Today's Full Moon, which occurs at 3:45 pm EDT, is also this year's Harvest Moon.

The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox and was called this because, rising within a half hour of sunset, it allowed farmers extra time to bring in the harvest, working by the light of the moon. The Harvest Moon always hangs low in the sky and often has an orange or pink cast. It seems to be larger and more beautiful than other Full Moons and gives a lot of light throughout the entire night. No other lunar spectacle is as awesome as the Harvest Moon. When it falls in September, the Harvest Moon is also known as the Fruit Moon.

The Full Moon is a time of culmination and the promise of fulfillment of that which was started at the New Moon. It is an emotional time—a time of romance, fertilization, and relationships. Energy is considered to be at it's highest right now and this is the perfect time for spells that increase psychic abilities and fertility. Celtic traditions saw the September Full Moon as the Moon of the Wise and associated it with manifestation and protection, as well as fertility.

Coming as it does right after Mabon, this Full Moon's association with fertility can be a powerful blessing for the seeds we've just sent into the loamy depths of the underworld. Lunar cycles generally focus on what may be manifested from month to month, but today seems to have the potential to affect us into the Spring, when the seeds we've planted will begin to sprout. My usual source for astrological insight into the workings of the Moon is Cafe Astrology, however that advice felt too fleeting to apply to the deep sense of importance instinct is telling me this Full Moon holds. So I decided to turn to another source for guidance - Celtic tradition.

The Celts used a more ancient lunar calendar that had 13 months instead of twelve. Each month was associated with a different tree, which was believed to be imbued with the energy and attributes of the spirit that inhabited it. And thus the character of each month, and the personality of those born within it, is influenced by its tree spirit. I found a great site that describes the Celtic Zodiac and offers descriptions of each of the trees.

Because the Celtic calendar doesn't quite correspond to our modern calendar, I had to use a bit of common sense and intuition when applying the principles of the Celtic Zodiac to an interpretation of the energy influencing today's Full Moon. If you go by today's date alone, September 26, it falls at the end of the Vine month. But the Vine month is generally associated with August, the tenth month in the Celtic Ogham, and Lughnassadh. The month that is associated with Mabon and the Autumnal Equinox is September, the eleventh month in the Celtic Ogham, the Ivy month.

The power of the Ivy lies in its ability to cling and bind, making it a potent symbol of determination and strength to the Druids. Ivy has been known to strangle trees and was once a portent of death and spiritual growth. Being evergreen in nature, the Ivy represented the perennial aspects of the human psyche. The Celts associated Ivy with their Lunar Goddess, Arianrhod, and their ritual to this deity marked the opening of the portal to the OtherWorld...or the Dark Side of the Moon. This door symbolized an entrance to the Realm of Faery and thus, the Ivy was representative of the mysterious and the mystical. Ivy was once carried by women for good luck and used to aid in fertility. When used correctly, it was said to heal headaches, muscle cramps and assist in the art of prophecy. Ivy was symbolic of the journey of the soul and the spiral toward to the self. It encouraged assistance toward others in their search so that they, in turn, might offer assistance. Considered to be powerful indeed by the Celts because of its ability to kill even the mightiest Oak, the Ivy has a tendency to create dense, inpenetrable thickets in the forest. It was regarded to be much more powerful than the Vine and rather sinister in nature.

Taken in the context of other correspondences to the Harvest Moon and the spiritual significance of Mabon (knowing too that Samhain soon follows), I think today's Full Moon belongs to Ivy. For me, Mabon was not the joyous celebration of abundance that I felt it should have been. Instead, I'm turning my thoughts to the promise of something new for a different harvest yet to come. Reading the description of Ivy above, I am eager to work with its energy, to call upon its spirit, to walk into the faery realm. I remember what Christopher Penczak said in his description of his Mabon ritual about calling upon plant allies to aid us as we descend seed-like into the Underworld and winter. What more powerful ally to have at my side as I take on this work than Ivy?

Today feels like the beginning of an energetic and spiritual dance toward Samhain and a new year. One of my sources on Full Moon correspondences lists trooping faeries as the nature spirits associated with September's Full Moon. I'm going to call upon my faery guides and crow sisters so that we can wrap ourselves in Ivy and troop together on this journey.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 4:00 PM | Comments (1)

Once again, the chaos that has become my life has swooped in and taken over. I can't find time for eating, much less for blogging. My apologies to friends and readers who have come to expect more from Blogickal and whom, I realize, I've been disappointing lately.

Today is Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox and the last of the Wiccan harvest festivals, the Witches’ version of Thanksgiving. This is a time for spiritual reflection on the past year, what it has brought to us and what have we sown and harvested in our lives. It is a time to give thanks to the God and the Goddess for what we have been able to accomplish and it is an opportunity to cut away the chaff, the useless things and situations that are keeping us from realizing our truest potential and greatest happiness. Since we are coming to the end of our Pagan year it also is a time to imagine what we hope and plan to accomplish next year. These things are our modern "harvest."

There have been some good things for which I am truly grateful. But when I look back over the past year, it's with a fair amount of pain and disappointment. Mabon finds me quite literally in a place I hadn't planned to be and at a point where I'm being forced to face the reality that one particular seed, which I've been nurturing for so long, is simply not going to reach fruition. It's difficult to explain grief for something that was only an idea, a hope, a dream, but the experience of that grief isn't any less real.

Last night my teacher, Christopher Penczak, led ritual for our community, which I missed, being headachy and exhausted. The theme for the ritual was "focusing on the seeds descending into the dark, and calling upon plant allies that are balms, banes and trees to aid us in understanding our own seed-like nature that must descend in the winter and weather the cold and ice." Descending into the dark was something I just wasn't prepared to face last night. The promise of a balm was not enough to overcome my fear of the dark.

In addition to my blog, my faith is one of the things that I've been neglecting lately, one of the losers in the conflict between what I really want to do and what I can actually accomplish with the limited personal resources I have at the moment. I have not been a good tender of seeds.

This morning I read about Dianne Sylvan's Harvest in her Seed Post #8. She too experienced a year that failed to yield everything that she had hoped. Yet she had this to say:

. . . before you lament those things left undone, those ideas gone feral, and those best-laid plans that went spectacularly awry, remember that this, too, shall pass. Both the beautiful and the harrowing pass. Success and tragedy, life and death, all pass.  Trying to hold on to any point on the Wheel won't stop it turning. Those things we harvest one year must be sown again as seed the next.  We are not owners, but conduits; we are both the weavers and the woven, but the tapestry is never finished.

All things are temporary, and there is a wonderful freedom in that thought--for all things change, and they can always change for the better, if we are willing to be more than passive observers of our own lives.

Freedom. Perhaps the most important thing that I am harvesting this year is freedom.

Christopher wrote a chant for the ritual last night:

Dark God Light God
Father and Son
Turning the Wheel
Your Time Has come
God of the Hunt
God of the Seed
With your death
we are freed

The things that we realize through great personal sacrifice and struggle are usually the ones that we come to value the most. It certainly has been hard-won and not something I asked for, but the Wheel turns whether we're ready or not and if Freedom is to be the bounty of my harvest, then I thank the Gods and Goddesses for their wisdom in knowing the blessing that I needed even if I didn't. I will go into the dark with the seed of my Freedom and think of the things that I can accomplish with it in the coming year.

Wishing you a blessed Harvest Home.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:09 AM | Comments (4)

This morning there is a New Moon in Virgo and a Solar Eclipse. As usual, I turn to my favorite source on the subject for an evaluation, Cafe Astrology:

A New Moon Solar Eclipse occurs in the sign of Virgo this morning at 8:45 AM EDT. Its effects can be felt up to six months after the actual date of the eclipse. In the sign of Virgo, work and health matters will be a major focus on a personal level. This eclipse is about new beginnings regarding work, attention to details, fitness, health regimes, and daily routines. The eclipse squares Mars and opposes Uranus, suggesting dynamic change and unexpected events. This is a time when we should build our powers of healthy, constructive discrimination; learn to be more pro-active; start a new health and fitness routine; set up specific routines that will help us manage our lives in positive, mindful ways; and learn the "power of now" and of mindfulness. We can learn to master the "little" details of our day-to-day lives in a more organized manner so that we can free our minds of clutter. For some of us, circumstances are such that we need to pay more attention to our work and health routines. Flaws in an important system in our lives are revealed around the time of the eclipse, prompting us to redo or to start fresh. We may find ourselves completely re-working this area of life. Read more about this Solar Eclipse.

Image: Phases oppositions. Copyright © Kmye Chan, 2006.

Change - the "redo" and the "fresh start" - is a funny thing. Most of the time it's good for us, but early this morning, lying on an air mattress as I woke to unfamiliar morning noises in my new apartment, I started thinking about the nature of change that we do not choose but that is forced upon us. My mind went to The Wheel of Fortune. It's an interesting card because for all that it's about luck it's really more about the idea that change is an unending part of life, whether we like it or not, plan it or not, see it coming or not. Does the "fortune" in The Wheel of Fortune mean that this change is for our own good, our destiny if you will?

In the excellent discussion about eclipses, Cafe Astrology has this to say about change:

Eclipses are tied to changing circumstances. However, we are usually the ones to precipitate or to attract changes because our "inner guides" know that we need it. Human beings are progressive by nature, and although we might stay in situations that are making us miserable for longer than we should, deep down inside we know that change is necessary for growth.

It occurs to me that if you, like me, are feeling a bit discombobulated by the effects of the turning of the Wheel, with things turned upside down and personal belongings (material or spiritual) spilled all over the place (literally or metaphorically), then perhaps this New Moon in Virgo with a Solar Eclipse is just the influence we need to bring some order to the chaos. Virgo's power to make us mindful of details will be helpful in putting things to rights and with the eclipse giving us six months to feel its effects, we can take the time we need to make this fresh start work for us.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:12 AM | Comments (0)

You're Watership Down
by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:16 PM | Comments (1)

I'm ready for a change of seasons, a change of scenery, a change in temperature and temperament.

I'm ready for a change of wardrobe. Have you seen the Fall fashions? A dizzying and delicious variety of shapes and textures, but all of them grey, black, and more grey. I've haven't been this excited about Fall clothes in a long time, and I'm always excited about Fall clothes.

I can't wait for the cool air that blows through my window at night to blow out the hot air of summer, bringing with it sweater weather and the need for a fun scarf or hat. A knitting friend of mine and I were discussing what to do with all of the random bits of yarn left over from old projects and I proposed knitting a scarf with a stripe or section made from each bit of old yarn. It would be a riot of color and texture and would look great against that Robert Rodriguez black patent leather pea coat.

I always feel energized come September - I think it goes back to school days and being so excited about the start of a new school year - but I also think it has to do with some sort of cosmic shift that occurs this time of year. I can't describe it exactly but everything just looks and feels different. I'm ready for different.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:32 PM | Comments (3)

I am so digging Miss Amy Winehouse right now. I know how horrible this sounds, but I hope she stays a wonderful, creative drunk because when she goes all sober on us will she ever come up with lyrics like these?

Amy Winehouse Lyrics

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:20 PM | Comments (0)

Yes, I did drop off the face of the planet for a while for reasons too numerous and complicated to explain. But I'm back now, feet on terra firma and alive and well, albeit in new digs.

I missed the Full Moon. All of my magickal books and tools are in boxes somewhere. It will take me a bit of time to get back into full witch mode. I started a few posts over the past few weeks and some of them are worth picking back up to appear here later. Bear with me a little while longer and I promise, Blogickal will return to its normal self soon.

Right now I'm sitting at my desk, in front of a window through which a wonderful cool breeze is blowing, and instead of hearing the sounds of a busy street I'm hearing the sounds of a neighborhood. What a difference turning a corner can make!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:15 AM | Comments (3)