In my desire to be more mindful, I've started paying more attention to the moon cycles. I realized that I bleed around the full moon. This kind of amazed me because the full moon is about releasing and that's exactly what menstruation is, releasing what is not needed. I decided to honor the moon cycles with rituals for the new moon and the full moon. I'm still figuring out what I want to do for the full moon since I also want to honor my menstruation and how low my energy is during that time. I did come up with a new moon ritual though.
Step 1
First I cleanse myself. I take a hot shower and go the extra step of using a scrub to exfoliate. I take my time and let the process relax my body and mind.
Step 2
During or after cleansing myself, I cleanse my space. I'm a big believer in energy and as an empathetic being I find that energy can really affect me so I want to cleanse the energy in my space. My current favorite way to do that is with sound. I intend on getting a singing bowl so that I can do this myself but until then I've found some really great videos on YouTube for this. I know that sounds strange and not too long ago I would have raised an eyebrow if I heard someone say that but I can't deny how I feel after listening to one. I even left one playing while I went outside and my home felt better when I came back. It just felt lighter. So I set up everything I plan to use for this ritual and let the video play until I feel like the energy is lighter.
As for the items I use during this ritual. First I pull out two cards from the Arcana of Astrology deck. I pull the moon phase card and the corresponding astrology sign. For instance, tonight's new moon is the new moon in sagittarius so I'll pull out the new moon card and the sagittarius card. I have a beeswax candle, incense, some crystals with special meaning to me, an oracle deck that I use, and a special pen and notebook.
Step 3
When I'm ready to start, I light the candle and the incense and then pick a guided new moon meditation to do. Once again, YouTube is my friend here. The two channels I follow specifically for guided meditations are Gaia Meditation and Om Shaanti Meditation.
Step 4
Once my mind is focused from the meditation, I do whatever oracle card spread I've chosen (usually something I've found on Instagram) and spend some time thinking about what cards I pulled. The oracle deck I am using currently is the Kuan Yin Oracle by Alana Fairchild. I do plan on getting others that are a bit more balanced for this though. I take that special journal and write down the questions I asked and the answers the cards helped me come up with. In the same notebook, I use a technique called scripting or pray rain journaling. With how popular the Law of Attraction has been lately then you have probably heard about scripting. For me, I write out an ideal situation, based on the answers I got, in the present tense focusing on the emotions such a situation would give me and gratitude. It's a way for me to get clearer about the things that I want and to get my brain focused on moving in that direction. My next step is to write my intention for that moon cycle and I end the whole thing with the words, "So it is".
It sounds like a lot but the whole thing takes about an hour, maybe an hour and a half if I spend a long time journaling.
I've been doing this for a few cycles now and so far I have been enjoying it very much. It is helping me slowly change my mindset and figure out what I want.
