Mentor: Jan Calloway-Baxter
Begin or deepen your writing practice by standing witness to the moon’s cyclic influence in our lives.
“The moon develops the imagination, as chemicals develop photographic images,” Sheila Ballantyne. Please join me for a month-long journey with the moon, and watch your imagination develop as we walk the path she shows us, waxing and waning in her reflected light. In this course we will make and keep a moon journal for one month, watching the moon every day or every night, recording our observations, and using the energies appropriate to each of her phases for inspiring our writing. You should come away from this class with a wealth of inspiration and ideas.
Ask any emergency room nurse or physician. She will tell you that the full moon does have an effect on people. Ask any midwife or someone who works on the birthing floor of a hospital or in a birthing clinic. She will tell you that more babes are born when the moon shines full. A group of women living together, especially if they are outside often and get natural light in the evening and night (and are not on birth control pills) will see their periods of menstruation gradually adjust until they coincide with each other and with the dark of the moon.
Gardeners and herbalists know that growing plants and making medicine is much more effective if the moon’s phases are taken into consideration. Seeds absorb more water at the time of the full moon; root crops are best planted as the moon wanes. Leaf and herb are harvested for medicine during the waxing moon; roots during the waning. Tinctures are put up and timed by the moon’s phases. Not only coyotes howl at the full moon. My dogs often do. My cats want out to roam under her silvery light. Live near the ocean and you are always aware of the tides, the moon’s gravitational pull on the waters covering the earth.
Yes, the moon does have an effect on the earth, on her people, plants and animals. The more aware we are of her changes, the more we can live our lives in tune with her energies. And as we tune our energies to hers, our lives will become easier, will “go with the flow” more, and we will be more effective at accomplishing our goals.
For the four weeks of this class, we will become aware of the moon’s subtle energies and see how this awareness will enhance our writing practice. It is inevitable that this attention will spill over and shine into our lives, not just our writing. An acute awareness of the moon will enhance your world.
Course Goals:
1) To write everyday about the moon for one lunar month in a journal.
2) To become more aware of the moon and her phases.
3) To identify the ways in which the phases of the moon influence our lives and our writing.
Disclaimer: I am neither an astrologer nor an astronomer. I will not be going into the more esoteric details about moon phase, moon when it is void of course, degrees of ascension, and that sort of thing. My observations will be much more general and elementary.
ABOUT THE MENTOR: Jan lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her Green Man/Soul Mate husband and their children, dogs, cats, and city chickens. She loves growing herbs, making medicine, cooking and eating good food, writing, making Goddess Dolls, doing almost anything with fabric and fiber, reading everything that comes her way, traveling, sleeping, listening to music, walking in the woods and sitting by the fireplace.
ABOUT THE WISE WOMAN UNIVERSITY
The Wise Woman University (WWU) is a sacred distance learning environment for the reweaving of the healing cloak of the Ancients. WWU offers women dozens of online classes for personal empowerment the Wise Woman Way.
At the Wise Woman University you will find mentors with women-centered skills pleased to offer their wisdom to you in a format that is lively, interesting, and easily available.
WWU is an online non-accredited distance learning environment, offering courses for personal empowerment and wellbeing. Enrollment is ongoing with each course designed to be completed in four weeks; however you study at your own pace with lifetime access to your course.
Each course consists of four lessons with accompanying assignments and resources. Interaction with your mentor is available through email, online forums, and assignment critique. Once registered, students gain access to a virtual classroom where all course materials reside. The classroom is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that you may log in whenever convenient. There is a 15 day no-questions-asked refund policy, providing the course has not been completed in that time. All courses are $49.95
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