The Cold Moon

Image from Google Image Search.

Did anyone see the moon last night?  Was it perfectly full for you?  Was it almost there?  Well, tonight, it is the first full moon of the year for where I live.  The Cold Moon.

Now, everyone has a different name for this moon.  Some call it the "Winter Moon" or the "Old Moon," some even call it the "Wolf Moon."  According to the Celtic Myth Moon site, every moon has at least nine different groups of people calling it different things each month.  Some repeat, while others find their way to a different month than most.

As it is the first full moon of the year, I was hoping to perform a small ritual, however, as it is a Thursday, I may need to wait until this weekend.  Mine and my coven's rituals usually follow the examples left to us by Patti Wigington on Pagan/Wiccan About.com.  Despite the different name for the moon in this ritual, I plan on following this one with my fellow witches.

Image from Google Image Search.

Rituals have this wonderful ability to be performed by yourself or in a group.  I know some witches who take these and alter them to fit their needs, or who completely write their own using the same guidelines, as well as witches who get together in a gaggle of giggles and try their best to not "mess up" as they follow the lines given to them.

I remember the first time my coven and I did a ritual.  It was Yule, and it was a giggling disaster.  It was just before most of us turned 21, and we had all the supplies and things we needed to complete the ritual, even the cloths for our hair to represent the three aspects of the goddess, but we kept messing up the words that none of us had time to memorize.

At the time, we were horrified, thinking that we had messed up so badly we would need to do it again, but then, our coven Druid spoke up, saying the goddess would appreciate laughter returning in the dark times, despite our words being "the wrong ones", and that she would still hear our prayers to her.  We agreed, and it was then that we truly realized we had not "messed up", we had just simply found a different way to go about the same thing many Pagans near and far were doing that very night.

When we began to practice more openly, I learned more about the other Paths people take, and we infused more of that acceptance into our rituals and meetings.  Even within our own coven we have many different Paths with the same main ideas.

But!  Back to the moon!

Do you plan on holding a ritual?  Did you already have one or are you postponing it until you can?  What are you up to tonight?  Leave a comment and let us know!

Thank you for joining me!

☽⚝☾