Full Moon Rituals, Witchcraft and Wicca
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FAQ FULL MOON RITUALS
FULL MOON FAQ
This is the Full Moon Ritual (hereafter referred to as FMR) FAQ sheet. This
will let you know what it is and how it works, hopefully, and if it doesn't
then please feel free to ask questions on the list.
Who can "be in" FMR?
The FMR is not a coven or any kind of formal group; it's a community event, open to all
who care to participate. By participate, we mean lead, invoke a quarter, "petition" (see
somewhere later), or just read along and/or lend energy. Most leaders, but not all, ask
that those intending to participate "sign in" beforehand; the main reason is so we're
expecting you to "speak" and don't close before you get your chance.
So who gets to be leader?
Interesting question. Generally the previous leader will nominate someone immediately
after the end of the ritual to lead next month. This may be someone they personally want
to see lead, or they may leave the decision to the Gods (I once put all the invokers' names
in a little bowl I have...). If the person nominated can't lead next month, they will
frequently suggest an alternate; if they don't, it kicks back to the previous leader to try
someone else. If the outgoing leader REALLY doesn't want to nominate, he or she will
ask for a volunteer.
Who gets to do the other stuff?
Usually we ask for volunteers for the quarter, Goddess and God invocations. If there are
more volunteers than needed, it's the leader's choice. This isn't a question of quality; it's
usually a matter of balance (males and females, old people and new people, whatever).
What's a petition?
After the invocations are completed, the leader usually does a transition to the body of the
ritual, which normally consists of people's personal workings, which are frequently of the
"asking for something" persuasion, hence the word "petition", which is used to mean
anyone's personal contribution. Other than workings for a desired goal, "petitions" have
included expressions of gratitude to the gods and/or the members, performances of poetry
or music, whatever people want to do with their space. Petitions aren't scheduled; you
come in any time during the main window, usually 4-5 days.
How does it work?
The FMR is done during a 5-7 day window. The leader posts an opening note, setting
place and mood, usually casting the circle, and welcoming participants. Over the next 24-
48 hours the quarters are called, the God and Goddess are invoked, and the leader posts a
transition to the petition period. Thereafter people come in at their own time to petition
until the pre-announced time of closing, when the leader posts a final hail-and-farewell. It
isn't necessary to leave your computer on all week, or to do a physical working that
exactly mirrors your petition. While it's true that we take a week to do the ritual; it is also
true that it lasts one night. It is VERY true that the power raised is genuine, and that
requests are answered often and wonderfully. There are some things that you can do to
make the most of the power of the experience. First, she said with great emphasis, READ
THE WHOLE THING. If you're coming in to petition, backdate to start if need be and
read your way to where you'll be next to "speak". After the ritual has ended, read the
whole thing again and allow yourself to feel it all in one piece. Second, any mundane
legwork associated with your petition has to happen; if you're asking for that job you just
applied for, have you called and asked if they received your application? Also, many of us
(not all, not every time) do some version of our FMR petition in real-time. It may not be
as elaborate as what you do in cyberspace, which has fewer rules, but some personal
working appears to help. Third, believe it. One time someone asked how many people
had gotten what they asked for, and the results were pretty astonishing.
So how do I get in on this?
Some time around New Moon, the leader for the next FMR posts an announcement of
timelines, probably a call for volunteers, maybe a preliminary mention of place, maybe a
format note if something special is planned. As replies to that note, people sign up to
invoke and/or petition, ask questions, etc. Watch for there appearance of FULL MOON
ROLL CALL, which is where this sort of thing takes place. It's also the place for any side
discussion that may go on during the ritual, such as "nifty invocation, Joe" or "sorry I was
late for East". No experience is required, but a little background is useful, and it can be
acquired by reading a previous FMR or two (copies of past FMRs are archived on this
website, if you'd like to read them). As you read past rituals, the few style points become
apparent, notably that we reply to the previous reply especially during invocations (keeps
them in the right order) and that we write in third person and do a fair bit of describing
what we're doing; first person is only usual when we're actually "speaking". Example:
Cloud stops typing for a moment and scratches her head. She almost wonders what she
was about to say, but remembering what it was, she speaks: "Hey! Now I remember!"
That's it from me, for now. A thousand thank-you to Cloud (one of the original FMR
moms) for this information!
A NOTE ON THE DETERMINATION OF MOONS
The Moons here a determined by the following list, beginning with the first full moon
after Yule. Many different moon names exist, and I've tried to provide a few alternates as
well.
Wolf Moon
{chaste, cold, disting, little winter, quiet, wolf}
·
Horning Moon
{big winter, hunger, ice, storm, wild}
·
Storm Moon
{crow, plow, sap, seed, wind, worm}
·
Seed Moon
{growing, hare, planter's}
·
Hare Moon
{bright, dyad, flower, frog, merry}
·
Meade Moon
{honey, horse, dyad, lovers', rose, strawberry, strong sun}
·
Fallow Moon
{blessing, buck, hay, wort}
·
Barley Moon
{corn, fertile, grain}
·
Wine Moon
{harvest, singing}
·
Blood Moon
{falling leaf, harvest, hunting, vintage}
·
Snow Moon
{beaver, dark, fog, mad, shedding, storm}
·
Oak Moon
{big winter, cold, long night, wolf}
·
Elder Moon
{Blue Moon - the thirteenth moon in a solar year, despite the modern
notion that even the ancients called it the second moon in a month for our matrifocal
ancestors who lived by a Lunar Calendar, it was impossible to have two moons in a
month, as a moon was a month!}
·
Old Castle Ritual Room
Wolf Moon Leader : Red
Deer Date : 30 December 2001
The days after Yule had found Red Deer ever more intent on singing a place sometimes
his alone but more often a part of the real world into the Old Castle environs. Now, on the
night of the full moon, he lay again on the central altar amid the circle and spiral of
standing stones, only a few miles out in the country from the southern part of heaven. A
glorious full moon shone overhead, with only wisps of clouds. She illuminated the lithons
of rough hewn sandstone - the quarter-stones of which stood some twenty feet tall. When
Deer first found this circle, it was unlike any he'd experienced before - not actually a
circle but a spiral winding in from the north and completing two turns before meeting the
circle of quarter-stones, then one more to the central altar slab - but over the past few
years he'd become quite at home here. A newly built edifice on an anciently hallowed
hillside.
As part of the song, Deer called the memory of a prior Yule when he had lain just so upon
that altar for what seemed hours - watching Mama Moon as She had appeared to sail
through the regathering clouds - before he had become aware of the fog rolling in from
Chapel Hill. Entranced, he had held his breath as the fog mounted the hillock in a deosil
spiral until wisps of it were floating into the circle itself and seeming to dance among the
standing stones. Tonight Deer sang the fog up the hill and watched as it rose to claim
even the tallest of the stones. Then, he stood, shed all sense of himself and waited - until
awareness of a distinctly different atmosphere accosted his skin and his nose with smells
of ancient oak, selaginella and leaf mold. Opening his eyes, he sees the moon reflected in
a glass smooth lake which also reflects the walls and turret of the Old Castle off to the
south, and realizes that his gateway into this place has brought the stone circle just to the
eastern edge of the ancient grove, where so many previous moons have been celebrated.
Becoming aware of a faint smell of ozone and then noticing that, while grove and castle
appear solidly limned, the lithons about him possess a certain transparent quality, Deer
turns to each of the quarters, contemplating the wise words inscribed upon each of the
quarter stones, and returns to his song. Had anyone else been afoot, they might have
noticed antlers - outlined in a faint bluish light, upon Deer's forehead as he made his way
first three turns out then three back in the spiral. Each stone he pauses to touch, to hug, to
kiss... and each stone becomes limned in the same faint blue light as his antlers before
acquiring more of an air of solidity. Back at the central stone, Deer climbs upon it and
drops to his right knee, both hands clasped upon his left. Still Deer sings - of hills and
sky, grove and stones, lake and castle - ending only when the odd light and the faint acrid
odor have been completely subsumed in the more usual qualities of this place. Again he
waits, knowing that no matter how well sung, this work will not remain without the
blessing of his uncle. And waiting, Deer finds time to dwell upon plans for tonight's
moon. Lost in mental preparations, he is startled by the clatter of hoof upon stone and
looks up just in time to see a great stag - rack held high in the starlit sky - bounding from
stone to stone, turning about the outward spiral of this place before disappearing into the
wood. "Blessed Be, Uncle, and a thousand thank you's," Deer calls out cheerfully as he
inwardly kicks himself for having been so inattentive to the comings and goings about
him. However, had the Uncle desired interaction, he would have initiated it... and Deer
was overjoyed with the seeming air of permanence and age which now seemed to
emanate from the stones about him.
Taking his leave of the standing stones - and more than certain that he would return to
celebrate a moon with old friends here - Deer makes his way toward the lake where he
picks up the western loop of a trail which circles its girth before branching off toward the
Old Castle. Passing by the heart of the Old Grove, Deer is certain that he senses the
presence of more that forest creatures there, and thinks that he hears the familiar voice of
a sister, perhaps singing into this place some magical working of her own. A light
western breeze brings to his nostrils the familiar scents of old oak and creeping cedar,
mixed tonight with new ones which Deer wished he had time to catalog. Deer briefly
remembered another path which spirals up the hill - passing from mighty groves of oak
(white, chestnut, scarlet and their kith and kin), through towering stands of white ash and
into long-leaf pine barrens lining the hill's broad shoulders - going thrice around before
passing through the thorn thickets which line the truly ancient grove of mixed species
circled about the castle before reaching the top after.
But duty (joyous as this one is) calls, so he moves along the main trace which climbs the
southern face of the hill directly towards the Old Castle. By the time Deer crests the hill
and pauses beneath the ancient turret, the pack he carries has become quite a weight - but
all weariness departs as he lays hand upon the great bronze knocker which hangs before
him. Oncely, twicely, thricely he knocks - hearing the deep bass from the heavy bronze
spread from the sound board of the huge oak door and then reverberate through the
depths of the great hall - and then he waits for the Castle to answer. "Welcome child," he
senses more than hears, before gently pushing the mighty door inward. Ancient as this
place is, the heavy door turns easily and silently upon its hinges. A sense of timelessness
and yet of immense age washes over Deer as he stands beneath the high lentil,
momentarily swept away in memories of many moons spent within these walls.
Lowering his pack to the floor, Deer retrieves from its depths a large beeswax globe of
deepest crimson, which he sets upon the broad sill of the window that sidelights the
ancient door, and lights the wick protruding from its crown. Almost instantly, a specter of
cinnamon flows into the cavernous depths of the great room as the light illuminates the
stone foyer and shines as a beacon through the window and out into the night. Deer lays a
blessing about the doorway for all who enter here this eve and places a wicker basket
upon the sill of the sidelight window opposite to the candle, which is filled to overflowing
with small felt reindeer (Rodney's, Rhonda's, Ramona's and Randy's from the local
Hallmark) intended to depart homewards with each celebrant, then shoulders his pack and
moves deeper into the belly of this place. Elenya's willow broom still leans beside the
massive walk-in fireplace, black with the smoke and soot of generations, behind the long
feasting table that runs the length of the hall - a broom which will soon be put to good
use. Before cleaning, however, Deer leaves his pack upon the table, and proceeds to ferry
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