Tag Archive | phases

Moon Magik

Mystic Moon Wallpaper by WPNature

The Esbats: Working With The Moon Phases

In the world of Pagan Metaphysics, we call the observance of the Moon, Esbat days, or Ritual days. These phases are where we combine the energy of the Divine Goddess, in this case in the form of Grandmother Moon, with your own energy, for magikal working.

Every magikal practitioner should know which days to work with the Moon and which days to take off. Which Moon phases are best for what kind of casting and which are for rest.

These guidelines are not cast in stone and certainly if you have a friend in dire need of healing, you don’t need to wait until the next Waxing Moon to conduct a ritual. But for some of the best results, here are a few guidelines, interesting tid-bits, and helpful hints to keep in mind.

Picture the movement of the moon in terms of a clock whose hands are moving backward. The moon rests on the clock’s hour hand, Earth sits at the clock’s center. While the sun shines far off in the direction of 12 o’clock. As the moon orbits counterclockwise around Earth, its position relative to the sun and Earth changes, giving us the varied phases of the moon. Each phase of the moon lasts approximately 5 days.

Not everyone observes all 5 days as Magikal Working days. Some cultures recognize 3 days, the day before the pinnacle of the phase, the day of pinnacle and the day after. In other words, the day before a Full Moon, the day of the Full Moon and the day after. While other culture only recognize the day of the event. I’m partial to the 3 day concept. It lines up with the idea that magik is practiced in whole, as a union between the physical world and spiritual world. A better way to think of this would be in the Divine Conscious state of Mind, Body and Spirit. Continue reading →

What is Yuletide?

Dec20

Merry Yuletide

The Time of Yule

December 21st marks the Winter Solstice for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Solstice celebrations are expected to be held all around the world, recognizing a variety of secular and non-secular events. But the Solstice also rings in the time of Yule for yet another variety of people, Pagans.

Pagan observance of Yule begin at Sunset
on December 20th, 2017.

Have you ever wondered why we call this time Yuletide? Why is there a Yuletide log? Or what about Yuletide carols? Well of course these are things that evolved overtime. Most are rooted in Paganism, some were co-opted by other religions in an effort to convert Pagans, typically to Christianity. And some have nothing to do with Pagans at all.

Yuletide is a combination word. Yule + tide. It’s the tide part people don’t generally give much thought to in our modern observances. But let’s talk about that for a moment. Continue reading →

The December 2017 Supermoon

Dec2

“Merlin In The Moon” by Springwolf 🐾

The Last Full Moon of 2017

According to my “Moon Phase: Pro” app, December’s full moon occurs at 10:47am Sunday December 3rd, 2017 Eastern US time. Thanks to modern science we can pinpoint the exact time of each moon phase. And thanks to the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Astronomical Applications Department and the internet, we don’t need an app to help us find those precise moments.

In centuries past, the folks we like to call the Ancient Pagans, didn’t have the precise tools we have today. They did have their own eyes and their early forms of astronomy to help them track the heavenly bodies in the sky. All around the world they used early methods to mark the important times of what know today as the months and the seasonal changes to honor the spirits and the natural world in their lives.

They may not have understood the concept of perigee within the celestial bodies, giving rise to some wondrous myths and legends. Today we know that Perigee occurs once a year when the moon is at its closest point to Earth during its orbit around the planet. This makes the Moon appear larger from our perspective, than we usually witness. Continue reading →

The Phases Of The Moon

Nov5

Tracking The Moon

About this time each year, I used to publish a Moon Phase Calendar. It helped me plan out rituals and observations for spiritual and magik work during every phase of the moon. With the advent of Cell phone technology, it’s much easier today for people to load up an app and set their own reminders. So I stopped creating the calendar.

I still get asked at almost every cycle of the Full Moon, why I no longer publish the calendar. I wrote about this in 2014 here on my blog: Moon Phase Calendar – Update.

f you’re like me and you like to plan ahead, I strongly suggest finding an app for this very task. Or you can visit the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Astronomical Applications Department and print off their yearly calendar.

In the 2014 article I write about the app I use and provided a link to it on GooglePlay. I’m afraid I still don’t know if it’s available on Apple devices.