The Harvest Moon, Barley Moon, Fruit Moon

There is a something dreamy and wistful about this particular time of the year; the sweetness of summer lingers on mingling with the anticipation of fall. The pace quickens, the light slowly fades but we hesitate, still drunk on fresh strawberries, ripe peaches and long, lazy days at the beach. At the same time the apples are ripening on the trees and the faint scent of autumn perfumes the cool night air and this too is full of promise and seduction.

This is another Super Moon, the fifth and final one this year.

A Super Moon is when the Moon is closest to the earth, bigger and stronger than usual. These powerful Moons generate greater gravitational pull on the earth’s tides and on our own emotions as well, creating potential shifts in consciousness.

This is also the Harvest Moon, the time of the year when the earth is full and ripe, ready to yield its late summer bounty. What in your life are you ready to harvest, manifest, and bring forth? What is calling you; what is holding you back? This big, lavish Full Moon invites you to open your mind and heart and move in the direction of your dreams.

The Sun in earthy Virgo is practical and precise; it knows what it wants and has the discipline and focus to achieve it. The Moon in watery Pisces is not driven by details and to-do lists; this fluid sign is associated with inspiration and creativity. This Full Moon calls for the integration of body and soul, matter and spirit; the material world and the invisible world. Working together these two signs can harness the imagination and make visions real.

Mental Mercury (ruler of Virgo) in the sign Libra makes a stressful square to intense Pluto in Capricorn (exact on September 9) asking us to be deeply honest and open with ourselves and others. Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture) said “If I had only three words of advice, they would be Tell The Truth. If I got three more words, I’d add, All The Time.” That maverick Uranus is opposite Mercury provoking brilliant flashes of ideas but awkward and aggressive communication. A recent article stated that most arguments are caused by 10% content and 90% comes from the tone of voice. It’s okay to be angry; it’s never okay to be cruel.

“Wounding becomes sacred when we are willing to release our old stories and become the vehicles through which the new story may emerge into time.” –Jean Houston

Chiron (associated with the archetype of the “wounded healer”) plays an important part in the chart of the Full Moon. A minor planet, Chiron was discovered in 1977 around the time “healing” became a buzzword. In mythology Chiron was born a centaur, half man, half horse, both mortal and divine. Rejected by both parents he retreated to a cave where he raised himself. There he was mentored by Apollo (the sun god) who taught him the healing arts such as homeopathy, herbs and natural medicine. He became a gifted healer and teacher; he prepared the sons of the great men and gods to be the heroes they were meant to be.

Forgiving Chiron (in Pisces) is conjunct the Moon and opposite the Sun. Chiron (along with the Moon) is also part of a grand water trine with Saturn and the asteroid Vesta (the goddess of the hearth and the keeper of the eternal flame) in Scorpio and the asteroid Juno (the divine consort and goddess of marriage) in Cancer. Chiron’s presence can bring to the surface old scars, childhood fears, even karmic wounds. But Chiron can also help us to heal and become the heroes of our own life. The compassionate water trine empowers the feminine consciousness and aids in releasing fears, shame, and stuck places. This Full Moon and Chiron aides us in dissolving our differences, seeing the big picture and knowing we are all one, all good, all god. “The quickest, most radical and truly life changing action we can take is to treat ourselves and others with kindness. Kindness is the healing elixir of Chiron.”

This healing energy is further emphasized by Venus in Virgo opposite Neptune in Pisces (exact September 10). This is a reminder to make peace with our issues around self-esteem and self-sacrifice, to cease judging ourselves and others and love ourselves for who we are and not what we could be. As Marion Woodman says on her beautiful CD, The Crown of Age, “The goal is not perfection; the goal is wholeness.”

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Love, Virginia

The Ponds
By Mary Oliver

Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe

their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them –

the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch

only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world
is perfect?

I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided –
and that one wears an orange blight –
and this one is a glossy cheek

half nibbled away –
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled –
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing –
that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.