Image: 'Pulling the Moon' by Gary RosenbergThe Moon is full in Virgo at 6:21 p.m. UT on 22nd February. Occurring as Jupiter retrogrades across the solar eclipse degree from 13th September 2015, this Moon illuminates in fullness events of the past five months, their complex tapestry woven through our lives in ways that may have been hidden up to now. Life, in all its often hectic confusion, can sometimes feel like a million individual plates we must keep spinning simultaneously or risk unbounded chaos, when in fact its disparate parts are simply many faces of the One that animates our being. We are one life, all of us. What happens outside and around us occurs also within and through us. The notion that things happen to us and we must respond is a distorted reflection of being. Instead it is we who happen to life – in all our glory – creating the world as we go.
We may feel great resistance to the message of this Moon, for she places vast responsibility at our feet which could feel like blame if we’re not careful. Her light illuminates our role in every moment of our lives: the creative power we bring to every breath and each event. She sees no victims, no fate, not a single moment of bad luck or good fortune, only ourselves as whirlwinds of light and dark, energy and entropy, action and reaction, movement and rest. She reminds us we are shaped from the very stuff of stars, formed from the building blocks of the universe, born of infinity and eternity, boundless presence and sacred source. She asks that we let go the tiny mind which traps us in me and you, good and bad, unlucky and favoured, and the myriad ways we reduce the vast spectacle of infinitude into a manageable equation to quell our fear.
This is a challenging Moon, but also a comforting one. Which face we encounter will depend largely upon our focus. If we allow our minds and hearts to be absorbed in thoughts and feelings of loss, regret, disappointment, recrimination or blame then we may struggle now, sensing that life is so far beyond our control that any effort to continue on is lost in the chaos of life out of balance. If, however, we open our hearts to the cooling rain or warming sun, the subtle movement of the seasons who, in following their own nature remind us how to follow ours, we will find support from Mother Earth herself. For as she hurtles through the void without hesitation or hubris she is our greatest source of strength, playing her vital role in conscious evolution whilst willing us to do the same.
Any stresses of this Moon will be greatly eased by the recollection that we are all children of the universe, born of this one, bounteous planetary mother who meets our every need. All identities and personas, alliances and oppositions melt to nothing in the face of this knowing. This beautiful Moon reminds us that in essence and beyond it all, we are simply a force of nature like the tides and the wind, hot larva and the burning sun. But in all things, the human instinct is to tame and control, exploit and oppress. We do this to ourselves and each other, fearing our raw power, overwhelming emotions, lust, rage, love and fear. We objectify first, disconnecting from our collective heritage, and then judge, shape and control, be it our own feelings, other people or Mother Nature. Nothing is safe from use and abuse when we withdraw our own energy from it, perceiving it as other than ourselves. This Virgo Full Moon urges reversal of this trend, to look first within and then without, to see how we have divided and disenfranchised so many expressions of sacred source.
These are challenging times and we must find new and innovative ways to navigate its often choppy waters. But they are also times of rebirth and renewal, deep wisdom, transformational insight and life potentised anew. This Moon comes to remind us we are never alone, never cast out from the divine source of all things everywhere. We merely believe ourselves to be, in one mighty misperception which is rigorously challenged by the light of this Virgo Moon.
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Sarah Varcas