The Total Solar Eclipse Calls for a Conscious Communication Ritual

On July 2, we’re getting a one-two punch of energy from both the new moon heading into Cancer and a total solar eclipse. This combination is going to make everything a little more volatile—we’ll get some new beginnings, but at the cost of some major endings. We’ll be confronting emotional baggage, feeling a little insecure —and, thus, getting a bit touchy.

In order to process and deal with everything hitting us during this lunation, we need to be willing to accept our own responsibility in past hurts, and also to commit to the sort of intentional communication that leads to resolution Elena Rego, owner and creator of monthly subscription service The Witches Box, has created a sigil ritual to help your communication around this lunation be more meaningful and purposeful. Rego’s ritual is a version of the Spare Method of working with sigils, which involves reducing a statement to a single image or symbol. Once the statement (or intention) has been reduced to a single symbol, you burn it to activate it.

“It’s integral to this kind of work that your conscious mind not only lets go of the intention, but the image of the sigil as well,” Rego said. “This is why we burn it. Your conscious mind moves on to the day-to-day of your life, but the sigil continues to do its work in your subconscious mind. This is the source of the magick.”

How does your moon sign affect you?

• A print-out or drawing of the sigil below or a hand-drawn a sigil of your own based on the ritual’s intention
• Yellow candle
• A fire/heat-proof bowl
• Manifestation incense of choice ( optional )
• Sacred items that represent communication, the element of air, or manifestation ( optional )

• Take a few moments to consider the intention for this ritual: To communicate with an intention of understanding and connection.
• Set your materials on an altar space and light the incense if you’re using it. [Note: Incense can be a wonderful tool to help you shift focus from the world and your responsibilities to what will be taking place in the sacred space you create with your intention.]
• Bring yourself into the present moment with a few deep breaths.
• If creating your own sigil, draw it now while holding the ritual’s intention deeply in your mind. If using the sigil provided, prop it up against the candle.
• Focus on the sigil while taking deep, slow breaths. Continue this for as long as you can, holding the intention in your mind.
• When you feel sufficiently entranced and steeped in the intention, let it go. Don’t repeat it to yourself or continue looking at the sigil. Instead, light the yellow candle and shift your gaze to the flame.
• Continue breathing deeply and let the flame entrance you. This can take anywhere from one minute to more than 20 minutes. Everyone is different. But once you find yourself in that twilight gaze, you’ll know.
• When this happens, shift your gaze back to your sigil. Look at it, continue breathing deeply, and then take it and bring the piece of paper with the sigil on it to the flame and light it.
• Let the sigil burn, placing the burning paper in your fire/heat-proof bowl until it’s all gone.
• Close your eyes and remain in place, listening to the rhythm of your breathing. When you feel complete, transition out of the space as feels appropriate to you. The candle can be allowed to burn out on its own if it is safe to do so.

Happy new moon—and happy eclipse season!

Art by Elena Rego