The full moon is a lantern held over deep water, and everything its light touches is made honest. A bath drawn beneath it becomes a small tide of sight.
This working softens the border between the waking mind and the dreaming one, coaxing open the eye that never sleeps. Wormwood is the bitter green of vision, given to those who would look past the veil. To bathe in it is to ask the moon to wash the dust from your knowing.
The Working
- On the night the moon stands full, draw a warm bath and let the window lie open to its light.
- Cast a handful of wormwood and mugwort upon the water and stir them widdershins with your hand.
- Rest a moonstone on the bath’s edge where the moonlight can find it.
- Sink in to the shoulders and let the bitter greenness rise around you.
- Close your eyes and ask, once and plainly, the one question you need answered.
- Lie still until the water begins to cool, holding the stone against your brow.
- Rise without rinsing, and carry the moonstone to your pillow so the answer may come in dreams.
The Incantation
Moon above and water below,
wash me where the true things grow.
Bitter herb and moon’s own light,
open wide my inner sight.
What I ask beneath your gaze,
answer in the dreaming days,
and when I wake, let me recall
the truth you whispered through it all.
Let the stone keep its vigil beside your head through the night, and by morning the moon’s answer will be waiting behind your eyes.