For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the autumnal equinox has come and gone. Technically, it’s the day at the end of summer when on earth we see an equal amount of sunlight and moonlight (although Neil deGrasse Tyson differs on this) as the sun shines directly on the equator. I’ve never really noticed this distinction throughout my life and instead the autumnal equinox has always simply signaled a physical transition from summer to fall.
As I progress into middle part of my life, I find I am more interested in the why versus simply just the when. In my younger years, I did love to learn, but it was always overshadowed or tossed aside by another more pressing desire or worry. The need to completely understand a concept or idea wasn’t as attractive then as it is now.
For example, I never really knew what the Harvest Moon actually signified. Sure, I heard of it but I never knew it was the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox, rising quickly after sunset and looming large and bright in the sky, allowing farmers to harvest summer crops late into the evening. I happened to catch it this year and I thought about how difficult it would be to harvest a crop by moonlight, even it was Harvest moonlight.
A few days earlier, I had another interaction with the moon. Coming home from a marching band trip I chaperoned, I noticed the moon shining through the open window of the school bus — you know those windows you have to fight with to get each side squeezed to lift and lower properly. Anyway, there was something quite poetic about it and I felt it was trying to say something to me or at least impart a message of some sort. It was strange. My photographic attempts of it resulted in blurred white lines on black, iridescent swirls. Perhaps it was just the way it hung in the sky almost full, but not quite, as unbeknownst to me, it was a few days prior to the Harvest Moon.
And just yesterday, I came across a post on Instagram where this person was talking about how her favorite shape now is moon and I thought this was so weird. Moon isn’t a shape, I thought to myself, it’s a series of shapes based on its current phase, but still intrigued by this, I felt utterly compelled to look up spiritual meanings of the moon. By no means was this a deep dive into lunar studies, but a quick Google search that garnered a result from yogiapproved.com saying, “The Moon represents powerful feminine energy. It signifies wisdom, intuition, birth, death, reincarnation, and a spiritual connection…The moon also represents our deepest personal needs. We can use the knowledge and energy of the Moon’s cycle to better connect to ourselves.”
Whether or not you believe in the moon’s ability to connect with or if it’s just something nice to look at while you’re driving at night, this week’s Free Vintage Friday is an astronomical chart from 1909. It is quite a large image, measuring almost 8″ wide and 10.5″ tall. I can’t wait to include this in my Summer Twilight journal. I hope you enjoy it too.
To download the high resolution image, simply click the button below and right-click to save to your device.
Till next time,
ginamakesit.com 
