Waning Moon Medicine
The waning moon phase happens over about a 12-14 day period as the full moon turns inward to become the dark/new moon. This phase also reflects the “inner moon phase” of pre-menstruation (between ovulation and menstruation). Just as the moon’s energies are shifting from full illumination to darkness, during your inner moon phase your energy and attention instinctively shifts from the external world into the internal world.
In this distinct shift from outer to inner awareness, emotions become stronger, louder, more prominent and more active. You may feel quite dramatic and even violent or destructive as emotions arise that have either been repressed or not properly processed. It’s important to make time and space to be with these emotions, allowing them to be felt and expressed. Emotion = energy in motion. When emotion is not expressed and able to move it gets denser and denser, becoming stagnant and potentially leading to imbalance and dis-ease. When feelings, thoughts and emotions are not honored it can cause irritability, emotional eating, physical stress and tension, and many other symptoms commonly know as PMS.
If you don’t take the time (or receive the support) to be with, allow and release rising emotions you run the risk of carrying them into the next cycle. At this point they become compounded and in many ways carry the energy of rejection and judgment (since they were pushed aside rather than faced). To fully go into the dark places and feel the discomfort, particularly during this phase, can be cathartic as well as cleansing. Strong emotions can also be guideposts to show you what is or isn’t in alignment with your highest self, beliefs, values and desires. During this time it’s important to be with the emotions and listen to the messages they bring, in order to see what future changes need to happen so that your needs and desires can be met.
The waning moon (especially your inner waning moon between ovulation and menstruation) naturally draws you into a mysterious, mystical, witchy and magical space. When the focus is less on outside influences and opinions and instead on what lies within, your intuitive and psychic abilities come online and become more available. A major issue that women face, however, is fear around this magic. It’s what is called, The Witch Wound. Relatively speaking, it was not very long ago that thousands upon thousands of women were accused of witchcraft and tortured before being burned, drowned and killed in ways that would make your skin crawl and your heart heavy. The threat of being called a witch and dying because of it, was very real.
Today, many women still carry the fear and memory of this in their DNA and in their wombs.
Therefore as you plunge into this phase and experience these deeper aspects of Self, it will bring up not just your natural feminine intuition but also the fear of it. This can cause women to push it away, stuff it down, numb it with pills (rather than listen to the pain or to stop menses all together) and generally reject it which, ultimately, is a continued rejection of the Feminine.
The time has come to reclaim your inner witch, your magic, and your power. To heal at the deepest level and stop carrying it into the next cycle and future generations. Begin by tuning in deeper to the moon phases and especially your internal moon phases. The waning moon is a perfect time to step away from the mode of “doing” and productivity, and more into a mode of simply “being” through creativity, rest, self-forgiveness and reflection. Give yourself space to L I S T E N to your inner voice. It is OK to pivot from intellectual and physical activities and instead practice self-nurturing and self-inquiry. During this final phase of the moon’s cycle, be mindful and selective about how you schedule your time and who you spend it with. Try not to over-do it, and leave plenty of space to be alone, quiet, creative and restful.
For more moon wisdom, how to work with her energies and to come home to your divine feminine essence, check out our next Tapping Into the Heart Retreat ~ Womb in Full Bloom.