Lunar Mystique: Understanding the Full Moon and Spirituality
Cultures since the beginning of civilization have used the power of Luna to bring about change in the world. This is usually done using a ritual in which an operator will exalt the Moon, and then ask it to fulfill a desire.
Sound easy enough? Well, when you sit down and try you’ll find there are an infinite number of ways to do a Moon ritual. And, with experience, you’ll also find that some methods work better than others at fulfilling your wishes.
It can be daunting to start from scratch, but that’s why we’re here to guide you with some essential steps and tools that help increase the power of lunar ceremonies. Starting with a kit is a great way to understand what’s needed for a successful ritual and save you some headaches.
Let’s begin with one of the most important parts of any ritual: preparation.
Setting the Stage: Preparing for a Ritual
When settling down to perform a ceremony, it is important to let go of distracting stresses and anxiety. The more focused we are on our singular goal, the more likely it is to manifest. That is why we must start with creating a suitable ambiance. Start all your rituals with the following:
- Find a place of serenity, whether it be a clean bedroom or a river bank. Lay out an altar adorned with sacred tools like a special notebook, candles, sacred geometry, Aqua de Florida, and a sacrament you might ingest such as cacao, blue lotus, or even just bread.
- Cleanse your space by fumigating with an incense such as sage.
a. Cleansing can also be performed by using your mind’s eye to see all the negative energy as gray smoke being sucked out of your chosen space and grounded deep into the purifying Earth. - RELAX! Your body and mind must be in a receptive and open state, rather than a busy and distracted monkey mind. Try box breathing. About four cycles should suffice.
Once your space of operation is set up, it is time to set your intention. You can choose just about anything, but speaking from experience, it’s best to choose something that aligns with the energy of the moon.
Lunar Intentions: Banishings on the Full Moon
Most spiritual practices that work with the planets attribute certain correspondences to each planet. The moon tends to be assigned aspects of our subconscious. This likely has to do with the mysterious and ominous nature of the moon. It is an orb we’ve seen hanging in the sky for our entire lives coming and going as it waxes and wanes. Yet, we do not receive warmth from it like the Sun. Its purpose and effects on us remain vague and mysterious which is why the subconscious mind is so well represented by the macrocosm that is the Moon. Some of the traditional reasons to work with the Moon are:
- Psychic perception
- Sexuality
- Dream activity
- Emotional durability
All of these are microcosmic correspondences of the human subconscious, in conjunction with the macrocosm that is the Moon. This model of the Moon representing our subconscious helps us ground abstract ideas such as sexuality or dreams and work with them in an almost personified way.
One more thing to mention is the importance of banishing on the Full Moon. The Craft of the Wise advises us that the Full Moon is the height of lunar power and is a great time to banish our weaknesses and disharmonious actions. This traditional rule of thumb can be broken of course, but the masters tend to advise we stick to the traditions up until the point of mastery. Similar advice comes from music teachers; learn the scales, then start to break the rules and make up your own. You’ll find that adhering to “fences” can really aid your understanding.
A Magical Toolbox: Essentials for Enhancing your Ceremony and Power
Before you can bring out the power of magical tools, you must understand the importance of meditation. One cannot perform magic without being able to center oneself and focus fully on the task at hand. If one is distracted at the zenith of the ceremony when the intention is stated, it is far less likely to manifest in your psyche, and therefore into the universe. Below is a meditation that works at any time, but is especially useful for pretexting a Full Moon ritual.
Preparatory Lunar Meditation based on The Order of the Golden Dawn:
- Get into a comfortable position sitting, standing, or lying down. Let go of all tensions in your body. Everything from your toes to the top of your head.
- Inhale to the count of four and see your body being filled with the silvery light of the Moon.
- Hold to the count of four and feel that lunar light all through your body.
- Exhale to the count of four and see the light leave your head and every pore on your body. Watch it seep out into your aura. Note the sensations you feel.
Once you are relaxed from your meditation, it’s time to begin your bigger, more powerful ceremony. Pull out the items from the Ananta Ritual Box and lay them out on your altar.
In your Ananta Ritual Box you will find:
- Cacao: Our cacao box contains discs of cacao which you are encouraged to melt into one of the provided cacao mugs.
- Aqua de Florida: This sacred and ancient potion is water infused with magical herbs for a full lunar cycle. Its conception is usually credited to Peru and is cited as being used by Shaman’s books such as Plant Spirit Shamanism, Sorcery and Shamanism, and Spirit Walking.
- Palo Santo Sticks: This incense is exceptionally powerful. It has been dubbed ‘the holy wood’ by multiple vibrant cultures of spirituality. Katukina, a highly accredited metaphysical research site, tells us to light the stick and wave it under the nose to clear any toxins from the body.
- Rose Water: Rose water is cited in the book The Magic of Flowers as a powerful mixture used to veil the body with mystic power.
- Lavender Water: The Magic of Flowers instructs us to drop a bit under the tongue to align with the divine self.
- Incense: Sandalwood, Lavender, Cinnamon, Ylang Ylang, Rose, Sage, Palo Santo, Patchouli, and Tibetan Tara.
- Prints: Made by renowned UK artist TarnellisArt.
- Notepads
- Beeswax candles
- Incense holder
- Candle holder
- Pyramids
- Notebooks
Once everything is laid out and you’re feeling relaxed. It is time to begin the Ananta Full Moon Ritual.
The Ananta Full Moon Ceremony: A Step-By-Step
Instruction
How to perform a Full Moon Ritual:
- Lay out your altar under the Full Moon. Essential Items include:
a. Cacao, mug, and heated water.
i. A thermos filled with hot water works well if you’re in nature, or your room!
b. Candles and incense.
c. Notebook and pen. - Do a short lunar meditation. Generally, fill yourself with the light and energy of the Moon on each inhalation. With each exhale, the breath goes out but the energy stays in. Do this four times at least. See and feel yourself and your aura glowing with silvery light.
- Prepare the cacao. Keep your mind on your hands and breath. Really sense your body as you pick up and put things down.
- Before the first sip, raise the cup to your mouth and whisper your intention into the cacao mixture. Less than two sentences is ideal. Keep it simple and focused. Fill the drink with the glowing image of your intention fulfilled. See yourself smiling and happy about your wish coming to pass.
- Drink the cacao. Let it fill your body. Bask in the comfort of your desires being fulfilled for
the benefit of all people and things. Appreciate the spirit of cacao. - Come back to your body. Sense your hands and feet. Hear the world around you.
- Make any notes in your journal pertinent to your experience. Full Moon themes tend toward letting go.
a. “I am no longer…”
You’ve now performed a powerful ritual. The best thing to do is go on with your day and let it go. Do what you can to take your mind off of your intention and what just happened. Remaining silent about your ceremony to anyone else is an ancient way of increasing its power.
The Transformative Benefits of Full Moon Rituals
If you’re reading this, you’ve likely noticed that the Full Moon has its effects on your psyche. You’re not alone. It turns out that 81% of mental health professionals believe the lunar phases affect humans (Vance, 1995).
So what are the true benefits of Full Moon rituals? Esteemed alchemist of the medieval ages, Paracelsus, is cited as having connected the Full Moon with dreams and sexual passions (Coles & Cooke, 1978). Even as far back as the Mesopotamian culture, Lunar energy was key in divination and prophecy (Hays, n.d.).
Direct benefits of Full Moon rituals:
- Enhancement of artistic inspiration
- Strengthening your magic
- Having vivid and interpretable dreams
- Emotional strength in times of tumult
- An increase in the abundance of love in your life
I find that all of these benefits can result from a Moon ritual when one’s magical intention is to be protected, guided, and illuminated by the spirit of the Moon. This is opposed to a specific singular request which is entirely appropriate as well, especially if you’ve got something particular you’d like to manifest.
If you’d really like to know what the benefits are of a Moon ritual, perform one. Give it all you’ve got. Only experience can show you the extent of the benediction the Moon has to offer. Do not be daunted by the thought of doing a long ritual. Sure, a longer, more in-depth ritual will exert more magic as a general rule of thumb, but doing a short Moon meditation like the one suggested earlier in this article can have innumerable benefits. Some masters argue a short ritual meditation daily is infinitely more powerful than doing a big ritual one time and assuming you’re adept forever on.
Delve deep, practice daily, and never limit your imagination
From East to West: Full Moon Rituals Around the Globe
To understand how to do a moon ritual and wring every bit of goodness you can from it, it is important to understand how cultures around the world have done it. Below is an exploration of a few cultures who perform these sorts of rites.
Atlantis: Dion Fortune’s Moon Magick of the West
Dion Fortune is celebrated as one of the greatest authors of esoteric knowledge in the Western world. Her books are highly intelligent and steeped with ancient knowledge. In Fortune’s book Applied Magick, she claims that in Atlantis, the cup, or ‘Moon Bowl’, contained an elixir that could put one in direct contact with the supernal. It is said that this holy cup representing our knowledge of the mysteries was taken from humanity because of our misdeeds. However, contact with the cup can be granted after a certain amount of purification and holiness is obtained. She even goes on to say that Jesus himself reappropriated the idea with his cup of wine.
India: Vedic Tantra and the Lunar Chakra
India has always been steeped in ritual magic. Many religions throughout the region left books and art that display their use of rites to affect the universe. One of the best surviving and most widely practiced Indian systems is that of Tantra. One Tantric practice correlates the Moon to the head, the Sun to the heart, and fire to the genitals (V, n.d.). Concentration on this correspondence is a major part of the process of raising one’s kundalini and unlocking certain powers or siddhis which include things like telepathy and invisibility. Just be sure not to spend your entire life attempting to become invisible, i.e., be careful what you wish for.
China: Daoist Correspondences to the Moon
Within the creation story written in the traditional Daoist scripture, the Huainanzi, the following is written:
The warm breath of yang accumulated to produce fire, the essence of which formed the sun. The cold breath of yin accumulated to produce water, the essence of which became the moon.
The Moon is a cornerstone of Daoist understanding and cosmology. But it goes so much farther. There is a Daoist tale of thunder magic ascribed to what is called Heavenly Master Taoism. The story describes a group of foxes that invade the monarch’s castle. To combat this, a Daoist master is assigned to rid the house of the thieving foxes. He places an iron jar on an altar during the Full Moon and proceeds with an exorcism that invokes lightning. The lightning delivers spirit generals, which many earthly people can see, corralling the foxes into the iron jar (Reiter, 2011).
The above anecdote reveals the infinite number of ways people of the past have used the Full Moon phase to their advantage.
Full Moon Rituals in Judaism: Torah Yoga
The Jewish religion is an ancient, yet well-preserved practice. Its calendar is Luni-Solar meaning the number of days a month depends on the moon cycle. The following Full Moon ritual comes from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality:
- On the full Moon, or ‘Keseh,’ stand outside somewhere your bare feet can touch the ground.
- As you inhale, stretch your arms out to the side. Then, reach up slowly with your fingers toward the Keseh.
- Bring your heart up and extend your neck. Fix your focal point on the Moon.
- As you exhale, keep your arms rising toward the moon.
- On the next inhale, draw the moon’s light down through your fingers and into your body. Feel the lunar glow.
- Exhale and allow your arms to come back down nice and wide completing the circular shape of the silver orb.
- At this point, you can repeat aloud: “Blessed are You, Eternal One, Sovereign of the Universe, who makes the work of creation.”
This sort of ritual shows us what a modern seeker can do to incorporate the vast knowledge we have of the wider world into our own tradition.
Closing the Circle: Wrapping Up the Full Moon.
The Full Moon is an ominous occurrence. Besides knowing it to be a time where lunacy abounds because people can see late into the night, it naturally feels spiritually blissful to stare at the big silvery ball in the sky in all its glory. Humans likely stared at it and felt the same way you do even 10,000 years ago. It’s no mystery as to why we came to use it as a source of deity and power. So try harnessing the energy of the Moon yourself. If you put your heart into it, you won’t be disappointed.
Regardless of your creed, there is always a way to use this incredible floating, glowing rock in the sky to affect the universe or just your mind. What’s most important is trying things out to see for yourself if a technique is effective for you. No tradition, technique, or prophet is absolute. Even the Buddha said not to take all his words for law.
So listen to your heart and the Moon. You will find your way.
Conclusion: A New Moon Waxing
This article was written to teach you about the New Moon and what can be done with it.
We’ve gone over preparation, tools, methodology, and even some history all to help further your spiritual understanding of the New Moon.
An important takeaway is to do everything you can to focus on your intention. The key to a successful operation is complete and utter immersion. Doing things like manifesting on the New Moon gives us context and refines our understanding of what we want.
The spirit of the Moon is always there for you. If you need help, all you have to do is ask.
Ananta Rituals wishes you harmony and strength on your journey.
FAQs
Full Moon affirmations are usually about letting go of things that no longer serve you. Instead of writing, “I want to quit overindulging in (insert vice),” write your desire as if it had already come to pass. “I have a moderate and healthy relationship with (insert vice).”
If you want to manifest wealth on the Full Moon, do a sincere ritual like the one presented in this article, then ask for a life of positive wealth. A good way to say it may be, “I am financially secure and prosperous. May it come about in a way that I will enjoy. For the good of all, and harm to none.” After saying it, picture yourself smiling and glowing with wealth.
The Full Moon phase is often deemed the most powerful. But when the Full Moon is closest to Earth in its orbit, the Super Moon shines down. This is known to be the most magically potent night of the year. (Kripalu)
Works Cited
Coles, E. M., & Cooke, D. J. (1978). Lunacy the Relation of Lunar Phases to Mental III-Health. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 23(3), 149–152. (Read more)
Hays, J. (n.d.). RITUALS, CULTS, PRAYERS AND WORSHIP IN MESOPOTAMIA | Facts and Details. Retrieved July 28, 2023, from here
Reiter, F. (2011). Taoist Transcendence and Thunder Magic, As seen in the Great Rituals of Heavenly Ting of Metal and Fire in the Divine Empyrean. Zeitschrift Der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 161(2), 415-444 (30 pages) (Read more).
V, J. (n.d.). Tantra and Tantric Rituals of Hinduism and Buddhism. Retrieved July 28, 2023, from here.
Vance, D. E. (1995). Belief in lunar effects on human behavior. Psychological Reports, 76(1), 32–34. (Read more)
