Thursday, May 31, 2007

Whither Blue Moon?

A friend posted in her Live Journal blog that tonight is the full moon which marks May's Blue Moon, and the first such moon in two years. (Two full moons in one calendar month).

Interestingly, my desk calendar (with an herbal theme, and plenty of space for reflections at the solstices and equinoxes) shows the full moon as occurring tomorrow, with another full moon at the end of June, thereby making JUNE the month with the Blue Moon.

I am gonna trust my friend on this one (also my coven's schedule is taking advantage of it tonight with an Isis ritual). But it made me wonder: what is the criteria used by calendars when showing the dateof the moon phases? I mean, tonight the moon is full at 9:04 pm, EST. Maybe the calendar is using a different time zone, so the full moon occurs after midnight, thereby making it tomorrow?

And don't get me started on witches who do their full or new moon rites on the closest convenient weekend!

Magic done tonight will see its effects last for an entire month, so says my LJ pal. I have not been all that witchy lately. I will be in Boston, and the coming days will see some stormy weather. But if tonight is clear I think I will have to do something. Maybe hang out at my garden and get the vibe...and feel the magic. Not attending anything formal in some time has me finding my magic in more mundane and, for me, more logical places, like the outdoors. But I suppose I might try to attend tonight's ritual, and maybe work in their garden beforehand.

The wordless wonder of seeing the moon full and golden (or blue?) through trees is for me so much more profound than statuettes by candlelight in a room, though both can be awe-inspiring in their way...


for those interested...

Writing projects on my back burner:

1) Proposals for anthologies containing papers from Harvard conferences

2) Article on recent TV shows of pagan interest for Witchvox

3) Revision of my entry for the American Nature Poetry encyclopedia

4) Summer film "project" involving witches

5) Chapter on witches and media for Brill book

6) Next episode installment of my witches in London script

1 comment :

Elizabeth said...

The reason some calendars have it as tomorrow is because they use Greenwich Mean Time to determine when the full moon occurs, which in this case would be after midnight.