“The stars are mansions built by Nature’s hand, And, haply, there the spirits of the blest Dwell, clothed in radiance, their immortal vest” - William Wordsworth
I like to offer rituals that work with the cycles of the moon to help you manifest your highest and best. I also like to work with the wisdom of the Tarot to ground these rituals.
On February 1st, we welcome February’s New Moon. Since we are currently enjoying the Aquarius season, whose card is The Star, and since we can see the stars best at the New Moon, I want to use the stars to guide this new lunation practice.
Numbered 17 in the Major Arcana, The Star is all about healing and support. If follows The Tower in which we experience a big transformation, often a loss.
The Star is the first time in the Tarot we turn our attention to the cosmos. In The Star, we understand that the only cosmic voice of truth is the voice of love. The voices of separation are illusions.
For this Moon cycle, instead of focusing on what you want to manifest, I am suggesting you bring your attention to what form of healing you would most like to receive. The difference between actively manifesting your desires and surrendering to the divine is subtle.
Since 2022 is a year of The Lovers, let’s say your vision is to manifest your soulmate this year. Remember also, The Lovers card is never about another person, it is always about greater self-love.
If you were using active manifestation techniques, you would state and then visualize exactly what you wanted in a soulmate and how your life would look and feel with that person. Instead, I want to invite you to supplicate and surrender for this exercise. Whatever work you have done or will do to support your vision is great, but this is a time to relax in humility.
Again, the voice that The Star is here to share is the voice of love, which is the only source of truth. What stands between us and the experience of total love, is the voice of separation. Let’s ask in this New Moon what healing we can receive to dissolve those stories of separation.
TO BEGIN
This is a simple ritual designed to help you effortlessly receive, so you don’t need any tools, though you may want:
A blanket to lay on and warm clothes to stay comfortable
A hot beverage
An app with a star map.
Since we will be wishing upon a star for this exercise, you’ll want to be outdoors. When we work with the New Moon, we can harness its energy both the night before and the night after it is at 100% visibility (which really only lasts an instant since we are all in motion!), but for the New Moon, we want to wait until we are actually in the new cycle.
For me, in San Francisco, that will be at 9:45 PM PST. If that is too late for you or if there is too much cloud cover, you still catch the New Moon energy in the next few nights, including the crescent moon phase.
When you’ve found a place that feels comfortable, lift your gaze to the stars. Since we are using The Star card as our anchor, you’ll want to be sure to select an actual star and not a planet for your wishing. If your celestial object twinkles, you’ve found a star!
Take a moment to notice what time it is and where you are. If possible, you’ll want to return to this spot and track the movement of your star throughout this month’s lunation. There are apps to help you identify and navigate the stars, I use a free one called SkyView and would definitely recommend it in general, but especially for this practice.
When you have found your star, take a few deep centering breaths. It doesn’t take much imagination to become awed by how immense and vast the distance is from your eye to the surface of that enormous celestial object.
Entire solar systems may orbit it. Your star may be an incredible bright spot in our Milky Way galaxy, and yet, it is still only one in a billion in this galaxy that is itself 100,000 light-years across.
Not only did it take thousands of light years for this star’s expression to reach your consciousness, but it also took an incalculable number of factors for you to arrive at this moment.
A single point of light. That is your star, and that is you too.
The connection you feel to your body, your breath, to this moment and this star is not an illusion. The physical solar object you are focused on may currently be transformed into a dwarf star or a supernova, but what you are seeing is also true of this star now. How can both things be true? Because you are present to witness it.
Like your star, you have also already transformed. Your shape has changed since birth. You have inevitably experienced some wounding that contributes to the story of separation. In order to receive healing from your star, it is not necessary or even productive to identify any specific trauma or hurt.
Like your star, the light that you are is beaming out into the cosmos. Give yourself a moment to feel into the quality of your light, your vibration.
Next, I want you to imagine that you are capable of offering that star all the positive healing energy that it could possibly receive. What loving energy are you sending? Say it aloud. Feel that the star is receiving your energy in real-time, faster than the speed of light.
Now, it is your turn to receive. Visualize yourself taking a trust fall across the expanse of space and being caught by the caring energy of this solar entity.
Whatever love and hope you sent with your vibration, imagine it being multiplied by a factor star lumens. Know that you can actually receive this much love. If you have a warm beverage, drink it in and drink in that feeling of receptivity.
For many of us, it feels more comfortable to extend kindness and love, especially when it is generalized to the cosmos than to receive it. Most of us don’t have a practice of receiving.
Actively using manifestation techniques to bring specific desires to fruition can absolutely work.
Those techniques can help us feel like we are doing the work to reach and deserve our desired outcome, but for this evening and until the Full Moon, know that without effort, you get to receive.Do your best to check in with your star between the New Moon and the Full Moon.
How does its position change? As you orient your thoughts and feelings to reception, what changes do you notice in yourself? As you feel healing energy support you, know that your health is also for the benefit of the collective.
I am beaming gratitude and thanking all my lucky stars for each of you!
xoxo
Meredyth