New September Moon

Several people have asked about my moonboard practice, and the naming of the moon. I like to use this Celtic tree calendar, simply because I love trees and the Native American moon names don’t particularly resonate with me.But as nothing about the Celts is hard and fast, I also refer to this list, especially in the latter part of the year: So this September moon, I refer to as the Apple Moon, especially as I am surrounded by laden apple trees 🙂 For information, and inspiration, I like to refer to this site each month, and I note in pencil words, phrases, images on the next blank double-page spread of my moon journal (an unlined A4 Moleskine). Then I gather images from my collagey-stash (words and images clipped from old magazines, catalogues, junk mail, etc), sift and sort, arrange and stick… It’s a very meditative, silent process, barely engaging my rational mind, allowing my other senses to come to the fore – sight, touch, intuition…

So here’s my board to celebrate today’s New Apple Moon on this nineth day of the nineth month: The apple tree speaks of love, fruitfulness, abundance. The writing in the centre is clipped from Toast‘s free Autumn-Winter lookbook, which I picked up in their Oxford store last Sunday, it reads:

Creativity stirs within us all. At times joyfully abundant, at others nowhere to be seen. We walk the city streets, chasing its return. We close our eyes, we drift and dream. But when emptiness reigns, and the page remains unmarked, what next? Should we be still, silent, allowing thoughts to ebb and flow? Or should we venture like Turner into the eye of the storm, pursuing something wild, something visceral?

As a ‘both-and’ rather than an ‘either-or’ kind of person, I prefer getting out into Nature (stormy or otherwise) and being silent… letting the wind, the trees, the birds stir my creativity. Indeed, letting my thoughts ebb and flow, but in rhythm with the ‘something wild’ all around me.

I’d love to know what you think – about Creativity, the Moon, the changing Season (Autumn for us in the North, Spring for friends in the South), anything really 🙂