Moonstruck

This Friday we are planning a witchy women gathering at my house. About ten of us ladies are getting together to have some lovespell fun making our own homemade spellbook, watch Pracitical Magic in all its ridiculous splendour, and then have midnight margaritas!

In preparation, I've been dusting off my old magical and mystical books and naturelore and folklore.

Anne Kent Rush made the most amazing hand-drawn hippie books in the 70s. If you ever see this one at a used bookstore, I recommend you snatch it up. It's full to the brim of enlightening details about the moon, our human relationship with the moon, female spirituality and fertility and ritual associated with the moon, and all kinds of legend, folklore, myth and ceremonial practices.

I cherish it.

Check out this lovely drawing:

"Do you think that too," she said, "that I have slept too long in the moonlight?"

(from one of my favorite novels, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys)

As a woman deeply interested in the cyclical nature of life and the universe, and in female spirituality and fertility, I am fascinated by the thought that our bodies, bellies and minds, are linked to the moon's cycle in a great cosmic connection.

I wish my own cycle was always in tune with the moon. Alas, modern living does not promote this souldeep partnership. Shall I live outdoors all summer and sleep under the moon? Frolic and romp in the rivers and meadows all day long and go to sleep when the sun falls? Ahhh, my dreamlife. I think I shall.

This Friday also happens to be the full moon, how felicitous!

also known as:

Moon of Frost in the Tipi

Snow Moon

Moon of Little Winter

Photos taken by  my brother Matt, this one here in the Sierra Nevadas. (my home)

and this one over the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. (Matt's home)

The first full moon of the year in treelore is known as the Birch Moon, moon of inception. In the book Year of Moons, Season of Trees, I found that "in this moon, decisions are made as to the spiritual seeds you will be planting this year." I love that! It goes beyond New Year's resolutions and into the realm of spirituality. This year I want to more deeply feel my connection with the natural world.

Also, our festivities come just in time for Candlemas or Imbolc (Feb. 2), an ancient celeberation celebrating the Celtic goddess Brigid (or the Christianized version, St. Brigid) who was the Virgin Mary's midwife and symbolizes purification, initiation, and the bringing of new life and keeping the hearth fires burning. I'll post more about Imbolc in early Februrary.

The following gorgeous calendar was published in 1975 by Katharsis Press out of a  Nevada City, a neighboring artsy town where my sister currently dwells. They had a commune in the late 70s based on the teachings of yoga, natural health through diet, cooperative living and astrology, and they published a Solar Lunar Calendar annually. Unfortunately Katharsis seems to have been defunct for years now, but maybe exists in a different incarnation.

If you click on this maybe you can see the amazing detail in the drawings.

and so, I leave you with this

Moon Dance Ritual:

LOVING SPIRITS COME SING IN OUR SONG!

LOVING SPIRITS COME DANCE IN OUR DANCE!

LOVING SPIRITS COME SHINE IN OUR LIGHT!

LOVING SPIRITS COME FLOW IN OUR THOUGHTS!

LOVING SPIRITS COME LAUGH IN OUR JOY!

LOVING SPIRITS COME BURN IN OUR FIRE!

LOVING SPIRITS COME GLOW IN OUR SPLENDOR!

THE CIRCLE IS NOW OPEN.

On the off chance that this all seems WAY too hippy-dippy (ugh i hate that term) I will add that it is for fun and joy together as friends that we plan this event, and not to weird anyone out! But yes, I will also admit that I am shamelessly showing my true hippie/gypsy/mystic leanings here.

I can't wait for our girly night of magic and mystery!