Earning Your Balance: Full Moon in Virgo

Greetings! If you didn’t see my update on Facebook, I skipped the last newsletter because I was in the middle of moving into my new apartment. We are still moving and I’m still recuperating—I wonder if anyone else is feeling exhausted lately? My new home is functional and settled, even though there is still a lot to unpack.

I’m happy to come back and do some forecasting. I missed this month’s new moon, so I will be focusing on the full moon this issue. Stay tuned for some event announcements at the end if you are in the Seattle area!

Full Moon in Virgo April 1st

It’s fitting for the full moon to land in mercurial Virgo on April Fool’s Day. This full moon has the potential to be fairly heavy and penetrating due to Saturn’s presence in Pisces. Let’s break it down.

Virgo: The earth sign ruled by Mercury, where sorting and analyzing happen. It’s associated with agriculture—the reaping, counting, and storing—as well as service or the labor we perform as contribution to our communities and commerce. The natural 6th house. The Moon is passive in nature, simply being and experiencing without naming, defining, or analyzing. The discerning intellect and analysis are mercurial qualities, not lunar ones. In Virgo, the Moon can feel uncomfortable because of the tendency towards analysis and inventory-taking rather than just feeling things in the moment.

Pisces: The end of the zodiac, where materiality dissolves into universal consciousness and spiritual awareness. There is a loss of selfhood here. This can be experienced as spiritual elevation, but it can also provoke anxiety and resistance where we don’t want to let go of our ego identity held by the Sun. Saturn’s presence is burdensome to the Sun because of the emphasis on responsibility and restriction, especially March 20-27 when the Sun crosses over Saturn within 3 degrees. This tension will ease in April as the Sun travels through Pisces and away from Saturn.

Mars, Mercury and Rahu in Aquarius: This is a spicy combination. Rahu is the north node—a shadow planet that obscures information and creates illusion. Mercury and Mars are confrontational together, and things heat up fast in Aquarius where the focus is on justice (or injustice), technology, and innovation. Rahu’s obsessive and exaggerating qualities amplify the reactivity of these two, creating distortions to mental processes and strategizing. Mars aspects the Moon from Aquarius, which is energizing but can also fan agitation and anxiety with restlessness. Mars wants to charge ahead while Saturn throws up obstacles that slow it down. Saturn’s influence over the Moon can also create pessimism, making challenges feel harder to overcome than they actually are. Jupiter’s aspect from Gemini can help bring good intentions into the mix, but it can also further inflame Mercury from Jupiter’s expansive quality. Caution is needed.

The potential for expansion and elevation is here but it has to be earned through hard work, duty, restraint and careful discernment. This period of time leading up to the full moon can feel particularly depleting, which can make people vulnerable to the more anxious tendencies of Moon in Virgo. The question is: how do you balance your ideals, your physical needs, as well as your responsibilities? You may be forced to adjust your expectations or let go of something that is keeping you weighed down.

If this resonates and you’re feeling the weight of these transits, the following practices can help ground you during this time:

Grounding Practices

• Gentle exercise to calm the Mars-Mercury inflammation happening; bonus if you make it a routine. Yoga and alternate-nostril breathing are great for this.

• If trying to establish a new routine or habit, make the initial commitment extremely small and easy to satisfy. Example: instead of committing to going to the gym for an hour 5 times a week, maybe try a 30-minute walk every day and the gym once a week. Once that is established, try adding one more gym day until that becomes established, and so on. You may find you didn’t need 5 days a week at the gym to begin with.

• Be honest with your limits. Let people know when you can’t do something without creating significant stress for yourself. They may be more willing to offer support than you expect.

• If you feel yourself becoming angry or reactive with somebody, it is better to walk away quietly and collect yourself in a separate room before continuing the conversation. When you return, focus on communicating the emotion you’re feeling rather than attacking what they did.

• Don’t skip meals or rest periods, even if you feel like you have to get something done. There are very few things in the world that are truly that demanding (such as having your life threatened). The pressure you feel is anxiety and stress, and skipping rest or meals will only make those worse.

Event Announcement

Thank you for reading this far. I have some events to announce!

Apr 2-5: I will be vending at the Spring Mysteries Festival at the Hilton in SeaTac. The vendor hall is open to the public this year. The vending schedule is the following:

Thursday 12-5pm
Friday 1-6pm
Saturday 10am-6pm
Sunday 9am-2pm

I also encourage anyone with any passing interest in Greek mysticism or the Eleusinian Mysteries—Persephone, Demeter, and Hekate—to consider purchasing tickets to participate in the festival itself. There will be workshops as well as a recreation of the Eleusinian Mysteries rites. I will be participating in the mystery rites this year and am very excited for it. You can purchase tickets at springmysteries.com

May 3: I will be at the PNW Witch’s Market celebrating Beltane at the Lynnwood Convention Center in Lynnwood, WA. This event runs 12–5pm and is free to attend.

If you end up going to either of these events and mention my newsletter, I will be happy to offer you a free single-card tarot reading. I hope to see you there!