AskMaia
MOON PHASES
The Moon Cycle
NEW MOON
Mother Goddess is in her infant stage, which is why it marks the time for new beginnings, fresh starts, growth, optimism, starting over, hope and faith. Think of the new moon as not only your fresh start, but your time of retreat — a time when you can regain your strength to begin again.
WAXING CRESCENT
The Waxing Moon means the Mother Goddess is in her maiden stage, making it perfect for intention, hopes, and wishes. After recharging under the new moon, your intentions and desires are ready to be planted. As the Moon gets brighter, the energies of growth get stronger. The maiden is full of energy and is anxious to dance around the world!
FIRST QUARTER
This is when we start to feel some resistance in the form of obstacles. If your intentions were planted during the new moon, your first hurdles at achieving these goals are experienced here. The themes surrounding this moon are challenges, decisions, and action. Your week of rest and intention-setting is over, and now you must work harder than before. Be prepared to make decisions on the spot, and do not lose your cool when things come at you out of nowhere
WAXING GIBBOUS
Waxing moon is for adjustment, refining, and editing. Things don’t always work out the way we planned them to, and this phase of the moon will help you realize what you need to reevaluate, give up, or change direction.
FULL MOON
The Full Moon is the time of abundance, harvest, manifesting desires, sexuality, achievement, and protection. This brings heightened tension as we fight to find balance between two extremes. Emotions can definitely run high during this period, and it’s important not to get overly emotional or attached to anything during this phase.
WANING GIBBOUS
The Waning Moon means the Mother Goddess is in her Crone stage, making it the perfect time for letting go, clearing away, cleansing, releasing, shedding old patterns, and undoing bindings. This is a time of personal reflection. The moon’s energy is getting weaker, as is the strength of the Goddess. But what comes with it is great wisdom. And you can learn from her and gain wisdom at this time.
THIRD QUARTER
A time for release, letting go, and forgiveness. Like the moon gradually decreasing in size, you have to be ready to let go of stuff. Throughout the month you’ve been hurt, broken, or angered in many ways. It's under this moon that you will let go of all grudges and release all anger. You must purge yourself to be able to receive the new intentions you will set again during the next new moon.
WANING CRESCENT
A perfect time for surrender, rest, recuperate. You may feel empty during this time. You’ve gone through an entire moon cycle and things have come and gone — willingly or not. You are now getting ready to prepare for a new cycle and there is nothing wrong with resetting intentions — however, not during this moon.
DARK MOON
The Dark Moon is the time when the moon appears completely covered in darkness. This is the time of rest, relaxation, peace, deep wisdom, powerful banishing, divination.
The Rituals
NEW MOON
Do your magick in the first two or three days the new crescent is visible. This is a good time for magick concerning stuff like a new diet, a new lifestyle, shifting to a new course of study, starting at a new job, starting over in a new place, or the start of a new relationship.
WAXING CRESCENT
The day or two just before the calendar day of the Full Moon is the best time for doing magick for bringing something to you like a new look, a new job, a new relationship, a new accomplishment, a new talent or skill, or advanced knowledge. This is when you should be developing your intentions, burying crystals, writing checks to the universe, and laying the mental groundwork for your next project.
FIRST QUARTER
The best way to handle this moon is to be flexible. Keep the intention you set during the last new moon in your mind the entire time, and make decisions that will ultimately bring about the outcome of your previously set intentions. Keep a to-do list and a journal. There should be a physical representation of you writing and acting out your intentions. Write yourself a daily to-do list and cross off things as you complete them.
WAXING GIBBOUS
If you want to reap the benefits of the full moon, maybe you need to make some sacrifices.
Maybe you need to change course. Don’t resist the feeling of change during this moon.
FULL MOON
This is the best time for consecrating tools, charging jewelry, and wishes like winning a court case, winning a contest, landing a job, getting married, good health, financial prosperity, and healing. It is also the time for spells about spirituality, psychic development, dreams and divination. Just as farmers reap the benefits of their seeds, you should be reaping the benefits of your intentions set during the new moon. You will see these benefits in the form of new opportunities or even as results from the hard work done the previous week. Make sure you’re prepared and open to receiving these.
WANING GIBBOUS
The days just before the Dark of the Moon are best for doing magick for removal of anything that you don’t want from your life like bad habits, stress, negative energies, unsatisfying relationships, unfulfilling jobs, an unhealthy diet, or an anxious and negative mind.
THIRD QUARTER
A great practice during this moon is a cleanse. Clean out your apartment, your closet, your friendships. Look at anything that's no longer serving you and get rid of it. Pay attention to the unnecessary emotional and physical clutter you’ve accumulated during this past cycle and rid yourself of it. To shed this unnecessary emotional weight, try participating in a class or any type of physical activity.
WANING CRESCENT
Right now just relax and surrender to the universe.
Some things will always be out of your control and fate must take its course.
DARK MOON
This is a time to banish negative energies from our lives that we are serious about getting rid of. Any kind of magick you do at this time, you should know, will be VERY strong. Use it for banishing serious things like illnesses of the body and mind. This time, we accept that we do not know all the answers and that everything that we need to learn will be revealed to us in time-- and from that, we should feel peace.
THE TRIPLE GODDESS
The Triple Goddess is indeed a diverse and complex expression of the divine feminine. For those who worship her, she provides constant opportunities to learn and grow through connecting to her three aspects. Whether you recognize ancient goddesses as aspects of the Triple Goddess, or simply honor the Maiden, Mother, and Crone archetypes, align and worship the cycles of the Moon for an even deeper, more rewarding spiritual connection.
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THE MAIDEN
The Maiden aspect aligns with the crescent-to-waxing phase of the Moon, and represents the youthful phase of a woman’s life. This is the time of growth, reflected by the waxing of the Moon as it moves toward fullness. In the cycles of Nature, the Maiden is associated with dawn, sunrise, and the Spring season.
The Maiden represents beauty, fresh potential and new life. In human beings, she is associated with the qualities of innocence, youth, self-confidence, intelligence and independence, and with activities relating to exploration, discovery, self-expression, and creativity.
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THE MOTHER
At the Full Moon, the Maiden becomes the Mother, giving birth to all of the abundance on Earth. She is associated with midday, and her season is Summer, the most lush time of year, with forests and fields flourishing and young animals growing into maturity. In the human realm, she is associated with nurturing, responsibility, adulthood and the fullness of life.
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THE CRONE
As the Moon wanes and the darkness of the night sky grows, the Crone steps into her power. she represents the post-childbearing years of life, and is associated with Autumn and Winter, sunset and night, and the winding down and ending of the growing season. The Crone is the wise elder aspect of the Goddess, and governs aging and endings, death and rebirth, and past lives, as well as transformations, visions, prophecy, and guidance. Although feared as an archetype for millions of years, she is the one who reminds us that death is part of the life cycle, just as the Moon's dark phase precedes the New Moon. The Crone is often represented by goddesses associated with death and the underworld.
