Building and nourishing a relationship with the Moon

Image: Collaged Moon journals.

There are many different ways to build relationships with non-human beings, such as the Moon. As always, what I share here on Moonlight Floreciendo: A Path Illuminated Patreon is based on my personal experiences and what I practice. My intention with sharing these practices is to offer tools for your personal spiritual development and path.

In this post, I share two different practices for how I build and nourish my relationship with the Moon.

The first practice is to journal and write down intentions for the New Moon and the Full Moon. For me, this includes looking at how the astrology of the Moon phase interacts with my natal / birth chart as well as divination with tarot and oracle decks.

The second practice is observing the Moon during the day and night sky as she transitions through her phases. Each of her phases carries different energies that we can work with to ask for support, blessings, good health, emotional support, and to decrease things that we do not want in our lives.

First and foremost, when working with non-human beings it’s important that we come from a place of reciprocity and relationship. This is not about extraction and taking, which is when we come at them thinking, “What can they do for me? What can I get out of this? How can they improve my life?”

A helpful place to start in building and nourishing a relationship is by sharing your name and your intentions. Give offerings and ask how you can honor them for what you request. Talk to them when you see them or think about them. You can create an altar, permanent or temporary. Creating collages, drawings, paintings, songs, are some examples of how you can honor the being you’re in relationship with.

From what I share here, you can receive what resonates and leave whatever does not.

Journaling on the New Moon and Full Moon

Over the last three years, I’ve developed specific rituals for how I work with the Moon during these two phases.

I start with a plain journal and collage it with certain themes, symbols, images, experiences that I’m calling into my life. (See the photos posted for the image of some of my Moon Journals). I will usually write my intentions the day before the New or Full Moon. Sometimes the day of, or the day after.

In the photos I shared there is one that shows what my practice looks like so that you have a visual to go along with what I’m writing here.

To begin, I lay out a cloth and place on it my smoke medicine, a candle, maybe some stones, my tarot and oracle decks, and a print out of my birth chart. Then, I have my journal that I take notes in while I listen to podcasts about the New or Dark Moon. Astrology podcasts that I’ll include in this practice at times are from Tirra Omilade, Jeff Hinshaw, Astro Viktor, and Aepril’s Arcana, and this list may wax and wain.

Some of the things I’m looking at when I’m studying how the New and Full Moon are relating to my birth chart:

• Is the Moon aspecting any planets, points, or asteroids?

• Do other planets, points, or asteroids have strong energies during the Moon phase?

• What house is the New or Full Moon taking place in?

• What is my intuition feeling/sensing when looking at the New and Full Moon chart?

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After listening to the astrology forecasts, I write my intention and pull a Tarot card and an Oracle card for any guidance or messages around my intention. For the next two weeks, I pay attention to and write about how the energies of the Moon, my intention, and the Tarot and Oracle cards show up in my life; through dreams or in my waking reality.

At the time of this writing, I have 5 Moon Journals from the last 3 years that I can now look back through and see patterns, themes, cycles, and more. It has been a beautiful way to nourish my relationship with the Moon, and receive guidance and support from her.

Observing and working with Energies of the Moon’s Phases

Going outside during the day and night sky is a beautiful way to become familiar with the movement of the Moon and with her phases. Observation of the Moon connects us on a deeper level with her energies because we’re building our awareness of her location and her movement through the cosmos.

Each phase carries a different energy. Below is a brief overview of the lunar phases, their energetics, and how you can work with them.

I want to give thanks to Rae Diamond, Marilu Shinn, Demetra George and Gemini Brett. These are four people who have helped me to learn about the Moon and working with her phases.

Dark Moon

This phase is when the Sun is conjunct the Moon so the Moon is completely dark. This is a time of going inward, a time for reflection. This is unification of heart and spirit, a time of death and renewal. A good time for planting seeds (literal and metaphorical) and engaging in rituals for what you want to create or bring into your life.

New Moon & Waxing Crescent

The New Moon is the first crescent that appears after the Dark Moon. This phase includes the New Moon to right before the First Quarter Moon. This is a time of new beginnings, a fresh start, and new growth. A good time for nourishing your body and emotions with foods, baths and steams, and herbal medicines. This phase supports developing ideas and projects, gathering what you’ll need to make something happen.

Waxing Gibbous

This phase includes the First Quarter Moon to right before the Full Moon. At this phase, the Moon is no longer a crescent. It is a time of growing potential, excitement, and momentum. During this phase we’re tending and nourishing seeds (literal and metaphorical) that were planted in the Dark Moon and Waxing Crescent phases. It is a time of making choices, decisions, and commitments that are informed by what we gathered throughout the cycle so far.

Full Moon

This Full Moon is when the Moon is in opposition to the Sun and therefore, the Moon is fully illuminated. This is a time of culmination, realizing potentials, peak experiences, fruiting and flowering, the abundance of harvest. This is not yet a time of release, but of celebration, recognition, and honoring what is.

Waning Gibbous

This phase is right after the Full Moon to the Third Quarter Moon. It is a time of flow, riding the momentum out from the growing Moon. This phase supports being in service to what you’ve created, it’s not an ideal time to add more or make new plans. The energies are decreasing and can support with releasing or transmuting what no longer serves you.

Waning Crescent & Balsamic Moon

This phase is right after the Third Quarter Moon to the Balsamic Moon. The waning crescent is tying up loose ends, a harvesting energy, and a time of cleansing and release. The Balsamic Moon is the 24 hours before the Dark Moon, also known as the Witch phase. It is represented by the sickle and is a time to harvest all that you’ve learned from the previous phases to go into the next phases. During the Balsamic phase, your intuition may be heightened and it may be easier to connect and receive messages from the unseen realms.

The ideas are limitless for how you can work with the Moon’s phases.

Here are some examples:

• Making herbal medicines

• Limpias/energetic cleansing of your body or a physical space

• Physical cleansing of a space

• Parasite cleanse (I’ve loved Daniella Morales’ Parasite Cleanse Club!)

• Creative expression

• Cooking ancestral foods

• Leaving offerings out for the Moon

• Giving offerings to water (ocean, river, creeks, any body of water)

• Commit to a new practice

• Release a habit that no longer serves you

• Fixed Star, Planet, Asteroid veneration 

  
  

May your relationship with the Moon be reciprocal, nourishing, and lovely!