It’s coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway
Imperial, mysterious
In amorous array.

L. Cohen – Democracy.

Some marriages
are born of elements
other than Love
– the subject of Sunday’s
Half Moon ritual.

RECAPITULATION

OF THE LUNAR RITUAL MONTH OF LOVE  

A good opportunity is presented to briefly go over the last a Moon phase of Love – irrespective of whether you have taken part in our online gatherings or not. You might have still sensed the subtle influences of these powerful moon stations in various aspects of your life.
It may give a glimpse into the possibilities of Moon Magic.

PURNIMA | 31 October

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On the Full Moon, Kamar Purnima, we begun working with the inner Prince energy. Upon this ritual night – in accord with ancient Tantric custom – we took the inner seat of the princess, looking towards the prince on that full Moon night.

In this ritual we worked with the colours of the chakras. Through this practices we investigated the granthis (knots) that obstruct our journey upon the rainbow ladder of the chakras.

The knots and psychic blockades can be revealed to us by concentrated Antar Mudra (inner concentrations).

The Full Moon is the Shakti (power) phase of the Moon. It is a time of bright ritual.

The more Shakti that is generated and stirred up on the Shakti Moon phase, the easier it becomes to then access the deeper hidden layers of our psyche on its opposite station: the Amvasya (Dark Moon) phase.
Amvasya is the bhand (inner) phase that allows us access to the deepest parts of ourselves.

Lets remember that Magic and Ritual follow laws of resonance, reflection and exchange. These are scientific laws of cause and effect, action having its opposite reaction. This be something to ponder upon.

ARDHA CHANDRA | 7 November

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The next ritual on the half descending Moon was Thakka Ardha Chandra Puja. Thakka implies the first lovers’ meeting (the meeting of the inner Princess and Prince).
We worked very simply in terms bodily practices in that ritual, with much static asan, storytelling and information about how Ritual and Magic can be approached.

Focus and energy
was placed on inner Mudras,
which are complex
and required much concentration.

We recapitulated every romantic first meeting we encountered in our lives to investigate the extend to which we have come to rely on the familiar landscapes and slogans of contact that structure our unconscious patters.

Such familiar codes of connection are insidious as they close the doorways to broader horizons. Profound concentration and awareness is required in every first encounter if we are to glimpse into new realities and magical avenues of being.

We tested this to the utmost in this Siddha ritual. It’s benefits we then reflected in its opposite Moon phase of the Sukkha Moon (the half ascending lunar phase).

On this night we introduced and started to go into how Moon Magic works, and the great importance, of how magical power ought to be harnessed most effectively and safely when it is aroused.
When one works magically, deeply and in a challenging way upon the Siddha Moon phase (half descending), it opens a door that is reflected back in its opposite at the Sukkha Moon phase (half ascending). It can be translated as a planting and harvesting phase of one’s inner work. A seed is planted and cared for in one phase and the fruits reaped on it’s mirror phase.

AMVASYA | 14 November

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On Amvasya, we saw the Dark Moon of Diwali. In this ritual we went briefly into the meaning of why this appears to be the most widely celebrated of all Indian festivals.
Known to the Tantrics as the very Dark Moon, it goes by many names, including Kamala Jayanti, the birth of the Goddess of love, which rules over the current Moon phase and which we are celebrating through these online gatherings.
Diwali is equally the mourning of the loss of the Goddess, for Amvasya meaning the Moonless sky (Dark Moon). It is also known as the night of Kali (for Kali means ‘dark’).
We went into these seeming paradoxes and their relation to the stars through the many tantric myths that tell the story of this major Moon phase (see our blog post) as a way to investigate the true face of the Goddess of Love within us.

The Dark Moon is the Bhand (inner) phase ritual.
It was a sombre reflection back to its Shakti sister of the full Moon. Following magical laws and again working and moving with the resonances of nature’s rhythms.

This was the night
of deep longing,
assisted along by some dynamic
and focused asan,
with particular focus on
the Heart Nadis (energy lines).

The inner mudras were bhand (focussed) on looking for the lost Goddess.
The mythology surrounding Diwali points to this and we talked briefly about how this relates to astro lunar junctions that are presented of this day in the cyclic rhythms of the Moon.

The longing arises from a mysterious place that we attempted to encounter during the practice, learning that the object of longing becoming secondary to the feeling of longing in itself.

NATURES RYTHMS

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When we go attentively and map our consciousness and bodily rhythms, we see how the Moon moves us.
We are under the push and pull of lunar currents.
We can make the tides work for the good of our spirit and our lives, if we acknowledge this lunar force of nature. Resisting these currents only leads to suffering.
We might sometimes stand over nature and heed not her magical currents that we are bound to, but the Tantric branch of Moon Work is a step to restoring the flow of the Nature Goddess, first and foremost within our own Hearts.

To find out more about this major lunar cycle within the Tantric Calendar, check out our post on Kamala and Diwali.

And don’t forget to also check out our online classes which coincide with major Tantra festivals and rituals.