Nectar of the Dark Moon is a beauty potion spell brewed on the darkest night of the lunar cycle, an anointing nectar, never drunk, that reaches toward beauty by first dissolving the tired face you wear and then coaxing a truer one up from beneath, as a stone is polished by patient water. As the hedge-witches knew, the new moon shows no face at all, and that is its gift, a blank slate on which to write a new one. On this moonless night you brew what they called the fair unmaking.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: pink and green, the Venusian shades, deepened by rose
- Herbs: rose and myrtle (sacred to Aphrodite) and lavender in the classic tradition; this nectar leans on elderflower, marshmallow root, and orange peel for clarity, softness, and brightness
- Crystal: rose quartz and jade for gentle self-love; here rose quartz is partnered with moonstone for the dark moon’s hidden work
- Day: Friday, the day of Venus
- Planet: Venus, ruler of beauty
- Element: Water, the medium of the working
- Moon: beauty magic traditionally rides the waxing moon to attract, but this advanced rite brews on the dark (new) moon to unmake before it remakes
For the full table of magical associations, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A dark bowl of glazed ceramic, obsidian, or dark glass
- Rainwater to half-fill it, caught the night before if you can
- Dried elderflower, marshmallow root, and a curl of orange peel
- A smooth rose quartz and a moonstone
- Sweet almond oil to carry, and a single drop of rose essential oil
- One candle or flame, the only light the bowl should meet
- A stoppered glass bottle to keep the finished nectar from the sun
The Best Time to Cast
Brew on the New Moon, ideally the truly moonless night that models the blank slate this nectar promises. A New Moon falling on a Friday is finest of all, joining the dark moon’s power to unmake with Venus’s own day of beauty. Where most Beauty magic waits for the waxing moon to attract, this working chooses the dark: you cannot draw up a truer face until the borrowed one dissolves, and that is the new moon’s craft.
The Working
- On the moonless night, half-fill a dark bowl with rainwater and set it where no light but a single flame can reach.
- Steep in it elderflower for clarity, marshmallow root for softness, and a curl of orange peel for brightness, warming the water only to blood-heat.
- Lay a smooth rose quartz and a moonstone in the bowl and let them lie there until the water takes their coolness.
- Add three drops of almond oil and a single drop of rose, and stir widdershins to unmake, then sunwise to remake, nine turns each.
- Speak the incantation across the surface until your breath troubles the water.
- Cover the bowl and leave it in the dark from midnight to first light.
- At dawn, lift out the stones and anoint your face with the nectar, letting it dry as the new moon’s first invisible sliver is born.
The Incantation
Dark of the moon with no face to show,
take up the one that the long days wore;
down through the water, let it go,
draw me a fairer than before.
Flower and stone and the oil of rose,
work in the black where the new is made;
give to the dawn what the darkness knows,
beauty unborrowed, and unafraid.
Variations & Substitutions
- No rainwater? Spring water or moon-charged water will serve, so long as it is pure and gathered with intent.
- No moonstone? A second rose quartz or clear quartz will hold the dark moon’s coolness; swap in jade if you seek quiet confidence rather than softness.
- Sensitive skin? Omit the rose essential oil and steep dried rose petals instead, or trade almond oil for jojoba, and always patch-test before anointing your face.
A Word on Intent
An it harm none, do what ye will. This nectar reshapes your relationship with your own reflection; it is no glamour to bend another’s eye or shame anyone’s face beside yours. Anoint only yourself. The beauty it draws up is not borrowed nor taken from another, but your own truer face, unafraid, exactly as the verse asks.
Related Beauty Spells
Return to the Grimoire for more workings, or record this nectar in your own Book of Shadows against the next dark moon.