Modern Moon Rituals IV: Following The Moon’s Current Sign

By now, if you’ve been following our series on Modern Moon Rituals, you’ve likely noticed a shift in your life, your thoughts and daily patterns, and especially your magick! Awesome!! If you don’t want to go any further in depth on this - hey, I don’t blame you, but I think there’s another dimension to your newly lunarly-focused lifestyle that you should definitely add, and it's pretty easy to put together and track, especially once you're already in the rhythm of paying attention to lunar phases and their effect on your life.

What do I mean? Let's add in tracking the current moon sign! The moon orbits the Earth at a speed of about 29.5 days per full revolution, and for our astrological purposes, that means She enters a new sign roughly every 2-2.5 days, which you might remember me touching on in Modern Moon Rituals III, back when I thought this series would stay a trilogy. But I couldn't stop thinking about it, and with this week's new moon in Aquarius, I think it'll be nice to give a little rundown of the energies of that sign, so if you wanted to, say, cross-reference the guides and realize why this new moon is giving us all this intensely creative energy, peaking today, you'll have a reference at hand to do just that!

Let's talk for a second about why the Moon is a great first planet to keep track of. Not only is She our closest celestial neighbor and therefore easy to keep an eye on (She’s about 238,855 miles away — which seems like a hike, but don't forget, we totally made that trip a bunch of times, and that was back when the computers had less processing capability than my phone!), scientists have known for centuries that the Moon has an undeniable gravitational effect on the tides of our planet. And this is me going off science script for a sec, but yeah, our bodies are about 70% water; makes sense that we'd feel Her effects as we've been tuning into this year and listening and following along with Her phases. So now, when we add the signs, we can see that each new and full moon take on their own unique feeling, given by the sign through which She is currently passing.

Clear as mud? It’s okay. Let's take today's new moon in Aquarius as an example, and you'll see how this sign colors the energies we'll be feeling today.

So, you remember from our first article about living in a lunarly-aligned fashion that new moons are times when the Moon's reflected sunlight isn't visible to us on Earth. (You did read that article, right? If not, give it a go — I'll wait here for you.) That doesn't mean that Her power and influence still can't be felt, just that we need to recognize the best ways to work with that darker energy, and paying attention to the current Moon sign is a really great way of doing just that.

For example, today, the new Moon in Aquarius will rise at 2:06PM EST. That's awesome to know, but what will that look like for your new Moon ritual? Everyone's ritual is going to be different based on how they experience Her energy.

I know that for my part I always like to do some journaling, in specific this time around I’ll have a focus set on societal and generational change and on how, in true Aquarius energy fashion, I can work to enhance society and for the betterment of the collective, energetically speaking. I admit that it’s not easy, especially since I do tend to be very sensitive at both new and full Moons, but laying the groundwork for our manifestation - not just this lunar cycle but this entire year - is really crucial right now. I do recommend everyone take the time tonight to ask themselves, “What are some things I can contribute? Where do I want to grow so that I can help improve our society? What benefit do I want to bring into my life, now and throughout the year? How can I start?”

I know it seems like a lot, but once the words start to flow, you’ll find all kinds of ideas popping up - the key is to allow yourself to write without judgement. Aquarius is the ruler of the planet Uranus, which reigns over freedom, new possibilities and visions, and radical change - and don’t forget, it’s an Air sign, so you’ll find that mental energy will get going quickly, but you’ve got to prompt it. Get words on paper!

The other moon ritual I’ve made part of my life that I think everyone can benefit from is a ritual bath, and after my journaling and meditation, I’m really excited for this one tonight. I generally just use CBD bath soaps, or Epsom salts if I’m feeling sore (any other Cancer suns get kinda achy on certain moon phases?? It’s wild!), but you can definitely add herbs if you’d like. I recommend Rosemary this time round to relax your muscles and embrace the possibilities brought by the new Moon, and pro tip - if you tie your herbs in a little muslin sachet or cheesecloth, your post bath cleanup is a snap!

Generally I’ll also have at least three types of crystals along for the ride, and this time they’ll be turquoise, Moonstone, and Labradorite which are recommended for Aquarius. (Careful on that last one though - in general, anything ending in -ite shouldn’t come into the bath or into contact with water as it may break them down. Check here for a comprehensive listing of water safe crystals.)

Your new moon rituals may look like mine, or they may look totally different -- what's important is that you take time to pause and really feel the awesome creative, collective energies that are happening right now, and manifest some good for yourself and the wider community of our world. Happy new Moon! Let’s manifest beautiful changes for ourselves and for our world tonight.