Fruiting: Full Moon Ritual & Healing Practices

Living in a space shared with several fruit trees, the various seasons of fruiting means that I’m daily visiting with the tree spirits, to touch, smell, and listen to their journey of maturation. Buds grow thick skin and stretch outward filling up with the sweet food within. It always seems that fruit is hard until it is not - all of a sudden it is soft and ripe. For me, that sudden softness of fruit come to ripeness is the energy of the Full Moon. While there is always variety in how it plays out because of the unique flavors of whatever sign the Moon is in, the culminating energy of the Full Moon is one that follows a pattern of focus and tension that suddenly falls back into softness, openness, and possibility. With the Full Moon the altar is overflowing with fruit and abundance, and we can feast with hearts open and souls ready for nourishment.

Let’s explore together the magick of the Full Moon, calling in plants as teachers and bringing simple ritual and divination practice into our lives. At the height of the Moon cycle the Moon is at its fullest and most mature, casting its brightest light and acting as the mirror to the energies felt at the Dark Moon. What was in shadow is revealed and understood anew. Expansion, release, openness are all key energies of the Full Moon, and the days surrounding this time are ripe with possibility of celebration, fertile opportunity, and completion of a phase.

image via @anniespratt

Herbal Traditions

In Traditional Western Herbalism, the Full Moon is considered a time of cold and dry herbs. If we were to think of the Moon phase as a cycle of building a sacred structure, we would be at the point of the process of cooling and maintaining dryness to allow for a more sturdy and structurally sound building to stand (this coming after the after the heating and drying energies of the Waxing Quarter Moon that helped us to build the walls of our temple). At the Full Moon a temple space is ready to be lived and loved and held in. Or to bring us further into the garden with our metaphor, the compost of the Moon cycle has cooled and dried out enough to be used throughout the garden.

There are many ways to approach a Moon, though, and I encourage you to be guided by your studies, your cultural stories, and your intuition. Think about plants which help you feel open, soft, and at ease. Plants that are exuberant in their flowers, greenery, and/or fruiting plants - all hold Full Moon qualities. Plant allies that help you feel alive and connected with the world are wonderful, too. As you work with plants and the Moon cycle, always prize creativity and curiousity in re-membering yourself back into relationship with our plant teachers and guides.

Examples of Full Moon Herbs: Rose (Rosa spp.), Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), Jasmine (Jasminum officinale), Sage (Salvia officinalis).

Rose (Rosa spp)

Rose is an ancestor plant with fossils found across Europe, North America, and Asia dating back from as early as the Miocene period (7 - 26 million years ago). This is a plant which has observed our development as a species and it isn't surprising that Rose is often associated with gentle parenting and mothering energies and deities. Call on Rose when you need a surrogate parent in your life - when you need to be held and protected to help you get in touch with your vulnerability. Rose is a beautiful ally in learning to treat yourself (and others) with ease and gentleness.

As a plant of Venus, Rose brings harmony to any situation as well as assists in harmonizing the energies of herbal preparations and those who use them. I love to use the flowers and hips in teas and tinctures, herbal oils and especially as a hydrosol or floral water. Rose has an incredible quality of helping us to become comfortable with the skin we’re in, working on phsyical and energetic levels to help us come home to our physical selves. Since it is a thorn plant we also know that it has protective qualities - adding Rose into your daily beauty blends can help to strengthen your psychic boundaries from unwanted energetic intrusions (I’m looking at you, microaggressions).

Connecting with the Traditional Western Herbalism correspondence of cool and dry herbs for the Full Moon, Rose fits both of those profiles. Rose is an excellent remedy for various forms of inflammation (bringing cooling qualities to overheated conditions) and as an astringent it acts as a plant which tones damp states in the body (such as excess oil production on the skin) bringing us into a state of balance. Hildegard von Bingen - herbalist, mystic, language creator, composer, and philosopher - writes of Rose's cooling and drying qualities recommending that one place Rose petals on the eyes in the morning to refresh them and draw out any imbalance in the bodily humours. The use of Rose medicinally is vast, so spend some time with your favorite plant books to learn more.

What I love about using Rose in Full Moon magick is that it helps to reassure our selves on a soul level that "I might not know everything, but I know enough to experience the abundant magick of this moment." It helps us to value mystery as something not to be solved, but experienced, which in turns helps us to settle into our joy and the appreciation of what we (and our community) has accomplished so far. Let's apply this Rose magick to recent events. So we all know that 2020 was a year and we're not out of it yet. The magick of Rose with its many-petaled wisdom helps us to recognize the layers of 2020 - there was extraordinary pain and suffering alongside the largest, most diverse, and most intergenerational global movement for a more kind and more just world that there has ever been in our recorded history as a species. Real change is already happening and the momentum of these movements is only going to keep rolling as we move beyond this pandemic. And the world we’re dreaming of can also feel so very, very far away. Rose helps us to hold all of these realities and get deep into the abundance of hope without having to write a thesis in our minds on why this hope will or will not fail us or why we deserve this hope in the first place. Rose just says "open up, be soft, settle in'' because we can have this moment (and better it be when the Moon is full*) without having to know what comes next or even what exactly has gone before.

I've written about Rose a lot, here is one of my favorite Rose recipes, and if you're an empath or highly sensitive person, Rose might be a good ally for you to work with.

image via @abigailducote

Altars + Rituals 

Decorate your altar with round and soft objects, things which help you to soften in turn. Unbind your hair. Wear soft and/or loose clothing. Practice rituals of celebrating our inner child and supporting the process of re-parenting. Water and cauldron spells, spells featuring song, rituals of abundance, hope, and self-worth. As an offering, consider the ways that you can create ease in the lives of others from home-cooked meal, a donation of time or money, small gifts which you know will bring someone laughter and a moment of levity. Learn about the sign that the Moon is in for more specific ideas and recommendations.

A Simple Full Moon Ritual

To help you open up to the possibility of your own becoming

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

On your altar place a bowl of Rose petals, whole flowers, and/or hips. Next to the bowl of Roses, place a bowl of salt water representing the ocean from which all life emerged. If you can charge this bowl of water before your rite with Full Moon energy by holding it up to the light of the Moon. Alternatively, because light pollution, quarantine or physical inhibitions may not allow for charging your water directly with the light of the Moon, place a silver colored coin at the bottom of your water bowl to represent the Moon's light and power. Whether with the assistance of the tarot spread below or other reflective practice, come up with a simple phrase that expresses a part of you or your life that you want to soften and open up to. Keep it simple, affirmative and easy to recite (i.e. I open up to more healthy and authentic self-expression).

Take a few centering breaths and begin to focus on your intention for the ritual - opening up to the possibility of the moment. Pick up the bowl of Roses, taking a moment to smell them, notice their color and form, and consider the complexity of life that led them to come into being. Holding them at your heart, begin to visualize a Rose blooming into a wide, open, soft flower. Feel this same blooming from within your own heartbody and say:

As the Rose opens, I open
As the Rose blooms, I bloom
As the Rose knows, I know myself
And all my possibilities

Take a Rose bloom (or petal or hip) and dip it in the Moon water. Anoint your brow, your heart, and whatever part of you that you choose. It is ok to let the water run on your skin for a moment, paying attention to how water quickly adapts to the shape and curves of your body. Becoming soft in our own wisdom and possibility is an act of shifting shapes, perceptions, and expected form into a place that is more vulnerable, more curious, and more able to meet the moment exactly where one is at. Breathing deeper into your openness and rubbing the Rose and Moon water into your skin, an invisible charm to carry with you in the Moon cycle ahead, say:

As I open, I bloom
As I bloom, I know
As I know, I soften, I dream, I flow

Repeat this charm until you feel your own flow then speak the simple phrase of openness you've written for yourself. You might feel called to speak it, sing it, move with it several times - honor your flow. When you're ready give thanks to the water and Roses, making sure to hold on to this feeling of openness, knowing that you can revisit this state of flow at any time by connecting with Rose. Close the rite  and be sure to either offer your water and Roses to the land or use them in other appropriate and respectful ways. 

A Simple Full Moon Tarot Spread

To help you open up to the magick of nourishing softness.

You're encouraged to adapt the following spread in ways that make it more useful for you including using the questions for journaling or meditation instead of divination. I like to cast these cards or journal as at the start of my Full Moon ritual - the reading can help guide my ritual and how I open up. Or use this spread for whenever you need more insight into an area of tension in your life. For those of you who thrive with variety and multi-faceted storytelling feel free to pull cards from multiple tarot and oracle decks for each question.

Card 1 · Tension
What is a source of tension in my life that I should be paying attention to?

Card 2 · Softness
How can I soften this tension? What tools, skills, people, and/or places can help me in release this tension?

Card 3 · Openness
What is calling me to openness? When I become softer what am I able to open up to? 

Card 4 · Nourishment
What is a source of nourishment for me? How does softness and openness nourish me? 

Card 5 · Story
The overall message of the Full 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 Full Moon in the context of where it lands in your chart.

So begins a new series on the magick of the lunar phases! The idea for this series of lunar magick and herbalism was requested by my patrons who support me in keeping the majority of the work that I do free and open to everyone. You can find the posts for the other phases here:

• Dark Moon

• New Moon

• Waxing Quarter Moon

• Waning Quarter Moon

There is plenty of lunar-oriented reading for you to enjoy within these pages, from a full years journey through the healing potential of the New Moons, Moon-inspired slow magick and a tea I thought was the worst but turned out not to be, a deep dive into what a lunar return is and how to find your own, and a course about your own Moon-centered magick.

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

*I’m quoting a line from The Charge of the Goddess which is a piece of inspired prose that I and a many Pagans hold to be sacred. There are a few versions of it, but the one that I most often refer to is Starhawk’s adaptation of Doreen Valiente’s. It’s a beautiful text and you should check it out.

Always Coming Home: An Introduction to Lunar Returns

There's an aspect of astrology that I've found to be super useful and magickally inspiring but don't find it talked about much. Of course, it should come at no surprise that it is a Moon-centered astrological practice as you are reading the blog of someone who likes the Moon very much. For me, I have learned more about myself, my needs, my boundaries, my magick, and my ability to show up to my calling through my work with the Moon more than any other aspect of astrology. As we are currently going through a global shift in culture, not only do I think that there are lunar lessons that can aid us in our journey towards a more just and more kind world, but I'm invested in making sure that we all have the tools and networks to continue to do the work and play and visioning that needs be done for generations to come. Observing and working with your Lunar Return is one way of tending to the needs of your inner world in a way that supports you and the resilience and wisdom you can hold sustainably in your outer work and relationships. So here is my offering to you - a look at what a Lunar Return is, why you might want to find yours and how to chart it, as well as inner world tools to help you nurture your emotional nature. 

While for many, exposure to astrology is through weekly horoscopes, much of astrology is often concerned with much longer expanses of time. When I began to study (mostly medical) astrology in earnest, I was intimidated by these long forecasts, especially when I came across remnants of the more fatalistic foundations of astrological practice that emphasized fatedness over the promises of growth, change, and freedom of movement. When I was working on The Lunar Apothecary, my online course which engages lunar-focused astrology and herbalism as a tool of self-discovery, I came across the practice of casting charts for Lunar Returns. I was deeply intrigued by the short span of time that a Lunar Return chart was reading for and how it aligned with my current devotional observation of the nearly month-long Moon cycle. But as I've come to practice more and more with Lunar Return charts I realized that it's actually a great practice to learn about the healing magick of transits (i.e. charting the path of the planets through your birth chart) for those a little beyond beginner astrology students.

So what is a Lunar Return? Every month the Moon returns to the location it was at when you were born and in astrology this is known as a Lunar Return. The chart of a Lunar Return can be read as a forecast of the month ahead (i.e. the time between the current Lunar Return and the next one). While reading or having your Lunar Return chart read can be a beautifully meditative practice, you don't need any special astrological skills to find and benefit from your monthly Lunar Return.

If you're brand new to the ideas of astroherbology and medical astrology, you might want to start over here first. If you want to figure out how to spot the Moon in your birth chart, I talk about that over here. I have written this post for someone who has basic understanding of western astrology, knows how to create a birth chart, and has some familiarity with what all the symbols and lines on that birth chart means. It's meant to be an introduction to Lunar Returns and not a complete study in the practice, but something to get you started. Be sure to check out my recommended resources at the end of this post for further information.

Below I'll tell you how to get your own free lunar return chart as well as basic interpretation focused on the House that your Lunar Return takes place in. I've written about the Moon and the Houses before in my simple guide to rest for each of the Moon signs, but I wanted to expand on that original post as well as make some general suggestions for how you might create magick and space in your life with your Lunar Return. Lunar-centered herbalism and astrology is one of my favorite forms of self-discovery and the cultivation of insight for our work as healers and our healing relationships in general, which is why I wrote a whole course about it. This is one of my longer posts, so if you'd like a printable version you can get it for free by signing up for my newsletter where you'll gain access to my member's only page full of all sorts of free resources.

image by @korpa

Return to Our Feelings

Paying attention to what my body is feeling-experiencing is a foundational practice in my magickal and spiritual work. Feeling-experiencing is an attempt to describe not only what I'm am conscious that I am feeling on an emotional and physical level, but what I am also experiencing around and within myself from the rushing of my blood, the functioning of my organs or to the other unconscious experiences happening in and around me. Within many forms of modern Paganism, these experiences are codified through the elements, sometimes planetary forces (especially the Moon and Sun), as well as personal relationships between a person and their Holy Ones to help us make sense of the world and find ourselves in it. The body is honored as inherently sacred, as an oracle, and a filter of perception that for often brief but brilliant moments, is able to experience the great expanse of the universe. As I was exposed to more and more esoteric and healing arts as a young Witch I began to understand that many of these practices served a similar purpose: to expand a person's awareness and to change consciousness through acting upon that growing awareness. 

When I began studying astrology I didn't recognize the mindfulness that it had to offer right away. Knowing my sun sign and timing my magick to the phases of the Moon was about as close as I got to the art for many years. Truthfully, I was intimidated by looking at an ephemeris (the charts that show the calculated positions of different celestial bodies like the planets) or a birth chart which looked like a lot of numbers and unfamiliar symbols. Also, astrology seemed to involve a lot of math of which I was never very confident in. 

Then, something magickal happened when I chose to have my chart read for the first time. I was very fortunate to get my chart read by a deep-hearted oracle and suddenly astrology seemed less like an indecipherable game of math and more of a celestial love language meant to grow our inner and outer perceptions. I felt profoundly seen during that reading and through my birth chart - the map of the sky at the very moment of my birth that my curiosity - I overcame my fear just enough that I was able to begin to study medical astrology with an herbal focus. 

One of the unexpected gifts of studying medical astrology and lunar-centered astrology in general was being given a language to talk about the body that respected its wholeness and bridged the experience of our very intimate physical self with the broader celestial turnings of the vastness of consciousness. I wasn't expecting to build a new and kinder way of relating to my body through studying the stars, but it has been a perpetually renewing and unfolding gift. The stories of the stars and planets, the attention to a holistic approach to addressing distress and diseases, along with the very felt sense that there was deep ancestral knowledge being accessed through the birth chart, brought me to a place of feeling of and in my body and being able to express those feelings. It has been endlessly illuminating for which I am endlessly grateful. 

The return to the center of the labyrinth for me was coming to appreciate the sanctuary of self I found when studying the Moon in the birth chart, adding a new layer and depth to my Moon-centered work as a Witch and affirming the holy mystery of the Moon to my Pagan soul. Now, the study of Lunar Returns has added a new, easy to reach for tool in my practice.

image via @korpa

The Moon Illumined Path

The Lunar Return chart, a snapshot of the sky each month when the Moon returns to exact location of your birth, can be seen in some ways as an astrological equivalent of casting a monthly Celtic Cross tarot reading - it highlights obstacles and opportunities, but also does a very good job of making recommendations on how to take care of your emotional, mental, and experiential health. One of the gifts of the Lunar Return chart is that it's only meant to measure the time from one Lunar Return to the next - roughly one month - so it's less about making big calculations and year or multi-year long planning and more about day-to-day, night-to-night life for a short cycle. In his book Lunar Returns, John Townley offers further insight about the wisdom gleaned from the Lunar Return chart:

The challenge in interpreting the Lunar Return is not to plumb its depths for a vast network of details-its life is too short to get bogged down in that-but rather to extract the relevant events and eliminate the blinding chaff, to see through the smoke and dust to the immediate terrain and its possibilities. It's kind of a monthly birthday, and the arrangement of planets it displays reflects the patterns of your coming month. Each month, this "re-birth-day" works out its potential for you and then is renewed once again 27 1/2 days later with a new set of surprises and opportunities. (1)

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the actual day and days surrounding your Lunar Return are celestially attuned for your renewal and restoration, which is what we'll be focusing on in this post.

In our birth charts, the Moon represents the richness of our inner life, our (often invisible) emotional experience of the world, and the truest parts of our story. There is a reason that outward focused, bold, and often performative for better or worse Sun signs have been so focused on in western astrology in the more recent manifestations of the art. The Sun sign, along with the Ascendent or Rising sign, represents the public and productive self which has long been prized in patriarchal and capitalist society especially as compared to the private, often mysterious, definitely untameable, and eternally ebbing and flowing personal self of the Moon. The Sun, when reduced within the confines of such societies, produces eternally at the beck and call of rulers and markets. But the Moon?

The Moon, in their sacred changing, disappearing and re-emergering, reflects to us the wisdom that we are never meant to be always on, always serving, always moving, always doing. With the wisdom of our inner Moon we birth words solely for our own stories, that can never be captured, stolen or translated against us. The Moon sings and speaks that we are meant to rest, to retreat, and find refuge in the sacred dark of possibility. And every month she returns to the spot in the sky where they first gazed down at us at the very moment of our birth, illuminating the next few steps we might take along our path.

Are you feeling this? I hope so. Let's learn how to find your monthly Lunar Return.

image via @korpa

Calculating Your Lunar Return

While you can use an ephemeris and a bit of math to calculate your Lunar Return, the easiest way is to use an online resource like Astrodienst to create a chart for your lunar return or a calculator like the one AstroSeek provides. I like Astrodienst as a resource in general for information on astrology and great free birth and astrological chart services while AstroSeek has a lot of cool calendar options (i.e. you can calculate all of your lunar returns for a year with one click). If you do end up using Astrodienst I highly recommend signing up for a free account because you'll be able to save and store your birth chart (and many more) on the site, which makes calculating your monthly Lunar Return chart much easier. 

Here are the steps for calculating a Lunar Return Chart on Astrodienst.

1. On the homepage click "Free Horoscopes."

2. Under the "Horoscope Drawing Section" click on Extended Chart Selection. At this point you'll be given an option to proceed as a guest user or to register an account. Accounts are free and you can store up to 100 birth charts on their site which comes in handy for keeping the birth charts of your friends and family readily available.

3. Once you're on the "Birth Data Entry" page, enter all of your birth data, and hit continue. Side note: there is a gender selection - you can select the gender you're comfortable with or select "event/other" (which I think limits everything you can do for a chart). For my chart collection, I select the "female" option for everyone so I can access all the chart settings easily. 

4. Now you'll be on the "Extended Chart Selection" page. If you live in a place different than the place of your birth you need to change the location that the chart will be calculated for. In the "Default Settings" section you'll want to click the "modify data" button to change the reference location of your chart to the place that you are currently living.

5. Next, still on the "Extended Chart Selection" page, in "Sections" you can select "Chart Type" and you want to choose "Lunar Return Chart." In the section below "Options for zodiac and houses" you have the option of choosing a house system - if you have a system you prefer choose that - but if you don't have a preference then I recommend "whole signs." The whole signs system is one of the oldest used in western astrology and not only to I find it to be accurate but it's much easier to read than a lot of other styles.

6. Finally, if you have used a site like  AstroSeek to find all of your Lunar Return dates for the year, you can enter the exact date of your Lunar Return that you want to calculate for under "Sections." This is useful if you're looking ahead in time and want to calculate your Lunar Return in future months, otherwise the chart you'll be shown is for the Lunar Return period you are currently in. You'll see an exact date for Lunar Return the chart is calculating for in red on the top left hand side of the generated chart.

7. Once you've made all of your selections on the "Extended Chart Selection" page, you can click the button to show your chart. 

8. Congrats! Your Lunar Return chart is cast!

View fullsize

I've gone ahead and shared with you the sample chart that I use for The Lunar Apothecary to help you see what a Lunar Return Chart looks like. I'll use the Lunar Return Chart sample to highlight the practices I recommend for engaging with your Lunar Return.

image via @korpa

Finding Meaning

Once you have your Lunar Return chart in hand, it is time to read the story of your chart. You can interpret as much or as little in your Lunar Return chart as your heart desires - just remember that it is meant to be a snapshot of time that only lasts a month. For the needs of this tutorial, I'll be focusing on Lunar Return and the Houses and Elements as invitations and monthly recommendations for rest and renewal.

First we want to find the House that the Moon is in as well as the House of Cancer. Looking at your Lunar Return chart, find the Moon and the House that it dwells in. In the Lunar Return chart above, the Moon is in the Fifth House. Where the Moon resides in a Lunar Return chart is where the energies of the Moon will be focused until your next Lunar Return in roughly a month's time. Here, you can reference your favorite astrology book about each house, but I've also given a brief lunar-oriented synopsis below.

A Brief Guide to the Moon in the Houses

The First House: You, individual identity, self-expression, inherent vitality, health constitution, and physical form. The Moon focuses on or reveals how we intuit information as well as how we express what we feel (or want to feel) through our physical appearance. 

The Second House: Material security, money, earnings, and possessions. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we think we need to feel secure and safe in the world. In other words, what it is we need to feel that we have an abundance of or control over to feel like we have worth or value.

The Third House: Learning, education, exchange of information, and social networks. The Moon focuses on or reveals the ways we learn best in order to express ourselves emotionally. Additionally, the Moon focuses on or reveals how we want to be cared for by our social networks or community.

The Fourth House: The home, family, nurturing (or lack thereof) environments. The Moon focuses on or reveals who we are when we feel safe enough to be completely ourselves. Additionally, the Moon highlights emotional patterns and stories from childhood and youth. 

The Fifth House: Creative self-expression, love affairs, children, taking a chance, gambling, and the unexpected nature of living. The Moon focuses on or reveals your inner child, source of spontaneity, joy, and pleasure. In other words, the Fifth House Moon highlights what it is that makes you lose yourself completely to the moment (including canceling plans and overcommitments). 

The Sixth House: Health, day-to-day work, service, responsibilities and duties. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we are called to be of service in the world beyond day-to-day survival. In other words, the Moon illuminates our day-to-day desire to be an agent of change (whether it be change on a personal or global level) and how we act on that desire. 

The Seventh House: One-on-one relationships, primary relationships that influence all areas of life. The Moon focuses on or reveals how you show up to relationships emotionally and how we get our needs met within the complex give-and-take of relating to another. We are shown how we let (or don’t let) ourselves be cared for.

The Eighth House: Desire for emotional security, sex, secret and psychic knowledge, power. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we desire in order to feel emotionally secure and includes our desires for intimacy, including sex, power, secret knowledge, and material wealth. On a deeper level the Moon shows us the impact of our woundedness in our life (how we may learn to heal and be a healer from it). Additionally, the Moon highlights our desire for social and community power. 

The Ninth House: Philosophy, spiritual practice, travel and exploration (both inner and outer), life experience, the unknown. The Moon focuses on or reveals how we engage with the unknown and how we develop our life’s philosophy. In other words, the Moon highlights how we understand and tell the stories of our truth.

The Tenth House: Life calling, career, reputation, ambition, what we feel called to contribute to the world. The Moon focuses on or reveals what we hope to achieve in the world by connecting us to our bliss. In other words, the Moon shows you your unique path to happiness. 

The Eleventh House: Social groups, community, where we feel at home outside of our home, chosen family. The Moon focuses on or reveals how our individual emotional reality is connected to the shared emotional experience of the community at large. The Moon highlights what type of community we need to feel emotionally fulfilled, seen, and held.

The Twelfth House: Unconscious, esoteric studies, dreams and visions, transcendence, spiritual unity, that which happens deep below the surface. The Moon focuses on or reveals our deepest emotional and spiritual yearnings, which are often hidden from us until they are suddenly not. In other words, the Moon in the Twelfth House helps us to discover how to live our own myth.

Looking at our sample chart, the Fifth House represents the pleasures of our life, creating and taking risks that bring us closer to our sense of self, love in its myriad of forms, as well as children and/or your own own inner child. When the Moon returns to your Fifth House, it is a time to center pleasure and joy in your life with a healthy dose of playfulness as tools of self-recognition and emotional expression. You might consider getting in touch or making space for your inner child when making plans (whether social, personal or professional) and taking on projects during this Lunar Return or simply do something that gave you a lot of joy when you were little. 

You'll notice in our sample chart that there are three planets plus the Moon in the Fifth House. When there are three or more planets or lights (i.e. the Moon, Sun, and Ascendent) in a House this is known as a stellium and indicates an area of your life that has a lot of energy focused on it. When a stellium of planets occur in a Lunar Return chart, even if it is not in the House that the Moon is in, pay attention to the area of your life that it is highlighting. For my more experienced astrology practitioners, you can look up what each of these planets bring to the Fifth House, placing more emphasis on the inner planets (remember, we're measuring a short time span here) than the outer planets. 

The other House to pay attention to in a Lunar Return Chart is the House where Cancer sits. This recommendation comes from April Elliot Kent in Astrological Transits and she points out that this is "where in your life you are able to work out some of your emotional challenges this month." (2) Every sign of the zodiac has a Ruling or Domicile - or as I like to call it, a Guardian - Planet which is where a planet is most comfortable and empowered in a chart. It is also the sign which expresses that planet's energy most easily. The Moon is the Guardian Planet of Cancer which is why it can be useful to check out the House where Cancer sits. 

In our sample chart, Cancer sits in the Eleventh House of socializing and social groups. It is the House opposite to the Fifth and in many ways it is in the Eleventh House where the creative and personal work of the Fifth Mansion is translated into public performance, social connections, and sharing. I like to think the while the light of the Lunar Return Moon might be shining in the House that it is transiting in (the Fifth House in the case of our sample chart), that the Moon's light reflects to the House that Cancer sits in, casting some shadows and revealing previous emotional patterns, conflicts, and wisdoms. For our sample chart, I would say that there is an opportunity for healing social wounds - whether that is a time of retreat and emphasis on the self instead the group - and a general reassessment, guided by the Fifth House's emphasis on pleasure and play, with how one shows up in their life. Again, for my more practiced astrologer readers, you can investigate the stories of the other planets and celestial players that show up in the House of Cancer for further insights. 

What if your Moon Sign is in Cancer? In this case, the House that Cancer is in and the Lunar Return Moon House will always be the same. It just means that in some ways your emotional story is fixed on one chapter rather than flipping wildly throughout the book. In many ways, this is pretty Cancerian since this sign is known for its ability to dwell within a particular stretch of memory or emotional experience far more than most other Moon signs. 

Finally, consider the Elemental tone of the Lunar Return Chart. On our sample chart you'll see a small box near the right hand corner with three columns (for Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable which are descriptions of astrological qualities) and four rows (for Fire, Air, Earth, and Water). Look at the row which has the most symbols or astrological glyphs. In the case of our sample chart that is the row of Earth which has four planets, the Moon, and the Ascendant (represented by AC) in signs of Earth. What this tells me is that there is a strong Earth energy happening this Lunar Return which can guide the ways that we choose to take care of ourselves, set boundaries, open up relationships, manifest decisions, and generally go about our lives. Sometimes a chart won't have a strongly manifest elemental tone or two or more elements will be in balance - that is valuable information, too, helping you to pay attention to the elemental energy you might invite into or balance in your life. 

The Elements of the Lunar Return

Earth: An earthy Lunar Return can emphasize the needs of the body and the how your emotions manifest in your life. You might choose to make space for your feelings in a special way on or around the day of your Lunar Return by practicing that which feels comforting and nurturing to your physical self. An earthy Lunar Return can both highlight our physical needs as well as illuminate physical challenges or the manifestation of feelings in our body that need more attention. Asking yourself questions like "Where am I feeling this in my body?" throughout your Lunar Return can be a helpful bit of earthy magick.

Air: A Lunar Return with a lot of air can emphasize the needs of mind, our social needs, and a focus on how we communicate (verbally, textually, visually, emotionally, etc.) ourselves to the world. You might choose to take a much needed break from the busy communication patterns of your life, such as performing a social media pause during or around the day of your Lunar Return. Airy Lunar Returns can highlight our needs for speaking, processing information, and being heard as well as illuminate the challenges of speaking truthfully, kindly, bravely, boldly. Asking yourself questions like "What needs to be said and how do I want to say it?" throughout your Lunar Return can help clarify what you're trying to communicate during this time. 

Fire: Fiery Lunar Returns can emphasize our creative, action-oriented needs, and the way that we make space for or dismiss our creative impulses and needs. During a fiery Lunar Return you may choose to make space to create - whether returning to a beloved medium of making or trying something completely new. Lunar Returns of Fire can highlight our needs for trusting our pleasures and passions as well as illuminate the ways we deny our creativity whether through comparing ourselves to others or denying our inherently sacred impulse for pleasure. Asking yourself questions like "What do I want to create more of in my life? Less of?" throughout your Lunar Return can help clarify what you're trying to create over the next month.

Water: Lunar Returns with a lot of Water can emphasize our emotional, deep feeling (or denying of our deep feelings), intuitive, and the difficult to communicate types of felt experiences. During a watery Lunar Return you might choose to make space for more intuitive and esoteric arts from divination to ritual to dreamwork. Lunar Returns of Water can highlight our needs to drift and feel while not being beholden to explain our experiences as well as illuminate our fear of going too far from shore when exploring the complexity of our inner worlds. Asking yourself questions like "How do I feel about this?" and "What do I want to feel more of? Less of?" throughout your Lunar Return can help clarify the month ahead.

image via @korpa

Putting it All Together

Ok, so you've pulled up your Lunar Return chart (and maybe the Lunar Return charts for the rest of the year if you're really feeling it), found out what House the Moon will be showing up in, found the House of Cancer, and discovered the elemental tone. So, with all that information, how do we synthesize it so that we can transmute knowledge learned into lived wisdom? Here are a few recommendations:

• Mark the day of your Lunar Return in your calendar and try to take some time for yourself - however that feels best to you - on or around that day. I can personally attest to the magick of giving oneself space to be in your Moon and hope you get the opportunity to experience it yourself.

• Write down one or two simple lines about the House that your Lunar Return Moon is showing up in as well as the House of Cancer. It can be something like "The Moon is shining a light on {energies of the House} in my life" for the first and "The shadow of {energies of the House of Cancer} is being illuminated" for the latter. Do the same for your elemental balance.

• If you journal, spend time writing on one or more of the questions offered in the descriptions of elemental tone above. If you cast cards or practice divination, pull a card for the Lunar Return and/or Cancer House as well as one for the Elemental tone.

• If you like, build a Lunar Return altar full of lunar-centered symbols and images, items representing the significant Houses of your Lunar Return chart, along with candles, plants, incense or whatever feels sacred to you. You can even incorporate items to represent any significant Moon phases that'll be happening during your Lunar Return such as a Full or New Moon.

• At the end of one Lunar Return and the start of another, take a moment to reflect on how deeply the energies of the Return was felt (re-read those sentences I suggest you write in the last tip) and spend some time at your altar if you built one. This is a time to check in on yourself and your inner world. It's also an important part of practicing astrology - we need to look back to see how true our observations of our chart rang for us, what maybe didn't make sense when we first looked at our chart that does now, as well as recognizing what we may have overemphasized or missed.

Finally, how might we bring this beautiful inner work into our communities? It can be very sweet to share the dates of Lunar Return amongst your close friends, coven or circle, and maybe even sending each other a supportive message on their Lunar Return day (Or hilarious meme! Or both!). Share with other folks how they can calculate their Lunar Return chart or tell them planetary myths and stories to help them re-member their connection to the vivid vastness of life. Consider the ways you can make more lunar spaces for quiet connection (i.e. community spaces that are geared more towards our introverted selves than our extroverted ones) and why we need more of them. Build and host contemplative lunar altars in public spaces (respecting the land you're on and the people around you). I'm sure many of you are already thinking of ways to bring some Moon magick into your community work - share in the comments below what you're doing.

Time As A Story

Again and again in healing work, whether looking at the stars or sitting with plants, I am reminded that we are engaging with time and space in a new way in order to create change. There are seasonal changes of time that are measured by the movement of the planet, the Sun and Moon and the way that the Earth shifts and changes all around us. But then there is the time that is arbitrary and socially defined - the workday or how long it is appropriate to sleep each night or when we should be "feeling better" - and that is where a lot of healing takes place. We all carry stories of timing in our lives - when we should be successful or have figured out a problem or gotten over our grief. Many of us also carry around shame and feelings of inadequacy with a lot of these time stories.

Through healing work we begin to unpick these stories, listen to the memory of the body which is unconcerned with how we measure time and more concerned with what it is experiencing in the here and now (even when, to our conscious mind, our body still might be reacting to something that already happened-  in cases such as PTSD - or something that has not or may never come to pass as often shows up with different forms of chronic anxiety). 

When we choose to work with the Moon and stars and begin to measure time through the lens of the Birth or Lunar Return chart, we begin to move away from the construct of never-ending linear time that is always moving forward, and find our ways back to a spiralling time that allows us to break free of expectation both personal and cultural. Because the Moon is a cyclical creature, She reminds us that we, too, are cyclical and ever-changing, able to return again and again to wherever we need to be to find healing and wholeness. Time then becomes an ally instead of a relentless taskmaster of "progress" and endless growth. Time becomes more cyclical, seasonal, full of new starts, seeds, and decay, allowing for periods of exuberant output and deep withdrawal and profound transformation. If we are to make this world more just and more kind, we must examine our relationship to time, reshaping it so that time becomes breath easily shared that supports life, instead of a commodity that only a privileged few get to determine the worth of how it should be spent.

I hope that you'll integrate the practice of Lunar Returns into your life, even if it's just to mark on your calendar the day that your Lunar Return is happening and observe it in some sort of way, no preparatory analysis needed. I think it's a rather useful tool of collaborative exploration to be used with clients, covenmates, friends, and family if you're called to share these skills with others. Ultimately, I hope that a gate opens for you, a passage way from one way of being into another that feels more freeing and expansive, that helps you to find yourself more readily, and call yourself home.

Additional Resources

• Lunar Returns by John Townley is one of the only books on the subject. In general, I like Townley’s interpretations and I mostly follow his guidelines for interpreting a Lunar Return chart.

• Astrowiki offers additional information on what to look for in a Lunar Return chart.

• Lunar Return House Positions by Lynn Koiner is a concise and useful introduction to possible manifestations of the energy of whatever House the Lunar Return Moon is transiting to.

• The Astrology Center of America offers a brief but interesting guide to interpreting Lunar Returns.

• Astrological Transits by April Elliott Kent is a great book and while it doesn’t cover Lunar Returns in depth (beyond what I shared on this post), Kent has such an approachable and understandable style of teaching astrology.

If you got through all that and shrugged but still want more lunar magick in your life, I’ve got some resources for you. Naming the Moon to Empower Your Year is one of my favorite practices and here is a full year of New Moon herbal allies, healing rituals, and oracle questions to keep you engaged. Here’s a guide to making herbal medicine by the Moon. But what about witchcraft, you ask. Here, my witch friend, here. And tarot? Here’s a spread for your lunar readings.

Looking for more depth about Lunar Returns? I’ll be creating a longer tutorial for my starry-hearted students over in The Lunar Apothecary.

May the practice of charting your Lunar Returns brings you many an hour of contemplation, new ways to connect with your inner world, and lots of hope.

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

(1) Townley, John. Lunar Returns. Llewellyn Publications, 2003. Page 15.

Moon Medicine : Summoning Spell

The Lunar Apothecary is filled with small moments of magick in-between the depth work of discovering who you are as a healer and the unique wisdom you bring to the world. The following is a short spell from the course to help you connect with the ancestral current of lunar wisdom.

To summon a Moonwomxn of Old grind up three herbs sacred to the Moon to a fine powder. With this powder go to a place where you can sense a ripple in the veil between the worlds. Once there, draw a triangle with your herbal powder upon the earth. 

Hold your hands above the triangle, mimicking the shape with your own fingers, touching thumb to thumb, index finger to index finger.

Three points
The was
The is
The becoming
Open a path between
I seek the knowledge of the Starry Browed
The Moonwomxn who would share her wisdom

Listen and wait. When she arrives, sing a song of what wisdom you seek. When your time has ended, thank the Moonwomxn for her gifts. Hold your fingers in triangle form above the ground, then bring your palms together. With a quick exhalation, pull your hands apart and then sweep the herbs on the ground to each of the four directions.

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Add whatever you need to the ritual to make it yours. You can also learn more about the phases and signs of the Moon to time your magick in a way that best supports your needs. 

If you're looking for more Moon magick, have a whole series on New Moon magick and ritual that you can explore. And if you're ready to take a big leap onto the path of a healer who knows their own will, dreams, and wild desires, follow me to The Lunar Apothecary.

Moon Medicine : Manifestation Spell

The Lunar Apothecary is filled with small moments of magick in-between the depth work of discovering who you are as a healer and the unique wisdom you bring to the world. The following is a short spell from the course to help you connect with the ancestral current of lunar wisdom.

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Brew a cup of dark earthy tea. 

Brew a cup of deep red tea. 

Fill a bowl with salt water.

Bring both cups out beneath the moonlight. Name the dark water potential and the red water spark. Name the bowl of salt water the mighty sea.

Speak to the dark water your desires to manifest. Speak to the red water the tools you have or seek to manifest your desires. Hold both cups over the bowl and pour the contents of each into the sea, saying:

Spiral and turn, red and dark
Into the sea, potential and spark
From the waters of salt all is born
Desire is known and desire takes form

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Add whatever you need to the ritual to make it yours. You can also learn more about the phases and signs of the Moon to time your magick in a way that best supports your needs. 

If you're looking for more Moon magick, have a whole series on New Moon magick and ritual that you can explore. And if you're ready to take a big leap onto the path of a healer who knows they're own will, dreams, and wild desires, follow me to The Lunar Apothecary.

Naming the Moon to Empower Your Year

Wild Moon
Poem Remembering Moon
Healing Moon
Corn Moon
The Eye Opens Moon
Queer AF Moon
Psychic Moon

The Moon has been given a thousand names over the generations for her circuit through the seasons and the celestial wheel of the year. Some of us belong to people who still remember the names of the Moon while others come from people whose knowledge has been forgotten, taken or set aside. But there is never not a point in which we are making myths about the Moon that in generations to come will seem ancient and revered. 

My invitation to you, is to name the Moons of the year as an act of empowerment. To name is to speak truth. To name is to share experience. To name is to disrupt the silence of ignorance.

And holy heck, wise ones, we need to disrupt ignorance in 2017. So why not through a bit of Moon magick? Engaging with lunar cycles in addition to or instead of the Roman calendar subverts the idea that time and experience is linear when, in fact, magick-makers and dreamers (like you) have long known that is it cyclical and labyrinthine. 

image by linda xu

Naming the Moon is a simple thing and can be based on any number of inspirational sources. Here is a short list to spark some ideas:

• Cultural reference to a people that you are descended from or were brought up within.
• Reference to the season of the place that you live, i.e. Northwest US Moon Names versus Southeast Scotland Moon Names.
• Names based off of a mother tongue that you are re-learning or re-claiming.
• Referring to stones, herbs, or animals based on the energy you sense with each moon, attributes you want to call to you each month or the seasonal year (such as the appearance of Dandelion in spring).
• Astrological reference, such as naming a Cancer Full Moon a Deep Feels Moon.
• Honoring ancestors, beloved and mighty, God/dess/es and/or spirits by naming Moons in their honor.
• Aligning the names of the Moons with your calling or profession. Such as a Blank Page Moon for writers or Steady Needle Moon for an Acupuncturist. 

For many years I have named the Moons, beginning with January’s Full Moon, as such in my personal practice: Quiet Moon, Candle Moon, Storm Moon, Budding Moon, Flower Moon, Bonfire Moon, Bee Moon, Honey Moon, Harvest Moon, Blood Moon, Bone Moon, and Cold Moon (and, of course, Blue Moon for the thirteenth Moon of the year).

image by benjamin child

But now I feel a restlessness to name anew.

In the time of drought and water protectors, perhaps January’s Full Moon is named Rains Returning Moon or River Dreaming Moon. And since I sometimes forget the power of my own heart to carry my most profound truths, perhaps I’ll rename my birth month Thunderous Heart from the true but simple Storm Moon. By renaming these Moons I begin to dream myself awake into the year ahead. I set intentions. I plan my magick and then I live it with each passing phase of Luna in the sky. 

In naming the Moon we speak to our own inner Moon - which we can learn about by studying our birth or natal chart. But whether or not you ever explore your birth chart, know that the Moon represents (and is) your inner truth. Our Sun sign represents our inherent vitality and drive to shine and be successful out in the world. Our Ascendent or Rising sign describes the tools and our unique personality which we use to be successful on our adventures. Yet, the Moon is not concerned with success or the tools by which we come by it - the Moon is concerned with story. The Moon represents your true story and your sense of spiritual home. In many ways, the Moon represents what is yours and no one else’s. It is your secret and sacred place that you are completely, remarkably, and wholly you. Within the Moon you are unhidden to yourself. 

To name the celestial Moon as they journey each night across the sky, is to name the internal Moon. In the naming you speak one small, but important, star glimmer of your story out loud. And the names become watchwords of power invoking the story of you with ever recitation. 

And on one magnificent night, you’ll turn to the sky and speak your words of power and the veil will part and the Moon will sing your name back to you. And you’ll realize that both sounds are pouring forth from the same source. May that night come swiftly, wise one.

If you are ready to name the Moons of the year, I have created a simple one-page calendar for you to download and display in your sacred space (accessed below). If you’re wanting to go deeper with the practice through journal prompts, self-reflection, and a bit of plant magick, you can access my Naming the Moons, Naming Myself workbook via the Magick Mail Apothecary. You're always welcome to go all in and join the Lunar Apothecary. And be sure to share what names you have for the Moons of the year in the comments below.

Whatever 2017 brings, may it be a year that you name yourself and speak the truth of the world within and around you.