Waxing Moon enters the Sign of Cancer

"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."

4th Day of the 6th Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Artemis
Lunar Tree Cycle ~ Hauthe/Hawthorn
3rd Day of the Celtic Tree Month ~ Hauthe/Hawthorn
Moon Phase: waxing new moon
Moon rises: 7:57AM EDST
Moon sets: 11:34PM EDST
Moon in Gemini v/c 4:12PM
Moon enters the Cardinal Water
Sign of Cancer at 5:29PM EDST
Blodeuwedd's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: Peace and concord
among the earth's nations
Sun in Taurus
Sunrise: 6:03AM EDST
Sunset: 8:29PM EDST
Solar Question for the Day: "What
makes you most angry? Why?"
Beltaine (Calan Mai) Quarter of the Year
May 16th, 2010

Moon enter Cancer - This is a moon transit that brings emotional concerns - a keyword phrase for it is "I feel".  There can be feelings about desiring a home, about emotional security and in fact all security issues. There are feelings of nostalgia and the desire to nurture washing over you. Cooking and entertaining friends are frequently actions displayed during this moon transit. Women are emotionally and psychically sensitive at this time, and because of these strong emotions it is called a 'crybaby' moon often.  Moon in Cancer brings heightened sensitivity because Cancer is the home of the moon, that sensitive planet of emotions and therefore feelings are easily hurt, especially in situations of criticism. Handle your loved ones and friends with care. 

Today Sun Day - the Day of Intent, Creation and Renewal..... and there are minor magickal energies flowing that helpful in doing spells/rites of self-improvement.  So if one of your goals for this lunar cycle is self-improvement - now might be a good time to start moving toward that goal. 

Understanding Correspondences: The Language of Ritual

   In planning a ritual or spell, you must understand clearly that much of ritual magick involves the manipulation of symbols or symbolic objects, because sometimes these communicate more powerfully and vividly with your Younger Self - the subconscious mind, than do mere words. For most practical purposes, the Younger Self is nonverbal; but like a pre-verbal child, it responds to colors, shapes, rhythms, smells , movement and other sensory stimuli. Speech (invocations, poetry, song lyrics, chants and words of power) because they can evoke feelings and images that your Younger Self responds to, and because words are an important path of participation for your conscious mind (Talking/Middle Self) to communicate with your subconscious mind (Younger Self). 

     An enjoyable and creative part in ritual design involves choosing the symbols that can be used. This where you translate the aim of the ritual from an abstract idea or words into music, colors, scents, images, objects, dance movements and so on. Choosing and arranging the symbolic elements of a ritual is as much of an art form as choreography or sculpture.

   These symbolic relationships are called 'correspondences' because in magick one thing corresponds to another, and both belong to an open-ended set of interconnected elements. For instance Fire corresponds to the color red, to the spice/herb and smell of cinnamon, the quality of courage, the direction of South, and the goddess Vesta. All these symbols, smells, objects correspond to one another for invoking the energies of the element Fire along with salamanders, red peppers, fire opals, and lions.

   In a coven or other magickal group there should be an agreement on the basic correspondences, so that during a group rite they all 'speak the same language'.  When you work by yourself, you have more flexibility because you can draw on your own personal experiences. Perhaps for you seagulls correspond to Fire's qualities because as a child you always saw them in bright sunlight while walking on hot sand; or maybe popcorn is a Fire symbol for you, because on holidays your family popped corn with an old fashioned popper in a blazing fireplace.  Every culture has a magickal tradition that has it own set of recognized correspondences.  There are good sites online that have Correspondence Tables to help you with creating your own rituals.  Also there are several good Craft books that have Correspondence Table and Appendixes.   So get creative and come up with a ritual or two to help you achieve your goals for this lunar cycle.
[some of the information comes from Amber K's newly revised "True Magick" - a great book for beginners and for more informed Witches]

BOS work suggestion:  If you don't have you Correspondence charts in your BOS, this can be important addition to it and something to start working on.  While your BOS is concerned with what you do in the way of spells and rites from one lunar cycle to another - it can also contain an information section that can help you out in creating the spells and rites you do in each lunar cycle.