We are midway through the Pisces season (when the Sun transits the zodiac sign of the dancing fish), and this week we welcome the Full Moon in Virgo around March 7th, 2023. This is the last full moon of this Zodiac year, as the Spring Equinox (March 20th) marks the start of a new cycle.
A lot is happening this month - in the skies and upon the Earth, in our inner and outer worlds, in our minds and upon our newspapers.
One of the things coming up for me is a dissolution of ideas and identities I may have created through the year, knowingly or unknowingly. Since, in the Zodiac calendar this is a cycle ending and new one beginning, it is a bit like a new year - something ends and something begins.
What have we told ourselves about our Self?
Is it actually serving us, our people and our world? Or did we make this decision from fear, obligation, complacency or guilt?
When we want to align to something - a desire or a goal - we want to make sure we are tricking or trapping ourselves.
Sometimes though, this is hard to see, especially in ourselves, which is where this Full Moon in Virgo can serve as a way-shower.
While Pisces energy is connected to spiritual Oneness, Virgo lies across the pole and offers balance in the form of grounding.
The Virgo Full Moon is a sensual and practical invitation that the Spiritual path (Pisces energy) is woven into the soil, the bones and the every day moments of our lives, quite practically.
It is the reminder to eat, move our bodies, pay our credit card bills, and gas up our vehicles while we also contemplate the future, the quantum, the spiritual and the unknowable.
Balance, Baggage & Boundaries
One of the reasons I appreciate Astrology themes, is because when they are interpreted with Love (without fear and desire to predict and control the future), they actually prepare you for what comes next. In this way, we get to learn how to appreciate where we are in the current step of our journey, because that is where we find ourselves. As well, we get time to work with where we are and trust that we are building the necessary awareness and skills for what is to come.
So the themes this week are to balance the Earth (Virgo) and Water (Pisces) energies within and around ourselves. This could be in our relationships, in our work, in our garden, in how we want to show up in the world this year. We are getting space over the next few weeks to check the baggage we carry to see if we really need to take all this with us on our new journey around Sun.
This baggage could be physical in nature - like in the form of chronic ailments, weight we carry or the muscles and tone we wish we had.
It could also be emotional - like hatred, jealousy, loss of faith in the world, in another on in ourselves. It could also be a lack of healthy boundaries.
Mental baggage is everything from stresses, anxieties, depressions, mental blocks or cruel and limiting language we may speak into the world or within our own minds.
There is also spiritual baggage which is often ideologies and beliefs that once served us, but no longer do. It could also be our rejection of or intense attachment to ideologies.
We may carry the baggage of our family, friends and coworkers because we are kind, but it is causing us to break. Alternatively, we may be throwing our heavy stuff at others, because we are flailing and never learnt to ask or receive real help.
Boundaries are also an expression of the energies this week and through the month.
Pisces energy aligns with the Universal Truth of Oneness. If you and are are One, then any separation we perceive is 3-dimensional, material and illusionary.
This is a profound practice of connection. And yet, we cannot live in the material world as it is today with only that. If we did, you would feel all of my pain and I wouldn’t know which thoughts and emotions are mine or yours. This happens to us when our boundaries are weak and old.
Virgo energy can help us express and evolve physical, spiritual, psychic and emotional boundaries, as well as the wisdom and compassion to honour the boundaries of others, without taking things personally.
It is the perspective that holds both spiritual and material, both mine and yours and is able to view boundaries as a loving and compassionate expression of relationship. It is also the practice and discipline to develop and evolve our boundaries when the need arises, which I explore here in an earlier piece.
Sometimes it is easy to see what is ‘wrong’ in our life or in the world'.
And yet, we either do not know what to do, or we cannot see how one practice, one intention, one deep Heart’s desire can change anything.
And so this Virgo Full Moon, in the most practical sense is about a Leap of Faith.
Leaps of Faith seem anything but practical.
Often, these are stories we hear about someone going against the odds, against the grain and succeeding in some way. On paper or on the surface something seems very clearly and obviously one way; and yet, someone leaps in the other direction and does what seems wild and insane.
But here’s the deeper truth.
To the person at the edge of the cliff of their Knowing, it is not insane.
It is most natural to step out and off the cliff.
What is insane, is staying on the cliff.
When that person has been me, I’ve looked behind to people who wish me well, love me and deeply want what is best for me. They are warning me about the cliff; to step back, to be careful of falling rocks and not to step out.
When they look past me, they see nothing but drop into the abyss.
In those moments, I can sometimes perceive an invisible floating step, asking me to Trust beyond anything I thought I was capable of.
If I listen to my fears, I begin to doubt and then I cannot catch the glimmer of that floating invisible step.
If I listen, with clear Heart and Mind, then I can see it with my Inner Eye.
And so, it isn’t insane walking off a cliff onto something you cannot see, but know is there. That is common definition of Faith, is it not?
So in this vein, the step is both whimsical and spiritual, and yet practical and sensical. It is both known and unknown. It invokes both a sense of safety and freedom, without compromising any one aspect. It is both Virgo and Pisces.
It isn’t that I know what is going to happen when I step off
All I know is if I take this step, I will be okay.
As well, it isn’t that my people are wrong in any way, or that they are trying to hold me back. There is great love, care and wisdom here.
Ignoring them, when I have done so, made me rash and eventually made me feel small, failed, and ashamed when I had a mis-step.
Ignoring my vision and knowing, because other people are saying something else, made me feel resentment and took chunks out of our own self-esteem and self-trust.
There is no fool-proof formula here.
I had to learn to balance both and honour timing of things as they come. This is another expression of the Full Moon in Virgo, during the Sun-season of Pisces - balancing the worlds within and around us.
There are many reasons we do not take these steps. For me, these reasons boil down to this: Do I hold the Courage to walk my True and Essential Soul’s path at all costs, regardless of what it looks like?
Luckily, in this season, we are greatly helped by our Solar System Family.
How Our Solar System Family is Helping Us this March
We have done the work of checking our baggage and with discernment and Faith.
We are walking well-equipped with great Trust in the new cycle of the Zodiac.
We are in balance and Know Our Self.
So now we are ready and grounded for the next phase - the starburst of new beginnings.
Maybe we could use some courage on our path.
Maybe what we require is some inspiration and guidance.
Maybe we need a new dream or vision or leave behind old ones.
Maybe we want an activation that propels us forward and support along the way.
Either way, this is our time!
These are some of the major transits through the month of March 2023. Since I am not an astrologer, I’ve pulled at some esoteric themes and shared my perspective. These are not predictions; they are simply the energies alive and pulsing as I see them and part of what I’m thrilled about this month.
If you’re interested in working with an astrologer or healer, I’ve added my recommendations below.
In this older piece - Underneath the Moonlight - I’ve shared some of my connection and reflection practices through the years and how they’ve helped me.
This week the asteroids of Vesta and Juno are both in the sign of Aries.
Aries is a cardinal fire sign. A cardinal sign carries the energy of something new beginning - the starburst. This is the energy of a seed’s first sprout. The seed, which had been planted deep into the ground a while ago cannot itself feel the warmth of the Sun directly at the start of Spring. Yet it knows its time none-the-less and in a leap of Faith, it pushes out.
Vesta and Juno are asteroids in the belt that lies between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
In astrology, Vesta holds the energy of the Hearth - the fires that light and nourish us. In Roman cosmology, the Goddess Vesta holds the domain of the inner fires, in our homes and our hearts, and helps us tend to them responsibly. This can be both tempering our passions and desires, as well as having the courage to go big and blast forward, depending on what we need at the time.
Juno, also a Roman Goddess, holds the domain of relationships, partnerships and commitment. This is certainly about marriage and coupling; it is also about teams, business partners and communities. We may long for these relationships, and yet we also have to look inward and see if we are truthfully creating space and commitment for the relationships we desire in our lives.
A few days after the Full Moon, an extremely rare transit of Jupiter occurs with the asteroid Chiron.
Chiron, often referred to as the wounded healer archetype, shows us where our deep and repeating wounds are - the wounds that never seem to heal. In its evolved energy, Chiron is the wisdom that comes from living our own experiences.
Jupiter, as the biggest planet of our solar system, carries brings with it largess. It is associated with luck, benevolence and synchronistic alignments.
Their short and rare dance in the sign of Aries, allows all of us a chance to finally heal the wounds that have never seemed to heal. It also amps up this ‘new beginning’ energy that we can then direct with our focus, love and intention towards whatever we want to create healing and new starts in our life and in our world. Aspects of our identity, our lifestyle and our choices in the world may intuitively change.
Venus joins this hot bash in Aries, mid-month.
Venus energy bringing with her beauty, ease, peace, love and asks us to elevate our relationship to all these things within ourself and in our world.
This could be something personal, like changing our style, clothes and hair; it could also be bigger - like seeing the beauty in healing both our wounds and the scars in our families, nations and planet and holding them in Love and Peace in our Hearts.
To me, this is beauty that is the opposite of what is undesired and ugly.
Rather, this is Beauty and Grace that nourishes our Spirits, even when things are undesired and ugly.
The Spring Equinox
At Spring Equinox, the Sun enters the Fire sign of Aries. The next day, we have the New Moon in Aries. This is the coming together of our conscious mind (Sun) and unconscious mind (Moon) as well as our physically and emotional bodies to create something new. The Equinox is when day and night are equal in length. So, this is the astrology of balance that we explored above.
This ‘something new’ energy of Aries is not superficial.
Even if all you changing is your wardrobe or your travel plans, if it comes from your True Heart & Soul birthing something into our now world, it is is Divine and Perfect.
Trust that. That, in itself, may be your leap of faith.
We are all being re-born in this time, in the Creation Fires of our Spirit.
This is our collective and personal Spring, celebrated by Spring in the Northern Hemisphere in many cultures.
We have been waiting for it, but in truth, it has also been waiting for us to Rise.
Do you dare to meet it?
In case you missed it, this article - The Dance of Faith - was published about 2 weeks ago, at the Pisces New Moon. Following the Moon is a practice of connecting the dots, developing our emotional awareness and our evolving relationship to ourselves and our galactic family. I explore it more in this older piece.
As such, I publish articles around the New and Full Moons every month, in addition to other weekly pieces on a variety of subjects, often with a spirit-based lens.
Recommendations for further exploration:
Making Sense of the Universe - Shannon Hugman
Molly McCord Channel
Tracy L Clark Channel