Dancing Beneath Harvest Moon

Cosmic Update

Greetings Keeper of Time,

Tonight shines the Aries Harvest Moon. Jupiter and Saturn are shining either side of Moon!

Full Moon nearest Autumn Equinox. Moon seen as its brightest and roundest, time of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.

Here’s my mythopoetic telling of this storied time:

秋濟 川山謌舞 ​

Autumn River Crossing

storks return from the breeding grounds

people return from the fields and summer pastures

all beings honoring and moving in harmony

with the rhythmic changingness

Autumnal Winds blow

under the eaves of Sky

through the time-bearing space-holding

ridgepoles and beams of Universe

down the slopes of ancestral Mountains

caressing the face of Earth

with their breath

sounding 3- and 6-holed flutes

of bamboo and stork leg bones

singing the changing melodic verse

of the year-song

Bamboo clappers

with their articulating nodes

mark the rhythms

of this juncture of time

like the clacking clatter of stork bills

calling the dancers

to the dance

Branches of Moon’s Ruo tree

tap the beats

on stork egg pot drums

as dancer’s feets

pound the pot drum of Earth

Snakingly lining the shores of flowing Rivers

dancing time

the altering alternations of yin and yang

women and yin beings along the shady side

men and yang beings along the sunny side

all present, together

becoming Wind’s breath

singing back and forth

threading harmonizing song

shore to shore

ferrying the season

the river crossing to the shady side

singing River dance

the pouring of their libation

Coming together

in thanks giving

for the generousity

of the harvest

Libation cup poured out

and overturned

kneeling upon

this great earthen food vessel

all the ten thousand embodied beings

Moon-fleshed presences

becoming offerings

and receiving offerings

Bowing beneath the pregnant fullness of Harvest Moon

great round bestowing birther

way-shower of rejuvenation and renewal

sweethearts marry

gathering fecund flowers of the Moon

to scent darkness inseminations

that bring the souls of ancestors

returning as children

The Year, having given its all

now in the autumn of its life

goes down, and in, to the West

where what’s old goes to become an ancestor

toward the deep dark

watery wintery yin journey

of beholding below the surface

Heading homeward

Stork flies off to the quiet nest

of its wintering grounds

like a spiritual hermit

entering deep solitude

People make their way

toward the caves

of their sheltering homes

and nurturing hearths 

rehydration by Stargazer Li
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