Also called turning the coins, new moon money
When you first see the new moon, turn over the coins in your pocket so money will not run short until the next moon. A widespread British and Irish superstition.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Watch your footing outdoors after dark. That is all; this one is harmless.
Napier calls it a saying everyone knew: have money in your pocket when you first see the new moon, turn the coins over, and money will not fail you during that moon. He adds that seeing the new moon through glass breaks the charm.
Uses: coins
An Irish schoolchild recorded that on seeing a new moon you should go out to the garden and turn your money, and by the next new moon you will have twice as much.
Uses: coins
Opie and Tatem gather many English records of greeting the new moon, where turning money goes together with bowing or curtseying to the moon and making a wish. Details shift from county to county.
Uses: coins
Greeting the new moon is one of the most widely recorded British superstitions. People bowed, curtsied, wished, or turned their money when they first saw the crescent, and avoided seeing it through glass or over the left shoulder. The Scottish collector James Napier, writing about the west of Scotland in 1879, treated the coin-turning rule as common knowledge that everyone repeated.
Ireland had the same habit. In the 1930s the Irish Folklore Commission's Schools' Collection gathered versions from pupils, now readable online through Dúchas. Iona Opie and Moira Tatem's Dictionary of Superstitions (1989) traces the many English forms. Because the new moon marks a fresh start, the custom ties money to the moon's growth: as the moon fills out, so should your purse.
On the first day of each month, stand outside your front door and blow a pinch of ground cinnamon into the house to invite money and opportunity. This is a modern social-media custom from the early 2020s, loosely echoing older Hoodoo and Caribbean powder-blowing.
A farm charm from Johann Georg Hohman's 1820 book: walk your animals three times around a stump or stone with salt so they always come home. Here it is adapted into a home rite for keeping what you have and drawing it back to you.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
