The Quiet Moon: Pathways to an Ancient Way of Being

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Reflecting on listening in her essay ‘The Universe in time of rain makes the world alive with noise’ (2000), Oswald describes it as The August full moon is the Grain Moon or Dispute Moon, a time of feasts and festivals and resolving disputes between neighbors. As you can see from the Celtic full moon names above, they often named them after events, such as harvest season. This is typical of many ancient societies as they often had big celebrations during these periods. That repeated word “loud”, describing the “owlet’s cry”, primes our ears, or rather, our mind’s ear, or what Robert Frost called the imagining ear, to listen for a certain pitch of sound, heightening the shift into quiet that follows. Through the calm, the “strange and extreme silentness”, a thin blue flame comes into focus. Perfectly still. Not a quiver. Like the string of a lute, silent in stillness. Only the film of soot is moving now, fluttering on the grate, not still as in quiet, but, with a slight adjustment, still fluttering, moving, continuing to move, against the grate of the fire. It is “the sole unquiet thing”.

Nature approaches her peak during a summer of short nights and bright days - this was when the ancient Celts claimed their wives and celebrated Lugnasad.In January, the full moon is known as the Quiet Moon, Wolf Moon, or Cold Moon, depending on the Celtic tribe. Oswald creates dynamic shifts of scale in other ways too, moving between linguistic registers, from the close domestic familiarity of the candle and its faint whisper, to the exotic names of faraway stars, those stars that rise “and give themselves airs”:

The Celts also wrote about the moon and stars in their mythology and folklore, as many Celtic stories and legends featured characters who had a close connection with the celestial bodies. The "far side" of the Moon looks very different than the near side (see the first photo in this article). Notice how few dark areas the far side has. This image is based on data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University The Celtic people used the cycles of the moon to guide various aspects of daily life, from planting crops to marking religious ceremonies. The stars were particularly important to the Celts during their travels as they were used to navigate during the night. January’s Quiet Moon reflects an air of melancholy, illuminating a midwinter of quiet menace; it was the time of the Dark Days for the ancient Celts, when the natural world balanced on a knife edge. By May, the Bright Moon brings happiness as time slows, mayflies cloud and elderflowers cascade. Nature approaches her peak during a summer of short nights and bright days – this was when the ancient Celts claimed their wives and celebrated Lugnasad. With the descent into winter comes the sadness of December’s Cold Moon. Trees stand bare and creatures shiver their way to shelter as the Dark Days creep in once more and the cycle restarts.The July full moon was known to the ancient Celts as the Claiming Moon or Horse Moon. Claiming Moon is likely derived from some sort of early legal system, similar to August’s Dispute Moon. July is traditionally the warmest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and as such is a good time to relax, meditate and reflect on your life. It is also a good time to think about how you can bring more positive things into your life.