We seek balance. And the search is the point; the constant wavering, leaning to one side and then the other, exploring one point of view, and making room for the one opposing it, weighing the options. Equilibrium isn’t a sustainable state, but rather a dance we get to spin in and out through. Welcome to the full moon in libra.
You don’t need to believe in astrology to allow the archetypes of the constellations speak to you. You don’t need to be anything but interested in the wonders of the universe’s pulsing power, expressed through the magnetic force of stars, emanating simultaneous creative and destructive possibilities, cycles of planets orbiting suns, oceanic ebb and flow, and your breath. Exhale. Inhale. Repeat.
The wheel of astrology spins, offering us another opportunity to reemerge as the sun grows in warmth and radiance, bathing the Aries constellation in the fire of initiative esparks, the impulse to take action, and the courage to go for it. Spring bursts out of the earth, light expands, and bodies of animals, plants, and insects seek connection, collaboration, pleasure, and continuation of existence.
As Aries makes their spark of aliveness known, with life’s inevitable bumping into boundaries, facing limitations, and conflicts that arise from being an individual within a sea of other individuals, Libra arrives with the moon’s fullness to saturate our systems with the call for meaningful relationships.
Libra brings with it a reminder that even though life has its battles and frictions, discords and disagreements, beauty is everywhere, and that we must show up to it, receive it, and generate more of it. The Libra archetype invites us into the beauty within ourselves as well as in one another, and wants to remind us that peace mustn’t be forsaken, no matter how far or impossible it may seem.
We don’t need to have a faith based relationship with astrology to allow the stories told by humanity’s relationship with the sky strike a chord with us. As Libra reveals itself in the fullness of lunar glory, it wants to remind us that there are harmonious patterns within the chaos.
Harmony isn’t our origin. The cosmos didn’t start in order, it doesn’t continue in order, and its explosive endings create new possibilities. It is a beautiful chaos bursting and burning in and out of existence. Harmony doesn’t need to be the only goal, because if it’s the only energy we think is worthy of engaging in, we miss out on all the other qualities, experiences, and creative possibilities. But it is precisely why it’s so valuable – it is a part of the whole. It’s here to nourish us when anguish is a dominant flavor. It’s here to sing in our ears when what we mostly hear is a conversation about injustice.
Libra wants justice. She is our longing to see less suffering, our desire for equity and inclusion, our hearts wanting to see everyone taken care of. They are the parts of us that long to end all wars, the desire to stand together – masculine and feminine, shadow and light, tender and tough, work and rest, release and contract, Israel and Palestine.
Libra liberates the mind from the confinements of hopelessness. Not by dismissing it, but by integrating. It unbinds in us the need for relationships, and weaves us through interdependence instead of codependency. It unleashes the power of love as the invitation to interlace roots under the ground, and hands as walk side by side, and hearts and minds through meaningful conversations, connections, and collaborations, not only easy ones.
A full moon in Libra offers reflection on the pieces that lost a sense of purpose, that seek repair, that need to be included but don’t know how. It shines a light on the places that need to be gathered, repurposed, integrated.
The earth casts her shadow over this lunar event. This full moon in Libra is also an eclipse. The shadow is the invitation to learn to see in the dark. It is the call to reclaim the exiled parts. It is an opportunity to converse with what we have forsaken. The shadow wants to share a meal, to be seen, to be received.
It is time to look at what hides in the shadows of our relationships, to look at our part in the story, to take responsibility for where we cause harm – within us, around us, and globally. Taking responsibility without shame and self inflicting wounds isn’t always easy. This is an opportunity to see the shadow in justice work.
Are we shaming and blaming one side, while putting another on a pedestal?
Are we blaming ourselves just for the sake of peace?
Are we centering our own wrongness, or the wrongness of others who look like us, just so that we can be seen a certain way?
Are we putting all the weight on the other?
Are we taking it all on ourselves and by that creating more otherness?
Are we projecting onto others the aspects of ourselves that we want nothing to do with?
Are we looking at things from only one perspective, through only one lens?
Are we flattening the world into black and white, good and bad?
Are we reclaiming the shadow of whiteness only to cast more shadow of whiteness by dividing the world into distinctions too clear of victim and oppressor defined by skin color with no nuance?
Are we able to recognize the places where our search for balance binds, and even causes harm?
Are we willing to reclaim the shadow of social justice work?
Are we willing to look at the uncomfortable, and instead of othering it, make room for it, take care of it, and include it?
With this full moon eclipse we can create sacred space for the complexity of relationship within blossoming individuality, build an altar for connection and include what’s hard to see within it, make room for the gifts and the burdens of collaborations and interconnectedness, be with the beauty of the shadow, and the issues caused by too much light.
Make space for yourself to be present with whatever mood, energy, and conversation that moves through you. Make time for your body to be with the earth – feet and hands in the dirt, whole body on the ground, chest to the earth to breathe with it, to pulse with it.
If you want to bring the season into your body with this moon, check out the Spring Equinox Somatic Ceremony. It’s a journey into the first phase of the season through mythology, symbols, practices, and prompts, and a way to move into yourself and into the world in thoughtful, sensitive, empowering ways. Enchant your life through this embodied ritual.
Some say no ritual should be done during an eclipse, that eclipse time is for resting and laying low. I think it’s debatable. I think we don’t need to set such strict rules. You can feel for yourself what your system needs, and listen to what the energy around you is asking for too. Let it be an exercise in sensitivity, in listening.
For a quick, fun, lighthearted, and silly practice to energize yourself and release stagnant energy, so that you can do deep inner work on this full moon, and during this season, check out this FREE video practice.
May this full moon eclipse bring you insight and inspiration.
Much love,
Hagar