Back
to the top
September
Moon Names: Harvest Moon,
Wine Moon, Singing Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Haligmonath (Holy Month), Witumanoth
(Wood Month), Moon When Deer Paw the Earth.
eptember
was the seventh month in the oldest Roman calendar. When other months were
added to the seasonal calendar, the name for some reason was never changed.
The Autumn Equinox was and is still celebrated by many cultures around
the world. This month is the last of the reliable harvesting months in
the Northern Hemisphere. Life is beginning to wind down in preparation
for the dormant months that follow. The energy flows from the Autumn Equinox
through Winter Solstice to the Spring Equinox are getting deeper, more
hidden. The Dark Moon deities, who represent the Underworld, death, reincarnation,
and deep spiritual mysteries, now hold sway.
The Egyptian Ceremony of Lighting
the Fire was a general festival of lights for all the gods and goddesses.
Lamps of all kinds were set in front of deity statues. They were also placed
before the statues of ancestors. The Egyptian deity Thoth was the Lord
of Holy Wards and inventor of the Four Laws of Magick. Portrayed as ibis-headed,
Thoth was a Moon god. As Supreme Magus, or the Ultimate Magician, he had
control over the powers and attributes of the Moon.
In the old Incan Empire, the
Citua was held on the New Moon nearest the Autumn Equinox. Everyone performed
a ritual cleansing, then smeared their faces with a paste of ground maize
(corn). There followed several days of feasting and dancing. This was a
Moon festival in honor of Mama Quilla, the Moon goddess.
Correspondences
Nature Spirits: trooping faeries
Herbs: copal, fennel, rye,
wheat, valerian, skullcap
Colours: brown, yellow-green,
yellow
Flowers: narcissus, lily
Scents: storax, mastic, gardenia,
bergamot
Stones: peridot, olivine,
chrysolite, citrine
Trees: hazel, larch, bay
Animals: snake, jackal
Birds: ibis, sparrow
Deities: Demeter, Ceres,
Isis, Nephthys, Freyja, Ch'ang-O, Thoth
Power Flow: rest after labor;
balance of Light and Dark. Organize. Clean and straighten up physical,
mental, emotional and spiritual clutter.
Old
Sayings
& Lore
-
A verse: When the Moon is at
the full, mushroom you can safely pull. But when the Moon is on the wane,
wit ere you think to pluck again.
-
Sailors believed that if the
Moon, in the first or last quarter, lay in nearly a horizontal position
with the horns upward, the weather would be fine. Country people say that
the same type of Moon means good weather for twenty eight days.
-
Country people said that the
weather was more likely to change at the four quarters of the Moon that
at any other time.
-
Rain is coming when the Moon
has a halo around it or when an outline can be seen between the horns of
a waxing or waning Moon.
-
One old legend says that on the
Moon is everything that was wasted on Earth: mis-spent time, squandered
wealth, broken vows, unanswered prayers, fruitless tears, unfulfilled desires
and intentions, etc.