This period has long been associated with preparing for a conscious and desirable rebirth at Easter. The idea of fasting was not related to guilt and pain, but rather with a joyful offering to release whatever might hinder the return of the victorious Goddess, who displays her fertility after the snow melts. This process is beautifully reinforced by contemporary symbolism if we understand Christ as the divine spirit within, to be nourished and fortified by giving it a central consideration in our daily lives during lent.

As Maya Del Mar points out, this particular Pisces New Moon is characterized by the water element, representing a special opportunity to begin a new emotional and intuitive cycle. Our suggested practice for the current lunation includes the Piscean tools of dreamwork and prayer, and is designed as a point of departure for a Lenten fasting from those situations and habits that impede the consolidation of our emotional goals.

Feelings are the defining element of our energy frequency, and such an exercise is a powerful way to amplify our channels to Spirit, as well as contributing to the planetary force-field in a way that liberates it from dense emotions, such as fear, dependence, shame and condemnation.

Lenten New Moon pre-prayerations

White flowers synchronize with this lunation’s force, and are great for purifying your space, as they literally pick up and transmute lower vibrations. Use white and silver candles to accentuate purification and psychic protection. Choose a soft, sweet incense. As you light your incense and candles, call on Barachiel, the angel most closely associated with Pisces (according to expert Lucy Aspra). Ask for assistance in attaining to whatever type of emotional sobriety is most important for you at this time.

Emotional clearing for the Pisces New Moon cycle

1. We would all like to enjoy complete emotional integrity. However, focusing on a certain type of inner liberation will enable you to concentrate on real results. Clarify your intent by defining the area which may most weigh you down emotionally. This could be anything from forgiveness in general or of someone in particular, to overcoming the fears that keep you from taking effective action, whether on behalf of yourself or the collective good.

You may have your most pressing emotional goals very clear already. If not, there are ways to receive intuitive guidance for this. The first of these is simply to take a moment to concentrate entirely on your willingness to release obsolete inner patterns, remembering Barachiel and all the other angelic entities that are here to help. You will probably receive a clear response or sign very soon thereafter. The other method (which I’ve adapted from John Templeton) can be used separately or in addition to the first. It consists of spending several minutes before going to sleep, sitting on the edge of your bed and weighing your options in order to decipher the emotional area in most vital need of transformation. This mental search will trigger the unconscious to deliver the answer in dreams.
2. Defining your goal will automatically open you to help from the visible and invisible planes. But don’t rest on your angelic laurels—Lent is an exercise in our willingness to release whatever would hold down the light that’s about to surge forth at Easter. Just as many choose a food or substance to fast from, we are called now to identify and renounce a behavior, activity or habit that blocks the goal we established in the previous step. Use your creativity to identify what you can give up. As an example, in preparing this piece I did the first step in intuitive activation and what came up, strong and hard, was the need to modify my addictive patterns in relation to the opposite sex. What can I give up in my current circumstances? Expecting my husband’s love to be strong, committed or passionate enough to fulfill me, as a replacement for self-determination in relation to long-term goals. So part of my Lenten program is to take more independent initiatives each day towards those goals, rather than waiting for him to be the motor force or emotional savior. The following affirmation can help you in this process:

The Spirit in me knows exactly what emotional area to purify, and is inspiring me to the understanding and actions most needed at this time.

3. Nighttime Lent program:
a) From this New Moon portal until the Full Moon (on Holy Friday) program an extra half hour before retiring. Spend at least 20 minutes in meditation with eyes closed, and attention on your heart, sending your most loving thoughts from that point to all people, including yourself as well as those most difficult to love. Alexis Brooks considers this type of unconditional giving important not only for harmony, but as an activator of intuition, and writes, "what we consider to be an emotion on the physical level might well play out as something much more powerful as an energy of like attracting like: The heart attracting corresponding intuitive messages".

b) After you do your love meditation, sit on the edge of your bed for several minutes, considering the emotional fast of the day now past, and searching for prayerful and active options to continue your program for the next day. This will trigger significant dreams, which you should write down first thing the next morning.

c) As a last step before you go to sleep, consider the emotional advances you made that day, and then repeat the following affirmation several times:

MY WILL TO HEAL HAS BEEN STRENGTHENED BY MY THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS. MY STRENGTHENED WILL TO HEAL IS STRENGTHENING AND FREEING ALL CREATION, IN PREPARATION FOR THE RESURRECTED GOOD WHICH IS COMING TO US NOW.

The program outlined above may seem very time-intensive, its efficacy will far surpass the apparent effort. If you decide to use only part of it, try to do so persistently. Effective prayers and intent, like the Moon, are part of our daily life, with results in proportion to the completion of their cycles.