Esbats
Lunar Rituals & Celebrations
Lunar Rituals
Esbats
I was perched on a boulder at dusk, spreading a handful of native seeds along a creek bank, when someone asked me why I bother with moon rituals. “Aren’t the sabbats more important?” they said. I shook my head. The moon deserves no lesser place in a witch’s practice than the sun.
Esbats—the lunar rituals—are times to tune in, to celebrate cycles that surround us, and to honor the Goddess. They’re moments for divination, spellwork, and meditation. Some witches follow the full moon with intensity, feeling its energy amplify every intention. Others prefer the quiet magic of the new moon to plant ideas, heal, or reflect. The frenzy of a full moon gave rise to the word lunatic for a reason—but in ritual, that energy can be transformed into focus, connection, and power.
Esbats aren’t about rigid timing. They’re about rhythm, presence, and awareness.
The Lunar Cycle
The moon was humanity’s first calendar. Its phases guided early agricultural practices, seasonal observances, and spiritual life long before the solar holidays were formalized. Many pre-patriarchal cultures revered the moon as feminine, a reflection of the Goddess, a mirror of our own cycles.
Each phase carries energy we can work with: waxing for attraction, full for amplification, waning for release, new for beginnings. Over time, cultures across the world—from Anglo-Saxon and Celtic to Native American—named full moons according to seasonal markers. These names aren’t rules, they’re stories: Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, Pink Moon, Harvest Moon. Each carries context, history, and guidance if you’re paying attention.
The land beneath our feet has stories to tell. The moon reflects those stories back to us, if we take the time to notice its phases.
Lunar Rituals for Esbats
Esbats are the lunar rituals we hold outside of the eight solar Sabbats. They’re for raising energy, casting spells, performing healing, and honoring the Goddess. A ritual can be held under any phase, depending on your intention.
I scatter seeds, light candles, or draw simple circles anywhere the energy feels right. You don’t need a perfect calendar, fancy tools, or an elaborate altar. Esbats are about presence, alignment, and conscious observation. Every spell has ripples.
- Full Moon Energy: Amplification, protection, banishing unwanted influences, divination.
- Waning Moon Energy: Release, rejection, clearing what no longer serves.
- New Moon Energy: Growth, healing, planting seeds (literal or metaphorical).
- Waxing Moon Energy: Attraction, drawing in what aligns with your highest good.
The Lunar Calendar
Thirteen lunar months take roughly 374 days—longer than the solar year of 365. The moon doesn’t always line up neatly with the sun, and that’s okay. Trying to force the cycles together is like asking rivers to run in straight lines. Use a Blue Moon to adjust if you want, or just notice when the next full moon lands.
Esbats follow this second wheel of the year: thirteen lunar cycles running alongside the solar year. Each moon has its own energy and name. Each name reflects culture, place, and season, and can guide your rituals without dictating them. Modern lives rarely match perfect schedules, and the moon accommodates that—so should you.
Full Moon Names
These moon names aren't universal - they come from Native American, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and medieval English traditions, often blended together. They tell you what people noticed about each season: when wolves hunted, when strawberries ripened, when snow fell deepest. Use them as guides, not gospel.
Wolf Moon
The deep winter moon when survival instincts sharpen. A time for inner work and trusting your wildness.
Snow Moon
Heavy, quiet energy when the world is buried and waiting. Work with stillness, patience, what's hidden beneath.
Crow Moon
The last gasp of winter. Crows return, ice begins to crack. This moon is about transition and thawing.
Pink Moon
Spring's awakening. The earth is waking up, seeds are breaking open. Plant intentions, start new projects.
Flower Moon
Abundance in full bloom. Everything's growing fast now. Amplify what you've already started.
Strawberry Moon
The sweetness before summer peaks. Celebrate what's ripening, honor the work that got you here.
Buck Moon
High summer energy. Strength, vitality, everything at its peak. Act on what you've been planning.
Sturgeon Moon
Late summer abundance before the shift. Gather resources, prepare for what's coming.
Corn Moon
Harvest begins. Reap what you've sown, literally or metaphorically. Gratitude for what's grown.
Hunter's Moon
The light is fading but there's still work to do. Finish what needs finishing before winter.
Beaver Moon
Preparation time. Gather, store, protect. The cold is coming and you're building what will sustain you.
Oak Moon
Deep winter darkness. The longest nights. Rest, reflect, wait for the light to return.
When the Moon Doesn't Follow the Calendar
You’ve probably heard “blue moon” means the second full moon in a month. That’s the modern definition – popularized in the 1940s and convenient for calendars. But it’s not quite right.
The older definition – and the one that makes more sense if you’re following seasonal rhythms – is this: a blue moon is the third full moon in a season that has four full moons instead of three. It’s the “extra” moon, the one that doesn’t fit neatly into the quarterly divisions.
Why does it matter? Because if you’re working with seasonal energy, that extra moon has a different quality – it’s a threshold, an in-between, a moment that doesn’t quite belong to spring or summer or wherever it lands. Use it for work that doesn’t fit other categories, for wildcards, for breaking patterns.
The Harvest Moon is easier. It’s the full moon closest to the autumn equinox – usually in September, sometimes in October. Traditionally, this moon gave farmers extra light to bring in the crops. For witches, it’s about reaping what you’ve sown all year, taking stock, expressing gratitude for abundance (or learning from scarcity).
These special moons aren’t more important than the others. They’re just reminders that cycles overlap, that nature doesn’t follow neat boxes, and that the exceptions often teach us more than the rules.
Harvest Moon
Blue Moon
Next time there’s a full moon, go outside. Even if it’s just for five minutes. Even if you’re in a city where you can barely see it through the light pollution. Step outside, look up, and see the moon. Feel the air. Notice what’s happening in the world around you – what’s growing, what’s dying back, what’s waiting.
That’s an esbat. That’s the practice. Everything else – the candles, the rituals, the specific timing – that’s just scaffolding around the central act of paying attention.
The moon has been turning through its phases for longer than humans have had language to name them. It will keep turning long after we’re gone.
We get to choose whether we turn with it.