“Waning Moon with Leaves,” chalk pastel memory sketch by Maria Theresa Maggi
The moon is full in Piscean as afternoon turns to evening in Pacific Daylight time on September 20, 2021. As the exact polarity/opposite of Virgo, Pisces does not focus on the detailed analysis and discernment of the last new moon. Instead, we may have followed certain protocols faithfully, only to find that the Pisces full moon has us swept up in something much larger than ourselves and our routines. It is a time when we apprehend things directly without words. It is a time we sleep and dream vividly. It is a time we may wish to escape. It is a time we are transported by music. It is a time we may be tempted by old addictions. It is a time we may long for a lost past. It is a time we are moved by the suffering of others. Indeed it may well be a time that we are given the grace to understand what we must do, not to save our individual selves, but as a service to humanity.
When Virgo lunar energy is prominent, me make a “to do” list and enjoy checking off each item we accomplish. When Pisces lunar energy is afoot (Pisces rules the feet in the physical body), we find ourselves staring into space, unable to remember what we were thinking about. Counter-intuitively, this “blank space” is actually fecund with possibilities and inspiration that we might never find if we don’t allow ourselves to enter it. In those seemingly “empty” spaces, like the tarot card of the Hanged One that aligns with it, the Pisces full moon whispers to us the fulfillment we desire to attain can best be reached if we believe in the promise of turning the usual sequence to getting there on its head. Sometimes the willingness to hang suspended or to look at something from a reversed perspective brings us a strength and sense of connectedness to Source we didn’t know was available.
Pisces is the last water sign, the last mutable sign and the very last sign of the zodiac itself. It is called, by turns, either the treasure chest or the dust bin of the zodiac. In its polarity with Virgo it completes the mystery of the teacher/disciple paradigm: as Virgo fastidiously cleans up the dust and dirt with a broom, Pisces comes to sift through what has been discarded as debris to find the hidden gems. So this lunar cycle sets up a dynamic of practice that becomes more than the sum of its parts. Instead we have a paradox: the two fish which are emblematic of Pisces, one swimming upstream, the other floating downstream, embrace contradictory opposites that fly in the face of Virgo practicality. And yet if we have done our Virgo preparations, the real gift is that we are now ready to let go and let God. The preparations do not lead us to a calculated result: instead they lead us to the doorstep of mystery, where Pisces calls us across the threshold.
Here are some suggestions for each of the sun signs for how to trust taking that step into the unknown at this Pisces Full Moon:
ARIES: Your dreams may be especially vivid now. A purpose or routine you’ve been trying to adopt to become healthier may be clear to you in a new way that bubbles up from your subconscious. The ways you’ve been hurt may be a starting point to give you courage to be more disciplined in meeting goals better for your well-being.
TAURUS: You want to follow a future goal to a dream come true, but it may mean uprooting to do it. There is wisdom in your dreams you need to believe in. Such faith will help you see what needs to change in how you approach new beginnings. Maybe there is a like-minded group or friend who helps you act on your beliefs.
GEMINI: You may feel tension between an ideal public image you must upkeep and what you are conscious of as your starting point in your immediate environment. You will feel better if you can come from a place of allowing yourself to feel more than one thing. Perhaps a journalism photo or video project helps you illustrate this.
CANCER: The big picture in education or law is awash with watery emotion and uncertainty. And yet there is a faith that comes through very strongly that you will make it through without the usual signposts. Something in your daily routine at work or in health you were so sure of is ending. There’s wisdom in allowing this.
LEO: You might find speaking up for a partner or an educational or legal cause close to home energizes you at a sad time in a good way. There are huge forces of transition, endings and beginnings coming down to you through others that you cannot control. But you can connect with others to make things better in the future.
VIRGO: You may become aware that the image a partner projects is not who they really are. But you also may have the opportunity to see how this image works for them. Your own intuitive wisdom can help you balance the discrepancy by keeping good boundaries and staying compassionate. Or perhaps distance soothes the soul.
LIBRA: Your ideal about how your routine should go or how the details of a work day should play out is getting washed out. Or perhaps you have to make a conscious adjustment because of an illness or injury that requires rest. It also may be a time when it’s good to daydream so new ideas can enter your awareness. Okay to let go.
SCORPIO: Your intuition is very magnified and fluid right now, which could help you tune into a child or a lover who needs you or who is suffering from delusions, addictions or trying to escape reality. Venus in your sign adds strength to your compassion, allowing you to penetrate the illusory barriers and connect to Source.
SAGITTARIUS: You may have traveled to see family or rediscover past connections only to feel a bit overcome by the effects of the past. Yet if you sit with it, you’ll find you can go deep into the soul of what you need to take with you and what you can finally let go of. It’s okay that you weren’t right all the time. Some things just hurt.
CAPRICORN: Your starting point at the full moon is within your soul. You want to get to the bottom of what is known but not expressed, both in public contracts and in your watery immediate environment. The way to do this is to trust your intuitive cues, dreams and the things that come to you seeming out of the blue. They matter.
AQUARIUS: This full moon could accentuate a sea change you are going through with your values and finances. What you thought was happening may not be happening and so you react as your reality principle and your sense of the big picture feel elusive. Let the fog roll in. When it clears, you will see the new path.
PISCES: There is a new order and big picture emerging from your unconscious. It may feel like you’re lost, but trusting the process and your durable sense of compassion can help you set your compass. A partner may bring a purpose of service that makes being creative or working with children again a source of joy.
If mystical union and mystery seem out of your reach, let me give you a mundane example of how Pisces energy can help us reside in expanded consciousness. I live in an expressly Piscean environment: the Oregon coast. Nearly every afternoon this summer, my service dog and I have walked down to our beach access to sit on the bluff together and stare out at the sand, sea and sky. The other day the clouds were beautiful and the play of light and shadow on the water created many shades of blue. The tide was high and the waves were loud. I sat there on the ground, spellbound, and grateful for the beautiful balm it gave to my aching heart. To the right of us another woman sat some feet away on a bench and another one came with her dog and was some feet beyond her.
Then an elderly man/neighbor came up to the left of me and sat down at a picnic table a few feet away. He had a little transistor radio with him that he cranked up and happily held out to hear better. He was not close enough for me to hear the words of the song, but close enough to hear the tinny sound as a distraction to the rhythm of the waves. My first Virgo rising instinct was to turn and glare at him for disturbing the peace. How did he not know we might not all want to listen?
This is where the Pisces consciousness kicked in. Just like the fog that rolls in on the coast, I was suddenly saturated by a memory that I had seen him do this before, and that the childlike pleasure on his face may be evidence that he is soothing himself and not aware that he may be disrupting peace and quiet. I realized that to glare or interrupt his own contentment would be a violence that would destroy mine. So I carefully scooched about another foot away in order to keep the sound at the edge of my hearing. In this way, I could invite it into the whole, being aware we were all there to be transported, each in our own way. Instead of pushing myself out of my own meditation, I moved over a little bit, even literally, to make room for his.
On the way home I remembered my yoga teacher used to say that her teacher told them “whatever happens in meditation IS meditation.” He also said “swimming in the infinite ocean, who is closer to the shore?” The reminders from Pisces wisdom are always timeless.
The liquid languid sign of Pisces amplifies the size and proportion of our lives, distorting it from the careful measurements we made at the new moon. This can be very disorienting or challenging, but one thing is certain. Since Pisces does not discriminate, it also amplifies the love in our lives: love shared, love remembered, love cherished, even in the face of overpowering loss. The film version of A River Runs Through It ends with author and elder Norman McClean fly fishing in the same river he did so in as a young man when he hoped to save his brother’s life. His last words to us as storyteller are “I am haunted by waters.”
May the waters of Pisces enter our souls this full moon and wash us clean of the illusion of our separation from the Source. May we trust in compassion to help us shine our lights, shed some light, and keep it light.
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