moon in review 🌓 august 1 2025

moon in review is the moonly newsletter from me, aloe. i send one out every first-quarter moon. it recounts the previous lunation, from one new moon to the next.

it's issue number two ! still a brand-new thing, but we've reached cruising altitude. like, ok so, for the week-ish period from the new moon at the end of one lunation to the first quarter moon of the next, there's this bit of overlap in the cycle where i'm still working on that previous moon's letter, to give me some distance to reflect on things. and this is the first letter that has that overlap! during this past moon, i was working on the newsletter for the one before that. and next time, i'll have been working on this one, and so on. to me that feels like, we've closed the loop and we're in full swing. so i'm turning off the "fasten seatbelts" sign and i hope you enjoy your flight :)

🌑 june 25

i spotted the thin waxing crescent quite soon after this new moon. i was out in the park for some reason, maybe walking in circles, and there she was white against blue. i've been trying to walk 100 circles around the park near my house, keeping track of how many i've done so far in a little text file on my phone. i usually do about 5 at a time, and so far i've done 18. i'm kind of, trying to do the simplest possible version of "keeping track of something," or "having a goal." i'm not sure why that's compelling to me right now ... maybe i see it as, something i can handle and approach, even when i can't handle much more. like some sort of baseline. and the walking itself helps me think and sort through things a little, and it's exercise, so that can't hurt.

cause yeah, it's rough out here, even graced by an early glimpse. every day there's new horrible stuff to think about. i almost felt kind of guilty for a moment, in reflecting on the debut letter; am i doing that thing? packaging myself up for consumption, smoothing the rougher edges, giving people a false standard of being-okay to live up to ? and this in reflecting on a piece which i think was reasonably complex to begin with, so that goes to show you. but i do figure "reasonably complex" is the right zone to shoot for here. i don't want to shy away from the truth, but i do want to go digging for the hope. so i guess i'll just keep trying to strike some kind of balance,

but it's ok to not be ok too, is what im getting at. i wasn't, for a bunch of the first half of this moon. and then, you know, something came along and interrupted my train of thought. nothing lasts forever, for better or worse. i started playing this violin etude on guitar and realized what good distraction therapy it happened to be for my particular pain in the moment. relationships shifted this way and that, as they're always doing. i keep trying to wake up on time and go for walks, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it's just too hot for a walk anyway. but sometimes the evening is cool, and dreamy, with a lingering golden hour — and the moon comes back, because she always comes back.

oh hey, we can check in with that tarot card, the 8 of pentacles. how's it going for you? for me it applies to this period pretty literally, 'cause it's the final ramp up to prior panic's big recoring session :))) so its been very much concerned with "art and craft in repetition" through just, practicing the songs, going over all the details and working everything out. actually, there's kind of a nice symmetry between the pointy chisel on the card, cutting pentacles in a round stone; and the needle of a lathe, cutting the grooves in a round vinyl record. that would make a fun illustration for an 8 of pentacles, like a big machine that makes vinyl masters

i guess, as i mentioned, the other main thing i did creatively in the first half of this moon was launch this newsletter... which is awkwardly meta to announce in terms of "updates on my projects," but warrants at least a little more reflection anyway. i thought it went really well ! i got some lovely warm feedback from friends, and a handful of subscriptions, too. if that's you, thank you! it's an honor to be invited into your inbox. this is a fun thing to get to do.

🌕 july 10

walking in circles of course, is another kind of repitition. i'm trying to simplify.. maybe a bit out of necessity, yeah. maybe to ration the doing-things juice. but paring down has some advantages, too. playing the etude for example has me chasing economy, trying to reduce motions to their essentials; consciously relax all but just the right muscles, for longevity; move fingers and hands over minimal paths, for effeciency, to enable speed. it's understandably hard to keep this in mind while doing it out of necessity, but the act of pruning can be really creative ...

i pruned our beach rose and cut this sapling that was growing right up through the middle (rude!) and it looks like its doing a bit better now. i took some elderberries off that bush and started a tincture, and there's a bunch more where those came from. im going to try drying the next batch and then make a glycerite from this recipe in a book i found. a few of those beets made it (i know you were worried about the beets,) and the rest of the space got covered in some of this purslane we've been purposely not weeding out, so ill probably pick some of that too. it gets a lot of sun just there so we're gonna try some mulch when we plant stuff again

there's these couple of grackles that are always back there eating elderberries. i wonder if it's the same two that lived here last year with their kid. it's so nice that there's enough berries for all of us. i like tending to this stuff that just grows anyway; i like how pruning is one of the main actions involved, and how another one is watching. checking and waiting for things to be just ripe, retreading the same paths to the same bushes, making friends with the birds and all that. repitition, simplicity, walking in circles. direction of limited energy..

hey, oh yeah, prior panic had our big album recording weekend !! what a freakin blast that was. we blocked out three consecutive eight-hour days at our friend chelsea's beautiful studio out in mass, and recorded all the "basics" live — so we more or less just played the songs all together like we usually do, but in such a way that, through the magic of signal routing and headphones and directional mics, we wind up with effectively separate tracks of each instrument. this approach helps a band capture the feel and outline of their live energy, which is a good focus for us because our style is pretty big on communication, while still retaining a lot of flexibility in what we can tweak, patch and augment for that sweet studio shine. and it went great! so that's what we're doing now, all that finishing work over the course of the next little while.

it was also just a really real hang, like. we wound up talking a lot about all our different journeys as music artists, being queer and trans in the scene and the industry, experiences with like education and jobs, class stuff, neurodiversity, and the whole crazed trajectory of everything socially right now.. it was just really open, and it was affirming to find so much common ground. talk about tending a little patch of something.. like, idk, i want that for everyone. and i want it for myself all the damn time !! haha. its such a blessing to be engaged in work you believe in, such an easy and natural state for humans. how can i direct my limited energy to help along this flourishing that wants to happen anyway ? whats the best recipe for all these fruits so they last the winter ? and maybe even more to the bigger point, of why the energy is so limited to start with — how can blooming in the cracks of these massive impersonal things that seek to burden us, best be practiced to widen and connect those cracks, until the whole fucking wall is a pile of dirt ?

🌑 july 24

your present lunation begins with the july 24 new moon, proceeds to the august 9 full moon, and ends with the august 23 new moon. today, august 1, is the first quarter moon of this lunation. (and, it's lughnasadh !)

prior panic has one gig coming up this moon :) just barely though - it's actually on august 23, right on the new moon at the end. (i mean, i guess this section really ought to cover up until the first quarter after that, or else there'd be a missing week every time..) but anyway, we're playing with youngest sun and jake blount at a local-ish place called slanty shanty. the flyer hasn't dropped just yet so, keep an eye on the nearest telephone pole ;)

finally, here's your tarot card for this moon. ready? i'm pulling it right now.

your card is: the queen of pentacles. (pull your own cards at aloe.gay/tarot !)

The fine line between owning your success and staying present for the world as it burns is treacherous, blurred, and a trickster— as articulated by The Queen of Pentacles. How do we bask in the rewards we deserve for our work, while simultaneously reaching out? How do we create art that fills our soul and smashes our trauma, while simultaneously offering humanity, warmth, support, or a lesson? When the system (or our own industry) is at war with our bodies, our challenges, or our identities— we deserve a break— to laugh, to dance, to fuck, to succeed, to have our needs met. Care grounds us— it allows us to care for others. Its vital for creating words, images, sounds, and sanctuaries for those who need it most.

— cristy c. road, the next world tarot

pentacles are commonly held in association with the alchemical element earth, with the rest of the correspondences going thusly; wands:fire, swords:air, and cups:water. they are used to represent material things; literal fruits and crops, precious metals, and coins, as the suit is known in some earlier decks. we're already starting to abstract a little.

the pentacle, though, is also a symbol of magic, and in pamela colman smith's illustrations some figures can be seen gazing into it like a crystal ball or star chart. in our 8 from last-moon an artisan diligently chisels the insignia into disks of stone, and these can be seen adorning great halls and arches throughout the suit. our sigil thus emblazoned must preside over some discussions of great import, like­— how best to tend those fruits, and divide them up among the people ? what's the proper use of all this bounty ?

the queen sits in rapt meditation on this sign of beneficence and all it represents. in her silent reverie she holds its total realization in all its bristling complexity. "[her] qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein." (- a.e. waite, the pictorial key to the tarot)

thank you so much for reading my newsletter! we're hosted by comradery, a cooperatively-owned subscription platform for artists and community projects. please consider supporting my creative work for as low as $1 a month on comradery, or on ko-fi with a one-time tip if you prefer! my website is aloe.gay, and you can write back to me at aloe (at) aloe (dot) gay. i hope you have a good moon, i'll see you on the next first quarter ~

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