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Welcome to Aries season! The Aries moon cycle is for taking inspired action, asserting core desires, & purging the unconscious. The volcano Goddess Pele symbolizes the magical babe who dares to single herself out, while commanding others to take an aggressive stance on their own shadow-drama. If you’re ready to really clarify who you are & claim your power, Pele is your Goddess & this is the time to do it!

Let me tell you how Pele can add volcanic ignition to your magical intentions for the Aries new moon & what you can do to stoke the star-fire all month long!

THE GODDESS PELE: BAPTISM BY FIRE

Pele mesmerizes. Terrifyingly beautiful. Pathologically confident. She comes on strong, confessing all her secrets within minutes of meeting you. Tell me all about your darkness, she urges. Her coppery irises burn holes through your facade; you actually feel her probing the shadow lurking beneath.

Pele is sublime & furious, exploding open the core of everyone who gets close to her. Being around Pele is like huffing a drug that gets you high, but makes you vomit. People feel awe mingled with resentment—without hesitation, she attacks their illusions. She’s not intimidated by hard facts & will knock you down a peg if you try glossing them over. She’s confrontational & exultant.

Pele blows up conspiracies of silence. She’s the girl who bolts up onto her feet during Christmas dinner to ask why the family patriarch is seated the head of the table “since, after all, he’s molested every aunt, cousin, & niece in the family?”

Pele is indivisible. She believes in righteous fury. Her war-cry: “You will NOT tell me to shut up!” Secrecy & denial weaken Pele, but good luck sneaking anything past her. She’s locked & loaded, ready to counter-strike any move made to silence, shame, or threaten her. When on the war-path, she’s all consuming. Devouring. And whatever survives her rampage is totally changed: burned down to its core diamond essence.

Paradoxically, Pele is sexy. Smoldering hot. She tempts your inner-pyro: play with me! what if we accidentally burnt down the house? ...would we run away together? Pele's got you dancing barefoot over hot coals or running naked towards her '75 Mustang with nothing but an empty bottle of Jack Daniels in your hand & zero clue of where you'd left your clothes. She's forever the object of girl crushes & fantasy of even the most loyal of her guy friends.

But that's why intimacy with Pele happens fast & hot, but burns out quick.

Pele looks like a Bohemian Diesel model. He style is self-invented; something like sporty-boho biker chic. She pairs sports bras with maxi skirts & motorcycle boots. Tank tops with leather jeggings & strappy, studded stilettos. She smells like a mixture of smoke & burnt sugar. She grinds her teeth. Her hair is long, black, & glossy, like volcanic glass. She’s never seen without her signature black leather jacket. She wakes up at 4AM to go running, even after hitting night clubs & dive bars with her pack until 2 o’clock in the morning. She rock climbs every other weekend & her body looks like it could wreck you if you collided into it.

Pele is a girl unafraid to root out her emotional pain; to lance a blister; suck out the poison; pack the wound herself. If it stood between her & freedom, she’d amputate a limb. Because she’s on fabulous terms with her own shadow, she doesn’t project: Pele is the rare bird who sees exactly who she’s looking at.

That’s what makes her mesmerizing. And terrifying.

On the astrological wheel, Pele is opposite of Nuit, who showers cosmic energy down on the earth. Pele blasts crystal core terrestrial energy into the cosmos & wants to move dense matter into freer, lighter air. Together the Goddesses symbolize the cosmic law: As Above, So Below. (Learn more about Nuit here.)

In the Tarot, Pele corresponds with The Emperor. This is the card of authority, stability, & inner-strength. Any harm to the emperor harms the community. The collective depends upon the individual.

So, Pele doesn’t mind staying vigilant about her own shit, if it brings the group to confront its collective shadow. She shows the community how to take inspired action. She encourages them to believe that they are still innocent—no matter the trauma & drama they’ve suffered, they’re still capable of busting original moves.

And the world depends on it.

PELE: PATRON GODDESS OF LUSTY BADASS-NESS

Pele is the Hawaiian volcano Goddess. She’s referred to as Madame Pele & has siblings deifying the wind, rain, sea, & clouds. She was chased out of her childhood home by a sister who worried Pele’s ambition would destroy the family. Pele also has a legendary rivalry with snow Goddesses.

As the volcano Goddess & Goddess of fire, Pele symbolizes reformation & transformation. Remember, volcanoes create new land; Pele creates from nothing. The babe digs deep & gives everything.

So, Pele is controversial. You’re supposed to have mixed feelings about her. Because she is challenging & no-holds-barred, she’s perfect for cosmic babes with strong personalities who crave changing experiences—to be reborn again & again; baptized by fire & starlight.

That said, you have to earn Pele as a Patron Goddess. Pele wants you to walk through the door you can’t walk back through.

It’s called The Gate of Power.

Pele’s Holy Fire illuminates the unconscious, causing the Shadow to erupt into everyday awareness, where it can be dealt with. Pele tasks you to confront your shadow sister—not to pussy-foot towards her, mincing words & inoffensively expressing your feelings, but to charge a true-life battle royale against the stickiest emotional gristle in your psychic universe.

Your darkness is fuel for absolute self-transformation. As long as your darkness causes you to wince, you are magically hobbled: everything you do in this life will be tinted with your own shadow—a shadow you are deliberately blind to noticing. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So, if you want Pele’s energy, you have to get compatible. Pele wants to be reborn—to purge the shadows in her heart & resolve karma. She is the fire Goddess: fire purifies, clarifies an object to its dense core essence. Fire destroys so that the cycle can reset itself. Try to keep up.

And to get started, I have some tips about working with Pele for the Aries new moon!

ARIES NEW MOON MAGIC

Pele moon magic is for assertive self-making, so plan a dramatic ritual experience for smashing the status quo & relaying the foundation of your life. Burn cinnamon oil in your diffuser. Burn every candle you own. Sprinkle carnelian, black tourmaline, & obsidian around your altar. Wear a lacy bralette under a flowy maxi dress or a sports bra with a sarong—form fitting clothes that allow a lot of movement.

Your magical intention for the Aries new moon should focus on some inner discord you can no longer ignore. This is a good time for shadow-work & asking the Q: How do I want to be seen?

Request Pele to lend you strength for radical self-honesty. Offer her a chunk of obsidian that you will later bury in the ground. Pele wants offerings tied to action—plan to go an extra step to burn, bury, or use your offering constructively towards realizing your magical intention.

This moon cycle is ideal for breaking an addiction—to sugar, to online poker, to people pleasing. Burn the root of the addiction in your cauldron, but craft an intent that specifies positive, self-affirmative change.

For example: if you want to quit sugar, write the pains sugar causes you on separate squares of paper. (I feel slow & tired; fogginess & no inspo; gross plasticky-feeling skin.) Touch each square to a flame, then burn in a miniature cauldron. (Or a clean metal waste-bin.) While every square burns, say aloud your magical intention: I am finding clarity. I am going to shine diamond-bright. In 29 days, I will be freer & truer to who I want to be. Repeat for as many squares you have.

Write your magical intention onto its own square of paper. Submerge in a dish of water. Or maybe Fireball whiskey.

(I’m gonna use Fireball whiskey.)

Pele is the Goddess of psychic purge. During the Aries moon cycle, take to burning, shredding, & creatively destroying mementos from painful, bygone relationships—don’t give them a tangible place in your life any longer. Handwrite long letters to cruel relatives & bad friends about the wounds they caused. Sign off with a promise that you are going to start healing the wounds & how that will affect your relationship. No need to mail the letters off—ceremonially burn them & pour the ashes into salted water on your altar. Set the mixture where it can catch some moonshine for a couple of nights, then bury it in a special place. (Maybe under the obsidian you’ve offered Pele.)

Deep clean your home from top to bottom. Spritz sage oil in the corners of the ceiling & scrub your baseboards with cleaning vinegar. Declutter aggressively—pile random objects (like gas station souvenirs from 6th grade road trips & mismatched couch pillows) on the front stoop & call the Salvation Army to come pick it up. Don’t give yourself even a day to reconsider.

Get physical. Sweat. Have more sex or hit extra spin classes. Let your body squeegee out built up emotional toxins. I’ve written before about energy medicine & shadow work, & this is the ideal lunar cycle for amping up your energy practice. Click the link to learn more about how toxic emotions become entrained in our bodies—& the exact practices I’ve used to dislodge them.

Pele is the guardian of personal power. After you’ve gone through the brutal ordeal of confronting your shadow, Pele sticks with you. You’re on a team now, co-empowering the Goddess-shy babes you’ll run into throughout your life.

I wish you power, adventures, & crazy-sexy-Goddess-love for Aries season!

May you feel the heat without catching any of the burn!

Merry magic-making,