From the Slavic goddess Devana to the Greek goddess Artemis, the moon has been historically seen as yin/feminine. One of the reasons for this is that the length of the moon cycle mirrors that of the female cycle. The moon’s soft light, bright enough to illuminate the night sky but not bright enough to overpower, is reminiscent of a goddess’s soft beauty who has intense and mysterious powers. When the moon is full, the goddess is at her full power. What is her power? It is to create. And what might she create? It could be an artform, the creation of a human life, or even the transformation or recreation of self.
Twilight offers us moments of quiet and reflection. We tend to associate productivity with physical action, however I want to take a moment to appreciate the productive power of stillness. Specifically stillness of the mind. Perhaps stillness is not a place where you’d expect to find productivity. Perhaps you’d expect to find it on a busy street or in a world that never sleeps. But it’s here, in the quiet recesses of the mind, where the greatest depths of the soul can be reached and imaginary worlds that do not yet have form can be brought into being. It’s not the type of productivity you’ll get from an assembly line. It is a slow and deliberate type of productivity that is infused with rich meaning. Whether you access it through meditation or prayer, stillness is a sort of “master clearer” of loud energies, which makes it a prime place for summoning raw creative power.
I’ll leave you with a poem by Malcolm Guite, which reminds me of this sort of slow, deliberate, creative power. He encourages us to become like empty singing bowls, and reminds us words will come in time.
“Singing Bowl” from Malcolm Guite’s 2013 book “The Singing Bowl”
