Rooting: Dark of the Moon Ritual and Healing Practices
On the land I live with, it is a time of seeking shade and cool places. The height of summer buzz is only gently starting to wane as the nights begin to flow further into the hours while daylight starts to ebb. The great swell of energy leading to Midsummer is only just starting to dissipate and I find myself slowing down as I find restful places to be still with my thoughts, my feelings, my dreamings of the land of my body and the land around me. During these unprecedented periods of heat during our current climate emergency, I have struggled to be restful, worrying that I should be in constant movement, but it is in the pause that we are able to refocus, breathe more deeply, and reconnect to what needs to be done to protect life and the land. And so the Dark Moon beckons, calling us to the shade before we spend any more time in the heat of the day.
The Dark of the Moon is an interesting time, not one observed as broadly as say the Full Moon or New Moon, but a period of time during the lunar cycle that I cherish in my own personal practice. (1) The Dark Moon is a period of profound rest before a new lunar cycle begins. If the New Moon is re-emerging onto a stage, the Dark of the Moon is when we are behind the curtains, waiting backstage, grounding and centering before we re-emerge back into the world. Without this period of rest we are unable to sustain the work and energy of the rest of the lunar cycle - though the importance of rest in magickal work and healing can often be overlooked or made difficult to access by capitalist-driven overcultures that pervade both institutional and personal spaces. There is a reason why, in this time of climate emergency, when we are confronting global patterns of consumption, waste, and destruction, that the call for rest as restorative justice has been growing. We need to rest for rest's sake, not to rest in order to become more productive to work, but to rest as a path of self-realization and community resilience. That is the magick of the Dark Moon.
For those who move through the world as womxn or somewhere on the spectrum of femme identity, however that manifests for you, there is a transgressive and radical magick to working with the Dark Moon. In patriarchal cultures, a womxn’s worth is tied up to her fertility and the Dark of the Moon is a time of un-fertileness, the barren field, the Hag who is unconcerned with what society says of Her, allowing her to move freely throughout all of the worlds. It is a time of breaking the hex of the male gaze (which hurts all of us, no matter our gender) and conjuring the collapse of oppressive systems of power. It is beautiful and wild and if this magick calls to you,
Just before the New Moon takes to the sky and far from the fecundity of the Full Moon, the Dark Moon marks the time of greatest dark during the lunar cycle. It is a time to be slow and still, joyfully unproductive, fertile to nothing else but our own needs, and to tend to the boundaries and edges of our wild spirit that help to shape who we are. Descending and returning, shedding and stillness, remembering and forgetting are all key energies of the Dark Moon.
Herbal Traditions
There is not an official correspondence within Traditional Western Herbalism to the Dark Moon. If we were to think of the Moon phase as a cycle of building a sacred structure, the Dark of the Moon is the temple completed, but empty of movement, waiting to be filled up with the sounds of life that people bring, but content and whole unto itself to be still and quiet at this moment. It is the point of the process of creating sacred space that we realize that the spaces we inhabit in are living and breathing and exist beyond us and our needs and our process of coming to respect that. For my garden-minded friends, the Dark Moon is the period between the end of one compost cycle and the beginning of the next.
As I've shared throughout this series, lunar work is deeply personal and I encourage you to trust your intuition and spiritual callings when creating when it comes to working with the Moon and interpreting Her cycles. For me, the Dark of the Moon is a time between work, as lengthy or brief as that may be, where I pause from doing and rest into being. It is both one of my favorite parts of the lunar cycles and one of the most challenging ones as I continue to undo patterns of overwork in my own life. If you believe you do not have time to rest it is a sure sign that you need to rest more. And I recognize that rest is more accessible to some, which is why it is so important for all of us to create cultures which recognize the sanctity of fallow periods as much as fertile ones.
In my own practice I very rarely make herbal remedies at this time and I try not to schedule classes, consultations, or other outer world work. For remedy-makers I think it is really important to have regular time off from making remedies and I invite you to explore what that might look like in your own practice, whether it becomes a Dark of the Moon practice or another lunar phase practice, during your Lunar Return, or perhaps tied to physical cycles like menses (another traditional time to pause from medicine-making). I don't have any specific plant parts that I work with during the Dark Moon. Personally, it's a time of Crone and Hag Goddesses, so I am more likely to reach for plant allies that I associate with elder, haggish, fiercely independent energy.
Examples of Dark of the Moon Herbs: Elder (Sambucus nigra), Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Rose (Rosa spp.).
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris, spp.)
To be perfectly honest, Mugwort is the lunar herb in traditional western herbalism so it can be easily called upon during any Moon ritual. I'm writing about it here, at the Dark of the Moon, because Mugwort is referred to as the "oldest of herbs" within Old English herbal and spiritual tradition and the Dark Moon is a time of Hags. (2) Mugwort is an herb that has a strong effect on me so I am very intentional when I choose to use it and the period of the Dark Moon is one of my favorite times to engage with their magick.
Mugwort's latin binomial clues us into some of its healing qualities. Artemis is a Goddess of all womxnfolk and their magick, with a particular resonance with womb-bearing womxn and the cycles of menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. Mugwort is a warming and opening herb, helping to warm up the uterus and clear out stagnant blood. Take just before your menstrual cycle to release tension, ease cramping, and soothe back pain. After a birth, Mugwort helps cease postpartum bleeding and hemorrhage.
As a fiercely protective herb, the Artemisian qualities of Mugwort help guide us back to the sanctity of our sexuality as fully our own, defined by our own parameters, and expressed however we please within the holy boundaries of consent. Along these same lines, Mugwort has a special affinity for womxn who have experienced trauma, especially of a sexual nature, where they feel isolated from their spiritual power, have difficulty feeling their emotions, and feel frozen in their anger and despair. The herb helps us to step back into our power.
As a warming Moon herb, Mugwort is especially good at moving emotions that have stagnated or frozen up in the body. Mixed with the anger and frustration of past or current traumas, indications that Mugwort can be useful include intermittent fever resulting in both hot and cold conditions in the body. Mugwort increases circulation and warmth throughout the body, clearing out stagnation. It wakes up a sluggish digestive tract and stimulates the secretion of digestive fluids making it a valuable ingredient in bitters blends. If the sleep is disturbed with vivid and disruptive dreams, Mugwort is a night ally, bringing deep sleep and growing a dreamer’s ability to be lucid.
One of the ways that Mugwort works its magick is by opening us up to our own psychic gifts and ability. In small regular doses (i.e. 1 drop daily) or by using the flower essence on a regular basis, Mugwort can help to establish an appropriate protective barrier around our psychic senses to help us avoid psychic overwhelm and burnout. The herb can help us articulate our psychic and emotional experiences to ourselves and others in a way that helps us feel connected to our self and our community.
image via @tishine
Altars + Rituals
Cover your altar, your body, with a veil. Be hidden away from the world, known only to yourself. Let yourself be completely naked to the eye of your spirit, to your love, to your own deep way of being that can only be you.
A Simple Dark of the Moon Ritual
To honor the roots of your power
The following ritual helps you to reset as the lunar cycle comes to an end and before it begins again, reconnecting you to what it is that keeps you rooted in your power so that you can more deeply rest your whole self. This ritual can be performed at any time of day or night, but I recommend performing it just before a period of rest (including bedtime) and relaxation.
The charm that you'll be speaking during this ritual starts with "I root my power in…" Examples of how you might complete this sentence might be:
I root my power in the wisdom of my ancestors.
I root my power in the courage of self-love.
I root my power in the hope of the land.
You can choose a few statements before starting the ritual or be guided by what arises during the ritual. In my own tradition, I would recommend three, six or nine statements, but work with the numerical system that is most meaningful to you and your cultural and/or spiritual traditions.
To begin, remove all of your jewelry and sacred adornments that you wear daily, including scents like perfumes. As you do this, begin to soften your breath until you are breathing in a way that is filling and easeful, guided by your own rhythm. Place all your sacred adornments in a bowl (or bag or on a cloth) that you can comfortably hold in your lap and lift above your head. If you can, sit cross-legged with the bowl centered in your lap, but choose the position that is most comfortable for you with the bowl low in your body or placed on the ground or table in front of you.
Take a deep breath in and out.
On the next in-breath, lift the bowl above your head, the objects in this bowl symbolizing how you present yourself to the world, the crown you wear for all to see. Speak the first of your charms (I root my power in the way of…), as you lower the bowl before you, maybe circling it softly, moving it through your energy centers before resting again on your lap (if the items are on an altar before you or not easily lifted, you can lift just your arms and hands instead).
Continuing to breath deeply, look at the items in your bowl, perhaps picking them up one-by-one and asking yourself if they align energetically with the charm you just spoke. Perhaps everything is in alignment, but if something feels like it doesn't quite match up energetically, remove it from your bowl and set it aside. The item might need to be cleansed and/or recharged, just need a break for a lunar cycle or longer. In some cases an item is ready to move on and be gifted or disposed of in a sacred manner.
Repeat the process with all of your daily adornments until your bowl is full of items that help reflect your inner values and principles with your outer appearance.
Take a deep breath in and hold the bowl above your head. Breathe out and lower the bowl to your heart. Breathe in. Breathe out and lower the bowl to your lap. Breathe in, reveling in the alignment of your energy.
Once the ritual is done, take a few more deep and centering breaths before retiring to rest. I often like to take a moment at the end of any magick, but especially when I am grounding and centering to be grateful for the people, places, things, and experiences which have affirmed who I am and helped me to rest, whole and complete.
A Simple Dark of the Moon Tarot Spread
To help you find the path of rest
Card 1 · Restless
This card highlights what is hindering your ability to rest deeply.
Card 2 · Restful
This card shows you what tools or practices can help you to rest fully.
Card 3 · Story
The overall message of the Dark Moon in your life. If you are familiar with your birth chart and how to find the transiting Moon in your chart this card can help you to understand the message of the Dark Moon in the context of where it lands in your chart.
I hope you enjoyed this fifth and final post in my series exploring simple ritual practices of the lunar phases (and thanks to my patrons who requested this series!). You can find the posts for the other phases here:
If you’re looking for more lunar magick, start by finding the Moon in your birth chart. I also teach a full course centered on lunar herbalism and astrology to help you discover your unique gifts as a healer called The Lunar Apothecary.
Wherever the Moon finds you I hope you find yourself and the kind spirits who inhabit the dark places of the night, holding up a mirror to your brilliance as you reflect the back the brilliance of the stars to them.
This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎
Notes
(1) The New Moon and the Dark of the Moon are sometimes used interchangeably, but in my practice they are two distinct, though closely situated, periods of time and space. I was taught that the Dark Moon is when there is no Moon visible in the sky for a day or two before the New Moon when a crescent becomes visible. The Dark Moon corresponds to the Balsamic Moon in astrology. Honoring the Dark Moon is a tradition passed down through Goddess spirituality and feminist circles that places emphasis on honoring not only the bright energy of the Full Moon but the beautiful dark depths of the Dark Moon (of course, the honoring the Dark Moon is not exclusive to those spaces and traditions, but that is where I learned it).
(2) I highly recommend reading the full Nine Herbs Charm in both modern English and in the original Old English. Read the Old English out loud to get a feel for the deeply trancey rhythm and pace of the spell (though you can listen to it in modern English here).
