November 15, 2024 Full Moon: Finding the Rhythms

The November full moon is called the Beaver Moon because this is the time beavers are extremely busy repairing and fortifying their lodgings and storing food for the winter. It is also the fourth and last Super Moon this year; the first one in 2025 won't happen until October.

The photo above at left was taken at 2:15 AM on Thursday night, just before the cloud cover totally swallowed it up. The center and right images were taken last night at 4:15 AM, before dark, fast-moving clouds obscured every hint of light. Although what I saw was more muted than if it was a clear sky, it was ethereal and lovely. The quiet glow of the moonlight created interesting shadows and otherworldly tones of color in the pre-dawn landscape.

Why This Project

As the Full Circle Around the Sun project was coming to a close in mid-October, the idea of creating with the cycles of the moon presented itself as a next concept, particularly once I started thinking about lunar cycles as an alternative way to measure time. As I looked back through photographs of the many works I've created over the past 35 years of being a maker, similar abstracted themes kept reappearing: aging, cycles of growth and decay, cliffs, stones, suns and moons. Everywhere I have lived or traveled, I have explored: mountains, cliffs, waterfalls, creeks, stones and rock formations. So I chose abstracting those from the landscape as my subject within the framework of the 13 Moons time period.

In addition, I am feeling a great desire to connect the dots of all the things I love - nature, pollinator gardening, visual art, crafts, learning and writing. I needed an umbrella that could bring all of them into a cohesive mix. A project like this can do that - it has a scope that could become a "magnum opus" (which means "great work") in a creative life - if nothing more, it becomes my "ikigai", a Japanese concept of a meaningful and purposeful life that gives a person "a reason to wake up each morning."

A Structure but Super Flexible

Structuring this idea as a project also creates a container for exploration. Exploration invites some sort of planning and review process. The desire to reactivate my blog and record what happens over this period of time emerged in tandem with some of the planning of what to do and how to do it. Since I'm no longer a business, not concerned with marketing products or building a brand, I'm free to pursue what my true desire is, which is to nourish, nurture and participate in creating creative community and sharing insights and wisdom together.

So I came up with a structure to start with, one that can evolve as the project does:

• Create daily to flesh out ideas and approaches to the subject. It doesn't matter what, a drawing, a color sample, a collage - any studio work around this topic.

• Make samples and experiments on papers that will basically become fodder for future collages or sketchbook pages - photograph them and take notes on tools and techniques and what ideas they generate to try next.

• Keep a brief daily log of what happens each day - include: ideas, experiments with techniques, notes from research, references to a blog post, website, image, book, article, class or lecture.

Any and all of these activities may shift temporarily or completely. Feel free to create your own flexible structure for creating - it doesn't have to be linked with the lunar cycles like mine. It could be seasons or calendar-based. Being open to what is working well will make it easier to adapt and modify anything that gets too complex or begins to take away some of the atmosphere of play and discovery.

Working with the Moon Cycles

New Moon

Each cycle starts with the New Moon. With each new moon, choose an intention for the lunar cycle. One example might be to develop a color palette for a series of moon studies. That choice will help set creative energy in motion and decide what action to take next. We can start anywhere, because we learn we can trust our inner wisdom to gently shift our thinking as we create as we go along. In this example, we might start with making color samples of the moon in a variety of different color combinations. That may lead us to try many different colors or working in different media, just so we can experience and respond to them.

First and Second Quarters of the Lunar Cycle

In the first and second quarters, we just try ideas out, record what happens and repeat. In a sifting and sorting process, some ideas will not work out, some will and others will be a bridge to revised ones that will.

Full Moon

At the Full Moon we hopefully will see evidence we have made progress in moving towards our intention. We can look back on the two weeks and consider what direction the earlier part of the month has taken us. What shifts have taken place? What new resources have appeared? What still needs to be done? How do I feel about the structure I've chosen? Do I have ideas for how it might suit me better as I move forward?

Third and Fourth Quarters

Over the final two weeks of the quarter, we can touch base with our original intention. What pathway did this particular intention lead us down? What new interests have appeared? What current ones have evolved, morphed, taken a back seat or been discarded? What new things have I learned about myself and the natural world? What experiences have I had out in nature? What have I recorded this month in my writing, photography and visual art?

My First Two Weeks - New to Full Moon

Just a few samples of rock related ideas I tried out; most aren't even glued down, just photographed as I thought about and explored textures and patterns and colors I might use. I did a few more loose pages with paintings and/or sketches, others in sketchbooks. These don't have to be good or even finished, because they are just possibilities for me to choose from as this exploration moves towards making choices for ideas to develop further.

It has been a busy and productive two weeks, so here are a few highlights. I am enjoying making mind maps and keeping a daily log. My intention was to develop a loose structure for this exploration and see what does and doesn't work for me. For example, keeping a daily log didn't happen every day, but I did make entries most days and find it very helpful to keep all my research and ideas all in one spot - that journal is always at my side and I use it for everything. I didn't complete and post my new moon blog post until days after the new moon (but I did complete and post it!).

I listened to "Creative Fire", an audio narration by Clarissa Pinkola Estes - she is always brilliant - and started reading The Mythic Path by David Feinstein, Ph.D. and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D and Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story", by Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. Both books takes the position that we live our lives by myths we create ourselves and we can choose to create a new guiding myth for our lives. When we do, we create an identity, "who am I?" - that speaks to our life's direction, "where am I going?" - and our purpose, "why am I going there?" The books have writing exercises, although I find The Mythic Path a bit easier to read. I'm also rereading Art & Fear, a classic, since this is a new venture - nothing new ever starts without a generous dose of fear! I am also participating in a monthly writing group, taking weekly ceramic hand-building classes and am part of a 12 week program with Lorraine Glessner called Expressive Markmaking and Content.

My next post will be around December 1, when we enter the New Moon phase.

Until then, I continue to affirm we are all creative beings who can bring transformation and healing to our world, no matter what it faces.

May all beings be peaceful.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.

May all beings be free.

Jeanne