A short defense of the rituals you don’t entirely believe in

You don’t have to be sure that a new-moon ritual “does” anything. Most of the people who do them aren’t sure either.

What rituals do, reliably, is mark a moment. They tell your nervous system: this is now. We are paying attention. The thing on the paper is real enough to be written down.

Whether the moon hears you is, frankly, beside the point.