This Week’s Semi-Rare Full Moon Equinox

Full Moons occur on Equinox about once every 19 years. 
The last time this happened was on March 20, 2000.  The next time is March 19, 2030.

The really old ones—back  in Mesopotamia four thousand years ago when astrology was born—would look at us on Equinox today and shake their heads.

“Where are your great festivals?” they would wonder.

“How do you keep your people safe, in harmony with the gods?”

In the first New Moon after Spring Equinox, the Mesopotamians would gather.  Each member of the community was enrolled in the job of assuring an auspicious year ahead.  The same waxing crescent we’ll see in two weeks (after the April 5 New Moon) was for them a precise message delivered by divine forces to the human world.  It said, “It’s time to ensure the future health of your kingdom.”

This special New Moon announced the arrival of Nisan, the first month of the year, when nearly two weeks of rites would begin, including sacrifices, purification rituals, divinations, and the recitation of the great epic, the Enuma Elish.  This poem united and relinked the community to their origin story, how from darkness and chaos, the gods brought forth light, grace, order, and eventually, humans, to assist them in the smooth running of things.

Failure to observe the annual rituals would invite the gods’ displeasure.   Such a people would suffer conflict, calamities, and a tragic decline—which is just what happened when Babylon eventually did take its spectacular fall, in October 539 BCE.  Some say this was due to a serious miscalculation made by the diviners.  But in truth, the sacred calendar had been steadily unwinding over the centuries.  The great temples had fallen into disrepair.  The holiness inside the rites had been forgotten.

Perhaps it sounds a little like our time now.  Such is the way of things.  All worlds build and fall apart.  This is a Moon teaching.  Each cycle the Great Mother instructs us in how to behave during both the building and falling-apart times.

At the Full Moon, where we are this week, it’s time for revelations and gatherings.  This is the peak time in the lunar month.  What was true for millenniums of our ancestors–the hunter-gatherers, farmers, lovers, poets and pagans–is still true. We can still sense that Full Moon nights are powerful and celebratory. Even now, if you’re stuck inside a windowless room when the Moon is full, your body will likely feel restless.  Your mind could be teeming with bright or werewolf-crazy ideas.

At the Full Moon Equinox, the Mesopotamians would urge us to pay attention to the divine messages written on the sky this night.   Sadly most humans have lost the art of reading natural symbols directly.  We’re left to approach such events with a fuzzy kind of wonder.  We might think “Wow, Full Moon/Equinox … I hear this only happens every nineteen years or so.”  This thought will capture us for a moment or two then quickly slip away.  Without sacred context, it’s meaningless.

But if you’re one who yearns to go beyond and deeper  …  if you’ve ever secretly thought the gods might still be watching, take heart.  What was long ago true is still archetypally relevant.  March 20, 2019 is a meaningful day on which to offer your attention  to the sacred running of our world.  Take a moment, wherever you are, to step back into the sacred calendar.  This is a potent portal through which to visualize our fractured world made whole again.

In your mind’s eye, gently see it and sense it.  See us all gathered.  Sense our full willingness–around the globe–to write the great new story of our rebirthing.  For ours and our children’s future, for the futures of strangers and their children, for the futures of the rivers, plants and animals in our care, raise hands and heart to the invisible powers.  Ask the gods to help us cleanse, calm, and re-order the Earth into a more loving, harmonious whole.

If we all do this on Full Moon Equinox night, even for just thirty seconds each, this mini sacred rite will ripple out, into the Great Fabric of Things.  And change our fates.  As the gods are still interested and listening.

 

Do you yearn for a closer relationship with the Moon?  You’ll find instruction and support in my monthly moon playbooks.  Timed to your location, they include dates/hours for the pertinent movements of the Moon, as well as pages and pages of inspiration.   All you need is the time to pursue one of my monthly suggestions–and then the magic will begin!   Enroll for a month, three months, or a year, here.

Nervous system wired and firing this Full Moon night?  Here’s a fine antidote to werewolf syndrome:  Check out my  Bliss Tapes, especially the calming and uplifting energy meditations for Venus and the Moon.  Each practice is 22 minutes–20 minutes being the minimum time needed to shift your body’s rhythm.  Unwind physical tensions, clear energy channels, and refresh your spirit!