What Needs to Crumble and Fall?
deep peace of the new sturgeon moon to you
Support for Every Season
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August 12, 2026
Life in the deep dark
One of the names for the full moon in August is the sturgeon moon.
Sturgeon are giant, ancient animals that shared the planet with the dinosaurs 120 million years ago. They live long, slow lives, feeding on fish and crustaceans at the bottom of oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes. They are fish without scales. Instead they have shark-like skin with panels called scutes, like a pangolin.
Atlantic sturgeon, what we have in the Chesapeake Bay and nearby regions, can grow to five or six feet long. The males weigh up to 90 pounds and females weigh up to 160 pounds. In Washington, where I’m traveling this summer, there are white sturgeon, that grow to about six feet and can live for 100 years. Beluga sturgeon in and around Russia are the biggest. They can get up to 11 feet and weigh 2,000 pounds. The largest on record was 23 feet long and weighed 3,400 pounds!
Sturgeon are sensitive animals. They live in the deep darkness and so they don’t use their eyes to hunt and feed. They use receptors on their heads, including their adorable whiskers (they’re not really whiskers but they sure are cute), to sense electric and chemical signals that give them information about their environment.
And while the full moon is named for their very fun summer pastime of leaping out of the water, we’re not there yet. The moon is dark tonight and the sturgeon are deep underwater. So our practice will focus on what it’s like to move in darkness and what we need to let go of while we’re there.
Disorienting, not evil
One of my favorite topics is spiritual darkness, and I’m excited to share some of my theological frameworks with you all. Before we get too deep into it though, I want to address how problematic it is to associate darkness with evil.
Associating darkness with evil is part of the foundations of racism in the United States. It was an overt and explicit basis for slavery in the past and continues as a basis for ongoing discrimination in spiritual, political, social, and economic spaces.
And so when I say spiritual darkness, I do not mean an experience of evil. I mean an experience where the path forward is obscured. It’s an experience that can be confusing and even terrifying, but it’s not evil.
Imagine that you’re walking in a forest, enjoying the beauty of the trees, the songs of birds, the sunlight filtering down. You stop for a picnic on the side of a stream. And like a Disney princess would, you lay back with the sun on your face, close your eyes, and fall asleep.
Hours later, you wake up, chilly and disoriented. You’ve slept all evening and now it’s fully dark. It would be totally understandable to feel unsettled. It would be understandable to panic. But what is actually different than this afternoon, when you felt at peace enough to fall asleep?
Is this environment inherently more dangerous at 9pm than it was at 6pm? Possibly, in some ways. You may lose your way home. You may trip and fall. There may be nocturnal creatures that make you feel nervous.
But is this an evil forest, that just hours ago was a peaceful sanctuary? No, it isn’t. It is, at it’s core, the same. But your sensory experience of it has shifted. And thus your way through it has been obscured. You’re going to have to find a different way out than how you found your way in. Of course that’s unnerving and frightening and even unwelcome.
This is the theme we’ll be working with on this New Sturgeon Moon. Being in the depths, in the dark, and learning to find new ways of moving in this unfamiliar environment.
The dark night of the soul
This is the essence of what Saint John of the Cross called the dark night of the soul. Up until this point, you have accessed God (or the divine, or the universe, or a sense of connection to something larger than yourself) in certain ways that have felt somewhat reliable to you.
And then suddenly, they don’t. Prayer and meditation are mentally and emotionally inaccessible. Reading sacred texts leaves you feeling parched instead of refreshed. You feel a deep sense of disconnection in spiritual groups or worship services.
Like waking up and realizing it’s dark out (and your phone is dead, and you didn’t bring a flashlight because you didn’t expect to need one, and you already ate all your snacks at your cute picnic, so you have no food), it’s totally understandable to feel unsettled. It’s understandable to panic.
But you will find your way—if you’re willing to let go of the things you’ve so far clung to, but are no longer serving you.
So our question and our practice for this New Sturgeon Moon is, on this night of the dark moon, what wants to fall away that you can let go of?
Journal through it
Here are some journal prompts to help you identify what it may be time to let go of in this season and support you in processing any feelings that arise as you weigh the costs and benefits of letting it go.
Start by taking a few deep breaths. Get comfortable in your seat. Look around your environment, reassuring your body and your nervous system that you’re in a safe (enough) place where you can sink into a moment of reflection.
First, I invite you to think about something you are looking forward to getting rid of. Maybe that’s a bag of old clothes you’ve meaning to take to the thrift store. Deleting a bunch of emails you were never going to read anyway. Emptying the recycling bin.
What is that something for you?
And what feelings of satisfaction do you anticipate getting from moving that something to its rightful place?
Second, I invite you to reflect on something that you find 10-25% bothersome. Maybe that’s a pair of pants that are fine, but you don’t feel great when you wear them. An event you agreed to go to, but only out of a sense of obligation. A task you agreed to but later realized it isn’t actually your responsibility.
What is one of those somethings for you?
What feelings arise for you when you think about moving this thing to its rightful place? (i.e., getting rid of it, changing your RSVP, saying, “actually, no.”)
What would it cost you to let it go, emotionally, mentally, relationally, spiritually, financially?
What does it cost you to keep hanging onto it?
What relief would come from letting this thing go?
Repeat steps one and two as many times as you like. And if/when you feel warmed up and ready to go a step further, explore some things that are harder to let go of:
What is something that you have invested emotional, mental, relational, spiritual, physical, or financial energy into that is not serving you well? Maybe that’s a one-sided or codependent relationship. A job that leaves you feeling utterly depleted. A closet full of supplies for a hobby you always meant to start but never have.
What is the something for you?
What emotions arise when you consider moving this thing to its rightful place in your life (or out of your life)?
What physical sensations arise? Do you feel tightness? Nausea? Does your breathing change?
What would it cost you to let it go? Emotionally, mentally, relationally, spiritually, financially?
What does it cost you to keep hanging onto it?
What relief would come from letting this thing go?
Now, imagine what letting this thing go could free up for you. Let your imagination wander. Dream of what it would be like to move your true desire to the center, and any sense of obligation or attachment to this thing move to the periphery.
What would you be free to do?
How would you be free to move?
Is there anything you want to replace it with? (e.g., disengaging from a one-sided relationship and redirecting that emotional energy to going to a new book club or hiking group, or just more intentionally spending time with friends you already have that energize you.)
What is something that would help you grieve the letting go? (e.g., processing with a friend, writing a letter and burning it, doing yoga, crying, screaming.)
Put a reminder on your calendar to tend to your feelings as you explore letting go in the next two weeks as the sturgeon Moon waxes toward fullness.
Join me
Wednesday, August 12, 2026, at The Well in Port Angeles, Washington. We’ll work through this journaling practice, then take some time to dance it out and physically move through our feelings and any energy that needs to be dispersed, followed by a time to share with with group. I’d love to see you there!