This Full Moon packs an interesting gift if you spent a little time with stormy emotions this last week. Believe it or not, the path to pleasure leads right through those places where you didn’t get the love and attention you wished for, starting with Mom & Dad. The Sun and Full Moon both square Ceres in Leo which brings up the ‘what about me’ place that was starved of the right kind of attention for you. You may have been well loved and cared for in childhood and still have raw spots where it wasn’t the type recognition that suited your needs.
You may have been clothed, fed, cared for but without much applause for the places in you that are unique, lovable because of your quirks. Now it’s your time to find those places, pull them out of the shame closet and shower yourself with exactly the kind of accolades you secretly longed for and didn’t get. When you do that, there’s a whole lot of shaking going on that releases those stuck, icky spots. Hello pleasure on the other side of this shake out. There’s an added bonus to doing this – the places where you are sticky with other people become much less sticky when you pay attention to and clean up the places begging for some TLC. Those unmet needs have tentacles you aren’t aware of and they’ve caused you more grief than you know.
Because Ceres is so active this week (and month) it’s all about the stories we feed ourselves. Both what we believe about us and how you interpret what other people do, too. Pay attention to how some beliefs make you feel. Have you ever noticed how thinking something can literally make you feel sick to your stomach? Like the story you imagine when another’s behavior makes you feel abandoned. This week those moments float up to the surface for a ‘do over’ so you can stop eating those awful stories about you and the cruel world around you. There’s a much better banquet for you if you choose it and it’s calorie free.
The only way to enjoy the pleasurable feast is to first acknowledge where you’ve been gorging on junk food with a queasy aftertaste. Your friendships are a good place to start first and work your way out from there. Families and romance are much stickier with power struggles that feel entrenched. This month you can dig free one shovel full and story at a time. When you feel up your own love tank, others can follow your lead. The Cards and Stars can help.
Card of the Week: The Green Woman
Abundance, feast, joy, pleasure, fertility, beauty and passion all belong to the Empress. So do changeability, chaos, impatience and impermanence. This week’s Card of the Week invites you to keep an open mind about all these things in your life. They are there for you to enjoy, when you accept both the gifts and the shadows. Where have you blocked out the good in an effort to protect you from what you call the bad? A colleague reminded me of a great saying by advisor Lisa Gould. “Would you rather set yourself up for success or protect yourself from failure.” The cornucopia of delights come with side effects, and some rewards are worth a little discomfort. You decide how much of a trade off is right for you. When you do, you let in more of the feast and give up the famine. Especially important, is how you do things now. Make a new choice, take a chance that tempts you, review the price and agree on what you will pay. Then do it with your whole heart.
Monday: The Shaman
The theme of changeability continues with the Shaman. After all magic turns lead into gold. The Moon makes cozy aspects to Sun and Neptune, which pulls back the curtain so you can see that some of the best magic is situations require you pull from parts of you that you may not be so practiced at using. While everything has a unique set of ingredients that make it joyous, this joy comes with you to any new situation or relationship when you let it. Take one difficult situation and bring more of you to it. Do you need to put a healthy boundary down, have a difficult conversation, let go of an outcome and trust that all you can do right now is show up with what you feel and need. The rest will come together, as if by magic, if you stay clear on those two things. What do you feel and what do you need. How well can you convey that. Listen to what the other person feels and needs. Then turn lead into gold…
Take Action: Pick one thing you fear losing and ask the Universe to show you how to transform that fear into excitement at creating more of it in other places.
Tuesday: Three of Stones
Three is also a number of change and is linked to Mercury and Gemini, so the theme continues. Today’s Moon is in an easy aspect with the fleet-footed Mercury so your mind can travel wherever it needs to show you there is more than risk in life, there is also reward when you let go of the wounded place as the main decision-maker. Make choices that set you up for success rather than playing defense against loss. When you really own this approach you are free to examine new paths, doorways and beliefs in the abundance this week promised with the Green Woman. Mercury travels from heaven to hell, which means you see the original wound, and often the re-wounding you create over and over again, but you don’t get stuck there unless you choose to stay stuck. If you find yourself in a bad neighborhood in your mind, turn around and head the other way towards Heaven. Both are an option, you decide.
Take Action: If fear paints a grim picture, choose the opposite possibility and finish the thought with that image instead of the dire picture fear offers.
Wednesday: The Sun
One description of the Sun is our confidence, personal power and self-esteem. Today the actual Sun is in semi-difficult aspects to Saturn the Great Teacher and Chiron or the wounded place. What that means for you is that when you bring the light of day to some of those dark corners where you judged yourself by the unloving actions of others it helps you heal. Look back at your history and rewrite the story in your head. Give it a better twist, write in unseen forces that acted on your behalf even though it didn’t look all that good in the moment. Pull from yesterday’s Three of Stones and Monday’s Shaman to conjure yourself up a more joyful view of an ugly past in the rear view mirror. Every time you do this you make it easier and easier to do it again when your mind starts in with ‘sticks and stones’. Also know that ego often shields you from seeing how many places your wound was in control. The Shadow side of the Sun says without proper self acknowledgement our starving ego turns to control, we dictate and judge others in fear that they are doing the same about us. Use that as a prompt to give yourself some credit today. Go ahead, you’ve earned it.
Take Action: Choose at least one thing that you do today and give yourself a standing ovation.
Thursday: Ten of Stones
Home, the place of ultimate security. This Ten is the empowered one that creates in tangible form. Since Saturn, the Great Teacher is in square with Chiron, an adjustment is needed. Squares always require shifts and in this case Saturn rules limitations. Be ready to shoulder responsibility for restrictions you used to protect yourself from more hurt. You can drop that shield and know that you’ve got all the negotiating and engaging skills you need to communicate your way through current challenges. See where you wished for things that didn’t actually meet your expectations once you achieved them and know even the disappointment had something to offer. No matter what the situation was you’ve used in the past to justify living with your guard up, it’s still living on defense. You survived, maybe even thrived after your past pain and heartache. Now you know you can fail and move on to something else. In many cases, it leads to something even better. You know how you know it’s better? The contrast between success and failure teaches you. What didn’t work is exactly what helped to clarify what does work for you. Sweet, right? You are well and truly home when you trust YOU.
Take Action: Spend at least ten minutes where you look back over past big choices and believe you made the perfect decision no matter how it turned out. No arguments. Just try that belief on for at least 10 minutes.
Friday: Knight of Bows
This is the bravest Knight and courage helps keep our believing spirit forging ahead when you hit those sticky patches of self doubt and grief over the past. This Full Moon is emotional and asks you to be responsible for what you feel and what you need. Keep bringing it back to those two things. What do you feel, what do you need? When you commit to this then you really are safely home as yesterday’s card promised. There’s tension from Ceres the Asteroid that rules nurture, care and feeding because of a difficult aspect with the past and future ruling Lunar Nodes. Today is a turning point, you absolutely can feed yourself a different interpretation of almost anything that happened in the past. Sick or well, you hold the power in your life, in your stories. It requires you believe you are worthy of such power. While it may seem obvious to say, there are places you may still resist. Adjust, take a step and see how it feels. Then try it again. After all there is more than one place you took a body blow in your life. When things that look like that pop up again, see how you’ve changed, so the outcome can also change this time. The Taurus/Scorpio Moon and Sun help you see what you can let go of to make room for more abundant, fertile, joyful life. Move in that direction and expect impatience. It’s okay… it will keep you on your toes.
Take Action: Pick one thought, person or situation to release this full moon and write it down on a piece of paper. Then burn it…
Saturday: Three of Vessels
Oh, the second Three of the Week. Two threes signal a choice is required. Well what have we been talking about all week but the theme of choice. Here’s the Universe underlining it with another Three. This Three is creative or heartfelt and usually signifies joyful celebration with friends. The best way to apply the aspects and card insights today is to do a quick check in on how well you ask for what you need with friends. Would they say there is equitable sharing and caring between you? This is a place to test drive the new you for more up to date, authentic exchange between you. Invite them to do an inventory on any place where they may have held back more tender requests out of their own fear. Be on the other side of that with your own vulnerability. Any place you’ve limited yourselves can be reviewed and you and your friend can upgrade the connection between you.
Take Action: Ask a friend today, “What do you want me to stop doing, start doing and keep doing?” Then really listen to the answer and watch for defenses to pop up so you can test drive a more empowered YOU.
Sunday: Page of Stones
One person described the pages as students, a nice addition to being the ‘inner child’. It’s the young place in us that learns. Today the Moon moves into curious Gemini and Mercury moves opposite it into Sagittarius. Picture standing on one shore so you can take in much more of the view from the opposite shore. You add hands on experiences that reinforce the knowledge of you as the authority in your life. You are the first and best authority. Life offers an endless array of moments to interact with and bring that power to the moment to shape it into more of what you want. Each and every moment has that within it and with Moon trine Mars your actions speak louder than words. Whatever you do today pay particular attention to when others feedback impacts your choices. It’s okay if it does, we are wired to be more tribally influenced as survival. Notice how much of what you want do you surrender under pressure and what constitutes pressure. Some people feel pressured just by another person making a request. Others need a pointblank demand letter before they even register someone else’s appeal. Which one is it for you. Can you allow for it being simply a place to upgrade your security in communicating what you feel and what you need. Try that point of view on and see how it fits.
Take Action: What rate would you give yourself in the past on clearly communicating your needs versus what rate today – The scale is Good, Better, Best.
