Dear all
As some of you may know, I was awarded Arts Council (DYCP) funding this year for my Moonpause project, exploring menopause, creativity and the moon cycles. Most of that money will go towards me creating new work (lyric essays with the support of a mentor) but a small amount was allocated to enable me to share news of the project through Awen.
Moonpause is a year-long project for 2023 and I am in the beginning phase of it. The first part was to give myself a 30-day creative challenge, which I am halfway through. Even though I came up with this idea, I realised I do not like the everydayness of a challenge like this, so I am adjusting my thinking as I go along.
The aim of the challenge is to try moon-related creative activities to get me thinking in a different way to usual, which will help me when it comes to the writing stage. The idea is to play, have fun and indulge my inner artist, like Julia Cameron’s artist dates, which are:
a weekly expedition to explore something that enchants or interests [them]. It may be a trip to a bird store, to a children's bookstore, to a flower shop, to a museum. It does not need to be "high art." In fact, if we think of our creative self as being an inner youngster, we will be on the right track.
Even though I took to writing morning pages when I first came across The Artist’s Way 20 years ago, I never planned time for weekly artist dates, so injecting this type of creative inspiration is what is important to me about the challenge. It doesn’t matter if I don’t do something from my list every single day.
In the past, I may have thought I’d failed the challenge or not finished or that it was the wrong thing to do, but now, I gently bring myself back and check in with the main aim of it.
Apart from creative inspiration and absorbing myself in the moon, my other aim for the 30-day challenge was to work with the moon’s cycle to see if it affects my creativity at all. So I began on the new moon (20 Feb) and will end on the 20 March, ready to begin the next phase of the project on the next new moon (21 March).
It is too soon to tell whether my creative energy is affected by the moon, but I’ve enjoyed planning my creative projects with the moon’s cycle and will carry on with that this year. In the future, instead of an every day challenge, I’ll give myself a choice of things to do within a particular moon phase.
So, what have I been up to? Here are three highlights:
Full moon swim (well watching!)
There were too many full moon activities for just one full moon, so I’ll be making a note of others to join in with later in the year. Full moon is a time of higher energy, and a good time to go out into the world, and on Tuesday, I joined three midwives at the beach after dark while they had a dip in the sea in temperatures a few degrees above freezing. I stayed by the fire and ate cake! It has been cloudy a lot this month so we thought we wouldn’t be able to see the moon, but the ripple of dark clouds parted and there it was, creating a silvery light on the water. The midwives told me they love the company of the other women and that immersing themselves in the cold sea helps them release the emotions of their jobs and other stresses of life.
Yoshitoshi’s 100 Aspects of the Moon
As well as getting out and about and doing other creative activities (eg. collage), I have been researching other cultural references to the moon. One I came across was a series of 100 woodblock prints by Japanese nineteenth century artist, Yoshitoshi. I picked my favourite five, read the stories associated with them and wrote about these in the style of 5 Things. I only gave myself two hours for this activity, so I’ll be going back to it. There was so much to explore.
The Nettle Dress
While this wasn’t strictly about the moon (though there was a folk song about the moon and a couple of full moon scenes), it was about connecting to nature, directly related to my foraging writing project and I’m thinking that in the end, the two projects (foraging and moon) will intertwine.
The Nettle Dress is a documentary film about textile artist, Allan Brown, who took seven years to make a dress made entirely from foraged nettles. The process helped him through the grief of losing his wife to cancer at age 45. It was a beautiful film and an inspiration to see him take this project through to the end. There was a question and answer session and a folk music introduction. Do go and see it if you get a chance. There is something special about gathering to watch a film like this, rather than watching it online. Because I was there, I was completely absorbed in the whole thing and could slow down to the pace of it.
Planning creative projects with the moon’s cycle
The aim of working with the moon’s cycles is to create a rhythm in my life replacing menstrual cycles during perimenopause, menopause and beyond. There is a lot of information online about moon phases and the effects on our energy, but to keep things simple, I used Kirsty Gallagher’s book, Lunar Living as a guide.
This is all new to me. I didn’t even know the names of the moon phases, so I am still getting used to the ideas and right now, still a little skeptical that the moon can have such an effect on our energy! But with all of these things, I like to find out as much as I can and then use the parts that are meaningful to me. The most useful thing I’ve done so far was to plan creative activities and a writing project for the month on the new moon. I enjoyed having a different start date for creative projects to the rest of my life, which I plan using calendar months.
I began by creating a table to make a note of everything I had already committed to in that month - events, other work and family activities. Then, I made a column for moon phases. I wanted to keep the moon activities flexible so I used small cards and sticky notes to assign an idea to a day.
I am working with eight moon phases - new moon, waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, first quarter, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent - but to give you an idea, below are some notes on the four main phases. The activities are just suggestions to pick from - no one has to do all of them! As I said, I planned something depending on time and energy available, but with no obligation to do it at all.
As well as the moon activities, my writing project for the month is to complete a first draft of a 3000-word essay inspired by my birch tree and send to my feedback group. I have already done research and writing on this, but I wanted to bring it all together. I have never given myself one achievable writing project for a month like this, but I think I will repeat it.
New moon
The sky is dark and you can’t see the moon at all. This is the lowest energy point and the time to rest, reflect and check in with how you are doing. It is an inward facing, highly intuitive emotional time to process the lessons of the month just gone. A time to make plans and get clarity on what you want and how to get there.
Moon activity ideas: a candlelit bath, collaging a vision board, reflective journalling, looking at art.
Writing project ideas: decide on a goal for the month, review writing and journal entries from the past month to notice any emerging themes or notes that can be written up.
First quarter
Looks like a half moon. You have energy, ideas and inspiration to bring hopes and dreams to fruition. Say ‘yes’ to invitations and notice nudges from the universe. It might be hard to sleep, so a good time to write at night. There is a big push of energy. Challenges may come but don’t address them yet. Focus on doing. Take action.
Moon activities: Create a moon playlist and dance in the kitchen or around the garden, go outside with a telescope, walk in moonlight, visit an observatory or moon-related exhibition.
Writing project: Writing a draft. Set daily word count or time goals.
Full moon
Celebrate goals reached and successes so far. Express gratitude for abundance and magic in life. Evaluate doubts and things that have held you back and release them.
Moon activities: sound bath, swim in the sea, outdoor fire with a ritual around forgiveness or releasing doubts.
Writing project: Keep going with writing a draft. Reflective journalling on what feels hard or is holding you back in some way.
Third quarter
Another half moon (this one is the shape of a D). Time to process all that has happened so far. It’s a phase for communication and difficult conversations, to be seen and heard. A good time to get a message out into the world. Don’t start anything new. Finish things off, especially things you have been putting off. Begin to get quieter and more inward in time for the return of the new moon.
Moon activities: create a mandala, research folk tales and moon goddesses, write a letter to the moon or a dialogue with the moon, write a moon memory.
Writing project: Finish a draft. Review and edit. Send out - this could be submitting to a journal or prize or to a trusted friend for feedback or if you’re working on a longer project not ready to be seen yet, add your draft to a file for completed drafts.
This was to give you an idea of my planning process this month, but I hope it will be a new way of working for me and that I can share with more people as I refine my ideas.
Writing prompt
After reading all of that, I hope you’ve got some ideas of creative things to try this week, but in workshops, I gave them the guiding word of ‘trust’. So if you’d like one, that is your prompt - write anything in response to the word ‘trust’.
Writing workshops
Journalling Group - Tuesday 21 March, Chequer Mead Theatre, Sussex.
Feedback Group - Tuesday 2 May, Zoom (work submitted by 25 April)
The Writer’s Notebook - Five weeks of creative writing workshops beginning on Tuesday 25 April (Zoom) and Thursday 20 April (Chequer Mead Theatre, Sussex).
And some very exciting news…!
New creative writing day retreat
I have booked the Spithurst Hub meeting room (near Barcombe, 15 mins drive north of Lewes, East Sussex) on Fridays: 28 April, 9 June and 7 July for one-day creative writing retreats.
These retreats are all separate and standalone so you can just book one, but if you'd like to book more than one, they will follow the same rhythm but have different exercises.
There will be connection with nature, nourishment with locally sourced, Swedish-inspired home cooking and plenty of creative writing exercises for wellbeing.
The full day (including food and drinks) will cost £85 and there will be a maximum of 8 people in the group.
Let me know if you'd like to be on a list of interested people, and I'll let you know as soon as I have online booking set up.
Please comment or reply to this email if you work with moon cycles and your creativity at all. I’d be interested to know how the moon phases affect you.
Until next time…
Mel
This newsletter was created by Mel Parks, a writer, researcher and workshop facilitator based in Sussex, UK. Mel runs writing workshops locally and on Zoom and researches creativity in midlife as well as her personal connection to nature. She has been widely published and is currently working on a series of moon and plant-inspired essays.