Lesson Eleven: Esbats
Basics of Witchcraft
by Jeffrey Pierce
It was a clear summer night, the full moon hanging like a rich, ripe fruit in the starry sky. Our coven's ritual had just ended; all of us were hot and panting from another enthusiastic spiral dance, led by one of our younger members. I wandered off alone, sitting in the midst of a nearby field while the rest of the coven talked and milled about, exchanging stories of the previous week and making plans for the coming days.
There, in the darkness, sitting alone in the grassy field, I gazed upon the face of Luna and wondered what my ancestors thought and felt when they gazed up at the same sky. One by one, my coven-mates came and joined me and we talked about the past, about the legacy our ancestors had left us. Did they realize that the moon was a satellite that orbited the earth we live on? Or was it simply a constant companion whose light ebbed and flowed, setting the lunar month? We talked about what each of us would feel if, unfettered by the words of science, we stared up at the moon with a mystical awe. How would we feel simply knowing it as a soft light in our night sky, whose phases mirrored the cycle of growth we saw in the Goddess?
It wasn't a book we were learning from, or even a physical teacher. We learned from the moon itself, from the magick that permeated the air from our Circle and spiral dance. It was the whispered voices of our ancestors that spoke to us, as our minds let go of the bonds of time and slipped back through the centuries to earlier rituals.
And for the first time, as we lay in the open field, gazing up at the light of the full moon, I didn't just know what the moon meant. I understood.
In modern witchcraft, the moon is associated with the Goddess. The new moon symbolizes new beginnings; an appropriate time to perform magick that begins a new chapter of our lives or blesses a new undertaking. It's like a blank canvas, waiting for the touch of our magick, just as it is waiting to peek out of the earth's shadow and reflect the sun's light once more. As the moon tiptoes just past new, waxing toward fullness, it represents the Goddess as Maiden. When the moon is new, the lunar month is fresh and ready for change, to tie it's energy to a new undertaking, regardless of whether it is a magickal endeavor such as crafting a tool, spell or charm, or whether our goals are more mundane, such as looking for a new job or beginning a large home improvement task; the possibilities it holds are endless.
Just as we grow and mature, so the moon waxes and grows full. In the full moon we find a time of bounty and fullness, the perfect time to charge ritual tools and stones with lunar energy. It is symbolizes the Goddess as Mother, fertile and full. It is a time of harvest, a time when the lunar energy saturates the night air.
As the lunar month continues, the moon begins to wane, the time of the Crone. Though the moon's light is fading, we are filled with the wisdom that we have gleaned since the moon was new, all through the lunar month. This is an appropriate time to cleanse ritual tools and stones in moonlight, leaving them on a window sill or under a tree, letting the waning moon take the old energy with it as it fades, leaving the items clean and fresh as the moon becomes new.
Exercise Twelve: Understanding the Sacred Moon
This exercise takes place on two nights, one during the new moon and one during the full moon. While I personally try to hold my observances on the exact night of that moon's phase, traditionally you can observe that lunar phase within three days of its occurrence - either three days before or three days after. When you add the night when the moon reaches the peak of that phase, you'll find that you have a week's leeway to find a time to do the exercise.
Find a safe place to sit outside under the moon (if you live in an environment that isn't particularly safe, make the proper adjustments; even if it means sitting inside and observing the moon through your window). As you gaze up into the night sky, let the thoughts drift from your mind until it's reasonably clear. As you sit there (or lay on your back) gazing up at the moon, imagine that you're a young pagan villager centuries in the past. Most likely you're illiterate. You believe strongly in magick, that the world around you is alive, and that spirits exist in every living thing. You've been chosen by one of the spiritual leaders of your community to begin studying to take their place when you've grown to maturity. As you gaze up at the moon, imagine what it means to your people, how you see it from your perspective within your tiny village. Can you imagine the rites your people may have done to celebrate its phases? Can you imagine certain symbology it may have for you and your community? What your spiritual elders may teach?
What this exercise does is begin the process of connecting you to the magick of lunar energy. Way back at the beginning of this course, you learned to connect with the energy of the moon, to see it as something magickal in your life that you could tap into. Now we're making another shift, slipping a little deeper into the magick, and learning to see the lunar cycle in a slightly different way.
Modern witches often set aside a night, traditionally held within three days of the full or new moon, to quiet themselves, to hold a ritual to reconnect and recharge, to work needed magick, to grow, or to simply celebrate with other pagan friends. We refer to this night's ritual as an Esbat and, while full moon Esbats are more common, many witches celebrate the new moon Esbat as well.
What do you do on these nights? That, my friend, is up to you. To continue to grow, to develop your own path, you need to begin using the tools that you've been given to find your own way. Look at your life and determine what processes you're going through. There may be specific issues you want to address. You may find that you simply want to ask the energy to aid you in your growth. You may find that a specific phase of the moon is perfectly suited to observe a milestone, much like the ritual we held for the Crone in the last lesson. The new and full moon Esbats may be as simple as a time when you can practice creating and carrying out rituals until you feel comfortable and confident with the process.
As you look through modern pagan literature, you may also find that certain moons have certain names associated with them. The Oak Moon. The Wolf Moon. The Moon of Geese Returning. While it may seem exciting to adopt a system of moon names as your own, I'd encourage you not to do so. Within the path I teach, moons are named based on natural occurrences in the environment you live in. While witches in New England may observe The Moon of the First Snow, it's not a very useful name to those witches living in Southern California. Finding our own system of names for various moons of the year is a topic we'll address in additional materials.
Until then, simply use the moons as a guide to working ritual and reconnecting with the magick around you. It may seem a simple task to do so but, like many things on this path, the simple things are often the most powerful.