Here’s what hosting a full moon circle taught me about female friendships

“A deeply cathartic experience of female connection and empowerment.”

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of magic. In the movies and TV shows, moments of magic are tangible. But what do the 1998 movie Practical Magic and the 2000s classic Charmed have in common? The celebration of sisterhood.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that sisterhood is where the true magic lies. It’s in the way our bodies sync up with the moon and one another, and those little moments of connection that you find amongst the busyness of adult life.

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For this reason, I was pulled towards the idea of a full moon circle. The essence of a full moon circle lies in spiritual beliefs of united consciousness. The practice has been seen in many cultures, notably paganism, but it is often misunderstood.

A full moon circle is exactly what it sounds like. A group of people (often women), will gather under the light of the full moon to connect and work with sacred elements of nature to manifest and release energy. Through the practice, people often take the opportunity to manifest intentions for the next moon phase.

I decided the Aries full moon presented the perfect opportunity to host a dinner party for some close female friends. And what started as a reason for dance and celebration became a deeply cathartic experience of female connection and empowerment.

Initially, I had been planning the dinner party solo. But as she watched me scrolling through Pinterest, my housemate became curious. She often humoured me with my witchy-woo-woo ideas and expressed genuine interest in the full moon circle. Having recently gone through a breakup, the idea of releasing stagnant energy was appealing to her.

Together, my housemate and I extended the invitation to a group of witchy women in her circle. While I was delighted, surprisingly, I also felt apprehensive at the idea of meeting new people. Sitting with these feelings of discomfort, I found myself asking the question: why are we, as women, so cautious of new friendships?

The desire for female connection runs in our blood and yet in modern life, we have drifted so far from the idea of a sisterhood. There could be many reasons for this – the influence of the media being one. The media often positions women to see each other as competition rather than comrades, and this is reflected in our communities.

As a society, we’re also guilty of singling out groups of people and forming biases around our opinions of them. In the case of women and their relationships with one another, this looks like the demonisation of gossiping and the horror stories of the Salem witch trials.

The ‘cool girl’ and ‘pick-me girl’ stereotypes divide us into groups of ‘good enough’ and ‘trying too hard’. But at our core, we are social creatures. Without a sisterhood or a group to belong to, we all suffer. Despite my apprehension, these women met me with the same joy and elation I felt when they received their invitations.

We browsed napkin designs and dinner menus on Pinterest, curated the perfect witchy playlist and in preparation for the event, created place cards. These place cards outlined the astrological placements of the women invited and how they may be affected by the full moon. It was a cute party favour and a nice touch to the table setting. But as everyone began to read, something strange happened.

I felt as if I had known the women sitting at our dinner table for a lifetime. It was as if we were united, leaning on each other as we connected over shared experiences and emotions. I realised how rare these moments had become in my adult life.

The essence of girlhood had become a ghost of summers past – those sleepovers with my girlfriends, gossiping and sharing secrets as we willed ourselves to stay awake. It was something I’d taken for granted as a child, and I’d been too busy to realise how much I’d been craving it during the chaos of my twenties.

At our full moon circle, it felt so special to connect with other women and release our heaviest energy in a safe space. When we were done, we danced under the stars and sang like we did when we were kids. I realised there was still a little room for magic in my life.

For more on the full moon and friendships, head here.