Welcome to KM's Coven 101 on our beloved Grandmother, the Moon! To us she is most commonly referred to as Grandmother though too, we know and teach her as great Spiderwoman as well. We are honored that you took a little bit of your time to give attention to the significant important connection that all living child beings of mother Earth clearly and distinctively have with our Grandmother Moon that when we pay attention and acknowledge, proves to be as wisdom for our own individual as well as collective good while part of the earthly web of woven life.
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Many Native American traditions have Grandmother Moon as the leader of feminine life. men who consider themselves “traditional” should be following the teachings of the Grandfather Sun/Father Sky. The equal to Grandmother Moon is Grandfather Sun. The equal to Mother Earth, is Father Sky. Both sides of male and female should be following the Seven Sacred Laws/Teachings of the Red Road. Honesty, Humility, Truth, Wisdom, Love, Respect, and Courage/Bravery.
Grandmother Moons teachings involve the intuitive and introspective realms of your life. Grandmother Moon has a strong connection to the cycles of life. In many traditions she is believed to be one of the first 3 spirits placed by the Great Spirit to watch over the children of Earth. She helps you with your dreams and visions. You can ask her to bring the dreams to you or to help you understand the meaning of the symbols in your visions.
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It is said that without Grandmother Moon weaving the patterns of the tides, life would not have emerged from the aquatic waters of Mother Earth. She created a rhythm to life that we should listen to.
The animal totem for Grandmother Moon is the Loon. A bird that swims and dives and lives around marshy areas of lakes. Loons have three calls, a yodel, a wail, and an eerie laugh. From the Loon we learn about transformation, maneuverability, mystery, and fidelity. She also uses the influence of water and creatures of the night such as the wolf and the owl.
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The moon is, in terms of distance, the closest heavenly body to earth. We can see it in the sky for three weeks out of four, and for thousands of years, people have used its light to guide them in the dark. She is also the largest and brightest object in the night sky, has long inspired curiosity and wonder. It appears at night, the time of sleep and dreaming that sometimes seems to approach the borders of death and the afterlife. Radiating an air of mystery and magic, the moon is also associated with love and often serves as a symbol of unattainable beauty.
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Unlike the sun, the moon does not present the same face every day. It waxes, or grows larger, until it becomes a glowing silver-white disk. Then night by night it wanes, or shrinks, to a curved sliver until it vanishes altogether. A few days later a slender new moon appears and begins to grow again in an endless cycle that repeats every 28 days. The spin-time of the Moon on its own axis is identical to the time it takes the Moon to revolve around Earth, which is why the Moon always keeps almost exactly the same face toward us.
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In ancient times, people used these phases of the moon to measure time well BEFORE the "invention" of "Calendars" and we say that plural because around mother globe their have been plenty, and even right now today many differing ones Are in use! Some years have 13 Full Moons, which makes one of them a Blue Moon, as it doesn't quite fit in with the traditional Full Moon naming system. However, this is not the only definition of a Blue Moon.
Full Moon names have been used by many cultures to describe the full moon throughout the year. Specifically, Native American tribes used moon phases and cycles to keep track of the seasons by giving a distinctive name to each recurring full moon, including the Flower Moon. The unique full moon names were used to identify the entire month during which each occurred.
Although many Native American tribes gave distinct names to the full moon, the most well known full moon names come from the Algonquin tribes who lived in the area of New England and westward to Lake Superior. The Algonquin tribes had perhaps the greatest effect on the early European settlers in America, and the settlers adopted the Native American habit of naming the full moons.
The Polynesian islanders of the Pacific Ocean said that the moon was a creator goddess named Hina and that women called wahines were her representatives on earth. In ancient Persia*, the moon was Metra, the world mother. In mythologythe moon is often female, a goddess who may be paired with a sun god. The Incas of South America told of a brother and sister, the moon maiden and the sun man, who were the ancestors of the royal Incas. In the Mayan writing system, a symbol showing the moon goddess seated inside the moon was used before the names of noble women. The Greeks associated the moon with the goddess Artemis*, sister of Apollo. They also called it Hecate, Cynthia, and Selene. The Roman name for the moon was Luna.
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Native American myth says that the sun and moon are a chieftain and his wife and that the stars are their children. The sun loves to catch and eat his children, so they flee from the sky whenever he appears. The moon plays happily with the stars while the sun is sleeping. But each month, she turns her face to one side and darkens it (as the moon wanes) to mourn the children that the sun succeeded in catching.
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The Efik Ibibio people of Nigeria in West Africa also say that the sun and the moon are husband and wife. Long ago they lived on the earth. One day their best friend, flood, came to visit them, bringing fish, reptiles, and other relatives. Flood rose so high in their house that they had to perchon the roof. Finally he covered the house entirely, so the sun and moon had to leap into the sky.
According to the Greek myth of Endymion and Selene, the moon (Selene) fell in love with a handsome young king named Endymion and bore him 50 daughters. One version of the story says that Selene placed Endymion in eternal sleep to prevent him from dying and to keep him forever beautiful.
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Sometimes, however, the moon is male. The Inuit of Greenland picture the moon as a hunter sitting in front of his igloo. Norse* mythology speaks of a moon son and a sun daughter, and Mrs. Sun and Mr. Moon are part of German folklore. In a myth of the Luyia people of Kenyain East Africa, the sun and moon were brothers. The moon was older, bigger, and brighter, and the jealous sun picked a fight with him. The two wrestled and the moon fell into mud, which dimmed his brightness. God finally made them stop fighting and kept them apart by ordering the sun to shine by day and the mud-spattered moon to shine by night to illuminate the world of witches and thieves.
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It is said that Grandmother Moon rules your personality by the Moon that you were born under. Grandfather Sun rules your individuality.
For some people the moon had a destructive aspect. The Aztecs of Mexico called it Mictecacuiatl and believed that it traveled through the night skies hunting out victims to consume. The Maori people of New Zealand referred to the moon as "man eater." Africans and Semitic* peoples of the ancient Near East also feared this terrifying aspect of the moon.
KM's Coven recognizes the Moon as our cosmic Grandmother, and keeping in the ways taught us of our ancestors first and foremost we are to Respect and Appreciate our elders and with all things, seek their wisdom and guidance... with her it is no different, only grander. In Grandmother, all the Divine feminine have a proven undeniable connection with one another that is not shared by male genders regardless of species. A few of the more common example of in this are found in the moons connection with the tides of the oceans. Another is with her connection with womens menstration cycles.
We cannot praise Grandmother Moon enough to emphasize the importance as well as the significance of her wisdom teachings throughout the coarse of her journey.
Every phase of Grandmother moon is symbolic of All Females cycle of life while upon mother globe, and we acknowledge as well as immensely Appreciate the wisdom she is teaching each of us lessons we can and should strive Daily to apply in our daily lives.
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As the Moon moves eastward away from the Sun in the sky, we see a bit more of the sunlit side of the Moon each night. We call this waxing. The waxing moon is the period during which we refer to as the infancy and Maiden aspects of grandmother moons life teachings as it is first visible moon in the lunar cycle, when the moon grows from dark (birth) toward becoming full. As the Moon gets brighter, the energies of growth get stronger same as with a child of all species. This period is a reflection of her infancy and youth. It takes approximately fourteen days for this to happen. In many magical traditions, people use this time of the moon to perform "positive" magic -- in other words, magic that draws essential things to you, or increases things such as wisdom, good health, courage and self confidence, and so forth.
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​When half of the Moon’s disc is illuminated, we call it the first quarter moon. As the sunlit portion continues to increase, now more than half illuminated, it becomes waxing gibbous moon.
The Full Moon marks exactly 1/2 of the moon's cycle around our earth officially now complete. At the full moon, many believe that messages from Grandmother Moon are the strongest. There are ceremonies and rituals that can be followed by women during these full lunar events asking the Grandmother for guidance. The full moon is the point at which we can see Grandmother moons life cycle as reflecting back to her "prime" so to speak, when she was in her Mother stage and she is at her peak, as the moon’s energy is also at its peak. This is determined when an entire side of the moon is seen. For magical purposes, many modern Pagans consider the full moon to include the day before and the day after a full moon, for a total of three days.
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The full moon has a very intense energy that forces us to focus on pressing matters to deal with what’s hidden. This is especially true when it comes to “matters of the heart and the shadow side of your personality.”
If your tradition requires you to follow the phases of the moon for your magical workings, this is a good time to do rituals focused on personal growth and spiritual development as it is optimum time for spells about spirituality, psychic development, dreams and divination and projecting that which you want to see manifest into an outcome in your life.
The waning moon is the period during which the moon goes from full to dark once again. During the second half of the lunar month, the Moon grows thinner each night. We call this waning. The waning gibbous moon phase occurs first, followed by the last quarter moon when half of the Moon’s disc is illuminated. Next is the waning crescent moon, which wanes until the illumination is completely gone; a new moon.
The Waning Moon reflects the Mother Goddess is in her "mature" or more commonly referred to as her Crone stage. The moon’s energy is getting weaker, as is the strength of the Grandmother Goddess. But what comes with the wisdom teachings of this phase is great wisdom as this is the time of personal reflection and making it the perfect time for letting go, clearing away, cleansing, releasing, shedding old patterns, and undoing bindings. Like the waxing moon phase, it lasts approximately two weeks. In many traditions of Wicca and Paganism, this time of the month is used to do "baneful" magic -- that which sends away, gets rid of or destroys things you no longer wish to be burdened by and you don’t want for or in your life like bad habits, stress, negative energies, unsatisfying relationships, unfulfilling jobs, an unhealthy diet, or an anxious and negative mind.
The new moon, also known and referred to as being "The Dark Moon" is the time when the moon appears completely covered in darkness. At the moment of conjunction in ecliptic longitude with the Sun, is when the Moon is invisible from the Earth. This means that the Sun and Earth are on the opposite sides of the Moon, and only the dark side of the moon faces the Earth. This moment is unique and does not depend on location, and in certain circumstances it coincides with a solar eclipse. It is symbolic of grandmother's death and then re-birth.
Each new lunar cycle is measured beginning at each new moon.
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The New Moon is a time of beginnings.
It is a time of embracing new projects, ideas, plans, thoughts, relationships and the changes we wish to invite into our lives. It is a time of seeding intentions and of opening to the new possibilities that are brought by another lunar cycle.
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The New Moon offers us a time of hope, a time of faith and renewal of our commitments. It brings us a fertile place to start fresh and to remind us that no matter what there is always rebirth waiting on the horizon.
It reminds us also to check in with ourselves and to let go of what is no longer in alignment with our path, our purpose and our dreams. It tells us that in order for us to bring all that we want into being, we need to clear away what is no longer serving us and make room for what is to flow into our lives.
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It is sometimes tricky to work with because you can't always see it during this phase - it will appear as a very faint crescent of silver low on the horizon if you can see it at all. For approximately three days during each lunar cycle, after the moon has waned, it goes dark before waxing again. In many magical traditions, this is considered a fallow time, in which one rests and rejuvenates before beginning more intense magical workings again. In other traditions, it's a time to do magic related to wish fulfillment.
This is spiritually the time of rest, relaxation, peace, deep wisdom, powerful purification and banishing as well as divination. It's also a time to banish negative energies from our lives that we are serious about getting rid of. Any kind of magick you do at this time, you should know, will be VERY strong. Use it for banishing serious things like illnesses of the body and mind.
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As Grandmother Moon was weaving the patterns of tides to allow life to emerge from the waters, she talked to the spirit of Dolphin. She told Dolphin to learn her rhythms and to open his feminine side to her silvery light. Dolphin began to swim to these new rhythms and learned a new way to breath. Dolphin is the keeper of the Sacred Breath of Life and teaches us how to use our life-energy through breathing to revitalize ourselves.