The Dance of the Crescent Moon lasts about a week – on a calendar it’s roughly 7 days. Bounded by the New Moon and the First Quarter Moon, lies a sequence that invites us to remain comfortably introspective, more ‘dark’ than ‘light’, more soft than hard. More open than closed; dreaming of color; tilting at our collective windmills.
“reculer pour mieux sauter”, a French phrase often translated as ‘taking a step backwards in order to jump further forward’. I have had this idea of a bow being drawn back, and how that backwards stretching will inevitably impact how fast and far the arrow will travel. There is a tension here, a purposeful building and storing of energy – until the right moment comes along, and the arrow flies.
This Crescent Sequence affords us a week, roughly, to look around at our lives and really notice the set and the setting that we participate in and with. We have time and space now, time for tweaks, considerations, last minute changes, before the house lights go down and the curtain goes up. Attention lavished here builds like the tension in the bow. This tension signals a certain getting readiness, it is preparation, and its goal is the nothing less than the target.
The target in our case, is the First Quarter Moon. For now, we prepare ourselves. These are the days of actively watching for synchronicity and serendipity, listening to whispers from within, practicing openness and graciousness to what is coming towards us. Taking stock of what is around us, within us, and how these things may be related.
Often called shadow work, this lunar inspired period of intentional tension building, observed consciously, allows us to metaphorically send a tap root down deep into our own soft, rich pay-dirt. All around us, sap is running low, tides are low, the darkness of crescent moon is still holding more dark than the light it reflects.
According to many traditions, this is also a time where we can access our own rich inner darkness, with the support and confidence of our ancestors, our lineage… for who else could make up the very soil we stand upon today? The actual people, those who make up our family tree- unique to each of us, -our ancestors – the rich body wisdom, of our powerful tribe. Accessable.
Regardless of what is happening on the surface of our lives, here in the depths is the opportunity to ground deep into ourselves, work with our ancestors, our lineage, our essential callings.
Everything originates here, with the inner work; out there in ‘reality’ we play out/experience the story of our interior life. Take this week, this sequence to listen to what is be percolating down in the deep. The tap root of the mightiest oak starts as a little filament, hardly visible to the naked eye. Eventually it will anchor the tree; drawing nutrients and water from deep within the earth. In our hurried minds, the urge to let the the show begin before the stage has been set, – all this has a time and place. But that time is not now. Draw back instead, and take pause. Observe. Notice. Listen.
Building this tension, cultivating your energy – this is a Master Level Life Skill. And learning a new skill usually requires Attention and Repetition. Which can suck. I personally whine a lot in the early stages of any change, let alone- god forbid, something new.
So the good news is this; The crescent moon, long associated with gestation and rising energy, is NOT about learning. All She asks of you is to have faith in your process, relax a little, (soft body; deep breath) and give yourself some space.
This monthly retrograde movement of intentionally heads us back into the mix. We can better spring forth. With this calmness in our personal inner world, the vibration we are constantly emitting into our collective field(s) is cleaner as well.
and remember…
Tension and Discomfort are the persistent feeling of incompetence as we get better at a skill.
~Seth Godin
The Journey 
