Under a Midsummer Moon

The full moon hangs high in the sky, broad, clear and silver. A girl, about 20, slips out into the night, into a shimmering garden. It is mid-summer.

The garden already forms a circle around her, a wide, round green lawn, bordered by hydrangeas, lilies, lilacs, cowslips, foxgloves – all manner of blossoms and leaves.

She breathes deeply and sets down her instruments in their proper places:

A pale yellow feathered quill, cradled in a silver inkwell the shape of a woman’s face, and a stick of incense. These represent the element of air – the spring, the dawn, the east.

A red candle in a silver candlestick holder is for her fire – summer, noon, south.

A midnight-blue moon-adorned cup filled with water signifies for her water, autumn, evening, west.

A small plant, leafy, its earth adorned with small pebbles, is her earth, her winter, her midnight, her north.

A pale clay oil burner sits in the centre, a small votive candle below heating the essential oil–tinged water above.

She whispers, breathless, sweeping a circle around herself and her instruments in a swirl of white cotton. She is inside, and the world beyond the garden fades away.

She feels the energy of the full moon as it casts its beams upon her and she absorbs this, radiates beneath it. Placing her hands on the dewy ground, she breathes in, absorbing the steady power of the earth up, up through her body to the top of her head. As she exhales, she presses the overflowing chatter of her day, the world outside this moment, down through her hands and back into the earth. It is another circle, a circle within a circle, within a circle, underneath the watchful globe of the moon.

After a time, she removes her hands from the earth, opens her eyes and dismantles the circle. Pausing, she looks up just in time to see a tiny pure white winged creature flit through a moonbeam, disappearing into the darkness on the other side.

The magic of a full-mooned night.

 

Other bloggers’ thoughts on nighttime and the full moon:

1. Rural Russia. Welcome! | Bright Moments Catcher
2. Godrick Gnomish
3. Sunset | Agrifun.com
4. Welcome to Russia | Agrifun.com
5. Agrifun: From City Slicker to Potato Picker | Bright Moments Catcher
6. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | Fasting, Food and other musings by determined34
7. Daily Prompt: Nighttime | Books, Music, Photography & Movies : my best friends
8. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | Under the Monkey Tree
9. Moon Dream: response to Daily Prompt | alienorajt
10. Daily Prompt: Nighttime | DCMontreal
11. When was the last full moon? | Sue’s Trifles
12. The Goddess | Sincerely, Ms. Roberts
13. Moonwashed in Rann of Kutch | Life is a Vacation
14. A new and different me | Life & Times
15. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | littlegirlstory
16. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | The Land Slide Photography
17. Think she is being good? | We Live In A Flat
18. An Evening at the Fair | It’s a wonderful F’N life
19. Changes the full moon brings | Journey of a Dutch Witch
20. Fool Moon (short fiction)　　 | The Jittery Goat
21. The Whole of the Moon | Nicki
22. Nightfall | Andante Cantabile
23. Two for Tuesday – Nighttime | Tommia’s Tablet
24. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | Faraziyya
25. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | Words We Women Write
26. Daily Prompt; The Full Moon | terry1954
27. Night | Vampire Maman
28. Full Moon – A poem | JuSt ViSiTiNG THiS PLaNeT…
29. Peaceful Gaze [Daily Prompt: The Full Moon] | unknowinglee
30. Lycanthrope (Huitain) | Liars, Hypocrites & The Development of Human Emotion
31. Moon on the rise | I Didn’t Just Wake Up This Morning with a Craving
32. The numinous moon-imous | Random Encounters of an Inquisitive Mind
33. “The Full Moon” | Relax
34. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | Kevin says the randomest things
35. The Reckless Me. | ayimas
36. Night | stubblytroll
37. Not About You | clarior e tenebris
38. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | Completely Disappear
39. The Were-Cap : The Full Moon | thanks for letting me autograph your cat
40. snippet: Insomnia | cellarfloor
41. The Full Moon | Blue Loft
42. Dancing In The Moonlight | Breathing Space
43. The Full Moon Me | Ty
44. •Ø• too full moon •Ø• | The RunningFather Blog
45. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
46. Daily Prompt: Night in the City | SERENDIPITY
47. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon (or I don’t like opposite day…) | Anne Squared
48. A moon’s memory | shame
49. ON A FULL MOON. | Fiction O’Clock
50. Nighttime on the Hiking Trail… | The Rider
51. Daily Prompt: the full moon « Equitherapy
52. Night Time….daily-prompt-nighttime | Daily Observations
53. The Full Moon | stubblytroll
54. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | prettyswan
55. The Full Moon And The Call Of The Wild! | The Political and Social Chaos Blog
56. Nighttime Royalty | The Magic Black Book
57. Daily Prompt: The Full Moon | My Atheist Blog

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/daily-prompt-nighttime/