Witchy Wednesday – Moon Phases

This one is probably going to be a little late.  I was all kinds of on top of this project and then the flu ran rampant through my house like a horde of berserking buffalo.  We are just now starting to crawl out from under the rubble.

This topic has been on my mind a lot lately.  In the past, my relationship with the moon has been one of awe and reverence.  I always make a point of looking up in a clear sky to see if I can catch a glimpse of her.  A piece of advice I remember from when I was first starting out was, “If you want to learn the phases of the moon, look up.”

For me it has become a key*, a way to pull my awareness back to the spiritual — back to the present.  One of my favourite things is a huge, heavy full moon hanging low in the sky.  It adds such a wonderful feeling of magic to the everyday.

I have been trying to share this with my daughter.  Whenever we are outside together and the moon is visible, I point it out to her.  She gets all giggly and excited.  When in the car, she talks about how the moon is following us home.  I love listening to her preschooler logic about how the world works.

Lately, I have been putting more of my energy into getting back into practical workings, and I am finding myself taking notice of the moon and her phases more.  While I am a big believer in doing a working or a spell when the need arises, and making the circumstances work for you, it is still vitally important to me to be paying attention to where the moon is in her travels.  You can’t adjust the parameters if you don’t know what energy you are tapping into.  Often times, you can get all the info you need simply by looking out the window, but other times you need more specific information — such as when the moon moves between signs and when she is void of course.

Back in the day, almanacs were a great source of such information, but these days, it is as easy as opening an app on your phone.  I use iLuna and an app called simply Phases of the Moon — both available from Google Play (I am sure that iPhone users have much fancier apps at their disposal, but I am on Android, so I use what I can get).

I don’t “celebrate” esbats regularly.  I put celebrate in quotes because they aren’t really holidays, more a time for working magic and divination.  Back when I had the luxury of time for such things, I was fairly lazy about regular practise.  Now that I have some time again, I am finding myself eager to add something new to my routine.

With the spring and summer on their way, I would like to make full moon esbats a special time for my little burgeoning witchling.  At her age, I think that just some “girl time” will make them special.  Maybe start with hot chocolate under the full moon.  And maybe as it gets warmer, a big candle — probably of citronella.

Our Ostara celebrations this year will coincide with the March full moon.  Weather permitting, we can spend some time as a family outside under the moon and stars, drinking in the beauty of spring.

Next week, we talk about the sun.  I’ll have to spend some time thinking on that one.  Until then, folks!

 

*this term is one I picked up from Thorn Coyle in her work Evolutionary Witchcraft.

Header image © Andrea Crossett 2016

Thundering Gales: The Storm Moon

The February full moon is known as the Storm Moon.  In my random, pre-article web poking, I discovered that Storm Moon is not the most popular name for this Esbat.  The most common name appears to be the Quickening  Moon.

This name is associated with the season of Imbolc and the quickenings of new life – in animals and in the earth Herself.  The first signs of spring are starting to appear, and we use this moon to work our fertility or growing magics.

The other more popular name is Snow Moon.  This is likely due to the fact that in much of North America, more snow tends to fall in February than in any other winter month.

Deep Winter: The Wolf Moon

January’s full moon is commonly known as the Wolf Moon.  This name has been attributed to Native American tribes, but it would appear that this attribution is somewhat of an urban legend.  According to Wikipedia, the Algonquin name for the January moon translates to:

“sun has not strength to thaw”

While there is only speculation as to where the term Wolf Moon came from, it is believed in some circles that the wolf represents the ‘night’ of the year.¹  Other names for the January full moon include Old Moon, Snow Moon, Alder Moon and Cold Moon.

Moon Magic and the Lunar Year: Esbats

THE MOON

From our earliest childhood we are mesmerized by the silvery beauty of the moon.  As large in the night sky as the sun is in the day, the moon has provided inspiration to artists, musicians and magic workers for thousands of years.

I remember the first time I pointed out the full moon to my little one.  She sat staring up at it through our frost covered window for a good ten minutes, chanting “Moon! Moon!” over and over.  Eventually she fell into silence, but would not let me close the curtain.  She wanted to watch the moon.

Now she is in love with the shapes of the moon and stars.  She is always the first to spot a crescent moon anywhere and on anything (including the cat’s claws).  She has a toy that projects stars on to the ceiling in the dark, and won’t go to sleep until she has picked out the moon amongst them.

Witchy Wednesday: Current Moon Phase

The waning crescent.  The waning moon is a time of banishing, endings and release.  It rises in the east only a few hours before dawn, and sets before sunset.  This leaves the nights of the waning moon dark and mysterious.

The waning or old moon represents the Goddess in her crone aspect, or deities who tend to wear the guise of a crone – think Cerridwen, the Morrighan or Hecate.

This is the perfect time to work magic related to contraction or endings – break bad habits, release negativity, end destructive relationships or reverse any spell work that is no longer needed.

Inner journeying or shadow work will also be particularly powerful during the waning moon.  Turn your focus inward and meditate on issues of self-development.  This will help to set the groundwork for the energies of the new moon.

The waning crescent lasts roughly 7 days between the 3rd quarter and new moon.  The easiest way to tell if the moon is waning is to go out and look at it.  If you can cup it in your left hand, the moon is waning.  If you can cup it in your right, it’s waxing.

The moon phases for 2013 can be found on the Lunar Calendar 2013 at lunaf.com.

Moon displaying a 17% waning phase (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

44 Weeks of Witchery: Part II

We’ve made it through the first 11 weeks, yay!  This little blog project is brought to you by Mom’s a Witch.  Be sure to pop over and have a look at her answers to these questions and more.

If you want to play along, I say go for it!  Just make sure that you drop a link here so that I can see your answers too!

Now, we move on to the second part, questions 12 – 22.  Behold: