- Capricorn Full Moon
- June 27 @ 9:54pm PT
- elemental focus: earth
- body focus: physical
Tell me, those of you who watch the sun set and walk in the moonlight…How does it feel? On your skin. Under your skin. In your flesh and bones. It’s been months, four or six perhaps, since I’ve seen the night sky.
But, I do catch the moon by day, soft among the clouds. It always makes me pause to see the sun and moon sharing the space above, and I wonder if the space below feels lonely…I imagine that the Moon and Sun are pleased to see each other on these days when they are not just passing each other like two ships in the night, or two too busy people in a relationship.
So, let’s feel a little more deeply into the energies of the Sun and Moon at this potent time (and, by the way, isn’t all time potent, and all places sacred?).
We are riding on the waves of the SUMMER SOLSTICE, which occurred nearly a week ago. Did you feel it? Ritualize it? Love it? Hate it? I fought it. And, I cried. A lot. I also prayed, made offerings, read and found support in friends.
While reading, I came across this quote and it has been working its way through me ever since: “What we profoundly need are rituals that take into account the blood, the shock, the heat, the shit, the anguish, the glory, the earnestness of the female body” (Louise Erdich).
These Holy Days - Solstices, Equinoxes and Cross Quarter Days - mark powerful times in the year. The Full and New Moons do so, as well. I find that making some kind of ritual, however simple, helps me align with the energies. But, this Solstice, I pushed back. Hard.
Somehow the bright sun was less apparent than the long, dark shadows. The Sun was closest to he Earth, illuminating the shadows, scorching the spirit with its fiery revelations. It felt more like a time of death than midwinter. Last year I shared a teaching from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés at a Solstice Circle: let die what is dying; let live what is living. Simple, yes? But not…
This year’s refinement: discern the difference, for the living and the dying are right next to each other, often overlapping. At the peak ripeness of life is the turning point toward death. I often mourn this moment, as I also know it is now a time of darkening little by little, of falling from the tree...and then? To be picked up, eaten, loved for every juicy bite? Or to be left to rot, forgotten, only later eaten by maggots?
Some things are meant to die. Let them. Others are meant to live. Encourage them with all your heart. Do not give up HOPE for the wheel continues to turn.
As for me, I want to LIVE in awareness. Not an awareness that observes from afar and above and beyond it ALL, but an awareness that fully engages with the living and dying and being HERE. To see. To taste. To feel. To know. To love. THIS. All That Is.
With Love. And you?
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This FULL MOON is in Capricorn, the Great Father and the “sea goat” - part goat, part whale. Capricorn is amplifying our drives to succeed, achieve and stay the course. It may also be casting shadows on those areas in our lives that feel deficient.
I remember hiking in Glacier National Park a couple years ago…We took the Road to the Sun, riding the scooter around sharp bends, up and up to the very top where mountain goats were climbing and leaping up sheer cliff faces. The space below them definitely felt lonely, even hungry for them. But, not one fell into the gaping valley mouth that day. Their intent focus was apparent from our perch hundreds of feet away.
Capricorn energizes us to: Focus on what’s most important - like the mountain goats scaling the highest ridge; and Focus on the bottomless potential of our thriving - like the whale diving into the ocean depths. The highest and deepest. The fullest LIFE possible.
Meanwhile, the Sun is in Cancer - the Great Mother and the crab. Sun moved into Cancer on the Summer Solstice. That midsummer’s day was not a gentle one for me and many - the light was harsh and the shadows long and dark.
FIERCE, is a better description of the Mother energy these days. And sharp, gripping us with TRUTH, like the crab. Fierce and compassionate, She calls us into our full STRENGTH, our full expression of LIFE. Strength is not a measure of force or control. Strength does not mean you can do it all on your own. Strength is a desire to carry on, a faith in LOVE to carry us through - All of us together. We can do this! And we are doing this!
Just one more thought on these two heavenly bodies, Moon in Capricorn, Sun in Cancer: these are the Great Mother and the Great Father. There is a contentious energy afoot, both near to the heart and far across the land. May we each do our part in our partnerships to respect the glorious nature of the other’s strengths and vulnerabilities. For the times, they are a changing, and we will do best by holding space for one another in the light and shadow, at our highest and our lowest. May we remember the goodness of LOVE.
And, if you’re having a hard time out there, I hope you know that you’re not alone. Take care of your sweet self as you climb those mountains as the goat, swim in the oceans of Consciousness as the great whale, move lightly on the shifting sands of time, sideways and every which way as the crab, and dream the world awake as only you can.
Love,
Jennifer
