i first began Luna rituals in 2019 with my roommate friends. they were curious about astrology and we all thought it could be fun. though there is a lot of literature about working with the moon, we mostly made it up. i already had a fabric astrological chart and ceramic planets from other projects and offered them up for use. a friend found old tea candles under the kitchen sink and decorated the set-up with crystals.
it was awkward at first; i tried to explaining different parts of the sky and how to set an intention; questions were asked and wishes made, mostly removed from the astrological doctrine. someone suggested we write our wishes down; someone else suggested we burn what we wrote to close the ceremony. it was fun if nothing else, and i kept in mind my intention for the month, revisiting it two weeks later for the Full Moon.
after a hiatus and return to the ritual, it grew more elaborate, especially when Covid gave us little else to do. we joked about any incident or accident being an omen to interpret. whatever someone wanted to bring in, we tried at least once: incense, bells, meditation, and karaoke accompanied the practice. as my friends knowledge in astrology grew, they asked less questions and the ceremony became more of a group therapy session, each of us self-disclosing more and in turn giving permission for others to do the same. intentions and wishes became deep and personal. if nothing else, the ritual was an excuse to look back on the last two weeks, or forward to the next month, trying to bring us into fuller alignment with out goals. the astrological particulars offered inspiration for focusing on a particular area or theme in life, but they were secondary to the act of cultivating self-knowledge and acceptance.
bringing this practice in some form to the public is an adventure in bringing the fun and intimacy among friends into the world at large. scaling is always difficult, particular when soul-building is involved, but the pursuit in itself is a beautiful creative act regardless of the destination. as the ritual evolved among friends into something more powerful and beautiful, so too it may among strangers.
my interest in astrology does not come from a playful place, however, but spiritual necessity.
the modern world is not so amenable to moments of introspection and contemplation. the drive towards material prosperity necessitates constant action and reaction, divorcing us from our psychosomatic foundations and the natural world more broadly. discussion on this alienation and the disenchantment of life is nothing new, but methods for effectively challenging it are few. religion has traditionally filled the role, but pretensions of faith and solemn vows have become passe, replaced by an endless generation of self-help manuals that help us optimize within broken systems.
what is needed is a deepening of our experience of the world, and working with, instead of against, our irrational inclinations to magical thinking and the seductive power of mystery and enchantment.
the Luna Ritual offers this, aiming to challenge modern prejudices against belief and ceremony. it is self-consciously ridiculous, using campy costumes and synthetic materials to maintain humility and deter preciousness. through the paradoxical care put into its objects and earnest commitment to its goals, it can inspire participants to go as deep and profound as they prefer. in bringing together community, a participatory mystique can arise as everyone’s presence and commitment reinforces the ritual’s effectiveness.
the ritual operates from what’s commonly known as the placebo effect, how belief in something’s efficacy can lead to concrete results without concrete causes. while the effect is usually a confounding variable for science requiring studies to be blind, it still works even if someone knows what they’re doing shouldn’t. this has been termed the “nocebo effect,” in which real changes emerge through someone’s willful participation in ritual, regardless of their belief.
taking this one step further is what writer Scott Alexander termed “placebomancy” in his Unsong series, a trick played on the universe to make unlikely coincidences happen. this all amounts to an invitation to return to magic, not through naivete but a recognition of its power for hacking ourselves for our own benefit.
in operating from a natural cycle, the Luna ritual obviates ceremony’s established association with authoritarian rules and submission to an orthodoxy. no one can own the sky or dictate how to relate to it; its patterns are the same for all life on earth. no one can control how we relate to it; anyone can encourage a collective ritual with the moon and come up with their own rules.
at its most grand, this ritual offers a sense of what religion can be in a world that no longer needs it, but still needs community, tradition, sanctity, and play. i wrote about this more for the OPA astrology magazine in 2021. the article can be accessed here.