After the raucous start to this year, it feels like we’re entering summer with a collective confidence boost and a measured step. There’s the sense of “things have been hard, but I keep surprising myself with how I’ve handled it.” No longer at the whims of chaos, we do a lilting dance with the winds of change as they stir up what is around us. We catch our balance and make good use of the emotional and intellectual flexibility we have been practicing these last few years.

 

I often talk about riding the waves, or having “soft hands” when it comes to navigating personal and collective challenges as a compassionate and sensitive individual. It is to both feel the very real emotions of an experience, and to also keep room for the wisdom to come through by not gripping to either the experience or the stimulating emotional energy alone. Being human is an experience of growth and development, and existing in the belly of the imperialist beast during a tumultuous era of late-stage capitalism makes the process of individuation and collective progress particularly difficult, when homogenization and subordination are rewarded with manufactured security and comfort. This is to say that the structures and systems that have been in place for a century—some deeply rooted and much longer than that—prefer passivity versus engagement. 

 

Very little in our natural world is passive. Each creature, plant, or thing has a certain consciousness that engages with its environment. Trees grow through concrete, animals form friendships, and house plants turn toward the sun. I will not be a voice that attempts to temper the very real and scary events unfolding across the globe and in our own backyards; AND I refuse to let my individual existence become toothless and apathetic either through overwhelm or relative comparison. As an individual, I have a great and beautiful responsibility to myself and the harmony of the world around me to show up as authentic and expressive. When I reclaim the space and time to gather information and to think critically about my experiences and understandings, I can show up with a deeper presence for what is needed in each next moment and a security within myself. 

 

Not that this sense of internal security or understanding will necessarily directly impact external systems and structures, but it does change how we engage with our community and to our resources. Our individual actions can have direct impact, especially when it comes to steering the collective attention, which is why it is imperative that we continue to ask questions of ourselves and each other. 

 

Remember that feeling you had as a teenager where you were so ready to be taken seriously? Maybe you identified it with being an adult, or a professional. Although you were young in years, your experiences had informed so many critical thoughts and opinions. Even if now when you stand back from the experience, you can only identify your own naivete (“if only I’d appreciated how simple my life was!”), at the time you were driven to be heard, to make a mark, to express yourself and be respected for that expression. You were committed to who you were, even if you wouldn’t commit to that person now, and learned the invaluable lessons of revision and correction. And therein lies the magic of our maturation.

 

We have officially hit the halfway point of the calendar year, the seasonal year, and this lunation. We have the unique opportunity over these next few days to see what has ripened for us so far, to celebrate any win no matter how small, and to take new ownership over what we are still working on.

 

Tonight’s Full Moon in Capricorn peaking at 6:07pm PDT will not only be the halfway point of this lunation, but because it coincides with the summer solstice it is also the halfway point of the seasonal year! A full moon illuminates our progress during each lunar cycle: what we have accomplished and what still needs to be done. It can also help us to see what we may have missed or where we have unmet expectations. Six months ago, we were invited to set intentions for the new year and to level up our creative expression through transformations in our emotional world. 

 

 

Capricorn holds the energy of maturation, and through maturation inevitably comes a deeper understanding of yourself and your uniqueness that you are here to share. You may have found that in transmuting recent experiences, you’d like to set new boundaries for yourself or from others. You may also realize that you can and want to ask for help. Because this full moon is square Neptune in Pisces things could seem murky, veiled, or there could be a pressure to transcend the mundane. However, Neptune is making a sextile to Pluto, which could offer us the courage to challenge what has been accepted but is no longer working. This may inspire some spiritual growth along with intellectual Mercury making a sextile to action-oriented Mars, bringing us quick, analytical thinking when and should we need it and a gentle but assertive approach.

 

Venus moved into Cancer earlier this week doubling down on the loving energy in the air. You may find that you desire connection more now, and any new relationships, friends, or communities that you’ve engaged with this month will get a boost from this sweet energy. Let the light of the full moon illuminate how your relationships—personal, professional, romantic, communal, political, environmental—contribute to or inhibit your individual, creative expression toward more nuanced and purposive action.

 

We have reached the Summer Solstice: the day of the most sunlight followed by a bright full moon. Often referred to as Midsummer or the euro-pagan holiday of Litha, these days are an opportunity to honor the growth that has occurred since the Winter Solstice. Take stock of that which has been sown, come up, and is being nurtured to produce a resource for the rest of the year. Give thanks, both to your own commitment and hard work as well as the help from invisible and tangible forces. It’s been proven that both expressing and receiving gratitude generates stronger feelings of happiness and optimism. 

 

Most of us were taught from a young age to say “thank you.” And sometimes this simple phrase captures a whole spectrum of feeling. Sometimes, it serves us to create a special time and place for appreciation. During Litha, not only is there a great feast of the ripe fruits and foods of early summer, but there are often rituals with fire to ward away evil spirits by burning weeds and brush or casting the straw wheel of the year into the flames as a symbol of the shift from the days growing longer to the impending encroachment of darkness. We are often so future-oriented that we are strained to see what we have come through or from. I have learned from clients, and my own experience, just how seldom we appreciate our growth and development as if each new learning was merely a step to be stacked upon and not an accomplishment in and of itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In many European and Indigenous American cultures, the June full moon was called the Strawberry Moon or the Honey Moon for the ripe sweetness of midsummer. For a long time, sweetness in food was a luxury one would have to wait for throughout the year. Yes, honey can be gathered and stored, berries can be dried, but what a pleasure it is to enjoy a fruit right off the vine or the syrupy warmth of honey still bright with the flavors of the flowers visited by the bees! I feel privileged to live in a neighborhood where folks let their berry bushes grow over the fence, offering sweet morsels during morning walks. To indulge in sweetness is not the same as craving the satisfaction of it, which we are wont to do when core needs aren’t being met. And sometimes, the real joy comes from sharing sweetness; picking a berry not for yourself but to share with someone else and indulging in the delight that spills across their features. This is a season to fall in love a little bit—or a little more—with someone, something. 

 

alexandra@honoredbody.com