You probably felt something with yesterday’s Full Moon in early Virgo. You may also have seen the Virgo Moon and Jupiter appear quite close together in the sky last night. Now, it is time to make a connection between what you saw and what you felt, so as to breathe again.
For no matter what sign they may be in, the fully lit Moon next to bright Jupiter is a breathtaking sight for anybody with both the eyes to see and a heart to feel the event.
Conversely, nearly any Full Moon in Virgo (whether or not it is in the same sign with Jupiter, or even seen) can easily correspond with having your breath taken away or held, due to some sort of exertion — whether pleasant or otherwise. That correspondence is explained (at least in part) by what both Virgo and the Moon represent for astrologers.
If you are a solar Virgo, or know any, you have probably noticed that Virgo consciousness often includes a certain diligence. Since everybody has Virgo represented somewhere in their personal astrology, that conscious framework is somehow part of who you are.
The assiduous part of a Virgo’s nature may translate into either the huffing and puffing of hard work, or a breathless exasperation deriving (at least in part) from the fact that Virgo is an earth sign. That’s because, of Western astrology’s four elements (fire, earth, air and water, which contribute to individuate the 12 signs of the zodiac), earth usually confers the upside of a more grounded and practical perspective than the other three. It also presents strong attachments as a possible downside.
Yet, and sometimes paradoxically, Virgo is also a mutable sign. Among the three astrological qualities (cardinal, fixed and mutable), which combine with the four elements to make each sign unique, mutability usually provides a more flexible nature than the other two. That adaptability, in turn, confers Virgos especially with an enhanced ability to release attachments in comparison to the other two earth signs, Capricorn and Taurus.
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As for the Moon, in all of its subtle complexities there is always an underlying correspondence to emotion and feeling — especially as perceived by the physical body. At no time is its physically emotional component more powerfully felt than when the Moon is full.
And in no way do emotions express in the body more tellingly than through the breath.
That’s how yesterday’s Virgo Full Moon probably correlated with some powerful emotional experience, urgency or attachment. You might still be feeling it in your chest.
Hence your probable imperative for today. It’s time to breathe. It’s not only appropriate, but important that you begin to let go somehow. If something from yesterday is either keeping you from catching your breath today, or has you holding your breath, the true nature of your work at this time is to begin releasing its hold on you. Fully and freely breathe again.
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Had this discussion on Sunday with my pal who’s teaching meditation to those in jail in Colorado. I suspect I’m not inhaling deeply, as a symptom of fear from ages ago, and thus I’m focusing on breath more intensely these days. Could it be that my lifelong fear resulted in heart defects?? So interesting and, possibly, fixable.
Thanks, Len. So wise, so grounded.
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Mary, at 11 I fell off a galloping horse onto concrete and was anaesthetised to set the fracture in my arm. Years later a recurring theme was body workers would always tell me to breathe out, which I took as ‘technique’. Several years ago I had sciatica and went to a rebouteur. He said all the left side was terribly compressed and he worked from the elbow to shoulder to heel, all the way throught that left side. The journey home in the car took an hour and after some time I began breathing deeply. Initially I assumed it was breathing in but after a while realised I was exhaling deeply (presumably (35 years previously) in fright or on impact/shock I had held my breath and never let it go?).
Cranio sacral might be equally effective so that your breathing becomes natural and reflexive again?
(Thank you Len too)
thank you, Pam … something so vital and so available to us all, the breath. I’m noticing within myself that the old habit of quick inhalations takes some doing to let go. Must be time to say goodbye to shallow.
really appreciate your kind and helpful reply.
m.
pam: Thank you as well for so thoughtfully sharing the benefit of your own experience (and for being so supportive of Mary’s situation).
Mary: Thank you for sharing so generously and courageously. You have my empathy from experience as regards to the subject of fear. On the one hand it is not healthy to be one hundred percent fearless. On the other hand, it is exceedingly easy to fear overmuch. As regards to the subject, it does appear that you are in fact the wiser and more grounded between the two of us.
It WAS a beautiful moon wasn’t it? So far I’m breathing pretty much normally, but then my normal isn’t the average normal I’m sure. I sigh a lot you see. Some take it as exasperation. It can sound that way to others. Really though, it is that I hold my breath (unconsciously) sometimes when I’m trying to focus on an action or thought. It’s as if I’m preventing the smallest movement from derailing the thought or physical process. . . like threading a needle for example . . from interfering with the successful conclusion I’m focused on. But sometimes I’m exasperated too. No doubt it is often emotional too. Then again it’s often just relief that something didn’t go wrong, or if it did it’s okay now. Deep sigh.
I think you are right about the diligence of Virgo as my chart ruler is in Virgo. It’s that perfectionism that drives a Virgo person to excel at something – often trivial – rather than competition. It isn’t a conscious thing. I’ve had a bevy of progressed planets in Virgo, including Sun, for about 25 years now. Maybe in 5 years I can learn to breathe like normal people do.
Who am I kidding. I’ll just be glad to still be breathing.
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Barbara: In addition to also being grateful for just being able to breathe, i am once again very grateful for the gift of your perceptive and erudite comments here (which always breathe additional value and life into the subject at hand).
Timely message, Len! Although I couldn’t see Monday’s full moon (socked in with fog here – how Piscean!), I surely felt it – & for some time before it was precisely full, too.
It’s felt a bit like that old saying, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” – which would be the Virgo get-it-done-and-right imperative, & if that gets a bit of Piscean fog, well – feel like I did/didn’t get much done, but I did become aware that I’d been forgetting to breathe deeply as a regular practice. As be described it, can be exasperation, can be about focus – & maybe with all that Pisces energy up at the top of my chart, floating off imagining yet-unpainted images has been more appealing than cleaning corners (4th house Virgo).
I’m working at being mindful of my breathing, “fully & freely” indeed. Although we’re about four weeks from Equinox, mild weather & early indoor planting have conspired to hint at the quickening energy of spring, & that merits a great, good sigh of relief & delight. Of course, the corners still need cleaning.
Bette: Many thanks to you as well. Living in Seattle as i do, it is more often than not that clouds obscure even the bright Full Moon and Jupiter. Having a relatively clear sky (albeit still washed out by city lights) on Monday night was just a stroke of luck for us here. Best of luck with that indoor planting (as well as remembering to breathe deeply). Be sure to plant a seed or two during the New Moon and solar eclipse on March 8 so that what sprouts will provide you with some botanical insight of its own.