The Sagittarius New Moon is upon us tomorrow, the last New Moon before the beginning of the New Year at Yule. New Moon is the time for intention setting, making this Moon a great time to reflect on the past year and make an intention to bridge you into the energy of Yule and setting intentions for the year ahead. In this week’s Expedition to Soul Podcast, Sara Walka, asks why do we set intentions in the dark phases and how can we align ourselves energetically with the darkness and light?
Why do we set Intentions in the darkness?
If you work with the Lunar Cycle, you will know that New Moon, the darkest time in the cycle, is the time for making intentions.
In Norse mythology and stories, the new day begins with the darkness, when the Sun sets on the day before. The stories then often follow facing fears in the darkness, learning from them and overcoming them ready to begin again with the Sun rising.
Traditionally, in olden times, the new year began at Yule, the shortest day of the year.
All of this reflects how, energetically, we begin in the darkness.
Darkness brings an ending. Intention is a beginning and beginnings depend on something else ending.
Yule is the beginning of the new year.
The sun set can be seen as the beginning of a new day.
The darkness brings a time to rest, reflect and reset.
The darkness also shows us our fears, it tells us what we are afraid of.
It is in the darkest times when we have to dig in deep and face our fears.
So what does this have to do with intention?
When setting intentions, we set out to create something into being, a new feeling into being – how we want our life to feel, our body to feel, our home to feel, our relationship to feel and so on.
If we are setting this new way we want to feel based on fear, rather than based on what we truly desire, we are likely setting ourselves up to fail and our intention will not come to be.
By setting intentions in the darkness, we can see these fears that could be getting in the way.
For example, if you set an intention to feel good in a new dress, but really lurking underneath, in your fears is the need to lose fifty pounds to look and feel good, you will not realize your intention to feel good.
Many fears some from external expectations and society values that do not align with our own.
In the darkness, we can see these things,confront them and identify them for what they are. So, in the darkness, we can set intentions that are free from these fears and, instead, align to our own desires and values.
Darkness brings the opportunity for us to pause and reset, calm nervous systems, be mindful, take the space to breathe and allow those rumbling fears to come up so we can recognise them as we set our intentions.
Realign Your Rhythm to Make Use of the Darkness
Try realigning your day to this energetic rhythm over the coming days ahead. If you are someone who gets up and then makes a to-do list for the day, try making your plans and intentions for the following day before you go to bed. This will help you to see the fears that may get in the way of your goals for the day ahead, the fears that may come from others’s expectations, and enable you to be up and ready for action when the light hits.
In the same way, the dark months between Yule and Ostara are the times to make plans ready to act in Spring. You don’t need to make New Year resolutions immediately for January 1st then declare you have failed two weeks into the year. You can use all this dark time to marinate and percolate your dreams and make your intentions from them.
Shadow Work in the Light
While the dark times are ripe for intention setting, the light of the Full Moon, the Noon Sun and the Spring is the time for Shadow work. Shadow work in illumination helps us see the story of our intention and illuminate what we didn’t see, the stories we tell ourselves that are getting in the way of us realizing our dreams.
Sagittarius New Moon
Just before Yule, we have the Sagittarius New Moon Cycle. Sagittarius is the adventurer of the Zodiac, the great optimist.
This is the perfect time to set wild intentions into action. To reflect on the year past, the lessons you have learned, what you have achieved and become and what’s to come next year. What did you learn this year, what could be totally wild and different next year?
Take Sagittarius’ optimistic energy of possibility and trying new things to reimagine what next year could look like for you.
Have some wild fun – imagining, dreaming and ideating your best life ready to being to plan how you can bring it into being with the Yule Capricorn Moon.
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