Full Moon in Aries 2019

In many ways, 2019 has been a challenging year. For me personally, there were health challenges and other crazy, chaotic moments. For one friend, it was a traumatic relationship. For another, the death of an intimate friend. For a third, one major household issue after another.

We have been in a crucible and are preparing to blow off the ashes and step into some significant shifts. This Aries Full Moon is set to guide our way from self-imposed limits to freedom, to bring us out from behind our masks.

Full Moons are about completion, fulfillment of a cycle. This one, called the Hunter's Moon, is no different, yet it also brings a sense of new beginnings with its energy in Aries, the first sign of the Zodiac. The change this Full Moon brings is drastic and transformative, revolutionary even. It's a time to take action, not sit by the sidelines waiting for someone else to take charge. This Moon is about our personal Independence and confidence adding our power into that of the collective. It fans our spark of competitiveness to defeat any monsters that may come our way.

This Full Moon is in a square to Pluto, demanding that we bring ourselves out from behind our guides and into the full light of our power. The Sun squaring Pluto the day after the Full Moon means that whatever hides in the deepest caverns of our psyched must be dealt with. We reach for our truest selves amidst any grief over the transformations the light forces us to take. We are heading toward our destinies.

This is all coming during Libra Season, our inspiration to transform what is out of balance. Libra is also a constant in holding us accountable and aware of the balance of justice. During this Aries Full Moon, it especially reminds us not to forsake ourselves. Even if the world attempts to cut us to shreds, we need to not add to the injustice by doing the same to ourselves.

What are you holding onto that is weighing you down and preventing you from shining more of your energy out into the world? What hidden elements are coming to light for you? How will you dust off the ash from the crucible of 2019 as we prepare to enter 2020?

Destiny Orientation Redux

This picture was taken over two years ago ~ and used in my blog at that time as well. Finding the image again, I chuckled. How far ~ and not ~ I've come in these past nearly two and a half years!

Running around the tech floor of a building, I spotted this sign on the wall outside a computer lab. On my first pass, the words didn't immediately register... until I swept into the office where I'd been headed. Upon leaving the office, I determined I'd get a picture of the sign.

Destiny Orientation? What in the world was that? Whenever I recall the sign, I grin and shake my head. But it makes me think as well. Do we need an orientation for our destiny? How do we know what our destiny is? Can someone else orient us? or tell us what or where or with whom we are destined to do or be? How long does the orientation last?

For the past two and a half years, my destiny has been pointing to an upcoming moment. My orientation has been a compass point ~ the 'due north' direction of retirement. However, retirement is not in itself a destination. It's a rite of passage, a gateway to the next phase of life. As with all rites of passage, we see it on the horizon long before we arrive. And we have a need to ritualize it, to make the passage a sacred one.

My entire life is focused on ~ as with most of us ~ living into my destiny. My definition of who and what I am shifts like the dunes of the Sahara. Even though my core being remains stable, I continually reorient myself to accommodate the height and movement of those subtle changes. I breathe through the disorientation of those shifts, remembering that my destiny lies not only on the path ahead of me, in the perpetual movement around me, but also within me. It will always be so.

What determines your destiny? How do the tiny or enormous shifts in the dunes of your life change that? On what do you depend for your orientation? What is your current 'due north'? How is it different from what it was two years ago? What is the 'lab' from which you draw your orientation?

Authentic Purpose

As March ended and April was about to begin, I drew three cards from the Wisdom of the Hidden Realms deck by Colette Baron-Reid. I focused on a different question for each draw. The final query: What strength/gift do I need as I step forward into April? The card I drew? The Mapmaker of Destiny.... even the name sounds auspicious!

From the guidebook:
"At birth, each human being is given a unique map with myriad paths that intersect with one another. Your Map of Destiny shows all the places you're meant to visit, places where you will be challenged to evolve into the highest aspects of the Self. ... Fate is transformed into Destiny according to how you respond to your circumstances. ... Pay attention as your map unfolds now. And remember that Fate makes the map, but Destiny is determined by the manner in which you engage your journey."

I like the subtle twist on the difference between Fate and Destiny. It grabs my imagination and ignites my intellect. Fate is what is handed to you by life, heritage, environment; Destiny is what you do with it all, how you act, react, interact.

As I've been Practicing Lent, I've paused to reflect on the past year, the past five years, the past twenty years, the past thirty-five years...... in short, on the whole of my adult life. It's hard to reflect on my childhood because there are so few choices I could make simply by virtue of my age. But once I became an adult, able to make my own choices and follow through on them, there was an element I could reflect back upon from the distance of time.

What I found was that no matter when or where or how, every chance I got, my heart, mind and soul always turned toward the Divine Essence. Every time. I found reasons to be grateful. I found reasons to rejoice. I found ways to express the awe that lived within and around me. I continue on that journey, using that glowing map of Destiny ever leading me toward the Ineffable. That connection, alive and vibrant, is what I need as I continue forward on my journey.

What draws you forward in life? Is there an overriding theme to your life? Have you taken the time to look for one? What would that time look like for you?