As so often happens, it was very overcast last night, damp and windy. Not a glimpse of the full moon in Cancer. No wonder I’m a dark moon woman.
So I had a ritual bath instead to celebrate the invisble fullness of the Lady Moon. I take aspects from both the Jewish women’s mikvah or cleansing, affrming, rituals of bathing, and the Japanese bath ceremonies, precise and consciously reflective.
I have a preliminary bath to scrub and clean myself, crouching in just a teaspoon of hot water astringent with kombu (seaweed), kelp essences and a sharp lemony soap. I cut fingernail, toe nails and scrub myself with a small loofah. Then I rinse in cold water.
After that it is ll about sensuality and lingering. Hot scented water with lavender and tangerine, a pot of green tea, lit beeswax candles on the window sills and sandalwood incense. I prefer silence and the sound of rippling, splashing water to music.
Like any post-modern waterbabysliding back into the timeless green myth, I lie back and imagine
I am drinking moonlight,
swimming across the enchanted lake in a ribbon of light,
holding a cool moonstone in my hands,
finding myself cradled in the arms of the moon goddess
who smells of apples and has skin like silk.
And after a while the flow of images ceases and I am in milky darkness, just becoming. The moon is shining within.
Recent Comments