Old Moon

 

03.01.26

Today the earth will be closest in its orbit to the sun than at any other time this year. The event known as perihelion (Greek for near sun) was probably, in pre-Christian times, a day of celebration offering thanks to the sun for its light, energy & promise of regeneration & transformation.

It also coincides with a full moon - a wolf moon or old moon - & the light of the sun reflects mirror like on the moons surface. Of course, women naturally sense the moon’s energies - during a full moon particularly - the phases that rule the tides also rule our blood/bleeding (menstruation comes from the Latin for monthly mensis & Greek for moon, meni) we ebb & flow with the sea. But it’s more than that.

As a teenager, I used to feel the pull of the moon but feared it too - associating the monthly shifts in energy with tales of werewolves & witches. I suppressed the strange surges until, over time, they disappeared. Years later, the visceral gut-tug I feel when I see a hedge bluntly flailed or a field churned up for development comes from the same buried place. Knowing now that it’s a natural (rather than super-natural) response - an inherent understanding of the inter-relatedness of things & a shared despair at its unraveling. No longer deceived by the demons of patriarchal myths, I’m reawakening a deeper, more intuitive connection to all things in the cosmos. 

I keen for the moon

my blood swoons at her pull like a tidal swell 

she hauls me out of the night

again

I’m rooted to her

marooned in her gaze 

ecstatic

a lunatic

02.01.2026