Tag: Moon

The Majick of Water

Published on by WitchybyAineLeave a comment

Think, for a moment, of all the things you can do with water. We drink it, cook with it, bathe in it, nourish our plants with it. We sail on it. We fish from it. We swim in in. We sit beside it. We taste, see, and smell it. We hear it. We feel it.

Our lives begin in water in our mother’s wombs, and our bodies are about 60% water. Is it a mystery that a bath is soothing? Is it any wonder than we find the sound of running water calming? And what is more romantic than moonlight on the water?

In California, where Awen’s Cauldron is based, we feel the impact of water, or rather, its absence. This very hot summer has brought multiple days exceeding 100 degrees. The lack of humidity in our area increases thirst, and we long to immerse ourselves in the coolness of a pool, pond, river, or ocean. We cannot live without water, any more than we can live without any of the elements: fire to warm us and cook our food, air to breathe and blow cool breezes, earth to stand on and in which to grow our food. Of all the elements, though, we resonate with water—it is part of our name, referenced in the cauldron.

Water plays an important part in all faith traditions, most often symbolizing purification and cleansing. For Hindus, bathing in the sacred water of the Ganges is an important ritual. Christians use water to baptize people in that faith. Water appears in creation myths, as part of the formation of the world. And people travel annually to sacred water sites such as the Lourdes grotto in France or the Chalice Well in England.

There is even a popular belief that blessing water and speaking to it in a loving way can change its nature. When returned to other bodies of water, the expectation is that the water goes on to change the water it encounters. As intriguing, hopeful, and majickal as that idea might sound, it is not supported by scientific research.

There are, however, many ways in which water is majickal in and of itself. The fact that it can be gas, liquid, or solid is remarkable. Air, fire, and earth don’t have that ability. Water dripping on stone will erode it over time—the Grand Canyon was formed over the course of millennia by the course of the Colorado river. Water can power electricity and take us to new places. And when it rages, it is a terrifying element, sweeping away everything in its path.

In Wicca, water is associated with the moon and is considered feminine. That is one reason why it is represented by an upside-down equilateral triangle, which reflects both the shape of a chalice and the shape of the womb. It is the element that is most closely aligned to the goddess (for example, Belisima, Anuket, Brizo) and it is the element of those born under the signs of Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. Water rules our subconscious as well as our emotions. Its tools are the cauldron and the chalice. Water is associated with the west, autumn, and sunset. Silver, topaz, amethyst, citrine, aquamarine, opal, pearl, and sapphire crystals or gems should be used in water rituals. Animals associated with water include, as expected, turtles, dolphins, and seals, but also bears and snakes. Majickal creatures associated with water include undines, mermaids, and sea serpents. Using musical instruments such as cymbals or bells will invoke water during a ritual.

Majickal rituals are often preceded by sacred bathing that relaxes the ritualist and prepares her to be receptive to majickal influence. Herbs, oils, and water charged under the moon can be used in the bath, as well as the special bath salts we create for our Sabbat boxes. Moon-charged water can also be used for scrying; put it in a dark bowl and gaze through the water to practice your divination skills. Making tea or potions with moon-charged water is also a good idea. After using water for ritual purposes, it should be returned to the earth, no emptied into a sink.

How do you charge water? The simplest way is to leave a vessel of it out all night where the moon will shine on it for the longest time. Our practices involve using the same vessel each month and using that container only for moon-charged water. Rainwater, spring water, or purified water are the best sources of water for charging. You can also do solar water charging in the same way, leaving it out where the sun will hit the water for most of the day. Some Wiccans bless the water to free it from any negative energy and use salt to purify it.

Majick spells that work best with water are those that healing, dreams, sleep, intuition, love, and friendship. If you have been plagued with bad dreams, for example, this might help. Take a cup of moon-charged water and add a teaspoon of sea salt along with three drops each of jasmine, lavender, and violet essential oils (or add petals from each of the flowers; you can also substitute bergamot for violet oil). If you have moonstones, add them as well. Place the bowl of water near your bed, and before lying down to sleep, put your hands about the water and say (if you aren’t comfortable yet with writing your own spell):

Majickal water, I now ask
For you to fill this simple task
Bring me restful peace and sleep
Let my dreams not make me weep

Water is life, but more than that, water is majickal. All life came from water, and humans begin their lives there. Like water, we can carve our own paths. The creatures that live in it have their own beauty; even a hippopotamus is graceful in water. And the majickal creatures are even more striking—undines with bodies made of water, mermaids with their fish tails and long flowing hair, sea serpents that curve sinuously through the oceans.

All the elements can be used in majick, but we have a favorite in water.

Opening image: “A Mermaid,” by John William Waterhouse – Art UK, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7715772

The Darkening Moon and the Blessed Dark

Published on by WitchybyAineLeave a comment

Imagine yourself walking on a country road at night. There is no moonlight; She is dark. You are guided only by starlight. You hear strange noises in the surrounding foliage—unfamiliar bird calls and insect chirping fills your ears. You feel the wind of flapping wings nearby; perhaps it’s a bat. How do you feel? Are you frightened?

If you are, you are not alone in your fear. People have been programmed to be fearful of the dark. It is culturally ingrained in us. Children fear the presence of monsters and adults sometimes share the same fear. The darkness can be terrifying to us; it represents the unknown. But it wasn’t always this way.

When the moon is nearly full, as it will be tonight, it feels like it could go on forever. Wouldn’t that be wonderful, to have a full moon every night, or at least one that lasted longer than three days? Sadly, we can’t, and there is a good reason (other than the usual scientific ones). The cycle of the moon from new to full and back again represents the cycle of life. All living things grow and then die. Plants drop their seeds and grow anew, while living things like birds, fish, and animals decompose and return the energy of their flesh into the earth to be reused.

Ancient people knew this, and they didn’t fear the cycles of the moon. They didn’t fear the Dark Moon. They understood that after the Full Moon came waning, light disappearing until the Dark Moon was reached. They knew that the Dark Moon gave way to the New Moon and rebirth. But as history progressed, and cultures changed, the waning of the moon came to mean something sinister and frightening. Early peoples saw in the waxing, full, and waning moon the presence of the Maiden in New Moon and Waxing Moon, the Mother at the Full Moon, and the Crone at the Waning and Dark moon. The Crone, or Dark Goddess, was originally seen as the one, like Hekate, who was “filled with compassion and understanding for the frailty of human nature.” The Dark Goddess was loved and worshiped along with the Maiden and the Mother, because ancient peoples regarded time as cyclical rather than linear. The Moon receded and left us in the dark for a while simulating death, but it returned, as did life.

As patriarchy rose, though, many things changed. The Dark Moon, and the Dark Goddess, came to be viewed as evil. Death wasn’t followed by rebirth; it was final and followed by consignment to heaven or hell. Patriarchy was able to absorb the maiden into its worldview, as well as the mother, but there was no place for the Crone, the Wise One. The Dark Moon and Dark Goddess embodied all that was wrong with womankind as the harbinger of sin. She is the woman who kills her children. She is the one who emasculates men. She is the one who tempts men out of their loving relationships. She is Snow White’s stepmother, manipulative and vain.

I reject this vision of the waning and dark moons as well as this terrible rendering of the Dark Goddess. I understand that everything has a lifecycle that the moon demonstrates monthly. I use the time of the Waning and Dark Moon for reflection (looking out at the world around us), introspection (looking inward to assess how we respond and relate to that world), and transformation (changing what we do).

As we move into the Waning Moon, where the Dark Goddess rules, we enter a time of destruction and transformation. It’s a time to dissolve, to tear apart, to rend, in order to transform and rebuild again. You set majickal intention during the New Moon, and you grow and feed that intention, making slight alterations in course, until it reaches the fullness of the Mother. As the moon wanes, you begin to examine what worked and what did not, putting aside those things that were ineffective and casting them into the cauldron for transformation in the Dark Moon.

Personal work focusing on things like cleaning and getting rid of bad habits is best done during the waning moon, so you can set an intention to continue your new behavior at the New Moon. Organizing and cleaning are good things to do during the waning moon. A detox or cleansing can also be very effective. It’s a time to let go of those things that don’t work.

New spells can be cast during the waning moon, generally focusing on pushing things away rather than pulling them toward you. It’s a good time for banishing and protection spells. Banishing simply means sending something out of your life, whether it’s a negative thought, a relationship, a behavior, or a problem. Doing a banishing spell means putting more power behind an intent than, for example, simply deciding to change a habit. An easy way to do this is to choose a candle that will burn completely by the time the New Moon arrives. Choosing a color related to your spell can help, but what really matters is your intention. Write your spell on a piece of paper and put the paper on your altar next to your candle. Burn the candle each day until the New Moon appears, repeating your spell daily as you light the candle. At the end, burn the paper in the candle. Other banishing rituals include writing the spell in water and pouring the water on the ground, writing the spell in sand and smoothing the words away, or saying the spell and blowing dust out of your hands into the air.

Working majick during the Dark Moon requires the purest of intentions. It is the best time for divination with tools like pendulums and tarot/oracle cards. It is important to keep the idea of “for my highest good” in mind and to ask wisdom of your higher self. It is also important that what you seek during this time not be intended as harm toward another as the rebound can be much more harmful to you. Journaling during the Dark Moon will reveal truth. Most importantly, the Dark Moon is a time to rest, to be alone in the dark and feel the love of the Dark Goddess, the Crone.

Are you afraid of the dark? Are you afraid of the dark inside you? There is nothing to fear. The Dark Goddesses walk with you in the Waning and Dark Moon—Hekate, Lilith, Nyx, Persephone, Baba Yaga, Kali, Aradia, Bast, Cerridwen, Mary Magdalene, and others. When we embrace the darkness as part of the natural cycle of life, we do not fear it. We know it passes, and our openness to it brings change in our lives. Blessed be the light and blessed be the dark. We live in both.

Opening image by By Haleyread23 – Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64195761

Majickal Moon, Majickal You

Published on by WitchybyAineLeave a comment
By Jessie Eastland – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81142233

Why is the moon so majickal? I think the primary reason is that we see it grow and ebb in the sky above us. While we can track the movement of the sun from rising to setting, its changes are more subtle. If you’re very observant, you’ll notice that the place it rises and sets shifts over the course of the year, and of course, the days shorten and lengthen. But the moon! She changes daily in position, rising, setting, fullness. Since humans looked up to the sky the moon has been a fascination to them.

According to Erin Dragonsong, the moon represents mystery and chaos, flow and evolution, birth and death, emotions and soul, and wisdom and majick. Until we explored her, we speculated about what the moon was made of. It was a mystery. Humans observed her changes in the sky, along with her apparent death and rebirth. If you listen closely to love songs, you’ll hear the moon referenced quite a bit more than the sun. A moon is romantic. We see partially. We see with our souls.

And then, there is majick, the kind of focus and intention setting we do according to the phase of the moon. There are many books and articles written on this topic. Our hope here is to provide an overview and help you get started.

First, then, we want to understand the kind of spell each phase of the moon calls for. The cycle begins at the New Moon, because this is a time to set goals, think about your dreams, and make plans for how to achieve them. It’s important to think about what you want rather than what you don’t want. Spells work very poorly when they’re cast as what you don’t want to happen. For example, if you’re going on a trip, you don’t want to write a spell that says, “I don’t want to get sick” or “I don’t want to get stranded somewhere.” You write a spell for good health and safe travel. Focus on the positive, not the negative.

The New Moon lasts about 3 nights, when the night sky is dark and no trace of her is to be found. During this time, be sure to write down your goals and how you expect to achieve them. Keeping records is a very good way to track what really happens instead of relying on memory. You may even want to draw or do a collage of your dream, so that you are seeing it as well as feeling it. You can also write a spell and cast it during a ritual. If you do write a spell, be sure it is specific, because what you get may not be what you intended if you are not precise. Use the New Moon to focus on what you want to achieve.

The Waxing Crescent moon follows the New Moon. If you are casting new spells, focus on positive outcomes such as friendship, health, love, or success. While focusing on your New Moon goals, remember that things are growing. Things are moving. You are moving toward your goals.

A good way to practice your majick during this time is to read your goals and plans aloud to focus them in your mind. Look at any visual representations you’ve made of them or visualize in your mind what achieving your goal would look like. Is this majick? It’s certainly one form. Other forms include using potions, charms, rituals, dancing, singing, and divination to work your will. If you’re a beginner, we suggest starting with visualization and writing of goals and plans, and continued focus on them throughout the moon cycle.

We come to the First Quarter, the half-moon. In some ways it’s the most mysterious of all, neither this nor that. The dark half tells us whether the moon is waxing or waning (dark left is waxing, dark right is waning), but at first glance it can be hard to tell. Its “neither here nor there” aspect may create doubt in you considering the things you’re working toward. It’s important to keep focused during the first quarter, to remain confident. Revisit your goals and visualization again. Say them aloud.

The Waxing Gibbous Moon promises us that the Full Moon isn’t far behind. New spells should still be focused on positive outcomes. And this is a good time to review goals and plans and adjust as you might need to. Don’t simply give up if something isn’t working exactly as planned. It’s too easy to sabotage your own success with doubt when you’re close to achieving it. The Gibbous Moon is swollen with potential. It’s a woman in her 8th month, yearning to give birth to something miraculous. You are swelling, expanding, and intensifying. Ride that increase to its conclusion.

And now the Full Moon arrives! For three days she shines upon you and your dreams. For the first of the three days, she is 99% full. The second day is 100% full, and the third is back to 99%. Although the third day could be considered a waning period, the moon is so full that we respond to her as in that phase.

This is a time to ask for almost anything. Divination, spells, and rituals are especially powerful now. It’s also a good time to charge your tools, potions, candles, etc. with the moon’s energy. Create moon water by leaving a full vessel under the moonlight. If your dreams, goals, and plans are going to manifest, you will get some hints about that around the time of the full moon. This is a good time to release negativity and any hurts that have accumulated. It will help you be clearer in setting your intentions at the New Moon. It’s also a time to express gratitude. In some moon circles, expressing gratitude is used to open or end the ritual. Writing it down makes it even stronger. Words are majickal. They create ideas that last.

Today, August 9, 2019, the moon is Waxing Gibbous phase. Use the mounting energy of the growing moon to cast spells that will increase your creativity, your intuition, your success, your courage, your love. The full moon will be here August 14-16. Be prepared to greet her and make majick in her light. Next Tuesday, we’ll talk about the energy of the waning moon and the majick that you can work during those phases. Until then, blessed be!

Shine On, Silver Moon

Published on by WitchybyAineLeave a comment
Photo by Alfredo J G A Borba – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58447865

Have you ever simply stared at the moon as she rose? The moon is magnificent when full and near the horizon. She looks larger. Often, her color is more pronounced. She commands our attention, and she gets it. When you find yourself in a place where there is little light contamination and the moon is full, you can walk easily without fearing you’ll make a misstep. You see shadows from the light it reflects from the sun. In the city, it is difficult to see how much light the moon provides for us, but step into a place where people aren’t lighting up the sky and you will be awed by the moon’s power.

One of the things we enjoy in our majickal life is the rhythm of the moon. Most pagans hold full moon rituals of some kind. Others hold new moon rituals, and still others do both. But what is so important about the moon that we would take the time to stop and do a ritual in her honor?

Since humans looked up into the sky, the movement of the moon has fascinated them. Like the sun, it gives light. As with the sun, its movement is regular and predictable. The moon takes about 27 ½ days to orbit around the earth, but the time between new moons (when the sky is dark) is about 29 days. While the sun projects light, making it a masculine force, the moon reflects light, making it a feminine force. Despite what you may have heard about the “man in the moon,” pagans know the moon as She. Some goddesses associated with the moon are Diana and Luna (Roman), Artemis, Hecate, and Selene (Greek), Cerridwen (Celtic), Chang’e (Chinese), Coyolxauhqui (Aztec), Hekate/Hecate (Greek), and Sina (Polynesian).

The moon affects us in many ways. She exerts a tug on us. Many people find it difficult to sleep when there is a full moon, even with blackout curtains. For others, the dark or new moon exerts a pull on their senses. But the regularity of her appearance, and her relationship to our bodies, particularly women’s bodies, makes her an important part of our lives.

Many things are calculated by the moon. Easter, for example, is celebrated on the Sunday that occurs on or after the first full moon after Spring Equinox. Its date moves because the moon cycles don’t directly correspond to the way we have split up the months. Planting and harvesting are often completed according to the cycles of the moon, and many societies before the current era counted time in terms of lunar, not solar cycles.

Did you know that each moon has a name? A blue moon, for example, is one that is the second full moon in a month, and a black moon references the rare occurrence when February has no full moon at all. Other moons are named according to the month in which they occur, and the type of moon affects the kind of ritual pagans choose to do. Moons that occur in the spring are our favorites: April’s Pink Moon, May’s Flower Moon, and June’s Strawberry moon.

Different phases mark the changing of the moon. This image at NASA demonstrates how the moon goes to full and back to dark. It’s interesting that while many languages read from left to right, the moon goes from dark to full by filling in from right to left. Perhaps that’s another thing that makes the moon so fascinating for us.

Pagans group the phases together as Dark Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter (when there’s a half-moon showing), Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter (another half-moon on the opposite side), and Waning Crescent. At Awen’s Cauldron, we do our majick based on the phase of the moon. We find the power of the full moon to be best in charging the bath salts, tea, and other items included in our ritual boxes.

On this day, Tuesday, August 6, 2019, the moon is in her Waxing Crescent phase, growing toward full. This is a good time to do majick that calls on something to increase. If you want to lose weight, for example, you’d cast a spell to increase your willpower. But if you want to decrease your appetite, the Waning Moon would be better as spells cast during a waning moon are better centered on pushing things away. The New Moon is a good time to set intentions for yourself, while the Full Moon is a time to see how those intentions have borne fruit. Although some pagans avoid majickal workings at the Dark Moon, it can be a powerful time. Some say that the Dark Moon is when She is showing her true face to us, without reflecting another’s light, so it is a good time for introspection and reflection, focusing on one’s own needs and thinking ahead.

There’s no one way to celebrate the phases of the moon. But if you want to start living a majickal life, the simplest way to do it is to mark the phases of the moon. Get a calendar that shows when each phase is. When the moon is visible, take some time to step outside and be with her. You will feel the majick in the air, beckoning you to join. Look upon her and be at peace.