First Post Under a Full Moon 09/04/09

Sooo…
It is 3:03 in the morning and I am up drinking a glass of water, uploading photos and thinking about the beautiful Full Moon ritual I just preformed. Well, not just… I actually got home around 11 PM and then spent my time washing some serious stinky dishes, drinking a frosty; A & W sized glass of wine and watching of all things, South Park. To my credit I did not pour my own glass of wine, someone else did for me and chooses the huge glass, though I must admit, at least it saved me from having to refill it. LOL! And my excuse for South Park, its crude, it’s funny and it certainly will bring me back to this world. Though now I am back I am thinking about what occurred…

Let me explain, I am writing this and starting this specific blog, to record and to explore the cycles of the Moon and how they relate to me and how I feel during the different cycles and times. I also will be blogging about the rituals I will be doing every month for the Full Moon. After years of feeling crazy and out of control at the Full Moon, of thinking maybe I should be doing Lunar rituals, but then forgetting about it, putting it on the back burner and just well ignoring my instincts. I finally got what I call, “the cattle prod of the Gods” first the Gods, whispered, then they tapped, then they poked, then the screamed, then they hit, finally they got out the cattle prod and shocked my ass! Well, I finally paid attention and a friend and I started talking and decided to begin doing Full Moon rituals for our group.

Well, we had talked about it but made no solid plans and then after an Ogden Utah Pagan Pride Day meeting, we did our first Full Moon ritual. It was very spontaneous, I just got a call from Melissa and she said, “do you want to do a full moon ritual,” and I said sure, I had wanted to do something for the Full Moon and especially for the eclipse but I was not prepared. Well, I had time to grab some garb, and a book called in Praise of the Moon by Elen Hawke and we were off. We read through the book’s chapter on eclipses and decided to do the pre-eclipse ritual as our ritual. We grabbed black candles, a cauldron to burn them in and some wine and we were off to the Pond/park by Melissa’s house. It was very free flow and non-rehearsed and it worked so well! Melissa and I made a commitment to do Full Moon Rituals every month whether it be in public, just between a few friends or alone. After our ritual we ended up staying up half the night discussing ideas for our rituals.

The incredible feeling of wholeness, and happiness and the increased energy and activity in my mind and in my soul was proof enough that what I was doing was right! I have noticed that I am incredibly intuned with the Moon’s phase, my moods; do seem to follow the pattern that it says they will follow in that book. I have been very jazzed and full of energy and ideas at the New Moon, as the Moon waxes, my moods and ideas solidify and then they come to fruition. It is amazing! I am so glad that I begun doing this! Here are some pictures of Augusts’ Full Moon Lunar Eclipse Ritual:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14098053@N07/sets/72157621965755922/

Well, for the next Full Moon Melissa and I decided to host a semi private ritual. We did not do this to offend anyone or exclude anyone just to keep the numbers down because we did not want to have too many variables in who would show up and whatnot. Plus we had limited supplies to work with. Well, we decided to do an idea that I have wanted to do for years. We hosted a Full Moon Feast, we had everyone bring a dish of food sacred and corresponding to the Moon, this food did not have to be white but had to be a Moon food. For this ritual we set up a table with glass plates, cups, and bowls and real silverware. We let candles and made the table look both Lunar and Harvesty. We blessed the harvest, people’s efforts and gave prayers of thanksgiving. Then we feasted. It was rather funny it turned out to be an all vegetarian meal with squash soup, potato salad, green salad among other things and wine, lots of wine. We had great conversations and had tasty food and then we all took a minute to clean up and pack up our tablescape, and food and after a small break we were off to do the other part of the ritual. For this ritual we, had a procession, from our spot at the park to the pond. We had sistrums, rattles and other noisemakers and we sung, “we all come from the Goddess,” as we walked.” We walked until we found a nice open spot where you could see the Moon reflecting on the water. We then, brought out our pretty decorated bottles, our bowls, water and Moonstones. I had told people to bring a bottle, and a bowl to use but left the big chunks of Moonstone as a surprise and gift to each participant. After we had poured the water and given out the Moonstones we then gazed to the Moon and to the water and used ourselves as the vessel to be filled with the Moon’s light and to charge our Moon water. Melissa led this and we got most of the words though we did modify a bit from Phyllis Currot’s , Full Moon Magic, or Drawing Down the Moon and Charging Moon Water from her book Witchcrafting.

This charging of the water was a profound experience. I watched as the Moon moved and changed, became three interconnected Moons, I saw the Goddess in the Moon and saw as she grew and pulsated with energy. I let her energy fill me and I became infused with her light, I breathed faster and heavier and it was almost like an orgasm when I let her energy into the water. One curious thing happened though when I let the energy out I saw in my mind’s eye, black flakes be let out in to the water. It looked like the weird stuff that came out of Nicolle’s hot tub when she first cleaned it after it had been sitting unused for years. I do not know if it was the Goddess cleaning m out or what, nor should I know if I should use the water. I let the Moon purify it some more and energetically boil the black away, but I do not know if it is residually there.

It was a beautiful ritual one which we will have to split it into its two parts and use it again for future and more public rituals.

We closed our circle with a toast and farewell to the Elements, Gods and the Moon and we ate almond cookies.

It was a very powerful ritual one I am still coming down from. Here are some photos from the ritual:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14098053@N07/sets/72157622155183174/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14098053@N07/sets/72157622125392003/