(Full Moon Ritual April 10, 2025)

“Let us walk on… We are but a little way in the forest, yet.”

Pink Full Moon Ritual
10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific
Saturday, April 12, 2025

• Live debut: https://twitch.tv/queersatanic
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@CapitalAreaSatanists
• Timezone converter: https://everytimezone.com/s/4f4890e9

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Full ritual text

Piper: Greetings and welcome to the latest in our cycle of lunar rituals. 

Suggested materials are:

• candle
• matches or lighter
• incense
• a deck of cards (of any kind)
• your paper sigil (if you were with us under the dark moon)
• a small scrap of disposable paper
• if possible, a view of the moon

Though if you lack any of these, you can simply follow along on the video stream. The candle will be lit in the ritual, the incense may be lit now. 

We will get started in just a moment.

*If you are not a member but are interested in getting involved, you can find a link to our Discord at capitalareasatanists.org  

Find a seated position where you can rest comfortably for an extended period.

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Casting the circle / calling the quarters / invocations

Felo:

Take a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

Place your hands firmly and tenderly over your heart.

Breathe as deeply as feels comfortable

Allow your pulse to steady itself at this moment.

Feel the support of the earth beneath you.

Feel yourself firmly grounded in place. 

Strong and immovable by any will but your own.

(pause for a breath or two)

Piper: You may now light your candle. With the lighting of this flame, honor the gift of knowledge bestowed upon you and which you carry forward with you.

(Participants each light their candle)

With the ringing of the bell, feel the space around you, already a tenuous material reality, detach itself from the mundane world. Creating room for your own inner world to briefly manifest outward. 

As within so without.

(ring bell 3 times)

We call upon Azazel, the scapegoat of the wilderness in the south,

to illuminate and strengthen this circle. 

We call upon Lucifer, the light bringer, the air above, 

to illuminate and strengthen this circle. 

We call upon Lilith, the mother of demons in the north, 

to illuminate and strengthen this circle. 

We call upon Hekate, goddess of the witches, queen of the underworld below, 

to illuminate and strengthen this circle. 

We call upon all kindred souls, of equal importance to our own, but so often forgotten in Satanic rites gone by.

Finally, call upon yourself, all of you, each of those equally worthy parts of you, that which is at the center, to illuminate and strengthen this circle.

(pause for a breath or two)

Divination 

Piper::  If you have cards with you, cut the deck now.

1. Without looking at it, draw the top card and place it face down horizontally. 

May this hidden card represent the unknown and the unknowable.

2. Draw a card and place it face up to the left of the first. 

May this card suggest where you stand now. 

3. Draw a card and place it in the center overtop of the first. 

May this card clarify that which stands in your way. 

4. Finally, draw a card and place it to the right. 

May this card point the way to overcoming the obstacles in your path. 

Silently take note of meanings or connections which may intuitively occur to you.

(pause for a breath or two)

Piper:
At the lunar new year, we asked you to focus on yourself, difficult though it may have been at the start of these particularly turbulent times. 

Then, in the dark moons that followed, we invited you to examine how your circle of empathy can stretch outward from the center, the self, to those closest to you. 

And then further still, to those less close but still connected to you. Your neighbors. Your acquaintances. 

Having reached the full moon, we invite you to look back, briefly, on the intervening time. 

Take a moment to mentally embrace that which served you, that it may be reinforced. 

(pause for reflection)

Felo: If you have your sigil paper with you, feel free to jot down a small note next to your central symbol, as a reminder of its benefits. If you don’t want plain English messing up the vibe of your sheet, and you don’t have the Theban, or witches’, alphabet memorized (and again, none of us do) you can always write stuff backwards.

(pause for writing)

And now, take another moment to mentally dismiss that which did not serve you, allowing it to fall away without regret. Perhaps write it, or some other recent stumbling block, on your piece of scrap paper.

(pause for reflection)

If you can do so safely, burn the scrap of paper. Or douse it in water. Or simply tear it in two. Releasing it from mind and form. Its purpose fulfilled.

(pause for a breath or two)

Piper: We start our exploration of tonight’s moon, the pink moon, with Young Goodman Brown following a pink ribbon.

Felo:

“YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap…”.

Piper: In a 1835 story by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, we meet the titular, albeit debatably heroic, hero of our story for tonight, Young Goodman Brown. For those wondering if the name “Goodman” is symbolic, it most definitely is, but it’s also just the Puritan era version of “Mister”. (Insert “I saw Goody Proctor with the Devil” meme here). For some unknown but apparently urgent reason, Goodman Brown must leave his ridiculously obvious symbol of a wife, Faith, she of the pink-ribbons, to go into the woods at night. If you know anything about stories, folklore, and superstition, this is definitely a bad idea. Driven by hubris, though, Goodman Brown still sets off.  Hawthorne stacks the deck of symbolism by having Young Goodman Brown go into the most stereotypical creepy forest, one so spooky even the most foolish horror movie character would avoid it. Hawthorne sets the scene, saying:

Felo:

“He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind.

It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that, with lonely footsteps, he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude. 

”There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree,’ said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him, as he added, “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!””

Piper: On his journey, Young Goodman Brown first meets an old man.  A knowing reader would see that this stranger is probably more than just a little old dude. Still, Hawthorne describes him as mostly unremarkable except for a walking stick, which “bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.” If you are having a flashing neon sign go off in your head, blinking the word “symbolism” “symbolism” “symbolism”, 1. you might be an English major like me, but 2. you would be right. Goodman Brown’s companion, spoiler alert, turns out to be the big guy himself, Satan. Goodman Brown doesn’t realize this at first, but does continue into the forest with this unnamed companion. As they travel, the Devil, “he of the serpent” says:

Felo: 

“Let us walk on… We are but a little way in the forest, yet.”

Piper: As they go deeper, Goodman Brown and the capital S stranger meet all sorts of villagers out at night. They are all obviously (by Puritan superstition and the logic of the story) out and about for evil deeds, drawing on that traditional iconography of a secret coven of witches and warlocks dancing around a fire at night, i.e. my idea of a good time. These secret cultists include an upstanding Sunday school-teacher who delights in rendering the fat of a newborn baby into a spell, the “reverend pastor” of Goodman Brown’s church, and many more, all in a motley crowd of Satanic worshipers. From Goodman Brown’s perspectives, we see:

Felo: 

“Irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see, that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints. Scattered, also, among their palefaced enemies, were the Indian priests, or powows, who had often scared their native forest with more hideous incantations than any known to English witchcraft.”

Piper:  This perspective is obviously the extremely pious and judgmental view of our Calvinist Puritan protagonist. And don’t get me started about the extremely racist colonizer lens our main character displays. While it is true that the Puritans and many of the other colonizers drew a direct line from both Indigenous people and nature itself straight to their concept of evil. The equation in their minds is forest plus the people in them equals the Devil. Because of this worldview, Young Goodman Brown grows more and more distressed as the Black Mass unfolds. He also keeps seeing flashes of pink ribbon dancing in the air, and calls out to his wife Faith and the spiritual faith she stands for.

But to further spoil an almost 200 year old a story for you, this tale of the woodlands dark and devilish climaxes with our Good Man Brown losing his lower-case faith–because he sees his upper-case Faith, his beautiful wife, being led to the front of the Satanic Mass, meant to be initiated into the coven. He recognizes her by those damn pink ribbons, of course. His wife Faith is led by Martha Carrier, “who had received the devil’s promise to be queen of hell.” If you don’t already know that name Martha Carrier, put it in your pocket for a bit while we first hear Goodman Brown’s reaction to his pink-ribboned Faith being led to the Devil:

Felo:

“Faith! Faith!” cried the husband. “Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!” Whether Faith obeyed, he knew not. Hardly had he spoken, when he found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind, which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp, while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew.”

Piper: While our unnamed narrator plays it with a straight face at the ending, merely asking us (although I think with a wink) if Goodman Brown had only “fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?”, the reality or fantasy of what happened is not the point of the story. As Hawthorne says, the dream was an “evil omen for young Goodman Brown”, who becomes a bitter and hateful person for the rest of his life, always suspecting everyone of evil, including his once-beloved wife. 

Now, it is a bit funny, in a dark sort of way, that Hawthorne would entertain, at least as a narrator, the idea that all of these pious people would be witches consorting with the Devil in the woods.  For Hawthorne should actually be called Hathorne, because our author is the great-great grandson of Puritan John Hathorne. Judge John Hathorne has the despicable fame of being one of the judges who sentenced 19 to die in the Salem Witch Trials. Now, remember that name you put in your pocket? One of the 19 was the aforementioned Martha Carrier, who was no “queen of Hell” but instead pleaded her innocence all the way up to the hanging gallows. Hardened to such pleas, Judge John Hathorne was said to be zealously convinced of the guilt of the accused. We see in this in a true historical record of an exchange he had with Bridget Bishop, one of the 19 who eventually hung:

(Piper) Bishop  : I am no witch

(Felo) Hathorne : Why if you have not wrote in the book, yet tell me how far you have gone?

(Piper) I have no familiarity with the devil.

(Felo) How is it then, that your appearance doth hurt these?

(Piper) I am innocent.

(Felo) Why you seem to act witchcraft before us by the motion of your body which seems to have influence upon the afflicted.

(Piper) I know nothing of it. I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.

(Felo) How do you know then that you are not a witch?

(Piper) I do not know what you say.

(Felo) How can you know, you are no witch, and yet not know what a witch is?

(Piper) I am clear…

Piper: Even as time went on, Judge Hathorne remained convinced in the guilt of the accused. However, history has shown us that all of the condemned were falsely accused in a combination of a lethal attempt at a land grab by their rivals and a hysteria that caught too many outsiders and oddballs in its wake. But unlike other judges who repented of their wicked complicity in what is basically murder,  Hathorne went to his grave unrepentant about his actions. 

After his “gloomy” death, Judge Hathorne’s descendants came to feel quite differently about the Salem Witch Trial. Our author, Nathanial Hawthorne, was so disturbed by his ancestor’s bloodthirsty zeal that he changed his name to cut his connection with Hathorne’s terrible legacy. And we can also take a small bit of vindication in the fact that Nathaniel Hawthorne is far better known than his villainous Puritan ancestor (even if it’s just because of English teachers like me forcing you to read The Scarlet Letter.)

Hawthorne’s severing of his ties to his literal colonizer and religious zealot ancestor is the overt lesson for this moon, but there is a deeper message for us diabolists to find. While the modern Puritan says, like Goodman Brown, “Betake you to the woods, and let me keep the path”, we Satanists must choose to take to the woods, both literal and metaphorical. We must turn from colonial, capitalistic ways of being and rebel. We must join the real inhabitants of the woods, and not be like the hypocritical secret visitors described in our story. We, the Satanists, those of the “serpent”, must stand on the side of the outcast, the oppressed, the Indigenous, the non-human beings we share this planet with. 

And we must remember that this moon is not just the Easter moon of the persecuting Puritans, but has much older, more important names. This moon is the Breaking Ice Moon of the Algonquin, who might have lived far enough south to be in the woods of Goodman Brown. It is also the Moon When the Streams Are Again Navigable to the Dakota, the Budding Moon of Plants and Shrubs to the First Nations Tlingit (Clink-It) nation, and the Moon of the Red Grass Appearing to the Oglala (Oh glaw-luh). These original names for this moon, rooted in the forest and the plants and the non-human animals, reminds us of the forces we must connect to on this full moon, and every day. These names reflect the cycles of nature that we are as much a part of as any forest or tree.

The quote unquote “Good” men Browns of the world will exhort with their mouths that “With Heaven above, and Faith below, [they] will yet stand firm against the devil!”, but their rigid zealotry only leads to destruction. If we look more closely, we will see that the dark woods, which zealots saw as demon-haunted, still stand when the morning light comes. The much feared wilderness is always holding its natural rhythms day in and day out in a beautiful, peaceful rhythm, no more scary than the beating of your heart. 

We, followers of the imagined Devil in the woods, must too ground ourselves in these rhythms, bending and swaying like the trees despite the howling winds of persecution and fascism that our country currently endures.  In the face of attacks from the far right, remember that we are rooted in the earth, powerful with belonging. The devil, if I may be symbolic like Hawthorne, is our will to fight and as such we have great power. This terrifies the church and the state and the oppressor. But we (as queer Satanic people) belong here, just like the trees and the natural cycles. The winds will subside, and we will still stand if we hold firm in community with each other and all beings. The noble rebels of Lucifer should stand proud in the light of the Pink moon, the Budding moon, the Red Grass moon, and remember that there is nothing to fear in the dark woods. What there is to fear, but more importantly face and fight, is in the cities and towns and villages like Salem, where Puritans, charlatans, hypocrites, and fascists dwell. But we can draw power from the moon and stand steady like the forest, and if we do, we will outlast them as they go to their dying hour of gloom.

Felo: So endeth our moon story. If you will, take a moment with me to reflect on any thoughts or feelings that have bubbled up to the surface for you. Gaze into the candle and see what the moon’s light has illuminated in your mind. We will then rejoin you after this moment of silent contemplation.

(pause for reflection)

[3:33]

Dismissing the quarters 

Piper:

We now open the circle and give our thanks. 

Depart in peace, guardian of the crossroads. From you we gain the keys to rooms deep within ourselves.

Our gratitude goes with you! Hail and farewell.

Felo: Hail and farewell.

Piper: Depart in peace, exile of Eden. Your example inspires us to guard our own autonomy.
Our gratitude goes with you! Hail and farewell.

Felo: Hail and farewell

Piper: Depart in peace, you bringer of light. Your winds have come and change has begun.
Our gratitude goes with you! Hail and farewell.

Felo: Hail and farewell

Piper: Depart in peace, you blameless sacrifice. May we pick up the trail of your flight to freedom .
Our gratitude goes with you! Hail and farewell. 

Felo: Hail and farewell

Piper: Extend gratitude to yourself for setting aside this moment of intentionality and reflection. If you so choose, repeat to yourself “I am at the center. I am the center. There is no god where I am.”

Felo: “I am at the center. I am the center. There is no god where I am.”

Ringing of bell 

Piper: 

With the ringing of this bell, return to the rational world renewed by your retreat from it and stronger for any insights gleaned and any resolve gathered.

(Rings bell 3 times)

May the waning moonlight allow your flame to shine all the brighter upon your path these coming weeks. 

Until we see you under the new moon, go well and be safe. 

May the devil take you and keep you. 

Hail Satan!

Felo: Hail Satan!

Piper: So it is done.

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