Intro

Alignment. Presence. Intuition. These are three key words I would use to summarize what it’s like to live in harmony with all of the moon’s phases as they occur each lunar month. Living alongside the moon is about having a sense of knowing while being open to the unknown, which requires a good measure of trust and life experience. There are great incentives to follow the phases of the moon for practical reasons, and there are a few greater reasons to make life with the moon a part of your personal and spiritual well-being.

Now, I don’t see scientific evidence to support the idea that a correlation exists between my period and my fixation with the moon, but after about a year of intentionally caring for my heart, mind and body in alignment with the moon, I can say it works for me and it makes me happier. I love the moon, I love feeling good in my body throughout my cycle, and I love seeing time in a softer, slower pace in this busy life.

If you’re like me, you may have lived most of your emerging adult life just trying to catch up. You’re navigating loneliness, socializing, college crushes, and family stress. The only thing keeping you going is your goal: finish college, build a life, and earn your keep. Looking back, though, when I was in this mindset I was limited to the shape and form of my habits and upbringing. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing I have a lot of gratitude for how my development and nurturing made me a bright and optimistic young woman. It’s not like I was moving through life without reflection or growth, but without even knowing it, the familiar was keeping me safe during a difficult time. My 20’s were pretty rocky and being fixed in the way things are, or what was counted as typical, was something I held on to. I would say in this way I was limiting myself from being open to a new perspective.

Let me explain this better. Before I paid any attention to the moon, my timekeeping and they way I moved forward in life, was based the length of my course semesters, the paydays and length of my work schedule, the timing of my period, and whenever there were special religious occasions that happened bi-annually or annually. The most spiritual element of timekeeping in the past was probably my yearly check-ups with my doctor even though, in my 20s, I didn’t understand at all that there’s a relationship between my body and my spirit. I was just a girl with a body that wanted a doctor to say I was normal.

What does keeping time have to do with the moon and your spirituality? To put it simply, life is made of time and how you keep time will subconsciously assess and critique how you feel as a person, or a soul. I don’t mean to say this in a judgmental way, but in my 20’s I was very sensitive about my age and the various social and financial milestones I saw before me. I immediately think about being 27 and not having a bachelor’s degree, and how much shame I carried with that fact because I was looking at time from the lens of social ideas and status and other things I now see as superficial. It didn’t go away either, I’m 36 and I’m thinking about the risk of having a baby now I’m a little less interested in higher education. In any case, know for yourself how you are keeping time in life and decide today, is that how I want to keep tracking my life?

Personally, I’ll say that I keep track of my life according to the moon, my menstrual cycle, my financial cycle (aka bills) and goals around wealth, the seasons, and my romantic milestones. This took me about a year to develop. Only a year and it feels like I’ve always been this way! It feels so right that it’s as if it was always my lifestyle. So you can see how talking about this is so exciting to me because imagine if all of your present circumstances and hardships remained the same but then one little ingredient made life a little more joyful and a lot more balanced.

Alignment

I invite you to temporarily suspend your idea of the 12-month calendar. Instead, think of a year being divided by four seasons, kind of like a school year. Simple. Spring, summer, fall, and winter. Assume your needs are met each season so you can put away the work calendar and trust your needs are provided for and you’re a healthy member of the workforce. In these four seasons, you’ll have your period. A woman’s cycle varies but we have another four “seasons” of our period: menstruation, follicular, ovulation, and luteal. Hold on to that: four seasons of womanhood and four seasons of a year.

Now, there are eight phases of the moon. The new moon, the waxing crescent, the first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent. You can divide this into four major phases: new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter. Four seasons of nature, four seasons of the cycle, and four phases of the moon. As a woman who loves numbers this 444 vibe, I love it.

As I talk about living in alignment with the moon, I mean living in harmony, in flow, and in purpose. It doesn’t mean life becomes easier, or more stable, or things like that. It means that you respect the pace of nature, you respect your personal development, and you highly value impermanence.

Impermanence is a beautiful spiritual quality that requires one to practice awareness and calm. I think it’s more than the knowledge that “this too shall pass.” It’s tracing and hemming together your thoughts, actions, and emotions. As I learned to appreciate and practice impermanence, I’ve been able to develop perseverance, grit, stamina, dependability, hope, and self-reliance.

If there’s ever a time to doubt me now would be the time because how can you have such a significant character upgrade in one year because of the moon? You’re right it isn’t all because of the moon. I mention earlier that Living alongside the moon is about having a sense of knowing while being open to the unknown, which requires a good measure of trust and life experience. I’m not expressing myself here to persuade the listener or build an argument for my opinion. But I can see my past young self, borderline suffering, because I felt something was missing. I was constantly venting, getting the opinion and advice from older people or caring friends, living through hardship and happiness day by day and trying to figure out what my “final form” is supposed to be like. I was a very vigilant girl, dedicated to scripture, learning from mistakes, and navigating life until I decided to explore therapy in my late 20’s. In about the course of six years I found myself mentally healthier and in the progress of developing my career as an educator. In 2021, I was ostracized and shunned from my “Christian” congregation because, as the elder put it, “even if you didn’t do these things it’s because of your attitude.” God forbid a girl suffer through sexual trauma and social exclusion and then deal with a man with a lack of emotional intelligence. In 2022, I found the love of my life and in three years time, fully transitioned into my lover and mystic archetypes.

In all, my personal life experiences, my childhood, my era of maiden and ministry, my years in therapy, and being open to transform my world views carved out space for me to give the moon a chance. I learned about her symbolism, her timing through the stars, how ancient civilizations and people today relate to life on earth. I loved the concept of how each phase is an instant moment holding a place for the moon’s illumination, followed by about a week of that phase’s shape. In the course of 29.5 days there are times to invent, create, build, refine, develop, reflect, release, retreat, and retry.

Presence

There are many great sites to fully explore the moon’s phases and what they mean. A quick Google search is plenty helpful to start out. In the beginning, it feels very exciting and I remember wanting to fully grasp each phase, what it means, what to do, what to avoid, I was so wrapped up in it. I recommend going at a steady pace: you’ll develop your moon practice naturally.

Presence can look like dancing or yoga, walking, journaling, meditating, taking a bath, and even eating. I learned that each moon phase has a typical, or conventional, spiritual significance. In the beginning, I worked in harmony with these understandings and for the most part, I still do. I hold off certain activities until the new moon or I’ll dedicate cleansing during waxing and waning phases. However, my practice has changed over time and continues to evolve. Some intentions take multiple lunations to take hold and sometimes I’ll find myself focusing more on my hormonal cycles or the literal seasons. A tool that has sustained my balance in presence, acceptance, and consistency. I started to use the moon phases as a backdrop for the pace of life. Over time, I learned when to fight and advocate for myself and my needs, other times I pause, relax, and trust that a valuable learning lesson is at hand.

The moon is so beautiful. You should take a break and step outside right now. Do you see it? It’s glow, it’s shape, it’s position in the sky? It holds the sun’s energy every night and affects the ocean tide. It’s very powerful. Where I am, in Southern California, the moon is in its quarter phase and it doesn’t rise until after 11 pm. I’m looking forward to it.

When you are present you are accepting your place in the wheel of time. You are connected to natural cycles and even develop an appreciation and understanding for the natural world around you. Presence keeps you interested in personal growth. Presence is mental, emotional, or spiritual engagement. This includes making an effort to mitigate doubt and distraction. Presence includes essence, so that you are suspending judgment and holding space for your worth and your true self. Presence includes being mindful and accepting the present state of things.

The moon is in a phase for a short time but is never fickle. It isn’t like the shifting spirit of air and storm. It isn’t constant like the sun. It doesn’t always need to shine and it doesn’t need to change its mind. It is loyal through the seasons. I have learned to be loyal to myself, as well. I have found that development in middle adulthood feels still close enough to youth so that I can honor my child self and also find redemption and forgiveness for mistakes in my young adulthood. At the same time, I have enough understanding to act with intention in order to protect my prosperity and wealth in old age. Human development goes by many names and so does the moon. These days, I personally love the wolf, worm, pink, buck, sturgeon, harvest, and beaver moons. There are opportunities to create unique rituals for blue moons and blood moons, too.

Regardless of how you apply your knowledge to your practice, remember that you are worth love, and you yourself are a project worth developing. Whether you dance in the park under a full moon or feel through your shadow alone on a black night, don’t give up on yourself and stay aligned with what makes sense for you. Also, be open to change, to progress, or stop altogether if that’s right for you.

Intuition

In this moment, I want to be responsible to my reader and clarify that one’s intuition a gut feeling. Because it is instinctual and subconscious, intuition can be inaccurate and influenced by learned patterns and biases. I think it is important to have sense and safety when it comes to anything you do to support your wellbeing. Moon practices, rituals, and observances, yes, even the conscientious intention of literally following the phase of the moon, is a highly personal decision. I am very happy with my moon life but perhaps I will find something new or shift gears in the future. But for now, I love the moon and the moon brings me joy. So much so, that I have shaped my life around it.

For some time, I have been on my own quest to make sure my decision are in harmony with my intuition. I have always had great intuition but to be honest, as a young woman, it was continuously being mislabeled as anxiety. I had a habit of doubting myself so I would rely on logic and reason to understand my feelings in any awkward dynamic. I was known as a worrier and someone who overthought. I had a long way to go in developing my social sense. My emotional intelligence has always been sharp but I used it mostly for intrapersonal regulation or intimate conversations with friends who were like me, creative artists who thrived on insight, reflection, and creative passion! As an older adult, I have more responsibilities and greater commitments. I also have higher quality friends. My life is different now so I have to master balancing between intuition and diplomacy. All in all, I have given a lot more love and credit to my personal sovereignty, my divine connections, and of course, my intuitive voice.

Now that my temporal atmosphere feels more vast, more aerial, I can let go of the urge to control my life and I can put trust in natural rhythm, God, and Source. In the breadth of a season I can take in every week with care. Some days I need medicine to alleviate luteal rage, and some days I can spend a gibbous phase lounging around the house, painting, gossiping, and soaking in the hours.

Instead of looking at my bills every month, instead of feeling the drag of yet another painful period, instead of lingering in woe over another disappointment, I can look at the moon and remind myself of where I am.

I remember one day at work, I was feeling hurt and frustrated over a long-term trouble in my life. It wasn’t affecting my life directly, but I had become constantly preoccupied so much that my face was falling. In a moment, I felt an intuitive voice within me speak and say, “in this moment you can choose your attitude.” It wasn’t just my voice, it felt like an outside message, as if a loving parent or a caring teacher had been watching me and swiftly came to my aid. Instead of seeing this as just a passing thought or just a mental coping strategy, I accepted the message with love and gratitude. It was from my loving Spiritual parent, and I was being looked over and blessed. I took a breath and knew I was worth happiness and I worked hard to love my life. Doing so didn’t minimize the impact the event had on me and it didn’t minimize my emotions, either. I was able to move forward from that day on and I learned how to let sadness come and go safely, honestly, and without the weight of depression.

Honestly, I think my practice of presence and impermanence helped mature my spirituality and open a path for that blessing to land: I did the work to produce that blossom of wisdom. This was a sign of alignment for me.

I am immensely glad you have reached the end of this article and now you have a deeper understanding about living in alignment with the moon. As you master your moon mentality, you’ll feel a soft expansion in your perception of time and the rhythm of life. Most likely, your next step is to find confirmation or to go forward with trust and experimenting. Trust your intuition because your heart, or at least your body, will tell you what makes sense.

Mindfully living with the moon includes practicing reflection, presence and gratitude. I can’t emphasize enough how gratitude plays a role in this lifestyle because of the way impermanence just works like the root of a tree. You are grounded and secure by the understanding that seasons come and seasons go, so you are always grateful for what is coming as if it’s already so.

I must encourage you to continue to practice the law of attraction and focus on your personal quest. Have faith in your vision.

On this beautiful last quarter moon I am indulging in self-care and lounging at home. Thankfully, I have been able to release old energy, and I feel so inspired and pleased with myself. I am always happy to welcome the heart and heat of Leo, where the moon is traversing tonight. I wish you all riches, love, and lore in your life’s journey.