Welcome to the Awaken Together podcast.
I am Jen.
And I'm Kat.
And today we are going to do a full moon episode breaking down both the full and new moon and
what a ceremony looks like.
So we've mentioned this kind of in a couple episodes because I'm very passionate about
my moon ceremonies.
And we mentioned just the importance of using the new and full moon as kind of periodic
check-ins for yourself instead of necessarily setting a full New Year's intention, using
the moon's already energetic qualities to break down intentions, goals, checking in
with what you need to release.
So we're just going to do a nice deep dive for you of what that looks like, how to start
this ceremony if you've never done that practice in your spiritual life and break down for
you, what you should look out for, what you should tune into and how you should set yourself
up for using the new and full moons for your benefit.
Yeah.
I love this topic because it really makes me feel like I'm in tune with my witchy side.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Right?
And it's just like whenever we pay attention to nature and the energetics behind it, we're
able to bring to ourselves a greater understanding of what's going on with ourselves.
Yeah.
We are a hundred percent cyclical.
And I do not think I realized until I really started using the moon to periodically journal
how many times I actually felt similar qualities throughout the years.
Like I've kept in moon journal, I think for about three years consistently now.
And it's even wild looking at, I always put what sign the moon is in and if it's a full
or new moon.
And I can even see cycles within the journaling I've done and what's come to fruition.
And when I usually feel higher energies and lowers, it's been a full guide for my own
energetic body.
I love that.
And that's so impressive, Jen.
You always inspire me to journal more.
Thank you.
Honestly, the moons are just the best locked in practice.
All the other journaling comes in very like tiny, we'll call it ADHD dump.
Hey, it works, whatever works, right?
It does.
Yeah.
Well, we'll start off by talking about a little bit of the science behind the moon cycles.
So the moon's gravitational pull, it creates high and low tides.
It generates something called the tidal force, which causes earth and its water to bulge
out.
It's on the side closest to the moon and the side farthest from the moon.
And these influxes of water are what creates high tides.
Like, that's what they are.
And guess what?
We as human beings are also made up of 60% water.
I think I've mentioned that before on here, but it always blows my mind like that we are
mostly water.
So we are nature too.
And I'd like to return to that because you can bet that we are also deeply affected by
the moon's energy on a cellular level.
Yeah.
And if you are kind of resistant to thinking that the moon has any effect on us, when you
become intentional and you keep track of it, definitely can feel it.
And I think science for a very long time has been working on linking human behavior to
the moon cycles.
I know one of the studies that had pretty profound results was looking at increased
crime rate around full moons.
And they were able to find that pretty consistently because you just get this giant blast of energy.
And I always can tell that my sleep cycles get affected by the moon as well.
And there has been scientific studies working on that.
And the funniest thing that I, before I was anywhere into yoga, spiritual practice, non-existent,
I started working at a nursing home when I was 15, which I shared on here before, and
that elderly population, and I hear this with kids as well, but the elderly population would
go so wild on full and new moon days.
All the dementia patients would be just on a whole other planet.
No one would sleep.
We'd have all these walkers in the hallway and I'd be like, oh my God, it has to be a
full moon.
Check it.
It's so primal, right?
What a perfect example.
So primal.
It's people and animals, like we all just go a little crazier at night because it's
brighter, you're more energized, charged up.
And yeah, you can see more in the light of the full moon at night, which causes us to
sleep a little less usually and just feel a certain kind of way.
Absolutely.
And yeah, so what we're going to do, we're going to break down kind of the qualities
of both of them.
I will start with the full, actually, let me start with the new moon.
The new moon is very powerful for beginnings and tapping into the energy can help us achieve
our dreams, set intentions and really achieve our desires with more ease.
So what you really want to do on the new moon is to think of it as a new beginning.
It's like a new chapter is starting and from new moon to new moon, you can set out like
what you need to do for that next month, what you're what you're focusing on, even larger
picture beyond just that month.
And then the full moon comes in about two weeks later.
And that's kind of our check in point.
So the full moon is dedicated to our darker side.
The full moon is a powerful energy for letting go of things, releasing any negative energy
and saying goodbye to the things that are no longer serving us.
So you want to think of the full moon as being more reflective, trying to relax, release,
cleanse, start over.
And I always use my full moons to check in on how my new moon beginning of cycle is working
and where I'm at, at the point of the full moon.
So it's kind of that check in point between new moon cycles because the new moon is our
starting point.
And then I wanted to go over a little crystal information as well, and then we'll break
down kind of what a entire ceremony looks like for both of them.
But on crystal talk.
So maybe you hear this on social media, Instagram, Tik Tok.
But a lot of people say charge your crystals on full and new moon days, which is just putting
your crystals outside and letting them bathe in the moonlight.
There is definitely kind of varied beliefs on this, but just getting your crystals outside
and letting them sit in nature.
I like to think of it as kind of a moon bath for them.
Some people believe that you can put them out on new and full moons.
Other people are very particular depending on what type of moon it is, like Eclipse moons
might be a little bit more chaotic energy.
So maybe you don't want to put your whole crystal collection outside to kind of sit
in that more collective crazy energy.
But other people just do it pretty consistently and don't see it as being something you have
to be so concerned on.
One of the things I learned and I usually focus on this way of thinking for myself is
I put my crystals out to charge on full moons.
So new moon is a start of an energy shift.
It's a start of a new cycle.
I usually sit with that new cycle for about the two weeks leading up to the full moon.
If I feel like I've had really good energy, I will put my crystals outside for that full
moon.
Then I spend the next two weeks until the next moon cycle meditating a little bit more
with my crystals.
I usually do Reiki on myself the next couple days after I've given my crystals a little
fresh bath.
This is where it gets a lot more witchy and a lot more hippy and I love it.
I love charging my crystals.
Me too.
I'm do.
My crystals are way do.
Kyle for Christmas gave me this beautiful selenite charging pad for crystals with the
chakras on them.
I'm super excited to get that out in the moon and charge it up.
Along with crystals, you can also charge some other things.
A really common thing that you can charge is water.
You might hear it's called moon water, moon charged water, a moon charged water potion.
My personal favorite because it just sounds really magical.
One way that you can deepen the charge is to even put a crystal inside of your vessel.
I like to have an open top mason jar or bowl where the moon won't be obstructed from penetrating
the water and seeping in fully.
So open top, especially if you're not planning on drinking it.
If you are planning on drinking your moon water, which is one way that it can be used,
I would recommend probably putting a top on it, especially if you live in a city or a
buggy place.
Ideally a clear one, maybe some plastic wrap or something like that.
You just put it in the full moon's energy right outside.
Probably you can do it next to a window sill if that's all you got.
But this can be used for so many different purposes over the next few weeks, especially
up until the next full moon really is how long they recommend.
But you can spray your moon water on plants to give them an extra little shock of energy.
You can spray it in your cooking.
And then Jen actually just shared with me a really cool idea that she learned from someone
on TikTok.
Jen, do you want to share that?
Yeah, I saw a girl take her moon water, freeze them into these ice pops and then use it to
give herself an ice massage across her face in the mornings.
That's happening on Friday.
Absolutely.
Like a little dash of essential oil in there too.
That would just...
Oh, even better.
Whole sensory, right?
Yes.
I love it.
And so yeah, there's all these rituals and we talked about it in our ritual episode.
It's really beautiful whether you believe how potent the energy is that you start to
create ritual in your life anyway.
So even if you go into it a little bit as a skeptic on, I don't know if I fully buy
that we are affected by the sky and the stars, even though there is definitely proof of all
of this in little ways.
It's just a beautiful periodic check in and a great practice to start.
And it's a very easy thing to mark your calendar with of when a new moon is, when a full moon
is, and then you're vowing to sit down in those times and just see how you're doing.
And that is such an important practice to see your growth, which is really hard to do
when you're moving a million miles an hour learning.
And then it's harder to see what you've gone through, how you've transformed, how you
shifted.
One of the most wild things when I first came back from living on the road, I am now back
in Denver in a home and getting used to that, but I got to reconnect with all of my old
journals and my full and new moon ones from several years ago, I had a really good cry
to seeing how much I was able to manifest from those journals.
One of the top things I had wrote was I just wish so bad that I had an online community
while we know that that has happened.
And I just really wanted a person to be able to inspire me in business.
Here I am with a podcast with my soul sister, Kat.
So happy.
And so yeah, it's beautiful just to see your list kind of checked off periodically and
just to have something to refer back on for different periods of your life.
But let's go into ceremony and what it looks like.
So the very first thing I want to talk about is before you sit down and get into the zone
to have whatever version of a ceremony looks like for you, I highly recommend starting
by cleansing your space.
And this is very important to do periodically.
So why not use the full and new moons as a time to remember?
What I like to do is to take incense or sage and do counterclockwise circles along my own
energy aura.
And just to say a little prayer with that, like, may anything that is not serving me
be released.
Yeah, I let go of anything that has been holding me back and just sit with that.
Let the smoke kind of clear the space for you.
I like to do from the crown of my head across my face, across my arms, down the center of
my chest, under my feet even just to sit with that for a moment.
And then I like to crack my windows open and do a full house cleanse.
If you don't want to do a full house cleanse, you already have the door shut.
You have your private space.
You can do the room that you are in, but you just take the sage or the incense and do counterclockwise
circles either fully around the room a couple of times or just circling the smoke counterclockwise
getting into the corners, getting across all of the walls with the windows open.
And just say, you can say a prayer out loud or in your mind's eye that I ask that this
space be reset and cleanse.
I ask that anything be removed that is stagnant or not serving me.
And once I've done a full clear, I will say a little thank you prayer.
Thank you for this new energy reset.
Thank you to the sage or thank you to the incense.
And then yeah, this said give a little ceremony reset.
Then you're ready.
Yes.
Then the fun.
Yeah.
So for a new moon, a couple of things that I like to do, I like to really just begin
by pulling a card.
That's like a personal thing for me because we know new moons are all about setting intentions
and starting fresh, starting new, being open to what you're meant to receive and intentionally
taking action on what you want more of in life.
So pulling a card for me is a great way for me to tap into my one intuition by trusting
that the card that I pull is the one that's most meant to me in the moment.
And then reflecting on that, like what, how does this relate to my life?
What is this encouraging me to do?
What are my guides coming forth and validating for me?
Beautiful.
And yeah, I love the moonology deck.
I always whip that one out for my moon ceremonies, but that is perfect.
Whatever cards you have, that's really fun.
And if you do not have a deck of cards, another really fun way to just like get a message
is to close your eyes and maybe pull up your music and your phone and ask for it to come
via song.
I do that a lot of times too.
I think that's a really fun way to just maybe hear a deeper message.
Maybe it just inspires your writing prompts.
So we're sitting down, we've drawn a card, you want to get your space nice and cozy.
I like to bring all of my crystals into my space.
And if you already have a bit of a moon practice, always sit down and look at where you were
the previous moon cycle.
So if you're at a new moon, you want to check that last full moon and maybe check the previous
new moon that you did and just kind of see what's happened, see what you need to adjust,
see if maybe your priorities have completely shifted and that is okay.
Reflect back if you're new to the practice, then just make sure you're writing down at
the top what the date is, what moon it is.
And I also really like to look at what sign the moon is in.
So I have two apps I like to use.
I've shared them I think on here before, but I have Moon Reader and I have Time Passages.
Now Moon Reader will tell you when the full and new moon is coming and what cycle the
moon is in every single day.
Time Passages will tell you what sign the moon is in each day if you want to kind of
reflect on that as well.
But looking at the astrology behind the full moon can be also really inspiring for what
your journaling is going to be.
If it's a full moon in Virgo, which we're having on the day this episode is released,
you want to look at the qualities of Virgo.
Maybe that gets a little more emphasized and I think that's very dependent off your chart,
but it's a good read to just check in and see if maybe I'm feeling this one a little
bit more and this is the sign it's in.
And when you start into your journaling, you have that as a reference point and then maybe
the following year when that same moon comes around, you can even look back to where you
were the last moon.
Does that make sense?
It sure does.
I mean, considering how many new and full moons we have each year, just consider if
this isn't a practice that you do at all right now and then think about if you are to adopt
something like this into your practice.
Most people, you know, common people just do it once a year and then maybe at the end
of the year.
And how much more power can this give you if you're doing this just so much more often?
I truly believe that's a big reason of why like you, like me, like many people out there
who have embodied these rituals are able to really just feel aligned with the life they
lead because they're making these changes and bringing intentionality to it every month.
Yeah, absolutely.
And one of the other things I really love, which you can definitely YouTube a bunch of
options for this, but I love to do moon salutations.
So in the yoga world, we have sun salutations, which maybe you've heard of before.
That's kind of to give your body this this big energy wake up.
Moon salutations have a little bit of a different energetic effect.
You're doing a lot of turning around the mat.
You have to move a little slower and it's a little bit disorienting because you kind
of move around.
But it's you do it in a slow, intentional way, and it kind of has this more passive
energy to it.
I love to do a few rounds of moon salutations just to get into my body because it's so hard
for me to drop right into meditation.
So I like to burn some energy out before I do my journaling.
That is obviously up to you.
And maybe it's just you stand up, play the song that you just ask your spirit guides
to give you, do a little dancing.
You can even just shake for a minute, but something just to get you out of your head
so that you are really dropping into the ceremonial aspect as well.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Getting out of the mind and into the body and then just letting it flow.
An ever ending practice.
So yes, that's my checklist.
Get my space nice and cozy.
Make sure I've cleansed and reset my body and my personal space.
Have my decks close by or just some way to tune in to maybe our higher power or guides,
whatever your belief system is with that.
Find a way to move and connect with my body and then pull out my journal and start on
some prompts.
So Kat, you want to give us some specific prompts for each of the moons that we can
refer back to?
I'd love to.
So if you're listening to this in real time, I will encourage you to go ahead, grab your
journal, pen, pencil, something to write with.
And I'm going to say these slow so that you can pause them and just write them down so
you can return to them when it's a new moon, when it's a full moon like today.
So the first one, we're going to start with our new moon prompts.
I have five of these for you.
And the reason that these, I have so many of them is because this is, you know, it's
the beginning.
This is your intention setting.
This is considering your month ahead.
So we always like to start with this first one and it is, how am I currently feeling?
How am I currently feeling from the heart?
Not just tired, you know, maybe you are tired and maybe there's a lot of reasons for that.
And getting deep with yourself rather than just saying good, like, how are you?
Good.
Moving on.
Number two, what are my intentions for this month?
So ask yourself, what are my intentions for this month?
What do you want to cultivate more of?
And then number three, what am I needing more of?
What am I needing more of?
So consider your life holistically.
Maybe it's an energy, maybe it's a thing, maybe it's a person.
Maybe it's a place for me to loom.
I am needing that right now.
A little vacation.
Number four, when I imagine my greatest manifestations coming true, what emotions do I feel?
I'll say it again a little slower.
When I imagine my greatest manifestations coming true, what emotions do I feel?
And then finally, just go ahead and list out some of your current dreams and goals.
Maybe you return to your New Year's intention, your word, anything that you have set out
for this year for yourself and just write them down.
You can track your progress, make this as deep or a surface level as you'd like.
Yes, and before you go into the full moon ones, I want to reiterate that for the new
moon, it's really beautiful to make the practical goals and lists for like the next month.
But I also usually use the new moon to get really big with my imagination.
So that's one of the reasons I still like to do a body practice is I like to let myself
kind of write down some really big, large goals as well, because one of my top problems,
I think as I really started working on my healing journey was I always thought so small
and I was always so scared to think really big because I didn't want to disappoint myself
if it couldn't come true.
And one of the things that I think this practice has helped is why don't I just write really
big things down and then watch if I shift on those.
If something stays consistent month to month to month, and I'm like, I still want that
just as bad.
It helps me really start to make more practical steps to it.
So don't be afraid to write some of the biggest things.
And maybe it's really hard to go there.
And it's a practice that maybe gets a little easier as you add it in to each new moon.
But dream big.
Think of if every possible thing could go right, what that would look like.
And I love that question on what it feels like to have everything that you're wanting,
because it's really important to work on embodying the emotion behind not just the objective
things that we are wanting, but what it would feel like, what it feels safe, what it feel
like, yeah, I have enough.
What is that underlying emotion that you're looking to find underneath the big dreams?
And I love that.
Yeah.
Hell yeah, Jen.
Love, love, love.
Be big, right?
It's like sometimes we get in our own ways and we stop ourselves from dreaming big because
it's embarrassing, or yeah, we're afraid that we'll fail.
But this is your time.
This is your journal.
No one's going to see what you write except for you, unless you start telling people,
which is actually the next step of manifestation, is putting it out there into the universe.
So go big, go big.
Love it.
So then moving into our full moon prompts.
This is the time to reflect and go back to your prompts that you set for the new moon
of that same month and check it out.
What did you do?
That thing that you said you needed more of, did you give yourself that?
Did you stay true to your intentions for the month and how?
And how are you on the journey towards your greatest manifestations, your dreams, your
goals?
What's that looking like?
What's that feeling like?
So we have three prompts.
The first one is how am I currently feeling?
Just like before, tuning into yourself, to your heart, how am I currently feeling?
The second one now, it's what do I need to let go of?
What do I need to let go of?
What are you releasing?
What's no longer serving you in this space that you're just ready to part with?
And then finally, the third one, it's what has been holding me back?
What has been holding me back?
Again, it could be a person, it could be a principle, just considering that.
And then when it becomes time to look forward, see what you learned from all of this.
You can use that information to make your situation better, even in a small way.
But these things add up, don't they?
Yeah.
Yes.
And thank you for those prompts.
I love it.
Yeah, if you don't have much of a self-care practice, I also think this is a really, if
you have a family or you're really busy just saying like, I need a little bit of time on
these specific days of the month.
I love taking baths on full and new moon so I can just kind of like hone in on myself.
It can even just be even more of a self-care ritual where you, yeah, give yourself like
a home little spa day or something, something where you're really checking in with your
energy body and you're letting it have a little bit of reset.
Because on the new and full moons, I usually feel a lot of energy.
I am very sensitive to the moons and I usually already have kind of a more anxious temperament.
So if I don't do some stuff to wind myself down and calm down before I had this kind
of intentional practice, I really felt kind of an anxious energy, usually days before
and days after because it was already shifting in my body.
I was just trying to blame it on other stuff or just not thinking of it.
But yeah, use it as a self-care practice if anything as well.
And yeah, add in anything that kind of works for you in addition to what we've shared with
you.
Yeah, love a good bath, connecting with that water, just treating yourself really well,
nourishing and yeah, maybe even getting together with some friends and seeing what they do,
just making it more of a conversation, more of a presence.
Oh, that's such a good point to make to like looking in your area for moon ceremonies,
like they are definitely out there and happening.
Like I love it.
I started going to.
Yeah, that was how I first even got into it.
And I remember my first moon ceremony.
I was like, oh no, is this like too witchy?
I had this was still so early on in the healing days.
I'm like, should I be doing this?
Like, I don't know.
So I had so much work to do.
That religious trauma slipping in.
That religious trauma coming up.
Yeah, it's come so far since that.
But yeah, you can search in your area like what's going on, maybe using it as a time
for even community, not just by yourself, but maybe that becomes your goal.
Instead of finding that self care alone time, maybe it's your chance to get out and find
a community circle that does this.
I guarantee there's more out there than you probably think.
And there's a lot of virtual options now as well for that.
Absolutely.
It's something that I'm looking to do more of in the future myself.
Yeah.
I pop on TikTok a lot for him, but no promises, but I am on and yeah, me and Kat have done
a few virtual ones too.
So always be on the lookout.
And with that, we wanted to just remind you that the reviews really help.
So if you can go on Spotify or Apple, wherever you listen to our podcast and give it a review
that really helps to boost us.
We have a lot of exciting things coming in the month of April.
So follow along at the Awaken Together podcast Instagram and remember that our doors are
always open for questions.
Absolutely.
We love to hear from you.
We have some really amazing guest speakers coming up.
So stay tuned, lots to share.
Thanks everybody.
Thank you Kat.
Thanks Jen.
We'll see you next time.
Bye.