As night fell on the evening of April 7th, 2022 [9-hours following Sphere + Sundry’s second Exalted Venus election], Luna took Her rightful place on the Midheaven’s throne in Her own rulership of Tropical Cancer, in Her night and hour. It was there offerings of myrrh, Shasta water, and cool wine were made, prayers whispered to the heavens, and 9 candles burned. A mirror reflected Her own Light back to Her from the Altar’s face, visible through the canopy of overarching branches. The Mage veiled by an antique Victorian dressing gown, ghostly and pale, as though a memory. Familiar creatures, incarnate and dis, gathered about. Dogs howled. Owls began to hoot, and the energies poured forth.

Following fumigations… the consecration of sacred waters, hot wax into glass vessels, the co-mingling of herb and oil, a *text message* broke the 4th wall.

Had the Mage not put her phone on airplane mode?

No matter, she thought.

But it was TOO PERFECT! Too part and parcel of This Very Working to ignore. The camera app was quickly closed and Messages opened to document a screenshot, except…

the phone WAS in airplane mode…
and no such text seemed to exist…

It had been a complete hallucination.

An absolute waking fantasy (— or preview of something yet to pass…?)

The first and only I’ve experienced in ritual, or in life, even — in all these years!

I was immediately reminded of how the Moon’s silvery light blurs the line between reality and illusion. How ERs and psychiatric wards brace when She’s full.

We began shrouding the Altar in heavy quilts to shield Luna’s newborn materia from Sol’s morning rays, to clean up the next day.

“This is what I thought witchcraft would feel like…”

One of the Helpers mentioned, or something to that effect. And it’s true. Not all magic feels like witchcraft or is witchcraft; even if a “witch” happens to be doing it. A lot of astrological magic lacks the characteristically intense, semi-spooky, adjacent place-and-time vibe that witchcraft does, but MOON WORKINGS are almost always an exception, because the Moon governs that type of path + practice. And it resonates with many witches religiously working Lunar cycles, often to the exclusion of other transiting factors.

In the full and complete practice of talismanic astro magic + electional work, the Moon is *always* one of the utmost considerations, even as the focus is typically a 3rd party Power, e.g. Planets, Stars, or Her Luminary Other. From a metaphysical point of view, it’s because Luna carries the light from exterior our Sphere in to it — the sublunary realm. From an astrologer’s interpretive angle, the Moon is not only the fastest moving planet, but the most personal and manifest. Her last aspect indicates the place she’s coming from: technically literally; Mind and Body metaphorically.

Exact aspects represent the absolute culmination of singular experiences, but they hardly ever end there, and the apex of an event is a relatively brief period in contrast to much longer cycles of anticipation and recovery. A 1-hour presentation might take 10 to prepare, or, as an example, going on a date with the goal of sexual union [especially apt since Luna’s most recent aspect is Venus in Pisces, co-present with Jupiter], typically involves the getting ready, the going to dinner, the drinking of drinks, the disrobing, the foreplay, and THEN thee orgasm. We did all that to get here, for about one minute each (Venus willing!). Then there’s the pillow talk and the afterglow, the delicious, relaxed sleep.

If it was good enough —or bad enough! —, all we’re left with is the memory, for as long as that memory happens to last.

Memory being the closest thing we have to a repository of lived experience, co-mingled with things that didn’t actually happen to form what ends up being more of an amalgam of facts and narrative fancy than any objective, literal account a present 3rd party could corroborate every detail of (keeping in mind that some people have objectively better and worse memories than others).

More than anything, we re-member how notable experiences made us feel… what grandma’s house smelled like… whether her food was good or bad, but not what the taste was per se… until we taste it again and get transported right back to that kitchen table. No matter where we are in the world, or how much time has passed.

Note how it’s the sensory inputs, the thoughts, the feelings, and the surroundings we recall — all Lunary in nature, and though Western astrologers don’t seem to emphasize it often, memory and the mind are themselves (and therefore…), Moon ruled.

Coming off an experience creates State. Mindset. Mood. But so does coming into one, especially as we get closer to the next thing and farther removed from the last, i.e. yesterday’s orgasm.

The chart for Luna in Cancer features a vigorous waxing half Moon coming off an afterglow-y 3° trine to Exalted Venus, whose position in the 6th is strongly mitigated by the Fairer Benefic‘s aspect to the 10th AND being perfectly antiscia the Rising — not only by sign, but by degree within the election window. Jupiter flawlessly aspects the MC (also by degree), and offers His own support to the 10th, as Luna holds court.

The Nacht-Queen’s incoming aspect is to an Exalted Sun, Her perennial dance partner, whose light she carries to cyclical term. But that won’t happen until the next day, more than 10 degrees off. She’s not rushing out the door, consumed by the act of meeting Him. She basks in Her own fecundity, available — at least temporarily, to other callers.

In most (non-explicitly Lunar) elections, the Moon’s applying or current aspect should be as tight to the Power we’re striving to capture as possible, all other constraints considered. She is to be in attendance, Her copious resources channeled into manifesting *its* goals and objectives.

This election was chosen for lots of reasons, but one of the things I’ve come to appreciate about it — and feel may be helpful for creating as “neutral” a Moon materia as possible — is the space between Luna’s actual placement and Her next incoming aspect. She is not at all Void, but She’s not preoccupied… tied up in bringing the goals of another particular Power into being. Her next encounter is bound to enrich and to fortify, but as naturally and again, neutrally, as possible, given the core tenants of the Sun-Moon relationship. I also like that Sol brings coherence, and the two together form the cornerstones of astrological reality. And in some sense, magical and material efficacy. The melding of Body and Spirit.

So the question becomes:

Given the Moon’s unique and omnipresent supporting role in the talismanic arts, left broadly to Her own devices, what does pure, unmitigated Luna materia do?

[It’s been (8)4-years since our official inception and not one excellent/ unafflicted MOON MOON election has been available to deliver until now…]

The first thing myself and initial beta testers have noticed is an activation of the material vessel and surrounding energy body. To say “grounded” wouldn’t be quite right. Lunar materia promotes embodiment — the indwelling of consciousness and experience from and on the material level, but what’s different about it from all the other series that do the same is that it also sensitizes, rather than buffers. The Moon is more receptive to pleasure and to pain than any other astrological body, and the lived experience follows (meat) suit.

You may notice being more sensitive to violence (even on-screen), wincing as the psyche internalizes the experience of harmful blows; the primal within knowing full well the pain that entails.

Likewise, the experience of emotional and physical intimacy, comfort, and security “hit” different under Luna’s influence, satisfying our deepest animal needs, activating our basest, simplest desires. Connection with those we love, safety, and the resources the physical body needs to live, breathe, and (perchance…) fuck, another day.

While a lot of series start from the tippy top of Maslow’s Hierarchy — addressing issues of success, self-actualization and esteem, Luna addresses issues of foundation.

Most of us spend a great portion of our lives building atop fault lines in our core self and life-structure that destabilize and work against all our best efforts.

Moon in Cancer materia invites us to revisit and to repair them. To *BE* with who, what, and where we truly are, stripped of excess and artifice.

The issue is that, most of us aren’t going to be all too comfortable with what we’re bound to find.

Going back into our childhood homes, peeling back juice-stained carpets and exploring the mold, rot, and desiccated rat carcasses in the basement aren’t altogether pleasant experiences for most hairless apes, even metaphorically.

It’s why we spend our lives running away from the root problems.

Digging them up is painful.

and what if we don’t have the tools to fix what we find, anyway?

The wonderful thing about talismanic materia though, is that we *do* have tools.

[To say nothing of every other tool on the planet!]

Other series can be paired with Luna materia to get the medicine deep into those foundational cracks, where it can last forever. Where it can become as reinforcing concrete for the sake of structural integrity.

Deep, core-level Healing has really interesting effects on our past, as it does the future. Like using a time machine to keep initial harm from occurring in the first place. Except wisdom, perspective, and life-experience remain to fill those would-be pot holes, since an alternate version of our same soul has walked that road, in those same outgrown shoes. Like a movie character who goes through Some Shit™, only to wake up in the end… better off in some ways, but forever altered… by the hallucination.

We need not — as adults — haunt the ruins of our childhood, or have them haunt us.

The traumatized person is an echo of the tears, screams, and unmet needs of the defenseless, innocent children we each used to be;

but not any longer.

Lunar materia uses those echoes to locate where it is needed most — to provide resources outside the limits of space and time. But it doesn’t need to do it consciously, via talk therapy (though it’d be great for that!). It sorts things energetically, with minimal need for conscious exploration beyond what presents itself, or one decides is necessary.

Thus, on a purely practical level — direct application often activates natal Lunar deficits (extensions of whatever in the past made us who we are and feel how we do — or do not! — feel).

If you’ve got an afflicted, troubled, or “cursed” Moon, that process is going to be harder than if the Moon is content and well provided for. Likewise, if you have an Exalted and well supported Moon, you have way less to worry about.

BUT WAIT! Before you decide this might not be for you, there’s more!

The spoon full of sugar that helps Lunar medicine go down is the simple act of pairing it with other materia that *serves your needs* well. Perhaps ideally some series you already have good rapport with.

Using *in collaboration* with other productive Powers gives Luna in Cancer materia rails or at least bumpers (in the bowling sense) to guide and buoy our lived experience, while simultaneously SUPER CHARGING whatever else we’re using.

We get Lunar benefits, especially over the course of routine use — increased stability, contentment, intimacy, and real resources — but without the raw experience of volatility, pain, confusion, crazy, and upset that can otherwise occur in isolation.

Because the Moon is *NOT supposed* to be isolated.

And in Cancer especially, the sign of Her RULERSHIP rather than EXALTATION, She benefits tremendously from the stability, companionship, protection, and reassurance other Powers provide.

The other advantage this offers — the pairing of Luna in Cancer with whatever other materia you feel best serves you — is that it POTENTIATES the living hell out of it, 10x-ing its ability to permeate and to manifest.

Even outside of facilitating foundational repair, reparenting, healing attachment disorders, and “soul retrieval”, this materia can be used to empower the impacts of anything else you use it with, because the Moon makes things REAL.

Just as Saturn in Capricorn explained that its materia does not negate or automatically solve Saturn problems, neither will the Moon as it pertains to Her own Sphere.

What She can do is guide us and the energies we employ to the deepest, most meaningful place they can possibly go. Deeper than they could ever get on their own.

And makes them PART of us, on a core level, leading to maximum internalization and metabolic synthesis. As the stomach — one of the Moon ruled organs, does with the food we eat.

Magically, Luna materia is the Manifestiest.

Even if you choose not to apply it to the body (valid!), it can be tremendously useful as an add-on, base, or womb to supercharge any other magical work you do.

[Always remember that if you don’t want to be like, feel like, or experience a series somatically/ personally… are allergic to something, don’t love the smell, &c…, it can always be employed in 3rd party magic for exteriorized effects, even on your own behalf!]

Activate sigil shoals; add a sprinkle to candle dressings, spell bottles, and mojos; make offerings and employ in ritual, as well as during compatible mantra practices (esp. for Lunar remediation); don Lunar materia to prime the vessel for maximum talisman + amulet penetration into the personal and worldly domain.

And as previously mentioned, layer with other series for whatever other impacts you’re looking to boost/ facilitate/ deepen…

The impacts of direct personal application, especially in isolation, can feel very intense. Especially at first.

I did report slipping into a whole hallucination/ pocket timeline in working from the jump. And the first night I beta tested Luna in Cancer, I confessed to Austin “feeling insane” and requested careful observation during the launch cycle so I didn’t lose grip. And I do not have a history of clinical insanity.

The words “we can’t release this…” may have even been uttered.

But, the next night, I paired it with an Asclepius Talisman and Deneb Algedi, and the experience was MUCH improved.

The night after that, The Cloud King’s Salve, and was immediately awash in pure, tingly waves of bliss!

In the 2-3 weeks since, using the materia every day in order to write about it… I’ve come to a place where it can be worn standalone. After a bit, it can begin feeling like “that’s enough” and something else can be added to take the edge off. It can be used regularly, if responsibly, but likely not every day forever. You’ll want to take breaks for organic integration. Constant growth is tiring.

And this IS growth energy — very much waxing. Hyper fertile.

Magical Miracle Grow.

In fact, be careful if you *DO NOT* want to get pregnant but otherwise — circumstantially, biologically — could.

Channel the energy intentionally into the creative and personal projects you’d like to nurture, using as a guide what you pair it with and supportive magical + mundane activities on behalf of those ends.

Luna in Cancer materia also helps with recovery from burnout, because while She makes progress, the Moon also appreciates rest and sleep and food and care, and if you’re running a deficit of those, She’ll stoke your hunger to partake of them.

Which, in the long run, only makes us better able to fulfill worldly demands and personal goals. Signed, part-time Type-A personality.

She can also be very goofy, high energy, and fun! Sweet and caring and wholesome (first decan of Cancer, after all!). Animals and children love Her. Many a cuddle puddle will result.

So it’s a process and an exploration, for better following any potential worse. But the results are well worth it!

As patient zero, I am SO happy to report that while this has all been a lot to bring into being:

• Emotional/ home life is better than ever
• I am very in touch with my own deep and basic needs (+ better able to tend to those around me)
• More present, and feel substantially less “crazy” than the previous baseline (Moon-Rahu, womp womp)

It’s been a bit of a Lunar exorcism, to be honest.

Gentler than psychedelic drugs, but one of the key reasons people are drawn to experience them in the first place…

and I DO recommend it, so long as you’re making a plan and prepared for the process!

You don’t just bring a baby home without preparing the nursery…

Some helpful questions to ask may be:

↦ Where do I need more support in my life/ self?
↦ Am I ready to manage rapid growth in that sector?
↦ What can I do to begin preparing for it?
↦ What support infrastructure need be on hand?

[Likewise, look to Cancer in your own chart, and know that there’s going to be a tendency for manifestations to happen in that house, automatically and irrespective of personally determined goals…]

Know which doula(s), night nurse(s), and chaperone(s) [other talismans + materia] you’d like to employ, which fit those aims. Have them on hand or order WITH Luna in Cancer. Her energies will get *much* easier to manage after taking root, after growing up and in to your personal Sphere.

Please pick something nourishing, nice, and helpful for yourself, not just like… base Saturn in Capricorn [stern; judgmental; uncompromising] and Immortal Heart [emotional labor; grieving].

and it doesn’t need to be the same blend all the time!

As far as pairings go — to *wear/ internally experience* — I haven’t tried them all so some of this is conjecture — no doubt Clients will start reporting more detail on blending experiments soon:

• Cloud Kingdom (+ Salve); Fomalhaut; and/or Jupiter’s Bounty = AMAZING
• Any Asclepius is A+, as is Deneb Algedi, and Jupiter’s Empyreal Vantage generally
• Sol (Golden first, Exalted second) *should* be good (theoretically!) but it can totally depend on the person
• Any Regulus tends to hit similar notes but result in less (metaphorical!) allergic reactions

• Quicksilver Tongue absolutely works
• Venus’ Aerial Delight can be a bit subtle in the face of the Moon in Cancer’s heavier, water-logged nature, but it doesn’t hurt! I anticipate the best results will stem from application of Eirene…
• Venus in Taurus, Empress, and Exalted varieties will likely result in more resonant symbiosis. The new, hyper-compatible (same election day!) Venus in Pisces will debut sometime this year…
• Moon-Neptune, Hermanubis, and The Ancestral Series, it’s just going to hyper potentiate their intended effects. More on that below…
• Jupiter’s Lighting Rod, St. Expedite, and Jupiter in Sagittarius, probably just not all that compatible, but likely no harm done
• If you’re bold enough to try for Mars (Mars and the Moon have a tenuous relationship at best), I’d recommend Mars in Scorpio. Both being water/ sharing trines should help. Aries (incoming…) I wouldn’t personally advocate. Capricorn/ degree of Exaltation falls somewhere in the middle. It might be better to go for Exalted Sol, Antares (also incoming…), or even Aldebaran.

Do keep in mind that Luna’s influence will potentiate physical side effects, so hot things will feel very HOT, and cold things COLDER.

*Magically*, Luna can be paired with literally anything to supercharge it.

Moon materia itself primes us for mediumship, channeling, and opens the psychic-front of the sensorium. It’s great to apply before sleep for lucid dreaming, or ritual work of a compatible nature.

It works TOO well with The Ancestral Series and Hermanubis, so I highly recommend the standard priming and aftercare protocols — cleansing, warding, grounding, and re-conditioning the self + space with more uplifting, life-giving energies, etc.

I also very much recommend performing the full Ritual Bathing + Energetic Cleansing protocol at least a week or few days before newfound engagement with Luna in Cancer material, so you’re not stuck processing and fretting over things that could have simply been washed off to begin with.

Coming in as a clean slate *always* helps *all* the magic you use work better…

For Lunar remediation, please get a personalized mantra prescription or remedial blueprint from Freedom Cole, Austin Coppock, or anyone they recommend — list and links forthcoming.

[There are no doubt other astrologers who’d be good; those mentioned are simply the people I know with /formal/ remedial training and trust!]

I have my own Durga prescription for an afflicted Moon, and burning Luna in Cancer incense as an aura primer + offering has led to *profound* results…

Setting up donations to clear pollution from the Ocean, support women’s mental health, or the feeding and housing of mothers and children, are *very safe* routes to Lunar remediation via planetary charity. And they make the world a better place.

You can also make these offerings to Luna in Her day and hour (or to the Ruler of your natal Moon) with appropriate prayers/ intent, and pair with materia from the Ruler on your person (esp. if they are compatible combinations).

Please note that in these write-ups I have to 1. address super nuanced, complicated topics to a population that runs the gamut from *absolute beginners + non-practitioners* to literal *world-class astrologers + magicians*, and 2. prime for the *lowest common denominator* of potential reactions.

If you have a lot of occult experience and are well-adjusted to both magic AND reality (a lot to ask!), this materia might honestly be a cake walk for you (and I hope it is!).

Cancer is cardinal and the Moon is nothing if not changeable. The conditions under which you use it are going to drastically alter your experience, and the START of engagement will be the hardest to adjust to. Once you learn how to work with it, my guess is you’ll never want to be without it.

Wearing Luna in Cancer is also likely to sensitize you to current transits, and make you a vector for the same in the lives of those around you.

Experiment of course, but don’t be surprised if days where the Moon is in poor condition, you have less great experiences with it (another reason to buffer/ insulate against transiting factors with the simulated addition of handpicked influences!).

Likewise, go out of your way to apply it/ wear a Luna in Cancer Talisman on days when the Moon’s transits are desirable — in general or as applied to your Natal — and pair with materia that replicates those to activate/ juice them. Wearing Luna w/ Venus as the Moon is applying to Venus or conjoining yours, &c.

As She reminds us from on high night after night, the sky is the limit…

Luna in Cancer is a magical and astrological *GAME CHANGER* re: potentiation, integration, augmentation, and manifestation, and well worth exploring for good candidates.

Every magician should have some in their toolkit, whether for themselves or simply their own Clients.

Reliably 10x-ing magical work is no small feat!

Until now ; )

Gratitude to: Austin Coppock, Sun to my Stars and electional mage-strologer par excellence; the S+ team; Tony Mack, magical goldsmith of the grade-A variety; and Elizabeth Barrial, witch-sis and indie perfume QUEEN. Collaborating with you is — as always — an honor and a pleasure. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

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