I did not go out to see the moon last night as I usually do. Rather I stayed in my warm, comfortable home and felt it stirring in my bones. It seemed to evoke a going within energy, nurturance, and quiet this month – a pull from its Cancerian crabshell to retreat and simply be. Most months I gather a friend or two and bask in the wildness of the full moon – setting lanterns into the night sky, staying warm around an outdoor fire, traipsing across the frozen lake, such a pull to go without. Last night seemed to say, be still and be within.

What a kind offering on the heels of a busy time of year. Better to slow down and take stock, be gentle and rest. Look inward and find what really matters and what needs to fall away.

In its own way, the Wolf Moon evokes feelings of wildness as it’s named for the long, dark night and wind-swept landscape that incites wolves to howl even more. As though they’re calling for something unreachable, unknowable, long wailing into the night sky that is eternal and beyond us. But there is also something quiet and solitary this dark time of year. The wolf howls longingly at the moon it will never touch. The earth is covered with snow in the north country, barren, cold. What lessons can we learn from this timeless ebb and flow of nature and the night sky?

Cancer is the cosmic home for the moon, both known for a sort of maternal, caring, loving and emotional field. Being coupled together amplifies this. Focus is more on the home, internal feelings, deeply personal inventory is at play. In astrology, we all have a sun sign, moon sign, and rising sign. Our moon sign tells of our subconscious, internal truths of self that we may keep hidden from others, our private dancer. It is the opposite of our sun sign which we shine brightly outward.

Our rising sign is whatever constellation was on the horizon when we were born. This is how people tend to see us when they first meet us, our first impressions. There are a number of free sites where you can find the broad strokes of your birth chart if you know the exact time and time zone where you were born. I also highly recommend a personal reading with Jen Peters at Crescent Moon Astrology if you’re looking to delve in a little deeper.

I believe that when we slow down and allow ourselves to feel the timelessness of nature, sweet daily miracles can occur. Yesterday I spent most of the day outside with horses, clients and friends and had been looking so forward to getting wild with the moon. My body and mind had a different plan, a much quieter one. In honoring that I believe it was a channeling of what this moon and time of year can bring to us when we slow down and listen. Rest, recuperation, and the opportunity to recharge. Sometimes it’s better to throw out our best laid plans and listen to the ebb and flow around us.

Last week our weather began to shift from a polar northern chill to double digit temps. As clients returned to the barn I decided to throw away the rules, and we found ourselves playing beneath the moon and stars, snowy, cool and bright. Perhaps there was something else calling out as the moon waxed towards fullness, energetic and alive, our moon shadows long and luxurious upon the snow.

Perhaps it wasn’t the moon at all but rather the call of the night sky as the air became easier to breathe and the earth felt less hostile. The call of the constellations twinkling above reminding us to get outside and play. A reminder that the moon doesn’t need to be anywhere in particular in its cycle to call to us. 

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” ~ John Muir