Building A Moon Journal

FAMILY MOON JOURNAL

One of the things I like best about celebrating Esbats with my kids is that it helps them to understand the cycle of things. The Sun rises and sets, it changes position in the sky and the moon goes from new to full, every month, no matter what. I think this is very important for them to understand, especially as they start getting into adolescence, when it seems like everything is changing and it's all so scary. Every day the sun is going to come up. They might have had a horrible experience at school. They might have had to experience the death of a friend or relative. They might just feel sad, like none of it is worthwhile. But the sun is still going to come up in the morning.

That's not to make them feel like they are unimportant or insignificant, rather it's the God/dess' way of showing us that s/he's taking care of everything. And when times get really tough and you don't know what to do... just watch the sun coming up and going down and remember that you're not alone, and someone else is helping you along the way.

To that end we keep a moon journal, yet another section in our family BOS <G>

The first page is The Moons of The Year by month. I've seen as many different attributes for the months and moons as there are Craft books at Barnes and Noble. This is what we settled on, again, because it works for us. We live in New England so making November "The Snow Moon" and March "The Seed Moon" is very appropriate. I would suggest that those of you living in different areas make up your own moon charts, based on season changes and regional traditions, so the names are something relevant to your kids.

THE MOONS OF THE YEAR

1. December - Oak Moon. Moon of the newborn year.

2. January - Wolf Moon. The moon of deepest winter.

3. February - Storm Moon. The moon of potential. (Also called the Chaste Moon for Imbolc).

4. March - Seed Moon. The moon of planting.

5. April - Hare Moon. The moon of fertility. (It's mating season for many animals, including rabbits.)

6. May - Dyad Moon. Celebrating the sacred union of The Goddess and The God.

7. June - Mead Moon. Also called Honey Moon.

8. July - Wort Moon. The gathering of herbs.

9. August - Barley Moon. A time to contemplate the cycles of life.

10. September - Wine Moon. (Also Harvest moon.)

11. October - Blood Moon. The slaughter of animals before winter snow sets in.

12. November - Snow Moon. The start of winter storms.

13. Is the Blue Moon and falls in differing months. It's the second Full Moon in any month.

The rest of the book is the journal pages. I have a picture at the top of the page that says "Moon Journal" in all capital letters and beneath that, a picture of the moon in it's three phases, waning, full, waxing (like the crown a high priestess wears). Each month gets it's own page and the kids can write as little or as much as they want.

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Date :_____________________

Time :_____________________

Moon :____________________

Season :___________________

Weather:___________________

What's happening today: ____________________________________

It's pretty straightforward. For "Moon" you look it up on your moon chart. For instance, to us, November is the Snow Moon. The season would be Fall (since the first day of winter isn't until the winter solstice, in spite of what the weather may be <G>).

Each month a different child gets to fill in the moon journal. Under "What's happening" they write things they did at school, special activites for the day, friends visiting, etc.

The Moon Journal is fun for a lot of reasons. One, as I mentioned, is the cycles. For instance you can look back to the month before and see what the weather was. Then it was hot and Indian Summer, now it's cold and snowy. How does this reflect the turning of the Wheel? We also like to look back to the Esbat of the year *before* to see if anything has changed. For instance last November we got our new dog. It helps give the kids a handle on the passage of time, and the changing of the seasons and their lives. When we started doing this three years ago my son was 6 and just learning how to write. Now he's 9 and writing in script. He thinks it's funny to look back and read what he wrote back then.

A moon journal is a nice marker for older kids too, and this is the one that could be a nice, bound book. Pre-teens can pour out their hopes and fears. And it's very reassuring to look back a month or two and see that, indeed, the heartbreaking break up with the boy of her dreams *wasn't* the end of the world after all... and the mortifying embarrassment of dropping the ball during the big game *has* been forgotten. No matter what, the sun will come up every morning and life goes on.

Excerpts from A WICCAN PRIMER: Rituals for Children C 1996 Wind*Dancer