A Might-do List for the Quarter Moons

Observing lunar time is one way of inviting a practice of ebb and flow into your healing work.

For those of us our raised in cultures and under institutional systems where our time and how we should “spend” it is often defined for us and not by us. So when we step purposely into healing work, at some point we find ourselves reassessing our time and all the ways that time can be measured and experienced. For me, the Moon offers an energetic pattern and mythological model that I find helpful when it comes to reconnecting to the sacredness of time (instead of its commodification), which is one of the reasons I’ve been writing a whole series on what you might (or might-not) do for the different phases of the Moon.

Having already offered might-do lists for the Full Moon and the New Moon, I wanted to turn our focus towards the Quarter Moons - the halfway points between energetics heights and depths of the lunar cycle.

The Quarter Moons, also known as Half Moons, are periods of balance tipping towards a period of expansion or increase with the growing or Waxing Quarter Moon or a time of retraction or decrease with the shrinking or Waning Quarter Moon.

The Waxing Quarter Moon, also known as the First Quarter Moon, marks a point of balance between what has been and what shall be. Momentum, disentanglement, vitality, and harmonization are key energies of the Waxing Quarter Moon.

The Waning Quarter Moon, also known as the Last Quarter Moon, offers us a time to shed, fall back, and sort out which seeds we're interested in planting, if not just quite yet. Change, reassessment, release, balance, and decluttering are all key energies of the Waning Quarter Moon.

With all that to explore, let's see what we might do (or might-not do, no pressure, it’s your time to experience) for our Quarter Moon celebrations.

image via @jannerboy62

Connect with the Elementals

I'm not entirely sure when or why I began associating the Quarter Moon with four element work and specifically working the spirits known as elementals, but it is a practice that has stuck with me through the years. The elementals or undines, salamanders, gnomes, and sylphs are part of European magickal and alchemical lore codified during the Renaissance, in part by German physician and alchemist Paracelsus, but with older folkloric roots. Of course, the idea of elemental beings is not isolated to European lore and you'll find stories of these types of creatures throughout the world - it can be a rewarding practice to seek out these elemental energy within your cultural and spiritual traditions if you’re not familiar with them already.

As a time of balance leaning either into expansion or retraction, the Quarter Moons can be an auspicious time to either call in more or release excess element-based energy by working with the elementals. If, for example, you've been trying to draw in more watery energy to you, such as for intuitive work, you might choose a Waxing Quarter Moon in a water sign such as Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces to help call in intuitive, watery energy through the mediating help of the undines. Alternatively, if you're dealing with too much fire energy in your life, you can work with the salamanders on a Waning Quarter Moon in a fire sign (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) where you offer them your excess fire energy, which they will be happy to accept. 

Practice Magnetizing Magick

The energy of the Waxing Quarter Moon is one of pulling towards and filling up. We can connect to this current of magick through magnetizing our practice to draw towards us of what we are seeking during any given lunar cycle. We might be in the midst of a long-term act of change, needing to draw courage to help us manifest who we are becoming. Other times we might need a quick bit of magnetic magick, drawing towards us opportunities and resources that we need as soon as possible. Within our communities, the Waxing Quarter Moon is a time for groups to act out big visions of what is possible, helping us all to bring in and anchor hope, and magnetizing our visions to draw in what is needed for the work.

Brew Recipes & Create Charms of Balance

Holding space between light and dark, the Quarter Moons are an auspicious time to make herbal recipes that help to bring us into a state of nourished homeostasis. Charms for balance, whether balancing energy, boundaries or whatever requires a steady balance in your life, can be made at either of the Quarter Moons. You might even draw the balancing energy of the Quarter Moons into the rest of your life through creating your own oracle of care to help remind you what it is that helps you feel centered.

image via @linalitvina

Rituals of Release

Whether walking a Moon Path (see below) or not, the Waning Quarter Moon is a time to release, let go, and sort out what seeds, ideas or dreams want to keep a hold of, and what we want to pass on for someone else to flourish with. Rituals to release regret, shame, sorrow, old identities and ideas, old pain and trauma, are all auspicious during the Waning Quarter Moon (and can be tied into any therapeutic support you've been receiving, such as supporting breakthroughs in therapy with ritual). If you need some divinatory support to better understand what needs releasing so that you can embrace your magickal gifts, come this way.

Get Rooted

Whether with the inward drawing energy of the Waning Quarter Moon or the expanding outward energy of the Waxing Quarter Moon, the Quarter Moon period is a wonderful time to practice grounding and centering magick. Living in times of hyperconnectivity and profound social noise, it can be increasingly challenging to slow down and get centered. Working with the phases of the Moon and the ebb and flow of lunar energy is a way to feel supported in our effort, connecting to an energy greater than our own to help us feel balanced. If you're feeling stretched too thin and pulled in too many directions, consider working with the energy of the Waning Quarter Moon. If you're feeling like you're struggling to stay strong and steady within yourself, consider working with the energy of the Waxing Quarter Moon.

Strengthen Your Resolve

By the growing light of the Waxing Quarter Moon we can practice rituals to help us strengthen our resolve, focus our willpower, and call in the allies needed to help us find whatever it is that we're seeking - from new job opportunities to like-minded friends to the courage to make a much needed change in our life. As the Moon waxes, so does your resolve, culminating in the vibrant energy of the Full Moon. As the Moon wanes, let it carry away doubt and fear, the New Moon carrying you forward with growing momentum.

Find Your Balance with Breathwork

One of the most effective ways that I know to find balance is through breathwork. Breathwork is free to practice and doesn't require any fancy equipment, and can be used at any time and in any place. With the balanced ebb and flow of energy present at the Quarter Moons, breathwork can be a powerful way to connect with your own sense of balance. You can find resources for your breathwork practice over here.

image via @oandersonrian

Tend to Your Tenderness

One of the ways that we can take care of those tender parts of ourselves is by taking time to pull our energy back from all the places it has gone wandering. Shedding layers of expectation, we can hold, with gentleness and care, those tender parts of ourselves that don't always get the space to just be soft. One of the mythological images of the Waning Quarter Moon that you'll find in modern Goddess spirituality spaces (though it is based on fragments of much older traditions), is the Waning Moon as the Goddess pulling her veil or blanket around her shoulders and head, retreating from the bright attention and needs of the world, to dwell a bit in the quiet dark. I love connecting to this mythological current of energy, drawing a protective mantle around my own energy, so that I can feel safe enough to spend time in my tenderness, instead of constantly trying to keep up with impossible demands of "toughing it out" under social and institutional systems not built for human scale. Plant allies like Milky Oat (Avena sativa) and Linden (Tilia x europaea) can be useful guides to work with if you're seeking extra support for your tender self.

Cast a Moon Path

Starting on the day of the Quarter Moon, there are about 8 to 9 days to either the New Moon, in the case of starting on the Waning Quarter Moon, or to the Full Moon if you're starting on the Waxing Quarter Moon. These days (or nights) of practice are an opportunity for Moon Path rituals, where you time your ritual to the increase or decrease of the Moon's light. If you're wanting to bring something into your life, something which requires effort and attention, a Moon Path ritual starting on the night of the Waxing Quarter Moon and culminating on the Full Moon can be a powerful act of magick. For something that you're wanting to release from your life, walking a multi-night lunar path into the dark to emerge again at the New Moon can be deeply healing.

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Do you have a lunar practice for the Quarter Moons? If you’re looking for more Moon-inspired might-do lists, I’ve written ones for the Full Moon and the New Moon. For more Quarter Moon practices, you can explore my simple rituals and healing practices for the Waxing Quarter Moon and the Waning Quarter Moon. If you’re looking for my full collection of post about the Moon (there’s a lot!), check out the Moon Studies section of my Astroherbology archive. If you’re looking for my might-do series on the sabbats, here you go.

And for those looking for a deep dive into the world of lunar healing work, come this way.

Friends, I hope that you found something useful for your own monthly practices, and that you find your unique balance and rhythm that helps you feel at home in your life.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Discernment: A Rising Sign Tarot Spread

The Rising Sign or Ascendant (i.e. the astrological sign that is rising or ascending up from the horizon at the time of our birth) is a rather magickal part of our birth chart where we explore how we want to be perceived versus how we are perceived.

While exploring our Sun and our Moon signs can be a deeply internal process, with our Ascendant we are required to not only look within, but to take a brave look outwards, too. If you want a better understanding of how the Moon, the Sun, and the Ascendant interact with one another, creating a powerful triad of insight in your birth chart, be sure to check out my first post in this series.

Are you one of the many folks who feel not quite connected to their Sun sign, they'll often find themselves resonating with the energies of their Ascendant. Such an experience makes a lot of sense as our Ascendant better describes our personality - the Ascendant part of our birth chart represents who we desire to be perceived and what we do to achieve that desire. Our Ascendant shapes our behavior depending on what it is pulling us toward. A Taurus Ascendant, for example, might want to be perceived as grounding and thoughtful as their steady poise is not only something that they want for themselves but they believe that such traits make them desirable and worthy to others.

Our Ascendant sign is our personally tuned skillset of discernment, the filter by which we look out at the world which colors all of our interactions. The great work of understanding our Ascendant is to not only understand what internal desires are shaping our external perceptions, but to recognize that we cannot control the perception of others and how we are going to shape our life by that knowledge. Will we bend ourselves out of shape to fit in? Rebel against the system? Feel like a perpetual outsider instead of risking vulnerability? Recognize that there aren't any outsiders just folks who haven't found one another yet? Stop reading this post because astrology is silly? 

By exploring our Ascendant we have an opportunity to recognize how we've been shaped by the tension of perceiving ourselves and being perceived. We get to name the patterns of being that we really love about ourselves and help us feel at home energetically (Sun) and emotionally (Moon) while reconsidering and even releasing those patterns that feel outdated, meaningless or exhausting. There is a beautiful opportunity of synthesization and authentic engagement with ourselves and our world when we bring together what we've learned about our luminaries into all the ways we relate to the world.

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Discernment
A Tarot Spread for Your Ascendant

Begin by pulling out the card from your tarot deck that corresponds with the sign of your Ascendant. There are two correspondence methods to determine your Ascendant card. The first, simplest, and most common way is to choose the corresponding Major Arcana card based on the system used by The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn:

• Aries: The Emperor

• Taurus: Hierophant

• Gemini: Lovers

• Cancer: Chariot

• Leo: Strength

• Virgo: Hermit

• Libra: Justice

• Scorpio: Death

• Sagittarius: Temperance

• Capricorn: Devil

• Aquarius: Star

• Pisces: Moon

The second way, for those of you more familiar with the astrological tradition of decans, is to choose a card based on the corresponding decan to your Ascendant (I personally prefer the first method, but if you have the skillset, the second is great, too).

Once you've chosen your card card from your tarot deck, set it out at the top of your reading space. If you like you can place candles around it and build an altar full of items representing your Ascendant sign energy. You might include plant allies to your ascendant sign (explore my astroherbology profiles for recommended plant allies) or any of plant allies you feel support your Ascendant energy, focusing on creating a space that feels welcoming to your personal energy and aesthetic.

Cards 1. Cosmic Lens of Beauty

The first two cards of our spread help us to understand the lens by which we are viewing ourselves and the world. For our first card, it is the lens of beauty - that which we are drawn to, place value in, and aspire to be perceived as. While I'm using the word beauty, it could easily be replaced by holiness, desire or ethics, but it is a card that helps us to understand what shapes our perceptions of our inner and outer worlds. 

Card 2. Cosmic Lens of Fear

The second perception card is about how our perception of life also shapes our fear of it. In other words, what we perceive to be lacking about ourselves and our world or what we perceive to be our faults that drag us away from the beauty we perceive in ourselves and the world. This card highlights what we fear we might be perceived as.

Card 3. Collective Gaze

This card highlights your current comfort or discomfort with being perceived, helping us to understand how much beauty or fear we think is being placed upon us by others. Affirming cards in this position can reflect on the work we've put into and the space we've been given to flourish. Challenging cards in this position might reflect that you're in a state of transition, changing how it is you perceive yourself and want to be perceived, and/or how significant areas of perception in your life (i.e. in relationships, at school or work, during intense social-cultural periods during election periods, and so on).

Card 4. Alignment

This card highlights ways that you can help align your inner perception of yourself with how you are perceived in the world (at least in safe, supportive relationships). A particularly challenging card in this position might show a state of conflict with how you want to be perceived versus how you've been allowed to be perceived by your family, friends, society at large. Even in challenging cards, seek the symbol or meaning that shows small paths of rebellion to eventual freedom.  

Card 5. Horizons

When we work with the energy of our Ascendant we can tap into the ability to gaze towards the horizon and get a glimpse at what it is that we are drawing towards us/what is drawn to us in connection to our perception journey.

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I hope you enjoyed our journey through the Luminaries (i.e. the Sun and Moon) and Ascendant in your birth chart. Explore the rest of the series:

• Vitality: A Tarot Spread for Your Sun Sign

• Illumination: A Moon Sign Tarot Spread

Becoming familiar with these parts of your birth chart will help you create a solid foundation for your astrological practice, include any astroherbology studies from the lunar to the tarot.

If you’re looking for more tarot inspiration, I have a decade’s worth of community posts for you. For those seeking to learn more about the intersections of stars and plants, come this way.

May your studies be illuminating, your cards clear, and your heart open to the possibilities of all that you are.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Slow Winter, Soft Spring: Herbal Remedies for the Quiet Season

I enjoy the feeling of expectation, that glimmering glow of waiting for something. Whether it is knowing that the jars full of herbs from the garden will soon be strained and decanted into precious, healing tinctures or decorating the house with candles and flowering bulbs in anticipation of Imbolc, I've always enjoyed the spaces between big happenings and festive gatherings. These in-between times, where one season is slowly ending and another slowly beginning speak to the magick of possibility and hope.

Intertwined with this comfort of waiting are feelings of wanting to be prepared. Often this is for practical reasons - cleaning the windows as spring starts knowing that this will help welcome in light to our homes after a long, dark winter. Yet, there is a more complicated feeling of preparedness that is deep and ancestral, handed down through generations of people who had a long practice of having one eye on the horizon and bags packed. Many of us, whether or not we come from families where the preparedness instinct is both a useful and challenging inheritance, are experiencing some form of tension fed by the feeling of global dread as we grapple with the uncertainty of our futures.

It can be a lot for these little bodies of ours to handle.

So how do I avoid the pitfalls of fear and balance out the pleasure of the in-between, with the practicalities of being prepared, while keeping centered and hopeful? To be honest, I don't always manage. Sometimes I have to breathe through the fear as much as any other person, lay down on the earth, and let panic flow out from my nervous system into the ground. But I do find that hope becomes more powerful than fear, that I am able to welcome up green and grounded energy when laying on the earth, when I make and tend an altar for hope in my life. 

image via @geri_art

As an herbalist and Pagan, my altar of hope is formed by the seasons, a very human-scale rhythm of time that our species and our non-human relations thrive in. A cycle of seasons syncopated by lunar rhythms helps to break the spell of artificial capitalist systems that are inherently exploitative of time and resources and which require us to be fearful in order to be maintained. Returning to the slowness of winter and the softness of spring, two dangerously disruptive ideas of wellbeing in an overculture hyperfocused on productivity, is a powerful form of restful and radical healing magick.

With this radical, restful, hopeful magick in mind, this new series will focus on herbal recipes for the seasons-between-seasons that help us meet whatever is to come in our lives and communities with steadiness. What I hope to inspire for you is a sense of place in whatever season of life you're in, where you feel like you have plant allies to work during these times of transition, and that you can begin to build or refresh a seasonal practice that feels sustainable. 

Winter to Spring Remedies

The following recipes are formulated as teas but can easily be made into herbal extracts, baths, or other forms of herbal remedies. I’ve crafted them with the transition from Pisces to Aries season in the northern hemisphere and from Virgo to Libra season in the southern hemisphere in mind, but they can easily be adapted or used for throughout the year.

image via @mind_n_soul_journey

For When You Need to Breathe Deep

The dry coldness of late winter gives and the damp coldness of early spring combined with a lot of time spent indoors can create an environment for respiratory illnesses and allergies to flourish. Herbs like Peppermint (Mentha piperita) help to open the airways while Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) brings warmth and energy. Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) is one of my favorite herbs for clearing out bronchial and lymph congestion, but helping us find a rhythm and flow in our current cycle of life. This blend of herbs is great not only for helping to clear out lingering respiratory illnesses, as well as protect against future ones, and repair the respiratory system, but is also just a lovely blend to use when life is getting ahead of you and you want to pause, take a deep breath, and re-center.

Blend together the following herbs:

• 2 parts Peppermint (Mentha piperita)

• 1 part Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)

• ½ part Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

image via @ed_leszczynskl

For When You Need to Think Clearly

Winter is a time of rest and recuperation where many of us slow down physically and mentally, settling into a mellow coziness if our life circumstances allow. As spring begins to wander over, at a pace that oscillates between meandering and very sudden, we can feel a bit brain foggy and sluggish when we'd rather be feeling focused and energized. One of the reasons we can experience brain fog, especially as winter turns to spring, is that our nervous system needs some extra support. Milky Oat (Avena sativa) is my favorite nourishing nervine (i.e. nervous system tonic) and it helps to restore the nervous system to a state of balance. Combined with nootropics (i.e. brain tonics) like Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum, tenuiflorum) and Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) this blend helps all parts of the thinking body from the nervous system to the heart to the brain feel supported and in resonance with one another.

Blend together the following herbs:

• 2 parts Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• 2 parts Sacred Basil (Ocimum sanctum, tenuiflorum)

• 1 part Milky Oat (Avena sativa)

image via @yer_a_wizard

For When You're Feeling Stuck

Sometimes the slow months of winter can dredge up a lot of feelings about what it is we inherited from our families of origin, the people who raised us, and the cultures we grew up in. The long dark and stark weather of winter can show us just how interdependent we are with one another, the patterns that we weave into each other's lives and how we carry this inheritance around in our bodies. With spring slowly creeping in, we can feel rushed and unready, insecure and saddened by the approach of a new season when we feel so held down by generations of seasons. As we linger between winter and spring and explore these stories, hopefully while being supported by sweet friends, chosen families, beloved elders, and mental health professionals, there are many plant allies that can help us through. 

Plant allies like Rose (Rosa spp.), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), and Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) help to move stagnant energy, keep our hearts steady, and assist us in clarifying what it is we are thinking and feeling about our experience of what we've inherited or whatever it is that is making us feel stuck between seasons of life. 

Rose (Rosa spp.) connects us back to the needs of our heart, Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) helps us to hear our intuitive knowing above the noise of the crowd (family crowds, culture crowds, social media crowds, etc), while Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) helps to alleviate the tension that can keep us feeling stuck and mulling over the same situations and experiences again and again. When combined, these herbs help to open the heart to possibility, focus on the patterns in our life that we find most useful, and more readily recognize the joy of our lives.

Blend together the following:

• 4 parts Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

• 1 part Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)

• ¼ part Rose (Rosa spp.)

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Three simple recipes that help us to move from winter into spring with a feeling of levity and hope. If you're looking for more seasonal inspiration you can check out my winter wellness apothecary and spring wellness apothecary posts which guide you through stocking your home apothecary with remedies to support you and your community throughout the year. I also have a recipe to support the dreaming magick of spring as well as plenty of recommended plant allies for winter. You can also explore my series on herbal and magickal suggestions for every season.

May your in-between times be places of sweet softness as you learn who you are as a person in transition, always whole and always changing.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

Illumination: A Moon Sign Tarot Spread

Having written about what the Sun represents in our birth chart and how we might explore our energy through a solar perspective, it's time to turn our attention to the other luminary of the birth chart: the Moon. If you want a better understanding of how the Moon, the Sun, and the Ascendant or Rising Sign interact with one another, creating a powerful triad of insight in your birth chart, be sure to check out my first post in this series.

With the Moon we begin to feel our stories, our myths, and our truths. Within the birth chart, the Moon represents the filtering of our consciousness from the deep well of the subconscious, unconscious, and collective consciousness. The Moon represents our earliest experiences of feeling held, sheltered, and nourished (as well as the absence of these experiences), shaping how we view and seek out feeling at home in ourselves in the world. 

I grew up with texts on astrology that far too often dismissively presented the Moon as a weak place of feeling in the birth chart, almost always contrasted in a false dichotomy to the vigorous, unchanging logic of solar thinking. The Sun in our chart could be easily hindered by the Moon's unwillingness to sit still and stop changing - our feelings were something to be fixed so that they didn't disrupt "logical" forward progression. And yet, feeling is the foundation from which thought emerges. Thought emerges not as a refinement of feelings that we should be trying to pull away from, but as an interconnected expression of feeling that helps us to better understand our experiences. 

It is good to be friends with your Moon, to let yourself feel your way to your story.

The Moon is a great symbol of consciousness, feeling, and personal narrative. While the Moon is always full in the sky, we perceive it to be ever changing in light and form, stretching out an invisible influence over big patterns of nature, including the tides and cycles of growth. We have an opportunity to ebb and flow, expand and contract, pull away and draw in as we explore who we are and what we feel about who we are. We don't know how experience will change us, but we know we will be changed. When we sit with our Moon, we sit with the cyclical power of change and renewal as a symbol of hope for what is possible. 

Approaching the Moon in our birth chart as a place of illumination, we can begin to appreciate who we are in the stories we tell, changing them when we need to, and learning more about how we protect our feeling body as much as our mental or physical one. 

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Illumination
A Tarot Spread for Your Moon Sign

Begin by pulling the Moon card out from your tarot deck and set it out before you. If you like you can place candles around it and build a lunar altar full of items representing Moon energy and your own Moon sign. You might include lunar plant allies like Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Milky Oat (Avena sativa), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), and Jasmine (Jasminum spp.). Focus on creating a space that feels good and supportive to you.

Card 1: Illuminated

This card describes your inherent lunar energy and the place from which you filter experience into consciousness. This card might illustrate the emotions you find yourself most comfortable in being in. The card’s elemental correspondence can be helpful to pay attention to: cards of Fire (Wands) often describing quick and heated feelings, maybe even anger, Water cards (Cups) showing us a place of deep feeling and empathy, Earth cards (Pentacles) suggesting a longer journey to figuring out, much less showing, how one is feeling, and Air cards (Swords) typically describing someone who is quick to feel and move on and feel again. These are incredibly broad guidelines, meant to give you a starting point to describe your inner lunar landscape of felt experience.

Card 2: On The Surface

Referring to the original illustration of the river for our Sun, Moon, and Ascendent, this card represents how we appear on the surface to ourselves and others. If this surface level presentation is challenging for us, that might be reflected in the card. Or the card might illustrate an archetypal energy we seem to most easily connect to in our public persona (i.e. we might be the Knight of Wands whose always showing up to defend our friends). 

Card 3: Deep Within

This card reveals your lunar energy that is kept deep below the surface, usually hidden from most of the world besides those people, places, and creatures you are closest to. Sometimes our Deep Within card is in stark contrast to our On The Surface card, other times they are closely aligned. Often there is a story happening between these two cards that can be interesting to explore.

Card 4: Homecoming

This card illustrates the ways you feel most at home and supported in the world. There are often suggestions within this card for how you can call home those parts of yourself that deserve to be felt. A challenging card in this position might suggest that you're struggling to access feeling at home in yourself, and this struggle to access your own feelings can be for so many complicated reasons, and sometimes the wounds are very old. Some of the deepest wounds are hidden away in our inner Moon and you deserve to be supported in all the ways that help you heal, including therapeutic services by mental health professionals - be sure to check out the resources below. Any card here suggests ways to start telling the story of how we find our ways home again. 

Card 5: Intuitive Knowing

This final card highlights what might be considered our psychic gifts and shows us how we draw on our deep well of feeling and experience to know something before we know it.

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I'm writing this while sitting outside in the (relatively) cool air of (very nearly early winter) late autumn, thinking of the patterns handed down to us through the generations - knitting patterns, woodworking patterns, star maps, and seeds. How these patterns help us continue the story of being dwellers on an ocean planet without getting lost in the vast sea; growing patterns where we another stitch, another word, another drawing to the story of all we've ever known, knowing that there is still more to discover. It's an incredible, complex, haunting, and uplifting legacy, and there is just so much to feel about it.

Since our Moon is about our feeling body, it's important to recognize that Moon work can be a space that feels too hard and challenging to access on our own - which is why you shouldn't have to go this work of knowing yourself alone. A lot of Moon work can be done within a therapeutic setting with culturally-competent mental health professionals. Your story deserves the space to be explored in a way that feels empowering. 

If you feel like you're not the type of person that does something like therapy, whether you feel like you should be "strong enough" to do without or it's not something anyone in your family does or whatever reason you've come up with, I ask you to consider this bit of ancestral lunar magick. The Moon represents not just feeling, but the full fruition of ourselves into our being, and our ancestors had ways of honoring that need through rituals and community support that is not so dissimilar to many forms of modern therapeutic practice. The Moon also represents change, including changing modalities of healing to whatever ones keep us alive and thriving, something our ancestors were constantly seeking in order to protect their beloveds, including us, their descendants.

I'm rooting for you and if you feel like it might be time to access therapy, here are a few resources to check out: 

• If you are currently in a state of crisis or just really want to talk to someone right now the Crisis Text Line, RAINN, and The Trevor Project are all available right now and for free to support you.

• Inclusive Therapists is a site dedicated to helping you find a therapist that celebrates your identities. There are so many resources on this site!

• The Loveland Foundation provides financial assistance to Black girls and women seeking therapy.

• Mental Health Liberation focuses on BIPOC mental wellness.

• Asian Mental Health Community

• Latinx Therapists

I hope that you find the people that love your Moon, love your changing, love your stories - may we be Moon-bodied people finding each other in the dark. You deserve all of that and more.

This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎

A Might-Do List for the New Moon

Every month the Moon cycles through phases of newness and fullness, representing our ability to shift and change in our own lives.

Humans have been measuring time for thousands of years by the Moon, so it is no surprise that many of us feel drawn to do something around the Full or New Moons. For my personal practice, I enjoy observing the esbats as part of my lunar healing work. The esbats are lunar-focused celebrations practiced by some magickal folk in some contemporary traditions of Paganism (most notably Wicca) and witchcraft. Having already written a might-do series for the sabbats and a might-do list for the Full Moon esbat, I wanted to follow-up with a New Moon list to continue to support your seasonal and lunar celebrations.

The New Moon is a time of possibility and promise, representing the release of what was to embrace what might be. With just a sliver of crescent in the sky - having emerged from darkness and growing steadily towards fullness again - the New Moon is an auspicious time for planting the seeds of intention and what we hope to bring into our lives. It is a time where energy feels sharp and brisk, untethered by old stories of the past cycle, and tumbling headlong into the new. There is a momentum in the air that many a folk draw upon for their magickal work and healing practice, something which you can do, too.

So if you're curious about developing a New Moon practice, here's a list of nine things you might-do for your esbat celebrations. 

image via @joshyb_

Refresh Your Altar

When I feel a need to refresh the energy of my inner and outer spaces, I take some time to refresh my altars.  The New Moon is a particularly fruitful time to practice an altar refresh because we can tap into the energies of newness, possibility, and focus that the New Moon offers. I tidy up any wax or ash, dust surfaces and objects, sometimes choose new altar art, and take some time to connect with my spiritual path through the items I use to represent this central part of my life.

After tidying, I’ll often light a candle and practice some simple devotional work before returning to the busyness of my day. Taking care of an altar, where all sorts of mystical and healing rituals take place, helps us to connect with the lovely truth that spiritual practice is both magickal and mundane, and paying attention to the needs of one aspect of our practice helps to support the other.

Clean Your Spaces

In addition to tidying your altar, you can also clean and cleanse your living spaces including your home, your workspace, and any modes of transportation you own and frequently use. Physically cleaning the space, maybe in a way that is more robust than a normal tidy session, helps to free up energy for the new lunar cycle and also provides us with the very practical benefits of a clean space.

I like to follow up a New Moon clean with an energetic cleanse. What an energetic cleans looks like for you will depend on your personal practice, sensory needs, and cultural framework. Some like to cleanse with the smoke of burning sacred herbs, others prefer candles, and others still choose sound based forms of cleansing like bells, songs, and/or drumming. You can choose the type of energetic cleansing based on the sign that the New Moon is in, perhaps cleansing by burning herbs when the Moon is in a fire sign or by asperging with water in the Moon is in a water sign. 

Draw a Lunar Bath

A bath blessed with lunar herbs, perhaps a bit of sea salt, and a spell sung over the water is not only a wonderful way to relax, but a beautiful way to wash away unwanted energy and invite in a feeling of renewal. Whether or not you use lunar bathing herbs or plant allies of your choosing, herbal baths are wonderfully customizable. You can add in Moon water either from the New Moon or the Full Moon, flower and gem essences, water-safe stones, fresh flower petals, and more.

image via @sayakbala

Burn, Bury, Banish

While the New Moon brings a promise of new beginnings, it is also a time to sweep out old unwanted energy. Writing down energies and experiences you want to banish from your life and burning it is a burn safe container can be deeply carthartic. Instead of burning, you can bury the paper, planting seeds over it to represent the power of earth to transform something old into something new. Burying is a particular good technique when you're trying to transform one type of experience into another (i.e. my stage fright is transformed into stage joy). There are also all sorts of banishing rituals that can be performed with the scythe-like energy of the New Moon, clearing the way for the abundance you seek to be drawn in with the growing light of the coming cycle.

Turn the Tides In Your Favor

As the Moon pulls the tides, so do folks who rely on the sea seek to pull Her favor. An old Hebridean chant to the New Moon goes: 

Hail to thee, thou new-lit moon,
I bend the knee, thou queen so fair;
Through the dark clouds thine the way be,
Thine who leadest all the stars;
Though thy light e'en find me joy-filled
Put thou flow-tide on the flood
Send thou flow-tide on the flood.¹

I love this charm, this simple Moon prayer, and it can be easily adapted to call in whatever sort of favorable energy you're seeking, from luck to love to peace and prosperity. If you're interested in learning more about Scottish traditions of charms like these, the Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael is a good place to start, including charms and the rituals surrounding them like these.

Cast A Healing Spell

For healing to happen, change is needed. The New Moon is a beautiful time to call in the change needed for the healing you are seeking to begin (or begin again or change directions). It can be as simple as intention setting or a more complex ritual to welcome in the energy of healing. I've written a series of healing rituals for each sign of the New Moon (you'll find the full archive of the New Moon Healer's project over here) and if you're looking for a place to start, how about calling in a healing temple? You can also, with permission, work healing magick at the New Moon for your loved ones, especially if they are starting on a new part of the healing journey and/or seeking some answers for where they should be headed next. The energy of the New Moon swoops in with clarity and hope, two things very much needed for any sort of healing work.

image via @contentpixie

Make A Wish

Making a wish at the New Moon is an old form of witchcraft in the British Isles, but one that you’ll find in cultures around the world. A New Moon wishing practice can be as simple as looking up at the New Moon blowing Her a kiss and making a wish. Or you might recite a charm like:

Blessed New Moon
Sharp and bright
I cast a wish
That you might
Bless me well
Seven-fold
Blessed New Moon
Bright and bold

Another New Moon wishing practice that flows into techniques of manifestation magick is to write down up to nine wishes on a piece of paper or in a journal at every New Moon. These wishes can repeat each month until they or something better comes to pass, or you might tie the theme of your wishing to the sign the Moon is in. Speaking a wish the first night a New Moon takes to the sky feels like it is a remnant of a much older form of ancestral lunar observation and a simple one for modern magickal folk to observe.

Offer Good Fortune

Take stock of the good fortune of the previous month (including, when times are tough, just being able to make it through) and consider the ways you can make sure the current of good fortune continues to flow by offering it on. Charitable donations are often what comes to mind when it comes to passing on good fortune, but you can also make offerings of time, skills, and attention.

Offering good fortune is a way not only of benefiting those people, places, and creatures in your life, but to recognize that you are a fortunate, needed being with meaningful things to offer community. So much of magickal and healing work is internal and invisible, so it is good to integrate regular community-oriented works into your practice to remind us that we are not only trying to return home to ourselves but to each other. 

Peek Into the Future

To quote tarot scholar Mary K. Greer "Tarot helps you meet whatever comes in the best possible way."² You've cleansed your space, your personal energy, and set some intentions, now is a ripe time to use divination to help set you up for ease and inspiration for the coming cycle. While my divination tool of choice is the tarot, I often like casting lots of some sort for New Moon divination - something about the action of throwing ogham feda or stones feels energetically aligned with the quickening energy stirred up by the New Moon. Check out a whole range of tarot spreads over here and if you're focusing on energies of renewal, you can easily adapt this annual spread for a monthly one.

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If you're looking for more lunar inspiration, check out my full archive of astroherbology posts, many of which are Moon-centered. You can also learn how to find your Moon sign in your birthchart (as well as understand how the current Moon shows up in your chart). For my newsletter subscribers they get access to over 100 rituals and recipes tied to the phases of the Moon - sign up to get free access. If you are a fellow herbalist or healer looking to incorporate more lunar wisdom into your healing practice, I invite you to join The Lunar Apothecary.

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Footnotes

1. From The Road to The Isles Kenneth Macleod accessed via Graham King, The British Book of Spells & Charms (London: Troy Books, 2014), 251.

2. Via her resource rich website: https://marykgreer.com/