Plant at the new moon, release at the full.

Roughly every twenty-nine and a half days the Moon catches up with the Sun and vanishes from the sky. That dark point is the new moon — in the classical tradition, the seed moment of the cycle. It is the time for beginnings: for setting an intention, for naming the thing you want to grow. The page is blank, and you decide what goes on it.

Fourteen days later the Moon stands directly opposite the Sun: the full moon, the cycle's culmination. Whatever you planted at the new moon is visible in full light for the first time. A full moon ritual has two jobs — seeing honestly what came of it, and deliberately releasing what did not work. You cannot release what you have not looked at, and you cannot start a clean cycle while still carrying the last one.

Let us be clear about what this is: a ritual is an attention practice, not a spell. Writing an intention at the new moon does not make it come true; it makes it precise, and it leaves a record you will be answerable to in two weeks. What the calendar does is tell you when the sky rhymes with what you are doing. The rest is yours.

Every lunation happens in a specific sign, and the theme follows the sign. A new moon in Aries is about beginnings, nerve and the first move; a new moon in Pisces is about endings, intuition and letting go. The year's twelve — occasionally thirteen — new moons open twelve different subjects, and bringing the same intention list to all of them is like handing in the same essay for every class.

The sign sets the theme; the house it lands in within your natal chart is what makes it personal. A Capricorn full moon falling in your 10th house is about work, career and being seen; the same full moon in someone else's 4th house is about home, family and roots. Same sky, entirely different question.

Reading this for yourself takes two steps. The calendar gives you the lunation's sign and degree; then you open your chart screen and see which of your twelve houses that degree falls in. A full moon in your 2nd house makes the subject your resources; in your 10th, your work and visibility. The calendar's intention prompts are written for the lunation's theme — once you have found your house, you know which part of life to point them at.

After the Moon completes its final aspect in a sign, and until it enters the next one, it runs void-of-course: it makes no further aspects to any planet. The classical tradition holds that matters begun under a void Moon tend not to come to anything, which is why electional astrology avoids that stretch for beginnings of any kind.

A ritual is a beginning, so the same rule applies: set your intention while the Moon is active — while its next aspect is still ahead of it — not during the void stretch. The new moon itself is already a strong moment; adding an active Moon puts the timing on your side. If you want to refine the timing further, that is the territory of electional astrology, and we keep a whole page on it.

The practice itself can be plain: ten minutes, a notebook, a phone on silent. At the new moon, answer the prompts for the house in writing; at the full moon, open what you wrote two weeks ago, mark what happened, and consciously let one thing go. Candles, incense, crystals — add them if you like them, but none of it is required. What makes a ritual a ritual is repetition, not equipment.