Working with Moondark
March 14, 2009
I wrote this article for the August 2007 Issue of Connections Magazine, and have decided to re-publish it here, within the “Just let me get old, ok?” theme. In the last two years, we have become even more aware of our dangerous disconnection from the rhythms of Nature of which the article speaks, and the price that comes with it. As individuals we tend to feel powerless – but we are not. There are innumerable routes we can take to limit our destructive use of the planet’s finite resources. There are also small ways in which we can begin to pay more attention to the weave of natural energies which includes us all.
Now read on…
The Botanic Gardens in Glasgow, Kirklee gate. Spring sunshine and the sharp tang of flowering currant. Birds singing cheerily as they nest. A light breeze rustling fresh green leaves. Walking briskly uphill toward the rose garden, I am filled with gratitude for my returned vitality, and the simple, lively beauty of the morning.
I smile at everyone in passing; mostly they smile back. A young woman heads downhill. Her ears are plugged with her I Pod. She is looking down at her mobile, texting as she goes. She looks tense. She does not notice me smiling at her. I feel a great pang of sadness for this girl – and for her generation, many of whom I have observed in this same park, totally disconnected from Nature in the very same way.
This small incident reveals how we have increasingly handed over the organising and patterning of our lives to technology and cyberspace, creating a work-obsessed 24/7 culture. But 2006/7 seems to be a turning point; it is dawning on us that we cannot live sustainably and healthily in defiance of the ancient rhythms of nature.
As I slowly contemplate how best to direct my renewed energy, the theme of disconnection and reconnection is very much on my mind – rather apt, as “Connections” magazine ends in its 23-year old format, beginning its own process of reconnection with a new format and wider audience.
One of the great challenges of growing older is that of avoiding ‘Golden Age-ism’. The first known recorded observation by boring middle aged farts that the younger generation is a disaster, and the world is going to the dogs, goes back to an ancient Persian clay tablet of around two thousand years ago.
No doubt our ancient Persian thought there was a Golden Age just before that, when things were just fabulous. There never was a Golden Age; there never will be. This is one of humankind’s most persistent myths.
Life on earth has always been a capricious and often brutal process. As enlightened and open minded middle aged people, if we can avoid falling into permanent ‘angry old person’ mode, we can, hopefully, apply the deepened perspectives arising from surviving five decades or more to the challenges of our particular time.
We cannot abandon technology, but can – if we choose – begin slowly to step aside from the destructive 24/7 ism which it fosters. People need to stop going to the supermarket at midnight and sending emails at 3 am if they want to have a proper life!
So where could we start?
Chill out time....
As I sit writing this, tucked away quietly in my office with some soothing Japanese incense burning, it is Moondark. ‘What on earth is that?’ I hear you say.
Moondark is the last three days of the 29.5 day sun/moon cycle. At Moondark, the Moon disappears. Full Moon is the high energy point of the cycle, fourteen days after the New Moon. A few month’s notetaking is sufficient to realise that life is more pressured and charged up at that time. Moondark is the low energy point. It is a time for rest and retreat, not a time to initiate new projects or demand great feats of one’s vitality.
“When I retire, I’m going to burn forty years of work diaries and run my life by the phases of the Moon!”
Yes, I said that, in a period of extreme work stress about ten years ago. Friends laughed; but now in the post-career phase of my life, I’m working at just that. I find it comforting, helpful and useful to tune into the Moon’s cycle as far as possible in plotting the ebb and flow of my energies these days.
My long retreat has taught me that regular and adequate periods of rest are essential. The bill for rest deprivation cannot be evaded by anyone. I find now that an hour’s retreat time daily, and careful planning to avoid taking on anything very demanding at Moondark, (if possible !) has provided a rhythm of alternating activity and rest which is stabilising and supportive of well-being. But it is important to be patient, realistic and gradual in any attempts to introduce lifestyle changes. It would be silly to suggest otherwise.
I hardly think the bosses of the land would take kindly to staff’s announcing that all work from now on was going to be run by the phases of the Moon!
You don’t need special tables to work out when Moondark is. Most diaries indicate by a small black circle next to the day and date, when the New Moon falls.
For example, you will find this year (2007) that Monday 13 August indicates the day of the New Moon. Tuesday 11 September is the next one, and so on for the rest of 2007. Thus Moondark in August is 10,11 &12 August. In September, it is 8, 9 & 10 September.
( UPDATE for Spring 2009: Thursday 26 March indicates the day of the New Moon. Saturday 25 April is the next one, and so on for the rest of 2009. Thus Moondark in March is 23-26th. In April, it is 22-24th….and so on.)
It is easy, as I do at the start of a new year and a new diary, to go through the year putting a red line through the days when Moondark falls.
A pattern of daily rest and retreat time, and observing Moondark as much as I can each month, has given me a sound support structure from which to return to a reconnected life. Observing Moondark is a regular reminder, also, that we belong to Mother Nature. Why don’t you try this for a while – and don’t forget to let me know how you get on!
(article first published in Connections Magazine, Scotland, UK, August 2007)
1100 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2009
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
