August New Moon: I’m Setting Intentions Like I’m Closing a Restaurant at 2 a.m.
-
August New Moon: I’m Setting Intentions Like I’m Closing a Restaurant at 2 a.m.
I don’t know about everyone else, but for me the August new moon has been hitting like the quiet after a service. I’m a restaurant manager in Chattanooga, so I know that 2 a.m. feeling: plates finally stacked, line down, the room empty enough that you can hear your own thoughts. That’s what a new moon feels like in my body right now. Not dramatic. Not glowing. Just empty, clean, a little terrifying.
I’ve been in the middle of deconstruction for a few years now, coming from an evangelical background, and “intention setting” used to make me roll my eyes. In my old spiritual language, an intention was basically a wish you were afraid to pray out loud. I’d say, “Lord, I want to feel less afraid,” and then feel guilty like I wasn’t asking with enough confidence. So when I started working with tarot and moon rituals, I was nervous it would just be another system where I had to perform the right faith.
What’s helped me is treating the new moon less like a command and more like a checkpoint. I light a candle, pull a card, and write one sentence. Not a whole vision board. One sentence. This month I pulled The Fool, which made me smile because that card has always felt like standing at the edge of a roof with no safety net. In tarot language, it’s a beginning, a leap, trust before you can see the whole path. I don’t need it to be mystical for it to work. It just gives me permission to be beginner again.
Psychologically, I keep circling around Jung without wanting to turn it into a whole theory. The idea that the shadow is not just “the bad stuff” but the parts of us we’ve learned to hide from ourselves has been useful. In my old faith, I was taught to be steady, grateful, and clean. I was not very good at saying, “I’m tired, I’m angry, I’m not sure I believe this anymore.” The new moon feels like a small, repeatable place where I can say those things without making them into a crisis.
So my intention for August is not a grand declaration. It’s closer to a closing checklist: close the tab, wipe the table, leave the door unlocked. I’m setting an intention to be gentle with myself when I don’t know what comes next. To let a beginning be small. To trust that I can make one honest sentence, then make the next one when I’m ready.
If that sounds too plain, that’s the point. I don’t need the moon to fix me. I just need it to remind me that empty space is not the same as failure. Sometimes it’s just the room after the last plate is cleared, and the next service hasn’t started yet.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login