A New Moon Ritual To Manifest Your Destiny

New moon rituals have been part of human history since time immemorial.

Long before any of the major religions we know today were founded, people worshipped nature and its elements, and the sun and moon were the ultimate deities, god and goddess.

Today, moon rituals are still held all over the world but are usually celebrated by individuals or small covens or orders, no longer part of mainstream culture.

Know where to strike on the lunar cycle

The moon has its rhythm AND Different parts of the moon cycle bring out different kinds of energy.

Full moon

The full moon is the highlight of the moon’s waxing phase and occurs for only one night once a month. During a full moon, the entire moon is lit up and appears as a pale orb in the sky.

The full moon is associated with heightened emotion, things coming to fruition, child birth (manifestation) and celebration.

Not all full moons are the same – each has its own energy and its own magical associations. Full moon in Scorpio is not the same as full moon in Virgo. If your magical intentions require a very particular shade of energy in order to take wing, you might have to wait for the right full moon to come around.

Naturally, the same applies to the new moon – it is, after all, only new moon in Aquarius once a year.

New Moon

The new moon is the highlight of the moon’s waning phase and also takes place once a month, on the opposite side the moon cycle to the full moon.

What does the new moon do?

The new moon represents beginnings, intuition, inception and inspiration. The new moon is the best time for planting metaphysical seeds.

The new moon is ideal for setting powerful magical intentions and for planting secret metaphysical seeds.

How does the moon appear during a new moon?

During a new moon, the moon be almost invisible, or it may appear as a thin sickle high up in the sky.

What are new moon rituals?

New moon rituals can focus on love, money, self care, healing, wisdom, or anything else you desire.

Your ceremony is for you and you alone. You don’t need anyone else to swoop in and approve of your intentions or the way you plan to go about it.

Leave any insecurities and inhibitions at the door when you enter your sacred space. If you find that you have a lot of inhibitions and insecurities about your spiritual practice, healing this wound could be a worthwhile magical undertaking in itself.

What new moon ritual tools do you need?

There are no rules about which tools you have to include in your new moon ritual.

It is completely possible to perform an effective ritual, sizzling with magical energies, without using any tools at all. Tools merely add a little extra pizzazz to the experience and can make the ritual feel more meaningful for you. Tools can be either bought, found or made.

Typical tools and implements used in new moon ceremonies include essential oils, crystals, water, sea salt and candles. As a rule of thumb, use scents and colors that correspond to the purpose and intention you have set for the ritual.

New moon essential oils

Grapefruit

Grapefruit has powerfully cleansing and purifying properties, and a crisp, delicious scent to boot.

Grapefruit is great for carving out sacred space and anointing ritual tools as it purifies and heightens the magical vibration of everything it touches. It also works wonders when added to a ritual bath.

Ginger

The energy of ginger is heady, spicy and practically crackling with magical potential. Ginger is associated with success and strength, adding a great boost to your new moon intentions.

Rosemary

Rosemary helps clear and calm the mind – add a dash or rosemary and any mental dust immediately begins to settle.

Rosemary powerfully enhances mental clarity and adds extra oomph to scrying, mediation or intention-setting.

Patchouli

Patchouli is great for grounding and anchoring. A dash of patchouli helps you regain your footing and inner calm if you have arrived at your ritual feeling stressed or mentally worn out.

Patchouli brings your magic into focus.

Bergamot

Bergamot has a rich, herbal scent. Associated with power and success, bergamot adds a desirable boost to any magical undertaking.

New moon crystals

Obsidian

Obsidian is a smooth, pitch-black stone with a glassy lustre. Obsidian is considered to have a masculine vibe and is associated with both the fire and water elements. Its planetary ruler is Pluto and its astrological sign is Scorpio.

Magically, obsidian is a marvellous grounding stone. Obsidian also enhances willpower and psychic protection, and gives a boost to creativity.

Clear quartz

Clear quartz is a clear, almost transparent crystal. It is considered to be feminine and is associated with both fire and water, the sun and the moon, and with the star signs Leo and Cancer.

In a magical sense, clear quartz helps clear negativity and confusion. It is great for centering, cleansing and clearing the mind.

Smoky quartz

Smoky quarts is semi-opaque and can be either grey or brown in color. It is associated with feminine energies and with the earth. Its planetary ruler is saturn and its astrology sign is Capricorn.

Its magical properties include dissipating negative energies and influences, shielding from nightmares, grounding.

Citrine

Citrine can be orange, white or yellow, ranging from opaque to almost transparent. It is considered masculine and is associated with the air element, with the planet mercury and the star sign Gemini.

Metaphysically, citrine inspires success, wealth, joy and confidence.

Peacock ore

Finally, peacock ore is a metallic-looking stone ranging from blue to green to purple. It is considered masculine and its associations are the fire element, the planet Jupiter and the astrology sign of Saggittarius.

Metaphysically, peacock ore inspires creativity, poetry, self-expression and inner truth.

Candles

Candles are popular ritual tools, in moon rituals and beyond. Candles can be used for burning written intentions and marking sacred space. They can also serve well as focal points for meditation, and their wax can be used for scrying.

If you plan to include candles in your new moon ritual, use candles that are black, white, silver, pale blue or pale yellow, colors associated with the moon.

To make your new moon ritual feel extra fizzy, anoint your candles with an essential oil blend beforehand.

Scrying bowl

There are many different ways of scrying, but the one most suitable for moonlit scrying has got to be the one using a scrying bowl filled with water.

While a simple plastic mug would do, it is hard to deny that a large, deep, clear bowl has better vibes and is much more atmospheric.

Magical journal

If you practice magic, even if it is not consistent and your rituals are few and far between, it is a good idea to start keeping a magical journal, also called a grimoire or magical diary.

In your magical journal, write down the results of your rituals, tarot readings and self love meditations. Write down your moon intentions. Take note of the moon cycles and how it affects your mood and energy.

A magical journal helps you keep track of your workings, magical experiments and metaphysical insights. Committing your rituals to paper helps you see your progress over time.

Besides, reflecting on your ritual helps cement it in your own mind.

Moon intention

I’ve saved the most important element of any new moon ritual for last – your new moon intentions.

Being clear on what you want to experience or obtain from your new moon ritual is extremely important. How else will you know if your ritual is successful?

Setting some clear new moon intentions is key to a fruitful new moon ritual.

How do you do a new moon ritual?

There are many different ways of performing a new moon ritual. There is no right or wrong or a one-size-fits-all approach that everyone wishing to perform moon rituals need to follow.

I suggest finding and honing your own methods, cherry-picking elements that call out to you, and to ultimately find your own path.

Your rituals are for you, not for anyone else. The entire point of moon rituals is to connect deeper with yourself, your own strength and sovereignty as a person, and to lean into your intuition.

Below are some suggestions for typical new moon rituals to try. You can combine them in any way you wish or use them as templates for your own practice.

Ritual bath

Ritual baths are both a great preliminary steps in any ritual, and can be entire self care rituals in and of themselves.

A ritual bath really is a ritual cleansing, and often a way of preparing for a rite of passage or a more elaborate ritual.

A magical bath can be a healing act of self care, a way to give thanks and reconnect with your body.

Although a large bathtub is preferable, don’t let the lack of one stop you. Ritual baths can be had standing up in the shower and still prove just as effective.

The power of your magic is not limited by the tools you have to hand. Tools are just stepping stones for your magic to leap from, they are not the magic itself.

To prepare the bath, throw a few pinches of sea salt into the bathwater. Salt has long been used in magic to banish negative energies and forces and to prepare a clear and clean sacred space.

Next, you may want to add essential oils to your bath. This is not a mandatory step, and essential oil can be replaced by fresh flowers or herbs, which may be just as potent and powerful. What is important is that whatever you decide to add to your bath symbolically or sympathetically reflects the new moon intention you have set for your ritual.

You can combine or follow up your bath with any other new moon ritual elements of your choosing. I mean, why not scry with candle wax in the bathtub?

Moon bathing

Another way of drinking in the powers of the new moon is to moon bathe. Moon bathing is a fantastic way of connecting with the lunar forces, and with Mother Earth.

You can moon bathe either at home near a window or outside in nature. The important thing is that you have access to a place where the light of the moon falls, for example a darkened room with panoramic windows or a skylight, a private garden or balcony, or a secluded moonlit beach. You may not have access to the ideal moon bathing spot, but work with what you’ve got.

The point of moon bathing is to immerse yourself in the moonlight in order to absorb its mystical rays. Moon bathing outside is preferable, since there will be nothing between you and the moonbeams.

You may combine moon bathing with a meditation, with journalling, scrying with candles, or any other magical element that seems to fit.

Moon potion

Creating moon potion, also known as moon water, allows you to bottle the magic of the new moon and use it later.

The moon cycle doesn’t always gel with our other plans and commitments. But with liquid moonbeams on tap, so to speak, you can plug into the new moon energy whenever you want.

Moon potion is not the same as moonlight itself, but it carries some of the same energy.

Creating moon potion is simple: All you need is a bottle (I like nice colored glass ones, but any bottle will do) filled with purified water, and of course moonlight. Add extra trimmings if you like – a dash of essential oil, one or more crystals, a mix of herbs or flowers.

Place your bottle where the light of the moon is going to hit it. Outside under the open sky is preferable, since the light will be stronger outside, but do with whatever works. If you don’t have access to a good outdoor space, a windowsill will do just fine.

Leave the bottle to bathe in the light of the moon overnight, et voila! In the morning you will have a bottle of new moon potion.

It is worth keeping in mind that if you add any plants to your potion, these will eventually rot. Of course, if you are planning to use your moon potion soon, this is not a problem.

Meditation

A new moon meditation is a great way of connecting with your new moon intentions – you may well choose them as the very focus of your meditation.

Your new moon meditation can be combined with your ritual bath or be done while moon bathing. It can also be done before or after, to anchor your into your moon intentions and to plug you into your intuition.

Your new moon meditation can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, and although it is not a mandatory part of any new moon ritual, it is undeniably a good way of calming and focusing your mind before the working.

Hold crystals in your hands while you meditate, put on some background music, burn some incense – whatever helps you clear your mind and get into the swing of meditation.

Scrying

Scrying is essentially fortunetelling. People have engaged in the art of feeling out the shape of things to come for millennia.

There is no one way of scrying, but the process typically involves tools as focal points for the fortuneteller’s concentration.

Popular scrying tools and methods include runes, Tarot cards and crystal balls. Historically, bones and even fresh intestines have also been used. Some of these methods may seem barbaric – others, including runes and Tarot cards, require a big time investment in study before they become truly effective.

I’m going to offer a simple alternative, something anyone can get on with. This method is no less powerful or potent, and it has been used by fortunetellers for thousands of years.

All you really need for scrying is a large bowl filled with good old-fashioned H2O. Scrying using a scrying bowl is most effective when done by candlelight rather than in brightly lit room.

Study the reflection and see what shapes, symbols or other things appear to be dancing over the surface. Give yourself some time – beginnings are always the hardest, and initially, nothing much may happen.

Putting on some atmospheric background music and burning incense will calm your body and aid your concentration. So will a few well-chosen crystals placed at the bottom of your scrying bowl, and one or two drops of essential oil.

You can also use the bowl to simply contemplate and breathe love into your own reflection as part of a new moon ritual focused on self care.

Write the impressions and insights that come to you down in your journal.

Candle magic

Is any new moon ritual really complete without it?

Of course, using candles in your new moon ritual is as optional as the use of crystals, background music, chanting or anything else. Nevertheless, candlelight adds both energy and atmosphere to the ritual space.

A powerful way of manifesting magical intentions is to write or carve them onto your ritual candle, then burn it as you meditate on the manifestation of your desire, visualising it as already being a part of your life.

Of course, you can use the flame to burn sigils or intentions written on paper, and you can drip the wax into your scrying bowl to see what shapes it forms – these in themselves can be used for scrying.

Sigil magic

Add extra oomph to your new moon intentions by turning them into sigils.

Sigils are simplified logos representing wishes or desires. Sigils are small vehicles for big energy and offer a direct, no-frills way for you to imprint your intentions on the very fabric of the universe.

Of course, even the most potent sigil has to be backed up with action in the physical world.

The most common method of sigil creation is to write your intention out on a piece of paper. Write the intention out as a clear and specific sentence, and use the present tense. This helps you tell your subconscious mind that what you desire in your life is already a fact.

An example of a written intention could be: I am a millionaire in 2025.

The universe is filled with endless possibilities and potential, and if you know what you want the universe is not going to withhold it from you. But when you express an intention, you cannot be unclear. You have to be clear and direct and state your desire as fact.

Once you have your intention written out and you have assured yourself that it is clear, concise and unwavering, cross out all of the vowels and any letters that appear more than once. The purpose is to shorten the string of letters you end up with.

Take the letters you are left with and start playing around with their shapes. Simplify and blur together. Rinse and repeat until you end up with a sigil, a unique-looking symbol representing your intentions.

Or you can do what I usually do, and just freestyle a sigil while thinking holding your intentions firmly in your mind.

Once you have a sigil, the next step is to charge it. Since this is a new moon ritual, it makes sense to charge it in the light of the new moon. Some charge their sigils with powerful emotions ranging from fear to ecstasy. The light of the moon is jut another form of energy.

You can leave your sigil to charge in the moonbeams for an hour or overnight. Or you can keep it in a box and take it out to charge on every new moon for the rest of the year.

Once the sigil has been charged for however long you see fit for your purposes, the final step is to destroy it: Inscribe or carve your sigil onto wax and melt it. Bury it in the earth. Draw it on paper and burn it, or dissolve it in your new moon potion.

The reason you want to destroy your sigil once it has been sufficiently charged is to release the full power of the intentions you have stored within it.

The most important part of any new moon working

The most important aspect of any ritual is how it heightens your experience of life.

The very act of carving out the time and space to perform a new moon ceremony is a luxurious manifestation of self care and self nurturing – in other words, it is a rare gift that not many people have the time or the impetus to give to themselves.

By the time you start seeing your intentions manifesting in your life, your ritual will have already been a success. Why? Because you showed you for yourself. You held space for yourself and your desires. You called in the healing of your body and your mind. You invoked your future successes.

As you continue on your spiritual path you will find that metaphysical power, energy and results accumulate. Magical ability is a muscle that grows over time.