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.

Seeking Healing : The New Moon in Virgo

To the One Who Opens the door

The Door

And the Gate Keeper

And, to the One
who walks
through

- Sulis Sarasvati -

The New Moon in Virgo is the hinge of the doorway for the new season to come through. In the northern hemisphere it is time to pause and notice the leaves beginning to fall from the trees and in the southern hemisphere we listen to the seeds unfurling up towards sky. We’re not fully embedded in the new season yet, but when the Moon is born again in the sign of Virgo we find ourselves moving away from what was and the next step finding us entering into what might be. 

Image by Nibras al-Riyami

Virgo’s symbol is the Virgin (though it was almost the Donkey, which seems fitting given the signs stubborn tendency). While our modern sensibilities place the idea of the Virgin within something that is all-together willowy and damsel-in-distress-y, the original concept of Virgin was someone who was wholly unto themselves and bound to no other mortal in a relationship. The relationships of Virgins were often divine in nature, such as the Vestal Virgins who kept the fires of the Vesta burning (and were a later incarnation of Priestesses of the Greek Hestia). These sacred Virgins, however, were not just invested in keeping holy fires burning in temples and homes, but the right ordering of things in general so that the sacred fires might not only burn, but burn well so that all exposed to their light may enjoy good health (again, a nod to Virgo's need for orderliness in their environment).

The New Moon in Virgo is a time to visit your sacred temple of healing and make sure that your hearth fire is well tended (remember all that heart work you did with Leo?). Now is a time to tend lovingly to the home that you live in, both your surroundings and your body. Fill your days with nutritive herbs, digestive bitters, and kitchen spice magick. Ask yourself what it is you do to ground, center, and recuperate? Not what you plan on doing or aspire to do, but what you are actually doing in your life right now. As an earth sign, Virgo asks us what is it that you’re not getting enough of physically in order to thrive? It might be sleep, wholesome food or time away from your computer (and if that means you stop reading this right now and take a break, I support that 1000%).

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
New Moon in Virgo Plant Ally

I recommend Fennel a lot as a Virgo herb and for good reason. The plant is a great addition to teas, cooking, and even aromatherapy sprays, as a season-changing ally. Fennel helps to dissolve stagnant energy and fluids in the body which helps our inner fire move throughout our being with ease. It not only helps with digestive complaints, such as gas and poor metabolism, but the herb helps to alleviating the tension of a busy mind, relaxing tense shoulders, and having an overall softening effect on the body.

Fennel is a plant that helps us to be grounded in the pleasure of our body, especially when we feel overwhelmed. The flower essence of Fennel is one that brings happiness. More specifically it brings happiness because it offers relief from the idea of having to hold up the world with our efforts. If you’re having trouble even considering that you need to take time off and go easy during this Virgo New Moon, try some Fennel flower essence. 

Flower + Gem Essences for the New Moon of Virgo: Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Water Violet (Hottonia palustris), Fig (Ficus carica), Vervain (Verbena officinalis), Centaury (Centaurium umbellatum), Lavender (Lavandula officinalis), Rock Water, Carnelian, Blue Aventurine.

Essential Oils of Virgo: Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), Peppermint (Mentha piperita), Caraway (Carum carvi).

Photo by Aperture Vintage

Temple Stone Ritual

The following ritual will help you create an astral healing temple that you can bring with you wherever you go. Once charged, the stone has many uses - you can bring this stone into your consultation room to help establish a healing space, evoke its energies before your daily meditation, and more.

For this ritual you will need one stone. It could be a rock from your garden or a beautiful crystal. Begin in a sacred way (read the New Moon in Aquarius post for further inspiration). Turn to the West (or East if you’re in the southern hemisphere) and place your stone before you on the ground. Visualize healing energies of the West coming towards you, breathing them in and letting them swirl around you. When you’re ready, touch your stone, creating a link between the healing energies of the West and your rock. Turn to the North, and do the same as in the West. Continue to the East, the South, and then the Center. 

Hold your stone again. Around you is a temple of healing energy, mapped by your stone. Say:

New Moon blessing
Swing open the door
I step into healing
and love ever more.

Taking a deep breath in, visualize the energies of your healing temple being drawn completely into your stone. Seal the spell by tapping your stone on the ground in the Center, South, East, North, and finally the West.

The World Spirit Tarot

Oracle

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

Where do I need healing most in my life?

Additional queries to consider:

• How do I honor the need for feeling pleasure in my body?
• What part of my life do I need to think less and do more?

Tarot Cards of Virgo

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

• The Sign of Virgo: The Hermit
• Sun in Virgo: Eight of Pentacles
• Venus in Virgo: Nine of Pentacles
• Mercury in Virgo: Ten of Pentacles
• The Earth Signs of Taurus, Virgo, + Capricorn: Ace of Pentacles

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

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

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

Expressing Truth : The New Moon in Leo

Make yourself an altar
bring beauty all around you

from the winged ones,
iridescent feathers
whorled shells from the sea's edge
crystals who carry
the heartbeat of the earth
flowers culled from
the gardens of the world

light a thousand candles,
watch the dance of their flames
then open your soul wide and
sing praise to all that is good.

- H. Ni Aodagain -

We’ll be having two Leo New Moons this year complete with a solar eclipse coming up in August. I’ll be writing more about the powerful energies of the New Moon and solar eclipse next month, but tonight’s New Moon is a warm up to next month’s eclipse. My natal Moon is in Leo so the energies feel close, personal, and difficult to describe (as so often the influence of our natal Moon are). So here is what I have learned as a Leo Moonfolk, walking with the lion as my lunar ally: when the Moon enters Leo we are asked to examine the ways we perform in the world. In other words, how do you do you? What are the ways that you perform your identities of gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, and more? How do you perform your insecurities and doubts? How do you perform your confidence and bravery? 

Photo by Sergey Pesterev

Leo is the guardian of the heart which is important to pay attention to especially because this sign can get a really bad rap in horoscopes and astrology books. Too often performance is seen as false, deceptive, and not to be trusted. This, too, has been said of the heart and those who are guided by the rhythm of their own beat as opposed to the personal and cultural expectations and rules of others. I think we degrade the performative aspects of Leo because we are terrified of living a life guided by an open heart instead of a calculating mind. Even worse, we fear accepting that our heart and mind are not separate entities - we simply choose to ignore that our heart is guiding us - thinking as us - far more than many of use would feel comfortable with. Because everyone is performing and nobody passes. And that is how it should be. We should revel in the ability to perform ourselves a thousand ways to a thousand different people. How else do we figure out what it is we want to say and how to say it? How it is we want to live and how to live it?

The New Moon in Leo is a time of measuring the boundaries of our self-expression, of re-examining the script we’ve been given and what we’ve also written, and figuring out how to say what we need to say while still remembering to listen (both to ourself and others). It’s a time of heart-tonics and doing things that invigorate the heart to act on its desires. Where do you want to be more brave in your life? Right now is an auspicious time to figure it out. 

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
New Moon in Leo Plant Ally

Motherwort is a classic heart tonic in the Traditional Western Herbalism materia medica. Look to its Latin binomial and you’ll get insight into the herb’s qualities for it has been named “Lion Hearted.” Motherwort improves the condition of a weakened or out-of-sync heart including arrhythmia, angina, and a heart muscle that lacks tone. Signs to look for when considering Motherwort are heart palpitations (especially those caused by stress, nervousness or anxiety), shortness of breath, and those who need some “mothering.” The herb reduces high blood pressure, alleviates palpitations and hypertension, and generally strengthens the heart’s tone.

Motherwort is like a hug in a tea cup and is an herb that shifts energy for the better faster than most other herbs I have encountered. It’s a good herb for the New Moon in Leo because it enhances the generous-hearted qualities of Leo while alleviating the stress and tension that can come about with the very humyn need to be loved. 

Magickally, Motherwort can be kept as a charm in the home to bring about peace. Use to connect with the energy and wisdom of the Lion. The herb protects against harmful entities and spirits. I think it is especially useful in helping alleviate hauntings, whether emotional hauntings of the spirit and mind, or unwanted ghosts.

Flower + Gem Essences for the New Moon of Leo: Valerian (Valeriana officinalis), Vine (Vitis vinifera), Illawarra Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius), Vervain (Verbena officinalis), Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), Willow (Salix vitellina), Gold, Citrine.

Essential Oils of Leo: Bergamot (Citrus bergamia), Orange (Citrus sinensis), Jasmine ( Jasminum grandiflorum), Benzoin (Styrax benzoin), Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha)

Photo by David Monje

The Rite of the Hidden Heart

Behind our wants lies our true desire. We want to live in a house with a rooftop garden because we desire to remember that we are a wild and growing thing even in the concrete confines of the city. We want to be in a relationship with our one-true-love because we desire to learn how to love ourselves and sometimes it’s easier to do through another. Behind our heart lies our desire. 

You will need a candle. Red, yellow, and orange are auspicious but any color will do. You will also need a pen and piece of paper. Begin in a sacred way (read the New Moon in Aquarius post for further inspiration).

With your pen and paper write a name poem. A name poem consists of words and phrases that describe you and your true nature as well as your magickal lineage, allies, God/dess/es, and whatever else you might want to put in it. Your name poem is a way of sharing your desire with yourself and others. It is a poem that either in theory or in actual practice, you would share with others as a way of introduction, especially at magickal gatherings. An example might be:

I am Azalea, 
Daughter of the Sun Queen,
Keeper of the Citrine Secret,
Sister of Lions,
King of Drag and Rejector of Binaries.
I seek a world of kindness and justice.
With my words I open hearts,
With my performance I create new possibilities,
With my herbs I find healing.
Blessed be.

When your name poem is written light your candle and turn off all other lights. Standing before your candle take six steps backwards (six is a sacred number of the Sun and adjust the movement for your mobility needs). Spend time in the shadow, the space beyond the light of your heart. What within you desires to emerge?

Take one step forward, towards the candle, and read your name poem silently to yourself. Ask yourself, what within you desires to be seen?

Take another step and whisper your name poem. Ask yourself, what within you desires to be heard?

Take another step and say your name poem a little louder. Ask yourself, what within you desires to be touched?

Take another step and say your name poem at your normal speaking volume. Ask yourself, what within you desires to be known?

Take another step and say your name poem at a volume slightly above your normal speaking volume. Ask yourself, what within you desires to be honored?

Take a final step so that you are right before your candle and say your name poem loudly, with confidence. Ask yourself, what within you desires to be loved?

Hold your hands on either side of the candle, infusing your energy with its fiery light and awakening the fire within. When your hands are warm with fire and energy, press them to the paper with your name poem written on it. You can choose to carry this name poem with you as a sacred talisman to be always seeking your desire.

Oracle

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

What part of me desperately wants to be seen?

Additional queries to consider:

• What do I fear those that I serve think of me?
• What part of me feels unloved?

Tarot Cards of Leo

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

• The Sign of Leo : Strength
• Saturn in Leo : 5 of Wands
• Jupiter in Leo : 6 of Wands
• Mars in Leo : 7 of Wands
• The Fire Signs of Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius : Ace of Wands

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

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

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

Changing Stories : The New Moon in Gemini

Shine

This is your time
You are glowing under the moon
You are shining near the fire
You will arise
each morning
moving yourself up
to the highlands
of your own heart
Keep going
you deliciously sweet framework
of brains and bones
Your existence is a miracle
But don't force a smile
Instead,
honor your humanity
Speak in sentences
of boquets and thorns
Dig in the dirt
and pull up the weeds
of your past
Stretch the length
of your body
along the trunk of a tree
raise your hand
to the branches in the sky
and wrap your fingers
around th largest
keenest
truest fruit
you can find.

- Kim Adonna -

Gemini is a sign of our times with it’s emphasis on social connections, fast-moving information, and, when the energy gets carried away, saying something before we’ve thought it through. Words and their many meanings dance around us like a playful wind. Oracles and visionary signs abound during the New Moon in Gemini. It might mean spending time with your divinatory tools, but be sure to be open to the oracles of the everyday. Pay attention to words the books you're reading, the signs of passing street corners, enigmatic combinations of emojis, and snippets of conversations in a new and open way. The New Moon in Gemini is a time that we can hear what we need to know, but it requires us to listen carefully. 

After the New Moon in Taurus, the New Moon in Gemini is the young kid who is pulling their parent up from relaxing and saying “Come on let’s go!” And on the way to wherever they want you to be they’ll regale you with the latest school ground gossip. While stillness is a quality of Taurus, quickness is the energy of mutable Gemini. The New Moon in Gemini can be a time of information expansion in your life - and depending on where you’re at in life this can be overwhelming or exactly what you need (or a combination of both). It’s an auspicious time to release old stories that you tell yourself and others that you’ve outgrown as well as make announcements about new projects, identities, and ambitions. If you’re someone who struggles with words, whether speaking them aloud or finding the ones that fit what you want to express, the New Moon in Gemini, when properly focused (check out the plant ally below for help with that) can help you find or create your words.

image source

All New Moons are times of new starts, new beginnings, and new perspectives. With the New Moon in Gemini we have the opportunity to tell a new story to and about ourselves. Instead of "not" and “can’t,” Gemini urges us to speak with "can" and "do" as our words of power. Think of a story you’ve been telling yourself for years. It might be something like:

I don’t deserve to be cared for in the ways that I care for others.

Replace the negatives in the sentence with positive words. So the story is transformed to:

I do deserve to be cared for in the ways that I care for others. 

It’s not about believing that the latter story is true (yet), for Gemini is less a sign of belief as it is a sign of talking about and analyzing belief. But it is a sign of memes and persistent thoughts, so why not create a persistently positive meme for yourself? It takes practice, but the New Moon in Gemini is an auspicious time to start, helping to give your re-storytelling an energetic boost. 

It’s time to tell your story, instead of being told it.

Lavender (Lavandula spp.)
New Moon in Gemini Plant Ally

Lavender is a wonderful herb for the New Moon, bringing soothing and centering energy to magick and medicine. The gentle purple flower helps us to slow down and take a breath during the energetically busy time of Gemini. In general, Lavender is an herb that addresses physiological tension from muscle spasms to tension headaches. It can be used internally (it’s a great addition to tea) and it’s a wonderful massage oil for tired and tense bodies. Lavender is one of my favorite herbs to use in room sprays to shift the energy of a space. 

Lavender works with the nervous system very intelligently - it stimulates a sluggish nervous system when needed, bringing clarity and focus while lifting lethargy and can also calm an aggravated nervous system that needs to be re-centered, and settled. Lavender can help to soften the jolts of energy that run through our bodies while enhancing our energetic output, clearing out lethargy and laziness. The scent of Lavender alone does remarkable things to our nervous system, helping to ward off depression, alleviate stress, and bring the spirit back to the body. I highly recommend including it in your New Moon in Gemini magick-making especially when undoing the knots of tension that can come from untangling stories so that we can find our own words. 

Flower + Gem Essences for the New Moon in Gemini: Cerato (Ceratostigma Willmottiana), Mimulus (Mimulus Guttatus), Lavender (Lavandula spp.), Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus), Blue Delphinium (Delphinium spp.), Aquamarine, Clear Quartz.

Essential Oils for Gemini: Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), Basil (Ocimum basilicum), Peppermint (Mentha piperita).

image source

Changing Your Story of Healing

The work of a healer is to ease suffering by connecting those we serve with hope and an expanded vision of what is possible. We, as healers, deserve the same and believing so starts with examining the stories we tell about what can and cannot be healed about ourselves. Be sure to read the first part of the post about why powerful words (whether or not our beliefs are quite there yet) are an important part of Gemini magick before performing this ritual.

Begin in a sacred way (read the New Moon in Aquarius post for further inspiration). Think about the current story you tell yourself about what you think is broken. Notice the physical sensations that arise and where they are in your body. Spend a moment observing the sensation. Speak the story in a concise sentence such as:

• I’ll never heal from my broken heart.
• My shyness won’t let me connect with others as a healer.
• I don’t deserve the healing that I help others achieve. 

The next part is a play on an old knot magick technique (which is aligned with air magick and the sign of Gemini), but you’ll be unknotting instead of binding. Gently touch the place in your body where the energy of your story is tangled and say:

By touch of one, the knot's undone.

Visualize the knot of your story loosening and undoing itself. You might feel resistance - take a deep breath. You might feel joy - take a deep breath. Touch the spot on your body again and say:

By touch of two, the energy is true.

Visualize the clarifying energy of the New Moon flowing into the area where the knot used to be. Pay attention to the color and quality for additional healing insight. Take a deep breath, being sure to expand your lungs to their full capacity. Touch yourself for a third time and say:

By touch of three, I am set free!

Now it’s time to fill that spot with the words of your new story. 

• My heart is resilient, adaptable, and whole.
• My sensitivity helps me connect to those who need a gentle healer like me.
• I deserve all of my healing.

Breath in the new words deep. Open your arms wide to embrace the energy of the New Moon and then give yourself a big hug. Say with power:

So mote it be!

Oracle

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

What stories do I tell myself prevent me from being the healer I am meant to be?

Additional queries to consider:

• How can I better use my words as a healer?
• In what ways do I need to be more mindful of what I say?

Tarot Cards of Gemini

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

• The Sign of Gemini: The Lovers
• Jupiter in Gemini: Eight of Swords
• Mars in Gemini: Nine of Swords
• Sun in Gemini: Ten of Swords
• The Air Signs of Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius: Ace of Swords

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

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

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

Gentle Herbal Magick For When You Feel Lost

You may not have even noticed that you've lost yourself.

You find yourself looking up from your phone realizing you've been elsewhere. You feel disjointed. Your heart and mind are disconnected. But you yearn to step out of the busy-ness into something more still. Even if that scares you.

Or maybe the struggle has been long and hard against the forces which seem to tear each of us asunder. The racism, transphobia, religious discrimination, ableism, microaggressions, snotty passive-aggressive antics by people who are hurting but don’t know it and are smearing their pain around. All of it. We think that stillness equals inaction. That if we don’t go to the march or repost the latest meme or write righteous comments that we’re not doing the work.

But the price of not being still with ourselves is heavy.

It means that we lose sight of who we are. The shore of our sovereignty by which we set our compass gets lost in the fog of so much noise.

There are a thousand things you might choose to do when you’re lost. A thousand magicks, a thousand remedies. But if you’re seeking something gentle and a plant ally to work with, the following is my uncomplicated herbal magick for when want to be present with yourself. 

For the spell, all you need are three fresh branches of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). It's an herb of the Sun (which represents out inherent vitality and shines light in the shadowy places of our mind) and Aries (the sign of the individual identity and the guardian of the head). Both correspondences align with our modern understandings of its medicinal uses. “Rosemary for remembrance” goes the old adage and we know that Rosemary help us think clearer and improves the function of our mental faculties. The magickal powers of Rosemary as a re-membering herb (or an herb that put things back together) are powerful, too. Rosemary helps us to return to a state of being that aligns with our inner sovereignty by helping us to re-member those things which really matter to us. The herb calls home parts of ourselves that we may have forgotten.

The following spell is simple minimalist magick. Like most herbal magick, I recommend doing it outside, but make adjustments as needed to make it easy for you and where you’re at. Call upon Rosemary help you to expand the possibilities of what may happen for you. For the purpose of magick is not to perform it with clear expectations of what will occur, but to enter into sacred space ready to engage mystery. Magick calls us to bring all parts of ourselves home to the sacred now.

image source

A Rosemary Spell for Being Present

When the Moon is in her dark phase and she has pulled the veil of night tight around her, pick three branches from the Rosemary bush.

Draw two circles in the earth and sit between them, so that one is at your right side and the other to your left. Place a branch of Rosemary in each circle. Hold the third branch in between both of your hands and at your heart.

To your head to the left and say:

This is what was.

Offer what was to the Rosemary in the left circle. You might visualize past projects, relationships, ideas, and visions. The point is not to dwell on any of them but to let them rise up and offer them to the confines of the circle to your left.

Turn your head to the right and say:

This is what may be.

Offer what shall be to the Rosemary in the right circle. You might visualize worries and hopes about the future, upcoming projects and deadlines, visions and dreams. Again, let them pass through you swiftly and into the circle at your right. 

Bow your head towards your heart and rub your hands together so that the scent of Rosemary fills the aid. Say:

And here I sit,
steady between.

Take a deep breath and pull yourself back home, carried on the scent of Rosemary. Whatever thoughts rise up, observe them and let them flow through to either the right or left of you. Return again and again to your breath and the scent of Rosemary.

At the time you feel is right, when there is a sense of peace and nowness within you, no matter how small or fleeting, or how big and grand, ingest three Rosemary leaves to lovingly ground your spirit to the present. 

When the ritual is over, give thanks to the Rosemary and give thanks to yourself. Leave the two branches of Rosemary in their circles and carry the third with you or placed on your altar until it dries. Once it has dried, burn it as sacred incense with the purpose of seeking out and finding any parts of you that still remain out there and not present with who you currently are.

You can continue to carry this ritual with you without having to create the same setup with the circles and Rosemary branches by repeating the physical movements of the spell. Magick is, in part, muscle memory which you can use at your discretion whenever needed.

May you always know the direction of your heart and the peace that stillness brings. Blessed be.