The Full Budding Moon is an excellent opportunity to encourage the growth that has already begun in our lives. If you've started plans, follow up on them. If you've taken the first step toward something, it may now be time to take the second. New growth is a wonderful, helpful sign, but if it is not nurtured, those tender young shoots can easily wither.

The times of the Waxing and Full Moon are most commonly used for attacting, rather than banishing, energies. This ritual is designed for giving thanks for the growth we have achieved so far and to rededicate our attention to nurturing that growth.

I designed this ritual for the April, 2001, Full Budding Moon Esbat.

Purpose: To give thanks for our growth and continue to nurture it. Tools

An offering that represents our growth A tool that can be used to assist, or a symbol that can represent, our growth The Working Oh Full Budding Moon, Mother Moon, you are the aspect of the Triple Goddess that represents fertility and nurturance.

You have helped me to grow so much! In the last year I have...(list ways in which you have grown). I thank you, God, and Spirit for providing me with guidance and illumination as I walked this path.

Put offering on offering plate.

Please accept this offering I place here in your honor. May it strengthen my bonds with you.

Hold tool or symbol of growth.

As far as I have come, I still have a long way to go.

Holy Mother, please bless this (name tool or symbol), that it may aid me in my growth and remind me that I am never alone.

And when I come back to you next year at this time, may it remind me how far I have come since then, as well.

With harm to none, so mote it be.

Sending the Energy Hold tool or symbol over or in front of Goddess candle or statue.

The light from this candle illuminates this (name object), even as you illuminate my heart and mind and spirit, and even as the Sun warms the soil and the growing plants.

Allow symbol or tool to get a little warm from the flame, if possible, or sense the light warming the object.

As this (object) is warmed, so is my enthusiasm for continuing on the path of growth, even as the warmth of the Sun encourages the continued growth of the plants and trees.

Once the object is warm, cup it in your hands around it and feel the warmth sinking into them. (Don't burn yourself!)

The gift of growth is alive within me. I cannot fail.

With harm to none, so mote it be.

After the Ritual Carry the totem, place it in your environment, or use the tool as you pursue your growth in the next year.

Put a reminder on your calendar for next year to take out the tool or totem you dedicated in this ritual to see how much you have grown since you first performed this ritual. At that time you might consider offering the totem or tool as an offering, and dedicating a new one for the following year.