Dark Moon Crafts and Basics
Communing with the dark moon in ritual doesn’t require a lot of materials or supplies unless you want it to. The following are some simple instructions for items you can make for use in your dark moon practice, to deepen your connection to this special time. You will see some of these items mentioned throughout the book in recipes and rituals, so making them ahead of time can be useful. While they’re not absolutely necessary in a spell, they strengthen its intent. For example, a plain black candle will do in a spell, but the death candle described in this chapter is even stronger. The same can be said about table salt versus witch’s salt or olive oil versus death oil.
Moon water is a popular item found in many a witch’s cabinet. It is made by simply leaving spring water, rainwater, or even tap water outside beneath the moon to absorb its power. Full moon water is the most well known, but this special liquid can be made at any time of the lunar cycle and imbued with the different qualities of the waxing, waning, full, and of course dark moon.
Dark moon water has a distinctly different energy than full moon water and is best utilized in shadow work such as banishing, cursing, destruction spells, and divination. It can be used for anointing ritual objects, for cleansing and empowering objects, or added to potions and brews suited to shadow work. Dark moon water is not fitting for all the same uses as full moon water. For example, using dark moon water for cleansing prosperity crystals simply wouldn’t make sense, nor would using dark moon water to attract love. Dark moon water is reserved for very specific workings regarding dark magick.
materials
Small jar with a watertight lid
Water of your choice. I prefer rainwater; water from a natural pond, lake, or river; or melted snow, but any water you have on hand is fine. If you plan on drinking this water in ritual, only use a safe source.
Stick for drawing in dirt or snow, depending on weather
1 black stone. This can be an ordinary little stone you find outside, a black tourmaline crystal, or black obsidian.
Sterile lancet (optional)
On the night of the dark moon, fill the glass jar with water of your choice. After the sun has fully set and darkness has descended completely, take your materials outdoors if possible, to a quiet place. Since the dark moon is a time of endings and beginnings, a crossroads or other liminal space is ideal. Draw an X onto the earth with a stick or branch. Envision the Crone, sage, or dark moon current guarding the cross you have created.
Place your jar of water in the center of the X. Draw a circle in the dirt around this. Spend a moment visualizing this circle acting as a protective barrier against unwanted energy, as well as a target that draws the dark moon. See a big tunnel of vibration between your water and the sky, like a gentle cyclone.
Hold the black stone up to the dark sky. See its blackness against the black of the sky. Say:
This stone, black as night, is a magnet.
I draw the powers of the dark moon into this stone.
This stone anchors the powers of the night.
Drop your stone into the water. It acts as an anchor for the dark moon energy.
If you’ve read ahead to Chapter 5 and learned about blood and understand the safety precautions on page 75, you may use the lancet to add a drop of your blood to the moon water. This step isn’t necessary if you’re not comfortable using blood or choose not to incorporate it into your work.
Tightly cap the jar. Leave the water outside overnight under the dark moon. In the morning before the sun comes up, retrieve it before any daylight touches it. Keep it handy and use as needed.
Ways to Use Dark Moon Water
• Drink it prior to doing readings with your oracle/divinatory tool of choice (only if you used safe drinking water to create it). By doing this, you will have the intuitive powers of the dark moon in your actual body.
• Add it to scrying water or ritual bathwater.
• Use it to cleanse items on your dark moon altar or ritual items used in dark magick.
• Sprinkle a small amount on your divination tools to boost their efficacy, as long as water will not ruin them.
• Anoint yourself prior to meditation or ritual, by placing a drop on the third eye or heart.
• Wear some on your body while sleeping to invoke intuitive or prophetic dreams.
• Sprinkle it around an area where a situation that needs to change is taking place: for example, an office or home where arguments have reached a stalemate and need to be transformed for the better. The same can be done for a situation that needs to simmer down so that a new one can begin.
• Use in spells for banishing, endings, hexing, protection, and divination.
Dark Moon Incense Recipe
This is a simple incense blend that can be burned on your dark moon altar or during rituals and spells performed during this phase. You can also use it any time you need to be introspective and face changes that may be difficult. This incense doesn’t include any specially purchased fancy herbs or resins but rather requires you to gather materials outside during the dark moon phase.
Go outside after dark when there is no daylight left. Go to a wooded area or cemetery. Look at the ground and collect dead leaves, small dry twigs, or shed pine needles. Take only dead debris to ensure they harbor the essence of death and endings. Gather them together in a jar. On the night of the dark moon, repeat the same ritual explained for moon water by leaving the jar of dried leaves and sticks outdoors under the dark moon.
Retrieve it in the early hours before any sun gets on it.
Make sure the plant material you select is completely dried before trying to burn it on a charcoal disk. If you wish, you can chop the larger leaves and needles into smaller bits for easier burning. Like the moon water, store this incense somewhere that it will not be exposed to daylight.
The purpose of this incense is for magickal power more than for scent. This is completely natural incense and will smell as such. Depending on what plant matter you put in, the scent may vary slightly, but generally it has a comforting autumnal smell. I appreciate this for what it is: natural. If you are drawn to more perfumed incenses, try adding frankincense or dragon’s blood resin to dress it up.
Ways to Use Dark Moon Incense
• Burn some in a room that has energy in it that you’d like to essentially “kill” or get rid of. For example, use it after an argument or upsetting interaction with someone.
• Sprinkle the dry, unlit incense mixture over a picture or symbol of a thing or feeling you would like to halt.
• Take a small object representing a problem and hold it in the stream of incense smoke to symbolically eliminate it.
• Burn some outdoors while visualizing an unwanted situation coming to an end, allowing the smoke to carry your intent into nature.
• Burn during dark moon divination and rituals or prior to doing dream work during the dark moon.
Dark Moon Bath Ritual
Occasionally, people who are sensitive to lunar phases may find that the dark moon is a tiring, difficult time. You may discover that you feel irritable, moody, drained, or even depressed. It may seem like performing a whole ritual is a bit much. In that case, a simple spiritual bath is a nice alternative, an easy act that requires little effort. The purpose of this bath is to cleanse away those feelings that come with the dark moon and make room for its benefits, such as regeneration and shedding unwanted influences.
For many witches, the dark moon is a time of letting go, purifying their minds and space. That is the purpose of this bath. Take this bath on the night of the dark moon, right before you go to bed.
Dark moon incense
Black candle
½ cup dark moon water
3 tablespoons sea salt or Epsom salt
Purification essential oil such as frankincense, rosemary, or peppermint, diluted in a carrier oil such as jojoba oil or olive oil
Burn some dark moon incense prior to the bath to fill the room with the scent.
Light a black candle but otherwise keep the room dark.
Draw a warm bath as normal. Add ½ cup of dark moon water, the salt, and a few drops of your chosen oil.
Recline in the tub and feel yourself slipping into the cauldron of night. Imagine the dark water and reflections dappled on its surface are the midnight sky full of stars caressing your skin.
Take deep, slow breaths. Inhale the dark of night, and as you exhale, imagine you are blowing out any unwanted energy that may have clung to you throughout the day or week. Imagine a black circle in the center of your chest where you heart is. This is the darkness of the new moon. While it is empty and can feel lonely and dark, it also contains the potential to be filled up again. Spend some time focusing on this dark circle. Imagine it holds the energy that has got you feeling low, whether that’s a nagging stressful thought you can’t seem to let go of or just a bad mood. Acknowledge this energy, as it has a purpose. Let it speak to you, allowing images or feelings to float across your mind and remember them for later. They may be symbols meant to guide you, letting you know what underlying issues inside you are rising to the surface to be released.
Inhale the smell of the purifying oil and feel the cleansing salt water permeating your skin. Imagine the healing power of these things entering the hole in your chest, clearing it out and opening it up for possibility.
When you’re done, dry off and go right to bed. If you have any dreams, be sure to write them down, as they may be meaningful and contain answers to your current problems.
This is exactly what it sounds like: ritual oil used in spells to symbolically invoke “death.” Different oils are used often in spells: for example, anointing candles with rose oil for love or dripping clove oil on coins to attract prosperity. The same idea applies to death oil, only it is used in spells for banishing, cursing, and endings. You can put a drop of death oil on objects to symbolically “kill” something, such as a feeling, behavior, or action. Put death oil on a symbol of an illness to help quell the sickness, or put some on a photo of something you wish to banish.
Death oil is mentioned in quite a few spells in this book, so having a jar of it premade is useful.
This oil is made to encompass death energy. I warn you—this oil can be downright foul depending on how you make it, and there’s nothing pleasant or fragrant about it like the magickal oils we know and love. None of the ingredients that go into this oil should have a shred of life left in them; they must be completely void of life energy. For base oil I recommend jojoba, as it never goes rancid and a little goes a long way. You will put your ingredients in a jar and cover them with jojoba oil.
Below are some suggested ingredients. You can use as many or as few items as you want, depending on what is accessible.
materials
Dead insect carcasses
Animal bones
Graveyard dirt or dirt from fallow ground on which nothing grows
Ashes
Dead leaves, plants, and sticks. Choose ones that are completely devoid of moisture or life.
An object that was used to kill something. These objects hold the killing energy they were once employed for. This can be small, such as the tissue used to kill a spider, or large, such as a bullet used in hunting. Avoid poisons or toxic substances, as you will be handling this oil with your bare hands.
Collect your ingredients under the dark moon and put them together in a small jar. Cover them with jojoba oil. Sit in your sacred space, preferably at your dark moon altar or outdoors under the dark moon, and think about the decay and endings that are in that oil. Bury the jar in the ground, as you would a dead creature, overnight. Mark the spot by drawing a small circle on the ground. Visualize that circle attracting a beam of blackness from the sky into the ground, filling your potion with the energy of the dark moon. Dig the jar up the next day before sunlight touches it. If you prefer, you can strain the oil through a cheesecloth, or leave the items sitting in it. Your death oil is ready for use.
Ways to Use Death Oil
• Put a drop in the shoes of someone whose influence you wish to remove from your life (it will not kill them or make them sick, but rather kill the energy they’re putting into bothering you).
• Write down a habit or feeling you’d like to banish, soak it overnight in death oil, and then bury it.
• Anoint candles being used in curses and banishing.
• Use it to bless the items on your dark moon altar.
• Put a tiny bit on your pulse points during rituals in which you are bringing death energy into play or invoking a dark deity.
Many kinds of salts are used in witchcraft for a range of reasons, sometimes to represent the earth element and other times for cleansing. Salt is an inexpensive and readily available item that is multipurpose in witchcraft.
Witch’s salt has basically two purposes: protection and cursing. Here is a basic recipe that can be tweaked to suit your needs.
materials
5 tablespoons sea salt or table salt
Handful of ashes from a ritual fire if possible
Ashes from your own burned hair or fingernails
1 tablespoon of your favorite powdered herbs. These can be chosen according to intent, such as rosemary for protection, lavender for
love, etc.
Experiment to find your own perfect mixture, replacing or changing the above ingredients as you please. Some people like to add a small amount of essential oils to match their intent or food dye in accordance with color magick. Just remember that dyed salt can stain many surfaces. The intent you add to the salt is the most important ingredient of all.
Some spells call for witch’s salt to be eaten, and if so, alter the recipe by only including edible, nontoxic items. Be sure to omit inedible objects like fingernails and ashes if you’re going to ingest witch’s salt. Also make sure the salt is free of emmenagogic herbs if you are pregnant.
The purpose of witch’s salt is keeping things that are harmful away from you or your home. It is used for deflection and for creating a barrier between you and unwanted people or things. Witch’s salt is mentioned multiple times throughout this book. However, if you cannot obtain or make any, ordinary table salt will do in a real pinch.
Once it is charged with intent, salt has endless uses. Here are just a few examples, but let your creativity guide you and I’m sure you can think of more.
Ways to Use Witch’s Salt
• Sprinkle witch’s salt in your doorways and in windowsills to keep negativity out.
• Drop some into the footprints of a person you dislike to make them stay away.
• Include it in curses, hexes, and crossing spells to enhance their efficacy. For example, it can be added to the stuffing of poppets or mixed into candle wax. You can throw witch’s salt onto the property of an enemy to make them stay away from you and also give them a taste of their own medicine. It is believed that when an enemy is near the salt, they will intuitively become uncomfortable and want to leave. Have some handy to ward off rude coworkers, nosy neighbors, or toxic people.
• Throw a small handful of salt away from yourself into the wind while envisioning someone you would like distance from.
• Sprinkle it around the edge of your house to form a barrier. If you are having issues with a next-door neighbor, make a line with the salt all along the edge of the property to keep them on their side.
• Pour it onto a picture of a person who is bothering you to make them stay away. You can also pour it onto a symbol or image of a problem for the same end.
• Put a tiny pinch in an enemy’s food to quiet their negativity. Put some on your own food to protect yourself.
• Add a pinch to oils, incenses, and room sprays.
• Roll ritual candles in it prior to burning.
• Pour some around your floor and allow it to sit and absorb negativity for a few minutes. Then vacuum it up.
• Add a pinch to your bathwater.
• Make a sachet by tying some salt into a piece of black cloth. Place the sachet under the bed to prevent nightmares or in your home or workplace to absorb bad moods.
• Rub a pinch of salt between your fingers when stressed to absorb the energy. Then rinse it off down the drain or throw it away.
An easy means of performing a simple banishing ritual is to burn a death candle. It’s called a death candle because it is used to end something or bring death upon a situation. This doesn’t mean it will kill another person but rather bring about change.
Making a few of these candles ahead of time on the night of the dark moon is useful. When you need to use them, simply carve a word or symbol representing your issue into the side of it and burn it.
materials
Dark moon water
Black taper candle(s)
Death oil
Witch’s salt
Hard surface to work on
On the night of the dark moon gather your supplies. Invoke the dark moon, inviting it to touch on your candles and bless your activities.
Get some drops of dark moon water on your fingertips and dribble them onto the candles to cleanse them.
Put some death oil on your fingers and massage it into the candle. Start in the middle, massaging the oil outward to the ends. This is a “pushing away” action used in anointing spell candles in banishing.
Generously sprinkle the witch’s salt on your hard surface, and roll your oiled candle in it. Salt will cling to the outside of the candle.
Now, hold the candle toward the dark sky and chant repeatedly:
Absence of light,
Filled completely with night.
As you chant, allow the power of the dark sky to fill the candle. Feel the dead weight of the candle in your hands, the blackness permeating through it completely. Repeat this with each candle.
You can light this candle for a specified amount of time each day during the waning moon until the candle is gone and so is the problem you wish to end. When you light it, spend about 10 minutes imagining the situation ending or the thing you wish to banish being snuffed out. You can also simply have a death candle burning during any appropriate dark moon spell or ritual to increase the death energy in your working.
To store death candles you’ve made ahead of time, place them in a box with a lid, and completely cover them in witch’s salt. Store the box where it will not be disturbed. When you wish to use one, simply take it from the box and leave the remaining ones covered in witch’s salt in the closed box until you need them.
Ways to Use Death Candles
• Banishing foul moods
• Clearing out energy after an argument or other distressing emotional situation
• Breaking unhealthy ties to another person
• Easing heartbreak
• Destroying someone’s power over you
• Ending the destructive or hurtful behavior of another person
• Breaking up relationships
• Hindering a person’s actions
Miscellaneous Dark Moon Crafts
Banishing Ink
You can use this ink in any dark spells that require writing, or simply paint it over a picture of your problem, effectively “blacking out” the issue.
materials
Tea tree oil
Jar of black ink, such as India ink
Juniper berry
Add 5 to 10 drops of tea tree oil to the ink. Tea tree oil is a powerful cleansing agent and can be used in magick the same way. Next add the juniper berry, which is associated with protection. Let the juniper berry sit in the ink.
Leave the jar under the dark moon for a night, infusing it with dark moon power of endings. Like your other dark moon items, don’t allow sunlight to touch it.
Body Paint
Use this paint to draw a black circle over your heart during a dark moon ritual or during meditation to help you understand the dark moon current in your life. The black circle over your heart will connect you to the dark moon and draw upon its wisdom.
materials
Piece of black obsidian
Small seed like apple or sunflower
Black liquid body paint
Black obsidian was once molten lava that cooled on contact with air or water, forming a black glass. This means that like the dark of the moon, this particular mineraloid is in a state of flux between one form and another. It’s a direct product of destruction and transformation.
The seed represents potential for fresh new beginnings.
Place both inside the bottle of body paint and empower it with dark moon energy. You can also use this body paint to decorate your skin with sigils and symbols in future rituals. If you wish to banish something, draw a symbol of it on your body and then let it wash off in a dark moon bath.
Crossroads Charm
This charm is for when you’re facing a decision or big change but can’t make up your mind which course of action to take.
materials
2 small sticks or bones
1 foot string or twine
Hold a stick or bone in each hand. As you examine the one in your right hand, visualize one outcome of the problem you are considering. Now concentrate on the stick or bone in your left hand and consider an alternative option. The sticks represent the two contradicting ways you are leaning. Now tie them together in the shape of an X, binding them with the string.
On the night of the dark moon, go to a crossroads or intersection, preferably one that is not terribly busy. Whisper your question to the charm you made. Hide it somewhere near the crossroads where you will not lose it, and leave it overnight. Some ideas for hiding spots in an urban area are a flowerpot nearby you could tuck it into, a deep crack in the sidewalk, or in a building facade. In the country, where there are fewer people walking, you could wrap it in identifiable cloth before leaving it on the ground so that you can find it the next day.
Collect the charm the next morning and carry it with you. You will be guided in the best direction.
Keep the materials to use again the next time you’re facing a big decision.
Crone’s Egg
While an egg is typically a symbol of springtime and fertility, it can also represent death and rebirth when used intentionally. The shell in this case is empty and holds both the nothingness of death and the potential of life. Emptiness is nothing and everything at the same time.
To remove the egg from its shell, carefully use a nail to tap a hole in the top and bottom of the egg—surprisingly easy to do without breaking it—and blow the yolk and albumen out, leaving an empty but intact shell. This may sound odd, but it’s a common method of preparing eggs for decorating. It also allows you to keep the egg for an indefinite length of time because it won’t go bad.
materials
An intact eggshell, preferably from a chicken (substitution: empty nutshell)
Paints or markers
Decorate your egg with markers or paint, drawing an image of what the Crone looks like to you. This can be a face peeking out of black robes, an image of a scythe, or even just painting the whole egg black.
When it’s ready, ask the Crone to come to your altar and bless it with her knowledge and wisdom. Ask her to fill the egg with what you need to know at this moment in your life. Sleep with the egg under or near your bed, and look for answers in your dreams.
Gravestone Crystal
All you need for this charm is a quartz crystal of your choosing and access to the gravesite of your relatives, ancestors, or a friend who has passed.
When visiting their grave, take the crystal with you. Standing or sitting at their tombstone, explain to them what you need guidance or help with in your life right now and that you are leaving the crystal there for them to program with their advice, good wishes, and aid. This can be done out loud or in your head. Leave the crystal on the gravestone or earth for one full moon cycle. When you return to the grave, find your crystal, thank the spirit, and leave an offering of money, flowers, or a libation. Carry the crystal with you to keep their good blessings near. They will be protecting and guiding you in subtle ways anytime you carry the crystal with you.