Saturn Returns with Caggie - 1.6 Moon Magic with Kirsty Gallagher

Episode Date: May 4, 2020

Moon mentor And Sunday Times best-selling author of Lunar living Kirsty Gallagher joins Caggie this week to talk about how being in sync with the lunar cycle can help us understand our moods and make the most of the moon’s transformational power. Kirsty takes Caggie through the different lunar phases and what energies they bring, and how that can help us deepen our personal development and guide our spiritual path. Kirsty is an author, moon mentor and creator of the online community, Lunar Living. --- Follow or subscribe to "Saturn Returns" for future episodes, where we explore the transformative impact of Saturn's return with inspiring guests and thought-provoking discussions. Follow Caggie Dunlop on Instagram to stay updated on her personal journey and you can find Saturn Returns on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.  Order the Saturn Returns Book. Join our community newsletter here.  Find all things Saturn Returns, offerings and more here.

Hello everyone and welcome to Saturn Returns with me, Kagi Dunlop. This is a new podcast that aims to bring clarity during transitional times where there can be confusion and doubt. The moon's 4.51 billion years old old so you've got that much wisdom above you holding that space for you you know the moon's been here and seen everything that's gone before us and will likely stay here to see everything that comes after us and so yeah we've got this real wisdom in the sky to help with that. In today's episode we have the wonderful wonderful Kirstie Gallagher,

who is a moon mentor, author and transformation coach and founder of Lunar Living. Now, Kirstie got in contact with me after the first episode of Saturn Returns came out. And I'm so pleased that she did because I had been thinking about getting someone on the podcast to talk about the moon as this was one of the first practices in this sort of space that I was introduced to at the beginning of my own Saturn return when I was in LA and I found this amazing sense of community and connection with all these women when I did this full moon ritual which we discuss a little bit and it's just a very simple thing that traditionally you will do during this full moon ritual, which we discussed a little bit. And it's just a very simple thing that traditionally you will do during a full moon and you'll get together and you can set intentions and you can have sage and palo santo. And it's really beautiful. And it's something

me and my friends do today. So I hope you enjoy listening to this episode because I found it incredibly fascinating. And just to connect back to the episode prior to this one about human design, we talk a little bit about how reflectors work with the energy of the moon. And it's sort an amazing marking point to see where you're at to see where you need to make changes to make some adjustments so it doesn't feel like everything's just a bit chaotic and and mad and as I explain after the episode it actually really affected me in a short space of time from just having that awareness so I hope you enjoy it and you take something from it and if it resonates with you please share it with some friends or message me on Instagram because I love hearing from you guys okay enjoy hello Kirsty hey how are you I'm good yeah I'm super excited to talk to you because

just to give a bit of context to how much I know or how little I know really about the moon. But it has been a practice of mine that I have tried to incorporate into my life, which actually, funnily enough, happened during my Saturn return. So when I was in L.A., when I had this sudden shift of like, I don't know who I am. I don't know who my friends are. I don't know who I am. I don't know who my friends are. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing in this life. Help. One of the first things that I did that actually made me feel part of something was a girl got in contact with me and we ended up going for a coffee and getting on really, really well. And then she invited me to my first full moon ritual. Wow. Okay. And then, I mean, at the time I'd never really done anything like that. And so it was all very new to me,

but I went very open-minded about it and it was just the nicest experience. And it was the first time in a long time that I felt very connected with people and they were all strangers. They were all these you know different women from different walks of life and we ended up like lying in a circle at the end and we were doing uh breath work together and it was so like emotional and charged and just like incredible and me and this girl were just lying next to each other we were it sounds a bit weird but we were like holding hands by the end and I was like it magical so that was my first you know working with the moon experience wow I love this what an experience yeah and then I kind of started to do it a bit more but I haven't really

dived in too heavily I did also use it in the midst of a breakup at the end of last year which it can be really powerful for totally but I mean you are the moon expert I was going to say lady I'll take so I'd love to hear about how you got into all of this yeah a bit about your journey I mean first of all just to touch on what you said so beautifully what I love about lunar living and about working with the moon cycles is it shows us that we're never alone and even in this time that we're in right now of all being in kind of isolation and lockdown what's been really powerful for so many people who've contacted me is knowing that the moon is one of the only unifying things in the world we all look

at the same moon in the same sky in the same phase and it shows us a part of something way greater than this kind of little human experience we're having it just shows us that there's something there's an ancient wisdom and power and guidance up there that we can all draw upon and i think that's what this whole experience this whole like podcast is really about is that you know we're part of something so much bigger and greater than ourselves and we can work with that and we just need to tap into it a bit more and I think working with the energy of the moon is such an amazing way that we can start to incorporate that into our life it really is I mean I've been working with the moon now for

nearly 11 years and I started because a little bit similar to you, probably around a similar time in my life as to when you had your experience in your life around my Saturn's return, I went to India and was doing my yoga teacher training out there. And I've always been fascinated by astrology and all things kind of a little bit mystical and a little bit magical. And it's traditional not to practice yoga on moon days. So full moon and new moon days would be the rest days. You wouldn't do any yoga. No one would practice on those days. And so on moon days, everyone would go and hang out in the cafes and the coffee shops. And it fascinated me to notice on a moon day, you'd actually see the shift in people. I'd notice people's energy would differ. You'd find everyone was suddenly talking about the same life issue or coming up against

the same block or worried about the same thing. And it got me really hooked. And so I used to use moon days then on this day off to really just sit and meditate on and tune into what the energy felt like and what the energy of the moon was trying to tell us and give us and show to us and by doing that you realized you started to pay attention to that that changed because i guess the thing is most of the time we're not really paying attention to what's going on with the moon and whether that correlates with what we're feeling and what we're experiencing that's so what did you notice was coming up for people? It would be different with every moon, which is what was really interesting because I was

in India for nine months. And so I gained nine months worth of information on this. And so what you will find, and we'll hopefully get a little deeper into this, is that every new and full moon falls in a different star sign. And so we've just had the new moon in Taurus a couple of days ago. The next moon that we get is a full moon, which will be in the sign of Scorpio. And so every star sign brings a different set of lessons and teachings and wisdom and a different life area it wants us to look at, different elements of things that we can draw upon. And that's what was, again, even more interesting for me that every moon had just a slightly different, let's say,

slightly different flavor. Character. Yes. Character is a great word that we could then work even deeper into that to not just work with new and full moon energies, but then to take that character of that moon and go, okay, how can I go deeper? And it sounds crazy to say, but I transformed my life in that nine months by working with the moon because it just showed me life areas that needed attention, things within me that needed attention, little shifts I needed to make in myself and the direction of my life. And by working back in this alignment and this rhythm and this flow, I made profound shifts in nine months and ever since, ever since by working with lunar energies. And so as each moon connects to a star sign, is that so?

Because we just had the new moon that was in Taurus and I'm a Taurus. So does that mean that I'm going to work more with that energy or is it kind of completely separate? Yeah. So two questions I get asked the most of all is the first one, will the moon affect me more when it's in my sign? And the answer is yes. So if you are a Taurus sun sign, equally if you're a Taurus moon sign or rising sign, but that gets a little bit deeper into kind of finding out everything about you in astrological terms, the moon will affect you more because it's almost like because you are a Taurus, the Taurus moon is like your cheerleader. The Taurus moon is there to say, like, come on, you've got real work to do now. And if you pay attention to this,

you'll make a really massive big shift. And also the sign that we're born under gives us certain personality traits anyway, in certain areas of our lives that need more growth or attention. And so when that moon comes around bringing that character, you're going to just feel it a little bit more when it falls in your sign. And then what about your, because I'm Pisces moon and Libra rising. So does that mean that those things? Those moons will affect you more as well. Definitely. Definitely. those things those things will affect you more as well definitely definitely so when the Pisces moon comes around you'll have a little bit more of a feeling and a connection to that our sun sign tends to be the our personality traits and the the outer us and the us that we put there into

the outside world our moon sign is our internal it's our moon sign is our emotions and our feelings and our kind of more hidden inner world of where we where we go into when we go within ourselves and then our rising sign is almost the way that we move into the world it's almost like the vehicle with which we propel ourselves through the world and so from observing people's behavior what sort of things did you start to to learn from it and how did you learn to then work with that energy? So as I said, you'd notice that different moons would offer different lessons and different guidance. And so there'd be certain moons where everybody would be a little bit more obsessed with their relationships.

There'd be certain moons where people would be a little bit more in kind of their shadow, so to speak. And anxiety would come up a little bit more and anxiety would come up a little bit more or fears would come up a little bit more. There'd be moons where everyone would be filled with inspiration and ideas and people would create businesses from a corner of a little coffee shop because they'd be so filled with these ideas and inspiration. And it all just correlated to the different moons. And so that really got me into into that but what I really started to work with them was just taking time on the new and the full moon to check in and so for anyone listening to this who's a little bit newer and he's like well I'm not really sure about any of this and I don't

know where to start yeah because it could be a bit overwhelming and sound a bit nuts yeah that's it people would be like these two what are they talking about? Yeah. So what we try to do is we try to make life very linear. And we expect everything to be the same all day, every day. We expect that we should be the same all day, every day, that everyone around us should be the same all day, every day. And it's just not the way that life is. And what we've lost touch with is this ancient rhythm and flow and cycle.

So all around us, nature moves in cycles. A lot of nature moves still within a lunar rhythm and a lunar flow. And as we lose touch with that natural rhythm and cycle, we lose touch with our intuition and our deeper selves and our ability to connect with ourselves. And we also lose touch with emotion. So I very much see our emotions as being signposts for us. And so whenever we're feeling a particular emotion, it's just highlighting to us certain areas of our lives or ourselves that need attention. But we're in such a busy epidemic now.

I mean, not quite at this exact moment in time, but we glamorize being busy and we're always on and we're always contactable and we're always rushing around. And we very rarely take time to stop and to sit and to just check in and go like, how am I? How am I today? Also, it really connects with the feminine energy, doesn't it? Absolutely. Because historically, women used to bleed in sync with the moon. I actually have just managed to get that

in sync again which I've been trying to do yeah I mean women at one point would all have gathered together on around a new moon to go in what used to be called a red tent and we'd have got together and we'd have shared and supported and encouraged each other and held space for each other and again we seem to have lost a lot of that. And so there is so much power in women coming together. There's so much magic and power in this kind of work in even taking control of your own life again, because I hear so many people say that new year comes around and they make these resolutions and then they've not put any thought or effort behind it by February and forgotten what they were by May.

And then we're all like, oh my gosh, it's December again. How has a year passed again? And life passes us by unless we begin to take a conscious control over it and hold ourselves accountable and month on month revisit ourselves and our innermost hopes and dreams and desires and wishes and keep giving them life and energy to propel them out there into the world. And also everything changes so much like throughout the year that I think working with the moon is it's more of a manageable state and you have something you can check in with and you can see what's like for instance for me this new moon something that came up there was a lot of my intuition was so heightened and I felt energetically so connected with stuff and

also because my period was in sync with it I was like this thing is no longer working I need to cut it out and it was so crystal clear and I just did and then afterwards I felt better and usually when I'd kind of marinate on those mistakes a lot more whereas I think when you have that awareness you can be like I got rid of what was no longer serving me and I made you know the necessary changes and now I'm into the next the next change and the next shift and like bringing more of what is working in yeah and like homing in on that exactly that's so powerful do you think it would help if we went through a lunar cycle to give people a little background on to what what all these phases are that we're kind of speaking about and a little

bit about perhaps what each phase means and the magic it holds and what you can do with it absolutely okay yeah i would love that so i always start with what's called the dark moon and because it's the ending that creates the beginning which is probably exactly where you were when you just so beautifully talked about letting things go. So the dark moon is the very end of the waning part of the lunar cycle where the moon is so small, she's barely visible in the sky. This is the lowest energetic point of the lunar cycle and also the most emotional. And so on a dark moon, as the moon disappears from the sky, she encourages us to also just slightly disappear from the outside world and really go inwards into ourselves. And so this is the time of the lunar cycle where we're going to

feel really emotional because the moon is trying to show to us. One of the questions that get asked a lot is why is the moon doing this to me? And the moon isn't doing anything to us. One of the questions that get asked a lot is why is the moon doing this to me? And the moon isn't doing anything to us. She's just highlighting for us what's already inside and the parts of ourselves that may be being left unheard or we're not paying attention to or the direction that we're trying to head in that isn't necessarily ours to go in. And so the dark moon will pull us right down into those deep emotions within us so that we can start to get to see normally what we don't want. So normally around a dark moon, we're like, this isn't working. That's not working.

They're irritating me. That doesn't feel right. And we start to just feel all this energy of what's going on on the inside, which is probably a lot of what you felt. Yeah. We then get the new moon. And this is the moment where the sun and the moon and the earth all line up in the sky and the moon becomes new. The new moon is the moment then of new beginnings where we take everything we learned in the dark moon phase of everything that wasn't

working, all the emotions we were feeling and we start to look at what life varies, who are feeling the most emotional about and we decide from what we don't want, okay, well then what do you want? If that job isn't working for you, what do you want to be doing? What do you want to be putting your energy towards? If that relationship isn't making you feel great, what do you want from a relationship? What do you want the relationship of your dreams to feel like? So on the new moon, that's where we set our intentions for the lunar cycle ahead and decide what we do want from our lives. And we set that, I often see a setting an internal compass where we kind of recalibrate ourselves and we set our internal compass towards that's where I want

to head. And then we can use that internal compass as kind of a little, as a gauge when we're, when we're faced with things of, does this take me further towards or further away from the direction that I want to travel in? And so it's as though we really set that tone and intention for our direction. Yeah, because like I mentioned a little bit at the beginning, how I used it in a breakup, it can be a really powerful way of setting boundaries and actually implementing them and making sure that you're you're sticking by them and your values as well because like you said if there's let's say there's something that comes up in a dark moon that's really painful and stuff that you you don't want and then you take the opportunity in the new moon to be like okay this is this is what I'm looking for yeah whether it's in a partner or career yeah

and then just like every things will come up that not necessarily challenge it but be like are you really you know sticking with this absolutely you have to you have to maintain that ground yes but as you just said so so brilliantly unless you know what your values are unless you know where your boundaries are and unless you know where your boundaries are, and unless you know the direction you want to head in, you're constantly going to be thrown around by life or by other people or by their opinions or by their judgments on you because you haven't got your own true north. You don't know where you're going. And so that's why the new moon is so important to set that. This is my boundary. This is my direction.

These are my values. This is who I am. It's like almost standing in that power of who you are and what you want and what you deserve. Yeah. And you're sort of non-negotiables because it's all, I think we do have a tendency to, and I myself included, to, you know, if something's not feeling right and it's not feeling good or you feel like you've been a taken advantage of or something like that to just sort of complain and go into that narrative

of slight victimhood and as if things are against you because it feels super uncomfortable yes but and I think that's it's all warranted but like you mentioned earlier that's like your emotions are guiding you and it's saying like this your boundary has been abused or overstepped so get really clear and make and change where you need to and then like move from there that's it and that's why working with lunar cycles gives you real power over your life because rather than become a victim and be the one that so it's like this always happens to me or the same things happening again it's about sitting with that and going why does this keep happening how do I allow this to keep happening you know and really sitting with that and taking while it's somebody else's or something else's fault we're powerless to change it because we

have to wait for that external to change whereas as soon as we accept our part to play in it and our responsibility for it even as you say relationships as soon as we can sit there and go actually I let my boundaries be overstepped time after time and I allowed someone to treat me in that way and I gave away way too much of my energy without getting any of it back and that was my part to play in this and I'm going to accept responsibility for that then you get all the power to make the change it's so empowering to do that but tricky because we don't like to look at ourselves because not only when we do change that shift in our mind and be like okay this is happening and it's repeating itself

therefore the common theme here is moi. It's not everyone else. It's me that's making this happen on some level. But because our behavior is so subconscious, we then have to go and delve quite deep, which can unearth all sorts of other things that we have to be. We have to be kind with ourselves because it's like a complete maze of mystery that we're trying to navigate. It is. And that's where again, working under the ancient wisdom and guidance of the moon, it feels like you have a support system there with you. And what you'll start to notice is exactly what you just said, that as you start to just check in, and for some people,

they might just initially start by going, okay, on a new moon, I'm just going to mark an hour out in my diary and I'm just going to sit and maybe journal or meditate or just be quiet and just feel what I feel. And you'll start to notice naturally then these reoccurring themes, the same thing starting to come up again, the same emotion coming up again, the same feelings towards the same personal situation come up over and over and over again to allow you then to just really gently start to look at it and as you just said kind of go oh the same thing's happening time after time and I'm the constant within all of this and how can I just start to make and I say to people all the time when you start with lunar work or

any kind of intention setting, start small. Start small because if you start saying, I want a complete life overhaul and I want to change everything about myself, our narrative, our inner narrative is so strong and subconscious that it is almost like we have to just chip away a little bit by a little bit. And we need to, first of all, learn to really trust in our intuition and ourselves and have a few little wins first whereby we set a smaller intention and we achieve it and then we get to go like wow I made that happen oh my god it's like it's the same as making um like lists because I was thinking yeah this morning actually yeah because what I'll start doing is I'll start writing a to-do list and I'll be like get milk right in my journal then by the end of it's like world domination and it's just not attainable and then at the end I'm so disappointed because I

haven't like become Muhammad Ali and I'm like what's wrong with me it's just it's the same as working with moon it's like it is you yeah make those things especially if you're making a like there's a big chain there needs to be a big change in something specific in your life like whether it was a relationship because it's about tapping in more to that emotion so that next time you can be like yeah this is really pushing me further in this direction we mentioned briefly before about the dark moon this is where you're going to feel all your anxieties, your fears, your deep emotions. And it's about being able to sit with those and take some time with that. And I also think we've made a real, I don't know if I want to use the word mistake, but we've dishonored

emotions a lot because we've been taught that certain emotions are good or bad. So it's like bad to feel angry and it's bad to feel sad and it's bad to feel this and it's good to feel happy. bad to feel angry and it's bad to feel sad and it's bad to feel this and it's good to feel happy and all emotions are the same. It's often in the deeper emotions like sadness or anxiety or anger that the most transformation occurs. So allowing ourselves to be with those emotions in the dark moon, what don't I want? New moon comes along. Okay, from what I've learned in the dark moon, what do I want? What do I want for my life? So setting a couple of little small intentions, and then maybe one bigger intention, but just knowing that might take a couple of lunar cycles to come true. A couple of days after the new moon, we get what's called the waxing crescent moon. So the waxing crescent is when

you're going to see the first little bit of the moon in the sky, the first tiny little bit sliver of the moon. And this is the magic, the doing part of the lunar cycle. So if we say that the new moon is the blank slate, we write upon this blank slate what we want, we really sit and feel our way into that. The minute the moon starts to show herself in the sky and we get Waxing Crescent, now we're like, okay, how do I do this? It's the hows the why's the what's what do I need to do right now to put these things into place what more information do I need what

support do I need how am I going to make this happen this is where we now start to make the plan and start to move out there into the world with our plan and start to put things into motion so that might be setting the boundaries or showing up a little bit more or signing up for a course or it's the doing we start to do. As the moon waxes and grows bigger in the sky every night, so it gets brighter and brighter, we then come to what's called the first quarter moon. And the first quarter moon is when we see exactly half the moon illuminated in the sky. This is most people's favorite part of the lunar cycle because this is the moment of the lunar cycle where everything suddenly seems to come together. And so it's like you've got the entire universe on your side. So it's the time of the lunar cycle

to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. Notice what's coming up, listen to everything going on around you, see everything that's going on around you. If someone invites you to something, go to it. You'll think of someone on their call. You'll need some information. Someone will tell you about a book. It's where synchronicities and signs start to really flow all around you. And so it's about really starting to say yes and allowing yourself now to be guided by the light of the moon as she grows bigger and bigger in the sky every night. I love that. You might also start to notice a little bit around this part of the cycle,

a little bit of imposter syndrome or a little bit of doubt. Don't do anything with it. Just notice it. So if someone invites you somewhere and your first inner thought is like, oh no, I can't go there because people there might not really like me or I'm not the kind. Just notice it. But say yes. Get out of your comfort zone a little bit. Know that everything coming to you is meant to be there for you and grab a hold of it all. A couple of days later, so each phase lasts about three and a half days,

we get what's called the waxing gibbous moon. And this is where you look at the moon in the sky and you'll be like, is it full? Isn't it full? I'm not sure. This is a part of the lunar cycle where people don't sleep so when you hear a lot on social media and things that people being like i didn't sleep because of the full moon this is this part of the lunar cycle so our energy levels now are growing with this part of the lunar cycle we're almost there but we're not quite so we can feel that sense around this part of the lunar cycle like there's just one little thing missing there's one little edge missing and the reason for the not sleeping is because the moon is saying to us listen two weeks ago you set all these intentions

you haven't got time you haven't done it that you haven't got time you've got a couple of days to go before the full moon and i'm going to give you all this energy midnight writing the book or filling out the cvs or doing the things exactly she's a bit like come on now so you still haven't got that pint of milk can't eat where's the newest 24-hour supermarket? Exactly that. There's a little bit of frustration around this part of the lunar cycle. We start to feel like nearly but not quite. And we feel like we want to do something, but we don't quite know what. And so we use this part of the lunar cycle then to just give a last big push to anything that we need.

Like anything that you need to do, anything you can do. Notice where you've slipped out of you can do notice where you've slipped out of good habits notice where you've fallen out of alignment because this is all really key then because what happens then is the full moon arrives the full moon whereas the dark moon pulls us down into our emotions and it's the lowest energy part of the cycle the full moon pulls our emotions up to the surface and it's the peak part of the energy, the peak energy of the lunar cycle. So that's why on full moons, people can tend to be a little bit more reactive, a little bit more angry, perhaps a little bit more emotionally charged. So the full

moon does one of two things. First of all, she illuminates where we are here and now. So we get to look at where we are. And if we've achieved something, celebrate it. So if you've got the pint of milk, you go, oh my gosh, go me. Celebrate what you achieved. And as we said before, this is where you learn to trust in yourself, where you go, oh my God, I set that intention and I made it happen. So we start to learn to trust in ourselves and to believe in ourselves and to know that we can really, really achieve what it is that we want. The second thing the full moon will do is highlight for us what stood in the way of getting to what we wanted. And normally this is, it's ourselves. So when we look back then at

the lunar cycle, we then realize I didn't say yes to that invitation because i was scared to because i thought no one might like me or i wouldn't have anything interesting to say or my thing is procrastination i'm holding my hand up in the oh my god i am a terrible procrastinator as well which is also a form of like self-harm it really is because we know we're on the edge of something brilliant but the little voice inside us that kind of wants to in inverted commas protect us is like oh no don't do that oh you stay small stay small stay small and so very often the anger and the emotion that we feel around a full moon if we really truly look at it is directed towards ourselves because it's where we allowed ourselves to be held back and kept small it's the time that we allowed ourselves to be held back and kept small it's the time that

we allowed ourselves to not grow with the growing light of the moon and so again we just need to sit with that and recognize it and not in a bad way but just to know because unless we know what our sabotages are we're just going to keep doing them whereas once we know again we get that power to know when it's happening again next time. And we still might let it happen and that's okay. It might take six months. But this is where empowerment comes from by knowing that this is what we do. By knowing how we sabotage, how we stay small, how we ignore our intuition and the signs,

how we allow our gut feelings, we dismiss them. This is where we see all of that very clearly on the full moon. So from this knowing, we then move into the doorway of the second part of the lunar cycle, which is the waning part of the lunar cycle as the moon grows smaller. It's very easy to give up at this point and to go, oh, well, I'll just wait for the next new moon. But I beg anyone out there listening please don't because unless you release and work on those things that stood in your way the same will happen time after time after time after time so as we move through the doorway into the second half of the cycle we move

into what's called the waning gibbous moon and the waning gibbous moon the moon starts to lose a little bit of her light and this is where we begin to reflect on the cycle. And so we might feel a slight dip in energy here after the full moon. And this is now about starting to use this drawing inwards and weighing in energy of the moon to start to learn from the cycle so far. So what worked and helped us get to the dreams that we did achieve? What stood in the way and where did you allow ourselves to be held back and small? This is the time that we did achieve, what stood in the way and where did we allow ourselves to be held back and small. This is the time where we reflect on that, we process on it, we process it all, we become aware of it all. This is an amazing part of the lunar cycle now to have any

difficult conversations you need to have. And so if you've realized your relationship isn't working, the new moon happened, you set your intentions, you tried to make things happen, nothing really changed and the full moon came and you're just like, oh, there's that explosion. Try not to react to a full moon, wait a few days. And this wayning gibbous time is that time to have those conversations, to share with people what's going on for you, to really be heard and seen and allow that vulnerability that it's almost like the energy around you will really hold space for you to be able to be vulnerable from that self-knowledge that we've gained through the cycle so far we're able to then articulate

this is what's going on for me and this is how I'm feeling And so it's a beautiful time to really have those deeper, meaningful conversations and you'll feel really supported in those. We then get to what's called the waning last quarter, which is again, where we're gonna see half of the moon in the sky again as she starts to move from full down to new. And this is where then we start to really do the work of surrendering and releasing.

And so if we've noticed these habits about ourselves, we do the inner and outer work here. So we work on ourselves, on letting go of the shame or the imposter or the procrastination. And things like mirror work are really important here, like looking at yourself in the mirror, positive affirmations, intentions. Remember that when we do things like affirmations and we do the inner work, we want to do things more in the positive and the present tense. So rather than say, I don't procrastinate anymore, we say things like, I am productive. I get things done. Things happen easily and effortlessly. We start to really work on allowing those shadowy parts of ourselves to be very gently released. And also on the outside, we'd start to really work on allowing those shadowy parts of ourselves to be very gently

released. And also on the outside, we'd start to very gently release people, situations, relationships, jobs. And again, it might not be that we do it immediately, but we start to just untangle ourselves a little bit from those things that do keep us small. So perhaps this is where we start to create more of a boundary between ourselves and certain friends in our lives or people that don't necessarily want the best for us. So we start to very gently step ourselves back a little bit from certain social situations. And this is where we start the real release work

of letting go of everything that we don't need. Because a lot of people are asking me about, to talk about letting go of things. So this is the the time yes absolutely absolutely this is as the moon gets smaller and smaller in the sky every night that whole again that whole that the whole ancient guidance and wisdom of the moon is on your side to help you to let go of all this the moon's 4.51 billion years old. So you've got that much wisdom above you holding that space for you. The moon's been here and seen everything that's gone before us

and will likely stay here to see everything that comes after us. And so, yeah, we've got this real wisdom in the sky to help with that. So waning last quarter moon, it might be that you make lists of things you want to release. You might do burning ceremonies around this time where you write down what you want to let go of and burn them. Affirmations are really, really, really powerful here. Journaling can be really powerful here. Setting boundaries, all those kinds of things you need to do to start to unravel yourself from those things that keep pulling you down. And it's almost like I often see the analogy of almost like seaweed that we get kind of wrapped up in the seaweed and it keeps pulling us down.

It's like we just gently start to take off, like we unwrap it one little bit at a time. I also, I don't know, this always comes to me. I'm used to Harry Potter where they fall down into the thing and it holds them and they fight and fight. And Hermione says to them, stop fighting. And you fall through the bottom of it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's exactly like that, that when we stay in that tangle and we fight and we fight and we fight, it tangles more and more.

But when we just stay still and we stay with that and we breathe our way into it and we just start to very gently release rather than cling and grip, it all just begins to fall away so yeah this is the really powerful part of the lunar cycle for that and also just taking responsibility for things starting to finish things up anything you've been avoiding doing anything you've been avoiding saying really finding that sense of wrapping things up and starting to bring them to a close and then we moved down back again into that dark moon phase which we spoke about what feels like ages ago which then and it all starts again

yeah yeah so then we get back into there to go okay how am i feeling i'm feeling irritated about this or sad about that or happy about that okay here we go again sounds exhausting it's powerful when you see the shifts that you can start to make month on month and again one of my massive big passions in life is to make things easy and accessible for people and so I'd advise in the beginning not to work with all eight phases because it's just going to get so overwhelming and you're just going to be like, I don't know what I'm doing. So for someone that's just wanting to sort of dip their toe in a little bit,

would you say that where would be the two pinnacle points to do a practice? Two pinnacle points, new moon and full moon. So start to notice when a new moon is, and you'll begin to naturally notice anyway, the few days before it, which are the dark moon are the times when you're going to be just that little bit more emotional or easily irritable and take time to just notice those things, write down what you're feeling, write down to who and what you're feeling about, get all of that down then on the new moon set your intentions that might just be writing down three little things that you want to achieve over the next

lunar cycle then two weeks later full moon did i achieve those things if yes wonderful go me if not why not once you've started to get into that flow and as we spoke about earlier you start to get to know yourself and you're kind of like hang on a second every single month I don't do it because all those invites they do come but I'm just too scared to say yes to them like okay this is something I need to work on or every time I'm on the on the edge of something really big I procrastinate and I like sit and watch Netflix all day or I tell myself like I'm on the on the edge of something really big I procrastinate and I like sit and watch Netflix all day or I tell myself like I'm doing it over and over again self-awareness. I remember actually not that long ago I mean it was obviously before this was going on but I

went to see my wonderful therapist who I value very very much but it was one of those times when I was like I don't really feel like I have anything to say but and there was nothing particularly bothering me and then suddenly I just started talking about how I don't go to things and I miss opportunities and I say no and I like well or I'll say yes and then like last minute will cancel and then like quite soon after I got invited to something really amazing and I was like yes I'll go and then just before I was like I'm not gonna go and I did it again and I was like what what is going on and I realized that it was like it's a lot deeper um than just like I don't want to for a good reason yes it's also yeah it's wrapped up in

other stuff but um it's interesting to like work with that sort of thing because it can be like little things like that like I need to say yes to more things or I want to put myself out there more romantically yeah and then you can assess like after a month whether you've been doing that and in what ways and if you haven't how you've been holding yourself up or if you I mean a great thing I think would apply it to your your wellness um or your fitness or something you can be like okay this is like yeah what I want to bring more of into my life absolutely and how's like three manageable ways I can do that that's it without without puttingkam and Muhammad Ali on a list. Yeah. I think you've got the power to be that big. Do lunar cycles yet. We'll get you there.

Well, the next two phases, just real quick, people would work with if they start new and full and are like, okay, I'm loving this. Start with then the quarter moon. So the first quarter, remember we talked about was where everything falls together the saying yes and then the last quarter moon where you start to really do the releasing and letting go start then adding those two edges in as well if you feel like you want to have a little bit more moon magic as well and would you say like journaling around the dark moon could be quite powerful? Because I definitely, now you've mentioned it, like I was in a bit of turmoil around this dark moon, a lot of stuff coming up for me, but I wasn't aware that that was a thing. That's what it was.

Yeah, totally. Journaling is so powerful, so powerful. Just allowing that free form, free flowing, free style, just writing down. And I know a lot of people sometimes struggle with it because again, we don't very often visit our inner world. And so I advise people again, if you do start to get out pen and a piece of paper, write down, I don't know what to write. I don't know what to write until something starts to come and you'll notice suddenly it will start to flow. Also you can write just free flow because I'm a big believer in that.

And you just start writing. And often like really magical stuff will come up. Also just like getting things out. It's very cathartic. Yes. And even just having that one good girlfriend that you might do this together with. And on a new moon, you might just have a little, like us women used to do in ancient times, where you set that time to call each other and you just for five minutes just share.

And that person doesn't even need to say anything back but it just gives you an opportunity to say what you're feeling and then let the other person go and then that might be it you might be like brilliant little mini moon circle thanks for the support but yeah just getting in tune with actually what it is that we have to feel it to heal it. We have to. Yeah. And we numb emotions so much that that's why this kind of work, when it first happens, people can be like, whew, put the lid back on again. But unless we let it out, it's going to stay in there. And it's going to manifest in very peculiar ways.

Absolutely, yes. But going full circle to what I mentioned at the beginning as well, I, you know know now me and the girl my girlfriends that I have back in London that you know it took me a minute to sort of create that community but we do moon rituals a lot of the time you know I really suggest that people listening that they start doing practices like that because you know it's just like it's a beautiful sense of community and bonding and realizing that there's something so great beyond our comprehension that we can tap into. Yeah. And also knowing that you're never alone. We often always think we're the

only ones that are going through the turmoil, the only ones that are in the doubt, the only ones that have imposter syndrome. And all of a sudden you hear someone else say it and you're like oh me too oh and it just makes us realize that we're never ever alone that we've always all in this together and that's powerful well thank you so much for talking to me I absolutely love this thank you for having me I hope you enjoyed this week's episode because I loved it and listening back I was really fascinated to see that actually everything she talked about and explained to me made perfect sense because when I was listening I looked up I have an app on my phone that shows the cycle of the moon and where it's at and I could see that it was in its first quarter and that is this time where you're suddenly very innovative you're coming

up with ideas everything's falling into place and that is exactly the energy I'm feeling right now whereas when we recorded it it was just after a dark moon and I was in this real slump and feeling really heavy and like things weren't connecting and I couldn't quite figure out like what I wanted to do with something and I'm just so blown away already that you know that illuminated something that I needed to see and now in the short cycle I've already managed to find some solutions so yeah I hope that you guys take something away from it I'm really excited about really bringing this into my day-to-day life and it's such a beautiful spiritual practice so if any of you are interested in doing a full moon ritual it's just a very simple intention setting exercise and you know when you can actually be with your friends I think it's such a lovely thing to do that creates a real bond and sense of community.

So if you want to find Kirstie on Instagram, she's Kirstie underscore Gallagher underscore. And she has written this lovely book called Lunar Living that tells you a little bit more about the moon and how to work with its energy. And you can find me at Kagi's World. So if you have any questions about this week's episode, please do feel free to get in touch. Saturn Returns is a Feast Collective production. The producer is Hannah Barrell and the executive producer is Kate Taylor.

If you did enjoy this podcast, I would love it if you could share it with someone who you think might benefit. So until next time, thank you very, very much for listening. And remember, you are not alone. Goodbye.