Whether astrology is science or magic, we’re open to most things, if they may be of benefit. ~ Ed.

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An older, white-bearded man with a hooded robe stands with staff in one hand, eyes cast slightly downward, standing on top of the snow-capped peak of a mountain, the other hand holding a bright-lit lantern, only illuminating his next few steps forward. For those unfamiliar with traditional Tarot, this is the image depicted on the “Hermit” card. It is a card of soul-searching, introspection, being in solitude, and searching within for inner guidance.

It is a card known to be associated with Virgo energy. The archetype of the Hermit. Of the one who seeks to move forward on his external journey by first going within. By trusting that all he needs is the call and knowing of his soul to navigate the road ahead and that in time the bigger journey will unveil itself. It’s the knowing that full trust of each step as it appears is the only way to deepen self-trust and faith in the cosmos to guide the way.

By now, in the first quarter of 2022, we are all very familiar with hermit energy. It’s been the energy we’ve all been initiated deeper into over these last few years. Being alone and being lonely are two very different things, though. We can be alone and feel so contained in our own presence and energy. We can be alone and feel so held and connected to the universe and our own humanity, by first being rooted and tethered to our own soul. And, contrarily so, we can be in a crowd full of people, in a relationship where we aren’t seen for who we are, and feel so utterly isolated and alone, cast out from life. Both are inner experiences. Ones only we have control and choice over.

We have been knee-deep in the energy of Pisces since the sun moved into the water sign a month ago. Pisces medicine has expanded our capacity to feel it all. To not have to be coerced in choosing one emotional reality, but swimming like the fish between many, knowing it is all aspects of the one universal energy. As are we. As are our relationships. Our careers. Our homes. They all spiral and gravitate outwardly from the source of creation. And, we are an intrinsic part of that. We are, in fact, creators, every single day, whether consciously or unconsciously so.

Maybe, we are at a point in our journey, much like the Hermit, where we feel there is something more to be gleaned from our lives. And, maybe we know by now it’s not in making more money, finding the “perfect” partner, or having all of our ducks in a row. It’s a gnawing at our hearts, an aching in our chests, a sob or few of tears that somehow, we feel so damn separate from our own souls.

Pisces energy is the energy of the Cosmic Soul. The one universal soul that unites us all. Because your humanity is my own. Your bloodshed felt in my own heart. Your aches and grief, my own grief pouring out of me if we so choose to venture into the depths of our own souls.

We have a Virgo full moon landing on March 18 at 3:18 a.m. EST.

Illuminating the fullness of what’s right here beneath our very noses, this full moon peaks at 28 degrees of the feminine, mutable earth sign.

With the sun opposite the moon in the sign of Pisces, we have been urged to explore more of our innate feminine sides, of which we all contain. The feminine energy is the felt nuanced nature of life, the intuitive, the sensing, the subtle or more profound knowing that bubbles up from our emotional landscape.

The moon being in Virgo may just be a deeper invitation for us to come home. To return to our inner landscape, to our soul’s whispers, to the energy of the Hermit seeking a new journey perhaps, one he only senses and feels and can begin by taking just one step forward and then another.

There is so much emphasis these days (especially in spiritual dogma and New Age consumerism) that says enlightenment is a “change/flex/mold/adapt/suppress/fix” yourself agenda. We all have been duped yet again in the guise of spirituality that says somehow, someway, who and what we are is broken and in need of fixing. And, that next self-help book, Guru, or detox cleanse is going to make you less f*cked up and more worthy of love and belonging. Don’t get me wrong, I, too, have believed this walking advertisement, no longer dressed like an airbrushed model, but a more relatable human who seemingly went from broke, homeless, on their deathbed, to miraculously healed, whole, and spiritually enlightened.

I’m not saying healing is not possible. Because it absolutely is. And it’s an innate instinct and motive of all of life and nature, of which our bodies and beings are woven into. Healing is about removing all that is hindering us to return to this ever-present, wholeness of self. And we are all on a journey (whether we know it or not) to healing our own sense of fractured self from trauma or otherwise painful, impactful life experiences. And we absolutely can heal. But, never from a place of brokenness or lack.

Spirituality does not have to be a rejection of the self now or ever. True spirituality asks only of us to be with who we are and not judge or reject it. This is how we heal. Not by changing, punishing, or shaming the self. But, by accepting and embracing. Because the energy of acceptance opens the space for more love to come in. And, love only wants to embrace us like a loving parent embraces a child who’s just returned home.

The transformation only happens when we stay with what is. With the density or lightness of emotion. With what is bubbling up. With what we allow to bubble up. With what we choose to face. And, ultimately, when we lovingly welcome and embrace our present experience and ourselves.

Our culture falsely promises that if we could just morph ourselves enough, we won’t feel pain. If we could just be skinny, rich, successful, validated by others enough, then, maybe, we will receive this love dangling on a wire, always an inch out of reach. Do we ever get there? Of course not. Because if we were truly happy and content within the self, these companies would not only be morally but literally bankrupt.

This is how we take our power back, though. By coming back to the self, right here, right now, bumps, stretch marks, flaws, imperfections, f*ck ups and all. And instead of us believing the judge within, saying to the self, “I see all of you and all of it is welcome.”

Easy? Hell no. It goes against every morsel of ingrained self-hatred we’ve been taught. But this is the energy that’s speaking to us more and more these days. Because what happens when we embrace and love the self?

A whole world opens. Maybe, even if just a crack to let some light in at first. A new way of being which we were maybe too afraid to open up to before. But, this Virgo full moon is shining a light on a potent opportunity to expand back into our wholeness. Not by doing more, but surrendering to what is here.

Virgo energy is commonly associated with “The Perfectionist,” the hardworking, in-this-physical-realm type of energy. Virgo energy is associated with the body, health, routines, habits, and day-to-day energy. The search for purity and purification through our routines and habits. The Healer. The detail-oriented person.

Virgo energy is here to remind us how to get clear about what is working for us day-to-day and what is not. To be here in the embodied reality of physical life. To tend to our bodies (Virgo), as the vessels of our souls (Pisces). Can we be so fully in this reality, while also staying connected to our souls?

With the sun in Pisces, we are encouraged to keep trusting in what we still can’t see but has been energetically calling to us. The intuition knows and all we have to do is keep taking one step after the other. Even just one step in the direction of that pull is enough. This is Virgo energy. The ability to chisel away at the task at hand. To be so focused and present with what is, while seeing how the parts may somehow all fit together.

But, we can’t fixate on the minute details of it all, as Virgo energy can. But to stay open to the unexpected, while being with what is. Are we ready for our everyday world to reflect our newer energy, not out of rejection of our former selves but in sacred devotion? Maybe, we are still honing it (most likely, we are), and that is to be expected. All we need is to trust the self even more. To be like the hermit and keep trusting his light to illuminate any darkness he may encounter on his path.

We are not that darkness though. We are the light, here to show the way forward, so others may know that they, too, can find their way.

This full moon is making a trine to Pluto in Capricorn. Another ending. Another death/rebirth cycle. Deeper transformation of self. Landing close to the end of Pisces season and the end of the zodiac year, we are all ready to energetically close out some prior way of being. It need not be dramatic either. Let it be subtle. Let it be sweet. Let it be easeful.

This moon interacts with the north node in Taurus. A deeper invitation to release what has been in order to open to the void of what is to come.

Less than a month out from this full moon, on April 12, Jupiter (the planet of luck and expansion) will make a lovely conjunction to Neptune (the planet of psychic foresight, spirituality, and intuition) in the sign of Pisces. This is a huge blessing from the cosmos. The universe may just be bringing in some quite unexpected things. So, what to do? Stay open. Trust the wait. Know that, by releasing anything that is not truly worthy of your time, heart, and energy, in reciprocity and true valuing of you and your worth, is already on its way out. And what is truly worthy of you is worth the wait.

So, let’s be with what is a little bit more, by coming home to the self, already so worthy of our loving gaze and attention. To our own soul. To our bodies so lovingly devoted to the expansion of our souls. To our hearts. To the light within us. Because by returning, we are found. By accepting and loving what is, we have already arrived. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to get to. Only a journey within the soul to keep showing up to. No matter what form it takes in the physical reality, but knowing that the source of creation resides within our beating chest. And we are only one conscious breath away from it. In and out.

We have already arrived.

So, in the words of beloved poet, Mary Oliver:

“What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

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More on this Full Moon: Full Worm Moon: 4 Affirmations to Ground into Balance & the New. {March 18}