Journaling
Journal Prompt: Full Moon, Sept 30-October 6
The moon waxes to full this week, bringing us into a time of great energy and mellow ripeness. Autumn comes in, and the winds rise, ridding us of lethargy and heaviness, doubt falls away. We again are able to see the good in all things, the revealed silver lining.
The ivy moon brings with it the image of a spiral, promising us that though we go through periods of hardship and testing, we will emerge again. Ride the high wind. Plant a bulb to greet you come spring. Revisit. Revise.
Journal prompts are written by poet and regular contributor Sarah Busse.
the last full moon before Y2K
How To Use These Prompts
You don’t have to be a writer.
Keeping a journal, the practice of writing down what’s on your mind (could be dreams, could be the view of your back yard, could be childhood memories or conversations from last night) is for anyone. Not just someone who wants to be “a writer.” Journaling is exercise for the mind. It’s a workout, a stretching routine. Mental cross training.
You don’t need a fancy journal or an expensive pen.
Better if you don’t, really. It’s too easy to feel like what you write in one of those gorgeous books has to be equal to the beautiful pages. We’re going for mess, for process. For scratching out, scribbling in, revising and drawing arrows across whole paragraphs. Get a cheap spiral notebook, a collection of index cards in a box, or start a new document on your computer. Whatever works for you.
You don’t have to journal about what I’ve written about.
In one of my journal pages, I found myself writing “the days line up like a trail of white pebbles.” I like that idea. You may like to think about it that way and see where the image takes you…. Or you may decide that for you, your days are like green marbles, or shimmering bubbles floating skyward, or fenced fields that stretch to the horizon. Or you don’t like the comparison, but you do remember your cousin’s rock polisher and that reminds you of your cousin and the last time you saw him and there’s a memory there, or a story. It’s up to you entirely, what you write in your journal. The prompts I write are to help get you going and stay going, when you need help, in whatever direction you choose.
You do have to make the time.
How much time is up to you. Ten minutes a day? Three half-hours a week? Every morning for two hours? Whatever you decide will work for you and your schedule, try to make it a routine. Experiment for a month or two, see what happens.
Why the Moon?
Journaling can risk navel gazing. It can become repetitive. Having a focus outside of ourselves aids new perspective and allows more air onto the page.
We occasionally overlook the moon, our city lights are becoming so bright. The stars have almost disappeared for many of us. Foreign and familiar, constant and ever changing, the moon is an old companion. The moon brings us through the year.
I am choosing to use a system which originated in Celtic tradition, and names each moon after a tree, focusing on the attributes of that tree as particular to that time of year. Again, it’s simply a way of focusing and re-focusing attention. Like any exterior focus, following this system allows the possibility that new questions and perspectives may surface.
Here is the schedule of moons I will be using for this year:
December -January Birch Moon (Beginning)
January -February Rowan Moon (Vision)
February -March Ash Moon (Love)
March -April Alder Moon (Work)
April -May Willow Moon (Enchantment)
May -June Hawthorn Moon (Disenchantment)
June -July Oak Moon (Security)
July -August Holly Moon (Encirclement)
August -September Hazel Moon (Wisdom)
September -October Vine Moon (Celebration)
October -November Ivy Moon (Resilience)
November -December Reed Moon (Home and Hearth)
December Elder Moon (Completion)
And with that the circle comes round again, and we start in late December with the Birch Moon once more. Time spirals as surely as our DNA.
If you prefer, there are alternative systems for naming the moons you can find online or in your library. Many Native American groups had lovely and evocative names for the moons of the year. Eventually, as you journal around the circle, it could be quite powerful to come up with your own system of meaningful references and names.
Journal prompts are written by poet and regular contributor Sarah Busse.