Even though the 2021 New Moon in Leo was yesterday, Sunday August 8,, and the Moon has already made her ingress into the next Zodiac sign of Virgo, we are still today very much under the waxing light of the Crescent Moon phase; that is, we are still, as Duran Duran said, having a New Moon on Monday.
The hours leading up to the moment at which the Leo Moon conjoined the exact degree of the Leo Sun, bathing the world in a moment of utter darkness filled with potential (regardless of the time of day at one's location on Earth) were fittingly filled with New Moon fanfare, imploring us in the astro-instaverse, and no doubt beyond, to set intentions, the more ceremoniously the better.
Many people enjoy, and have done for millennia, undertaking a New Moon ceremony, of their own design, as prescribed by their spiritual leader or group, or simply in the manner outlined in the mass media of the popular culture. In a busload of singers with whom I aptly performed in a Resistance Revival Chorus concert under yesterday's New Moon in Leo, I was asked what one "should" do for the New Moon, and whether it was a good time for "manifesting".
My answer as to what one "should" do under a New Moon, historically known across many cultures as a time of new beginnings and, I'll say it again, potentiality, is that at the very least one might consider ACKNOWLEDGING the lunar phase. This is, in fact pretty much what my monthly New Moon ceremony consists of. I have absolutely nothing against setting aside a time for a special meditation, a candlelit soak in the tub or the act of writing down intentions one hopes to realize or manifest in the month to come at this, or any time. But I'm more so a huge fan of simply being aware of the Moon's phases - following the Moon. Along with knowing the day of the week, the month and the season, Lunar Phases are a fundamental marker of the rhythm of life.
Once one begins to acknowledge and follow the phases of the Moon ... and this could be as simple as knowing when the Full Moon is in the sky -- it is, after all hard to miss and widely acknowledged in the most mundane of situations, such as tightening security at the pub, for example, since people are said to "go wild" on the Full Moon -- patterns appear. Women, are of course familiar with monthly rhythms, and one of the most astonishing things about womanhood is the invariable surprise we may feel or have felt as the ramifications of PMS/PMT sneaks/has snuck up on us like clockwork each month. Anybody who knows a woman has probably vicariously felt this reliable rhythmic uptick.
Where New Moons are concerned, since I follow the Moon through the Lunar Phases, I find that during the momentum building up to the New Moon, the noise surrounding it becomes overwhelming to me ... during the waning crescent phase of the balsamic moon, I don't so much want to talk about it and on the day of the New Moon itself, I really become uncharacteristically quiet. I don't feel that I have the energy for busily planting seeds of intention or carrying out any other of the popular New Moon rituals. I just know that it's that time of the month and a rare moment where I, with all my Gemini planets don't have much to say. Month after month since founding Zodiac Soundtracks I've felt that I "should" write a blog or send out a newsletter or make an involved social media post on the day of the New Moon. Month after month I've found myself uninclined to do so, coming forth at best with a Newish Moon commentary, such as this very one.
And after all, the Newish Moon begins to shed a little light ... at first just a hint, a shadow, then little by little building up to the Waxing Gibbous phase which arrives each month when the Moon has moved 45 degrees through the Zodiac ahead of the Sun, around half a week after the lunation.
There's a simple science to following a system of 8 Lunar Phases; if you want to dig in deep, I recommend The Book of the Moon by Steven Forrest ... but even if you only wanted to follow two phases, the New Moon is a great place to start , noticing when it falls in relation to the Full Moon -- they're always about 2 weeks apart. Take it a step further and think of the New Moon as the beginning of a 29.5 day cycle and the Full Moon, the half way point of the cycle, as the point of culmination. Before you know it, you'll probably begin noticing the Quarter Moons, waxing and waning respectively and somewhat confusingly named since they appear as "half moons" in the sky. When you see the half moon above, the Moon cycle is either one quarter (waxing) or three quarters (waning) of the way through its cycle. It's better than clockwork and is a lazy person's dream for adding some Saturnian structure to life ... all you have to do is look up, and if you don't want to even step outside, there are dozens of apps which will tell you the phase of the Moon every day. Even though I have learned over many moons in an embodied sense to know where the Moon is in her cycle and exactly which sign in the Zodiac she is transiting, I still look first thing every morning at the Time Passages app ... it shows the lunar phase, Moon sign and whether or not there's a Void of Course Moon, a topic for another day. I like doing this so much that the second thing I do is write it down at the top of my morning pages (I know you're not supposed to do ANYTHING before morning pages, but some rules were meant to be modified).
And so today, in the wake of yesterday's New Moon in Leo, I'm moving through my day in the spirit of a New Moon Monday. Happy Newish Moon in Virgo.
