Full Moon Haircutting Ritual of Release

Abraham Pether, evening scene with full moon and persons, 1801

A version of this ritual appears in Year of the Dark Goddess: A Journey of Ritual, Renewal and Rebirth.

You may wish to cut your own hair in this ritual, or to travel during the ritual to have your hair cut by someone else. Both may be adapted, and the ceremony does not require a huge amount of hair cut to be effective, though if you have a lot to shed dramatic haircuts can be powerfully symbolic.

Preparing your tools for the ritual

you will need:

a ceramic or glass bowl

a knife or clippers for cutting herbs

water (I like to use spring water, rain water, or make moon water the night before by leaving a bowl in moonlight)

offerings for plant and water spirits

a full jar of honey

flowers

ancestral foods

an optional candle or sacred fire

digging tools

an earthen space you can revisit

stones

a plan to cut some of your hair—may even be just a few strands

You may wish to cleanse your tools in advance of the ritual by placing them on the earth, washing them in salt water or smoking them with herbs or incense.

Ritual Timing

This ritual is intended to be begun in the evening when the moon is at its fullest, and will end on the first waning day after.

Ritual Location

You will ideally want to be outdoors in a natural space where you can dig in the earth and where you won't be disturbed. Adaptation is the key to mystery, however, and we can ritualize wherever we are using what you have on hand. You can also perform the ritual indoors and either bury or compost your offerings later on.

Ritual Intention

The intention for this ritual is to physically release something that is no longer serving us.

On the evening before the ritual:

For our ancestors the day began at dusk, so at dusk draw a ritual circle around yourself, a shimmering web.

Imagine yourself in this web of life, and clear the web from top to bottom, visualizing star or moonlight washing the web around you and any distracting energies being poured into the earth.

Call the directions if that is your practice, or orient yourself to the compass directions. You may also wish to invite in your helping, compassionate ancestors and any guardians and guides you might be working with.

You may choose to light candles or a fire to signify the beginning of your ritual.

Make offerings and ask permission, then gather garden plants that represent what you will be releasing in this ritual. As you gather, sing or speak to them:

You are Mugwort and you will wear the mantle of shame I am releasing in this ritual.

You are Yarrow and you will wear the mantle of ancestral grief I am releasing in this ritual.

(or anything else that feels authentic to you)

Prepare a glass or ceramic bowl by scouring it with salt and rinsing it clean with water, earth or leaves.

Then, bring it to a source of water by drawing the water from a running source. If it is a stream or river, gather the water by scooping it up toward the source. If it is from a faucet, bless the stream/river/aquifer/watershed where the water comes from. Ask permission and make an offering.

As you gather the water, sing or speak to it:

You are Water and carry the blessings of the bodies of my ancestors. You will open the well of clearing necessary in this ritual of release.

Combine the flowers/herbs and water beneath the light of the risen moon.

Sing or speak any intentions you have into the water.

Sing or speak to the light of the moon, the sun, the earth, the fire as you blend the flowers/herbs/water.

You may choose to offer words of blessing, then commence to sleep and dream with them through the night as your ritual water infuses with the plants, moon and stars.

OR you can close the circle and reopen it in the morning, whatever feels right to you.

In the morning, at sunrise, call yourself outdoors, pressing your bare feet to the earth and return to your life web, clearing, your compass points, orienting.

Request the blessing of your ancestors, of any other entities you wish, then begin to ritually wash your hair with the water infusion in whatever way feels best.

Then, when you are through, wash your hands, face and feet, then pour any remaining water and plants into the earth.

Cleansed and cleared, dig a hole.

Set an intention that this is a ritual grave for all you are clearing.

Again, you may keep yourself in ritual or close the circle.

When you go to your haircut, orient and center yourself and call in your guides again. Allow each snip and shear to be a true cutting away.

Gather the cuttings and bring them home to bury.

my hair cuttings from this ritual in 2021

Bury the cuttings with a full, poured out jar of honey, flowers and some form of ancestral food—these are the grave goods.

Speak journey prayers, or keen and cry if you feel it, sing loud, drum. This is a burial, let your grief be good. Cover the hair and offerings with earth and mark the mound with stones.

You may return here to receive wisdom as your hair dissolves into earth, as your DNA transforms. Human hair can take up to two years to decay. So while you are free from whatever you have released, the integration will take a while.

Make blessings, give thanks to all who have supported your journey, close your circle, open your heart.

This full moon haircutting ritual of release may be used whenever you have navigated a big rite of passage, or even when you have something smaller you need to shed.

By this and every effort may the balance be regained. ᚨᛚᚢ

Before the haircutting ritual.

after the haircutting ritual

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