The Writing Witch

There are tons of resources out there talking about lunar witchcraft and how to work magick with the moon…

But in this video, I’m going to actually show you exactly how I incorporate lunar living into my everyday life to help me experience more fulfillment and infuse the more mundane aspects of life with magick.

There are countless ideas out there about what kinds of spells, rituals and practices to do related to the moon… And some of them are truly great ideas!

But what I’ve discovered in my 8+ years as a witch is that (both for myself and for most of my witchy friends, colleagues and clients) the most authentic, empowering and effective lunar rituals are not so “great.” They’re simple, accessible, and easy to weave into your regular schedule for a realistic and sustainable practice.

Trying to keep up with a fancy, elaborate or prescribed lunar practice can be exhausting, overwhelming or can just feel forced and un-helpful at times – Especially if, like me, the true goal of your practice is simply to feel like a more empowered or fulfilled version of yourself day to day, regardless of how “witchy” it looks on the outside.

I identify as a “witch,” and I find it fun to use words like “spell,” and “ritual.” But at the end of the day, my practice is mainly centered around self care, self reflection, self acceptance and self development. So just like any other magickal tool or practice, working with the moon for me needs to be a practical, grounded practice that fits naturally and effectively into the other goals, priorities and values that my life is based around.

For most of us, the witchcraft path is kind of like dieting – When we approach it with a “go big or go home” attitude, we end up doing big, elaborate rituals for the first little while, and then run out of steam and start to wonder if such a rigid practice is really fulfilling us in any real way. But when we start small with an approachable, digestible practice with wiggle room built in, we’re able to grow with the process and get better as we go along.

Whether you’re a beginner witch or a seasoned witch who’s craving simplicity in your life, the easiest and most fulfilling way to work with the moon is to establish a realistic practice of lunar living… Which is really just a fancy way of saying we use the moon as a method of tracking the passage of time as we grow and develop in life. Each month becomes a mini rite of passage in which we acknowledge where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re choosing to go.

Just like with the seasonal living lifestyle that I always talk about in my Wheel Of The Year videos, the lunar cycle also contains within itself all the important themes of growth and renewal.

The same plant-tend-harvest-compost cycle of the seasons is also reflected in the microcosm of the moon cycle each month.

I know I talk a lot about working with the Wheel Of The Year more so that the moon – But believe it or not, I actually started my witchy journey working with the moon before I discovered the Wheel Of The Year…

And and I do believe it can be just as powerful to work with! The only reason I focus mainly on the solar cycle now is because in my busy life, I’ve found it much easier to look at my goals and intentions from the perspective of longer seasons, rather than shorter moon phases.

The easiest way I’ve come up with to look at the cycles of the Universe is to imagine it as a clock face: Think of the entire clock face as the Wheel Of The Year. The hour hand would represent the seasonal cycle. The minute hand would represent the moon cycle. And the second hand would represent the daily cycle. We live in a cyclical Universe, and as witches, we can base our own personal practices around any or all of these cycles which are microcosms and macrocosms of the same overarching cyclical pattern.

You could have a perfectly legitimate cyclical living practice without paying attention to the lunar cycle or the Wheel Of The Year at all if you wanted to – My colleague, Nathaniel Solace has a whole program dedicated to simplifying your life and maximizing your fulfillment just by mastering the 24-hour cycle alone… And it’s really powerful and freeing!

As for me, I’m someone who really enjoys the concept of freedom within structure, so I like my days and months to be less structured, and instead to give myself the six weeks between each sabbat on the Wheel Of The Year as my main time markers for making progress on my goals. But for even more structure (or more frequent checkpoints) working with some or all of the moon’s phases and/or it’s zodiac signs, will provide you with the awareness you need to stay on track with your intentions.

And the best part is that your lunar living practice can be 100% customized to fit your own personal needs, preferences and desires. Here are my three favorite (simple and sustainable) ways of using the moon as a tool for self development, self reflection and self acceptance, ranging from the most simple to the most complex:

1. Moon-thly check-ins:

If you’re really busy, don’t like a lot of structure, or just simply can’t be bothered to pay much attention to the moon on a daily or weekly basis, let this be your permission slip to just do something empowering once twice a moon-th.

Early in my witchy journey (in my early 20s), I used to have a much busier and more chaotic lifestyle.

I wasn’t as solid in my business, my schedule, my boundaries, my values or my relationships yet, and I was also juggling multiple part time jobs and lots of socializing on evenings and weekends. I tried keeping a daily moon journal or moon dial like I had read about in the book Red Moon by Miranda Gray, but I found it impossible to actually keep up with. I also tried doing a ritual once a week (on the new moon, the first quarter, the full moon and the last quarter). But I found that hard to keep up with too. At the time, I didn’t have a set daily or weekly schedule, and I just wanted something to help me re-center and reset my energy periodically.

At that time, I learned to work with the moon simply by taking a ritual bath once or twice per month on the new and/or full moons. I would check the Farmer’s Almanac in advance and add reminders to my calendar letting me know when the new and full moons were. On a night or weekend as close as possible to the new or full moon, I would take a relaxing bath (instead of my usual quick showers) with the intention of clearing my energy and infusing myself with whatever my intentions were for that month.

It was as simple as lighting a candle, burning some incense, playing some mood-setting music and bathing mindfully for 30 minutes to an hour every two or four weeks. For a time, I made a regular practice out of doing a cleansing bath with Epsom salt on the dark moon, and a nourishing bath with ritual oils on the full moon – To mark both the reset point and the fullness of each moon cycle. I had designated bath potions for each of these two types of rituals and I’d meditate on either releasing or calling in intentions based on the moon phase.

When I had time, I would sometimes also turn this into a longer ritual where I’d afterward journal on what I was calling in or releasing. Or I’d do a tarot reading or a spell to clarify or anchor in my intentions.

On a more practical note, you can also use the new and/or full moons as monthly reminders to simply keep things in your life in order. For example, when I was first starting my business I was having a hard time juggling housework with “work” work. I was working on my business basically 24/7 (which I don’t recommend, btw) and when I did take breaks for self care, I often did not feel like cleaning the house.

But I had a goal of becoming a better housekeeper, so I would tell myself, “make sure we don’t go into a new moon cycle with that pile of junk still sitting in that corner of the studio.” Or, “I’m going to organize my craft supplies the weekend of the full moon, because I know I’ll have energy.”

As magickal people, how we live the “mundane” side of our life says a lot about our ability to work with energy. And I believe it’s important to treat all areas of our lives as sacred… Within reason, of course! If our houses or offices are a mess, so is our emotional state to some extent. And when we’re manifesting, it’s important to lean into gratitude for what we already have, and create the space for more good things to come in. And this is true literally in terms of how we treat our belongings and keep our home. So why not get cottage witchy with it and create a lunar cleaning schedule?

Another really fun practice I did earlier in my journey was host monthly womens’ circles. Each month on the new moon one year, I’d invite friends over to do some simple journaling exercises and talk about what we were releasing and calling in. It was a great opportunity to schedule in some mindful socialization, do networking… And again, have a solid reason to make sure the house got cleaned at least once a month during my roaring 20s!

2. Moon phase journaling

Long before I had a witchy self development business or a Patreon membership group, I created a simple printable workbook to hand out to the guests I’d invited to my monthly womens’ circles.

They were just a series of simple yet powerful journal prompts for each of the moon phases.

If we were meeting on the new moon, we might do the dark moon prompt and then break for discussion before doing the new moon prompt. And then we’d take the rest home to do on our own on the first quarter, full moon and last quarter.

Now, I’ve turned these into a really beautiful grimoire page set that you can download and print out. It’s called Your Simple Guide To Lunar Living Grimoire Journal. But I’ll also share them with you here to show you how simple and powerful this practice can be:

New moon: What are my wishes, intentions and desired feelings for the 28 days ahead?

First quarter: How am I embodying my desired feelings and intentions for the month so far?

Full moon: What am I grateful for from the past 14-28 days?

Last quarter: What am I ready to release from my life?

Dark moon: What did I experience or learn in the past 28 days?

Simple yet satisfying, right? And what I’ve discovered is that just having these questions floating around in your head can be vaguely helpful, but the real magick happens when you actually print them out and have an accountability system set up to make sure you actually respond to them in a tangible way. That’s why I’ve designed this workbook and made it available to you a few different ways to suit your needs: You can just download and print the prompt pages from the Writing Witch Shop. Or I’ve also included these in my Simple Guide To Lunar Living Grimoire Journal, which you can get as an E-book or as a paperback. It includes a full breakdown of how lunar phases work if you’re a beginner.

But my favorite way to engage with these questions is in a supportive community environment where the prompts are scheduled in throughout the month and we can all respond to them together for support and accountability. That’s why my Patreon community now gets a private thread to comment on for each of these phases. There, even if you don’t have time to sit down and do a whole journaling session, you can just comment on the thread with whatever comes to mind that day – Which can be just as powerful!

3. Moon sign astrology

Now this one is a newer practice for me that I’ve only been doing consistently for the past year… But it’s really taken my lunar living practice to the next level!

You know how sometimes you’ll hear astrologers say something like, “it’s the new moon in Aquarius,” or “it’s the full moon in Leo?” Or perhaps you’ve seen those Instagram posts or memes where it lists off the themes of the moon sign.

I used to think these were too complicated to keep up with earlier in my practice, so I didn’t pay all that much attention to them – Or I’d take those posts as an invitation to reflect on those themes in my journal or ritual that week, but wouldn’t know the rhyme or reason as to why the moons were being paired with those signs, and wouldn’t keep up with it consistently.

Can you relate? Do you find astrology hard to keep up with? I’d love to know what your experience level is so I know what to cover in future videos as I continue learning more about it this year. And if you have struggled to know how to really incorporate astrology into your practice in the past, you’re really going to love this last tip:

So, as it turns out, the concept of moon signs isn’t that complicated, and it certainly isn’t arbitrary! Here’s a really simple way of understanding moon signs so you can more easily incorporate them into your seasonal and/or lunar living practice:

The new moon that occurs within a zodiac season will be in that same sign, because a new moon is what happens when the sun and the moon are conjunct (or when the sun and moon share the same celestial longitude). So for example, when I’m recording this video, it’s my zodiac season, Aquarius, which is January 20th – February 18th. The new moon that occurred on January 21st was the new moon in Aquarius. There will never be a new moon in any other sign during Aquarius season, and it’s the same rule for each of the other signs. Pisces season is February 19th through March 20th, so the new moon that’s coming up on February 20th will be in Pisces and so on.

Full moons, on the other hand, are the opposite. They happen when the moon and the sun are in opposition (when the Earth finds itself directly between the Sun and the moon). This puts the moon in the opposite sign as the sun. So the full moon that occurs within a zodiac season will always be in the opposite sign. So for example, the opposite sign of Aquarius is Leo, so the full moon in Leo is the one that’s coming up on February 5th during Aquarius season. The opposite sign to Pisces is Virgo, so the full moon that occurs in Pisces season coming up will be in Virgo on March 7th.

So here’s were it gets interesting: Once we know that during every zodiac season we’ll have a new moon in the current sign and a full moon in the opposite sign, we can begin to play with the theme of opposites in our magickal practice. At it’s simplest, this pattern is an invitation from the Universe to take notice of how we’re balancing the elements in our lives.

You can use the new moon in any zodiac sign as your prompt to set intentions that are related to the themes of the current sign. And then you could use the full moon that month to release things in your life related to the themes of the opposite sign. As with all aspects of seasonal living, the zodiac wheel provides us with a series of themes that, when put together, sum up the entirety of what it is to be human. So if you’re looking for a way to acknowledge astrology in your practice without over complicating things, combining it with your lunar practice is a great place to start.

… But dude… Here’s where it gets EVEN MORE interesting: So you know how I said that the full moons are always in the opposite sign from the sign the sun is in? Well, that opens up a really interesting can of worms. If you wanted to get really crazy, you could take your cyclical living lifestyle to the NEXT next level by setting intentions on the new moon in a sign, and then checking in with those manifestations on the full moon in that same sign – Which would be six months later on the opposite side of the wheel of the year! And/or! You could set the intention to release things out of your life on the full moon in a sign and then check in on those banishings six months later at the new moon in that sign. Are you seeing the possibilities here?

Heck, if you’re really bold (or you know you have a “specific” manifestation style) you could very well set intentions at a new moon in a sign and specify the date you’ll have manifested it by as the full moon in that sign six months later! I’ve heard of this working really well for some people. But I will be totally honest with you and admit that I’ve tried this method, and as a non-specific manifestor, it did not work for me. While I did naturally manifest a lot of improvements in the area I was desiring in that six months, the overall big goal did not manifest in that time, and it was kind of disappointing. So just a heads up.

I know I keep promising I’ll make a video on specific vs non-specific manifesting from a Human Design perspective, and it’s on the docket for this year! But for a quick check-in, here’s the basic rule of thumb: If getting specific with things like dates and numbers and other minute details lights you up, gets you excited and usually manifests in a fulfilling way, you’re probably have a specific manifestation style. If getting really specific about details feels at all stressful or forced and typically leads to disappointment, you likely have a non-specific manifestation style, where it’s far more important for you to focus on your desired feelings than any overly specific details. If you’re not sure, try it out both ways and document your experience (perhaps in your moon journal!)

And feel free to check your Human Design chart. Go to MyBodyGraph.com and toggle to the “online software” tab. There, you’ll see four arrows around your chart. If the arrow on the bottom right is pointing away from you to the right, you’re a non-specific manifestor. If it points in toward the left, it means you’re a specific manifestor. But do note, this is one of those things in human design that’s very sensitive to your time of birth, so if you’re at all unsure of your exact time of birth, you may find this to be inaccurate.

Another disclaimer I must throw in here is that we have to be careful when looking up the dates of the full and new moons in relation to the zodiac signs. This past year, I did a deep dive into this when I was setting up my posting schedule for Patreon. In our Patreon community, we have a post go out on every new and full moon sharing the sign the moon is in and how to set intentions related to it. And when I first sat down to pre-schedule these posts, I used a moon phases app on my phone that I had been referring to for my own practice for months. And I realized, to my shock and horror, that it didn’t have all of the signs listed correctly!

I noticed that there were two new moons in the same sign one month, and when I asked my astrology mentor what it meant, and she said that would indicate a rare “double-moon”… Only we weren’t due for one in that sign anytime soon. The app had calculated the moon signs inaccurately. And after that experience, I’ve been extra careful to double and triple check my resources when dealing with moon signs. I even found the same kind of false information on a very popular magazine’s astrology blog. So just a heads up!

And this is one of the many perks of joining our Patreon community – I’ve done all the double and triple checking for you and run things by my astrology mentor to make sure it’s all as accurate as possible. So all you have to do is live your life and check in with your sign-specific lunar themes when each post goes live. I’ve made it that simple for you! And to celebrate my birthday season, if you choose to join us on Patreon by February 18th, the last day of Aquarius season, I’ll send you either a digital copy of my e-book, Your Simple Guide To Lunar Living Grimoire Journal, or the e-book plus a physical copy of these lovely lunar prompt pages I’ve designed, depending on which tier you join!!

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