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New Moon Ritual

New Moon Ritual with Mixed Media Mandala

If you could wave a magic wand and make the next moon cycle unfold exactly as you want it to, what would you like to see happen in your life? The New Moon is a perfect time to think about your dreams and imagine what the perfect month ahead might look like.  In this post, I share a mixed media mandala painting you can create to help you explore your new moon intentions. Scroll down for the printable step-by-step instructions.

During the New Moon, I like to perform art rituals around manifesting, getting clear on what it is I really want, looking forward, planning and thinking about what I want the next Moon Cycle to look like. This particular art ritual includes a visual representation of the moon phases painted around a mandala collage. The collage is similar to a mini vision board but I add a couple steps I think are helpful and add visual interest to the piece. What I like about the moon phases circling the collage is the way the painted circles show the moon grow full then retreat back into darkness. This reminds me of the tides of creation – that ebb and flow movement of stillness, inspiration and action.

When performing a new moon ritual, there are a few steps I perform before I sit down to paint. They include gathering my materials, clearing my mind and my physical space, inviting or calling in my spiritual helpers and setting boundaries or placing a circle of protection. I outline these steps in more detail in my Moon Sisters Art and Ritual Magazine.  You can subscribe to the magazine on my home page if you like and you’ll receive a collection of magazine samples that includes my “Beginner’s Guide to Preparing for Art Rituals”.

After I completed my preparations for this new moon ritual, I chose three tones of a similar color. I put a dot of the lightest tone of paint in the middle of my canvas and swirled it around in a circle. In this particular piece, I used a light beige as my lightest tone then a tan color and finally a dark brown mixed with a bit of espresso metallic paint. I kept swirling my colors in circles blending the edges somewhat together until I liked the finished effect. Then I painted the sides of the canvas with my dark tone of brown because I like to finish the edges of my canvas instead of worrying about framing them. I was going for a galaxy looking background but instead of blues and purples I decided to paint a brown galaxy. I’m not sure why. I don’t particularly like brown but it was fun to try something different.

Once I was finished blending the background, I splattered different colors to give the appearance of stars floating in the galaxy.

Next, I found the center of my canvas and made a dot. With my compass I drew a big circle from the center of the canvas. Then I drew an even bigger circle and along the edges of the bigger circle I made dots where I wanted the smaller circles to appear. I imagined a clock and I knew I would need a small circle at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock position. I drew a cross from the center of the  canvas to help show me where the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions were. To find the position of the other four small circles, I made my best guesstimation of the distance between the other smaller circles. I obviously wasn’t right on target but perfection isn’t my strong suit. I prefer to just roll along even if there’s a jig and a jag where a zag and a zig should be.

Once I outlined all the circles, I painted them in. The smaller circles will represent the eight phases of the moon – new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, gibbous, full moon, disseminating, last quarter and balsamic moon will all be included. The larger light circle will be where I create my mixed media mandala to hold my new moon intentions.

 

I painted the moon phases with gold paint. Again, they aren’t perfect but I love painting the phases of the moon regardless how imperfect they turn out.

 

After the paint dried, I used a fine tipped waterproof marker to write a letter to Divine Mother and my team of angels. I enjoy using both words and imagery in my art rituals. I also like the meditative calm that washes over me when I light my candle and write letters to my spiritual team. Including those letters in my art makes me feel like I’m sending my message out into the universe over and over again like a song playing all day long on the radio.

Next, I wanted to include some symbols that represented power, abundance and communicating with Spirit. I mixed blue and green paint with glazing medium. This causes the paint to be transparent so the symbols I drew were visible but they didn’t block the words I had written.

 

Then it was time for the fun part of searching for just the right images in my magazines. I wanted images that would help me anchor my new moon intentions which, this month, are to claim my inner artist and commune more deeply with Divine Mother along with act as a vessel for her love and compassion.

 

The last step was to include embellishments with paint. I painted roses in green and blue, added dots of blue, green and purple paint in the mandala and drew rough rose shapes with my brown marker. I like how the final step of adding embellishments ties everything together.

Here’s the step-by-step instructions in a format you can print for your convenience. If you end up performing this ritual, I’d love to see what you completed. You can even post the finished piece on instagram with the hashtag #danasartrituals

Enjoy the new moon my friends.

with love,

Dana da Ponte

 

New Moon Mixed Media Mandala
Author: 
Moon Phase: New Moon
Suggested Month: Any new moon
Prep time: 
Performance time: 
Total time: 
 
An art ritual to explore and set out your intentions for the next moon cycle.
Supplies
  • canvas
  • acrylic paints (i used craft paints)
  • brushes
  • magazine images cut out for collage
  • scissors
  • glue
  • glazing medium
  • water for cleaning brushes
  • compass
  • pencil
  • eraser
  • candle
Directions
  1. Light a candle and call in your spiritual team. Inform them of your desire to explore your intentions for the next moon cycle. Request their help to be clear and to allow inspiration to come from your true heart's desires.
  2. Cleanse each space and art supplies using your favorite method of spiritual or energetic cleanse such as Reiki, prayer, herbs, crystals, salt, etc.
  3. Choose three tones of the same color and paint the background using a circular blending motion going from the lightest tone of the color in the center of the canvas to the darkest tone of the color along the out edges.
  4. Splatter paint all over the canvas to give the appearance of stars in the night sky.
  5. Using a compass, draw a big circle from center of the canvas leaving enough room for either smaller circles to orbit the bigger circle.
  6. Draw eight smaller circles around the bigger circle to represent the eight moon phases.
  7. Paint all the circles with a background color of your choosing.
  8. In the smaller circles, paint the eight moon cycles.
  9. In the bigger circle, write a letter to your spiritual team expressing what is in your heart and what you would like to see happen during the upcoming moon cycle.
  10. Mix a small dot of paint (color of your choice) with glazing medium to make a transparent color and paint magic symbols or designs that are meaningful to you over the words in your big circle.
  11. Find images in magazines that represent ideas, dreams or goals you'd like to achieve during the next moon cycle. Cut them out.
  12. Glue the images in your big circle.
  13. With your acrylic paints, paint designs, images or embellishments to finish your work of art.
  14. End with a prayer of gratitude.
Notes
Thank you for honoring my work and creativity. The photos of this craft and/or ritual and content above are copyright protected. Please do not use the photos without prior written permission or without a link back to this blog post. If you wish to share this art based ritual, please provide a link back to this post on my blog. And if you like this art based ritual but want to make changes to it, please do so in your own words and link this post for credit. Thank you!

 

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This is a space where art and spirit come together. On the blog, I share art rituals for working with the magic of the moon. I also work with the subconscious mind to lighten your emotional load and follow your creative dreams.

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