A new moon and a solar eclipse conjunct with messenger Mercury (my First House planet) in Sagittarius send me spinning in curiosity and inquiry during a time I typically like to curl gently into quiet, into empty, to sink into rest, my monthly roosting. Instead of roosting, I want to revel out there in the dark with the sky twinkling as if strung with millions of LED fairy lights. LED because isn’t this the time to remind us every time we write that all the unbridled consumption out there (and in here) is taking its toll beyond repairable measure.
And isn’t the antidote to all the taking and using "taking a pause" for opening and release?
This leads me to write about the ways we can try and find peace in release by standing alone in the dark. And when we find ourselves in our smallness, gazing in awe at the great universe, who might we find has accompanied us there?
A poem from Rilke…
The Night
You, darkness, of whom I am born–
I love you more than the flame
that limits the world
to the circle it illuminates
and excludes all the rest.
But the dark embraces everything:
shapes and shadows, creatures and me,
people, nations–just as they are.
It lets me imagine
a great presence stirring beside me.
I believe in the night.
(Photo: Jodi Paloni)
Creativity Prompts
~ Go out there, tonight, to stand on some spot of earth in some dark pocket of your world under the twinkling stars (or clouds) and the planets and whatever else might be up there. Breathe in the ice-bracing air or the damp warmth or the dry heat depending on where you live. This is not about temperature or humidity, but about darkness. Listen. What do you hear?
~ What “great presence” stirs beside you? Write about who and what keeps you company in the night.
~ Write a memory or a scene when are not stargazing alone, but when another human is with you, perhaps teaching you about the sky, the constellations, the Dippers, Orion’s belt, the mythological names, the stories attached, or someone who is talking to you about the moon.
~ Have some fun with black ink on white paper or acquire some black paper and a white marker. Draw and doodle, make lines and dots. Create a night sky on a new moon night.
Here's a three minute video of some relaxing doodling with white pen on black paper. Addictive!
Now, go and order yourself some new art supplies! :)
(Photo: Jodi Paloni)
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