Full Moon in Libra
F U L L M O O N I N T H E F O U R T H H O U S E
f o u r t h h o u s e t h e m e s
House of family, foundations, home, roots, and the parent whose influence proved most nurturing. The need for privacy. Real estate. The subconscious and the stored emotional memories that fuel it. Ancestors and lineage, our origins. The place we learn how to release the past and ground ourselves in service of becoming self-sufficient beings. The necessary, nurturing foundation that allows one to go out and find one's place in the world.
F U L L M O O N R I T U A L
The Libra Full Moon / Lunar Eclipse is an opportunity to release those habits, routines, relationships and vices that jerk you out of an innate sense of balance. In the days leading up to the eclipse, make note of the moments you lose your balance: who or what is involved? Is it environmental? Relationship-based or situational? Is it your fundamental sense of security that’s being disturbed? Write it all down.
When it’s time for your Full Moon ritual, look over the list you created and use your intuitive, emotional, feeling senses to discern what you’re now ready to release. Using the following page, write out a list of everything you wish to release.
When you’ve finished, bow very deeply to everything you’ve chosen to let go of during this cycle. Try to remember the ways these habits, patterns or relationships served you once, and give gratitude for the role they played in bringing you to where you are now. Then fold the page as tightly as you can, place it in a fire-proof bowl, and set it aflame. As it burns, pay attention to the sensations and emotions that run through your body. Imagine your life unfolding without limiting beliefs standing in the way of your ambitions and dreams.
To close the ritual, rinse your hands with cool, clean water as a symbol of new beginnings.
W H A T I S T H E S I G N I F I C A NC E O F A L U N A R E C L I P S E ?
Eclipses present a concentration of energy unmatched by typical New and Full Moon lunations. We look to eclipses to precipitate major endings and beginnings — with lunar eclipses in particular, though, the focus is on what needs to be released in order to move on to the next phase of experience.
W H A T H A P P E N S D U R I N G A L U N A R E C L I P S E ?
Full Moons occur when the Sun and Moon are in direct opposition. While New Moons present an alignment of solar and lunar energies, Full Moons represent those two energies at greatest odds with each other, with all their differences starkly illuminated. Here on the ground, that manifests as a sensation of being pulled between two different poles or directions, a sensation which tends to have an amplifying effect on our experience of being in the world.
During a lunar eclipse, the Sun, Moon and Earth find such close alignment that the Moon actually moves right through the Earth’s shadow — we literally see our shadow projected on the face of the Moon. Full Moons already illuminate what’s hidden in our psyches; a lunar eclipse not only unearths what’s hidden, it takes it one step further, bringing up emotional material completely unconscious, completely invisible until activated by the eclipse. In other words? A lunar eclipse is deeper, wider, stronger, and more intense than a typical Full Moon. Feelings, intuitions, fears, revelations — nothing’s off the table. Tread carefully.
D O I N E E D T O D O A N Y T H I N G D I F F E R E N T L Y ?
First and foremost, and I truly can’t stress this enough: create more space for yourself to experience and move through whatever comes up in the days surrounding the eclipse. Why? Because there’s honestly nothing worse than getting broadsided by an emotional maelstrom and having no time to process what’s happening.
Since the Full Moon is occurring in Libra, that time and space may be artistic or creative in nature or, at the very least, aesthetic. Whether triggered by external events or internally provoked, lunar eclipses always present an opportunity to get closer to your unconscious mind. Be prepared for relationship issues to be a larger than usual trigger.
T H E B O T T O M L I N E
Ultimately, eclipses signify that something in your life has reached a tipping point. More than is the case during typical Full Moon periods, transition now is imminent. Whatever in your life feels ridden with tension and disharmony, it’s worth your time, effort and energy to begin to work to loosen its grasp on your mind, heart and emotions.
If it’s a relationship, will it end, or will you evolve? If it’s your career, will you quit or double down?
Since we’re in Libra territory, our work during this cycle is all about balance. It’s also a time to recognize those singular important partnerships — best friend and confidantes, significant others, even enemies qualify here. Where are you expending more energy than you receive in return?
Where are you holding tight to an over-idealized vision of the true nature of a relationship?
Understand that uncomfortable insights and events may seem to erupt out of nowhere in the hours preceding and following a lunar eclipse, awakening completely unanticipated emotions. Make sure you carve out enough space to process them.
Always remember that absolutely everything is of use. Absolutely everything. Even the most destructive circumstances provide fresh compost for future experiences. Case in point? A few years after the Fukushima disaster in Japan, when radiation leaked into the groundwater and soil surrounding the nuclear plant, a new species of mushroom adapted to consume the radioactivity.
Since this eclipse occurs so closely to the spring equinox, do your absolute best now to release everything that’s spent and expired in the last year. What you don’t release now will follow you into the next cycle so be intentional, be specific. Once again, this is Libra territory, so don’t forget to share your dream-vision with a close confidante.
If the going gets rough at any point during eclipse season, remember: you are stronger, larger, and more capacious than you dare to dream. Work to see difficult circumstances for what they truly are: the promise of higher functioning alignments that are still to come. Use sadness and disruption as an opportunity to release what no longer serves and re-commit to the future-possible. Find spaces to give gratitude for the opportunity you’ve been given to transform.
