When my kids were little, I came across a sweet little book called The Birthday Moon by Lois Duncan. It is the story of all the wonderful things you could do if you received the moon as a gift. “On your very next birthday, I’ll give you a moon, on the end of a string like a golden balloon.” As the moon changes shape, so do the possibilities. “I will give you a half-moon with spiderweb strings you can pluck like a harp when the nightingale sings,” Duncan writes. “Then your friends will all beg you to play them some tunes, for there’s simply no music as sweet as the moon’s.” And so it goes.
Year after year, I would sit outside on the night of each son’s birthday and gaze up with them at the sky as we read the book together. On the very last page, Duncan asks: “Was there ever a present as fine as a moon?” When I discovered the divine feminine path that is the subject of this blog, I came to realize that indeed the moon is the very best gift imaginable for so many reasons.
If you’re like me, you probably did not grow up with an awareness of the moon cycles. Sure, you may have noticed when the moon was full or especially bright in the sky. But you most likely did not plan your life in conscious awareness of its phases. Yet for women, this can actually be one of the most powerful practices to integrate into our lives.
To understand just how deep our connection to the moon is, consider how our body’s cycles mirror those of the moon. Each new moon marks the beginning of a 29.5-day cycle that replicates our own cycles of ovulation, fertilization (or not), and the release that occurs in menstruation. In this way, each new moon represents a fresh start.
There is another way that our feminine essence mirrors the moon. In contrast to the sun, which is fundamentally constant in its shape, intensity and cycles, the moon is ever changing. It appears to change shape every day and moves quickly across the sky. Sometimes she rises at night; other times during the day. And yet her cycles repeat month in and month out.
So too goes feminine energy. We have regular cycles, but our emotions tend to wax and wane. Like the moon, we cover the full spectrum, from darkness to light. The feminine is also exceptionally good at multitasking seamlessly, moving from one thing to another just as the moon zips across the sky.
To understand why we set intentions at the new moon, it helps to understand the intricate geometry of the planets. When the moon is new, we are seeing her dark side. That is because she is positioned precisely between the earth and the sun, and the part of her that faces us is not illuminated. At that point, she is so close to the sun that she comes up at sunrise and sets just after sunset. Since the night sky looks empty at the new moon, we have a wide-open canvas for creation.
This coming together of the sun and moon also symbolizes a joining of masculine and feminine energies, providing another powerful sign of the creative potential of the new moon. Just as a man and woman can make a baby when they join together, so too can we use the moon’s perfect alignment with the sun to co-create our desires. It’s also a great time to launch a new project or to get a fresh start in any area of your life.
As the moon continues its orbit around the earth, we begin to see her illumination by the sun increase, and she grows bigger in our eyes or waxes. We can use that time to visualize our desires being fulfilled. The moon then reaches her peak brightness two weeks later when she is opposite sun as viewed from earth, fully illuminating her in our eyes. With her brightness lighting up the sky, we can metaphorically see more clearly and know what we need to release from our lives. The full moon then begins to wane as she continues her movement around the earth, eventually reaching her dark phase when she once again conjuncts the sun.
Of course, new moon rituals are not just practiced by women. Many ancient cultures incorporated the moon into their rituals, believing that the moon affected everything from their crops to their animals to human life itself. We know the moon is powerful enough to influence the rise and fall of the tides, but traditionally it has also been thought to have a magnetic effect on all living things.
Since discovering this metaphysical creative energy many years ago, I have been setting new moon intentions each month. If you’re a follower of the law of attraction, you know we are always creating our own reality, whether consciously or unconsciously. Moon rituals allow us to do it intentionally.
But even if someone does not believe in law of attraction’s principles, setting intentions can bring tangible benefits. It allows us to reflect on our desires and note how our benevolent universe fulfills them in perfect timing. In fact, I recommend writing your intentions using red ink so that once they manifest you can remember that they were once unfulfilled desires.
For my monthly ritual, I write 10 new moon intentions as if they were already done. So I begin by writing the words “thank you, thank you, thank you for” and then write out my desires for career, love, family, money and more. It looks a lot like a gratitude list ,and in fact, that is why it is important to write your intentions with red ink. When you look back at the list, you may not realize that at one time it was just wishful thinking.
As you consider your own desires for the new moon cycle, remember that it takes about 29.5 days for her to journey around our earth, so this ritual is best for shorter-term intentions. The word moon and month both have the same etymological history, and that is about the right time span for new moon rituals. You can use seasonal rituals to set longer-term intentions (more on that in the next blog).
Despite the short-term nature of your new moon desires, you’ll sometimes find that they can take longer than a month to come to fruition. As you will discover again and again, it’s important not to take score too soon. Instead allow the universe to arrange all the cooperative components for you. Usually in retrospect, you can understand why it took longer than you expected for a particular desire to come to you.
There are also some instances where you will not receive the desire of your heart because it’s not in your highest good or the good of the others in your sphere of influence. That’s why it’s important to add the following sentence at the end of all your intentions, whether they are for the day, the month or the season: “This or something even better beyond my wildest dreams.”
That statement is like an insurance policy and lottery ticket rolled into one. If what you are asking for is not in your highest good, you and those you love are protected. In contrast, if you’re playing small, you allow the universe to wow you.
Audrey, one of the goddesses in my Sacred Circle, learned this first-hand when she set intentions each month for the relationship she very much desired with the successful lawyer she was dating at the time. In fact, her longing was so strong that they eventually got engaged.
The problem was that he was a narcissist and everyone around her could see it, even if she could not. More importantly, the universe could see it. He was manipulative, selfish, and self-centered. But at first, she was too blinded by love to notice. Eventually things got so bad that she broke it off with him, and that’s when the universe came rushing in with the “something even better.”
Less than two months after breaking off the engagement, she met a man who just was the opposite of the attorney – kind, generous and completely in love with her. Today they are happily married, and their magical love story could fill an entire book. We can see examples time and time again in our lives where we desire something that we later realize was not good for us. Rejection is protection and ultimately redirection.
So, take time to write your new moon desires each month as if your wishes were already fulfilled. But add the magical phrase at the end that will allow the universe to wow you with outcomes that are beyond all you could ask or imagine.
What intentions are you setting at this month’s new moon? Share them in the comments below so we can co-create them together.
Sacred Circle Retreats 