The Dark Moon Rite

What I said in the last post about doing a Dark Moon rite has now come to pass. At Samhain last year I had an unexpected encounter with the Dark One and so this year  I planned an extended meditation from the 1st November for thirteen days until the Dark Moon. As the Moon waned this became more intense and I've kept a daily journal which I'm going to publish extracts from here. For the first few days, up until the last quarter, this was mainly finding time for quiet meditation and planning. I also had to get on with my daily routines, but I felt myself moving inward as the last quarter passed and the Dark Moon approached.

 I planned for a final period of three days when I could be alone at home and not have to consider anything else. At midnight before the first of the three days I prepared my altar and made a dedication of the coming time for the Dark One. As I meditated I felt the familiar shiver when things start happening and knew that I was  walking the Dark Land.  Heron had left a comment last time about initiation and he had posted a writing on his blog about The Washer at the Ford. I found myself thinking about this and had visions of coming to the Ford to meet her. Crossing the Ford was my way to her.

Although I had been up late, for some reason I woke early the next morning, before dawn. From the bathroom I noticed what looked like moonlight through the frosted glass. I went to another window at the back of the house which faces east. I saw the thin crescent of the Waning Moon low in the sky and a bright planet nearby, both had just risen. When I checked later I saw that the planet had to be Venus. I didn't expect to see the Moon again until she was waxing. But the sky had cleared overnight and there she was quite bright, with Venus too. I was overwhelmed. I'd thought of retreating into darkness but here was enchanting lights in the sky and the Goddess of Love looking down on me. And so what I thought would be a dark time of retreat turned out to be an intense but quiet time when I felt blessed by a light that is the other face of darkness.

Over the three days I walked in the woods, I read about the Crone, I meditated in the dark.  I have a wide circuit that I like to walk through the woods and over a hill. I usually do this clockwise, or sunwise, but I started the three days by walking it in the opposite direction. The plan was to walk it the usual way round as a 'return' from the dark retreat. On the last night I crossed the Ford. I have my record of the crossing but that will stay in my Book of Shadows. But the thing I want to say here is that I expected to pay a price for the crossing. And I did. But the physical things that could have gone wrong were few and all happened on the return journey. When I tried to open my bedroom curtains to let the light in on the morning of the last day I couldn't. A 'dream catcher' tied to the curtain rail was tangled up with the runners and they had jammed so I had to prise one off to open the curtains. Then I did my return walk. It was raining heavily but I had committed to do it so I did. The ground was wet and slippery and I had trouble on the hill and I was wet and muddy by the time I came back though the woods. I slipped and grabbed the first thing I  could for support. It was a bramble which cut my hand.

So I did pay a price. My final planned thing was a emergence bath. With candles and lavender oil. It was so welcome when I got back cold and wet and I came out of it  re-born. Or renewed. And there is just this to write up which I am now doing.

Blessed Be