Moon Child Blessings

I open the front door and step into the crisp, moist air of a late November night in Maine.  Nike, my toy poodle, scampers down the stairs and shuffles around, looking for the perfect spot for her nightly ritual.  I hear her but pay no attention for I am riveted by the Moon.

     Normally the Moon is not visible from this position on my land, as the huge oak tree on the east side of the house fills the horizon.  But this time of year, the oak is bare and the Moon in all her beauty is now ascending, silhouetting the branches as she rises.  The mist creates a halo around the Moon, fracturing the light as it spreads outward.  I stand, entranced, oblivious to the increasing chill and damp, for I am communing with the Divine.

     I’ve always had an affinity for the Moon.  A Cancer by birth, and thus a Moon Child, some of my earliest memories are of watching the Moon rise out my bedroom window.  When I was five, my parents moved to a house on a street with an east-west orientation.  I can remember standing in the street, watching the Equinox Moon rise at the horizon.  It seemed to fill the street—impossibly big and impossibly beautiful.  Although I appreciated the drama of the Moon landing in 1969, I was really glad that the grandiose plans of establishing bases and colonies on the surface of the Moon never came to pass.  It seemed, somehow, sacrilegious.

     Nike trots upstairs and I let her into the house.  I remain outside, focusing on the Moon—and the mist that surrounds her—and the wispy white smoke created when I exhale into the cold damp air.  The mist around the Moon is made of the same stuff as the mist I exhale—air saturated with water droplets—coming in contact with much colder temperatures.  I feel intensely connected to the Moon at this moment.  I feel her brilliant white light shimmering through the mist—shining on me as a visible blessing—shining on all things around me—the trees and the rocks and the land and the creatures—all are blessed by the Moonlight.

     The Moon played a very special role in the life I created with my first husband and my daughter.  We used to stand on the porch of our New Orleans home and howl at the full Moon each month.  When my daughter became old enough to want to go away to summer camp, yet still young enough to miss her parents, she and I used the Moon as a tool of connection.  I told her that any time she saw the Moon she should know that I was sending her love through the Moon, and she could send love back to me the same way.  It is a tool we use to this day.

     I think of this as the planet rotates and the Moon rises a little more.  It is clear of the oak now, smaller and more distant as she climbs.  Perhaps, I think, the Moon can be a tool for sending something on a broader scale than to just my daughter.  Perhaps it can be a tool for sending blessings throughout the universe.    

      

   To bless is to awaken—to become aware of the presence of Spirit all around you—to acknowledge the grand flow of Beingness that surrounds and supports us in what we sense and what we experience—the primal vital life force.  David Spangler, American spiritual philosopher, writes that a blessing is “a natural expression of the fiery love and inclusiveness of our inner spirit.” Theologian Matthew Fox describes blessing as the theological word for the goodness “inherent in the beauty, wisdom and wonder of creation.”

     When I look at the Moon I feel blessed—a deep sense of contentment and connection.  Moon-watching promotes a further awakening in me—a deeper awareness of the presence of Spirit all around me—a presence I acknowledge with respectful gratitude.  When I look at the Moon I am aware of a beauty and goodness that both humbles and uplifts my soul. 

I stand quietly and let Moon blessings pour over me.  My heart opens and the love and inclusiveness of my inner spirit flows upward on the paths of light created by the Moon.  I send my energy to merge with that of the Moon, welcoming the power of the Moon to amplify the blessings I wish to spread around the world.  Blessings, blessings, blessings to all things covering the surface of this beloved planet.