Full Moon in Pisces I: Josiah's Luna Moth

I'm just returning from a Spiritual Sabbatical at this Harvest Moon in Pisces. My retreat lasted for a week and was so richly steeped in symbolism that I hardly know where I should begin.


First, let's take a look at this Full Moon in Pisces.



Full Moon in Pisces 9:39 PM 16 19 Pisces/Virgo

Sabian for 17 Pisces: An Easter promenade

Sabian for 17 Virgo: A volcano in eruption

My husband and I are very attractive to children. This is fairly well known within our circles of friends and family. What I mean by “attractive to children” is when we are around, kids (particularly young fatherless boys) follow us as if we were Momma and Poppa Duck and they are our ducklings. I can see the reasoning for this in both our individual and collective astrology. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me how regularly this plays out.

Children often speak without inhibition. They are more likely to follow their true instincts without giving it a second judgmental thought. And, if you pay attention, the Universe speaks through them in amazing ways sometimes.

Last week, I was outside in my backyard contemplating this upcoming Full Moon. As I was throwing the planets around in my head, our neighbor's two young grandsons came over for a visit. This is not rare. Our neighbor's grandsons know who we are and typically, our house is the first place they come when they are in for a visit. As a matter of fact, we've been told that they get just as excited to get to come visit with us as they do their grandparents.

On this day, though, our two little visitors came bearing gifts. The youngest of the two boys is four years old. He proudly walked up to me and handed me a very large fat reddish caterpillar. Now, I've raised 2 boys and I have 2 young grandsons of my own. Do not think for a moment that I'm unaccustomed to gifts of the squirmy nature. As a matter of fact, my Venus in Virgo delights in them to some extent.

The only problem with this gift is it came with a question. Josiah asked, “Joweeeeena (that's how he says my name), what kind of butterfly will this grow up to be?”

Well, I didn't know. So, we decided to research together and find out. In the meantime, I showed him a safe place where we could put the caterpillar and allow it to cocoon.

I also thought Josiah's gift was ridiculously appropriate since I had referred to my sabbatical as a time for cocooning.

After a bit of research, Josiah and I discovered that this caterpillar would not grow up to be a butterfly. Instead, it would grow up to be a Luna Moth. What a ridiculously appropriate symbol for an upcoming Full Moon in Pisces!

In our research, we discovered that Luna caterpillars squirm and worm around getting big and fat from Spring until Fall. In the Fall they cocoon until the next spring when they will emerge with their gorgeous green wings. Apparently, the moths are a rare find as they typically dwell in the forests and mainly only fly around at night. I didn't know this. I happen to see Luna moths quite frequently and was a bit surprised to learn that many report their sightings as rare.

After the Luna Moth emerges from the cocoon, it only lives for a very short time. It does not eat because it has no mouth. It's sole purpose as a fully grown moth is to find a mate and reproduce. Then, in a fading glimmer, the Moths die and a new generation of fat squirmy caterpillars emerge in a continual cycle.

On a basic level, the Luna Moth's life cycle speaks volumes. They spend a very long time (in comparison to the length of their entire life cycle), as a fat squiggly worm in preparation to find love. Then, in a final glorious burst, they emerge from a cocoon in search of another moth to love. They have ONE chance and it passes quickly!

On a deeper symbolic level, while moths are similar to butterflies in symbolism, moths have some characteristics that reach even more deeply than that of the butterfly (intuition, psychic gifts and breakthroughs). However, each (Butterfly and Moth) have been associated with themes of transformation, death, rebirth and the myth of Psyche and Eros.

To be brief, Psyche was in love with Eros (the son of Aphrodite). Aphrodite challenged Psyche to overcome four obstacles in order to have permission to love her son. Psyche successfully navigated these challenges. Then, Psyche was given the gift of immortality by Zeus and allowed to rejoin Eros.

With that symbolism in mind, let us now look at our Full Moon. First, Psyche and Eros are located at 9 degrees (retrograde) of Aquarius and 0 degrees Capricorn respectively. The Sabians for their placement are:

For Psyche at 9 Aquarius: A flag turned into an Eagle. Bovee's description of this Sabian relates quite nicely to the sabian for the Moon in Pisces (see above). Both symbolize a possible emotional eruption of sorts each with a different stimulus and purpose.

For Eros at 1 Capricorn: An Indian Chief demands recognition 

Bovee states: Power shifts can happen in many ways, but always involve a sensibility that determines much about the shifting. One is perhaps a little cool and ruthless… this is the way it is going to be. The other, perhaps a little naively romantic… reach for the dream, grasp the vision.

However, as Venus moves in more tight opposition to Neptune, Eros moves toward Capricorn 2:

Three stained glass windows one damaged by bombardment. Bovee says, “In Capricorn 2, we find a situation of bombardment such that one of three stained glass windows is damaged. Think of it this way: one stained glass window is broken allowing pure un-filtered light in; or, the destructive attempt to raze all three stained glass windows is futile... sacred space cannot be destroyed.”

Next, I'll remind you that Aphrodite, a Venus archetype, was born of the sea and at this Full Moon, Venus is in waxing opposition to Neptune Rx (Sacred space and unfiltered light). Also, we've just spent a week with the Sun in trine to Pluto and waxing opposition to Chiron in Pisces. If that doesn't sound like an opportunity to retreat to the underworld in an effort to heal one's soul, I don't know what does. Look around you, seen many people walking through a personal “dark night of the soul” journey? The energy has been present for that. It was a wonderful week for cocooning.

But, how do we emerge from our sojourn? What is it that we should be seeking? Well, according to our fair Luna Moth, love should be at forefront. With Venus in practical and sometimes critical Virgo opposing Neptune Rx, expect issues surrounding love and money/value/worth to get real.

For one thing, I don't believe that all of us are incarnated on Earth for the purpose of learning about ethereal and unconditional love. Some of us may be (looks at our North Nodes in Pisces). But, for the most part, we are here to learn how to build relationships with others in a world where unconditional love does not readily exist.

In Soul form, we already know what unconditional love looks and feels like. Why would we need to come to Earth and learn that? What we need to learn is how to get along without that in place. We are to learn compromise, boundaries, acceptance, tolerance, team work, effective communication and interdependence. With unconditional Soul level love in place, we don't need these talents.

On the Earthly plane, relationships become more difficult. Earth relationships are dependent upon many factors that can be ridiculously hard to navigate. And, finding two people who are willing to commit to one another and work through problems as they arise in an effort to sustain a healthy and productive relationship is rare. Finding a person with whom you can do this is just as uncommon as a Luna Moth sighting. Relationships are hard work. That work comes with a continual set of choices brought to all parties within a relationship. In a successful relationship each partner must CHOOSE to hang in a do the work even when “love” is not the sparkly ethereal thing our Soul's continually remember and yearn for.

Also, on Earth, just because we love someone that doesn't mean we are able to foster a healthy relationship with them. Sometimes, we are tasked to sit in loneliness while in love because our loved one is inaccessible or toxic to us. These scenarios offer up a totally different set of lessons in regard to love. Love can be a continual process of letting go and release in these instances. As my good friend Cat puts it, “To love is to grieve.”

What the Luna Moth reminds us of is the fact that finding love and fostering interdependent relationships is worth it. Our lifetimes on this planet are short. These lifetimes spent without love or relationship lack in value and depth. We learn from, assist and need one another...obviously, or we would each be on our own little individual planets and the ability to procreate asexually. You know?

With Neptune Rx, veils are certainly dropping and Venus in Virgo is running around trying to make sense of it all while realizing the impracticality embedded in many of our relationships. She will soon trine Pluto in Capricorn and sextile Saturn in Scorpio while creating a Yod with Uranus in Aries and Saturn in Scorpio. This will give her a chance to fortify her values and see how healing and personal freedom work hand in hand to bring us more close to the practical Earthy sense of love.

Get the whole “soul mate” thing out of your head. Seriously. You are never going to find someone that fits your “ideal” 100% and NO relationship is going to fall together without mutual work, commitment, trust, the ability and willingness to forgive and self-acceptance/awareness on BOTH SIDES. I don't care how ethereal your love for another person feels. Eventually, you are going to have to learn to talk to one another and work through difficult and sometimes emotional situations. This is real life here.

However, once you realize this, believe it or not, relationships become a bit easier. We don't feel as if we've failed because everything didn't fall divinely in place like we wanted. We realize that fostering relationships takes effort whether those relationships be with ourselves, our children, our parents, our co-workers or the dude at the checkout counter at Kroger.

With this realization, we stop waiting for everything to magically fall into place and start laying the ground work to put it deliberately in place which is exactly what the Luna Moth discovers as it emerges from its cocoon.

One question that this Full Moon begs of you is “Are you ready?” Are you ready to emerge from your cocoon and attempt to begin to foster working relationships in the world around you? If so, great! Welcome to the Party! Our inconjunct from Pluto to Jupiter at this full Moon says, the reformation (Pluto) begins with the wisdom (Jupiter) within you (Leo).

 
Be sure to check back for more on the Pisces Full Moon and find out what we received as a second gift.


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