A Magical Harvest Moon
The Pisces Moon that reaches fullness just before 8pm ET this Monday can light up your life in surprising ways.
Forming a 180º opposition to the Sun, this Harvest Moon spotlights the Virgo-Pisces polarity, a pair of cosmic dance partners I’ve always found intriguing. They're alike in that they're both feminine mutable signs, traditionally associated with the cadent sixth and twelfth houses respectively, meaning more re- than proactive.
But Virgo, an earth sign, is about getting things done—as efficiently and neatly as possible. Virgo loves shortcuts, systems, and providing joyous service, none of which leaves time for grandstanding.
Its diametric opposite, Pisces, is the last of the three emotional water signs, and it seeks to dissolve and transcend. Pisces’ focal point is inward, but not in an egoic way—more like because it knows that's where we find the peaceful portal to the Divine.
Finding that “Off” (or least “Pause”) switch on our busy lives is the first step to quieting the noisy world so we hear a more subliminal message. This is where we find intuition, our personal truths and purpose, and remember the bliss of Oneness.
This full Moon is also void of course (VC), meaning it doesn’t make a major aspect to any other planet before it changes signs (entering Aries) just before midnight ET. VC Moons occur every few days, usually just for a few hours.
Traditionally, they’re brief periods during which we’re advised to not make important plans or initiate major action on the premise that it won’t “stick.” A little astro-geekiness: A VC Moon is one of the five “Strictures Against Judgment” in Horary astrology for that very reason.
Pisces Full Moon Magic
A VC moon in Pisces serves up a double scoop of inward-turning. Where Virgo is about productivity, Pisces is all about going with the flow—with empathy, non-judgmental Presence and, in its most evolved state, surrender.
So given that the ambient energy is Virgoan (because of the Sun), the Moon’s invitation is to find the calm in the storm, the stillness in the midst of chaos. This is the medicine of the Royal Hummingbird, who beats its wings so fast—50 to 200 times a second!—that they appear not to be moving at all.
Hummingbird teaches us about stillness in motion: how stillness is necessary to quiet our adorable monkey minds and how energy is needed to activate. There's a delicate balance that only we can strike for ourselves. Maybe that's why Hummingbird flaps her wings in the pattern of the infinity sign.
Full moons signal completions, fruition, turning points. This one, void in Pisces, seems insistent that we reflect before we move on. Did your most recent (project, relationship, adventure) bring joy? What were the challenges? And, most importantly: What did you learn and how did you grow as a result of it?
We future-oriented humans, at least here in the West, are always moving forward, planning, doing; being in motion. But too often we skip over the luscious stillness, out of which dreams are born.
If you can’t gear up to slow down, you might not have a choice when messenger Mercury shifts into retrograde, on September 26/27. So why not get a head start and downshift this week?
