Aries New Moon Reset: Let's Harness the Flame

The energy has been heavy for a lot of us, and I can feel the collective need for a clean restart. This week’s Cozy Coven chat leans into the Aries new moon on April 17, a fire-sign reset that nudges us out of winter sluggishness and back into movement. I share a simple new moon candle magic practice to invite fresh momentum, clear obstacles, and light that inner flame again, especially if you have felt like you are treading through sand. 

We also pull the Ace of Cups from the Magical Hours Tarot, and it lands perfectly with the lunar theme: emotional beginnings, heart healing, and the brave act of asking yourself how you really feel. I talk about why this card matters for intuition, self-care, and making choices that actually nourish you, not just choices that look good on paper. If you love tarot, astrology, or modern witchcraft, this pairing of Aries fire and Cup energy is a powerful way to set intentions that stick. 

Then we zoom out into divergent witchcraft basics that too many people skip: the elements. Earth, air, fire, water, and spirit show up everywhere, from calling quarters and casting a circle to the pentacle, tarot suits, seasonal magic, and spell correspondences. I share different ways practitioners place elements in the compass directions, why you do not need deity devotion to do strong magic, and how elemental work can make protection less draining by connecting you to a larger current of energy. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a spark, and leave a review with the element you are focusing on right now.

Transcript

Welcome And Aries New Moon

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hi, and welcome to another Cozy Coven chat. I am your host, Jenny C Bell, and this is for the week of April 12th. April 12th. So right off the right off the bat, we have a new moon on April 17th, and that's in Aries. And we talked last week about with the King of Wands, about this Aries fiery energy lighting us up and using or stepping into harnessing that Aries energy to get things done. And so we have more of that. You know, Aries is the baby of the zodiac, right? It's the beginning of the zodiac. And so this is like it's a fire, Aries is a fire sign. So it's like this whole fiery kind of rebirth feeling with this new moon. And so if you haven't felt the energy, I know that for a lot of people I talked to February and March were really heavy, draining, and exhausting. So a lot of people I've talked to have talked about how sluggish it was. And I remember I have the Channy app and I remember listening to like the like the whole like year ahead for myself, uh, from her and her talking about February and March aren't gonna be that spring renewal, fresh energy that we're used to. And it definitely felt that way. It felt kind of like treading through sand for a lot of it. And so I'm looking at this new moon in Aries as like a fresh start. So personally, what I would be doing is something with candles because of the fiery element. Um and so I think, you know, at the very least, light a candle and ask for some of this fiery energy to enter your life, to burn away what's not serving you, to burn away obstacles, uh, to burn away old stagnant energy, whatever's left over from winter, and then ask it to light you up, like light you up and get you going again. I have a meditation with Bridget, with the goddess Saint Bridget, and it's all about like using flames to light you up, like using her eternal flame to like refan your flame inside of you. And so, yeah, it's that idea of stepping to Aries energy and embracing it. You know, a lot of people Aries get made fun of a lot. Um, there's several, you know, all the zodiac signs get made fun of, but I feel like Aries gets made fun of a lot as being like babies and having temper tantrums and all this, but there's something to be said with the energy. It's very like um like Knight of Wands energy, it's very like the fool from tarot, also, or it's just like fresh start going into it, don't care. Like, I'm not gonna let old problems, old things, um, worries, fears bother me. I'm just gonna go forward, go forth. And we need that. We definitely need that sometimes. Um, as an earth sign, I appreciate it, definitely, because that's not my norm. My norm is to be like Piglet from Winnie the Pooh and be like, oh da-da-da-da-da, you know, and be really like find all of the things to be worried about. Why aren't you worried? So Aries is more like, just do it, just get out there. So let's all take a page out of that. So that's how I'm kind of looking at the new moon. Our card, we're still using the magical hours tarot, which I really love. And we got Ace of Cups, which I thought was great too, because when we have a new moon, a new moon's a lot like an ace because it's a fresh start. And this new uh ace of cups is really beautiful. There's like a pretty sunset in a woman in a field of flowers, and she has a teacup with a goldfish in it, and she's this like beautiful young redhead. Um, she looks very powerful. And so the book says, and these are twilight plants. So I talked, I think last week I told you what kind of plants. That's what I like about this um tarot in particular, is like the major arcana all have a time, which is really cool, right? So it's like a time of day. So, like, let me just for instance, the uh hierophant is 9 a.m., right? Um the star is 12 a.m. The devil is 9 p.m. So interesting. So we're looking at twilight as being important, and I kind of like that because this time of year, like we can actually enjoy twilight. It feels like the sun sets longer at this time, at least in the PNW. Whereas like in the winter, it just feels like someone like pulls the shade down and it's like suddenly night. It's like an old cartoon. So Ace of Cups, Twilight Plants. As the archetype of the suit and its synthesis, the Ace of Cups holds and makes an all-emotional waters flow. This is where all the emotions encountered in the cards that follow it originate from and will return to. How difficult is it to tune into what we really feel? Here we are given the opportunity to discover how we feel, not just physically but emotionally. How do we feel in the situation for which you want clarification? How does the person, that job, the experience we just went through make us feel? The Ace of Cups gently brings light toward the heart and asks you to pay attention to what nourishes and heals you. In the waters of the seed, every emotion has a right to take shape without overwhelming the others, without overwhelming us. So it's interesting because I talked about how Aries often the stereotype is like throwing tantrums and you know, angry and whatever emotionally flies. It's like the toddler, even though they're the baby of the zodiac. I think I'm the toddler, I'm a Taurus. Um, which makes sense because I just love to touch everything. If you've ever had a toddler, they're very tactile. Um, one of the things I like to do with my kids when they're toddler toddlers is I would get a cookie sheet and put different types of beans, dried beans, and they would just play with them. This is like until my son, he was the only he ate them. My daughter wouldn't eat them, but when my son started eating them, we had to stop that game. So, anyway, um so with Ace of Cups, we have this like fresh start, emotional renewal, looking at our emotions, and then with Aries new moon, it's like uh same idea, right? Like rebirth. So, yeah, being reborn this week, which bring it on, really, bring it on. Okay, so we have that. I'm gonna remind you that I'm gonna be at Spirit Northwest at the end of this month in Portland. So join me there. I'm also going to remind you um that I will be starting to be a guest co-host on Belief Being and Beyond with Granddaughter Crow. That was really interesting how that worked out. Um, she was the first podcast I was ever on, and I don't even remember the first episode wasn't necessarily on spirit crystals. I forget. We like met through Instagram, it was like one of those things where we just kind of vibed. And she's like, You want to come on the podcast? I'm like, yeah. And then I came back for my book, and then I had her on my show, so you can dig deep in here when I was like experimenting with what I wanted the show to be. I was like, maybe I want to interview people, and she was a she was actually a really good guest, so I had her on here. Then I went back on her show to well, we I was on her Salwin episode, just really fun through the veil series, and I was the Salwin episode. So yeah, so we've and then we've just maintained like a friendship because um believe believe it or not, doing what I'm doing is very solo, you know, like you you're I was talking to her yesterday actually about this, like, you know, you speak into these voids like I am right now. There's you're not here with me physically. Um, I speak into the void. It's like it's kind of like speaking into um one of those cups and strings, you know, from like childhood. And like maybe someone will hear you. So speaking of the void, when I write a book, the reader's not with me, and then later they read it and we share a hallucin, like a hallucinating, like a hallucinic moment, really, because like reading is really like hallucinating. Um, and it's just a lot of what I do is we I don't haven't met anybody in our coven in person yet. So it's just very um everything I do is in the ether, it's all in the ether realm. And so, you know, it can get kind of weird. You can get like you gotta get outside, I gotta touch grass, I gotta ground. Like after I record podcasts, I always go outside. After I do card readings, I go outside. Even that, I do card readings just long distance, you know. So, like we talked about, I had an idea for a different podcast, like totally separate from what we both do. And that just didn't work out for a number of reasons. And then she was like, Well, what if you come on my show sometimes and just like guest co-host? Because she was looking at the Llewellyn catalog for the year, and she saw this book coming out that was about Dracula or vampires, and she's like, I feel like Jenny would think that was fun because I'm a I'm my degree's in literature, and she's seen me on the movie Coven, and I try to take on kind of like this literature witch role. And so she was like, What if you just come on there sometime since the other podcast isn't in the works yet? It's kind of on hold until things line up. I was like, Yeah, that actually sounds really fun. Like, I'll just pop on there sometimes. So um we're rocking and rolling, as we say. Um, and so we like just have had all these great ideas, and we've have books sent to us recently, and then we were like, oh, this person will be a great guest, and so it's just gonna be a blast. And her show's really fun, and I think we are it's funny, we're actually the same Chinese zodiac sign. We're both dogs, um, but exactly 12 years apart. Both have Gemini sons, and she's a cancer son on a cancer rising, so it's a lot, uh, a lot of synchronicities. The biggest one being that we both pulled the same rune for the year. And I didn't even know she pulled runes for the year, but she does. So it's just been all these things lining up, and that's just kind of the best, is when these synchronicities happen. I feel like it's always the universe being like, yep, this is what good, this is what we wanted you to do. Like this was part of the plan. That's what I look at when I see just like synchronicities and signs, you know. Um, you'll just it's just confirmation. Like, yeah, this is what you're supposed to be doing right now. So really positive. So we are still uh diving into uh divergent witchcraft, which we'll get to in a moment. Um, talking about seasons, we're in spring, so we're in between the spring equinox and beltane. And so I'll talk more about Beltane later, but Beltane is the like maple, fertility, hedonistic, like let's like all those um beautiful art pieces, there's a lot of them of people like getting drunk with fairies or fairies drinking and dancing in the woods, and you know, this just like this idea of just revelry, that's Beltane energy. And so, like, that's why this new moon in Aries is fun because it's like, yeah, let's get fired up, let's get lit. Do kids say that anymore? I don't think they do. I like one of my favorite things to do as a parent, and feel free to take this idea, is to use your kids' slang in conversation at dinner unexpectedly, you know. So the one that they got, like I'll be like, oh yeah, no cap, no cap, bro. Or um recently I called my son Unk. And they my daughter was like, You can't say that because basically because I'm an Unk. And I'm like, I know, and that's why it's funny. They the irony is lost on them, but not on me. It's like my own, like, it's like Andy Kaufman humor. It's like only funny to me. Or like how Salvador Dali would dress up as a priest and do weird things on a bus in public transit. It was like only funny for him. So feel free. Use their use their slang. Um it makes them so mad, and it's just funny because it's ridiculous. Anyway, so we are continuing on Divergent Witchcraft, and this uh next chapter that we're gonna talk about is a chapter on elements, on the elements, and it's called The Elements Within and Without, and in witchcraft, in um paganism, the elements of earth, air, fire, water, a fifth being spirit. Uh, that's very similar to a lot of Native American and indigenous beliefs in elements, but is different than like um Chinese beliefs in element. So I have a whole post about the elements on Substack. Um but there's just like different takes on the elements, there's different beliefs on where in what direction the elements are. So for me, for a lot of witches, um, earth is north, so it's associated with the direction of north. Um, and then east is air, and then west is water, and fire in the south. And there's different ways to call in the elements. So some people will start with north, being like, okay, directional north, like I'm gonna call in that element, and there's different things you can call in with elements. You can call in, like associated with north is like gnomes, there's angels, there's um watchers, there's deities, there's all kinds of things, stones, um different things associated with the different elements. So for north, like some people will start there and they'll call in the element of north. Some people start with the east, which also makes sense. Um, there's a lot of like you know, ties to the east with Buddhism, especially. But, you know, that's the sun rises, at least, you know, like that's where the sun rises. So people will be like, we start in the east. When I took uh some classes on shamanism, you start in the south because those classes came from South America, so it makes sense they start in the south. But then I like was like, I'm just gonna try it. I would have been a call on the north first girl for as long as I can remember. I was like, I'm gonna try south because then I end in the east, like the way I do it. So I'm like south, west, north, east. That's how like I was like, let me try just kind of, you know, you gotta change up your practice. And I ended up actually really liking that. So I still will do that sometimes. Uh keep it fresh, like you know. So the pentacle or the pentagram, uh, the pentagram is technically just a star, and the pentacle is the star with the circle around it. And most witches like the pentacle to be like single point facing up, and that's because it's a representation for a lot of people of earth, air, fire, water, the top point being spirit. It's kind of like with a person, if you stand with your arms raised up and your legs wide, you're you look like a star, right? And so it's kind of also like representation of you as a spirit, as having soul, having embodiment, and then you are all the elements. So pentacle can be seen that way. It can be seen in other ways, but that's what I always uh preferred, and that's why I don't use or don't agree with upside down pentacle, because to me that means spirits at the bottom and straining out. But there's different definitions, different ways of seeing things. The thing is, with witchcraft, so much of like the actual real knowledge has been lost, and then Wicca invented some new stuff, and that's become part of the collective belief. And then now more people who come from like Hoodoo Voodoo and other folk magic practitioners with those backgrounds, like Bruheria, Italian folk magic, Polish folk magic, more of those people are coming forward and writing books, and that's getting input into like the collective and us understanding things, but for so long you're really limited to writers who were influenced by Wicca. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Um, because it's here now, and enough people believe in it that it's I but I believe in the power of collective belief. So that's why I always say like it's your truth, because enough people believe it, right? So, do I think um Jesus was like the only son of God and that whole stuff? No, but a lot of people believe it. And so it's powerful because it's there's a collective belief. You know, if you really look into like young and collective consciousness and you know, everything, we're all so connected, even like in Native American belief, there's like certain belief in the web of life and you have the tree of life, but where quantum physics shows us, we're all just connected energetically. So I always thought, and I still think this, like this is how religions work. Enough people believe it that it becomes true in a sense or true to an effect. Um and that's why, like, I read that book, Heaven is for Real. I remember I gave it to a friend of mine, and she's like, but I don't believe in heaven. Like, I don't I didn't like it because I believe in heaven. I said, Well, that book, that child is raised in a Christian faith with Christian family, like he saw the afterlife the way he did because it had to be presented that way for everybody else to understand and accept it. And she was like, Oh, like she just didn't think of it that way. And that's just how my brain has always worked. I studied world religions, I studied, um, I've you know, we used to go to a Buddhist temple, I have had uh Muslim friends and Jewish friends and been to different churches. Um, my husband did a deep research on Mormonism and when he was in college, like there's just uh I just feel like if what you believe in doesn't hurt people, it's cool, it's fine. Um, but when you start doing stuff like hunting people because they're not of that religion, there's a problem. In fact, my world religions professor said something so profound and it made me just like love her. Um she had studied theology and then was like, I can't actually be a minister. And that happens a lot, believe it or not, with people that study anything for so long, it's like you kind of go, hmm, I don't know if I really believe this. And she said that for her, this and this is her opinion, and take it or leave it, it's very interesting, that she thought when humanity moved away from paganism and multiple bel multiple deities and like pantheons and moved to monotheism, she felt that was like showed evolution because she was like, this shows that they are seeing that it's all one source. However, she then said that when people started killing other people in the name of their one religion, that was a de-evolution. And I remember just like sitting there and just like, I love her. Like that was so profound to me and um so interesting. So you can agree or disagree, but that was her philosophy, and that was part of why she couldn't um be like a Christian minister because she was just like, I don't like, like, doesn't make sense to her that you use your religion to hate people, and it doesn't make sense to me still to this day. So back to the elements, we have these different elements, and I, you know, there's a lot of witches who are like don't want to work with a deity, and you don't have to, you know, there's like this bullet, like a lot of it's like throughout um social media, it's like, oh, you know, I worship Hecate and I worship this. You don't have to do that, you don't have to devote yourself. In fact, I didn't devote myself to a singular being until like my late 30s. So I was just kind of like, like I liked certain like beings, like I really liked Quanyin. I've always liked Kwan Yin. And I I've even had someone tell me I had a past life where I worshipped her and like makes perfect sense. Uh or Guanyin, depending on you know where how you want to say it. Um, but I've always been drawn to her, I've always been drawn to Kali, the Kali Ma. And I went to this um huge Kali exhibit of art, and it's just like, yep, I know this. Like it just felt right in my bones. But I was not devoted to anybody, you know, just kind of like research about them. I would like to like see them in my my goddess decks or whatever, but I wasn't really like devoted, and partly because I had a lot of religious wounding, like I just had to like heal myself to be like, do I want to devote myself to something? Um, because I would just say basically God and goddess. That was our goddess and god, usually. And so that was me. But there's a lot of witches that don't even like want that. They don't want that connection. They don't want to, they don't believe in an a universe, spirit, or god, goddess, um, whatever you want to call it. They don't believe in that. And they instead like believe in what they the energy. They just believe in energy. And so working with the elements is perfect for someone like this because you can tap into the earth energy and the energy of the earth and the land spirits and the gnomes and the stones and the plants and trees and the flowers and the devas, and really like get into this energy of earth without ever talking about a goddess or a god, even though there are definitely goddesses and gods of the earth, right? There's earth-based deities. You don't have to do that. And why that's good for you as a witch in doing witchcraft and doing spell work is you don't really want to rely on your own power. When people do a circle of protection and they rely on their own energy, it's draining. So if you're like, you know, you get up and you're like, I'm gonna do the circle of protection, and you and I'm gonna talk more about this thing in the next episode because the next chapter is on protection. Um, but you do that and you rely on your own energy, you're draining yourself of energy to protect yourself. And so connecting with the elements is gonna add energy to your spells, energy to your protection. Um, and I think also it's like a really fun way to see things because you can look at the seasons as elements. You obviously can see the zodiac as elements, you can see the fortaro minor arcana as elements. It's like so enmeshed in witchcrafted magic, like so deeply enmeshed. And like when you start really looking at it, you're like, oh my gosh, like the elements really are like such ingrained in different forms of magic. And so that's you know, really what I talk about in the book, and I talk about how to connect to the four elements and like why. And like what I'm telling you right now, the why is because it's so enmeshed. Like, if you really get to understand the four elements, you connect with them, you start connecting with them in magic, you have like you know, a bowl of sand on your altar for earth, and you really feel earth, and you get the energy, and you really get that spirit of earth. All of a sudden, you understand the pentacles of the tarot because you're like, oh, this is earth. And you see it through that lens, you know, it's like, oh, this is so much easier to understand. You start when you meet an earth sign, you've really intimately connected with earth energy, and you can start recognizing, like, oh, are you like a Virgo? Because you're just giving off earth energy. Um, you can feel like the changes, the seasons, because you're connected to the earth. So I really think that the elements in modern witchcraft, like on TikTok and what I'm seeing on social media, they're like not, no one cares anymore. Like I remember being a new witch, and it was such a big deal. Like every book was like, you need to know the elementals and the elements, and you need to connect. And now it's like no one talks about it. And that could be, you know, things come in out of fashion, it could be that Wicca is out of fashion, um, whatever. But I think that it's huge, and it's an even part of alchemy. So there's like a lot of the symbols for like the four symbols that people use for the elements come from alchemy. So it's just like so ingrained in our culture, in every culture, you know, definitely, like all over the world. They like the different elements and elements are talked about, and then you go to chemistry, and there's like elements, you know, it's like it's elemental, it's foundational. Um, but yeah, so if you haven't really revisited or connected with the four elements, like it's been a long time for you, you're like, oh yeah, I did kind of study that in the beginning, or you're new and this is intriguing to you, you gotta just jump in. I have articles in our coven about the elements. Um, like I said, there's one on Substack, and then there'll be a chapter in the book. But I think sort of like how I've talked about how you can just spend like a whole like year with just one tarot card, you can do the same with the elements. Like you could be like, you know, right now we're in a fire year through Chinese astrology. So it's the year of the fire horse, and we're in a fire season with Aries. So you could be like, I'm gonna really tap into this fire energy, and then that could be for the whole year, or that could be just for the season of Aries, and you'll return when we get to Leo, and you'll just keep returning for the different fire signs. So I don't know. I think it's fun. I love candle magic talking about fire. I just feel like having these basic foundations helps you grow your your progress. And it's like knowing the four elements and how they connect really helps you understand correspondences, and correspondences are used in spell creation, and that's what I'll be talking about in my class on at Spirit Northwest. Um, but also, you know, be talking about in our coven. Correspondences, there's books of correspondences, but there's so much comes back to the elements, and I just think it's fun. It's elemental, dear Watson. I think I botched that quote. Um, gonna let's go ahead and do our um journal questions. So for the new moon in Aries, where do you need some fire in your life? Um, and what is being reborn in your life? The Ace of Cups. What emotions are coming up? What's the the next emotional journey for you? Because we're starting a new moon too, so it's like a whole journey. What's the next cycle look like for you? And then let's just do four questions on the elements. What do you associate with earth? What do you associate with air? What do you associate with fire? And what do you associate with water? And those can become your own personal correspondences. So thanks so much for listening. Bless to be.