For every person reading this, there are just as many definitions of the word “ritual.” Some of you might think of a morning routine, like drinking a full glass of water, brushing your teeth, and then making a smoothie. Some of you might be thinking of a seance-like scene out of Hocus Pocus, with candles and pentagrams and latin chants.

When I talk about rituals, I’m referring to planned ways we intentionally pause and mark an event or achievement.

Just like blowing out candles on a birthday cake to pause and honor another year of life, or waking my kids up with a hug, a “good morning!” and my morning playlist blasting through the kitchen speakers. You can be celebrating or marking something routine and mundane or unique and unexpected.

Whatever the reason and whatever you call it, we are wired for rituals. Even without knowing the appropriate language, we make rituals part of our lives. At least I have. Before I even delved into the spiritual community, I relied on annual rituals so much that years ago I even wrote a course on how to incorporate rituals into your year for centeredness in our business and personal lives (grab it here). The course, The Game Plan, talks about how, “we have to take a moment to step away from our life to work on our life OR step away from our business to work on our business.”

Sometimes we have to pause in order to find clarity in reflection.

While that course was pragmatic and business-focused, with checklists, budgeting spreadsheets, and monthly meeting prompts (and there is a time and a place for that!) a New Moon ritual is a softer, gentler, more beautiful way to set intentions and identify goals.

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New Moon Rituals are generally centered around setting intentions for that which you wish to manifest. The emptiness of the night sky during a new moon is like a field waiting to be planted. When looking out on an empty plot of land, an empty garden bed, you can dream and imagine and plan. What to plant? What flowers? Veggies? What’s the layout going to be? What colors do I want to see? You imagine yourself cooking with fresh squash and tomatoes. You see yourself cutting Zinnia and Dahlia for a pitcher on your kitchen table.

You dream.

You imagine.

You visualize.

You manifest.

Only then do you know what seeds to plant.

It’s the same with your life, in this darkest phase of the Moon, the dream seed time. What do you wish to dream up? What new ideas are germinating in the nutrient rich soil of your soul?

If you read my blog about New Moons, you know that each new moon has a specific and unique flavor that directs this dream seed focus.

With every New Moon, I research what the energy of this particular cycle is about and I work with that energy. Just like someone journeying along a river in a canoe, we can fight the current and paddle upstream in search of a specific destination, or we can lay our paddle down, kick back, and let the river do its thing, taking us wherever we need to go, not knowing exactly what’s around the next bend, but excited and delighted to find out.

These rituals are all about learning to flow with the energy, trusting that we will end up where we need to be.

In my program, The Path Back to You, I share all about energy. It’s important to know about this even though it may seem boring, energy work is the foundation upon which all other spiritual work rests. Nothing I share in The Path Back to You will matter if we don’t know about energy, free will, the importance of our environmental energy, how to raise our vibration, and the goal of ultimately reaching the highest frequency of energy - consciousness.

So about two weeks before every New Moon, I research what the energy is doing and I buy a candle to help me set my intentions for that cycle. While the new moon is on a specific day, the moon is waning, or getting smaller, into a New Moon for those two weeks leading to the fully New Moon, so this New Moon energy is with us leading up to the actual date. I find candles help me engage more of my senses in this ritual.

Good news for you, I share my energy updates here on my blog, what the energy of each new moon and full moon are here to help guide us, and what specific candle to purchase. Make sure you’re on my newsletter list so you don’t miss a thing.