In Native tradition, this Winter’s Full Moon is called the Wolf Moon.
I do not hear the howling song of wolves in the city-forest I live in, but the resonance pulses through the ethers, available to those who are willing to tune into themselves.
These are certainly times where we may feel restless, nervous, impatient, even stressed with ourselves, our lives, others who orbit us, or world events.
When I felt restless and impatient, the last thing I wanted to do is to relax and slow down. Even though, it is the ideal thing to do!
I had to learn why I felt the way I did and thought my thoughts. This self-understanding is made available to us by the Cosmos in these weeks of January.
For the most part, we have dreams and projects and things we want in life. We effort towards them and when it doesn’t work out, that often leads to our impatience and frustration.
Here, we are led by the outer world.
For me, the idea of relaxing in these moments was aggravating. But living out impatience wasn’t an option either, so I decided instead to turn inward.
This is one of the ways I interpret a retrograde cycle in Astrology - looking within.
At the time of this Full Moon, we have some major energies in retrograde - Mercury of the mind and Mars of action.
But this isn’t about meditating a lot or limiting our life by not doing things. There are many websites telling you to avoid certain things during retrogrades. To me, retrogrades are not about making your life and word small.
It is actually the opposite.
They give us the much needed time to expand and nourish our roots and our inner world, so that our outer world is a vibrational match towards our Soul’s desire.
When I did look inward, I found all sorts of motivations that we misaligned. I found some ideas that didn’t even belong to me and it was someone else’s dream I had long ago borrowed. Other times, my motivation came from avoidance or desperation.
Looking within is scary and uncomfortable, which is why it’s amazing to have the radiance of the Cancer Full Moon with us.
A Full Moon in Cancer is like a Surfer who goes for the wildest and highest waves; the waves that make others cower.
It is partially because this Surfer is skilled and practiced, but it is also because the archetype embodies the surf. The human, the board, the wave, the ocean, the surf are one expression and the Surfer lives this knowing and rides it.
In its highest expression, the desire behind the Surfer’s choice is not to choose the craziest wave and show off abilities and skill.
It is a response to an undeniable call.
Sometimes, you are just called, in the storm, across waves of impossibility.
In these moments success and failure become irrelevant, and the simplicity of feeling, hearing a call, responding with our full capacity is what makes us soar, high above the beaches below.
The Surfer may hear the worry, caution and even jealously of others; but smiles and moves in the direction of wave with heightened intuition and faith.
Supported by our inner Surfer, this week, we get to uncover what scary and uncomfortable things lie beneath our motivation and our thoughts, with much more courage and capacity.
This is needed, because otherwise we may become the very reason of our own failure, limit and stagnation.
“To be strong does not mean to sprout muscles and flex.
It means meeting one’s own luminosity without fleeing, actively living with the wild nature in one’s own way.
It means to be able to learn, to be able to stand what we know.
It means to stand and live.”
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés,
Women Who Run with Wolves
If you find yourself bothered, annoyed, impatient or frustrated by the actions (or inactions) of others or with your own self, I encourage you to surf the waves of your emotionality within as you are building a new type of strength.
Once we are washed of our own emotions, we get to walk back up to the beach and lie back in the sun and sand, knowing that we have done the work of worlds with an enduring strength, not easily recognized in material world.
We have not used force or tamed the ocean of our emotion. We have risen tall, learned ourselves and answered a call of our Soul.
From our enhanced self-understanding and capacity, the nature in which we move forward adjusts, slowly at first, but steadily and with certainty.
As our emotions return to calm, we are left renewed instead of exhausted.
From this place, new inspiration and direction may drop into our projects, our life and our action steps. We express ourselves, our needs and requirements, our grace and gratitude, our vision and journey with intention.
We can do this because we are not busy fighting our body, our emotions or our mind. Our expression is now true.
This is our Wolf’s howl. Our song.
And maybe, one of the nights when the moon is bright, we howl our song into the world’s consciousness, in whatever way feels perfect to us.
We howl our song into existence as it is not a time of doubt, of hiding or of shyness.
We do it because songs of unwavering faith and unique courage that come from the tides of our Heart & Soul are required and recognized now.
So in this month of January, we have time to begin. And if we have begun, we are have time to tune-up a little more.
We are ready for what awaits us.
Surf. Howl. Sing. Express. Be Found.