Weaning the Creatrix-Mother: The Guilt of Completion

      Much of the fear pervading the full moon phase of the cycle stems from the guilt of completion. Recall, my love, a time in your life when you were creatrix, birthing something into being for which you cared dearly. As your creation neared fruition, you likely experienced a fair amount of trepidation. The end was finally in sight, and now you were poised to be released from your role as Creatrix-Mother. Depending on how closely you identified with this role, you may have needed to reorder your very identity.

      The task of the full moon phase of the cycle is to be as fully and unapologetically present as possible. When an intense generative fire burns in a woman’s belly, she does well to create solely for creation’s sake. In What We Ache For, Oriah Mountain Dreamer tasks the artist with trusting the process as wholly as she or he can: “We must be faithful — full of faith that the process of creating will be enough to feed us and the world.” The trust of the Creatrix-Mother comes from the understanding that, though the inevitable letting go is coming, the cyclical nature of all things is ever-turning.

      The full moon begs us to balance the guilt of completion, the sense that maybe we have somehow misstepped or wronged our creation, with a cyclical view of time. Feminine time is circular but specifically spiral and certainly not linear. You may well be facing the letting-go phase of some majestic thing now, but the essence of what you so lovingly mothered will be reborn into another incarnation soon. So, my Witch, revel in this phase of fullness and fruition, for it is the height of your creative, life-giving power.

THE WANING MOON’S EVE OF ACCEPTANCEYour Lunar Autumn

      Every Witch is different, but I find the happiest wild women are those who relish the opportunity to let entire phases of their lives die out, like flowers withering under the first frost. The waning moon is a space maker, a field clearer, and a massive, high-powered declutterer; it calls you to accept the loss of what is already leaving you as preparation for the dark moon void.

      Your lunar autumn is a time of release and boundary creation. You must honor the earlier aspects of the lunar cycle for how they served you, birthing what needed to be birthed and then dancing in celebration of completion, but this is not where the challenge lies. You must then death-doula yourself through the process of accepting loss. As the moon wanes, the natural world experiences a sense of imminent darkness, a darkness that we have been conditioned to fear.

      Look to the waning moon, Wild One, as a great organizer. The energy of Mother Moon ebbing toward darkness is much like that of the destructive Goddesses, such as Kali in the Hindu tradition or the Cailleach in Celtic wisdom; She clears the fields to make space for what will come. Swallow the changes lit by the waning moon as necessary progressions toward your soul’s destiny. Use this time to learn how to see in the dark, and open your third eye wide.

      Women are taught to resist these phases of letting go and the empty void. In a culture that fervently emphasizes productivity over nonaction, we are socialized to dig our metaphoric fangs deeply into anything that is in the process of leaving us. We want it all, but we deserve space as much as we deserve the abundance of having. What if we are always letting go of something in order to make space for the new? What if, in the balance, we are perfectly supported by the great swell and the great purge at any given point in our lives?

      Women need and deserve the fallow time. Go into the dark regularly and fearlessly, holding steadfast in the knowledge that you are not meant to be the ever-generative Creatrix-Mother at all times. Permit yourself to be reborn in the dark; relinquish roles, practices, and relationships that no longer serve. Embrace sweet solitude as a means of evaluation. We see ourselves far more clearly in the dark than we do in the light, Sister, and you know this to be true.

       The Witch in the Dark: Psychic Shielding for Wild Women

      The waning lunar phase is a pivotal time for psychic development and honing your subtle-energy sight. As close to midnight as possible, and in a room where you will not be disturbed, sit quietly in the shadowy silence, with your eyes wide open. Draw a slow spiral in both of your palms with a fingertip, and feel your palm chakras open wide. Now, psychic Witch, place your hands together in front of you, slowly moving them away from one another and then back toward each other until you feel just the smallest bit of resistance between your palms. Look at your hands with soft vision, a sacred gaze, a drishti. Do you see it? A foggy blue-white glow emanates from your hands now; you are seeing your body’s very life-force. You are witnessing your own prana in action, your electricity, the very juice of your aura.

      You have been told, dear Witch, from the time you were young, that such subtle energies are not real, and you have unlearned seeing them out of social necessity. Not wanting to be ostracized, you unconsciously denied that this sea of energy exists all around us. Here, in this soft, glowing soup, you can learn to see angels, guides, and spirits. Here you will break down the patterns of vision you have learned, dismantling years of conditioning. Here you will truly begin to see in the dark.

      Close your eyes now, my Sister-Witch. Become aware of that same glowing energy field you witnessed around your hands. Know it now as vibrating all around you, extending away from you several feet in all directions. Envision this now: On the outermost edge of this aura of yours is a hard, quartz-crystal shell. This shield is permeable only in one direction; you can send energy out, if you wish, but nothing can enter your aura from the outside. Nest in the safety of your psychic shield now, great armored Priestess, and use this protective skill whenever you are feeling vulnerable to psychic or emotional attack. Strong boundaries are a Witch’s best friend, and you will learn to use them well, my love.

      Psychic shielding is a practice that will support you not only in your Craft but also in day-to-day living. Many women are awakening to the burden of the empath in our society. Empathy, on the one hand, is a much needed quality of the Wild Healer Archetype, with feelings being absorbed and assimilated by one human from another. Anodea Judith defines empathy in The Global Heart Awakens as the “building block of compassion. . . .Here we drop all judgment and preoccupation with our own dramas.” On the other hand, overly empathic individuals of all genders may feel regularly consumed by the emotional energies of others, much to their own psychological confusion and