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.

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

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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/

Rituals & Recipes for Moonfolk (Or how I’m celebrating 13 years of community)

This past month marked thirteen years of Worts & Cunning Apothecary.

It feels like both a very long time and a very short time has passed since I first opened the Apothecary in a small Northeastern city at the end of autumn, specializing in home-made herbal remedies with a focus on alcohol-free options. Now, I write and teach full-time, helping others to craft their own remedies and explore their inner worlds and community connections through the lens of plant healing and magick. It's been an incredible (and wonderfully strange and challenging and joyful) journey so far.

I love what I do, I love our community, and I am so grateful to be able to fulfill this calling of mine to help connect people and plants for our collective liberation and joy.

While my ideas of what Worts & Cunning would be and what I’d be doing as an herbalist has changed over the years, a constant thread has connected all my various projects and offerings together - to create and share resources that are useful, that spark curiosity, and help folks to call themselves back home. I’ve doubted whether or not this calling of mine is useful (Maybe it’d be better to open a dog rescue instead! Camp out in a permanent protest on the steps of congress! Become a city planner to help our communities be centered around the planet and people instead of cars and corporations!), but I return again and again to what it feels like to share resources, to teach a class where I’m learning along with everyone else present, and to know that hours of quiet research might help someone grow more into their practice and community. I love the feeling of being able to share my joy of land and plants and stars and the unknowns of life with so many kind-hearted folks, and to hear their stories of land and plants and stars in return. For me, sharing resources is a form of sacred communion and expansive connection, and I’m so grateful that this is what I get to do.

While I don’t know all of what the future holds (though I’ve got a lot of exciting things I’m working on), I want to take a moment to celebrate what has already been done. I've been writing this community blog for thirteen years and it is chock-full of free and useful resources from plant profiles to seasonal apothecary guides, explorations of the energetic system of traditional western herbalism, a guide to creating financial access in your own business, and my growing collection of astroherbalism guides. I host four courses and a growing library of plant knowledge which you can access for as little as $1. I have hosted in-person workshops, classes, and sound baths featuring plant song which some of you have been able to attend (and those are all coming back!).  I've taught as a guest teacher in other herbal courses and been published in zines, planners, and plant guides (my self-published ebooks and zines are available in patreon). I've chatted on podcasts about plants and strange encounters with your ancestors and how healing is a community effort. Three years ago I started a patreon community which has been so much fun and features extra guides and posts, as well as plant song recordings, free access to The Plant Ally Library and a not-a-podcast audio class thing. 

All of this has only been possible because I've had a community supporting me along the way and it's why I continue to do this work. I have been able to grow into my kindness and softness and complexity as a person because I've been held in a community that values such paths and reflected them back to me. As I continue to grow and learn, my goal is to keep making the majority of what I do free and low-cost so that you can access useful information and inspiration on intersectional herbalism and magick that supports your ability to re-member how whole and holy you are.

Which is why it was such a joy to share The Moonfolk Book of Shadows with everyone. With over 120 rituals and recipes, Moonfolk is my big-hearted thank you for thirteen years of support. You can access it completely for free by signing up for my newsletter and if you’re already a subscriber to Magick Mail you’ll find all of the details in the Magick Mail Apothecary (yes, there’s a secret section of the blog for Magick Mail subscribers).

So, in celebration of Moonfolk and cycles of change and transformation, below I’ve shared the ritual and recipe inspired by the New Moon in Cancer.

But all of this is to say: thank you, friends, for helping to make possible this quiet and kind-hearted community space.

Developing Intuition
I am intuitive

So much of developing intuition is learning to trust oneself and that can be challenging for many of us. The experience of having influential people in our lives (parents, caretakers, friends, partners, etc.) denying or dismissing not only our intuition but our truths is all too common and can make it hard to connect with our intuition later in life. 

Reconnecting with our inherent intuition can be a long process, requiring multiple healing practices from therapy to spiritual explorations to boundary-setting and so on, so please don't feel bad if you feel like everyone else has an easy time with it. Fortunately, Cancerian energies are excellent at supporting our ability to connect our waking consciousness with intuitive states of being, which is why an intuition ritual at the New Moon in Cancer ritual can be so powerful. 

The following is a simple ritual and guided meditation that can and should be practiced over a length of time (at least a full lunar cycle) to help you cultivate your intuitive gifts. Approach it with a playful heart or at least a not too overly serious one too focused on "results" and you'll find yourself having an easier go at things. Why do I recommend a ritual performed every day or night for a full lunar cycle? Often it has been years that we've been hiding away from or denying our intuition, so we deserve to give ourselves plenty of time to make space for our intuition to awaken and be embraced again. The time and effort are part of the ritual, showing your intuitive self that you really do want them to come home to you and feel supported.

You will need:

• An intuition altar filled with inspiring things and supportive objects like quartz crystals, images of the divine and/or familiar and ancestral spirits, and so on

• Vessel of drinking water or tea such as a bowl and plate, cup and saucer 

• Incense or feather

• Stone of choice

• Candle

Once you have set up your altar, make a place for your water vessel with the feather, stone, and candle forming a triangle around it. Cast a circle if you like and practice some breathwork and/or your favorite grounding and centering technique. Light your incense or hold your feather and pass it around your water three times while saying:

By Air
I awaken my powers of intuition
Already within me
Ready to arise

Hold your candle and pass it around your water three times, saying:

By Fire
I awaken my powers of intuition
Already within me
Ready to illuminate

Pour some of the water on the plate or saucer, symbolizing your intuition spilling over from its current confinement, saying:

By Water
I awaken my powers of intuition
Already within me
Ready to flow free

Hold your stone and pass it around your water three times, saying:

By Earth
I awaken my powers of intuition
Already within me
Ready to be embraced

Visualize your water glowing with the power of the elements, here to help you awaken your own intuition. Take a sip and begin the following visualization:

In the air before you visualize a closed Rose. See it slowing turning in the air in front of you so that you can see it from all sides, its color and shape, the way it seems to glow with an inner magick. Slowly but surely the petals begin to open one by one. Take time to watch this happen, feeling that something within you is opening, slowly but surely. When the flower is fully open, a magnificent bloom, it comes close to you and lands upon your heart, where it glows and slowly fades into your energy.

Once you are done with your visualization you can drink the rest of your water, knowing that the magick of the Rose is working within you, its softness calling forth your intuition, its thorns protecting your boundaries. Continue to work this ritual for a lunar cycle, keeping your altar fresh, and playfully practicing intuitive when you feel called to them.

Intuition Tea
I am tending to my psychic nervous system

I believe that part of the work of reconnecting with or strengthening your intuition is not only to strengthen your psychic body, but to tend to your psychic nervous system. While our intuitive gifts can show up in all kinds of settings, not least of which in stressful or challenging ones, developing intuition over time requires an ability to develop a sense of peace and inner security. Cancer is an excellent sign to work with when developing your intuition because it reminds us that the security of our shell (i.e. our boundaries) allow us to protect our inner softness (i.e. our receptivity to psychic insight). The following blend incorporates herbs that help us feel protected and regulated, as well as the gift of helping us awaken our intuition.

Blend together the following herbs:

• 4 parts Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

• 1 part Rose (Rosa spp.)

• ½  part Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)

Standard dosage. Placing blended herbs under the light of the New Moon adds to their magick. Store with a quartz crystal inside or on top of the jar. Make a cup before any form of divination, ritual, and/or meditation. 

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If you want more lunar-inspired rituals and recipes, be sure to sign-up for Magick Mail so you can access The Moonfolk Book of Shadows for free.

Thank you again for thirteen magickal years and here’s to many, many more!

Creating a Lunar Healing Practice That Actually Works for You

If you've found yourself here, reading these words, it is likely that you're interested in some sort of Moon-based practice. Maybe you've always wanted to hold Full Moon rituals every month or want to explore the ebb and flow of time from a more lunar perspective. Perhaps you've heard about the benefits of working with the Moon when it comes to creating healing and wellness in your life or you've tried to have a lunar practice before and got bored or overwhelmed or some other stumbling block appeared on your path. Whatever has drawn you here, I hope to spend some time with you helping you explore your unique needs for a lunar practice and ways to create one that you'll actually show up to on a regular basis (whatever "regular" means to you). 

I'll start by suggesting some self-inquiry practices (i.e. asking you a question that you can write about or meditate on), help you figure out the structure that'll best support your practice, and then share some tools that I think are useful when it comes to supporting a lunar practice.

Ready? Let's start with the all important why.

The Desire for a Lunar Healing Practice

Before we're even able to start a new practice, an important first step is to know your "why" for wanting to make an effort to show up in the first place. Defining your desire for a practice helps you to recognize what needs are most present in your life as well as help you to connect with dreams and visions of your own becoming. Knowing our desire helps to motivate us to show up for our practice but it also helps us to shape what our practice might look like.

Now, some of you might be getting ready to scroll away or skip over this section because you feel like you know your why already and don't need to define it again or you want to get to the good stuff. But I'm going to encourage you to keep on reading and to spend some time answering the one question I propose about finding your why. 

​​I'll be honest with you - when I have taken courses and come across writing prompts or questions to consider during meditation I have found myself on more than one occasion hesitating to do them. I would tell myself that I wanted to get to the easy-to-measure practical stuff or I've asked myself a question like that before so I didn't need to do it again. 

However, I've never regretted actually making time to practice self-inquiry, especially through writing, and the one thing that helped me show up to the practice was making it into a special ritual. I make myself a cozy cup of tea, I grab something nourishing to eat, and light a candle. Sometimes I pull out a collection of colorful pens, but usually rely on a trusted favorite black ink pen as a favorite tool. Often I like to hold a stone in my hand for a few quiet moments, something that helps ground me and connect me to my edges, calling myself back home again to this moment and this place. Doing these things in a ritual manner starts to wake up the curious part of me that's interested in being asked questions and answering them in turn.

So I hope you'll stick with me and take time either now or later to participate in the lunar magick that is self inquiry.

Deck shown is Lilifer Tarot by Marion Constentin

Everybody's why is going to be different, though there are certainly similar needs that show up again and again when we're talking about Moon magick and healing work. I've gone ahead and listed out examples of desires underlying a need for lunar practice below to help inspire your own self inquiry.

• I want to connect more deeply with lunar time as a way to break out of habits of overwork.

• I want to awaken my intuitive gifts.

• I hope to feel connected again to ancestral practices through connecting with the lunar calendar.

• I want to dedicate time each month just for me and my spiritual practice.

• I want to explore my inner world through shadow work guided by the Moon.

• I feel called to develop my skills as a healer and I feel that a lunar practice would help me.

• I feel called to the Moon and I want to understand why.

• I want to gather together with my magickal friends for a Moon ritual each month.

• I am working on creating feelings of wholeness in my life and the Moon feels like an appropriate symbol to help guide me.

Ready to explore your own why? You might have some very clear reasons or they may be more vague feelings, but wherever you're at in defining your desire, I encourage you to go ahead and answer the following question, whether spoken aloud, considered in meditation, or written down:

Why do I want a lunar healing practice?

Remember, no one is going to read or hear your answer to the above question unless you choose to share it (and you really don't need to share it unless you're called to share it with someone you love and trust). It's time to be honest with yourself and try to move out of the place, as much as you can, of comparison and performing-for-others-first space that has been hypercharged in our culture through social media, including amongst magickal practitioners. Get inspired by the magickal world, but don't get lost in the smoke and mirrors of the online world. In fact, being intentional and (at least initially) private about our desires around a lunar healing practice is in itself lunar healing work.

Working with the Moon is, in part, a process of understanding of our consciousness and subconscious realms beyond expectations of culture and peers, of trends and institutions in order to be able to show up to ourselves and in community as our ever-whole, ever-changing lunar self.

Once you have your why, let's talk about creating a structure that'll honor the rhythm of your needs, the ebb and flow of your magick.

Deck shown is The Morgan-Greer Tarot by Bill F. Greer

The Circle That Supports Us

Within the magickal communities that I belong to, the most often used symbol of magickal space is the circle. Never-ending and all encompassing, at the beginning of rituals and gatherings, special care and attention is placed on creating (or really, recognizing) the holiness of the time and space we're in. Sometimes these circle preparations are longer than the actual ritual itself, which is a good indication for how a successful magickal practice, including a lunar healing one, might be structured. 

Being intentional and following our desires when it comes to creating a circle or structure for your practice to thrive in is important if you want to develop one that is long-term and sustainable. Below I've listed some questions to help you to define a structure for your practice that'll best support you. There are broad and general questions, but you can use many of them as starting points for deeper inquiries (i.e. you don't have a lot of time for a lunar practice as your life is right now, but you want to make big changes to your life to make more time, and want to ask yourself what sort of effort that'll take).

• When you imagine a lunar healing practice, what does it look like to you? How does it make you feel?

• What do you imagine achieving, realizing, releasing or other experience through a lunar healing practice?

• How much time can you, reasonably and without hardship, make for your practice right now?

• Where do you want to practice and what sort of physical space do you have for your practice?

• What lunar phase do you feel called to work with? Learn more about the healing energies of the Dark Moon, New Moon, Waxing Quarter Moon, Full Moon, and Waning Quarter Moon phases.

• What tools do you feel called to incorporate into your lunar healing practice, such as plant allies, a divination practice or devotional work with deity?

Let's start to put this all together by imagining that our friend, Magnolia, is excited about starting their own lunar healing practice. They are feeling called to this practice because they really want to develop their intuition after years of feeling like they kinda understand it, but are now interested in being intentional in their explorations. They feel like their intuition was dismissed a lot as a child and young adult which has led them to not listen to their intuition as much as they would like to. Magnolia wants to incorporate tarot into their lunar healing practice because they've been reading the cards for about a year and want to be able to rely less on their tarot books and more on their intuition when it comes to interpretations. 

Magnolia is called to work with the Full Moon during a monthly ritual. They made space in their bedroom for a little altar that they have already started meditating at in the mornings. When they were doing research on Moon rituals, they came across an old book by Margot Adler called Drawing Down the Moon and the cover inspired them so they've added a picture of it to their altar. (1) Magnolia decides to start with a simple structure for their monthly Full Moon ritual:

• A simple ritual to create sacred space based traditions from their African and Irish heritage. 

• A short meditation to awaken their intuition.

• A simple tarot spread where they won't read from their tarot book at all, but only interpret the cards intuitively. They are thinking of doing a tarot spread based on the sign the Moon is in (i.e. a Aries spread for an Aries Full Moon and so on), but they're going to be flexible about it and not stress too much over finding the "right" spread.

• Practice one psychic development game with the tarot.

• A few minutes to journal about their experiences.

• Closing up the space.

Through stating their desire and considering what it is that they hope to experience (re-awakening their intuition), Magnolia has created a very sweet and simple lunar practice. There are no fancy tools, just the items that they already have. They dream of being able to perform their Full Moon ritual on a beach like the image from Drawing Down the Moon, but that is something that they hope to draw towards them as they work with the Moon each month. There is plenty of space for them to innovate, add to or subtract from their practice as time and energy allows and mostly they feel inspired. Having a Moon altar in their room means that they get to see and be reminded of their intention every day, creating a path of connection between one Full Moon to the next. 

Magnolia is not trying to observe all the Moon phases every month (which would be every night because the Moon is always changing into a new phase) or trying to practice a multi-hour long ritual every New and Full Moon complete with an herbal bath consisting of dozens of herbs, three tarot spreads, thirteen candles that they hand-dip themselves each fortnight, and an elaborate ritual that includes a interpretative dance and costume change halfway through. Now, I'm not saying that this is not going to be the way that some of you want to practice, but for most of us this sort of effort is not sustainable for the long run and part of being in practice is being able to maintain a practice. Remember, a personal lunar practice is about being able to show up, not show off or be beholden to the expectations of others. (2) Good questions to ask yourself when you're developing your outline are:

• Is this useful?

• Will I be able to show up for this practice with as little hindrance as possible?

• Do I actually want to do what I'm proposing?

What would the outline of your lunar healing practice look like? Go ahead and take some time to write it down now. If you like you can start with your most elaborate dreams of a lunar practice and then distill that into something that is much more achievable for you in this time and space. But like Magnolia, with their picture of Drawing Down the Moon on the altar, you can incorporate affirming and aspirational images to your practice space to help you feel inspired.

To help spark your inspiration and imagination, I've listed types of lunar healing practices that you might want to try or make your own below:

• Cast a tarot spread each month during the Moon phase of your choice. I've created tarot spreads for the Dark, New, Waxing Quarter, Full, and Waning Quarter Moon phases.

• Take a monthly bath during the Moon phase of your choice each month, perhaps incorporating sea salt and/or lunar herbs into the water.

• Perform simple rituals of healing.

• Observe your monthly lunar return in a special way.

• Commit to learning a particular magickal skill at a certain lunar phase each month (i.e. crystal divination, trancework, charm making, psychic development and so on).

• Dance, howl, and sing under the Moonlight.

• Learn about and engage with lunar deities.

• Moon bathe (i.e. get outside under the light of the Moon, preferably with some bare skin exposed) as often as you can and are called to do.

Hopefully at this point you're starting to form a clearer idea of what it is your lunar practice might look like and feel like. Next, I want to introduce you to a few useful tools to support your practice.

Deck shown is The Natural Ink Tarot by Martha Miller

Useful Tools for Your Lunar Practice

Writing down your lunar practice plans - whether in a planner, on a calendar, in your journal or book of shadows, or on a note stuck somewhere you'll see it all the time - is one obvious, simple, and useful way to show up for your practice. You can even choose to have a special notebook reserved for writing down reflections, tarot spreads, dreams, and rituals all relating to your lunar healing practice, but you can also just use what you have available (like a current journal - use a different color ink to help you easily find entries about your lunar healing practice - or a notes app on your phone).

Find a way to keep track of the phases of the Moon. The cheapest, (often) easiest, and most ancient way is to look outside up at the sky to see what phase the Moon is in. Now, light pollution and limited access to safe spaces to Moongaze might restrict your ability to do this, but actually being able to observe the Moon in the sky whenever you can (or being under Moon light and dark whether or not you're able to physically see the Moon), helps us to connect with the very old parts of ourselves and our species that have been watching the Moon for millenia. Of course, there are apps and websites that help us learn even more about the lunar phases, signs, and mansions that the Moon is in and these are a useful addition to physical observation. Astroseek provides a free and comprehensive Moon calendar and there are plenty of other apps that you can find for your devices. For my own practice, I like to use the We'Moon planner for helping me track lunar and celestial rhythms. 

For those of you trying to find your way back into practice after a fallow period or who are struggling to reconnect with your magick, might I suggest some pageantry? I know I warned against performing-for-the-other, but we can still perform for ourselves. Sometimes we don't feel able to show up to a practice because we're struggling to connect with someone we were before or we can't yet imagine what we're becoming. Perhaps we're struggling with feeling worthy of our magick or what the meaning of having a lunar or any sort of practice is. I feel you. Here is where we can practice a bit of ancient and effective magick: faking it til you make it. Get dressed up, create a soundtrack for your ritual, step into the role of a confident healer / witch / priest/ess, and perform. Stir your tea mug as if you're the Great Goddess Herself stirring the cauldron of life and death and rebirth. Swirl your skirt, draw sigils on your jeans, pretend to be an old hag of the wood who is deeply enamored with their own sense of curmudgeonly self. Speak your whole ritual in "ye olden english" and let a character of your own creation show up to the ritual first. It can be silly, but all ritual is silly and strange to some degree, and if it helps you to show up to a practice that you really want to show up to, it's not just silly but a very effective form of magick.

Here are a final few questions to help you discover the desire of your practice:

• Who do I hope to become and/or feel through my lunar practice?

• What do I hope to call home to myself through my lunar practice?

• Where do I want to go with my lunar practice?

I hope you're feeling inspired and like you have some tools and ways of thinking about your lunar healing practice that'll help you show up to your practice. Through working with the Moon I hope you are able to know yourself as always whole and always changing and that you're able to set up practices in your life that make space for all of you to show up however you want and need to.

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Discovering your monthly lunar return can be a very sweet way of starting a lunar healing practice. Or you might spend a year observing the lunar sabbats. If you're interested in learning more ways of including tarot in your healing practice, come this way.

There are so many ways to create a lunar healing practice that is all your own. For those of you called to learn more about your unique gifts as a healer through lunar-based rhythms and rituals, you're invited to join me in The Lunar Apothecary.

Wherever your journey with the Moon takes you I hope that helps you spiral home again and again to your own wild wisdom and the ways you are deeply interconnected with your community.

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

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Footnotes

(1) For my beloved readers who have balked at the thought of Drawing Down the Moon considered an "old" book by the current generation of young magickal folk, it was first published in 1979 which is 43 years ago and is sort of the equivalent of reading Dion Fortune's books in the 1990s (which were considered "old" books at the time by school age witches like myself). Seeing the new books I read as a young witch being touted as "vintage" by the younger generation is the main way that I recognize that I am becoming increasingly (thankfully) old. 

(2) Public ritual performances, on the other hand, can be a great time to show off! 

Budding: New Moon Ritual & Healing Practices

The heat has arrived and I am seeking shade and water like many of the creatures and plants I share this garden with. With the variation of sun and shade, different plants come to bloom in the yard throughout the spring and early summer. Right now I'm watching birds and squirrels nibble on the flowering fruits of the Pineapple Guava Tree (Acca sellowiana or Feijoa sellowiana) that sits outside my office window. This tree is an energetic spot throughout the year whether as a resting point for multiple varieties of birds as they fly past our house or host to the amusing antics of squirrels who mostly keep their balance while traversing the branches.

Since it sits outside the window where I often write, it's budding, flowering, fruiting, and the different animals that come to visit it have come to mark energetic starting points throughout the year for me. And so it feels appropriate to be writing about the New Moon during this time of heat and energy as it represents the point of new beginnings and often sharp and swift energetic shifts in the lunar calendar.

After a long period of waning and eventual darkness, the Moon reappears in the sky as a silver crescent, marking the beginning of the next lunar cycle. It is a time of newness and possibility, of budding hope, and the result of the hard work of setting boundaries and cutting away the unnecessary in our lives. Energy, possibility, hope, transformation, new beginnings, and swiftness are all key energies of the New Moon.

image via @tonelisa

Herbal Traditions

In Traditional Western Herbalism the New Moon is considered a time of hot and moist herbs. Continuing on the sacred structure metaphor started in the last post in our Moon healing and ritual series, the New Moon creates the heat and damp necessary to create the material needed to build the walls of the temple. The heat begins to "cook" the clay that will eventually harden, but it is still early in the process where moisture is present, allowing for the malleability needed to form foundations and walls. In the garden, the right balance of heat and moisture are essential to beginning the process of breaking down plant and food material into rich and nutritive soil.

This is just one approach to imagining the energies of the New Moon, inspired by Traditional Western Herbalism, and you're encouraged to create and seek out stories of the New Moon that work for you. The energies of the New Moon are often exciting and can feel like the first step across the precipice of something new. When I think about herbs of the New Moon I'm drawn to more stimulating remedies, ones that nourish the internal fires of life and digestion (like warming bitters), and those remedies that might have a bit of sharpness to them (whether in the form of heat, bitterness or energetically such as thorn medicine). Remedies that call to me at this time are ones that help me to wake up to my dreams or new possibilities, that help to start a new project or release an old habit or way of thinking that no longer serves me, and almost all of them help me to shift my perspective. But this is from my personal experience and I encourage you to trust your intuition when seeking out plant allies for different phases of the Moon.

Examples of New Moon Herbs: Peppermint (Mentha piperita), Coffee (Coffee arabica), Tea (Camellia sinensis), Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), Ginger (Zingiber officinalis), Licorice (Glycyrrhiza spp), Ginseng (Panax ginseng), Lavender (Lavandula officinalis), Milky Oats (Avena sativa), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). 

Basil (Ocimum spp.)

Basil embodies the heat and energy-moving signature of the New Moon. Unlike other hot herbs, the heat of Basil is often more accessible and easily tolerated by a wide variety of folks. While it can be more drying, it's ability to move energy and accompanying fluid (for fluid is the primary mover of energy in our water-filled bodies) brings in the moist aspect of New Moon herbs. As a nervine and adaptogen, Basil adapts to the body’s needs, relaxing us when we need to rest and invigorating us when it is time to rise. The herb supports both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system helping guide us through the cycle of fight or flight back to rest and digest.

The variety of Basil I use most often in my practice is Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum, tenuiflorum) also known as Sacred or Holy Basil. Sacred Basil is well studied as an adaptogenic herb and is a highly regarded herb within Ayurvedic tradition - it is a holy panacea. The plant itself is an embodiment of the Goddess Lakshmi and growing one in the home is considered a sacred act. I find the living herb to bring on a reverential meditative state in many who spend any amount of time with them. I have personally found the plant to be a generous teacher, pouring out an abundance of wisdom to those who would take the time to sit and be with them. There is a popular quote by herbalist David Hoffman that goes, "When in doubt, choose nettles" and while I definitely choose Nettles (Urtica dioica) often, my personal "in doubt" herb is Tulsi, with her broad and expansive healing gifts. 

Within Traditional Western Herbalism, Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is named for the dragons or mighty basilisks that haunt mountains and caves. The herb not only moves heat through our body, but Basil also stokes our inner fires, helping us to digest our food and move waste from our bodies. Connecting with plants associated with dragons is to connect with the energy moving and coursing through the land we live on as well as the landscape of our bodies. It is to connect with very old energies in order to bring about very new change. Basil helps us, in a New Moon fashion, direct our will, manifest our dreams with life-giving heat, and protect the fire of our hearts.

Basil features in one of my favorite teas, I love it for breathwork, and it is an herb I use often for empaths and highly sensitive folks.

Altars + Rituals

Decorate your altar with shiny and reflective items and items and images that bring a sense of energy and emerging brightness to your life. Symbols of scythes and swords, or your athames herb cutting blade or kitchen knives carry New Moon energy and fit well on the altar. Add bells and other musical instruments to stir up energy with sound. Before you begin any ritual, clap your hands, move your body, and participate in energy raising practices. Spells of fire and water, wax divination, herbal oils and hydrosols to anoint the body and scent the air. As an offering consider the habits that you can nudge towards a more value-aligned way of living such as choosing more zero waste options in your personal life while agitating for more corporate responsibility for the climate crisis (living more zero waste is great and the worst polluters are not individuals but massive, unresponsive corporations and capitalist greed - let us hold them responsible and dismantle them as necessary with the double-blade of justice-oriented legislation and reform). Learn about the sign that the Moon is in for more specific ideas and recommendations.

image via @mohamadaz

A Simple New Moon Ritual

To clear out old energy and make way for the new

Using pins and needles in spellcraft is an old form of witchery found in multiple cultures around the world. Within western esotericism and traditional witchcraft, pins and needles can act like little swords or daggers to direct energy. I recommend using quilting pins with glass heads, but sewing needles or thorns can be used, too. We'll be using a candle to represent you and your energy and the needles will work as both energetic massage and scythe, helping to work out knotted energy and release it.

Begin by creating sacred space in whatever way is meaningful to you.

Place two candles and the pins before you on your altar. Wake up the energy in your body, whether this is through clapping, dancing, swaying, breathwork - do whatever works for you. When you feel like you've raised enough energy, hold one of the candles between your hands and leave the other candle on the altar. Connect your energy to the candle in your hands by saying:

Candle body
My body bright
Holy body
Candle alight

Speak the charm repeatedly, a speedy murmuration, as you visualize it glowing bright with your energy. Place it back on your altar. Take a moment to scan your body, seeking out where energy may be stuck and holding you back from moving on into the next cycle of the Moon. When you find a stuck spot, pick up a needle and hold it over the area, pulling the knotted energy into the needle while saying:

Knot and needle
Needle and knot
In the needle
The knot I've caught

Then poke the needle into the side of the candle, near the top, so that it stays there on its own. Repeat this process until all knotted energy has been caught up in the needles. 

All is whole, the way made clear -
What is stuck, disappears,
What is knotted, comes undone, 
As needles fall one by one.

Now it is time to light your candle. Let it burn so that one by one the needles fall and the knotted energy is undone, clearing the path for you. During the candles' burning you can sing and move and dance or meditate quietly - whatever you are feeling called to. 

Just before that candle completely burns down, light the other candle on your altar. Here is the light of your energy burning bright and unhindered. You can let this burn out completely or light it periodically throughout the lunar cycle to help energize your ritual work.

Once the candle with needles has completely burned, you might choose to read the patterns of the needles and the shape of any residual wax as a form of divination (sort of like tasseomancy) as some Witchfolk do. Once the spell is done, you can cleanse the needles in salt water to use them again in future spells. For particularly tough and tangled energy, take the needles to the crossroads and bury them deep in the earth, walking away from them without looking back.

A Simple New Moon Tarot Spread

To understand what needs releasing and what needs nurturing

Card 1 · Fire

What needs to be offered to the fire so that you can burn bright unhindered? This card highlights the energy in your life that needs clearing out and releasing as you begin the next lunar cycle. 

Card 2 · Blade

How can I offer up what is no longer needed in my life? Calling on the scythe-like energy of the New Moon, this card gives suggestions on how to release stagnant, unneeded or hindering energy in your life.

Card 3 · Water

What needs to be nurtured so that I can flow unhindered? This card highlights the energy in your life that needs a bit more tenderness and care as you begin the next lunar cycle.

Card 4 · Cauldron

How can I nurture what needs extra care in my life? Calling on the hope-expanding energy of the New Moon, this card gives suggestions on how to nurture the part of your life that needs comfort, strength or extra love so that you can move forward with greater ease.

Card 5 · Story

The overall message of the New 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 Waxing Quarter Moon in the context of where it lands in your chart.

These posts are part of a series on the lunar cycle that was inspired by my patrons who help me keep the majority of my work free to access. You can find the posts for the other phases here:

• Waxing Quarter Moon

• Full Moon

• Waning Quarter Moon

• Dark Moon

A few years back I did a year long dive into the energy of the New Moon for healers through each of the twelve signs of the zodiac. If that sounds like your cup of, come this way. For a deeper dive into the intersections of lunar herbalism and sacred self inquiry, I have a course for you.

If you’ve been feeling a lot of tenderness lately and are looking for a bit more care after the work of releasing unwanted energy at the New Moon, you might like this.

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

Homecoming : The New Moon in Capricorn

Dismount!
Drop back and watch
constant thoughts galloping past

Watch the riderless horses,
thick as a running forest
streaming by.

Witness!
Rising from the forest,
a still and silent moon.

- Susa Silvermarie - 

The New Moon in Capricorn is a beast between. Born of water and earth, they are half goat, half fish. Caught up in the slow energy of late winter and not yet seeing the light of early, the New Moon in Capricorn can reveal to us what is happening behind the scenes. We have come to the valley of the overlooked. 

The recklessly bold energy of the New Moon in Sagittarius gives way to the landing place of Capricorn. We have come home. We are tackling the tasks that need doing. We may even be growing roots - for new beginnings of the New Moon is not just about movement and going elsewhere but also about choosing to stay still and stand steady. Discoveries that we make about ourselves and our world can’t take root unless we give these seeds of wisdom space, time, and nourishment - three key qualities of Capricorn. 

image source

It’s really important to know how to work with Capricorn energy in our age of hyper-connectivity and deep fears of missing out which has led to all sorts of social and spiritual FOMO. Here’s, too, where the trickster energy of the goatfish shows up - we think that we just need to take a bit of time off and relax when often there are some buried narratives about ourselves and our self-worth that we need to unpack. As healers it’s important for us to help those we serve to engage with tricky energy in their lives by starting to ask “Why?” in a non-judgmental, observational fashion.

Why don’t I take time off?

Why don’t I eat the foods that make me feel good about myself?

Why don’t I have a spiritual practice that reflects my values?

Asking why rarely leads us on a journey that is a straight line from point A to point B. Through asking why we find ourselves between the worlds, back and forth along the tracks of memory and projection. The inherently grounding, yet liminal goatfish serves as an important guide to the work of why. When we remain curious about our lives and the work we do it’s harder for us to feel left behind - because we’re always exploring and participating in our existence no matter where or who we are.

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
Plant Ally for the New Moon in Capricorn

Mullein is described by Nicholas Culpeper as being under the guardianship of Saturn. The herb is a great ally during the winter months, helping to clear phlegm from the system, reduce inflammation, and protect against infection. It’s excellent for clearing out chronic, long-standing coughs, especially dry and spasmodic coughs, and can help with a number of respiratory complaints including bronchitis, asthma, and general lung weakness.

Add the herb to your cold and flu blends with Elder (Sambucus nigra) and Peppermint (Mentha piperita) for a lung-opening, immunomodulating blend. Mullein is useful, too, for Capricorn folk who tend towards stagnant cold states which lead to swellings and cysts as the herb helps to dissolve such manifestations of buildup. As a decongestant, Mullein is good for allergies such as hay fever, helping to clear phlegm and relieve pain. In her Physica, Hildegard von Bingen recommended Mullein for “one who is hoarse or has a pain in his chest” recommending that they combine the herb with Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) in a medicinal wine. As a moistening diuretic, Mullein helps to soothe an inflamed urinary system and help with the release of urine. The herb also helps to remove toxins from the body because of its ability to move water out of the body. Mullein can be used for nerve pain and combines well with other nervines such as Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and St. Joan’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum).

Topically, the mucilaginous Mullein is excellent for dry skin conditions but also as a healing compress or salve for boils, bruises, inflammation, hemorrhoids, eczema, sciatica, and joint pain. Mullein is useful in cases of bulging discs and bone setting. The herb helps the skin repair after a wound, burn, sore, and ulcer and can be used for skin infections, too. The long thick stems are sometimes referred to as Hag’s Tapers (the dried stalks dipped in wax will burn as a somewhat messy candle) as they are associated with the magickal workings of Witchfolk.

Flower + Gem Essences for the New Moon of Capricorn : Birch (Betula alba), Elm (Ulmus Procera), Larch (Larix decidua), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), Rock Water (Aqua petra), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). Agate, Amethyst, Flourite, Garnet, Tourmaline.

Essential Oils of Capricorn : Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), Melissa (Melissa officinalis), Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora). 

image source

Ritual

Taurus is an Earth sign that teaches us about our physical form and Virgo as an Earth sign which highlights our experience of our physicalness and our physical needs. Capricorn is an Earth sign that signifies the vibrations that underly all forms - it's the moment of something becoming. The following ritual helps us to tap into the power of sound to connect to vibration and all of its magick (whether through sound, sex toys, ocean waves or through the hum of singing bowls).

Begin in a sacred way (read the New Moon in Aquarius post for further inspiration). Hold an intention in your mind that answers one of your questions of “Why?” For example, you might have asked “Why do I struggle to drink enough water everyday?” and your answer may have been “Because I haven’t quite made the connection between the sacredness of water and the sacredness of my body and its needs.” Your intention might be “To create a sacred connection between the water of my body and the waters of the world in order to nourish my body everyday.” With that intention held in your heart (and maybe even written down and placed on an altar before you) begin making a low hum. Notice how the hum feels in your body. Follow the sound. You might go up or down an octave. Open your mouth and hold a single note. The main purpose is to follow sounds that feel good and powerful to you. It’s not about sounding “good” but about sounding like you to you.

You are, by holding your intention, and making a vibrating sound, relaxing your cells, nourishing your nervous system, and making change all the more possible for you. 

When you are done toning, place your forehead on the ground if you are able or raise your hands to your face or some other way of returning to yourself and grounding.

Cards are from The World Spirit Tarot

Oracle

With a divinatory tool of your choosing ask the following question. You can also ponder it during meditation or through journaling.

Why am I here?

Additional queries to consider:

How grounded am I?
How comfortable with change am I?

Tarot Cards of Capricorn

Every card within the tarot deck has an astrological association. The following correspondences follow the system laid out by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. You can add these cards to your altar as part of your New Moon in Capricorn magick or use them in readings to help with determining celestial influence or timing (i.e. this will come to pass at when the Moon is in Capricorn.

• Tarot Card of Capricorn: The Devil
• The Earth Signs of Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn : Ace of Pentacles
• Jupiter in Capricorn : Two of Pentacle
• Mars in Capricorn : Three of Pentacles
• Sun in Capricorn : Four of Pentacles

Find all of the New Moon Healers Project posts right over here. Be sure to share your insights and experiences in the comments below or via instagram with the tag #NewMoonHealersProject.

Need more astroherbology in your life? You can learn more about the astroherbology of Capricorn by reading my in-depth profile on the sign. Check out the magick of each phase of the Moon. For those of you ready to learn how to live your magick and create your herbal remedies by the cycle of Moon and star, you're invited to join the The Lunar Apothecary.

Blessed New Moon, wise healers.
May your healing be healing to us all.
May our healing be healing to you.
Blessed be! Blessed be! Blessed be!