New Moon Ritual: August 2023

This month’s new moon divination ritual was a very embodied, sensory experience. It was heady, and felt sticky sweet. The way the moon presented to me was like I was starting into a cup of thick, viscous fluid somewhere between the color of oil and the dark crimson of blood from a deep wound. There was a physicality to this month’s divination ritual that made me think less about what the future holds and grounded me firmly in the present moment.

At time the experience felt claustrophobic. It reminded me of being in the swamp at night and the dissonant feeling of there being too much open space full of things you can’t see, but the air is so thick you feel pressed upon from all sides.

It also wasn’t an unpleasant experience. There was a heat to it that felt like someone’s breath on the back of your neck when you’re pressed up against them, intimately entwined, becoming lost in the physicality of being alive and chasing all of the sensations that comes with that experience.

If there was any message I feel comes out of this it’s about existing in the present moment. Embodied. A corporeal vessel in tune with the senses and the experiences of being physical. It seems a bit of an odd message for a divination ritual, perhaps? But I think it is a reminder that enacting change in the future requires acting in the present.