Your MOON journal

MOON PHASES

NEW MOON: Rises at dawn and sets at sunset. You can’t see a new moon because its bright side is toward the sun. Sun and moon are both on the same side of the earth.

WAXING CRESCENT MOON: Rises after sunrise and sets after sunset. See it in the west, just after the sun goes down. (2 days after New)

FIRST QUARTER MOON(Waxing Square):  Rises at noon is high in the sky at sunset and sets at midnight.  Looks like a bright D in the sky. (One week after New)

FULL MOON: Rises in the east as the sun sets in the west.  See a full moon in the south at midnight. (Two weeks after New)

THIRD QUARTER MOON (Waning Square): Rises at midnight and sets mid-morning. Looks like a backward D or a light-filled in C. If you wake at 2 in the morning and look out your window to the southeast, you’ll see this half-moon.

WANING CRESCENT MOON:  Rises before the sun and sets before the sun sets.  If you look out your window during the darkest house, just before dawn, you’ll see this moon. People often find they are tired and weepy, worried over trifles during the time of the waning moon. It’s then you need to remember the old saying: “The darkest hour is just before dawn.”  Soon, the moon will be dark and rebirth occurs and the cycle begins again.

The moon as clock and calendar. The sun changes sign toward mid-month every month. When the moon is in the same sign as the sun, the phase is said to be NEW.

Write the sign of moon/sun in your journal and draw a horizontal line.  Draw a vertical line intersecting this in the middle.  Think of this as the face of the clock. You have written the sign at 9 o’clock. Now go to the other end of the horizontal line, at what would be 3 o’clock on a face dial, and write the sign that is opposite the sign of the sun/moon.

Next, find the other two signs that are square to these signs.  Going counter-clockwise, write the sign that next squares the sun and moon. This is at 6 o’clock position. At 12 o’clock position, write the sign that is opposite this sign.

Example:  The Sun is in Aries in mid-March. When the moon is also in Aries, this is a new moon in that month. Libra is opposite of Aries, so this would be placed at the right of the horizontal line, in the 3 o’clock position. The moon will be FULL when the moon is in Libra and the sun is Aries.  Cancer falls exactly between Aries and Libra. Place this at the 6 o’clock position. Opposite this, directly between Libra and Aries, is Capricorn.

Draw a moon and color it black at the Aries/Aries point (9 o’clock). Draw a moon and color it white at the Aries/Libra point (3 o’clock). At the 6 o’clock position, Draw a D of light/white. At the 12 o’clock position, draw a filled in C in white/light.

Now, you have a map of the moon through one cycle.

You can repeat this for each cycle.  Use the information below to chart twelve moon cycles.  Note that not all moon cycles begin and end so clearly. You can check an on-line ephemeris or moonphase calendar to adjust your moon maps for specific times.

Opposites:                                     Opposites:

Aries/Libra             square to        Cancer/Capricorn

Taurus/Scorpio       square to        Leo/Aquarius

Gemini/Sagittarius   square to        Virgo/Pisces

Keep a moon journal: Begin with the next new moon. Watch for the crescent moon to appear, two days after the new moon. What time did you see the crescent. Where was it in the sky? Did you “kiss your hand to the moon X 3?” And make a wish. “so mote it be” ?

Keep track of one full moon cycle to know where the moon is in your sky. Did it highlight a tree at 2 in the morning when the moon was full? Did it hang in the morning sky over the neighbor’s house as a Gibbous moon, shortly after the moon was Full? Where is the moon in your sky?

Keep track, also of which of your astrological houses is lit up for the 2 and a half days that the moon stays in each sign. You can get a natal chart from Astrodienst.com.  How does each of the moon cycles make you feel? Do you feel differently when the moon is in Pisces than you do with the moon is in Leo?

Romance the moon this year, beginning with the next new moon and see what you can learn about the moon and you.

Blessings,

Keldarune

http://cozycauldron.blogspot.com/
May be reproduced without change with this notice