Full Moon today, arriving soon, just after 1pm EST. Most of the Eastern and Southern US did not see a Moon last night for the snow/sleet/ice/stuff coming down, but maybe we’ll get a peek tonight––let’s hope!
This is the Full Moon in Virgo. Dear readers, you decide if this post feels more like an AA meeting or a standup routine. Honestly. I want to say really really good things about Virgo, and that’s hard to do and get taken seriously, Virgo being the nerd of the Zodiac who’s got her nose in a book and the latest tech gadget in his pocket protector.
Full disclosure: I am a Virgo Moon, a 0 degree Virgo Moon conjunct Pluto and my Ascendant, so, you want intense Virgosity, I got it. I’ve been on a Virgo journey my whole life.
First, the focus on details which Virgo is so good at: The belief that if I just get this one thing right––this ONE THING, is that so hard?––everything else will fall into place. In case you’re still trying this one, take my word for it, it does not work.
If these years of the Pluto–Uranus square have taught us nothing else, it’s that focusing on one thing only lets everything else go to hell that much faster. Somehow or other, we’ve got to keep the big picture in view.
In one way, this Full Moon is about exactly that: How we manage to keep the big picture in view while taking care of our own small stuff. The Big Picture astrologically is overwhelming: Sun the center of life, Chiron the wounded healer, and Neptune the oceanic cosmic visionary are together in Pisces, the oceanic visionary energy field. Plus, the Uranus–Pluto square moves toward its final exact point and the seesaw is tipped in the direction of fiery Uranus the radical revolutionary in Aries because he’s got Mars, Venus and the South Node at his party.
How does Virgo do that? NOT by focusing on the just-one-thing, for sure.
Second: Virgo anxiety. Virgo is the cat herder of the Zodiac. Once Virgo figures out the just-one-thing strategy is failing, she starts with the cats and ducks: If I can just get these ducks in a row, all will be well.
We already know where this goes, right? Also does not work. At some point, we need to release our anxieties and stop arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We are not driving this bus, and oh, are those explosives strapped to the chassis?
Let’s take a look at this Full Moon bus. Check the chart. Everything’s happening at the midpoints, around 15 degrees. The Uranus–Pluto square, and the Sun–Chiron–Neptune group. These are massive energies, cosmic in scope, utterly transformative in energy.
The styles are different: Uranus in Aries wants to burn it all down and start over, now, and our personal energies are right there with Mars and Venus. Bright, hot movement, flash points, new beginnings, urgent action––we’ve all felt this in recent weeks.
Sun–Chiron–Neptune are cool, mystical, a spiritual vibe that at its best brings us into deep and holy connection with All That Is and at its worst leaves us drifting in a dissociated fog. Been there too.
And Pluto, well, Pluto continues his inexorable, slow grinding of the mills of the gods. This is bone-deep tectonic change, the feeling that ranges from inescapable doom to ultimate justice.
And there, in the circle of light that is the glory of the reflected Full Moon, we have Virgo as Daniel, Virgo as Frodo and Sam, Virgo as Vasilisa with only a doll in her pocket. How can this turn out well?
Third: Virgo has a secret. Virgo is way more than the anxiety-ridden detail-driven nerd. Way.
Virgo is embodied. Virgo, Mercury-ruled Earth sign, holds the wisdom of the body, the things we known in our bones, muscles, blood, fascia, nerve cells. Virgo is all about what is firing between those synapses, what’s encoded in those neural networks.
Sure, there’s anxiety programmed in there, and dysfunction. We’re human. And the only way to release what doesn’t work and find the better way is to pay attention to what the body knows. And NO ONE is better at paying attention than Virgo.
My early years, abetted by my natural tendencies, taught me to ignore my body, to remain deaf to its needs, to mine its energies, to ignore its limits, and to feel despair at its imperfections.
Then, I got a wake up call in the form of an illness that took me down. That’s when my journey back into the body began. Taken under those circs, it hurts. And it’s full of amazing. I cannot believe all the wisdom waiting patiently for my kinesthetic hearing to become more acute, more finely tuned, more open.
And THAT is what this Full Moon offers. Every Full Moon is an illumination. This one, in Virgo, surrounded by overwhelming forces outside our control, asks us to pay attention to who we are, where we are, what we are, and draw strength and sustenance from that.
Think somatic
s, explore Peter Levine, try Tai Chi and Qi Gong, dance like no one’s watching with 5Rhythms and the shamanic Caroline Carey.
Connecting with our bodies is not a distraction, not a stress reduction tip. This is a wisdom path sorely needed in today’s world of head games and dissociation.
Last (but not least): Virgo is a trickster. How can any Mercury-ruled sign be otherwise? Trickery has always been the saving grace for small heroes. Coyote only survived being dismembered so many times by having such a deep, fundamental connection to his body he could always find it again.
We’re living in a time of tremendous change and great danger. We’re just these little persons, mortal, fallible, funny looking. So what can we do?
This Full Moon can, if we pay attention, show us what we can do, what the next step is. Sometimes the next step is to cock a snook at the forces trying to crush our spirits, lighten up, and dance.
Let’s do it!