84: LET'S DO IT ON THE SOFA
TUES 12 NOV 13.34 - Mooning Monthly couch surfin'.....
Aloha Mooners
More winter preparation anticipated for the week ahead folks. This coming Tuesday sees a Taurus Full Moon in full effect during lunch hour. Taurus the bull is a curious but lovable creature. Resistant to change; stubborn and lazy to a fault but loving, affectionate, loyal and kind - and generally difficult to dislike. Taurus is the loyal protector of friends and family and perhaps, above all, a fierce defender of the home space. Taurus loves its luxurious home comforts, anything that might mean it can relax in opulence without worrying too much about how that lifestyle might be achieved or paid for. If someone is prepared to provide the space, complete with lavish goodies, then Taurus will defend it.....from the sofa.
Translate this into Mooning practicalities over the next fortnight and we'll need to watch out for indifference to completing tasks or engaging emotionally with matters of importance for others. Avoidance tactics will be rife, born of a barely concealed 'can't be arsed' attitude, in an attempt to keep things ticking along the path of least resistance....and effort. Taurus hates change, even for the better, so be aware of heckles rising when someone, ANYONE, suggests altering the position of one's long standing porcelain pug dog on the mantelpiece......over one's dead Taurus body!
Taurus is the grand materialist, earth bound and proud of it. Under the Taurus Full Moon the physical stuff we have accumulated will gain disproportionate levels of importance, however useless, outdated, redundant or neglected it may be. This will not be the week to start clearing out our wardrobes - we will simply waste the time rearranging our belongings neatly back into the cupboards from whence they came.
The Taurus Full Moon is also known as the Beaver Moon (....oooh Matron!). In Native American culture this is the most active time for the largely nocturnal beaver, using the light of the moon to repair, rebuild and refurbish its dams and lodges for the winter months. The chances are that we too will feel a tangible desire to feather our nests for the lengthy nights to come - if we can be arsed. If we are to harness our energies constructively in a week when we'd much rather be under a quilt gorging on chocolate, ice cream and boxsets, these would be the days to sort those oft evaded niggling chores and home improvements. The middle ground for those in a more belligerently slothful Taurus Full Moon mood might be to draw up a definitive list of stuff that needs attention in the home or work environment ready for the moment when our recumbent love affair with the sofa comes to its natural end.
The last fortnight has played host to the festivals of Hallowe'en and All Saints Day amongst many other cultural events across the globe devised to celebrate and honour the dead. Our forebears are easy to forget in the busy excitement of day to day living. They're not here of course so can't remind us of how central a role they played in our very existence. We quite literally owe them our lives. They are the giants upon whose shoulders we stand and deserve no less than our perpetual gratitude. In accord with large swathes of humanity who consider this time of year to be a period in which the veils between the realms of the living and the dead are at their thinnest, now is the time to consciously remember our ancestors.
Each year under the Taurus Full Moon, we here at Mooning HQ enjoy creating a small window sill shrine containing pictures and artefacts linked to loved ones no longer with us. With a minimum of nostalgia, we like to spend some quiet time fondly remembering shared experiences, specifically recalling the feelings of being with those we have loved and lost in the great cycle of life. We like to remember the faces as accurately as we can, the glint in an eye, the curve of a smile, the habitual actions and comments. Our attendant emotions, if witnessed gratefully, are a very real way of breathing life back into those relationships we miss as a reminder of what it is to truly love. It is a timely reminder to let love inform our current relationships at all times, for this will be our truest legacy amongst the living when we leave them to clear up our godforsaken mess.
Here's a plan:
Let's 'shrine'.
Find a quiet window sill, mantelpiece or work surface somewhere at home. Empty and clean the space thoroughly as you fondly bring to mind family and friends that have died. Collect a selection of pictures and memorabilia that remind you of those you have loved and lost. Lovingly arrange the bits and bobs together with fallen leaves, late fruit and flowers to mark the natural order of death in the continuum of life. Once arranged, add an incense stick or scented candle to proceedings and light it, allowing the gentle aroma to pervade your entire living space. Equate the pervading presence of the perfume with the living presence of the ancestors, no longer visibly material but as naturally available in memory as the air you breathe. Spend a short period of time each morning and night remembering those on the shrine and recall other historic or cultural figures that might have had significance for you. Each time you pass the shrine or become aware of the incense, give a grateful nod of acknowledgment to those who made an invaluable contribution to the life you now live. Tend the shrine; add new pictures, flowers, incense; live gratefully with the dead until the next full moon in Gemini when it will all be about celebrating the living.....
Under this Taurus Full Moon let's defy the overwhelming desire to 'opt out' and instead, muster all available energy into gratitude for the efforts made by previous generations, allowing us to live as we do today. Let's resolve to leave a legacy of love and consideration through our thoughts, words and actions for the benefit of all generations to come. Over the coming week let's do what we can to rouse ourselves from the sofas of our complacency and actively seek positive change in the lives of ourselves and others towards welfare and prosperity for All.
I did my best, it wasn't much I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you And even though it all went wrong I'll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah - 1984
Shrine brightly dear Mooners. With love 'til next time
