Welcome to the only Full Moon of September, 2017. This Full Moon takes place on a Wednesday. Mercury has just come out of retrograde—for those of you who make note of such events. With this moon smack dab in the middle of the first proper week of the month, we have the perfect opportunity to reflect, assess, emote, feel gratitude, charge our crystals, write down massive manifestation dream lists, enjoy time with loved ones, take a salt bath, go out dancing, have 
awesome sex alone or with someone else, light some candles, and snuggle up with what we wish to accomplish this month.

We have four months left of the year, including this one. The year has a quarter left in it. We are two weeks and two days until the Autumnal Equinox, that divide that connotes the cascade into proper fall weather, even if by now we can start to feel it, if only a premonition. This moon is sometimes called the Harvest Moon—when the Moon, closer to the Equinox, stimulates the harvest, staying brighter to help finish all harvesting chores that sometimes have to continue on into the night. This year, the Full Moon in October lies closest to the Equinox, so it is technically not the Harvest Moon. This September Full Moon is also called the Corn Moon and the Wine Moon, describing that time of the second harvest, after August’s. What is ready to be harvested in your life, brought up and left out for you to enjoy?

When the Moon is full it is reflecting the maximum amount of the Sun’s light. Something within us is stirred. For some, this glare from our subconscious is too strong—we shirk, spiral into shame, are overcome by emotion. Our energy sapped by disillusionment, bottle set adrift in the ocean with no message for the finder.

For others who know what they want, who are clear about their purpose and core, this time is excellent for further illumination. Now can be the time to come back inside, away from the noise and distractions. Any messages or inspired illuminations spark the fodder for later external manifestation. Write down, dance out, paint any and all inspirations that come through around this time.

In terms of spell work, we know the Full Moon is the most potent time for casting spells for anything one feels drawn to: manifestation, guidance, protection, energy raising, abundance, creativity, fertility, psychic messages and awareness, closure, peace, harmony, support, and alchemy are all supported at this time. The Moon itself is alchemy and fertility; she transforms reflected light into illusion. Her surface beams out the light of the Sun to become a lighthouse in the dark.

If there is something you would like to see manifested before or during winter, now would be a wonderful time to do so. This Moon is in the astrological sign of Pisces: the cosmic fish, the last sign of the Zodiac. Spell work that is especially favored now is for creativity or creative projects, potions and elixirs, fostering intuition or psychic ability, mental health, humanitarianism and collective efforts, faith, vulnerability, facing and healing psychic wounds and fears, facing the past and moving on, and accessing other planes—developmentally, emotionally, spiritually, and psychically.

Pisces, a mutable sign, represents the last sign of the three water signs—that time period when we are preparing for a change in the seasons. Think back to the last time we had a major moon phase in Pisces: that was our New Moon eclipse at the end of February, just over six months ago. Looking back, were any cycles initiated for you? What has transpired and manifested in your life since then? Remember, naming all that you have accomplished and cultivated, no matter the scope, is a way to keep manifestation going. Remember: naming all that you are in the process of accomplishing is a way to keep your goals in perspective, even if they haven’t become tangible form yet! These are simple ways to touch base and communicate with your intuition, and the universe, that the wheel is still turning.

Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit names for the constellation of Pisces all translate to “fish.” Fish, coming from the life-giving element water, were traditionally sacred to the Moon-goddess. The glyph of Pisces also resembles a crescent and waning moon. (Barbara G. Walker, The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects.) In the traditional Rider-Waite-Colman-Smith Tarot deck, the card that correlates with the sign of Pisces is The Moon card. This card comes right after The Star, and right before The Sun. Both The Star and The Sun emit their own light: The Moon is only a reflector and sometimes, a distorter, an illusion-maker. How? By existing in the dark, by playing on our emotions, the tides that rise and fall within us all. The Star connotes a coming back home, an acceptance into vulnerability. Now that we’ve spent time healing and reconnected to our core truth, it is time to take another deep dive into the subconscious mind and emotional fields within. The Moon card imagery reflects myths, imagination, wildness, and surrealism—other than the Wheel, this is the only card in the Major Arcana that contains no human figures. The figures that are depicted are quite strange: a howling dog and a howling wolf, a crawfish or crab, half submerged in water, half in land, and an unwaveringly bright Moon. How do we reconcile our wildness? Is being tame overrated?

Do you need to do the hokey-pokey, and turn yourself around?
Can your sensitivities be a source of pride?
Do you need to buy yourself a trophy for the incredible amount of tears you’ve shed?

The symbol of Pisces also resembles that ancient symbol of the ouroboros—the all-knowing serpent that, like the Moon, speaks to the cyclic nature of the universe. Life out of death, the ouroboros eats its own tail to sustain its life. Ouroboros represents the hard-won renewal that can only come out of destruction; the wise serpent—in ancient times thought to encircle the Earth—the cosmic serpent encasing the World egg, or a serpent god, at times correlating with sea dragons.

The ouroboros also encapsulates the idea of darkness and light creating the whole— another yin-yang, the mystery and known, the night in the day, the day in the night— the dual nature of all things, not in conflict. The balance lies in the duality. Energy flows in a circular fashion—at times internally, and at times externally, in coexistence and the acceptance of such. Illusions give way to reality, and the allowance and inquisition of the subconscious—dreams that lay on top of the mundanity of daily life. Our flaws can coexist with our strengths. In fact, they must.

Are your cycles a vicious circle or an inquisitive cycle?

Where can you welcome the unknown?

How can you best embody this daily, weekly?

Suggested Affirmation: “My intuition and sensitivity guide me into groundedness. I give myself the support that I need and I am open to receiving support.”

This excerpt has been adapted from Many Moons, Vol 2.
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