Monday, November 27th
Full Moon
in Gemini 4°51'
1:16 am PT

From Failure to Fireworks: Illumination Under a Gemini Full Moon
by Erica Feldmann

This bright and powerful Gemini Full Moon arrives at the start of Sagittarius season to help us illuminate our true path. First, we must clear to create space. Since we’re in a somber time of the year, let’s make it a party! Gemini’s power is the airy ability to hold two opposing ideas in neutrality—two sides of the same coin, opposites by perspective only—while fiery Sagittarius season gives our Chariot year one last burst of flame to roll through. Together, ruled by the elements of air and fire, this Full Moon supports an exercise of shifting frameworks, flipping the script, and making explosions in the sky. I’m picturing twins named Success and Failure riding together on a fiery chariot through the night, having the best time on a date with destiny with the Moon glowing gloriously above them.

A dear friend (and Gemini rising) once said to me, “We’re all just stumbling around in the darkness, waiting for a light to show up in the distance. Then we head towards that light for a while, wait patiently for the next one, and then we head towards that.” Our job is to stay open and free enough to see the lights when they appear and start moving. Tonight, smack dab in the darkest season of the year, we’re going to create our own lights in the distance.

One of the most influential moments of my life came just after moving to Salem, MA, 13 years ago. One Sunday morning I stumbled across a postcard on PostSecret.com that read “Failure has freed me,” made from decoupaged graduate school rejection letters. The message resonated strongly, as the year before I had been rejected from every single graduate school program that I had applied for. This was perhaps one of the biggest, if not the biggest, so-called “failures” of my life. I didn’t think I would ever recover. My ego was shattered. Lucky for me, the Universe had other plans (as she so often does).

Had I not been rejected from every single one of the seven Russian & Soviet History programs I had applied to, I would never have eventually been accepted to every single one of the Women & Gender Studies programs that I applied to the following year. I picked the queerest, most radical program I could, moved to Salem, got my master’s degree, and opened the HausWitch shop a few years later. The rest is herstory.

This was obviously a much more aligned path, but I had no way of seeing that at that time. I was still in the dark about my real destiny. How could I have known that I would eventually open a business that would fulfill me creatively, financially, and spiritually when all I was trying for was a gig teaching Russian history anywhere I could find a job? It was a crucial reminder that we are always in co-creation with the Universe, and that means we will only ever get to “know” one part of the plan at a time.

— Excerpt from the 2023 Many Moons Lunar Planner. To read the rest of Erica Feldmann's essay and From Failure to Fireworks Spell for this Gemini Full Moon, download the November 2023 Guide. Want more magic? Order your copy of the 2024 Many Moons Lunar Planner here. 

Erica Feldmann is the founder of HausWitch. She holds a master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies, with a research concentration in Witches. Her innate interest in the connection between home spaces and wellness led to the creation of HausWitch in 2012. In 2019, her book HausMagick: Transform Your Home with Witchcraft was published. A Gemini Sun, Pisces Moon, and Scorpio Rising, Erica lives with her wife and two cats in the heart of Witch City.

Visit Erica at hauswitchstore.com