Let’s talk about the Dark Moon

This is the three days (or so) before the New Moon, when the sky is dark and the air feels hushed. It’s almost intangible. But tune in, and you can sense the stillness. This inky time holds a potent energetic essence. It’s different from any other time in the cycle, YET it’s perhaps the most misunderstood of all.

Why is this?

Because the Dark Moon is not bright, creative, productive, fertile or dynamic in any sense.

She doesn’t encourage or support ‘growth’.

She’s not active.

She’s not directional.

In fact… the very nature of this Moon is at odds with most of what our modern society deems to be of value.

The Dark Moon simply is NOT all that we tend to aim for.

She’s not all those things we are taught to desire…

And to take this a little further, She is SO far from all of that – all of the light, bright, conscious, awake, aware, creative, productive parts of the programme that IS modern life, that a lot of what the Dark Moon truly represents, most folks are not even aware of…

The mysteries of the Dark Moon have been suppressed along with the mysteries of the Dark Feminine

Suppressed as in forgotten: Removed from living memory.
And suppressed as in vilified, twisted, turned into something dirty, wrong, ridiculous, hated, or taboo.

The very essence of the Dark Moon is that She is difficult to even pin down, write about or describe in words. It’s all and nothing… and this intangibility gives her power.

That’s part of why this energy – why the Dark Moon, the Dark Feminine, and her mysteries – have been systematically made unavailable to us. Because if you have access to her kind of power, and a way to tap into her particular flavour of wisdom, you can’t be controlled. Yes – the Dark Moon is power. And that is why her teachings have been taken from us…

I know this may be kind of cryptic to read, and part of the reason for that is that over many years of conditioning, our very beings have been turned away from this kind of feminine understanding.

She’s not something that can be met through the mind and the realms of logic and reason that humans are so quick to cultivate in children. Instead to be able to connect to her energy, we need to open up our bodies, hearts, and realms of imagination, and dive deep into those places. That’s where she lives. And if we’re brave enough, dive into the darkness we find…

But what does this even mean?!

HOW do we meet with the Dark Moon?
What do we do with this Moon phase?
And what does it mean to “dive into the darkness?!”

 The truth is, opening back up to the dark Moon is a personal journey

Paradoxically (as it is with SO much spiritual development) doing your personal work is what tips the collective balance.. and it can’t be done the other way around. This is why as long as we’re looking outside of ourselves for the answers, change will not come. So this means coming into relationship with the Dark Moon is your work. You may be guided and instructed, but the Dark Moon will show you her mysteries through personal revelations. There are no “right” answers and no one size fits all ambition to aim for.

I want to share some of my practices. My intention is for these to set you on your way, serving as both a starting point, and the ignition spark for your own journey into the Dark Moon.

1. Slow down

The dark Moon invites deep intimacy with life.

But this doesn’t mean seeking MORE, to connect with MORE. My practice asks for less.

When all else falls away, what IS left?

What is the truth that’s left behind when the tasks, obligations, demands, routines, and busyness all fall away?

When the distractions are gone, what’s left to become intimate with?

For most people, this is a totally unfamiliar concept – they rarely get to the point where all these extraneous activities end. But the Dark Moon offers a time to try. To put all of those things down, and rest in the stillness and emptiness of the moment… And get really intimate with what it feels like. Because it’s in that quiet pause that the Dark Moon will rise to meet you. It’s there that She’ll offer you new sensations, and realisations of truth and one-ness with life itself.

She’s not out there. She’s in here.

2 Receive sensations of pleasure

The Full Moon phase is often the time when you’d assume that our bodies are ripe and open to pleasure (I’m talking the whole spectrum of sensuality, not just sexual pleasure). Yet the Dark Feminine (who, as we know, closely aligns with this dark Moon phase) is a true Mistress of the body. And she can teach us to be mistresses of ours. (Don’t be put off if you have a male body reading this – it applies to you too. Men also have been conditioned by patriarchy to view their bodies in very specific ways).

The Dark Moon teaches us about body sovereignty.

About boundaries.

About the wildness of our sensations and what we like the feel of, or not VERSUS what society tells us we should like.

The Dark Moon phase is a quiet, stolen monthly invitation to come home to the body and touch her, listen to her, coax her from her slumber and ride the waves of her OWN flavours.

This can be anything from walking barefoot on the grass, to gorging on fruit until the juice is dripping down to your toes, to a full body massage to sex with a stranger…

Your body knows what she wants. Let her show it.

3. Turn OFF the outside world and regenerate

The Dark Moon holds ancient teachings of death and rebirth.

Linear ways of living life lead us (falsely) to believe that we are moving in one direction – ahead. YET the feminine lives cyclically. And at this point on her spiralling path, in this place embraced by the Dark Moon, we’re being plunged into a uniquely liminal space that sits between death and rebirth.

Like the forest floor, we are decaying. But we’re not being destroyed.

This time is inactive, yet holds a latent potential.
It’s regenerative.
Wholly necessary, yet intangible.
The momentary metanoia…

But the dark Moon can’t become the dark Moon within, if you keep on adding more. If the mind and body are stuck processing, filtering, shuffling information around, and not allowed to join in her state of stillness, you will not meet her.

Turning off the noise is an essential practice of mine, for meeting the Dark Moon and tuning into the medicine she brings.

This means NOT scrolling social media. NOT creating anything new. And not attempting to share what I’m experiencing. It’s important for me, to be held completely in the pool of this Dark time.

4. Womb drop

A daily practice. But one that really comes into its own at the Dark Moon.

I drop the center of my awareness from the head (where most often usually sits) down through the body like a falling drop of honey until it lands in the dark secret of the womb. This is the seat of feminine wisdom and power – expressed in a language that doesn’t use words, but images, stories, knowings and the memories of lifetimes ago.

Learning her vocabulary, by becoming familiar with what consciousness feels like in this place, deepens and cultivates not only a closeness to Dark Moon energy, but trust in her too.

5. Stargaze

At the Dark Moon, the Moon is very close to rising with the Sun. This means la Luna is in the sky when the Sun is – She’s there with you during the daytime, even though you can’t see her. Then at night time, She has dropped below the horizon, which is why the sky is SO dark.

Energetically, her tidal draw is pulling you down too. Down below the horizon, down into the Earth, the dark soil, the belly of the Mother.

Laying on the ground at night during the Dark Moon phase, watching the stars and feeling all three celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, and Earth) beneath is an intense experience! An embodied experience of the concept of dropping.

Sinking.

Being held.

Trusting.

Sensing, truly both the cthonic power of Earth, and the stellar magic of the stars…

What are YOUR Dark Moon practices… or which of these calls to you the most? Why? Let me know!