New Moon.....Dark Moon

The other day I was listening to Ariel's podcast "The Witches Primer" when he used a term that I hadn't heard in many, many moons...(pun intended)..."Dark Moon". I remember my grandmother using that name when I was a child and really never thought too much about it then... but nostalgia has bitten me and I thought I'd explain the meaning of the terms "Dark Moon" as opposed to "New Moon" which we are all familiar with on traditional calanders.

The "New Moon" as we all know, is the phrase most often used when the last cresent of the waning moon has disappeared and the moon is all but invisible. It is still there of course but for roughly 1.5 to 2.5 days hangs in the sky, silently unseen by our naked eyes just before it starts on it's movement towards it's cycle of full.

Many modern witches and pagans as well as most astrologers call this phase the "New Moon" but some of us following a more traditional path of the "Old Ways" call it the "Dark Moon" as it is quite literally dark ( I mean no disrespect to any of the paths one may be following, I simply want to show that all beliefs and their terms used are not always the same). The first tiny cresent of the moon that we can see just after the "Dark Moon" is what many of us witches call the "New Moon." The words that are used in any case may seem to be very important but when it comes to timing our spells it makes a difference.

It was good to hear Ariel say "Dark Moon," since I have been on my spiritual path I always assumed that it was a lifestyle I had picked for myself but as I grow older I'm noticing that I have been handed down the groundwork from my grandparents and probably even their grandparents.

I hesitate to claim that it's a family tradition as my grandparents, even though as in tune with nature and the world as they were, were also church going...god fearing folk but no one is perfect and I loved them with my whole heart and being (again, please do not take offense, I was a church goer at one time in my life too, but that's a whole other blog!).