Updated 2023.
Chapter 3: The Seven Wonders of Power
Recommended moon phase: New Moon, or “Dark Moon”
“Return to me,
Beloved Shadow,
On this night, and in the hour…
By Dark Moon,
And narrow light…
Come to me, ‘O Sacred Heart,
Restore my Precious Power…”
This week’s chapter coincides with the New Moon Phase. As we begin to align our magickal energy work with the natural cycles of the moon, we will begin to sense the ebb and flow of our natural energy field - in relationship with the moon phases and cycles.
Tonight is the New Moon, or in witchcraft traditions, Dark Moon - we now face the dark side - of the moon - and the darker side of our vulnerabilities. And in the total darkness, in the absence of light, even our Shadow vanishes.
It is when we are in dark places, we can be assured of two things:
It’s always darkest before dawn.
Our Shadow does not leave us, it returns to us...it retreats to our bodies - fully. Completely. We, in fact, become fortified, secured, reinforced and reassured, by our Beloved Shadow.
We become hyper aware, hyper intuitive, maybe even hyperactive...literally and magically. Others among us will be as calm and quiet as a windless sea...watery resolution. A shimmering ocean of stars that extends into an endless horizon - the mirror reflection of heaven itself.
Dark Moon is the promise of a new moon cycle...three nights from tonight, The New Witches Moon will hang in the sky, growing larger and more luminous each night, like a sliver of light from behind a door that is slowly opening, gleaming and arching wider - until the moon is full again. And as it waxes back into view, so will our Shadow...extending slowly and surely from our feet...faithfully pointing the direction of True Light, and where we stand against the contrast of darkness.
Just because there is an absence of light, does not mean there is an absence of form and fortitude. This is what our Beloved Shadow tells us…”I haven’t left you, all that I am is now inside you. And will always be.”
Last week in chapter 2, we began excavating the secret myths and personal events hidden in our past in order to detect our true identity and magickal origin story. Throughout the course of our lives, we determine our own personal ethics, ideas and beliefs based on personal experience, and the experiences of others. It’s perfectly natural to consider the opinions of others, and to agree to accept them as truth. But if we take on the truth from too many other people, our truth becomes lost in the crowd. Until it resembles a leary, if not risky stranger, we dodge to avoid.
As mystics, healers, psychics, empaths and witches we can become tone-deaf to the signs that point us to our true, secret identity. Especially if we were raised in an environment that discouraged, or frowned upon the occult. If our gifts are not acknowledged as promising, they can never be developed into the promise of their full potential.
But our promising gifts don’t vanish. They wait...in a hiding place a little more formidable than a moonless night - a place riddled with contrary and opposing emotions - a place as black and ominous as The Dark Moon - your witchcraft is hiding in the closet.