This Week in Magick: 1/12 - 1/18

✨ THIS WEEK IN MAGICK ✨

January 12th - 18th, 2026

We're in the Waning Crescent phase this week, the dark moon, moving toward the New Moon in Capricorn on January 18th at 2:52 PM EST. This is the void. The silence before the inhale. The last few days before the slate goes blank and the cycle begins again.

Dark moon energy is for shadow work, banishing, cord cutting, and clearing out whatever you've been carrying that doesn't serve. In Hoodoo and African Diaspora traditions, the dark moon is prime time for protection work, breaking hexes, burying the old. The Aztecs saw this as the time when Coyolxauhqui descended to the underworld, order dissolving before renewal. The Maya's Ix Chel made her underworld journey here, gestating in the dark before her return.

But this week isn't just lunar. January 13-16 is Makar Sankranti, one of the most significant pan-Indian harvest festivals, celebrated under dozens of regional names across Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh traditions.

Makar Sankranti (January 14th) marks the Sun's transition into Capricorn and the start of Uttarayana, the sun's six-month northern journey. This is solar magic, thanking the sun for light, warmth, and the harvest.

In Tamil Nadu, it's Pongal, a four-day feast that begins with Bhogi (January 13th, cleansing and renewal through bonfires), peaks with Surya Pongal (January 14th, offerings to the sun god), continues with Mattu Pongal (January 15th, honoring cattle), and closes with Kaanum Pongal (January 16th, family and community).

In Punjab, it's Lohri (January 13th), bonfires, sweets thrown into flames, gratitude for the harvest.

In Gujarat, it's Uttarayan, the International Kite Festival, where the sky fills with multicolored kites from dawn to dusk. Across India, people take ritual baths in sacred rivers (especially the Ganges at Prayagraj), give sesame and jaggery sweets, fly kites, and mark the shift from winter to spring.

The magic here? Solar gratitude combined with New Moon planting. Thank the sun for what's been harvested. Then turn toward Capricorn's New Moon and build the foundation for what comes next.

WORK WITH IT:

January 12-17 (Dark Moon work): This is your window for banishing, binding, cord cutting, shadow work. Burn petition papers with what you're releasing. Bury objects at a crossroads. Work with black candles, obsidian, graveyard dirt. If you've been hexed or feeling stuck, this is your time to break it. The dark moon wipes the slate clean, but you have to actively clear it first.

January 13-14 (Sankranti/Solar work): Honor the sun. Light a fire (bonfire, candle, whatever you've got access to) and offer sesame seeds, jaggery, rice. Speak gratitude aloud for what the sun has given you, literally and metaphorically. If you work with solar deities (Surya, Ra, Apollo, Huitzilopochtli), make offerings. Fly a kite if you can, the act of sending something skyward is an offering in itself.

January 18th (New Moon in Capricorn): This New Moon is stacked! Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, and Pluto all in Capricorn, sextile Saturn and Neptune, trine Uranus. This is foundation magic. Set one clear, tangible goal. Write it down. Plant it (literally bury it in soil, or seal it in wax). Capricorn doesn't mess around, this moon rewards discipline, structure, and the long game. What are you willing to work for?

TOOLS FOR THE JOURNEY:

For dark moon work: black candles, obsidian or black tourmaline, graveyard dirt, banishing oil, bindweed or slippery elm for cord cutting. For Sankranti/solar work: sesame seeds, jaggery, rice, marigolds, gold or yellow candles, frankincense for solar offerings. For New Moon planting: patchouli, vetiver, High John root, green or black candles, hematite or smoky quartz to anchor intention.

The dark swallows everything. What do you plant in the silence?

🖤

P.S. The candles, herbs, and obscure magical supplies we stock? That's what funds this newsletter and all the other free resources we put out. No ads, no sponsors, no diluted content. Just practitioners supporting practitioners. Every purchase you make keeps real occult education accessible. We deeply appreciate you for that. 🕯️