Tools & Resources · A Ritual Guide
New Moon Ritualthe small ceremony of beginning again
Once a month the moon goes dark and the sky gives you a clean page. This is a simple way to meet it: a candle, a bowl of water, a few honest words, and something small planted in the dark.
The next dark moon
The new moon is coming
Your next new moon will appear here, in your own time zone.
Times are calculated in your browser and shown in your local time. Any evening from the new moon to the first thin crescent, about two days later, is a fine night for this ritual.
Begin here
Why the dark?
At the new moon, the moon sits between the Earth and the sun. The side facing us is unlit, so for a night or two there is nothing to see at all. Then a thin crescent appears low in the west just after sunset, and for thousands of years people have watched for that sliver. Many Muslim communities still begin each month with that first sighting, and the Hebrew calendar was once kept the same way.
That is the whole spirit of this ritual. Not the bright, finished moon, but the one you can't see yet. Seeds start in the dark. So do most good things.
You don't have to see the whole of it.
You only have to begin
where the light hasn't reached yet.
The full moon is for release and gratitude, for looking at what has grown. The new moon is for asking. It is a good night to be honest about what you want, even if it feels too tender to say in daylight.
What you'll need
Gather a few small things
- A candleWhite, silver, or black are traditional for the dark moon, but any candle you love will do. A battery candle works too.
- A bowl of waterThe moon pulls the tides. Water is the oldest way to keep company with it.
- Paper and a penSomething nicer than a sticky note, if you have it. You'll be writing to yourself.
- A seed or a slip of paperA seed to plant, or a small slip of paper to carry. Either one holds the intention for you.
- Salt, if you likeA pinch in the water for clearing. Optional and lovely.
Give yourself twenty to thirty minutes when no one needs you. Turn your phone face down. If you can, turn off the overhead lights and let the candle be the only light in the room.
The Ritual
Eight steps into the dark
- I
Clear the room. Open a window for a minute, or sweep the floor where you'll sit, moving toward the door.
Making room is the first spell. You are telling the space, and yourself, that something new is welcome here.
- II
Mark a circle. Walk once around your space clockwise, or simply trace a circle on the table with one finger around your candle and bowl.
In many traditions a circle marks the edge of sacred space. Inside it, for a little while, you are not on the clock.
- III
Sit, and take three slow breaths. Then light the candle in the dark.
A single flame in an unlit room is the new moon in small: the first light after nothing.
- IV
Add a pinch of salt to the bowl if you have it. Dip your fingers in the water and touch your wrists, then your brow.
Wrists for what you will do with your hands. Brow for what you will dream. Water to say: I'm ready to be moved.
- V
Say aloud what you're leaving behind with the old moon. One sentence is enough.
You can't plant in a full pot. Naming what's ending clears the soil. (The first prompt below will help.)
- VI
Write what you're calling in, as if it's already on its way. Then fold the paper toward you, twice.
Folding toward yourself is old folk magic for drawing something near. Tuck the paper under your candle holder, or into a book you love.
- VII
Give the intention a body. Press your seed into a small pot of soil, or write one word on the slip of paper, fold it toward you, and tuck it into your pillowcase or wallet.
Something that grows, or something you carry. Either way, the intention now lives somewhere outside your head.
- VIII
Close the circle. Thank the dark, trace the circle the other way, and snuff the candle rather than blowing it out. Pour the water onto a plant, or, if you added salt, onto bare ground away from your garden.
Many practitioners snuff instead of blow, so the wish isn't scattered. Giving the water back to the earth sends it on its way. (Salt is hard on roots, which is why salted water goes to bare ground.)
Words to say, if you'd like them
Dark moon, quiet keeper of beginnings,
I've made a little room for you.
Here is what I'm setting down.
Here is what I'm asking for.
Hold it in the dark until it's ready,
the way you hold yourself every month,
and come back to me as light.
A word on flame
Set your candle on a fireproof dish, away from curtains, paper, and anything a pet or child could knock over. Never leave it burning when you leave the room or fall asleep.
The Intention Page
Four things to write
Use these during steps V and VI, or fill them in before you begin. Your words save privately in this browser as you type, and you can send them to your Journal.
-
I · The Clearing
What am I ready to stop carrying into this new cycle?
A habit, a worry, a story about yourself, a yes that should have been a no. It doesn't have to be gone tonight. You're only putting it down.
-
II · The Calling
What am I calling in?
Write it in the present tense, as though it's already arriving: I am rested. I am making the thing. I am loved out loud. Keep it to one to three wishes. The dark moon likes a short list.
-
III · The First Step
What is one small thing I'll do before the moon is full?
Intentions need hands and feet. Choose something small enough that you'll really do it: one email, one walk, one page.
-
IV · The Letter
A letter to the one I'll be at the full moon
In about two weeks the moon will be full. Write to the version of you who will be standing in that light. Tell them what you hope for them, and what you're proud of already.
☾ Your words stay in this browser, on this device. They are never sent anywhere.
After the ritual
Tending it through the waxing
Over the next two weeks the moon will grow a little every night. Let your intention grow alongside it, gently.
- I
Watch for the first crescent.
One or two evenings after the new moon, look low in the west just after sunset. Seeing it is a quiet way of saying: it has begun.
- II
Do your first step within the week.
The sooner the intention touches the real world, the more real it becomes.
- III
Water the seed. Touch the folded word. Notice.
Small check-ins keep the wish warm without gripping it too hard.
- IV
At the full moon, read your letter.
The Full Moon Release will have your letter waiting for you. Read it, then let go of whatever is finished, and keep whatever is still growing.
Other ways in
When eight steps is too many
Five minutes
Light a candle. Say one thing you're leaving and one thing you're asking for. Snuff it. That's a whole ritual.
No flame allowed
A battery candle, a flashlight under a scarf, or simply the dark itself. Sit by a window, even when there's no moon to see.
Together
Pass the bowl of water around the circle. Each person touches it and names one wish, out loud or silently. Plant your seeds in one shared pot.
On the move
Write your three intentions on your phone's lock screen for the waxing two weeks. Change it back at the full moon.
Begin in the dark, love.
It's where every seed has ever started.Wander wisely, wild one · Kelli