Moon Magick

Use this ritual to bring specific lunar energies into your life. It should be carried out on the evening of
the full moon or as close as you can.
I choose Cantios, my favourite full moon of the year, when calling for help to finish things I have left
undone, but you can use the same method and much of the ritual for any of the full moons. You can
also use this ritual without focusing on a specific full moon, for bringing plans to fruition or for an
extra surge of energy when you need it to overcome an obstacle or seize an opportunity.
* Light a row of three silver candles, two of the same size for the waxing and waning phases and one
much larger in the centre for the full moon.
* Light three sticks of jasmine or mimosa incense.
* Take a branch from a willow or any other tree or plant that grows near water, and on it hang three
silver baubles; one should be very large. If you have no baubles, make discs from silver foil. Silver is
the colour and metal of the Moon. Add nine tiny, silver-coloured bells, hung with thread.
* If the full moon is visible, use a hand mirror, silver if possible, to direct its light toward the tree or
plant, saying:
Isis, mother of the Moon, your power this night bring to me soon. Your silver radiance on me shine,
your fertile light now strengthen mine. Full moon, full glory, fill my heart, your loving wisdom to me
impart. Mother Isis, your child I call, uplift and guide me lest I fall.
(You can, instead of Isis, choose your own Moon goddess if you prefer or just invoke the Moon
mother.)
* Now with silver thread or ribbons, bind the tree and the baubles with nine loose knots, saying:
I bind your tree with tasks undone, Maiden, Mother, not yet Crone. I bind your strength my race not
won, I take the power and it is done.
* Moon Magick
* Pull all your knots undone, one after the other, and shake the tree
* so the bells ring and the energy is released.
* Leave the candles to burn down in a safe place.
Leave the branch or plant still hung with silver baubles and bells throughout the week of the full moon
and use the week to focus on your specific Moon theme. Sit, if you can, for a few minutes each night
by silver candlelight and see yourself surrounded by an orb of silver light. Maximise the possibilities
in your everyday world.
You can adapt the words to suit the different months and, if you wish, rest an appropriate symbol in
the branch, tied on with silver ribbon, for example, a toy horse during the month Equos, for travel and
the expansion of horizons, mental as well as physical.

As well as the months, the phases of the Moon offer scope for different kinds of magick during the individual monthly moon cycles. However, problems in interpretation of these energies can arise because astronomy and astrology are no longer regarded as the same thing. For example, to our ancestors, the astrological Dark of the Moon was the same as the astronomical dark – the first two and a half days of the cycle when the Moon is not visible at any hour of the day or night.

To this were added the preceding three days of the old moon, when it did not rise until the early hours of the morning. So when books of magick speak of the new moon, they may mean the time when the crescent first appears in the sky. But if you prefer, you can, as some modern practitioners do, count the Dark of the Moon only as those three last waning days and start new moon magick from the literal
calendar day. It’s a bit like deciding exactly when a chicken comes to life: you don’t actually see it until the chicken pops out of the egg but you know it’s alive even when it’s invisible, inside the shell.

The cycle from new moon to new moon lasts 29.5 days but because the Moon has an irregular orbit, the time of its rising and setting will vary each day. For this reason, phases can vary in length by a day or so each month. The best way to understand the Moon is as our ancestors did, by studying in the sky. Use an almanac or a diary that contains Moon phases or consult your daily paper to identify the phases to start you off on the right day. The weather section of your paper also gives you precise timings and there is usually a chart so you can adjust for time zones and summer time differences.

Each day, look to see whether the Moon is in the sky or, if it is cloudy, calculate where it ought to be. On clear nights you will see how it rises diagonally. You can use a tree in your garden or the roof of a house or even a tall fence to note the position at a specific time of the night and month. Each month it will be slightly different, because of that irregular orbit. Don’t be fooled in the waning phase – in the later part, you may see in the early morning yesterday’s Moon that has not yet set.

Children love keeping a ‘Moon watch’, and you may like to buy a sky globe or map or lunar software for your computer so that you can all track its progress.

Most importantly, note what effect the Moon has on your emotions. Does it make you feel like lighting a candle, making love, dancing in the garden, cleaning out a cupboard, having an argument – or doing absolutely nothing? If you monitor these feelings for three or four months or so, you will find your own Moon pattern emerging. Soon you will be able to understand why you feel the way you do .Most importantly, you will be able to maximise your best moon times for action. Make full moon water by catching the full moonlight in a silver-coloured bowl; drink it or add it to your bath.

In addition, if you want to understand the mechanics as opposed to the workings of the Moon, read a book on astronomy rather than astrology to learn about orbits and the eight phases.

You might also, even if you do not read horoscopes, keep an eye for when the Moon enters your birth sign – this happens for about two and a half days each month – and monitor the effects over a period of several months. Does it make you more jittery, less cautious (which may or may not be a good thing), more intuitive, more family-orientated, reverting to out-moded patterns of reaction? Again, you can maximise positive effects if you are aware of them, like anticipating a wave and riding it, rather than being submerged by the surge of power.

There are eight astronomical phases of the Moon, but magick generally focuses on three that are considered to be particularly significant.

The waxing moon: As the Moon is increasing in size, it is said to be waxing. The light increases, appearing to spread from right to left, and this phase lasts right until the moment that the Moon becomes completely visible – the full moon. The waxing phase is the time for magick for increase or to attract good things. The more the Moon increases in size, the more powerful become its energies to attract abundance.

The full moon: The full moon phase, when the whole of the Moon is visible, is the time for the most potent magick, but it lasts for only 24 hours – although, as I have said, most practitioners allow a day on either side.

The waning moon: From the second following the 24 hours of the full moon, the Moon is waning. The light decreases as the Moon shrinks from right to left and the energies too start to wane until the Moon is no longer visible at all. The wane is the time for banishing and for decreasing influences. The more it decreases, the more the potency decreases, so the pull that keeps any destructive influences in you is also decreasing. You can, however, use the waning moon like an emptying bath and wash away all the bad things into the cosmos or the earth as the energies swirl away, to be restored and reformed into positivity.

This is the time for new beginnings and long-term goals and you can repeat the same spell during each waxing moon period for projects that will take months or even a year or more to bring to fruition. The closer to the full moon, the more intense the energies will be, and a spell lasting over three days, up to and including the full moon, is excellent for an urgent project or one with a necessarily short time
scale.

The waxing moon is good for spells to improve health, the gradual increase of prosperity, for attracting good luck, for fertility magick, for finding friendship, new love and romance, for job hunting, for making plans for the future and increasing psychic awareness.
The Virgin Goddesses ruled the waxing moon.

A Waxing Moon Fertility Spell

This ritual should be carried out when the crescent moon is visible in the sky and if you live near the sea, you may be able to coincide your lovemaking with the high tide (a secluded beach is brilliant if the weather is good, although I have known people do this hundreds of miles from the sea). But if the tide is out of sync, then you still have lunar energies aplenty. You could even plan an overnight stay in a hotel with a room overlooking the shore so you can hear the sound of the waves.

* Take an egg and carefully with a needle make a hole in it to drain out all the fluid. You can cook this and eat it or feed this to an animal to avoid waste. If you do not want to use a real egg, you can buy painted wooden or even agate ones in two halves that slot together.

* Cut your shell in half and in one half place either a moonstone or a tiny crystal egg.

* Place both halves open on your window ledge.

* Make love when you wish.

* On the night the full moon is in the sky, take a tiny paper knife and gently prick the crystal still inside the shell saying:

God to Goddess, thee to me, grant increase, if ’tis right to be.

* Make love in the full moonlight if it is shining or at any time that night even if it is not, so that you can see the egg on the window ledge or if you are outdoors on a nearby rock.

* As you reach orgasm, repeat, silently if your partner is nervous of magick: God to Goddess, thee to me, grant increase, if ’tis right to be.

* Leave your egg in the moonlight.

* The next morning, place the two halves together and wrap the egg with the crystal inside, together with the knife, in a white silk scarf in a drawer in your bedroom.

* Repeat, using a fresh eggshell each month. You may find your menstrual cycle moves slowly to synchronise with the Moon. If possible, make love when you wish, rather than by the chart, for a month or so.

Like the Moon, you and everything around you – children, pets, plants and, of course, crystals – will become more dynamic and charged as the Moon increases. This is especially noticeable with moonstones and topaz. Then, as the Moon wanes, everything loses energy and enthusiasm. It’s the spirit and body’s way of telling you to slow down and regenerate. I am convinced that a great deal of the stress, premenstrual tension and irritability that we all suffer is because we are running counter to those energies. Of course, you can’t ring into work and say that you are not coming in because the Moon is seriously waning, but you can cut down on non-essential tasks.

Glyph
Symbols Crescent, cup, silver sickle
Deities Hecate, Selene, Diana, Thoth
Archangel Gabriel
Day Monday
Colors Silver, white,
Number Two
Metal Silver

Stones Moonstone, pearl, chalcedony, mother of
pearl
Incense Jasmine, lotus, ylang-ylang
Plants Lily, hyacinth, iris, narcissus
Trees Willow, hawthorn
Animals Crab, owl, vulture, horse

There are more myths and legends about the moon than any other planetary body.

The moon just seems to ignite the imagination and quicken the mystical senses.

Lighting the night sky, the moon allows us to see past reality and into the shadows of night.

The moon is receptive, reflects the light of the sun, and governs our physical and emotional responses.

Lunar magick works best when it is used to learn control over emotions, create passion, assist with glamour-magick, and increase intuition and psychic abilities.

Monday, the day of the Moon, is for spells concerning the home, family matters, and the influence of the family, especially the mother, children, and animals.

Its prime focus is fertility and all the ebbs and flows of the human body, mind, and psyche.

It is also potent for protection, especially while traveling, for psychic development, clairvoyance, secrets and meaningful dreams, all sea and garden rituals and for herb magick and healing.

Although there are Moon Gods, lunar energies are primarily yin, female, and anima in both men and women.

Moon hour spells are good for bringing unconscious powers to the fore and thus also for gaining magical insights and for bringing wishes into actuality.

Element:

Water

Colour:

Silver or white, however, please note, some magical traditions that use the Triple Goddess in ritual dress show the Maiden in white, the Mother in red, and the Crone in black.

Crystals:

Moonstone, mother of pearl, pearl, selenite, opal Incenses: Jasmine, myrrh, mimosa

Trees:

Willow, alder

Herbs and oils:

Chamomile, lotus, poppy, wintergreen

Metal:

Silver

The Moon rules Cancer, 22 June-22 July, and its spells are particularly potent during that period and for all who are born under Cancer.

The ways of magic are aligned with the Full Moon.

The archetypes of both Goddess and God resonate with a liberating consciousness and the Ritual of Esbat (the rite of the Full Moon) releases the vision of balance into the astral and thence into the collective mind of our species.