Thoughts

Gather the Good. Lay Down the Heavy.

Jenny Heston · 3:03 pm · Leave a Comment

The Hunter’s Full Moon in Taurus

Gorgeous Soul, have you noticed how autumn holds abundance and endings in the same outstretched hand?

There are apples to gather, soup pots bubbling and leaves showing off their glorious colours. Meanwhile, the garden is beginning to fold into itself. Stems soften, petals fall, and what flourished a few weeks ago is returning to the soil.

I find something deeply reassuring in that. Nature gives so generously, then allows herself to change pace. Looking around my garden, I’m reminded how much effort we put into keeping ourselves endlessly productive, even when every leaf beneath our feet is suggesting another way.

As the Hunter’s Full Moon approaches on October 25, we’re invited to recognise the harvest of our own lives and consider what will sustain us through the darker months.

October’s invitation to gather, release and unfurl continues.

Gathering the goodness

Some of the year’s gifts are easy to recognise. Food on the table. A warm home. The company of someone who makes us laugh until we snort.

Others reveal themselves more quietly. The courage to speak honestly. A friendship that deepened. The discovery that we could ask for help and someone would show up.

Our harvest includes the wisdom we’ve gathered through living—the boundaries we’ve learned to honour, the support we’ve allowed ourselves to receive, and the small pleasures that have kept us company when things were rather frigging hard.

We can appreciate that growth while acknowledging what it cost us. Gratitude has room for complicated feelings.

The Hunter’s Moon offers a seasonal image of gathering and preparation. As the nights lengthen, we can draw closer to the people, practices and everyday comforts that nourish us.

The earthy wisdom of enough

In astrology, Taurus is associated with the earth, the senses, steadiness and what we value. Its symbolism draws our attention towards the tangible things that help us feel supported.

The warmth of a mug in your hands. Clean sheets. Something nourishing simmering on the stove. A walk that brings you back into conversation with your body.

These moments can slip past us when we’re chasing the next task or wondering what else we should be doing.

And oh my giddy aunt, that word should can eat an entire afternoon.

There is something quietly powerful about recognising when we have done enough for the day. Putting the work down. Eating while the food is still warm. Allowing ourselves to enjoy the evening we are actually living.

For some of us, material security is a real and pressing concern. We can acknowledge what is missing while recognising the nourishment and support that are available. Both deserve our attention.

When the garden begins to wither

Alongside the harvest comes the withering. Leaves curl at their edges. The garden grows untidy. What falls feeds the soil and shelters small lives through winter.

There is so much happening beneath what looks like an ending.

Yet we can be extraordinarily hard on ourselves when something in our own lives reaches completion. We keep trying to revive an exhausted role, meet an expectation that no longer fits, or hold together an arrangement that leaves us depleted.

Autumn gives us another way to understand these changes. There are seasons for growth and seasons for drawing our energy closer. Endings can carry grief, relief and uncertainty together.

Our October card, Unfurl the Wings of Forgiveness, offers accountability and compassion as companions here. Accountability helps us recognise what needs changing and take the steps that belong to us. Compassion allows us to acknowledge how we got here without making ourselves suffer for it indefinitely.

We can make a repair, choose differently and let that choice take root over time.

Your body belongs in the balance

As the season turns inward, the body’s quieter requests deserve attention.

Tiredness. Hunger. A longing for company or a little less noise. The relief that arrives when a commitment is lifted.

We can become so skilled at accommodating others that we stop noticing how much room we’ve given away. Rest gets pushed to the end of an ever-growing list, somewhere after everyone else is comfortable and the entire house is sorted.

You belong in the balance, Gorgeous Soul.

Your time, comfort and peace deserve consideration. A boundary can make room for a proper meal, a slower morning, a nourishing conversation or an evening with nothing to prove.

These ordinary acts of care help us meet the coming season with something left in the tank.

The longer story

With Samhain drawing closer, remembrance becomes part of the landscape.

The Moon above us has shone over so many lives: people gathering food, tending fires, loving one another, enduring uncertainty and finding their way through changing seasons.

Their stories reach us through recipes, songs, familiar gestures and ways of seeing the world. Some bring warmth. Others carry pain or expectations we are learning to question.

We can approach that inheritance with discernment. There is room to honour what nourishes us, grieve what was missing and choose what we wish to carry forward.

Connection may also live through chosen family, the land beneath our feet and people whose kindness helped shape our lives. We belong to a wider web than we can always see.

As the evenings deepen, tending the hearth can become a small expression of that belonging. Making something nourishing. Calling someone we love. Creating a place where we can settle and feel welcome.

A little Hunter’s Moon magick

Preserving what matters takes care. Relationships need attention, memories need space, and the practices that sustain us need a place in our days.

I’ve created journal prompts for a deeper exploration of this Moon’s themes.

There is also a simple preservation ritual to honour what has nourished you and mark what you choose to tend through the darker months.

Make yourself a delicious cuppa and give yourself a little breathing room.

May your harvest include the wisdom you’ve earned and the joy you nearly overlooked. May your home offer warmth, and your boundaries give you room to rest.

Gather the good, Gorgeous Soul. Lay down a little of the heavy. There is another season waiting to meet you.

Hunter Moon Journal Prompts.

Jenny Heston · 2:22 pm · Leave a Comment

Imagine storing pieces of your life away for winter like jars on an old pantry shelf. Which memories, relationships, lessons, or parts of yourself would you preserve? Why?

Think about the person you were last October. What were they worried about? What did they not yet know? What would you tell them now?

Not everything we inherit deserves to be preserved. What belief, fear, expectation, or family pattern would you like to leave behind rather than carry into another generation?

Imagine sitting at a table with someone from your ancestry whom you’ve never met. You may ask them one question, but they may ask you one in return. What would you ask them? What do you imagine they’d want to know about you?

Hunter Moon Ritual.

Jenny Heston · 2:02 pm · Leave a Comment

This Hunter’s Moon candle magic ritual combines the spiritual intentions of preservation, gratitude, and a connection with the afterlife. It allows you to honor and preserve what you cherish, appreciate, and enrich your spiritual journey with the moon.

Gather Your Supplies

A small fireproof bowl, cauldron, or whatever you have
A white candle (or any candle color of your choice)
Matches or a lighter
A piece of paper and something to write with
A quiet, sacred space (try outdoors beneath the moonlight if possible)

Begin Your Ritual

Begin your ritual by cleansing the area in the method of your choice. Then set up your fireproof bowl on a stable surface where it’s safe to burn a candle.

Light your candle and take a moment to center yourself. Focus on your breath and clear your mind.

Grab your paper, write down what you’d like to preserve in your life, and specify what you’re grateful for (relationships, personal growth, traditions, etc.). Be detailed and vulnerable in these intentions.

Call Upon the Hunter’s Moon

Look up at the moon (if possible) and acknowledge its spiritual energy. Think about its meaning and connection with the season of the hunt, preservation, and the thinning of the veil.

Hold the paper with your intentions and say the following words aloud

Beneath the Hunters Moon’s soft light, I honor preservation on this night.

To the afterlife, a bridge I seek, Thank you for the blessings that I speak.

Protect what’s dear, both near and far, Guided by ancestors, like a shining star

Light Your Intention

Use the lit candle to carefully burn the paper with your intentions. Place it in the bowl or cauldron to let it burn completely. As it burns, visualize your written intentions being released into the universe and forming a connection with the Otherworld.

Reflect and Close

Sit in silence for a few moments and think about the intentions you burned and what you’re grateful for. Feel the protective energy of your ancestors and passed loved ones.

Let the candle extinguish, and remember to take a moment to thank the moon and your ancestors. Collect the cooled ashes in a small container. Use them to represent the preservation of your intentions and ancestral connection.

Preserve the Ashes

Find a meaningful place to keep your ashes, maybe in a small container or jar. Place it on your altar or in a sacred space in your home.

Revisit the ashes as often as you like! Hold them in your hands and remember everything you’re grateful for. You can also use them to make black salt and use them in future rituals.

Libra New Moon: What Are You Making Room For?

Jenny Heston · 1:01 pm · 2 Comments

Gorgeous Soul,

October began with an invitation to gather, release and unfurl. Our card, Unfurl the Wings of Forgiveness, asked us to bring accountability and compassion together—to look honestly at what we have been carrying, while remembering that we deserve tenderness too.

Now, as the leaves loosen their grip and the evenings draw us towards softer light, the Libra New Moon offers a quiet place to sit with that invitation.

On October 10, we begin a new lunar cycle. Beneath the dark Moon, we can turn our attention inward and listen beneath the noise of everyone else’s needs, opinions and expectations. What actually matters to you? What do you desire? How are you feeling when you stop saying “I’m fine” long enough to hear the answer?

There may be something stirring there. A longing you have been brushing aside. An idea waiting for a little breathing room. A truth that keeps nudging you while you’re washing dishes or walking the dog, hoping you might finally pay attention.

Here in Canada, it’s also Thanksgiving weekend—a time of gathering, gratitude and, perhaps, a kitchen full of glorious smells. As we acknowledge the harvest around us, we can pause to recognise what has sustained us this year. The people who have shown up. The small joys that have kept us going. The courage we found when things were rather frigging hard.

And gratitude can hold more than one feeling. You can appreciate what is good while acknowledging what hurts, what feels uneven, or what needs to change. There is room at this table for your whole experience.

The symbolism of the 10/10 gateway gives us a lovely way to work with this threshold. We can imagine the zero as an open space of possibility, and the one as the first step into what we wish to create.

Together, they invite us to dream—and then give that dream somewhere to put its feet.

So yes, make the vision board. Write the intention. Whisper your delicious hopes into the autumn air. Then ask yourself what small action would help you honour them.

Magick can live in the conversation you finally have, the appointment you make, or the boundary you follow through on.

Libra brings our attention to balance, fairness, beauty and relationship.

And oh my giddy aunt, relationships can teach us a great deal about where we have wandered away from ourselves.

We might call something “keeping the peace” when we are swallowing our own needs. We might be so practised at understanding everyone else that we forget to ask whether we feel understood. Somewhere along the way, being agreeable can become a habit that costs us our voice.

Under this Moon, we have an opportunity to look at those patterns with the accountability and compassion October has already invited us to practise.

Where are you giving freely, and where are you giving because you’re afraid of what will happen if you stop? Which connections nourish you? Which leave you needing three days, a bath and a stern conversation with yourself to recover?

With Venus, Libra’s ruling planet, retrograde in Scorpio, the astrological invitation is to revisit how we love, what we value and the ways we seek closeness. We can use this as a reflective lens for noticing old agreements: that love must be earned through usefulness, that belonging requires silence, or that another person’s disappointment means we have done something wrong.

Those agreements deserve a closer look.

Seeing through someone else’s eyes can soften judgment and open a conversation. It can help us understand the hurt beneath a reaction or the history beneath a habit. Alongside that understanding, we can still recognise our own limits. Compassion leaves room for an honest “this doesn’t work for me.”

This is where our card’s two wings meet. Accountability helps us acknowledge our part and make a different choice. Compassion helps us do that without turning every mistake into a lifetime sentence.

Forgiveness may begin with admitting that you did the best you could with what you knew, and that you know something different now. It may mean loosening your grip on an old expectation, while keeping the boundary that protects your peace. You get to decide what renewed trust would require.

Saturn’s wider opposition to this New Moon adds a useful thread of responsibility to the symbolism. What can you follow through on? What needs a clearer agreement? What would support the life you keep saying you want?

There is tenderness in choosing an intention small enough to live. Perhaps you want to pause before answering a request. Ask for help before you are utterly depleted. Make room for pleasure. Speak honestly with someone you love. Let yourself receive the care you so readily offer.

To give that intention a little ceremony, try the “A Little Space for Something New” ritual. All you need is a bowl of water, a fallen leaf, paper and a pen.

As you sit with this New Moon, give yourself a moment to feel what balance would mean in your actual life—in your body, your relationships, your time and your home.

Let your intention grow from that knowing.

The trees are releasing what they can no longer carry, and the dark season is inviting us to listen. Something in you may already know what needs to change.

Give it a little space, Gorgeous Soul. Then take one small, deliberate step.

A Little Space for Something New.

Jenny Heston · 1:40 pm · Leave a Comment

A Libra New Moon ritual

Gorgeous Soul, gather a small bowl of water, a fallen leaf, a piece of paper and a pen. Settle somewhere you can have a few quiet minutes to yourself.

Feel the support beneath you and let your breath find its own comfortable rhythm. Ask yourself gently, “What have I been carrying that I’m ready to loosen my grip on?”

Perhaps it’s the need to keep everyone happy, an old expectation, or the habit of judging yourself for something you cannot change.

Hold your leaf and name what you are ready to release. You don’t have to force forgiveness or feel suddenly peaceful. Simply acknowledge what is there, then place the leaf beside the bowl and say:

“I honour what this has taught me. I give myself permission to carry it differently.”

Touch the water with your fingertips. Let this be a small moment of tenderness towards yourself—a reminder that accountability and compassion can sit together.

On your paper, finish this sentence:

“I am making room for…”

Then write one small action you can take this week to support that intention. Perhaps a pause before saying yes, a clear conversation, or asking for the help you need.

Read your words aloud, then close with:

“My needs belong in the balance. I can be loving and honest. I can begin with one small step.”

Keep your intention somewhere you’ll see it. Return the leaf to the earth and pour the water onto the soil.

Then go make yourself a delicious cuppa. You’ve planted something worth tending.