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Ceremonies /

Turning inward

The New Moon ceremony

At the New Moon the sky is at its darkest, and we gather for the inward journey and dissolution: releasing what no longer serves, and planting seeds in darkness.

The dark of the moon

The New Moon begins the lunar cycle. It is the night the Moon stands nearest the Sun and gives no light of its own. In ceremony it is a time to turn toward what is hidden: the patterns we carry, the grief we have not finished, the self we are ready to put down.

Calcination and dissolution

Every retreat moves through three stages: calcination, dissolution and conjunction. Under the New Moon the work leans into the first two. What is false is burned away, and what has hardened in us is allowed to soften and dissolve.

Seeds planted in darkness

What is released makes room. Seeds are planted in darkness and grow unseen. An intention set at the New Moon is carried through the lunar month that follows, toward the light of the Full Moon.

“That Light, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature which appeared from Darkness.”

Corpus Hermeticum I, Poemandres, 6. Translated by G.R.S. Mead

This ceremony may call to you when

  • You are at an ending, a threshold, or the start of something new.
  • You are ready to face what has been hidden, in yourself or your lineage.
  • You want to release a pattern, a grief, or an old way of being.

Sit with these before you arrive

  • What am I ready to release?
  • What have I been avoiding looking at?
  • What seed do I want to plant in the dark?

Bring your answers to your cohort's preparation circle. See your journey.

New Moon ceremonies

Eclipses fall on these moons too: a solar eclipse on a New Moon, a lunar eclipse on a Full Moon.

The next New Moon cohort is forming. Dates go to members first. Apply and we will invite you.

Past New Moon ceremonies (6)
The other pathThe Full Moon ceremony: illumination