A Might-Do List for the Dark Moon

It feels fitting that the final post in my series of might-do lists for the lunar cycle is on the Dark Moon, when the Moon pulls tight her veil of night, letting the stars illuminate the night sky as she takes respite.

The Dark Moon, sometimes called the Old Moon, Black Moon or Void Moon, is the final period of lunar waning before the New Moon takes to the sky, marking a time of respite and retreat, dissolution and discernment. While the Dark Moon is one of my favorite times during the lunar cycle, I debated whether or not to write a might-do list since I try not to do much of anything except get slow and rest for this phase. I realized, though, that while I don’t often make remedies or perform rituals of any kind during the Dark Moon, when I do, these inevitably end up being some of my most beloved acts of magick. 

So let's travel together, beyond the edge of illumination, to a realm of lustrous unlight and explore what we might do (or not, because the dark is meant for resting) during the darkest lunar phase.

image via @masonkimbar

Bury the Dead

Many New Moon lunar practices involve cleansing and renewing my spaces, but if you feel that extra effort is needed to clear out a particularly stubborn bit of energy, you can work with the magick of the Dark Moon to "bury the dead." In this case, the "dead" might be dead flowers or expired good, old remedies that are no longer useful, any clutter or unwanted items that can be lovingly re-gifted or donated. Try to lay all this dead and decaying energy embodied in these item to rest in the most ecologically respectful ways, making the bright promises of the restart of the lunar cycle that much easier to connect with. If I'm called to this sort of cleansing work during the Dark Moon it is often because the energy and items I'm trying to clear out have been stagnated and stuck for a while, requiring me to journey into the dark to get them, honor them, and let them go. A ritual of burying the dead, followed by experiences like good food and relaxation in your nearly cleared space, can be the sort of impetus needed to finally move this energy out of your home and life. 

Become Invisible

There are all sorts of interesting spells for invisibility from old to modern grimoires and these enchanted me as a young witch. In fact, some of my earliest lessons on plant identification was trying to figure out what fern spores were and how I could collect them as an essential ingredient to an invisibility spell I had come across on the internet.¹ These days there are two approaches to invisibility that I find particularly useful: invisibility charms which help you go unnoticed as a matter of protection in everyday life and going invisible on social media. For some powerful Dark Moon magick, try a ritual practice of social media invisibility by disappearing off of social media, from posting on it and scrolling through it, for one full lunar cycle. It is an increasingly profound act to practice invisibility like this and whenever a spell of invisibility is cast a spell of revelation is cast, too. What would it mean to be less visible to the invisible spectators of social media? What would it feel like to cultivate relationships of shared, sacred, silly, and loving visibility with others? Working with Dark Moon energy is one of the ways we can explore our stories of visibility.

Explore Your Shadows

The Dark of the Moon is an auspicious time to practice shadow work. I prefer shadow work with some form of divination, like tarot, but the opportunities for shadow work are limitless. You could explore an area of your birth chart that you've judged to be "bad" or not well aligned, taking time to explore what really lies there. You could get yourself back in therapy, but this time with a culturally-competent therapist who specializes in your mental health needs. Shadow work comes in many forms, but at its core, shadow work is paying attention to and exploring the parts of ourselves we'd rather not acknowledge (i.e. keep hidden away in the shadows away from the view of ourselves and others). Shadow work is both deeply personal and collective - our shadows are formed by our personal experiences as well as shaped by cultural shadows (i.e. the cultural shadow of patriarchal norms that influence and help to shape our personal shadows). One of the easiest ways to spot a shadow is paying attention to when feelings of jealousy or feeling left out arises, perhaps while scrolling social media, and then following that feeling and the story that unfolds. I think shadow work is best performed when you have at least a few strong relationships that you can lean on and keep perspective with while you explore your own tenderness. Not that you need to share all the details of what you're exploring with someone - though I hope you have at least one trusted confidant that you can open up to - but that you have a person who'll help you decompress after you return from the shadowlands.

image via @nathananderson

Write an Ancestor Letter

I think that letter writing is one of the sweetest forms of ancestral magick and the Dark Moon, especially when near a veil-thinning sabbat like Samhain, is an especially auspicious time to practice it. You can surround the following practice with as much or as little ritual as you like, but gather a pen and paper, choose an ancestor known or unknown to write to and start writing. You can update a beloved ancestor on what has happened in your life since they passed or connect with an ancestor in your distant past if you're trying to explore that area of your ancestral line. If you like you can even ask questions asking for answers in dreams, divinations or other forms of communication. After you are done writing the letter you can burn or bury it, or if you're using water soluble ink you can pour water over your letter and let the letters flow back to the earth. Another option is keeping the letter hidden away, but pull it out after a length of time has passed (at least a few months, but a year is great), reading through it again and paying attention to how your ancestor may have responded to your words. 

Dissolve & Banish

If you need to perform a banishing spell, the Dark Moon is a great time since the lunar phase is rich with the energy of dissolution. My favorite simple banishing spell involves a bowl of water, some salt, and a spoon. You can perform any additional ritual before or after this spell, but for the banishing spell itself begin by holding the bowl of water in your hands. Speak what it is you seek to banish from your life to the water, visualize pouring all the energy of the thing to be banished into the water. When you feel ready, and without touching the water, pour in the salt and stir it widdershins with your spoon. When the salt has dissolved pour it outside or down the toilet and walk away. Let the spell run its course without speaking of it to anyone, but taking real world actions to follow up with your energetic banishing.

Cut Your Hair

There is a lot of folklore surrounding the growth of hair and the lunar cycle, including the most auspicious times to cut it. I personally like a Dark of the Moon trim so that the physical and energetic hair can grow strong and healthy with the increasing growth of the Moon. Dark Moon hair cutting can also be another gentle act of dissolution in your life, letting the pieces of your cut hair carry away unwanted energy. Expand hair cutting to a whole hair spa experience by scheduling the monthly hair treatments that you usually partake in, from masks to rinses, at the Dark Moon. 

image via @ryan_hutton_

Create A Community Memorial

Whether as part of an organized event or as part an individual act of devotion, create a memorial in a public setting (respecting nature, accessibility - don't block sidewalks, etc. - and the neighbors). It can be a memorial which brings attention to what used to exist on a part of land that was paved over, for the loss of plant or animal life, of community members, beloved family pets, changes to the local ecosystem due to the climate emergency, and more. One of the great powers of the Dark Moon is its energy that draws us in, and we can direct this energy in a way that gets folks to pause, engage with, and let themselves feel together. Consider the ways that your memorial creates interaction (i.e. animal memorials with statues that can be petted) and the space you hope to create to let people feel what they feel. 

Rattle the Bones

There are times when we are seeking insight into the faraway depths - that is when performing divination during the Dark Moon can be useful. We can ride the ebbing of lunar energy, letting it draw us down and inwards, helping us to find the hidden knowledge that we seek. Incorporating plant allies like Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) or Sage (Salvia officinalis) as teas, herbal baths or incense can help draw in Dark Moon energy to support your intuition. If you like, you can whisper the following charm (spells spoken under the breath are an invocation of Dark Moon energy) to support your divination practice:

By the Moon
and by my blood
Between the space
of land and sky
Guided by
ancestral love
I open now
My third eye

Brew A Dreamer’s Elixir

If I am to engage in remedy making during the Dark Moon it is usually a recipe associated with dream work. I like to imagine that while the Moon is dark in our world, she is shining Full in the otherworld, helping to direct the energy of our dream elixirs toward the bright light beyond our world and at the edge of another. For a Dreamer's Elixir combine herbs that your ancestors would have worked with (and I mean ancestors in the most expansive of ways, from biological, cultural, and spiritual), especially if those herbs have dreaming folklore attached to them. Then add in Elder Berry (Sambucus nigra) to bring in the herb's otherworldly energy as well as add a dark purple color to your final brew whether you choose to make a tea, tincture, oil or bath. Let your remedy sit in a dark place where no light will reach it for a full lunar cycle - Dark Moon to Dark Moon. Once the cycle has passed the Dreamer's Elixir is ready to use and should be taken before dreamwork or pathworking (use standard dosage guidelines for whatever type of remedy you make). 

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If you’re looking for inpsiration for your Dark Moon practices, I’ve also written a simple ritual, recipe, and tarot spread for your Dark of the Moon healing practice. You can also find the rest of my might-do lists for the lunar esbats below:

• A Might-do List for the Full Moon

• A Might-do List for the New Moon

• A Might-do List for the Quarter Moons

For those of you just starting out on your lunar explorations, how about finding your Moon sign first? And for those of you ready to dive deeper, come this way.

Wherever you find yourself in the dark, I hope that your practice illuminates your path back home.

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

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Footnotes

1. Can we bring back website-based grimoires that we visited through the labyrinthine magick of webrings? The longer that webrings are gone from the modern internet, the more useful I think they were as our modern social media landscape rapidly degrades. I also love that there are a few of you who are currently searching "what are webrings" and I'm glad to share that old internet tradition with you.

A Might-do List for the Quarter Moons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

image via @jannerboy62

Connect with the Elementals

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

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

Practice Magnetizing Magick

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

Brew Recipes & Create Charms of Balance

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

image via @linalitvina

Rituals of Release

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

Get Rooted

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

Strengthen Your Resolve

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

Find Your Balance with Breathwork

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

image via @oandersonrian

Tend to Your Tenderness

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

Cast a Moon Path

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

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Do you have a lunar practice for the Quarter Moons? For more Quarter Moon practices, you can explore my simple rituals and healing practices for the Waxing Quarter Moon and the Waning Quarter Moon. You can also find the rest of my might-do lists for the lunar esbats below:

• A Might-do List for the Dark Moon

• A Might-do List for the New Moon

• A Might-do List for the Full Moon

If you’re looking for my full collection of post about the Moon (there’s a lot!), check out the Moon Studies section of my Astroherbology archive. If you’re looking for my might-do series on the sabbats, here you go.

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

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

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

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). You can also find the rest of my might-do lists for the lunar esbats below:

• A Might-do List for the Dark Moon

• A Might-do List for the Quarter Moons

• A Might-do List for the Full Moon

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/

A Might-Do List for the Full Moon

Having written a might-do series for the sabbats, I thought it time to make one for the esbats. A "might-do list" is a no-pressure, full of inspiration guide to magickal practice where you are encouraged to do or not do whatever speaks to you for a particular celebration. An esbat is a (typically, though not exclusively) lunar-focused celebration practiced by some magickal folk in some contemporary traditions of Paganism (most notably Wicca) and witchcraft. Sometimes esbat refers to all celebrations of a coven or an individual outside of sabbat rituals. The term "esbat" was adopted into Wicca by the spiritual magpie Gerald Gardner via the work of Margaret Murray who described the esbat as a time for celebration, rites to aid coven members, and times of music, dancing, and "sheer enjoyment."¹ While modern Pagan traditions like Wicca have their own formalized and beautiful rituals and practices for the esbats, I'll be making suggestions for Full Moon celebrations that aren't tied to any specific tradition. 

The Full Moon is a time of gathered energy, ripe and ready for magick. During the Full Moon there can be a feeling of abundance and openness in the air, of expansion and possibility. Under the light of the Full Moon we can feel untethered from what is "normal" and expected as the night becomes brightly illuminated - not quite day, but not quite the feeling of night either, marking a space between the known and unknown.

How we mark time - by fixed calendar, lunar calendar, seasonal changes, personal rhythms, and so on - can create or contract space for the type of healing work and magickal practice we hope to experience, which is why time is such an interesting thing to explore in our lives. When I talk about magickal practice to my students, I always encourage them to begin observing lunar cycles as a way to not only connect back to ancestral rhythms of measuring time, but to begin to connect with time in a way that feels supportive of magickal practice - something cyclical, open to change, and able to hold space for all of our complexities.

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

image via @whileimout

Reorient Your Compass

The Full Moon creates an opportunity for us to pause and reorient. Our lives are busy and filled with all sorts of decisions that need to be made, things that need to be done, and tasks to be tackled. It is easy to forget where we are and where we want to be living our life from. With Her bright light illuminating hidden spaces, the Full Moon is a wonderful time to reconnect to our inner compass of values and visions, of healing and lineage, of purpose and dreaming, so we can feel more connected to our centered self as another lunar cycle unfolds before us. This can be done in all sorts of ways through ritual and actions of care, but one simple ritual is to write down your values and guiding principles in a way that feels simple enough to recite and empowering to say. An example might be:

I am, {Name},
I call in beauty and mirth,
compassion and patience,
kindness and wonder,
that I may be in right relationship
with my beloved community
the land I live with
and the vision of a vibrant, joyful planet

I also think singing simple chants are a beautiful way to realign energy and help us to center ourselves in our values. Let's say you're a peace activist and abolitionist - maybe you sing the Circle Chant by Linda Hirschhorn, which was originally written in support of the 1982 janitor's strike of UA movie theaters, and sings of circling for freedom and peace.² A song like the Circle Chant, or anything from the song collective Beautiful Chorus, or the vast archive of old and modern Pagan chants, can be an easy, joyful way to feel strengthened in our purpose and calling.

Gather Energy

Under the Full Moon, energy is pulled up from deep in the earth, gathering in swirling pools and rushing lines across the land. It is a time when we can walk the land and call that energy into ourselves or summon the light of the Moon wherever we might be on a Full Moon night. It is also traditional to leave items that we want to be charged up under the light of the Full Moon, including tools of divination, stones, and jewelry, being sure to bring them back inside before the Sun rises. 

Connect With the Cosmic Coven

While I'm using the word "coven" I am really referring to the form of community that you are most called to connect with. As a young witch who had limited access to the greater Pagan community, the idea that at every Full Moon there were other witch folk and Pagans creating magick under Her light was completely enchanting and filled me with a sense of belonging as I sat at my bedroom altar. Working with the cycles of the Moon is not just a personal preference for me and an act of liberation from static solar, patriarchal measurements of time, but a way to connect to ancestral traditions, living communities of the present, and helping to make a path of Moon magick for generations to come. If you have a working magickal group, but are practicing solo for the Full Moon, it can be lovely to coordinate rituals or keep an item on an altar that connects you to the rest of your circle. But if you're still seeking a group or don't have an interest in group practice but want to feel connected to the wider magickal community, you might take a moment to visualize and breathe into the web of community that runs through us all. If you're looking for further inspiration, a few years ago I wrote about how every Full Moon you have a coven.

You may have noticed that I've been emphasizing connecting with people, as opposed to land or spirits or divinities, because I think that making time to call in and be called to community that feels good and nourishing to you is an important regular practice. We live in times where the spell of fracturedness is run amok and we feel more separated and lonely than ever. Creating a monthly practice focused on cultivating community with other people is one that I think we need more than ever and calling in community under the light of the Full Moon is an especially magickal way of helping to do that.

image via @joannakosinska

Develop Your Psychic Gifts

With the energy stirred up under the Full Moon, why not channel that into the development of your psychic gifts? I think a playful approach to getting in touch with our intuition is particularly appropriate for Full Moon celebrations and even better with friends. There are all sorts of ways to develop your psychic gifts, but I wrote about how you can use a tarot deck to help you out. You can also work with plant allies like Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis), and Sage (Salvia officinalis) to help support your psychic energy.

Dream Magick

Speaking of developing psychic gifts, performing dream magick at the time of the Full Moon is particularly auspicious. Here is where you can have fun seeking out traditional and modern dream rituals and spellwork, but a very simple ritual is to call in a dream for a situation you're seeking insight on. Using a stone or plant bundle as a point to anchor your magick, hold it under the Full Moon light while chanting:

Full Moon, O Full Moon
Send me a dream
Illuminate for me 
What remains unseen

Visualize the situation you are seeking insight on as you draw the light of the Full Moon down into your magickal item. Keep your item beside or under your bed to help pull the dream towards you sometime over the next few nights. While you might not remember the dream, you may wake up with a sudden knowing or experience a flash of insight over the next few days to help you with your quandary.

A general tip for all kinds of dreamwork: while there are culturally specific traditions for calling in dreams, I find that performing a dream spell in a dreamlike way can be helpful. So wear that piece of dreamy clothing while dancing around a circle of chalk marked onto the earth, your stone held aloft in the Full Moon light, candles burning, familiars purring…

Connect with the Elements

Within western esoteric tradition, each Full Moon is charged by the energy of one of the four elements of earth, air, fire or water. If you do any sort of elemental-based work in your practice, the Full Moon can be a time to immerse yourself in the elemental energy. A Water Full Moon might be a time to do a lunar bath, dream work, and water-based remedies for the cycle ahead while a Fire Full Moon might be spent before an altar full of candles, working fire magick, and dancing up energy. The element of each Full Moon is determined by the sign it is in:

• Earth Moons happen when the Moon is in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn.

• Air Moons happen when the Moon is in Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius.

• Fire Moons happen when the Moon is in Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius.

• Water Moons happen when the Moon is in Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces.

The four elements are central to the traditional western herbalism philosophy of healing and if you're curious you can learn more about that here.

image via @joeehu

Make Moon Water

I've found that making Moon water is an activity that many a new-to-magick practitioner performs early on in their practice - which makes a lot of sense! It's an accessible, inexpensive, and powerfully simple way of connecting with lunar energy that leaves you with a tangible object that you can use after a night of Full Moon festivities. Setting out a bowl of water under the Full Moon light, maybe with herbs and stones added or a silver coin, feels like an old sort of magick. Moon water is versatile - you can use it in lunar baths and in spellwork, for watering plants, cleaning and blessing your home, and on and on. Some witchfolk even make their flower essences under the light of the Full Moon, carrying the magick of Moon and herb with them in tiny bottles of enchantment to use whenever they need extra emotional support.

Learn or Create Your Own Full Moon Chant

One aspect of modern Pagan culture that I love is the preservation and sharing of knowledge through simple chants, sung or spoken. There are circle-casting chants, chants for healing, chants to raise and banish energy, chants to celebrate rites of passage, and chants to pass on wisdom teachings. There are plenty of Full Moon chants and songs out there - Libana's Full Moonlight Dance is a classic, sung by Full Moon circles around the world, but there are plenty more. You can also draw from your own cultural traditions for lunar chants or create your own. When sung or spoken under a Full Moon month after month, a chant has the power to help us move into a state of reverence and flow, of creativity and magick, with little effort. 

Zone Out

While this post is about things you might-do to celebrate a Full Moon esbat, you also don't need to do anything. It is an act of rebellious magick within the overculture of over-productivity and burnout to choose a nonproductive state of being and to bathe in the waters of un-busyness. If you are able to lie down under the light of the Full Moon with no plan in place, just presence in mind, that is a ritual of zoning out of the normal modes of consciousness and tuning into something else. What that something else is is for you to discover. 

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If you're looking for more inspiration, how about a Full Moon tarot spread and healing ritual for your esbat celebrating? You can also find the rest of my might-do lists for the lunar esbats below:

• A Might-do List for the Dark Moon

• A Might-do List for the New Moon

• A Might-do List for the Quarter Moons

I also have a collection of over 120 lunar-centered rituals and recipes - The Moonfolk Book of Shadows - that you can access for free as a member of my newsletter community. 

Friends, I hope that wherever and however you gather 'neath the Full Moon's light that you are held by the dreams of a thousand generations of magick-makers holding fast the circle of love and possibility.

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

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Footnotes

1. Margaret Murray, Witch Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology (Oxford: Oxford Press 1921), 113.

2. Organizations like Rise Up & Sing are excellent resources for finding inspirational chants and songs.

A Might-do List for Midsummer

Midsummer, also known as the Summer Solstice, Litha, and Alban Hefin, marks the longest days of the year. Many ancient megaliths were built to align with the movement of the sun on Midsummer, the longest day of the year. Midsummer celebrates the height of the sun's power as well as the still distant but ever growing turn towards the cooler months. The Summer Solstice is also a day long associated with the magick of the Good Folk who are said to be more present than ever across the land. At Midsummer we celebrate the brightness of living and so much abundance that we have plenty to give and receive in turn. Now is a time to celebrate the expansiveness of life and the unique ways we express ourselves as necessary and loved members of our wider community. Continuing a project started last Lughnasadh, here’s a list of nine things that you might-do (or not) for the long day festival and hot season of the Summer Solstice.

Rise with the Sun. A simple and very sweet ritual is to rise with the sun on Midsummer. Meditate in silence or celebrate in song as the Sun rises up into the day, shedding light across the land. Planning to have special foods ready for breakfast can be an extra bonus.

Build simple stone cairns with friends and family. Glennie Kindred has a lovely suggestion for creating a participatory and engaging ritual space in her book Earth Wisdom. As folks are gathering together in the ritual space have them look for or bring five stones - one for each of the five elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Spirit. As part of the ritual, each of the elements are called in and one-by-one folks bring their stone for each element into the center while offering personal thanks and blessings at each turn. Slowly a cairn or mound of stones will be formed by all of the stones placed by those gathered. Cairns can be left up (if environmentally appropriate) and used as places to make offerings to the Good Folk, but at least for the rest of the ritual the community-created cairn serves as a focal point for chanting, dancing, and general merriment.

Self-Heal (Prunella vulgaris)

Harvest herbs. The Summer Solstice is a traditional time to harvest herbs and especially those herbs associated with the Good Folk, the energies of love, and the powers of protection. St. Joan's or John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) is traditionally harvested at Midsummer and turns into a beautiful red oil symbolizing the regenerative lifeblood of the land. Be sure to harvest herbs in a way that respects the land and its inhabitants tending to the places where they grow with as much care as plants tend to our healing needs.

Create some beautiful solar themed decorations. Decorations that catch the light and are bright in color are all wonderful options for Midsummer. Make faux stained glass with crayons and wax paper or your own sun wheels out of thread and twigs. Sun-shaped salt dough ornaments, wreaths made of dried herbs, and wild grass crowns are all seasonally appropriate and easy to make. Sun catchers and crystals hung in windows can bring rainbow light into our homes as well as outdoor ritual spaces. Whenever making or purchasing items, consider their long term environmental impact and try to align your choices with your earth-centered and celebrating festivities.

Energize culture-changing movements. Midsummer is an excellent time to call in and store up energy for the coming months and into winter. You can be intentional with your energizing magick and help to direct it towards and store it up for culture-changing movements and protests. I like to turn protest signs into magickal objects, bless my street medic bag and supplies, as well as raise energy and store it into other charms and amulets that I use in my work for a more just and kind world. 

Practice the magick of generosity. At the longest day of the year, marking a season of abundance and the peak of growth before the First Harvest in a few weeks time, Midsummer is an opportunity to practice the magick of generosity. I love the sentiment expressed in Circle Round: Raising Children in Goddess Traditions: "The Goddess at Summer Solstice gives us not just what we need, but extra. We can feel close to her by being generous, giving more than we're asked to give, doing more than our fair share. That way we make abundance for all." Generosity comes in many forms, but consider the ways that it is built into your magickal and spiritual practice at Midsummer, vowing to continue to act in abundance in your life and the lives of others.

Built an altar to the Sacred Dreamer. There are different myths from around the world about the shift of power from the light to the dark. At Midsummer the light of the Sun is at its peak - but from here on out the dark and lunar energies begin to rise. Some folks work with the myth of the Oak and Holly Kings and their never ending battles (and if you have an opportunity to see a ritual battle it can be a lot of fun). My own traditions align with stories of holy isles and descents into the underworld, where we draw closer to the world of dreams. Again, quoting Circle Round, they speak of the transformation of the God, noting that "[e]verything and everyone who fulfills their purpose must change… Now he becomes the Dreamer, asleep in this world but awake in the world of dreams and visions, the seeds of what will come to be in this world. He becomes the Messenger, carrying our hopes and prayers to the spirit realms." The Sabbats are a time to remember that change is a holy and necessary thing, that we aren't always meant to be doing the same thing throughout the year, but growing and retreating, shifting and changing with the seasons. 

Cast spells with candles. An alternative - and much shorter - version of the might-do lists for the Sabbats would simply be "Every six weeks(ish), burn stuff." The tracking of light and dark along with the necessity of fire for warmth and in the preparation of food stuff shows up powerfully in different ways at each Sabbat. The two times of year that candles are especially essential to my magickal practice are at Imbolc and then again at Midsummer. Whether building a dream altar to light the way for the Sun to descend into the underworld, to more traditional pin and candle spells, using fire in our magick at Midsummer can be a powerful act of energetic alignment.

Create a beacon of light. Lighting bonfires on hilltops is an ancient tradition of Midsummer that is still carried on in some Celtic cultures. You can create your own beacon of light whether an actual candle burning in your window or a piece of art displayed in a way for others to see. Fires on the hill were/are a form of spiritual devotion but also connection and community-building. What sacred symbols do you want to see more of in the world around you? How do you move through the world as a person of sacredness? What are the beacons that you're wanting to see to help you know that you're not alone in the work of repairing the world? If you're looking for social justice and mutual aid oriented images, Just Seeds is always a great place to check out. You can charge up your beacon from sunrise to sunset on Midsummer day, infusing it with the holy constant of solar light.

Learn more about magickal practices for the season of summer or cast some cards for the Summer Solstice. Here’s a midsummer brew to try and you also might like the refreshing taste of swamp tea. Finally, here’s some more herbal lore on the magick of the Summer Solstice.

You can also check out the rest of my might-do lists for the sabbats and beyond.

• Samhain

• Winter Solstice (Yule)

• Imbolc

• Spring Equinox (Ostara)

• Beltane

• Summer Solstice (Midsummer)

• Lughnasadh

• Autumn Equinox (Mabon)

May your day be bright and abundant of blessings. May your heart shine like a bonfire guiding you from longest day to slow-growing night. May we all come together in the spirit of generosity, knowing that there is enough, committed to the change needed to create equitable and holy access, and dancing all the way home.

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