In my wanderings in and out of the path I learnt the various meanings of the different phases of the moon. You want to do 'this' kind of spell, that's the waxing moon. You want to do 'that' kind of spell, that's waning. I tried it and I have to say, it was hopeless. It never worked for me the way it was supposed to. I tried a weightloss spell once, tying it to the growth of a plant. The happier it grew, the more weight I'd lose sort of thing. Even wrote a nice little rhyming ditty to chant as I was planting it. I timed it by the waning moon because I wanted my weight to diminish, right? End result, plant died and I stacked on a heap of weight!

Well, I mean the spell worked fine. Problem was, I didn't think it through. As I was tying my weight to the health of the plant, I should have then taken care of the plant. Do the whole thing by the waxing moon so the plant would flourish - which would then lead to my weightloss. It was a long time before I dabbled in magic again.

Anyway, my point is, I tried to live by other people's say so. The waxing moon means this because... they said so. That was lazy, that's not learning, it's just parroting. This time I kept in mind what I had previously learnt, but I set about to see how the moon affected me at various phases. After all, I'm the one who will be casting the spell, right? I better make sure I'm in sync with nature and the spell is in sync with me. Doesn't mean I won't do a certain spell at a certain time, just means I will have to adjust it so everything is in harmony. Doing a spell to help a friend get rid of something, but for me it's focus on bringing things in? Fine, I'll focus on the increase of her confidence to deal with the issue instead. Same result, just a different path to get there.

So, this moon cycle I have been watching closely how I've been feeling at different stages. One cycle isn't enough imperic data to form any conclusions, but so far it's been interesting. I discovered during the waxing part of the cycle I felt lighter, more fun and full of hope for bright things. The full of the moon had me feeling positive but balanced. Now the moon is waning, I've noticed the change within. I'm starting to become just ever so slightly more withdrawn and introspective. Nothing huge, just more quiet than over the last week or so. I did find yesterday as the moon was counting down from 100% that I became extremely grumpy and frustrated, but as I said, this is only the first month, too soon to drawn conclusions. I am aware one of my big challenges is going to be to control my emotions.