115: BALANCE YOUR ACCOUNTS
SUN 28 MAR 19.48 - Mooning Monthly adding a little weight to the scales of justice.....
Dearest Mooners of the Heart
With the brief but calming planetary balance at the Vernal Equinox now behind us, we can gambol unreservedly, like newly pastured lambs, toward spring in full bloom and the aching promise of summer beyond.
Baaaaa.....
Nonetheless, a tad of that calming mindfulness is retained in the symbolic balanced scales of this weekend's Libra Full Moon. Should we wish to access the opportunity, this remains a great time to contemplate our personal intent towards others and our extraordinarily beautiful shared planet. As spring rolls into summer, the next three months are the most fertile of the year for enacting such intents into heartfelt realities whilst healing old wounds.
The Libra Full Moon is always a veritably verdant window through which we can swing into Spring. Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, green shoots, blossom and all. Easter, like most great religious festivals, has its roots in Pagan observations of the natural world from back in the pre-selfie day. The title Easter is said to derive, unsurprisingly, from the name of Eostre, a northern European, pre-Christian goddess who appeared as a rabbit or hare. What's up with that Doc?
Or possibly the name stems in part from the Sumerian goddess Ishtar, hung naked on a stake by her enemies, subsequently resurrected and ascended from the darkness of the underworld (winter, obvs). The stories of mythical virgin born sons (sun), on crosses (equinox points of solar equilibrium) overcoming the powers of darkness at this time of year are legion. Horus; Mithras; Sol Invictus; Dionysus and the rest. Take your pick and give 'em a wiki.
More contentiously, I am reliably informed that the Cybele Cult was originally founded and practiced on Rome's Vatican Hill long before Christianity was a twinkle in a virgin's eye. Cybele's lover Attis, born of another virgin, died and was reborn annually at the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. This spring proclaiming Pagan festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday (7 pagan festivals we still celebrate today article) rising to its crescendo three days later in a big old party celebrating his annual resurrection. Sound familiar?
To this day, Easter is a movable feast. Despite the Catholic Church's considered line on astrology as heretical, Easter Sunday is always marked as the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Who knew?
The related message on this Libra Full Moon is that we need, more than ever, to develop our capacity to filter the truths, half truths and allegories from the barefaced lies. To some degree we are all involved in our own little games of self delusion and denial. We tell ourselves the stories that we want to believe which rarely accord or align with the ultimately neutral reality of circumstance. It's a tired but still pertinent adage: Life is what it is.
However, our perception of life is ours and no one else's. It's a personal narrative we have the power to dictate, through our every thought, word and action. And yet, too often, we plump for a story line that others would happily write for us as they attempt to drain and use our inherent power and energies for their own personal gain. We should be wary on this Libra Full Moon not to give up the rights to self determination cheaply.....or at all. Complicit acceptance of a distorting web of deceit serves no one. The resulting bleeding hearts and battered planet surround us in plain view.
The recommendation under this Libra Full Moon, is to ignore the messages we're constantly spoon fed by Hollywood, broadcasters, social sites, magazines, papers as perceived societal norms and listen intuitively only for the Truth. It's there in spring birdsong and the breeze; children laughing in parks and gardens; the sounds (if not always the words) of friendship and domesticity; of life evolving, intelligently at its own pace with scant regard for the little and too often destructive ideas of man. Time for a weekend walk in the woods perhaps?
This planet remains a paradise of living diversity, sadly challenged by human actions and perception, experienced too often as an unimaginative, mono-cultured hell. Let's do what we can under this Libra Full Moon to find creative balance in our own lives, that we may contribute in some small way to the greater life that benefits all. You know the score dear Mooners: light a candle, offer a prayer of gratitude for the indefatigable beauty of life; love then love again.
We're in this together. If by our collective endeavour - through our thoughts, words and deeds - we can tip the balance of humanity's scales from negative to positive we will have made a difference to the wider picture. One might even consider it a meaningful purpose. It's a simple method yet the tangible means through which we can change the world for the better.
Should you wish to explore further positive, practical ways of contributing your voice to a balanced planetary post Covid recovery plan, you could do worse than have a look at the Global Citizen 'Recovery Plan for the World' campaign. It might provide a constructive step in the right direction.
My heartfelt thanks for your involvement.
If you've enjoyed this missive please do share the Mooning message and pass it round the planet. With love 'til next time.... Mark
Do please look out for next month's edition of MOON LIT. Our fourth contributor is the Scottish poet Angela Cleland published by Templar Poetry and Salt Publishing, who also writes acclaimed science fiction under the name Cleland Smith. She offers us a selection of luscious, lunar influenced poetry, freshly penned exclusively for MOON LIT. Don't miss it slip seamlessly into your inbox as the New Moon in Taurus approaches mid April. We hope you'll savour Edition 4 as fully as its predecessors. Henry Normal's delicious selection of moon drenched verse is still available to read in MOON LIT Edition 3 (here) and well worth a revisit under the welcome balance of this Libra Full Moon.
FULL MOON MARKS
EACH MONTH DURING 2021 WE WILL CHART THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SINGLE, YEAR LONG LUNAR INSPIRED DRAWING BY ARTIST AND FELLOW MOONER MARK WEIGHTON
MOON 3
32 x 24cm charcoal on paper