So what do you do when your creative solutions desert you?  Suck it up? Force it out? Tear out your hair?

For the last few weeks I’ve been bursting with ideas and creative solutions, on a high and full of energy, but during last weekend I noticed there was nothing there.  Flat, empty, imagine-less.  Those hidden seams of inspiration were no longer bubbling and popping.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time that this had happened, and it won’t be the last. But why do we get that feeling that it’s all fallen fallow?  Where does it all go?  As I was planning to draft my blog over the weekend, I began to think about this more deeply.

I have a confession.   I’ve always had a thing for the moon.  The word ‘lunatic’ comes directly from the Latin lunaticus– ‘moon-struck’ or from the late 13c – ‘affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes of the moon’ from Old French lunatique.  Obviously, we don’t use the word like this these days, but there has long been a sense that the moon can cause changes in our behaviour.

Is there a role of the lunatic in creativity?  Does the moon hold any sway over us as it waxes and wanes month after month?

I had heard about this possibility, and after a quick search online it appears that there are plenty of people out there who believe in the theory.   

Just as the tides are created by the pull of the moon’s gravity on the Earth, why couldn’t there be some effect on us too?  After all we are largely composed of water.

What if paying more attention to the phases of the moon could make a difference? Could it help us to develop a powerful rhythm and flow in?  An ability to predict our creative times and fallow moments.  Simply put, the perceived wisdom is that we are most creative after the start of a new moon and during the 2 weeks that it waxes into the full moon.

As the moon then begins to wane our creativity and its solutions also begins to wane and a period of reflection, consolidation and stillness sets in.   This lasts for around 10 or 11 days until the time of the new moon comes around again.

I have no idea whether there is any truth or scientific proof, but why does my Western mind and paradigm demand scientific proof anyway?  Sometimes, couldn’t it just be because it is?

At the weekend, I looked up at the sky and saw that the moon was indeed on the wane.

What do we do when our creativity dries up?  One of my favourite quotes, attributed to Lao Tsu, is – “Accept what is in front of you without wanting it to be other than it is. To try to change what is only sets up resistance.”  So, let things lie fallow – rest, surrender, allow.  We are only ever blocked if we believe we are.

According to a moon phase calendar I found online, the next new moon is on 4^th February.  Not so long to wait.  And, then, get ready, as like the sun forcing its way out from behind the clouds, those hidden seams of inspiration which have been lying quietly waiting for that moment, will be ready …… if you believe in the power of the moon.

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