Today is a national holiday in China, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Second only to Lunar New Year in importance, families and friends will gather to feast and celebrate, eat beautifully embossed moon cakes for dessert, and float illuminated paper lanterns up into the night sky.
The moon holds an important place in Taoist cosmology, too. It is considered Yin, since it receives and reflects the light of the bright, Yang sun. As we stand outside under a full moon, we can sense the almost magical power of its reflected light: radiant yet cool, and so different from any artificial illumination. Lao Tzu wrote of the power of the dark, new moon, as well. He described how reassuringly it demonstrates each month that brightness and light will return, growing effortlessly out of the darkness. As it waxes and wanes in the night sky, the moon reminds us that while things continually change, there is an underlying constancy in the Universe.
I like what sinologist Red Pine wrote: “How could (we) ignore such an obvious connection between its cycle of change and our own? Every month we watch the moon grow from nothing to a luminous disk that scatters the stars and pulls the tides within us all. The oceans feel it. The earth feels it. Plants and animals feel it. And so do we.”
Tonight, under this harvest super moon, treat yourself to a moon meditation: Stand outside, or at a window, with your palms facing the moon. Inhale its bright, silvery light. Feel it slowly fill your body, from the bottom to the top, like a cup. When it reaches the crown of your head, allow the moonlight to overflow and pour down over the surface of your body, all the way down to your feet, bathing you with a sense of peace and well-being.
