Understanding the Moon
The moon plays an important role for life on earth- her push and pull control the tides of the sea, and her illuminating light brightens the night sky. But in a spiritual sense, the moon is more than just a beautiful part of our natural world. The moon plays an equally important role in our spiritual lives, pushing and pulling at our emotions, illuminating the mystical side of ourselves, and stirring our spirituality. Different phases of the moon offer different spiritual opportunities for us, and understanding these opportunities and the place of the moon in our spiritual practice is important to harnessing the energy the it offers.
The moon cycle begins with the new moon, which is dark and invisible in the sky. The darkness of the new moon presents new opportunities for us, allowing us to see the dimmer stars we may not have seen before when she was the center of our night sky attention. The energy here is that of newness and rebirth, offering us a time to set our new intentions for the coming moon cycle, intentions that will grow as the moon waxes and come to culmination in the full moon. Setting new intentions and starting new projects are wonderful activities to take up during the new moon, and are a great way to take advantage of what the new cycle brings us.
The moon cycle continues with the waxing moon, including the waxing crescent, the first quarter, and the waxing gibbous. During this time the intentions and projects we set during the new moon grow and begin to illuminate just like the growing moon. During this time, you should focus on your desires, work on bringing wanted things into your life, make a prosperity grid with your crystals or focus on developing your intuition or other psychic gifts.
The moon cycle peaks with the full moon, and during the full moon, the intentions we set come into culmination. This is a time to cleanse ourselves in the powerful energies of the full moon and be grateful for all that we accomplished in the days preceding her arrival. Use the energy of the full moon to help you to tap into psychic gifts and develop your intuition, cleanse your alter, crystals, and other sacred tools, and to restore energy and healing to yourself. This is also a time to set intentions for things you would like to expel from your life, such as negative habits or energies.
The moon cycle winds down with the waning moon, including the waning gibbous, the last quarter, and the waning crescent. During this time the intentions of releasing negative energies from you life (which you set at the full moon) come into focus. Just as the moon shrinks down into darkness, so too do the negative aspects of your life, the unwanted and unneeded things slowly shrink and are released. This is a good time to clear unwanted items from your home, to meditate on removing negativity and negative influences from your life, and to cleanse the energies of your home using methods like smudging with burning sage.
After this, the moon cycle begins anew, returning to the new moon, giving us a chance once again to start over in our intentions and ritual. Harnessing the energy of the moon as an important part of our spiritual ritual brings balance to the work we do, and helps us to tap into the energy found in the nature around us and in the heavens above us.
Blessings.
