New Moon Ritual: June 2023
I really waffled on whether to write something this month. Not because what I saw was scary or inappropriate, but mostly because I don’t really understand or remember a lot of what I saw. I thought “I shouldn’t share this since I don’t even know what to say”, and then realized so much of what is shared on social media creates false expectations of perfection or mastery. I decided it was important to show share a “fail”, especially since I’m still learning and refining this skill. I mean, how many of us have given up on something new because we weren’t immediately good at it? I think a lot of that comes from what social media shows us - we don’t see the takes that didn’t work, or all the effort that went into becoming really great at something.
So, here is my very incomplete and patchwork new moon divination ritual for June 2023.
As always, I prepared my mugwort tea and added a lot of honey to help with the taste. I set up a small altar in the guest room. Cast my protective wards. Then snuggled into bed with my little werewolf dog.
The things I remember from this ritual are:
Hallways. Lots of hallways. Hallways made of different materials - one carved of stone, one that seemed like it was in a house, another that seemed like it was in an office building, one that looked like it was a country land hedged in by old growth trees, etc.
These hallways were supernaturally long, as in I could not see where they ended in any direction, but every so often there would be a door in the wall. These doors would lead to another hallway. When I entered another hallway it was like I was deposited in the middle of it, if I looked behind me there was no sign of the door I just stepped through.
Even though I have no recollection of stairs I got the distinct sense that each hallway was somehow deeper than the last, that I was descending into something.
As I’ve been sitting with this all morning and for some reason every thread keeps leading me back to the myth of Inanna’s Descent.
I have all of these bits but no real sense of how they fit together or what they might mean. It’s because I don’t have a clear roadmap or narrative or message that I felt really self-conscious about sharing this month. There was a part of me - the perfectionist part - that felt like I had “failed” in conducting this ritual. I had to take a step back and remind myself that this is a new skill I’m working to develop, it is intentionally a monthly ritual so I’m not doing it constantly, and part of learning is learning from failure.
In my experience, these bits will continue to coalesce over the coming days. It reminds me of my early days with shamanic journeying where it took days for me to really process the messages I was receiving. It was not uncommon for me to be going about my life days later and be hit with an “Aha!” moment. If I have one of those moments in relation to this ritual I’ll be sure to update the post.
