Behind the Scenes: New Moon Ritual, pt. 1
Sometimes we forget that social media is a heavily curated space. You generally see the best take, or the result of hours of editing and mixing. When witches or pagans share their experiences they tend to be the most revelatory or transcendent, or the spells that exceeded all expectations. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, mind you, I just think it can set up unrealistic expectations for others, especially folks new to witchcraft or paganism. And, when their own spells, rituals, or experiences don’t work out it can lead to a sense of defeatism.
To that end, I decided no to just skip this month’s New Moon Dream Ritual, but to share that it was a total flop. Some of that is probably due to some formulaic tweaking which did not have the intended results. Before I can talk about what I changed, however, we have to talk about what the ritual is and how it came to be.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire
While at NecronomiCon this year I attended one of two sessions about zines and weird horror/fiction. The session was about W.H. Pugmire, and artist, author, and zine-maker I’d never heard of before. Before the session was even done I’d ordered three collections of his short stories.
New Moon Ritual: August 2024
Imagine reliving a “greatest hits” of the times in your life when you felt most powerless. Sounds great, right? That is how the message of this ritual started. Admittedly, I was buckling up for a long night.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Mark Ashton
In this current socio-political moment I want to write about unexpected allies and coalition building. I think a great example is Mark Ashton, a gay rights activist and co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. He was an influential figure in the 1980’s under the conservative Thatcher government in the UK.
Ritual: “Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant” Summer Solstice Ritual
As I’m writing this, misinformation and disinformation are flooding social media as part of a coordinated global campaign to undermine democracy and fully rupture any attempt at consensus reality. In the midst of the 2024 general election, one party is helmed by an actual insurrectionist who has a 50/50 shot at reclaiming power and establishing a theocratic autocracy in the United States, all of which is enabled by members of that party spewing outright lies without any meaningful pushback. Every week we seem to uncover yet another example of right-wing billionaires buying votes on the Supreme Court.
The ritual outlined below builds upon this idea and weaves in the energy of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, with the goal of dragging these lies and liars into the stark light of the sun. This ritual harnesses the powerful solar energy of this time of the year to shine a spotlight on their corruption. This ritual calls in the purifying flames of the sun to burn away the darkness to expose their machinations.
The Ritual of Pride
Instead of making offers to the land to ensure an abundance of grain we are instead planting seeds of hope to sustain us through the next year. We celebrate our continued survival in the face of systems and ideologies that would seek to erase and destroy us, and mourn those we have lost to violence and oppression. We lift up our dead in prayer, song, dance, sex, and celebration to ensure their stories carry on.
New Moon Ritual: June 2024
I’m writing this morning feeling a mix of restless and well-rested. My jaw hurts from clenching it throughout the night. That’s probably because the message that came through was about fear and anxiety, and some of the way that manifested was through feeling these things very deeply at various points throughout the night.
Queer Ancestor Spotlight: Leonard Matlovich
Leonard Matlovich was an American Vietnam War veteran, recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, and was the first openly gay service member to purposely out himself to the military in order to fight their ban on gay men serving in the armed forces. He is also the first named openly gay person to appear on the cover of a U.S. news magazine.
New Moon Ritual: May 2024
To be honest, I probably should have skipped this month’s ritual. The last few weeks have been incredibly hectic and stressful, and I didn’t even realize until halfway through the day that it was the new moon. But, because of my ADHD, it’s really important to me to maintain a routine so I decided to stick with it.
New Moon Ritual: April 2024
You know that meme about the witch that forgets what day it is and then scrambles to put together their ritual with whatever is laying around the house? That wasn’t quite me for this new moon, but it was close. I totally lost track of time and didn’t realize the new moon coincided with the eclipse. Suffice it to say, this was a very interesting experience.