White Raven Spirit

“I’m the type of woman that if I want the Moon, I’ll get it down myself.” —Frida Kahlo

It’s a new moon Monday and that feeling of fresh starts is in the air. I have practiced a new moon ritual taught by the late astrologer Jan Spiller for more than twenty-five years. I am a child of the moon, born in the dead of night, under a waning crescent moon. Today’s new moon is also a waning crescent and that has my mind going to what the slimmest of light reveals. To me, the sun is the brass band marching loudly down the street, while the moon is that lone flute player, unseen by most, sounding a haunting melody.

As part of my ritual I sometimes choose a card from one of my many card decks to guide me in what I am asked to make my focus as the moon grows to fullness. Today I met White Raven Spirit from Colette Baron-Reid’s Spirit Animal Oracle Deck. As I meditated with White Raven Spirit, it was my daily habits that called to me. As someone who has studied astrology and numerology, the number “66” on the White Raven Spirit card spoke to me of daily life. In astrology, the sixth house is where daily habits and daily work are highlighted.

As often happens, I was already thinking about daily habits and how those habits support, or hamper, my daily work. I often feel a particular energy calling to me in advance of when it shows up. Because this new moon is in Gemini, I know that new perspectives are needed in my approach to my daily habits and work. And that new perspective follows on from my mind sorting through guilt and procrastination, my topics for my most recent Substack articles. As I brought those weighty ideas and feelings to a neutral state of being, I began to think of daily habits and work in a new way.

I invite you to join me in a new moon ritual, if it calls to you. My own is simple, focusing on quiet time, presence and the honoring of the light. All that is needed is a single candle, a journal and a quiet mind. Using the method I’ve long-practiced, I meditate with my new buddy, White Raven Spirit, and then write wishes around what I want to manifest or grow over the moon’s waxing phase. I put what I write aside and trust in the magic, as White Raven Spirit says, to experience subtle shifts in energy in mind, body and heart. Like any ritual, the benefit is the gift of presence that performing a ritual brings.

Habits are also rituals, ones that I perform daily. The shift I am hoping for is that I no longer perform some of those rituals on automatic pilot. Rather I aspire to be conscious even in the smallest of rituals that are part of my daily life. One of my weekly rituals is writing to you every Monday. It’s a ritual that keeps me honoring my path as a writer and spiritual traveler. The journey continues as the road appears ahead.

With love,

Cathleen