The Lunar Standstill - By
Kat
The Highest Highs and the Lowest Lows
How important is it for you to live by the seasons? Life goes on regardless of our awareness of them much like breathing, but can the observance of these cycles lead to modifications that alter our experience or quality of life? The seasons- our year is defined by the Sun- have you been watching the Moon lately? Yes! Observing the new and the full, with our lives crammed in between them.
Granted, to see Moon rise or set is not even always possible and perhaps the most likely to grab our attention, is around the time of the full Moon. Did anyone notice how low in the sky the 2005 summer full Moon was and how impossibly high the winter full Moon rose? It actually follows a pattern like this every year, however there is a longer cycle at play. Before we look at this lets just remind our selves of the Suns basic cycle which can be built upon to illustrate that of the Moons.
The Sun rises true east and sets true west on the days of the Equinox. For all latitudes (flatitudes) light and dark are more or less equal. For the rest of the year it inches towards its most extreme placements, South and North, which is latitude dependent: It is there that the Sun appears to briefly stand still, then change direction at the celebrated solstice points. The variations between light and dark are most extreme at the poles with midnight Sun in the Northern hemisphere at summer and perpetual night at winter.
At Summer solstice for Northern latitudes the Sun can be observed rising (early) and setting (late) from the most northerly points of its cycle. The Sun rides at its highest as it commences in the tropical zodiacal sign of Cancer. The full Summer Moon in Capricorn however opposes the Sun, up at its latest and riding low for the shortest nights- it seems the closest to the Earth that is ever possible -from one extreme to another. This situation then, as you can imagine is reversed at winter solstice. The Capricornian Sun rises late, riding closest to the Earth before its earliest setting. That contrary full winter Moon in Cancer contrasts the Sun; up at its earliest, soaring to its highest point, and out for the longest nights.
The Suns yearly movement is packed into the micro mirror of the Moon. The Moon completes it’s most northerly and southerly risings and settings into each monthly cycle. That busy Moon! These monthly extreme risings and settings however also drift and are contained within a larger 18/19 year cycle. So that although each month has a lowest and highest as seen best at the full Moon in summer and Winter - there is also a variation in this, that takes 18/19 years to complete. This is where we are now, building on from 2005, we can observe the Moons incredible monthly dance with its most dramatic highs and lows. We’ve not experienced anything like this since about 1987 and we won’t see the likes again until about 2024. We could say that the Moon in 2006 takes its ‘deepest breath’ (1) before appearing to change direction and head for the narrowest part of its cycle in a bit more than 9 years, about 2015. At that time the Moons drift from the path of the Sun which reveals its extreme risings and settings through each monthly cycle can be seen in its shallowest expression.
The current behaviour of the 2006 Moon creates an exceptionally awesome visual spectacle. It’s so exciting; like anticipating a solstice celebration, but this ‘lunastice’, has been 18 years in the coming! The further North you go, the lower this summers full Moon will appear, to the point of disappearing; at Callanish the Moon will rise from the sleeping beauty hills, briefly skimming across the Earth ‘kissing’ the stones as it rolls and then sets (2). Callanish on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland is one of many ancient sites aligned to witness the various motions of the heavens. There is much evidence now, mounting even academically (1, 3), that the ancients noted and thus participated, even if inadvertently with ‘the breath of the Moon’. The heavens can inform those who observe them, of when exactly it is possible to ‘draw down’ the Moon (4).
The Moon is rich with symbolism, changeable as the tides, associated with instinct as imprinted by the mother figure, nutrition, memory, the essential automatics, action (or non), moods and the soul. This year’s most heavenly moons will appear to be drawn down to Earth, whether we take our cues from the Moon or not. Higher and lower than ever; can we expect this to translate into our lives? I am convinced that awareness of these cycles with collaboration and modification if needed and possible, can improve the quality of our lives, as we experience the ‘deepest breath’ of the Moon.
Keep Shinning Brightly, Kat. koskat@hotmail.co.uk
References
(1) Robin Heath. Sun Moon, & Earth, Wooden Books, 1999. The “Breath” of the Moon, p22. His web-site is www.skyandlandscape.com
(2) Web cam at Callanish - http://www.iol.ie/~geniet/callanish/
(3) Rich insights and info on the Callanish site from expert ex-islander; dates and other sacred sites. http://home.clara.net/gponting/page42.html .
(4) Bernadette Brady. To Draw Down the Moon: When the moon reaches out… www.Zyntara.com (V.A.N. March 2006).
Bibliography
· Geoffrey Cornelius & Paul Devereux, The Language of the Stars and Planets A Visual Key to Celestial Mysteries, Duncan Baird Publishers 2003
· Interesting insights and information on Callanish from ex-islander. http://www.jill-smith.co.uk/lunar_standstill.html
· Portal to many lunar articles, calendars etc http://www.astrocal.co.uk/index.html
by Kat