The wild mysteries of life invite us not to figure it all out, but to expand our capacity to question. We are never gonna resolve the unknown. The more we know, the greater the horizon of our ignorance. We can feel the vastness. We are part of the infinite. But the certainty of a mystic view, where oneness is the end game, and once you merge with it, the problems of the world no longer matter, is over simplistic and delusional at best. The full moon in Virgo calls us into the space where the infinite becomes the tangibility of particularity, and where this process creates a vast array of ever expanding possibilities.
This full moon is also an eclipse. An eclipse can be seen as a portal, an opportunity to change, a doorway of dissolution with the promise of regeneration. This Virgo Full Moon Eclipse asks us to keep expanding, which means we won’t “achieve” expansion, but engage in a continuous process of growth.
Growing is demanding. It demands that we take rest and refuge when needed. It also demands that we keep going. It demands that we keep questioning. And it also requires taking root. It negates the idea that there’s purity, because the concept of purity ends the conversation. There’s nowhere to go from there. To grow, you must get dirty. It needs our commitment, because growing will make us want to quit sometimes. Growth isn’t a linear process, but a cyclical one. It includes decay and disappointment, there are failures along the way, and the path twists and turns, which sometimes mean we’re gonna be extremely unsure.
Virgo is an archetype that takes matters into their own hands. Confidence and clarity are its super powers. Focus and efficiency are at the core of their being. But at the same time, Virgo is also the part of you that can get fixated on the little details and cling to an ideal, trying to achieve the best possible results, to the point of obsession. Perfectionism is Virgo’s deepest shadow.
Eclipse is a shadowy time. This statement, or anything I share here for that matter, doesn’t require belief. These ideas speak in a mythic, symbolic language, which takes us someplace deep in our unconscious. It invites us to imagine, to allow ourselves to be inspired, moved, provoked, stirred. The meaning is not determined, but created. And so the shadowy realms of an eclipse can mean absolutely nothing, or they can be something scary and uncomfortable, or a deep cave to retreat into and explore more of our desire, more of what’s possible, more of who we can continue to become.
In the shadow that the earth casts on the moon, we can catch glimpses of where we miss opportunities because we get stuck in perfectionism. The “not good enough” conversation – referring to ourselves or to what we create, and sometimes to other people and things – can keep us from moving, from making, from trying, from connecting.
In the liminality of the eclipse you can examine; What ideals are you fixated on? When is perfectionism stopping you from moving things along? What’s worth your precision and effort to craft things meticulously? Where do you need to loosen up the grip and allow things to be good enough where they are? And what needs your focus, determination, and deep detailed attention? Offer it up to the darkness of the eclipse. Choose how to participate in the transformation.
The Virgo archetype is the power of discernment. It’s the ability to know where we should put more effort and where it would be better to release. Discernment takes us away from simplistic oneness into the complexity of differences within the whole. It’s that great intelligence in you that can read between the lines, see deeply into a situation, and sift through the chaos and begin to excavate order. Virgo can organize and build systems and clean up messes and create structures that support.
On a collective level, we are all experiencing a collapse of systems, a world that is falling apart right in front of our eyes, right inside of our hearts. Some of the systems that we’re witnessing crumbling have been rewarding for some and damaging for most. Some of the systems have been helpful to a certain degree, but problematic in many ways. Systems are necessary. They cannot be perfect. They must keep changing. There’s both shadow and light.
The great disintegration and disarray happening right now come from the most shady, harmful, undeniably heartless forces, not from a vast spiritual perspective. The systems that they want to put in place are not gonna take care of the people and the planet.
The shadow of Virgo is clinging to the existing systems, but the gift of Virgo is the promise of new order that will be brought out of the chaos. Right now, as we go through these times of chaos and uncertainty, we can lean into our imagination and ask ourselves what kind of new order we want to bring forth.
The sun is in Pisces, and with Pisces all structures dissolve into the great ocean. Boundlessness. The dream world is alive. The great ocean of the unconscious invites us into the depths. The fields of the imagination are wide and wild and available.
The light of Pisces radiating through the sun is reflected in the fullness of the Virgo moon. Imagination and precision meet for coffee, mysticism and meticulousness commingle, dreams and discernment make a baby. But then the shadow of the earth gets between projection and reflection, and this is the time of the hidden realms. In this moment of darkness we unsee what was shown before. And in the darkness we can discover something we couldn’t see in the light. A revelation is at hand.
With Pisces we swim in the ocean of oneness, and merge with the vastness of the universe. Limitless. It is our great openness. Wide compassion. The heart of all beings.
With Virgo we build structures, make order, gather power, bring ideas and dreams into form, live in reality, and organize the forces of the universe.
As an earth sign, Virgo is the power of clear boundaries, of solid decisions, of reliability. As a mutable sign, it knows how to shapeshift, how to transition from one form into another, how to usher a season into the next. That which is most solid is also ever changing.
The word virgo is the word virgin in Roman. Virgin is known to us as someone who has never had sex, but a virgin was originally referring to a woman who is onto herself. Not a man’s woman, but an unmarried, independent woman on her own. (Check out this piece I wrote a couple of years ago for the full moon in Virgo, and go into depth with the concept of Virgin, and relating it to Purim – Happy Purim BTW, if you’re celebrating).
Virgo is motherly but not wifey.
The Virgo archetype is a well developed personal existence. Being a cultivated person means we know the importance of connection. To reach for others in a healthy way requires that we hold the boundaries of the self. We extend ourselves into the world. But we stay rooted on who we are. Who we are is a soil; solid and ever changing.
We’re never not part of something greater. We’re never just ourselves. Our independence is always in relationship to the interconnection of all beings and things. Virgo sits in the place in us that weaves interdependence and autonomy.
As we move through the portal of this eclipse, we can breathe with the moon’s invitation to dissolve limiting beliefs and dismantle systems that suffocate us and others in the Piscean Sea. In the deep waters of the unconscious we can excavate the pieces with which we can build structures of meaning.
Check out this Virgo Full Moon Eclipse video.
If you’re in LA, join me tomorrow (Friday March 14th) for an embodied exploration of this eclipse. 9:30am at Crescent Yoga in Altadena.
The community in Altadena was hit hard by the fires. Showing up to class there supports the community, and helps a small women owned business stay in business. I know you care! I’ll see you there!
I’m so excited for my new publication on Substack. I have so many ideas and plans for what we can do there together. I started a new project: Monday Muse Medicine. Every Monday I’ll send some prompts to fire up your imagination, stir your inspiration, and get you into a creative mode. We need our generative, innovative power. And we need to tap into it both on our own as well as together. So we’ll cast a circle and share whatever is ignited through these prompts; poems, paintings, drawings, dances, a collection of thoughts put together, a musical musing… anything that glows through you.
Here’s the first Monday Muse Medicine post.
If you’re already subscribed there, yay! I’m so excited to be connected in this way. And thank you so much for your support! If you’re not yet subscribed, you can do it here. I would appreciate it so much!
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Have a meaningful full moon eclipse!
So much love,
Hagar