Last night the moon shone bright on my walk home, marking my footsteps with tree shadow and calling forth spirits from the land. When I arrived, Venus shone directly above my house, a welcome and apt omen. Though in many ways the current times have been dark, I’ve felt bathed in starlight, a particular kind of lucky energy that’s hard to explain, protected and golden, like being in the vortex that the Abraham Hicks’ teachings talks about. My life has been flowing and I have been in the flow. I’ve been gardening and planting seeds and watching them grow in amazement. It feels like being in touch with the magic of life. I feel like I am climbing up that Wheel of Fortune after some time spent languishing at the bottom. These feelings run counter to many of the things I have been reading about this Scorpio Full Moon, and Scorpio energies in general. What with that and all the shadow work I’ve been doing, it’s gotten me wondering about what I am feeling, and the dichotomy between the dark and the light.
No Such Thing as Dark and Light
Full Moons are always a time to let go of what has been finished, accomplished, completed, that which no longer serves, what you no longer need to tend. Since the New Moon in Taurus, where lunar energies were at their most positive, you have tended to something, planted seeds, and now the Full Moon and the waning that will follow is the time to weed. Living all of this as experience, the light, let’s call it that which is growing, and the dark, let’s say that which is dying, allows me to embrace all of it, including my shadow, which somehow isn’t my shadow anymore. It strikes me in a way that there is no such thing as dark and light. That could sound misleading; we all know that that the sun rises and sets and that we are all moving towards death. We all know that death and destruction happen in the world, that people are currently in a dizzying array of life-threatening situations that try the soul, especially if we watch the news. Scorpio energies reminds us to gaze on this, so that we may contemplate the things that we may feel are unpleasant, but as I do I am reminded of teachings on the cycle of life.
The Cycle of Life
Today I just finished a book called The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, all about Marian devotion as a return to the ancient, prehistoric adoration of the Earth as a Goddess, and all the ways connecting to this movement at this time of great planetary upheaval and destruction can help us live our lives more beautifully and share our gifts. I highly recommend it, especially if you have had an experience of Mary’s energy or have an interest in her apparitions, or even if you just want to learn about an ancient and beautiful way of paying tribute to the life-giving Earth. The voice of the Virgin in this book reminds us that life is never ending, it is a cycle, as from dirt and back to dirt we go. This teaching reminded me of another book I read a little while ago, Mysteries of the Dark Moon: The Healing Powers of the Dark Goddess which ultimately ended with the same teaching, that even our vision of history is skewed, as we are now reaching towards a societal return to the feminine, and what was darkness for women during these at least 2,000 years of misogyny and ecocide, was really only a cycle of change too long for us as humans to fathom within our short historical time frame. I like these reminders that the way we humans view things, as either good or bad, is a limited way of viewing the expansiveness of the world that doesn’t offer us many keys for finding solutions to our current problems. Take the current epidemic: if the choice is either to work for money or be jobless, there are not many options for survival. In a world where either you have a roof over your head or are homeless, there are not very many ways of imagining how to make a world in which everyone has the shelter they need. Again, I’m not saying joblessness and homelessness don’t exist, I’m just saying we have created a world in which you can only have one or the other. We can no longer read between the lines or define a reality that might be kinder to our circumstances. Stepping out of our dualistic perspective allows us to enjoy parts of life we might have hated and find sustenance in places we thought were barren. Plants are good teachers for that too. They have been around longer than us, understand the cycles better, and don’t know how to judge.
One Inside the Other
Interestingly enough, the zodiac holds its own polarities. The Scorpio-Taurus polarity, which we are currently soaking in since the Sun in Taurus is facing off with the Moon in Scorpio, is one I have been contemplating since the New Moon. What I’ve realized is that, as with all polarities, one lives inside the other. The Sun in Taurus season holds the intensity of scorpionic darkness, as it reveals the Full Moon opposite it. This is always the case with Full Moons, as a Full Moon always appears in the sign that is its opposite in the wheel of constellations. This Full Moon, Flower Moon, Mother’s Moon, Milk Moon, asks us to embrace the darkness of our earthiness - our sensual pleasures and the call of the darker sides of ourselves, that which we would like to suppress. Isn’t that what mothers do, ask us to love all of ourselves. It’s what the Earth asks of us too.
Letting Go of Duality
This Full Moon, I want to let go of duality. I’m grateful for cycles, for the turning which both creates and erases all contrast. I can be at peace with myself. For in these turnings, light and dark are both balanced. During Scorpio season, there will be a Full moon in Taurus, and I am reminded of how perfectly the world is made, the Earth just placed so amid the cycles and movements of the planets, sisters that move around the Sun. The Stars that make the Zodiac remind us of the mysteries that are greater than we can imagine, all of it spinning around us, deep in story.
Valerian
Plants frequently remind me of the non-dual nature of time and reality. They die, they come back, they tell me everything is one, they show me how to use the past to create anew. To them, there is always dark in light and light in dark.
Valerian, which calms our nerves and helps us sleep, is growing all around the garden that I work in. It’s the first root that can be ordered through Flack Family Farm this year. Contact us there if you want some!
Once called All-Heal, a name which reveals its treasured medicine, I think Valerian can help us remedy our tendency to overly separate the black and the white. Growing tall through the summer, its root can be tinctured and as we take it we can be reminded that all is right and well with the world, even though things may currently seem chaotic and scary.
Buddha Moon
This Full Moon is also the one that Buddha was born, enlightened and died under. Writing about Valerian and its teachings of equanimity reminds me of the story of that Buddhist koan about the farmer whose horse was stolen. How unlucky, his neighbors say. He says, maybe. The next day the horse comes back, with three wild horses. How lucky! they say. The Farmer says, maybe. The next day his son tries to ride one of the wild horses and breaks his leg. How unlucky, the neighbors say. Maybe, the farmer says. The following day an officer from the army comes wanting to enroll him in the army, but his leg is broken so he can’t go. How lucky! The farmer says, maybe.
I suppose that even with my own luck, the point is to stay equanimous. That’s the thing about cycles, they never stop. So enjoy what you can in the moment in gratefulness, and let things slip away as they go. In moonlight or darkness, we come back home, we come back to sleep, and to the healing, balancing action of our minds which can bring us peace.
Let me know if you are looking for any help from the plants and would like to discover how learn from them directly. I’d be happy to help you. There may be a flower essence remedy that wants to help teach you how to integrate duality and love all aspects of yourself. You can also schedule an appointment with me here for an online consultation and I will create a special mix for you. I also offer creative coaching with the flowers if you want a more in-depth exploration of your creative process and how to get inspired by the plants. You can make a free call to talk about it with me here. Sign up below to get on my mailing list and find out more about my offerings.
I recently did my first Facebook live and spoke about the messages I have been receiving from Daffodil. This bright and sunny plant grows from the darkness and reminds us how to be in the world. Look at the small, the in-between. Notice the balance that is always being made between death and life.
Peace to you in your world.
Love,
Amy