Working with the Cycles of the Moon
The Moon is the astrological symbol for the feeling function and the feminine principal that exists within all of us regardless of gender. Your personal Moon [sign, house, aspects] symbolizes:
- What you need to feel emotionally secure
- How you give and receive love and nurturing
- How to attach, detach and grieve
- Habitual instinctual responses
- Imprint of mother
- The inner child.
SO MAKE SURE YOU FEED YOUR MOON THE 'FOOD' IT NEEDS!
This will relate to the needs of the sign it is found in as well as the aspects it makes. If you feel your Moon is holding you back, you can try talking to your lunar self or 'inner child'. Just remember YOU ARE THE ADULT AND NEED TO HAVE THE FINAL SAY. Try to talk and listen to your lunar self as if you were the perfect mother - you may be very surprised at what she/he has to say.
Those of you that are lunar types will find working with Her cycles nurturing and empowering. A cyclic approach to life gives us permission to advance and retreat, to change our minds and express different facets of our being. It honors down time, introversion and being as well as initiative, extroversion and doing.
The Three Phases of the Moon
The lunar cycle can be divided into 8 distinct phases, but to simplify matters we can identify three main phases as a sound basis for working with the lunar cycle. Each phase has a distinct energy and calls for a different approach.
Your natal lunar phase is always a powerful and fertile time, similar to New Moon energy. Women can often be literally fertile at this time, even if they are menstruating or know they ovulated weeks before. Women who are having difficulty conceiving should consider this a fertile time and make sure they are sexually active at this time.
The New Moon
The New Moon marks the beginning of the lunar cycle. The energy is strong, extroverted and focused making this a powerful time to activate your Warrior energy and:
- Set intentions
- Start new projects
- Initiate change
- Focus your energy on a specific goal
- Trust your intuition and take a risk
- Assert yourself
A Simple New Moon Ritual
Choose a candle in a color that you feel honors your intention.
Center yourself and invoke your guides/ highest inspiration.
Declare your intentions in words or writing [make sure it violates no ones free will]
Light your candle and visualize your intentions manifesting. Feel the satisfaction that this will bring.
Give thanks and surrender your intention to your Higher Self/Guides.
The Full Moon
The Full Moon marks the mid-point of the lunar cycle when the Moon is opposite the Sun and She illuminates the night sky with her brilliance. The illumination of the Full Moon can be harnessed for
- Doing something creative
- Meditation
- Insight and reflection
- Acknowledging desires
- Giving thanks and appreciation
- Experiencing intimacy with loved ones and yourself
- Sending quality time with your partner
- Making love
- Holding inner tensions to allow for the possibility of reconciliation and resolution.
In a woman's personal Moon Cycle the Full Moon phase corresponds with ovulation and pregnancy. The archetypes that are active are Lover and Mother. It is the time for connection and relationship and for honoring our fertility and creativity in any form we feel drawn to express it.
A Simple Full Moon Ritual
Center yourself
Invoke the Goddess and your Guides/Highest Inspiration.
Light a silver or white candle to honor the Moon
Bring down the Moon - either go outside and allow the moonbeams to fill your body, mind and soul - or imagine the magical moonbeams shining down on you, filling your body and energy field with silver light
Give thanks for all that is positive in your life - and give thanks for the challenges too!
Do something from the list above to honor the Full Moon, for example: meditate on a problem and ask for illumination, do something creative or make love
Give thanks
The Dark of the Moon
At the dark of the Moon the Moon disappears for three days, marking the final phase of the lunar cycle and the death before the rebirth of the New Moon. The energy is strong but introverted, making this the natural time to:
- Withdraw and spend some time alone
- Inner work of all kinds
- Journalling
- Let go of the past
- Grieve for what has been lost
- Acknowledge your pain, fear and your shadow
- Reflect on self defeating patterns
- Heal the past and gestate new possibilities
- Consult the oracles [Tarot, Runes etc] for their wisdom
The most powerful time is the three days before the New Moon, known as the balsamic phase. In a woman's personal moon cycle this corresponds with both the time of menstruation and the post menopausal years. In ancient times this was when the women of the community retreated to the menstrual hut. They had the opportunity to have a break from the regular demands of their lives and often worked magic and consulted the oracles.
Honoring the Moon allows us to see menopause as a time of wisdom and magic when women's moon blood is retained within to allow them to gestate a new reality and a creativity that is not necessarily dependent on others for its manifestation.
A Simple Dark of the Moon Ritual
Center yourself and invoke your Guides/ highest Inspiration
Light a black or dark colored candle to honor the darkness
Reflect on a problem or concern and write it down
Burn the paper as you ask for healing / insight
Ask your Higher Self for insight into this concern and write down the wisdom you receive.
Give thanks.
Article available online at www.christinerothwell.com and www.christine-rothwell.com