A question came up recently on a forum I’m on, about the possible effects of there being no full moon in February 2018. It made me think.
I think of time the way the Anglo Saxons and Celts did – so midnight isn’t particularly important, nor is New year. They’re artificial (Roman) constructs. I reckon time by dawn and dusk; by the stage of the moon. When I think months, I tend to think of Anglo Saxon lunar months. Two of them cover February 2018, with the changeover occurring halfway through “February”, at the new moon.
For me, the magical tides lie with the natural rhythms, if anything. Although I use the moon a great deal in the magic in my novels, I don’t limit myself by its use in real life magic. (Gods – if I had to wait on the moon, there has been some great magical work I’d never have done! ) And the moon is extremely useful in my books – but I had to create a magic that made sense to the fay. I’ve spent years looking at moonrise and set, as well as the normal phases. I consider the differences in light – not merely twilight, but the nadir of the night and the zenith of the day. These rhythms make more sense to me in terms of the power I can shape, than something I can only notice by checking a clock or a calendar.
How important are man-made borders? Is magic ruled by the border of a calendar we choose to live by? If we have created the divisions without relation to real world events – such as dawn, dusk, differences in twilight etc – does that limit us? As magic is limited by our imagination, and if we choose to see time as falling within those artificial borders, then I suppose it does. The sheer number of humans who see the passing of time only through the lens of a calendar and a clock, must generate some magical power that can be ridden.
It’s just that, for me, the Gregorian calendar just doesn’t cut it.
Leaves from a Book of Shadows 