There is something extremely comforting about a ritual. A song you put on to hype yourself up for a date, a coffee shop you only visit after a yearly doctor’s physical, doing your dishes to the same podcast every evening… we engage in rituals all the time without even knowing it.
Now more than ever, people understand the power and importance of rituals and are turning specifically to Jewish rituals as a place to seek comfort. And what better place to incorporate rituals than for Rosh Chodesh, the celebration of the new moon that kicks off the new month?
I’ve always been a lover of moon rituals, so when I learned that there was overlap with Judaism, I was eager to explore. Through the years, my friends and I have engaged in a plethora of meditations, exercises and activities, so I wanted to share some of my favorites!
Setting the Scene, Gathering Your Materials
The first step to personalizing your ritual is making your space feel more special. For this, you’ll want to engage your five senses.
Sight
Play around with the lights in your space — use wine bottles as candlestick holders, turn off the overhead lights and turn on a warm-colored lamp, plug in those twinkle lights that are collecting dust in your closet.
Touch
Place pillows and blankets on the ground or bring out a yoga mat. If you have the luxury of a fire pit (couldn’t be me), maybe light a fire.
Sound
Listen to calming music , whether that be frequencies and singing bowls, some juicy Hiatus Kaiyote tracks or something more instrumental.
Smell
Light a candle with a particularly healing scent or burn Palo Santo. Gather your favorite essential oils. Maybe get yourself those sweet smelling flowers you’ve been eyeing.
Taste
Make tea. Eat some berries on honey toast to usher some sweetness into the new month.
Reflection Questions
If gathering with a group, it’s nice to kick the evening off with a few reflection questions. But you could easily call a friend or text a group chat or journal and reflect alone. The three questions that I’ve been responding to for years are:
1. What did I learn this month?
2. What do I want to release?
3. What is one thing I want to commit to?
Sometimes you want to release the same thing for a few months or a few seasons, and that’s okay. Try to celebrate the little victories and movements within your growth.
Breathing
From 4-7-8 Breathing to Lion’s Breaths to Box Breathing, there are a lot of basic breathwork techniques you can try out to center yourself. Here’s a breathing exercise that my friends and I do that feels like the perfect way to honor Rosh Chodesh.
1. Take a big breath in and imagine you’re inhaling all the stale energy from the month
2. Breathe it out on a loud exhale or sigh, releasing all the bad energy from the past month
3. Take a big welcoming breath of all the new energy for the next month
4. Breathe out any lingering bad feelings inside yourself
Rinse and repeat.
Almost any breathing exercise can be spiced up with props! Hold a beloved crystal.. Use essential oils to choose the signature scent of the month. Finish the breathing exercise by lighting a candle to signify the renewed energy of the new month. There are endless possibilities!
Mood Boarding
I truly believe in manifestation. Even if it is confirmation bias, isn’t it more fun to say you manifested that new opportunity?
Half the work of manifesting is imagining what you want and speaking it into existence. This takes bravery, and a powerful way of doing this is by creating a tangible representation of your desires for the following month.
For this activity, you’ll need magazines or old picture books to cut up. I love the hunt of flipping through magazines and finding an unexpected image that resonates with you, but you can also print out images from online.
I have a wall where I hang up my monthly Rosh Chodesh mood boards. It’s a nice way to look back and reflect on past goals I’ve had, what I’ve achieved and where my priorities have shifted.
Pulling Tarot Cards
Read your own or read a friend’s! You’ll need a tarot deck but in a pinch you could use an online tarot card generator. I like the tactile ritual of feeling the energy in the physical cards, but either will work.
Whether you shuffle the deck or spread the cards out on a surface, pull two cards. The first is what you need to listen to from the last month, the second is what you’ll take with you into the following month.
This month I pulled the Wheel of Fortune and The Hermit. The first deals with accepting what is and rolling with the punches, while the second is about turning inward and stepping away from the crowd so you can get back in touch with your true thoughts and feelings. This pushed me to plan a solo museum day next weekend!
Cleaning
Is there anything more refreshing than waking up to a clean home? Historically I do a Big Clean on New Year’s Eve. And I mean a BIG Clean — a busting-out-the-duster, bleaching-the-shower, snaking-the-drain type clean. Of course that would be ambitious to do monthly, so instead, I try to tidy my space and complete a chore I don’t usually get to.
What’s a chore you’ve been avoiding?
You want to give your space an extra special dose of cleanliness. Think of it as cleaning out the bad energy built up from last month and welcoming warmth and spaciousness into your home.
Rosh Chodesh Resolutions
Many New Year’s Resolutions don’t stick because we set them in January and forget them until the end of the year. A few years back, I began setting resolutions for only the first half a year. But when I began celebrating Rosh Chodesh, I shifted to monthly goals. This is a great way to break down a yearly resolution into micro-goals. If you want to cultivate a yoga practice, start with the goal to practice yoga once a week. If you want to get back into reading, try reading one page twice a week. The goal is for this to be easily achievable to build self-efficacy. You will most likely do more than you expect. Micro actions are magic!
It can be useful to set S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals. So many of my resolutions have failed because they have been nebulous and vague — “to be more creative” or “have better health habits.”
Get a special journal that you use just for your Rosh Chodesh Resolutions. Sit in your sacred space and set intentions for the following month.
Which new moon ritual will you incorporate into your Rosh Chodesh celebration this month?
