Beloveds, I am so very delighted that this new offering is resonating with you all. Here’s what some readers have had to say about Writing with the Moon so far:
I am so excited about this new offering! I love that you share such full-sensory images for engaging with the lunation cycle—so resonant and evocative.
What a great new edition! I always wonder about how to use the moon to create. Lately, I've had a hard time kicking my writing into gear. It's nice to know that it's a reflective time and ok to just feel it for now.
I love the invitation to reflect within the narrative and am excited to return to these lush prompts throughout the week. I like to think of the week in sections within the moon's transits. This is a wonderful format and as a new subscriber that just came on about 2 weeks ago right before this, I must say this type of content is exactly what I’m looking for.
This new offering is resonating with me. I love the practical aspect of having prompts that are geared toward the Moon cycle. And the imagery!! Thank you so much for doing this, Jeanna.
A note on this week’s image
Cloisters are very sacred to me. The Met Cloister, here in New York, is one of my favorite places in the city. I have not infrequently framed gatherings and teach-ins using the structure of a cloister, which some of you will remember (last summer’s Roses & Thorns: A Venus Rx Cloister for Creative Recovery).
Cloisters, monasteries, ashrams, and their ilk are sanctuaries: mini-societies that are, for purposes of solitude, religious devotion, and service, deliberately set apart from society itself. In this, they are decidedly 12th house spaces. The part of the birth chart so often characterized as a place of isolation is just as much a deep spiritual well, where the exile may find or create Home.
As someone with 12th house luminaries (my sun and moon), it is perhaps unsurprising that, in spite of their prominence in organized religious traditions, I have always found belonging and a deep sense of peace in Cloister. One of the most meaningful, Spirit-filled experiences of my life was a 3-day monastic retreat I took at a Trappist Abbey as a 19-year-old. In the winters of my growing discontent with the church, the writing of Kathleen Norris — who herself spent so much time among the cloisters — was a perpetual balm. Equally so was that of St. John of the Cross, a Carmelite mystic who lived in the 16th century.
In the wake of my divorce, coming out, and full-on leaving of Christianity, I sought out the Evensong and Compline services at the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican order discreetly practicing in Harvard Square where I could still be surrounded by song and prayer but be blessedly free of judgment. Last year, during a 12th house profection year, I ached to go on another monastic retreat, and only health issues kept me from doing so.
I say all of this by way of partial disclaimer, but mostly to affirm that I do appreciate how loaded an image this may be for some people. As ever, we are working with the archetype. I have found great peace and serenity among monks, but I also grew up on my Catholic grandmother’s stories of physical abuse at the hands of nuns. These things are both true. And so I imagine that not every week of this newsletter may be for everyone. But I hope that notes such as these help to offer an accounting for why certain images are front-of-mind for certain weeks.
all times are eastern
The moon is currently void in Sagittarius. The moon enters Capricorn at 4:15pm, where it will be until Wednesday the 6th. The moon will station void at 2:35pm on Wednesday and enter Aquarius at 7:38pm that night. On Friday, the moon is void at 1:55pm and will go into Pisces at 8:03pm. It will station void at 3:45pm Sunday and enter Aries at 8:19pm that evening.
This week, we’re moving through the liturgy of the hours at the cloister.
Lauds: Dawn, 5 a.m.
The body is hungry, but duty calls. And so you dress yourself on this second or third day of your monastic retreat, and drag your sluggish body down to the chapel.