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The Phases of the Moon She begins each month as a silver slither, rising in the sky to the south-west just after sunset and quickly disappearing below the horizon. Each night she rises later, tracking further eastwards across the southern skies, each night visible for longer, the darkness retreating across her face, until after about seven days one half of her can be clearly seen, although mostly during the daylight hours. About fourteen nights after her first appearance, she is complete, her full face beaming down on us radiantly, rising in the eastern sky at, or before sunset. But swiftly she diminishes, her face each night being cast gradually into shadow. In her final few days she appears as a crescent in the skies to the south-east just around dawn until, 27 days, 7 hours and 43 minutes after her first appearance as a New Moon, she is completely blacked out, a Dark Moon, only to be reborn again the next evening, a silver slither once more. This is the basic eternal waxing and waning of the moon, her course through the skies having a profound effect on our lives as her gravitational pull controls the tides, and not just those of the sea, for, being composed mostly of water our bodies are also profoundly affected by the movement of the moon. As Pagans, we recognise this and as well as honouring her in all her varied phases, we also use the varying energy she provides. New Moon is seen as a time of new beginnings, with her energy sparkling and vibrant. This progresses until two weeks later the moon is Full and now her energy is felt at its most powerful and abundant. Most Pagans acknowledge this, but some will take this further, drawing down the power in a special ceremony immortalised in the widely used words of Doreen Valiente’s ‘Charge of the Goddess’. After Full Moon, the power wanes and grows quieter and as Dark Moon approaches a shift in emphasis can be felt. The night sky is now empty of her light until almost morning when she can be seen as a diminishing crescent, low in the south-eastern sky near dawn, and at the time of Dark Moon, the night before she is reborn, she will not be seen at all. But an energy is there, a very special Dark Moon energy. This only touches very briefly on the phases of the moon, and if you explore nothing else Pagan, then she alone is worth watching, questioning and coming to understand. A book which covers this vast subject in more detail and also provides simple exercises which will help you attain knowledge, is ‘A Witch Alone – Thirteen Moons to Master Natural Magic’ by Marian Green. |
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