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The Moon, to many Pagans, symbolizes the Goddess. In the Waxing part, or when the Moon gets closer towards full, it is the Maiden. When Full, it is the Mother. When Waning, going towards New, it is the Crone.

There are no set "holidays" to celebrate the Moon, as there are Sabbats to celebrate the Sun. But there are Esbats, which have no set day or month. They follow the Moon's cycles.

Waxing Moon Esbat - You can perform a ritual involving spells of what you want to add into your life. This is a good time to focus on abundance.

Full - This is a good time to reflect on what you had done in recent spells and rituals. The power of the Full Moon is good for cleansing and empowering your ritual tools, Tarot deck, Runes, just about anything. The Full Moon would give them an energetic charge. You can also draw down the power of the Moon for yourself, by holding your power hand (usually the hand you write with), and imagine a Moon beam coming down directly to your hand.

During these rituals, it is appropriate to welcome only the Goddess in, do not invite the God.


Waning Moon - This is a time to build a spell or ritual around what you want taken out of your life, to wipe out negative energy, to let go of excess baggage.


Phases of the Moon:

New Moon - You can't see the Moon at all.

Waxing Moon - corresponds with Yule (New Beginning).

Crescent Moon - a good time to do cauldron magic (with herbs and incense), and deep meditation. Corresponds with Imbolc, though instead of "bring back the Sun", it's "bring back the Moon".

First Quarter - This is a good time to reflect on money. Corresponds with Ostara, or the Spring Equinox.

Gibbous Moon - Corresponds to Beltaine, a time to reflect on union.

Full Moon - The Goddess is pregnant with the New God - this corresponds to Litha or Summer Solstice.

Disseminating - Magic is reviewed and reflected; reassess, see why certain spells hadn't worked if they didn't, learn from the mistake. Corresponds with Lammas, for reaping what you have sown, harvest.

Last Quarter - Corresponds to Mabon. Sending things away, cleansing, preparing for the death of the God, finding balance.

Dark or Balsamic Moon - Corresponds with Samhain; the death of the God, the death of the Moon. Contemplate on things to change, reflect on what to do on the next Lunar Cycle.

I've been thinking of this lately, thought this would be a good thing to note down.

Ever wonder why some sabbats seem to be a little off in timing, such as Samhain as a New Year celebration, or Litha (Summer Solstice) for Midsummer? There are (at least what I know of) two reasons for that. One is way back in the old, old days, the early pagans didn't have our modern calendar - so, the sabbats seem to be a month or two ahead of where they should be. The second is that way, way back then, they only had two seasons, winter and summer - summer was around May 1st to October 31st, and winter was around November 1st to April 30th (according to modern calendars). Spring and Fall didn't come until much later. So, on that thought, back then, especially in the time of the Celts, they only had 4 major sabbats, not 8 - the major ones would be Yule, Imbolc, Beltaine, and Samhain.