December Full Cold Moon

On December 28th, the Full Cold Moon arrives. Is it a challenging Moon for you, a possibly treacherous time of the year? It is for me. With my Irish background, I’ve always been a leaner when it comes to brooding. I’m a history buff, so I am also frequently looking backward to understand here and now. Couple all of this with my current progressed 12th house Moon, and I could be a marshmallow of exposed nerve endings, a bucket of woeful tears.

I was born with several 12th house planets. My 12th house Sun wants so much to be loved and admired and approved of, and he is oh so insecure about it! It has taken me decades to learn not to curl up in a little snuffling ball until the internal weather warms up, but it has only been in the last few years that I have begun to make progress. That’s when I started truly listening to my beloved, a Divine Feminine powerhouse who brilliantly understands all phases and nuances of the Moon. This Moon mistress has taught me to embrace all situations and conditions as opportunities for healthy change, as opportunities to receive and create inspiration and love.

This process can work in such small, precious and effective ways. In a recent email, I told her that I was lifted up and renewed whenever she said — at the end of an email, Skype session or phone conversation — that she loves me. She remembered this. And without fanfare, without announcements, without demands for getting credit for having heard me, she simply remembered to say or write love you.

Imagine how much warmth that adds in this chilly season! It’s like turning up the pilot light inside. I see her and feel her with ever greater intensity, and all my feelings and thoughts are compassionate and loving. It spills over, too. I smile at others more. I am more at ease. I’ve allowed my 12th house Sun a voice, and that voice led to a greater sense of security and acceptance.

That’s what this Full Moon is all about. Deep in your burrow, open your heart. Speak the words of your insecurities and fears or write them down. Sit with them. Walk with them. Then try dancing with them. Go ahead, in your own room, when no one’s looking!

Here is a poem of mine that emerged from such a process. May it inspire you to name your own blessings in this cold month that houses such passionate, healing fires just waiting to warm the world.

Grateful

Be grateful that you live
Inside the head you do.
How many times have you
Gone sailing through
Your bed or favorite chair to
Wave a sign in the sleaze
Of traffic: Need money. Please!

How many times have you
Suffered with the losers
Of war, or chafed and simmered
On a reservation, or brokered
The rescue of many from fear?

How many hours have you
Survived the lessons of gender
Change, or held your hero,
So splendid because of you?

Be grateful, be father and mother,
Be teacher, sister and brother
In all that you dream and do,
Against the day your ledger
Is opened up to you.

© 2012 Robert McDowell