The moon flatters nothing and lies about no one; it simply pours its silver on all faces alike and finds each one worth the light. Tonight you will borrow that gaze and turn it upon yourself.
Most mirror-work begs the glass to hand back a fairer face. This asks something harder and better — that you learn to see the face already there as the moon sees it, without grudge or fault-finding. What changes is not the reflection but the one who looks.
The Working
- On the full moon, set a mirror where the moonlight falls into it, and place a lit candle to one side so both lights meet in the glass.
- Fill a bowl with water on the sill to catch the moon, then pour it slowly before the mirror as an offering of the light.
- Sit before the glass and let your eyes soften, refusing every old habit of searching for a flaw.
- Ring a bell once, and in the ringing begin to look at yourself as you would look at someone dear.
- Name aloud three things the moon would praise in the face before you, and mean each one.
- Speak the incantation to your own reflection, holding its eyes throughout.
- Ring the bell to close, blow out the candle, and leave the moon to hold the glass alone.
The Incantation
Moon that silvers every face,
lend me now your even grace.
Let me see as you have seen —
not the fault, but what’s between.
Fair you name me, fair I stand,
lit beneath your unstinting hand.
Glass that holds the moon and me,
show the self I’ve yet to see.
Rise when the candle is out and carry the moon’s gaze with you; the kindest eye you will ever wear is the one you have learned to turn on yourself.