Virgo Full Moon at 27°40′
—March 17
All of today will likely feel like a swift gibbous building toward the technical full moon—which is just after midnight here on the west coast, so technically tomorrow—but then the moon moves into Libra very very early tomorrow morning, thereby creating a completely different vibe, so I’ve decided to write for the full moon today.
∆
Astrologer Dane Rudhyar assigned the degree of Virgo, through which today’s lunarly event occurs, with a keynote of ‘the sheer power of personality in times that call for decision…’ and offers a key phrase, ‘the power of the will’.
This may be “the time to seize power and push forward with decisions that need to be realized and grounded now…”
The real question should be: are you taking control, or making decisions, with wisdom and kindness?—is love underneath it all?
Shamanic astrologer Raven Kaldera states that this moon is a moon when “we count up our web of obligations—whom do we owe, and who owes us, and how do we feel about those obligations?” as this is a time to ask ourselves “who will be there to catch us when we fall?—we also look at our attitudes toward service and whether we render it with a whole heart…”
What goals or ideals of yours do you need assistance or support with now?—will you be offering your time and energy to help an/Other with theirs?
Also—and this has come up several times recently—the issue of failure, both potential and past, is being somewhat recalled… as in ‘when we fall’, as though it’s inevitable—there’s also a sense of obligation toward one’s self, and what we owe ourselves.
Not only failures are reemerging, but issues of ‘less than’, as well as victimhood—particularly how you go about navigating the occasions when you don’t exactly measure up or follow through, or even come close to what was expected or anticipated, or needed… have these times strengthened you and motivated you more fiercely?—or have these occasions flattened you, deflated you, or humiliated you?
Astrological theories toward Virgoan energies very cleverly hint toward concepts of ‘service’, sure, as in obligation, though, could these also be concepts of personal duty toward oneself and one’s personal sense of worth?—both to oneself, as well as the collective—because when it’s individuality, isn’t it one and the same?—ie, more for me is more for you; better for me is better for you…
When one feels worth something—worth something valuable—one does not feel like a victim when one doesn’t ‘make the grade’, or whatever it may be… one gets back to the books and studies harder.
Or whatever the circumstance commands.
Virgoan concepts of perfection, as overwhelming or seemingly impossible as it might feel, however, refer more toward wholeness than flawlessness, though, if you’ve ever known a solarly charged Virgo—their seeming flawlessness is almost painful… still, they are thoroughly and authentically wholesome.
Wholeness is a tricky matter.
The word ‘wholeness’ means full, or total; complete… but then it is also defined as ‘integral; sound’, ‘a thing complete in itself’ and ‘in view of all the circumstances; after consideration; disregarding exceptions’. The origin of wholeness, first recorded before 900—heill, an Old Norse derivative, meant ‘heal’.
I honestly thought I would see the term ‘Virgo’ within the entry…
As all Virgo full moon opposing Piscean sun events describe—this one is largely similar—this one asks you to honestly ask yourself: in what ways exactly can I fix all of my neptunian brokenness so that I can begin to order my life through my own authority? And in what ways can I willingly rise to my own occasion, or to the occasion being asked of me or expected of me, so that I might not personally and single-handedly drain down the entire system?
Then again—one must have a genuinely balanced and wholesome grasp on who they are before a sense of wholeness can ever actually be realistically and applicably achieved… I’ve honestly only met a very small handful of individuated humans with that kind of grasp in my entire life.
So this is where all that raw honesty comes back around…
Are you willing to be honest with yourself?
Are you open to receiving your own honesty?—or an/Others?
What would your own consensus be on this honesty?
This is a time of puncturing illusions…
A time of puncturing through your own illusions—about your goals, your ideals, and even your own personal reality—through ‘the sheer power of personality in times that call for decision… through the power of the will’… this is a time to seize power and push forward in these very decisions that need to be realized and grounded now…”
This is a moon to call out your weaknesses and brokenness—but not to celebrate these or, perhaps more severely to the point, exploit them; ie anything from testing anxiety to guarded speech, victim mentality in an everyday capacity to repressed rage… this is not a time to excuse any vulnerabilities, but to seek out the root cause.
What is the vulnerability of your soul?
The third decan of Virgo is associated to this full moon, a decan astrologer Austin Coppock states “shows the fate of all matter… in this face we ponder the ultimate result of material things” and paraphrases the Picatrix, as “a face of weakness, old age, illness, sloth, the injury of limbs and the destruction of other people.”
Again. The issues of failure and ‘less than’ reemerge.
All of which would be ideal… but not measuring up exactly.
Interestingly, it is the 10 of Pentacles in the tarot that is associated with the third decan of Virgo—a card that represents contribution, and all the other associations being the reward thereby.
Author Jessica Dore writes that “the idea of a world soul is an old one—said to come from the ancient Greeks, though likely not unique to them—that expresses an intrinsic web of connection between all life… it suggests that rather than understanding psyche or soul as something that exists inside the confines of the individual human body, soul is woven through every living thing and is therefore something we all exist inside—this is a very old philosophy of psychology, that is: the study of the soul.”
Further, Dore explains, “[in] looking at the 10 of Pentacles, it seems obvious that the card depicts an ecological notion of soul… ten creative forces that intervene between the infinite, unknowable God… and our created world.”
Dore continues to demonstrate a delineation for the 10 of Pentacles as possessing a much deeper meaning than a first-look face-value synopsis, but more, rather, toward wholeness, the ‘hoarding of the soul’, personal authority and responsibility, and… you’ve guessed it—failure—Dore quotes psychologist Mary Watkins here, that “to accept a sense of being overwhelmed and inadequate to the situation is necessary.”
Again, to be clear—necessary—not excused or rewarded…
Dore writes, “hoarding soul inside interiority, we feel justified in also hoarding resources; we take more than we need to avoid the terrifying sense of ‘being small, amidst many bits and pieces that do not seem to cohere’… we act out of self-interest rather than in the interest of the whole… too afraid to relinquish our partitions, we relinquish our membership in community for an illusion of control.”
What, then, asks Dore, would it take for us to re-member ourselves?
There’s quite a bit here to unravel, and you have quite a few decisions to make… and the buildup is only beginning.
Be kind and compassionate to yourself and to others, and in this honesty the energies are illuminating, should you choose to participate—be honest, because you’re worth it—but you’re worth a kind and gentle honesty… there’s a difference.
❝There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.❞
——Paulo Coelho
🖋️ by Jamie James; 📷 filters.of.perception
Coppock, A. “36 Faces.” Three Hands Press; ©2014.
Dore, J. “Tarot for Change.” Penguin Life; ©2021.
Goldsmith, M. “The Zodiac by Degrees.” Weiser Books; ©2004.
Hill, L. “360 Degrees of Wisdom.” A Plume Book; ©2004.
Kaldera, R. “Moon Phase Astrology.” Destiny Books; ©2011.
Rudhyar, D. “An Astrological Mandala.” Vintage Books; ©1973.