How to Lead a Full Moon Women’s Circle Ceremony

Are you feeling called to gather women at the time of the full moon and create your very own Full Moon circle?

There are so many full moon rituals and circles out there … so how do you set yours apart? 

Here at Sistership Circle, we want to let you in on a secret to making the most powerful full moon circle experience:

CONNECTION.

I’ll get into that in just a minute … first, let’s talk about gathering together for the full moon.

The moon itself is the ultimate symbol of the feminine. Her cyclical nature and ability to hold light and dark simultaneously is a testament to some of the qualities naturally inherent in all women. She is ancient, mystical and connected to a greater whole – just like you, me and all other women on the planet. This is why new moon and full moon circles are on the rise, because the feminine is rising and so many women are waking up to the gifts that women and the feminine have to offer. 

Set Your Intention

As with any circle you create, here at Sistership Circle, we always begin with an intention. A crystal-clear intention will serve as the solid foundation for your circle.

What is the intention of your Full Moon circle?

What purpose would you like it to serve?

What would you like to gain from it and what would you like your participants to experience?

What theme would you like your circle to have?

What the Full Moon Represents

Understanding how to align with the energy of the moon will also support you in creating a Full Moon circle that will leave your participants coming back for more. So what does the full moon represent and how can you align your circle with this?

The full moon represents illumination and coming out. It is a time when the moon is in its fullness in the night sky, providing us with the opportunity to express and ourselves and celebrate (especially if we find we are ovulating at this time). 

The full moon is also symbolic of clarity and focusing our energy in the direction that best serves us. It is a potent time for us to charge up your energy and channel it toward manifesting the things that you want in your life.

Full Moon Themes

Some popular themes for full moon circles include Illumination, Amplification, Fullness, Clarity, Focus, Celebration, Connection, Charging. This is just a little glimpse into what is possible – there are an abundance of potential themes you could choose from. Choose something that feels good for you, something that excites you and that you’d be happy to share and explore.

It’s also worth noting that you don’t need to be an expert in order to lead a circle on it. Your job is to introduce the theme and to hold space for exploration and whatever else wants to come through. One of the beautiful things about circle is that we all get to learn from one another so trust that not only do you know enough (and to be honest, you do already have all ancient wisdom and knowledge already within you) but however you present it and offer it will be exactly what is needed for your circle and for the women who attend.

When the theme and intention of your full moon circle aligns with the full moon energy, it helps to create a container which is conducive to self-exploration, depth and nurturance and will allow your participants to get in touch with all of those associated full moon qualities.

Circle Outline

Now you have your intention and understanding of the full moon in place, the next thing is to get clear on what will happen in your circle. This is your circle outline and agenda and it will lay out for you, step by step, what will take place during your circle.

We recommend that your circle is at least two hours so that you have time for a range of activities and sharings within the circle. If you are completely new to leading circles, this may seem like a long time. But trust me, once you get into it, your circle will fly by and before you know it you will be wondering how on earth two hours passed so quickly!

Opening

With any circle, we recommend you have an opening ritual. This includes making it clear to your participants that they are entering sacred circle space, an invitation to ground into the space, casting or stitching your circle so that everyone is connected and weaved into the circle, and having some agreements in place to create safety and sacredness.

For example, you may want to start with everyone lighting a candle, then guiding your participants into a grounding meditation or movement practice and then sharing a song or invocation. Next, invite everyone to hold hands whilst they introduce themselves so that it is clear that your circle is now formed. Then share your agreements so that everyone knows where they are at. Agreements are a really important part of circle as they help to create a safe space that allows for openness and vulnerability.

Once the opening ritual is complete, you may want to create some connection within the circle and start with a group share (although this is optional). Pass the talking stick around and have women share something about themselves.

Next, this is then this is where you get to fulfil upon your intention and introduce your theme. Share the intention of the circle with everyone so they know what to expect and let your circle participants know a little about the theme. Now you are ready dive into the circle theme.

This is your opportunity to utilize the power of the moon and create a beautiful full moon circle. To help your circle explore the theme, there are a number of activities, sharings and rituals that you could do.

Ritual #1: Illuminate what works and doesn’t work

This is the first main part of the circle to highlight what’s real for the women in the circle. And this is where our secret sauce of CONNECTION comes in. 

You see, what makes our circles so powerful at Sistership Circle is our focus on having women connect. So while you can do any full moon ritual by yourself, what makes a circle powerful is when women SHARE.

This is where the magic is. It’s more than an individual process. It’s about the collective intention that inspires and empowers women.

Movement

Next, have the women move in your circle. Get them to stand up as you guide them to move and dance. This will help your participants connect to their body and shift their energy as well as the energy within the circle.

After your movement break, you can come back to the theme with an activity, ritual, group or paired share that is relevant to the theme and that encompasses the release and celebration of the full moon.

Ritual #2: Charge up and Manifest

This is where we use the power of the full moon to draw on her energy and charge up our tools like crystals, water and our bodies which remember are 80% water. I personally love to howl at the moon together and speak aloud what I want to manifest for the next cycle.

Completion

To complete the circle, choose a ritual that marks that completion and closing of your circle. At Sistership Circle, this usually involves creating connection and then going into a closing ritual where the circle comes together as a whole and then one by one, members of the circle unstitch from the circle by sharing their name and what they are taking away.

Suggested Ritual: “The Shadow Side of Sun’s Light”

There are so many rituals for the full moon, and we wanted to share one that allows you to fully feel what you need to feel during this potent time of the month.

This full moon ritual is the perfect one to use to go deep into what’s not serving you and release it so you can move into deeper grace, peace and joy in your life.

We have written it to do by yourself, or you can lead it to a group of women in circle.

For this ritual you will need:

Mirror

Paper and pen

Reading an excerpt: The Wheel of Change Tarot, by Alexandra Genetti

“As a mirror that reflects the light of the sun, the moon represents the shadow side of the sun’s light. The Moon reflects the mystery and fear within our souls. It reflects to us all that we cannot see inside ourselves because we cannot look directly at the brilliant sun. We look to the moon to see our face, just as we look into the mirror to see ourselves because we can never directly look at our own face. The mirror of the moon illuminates both the darkness of the night, our shadow part, and the blue day sky, our conscious selves.”

MIRROR “WHO AM I?”

Have your mirrors ready 

Come to your feet/standing up 

Close your eyes for a moment

(option to drum or play music) 

Standing still – the full moon energy gifts us with the opportunity to reconnect with our ancient birthright of mystery. See yourself standing beneath the potent bright  beams of the full moon, radiating down upon you.

Taking three long deep in and out breaths.

Breathe into your feet and feel your connection with the earth. Your body relaxing, allow the full moon and the mother goddess to take you back in time.  To take you back to a time back when women were sacred embodiments of a life-giving goddess, a time before we were shamed for our sensitivity, our intuition, a time when we lived solely through our ancient intuitive nature. Breathing in that essence or your wisdom and feel how you are feeling, standing, breathing.

Pick up mirror in front of you.

  1. Look into your face, gazing deeply into your eyes, and allow your innate nature that was so alive in ancient times to rise and guide you. Breathe her in, allow her to roam throughout your body, whilst keeping your eyes fixed into your eyes

What do you feel, what do you hear?

  1. Gazing deeply into your eyes, going back behind your eyes.

Now bring your conscious attention down from the place behind your eyes, down through your throat, down into your heart. Keep looking in the mirror.

Let your attention pause there. As you allow yourself to become aware of your heart, keep looking in the mirror. Allow your gaze to soften and become more loving. See yourself with the eyes of love.

Ask yourself, “Who am I?”

  1. Now bring your attention down from your heart to your solar plexus, your center of personal power, will power, sense of Self. See yourself with the eyes of courage and will.

Ask yourself, “Who am I?”

  1. Now bring your attention down into your belly/womb, our center for feminine wisdom, creativity and healing energy. Let yourself become centered in your lower heart, your womb. See yourself with the ancient eyes of the deep self.

Ask yourself, “Who am I?”

  1. Give some time to imagining the self you might have been in another time, in the mists of time, in the beginnings of time. Imagine the beauty and majesty of the full moon reflected in your eyes. See yourself with the eyes of the glorious, magical full moon.

Ask yourself, “Who am I?”

  1. See your wise woman within you. This is the Divine Feminine, the Goddess in her Mother aspect filled with creative/healing/sensual energy. Even if you don’t want to see it she is looking at you and sees it so clearly, breathe her in.

And ask the Divine Feminine what does she see?

  1. Now gently bring your awareness back up through your solar plexus, back through your heart, back through your throat, back into the place behind your eyes. See yourself with new eyes.

Say to yourself, “I am I.”

Bring your awareness back into ordinary reality, into the room that you are in, your feet on the ground, gazing at your sisters on the screen and smile with gratitude for what you have seen and learned, smiling opens crowns chakra which helps you to be more open and receptive to your authentic self.

DRAW on a piece of paper:  I am I

Group share

Each woman shares a couple of words to describe what ‘I am’ feels and looks like.

Dance to “I am Light” by India Arie

When the music stops, close your eyes and take three deep breaths.

Breathing in the “I am I”

The Full Moon illuminates all parts of ourselves, especially what needs to be released.

What gets in your way of living in essence?

Bring forth an emotion, feeling or a behaviour that is confronting you at this point in your life.

What emotion would you like to release? 

Call forth that emotion and allow it to flow in and through your body, giving permission for the fullness of the emotion to be felt. 

Bring awareness to your body: is there any heaviness, discomfort, pain, anywhere in your body?

Or perhaps you can hear words that are calling to be released or you can see images of what needs to be released.

Let go of any thoughts, stories, judgements and simply feel, allowing whatever needs to arise to do so, giving it complete awareness and love.

Feel the embodied feeling of whatever is there because it is simply trying to help and guide  you to see beyond all the distractions we use in our lives,  so we can move forward in the ever unfolding journey of life.

Feel what is real for you right now, asking whatever is arising how it wants to be released, or how it wants to be heard, what is it needing, what is its message?

Trust your innate wisdom and allowing the guidance to speak to you.

Allow your body to move and release in the next song.

Dance to “Shake it Out” by Florence + The Machine

Once you have completed, you may want to do some journaling by yourself, or sharing in the circle.

We hope you enjoy this full moon ritual.

There are 40+ rituals available for you to use in our Women’s Circle Ritual Handbook. Get your copy here: http://sistershipcircle.com/womens-circle-ritual-handbook

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