It’s still cold, bitterly so when the wind kicks up and the heavy clouds obscure the sun. The trees are knuckley and bare. Everything is a pale shade of gray, porcelain and placid.
From afar the river reflects the flat palette of the sky, a mirrored channel cutting through the landscape. But as we get closer, our boots leaving marks in the sandy bank like an unexplored planet, we see the currents that point and undulate in ghostly motion amidst the stillness of everything else. Not gray but in fact a rich bluish brown, something like the swirl from rinsed paint brushes, swells and saturates the shore.
What appears so lifeless on the surface has a surging circulation system. The river will collect the runoff from the winter and melting glacial waters will refresh the surrounding land. But right now, it is digesting, filtering, churning with the sludge of last year’s deaths. Decomposing for the benefit of yet unknown possibilities.
Fear of uncertainty and distrust of the dark keeps many of us from fully embracing the liminal space, a place of movement and transition. We are deeply attached to the stability of contrast and opposition—dry land—and have trouble imagining the expansion we could receive by actually being in a state of flow. When we stand on the banks of a river in early spring, we can feel the rumblings of expansion. A force is building from that fluid transformation.
I’m sure you can feel it now.
Not only have we come to a Full Moon in Virgo—a full moon as in the cumulative representation of the last two weeks and full as in seam-busting, illuminating—but Saturn and Pluto, outer planets that affect our maturity and transformation, are going through major sign changes and in the northern hemisphere, longer days and the return of birdsong indicate that spring is just around the corner.
A pressure is mounting, and for some of us it may feel like we are a breath away from combustion.
Tomorrow’s Full Moon in Virgo—peaking at 4:40am PDT—may have us feeling like things are coming to a head. Virgo is a sign of discernment. It’s all about detoxification, analysis, and organization. You’ve been taking in a lot of new information lately, but have you been running it through your systems?
How well are your filters and boundaries functioning these days? Where can they be improved? Where are they worn out and no longer serving you?
We get to be in the process, now. Instead of on one side or the other—one bank or the other— we are in the current; as in the flow, as in the present moment.
Virgo is ruled by communicative Mercury and although full moons can be emotional containers, tomorrow’s moon trine Uranus can offer emotional freedom and relationship shifts through suddenly clear communication. Be mindful not to deny or try to control your emotions, but you may find it easier to articulate and share with others in order to create necessary changes.
About an hour after the peak of the full moon tomorrow, Saturn enters the sign of Pisces. For the last 8 days Saturn has been at the pressurized 29th degree of Aquarius. So if you were feeling challenged last week, like some of the lessons of the last three years were circling back and rearing their ugly heads, that tension and stress should be subsiding, if it hasn’t already.
Saturn in Pisces will ask us to mature through spirituality and imagination. We may see challenges to religious institutions or spiritual leaders, scrutinizing who is in their integrity and who is not. There will also likely be collective lessons about the rebirth process, such as the impossibility of “going back” to the way things were and instead embracing the next step “forward.” Our personal spirituality is being asked to mature, we can learn to really trust our intuition. Wherever Pisces is in your chart, you’ll benefit from a little bit of personal discipline. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a whole lot of material things will be accomplished, but integrating non-material values into our practical goals will serve us over the long-term.
FOR THE BODY
Virgo rules the belly, intestine, colon, spleen, as well as the digestive and filtering systems of the body.
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If you're not familiar with fennel, this root vegetable has an aromatic anise flavor and a satisfying, celery-like crunch. It is great for allaying bloating and belly aches, and it can help stimulate your appetite. Personally, I like it sliced raw in salads with some olive oil, citrus and pecorino romano. But you can also bake it into gratins, add it to soups, and roast it with other root vegetables.
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Thyme has antifungal, antimicrobial and antibacterial properties when applied topically. And when added to dishes can aid in parasite elimination and immune system support.
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Figs have a "cooling" (in TCM) effect and can also aid in digestion by detoxifying and supporting the colon.
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While peppermint and licorice tea will help with digestion and gut issues, mugwort will also help to ease cramping, menstrual issues, and support dreamwork.
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Work with smoky quartz for filtering out unwanted energy, stress, and fostering transformation. Lapis Lazuli will support the spleen in filtering the blood, boosting the immune system and detoxifying the body as well as clearing the channel to the voice.
*I am not a doctor nor registered dietician. Please consult your PCP to make sure that any changes are correct for you and your body.
The sign of Virgo corresponds to the Spleen, an organ that sits next to your stomach, behind your lower ribs on the left side of the body. It is an integral part of the immune system, filtering damaged or old red blood cells as well as regulating the levels of red and white blood cells and platelets. This balance ensures that our immune system is functioning properly throughout the whole body.
In Human Design, the Splenic Center corresponds to our anatomical spleen, the immune system, and the lymphatic system, as well as our intuition and some core fears. The awareness of this center is body-awareness: what is and isn’t good for us and our healthy growth.
When this center is undefined or open in your chart, your splenic center learns through experience. You may have been the kid who always got sick, or have had allergies come and go. You don’t necessarily have consistent access to a body awareness that would protect your well-being, it is a process of shaping and forming that body awareness throughout your life. Any defined gates here can manifest as fears or fear-based behavior.
When you have this center defined, you have access to a keen awareness of your body and its systems. Defined gates can still indicate strong and formative fears, but they also act as your primary expressions of your body awareness.
And book INITIATION to work intimately with your Splenic Center together!
As we round out this season of decomposition, detoxification, and move from death into rebirth, remember that your body will process these transformations at a slower rate than the mind. Just because we think or believe something doesn’t mean that our body is yet onboard. The mind is matter-less. It can process and transform a lot faster than the physical body, when it wants to. This means that during seasons of contraction, of shedding old ideas and turning inward, it is especially important to create the space and time to dedicate to processing through the body—somatically.
During a series of CranioSacral Therapy sessions, we often come to a point where the body is ready to release old tissue patterns associated with thoughts, beliefs, ideas, and narratives. This process is called Somatoemotional Release. We begin by building trust through a session where we gently balance the nervous system. This creates a container of safe exploration into the somato-emotional connection and allows us to support the tissue, organs, limbs, and systems of the body that are caught in energetic patterns of conflict or resistance. I’ve seen these sessions treat chronic pain, dysfunction, old injuries and new symptoms, allowing folks to transform their physical experience, aligning body and mind.
You can learn more about Somatoemotional Release and book CranioSaral Therapy below…👇🏻
If you're not local to PDX, I highly recommend finding a CranioSacral practitioner through Upledger International and the IAHP directory. You can find a practitioner here!
As always First name / my dear friend, I hope that this resonated with you and I am so excited to share more about what's to come. I'm happy to answer any questions via email or DM (@honoredbody). If you want to share the Moonsletter with others, feel free to pass it along! And if you're reading this and you haven't signed up, join here!
