The Quiet Moon: Pathways to an Ancient Way of Being

The ancient Celts lived by and worshipped the moon. While modern, digital life is often at odds with nature - rubbing against it rather than working in harmony with it - is there something to be said for embracing this ancient way of being and reconnecting to the moon’s natural calendar?*

January’s Quiet Moon reflects an air of melancholy, illuminating a midwinter of quiet menace; it was the time of the Dark Days for the ancient Celts, when the natural world balanced on a knife edge. By May, the Bright Moon brings happiness as time slows, mayflies cloud and elderflowers cascade. Nature approaches her peak during a summer of short nights and bright days - this was when the ancient Celts claimed their wives and celebrated Lugnasad. With the descent into winter comes the sadness of December’s Cold Moon. Trees stand bare and creatures shiver their way to shelter as the Dark Days creep in once more and the cycle restarts.

In The Quiet Moon, Kevin Parr discovers that a year of moons has much to teach us about how to live in the world that surrounds us - and how being more in tune to the rhythms of nature, even in the cold and dark, can help ease the suffering mind.

Kevin Parr is a writer, fisherman and naturalist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Rivers Run (2016), which was longlisted for the inaugural Richard Jefferies Prize for Nature Writing. He is a monthly columnist for BBC Countryfile Magazine and the angling correspondent for TheIdler magazine and has written for the Daily Telegraph and Independent. Kevin lives in West Dorset with his wife and a colony of grass snakes a few strides from his garden gate.