So for the New Moon in Pisces on February 23rd, 2020, I didn’t do a full blown ritual of any sort.

Instead… I did a few little separate things that I mostly just saved for this particular day because of the timing.

I worked on my planner layout and configured a few new tweaks to help me be more excited about things.

I’ve been working with my new tarot deck, so I gathered up a little arsenal of ideas and tips to help me connect with the cards better – I also just spent some time shuffling and imbuing the cards with my personal energy.

The Hubby and I had some fun in the bedroom and really connected on an emotional level as well.

And today I have a therapy session. Fun!

I can’t say I did an actual ritual this month for the full moon, but I did do a few things over the weekend that were related…

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I finally set up my altar, yay!!

I then carved the triple goddess moon symbols into the three candles on the altar.

I was finally able to release some mental control, maybe it’ll stay that way this time.

 

I’ve been holding true to my intentions about journaling

 

My Imbolc ritual was actually pretty fun!!

I didn’t do everything exactly how I originally planned it out, but I think it worked quite well regardless 🙂 I did somehow manage to have both my tablet and phone dying at the same time and the the internet wouldn’t cooperate so my music choices were limited. Lol! Anyways… what did I do?

 

I started with SELF CLEANSE and took a bath with tea light candles, sage incense, and Himalayan bath salts. While in the bath, I did a guided meditation for grounding myself.

Then, with all my tools and items laid out, I CLEANSED THE RITUAL SPACE with my sage bundle. It took me a hot minute to figure out coordinates and get enough lighting in the room, but I got my circle laid out and then called on the spirits of the elements, on Mother Earth, and the energy of the sky to come and aid me in my ritual. I felt very awkward with my words at this point and that was only the beginning. Haha.

I started my workings by cleansing all the items I had brought into the circle with me – things for my altar, new items, etc.

I then blessed and consecrated with specific intentions the items I had brought specifically to create my altar – three red candles representing the Triple Goddess, a teacup filled with rose quartz crystals to represent my search for self love, my new incense holder to represent my current commitment to mindfulness, and the tea set that I am now using for all my rituals.

I charged the diffuser necklace I’ve been wearing with positive energy and willed it to protect me from negativity.

Then, I drank my chamomile tea and pondered/meditated for a little while, thinking about this time of year, the blessings that Brigid brings, and what I wanted my intentions to be for the month of February.

These are the intentions I wrote down for February…

For the month of February… once per day, I will pause to acknowledge and pray at my altar. I am committed to my mindfulness work and the mind-body connection I am working to achieve.

Then I drew a three card tarot spread to guide me for the month. I drew the Three of Wands, reversed, the Knight of Swords, and the Six of Pentacles, Reversed. My notes were as follows…

Three of Wands, Reversed – There are obstacles in my path that will frustrate and delay me.

Knight of Swords – I will move forward, fueled by my vision and ideas, though I should still take heed.

Six of Pentacles, Reversed – If I am not careful of the obstacles, I may become selfish and self-centered. I will need to be mindful of my reasoning behind these intentions.

After I had meditated on those thoughts and those card’s meanings for a little while, I honored Brigid by reciting a prayer to her and then also acknowledged the Maiden form of the Goddess with an impromptu prayer.

Lastly, I changed the music, spent about ten minutes dancing in the nude, and then closed my circle and cleaned my space.

Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again. Blessed be.

So…. Imbolc is coming up. February 2nd, to be exact. And I’ve got a few ideas about what to do, which is what this journal thoughts post is all about! 🙂

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So… in coming up with a ritual/ceremony plan, I’ve done a bunch of research and brainstorming. Here is my tentative ritual plan.

Self Cleanse. Take a ritual bath with candles, sage incense, and chamomile/rosemary.

Meditate. Follow a meditation on YouTube or some other app.

House Cleanse. Smudge the entire house, particularly the doors and the windows.

Open Circle. Use the instructions in this link to open a circle in the office space. Say a prayer.

Working. Cleanse and bless each item with intentions – items for my altar, blessing bowl, and protective items. Put together the blessing bowl.

Protect. Charge the protective items using instructions in this link. Anoint the others.

Raise Power & Bless. Dance. Celebrate. Yay!

Meditate. Speak a prayer to Brighid and to the universe itself. Meditate in silence.

Close Circle. Close the circle using the same instructions as above.

Set in Place. Put on the necklace, set out the blessing bowl, etc.

Day-after journaling session about my Esbat ritual on the day of the Wolf Moon, January 10th, 2020.

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This full moon was all about releasing and cleansing, both physically and spiritually. At first, I wasn’t sure what I would need to release at this time, but after some meditation, I found that I was still having some major doubts. That I still have a little voice in the back of my head that says I’m making the wrong decisions and following the wrong path, despite how called I feel to this journey.

It was pouring rain outside so I didn’t end up getting to do an outdoors ritual like I wanted to, but it turned out anyways. My husband and I made love first, which is great for relaxing me and opening my mind up to new ideas – I may start talking him into that habit every time I do any sort of ritual!

I set up a spot on my table with sage incense, two candles, a glass of wine and my worksheets. I also had a prayer to copy out that I want to use as an example in future rituals.

This whole ritual was a bit slapdash, since I didn’t plan very well in advance (lesson I should have already learned, I know) but I did make sure I was focusing on opening my mind to whatever was coming my way.

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Goddess of the moon, queen of the night

Keeper of women’s mysteries, mistress of the tides

You who are ever changing and yet always constant

I ask that you guide me with your wisdom

Help me grow with your knowledge

And hold me in your arms

 

The moon is the symbol of the mother

And she watches over us day and night

She brings the changing tide, the shifting night

The flow that changes women’s bodies

And the passion of lovers to their beloved

her wisdom is great and all-knowing

And we honor her tonight

Keep your watchful eye upon us, great mother

until the cycle returns once more

And bring us to the next full moon

In your love and light

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Great Mother, it is tonight that I honor you with my thoughts, this night of the full moon. I have had my fair share of doubts and concerns about this path, but I am committed to this next year of exploration and full openness to whatever I am called for.

 

I just felt like rambling a bit today about how my new moon intentions have been playing out… so that’s what this is. 🙂

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For the Capricorn New Moon at the end of December, my intention was to do a bit of meditating as well as draw a tarot card in the mornings. I made this intention so that I could hopefully start my day with a bit more positivity, or at least some purpose.

I definitely haven’t been very consistent yet – mostly because Adaline has been waking up a million times a night and sleeping more in the mornings is a lot better than waking up early enough to actually do a little meditation. But I have been getting to it most days.

My usual little routine is to first check my moon app and record the phase and position of the moon. Then I check my rising horoscope and make a note in my journal about the parts I resonated with. After that is when I draw my single tarot card (using the Golden Thread app). I try to note down the main meanings of the card and then a sentence or two about how it relates to my current situation or what I think the universe is trying to tell me. After that I usually meditate on the card/horoscope combo and do some breathing exercises.

It’s been a good practice and I really want to make it a consistent habit. It’s been good so far though!

Ritual journaling from the New Moon in Capricorn on December 26, 2019

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For this new moon ritual, I finally got myself outdoors. Hubby laid out a tarp and a blanket for me to sit on. My original plan was to take a full ritual bath for the first cleansing portion of the night, but I scrapped that idea at the last minute.

I started by laying out a candle, my crystals, and the moon water that I charged during the last new moon. I turned on some music to set the mood and then used the moon water to cleanse myself and my tools before lighting the candle.

The first couple of minutes I just tried to breathe and focus on what intentions I wanted to set. And of course it was difficult to really focus. That is something to work on in the future. But once I got my mind settled down a little, I wanted to work out what sort of commitment I wanted to make to my spiritual practice.

Once I had a commitment of sorts figured out, I wrote it down, lit my incense stick and turned up the music so I could dance. That felt super awkward but also kind of freeing at the same time. More dance in my rituals is definitely going to be a thing.

The commitment I made, which I will likely build on during the next moon cycle is, as I wrote it down:

Until the next new moon, I commit to lighting a candle, drawing a tarot card, and meditating/journaling for 5 minutes every day (preferably morning).

 

The New Moon in Sagittarius on November 26, 2019.

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All of the major holidays – Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice, and Christmas – fall within this lunar cycle so it seemed like a natural choice to make intentions based around those special days.

I did not write down specific intentions, but I am attempting to manifest a sort of childlike wonder about this season and really focus on the little moments with family.

Since I had just received several new crystals, I wanted to cleanse and charge them. I cleansed my little set of rose quartz crystals and my larger clear quartz crystal with sage and then set them out under the new moon to charge. I also received several sticks of selenite and although I did cleanse them with sage as well, I decided to wait to charge them until the full moon comes around.

I’ve been wanting some moon water to use for some things around the house, so I went ahead and found a pretty glass jar, filled it up with water (after cleansing the jar with sage as well) and set that out under the new moon.

All in all, nothing too elaborate this time around, but still a nice little ritual to just reset myself a little bit before the holidays. Now I’m just waiting for my period to come back around. That will be fun.

Ritual journaling from the full moon on November 12th, 2019.

For this full moon ritual, I took a meditative bath. I turned out the lights and used tea light candles and incense to create my space. I also made sure the full moon was shining through the window into the bathroom I chose to use. After my meditation, I cleansed myself with the sage incense before closing up the ritual space.

While setting up this ritual, I did realize just how underprepared I was. It made me feel kind of haphazard going into the meditating, but that ended up being something good – just learning how to focus.

After I settled into the bath and started working on just clearing my mind, I started to have a bit of a panicky feeling. It was like that little voice in the back of my head saying that I shouldn’t be doing this. So I tried to focus on just enjoying the empty space and acknowledging the thoughts that came through my mind. I did make a conscious decision somewhere through the process that I would be more prepared next time. It’s easy to forget to prepare for a ritual, but if I don’t prepare in advance that just makes it so much harder for me to want to get into it when the time comes.

I think what I’ll need to do is get myself a routine going for the moon phases and keep all the same supplies in a basket or something like that. That way, it is easy for me to set up a ritual and the only prep work would be to gather up whatever items I wanted to charge or find a mantra or spell that I might want to do in place of a meditation.

Meditations in general are hard for me because it is difficult to clear my mind well enough. I have so much going on in my head all the dang time! Guided meditations do help and mantras are great as well.

So, as the moon wanes and the new moon gets closer, I intend to gather together my candles, incense, and whatever other things I want to be a constant in my rituals, and plan ahead a little bit more: choose my music, pick a mantra or spell, and decide which day/time I’m going to do my thing.