December Full Moon 

by Alynda Mariposa Segarra

2021 leads us to the number 5. When I think about this number, I see the human hand. Hands represent our humanity: our common desire to build something from our time on Earth. The hands represent creation: whether strumming a guitar, digging a garden, or perhaps something more sinister, like slamming shut the heavy door of a prison cell.

In the year 2019, I began visiting a friend in an immigrant detention center in Louisiana. There at the cafeteria table, he showed me his hands. In his homeland, he was a mechanic. He is very proud of this and worked extremely hard to achieve that title. As a child, he worked in a cassava field to afford schooling. While locked in an ICE prison for over eight months while seeking asylum, his hands have grown weary from lack of use. Yet the truth remains, he is still a mechanic. So he showed me his hands.

He is proud of his hands—they have little burn marks and scars. His eyes brightened when he presented them and said this is the sign of a good mechanic, someone who has worked hard. He wanted me to believe he is a hard worker, he wants to be seen for who he really is.

We all want to be seen, and we want our true nature to be honored. We go to battle within and without. We resist the colonial inheritors of late-stage capitalism. We struggle to flourish. We try to unlearn all the lies that we were taught about ourselves and our people.

Take some time to ask yourself:
Who are you really?
Have you had to ‘prove’ your goodness? Your worthiness? Your value?
Have you been monitored, imprisoned, or targeted?
Are you monitoring yourself out of fear or shame?

Under this Full Moon, I urge you to look at your hands. This year of 5 is coming to an end and perhaps you can see a beginning: potential, creation: we are ever new. The future is in our hands.

My hands look like my grandmother’s hands. They are my reminders. They hold generations of Puerto Rican strength within me.

How can we remember who we really are, no matter what?
How can we heal ourselves?
How can we heal the world?

Your hands are connected to the energy of your heart.
When you press your hand to the trunk of a tree, you feel your pulse.

The Black power symbol.
The middle finger.
The peace sign.
Hands in prayer.
Hands fucking your lover.
Hands banging a bomba drum.

In the year 2020, we became painfully aware of our hands: we were told to wash them with a new fervor. We lost our ability to touch the world around us. We gloved up. We felt a reverberation across the entire globe that reminded us of our connected humanity. We were reminded that we affect those around us. Avoiding contact became a gesture of love. The world as we knew it changed.

Hands represent healing, and healing takes work. We must commit to the practice of healing ourselves and others. Healing takes time and patience and is an education in unlearning.

As 2021 comes to an end, ask yourself:
What do you want to plant in the new world?
What are you tearing down (within and without)?
What are you creating/building?
What are you touching? What touches you?

The last time I was able to see my friend held in ICE detention, we were separated by a glass window, speaking to each other through a telephone. He pressed his hand to the glass and I pressed mine back. He told me this was insane, for he is not a criminal. I agreed.

We were made to be free.
We were made to be loved.
We were made to live on this planet in harmony with all living beings.
We were made to exist and flourish.

So make sound and create.
Fuck and fuck shit up.
Tear down prison walls.
It’s time to build. Together.

—Excerpt from the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner. Order the 2022 edition by clicking here. Read the rest of this essay, and get access to exclusive Full Moon ritual ideas, by clicking here. Listen to Alynda Mariposa Segarra's December playlist by clicking here.