esson 14: The Moon

    
ontinuing along the road, I am led back to the lowlands, and the terrain turns marshy again. (Such a wet spring!) Not too thrilled about crossing this marsh at night, I stop to rest, and a balmy breeze caresses me into sleep.

   I dream of a full and pregnant moon low over the land. A stream rushes towards me and falls into pools. A salmon jumps from the pool in front of me, and I mount her like a steed as she makes her way up the stream. During this exhilarating ride, the moon descends like a mist and covers me in dewy glow. By the time we arrive upstream, the moon child has transferred to my womb. People on the shore help me, and lie me on the soft grassy bank. My vision follows the path of a flittering white moth over the stream. The salmon leaps and consumes it. I see her clearly as she swims, and she begins to fill the pool with eggs. My womb spasms as I also deliver my offspring into the world.

   I hear someone shout, "Huzzah! The Queen has given birth to an heir!" The cry of the child fills my ears as the midwife takes it to wash it in the pool. As she hands me the naked babe, I'm surprised to see that it's a girl. I'm culturally programmed to think that an 'heir' is male.¹ Silly me--this is the realm of the Moon. The child has a birthmark on her left breast in a crescent shape, like the newest-born moon*--proof of her sacred lineage. I lift her to my breast and as the milk begins to flow, my 'consciousness' centers there, and suddenly I find myself once again on the back of the salmon, this time going downstream.²

   She stops in a pool between two towers and I hear a bell, and dismount and enter the tower which seemed to be the source of the sound. It is almost totally dark and I leave the door open to see by the light of the moon. A wooden ladder leads up through a hold in the ceiling.³ Feeling my way along, I climb to the upper room and discover a large white moth (about the size of my hand). Looking more closely in the dim light, I see that it has the body of a tiny androgyne child. I think it might be a fairy; I've never seen one before, so I don't know. It flies, seemingly frantically, around the window. I go over and open the window. It perches on one of the iron bars, then flies away, southwest and upward toward the moon. I watch until it is out of sight.

   It seems the moth took the little bit of light out of the tower when it left. I feel and stumble my way back out in the near-total darkness. Not until I emerge into the fresh air do I realize how oppressive the place was inside. The salmon is still in the pool outside and she jumps, splashing me with water.

   I wake. Looking at the pool, I see ripples, and wonder . . .

   Nearby, I notice a lovely yellow iris. At its base is a medium-size MagLite (pocket flashlight). Hmm, *that* might come in handy in the dark . . . .

Notes: So bizarre. But it flowed really well. Not until I typed it up did I begin to see some of the sources and connections for the imagery. Still pondering the meaning. A lot of it comes from the book Moonchild, including the soul of the child coming from the spirit of the Moon, the crescent birthmark on the child, the female sex of the child, and probably the moth as well. Actually, I *did* see a white moth during that part of my meditation. There's a lot I could say about the female heir, especially relating to The Cauldron, family past and future, ancestors and descendants, and feminine wisdom that is so much the realm of the Moon. I think this wisdom is represented by the stream whereas, on the one hand, I am passing it on (as I was told to do at The Cauldron), and I am also carrying it on within myself, only just beginning to have a clue. But I bring it back with me from *that land*--that otherworld under the Moon (or in the underground cavern, by the stream). The mighty X-chromosome. = P

I read the passage about The Moon in the book The Arthurian Tarot. It brings up the point of the Grail winner being raised in fosterage and/or seclusion. Arthur, Percevel, Galahad, Lancelot, Mabon, Merlin . . . the Wonderous Youth, or child without a father, know in the Bible and Freemasonry as the virgin birth and/or widow's son.

I wonder if anyone, under these circumstances, would fail to associate that distant, undiscovered country with Avalon.

"The Moon represents the inner destiny of the One Who Will Come, be he or she monarch, hero, poet, seer or chamion of truth. The potentiality of Logres strives to be born in this card, but it remains latent until the times and tides are right for it to manifest."

2) Weird to think about a shift of consciousness, inside a dream, inside a meditation. It was like an 'in'-of-body experience. {back}

3) I was there--in Italy last August. When everyone was at dinner, I snuck up in the tower. I couldn't make any light or I would get caught, and it was pretty dark and freaky. The view from the top was wonderful, with the moon, and the road going up between the woods. {back}