I call you to connect and work with the moon using a shamanic, and intuitive approach. I am not going to be diving into astrology here. I would like to show you how you can use the moon as an intuitive strategy for life and business, and explore the moon cycles as an extension of your inner guidance. I know it may sound like a predominantly woo, spiritual thing at first glance, but following and using the moon cycles is a serious business for a woman to create serious growth and expansion. It does have its woo side, which I totally adore. I personally love a LOT of woo. It is one of my jam.
But I am also a very practical person and love tangible results. I love understanding the logic, the science behind things, that gives a support structure to the spiritual part, so that we can take advantage of those seemingly invisible powers coming from our hearts and souls. In fact, I believe the spiritual (or woo) must be merged with the practical. We need both the Feminine (woo), and masculine (practical/logical). Working with the moon cycles allows us to work with the feminine and masculine in harmony and synergy. The consistent flow and structure of the moon phases makes up the masculine aspect, and the energy of the individual phases, the symbology of the moon cycle makes up the feminine aspect. In fact, growth and expansion are also bringing together the masculine and the feminine.
Growth is the masculine aspect, because growth is the linear experience, the incremental aspect of having more, and achieving more. Expansion is the feminine aspect, because it is the widening and deepening of our perspectives, beliefs, and our understanding of ourselves and path. The experience of fulfilling our own and our soul’s needs. Expansion is awakening. We need both. We need growth so that we can have the tangible results showing up in our lives, like money, and we need expansion so that we’re not just successful on paper, but FEEL successful and able to embrace our success without any shame, fear, or judgement. When we allow the moon to lead us on our path of growth and expansion, we’ll grow and expand simultaneously as the moon guides us to face both our lights and shadows. Think of the full moon. One side is fully lit, one is fully in the shadow. We are most in our power and success when we can allow ourselves to show up both with our shadows and light at the same time.
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Working with the moon is a complete mind, body, and soul affair
Our mind gets all information through our five senses. Our mind works in stories, narratives, metaphors. This means we make sense of the world around us, our lives and ourselves, through our five senses, and, through a metaphoric understanding of what we perceive with our senses. Our mind turns everything into a story for us to make sense. This means, through our mind, in our thoughts, we continuously are writing our own story and creating our own reality. As we watch the moon with our eyes, one of our five senses, our mind gets a visual understanding of how our female body works. We become more aware of the cyclical nature of our hormonal rides, and are able to observe the effect it has on us.
Our mind-body connection deepens as we follow the moon. As I said, our mind works in metaphors and stories. We look at things symbolically. This is how we can extract wisdom, not just from the moon, but from all our experiences in life.
So let’s look at the symbology of the moon and its cycles
The moon is a rock, reflecting back the light of the sun, continuously moving through its cycles, in a perpetual endings and beginnings. As our hormones have the same cyclical pattern, the moon reflects us back to us – who we are and how our body works. Why is this supporting our growth and expansion? Because our hormonal rides, in other words, our cyclical nature, influences:
- our emotional ebbs and flows,
- our productivity and creativity patterns,
- our physical energy levels,
- fertility and libido.
- All parts of our health and wellbeing, really.
When you understand your patterns, you get to take care of yourself better. You have the chance to anticipate your productivity, energy level, and emotional needs. You can use this information to better navigate the masculine side: to plan, organize your life and work and take action. This is very important! Following the moon is not just about following our menstrual cycle. Our cyclical nature is for life. Our hormonal rides are with us throughout our entire womanhood, it just goes through different phases such as menstruation, perimenopause, true menopause and post menopause.
Therefore, we can benefit from the moon as a self-reflection, self-connection guide at any phases of our cyclical nature. As I mentioned, our mind works in metaphors and narratives and we are creating our own story/reality continuously. The moon with its phases helping us to weave the story we’re creating and living. Imagine each moon cycle as a new chapter, leading us through the chapters of our life. Each moon phase carries a different energy and giving us a new focus as we’re weaving our story/path/life. The phases of the moon create an organic structure, allowing us to tap into the support of the masculine naturally. Let me lead you through the phases as I explain the roles of each phase. I hope that at the end, you’ll see how you can apply the structure of a moon cycle for your own growth and expansion in any area of your life.
5-Phase moon flow
This is my 5-Phase Moon Flow, an Intuitive Strategy I got to realize as I deepened my journey with the moon for myself as well as for other women:
- Phase One – Step One – DARK MOON – Keywords: Let Go / Make Space
- Phase Two – Step Two – NEW MOON – Keywords: Turn Inward / Envision /Plan
- Phase Three – Step Three – WAXING MOON – Keywords: Act Upon Your Intuition
- Phase Four – Step Four – FULL MOON – Keywords: Pause With Purpose
- Phase Five – Step Five – WANING MOON – Keywords: Slow Down / Discern
Phase One – Step One – Dark moon: Let go, make space
I know that officially a new moon-cycle starts with the new moon. However, I would like to invite you to use the dark moon as the beginning. Dark Moon is the last couple of days of a moon cycle. In life, we have been conditioned to begin by making a choice and then take action, and create rapidly. But the truth is, whenever we want to begin something new, the real first step is closing the old, letting go of what doesn’t belong, and allowing the metaphorical death to rebirth. Therefore our first step is making space, sewing up loose ends, and dealing with the past.
We do this by sitting and pausing, accepting that we don’t know all the steps and all the solutions. We just know that we have a dream rising in us. So we sit in the dark, and get comfortable with the feeling of uncertainty of our new dreams and plans. We cherish the moment of not knowing and the pause. We take time to reflect on our previous chapter before we launch into the new. We do nothing else here but respect this moment of ending.
Phase Two – Step Two – New moon: Turn inward, envision, plan
New Moon is the beginning of the new cycle, a new chapter. New moon is about new beginnings, starting afresh with a clean slate. Reset, replenish, reboot.
Everything is possible. We let go of any limitations from our mind, and hearts. We carry on the work we have started in the dark moon of making space for the new.
We sit in the dark with the intention of allowing our desires and dreams to come to our awareness. We take our time to do this. I know we’re so deeply conditioned to jump into action and make things happen, but we do not rush this phase. We give ourselves space to dream so that we can see the silhouettes of our dreams getting clearer. Just like when you’re sitting in a dark room and your eyes are getting used to the darkness and can see more and more. This is the process of the new moon. Once we have more clarity on our dreams, we set powerful intentions for achieving them. We also spend some time making a flexible plan as we allow our inspiration to guide us to come up with the actions we want to take.
Phase Three – Step Three – Waxing moon: Act upon your intuition
In Waxing Moon, the energy and momentum of the moon cycle is picking up.
The focus is taking action. However, there’s an important distinction we must make here. It is not about becoming busy and do mindlessly. ‘There is nothing to do but always action to take’, meaning, prioritize, choose the most significant action that actually moves you toward your desired outcome. Write everything down on your to do list, and then, prioritize what you do first, second and third. In the new moon, you were sitting and dreaming, setting intentions, allowing yourself to get inspired, and listening to your heart. Now, in the waxing moon, ACT upon your inspiration. Choose your actions with your intuition.
Phase Four – Step Four – Full moon: Pause with purpose
After taking action, use the Full Moon to pause and evaluate. It’s easy to stay in action mode and over do it as we’re so conditioned to do so. But the full moon is about letting the results of your actions be illuminated, so that you can see what you have achieved so far, and receive it by acknowledging the results. Indeed, receive both the tangible and inner results, and celebrate them with a ritual.
Full moon is an intense energy for many reasons and it can feel like it is coming to completion. However, it is important to be aware that we are only half way through the cycle and our chapter. If you ever feel like you’re running out of time, opportunities, or solutions, the moon can teach you how to relate to time differently. Following the moon cycle is giving us an opportunity to soften the ingrained deadline mindset, and the pressure we can put on ourselves using time. I know that deadlines can be useful to motivate ourselves to get things done, and help us to plan, but make sure not to use it against your wellbeing. Full moon is here to teach us that we always have more time than we think.bTake your time to evaluate what’s been working and not working so far. Take time to release what’s not working, and practice gratitude for how far you’ve come. Pause, and breathe, and sink into the magic of the full moon before you move on.
Phase Five – Step Five – Waning moon: Slow down, discern
Waning Moon is my favorite phase. It can be quite overlooked after the magic of the full moon. But I encourage you not to miss its potency.
Waning moon is here to help us to integrate. Integration is where the power lies, yet, in our masculine led society, we can completely miss out on this step. While during a full moon we realize our growth through the results of our actions, during a waning moon we realize our expansion through acknowledging our inner-shifts and transformations. This allows us to claim who we have become through the process of following our desires. This way, when we move forward, we move forward from the place of alignment. At the waning moon, we can slow down, look deeper into those things that came to light at the full moon. It is time for practicing discernment as you look through each area of your life. Discernment is powerful because it calls us to make non-negotiable choices for ourselves. It helps us to prepare for the dark moon where we let go of what’s done or doesn’t serve us.
As we cycle through the waning moon, we get back to the dark moon because working with the moon is a fluid, intuitive strategy.
You don’t even have to follow the order, rather, identify in which phase you are in, and then flow forward from there. You can apply this fluid strategy to any area of your life.
Of course, there is not enough space here to share about each phase in more depth, but I hope you’ve got a good picture of how this 5-phase Moon Flow can work for you to grow and expand.
The last piece of wisdom I would like to close with is this. You can use this 5-phase Moon Flow in real time with the moon. You can also go through these phases/steps in a week, in a day, in a year, depending on the projects, circumstances in your life you’re applying it to.
Wishing you flow and ease on your journey of growth and expansion.