Poetry for the Esbat: Lover's Moon 2014

The Lovers, from the Mystic Dreamer Tarot.
An unexpected gift from the HPS of the Temple of the Sleeping Lady.

Guilty.
Completely & utterly.

I already had a poetry piece & card photographed for this month's Esbat -- I only needed to conjure a Moon moniker. It wasn't forthcoming. And, for the last several weeks I have been scouring books & the Poetry Foundation's website for verses related to a public animas ceremony I am creating (more on that later) & in the process I found myself quite taken by a handful of pieces by Rumi which either mention the Moon, or simply reminded me of Her. Of course, being Rumi, they are all 100% about Love. And, I couldn't get the thought of this being the "Lover's Moon" out of my mind.

This brings me to the admission of guilt which follows: on the brink of posting the verse of Izumi Shikibu accompanied by a Moon card from the DaVinci Tarot, I succumbed to an uncontrollable urge to make this Poetry for the Esbat a VALENTINE (whaaaa?) to the Lady (and you) instead. (Besides, who knows when will this Valentine's Day/Full Moon thing happen again?)

So there we are. Love triumphs over ideas about profound self-awareness & spiritual gnosis, once again. It's becoming a habit. And maybe that's just fine.

Two pieces by Rumi, poetic lover par excellence, make up the poetry for this Lover's Moon Esbat. I have taken these translations from Deepak Chopra's The Love Poems of Rumi. This book is so juicy with Love, it's sticky to the heart & hands -- reading & rereading is irresistible. 

The Privileged Lovers, by Rumi

The moon has become a dancer

at this festival of love.

This dance of light,

This sacred blessing,

This divine love,

beckons us

to a world beyond

only lovers can see

with their eyes of fiery passion. 

They are the chosen ones

who have surrendered.

Once they were particles of light

now they are the radiant sun.

They have left behind

the world of deceitful games.

They are the privileged lovers

who create a new world

with their eyes of fiery passion.

•❤•

Untitled*, by Rumi

In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no one sees you,

but sometimes I do, and that

sight becomes this art.

Blessings & Love! to you this Esbat, my friends.

* Reprinted in Chopra's The Love Poems of Rumi from Coleman Bark's book, Birdsong: Fifty-three Short Poems.