We Divine Our Desires, We Own Ourselves: March Full Moon

This Full Moon comes two weeks after a solar eclipse, and 30 days after a Full Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse! It’s here on a Thursday, ruled by Jupiter. The newness of Spring is warming us; we are a week and a half away from Daylight Saving Time. This March Full Moon is traditionally called the Worm Moon as the ground has thawed and we can see the worms moving through the Earth. Other names are the Chaste Moon, the Sap Moon, and the Snow Crust Moon. The orb, a glowing ornament of reflection held in the sky on invisible strings of gravity, sits above our heads wanting to impart its transmissions. She dares us to center, beckoning us into our intuition and our unique insights. She is our largest night light, slowly moving away from us, inch and a half by inch and a half, year after year. We are grateful to honor her, and honor ourselves, in this moment in time. Take space tonight or tomorrow night to light your spell candle and submerge in a saltwater bath. Consider what energies are filling up inside of you and what they are telling you about who you are now.

Having a Full Moon begin a month is auspicious indeed. This March month is so very ripe, so very special, as we have two Full Moons bracketing it. Two chances for massive magic. Outrageous manifestations. Carefully concocted celebrations. Potent and resonant illuminations. Two chances to merge the subconscious and consciousness. Two chances to consider the perceptions of our abundance as much as our lack. The second chance in this so far alarming, heartbreaking, fantastic, incredible year to worship life by the light of a Full Moon, not once, but twice in one month. If you’ve worked magic or done intention work in January, check back in on how that is going. Eclipse season is over, our hemisphere is warming up, and we can proceed accordingly now with the knowledge we’ve gained.

This Full March First Moon—the Full Worm Moon, Moon of Winds, Moon of Earth, and Moon of Water, this Full Moon magic just after an eclipse and before a Blue Moon dose of bright cobalt magic, this Full Moon—is a place to center and ground. You may be feeling like you are at the top of a roller coaster: that brief moment when time is suspended, right before gravity kicks in. You can see so clearly around you—problems becoming specks of brightly colored garbage that sneakily caught your attention with their garishness. Around you, you see other rides that careen and drop and the people on them—people who feel just like you, have worries and goals just like you, are also widening their vision and perspective. You are floating high above the mundanity of most days with an enlarged viewpoint, your body dangling in space. At the top of this vantage point, what different sights are you afforded? What are the most important things to know about riding your particular waves? How can you enjoy the ride more?

This is the refining Moon, creation Moon. Softening Moon, clarifying Moon. Widening Moon, affirming Moon. Transition Moon, nourishing Moon. The Moon in which we make all that which we need to make. The Moon where connection is made between the grain of sand and the beach. The Moon where we explore the art of combining our intuition with the practical.

This could be a fantastic period for growth, health, and service-related activities. It is an opportune time for the ways in which you use language and visuals to describe your identity, your achievements, capabilities, and vision. It is a supported time to name an organization or cause you are ready to commit to volunteering with, or fundraising for. Ask a friend or two to join: combined forces are always best. This would be a great time to spend time on your health: physical, mental, or emotional. Research detoxes, schedule a few times a day to stretch, hang out in child’s pose, put your legs up against the wall. In career areas, refining and defining goals would be favored. In other words: send that CV out, tweak your website, hire a coach, network and connect. You are allowed to get more serious about yourself. In all ways, you are allowed to go after what you want. Watch what transpires from four days before to three days after this Full Moon, especially if you have been Doing The Work (spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentally). By the weekend, you could have more answers to questions you may have about where the puzzle pieces now fit, and a real course of action could become clear.

The sign this Moon falls in is Virgo, while the Sun is in Pisces. In ancient times, Virgo was the Corn Goddess, Mother of the Harvest, so solidly connected to the Earth. “Virgo” means “Virgin,” which means “not married.” To take this a step further, this meant a woman who was “one-in-herself” (The Great Cosmic Mother, Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor, pg. 158). Originally, this word was derived from Latin, meaning “strength and skill,” then later morphed into the masculine “virile.” A strange shift, when we think about the present day contrasting connotations of the words “virgin” and “virile.”

Ancient Moon priestesses were called virgins. These priestesses devoted and charged themselves via the Moon—surrounding themselves with the lunar energy as cosmic flow and union. The Vestal Virgins of ancient Rome attended to the goddess Vesta’s temple of the hearth. They performed rites in service to the Roman Empire during special days: one special day being March 1st. Yes, March 1st as in today. March 1st was originally the New Year for the Roman empire. Thousands of years ago, these priestesses would be preparing herbs, sacrifices, and feasts for the masses to celebrate.

Is it your call at this Full Moon to celebrate?

To create a Spring appreciation feast for yourself and your loved ones, to celebrate a thawing?Are you feeling more contemplative at this time, wishing to have time to reflect, to make your space a bit more sacred today or this weekend? How will you do this?

How do you tend to your own belonging?

What is currently your secret strength?

The Tarot card that correlates to Virgo is number 9, The Hermit. The space of The Hermit is a contemplative one. The Hermit goes inside, inward, alone, by choice. She knows that to mine the depths of one’s soul, one’s spirituality can only be practiced by the very self one is interrogating. Very often, the journey of the priestess is a lonely one. (Shout out to Mary Evans of the Iris Oracle Deck for this phrase!) A strong message of The Hermit card is being alone so as to descend deeper into oneself. However, after all this background into the ideas of “virgin” and Virgo, can this take on a different meaning? Why is there, in every culture, in every heroine’s journey, the call for solitude? What internal alchemies can take place only when alone; what knowledge can be gleaned by a forced asceticism that ultimately aids and informs others? Where must you take space?

How do you view loneliness and how is this different than alone-ness?

A trademark of The Hermit card is sticking to one’s inner knowing, being on one’s own path. The tending of the internal flame. The hours spent laboring over sentences, charcoal drawings, sewing hems. Rites, rituals, and spell work. When we do this work, we may be alone but we are always connected to the collective through our higher vision. We are always applying ourselves ultimately for the benefit of others. This is the power of devotion.

This Virgo Moon, this Worm Moon, this Sap Moon, this Moon of today and this Moon of whatever it needs to be for you, is a reminder that only we can complete ourselves. We frequently look outside for completion, but the irony—and a truth of The Hermit card—is that everything we need is already within. Over time, with effort, diligence, and a pledge to stay on our winding path, to listen to the pauses, more answers become clear. Our own true knowing is for us so therefore it comes from inside of us. Your mind, your body, your rituals, your commitment to your own healing, is in part the practice of your passion, the tending of the flame for the community. The blessings only you can bring to your future self.

How can you devote yourself more fully to certain practices of self-care, healing, devotion and service at this time? What is one practical, tangible thing you can do in the next three days to call one of these themes into your life?

At this time, during the newness of Spring and just over the cusp of Winter, we can wake up as the Earth is waking up around us. Wake up to our own active healing. Initiate our own sacred ownership and belonging to ourselves. Brainstorm fresh ways to access your intuition. Put into action real ways in which to access your one true self, as you are today, as you are becoming. Is it through physical sensation? Playing music? Planting an herb garden? Can repetitive images be signs? If you’ve been hesitant but intrigued to explore one area of magic, divining, or an aspect of yourself, go ahead at this time and take the plunge. Your new belongingness will reward you in ways you can’t yet know now.

March is a transition month from Winter to Spring—the opposite mirror to the bridge month of October. Many of us are going through shifts at this time. We are becoming more of ourselves. Trust of ourselves is growing. The ask at this time is to be alone with yourself and your intuition. Like the Moon, like Vesta, like a Hermit: to belong only to yourself. You know that ultimately, the attention to yourself will positively ripple out to the whole. And that in turn will ripple out and aid your wholeness. This Full Moon, stay simple if need be. Commit to yourself. Spend time with your intuition. If you feel called to, there is a somewhat involved Tarot spread that is the suggested ritual for this time. Of course you can always refer back to it and do this at the next Full Moon, or a Full Moon two years from now. You can always just run a bath with some simple salts thrown in, put on some Sade, towel yourself off, rub your feet with some sesame oil, and crawl into bed early tonight.

Suggested affirmation: "I belong to myself. I know what I need. I divine my own path.”

Journaling questions: 

What transitions am I currently in?
Where is more healing required?
What are one or two actions I can take in the next seven days around this healing process?
Where do I make things harder for myself? Why?
How could certain things be easier? In what areas of my life could staying simple be best?
What is it time for me to really commit to doing on the daily?
Where am I ready to celebrate myself more?
How am I grateful to myself?
What would trusting myself more look like?
How am I resolutely choosing to belong to myself first at this Full Moon?

— Excerpted from Many Moons. Buy your copy here.

—Work with Sarah here.

_ Sign up for her newsletter here.