Lunar Tidal Magick was originally performed at Art Earth High Water, 2021. A link to the recorded live stream can be found here.

Text and images published in Black River, Issue 2, 2022.

 Lunar Tidal Magic

The highest tides occur when The Moon is either Full, or New. I have waited on the beach at Porthcurno, which not my nearest or local beach, but is most favourable, when the tide is at it’s highest, or fullest, during the evening of a Full Moon, and watched the water draw back to low, leaving the beach in newly baptised purity. With no one else around the scene is set for optimum magic making; the sand a blank canvas for intention setting, with The Moon reflected in the sea, beaming brightly she creates an alternative vision of the terrain, like another dimension; A Moonscape. Gathering seawater from this exquisite time in a blessing bowl, laying it down on the sand and capturing her reflection; The Moon, the sea, a full tide, and me.

Porthcurno Beach is steeped in legend. It is a place of exceptional beauty. A small and intimate cove of white gold sand and rolling blue waves tipped with foaming white edges. It is said a ghostly four masted sailing ship can be seen at night from the cliff tops, rolling into the bay below, only to disappear before anyone can focus on it long enough. Witches, smugglers, and giants all inhabit the cove at different times of year, depending on where The Moon might be. Tales of ‘funny goings on’ and strange happenings here are told and received in daily conversation, without questioning.

For many years, folklore confidently told us that tides were controlled by The Moon. I imagine The Moon at low tide, pulling back the sea like a blanket made of heavy fishing net laden with catch. A shingally, singing sound of sand and water, ringing out, away from land. I picture her at high tide pushing back the sand, tucking up the edges of the earth with water, for foamy baptism, nice and tight. Tides are higher at Full Moon as gravity from The Moon and gravity from The Sun both pull together on the earth.  At her fullest, The Moon appears enormous, growing closer and closer, as if to examine the beach with one eye through a magnifying glass. Saturating all she can, eradicating footprints, and any trace of disturbance, then as the water seeps back the beach is left pure and clean, the very first phase of a brand-new cycle.

Lunar Tidal Magic presents an opportunity for ultimate magic making. A time of intensely charged energy, a window is presented where everything has reached the pinnacle of fullness, of cleansing and purity, of being the most content, of rebirth. The beach a clean slate to set intentions by, The Moon fat and bright, willing to absorb our offerings and nurture their growth. She will take our words, our cast, our energy, and will manifest through her stages of decline and re-emergence, until she is full once more, fulfilling the cycle. The tide will swell again under her full watch when the time comes.

On the evening of 30th December, we made our way down to the cove. The tide was at its fullest; broad and lush, crashing and singing. The swell began to subside, and the water started to retract. Alone on the beach, the virgin sand freshly baptised by high tide reaching ever further out towards the sea, we unpack the apparatus. A blessing bowl, to be filled with seawater. This one is in the shape of a large cabbage leaf. A spoon, a piece of amethyst crystal to offer protection, matches, powered dragon’s blood, white sage, charcoal, an incense burner, intentions written on stiff paper, bound with sacred knots. A photo to sacrifice. An obelisk made from clay to combine all ashy ingredients, which is to be washed in fresh sea water and its contents returned to fresh sea foam from above head height. The Moon is our witness, the beach is our altar, and the tide is our soundtrack.

We capture The Moon reflected in the water of the bowl. Sacred Full Moon High Tide Water. My heart pounds. Standing in bright moonlight we observe and absorb this moment. I don’t ever want to leave. 

Annabel Pettigrew, 2021