Excavating Your Inner Crone to Navigate the Unknown

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge

The crone or conscious elder does not shrink away from the unknown; they welcome it and say, "Hello, friend," with a wink and a smile, because they know that the seeds of new life rest in the dark. Or, as one of my real-life crone mentors, Sil Read, often says (just as her crone mentor used to say), "The gold is in the shit".

Of course, fear also dwells in these dark, unknown parts of the soul. You've likely bumped up against some of these seemingly impossible inner callings that seem too scary to unpack, a.k.a. the metaphorical shit asking you to alchemize it into nourishment for yourself and others.

Initially, these soul gems might not feel very exciting and will likely elicit fear and uncertainty. That's your inner crone or conscious elder, nudging you to something that needs your attention–a gift that needs unpacking.

In The Power of the Crone, mystic and author, Clarissa Pinkola Estés describes the crone as:

...the one who sees far. Who looks into the spaces between the worlds, and can literally see what is coming, what has been, what is now, and what underlies and stands behind many things. In one way, you could say that the crone represents the ability to see with more than just one's eyes alone, but to see with the heart's eyes, the soul's eyes, through the eyes of the creative force and the animating force of the psyche.

There's a reason the overculture seeks to exile the crone and conscious elder: they hold the wisdom needed to navigate the unknown. This doesn't mean that every elder is conscious of this wisdom; conscious elderhood requires excavating and cultivating this exiled wisdom. We’re being presented with grand opportunities to cultivate and excavate the wisdom of the crone. Where are you being asked to see with the eyes of your heart and soul?

Resting in the Unknown

The crone's animating force knocked loudly on the doorway of my heart on my 4oth birthday in 2024. Amidst a circle of wise women, holding pomegranate seeds in my hands and discussing the descent of Persephone, it landed in my body that I was and had always been queer. As the words bubble up, I realized I hadn't spoken something so true in a long time. Alongside my queer awakening, I realized I could no longer continue in my online business that had supported my family for the last decade. I also had to face the mountain of debt I'd created trying to resuscitate something my heart was no longer in. The saddest part was that I knew I wasn't living the life I wanted or needed to; the scariest part was that I didn't know what came next.

I created this painting at a point when I could no longer carry on the way I had been. I knew my only option was surrendering to the unknown.

Resting in the Unknown by Cassie Uhl

I felt like a failure and found myself frozen, completely unsure how to navigate these new truths. I fought hard against stepping into my queerness amidst a 14-year marriage, putting down a decades long business, and facing my debt. I found myself scheming plans to keep my marriage the same, ignore my debt, and resurrect a business I no longer believed in, when all the Great Mother needed me to do was surrender to who I was already becoming.

Resistance is medicine, and it's often a sign that you're up against something with a deep tap root.

What I didn't understand at the time was that my attempts to force outcomes stopped working because my inner world no longer matched my external reality. I had already changed. These words from Mysteries of the Dark Moon by Demetra George remind me of the wisdom of endings, “She will not lead us to our goal by revealing what it is but rather by eliminating everything that it is not.”

The archetypal forces who know how to navigate the unknown–the crone and conscious elder–have been exiled from the over-culture as irrelevant. Not to mention, we're biologically hardwired to be change-averse (1). It is not a moral failing to find yourself in fight, flight, or freeze when you're unsure how to navigate your life. It is biological and by design.

The external will always strive to match the internal and vice versa.

Over the last two years, I confronted what it means to be queer in a 14-year marriage to a man I still love, and embarked on the still ongoing process of renegotiating what marriage looks like when I'm clear about my needs. I stopped forcing an online business I didn't even enjoy because I was too scared to pivot into the in-person end-of-life work I know I'm here to do. And, I faced the debt my business had acquired over the last decade and am dealing with it.

It's been challenging, messy, and slow, and continues to be so. But the last two years of my life have also been freeing, beautiful, and true. Nothing is resolved or "fixed"; everything is still in a process of becoming. When something inside you screams for an external change that you can no longer ignore, it indicates an internal change has already occurred. If you’re reading this, we’re likely in agreement that what we see out in the world needs to, and is ready to change. This yearning signals a misalignment between our inner landscape and our external reality.

Just because the misalignment between what your soul wants and what we're living can be identified doesn't mean the path will be clear and known. In These Wilds Beyond Our Fences, philosopher Bayo Akomolofe shares, "These are the days we must fall apart to become larger." Allowing the external to crumble and facing the ensuing unknown creates fertile ground to build something new.

What navigating the last two years has taught me is that the archetypal energies that know how to navigate the unknown are alive and well, but we must seek them out. You can breathe life into your inner wise one and live into what the unknown is asking of you. By leaning into these exiled archetypes who know how to navigate in the dark, you have an opportunity to take back your power in an overculture that thrives on you not.

If you haven't found yourself navigating in the dark yet, don't worry, midlife sets us up to encounter these archetypes in their full glory. Midlife is the training ground for crone-dom and conscious elderhood.

More depth and darkness = bigger deaths

Perhaps, like me, you're acutely aware of what it's like to navigate the unknown, because we're watching it happen en masse as climate catastrophe, fascism, war, and uncertainty increase. The tectonic plates of change are shifting in big ways in our outer world, so it only makes sense that internal changes will match it.

I see the outer transformations reflected in myself as I feel the pull to shift towards what my soul feels is needed rather than sticking to what the overculture would prefer, e.g., avoiding the inner dread these times are invoking by staying productive, buying things I don’t need, and being obedient to white supremacy culture, patriarchy, and capitalism.

The discomfort I encountered over the last two years wasn't because I had done anything wrong. In fact, I had done everything right by allowing my soul to expand and change. I just needed to let my outer world crumble so it could catch up to what was happening inside me.

When your external world no longer matches your internal landscape, it's an invitation to surrender to the callings of your heart and soul.

The Art of Surrender

The overculture teaches us that quitting is giving up and endings are failures. The crone and the conscious elder see the wisdom in your endings and bow at your bravery to navigate the unknown.

As I surrendered, it made space for my inner crone to guide me. My only option was to take action based on what I felt in my soul, even (especially) when it didn’t make sense.

Today, I'm working in end-of-life care in my community as a death doula and caregiver, teaching in-person witchcraft workshops, chipping away at debt, navigating what it means to come out as queer at 40, and deepening into levels of love and trust with my husband that I didn't realize were possible. My outer reality once again aligns with my inner truth, and the best part is that it doesn't just benefit me; it also benefits my family and community. I'm still showing up in online spaces occasionally, but now know that it's not the heart of my work I'm here to do.

Getting to where I am today wasn't easy; it was challenging and scary (still is sometimes). I did CNA (certified nurse aide) training with a bunch of high schoolers over the summer and started working 12-hour night shifts at a local non-profit hospice, earning a nominal hourly wage. Friends and family members didn't understand why, and some even advised against it. I did it anyway because I knew it would provide me with the hands-on death care experience I needed to provide the holistic death doula care I want to offer. It was humbling in the best way possible, and I'm still learning.

Passing out handmade spiced ornaments to hospice residents and my first queer dance party.

I'm slowly enmeshing myself into queer and poly-affirming friendships and spaces to allow my previously exiled queerness to continue to come alive. I know my family and community will be better for it, too. More on this tender journey another day.

While surrendering to the crone consciousness within me was scary, it's also brought more life, joy, and truth into my life. Surrendering to the unknown is a death in its own right, and there are no scripts for death. The unknown will bring fear, but a remedy is excavating the crone and elder consciousness, once revered as sacred.

I don’t claim to be a crone yet, but I’m proud to be a crone in training.

Reclaiming What’s Been Exiled

Even though the crone and conscious elder have been exiled from the overculture, their wisdom endures. What a privilege it is to choose to bow at the feet of the conscious elder. The invitations are abundant right now.

Seek out the conscious elders around you; you'll know who they are because they are the most ferocious truth-tellers. Read about the archetype of the crone; many stories have remained (Baba Yaga, Spider Woman, the Challieach, etc.). Listen to the wisdom of autumn and winter. Become attuned to the death process and how it moves through plants, animals, and people. The archetype of the crone and conscious elder is alive and well when seek them out. Most important, listen to the difficult and scary whispers (or loud hollers) from your soul, notice the fear surrounding them, and face them in a way that works for you.

The art of surrendering to the unknown is the way to rebirth. There's no evading the crumbling if you want to honor what your soul is asking you become. It must happen.

We began with C.P.E, so let’s end with another favorite quote of mine, the reminder that rebirth will always come. In The Power of the Crone, Clarissa Pinkola Estés shares that “the secret to being reborn is to have faith that it will come.”

Every descent into darkness will be different. Some will move swiftly, others will seem endless. While the terrain is different each time, the body will re-remember how to navigate with greater ease every time you surrender.

When you navigate the unknown of your soul and allow your outer life to reflect its inner callings, it will create changes that expand into your family and community. Don't pass by the gold just because that packaging is scary. Call on the inner crone and conscious elder who live within you, and seek them out in stories and nature. They will lead you into the dark unknown of your soul, show you what’s ready to fall apart, and stand beside you as you navigate the crumbling and the rebirth.

In love and magic, Cassie

1 Levin, S. (2024, November 27). Brain power revealed: the neuroscience of human behavior. Columbia University School of Professional Studies. h tps://sps.columbia.edu/news/brain-power-revealed-neuroscience-human-behavior

Reclaiming Eros in Magic: My Story & Ways to Reclaim Yours

Three years ago, I had an experience that I knew I would share one day, and I couldn’t fathom sharing it for most of the last three years. But today is that day. While it still feels vulnerable, I trust that it’s important for me to share it. 

This story needs to be told not because it is unique, but because it is common. Yet, it’s something that many choose not to or feel unsafe to talk about, which is exactly how I felt for a long time. 

The truth is, what I’m going to share is as fundamental as eating, drinking, birthing, and dying–it’s in your genes. It’s your ability to be present with your most innate and primal power, the power of your erotic and sensual energy. 

This is not about sex and orgasm, although they can certainly interweave. When I speak to the erotic here, it is as one of my teachers, Kalah Hill, would say, our origin story. Your erotic and sensual desires point to why we are here today. It is where we all came from, and that is a powerful concept.

Eros is your sense of desire and capacity to access pleasure in your sensorial body, whether it’s a full-bodied walk through a forest where every one of your senses comes alive and erupts into bliss, or physical intimacy with a partner, it’s all eros. 

Here’s my homecoming story to my body, pleasure, and erotic power. You’ll also find some ways to start exploring this work and how you might want to incorporate it into your practice. If you want to do a deep dive, join me in a 2-hour live workshop here. 

It’s a “Kundalini” awakening!

Some will read this story and say, “You had a Kundalini awakening!”. If that’s the language you would use, I want to challenge you to think broader (unless it is a part of your cultural and ancestral practice). Kundalini is a Hindu term that describes the coiled, primordial life force residing at the base of the spine. Like many practices, the term “Kundalini awakening” is yet another that has been misused and appropriated by people outside the culture. 

As is often the case when terms are appropriated outside of their culture of origin (beyond the harm of cultural appropriation), it causes a separation from one's own cultural and ancestral inheritance. 

While the phrase ‘Kundalini’ is unique to Hinduism, erotic energy and the unique ways it manifests in each person are not. After having this experience, I devoted myself to discovering how these practices were incorporated into my ancestral traditions and how others continue to work with them today. 

This is how my erotic awakening occurred and how it led me to explore my ancestral inheritance of working with this sensual and primordial energy. 

A Homecoming to my Body and my Power

A past mentor instructed me to journey to the lower world. I didn’t think much of it because I had made lower world journeys in the past. This time was different. It was the Leo full moon, and when I entered the cave pathway into the lower world, I was met by an older female ancestor whom I’d worked with in the past. She had something to share. 

She instructed me to begin rocking my pelvis forward and backward. While this was a little out of the ordinary compared to past journeys I’d experienced and past interactions with this ancestor, I was in the lower world, so ordinary doesn’t really apply. Because this was a trusted ancestor I’d worked with in the past, I did as she said.

Within minutes of moving my pelvis back and forth, an explosion of erotic energy cracked open in my pelvic bowl. The ancestor was loving but firm in her direction. She wanted me to continue with various pelvic motions and stay with the intense energy coursing through me. While I did my best, the intensity was so great that after a few minutes, I shifted into different positions, moving from standing to lying down and then sitting on my knees. 

I was able to stay engaged by focusing on the drum beat and my breathing. Even though part of me did not know what was going on, I knew I had to surrender to the experience.

I completely lost track of time, but the realization that people in other offices were within earshot of me did make its way into my mind (this happened when I had an office and storefront in Arizona). While the orgasmic energy coursing through my body was extremely intense, I could tell there was more. I knew I had to surrender even more and that it was going to be loud when I did.  

When I surrendered, I felt energy shoot up from my pelvic bowl into my heart. A primal yell escaped my mouth without my permission, and orgasmic shock waves radiated out of my heart with such force that it sent me falling backwards. Heaving on the floor, I had just experienced the most intense full-bodied orgasm of my life, fully clothed and without physical touch.

An Extended Afterglow and Shame

As I lay on the floor, I was simultaneously blissed out, confused, and a little ashamed. It was unlike any usual orgasm I’d ever experienced; I wasn’t even sure if it was an orgasm. I was fully clothed, didn’t touch myself, but felt orgasmic bliss radiating out of my body at a level of intensity I’d never experienced. Not to mention my vulva continued to vibrate with pleasure for days after.

I’d heard of a kundalini awakening before, but it wasn’t a part of my practice. I also knew this was something different, or at least something with a different name, because it was a European ancestor who guided me through this experience. 

As I navigated life with my body buzzing and my vulva still on fire, my head was spinning. While walking around with a permanent orgasmic buzz might sound enticing, as an overworked new mom of twin 2-year-olds running a business, it was jarring.

Over a week’s time, the intense sensations I experienced eventually stabilized in my body as I slowly metabolized this experience. Fortunately, this experience was not the end of my story, just the beginning. 

This experience encouraged me to confront aspects of myself that had been overlooked. I was able to face my relationship with pleasure, sex, desire, and my body with a fresh perspective. If you think herbalism and spellwork are suppressed, watch out because the suppression, erasure, and vilification of erotic energy, pleasure, and sex is (no shock) truly impressive. I now understand that it was by design that I felt shame after this experience. It’s also why so many feel uncomfortable talking about these kinds of experiences, pleasure, and erotic power. 

As you’ll learn, if you explore these parts of yourself, reclaiming your erotic power is political, radical, and liberatory. I am certainly not the first to share this; Black women and femmes, like adrienne maree brown and Audre Lorde, have been leading this work for decades. 

Reclaiming My Erotic Power

In the last three years of integrating this experience and learning more about my erotic power directly from my body, working with my ancestors in journey states, and with the help of others guiding this work, I’ve begun the life-long process of reclaiming this part of my ancestral inheritance and magical practice. 

My experience and the ensuing exploration it spurred changed every facet of my life. It brought a sensorial awareness into my life that I didn’t know was available to me. I have access to entirely new states of consciousness and ways to feel and move energy as a result of intentionally incorporating my erotic power into my practice. My senses are more heightened, and my entire practice is transformed.

Reclaiming this part of my practice extends far beyond energy and magic. It has positively affected my mental, physical, and emotional health. It uncovered my queerness, pansexuality, and femme-ness. My connection to my erotic power continues to liberate me from an overculture that only wants me to produce and perform within the confines of cis, het, and patriarchal parameters. 

The changes that unfold in you as a result of exploring your erotic power will be unique to you and likely look very different than mine. You likely have practices in your ancestral lineage to connect you with your body, pleasure, and power. I think we all do. 

Reclaiming Your Erotic Power

What I don’t want you to walk away with here is that you need to have some explosive and mystical experience to explore this work or claim your erotic power. You don’t, or maybe yours will or did look completely different from mine.

I believe that the practices that open these sensorial channels were once standard, taught, and shared between generations. Just like my wise ancestor taught me in this journey.  I believe that in our past (and still today in some places), these experiences didn’t happen in isolation, but were coordinated and deeply held by elders in the community who understood the power of erotic energy. 

There are many paths to reclaiming your erotic power, and there are, in fact, many leading this work, but it can take some digging (remember that suppression I mentioned earlier). How you decide to navigate your journey into this realm will be a personal choice. 

Remember, erotic energy lives within your body. While you might feel intrigued to learn from others, it is not necessary. Your body is your best teacher. 

As someone with European ancestry, challenges to exploring this work presented quickly due to the Inquisition and the burning times, which caused extreme suppression of anything deemed heretical, especially erotic power in women. While I have read and learned from others, much of my exploration into this realm has been through self-exploration, spiritual journeying, and working with my ancestors.

There are lineages where this work has remained intact through the generations, like Tantra and Daoism. While these are the lenses through which much of this work is presented, I believe these practices were/are alive in all of us.

As with any craft that’s been deemed inappropriate by a patriarchal, white-supremacist over-culture, getting to the root of the matter will likely be a unique and winding path. 

Bringing Erotic Power into Your Practice

Here are some gentle ways to begin exploring this realm. Here are some starting points. Get more details about these in my upcoming workshop, Reclaiming Eros in Magic. 

• Take some time to be with the topics of pleasure, your body, and sex. What does it bring up for you? What excites you? What makes you uncomfortable? Journal about it or have conversations with others whom you feel safe talking about these topics.

• Explore possible trauma with your body, pleasure, and sex. This may require the assistance of a trained professional, depending on your personal experiences. The books Sacred Sex by Gabriela Herstik or Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown can be supportive places to start. 

• Carve out regular time to be with and engage your sensorial body (solo and/or with a partner). This doesn’t have to be sexual, although it can be, but could be as simple as going for a walk and engaging your senses.

• Explore the elements (air, fire, water, earth) through your senses. For example, to work with the earth element, grab a rose or your favorite flower and engage with it through your senses. Smell it, gently brush it over your face and body. 

• If working with your ancestors or guides is part of your practice, approach them with curiosity about this work and how you might explore it. 

• Read or listen to folks who have led this work or are leading this work. Here are some of my favorites: Sacred Sex by Gabriela Herstik, Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown, Mysteries of the Dark Moon by Demetra George, the essay Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power by Audre Lorde, and Witches, Witch-hunting, and Women by Silvia Federici. 

I’m not here to present myself as an expert, but I do want to create spaces where talking about pleasure, erotic energy, and how it pertains to magic is more accessible and trauma-informed. My goal in sharing all of this is to help normalize it, especially for mid-life and aging women, femmes, non-binary folks, moms, and caregivers who, like me, maybe feel like this realm isn’t for them. 

Eros and pleasure are for everyone, and I’d argue we need them now more than ever. 

Have a similar story, or did something in this resonate?a I’d love to hear about it. If you want to explore this more, I hope to see you in the live workshop or the replay, where we’ll discuss the story of Lillith and how she relates to this work, history, and practices to begin exploring your erotic energy. 

In Care, Cassie

Full Moon in Scorpio: Navigating Your Depths

What themes have been swirling within you that have felt too emotional or challenging to be with? The Scorpio full moon asks you to enter your depths intentionally. Scorpio energy lives in the subconscious, encouraging curiosity about all those emotions and topics you’d rather avoid. This is the beauty of working with the moons: there’s a time and place for everything. 

Working in the subconscious creates fertile ground for profound changes and transformations. For any transformation to occur, something needs to be grieved and let go of. Death is an innate part of transformation. 

Full moons are ideal for working with themes of acceptance, grief, and letting go because they offer energetic support to bring what’s ready to be honored, grieved, and released to the surface. 

Grief and death (big “D” and little “d” deaths) are a natural part of life, and you don’t have to wait until your emotional landscape is at capacity or you’re on the verge of a meltdown to access these parts of yourself. Working with the energy of the moon phases provides natural times to access the depths of your emotional realms and tend to your grief cyclically.

After anchoring into a new season with the Taurus new moon (spring for the Northern hemisphere and autumn for the Southern hemisphere), the watery depths of this Scorpio full moon invite inner transformation. 

Find themes, ritual support, and prompts below to support you during this Scorpio full moon. 

Full Moon in Scorpio Themes

Themes: transformation, grief, death, emotions, the subconscious, sex, shadow work

Corresponding Planet: Pluto

Element: Water

Modality: Fixed

Full Moon in Scorpio Ritual Support

For this ritual, you’ll guide yourself into your watery depths to excavate something that wants to be worked with and possibly grieved this full moon. 

The best time to perform this ritual is the day of or the day after the full moon. Working with this full moon on the waning side is particularly powerful for working with themes of grief, release, letting go, and acceptance. 

As always, modify this ritual as needed! This is a template for creating meaningful rituals aligned with your practice. 

For this ritual, you’ll need:

• 20-40 minutes 

• Quiet and comfortable space

• Something to write with

• Optional: a candle, water or tea, music, and any other items that would feel supportive

1. Prepare your area and create a sacred space. This might include lighting a candle for yourself and this practice, clearing your space aligned with your practice, and calling in any supportive guides or allies as you sit with this practice. 

2. Prepare yourself to journey inwards. You’ll need a quiet and comfortable space for 20-40 minutes. If you want to listen to soft drumming or music while you journey, turn that on now. 

3. Sitting or lying down, begin to turn your attention inwards by closing your eyes and focusing on your body and your breath. 

4. Within your mind’s eye, begin to visualize or imagine what it would feel like to sink into the center of a deep, warm body of water. Imagine what sinking lower and lower into the water would feel like. 

5. Continue with this guided visualization of sinking into the water for as long as feels appropriate for you. Imagine you hit the surface or find a natural place to stop and be. When you do notice what this space looks and feels like. Notice if any light is coming through the water. What sounds are present? How does the water feel on your skin? 

6. In this deep and quiet watery space, invite in your emotions. What’s present in your emotional landscape? What wants to surface? Can you allow it to surface fully with the support of the element of water? If this feels hard, consider asking the element of water to assist you. 

7. Move with what comes up and allow yourself to emote as you can, if it arises. 

8. When you feel complete, slowly imagine yourself rising out of the water. As you move up through the water, visualize yourself releasing and leaving anything in the depths that wants to stay and bringing up anything that wants to return to the surface. 

9. When you return to the surface, thank the water and the moon. Slowly come back to your body from this journey. Have some tea or water to ground yourself. 

10. Consider writing down your experience or moving through some of the prompts below. If it feels better to simply be and rest, do that. 

Full Moon in Scorpio Prompts

Here are some prompts to further support you during this full moon. Use them as journal prompts or questions to work with your tarot or oracle cards. 

1. What emotions wish to be witnessed and honored within me?

2. What topics have I been avoiding that want my attention? 

3. What’s ready to be grieved within me? 

4. How does this full moon want to support me in honoring my emotions and grief?

5. How will honoring my emotional landscape and grief support myself and my community?

May you feel the support of this watery full moon to honor your full range of emotions. Your emotions, even the hardest ones to be with, hold wisdom and purpose. Let them flow.

Blessed full moon!  
Cassie

Taurus New Moon: Anchoring into your Senses

As a fixed earth sign, the Taurus new moon anchors us into the changing season (spring for the Northern hemisphere and autumn for the Southern hemisphere). It is a reminder to be with your body and the body of the earth, two sides of the same coin.

The corresponding sign for Taurus is Venus, which brings a welcomed sensual nature to the sturdiness of this sign. This new moon invites you to examine the riches of your body, senses, and the earth. Of course, what those riches are will vary from person to person.

Your body and the body of the earth are the keys to accessing the medicine of this new moon.

This is a slow and steady new moon, not one of those new moons to jump on a new project. This one is all about feeling. Maybe it is time to reorient towards something new in your life, rather than planning. Imagine what it would feel like to reorient in a new way. What would it smell, taste, look, sound, and feel like?

Keep reading for a ritual to work with the elements and your body to get your senses going.

New Moon in Taurus Themes

Themes: the body, earth, slowness, sensuality, intentional movement, embodiment, the senses, claiming or creating one's desires

Shadow themes: stubborn, unfeeling, lethargic, unresponsive

Corresponding planet: Venus

Element: Earth

Modality: Fixed

Quote: "Supremacy and oppression does not want us to slow down, connect or have space for our uncomfortable emotions to land because doing so is a threat to systems of violence." -Thérèse Cator

New Moon in Taurus Ritual Support

There are many simple ways to be with this new moon. Embodying a slow and sensual way of being while walking, eating, dancing, or taking a bath would all be excellent ways to explore its energy.

Below, I outline a malleable ritual for you. As always, please take what you like, leave the rest, and make it work for your practice.

Consider practicing this ritual with a trusted friend or lover if that sounds supportive and fun. The best time to practice this ritual is on the day of the new moon or up to two days after.

I adapted this ritual from a practice I learned from Kalah Hill.

For this ritual, you'll need the following:

• A quiet and uninterrupted place to be with your body, inside or outside

• A physical item representing each of the four elements (examples: feather for air, candle for fire, water for water, and food for earth, or favorite scent for air, lava stone for fire, rose for water, granite for earth)

• Optional: any other items you want to explore physically or have near you for the ritual, pen/pencil, and paper

1. Gather your supplies and prepare your space (inside or outside), making it as cozy and comfortable as possible.  

2. Take 5-10 minutes to be with your breath and body to allow space to arrive in the present moment.

3. One at a time, move through each item that you brought to work with for each element by exploring it tacitly. Tune into the item and element it represents for guidance on how it wants to be experienced or felt.

4. Slow way down and be playful. For example, gently and carefully move items over sensitive parts of your body like your face, neck, or the backs of your thighs. Try to spend 5-10 minutes with each item.

5. When you finish with each item, pause and notice how you feel and which senses were most utilized for each item. Spend a few minutes tuning into your body and breathing before moving to the following item.

6. Once you're finished moving through each item, tune into your body and breathe again. Notice how you feel and what sensations are arising. If you have time, lie down and be with your body for a while before moving to something else.

7. Consider journaling about the experience. Find some journaling prompts below.

New Moon in Taurus Journal Prompts

1. How does it feel to slow down and give yourself time to be with your body?

2. What is your relationship with pleasure? In what ways do you cultivate pleasure in your life (sexually and non-sexually)?

3. What kinds of sensations would you like to cultivate more of in your body?

4. What riches have you discovered by engaging with your senses, body, and/or the earth?

As you move through this new moon, may you be reminded of the power of your senses and your ability to cultivate pleasure within your body. See and feel it in the beauty and wisdom of the earth.

Blessed new moon!  
Cassie

Aries New Moon: Claiming Your Power

The Aries new moon initiates us into springtime (or Autumn, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere.). As the earth begins to wake up, the cardinal fire sign associated with this new moon can infuse you with passion and focus that can anchor you into your deepest creative desires.

In essence, Aries energy is about your power and how you’re wielding it. 

In a world where power is often violently distorted and misused, it’s only natural that you may feel a sense of trepidation about utilizing yours. This new moon is a place to explore that, too. 

As so many continue to see and experience the harm of mishandled power in our world, I encourage you to remember that not all power is power over, power can also be used in collaboration to support yourself and others from a place rooted in love, creativity, and justice. 

Power is helpful and healing, if handled properly. 

In this post, I’ll offer gentle support to navigate this energized new moon. If you’re reading this in 2025, this new moon coincides with a solar eclipse! Eclipses can be intensely illuminating. Be tender with yourself! 

Aries New Moon Themes

Themes: Initiatory, active, discernment, passion, creativity, focus, courage, warrior archetype

Shadow aspects: anger, rage, destruction, violence

Element: Fire

Modality: Cardinal

Quotes: “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” -Alice Walker

“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear and punishment.” Mahatma Gandhi

Aries New Moon Ritual Options

This ritual is aimed to help you identify where you’re currently placing your power and if you’d like it to shift, where your power is placed. New moons are a time of curiosity and openness, so this support is aimed at being curious around where your power is placed rather than taking action. 

As always, take what you like and leave the rest. The ideal time to work with this new moon is the day before, the day of, or the day after the new moon.  

What you’ll need: 

• Something to write with and on

• 20-60 minutes

• Space to move

• Optional: music, candle, oracle or tarot cards, any other items that feel connected to the themes of this new moon, and food and drink to ground post ritual

1. Gather your materials and create sacred space for yourself. This could involve lighting incense or a candle, getting into comfortable clothing, turning on supportive music, and/or calling in helper spirits or guides.

2. Spend a few minutes connecting with your breath, body, and the moon. If it feels aligned, set an intention aloud or in your mind to connect with this new moon and themes of power and action. 

3. If you are working with a candle and have not lit it yet, do that now. 

4. Begin by exploring the prompts below in the next section by contemplating them, journaling about them, or drawing oracle or tarot cards based on them. 

5. After spending time with these prompts, tune into your breath, body, and the moon again. Notice if there are any shifts. 

6. Check in to see if you feel complete in your new moon exploration or want to continue. 

7. If you want to continue, and it feels accessible, move into the body for an intuitive movement practice to work with your relationship to power. This might look like noticing where you feel power in your body and moving with it, turning on music that helps you feel empowered to move with, gazing at your candle flame to connect and move with the element of fire. 

8. Stay with the movement practice for as long as you’d like. When you feel complete, give yourself time to tune in with your breath, body, and this new moon again. Notice how you feel and what arises. Journal or draw if it feels supportive. 

9. Close your practice in a way that feels good to you. This could include thanking yourself,  this new moon, and any guides or helper spirits you called upon. 

10. Eat and drink to help you ground if it feels supportive. 

Aries New Moon Prompts

Enjoy these prompts for card readings or journaling:

1. Where are you currently focusing your power and strength? 

2. What’s motivating your action?

3. What are the effects of where you’re focusing your power and strength right now? 

4. Is the focus of your strength and power contributing to yourself, family, and community in the way you want? 

5. Are there any ways you want to shift where you’re putting your power? If so, what might this look like for you?

As with all new moons, the sun is in the sign of Aries until mid next month to help you carry this energy through this moon cycle. Notice how your relationship with your power, and how you exert it shows up as the moon waxes towards full.

New Moon in Gemini Ritual

The new moon in Gemini is an invitation to get curious about becoming more active in your community to spark needed change. Ruled by Mercury and a mutable air sign, Gemini is curious, communicative, and desires connection to work towards a more equitable future. Combined with the new moon, this energy encourages openness to new ways of connecting with your community to inspire change. 

This ritual offers you a format to ask important questions and explore how you might open yourself to cultivating connections to bring about positive change in your community. Big change requires collaboration, communication, and connection. If you feel nervous or unsure about where to start, this ritual will create a supportive container for curiosity. 

If you enjoy this ritual, I invite you to share it with someone else who might benefit from it. 

Themes for this new moon: Community, communication, connecting, reciprocity, curiosity

Element: Air

The ideal time to perform this ritual is the day before the new moon, on the new moon, or the day after the new moon. 

You’ll need: 

• 10-20 minutes of quiet and uninterrupted time

• Pen and paper

• Optional: cleansing smoke of choice

• Optional: apatite, turquoise, fluorite, chrysocolla, or quartz

1. Create sacred space by grounding yourself and connecting with your breath and body. If casting a circle or calling in the quarters is in your practice, you could do this too.

2. Sit, close your eyes, and begin to connect with your breath and body. If you’re working with a suggested crystal, you can hold it or place it near you to help you tune in.

3. In this space, allow yourself to feel into the realm of your heart space and vision the world in which you’d like to live. Get specific. How does this world feel, how are historically marginalized people treated, how are plants and animals treated, and how do we care for one another in this world? Notice what surfaces and allow yourself to feel. Stay here for as long as you want to or are able.

4. After spending some time visualizing this version of the world, ask, “What is my role in my community to bring about this world?” or “How can I begin aligning myself with this new world within my community?” Breathe and allow your mind to take you where it wants to go. Be open to visualizations, messages, or feelings that may arise. 

5. When you feel ready to come out of your meditation, pick up your pen and paper and write down any ideas that came to your mind. 

6. Take a moment to think about any resistance or blocks you may have in taking these actions. If using cleansing smoke, use your cleansing smoke here. If you’re not, simply visualize. Imagine these blocks or resistance being blown away by a gust of wind with your smoke or through visualization. 

7. Holding your paper in your hand and your crystal if using one, visualize yourself taking these actions in your community to help bring about the world you desire. Stay in this space for as long as you like. Place your paper on an altar or somewhere you’ll see it regularly (if using a crystal, place your crystal on top of the paper.) Allow it to stay there until the full moon. 

8. Before the full moon, schedule time to be taking steps towards the actions you listed out to get involved in your community. 

This new moon ritual can be adapted or used for any new moon or new moon in Gemini. As always, take what you like and leave the rest.

New Moon in Pisces Ritual

The new moon in Pisces is an invitation to feel and honor your emotional depths and be open to spiritual growth through the heart space. As a mutable water sign, Pisces energy encourages you to celebrate your sensitivities. Coupled with the new moon, it promotes open and inquisitive exploration of your sensitive nature, even when it feels hard. 

This new moon is a call to touch into your heart space where you can honor your spiritual journey through a lens of love and compassion. It can often feel difficult or unsafe to feel into our hearts in a world with so much complexity, but this new moon wants to offer you a container to do just that and asks you to breathe more love into your spiritual practice.

Themes for the Pisces New Moon

Themes: attuning to dreams, honoring emotions, feeling the depths of your sensitivities, being open to spiritual growth through your emotional realms

Element: Water

Modality: Mutable

Message: Sensitivity is a superpower.

Learn more about the essence of Pisces here.

Honoring the Heart Space Ritual

The ideal time to perform this ritual is the day before the new moon, on the new moon, or the day after the new moon. 

You’ll need: 

• 20-40 minutes of quiet and uninterrupted time

• Cup of water

• Optional: rose quartz

1. Create sacred space by grounding yourself and connecting with your breath and body. If casting a circle or calling in the quarters is in your practice, you could do this too.

2. Sit, close your eyes, and begin to connect with your breath and body. If you’re working with rose quartz crystal, you can hold it or place it near you to help you tune into your heart space.

3. In this space, allow yourself to feel into the realm of your heart space and your emotions. Notice what surfaces and allow yourself to feel. Stay here for as long as you want to or are able.

4. Notice how these emotions feel in your body, where they show up in the body any qualities they have. 

5. When you feel ready, ask aloud or in your mind, “How can these emotions help me live from a place of love and inform my spiritual path?” Breathe and allow your mind to take you where it wants to go. Be open to visualizations, messages, or feelings that may arise. 

6. When you feel ready to come out of your meditation, pick up your cup of water and hold it in your hands at your heart space. Visualize the love you feel going into the water. 

7. Take a drink of the water and then pour some outside as an offering of love to the world and all its inhabitants. 

8. Optional: Place your piece of rose quartz into the water if you used it, and then place your cup of water on an altar or sacred space as a reminder of your commitment to move from a place of love. Allow it to stay there until the full moon. The moon has a special relationship with water and will help magnify your intention. 

This new moon ritual can be adapted or used for any new moon or new moon in Pisces. As always, take what you like and leave the rest.

New Moon in Capricorn Ritual

The new moon in the cardinal sign of Capricorn is an invitation to explore themes of building supportive and nurturing foundations. This timely Capricorn new moon usually falls around the new year on the Gregorian calendar, where you may already be exploring goals or new paths for your year ahead. 

The energy of Capricorn reminds you to pause and reflect on how you may need to nurture and care for yourself to grow in new ways. Because Capricorn is a cardinal sign, it carries an energy of initiation. This doesn’t necessarily mean taking direct action towards your goals but instead pausing to ensure that you have taken the necessary steps to build a structurally sound and sturdy foundation in which you can build upon. 

If you enjoy this ritual, I invite you to share it with someone else who might benefit from it as well. 

Themes for this full moon: Structure, stability, building foundations, planning necessary steps to begin a new phase, nurturing yourself

Element: Earth

The ideal time to perform this ritual is the day before the new moon, on the new moon, or the day after the new moon. 

You’ll need: 

• 20-30 minutes of quiet and uninterrupted time

• Comfortable place to sit or lie down

• Pen/pencil and paper

• Any grounding crystal or stone from outside

1. Create sacred space by grounding yourself and connecting with your breath and body. If casting a circle or calling in the quarters is in your practice, you could do this too.

2. Sit or lie down, close your eyes, and begin to connect with your breath and body. Place your grounding stone in your hands, on your lap, or somewhere on your body.  

3. Take a few moments to reflect on something you’d like to initiate in the coming weeks or months. Because this sign calls you to build a strong foundation, this is an ideal time to reflect on something that may feel daunting or big to begin. 

4. Once you have something in mind, place your hands on your grounding stone and notice its weight, solidness, and structure. Think about the new adventure you have in mind to initiate and what you would need to feel supported, nurtured, and held as you begin taking action towards it. 

5. As ideas come to mind, imagine sending them into your grounding stone upon which your hands are resting. Allow yourself to think of as many supportive and nurturing things to support you in this new endeavor. Don’t worry about how feasible any of them are. Simply allow yourself to feel into this space of being held and supported. 

6. When you feel ready, slowly come out of the meditation. Take a few moments to write down suggestions or ideas that came to you around feeling supported and ways to build a strong foundation for any new endeavor. 

7. Close your ritual in a way that feels good to you. Thank any guides, spirits, or ancestors who came through. 

8. Ritual follow-up: Place your grounding rock on top of your paper under the new moon. Keep your rock with you as a reminder of all the nurturing and supportive ideas that came to you. Consider placing your list somewhere you’ll see it regularly so you can begin adding these ideas into your days. 

This new moon ritual can be adapted or used for any new moon or new moon in Capricorn. As always, take what you like and leave the rest. xoxo Cassie