New Moon: her teachings and how to honour her

Artwork by Nanse Kawashima, "Untitled" 2018

In the New Moon phase, the Sun and the Moon are in the same place in the Zodiac. This means that, if with the Zodiac we’re in the sign of Gemini (like in these days), the New Moon will be in Gemini, and her influence will be linked to the traits of this particular sign.

You can’t see the Moon, but she’s there: her unilluminated side faces us.

It’s the beginning of a new Moon Cycle, so it’s the perfect time for new beginnings and fresh starts. For planting seeds. It’s the right moment to visualize and manifest clearly a desire, an intention, a wish you crave with all your heart!

Photo by The Book of Moons

The New Moon brings a strong renovating and transformative energy. In the last few days, we learned to close with the past, to face what we don’t need anymore, and to let it go… in order to make space for the new, for what we now want to bring in our lives.

In this phase, we need to go inward, to explore our inner world: the quiet before the jump, the silence we need to recharge the energies, before starting to work hard towards our goals.

Illustration by Ameya's Realm

Stop for a moment and think, maybe have a journal or a piece of paper at hand. Breathe and create the conditions for you to be receptive and open to the suggestions your intuition wants to communicate to you: if you feel like, you can start meditating for ten minutes (or the time you need), so that you can clear up your mind and make space for the messages you’ll got from your Higher Self. Then, write down all you want to bring in your life in the next lunar cylce and, if you want, in the next months. It may be about your working life, the relationships with others, the knowledge of yourself or self-care, or maybe a secret wish you want to start pursuing.

After that, when you wrote all these things down, make a selection and choose two or three of them.

Focus on them only, and visualize them in a creative way, not only with your mind, but also with your sensations. How do you want to feel when you’ll hold what you’re desiring? Which feelings will traverse your body and soul? Pay attention to every single detail. Act like you’re already there, with all yourself. In this phase, leave rationality behind: this is not the moment to ask yourself if this is plausible, or how on earth you’ll be able to reach it. Now, there’s only room for expressing the wish, for dreaming big, without limits. The rest will come later.

Illustration by Bruno Penabranca

How to honour the New Moon: small rituals for new beginnings

There are so many ways to celebrate the New Moon and to usher in a new lunar cycle!

Here some suggestions for you: you can decide to follow them all or to choose one or two. There’s no right or wrong, just do what makes you feel good!

Create your favourite space

Start tidying up the room you chose: clean, throw away what you don’t need anymore, reorganize what you keep.

After that, make it beautiful: buy flowers, light up some candles, place your favourite crystals (crystal quartz is perfect for this phase), hang some pictures on the wall, something that you like, that inspires you, that speaks about magic.

You can also plunge into nature, in a park, a wood, or in your garden or balcony if you have one: you can also do some gardening or tend to your plants!

Cleanse

Now it’s time to cleanse! You can burn incense, palo santo or sage (carefully, though: do it in safety). Then open your windows wide and let all the stagnant energies go with the smoke.

Now you can indulge in a long scented bath or a restoring shower: imagine that, together with the water, all the worries and what don’t serve you anymore slip away, preparing yourself to the new lunar cycle that awaits ahead with its new promises and energies.

Let go

We’ve already started during the Third Quarter and gone on with the Balsamic Moon, now we can permanently say goodbye to what we want to let go, to what it’s unnecessary: write it down and destroy it, and in the meantime visualize it like it’s slowly burning among the flames, or flowing in a river towards the sea or flying away carried by a strong wind.

Set your intentions

Now you’re ready to set your objectives and express your wishes: you’ve made space, thrown away, tidied up and cleansed, everything is ready for a fresh start!

As I suggested earlier, visualize your purposes, write them down, journal them… or you can even create a collage that speaks in pictures about your dreams and intentions, you can also paint them if you like! After that, once you expressed them and you have them in front of you -whichever the format you chose- contemplate or read them, and then start to plan the next steps for making them come true: everything start with the first step!

Happy New Moon!