The Wisdom of the Waning

The Moon is magic in all her phases. The moon represents our internal waters, our intuition, our feeling sense, and our knowingness within our very bones. We know it impacts the oceans and our bodies. The ancients used the moon as the calendar, keeping time before “time”. They knew the patterns and watched the sacred feminine amongst them mirror it in both their journeys and energy, the very ebb and flow of life. Many witches understand the phases of the moon based on the Triple Goddess, she who is the Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

Magic of the Waning Moon

The waning moon is special, staying with the Triple Goddess theme, it is that period between Mother and Crone and death – it is wisdom and transformation. It is the path of lived experiences but also the understanding of endings and beginnings again. From growing and creating and birthing outwardly to coming back inward, turning within, understanding the lessons and being wise or sharing the knowledge.

The waning moon has much to teach us about going inwards.

Expressions of the Waning Moon

The full moon has been likened to a woman with child, I liken it to being full of creative energy, the ultimate expressions of an essence that is manifesting (how many of us have paintings, writings, or other things we have created and called it “our child”?).  However, the growth of anything (our children, our art, our purpose) to its full potential requires sacrifice, experience, and wisdom. A power of the waning moon is that we know to become fully into ourselves, we must release our greatest struggles (especially those internal thoughts that are not of us but may have been passed down to us).

Releasing and removing things not of us (recognizing the wisdom that such realization will provide) is not only a great sacrifice to my Goddesses and the Crone, but allows me to raise my vibration that much higher.

Magic of the Waning Moon

In my own personal practice, the magic of the waning moon is in drawing down the wisdom on what we must release or remove. It took a long time for me to understand and digest the fact that it is not just to release what does not serve us any further (it is, but there is more!). It is about recognizing the patterns of what does matter when we face or understand that who we are right now can change tomorrow. The absolute fragility of the human body but the not the energy of what we are in essence. The power of the waning moon is the death of a thing simultaneously partnered with the knowledge that ‘death’ is always right behind us.

We sacrifice what does not matter in the grand scheme of this life to achieve our highest vibration and outward manifestation before we transform again.

That may sound horrific but here is the deal: death is coming for us all and if we fully came into that realization, really sat with it, we would know instinctively what we would rather be doing to thrive, be fulfilled, and enjoy what we can of our time here. It is what dreams, purpose, and inspirations are made of. It is a driving force to remove the absolute distractions that keep us from recognizing what we are driven to do from our heart. It puts into perspective what we care about and helps remove the trivial things that do not move us closer to our own greatest works.

Rituals of the Waning

While I could have simply stated “this is a time for removal magic and removal magic means this….”, there is a level of understanding that must be had about our part in the journey, of coming into our own power or sovereignty through releasing things that keep us on the safe and comfortable journey we are okay with instead of passionate about. Removing or releasing things creates space for deeper wisdom, awareness, lessons, and guidance to arrive that nurtures us forward on our journey.

The Adding on the Waning

I get questions about magic workings during the waning moon specific to witches looking to add to their lives. Add abundance. Add passion. Add a thousand dollars to their bank account because they need it within 30 days, so they want to do the spell right now, but the moon phase is not “right” because of a belief that the waning is about subtracting. I will say that there is no “right” or “wrong” phase of the moon to work magic, there is simply how we channel the energetic ask in conjunction with specific correspondences to the energetic causal level of manifesting, so it works with us in the material world level.

We are required to get creative!

During the waning moon, if I am wanting to add abundance then I know I need to get specific about exactly what it is that I want and what is keeping me from having it. There have been many times that it came down to removing my own blockages of awareness to the opportunities that present themselves. I added in some correspondences by way of incense, wrote my intention, crafted a sigil, completed my ritual, and then set out daily with the intention to be aware of the opportunities that are going to be created because I channeled the energy to make it so.

Resistance

Resistance is something of an energy vampire that we create for ourselves. It is a challenge to remove sometimes so the waning moon is a perfect time for magic on this energetic force that we all have. I see it in my own practice and my life, she shows up in many ways. She is glorious in the way she moves: challenging my priorities, shifting my focus away from what makes my heart happy, drawing in outside influences that provide various hiccups during the day (sometimes real hiccups so I can’t even make it through a meeting properly), and sometimes just by keeping me locked in my own head confronting notions that do not matter. For example, being fearful of making a choice because it may be the wrong one and then I feel horrible about it or like an idiot.

The only way is through.

Sometimes through looks like this: yes, I know that I am human and humans make mistakes, but I learn with every mistake. Am I more of an idiot to make a mistake or to never make a choice at all? Would it feel more disempowering to arrive at the waning of my physical existence wondering “what if” or will I be empowered, knowing I made the choices to learn and continue on the path of my work during this lifetime? Sometimes we must politely smile and let our heart tell our shadow it’s speaking now.

It has taken years of work to get my own resistance under control, to integrate her into my life, but ever so often she still creeps in like a trash panda (also known as a raccoon and I love them too) wreaking havoc on the leftovers in the garbage bin that I will have to wade through and clean up. Luckily, the magic of the waning moon and a talisman assisted in creating a boundary touchstone for my workspace that has kept her firmly in her place with me.

Resistance Talisman

Supplies:

• Polymer Clay
• Obsidian chips
• Clear quartz
• Juniper berry tincture (you can take your own and place in vodka overnight, mash a little in the morning)
• Paint brush
• Aluminum foil
• Toothpick
• Glass cup

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Take your polymer clay and roll it into a ball, about 3 inches in diameter. Use your glass cup to roll it out into a circle until it is about ½ an inch thick. Place onto the aluminum foil (this is you can put it in the oven later easily). Use your small obsidian chips to create a boundary around the edge of the polymer clay circle. Obsidian is a powerful ally in many ways: protection, grounding, and being comfortable facing the uncomfortable. Think about this as you are placing each one and pushing it into the polymer clay.

Place the clear quartz at the center. I chose clear quartz because its properties allow us to choose what we need it for, in this instance, channel your intuition and wisdom guided by the heart. Sit with it for a few minutes so you can contemplate the things you are resisting that you know in your heart you need to remove the resistance to. At the center of this talisman is your heart space intuition.

Imagine your inner warrior, commune with it, understanding that the only goal is to keep you right where you are because it is comfortable – and she doesn’t have to do any extra work keeping you safe. You are going to tell her that her only job is to jump the obsidian stones, she is not allowed to pass to the boundary to the heart stone in the center when it comes to the goal she has kept you from working toward. You have created a boundary on a specific goal. Now that you have created it, take the juniper berry tincture and paint it in between the heart stone and obsidian chips. This reinforces the boundary and amplifies both the boundary and amplifies the heartspace intuition.

Place this in the oven for about an hour or until the polymer clay is no longer soft.

The Waning Moon Activation

Now that your talisman is done and you have given directions to your warrior within, it is time to call down the power of the waning moon to remove any further resistance to your goal. Set your intention on what distractions you want to remove, focusing on calling the waning moon, the goddess energy of the Crone, down into your heart center stone so it will allow you to see what clearly matters and removing the rest. Give as an offering anything that you are removing so it may be transformed into something else.

After your ritual, place your talisman in a place where you do your work as a touchstone for when you encounter resistance. You can send the resistance into the obsidian step stones around it and focus on amplification of the heart stone in the center.  

A candle and a key,

Kaycee

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Feature Image Credit: Photo by maggie hung via unsplash