New Moon & Full Moon Bath: Ritual, Soak, How-to
Use this cleansing bath ritual during the lunar cycles to manifest your wildest dreams. Here’s how to take a spiritual bath under a new or full moon. If you’re looking for a cosmic reset or to release some toxicity from your life, moon water and spiritual baths are wonderful tools to reestablish alignment and ground into the earth with one of its most important elements: water.
Moon Bathing: What Is It?
Moon baths can be interpreted in many ways throughout history and different cultures. To some, moon bathing means laying under the moon’s beams outside and soaking up its energy with thoughtful intention. For others, you can create moon water by placing a clean vessel outside, full of water under a new moon or full moon to charge the water with the moon’s energy. Once you have your moon water, you can use it during a spiritual bath under the new moon or full moon to cleanse your energy, use it in your spellwork, or clear the energy in your space.
Before you dive into moon baths, it’s incredibly important to understand that not all new moons and full moons are the same. Each lunation carries with it a different and distinct energetic signature. The way the other planets interact with the moon, and with one another, at the time of the new moon or full moon, will influence the energy of your moon water. Be mindful that you’re making your moon water under moons that feel aligned and supportive of your desires and intentions.
“To me, moon water is water that has been consecrated or blessed under a lunation,” Astro mage Thea Anderson says. “The moon is the closest celestial body and reflects the energies from the rest of the cosmos down to us. In folk traditions throughout time, people have known that you ‘draw down’ from the moon what you want to manifest here on earth. This drawing down into water has a restorative and cleansing effect when used in a working to cleanse your spirit. It’s no longer just water that you got from your kitchen sink—it becomes empowered with spirit.”
Astrologer and mystic Nina Kahn offers that incorporating moon baths into your spiritual practice is a wonderful way to “connect with the element of water, and carve out some much-needed reflection time to align yourself with the energy of the lunar cycle.” When drawing a spiritual bath, she adds, it’s all about intention. “Set the stage by lighting candles, surrounding yourself with crystals, or adding cleansing salts, herbs, or flowers to the bathwater,” Kahn says. “I like to set an intention as I draw the bath, then do a visualization or meditation as I soak. As you drain the bath, focus on releasing negativity or clearing blockages.”
Benefits
The benefits of taking a moon bath or spiritual bath are hard to ignore. This ritual becomes a portal to release anything that’s been weighing you down and to quite literally start over fresh and clean. Cleansing yourself with moon water can amplify your intention, manifestation power, and deliver a powerful physical, spiritual, and psychic cleanse. You’re likely to feel a positive energetic shift after a spiritual bath.
Moon Bath Ritual
Crafting a moon bath ritual is a personal experience. When it comes to gathering ingredients, use your intuition. What herbs or elements do you feel drawn toward? “It can be simple. Don’t get too caught up in trying to find the precise ingredients,” Anderson says. “Use what’s in your kitchen! I guess that’s the HooDoo in me speaking, but knowing how to work with what you’ve got is key. The basics are that cinnamon, citrus, salt and vinegar are really wonderful ingredients to begin with.” Anderson adds that it’s important to pay attention to the moon cycle before you hop in the bath. “If there is a lunation coming up like a new moon, wait until the moon has left the beams of the sun (15 degrees or, usually, a day later) and is starting to gain in light.”
Moon Bath Soak
A moon bath soak can be an incredibly recharging experience. “Taking a healing and meditative moon bath during a new or full moon is a beautiful way to connect with the watery lunar energy and give yourself an opportunity to clarify your intentions,” Kahn says. “Connecting with the element of water during these potent times in the moon cycle by taking a moon bath or making moon water allows you to dip your toes into moon magic and take advantage of the cosmic energy peaks.” The moon is naturally linked with the element of water, Kahn adds, “both literally, as the gravitational force that creates the tides, and astrologically, as the planet that rules water sign Cancer.”
FAQs
What is a spiritual bath?
Spiritual baths have been used in many cultures across time as a way of cleansing our energetic field, mind, and soul. “I think of a spiritual bath as the process of intentionally, or even ceremoniously, cleansing yourself to remove blocks and negativity, or to mend and comfort yourself,” Anderson says. “In the tradition of HooDoo (Black American cunning/folk practice), which is a lineage that speaks to me, bathing yourself with water that has been blessed and mixed with cleansing herbs washes away both psychic and mental debris. HooDoo practitioners or cunning people will concoct a bath in order to uncross or remove a jink (i.e., curse).” Spiritual baths can even be used after an intense situation or conversation, Anderson adds, “to cleanse yourself of a toxic situation or encounter where the vibes are off.”
What is moon water?
Moon water is quite simple: It’s the process of placing a clean cup or vessel of water under a new moon or full moon to receive that lunation’s energetic mark. You can place your moon water outside or under your windowsill so the moon’s beams will charge and soak into the water. This process, Kahn adds, steeps the water with “lunar power.”
“We can charge regular water under the moonlight to create a special and mystical elixir known as moon water, Kahn says. “We can enhance our moon water with crystals, flowers, herbs, or other mystical items that infuse the water with their magic.” Moon water has many purposes and can be used in future spellwork, rituals, or even sit on your altar as an offering or representation of the water element.
Should you use moon water in your moon bath?
You can absolutely use moon water in a moon bath, but, as Anderson says, don’t get too caught up on the specific ingredients. It’s your intention that matters. “Try adding a splash of moon water to your spiritual bath so you can soak in some liquid moonlight,” Kahn says. “You can also mix moon water and rose water in a spray bottle and use it as a refreshing spritz to cleanse yourself, your space, or your mystical tools.”
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