Waiting on the Wolf Moon

Ahhh, we are moving towards the Wolf Moon on the 26th of January...legend has it that at the time of this moon, one often heard wolves in their packs howling in hunger, inching ever closer to the night fire. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule.

And you carry the wolf far back in your earlier ancestral memories ... think of all the mythologies about wolves you "understood" without needing to have them explained to you: Little Red Riding Hood, the song "Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", the term "wolf" bring applied to a male predator, the stories of werewolves, even the Twilight series ... can you think of more stories about wolves?

(And for anyone interested in the full moon calendar for the year – voilà!)

Full Moon Calendar 2013

January 26th, Full Wolf Moon, 11:38 pm
February 25th, Full Snow Moon, 3:26 pm
March 27th, Full Worm Moon, 5:27 am
April 25th, Full Pink Moon, 3:57 pm
May 25th, Full Flower Moon, 12:25 am
June 23rd, Full Strawberry Moon, 7:32 am
July 22nd, Full Thunder Moon, 2:16 pm
August 20th, Full Sturgeon Moon, 9:45 pm
September 19th, Full Harvest Moon, 7:13 am
October 18th, Full Hunter's Moon, 7:38 pm
November 17th, Full Beaver Moon, 10:16 am
December 17th, Full Cold Moon, 4:28 am

Looking through the day books ... this appears to be St. Agnes Day:

So. Once upon a time (when I first started this blog and before everything went to hell in a hand basket, as they say), I had started out on a "Search for a Soul Mate". That was put on hold while I bravely ... okay, whine-ingly and grumpily ... attempted to recover from one disaster, loss and illness after another. And now here we are, back at St. Agnes Day.  This is hardly a witchy sort of thing, but it did make me laugh. The history behind the day: how to find a husband. All sorts of witchy ideas on how to do that, though.  The ideas are just ... at least in my case ... a tad dangerous.

" ... fetch at midnight from the nearest churchyard a half brick, which she should place under her pillows, by this means, she was sure to dream about courtship and marriage. "

Sleep all night on half a brick, eh? As for the "nearest churchyard" ... hmmmm. That would be Saint Michael’s, built in 1886, and if you’re thinking anyone was buried in the small grassy patch in front of it, think again. No bricks laying around – very clean church. Good thing too; me sleeping on a brick all night, cut in half or no, would not result in a pleasant morning.

Another idea: Instructions from circa 1800 suggest ...

" ... the parties inquiring must lie in a different county from that in which they commonly reside; and, on going to bed, must knit the left garter about the right-legged stocking, letting the other garter and stocking alone; and, as they rehearse the following verses, at every comma knit a knot:

This knot I knit,
To know the thing I know not yet,
That I may see the man that shall my husband be;
How he goes, and what he wears,
And what he does all days and years.
- Accordingly, in a dream,
the desired one will appear,
with the insignia of his trade or profession. "

Here’s hoping his insignia is a caduceus, since the very idea of me – the absolute non-knitter – waving knitting needles around is as dangerous as ... well, let’s just say things could get seriously ugly.

So much for Saint Agnes.