Preparing for your New Moon journey with a gentle Water Release Ritual

Altar for my Water Release Ritual

Tomorrow we enter a new cycle with Grandmother Moon… new beginnings, new energy, new goals, a new journey.

And this is the last New Moon before the Solstice on Wednesday, June 21 at 04:24 UTC (Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 9:24 pm PDT here in Vancouver). The Solstice is the medicine of Father Sun, used by many to mark the “official” first day of the seasons of Summer or Winter. Our ancestors celebrated this day in the Northern Hemisphere as Summer Solstice, Litha, MidSummer and/or Longest Day and in the Southern Hemisphere as Winter Solstice, Yule, MidWinter and/or Longest Night.

Before the dawn of New Moon, I spend a day reflecting and releasing, and often use different elements in my release Rituals… Earth, Fire, Water, Air.

So today is an ideal time to sit with the Medicine Wheel reading you created at the beginning of the New Moon, to which you added new cards — at the First Quarter, the Full Moon, the Third Quarter and now the Dark Moon — to those already drawn.

SOUL WORK
Spend some time reflecting on the cards you drew throughout this month’s journey and the messages/wisdom they brought you on this month’s theme of “passionate transformation” (or whatever theme YOU set for yourself). What new wisdom can you integrate into your Wise Inner Self? What did you learn? What is now complete? What is yet unfinished? And what are you now ready to release?

Today I feel the need for the gentle, intuitive emotional energy of Water and the grounding energy of Mama Earth. Consider this Release Ritual with Water, which can be done throughout the day or all at once, at sunset:

TO BEGIN

• Call on your guides and allies for their wisdom, guidance, and support in this ritual
• Fill a small bowl with water
• Place a favourite healing crystal into the water (make sure it is a crystal that is safe in water) or add a teaspoon of sea salt
  • You can also add other elements. . . a favourite essential oil, herb or botanical element (leaf, flower, etc). Today, I added a drop of Lourdes Holy Water, a gift from my Grandmother, to represent my Ancestors.

Method 1: Throughout the Day

• Throughout the day, bring your awareness to any negative energy, self-limiting limiting beliefs, patterns of behaviour that no longer serve you.
• For each one you identify and are ready to let go, energetically send it to the water bowl for release, saying a release affirmation you create or something like: “This _________ no longer serves me. I release it to the healing waters of Mother Earth.”
• When you feel you have released everything you can, move to the COMPLETION part of the Ritual.

Method 2: All at Once

•  Sit and meditate at the water bowl, and once again reflect on your Medicine Wheel reading for the month… or your journey since the new moon on April 26th. As in Method 1, also bring your awareness to any negative energy, self-limiting limiting beliefs, patterns of behaviour that no longer serve you. What are you now ready to release after integrating the wisdom of your Soul Work?
• For each one you identify, release energetically to the bowl OR write the keywords onto a small piece of paper and drop into the water bowl for release. As you watch the words blur and dissolve into the water, say a release statement you have created or something such as “This _________ no longer serves me. I release it to the healing waters of Mother Earth.”
• When you feel you have released everything you can, move to the COMPLETION part of the Ritual.

COMPLETION
When you have completed your release(s), empty the bowl — if possible outdoors, into Mama Earth, but it can also be released to water (sink, pond, river…) — while repeating your release statement, one you craft yourself or something like this: “I free my Self of all things which no longer serve me and I send them to Mother Earth for grounding and release.”

Thank your guides and allies for their support and wisdom.

NOTES:
If you choose to empty the bowl into a sink or a fresh water source, modify your statement accordingly, for example “I free my Self of all things which no longer serve me and I send them to be cleansed and released in the healing waters of Mother Earth”.

Some folks also choose to release and bury the crystal(s) used in the Ritual, but I simply thank the crystal and then cleanse it energetically.