The moon is essentially all about light and dark.
Light comes from the sun, it radiates light out the center of the solar system while all the planets rotate around it. The moon, however, is neither a star or a planet. It’s a rock orbiting earth! Astronomers simply call it ‘a celestial body’.
Depending on where the moon is in its rotation, it reflects either a lot of light back to us (full moon) or no light (dark moon/ new moon) or some light (quarter moons).
So…the moon is a RECEPTIVE expression of light. It’s absorbing light and transmitting it back to us in a new, lunar way. If light is information, you could think of it as the moon having its own special kind of information.
The second thing about the moon is it has a pattern. There is a natural rhythm to this light and how it expresses, based on that rotation/ orbit. From that pattern we get 8 moon phases, which I like to look at as 4 main phases- new moon, waxing moon, the full moon, and waning moon.
Waxing is receiving light, growing in light! Waning is losing light, or you could say receiving shadow, receiving dark- the unknown aspect of what we want to manifest. Right in between those you have the quarter moons- each are the midpoint of waxing, and the midpoint of waning.
The moon can teach us about being receptive but not passive. If we tune in with its pattern, we start to resonate with more yin energy and let ourselves be receptive to light (you can call it light or you can call it Divine intelligence). But not passive…there is an active energy to the moon too…for instance some plants grow at night, and it activates them under the moonlight. And while the moon is yin to the sun, it’s actually yang to the earth- it activates the ocean tides and other nocturnal activity of wildlife.
Now let’s look at magick. Magick with a ‘k’ is different from Magic with a ‘c.’ One is doing tricks and illusions, the other is different.
Aleister Crowley came up with the new spelling of magick and he defined it as: “any act that brings someone closer to their ‘true will’ or purpose in life”.
So I like to think of magick as aligning the power of your will with Divine intelligence or Unconditional Love. Whatever that looks like to you!
The key is you have to have faith in it, there has to be some devotion, or an emotional connection. For some people that connection is strong with nature and the elements, for others it’s a religious god or deities, or saints, and it can be what I call ‘the heart’s intelligence’- synchronicities that you just know in your heart are right.
The tarot has a card we can meditate on to better understand magick, the Magician Card! There we see the perfect example of someone aligning their will (the human) with what’s above (spirit) and then tuning in, and receiving the guidance, they let themselves receive from the Universe, then they ground it into reality! As above, so below.
It takes courage to do this, to have the faith that your dreams will come true, and an open heart- that receiving piece. It’s said in the Tantra Yoga tradition that when you have a longing, if that longing is genuine and sincere, then by the law of nature your longing will be met. But it has to be genuine.
So how does magick go together with the moon? When we state our desires within the moon’s pattern, surrendering to that pattern of receptive intelligence we start to tune into that energy ourselves and we begin to receive new information from the Universe!
It could be new synchronistic events in our lives, or it could be something in the energy body that’s new and changes our behavior, could be downloads that we get to act on, or write and speak about. We get a kind of evidence of our desires being put into motion.
But again, the desire has to be integrated with an awareness of the moon pattern, and there has to be faith/ devotion, it must come from the heart to really accelerate!
By practicing moon magick you are setting intentions AND being willing to watch them grow in this moon pattern which has its own intelligence. You are being willing to surrender to it and receive its guidance. It teaches much about dancing with nature’s rhythms and letting yourself receive.
Happy manifesting and blessings!
Join Moon Aligned Path, a 29 day program of moon phase guidance, rituals, and tarot card readings to accelerate your inner magick!