Two-Day Moon-Wise Retreat
and Schedule Explanation
7:00 am Wake-up
7:15–7:45 Seated meditation
7:45–8:00 Walking meditation (sun-walking or moon-walking)
8:00–8:30 Breakfast
8:30–9:00 Clean-up/Caretaking practice
9:00–9:30 Morning service/Observances
9:30–10:00 Seated meditation
10:00–11:00 Study
11:00–12:00 Rest practice
12:00–12:30 Noon service/Observances
12:30–1:00 Lunch
1:00–1:30 Clean-up/Caretaking practice
1:30–3:30 Community service
3:30–4:30 Rest practice
4:30–5:00 Seated meditation
5:00–5:30 Evening service/Observances
5:30–6:30 Supper/Clean-up
6:30–7:00 Short study period
7:00–9:00 Circle/Ritual/Clean-up
9:30 pm Lights out
Schedule Explanation
Wake-Up: After you awaken, there is a time delay of fifteen minutes before you engage in your first retreat activity.
Seated Meditation: During periods of meditation, use the various techniques discussed earlier in this book, such as counting breaths, labeling thoughts, visualization, and more. My recommendation is to use this time to clear your mind, focus your inner eye on your internal processes, and become mindful of your interior content (which includes thoughts, ideas, perseverations, judgments, and emotions).
Walking Meditation: Moon-walking has nothing to do with Michael Jackson or wearing sequined gloves. It is essentially walking very slowly, taking half-foot-length strides. The inner focus is on the sensations on the bottom of your feet, maintaining awareness of pressure, balance, weight, and more. Sun-walking is another walking meditation, where you take full-length strides and walk at a brisk pace. The inner focus is on body position, sensations of air as you move through space, and balance. Whenever your mind goes to other interests or concerns, simply return to the sensation level but do not stop your strides. For an expanded definition of these walking-meditation styles, please see Wicca: A Year and a Day.
Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper: Meals during retreat periods should be kept simple and earth-based. This means that if it grows on the earth or lives on the earth, it is fine for consumption. I recommend avoiding consuming foods that involve extensive human processing during Moon-Wise retreats. The goal here is to maintain simplicity and to avoid foods that may interfere with the day’s practices. For example, foods with processed sugars and carbohydrates can cause you to feel sleepy rather than awake. Fostering wakefulness is the point of the retreat.
Also, I recommend eating “just enough.” That varies from person to person. But again, overstuffing or under-eating may cause either sleepiness or mental fatigue. Observe your eating and the sensations related to eating. Use the time to be mindful of how full you are becoming while you chew and swallow. Stop when you feel that your body has had enough nourishment.
Clean-Up/Caretaking Practice: Again, use this time to be mindful of your body in space. Feel each sensation and focus your awareness on the activity of cleaning up, rather than allowing your mind to wander. In addition to cleaning up, there may be other caretaking activities that are necessary for the smooth functioning of your life. Bathing, eliminating, watering plants, simple gardening or weeding, sweeping, raking, mowing, cleaning up trash or clutter, and more. You know what needs to be done. Do it without thinking too much about it or labeling the activity as preferred or nonpreferred.
Morning/Noon/Evening Services: At these times, use your intuition to devise small rituals and observances that honor the deities with whom you are working. Cut a few flowers for them. Burn candles or incense in their honor. Use your intuition to intone sounds or words that will honor or invoke their presence to bless the activities you undertake during the retreat day.
Study: Use this time to read more from the text of this book or other books that inform your spiritual practice at this time.
Rest Practice: Use this time wisely. You’ll need a little downtime after all of this concentrated effort, but this time should be spent with simple activities that do not distract you from the energy build-up process in which you are engaged. Simple necessary tasks, such as paying a bill, reading books or materials related to your studies, or taking a walk in nature, can be fine as long as these activities do not become a distraction from your purpose. Here is what to avoid during retreat time in general, but during rest practice specifically:
• Answering phone calls, texts, or tweets, or engaging in other social activities
• Talking on the phone, unless necessary; if necessary, keep communication to a minimum
• Going online, except to research topics related to any of your spiritual studies
• Watching television, movies, or videos
• Eating excessively
• Consuming alcoholic beverages or using other substances that are not medically necessary
• Talking to others, even to express, debate, consider, or refute “spiritual” matters
Remember that one purpose of the retreat is to help establish new patterns of thought and behavior. These new patterns can affect your whole life as well as your magic. The activities just listed can easily elicit habit behaviors and dilute your concentrated efforts.
Community Service: This category of spiritual practice may be new to some in the Craft, particularly those readers who have never worked within a coven structure. Remembering that the Second Degree year and a day is not solely about your individual magical/spiritual attainment, but about finding your place as a practitioner within the whole of society, the importance of this practice becomes clear.
The Second Degree of study is a time to prepare for your place within the larger community. At the time of the Second Degree initiation, one becomes a “High Priestess” or “High Priest.” This means the individual finds him- or herself in a position to serve others, usually based on a personal commitment to the Gods. This service could include just about any community activity, such as teaching others about the Craft, writing, or forming your own coven or study group. Many are called to social or ecological activism, even on a small scale, by organizing park, beach, or forest clean-ups, educating children about the environment, and more.
Community service does not necessarily entail picking up trash near the side of the road or helping in retirement homes, although such activities are encouraged if they speak to you. Community service along the Wiccan path is about recognizing what talents you have to offer to others and making them available without requiring remuneration.
If you have nothing you can think of to do right off the bat, then use your community-service time to explore what you might do. Reach out and begin to make plans for your community involvement. Community service reduces egoic thinking and behavior patterns, it allows life to unfold through selfless activity, and it’s ultimately a kick in the ass to karma, taking away many of its sharp edges and softening its effect on our lives.
Circle/Ritual/Clean-Up: On each day of your retreat, you will conduct a ceremony. Use the activities in this book to serve as inspiration for your own circle working. As mentioned earlier in this book, spending time in the magic circle is one of the most important activities of your Second Degree year and a day, as it acclimates you to ritual structure and helps to create magical/energetic momentum for future workings.
Lights Out: From 9:30 pm to 5:30 am is eight hours of sleep, which is generally considered ample rest for the body. However, you may need additional time. The “official” wake-up time is 7:00 am. If you find that you have awakened early, you can use that time for simple personal matters, such as bathing, grooming, and returning important phone calls, as necessary.