Some interested people have requested that we include them in some of our houshold's
neo-pagan rites. I feel awkward at requests like these because what an outsider might notice would seem to be next to nothing. So many of the Esbats and Sabbats become so ingrained an intertwined with our mundane lives that the moments don't seem to hold much of what many would call a ritual. This forces me to have to explain what is going on, point out the shifts in the energies, audibly add back the songs and the poems that I now hear the universe singing with every cycle. It can take the magic out of the moment.The real ritual is that the moon cycles and the sun cycles again and again. What we do and what happens to us and our surroundings spiral along with it. The colored leaves are the mandala and the sound of their blowing is the song of worship. The new Oktoberfest brew at Otto's is the "wine" and the Doritoes hanging from our apple tree are the "cakes" for Mabon. We recognize the second harvest in the changes on the farmers market vendor's tables (altars) and the way people dress on the trails. Attitudes of hikers and hunters change and the conversations we have are different. Our lives have changed with the seasons again; magic happens.
Not every neo-pagan family regularly celebrates new moon together. It can frequently be a more personal esbat of introspection. New moon occurs in the middle of the day in the bright of the sun when many of us are busy. It's easy to have the moment slip by and not realize it until later.
This moon, Beaver Moon/ Mourning Moon/ Snow Moon /Fog Moon, is traditionally "a time of washing away the baggage of the past and letting it go. Once you've done that, you'll be able to focus on the joys of the future. During the Mourning Moon phase, say goodbye to bad habits and toxic relationships, and get a fresh start for the new year. Work on developing and strengthening your connection with what is sacred."
I look back on yesterday and see what was thrust upon us by the fates. RGBisMe finally had weather that cooperated well enough to chop and move the four large branches that were littering our yard from the early snow storm. The garden fence was spared, the branches damaged nothing. Clearing away debris as new moon approached seems a little literal to some but there it is. A clean yard for Beaver Moon.
What had also happened in the middle of the storm this past week was that the new tenant for apartment 1 inconveniently threw a change in schedule at us; he set back his lease signing by hours. This required me to rearrange a lot of other things that we had going on to accommodate one of us being here for him. This, it turned out, needed to be RGBisMe because I had become ill. It was even more tricky since RGBisMe was needed in about 12 places at once this weekend. I juggled and made calls (on the cell phone, the land line was dead from the storm) and it all worked out.
The new fellow (who seems polite enough) has a huge truck and RGBisMe saved the widening of the parking space until pretty much the last minute since he had to be present for the lease signing. It all came together, the new fellow signed the lease, moved some some stuff in and he was left to explore what was now his place.
It was a sad and odd moment of transference for us. Apartment 1 was no longer Mososo Kruppe's it was this new fellow's. We realized we wouldn't be just walking down to have a few laughs with this guy the way we had for over a year with them. It was a mournful closure to a hustle an bustle couple of weeks trying to get to the apartment occupied.
The new tenant had signed the lease exactly at new Mourning Moon. This was not contrived by us, we didn't manipulate his schedule. It was he who demanded the exact day and he could not come at the time we had chosen. Without incense, chanting, song or knowingly invoking anything, new moon came at a seemingly coincidental moment. Magic happens that way.
