! This Harvest Moon sits in Aries and, during the past week, has been building up into a tornado of a temper tantrum. Although it has many laudable qualities, Aries can also be an impulsive so and so, capable of unpredictable angry outbursts, married with a legendary lack of patience. The astrological news is that our big ol' Aries Moon is cosmically aspected by an additionally impulsive, rebellious Uranus; an angry, frustrated Mars, in retrograde and on the warpath, squaring up to the intransigence of systematic, structural Saturn. Ooh lala! Put it all in the soufflé mix and we're likely to end up with more than broken egg shells and disheveled kitchen worktops. Under this Aries Harvest Moon we will be capable of plucking frustration and irritation out of thin air, with the very real possibility of even the most mild mannered folks completely losing the plot and going off on one. We merely offer this as cautionary guidance. Look for any early signs of the blood beginning to boil and avoid the confrontations that might ensue. The benefits, short and long term, will be tangible. So watch out across this weekend's soccer pitches for a glut of of red cards for the red mist will be descending over all of us like a thick, bloody fog. Geopolitically, this won't be the most stable of fortnights for world affairs either. Flare ups between nations and populations are almost guaranteed. The internal affairs of nation states will be volatile (if they weren't strained enough already) with rebellion against intransigent, unjust ruling authorities dominating the narrative. Let's hope American law enforcers keep their firearms judiciously in their pants (indefinitely would be the preference) or all kinds of hell might break loose in the States. Belarus and Hong Kong continue to tread a perilous knife edge as significant numbers of protesters face indefinite incarceration for public 'dissent'. There are other bubbling cauldrons of public discontent in the Philippines, Brasil, Chile, Israel, Colombia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Iran, Venezuela, Bulgaria....the list goes on and that's before we start the tally of nation states facing civil war and warring aggression from other countries. All this played out before the destabilising backdrop of our war on Covid 19! If ever there was a week in which one might consider praying daily for peace across our unnecessarily divided planet, this might be the one. Ultimately, we are responsible for the table we lay and the meals we prepare to eat there. The fruitfulness of this Harvest Moon need not be kept to ourselves. The goodness we gratefully receive can be shared and so doubly enjoyed. Every thought, word and deed carries an energetic charge that transmits across existence. In not rising to provocation or irritation we will find it easier to keep that charge positive, resolutely expressed in the vernacular of Love. Some say Love heals All. Perhaps that's a prayer in itself. If believed and acted upon, the world would change in an instant. Here's a ditty on the theme that we could do worse than play on repeat this week:
All babies together, everyone a seed Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need Love's bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed When will there be a harvest for the world? A nation planted, so concerned with gain As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain And far too many feelin' the strain When will there be a harvest for the world? Gather everyman, gather everywoman Celebrate your lives, give thanks for your children Gather everyone, gather all together Overlooking none, hopin' life gets better for the world? Dress me up for battle, when all I want is peace Those of us who pay the price, come home with the least Nation after nation, turning into beast When will there be a harvest for the world? "Harvest for the World" - Isley Brothers - 1976 As always at full moon, our emotions and instinctive behaviours (conditioned responses) are likely to hit their peak. Let's make a conscious effort to recalibrate any engrained, negative default settings to full on, Harvest Moon positive. Accordingly, we offer a couple of positively phrased do's without don'ts that might help temper our tempers over this Aries Full Moon to ensure a boundless, abundant, peaceful harvest for All.
DO consciously avoid angry confrontation, arguments, mutiny or rebellious insurrection (for a couple of weeks at least).
DO practice 'allowance'. Let others have their say; let them vent what they want to get off their chests without rising to defend your own opinion, position or validity. You are valid and valued. Know this. It dispenses with the need to argue the point.
DO forgive. No one really knows what they're doing. Serious. Even the boffins are scratching around in the dark. Forgive and conflict dissolves; love abides.
DO pray for peace. If you're unsure where to start, quietly focus on an area of your life where you are tangibly not at peace. Bring to mind the troubling relationships or circumstance and picture the situations resolving harmoniously. Wish only good things for those involved. If you get confident with that, briefly focus inner attention on disruptive or violent world circumstances and picture these coming to positive, peaceful resolution. It bears repeating, from the perspective of peace and Love our world can change in a holy instant, bringing benefit to All. 'Every little helps' apparently......
And, if all else fails: DO take a deep breath and count to ten. We hope this cautionary message catches you pre-tantrum. Do please share its mollifying tone with friends of similar lunar led sensibilities - it's a peaceful way in which Love can continue its unlimited journey of expansion without beating itself up en route. Peace out brothers and sisters. With love 'til next time....
FULL MOON MARKS
EACH MONTH WE PUBLISH A LUNAR INSPIRED DRAWING BY MARK WEIGHTON
ARIES HARVEST MOON
18 x 18cm charcoal on paper
The tenth of 13 Full Moon inspired drawings for 2020 by artist Mark Weighton