Before the moon is made new on February 11th at 2:05pm ET, it returns to the place on the astrological Wheel where it began its moonthly journey. The energy gathered through the moonth now flows away into moonless nights. What will you send with this energy to be transformed in the dark?

The moonth we are concluding began and now ends in Capricorn which corresponds to the Tarot’s Devil card. In the Dark Goddess Tarot, the Devil is Tlazolteotl, Aztec Goddess of Filth and Purification (XV, Corruption). Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, creator of the Dark Goddess Tarot, description of Her includes:

She is called the Sin Eater, the Mother of Midnight, Death by Lust, and She of Two Faces. She is the contrary-natured Aztec and Toltec Goddess of filth and purification, of fertility and disease, of prostitutes and midwives. In one hand she holds a cob of maize for the powers of life, in the other a rattle, symbolic of the scourge of illness.

The Goddess is vomiting out what she can no longer stand to have within. The expulsion of the disease will then be the pathway to renewal. She invites us to similar practices of purification. The 2 – 3 days/48 hours leading up to the new moon’s arrival is a potent time for engaging in such ritual.

The ritual’s most important element is your clear intention about what you want to release so begin with reflection and finding your focus guided by Tlazolteotl and your own desires. Writing down your intention is a helpful practice to support clarity.

Your ritual can be as elaborate or as simple as you’d like. You can even dedicate an action you planned to do anyway to meeting your intention. Physical action and work with the body are particularly aligned with this moonth’s connection to the earth sign of Capricorn. Here are some examples to inspire creation of a ritual that fits your unique needs and style:

• Pick a drawer or a closet or a shelf to clear out. Remove everything from there in a dramatic way: for example, take out the drawer and dump it on the floor. Sort out the items and remove what you don’t need. If you keep anything, put it in a place of honor as it represents something important to be retained. Then clean the empty space. It is now ready to receive the new coming in the next lunation.
• Steam yourself. This could be a in a hot shower or by steaming your face over a pot of water with herbs mixed in. Let your intuition guide you to the herbs you need to meet your intention. For example, I’ve found myself using rosemary lately for facial steaming, and am now seeing that it is associated with purification.
• If you should actually be sick on the dark moon, tune into the illness’ beneficial side effects that could be of slowing down, learning lessons of the body, or more time to sleep. Dedicate the illness to your intention. Of course, continue to take care of yourself as needed to move through the illness.
• Bring some of Tlazolteotl tools into your ritual. You could, for example, work with a rattle. Shaking it all around yourself as you observe with your imaginal eye that you are disrupting and dispelling negative energy, personal or collective limiting beliefs, or fears that keep us from evolving.

Once you have done your new moon ritual, rest. As much as you can, let your resting reach into the arrival of the new moon on February 11th, which travels the path of the Tarot’s Star. Imagine your dark moon release opening being filled with the gifts of the Star. As the moon is brand new, the offerings will be subtle, but because of your lunar attunement you can trust yourself to receive the new gifts are arriving whether your receive them consciously or unconsciously.

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