When the moon is full it’s the perfect time to release what no longer serves you and make room for your upgrades. Today I’m sharing my favorite full moon rituals to uplift your spirit and unlock your manifesting power. It’s time to make room for happy changes!
What Rituals Should Be Done on the Full Moon?
The full moon energy is all about releasing what no longer works for you, so you can make space for something new. Full moon rituals are a beautiful and sacred way to set these intentions!
While your full moon ritual should be as unique as you are, it should include these elements:
- Setting intentions
- Connecting with nature (earth, air, fire, water)
- Self-reflection
- Releasing emotions or behavioral patterns you no longer need
I’ll share several options for you to customize your ritual below, based on what you need in this cycle of your journey.
What Do You Release on a Full Moon?
On a full moon, you want to focus on releasing any feelings or behaviors that don’t support what you want to manifest in your life.
Negative emotions that are on the low end of the emotional guidance scale literally block your desires from manifesting.
This is because the law of attraction is always bringing you people and situations that are a vibrational match to your beliefs, thoughts and feelings. In other words…
You can’t focus on negative things and attract positive experiences!
So when you create your intentional full moon ritual, focus on creating a safe space for yourself to lovingly move away from thoughts, feelings, and situations that don’t serve your highest good.
When you do this, your vibration will rise, opening you up to receiving the abundance, joy and peace that you deserve.
Here are some examples of what you would set intentions to release:
- Fears that stop you from growing
- Self-doubt
- Guilt or shame
- Toxic relationships
- Negative self-talk
- Attachments to a job you’ve outgrown
- Limiting belief about your abilities
- Feelings of unworthiness (you are worthy, believe me!)
- Excuses that keep you small
- Self-sabotaging behavior
Remember, when you do a full moon ritual, you are showing up as an advocate for yourself and your life. So be bold with your intentions!
How To Do a Full Moon Ritual for Manifestation
Your full moon ritual can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. So don’t get intimidated, especially if you’re a beginner! A ritual is really just a set of actions you take, with a specific intention in mind.
In fact, the intentions in your heart are the most important ingredient for your full moon manifestation ritual.
So, feel free to be creative and tweak each step as you see fit. This is a time for you to connect to your emotions and intuition, so do whatever feels right to you.
Here are the basic steps to follow to manifest on a full moon.
1. Gather Your Ritual Supplies
The first thing you’ll want to do is prepare for your ritual, both physically and mentally. This is your special, sacred time! You should feel relaxed and focused from beginning to end. So it helps to prepare everything you need up front.
You have several different options when it comes to how you’ll cast your full moon intentions (step 3 below). So all the items on this list are optional, based on your personal preference.
Here are some supplies that will support your ritual beautifully:
- Candles (different candle colors support different intentions)
- Sage bundle
- Crystals
- Mala beads for meditation
- Soothing music
- Tarot or oracle cards
- Manifesting journal
- Any other spiritual tool that calls your name
Find your perfect manifestation journal! ✨
2. Ground Your Energy
Full moon energy is powerful! It really creates a strong emotional pull that brings lots of feelings and intuitive insights to the surface.
These are all good things! But you’ll feel a lot more comfortable if you take a moment to ground yourself at the start of your ritual. If you have a favorite way to ground yourself, do it now. Or, try this method:
Stand with arms at your sides, facing the direction of the moon, if you can. Say aloud, or in your mind:
I now ground myself deeply and firmly into Mother Earth.
Stand still for anywhere from a few seconds to a full minute, as you imagine the soles of your feet growing roots into the ground or floor. Once you feel stable, connected, and grounded, you can break the pose.
As an alternative, you can do a grounding meditation. This is a good one and takes about 10 minutes: Grounding Meditation | Marissa Ciccia, Insight Timer
You can ground yourself from a seated position too, instead of standing. Do whatever feels best to your body in the moment.
3. Set Full Moon Intentions
Now you’re ready to set your full moon ritual intention! You can set as many intentions as you want, but I prefer to focus on one per ritual.
You may choose to write your intention down; if so, now’s the time.
If you need help getting started, here are some ideas:
- Soothe fears that hold you back
- Let go of a relationship
- Complete a project you’ve been putting off
- Connect more deeply with your intuition
- Make room for more abundance
- Healthy new habits or wellness goals
- Close a chapter and invite upgrades into your life
- Heart healing and self-love
- Improved sense of worthiness and confidence
- Release toxins from your body
- Self-care and relaxation
You can also use a full moon affirmation that represents your intention: Best Full Moon Affirmations by Month
3. Choose Your Ritual
Now comes the fun part! With your intention in mind, perform one of the activities below. Feel free to take bits and pieces from each of them to customize your ritual. It’s impossible to get this wrong, so just follow your intuition and don’t overthink.
Smudging
The full moon is all about clearing away the old and making room for the new. Since smudging clears away negative energy, it’s the absolute perfect beautiful way to celebrate the new moon.
While you contemplate your intention or full moon affirmation, light your sage bundle and smudge your body, the room you’re in, and even your entire home, if you feel guided.
If you’re not familiar with how to smudge your space, you can read all about it here: How to Smudge with Sage
Smudging with sage is such a powerful way to cleanse your energy field. Think about clearing, healing, and protecting your aura as you waft the smoke around your body. Inhale peace and exhale stress.
Fire Bowl
If you’re ready to let go of something that no longer serves your greatest good, a fire ritual is a great way to go.
Grab a piece of paper and write down anything that’s holding you back, or making you feel small. Be specific and don’t worry about anyone else reading it because you’re going to torch it when you’re done!
Allow all that negativity to flow out of you and onto the page. Don’t stop until you feel like it’s all out. Then, light the paper on fire and watch it burn. You can do this in a fire pit or grab a ritual bowl that is meant to hold burning things (practice your fire safety!).
Once the paper is turned to ash, that’s your cue to move forward without looking back. So give yourself permission to embrace the relief that you feel.
Burning rituals are powerful and usher in a deep sense of freedom. Watch those limiting beliefs go up in smoke! 🧡
Cord Cutting
If you’re setting intentions to move away from a toxic relationship, then you’ll want to focus on cord cutting.
There are several methods for doing this. But the main intention behind a cord cutting ceremony is to cut all negative energetic ties to another person. If this is your full moon intention, read this: Cutting Cords: 6 Ways to Recall Your Energy
Sacred bathing is one way to cut cords of attachment. Or you can simply set intentions for your full moon bath to feel relaxed and peaceful. This is YOUR time! You deserve self-care.
Card Reading
Oracle and tarot cards are a great way to connect to your inner wisdom. Once you’re settled in your space, shuffle your favorite deck and ask a question.
I like to keep things general by asking ‘what do I need to know at this time?’ but you can ask whatever question you want.
When you pull the card, interpret its message by considering:
- What’s the first thing that comes to mind?
- How does this card make me feel?
- What does the imagery remind me of?
- Is the card numbered? If so, what is its angel number meaning?
- Does the card represent your fears? If so, this is a nudge from your spirit team to set intentions to release it.
Consider writing down your interpretations so you can look back on them later.
Get cozy, surround yourself with your favorite spiritual self-care tools and pull an oracle card. What comes to mind? The cards in this image are from one of my favorite decks. You can see all the decks I recommend here.
Full Moon Journaling
If there is one thing I recommend you do every full moon, it’s journal. Full moon journaling is a powerful way to connect with your emotions, dreams, and plans for the future.
You can use your full moon intention as a journaling prompt. Or pull a prompt from this list. I have journal prompts that are specific to each month of the year: The Best Full Moon Journal Prompts To Align With Lunar Energies
Light your candles, turn on some soothing music, sip some moon water and do some honest, unfiltered writing in your journal. You’ll be amazed by how much you can learn about yourself.
Your full moon manifestation journal is home to your thoughts, feelings, goals, and desires. This is a sacred writing space just for you. If you need help getting started, check out my full moon journaling prompts.
4. Close Your Ritual
Once you complete your chosen activity, take a moment to consciously close out the ritual in your mind. You can say “and so it is” if that resonates with you. Or, something like “my full moon ritual is complete, and I will now move forward with a light heart.”
Then place your supplies back where they belong, for safe keeping.
Full Moon Ritual FAQs
Here I’m answering some of the most commonly asked questions about full moon rituals. If you have a question I haven’t addressed, feel free to leave it in the replies below – I read them all!
When to Perform Your Full Moon Ritual
The best time to perform your full moon ritual is within 2 days before or after the full moon.
As far as time of day, I prefer to do my moon rituals after sunset, but that’s not a requirement. Mama moon is out and about all day long, even if you can’t see her!
What To Do on a Full Moon
Full moon rituals can offer great spiritual insight, and they can be an opportunity to intentionally close a cycle and celebrate fulfilling the energy of the moon phase.
Activities during full moons often include self-reflection activities, meditation, working with crystals, setting intentions for manifestation, connecting with nature, or even taking a full moon bath.
The full moon is a great time for any activity that allows you to reflect on the past month, honor yourself, and connect with your inner wisdom.
What Should You Not Do on a Full Moon?
On a full moon, I recommend you avoid starting anything new, as the full moon brings endings and completions. It’s the perfect time for completing old projects but not so perfect for beginning new ones.
Also, it’s best to stay away from over-indulging, especially if you’re a moon sensitive soul. You may already be feeling a bit out of sorts at this time of the month, so try to keep drinking, over-eating, and even over-filling your calendar to a minimum.
Your energy is precious, and this is a time for you to connect with your feelings and clean out your emotional closet. Listen to your body and honor its needs at this time.
New Moon Vs Full Moon Rituals
A new moon ritual helps to manifest new beginnings, while full a moon ritual allows you to release what no longer serves you.
New moon rituals are performed at the beginning of the moon’s cycle when it is not visible in the night sky and involve creating personal intentions for each month.
On the other hand, full moon ceremonies focus on releasing intentions to let go of situations, people and habits that are no longer necessary in our lives.
If you’re curious about new moon rituals, read this next: New Moon Rituals for Manifestation
Conclusion
Did you find the perfect full moon ritual for you? I certainly hope this post helped. If it did, please share it and leave me a reply below with your thoughts.
Happy manifesting!
XO, Andrea
Andrea Scalisi
Andrea has been practicing Astrology, Numerology, and Tarot for many years. She is a certified Aromatherapist and Reiki Master in Central NY, and also holds a Masters Degree from Syracuse University. Andrea loves helping her readers bring more spiritual self-care into their lives.
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