I’ve been thinking about the moon a little more than usual lately.
In London last week, I was walking to King’ Cross Station, with my music on shuffle, and The Waterboy’s “The Whole of The Moon” came on.
There’s a line: “I saw the crescent.”
Then a few punchy synth chords: bah bah bah!
Then the next line: “You saw the whole of the moon.”
Well, suddenly, just as he said the word ‘crescent’, there was a break in the tall buildings along the street, revealing a crescent moon shining brightly in the sky, which I’d been completely unaware of until that instant. It was one of those moments where you feel that your life is a music video, and maybe it’s all gonna be okay.
Then this week, back at home, I was looking at my calendar, and saw that we’re coming up on a full moon. The first full moon of the year. The Wolf Moon, some say. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac,
It’s thought that January’s full Moon came to be known as the Wolf Moon because wolves were more likely to be heard howling at this time. It was traditionally believed that wolves howled due to hunger during winter, but we know today that wolves howl for different reasons. Howling and other wolf vocalizations are used to define territory, locate pack members, reinforce social bonds, and coordinate hunting.
I read this and thought, It’s a shame that our modern calendar doesn’t give useful, topical names to the moons of the year.
But then I realised, that’s not true. Because our ‘months’ are based on moons. And January is named for Janus - the Roman god with two faces. This allows him to see both the past and the future. Which is why he’s the god of time and transitions, doorways and passages, beginnings and endings, conflict and peace. And that’s a very good figure to put at the start of a new year, when we’re thinking about what went down in the year behind us, and what we hope or worry might happen in the year ahead.
However, I found the wolf imagery quite evocative, in this cold, dark time, and perhaps a more emotionally activating means of thinking about the year ahead. It seemed to ask questions. What are you hungry for? What terrain is yours to hunt it in? And who is going to work with you to get it?
Whether it’s wolves, gods, or other figures, I think these metaphors are useful. It’s good to be reminded that the calendar year isn’t just made of a series of dry pages, but of luminous bodies in constant rotation.
As are we.
And to help keep my thoughts in tune with the moon, I’ve put together a playlist of moon tunes. There are some classics that might seem a bit ‘obvious’, but they felt necessary. Maybe there’s a reason that many of my comfort songs are moon-themed? Oh, and holy crap, when was the last time you listened to the lyrics of CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising”?
I hear hurricanes a-blowin'
I know the end is comin' soon
I fear rivers over flowin'
I hear the voice of rage and ruin
I don’t know about you, but my news feed these days is just a series of stories about storms and climate breakdown and the unraveling of civil society. So I know it’s 55 years old but I’m nominating it for the official song of 2024. Not that I want to contribute to a sense of gloom. It’s a chipper, uplifting number, in spite of its subject matter. Which seems to me like precisely the spirit in which we need to try to confront the year ahead.
The Moon’s Tunes are here. And here: