Esbat Waxing Moon

Esbat Waxing Moon

 

April 13 is the Wax Moon.  The phases of the Moon can be seen to reflect the aspects of the Triple God.  There are Esbat rituals to celebrate the Lunar changes in relation to the God and to utilize the distinctive energy that accompanies each phase.  Most Practitioners are familiar with the Esbats performed at the Full Moon, honoring the God as Warrior and Father, and at the New Moon, honoring the God as Sage and Darkness.

The waxing Moon (first quarter) is the period during which the Moon grows from dark to full.  The Maiden and Warrior are full of fresh energy and are anxious to dance and love throughout the world.  Under this Moon you want to work with building on what you have started under the new Moon - getting money, developing love, or receiving love. The larger the Moon gets, the more powerfully you will feel the Gods energy.

The Frog Moon of April.  Frogs transform from tadpoles into their adult form and this symbolizes the awakening of one's creativity.  If your planting a magical garden, you want to get out there and put things into the Earth.  Plan a ritual to physically plant your seeds of desire in Mother Earth.

Set up your outdoor alter and ring the bell three times.  Open saying,

'Wondrous Lord of the Moon
You who greets the dusk with silvered kisses;
Mister of the night and of all magick,
Who rides the clouds in blackened skies?
And spills light upon the cold Earth;
O Lunar God,
Crescent-One,
Shadow maker and shadow breaker;
Revealer of mysteries past and present;
Puller of seas and ruler of all;
All-wise Lunar Father,
I greet Your celestial jewel
At the waxing of its powers
With a rite in Your honor.
I pray by the Moon,
I pray by the Moon,
I pray by the Moon.'

 

Repeat the last line "I pray by the Moon" for as long as you will.  Imagine the Moon God in all his splendor as his light grows, as your love grows or as life grows greener and warmer.  Close by ringing the bell three times. 

Some people have preferences of which moon cycle they like best so experiment to find out which ones you like best.

 

Elements Table

Esbats

Mani

Mani Lunar

Mani's Day

Moon (Rune)

Sunna and Mani

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Spirit

Spirit is sometimes referred to as the “fifth element.” This idea goes all the way back to Aristotle and his idea that the celestial realm was made of a fifth element (quintessence), ether, which is not found here in the sublunary world.

Spirit is the most difficult element to describe, it is everywhere and nowhere, and is the force that unites all things, in rituals it is our connection to the otherworld. The Spirit element transports us beyond any narrow confines and allows us to open up to something much bigger, it is present in all aspects of life, and goes beyond thought and emotion. Unlike the other four elements it has no defined place or location, even though we cannot specifically place it, we know it is there.

Four is the number of order and stability. A house has four walls; there are four cardinal points of the compass. The laying out of buildings and boundaries with right angles was so important to our ancestors that our words for measuring off squares are intertwined with our words for propriety and authority: rectangle, regular, regulation, regiment, rex (king), ruler (both kinds), right (both senses), rectify, direct (both senses), correct, rector…the list goes on and on.

The four-fold order is static, not dynamic. Every element has its quadrant, and every quadrant its element. There is no room for mystery, for surprise, for magic. Something is missing, and that something may be called Spirit. Here’s one way to think about Spirit: if someone created a robot that looked and behaved just the way you do, would the robot be you? Most of us would say no—being alive is more than simply going through the motions. We also have consciousness, a point of view, an interior depth; there is something more than mind, will, heart, and body, some center of awareness that experiences our thoughts and desires, feelings and sensations, without being completely defined by them.

The number 5 is the most dynamic and energetic of all the single-digit numbers. It is unpredictable, always in motion and constantly in need of change. Five is the number of the human being. The number five symbolizes the four limbs and the head that controls the limbs. There are five senses: sight – hearing – taste – smell – touch. Almost all amphibians, reptiles, and mammals which have fingers or toes have five of them on each extremity.

Most Pagans believe that Spirit is not something we humans alone possess by virtue of having a soul (in the Christian sense), or by virtue of having complex brains (as the scientific worldview would have it). Rather, we see Spirit manifesting everywhere: in the plants and animals we share this world with, and in the grand, slow life of the cosmos as a whole.

Some people use the word “Spirit” in connection with the element of fire. It has a different meaning in that context. Compare the two words Spirited and Spiritual. “Spirited” describes someone brimming with energies and desires and willfulness; that is Spirit in the fiery sense. “Spiritual” refers to a connection with deep sources of meaning that lie beyond the confines of the ego. That is Spirit in the sense of the fifth element.

Spirit, in the Sanskrit language is akasha, from this comes the “akashic records,” which is a record of all knowledge pertaining to the material plane, it exists in the astral world. Ether was referred to as the quintessence in the middle Ages, meaning fifth. The alchemist’s quest was to find this fifth essence, which they believed contained the secret of everlasting life. Ether was described as the substance that made up the heavens.

The pentagram, or five-pointed star, bears religious significance in various faiths including Baha'i, Christianity, Satanism, Taoism, Thelema, Freemasonry and Wicca. The Wiccan pentagram symbolizes this mystery by opening the four-fold cross of the elements into a five-fold star. The pentagram gives physical form to a truth that is not itself physical. We don’t call five “quarters” when we cast a circle, and the four elements retain their own symmetries and contrasts. Spirit is not one of the physical elements. It is everywhere and nowhere. It has no list of correspondences, because everything can be an opening into Spirit.

The qualities of Spirit are expressed through art, music, writing, religion, healing, magic and ritual. Spirit is associated with the crown, or 7th chakra, in the Tarot deck it is represented by the last card of the Major Arcana, The World. Spirit colors are white and/or black, they are the colors that contain or reflect all other vibrations of light and dark.  Each culture has its own definition of Spirit, In Buddhist tradition it is likened to a dewdrop disappearing into the ocean of infinite being.

While it is essential to recognize Spirit along with the other elements, it is also essential to keep it somewhat distinct, and not trivialize it by simply tacking it on the elemental quaternary.

 

 

starweaverwitch.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/Spirit-the-fifth-element/

witcheslore.com/bookofshadows/witches-workshop/the-five-elements/4683/

 

Air: Spirit is Enchanted

Centering

Happiness

Meditation

Prayer

The Meaning of Life

Your Body is a Temple

Your Mind is Divine

Your Spirit is Enchanted