Happy March and happy full moon. This traditionally may be the month to celebrate lions and lambs, but for today I’m talking crows.
Full moons always carry a number of names, as each culture, each society, chooses what connections are relevant for them. We often hear this moon called the Full Worm Moon, because now is the time the earth begins to soften as the worms start their enriching of the soil, and in doing so attract the robins. And soon the cycle we recognize as Spring begins. But this moon is also known as the Full Crow Moon, and given my great love of the corvoids I’m all for celebrating Crow Moon.
But just as we are all complex and layered beings, I also tend to name the moons additionally with a more personal-to-me appellation, describing what I’m focused on in the moment.
I talk about the lunar cycles, and cycles in general, quite a bit, and I think it’s important. Perhaps it seems indulgent or a bit eccentric, but truthfully I think the more we remove ourselves from linear time the more we can loosen the grip of linear thinking that is so entrenched these days. Everything about our world is calling for us to be innovative and re-orienting, not repeating patterns than have long ceased working.
I believe there’s great power in moving through things with the understanding that they are cyclical, labyrinthine, and spiraling. We are never in the same place as one moment melts into another; we are never the same person as experience imprints us moment to moment; and yet there are markings, touchstones, experiences, things that return again and again as we strive to make sense of them and navigate our lives. I find it so much more helpful to hold these as spiraling cycles.
I think life is a complicated, quite complex and nuanced dance, and it serves us to approach it that way. As a collective we lean into complicating our lives by overwhelming them, seemingly unable to break the chains of cramming more in and both bragging and ruing how busy we are. But this isn’t actually complexity – juggling a billion things. Rather it asks us to operate with less nuance, less awareness, less honoring that we are have the capacity to think deeply and act in conscious integrity with the blueprint our soul carries.
And so every chance I get, I try to remember this. I try to keep in mind that there are always cycles within cycles, layers upon layers, complexity and nuance, and that we are in fact, not only capable of operating with this awareness, but actually invited into mastery of it. We move in spirals.
I like to think of full moons as the beginning of the exhale in the cycle that started with the new moon’s inhale.
And I love associating this Crow Moon with the beckoning forward energy of Crows. They call in no uncertain terms – they know how to have fun, but they’re very intelligent and keep an eye on the big picture; they’re steeped in the mysteries of life and transformations; they bring a bit of their trickster energy to remind us to stay alert and flexible and ready to be surprised.
Donna Iona Drozda talks about this being the last of the three moons in the Winter cycle – the moons associated with the North and with Mystery. She says the work of this moon cycle is to focus our self-care on purity. “To rise above, to see the silver linings. To enjoy the idea of being a visitor, a stranger in a strange land, Innocence is a form of purity.”
I like this perspective as well.
This full moon has been pulling at me for days, both disrupting my sleep and then sending me into realms of complicated dream stories and wild adventures. Last night, I dreamt I was in Ireland looking on a circle of women dressed as crows. When I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, I hunted down a journal I kept when I visited Ireland years ago, and was delighted to find my homage to Crow Patrick.
Croagh Patrick is the English name for a sacred mountain in County Mayo in Ireland, and although there are various pronunciations of the word Croagh, one of the is “crow.” Somehow that inordinately delights me, and actually when we came back from Ireland a crow began following me around the neighborhood, and I affectionately named him Crow Patrick. It makes me laugh to think about him even now.
Crows have shown up in my reading as well. I’ve just finished Ink by Alice Broadway and have begun Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley. (How perfect is it that someone with the name Crowley wrote a book with a crow as its main character?) I’ll likely do reviews of these books soon. It’s hard to tell from my photo, but both books have shiny foil on them which is undoubtedly crow-approved. May this moon bring us a some beautiful bits of shiny wonderfulness!
And while I’ll continue to name this Full Crow Moon, I’m also layering over it my own personal name – Moon of Softening and Compassion. I know it’s no coincidence that this quote from Paulo Coelho appeared for me today:
“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge is not to wait. Life does not look back.”
That precisely describes how I’m feeling right now. It seems like life is presenting challenges to so many and my heart is tender. But clearly everything we need is here as well. What does a tender heart do but soften us, and what does a challenge do but call us forward into new ways of navigating and being? So how is it not perfect that these are the full moon energies here for me to work with?
And seriously, how can you not love that messages of support show up in all kinds of delight ways?
Thank you Crow. Thank you Moon. Thank you Life. I feel softened, I feel called forward, and I’m ready to step into this next cycle of the journey.
What about you? What is this moon’s energy calling you into? Where are you softening? What are you wishing for? Do tell – you know I love to hear.
What a great quote from Paul Coehlo! I’m going to have to write that one down. I feel like I am going through another transition at the moment, deciding whether or not to stay at Michaels now that my Social Security is going to start or whether to stop working at Michaels and concentrate more on my crafting since I also signed up to be a Creative Memories consultant. I hate that money is a factor and the quote just reinforces the fact that I need to do what’s going to make me happy. Life does not look back!
It certainly seems to me that this is a collective time of examining “where to now?” Almost everyone I know is reflecting on this, or else outright struggling with it. I wish you ease in your journey Janet, and hopefully one that fills you with delight. Indeed, as Coehlo said “Life does not look back!”
“We are never in the same place as one moment melts into another; we are never the same person as experience imprints us moment to moment; and yet there are markings, touchstones, experiences, things that return again and again as we strive to make sense of them and navigate our lives.”
– yes! I find this both challenging and comforting. It can be so frustrating to find myself as it seems in the same place as I was a year or five years ago – or to learn a painful lesson and, looking back, remember that I’d already learned it. But I never am in quite the same place, and the lesson goes in a little bit deeper every time. And I don’t lose anybody that I used to be.
I really like your observation Kathleen about not losing anybody we used to be. I’ve always imagined this as becoming a most beautiful set of Matryoshka dolls.
So happy to read another soul is validating my thought about crows. They are often conciliated with darkness and even evil, while I always believed and still do, they are magnificent beautiful wise souls. I even told a dear friend, he reminds me of a raven, due to his hidden wisdom he needs to tap into more.
As always an inspiring article, dear Deborah.
Lately, I noticed (because you inspired me to open myself up again to the spiritual side of me again, again so grateful for you) every time I made a tough decision, during that day I find a white feather. I forgot the meaning of the white feather, and I found a site in Dutch, explaining it is a way of angels communicating, confirming I am walking in the right direction on my journey. Isn’t that a lovely thought? And I remembered I saved a white feather years ago, for the very same reason. So yes, I absolutely agree with you…spiraling cycles 🙂
XxX
Patty
It always delights me to find a kindred crow admirer Patty. And how wonderful you are gifted with white feathers! I love the gift of feathers – it always feels like such a joy-filled blessing to me.