Full Moon Magic: What is an Esbat in Wicca?

'Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and better it be when the Moon is full, then shall ye assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of me, Who am Queen of all Witcheries.'

That is the opening line to The Charge of the Goddess, one of the most important texts in modern Wicca.  The bolding is my own to highlight the importance of timing in Wiccan ritual.  The Charge is about an Esbat.

In its most practical sense, the full moon was a good time for historical Pagans to meet up; particularly when they were being persecuted by practitioners of more dominant religions.

By slipping out at night, they reduced the risk of being missed. By doing so under a bright moon, they could see where they were going; and they could complete their rituals with some kind of illumination.  Let your night vision adjust and you can almost see as well as in daylight.

But there is also a very strong religious element too.  The full moon denotes a period when the energy levels are high.  It's the perfect time to do ritual magic; and to affirm personal pledges.  Walking out in the bright stillness of a full moon night is wonderful for meditation and reflection.  Things look much clearer afterwards.

Let's not forget that the full moon is also symbolic of the Mother Goddess in Wicca.  It can, and often does, feel like a night when we come face to face with the Pagan divine.

Nothing can be taken in isolation, not least an Esbat.  It's not enough to meander on down to a circle rite, when the calendar tells you that the moon is full.

If the calendar had to tell you, then you've totally missed the point.

Energy builds.  A full moon follows a waxing moon.  An explosion follows the pressure of energy unable to easily escape.  An examination follows a period of learning and revision.  Giving birth follows nine months of pregnancy; and so forth.

To speak of an Esbat as the be all and end all is to negate anything that built up to it.  It's attempting to give birth without ever being pregnant.

But even then, it's not over.  A waning moon follows a full moon.  Debris and destruction follows an explosion.  Qualifications to apply your expertise follow an examination.  Parenting follows from being in labor; and so on.

The lessons and accomplishments of the Esbat have to be carried forward. It might be into a time of action or reflection, but there is no full stop drawn at the close of ritual.  What you take from one informs how you approach the next. 

In short, the Esbat is the high point of a monthly cycle; but part of the cycle nonetheless.

Wicca is not a passive religion.  If you prefer to have somebody preach a sermon and tell you how to think, then it's certainly not the religion for you.

I have genuinely had people in the past come to me with concern about the Esbat.  They had stood in the circle and gone through the motions.  They had watched me Draw Down the Moon.  But then what?

I was the High Priestess, but I didn't tell them what to do.  I was the representative of the Goddess, but I didn't direct them in a round of thou shalt and thou shalt nots.

It was about this time that I realized that I'd failed in my duties as High Priestess.  Not because I hadn't transformed into anything more divine than usual, but because they had entered the circle unable to grasp what it was all about.  Oops.

That was one Esbat circle when I really would have been better to have recited that old stand-by, The Charge of the Goddess.  Doreen explained the entire Wiccan faith and practice so brilliantly there, that my confused wards would have been in no doubt as to what was going on.

The role of the High Priestess, in Drawing Down the Moon, is akin to that of a lightning rod.  The energy is up there and potent.  We just need to direct it into our circles.  What we do next is precisely the same dilemma posed by house-holders, whose home has just been hooked up to the mains.

The answer - whatever you want!  Whatever you have to plug into it, go, go, go!  Obviously within reason and subject to certain health and safety lores, like Do As Thou Wilt An It Harm None.

So how should you approach an Esbat?  Whether in a coven or as a solitary, the answer is the same. You bring to the ritual all that you've been working towards.  You use that moment of high energy to infuse your project with purpose, or to ask the big question and seek clarity within your own mind.

No High Priestess is going to do that for you; nor a High Priest either.  And certainly not the Mother Goddess!