Thursday, April 3, 2014

Returning from New


James Joyce in Ulysses:
Her antiquity in preceding and surviving succeeding tellurian generations: her nocturnal predominance: her satellitic dependence: her luminary reflection: her constancy under all phases, rising and setting by her appointed times, waxing and waning: the forced invariability of her aspect: her indeterminate response to inaffirmative interrogation: her potency over effluent and refluent waters: her power to enamour, to mortify, to invest with beauty, to render insane, to incite to and aid delinquency: the tranquil inscrutability of her visage: the terribility of her isolated dominant resplendent propinquity: her omens of tempest and of calm: the stimulation of her light, her motion and her presence:the admonition of her craters, her arid seas, her silence: her splendour, when visible: her attraction, when invisible.

The incredible language Joyce uses to describe the moon! Many of the words, though gorgeous in the richness of their meaning, are not used in everyday speech. Yet I love the wonder and thoroughness of his description.

The current phase of the moon is waxing toward full ~~ or barely past new ~~ whichever best describes your point of view. I see Her as returning from New ~ as though the sliver of silver that is the moon enchants and captures the imagination, the dream, the heart. I love the moon in every phase ~ "her constancy under all phases" ~ no matter how bright or bold or quiet she is, she is always available for us, always in our night sky, whether we see her or not.

What does the Moon signify to you? What words of James Joyce strike you as the best descriptors? Is there another element of nature to which you are more attracted? What do you find special about it?

1 comment:

  1. I was in a funk all day Monday, even realizing it was the Aries Sun/New Moon. It was one disappointment after another. I decided to just sit with feeling disappointed. Energy started to shift upon waking Tuesday morning. I felt back on my path, with renewed energy, partly by re-focusing on what IS working in my professional life. Saw the first crescent moon last night while leaving NTCSL after giving my "Leaving Iowa" talk. Thank you Sister Moon!!! I remember...I remember...I remember...

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