1. Choose your space well: Utilize a spare room, or go where group lodges are being held. I have not been led to attend, or conduct, group Moon Lodges as yet--perhaps because I am attempting to document as much of my experience as possible--but acknowledge that group lodges are the traditional way. If using a room in your home, choose one as much away from the main traffic of the house as possible, and as close to a bathroom. If you have more than one bathroom, ask everyone to use one while the other is reserved for your use only. Avoid contact with others as much as possible, whenever you must exit the room for any reason.

2. Observe silence: I do not speak with anyone during Lodge, or answer the phone. The only exception I make to that rule is if a Sister needs healing or other help, while I am in Lodge. Females may usually enter my Lodge and receive healing work, with speaking held to the absolute minimum. Contact with the outside world distracts and diffuses focus, so I avoid it. If I am led to sing or pray aloud, I do. Otherwise, I maintain silence. Speak with your family/roommates beforehand, explaining the need for and importance of silence. This means no knocking at the door with "just one question". If matters arise that demand immediate response, a note can be slipped under the door. In particular, avoid contact with anyone who is male. Strong yang energies are contra-indicated during Moon Lodge.

3. Take nourishment: I take fruit, bread, water, juices and teas into the Lodge when I go in. You can arrange to have meals left at the door, with a single rap on the door to let you know, or take all the food you will need in beforehand. A Moon Lodge is a time of renewal. Fasting is neither required or recommended. There are other times for suffering and sacrifice, but this time is for nurturing.

4. Create a circle of prayer: Ask your family and others of your spiritual circle to pray with you, and connect with you while in Lodge. You will feel their support and the prayerful attitude will automatically keep noise to a minimum in the house.

5. Do no work: I may do creative things, such as painting or reading, but I do no work in Lodge that is not renewing and enjoyable. The channeling of the energies will be quite demanding enough, without adding other chores to your time in Lodge.

6. Release time expectations: I have learned that whatever amount of time I have for each Lodge, if I am willing to completely submit to it, is sufficient. If it is three days, then that is what is needed. If it is three hours, the work still gets done. Spirit has no problem compressing a great deal of Spirit work into a tiny smidgen of Earth time. Time is our creation, not Spirit's, and only restricts the work possible in Lodge if we expect it to, worry about it, push for results, or resent not having more time to isolate. Give yourself over to whatever is possible each month, commit to the process, and you will have the time you need. Be gentle with yourself--you are probably not used to living this way, and a period of adjustment is normal. Great Spirit understands that most of us do not have the luxury of a community that supports our retreat time, and we must work within the structures of our jobs, family commitments, etc. Just begin. It will be enough.

7. Pray for All Your Relations: Prayers in Lodge are always to include others. A Lodge spent only praying for yourself is not only counter-productive but might actually be impossible. The nature of the Moon Lodge energies--the feminine, receptive energies of the Divine Mother--automatically seems to pull the focus outward from selfish concerns. I speak as one who is not above selfish prayer. I can be as self-centered and operate as stubbornly from ego-based needs as anyone I know. Yet, in Lodge, I find that I rarely pray a prayer that is strictly for myself. Some Lodges, I am so consistently praying for others that I have little awareness of self at all.

8. Gift the Earth: One of the rituals I have been most strongly directed toward is the offering of menstrual blood to the Earth. In a vivid and very powerful vision, I was shown the Subterraniums beneath the Earth. They were extremely busy, collecting menstrual gifts and taking them to under-nourished points on the Earth surface. Then, I was above the Earth, looking down. From that vantage point, I saw streams of blood crossing the surface of the Earth, coming from four directions and meeting at the top. As it traveled, the blood burned the surface like molten lead. As the parched and scorched "skin" of Earth peeled back, I could see the New Earth underneath. In honor of that vision, I make a blood offering (as a closing ritual) at the end of each Moon Lodge. It is a knowing in me that this is not just a symbolic gesture but a powerful practice that creates actual, physical Earth changes each time I (or other women) do it. The giving of the blood in this way is a genuine catalyst for healing the planet.