Full Moon. 8:35 PM, CST. August 11, 2022.
Sturgeon Moon (Great Lakes Indigenous People), Rakhi Purnima (Hindu), Harvest Moon (Chinese)
(Liturgy length: 20 minutes)
Supplies:
A white candle, or any candle you have on hand
A match or a lighter
A blank sheet of paper
A pen
Go to a place that instills you with spiritual contemplation. Prepare that space appropriately as dictated by your personal practice. Find a comfortable place to sit down, and begin reading.
Opening
“If it could only be like this always – always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe”
— Evelyn Waugh
Place the candle in front of you at arm’s reach. Light the candle. Then read the following out loud:
“The Full Moon is overhead. A spiritual space has been created to honor this moment. We choose to participate in the cycles of nature, recognizing the importance of the individual and the indispensability of the whole.”
Action: Clap twice
Welcome! With your act of creation and participation, the Liturgy has begun.
Breathwork
The brightness and abundance of summer accompanies this Full Moon. Celebrate its light and heat with 5 deep, full breaths.
Sit up straight, and place both hands on your navel. Breathe inward slowly through your nose, filling the space beneath your hands. Breathe outward slowly through your mouth, exhaling in an even, controlled manner.
As you repeat this pattern, focus your mind on the heat slowly building within your navel. You are creating heat and energy to nourish yourself, just as the Cosmos creates heat and energy to nourish the Earth.
Supplication
Supplication is a profound act of love through expressing grievances. It accepts grief and anger fully while focusing the mind on hope for positive change.
Take your pen and sheet of paper. Briefly write down three negative situations and how you would like to see each of them resolved; one from your private life, relating to family and friends; one from your community, relating to social groups you are a part of; and one from the globe, relating to a large-scale circumstance that has weighed on your consciousness.
Once you are done writing, read each of your three supplications to yourself, then read the bolded responses out loud:
For [this grievance in my private life and how I hope for resolution],
I share my grief with the universe.
For [this grievance in my community and how I hope for resolution],
I share my grief with the universe.
For [this grievance in the world and how I hope for resolution],
I share my grief with the universe.
My sadness has been expressed and my intent has been made known. Though chaos causes my pain, I will accept it for what it is. Though order is not guaranteed, I trust that change will come when the time is right.
Action: Bow for a moment, meditating on these things. Raise your head when you are ready, and continue the Liturgy.
Seasonal Contemplation
Read this short meditation and consider its observations:
The fullness of this Moon harmonizes beautifully with the magic of August. The Sun continues to hang high overhead, bringing with it light, heat, and the annually immense wave of simultaneously ripe fruit.
Melons have swelled to a near breaking point. Peaches have grown rosy and decadent on their branches. Tomatoes release an herbal fragrance in the breeze, so heavy they threaten to snap the vines on which they grew. The labor of spring has culminated into the peak of abundance.
But the joy of this peak finds quick temperance when looking beyond; the next steps forward will assuredly be in descent. This is the hottest the Sun will be, the ripest the fruit will be, the brightest the year will be.
It is wise to plan for the year’s decline accordingly, preserving some of this harvest to bring a totem of freshness into the winter months. But that prudence doesn’t have to require disengagement from summer’s momentary pleasures. In fact, it can be caught up in it, one and the same in its efforts and enjoyment.
Joy and happiness is fleeting, and it can be easy to take one of two paths in response; bracing for inevitable loss, or diving deep into enjoyment to forget what comes next. Each path does have its wisdom.
But what happens when each path is fully accepted for what they are? Their wisdoms combine to reveal a unified truth; that the future phase of waning is just as worthy of pleasure and honor as today’s perfectly ripened moment.
So take summer’s harvest and voraciously eat, honoring the labor of the past, the fostering of the future, and the joy of the present in one simple act.
Personal Contemplation
You may either journal your thoughts on your sheet of paper or consider them in your mind, whichever is more natural for you.
What do you enjoy most about summer?
You have experienced growth as a person. What growth of yours have you been enjoying or reaping the benefits of recently?
As the Sun and the Moon both begin to wane in the sky, how will you prepare to rest along with them?
Today’s Full Moon is full of life, joy, and energy. How will you throw yourself into the vitality of today? There are no answers too hedonistic or mundane for this question. What does your actual enjoyment of today look like?
Breathwork
Your enjoyment of this Full Moon is essential to your participation in the dance of the Cosmos. Drink in its fruits with 5 deep, full breaths.
Sit up straight, and place both hands on your heart. Breathe inward slowly through your nose, filling the space beneath your hands. Breathe outward slowly, humming a single, sustained tone in an even, controlled manner.
As you repeat this pattern, imagine that with every breath in, you are smelling the most fragrant farmer’s market fruit. You are pulling into your heart all of the things that will bring you enjoyment today, and every hum outward is full of gratefulness for these things.
Closing Blessing
Place your palms together over your heart pointing upwards. Read the following out loud:
As I bask in the light of the Moon, I will also bask in the delights of today. The universe does not question its worthiness of pleasure. So as a part of that universe, neither will I. Here are blessings for myself and for all that binds us together.
Action: Clap twice
Fold up the piece of paper you wrote on today’s, and place your pen on top. Blow out the candle in front of you.
Thank you for participating in this Liturgy.
Enjoy the presence of today’s Full Moon!
A new liturgy will be published for the upcoming New Moon on Saturday, August 26.
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