Tomorrow's Snow Moon

FULL MOON Friday night, February 10, 2017

Full Snow Moon

February’s full Moon is traditionally called the Full Snow Moon because usually the heaviest snows fall in February. This name dates back to the Native Americans during Colonial times when the Moons were a way of tracking the seasons. And the Native Americans were right. On average, February is the USA’s snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service.

Hunting becomes very difficult, and so some Native American tribes called this the Hunger Moon. Other Native American tribes called this Moon the “Shoulder to Shoulder Around the Fire Moon” (Wishram Native Americans), the “No Snow in the Trails Moon” (Zuni Native Americans), and the “Bone Moon” (Cherokee Native Americans). The Bone Moon meant that there was so little food that people gnawed on bones and ate bone marrow soup.

Full Moons are big peaks of energy, and with ritual, you can go with the momentum. And that simply means concentrating your energy for a symbolic or real action.

The lunar cycle gives you many chances to do rituals to mark a personal turning point or let go.

At the New Moon, you can go into the dark and be symbolically reborn. New Moon rituals help you summon your whole Self, and in that magic moment, commit to intentions.

At the full Moon, the energy builds and builds....there's an explosive outgoing aspect to it. All of nature grows and is more vital at the full Moon. This surge allows you to take action on behalf of those new Moon intentions you set two week prior. A full Moon ritual might involve taking one solid step, with a symbolic action. And it can be a powerful time to release, cast out, unburden yourself, purge, etc. You celebrate your emergence by stepping out of an old skin, identity, behavior, attitude, relationship. The ritual helps you by marking this inner transformation in a formal way.

A full Moon ritual might involve purification by one of the elements. Most often, it's fire, and done by casting something you don't want into the flames.. This can be done as a group, with everyone sitting 'round the fire...or in your own private ceremony. Each person can seal their action of letting go by speaking it aloud, if there's trust in the circle.

Water can be used to cleanse in rituals. I remember a very meaningful full Moon ceremony I had at my house with three other women. We had filled a blue bowl with water and some rose petals. Each of us wrote down what we wanted to draw into our lives on a piece of paper. After we read them aloud, we put our hands in the bowl to signify the cleansing of the old, to open to the new. It's still one of my favorite memories. Mainly it worked because we all trusted each other to be open hearted and share our dreams. When that's there, you can evoke the magic of shifting consciousness at will because the support is palpable.

New moon ceremonies have to do with creation, manifestation, birth, and rebirth. It is the full moon that completes the cycle. The full moon is the representative for marking a time for death or change. It is also a time for gathering up your wits and tying up loose ends. Basically, the full moon symbolizes the end chapter, shedding light on the things that we no longer need to hold on to.

Also known as: Dark Moon, Fog Moon, Beaver Moon, Mourning Moon, Blotmonath (Sacrifice Month), Herbistmanoth (Harvest Month), Mad Moon, Moon of Storms, Moon When Deer Shed Antlers Nature Spirits: subterranean faeries Herbs: grains of paradise, verbena, betony, borage, cinquefoil, blessed thistle Colors: gray, sea-green Flowers: blooming cacti, chrysanthemum Scents: cedar, cherry blossoms, hyacinth, narcissus, peppermint, lemon Stones: topaz, hyacinth, lapis lazuli Trees: alder, cypress Animals: unicorn, scorpion, crocodile, jackal Birds: owl, goose, sparrow Deities: Kali, Black Isis, Nicnevin, Hecate, Bast, Osiris, Sarasvati, Lakshmi, Skadi, Mawu Power Flow: take root, prepare. Transformation. Strengthen communication with the god or goddess who seems closest to you.

Illuminating Obstacles and Removing Them

Full Moon is an opportune time of the month for purging rituals to take place. The light the full moon offers illuminates those things that are interfering with our spiritual advancements. Once we have become enlightened to ways that are blocking us, the easier to let go.

The full moon ritual is for releasing or purging the things in our lives that no longer serve us such as addictions to food, drugs, or sex, relinquishing suffering involved in hurtful relationships, discharging physical and emotional pains, etc.

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Full Moon Release Ritual Items you'll need: Floating candles, a large bowl, water, matches, a pen.

• 1. Create sacred space with candles, sage smudging, and setting up altars with powerful totems..

• 2. If possible, stand or sit under the Moon. Allow yourself to feel a direct relationship to it, as a mover of the living waters of the Earth and within our own bodies.

• 3. Do a grounding exercise, to bring you out of the chatter of small talk and into ritual space. Feel the earth under your feet and shake out the tension in the body. For those who have done a meditation with me use the Mother Earth Crystal.

• 4. Place the large water-filled bowl in front of you, or in the middle of your gathering on a table.

• 5. Each person writes what they're releasing on the floating candle. It's not important that it shows up, just that the intention is there.

• 6. As you place the candle into the bowl, declare what you're releasing.

• 7. Light the candle.

• 8. Allow yourself to feel the transfer of what you're releasing to the candle. As a group focus on letting go into the water, holding hands if that feels right.

• 9. Celebrate this release by sharing a feast under the full Moon!

Allow the candle to keep burning in the bowl as a symbol of the letting go process. The flame is a purifier, and symbolizes the sparks of inspiration as well. If you blow out your floating candle, and your bowl is in your home, relighting it will remind you of your commitment. Place inspiring pictures and totems around it that remind you of who you're becoming. Above all, give yourself kudos for honoring your own growth.

It’s Simple, Yet Magically Transformative:

1. Create a sacred space with meditational music.

2. “Write on a piece of paper all you would like to relinquish. This is all the darker aspects of your life. The more specific the better. The areas where you need Divine help to heal whether it be something on the inside of you or a life situation.

3. Set in the fireplace and let the paper burn.

4. Announce the words out loud with full intention, I Relinquish! Be Gone!

5. Stay open to the miraculous and watch your prayers begin to manifest.