Cold Moon – Inward Turning
The coldest I have ever been in my life was at Glasgow Queen Street railway station. I was 18 and had spent the evening dancing in the most amazing, but tiny, blue dress that I’d bought especially for the occasion. It was very short with a bra top and a cut out back – classy, hey?
I should say at this point that it was February, possibly the harshest month of the year in Scotland. Frost coated the surfaces and the pavements were slick with ice and frozen snow. Not easily negotiated while wearing kitten heel sandals.
I knew I was cutting it fine, but discovering that I had missed the last train home, my heart sank. The first train running the next morning was a little after 5am, which left me with over four hours to wait, and nowhere else to go. Stuck at the station, I sat myself down on a chilled metal seat, and pulled my thin coat around my shivering body.
How I did not end up with hypothermia from that night, I will never know. What I do know is that the only way I could keep the bone-juddering shivers at bay was to focus on the warmth at my core. Consciously drawing my energy inward, I tried to conserve what little heat I still had, and sat it out until the early morning train arrived.
I learned many things from that experience. Wear layers and double-check the train timetable being just a few of them! But perhaps the most important lesson I learned was how to connect to my inner flame.
And this is precisely what I think this cycle can teach us – the Cold Moon asks us to turn inward, conserve heat, reconnect to our core.
While the temperature outside plummets, in our hearts we can keep a hold of our heat in both a physical and metaphorical sense. Use the Cold Moon as your opportunity to connect back to your heart, back to your centre. Create opportunities to nurture that inner flame and allow the gentle warmth to spread out to your whole body, spirit, soul.
Wrap yourself in layers, snuggle into a blanket, cuddle up to a loved one – all of these can be considered beautiful self-care practices that may seem minor, but can have a huge impact upon our well-being and, consequently, the way we step into the world.
If I could ask anything of you over this lunar cycle, it would be that you keep warm; that you take the necessary effort to swaddle yourself in love.
When we take the time to look after ourselves, to offer ourselves the tender care that we so naturally offer others, we are signalling, both to ourselves and those around us, that we’re worth the effort!
Oh, and don’t get caught out in the cold like I was! That kind of bone-deep chill is hard to shake…
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