Heirophany and the Moon.
By Holly Morgan.
Heirophany and the Moon
I stepped barefoot out of the kitchen door, my feet landing softly on the wet concrete, the air smelling of Earth + rain, the perfect petrichor that only the Spring season can carry. The early days of May in the Midwest tend to feel like a baubling ball on a casino wheel, and the month’s end as something best suiting Goldilocks in the infamous fable. It was one of those evenings where the sliver of a Balsamic Moon hangs in the sky as the final bits of lunar light before the moon births as new. And as visually beautiful a phase as this is, perhaps it’s the dark energy she carries during this few days’ span that makes it my favorite. We are familiar with the connective powers of the New Moon and the declaration of intentions for the lunar cycle ahead, but if you aren’t leaning in to the unfurling and healing ways the balsamic moon illuminates those shadow energies and the lessons they carry, you need only open your mind’s eye to harness this power. A deep breath in, and a somatic exhale. Standing in the twilight, the Earth, the Moon, and me, giving ourselves wholly to one another.
What an interesting experience, being human in this world; navigating the nuance of living relationally to all beings. I feel fiercely the decay of humanity, lying like forgotten logs on the forest floor, ready to be enveloped back into the richness of Earth. On our drive to the children’s school we pass a vast prairie that rolls for miles and several weeks ago we came upon it smoldering in ash. At first we gasped, what little fallow life left was now completely gone. Then just days later we drove by after a hearty weekend rain to discover it completely covered in vital green life, sprouting only a few inches out of the ground. What had been waiting patiently under the soil was granted its cycle of life through the transformation of death. What if we reveled in the pleasure of alchemizing this way? Taurus invites you to honor your desires and tend to that which you are cultivating under this New Moon.
My meaningful work lately has included cultivating a practice of pleasure in presence. So much of this intention is grounded in simplicity and daily ritual. Ritual plays such a profound part in connecting me to a larger whole, a spiritual guidance that reminds me that being is an integral part of this life. It is a step back from the constant chaos of the identities we create for ourselves as humans. To be honest, I’m not sure that the word ritual carries the same potency as it’s been saturated by the buzz of capitalism in the United States. But perhaps instead of discussing what rituals are it would be helpful to discuss what I have come to know they are not. Katherine May wrote this so beautifully in her book Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age when she said, “Ritual is different from worship: a matter of instinct rather than construction, a gesture that lets us weave significance in the moment. It is so undemanding, so simple, almost passive.” For me, ritual is woven as a thread into the rhythm of daily life; intuitive moments that nurture the living of a life less hurried. Ritual tends to my well of vitality.
Maybe you too have been longing for a connection to some greater being, an other than human life force, something outside of yourself. But there is a reason that my feet on the bare Earth, in the woods among the great grandfather Oaks, perched on the edge of a brimming garden bed, and under the light of the Moon all feel so good. These are the locality of connection between the sacred and my own divine being, already inside of me, the Moon a heirophany. It sounds so elemental, really. But with the weight of distractions in our everyday lives, the simplicity of being, of really just sitting and feeling on a cellular level, it’s so easily lost. And while there can be great reward in having material goods as tools of practice, there is so much worth to be found in presence.
All of this to say, I’m most interested right now, in this place in the world, under these cosmic happenings, in exploring an awakening, a curiosity. Lately, the most potent moon medicine for me is that of gathering in circle under the Moon. I’d love to say that there is a best practice for doing this, but I’m rather consistently in an unlearning process about most things I think I know about the world. What I can say is that good, in person community care grants us permission to come as we are. No curation or veils of illusion. To truly see each other for the full spectrum of ourselves, the shadow and light, joy and grief, sorrow and gratitude.
My wish is that you are able to take notice of that which plunges you deeply into the soil of being. Relish in the warmth of a strawberry warm from the plant in the soil on a June day. That the seeds you are planting with this Moon grow with patience and vigor.
A Moon of Blessings to You All,
Holly
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Holly Morgan is a Mother, Photographer, and Creative who through her own personal growth and transformation has found a calling to hold space in collective care for women to honor their voices and live fully present in alignment with their values. She is enjoying building a homestead with her family, immersing herself in the medicine of the natural world, and cultivating community in celebration of collaboration and interdependence. She hosts beautiful New Moon Gathering in her community.
