Indulge Under the Super Strawberry Moon

Hello, hello, my darlings! I’m cutting it close with this one, but hopefully it will still be helpful. Tomorrow, June 14th, we will see the Super Strawberry Full Moon! Last month we had the Super Flower Full Moon (among many other interesting lunar movements), so hopefully you remember that Super means that the moon is passing closer to the earth giving it a much larger place in the sky! It also denotes an increase in the effect that this celestial body has on the planet, and thereby, us.

June’s Full Moon, the Strawberry moon, brings us closer to our fulfillment in life. We’re reminded of all of the decadent and joyful moments that we sometimes race by on our way to the finish line. In Europe, this is referred to as the Rose Moon in some places, as all the roses are currently in bloom. In other parts it’s called the Honey Moon; fitting as June used to be the season for weddings. After the Beltane celebration, many young lovers would commit and be in the throes of “the honey moon phase”.

Now is the time to allow yourself space to slow down and drink in each moment. The Strawberry Moon represents optimism, wonder, magic, openness, and pleasure. It can also be associated with tenacity and grit. With Litha, or the Summer Solstice, a mere handful of days away, now is the time that we’re saying goodbye to Spring and hello to Summer! Halfway through the Gregorian calendar, we can reflect now on the goals we set way back during Imbolc. How have we kept to those goals? How have those goals changed, if at all? Have we achieved any of those goals? How have we approached the obstacles that hindered our progress? Have we let surprises crop up and slow our progress?

This is what I will be focusing on tomorrow. I plan to journal out my answers to these questions and hopefully cut away the thorns that have been ensnaring me. Full moons are about release, remember. Let go of that which holds us back from our Highest Good. I also want to find some ways that I can slow down and incorporate my favorite things into my daily life or practice. Last year I dried rose petals and handed them out to loved ones. This year I may go berry picking and even attempt to bake something rich and succulent with what I’m able to forage! Or I could simply spend more time in the sun. Whatever you choose to do, just remember to enjoy it and be present. One of my favorite quotes comes from Khalil Gibran. “Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet, and the winds long to play with your hair.” Spend time enjoying your favorite things about early summer. Make a bonfire, have s’mores, enjoy yourself however feels right to you.

I’m stressing the pleasure aspect of this moon, I know, but I feel like we’re all in need of some self-care, especially because this Full Moon is in Sagittarius. The third fire sign of the zodiac year is independent and focused. They have a healthy relationship with pleasure, knowing how to dote on themselves. Their untamable spirit burns like a beacon, setting others ablaze with joy and inspiration. They are also ruled by Jupiter, the planet of good luck, growth, prosperity, healing, and opportunity. If you’ll remember, Jupiter recently started a brand new journey through Aries four weeks ago during the Super Blood Flower Moon Eclipse. Still a mouthful!

This is the way I want to come at summer. What sets you on fire? What lights you up inside? Bring that into your day to day, even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time. A friend recently recommended to me that I should read ten pages a day, as I had mentioned I struggled finding the time to read the many books I have added to my collection. “Ten pages?” I asked him, “What is ten pages going to accomplish?” He told me, “Even if you only read ten pages per day, you will have read 3,650 pages by the end of the year. That’s the equivalent of seven 500 page novels.” A little every day adds up, just like a savings account. So why not drop a few coins on your heart’s fire this summer? Perhaps you’ll blaze a new trail into a habit that brings you joy even in the winter months.

Now if you are wanting to take all these journaling prompts, like myself, and sit down in a sacred space to connect with the earth, your deities, ancestors, whatever, let’s talk about associations. As always, Full Moons are associated with Selenite, Clear Quartz, and Black Tourmaline. Sagittarius is associated with Lapis Lazuli, connecting us to our inner royalty, Blue Topaz, which helps the spirit relax as well as the body, and Turquoise, which can help instill an inner calm. Side note, it’s great for preventing panic attacks and helping to recover from depression and exhaustion.

Herb wise, Sagittarius is connected to Sage, which helps bring wisdom, good luck, and prosperity, and Saffron, or the Queen’s Spice, which connects us to our passionate and even seductive side. The Full Moon is associated with Mugwort, for inducing vivid dreams and awakening psychic gifts, as well as Star Anise to promote harmony. It’s also associated with Jasmine, which I usually leave out because Jasmine very specifically speaks to romance and manifesting prosperity in love, but the Honey Moon seems like a perfect time to sprinkle a little Jasmine in your cauldron and jzooj up the passion in the air. Sagittarius is also associated with independent animals such as the camel, able to sustain itself in the desert without a drink for days on end, and the wild horse, running free and exploring the open air. The Full Moon is associated with rabbits and moths. I also suggest drying some strawberry leaves and keeping them either on your altar or in your pocket as they draw good fortune and favorable circumstances!

Take some time to set up your space, and set an intention with any incense or candles you light. If you aren’t able to do that, perhaps just take a moment to focus on a stone, or even on a journal before delving into these prompts. My intention will be to practice being more consciously present. How can you let yourself play this summer? Being grateful for what you have while moving towards what you want helps me stay grounded. Letting myself break free of the anxiety of societal judgment feeds my spirit, personally. At Beltane, when I hung ribbons on my rose bush, I laid in the grass afterward just feeling the earth below me. I’m sure my neighbors thought I was nuts, but ignoring social standards allowed me to really connect. How can you find that connection daily? Do you believe you deserve to find that connection daily? Knowing how to dote on oneself and believing we deserve it are two separate tasks, in my opinion.

This look at our self-worth can be jarring or difficult. If you find yourself struggling to explore the joyous side of yourself, don’t hesitate to reach out to someone you trust for support. My coven knows that we are here for each other. If you don’t feel like you have someone, it may be worthwhile to find a counselor to help you navigate your feelings. You should know by now, I’m a big supporter of mental health!

When I’ve finished my journaling, I will meditate on what I’ve learned about myself, if anything, and chant this prayer I wrote several times:

Blooming Strawberry moon, shining bright above
Harbinger of luck and sweetness, prosperity and love
With your light to guide, my clarity grows
I trim the thorns, but leave the rose
I take delight in each leg of the journey
While present and grateful for all you bring to me
The path now smooth beneath my feet
Leads to the Truth of my heartbeat

When I feel my intention is good and solidified, I’ll finish with:

So mote it be. So mote it be. So mote it be. Blessed be.

Look for joy this summer, my darlings. Look for it in yourself, and in your surroundings. And let no one tell you that your happiness is disallowed. I’ll see you in a few days for my Litha/Summer Solstice post!

April’s Pink Moon Is Going Super Saiyan

It’s that time again, my darlings. The wheel continues to turn and we find ourselves preparing for the fourth full moon of this year; the Pink Moon. It’s also known as the Hare Moon or the Egg Moon. Sound familiar? If you were raised in the Christian beliefs, you would be right in thinking that this is yet another pagan celebration that was hijacked by the Catholic church during the Barbarian conversions. There is a lot of mythology and lore that is interwoven magnificently around Easter and the Pink Moon, but I don’t want to get into that too much this month. If you’re interested, I would suggest researching the Germanic goddess Eostre.

I want to focus instead on the sky and the earth, this month. The Pink Moon is about attaining fullness. It falls during Aries season, and the adventurous spirit of this fire sign is coming through to set us after our ambitions. The energy in the air is restless and ready to be utilized! One of the best parts of this year’s Pink Moon is that it is going to be in the air sign of Libra, the scales, who will bring balance to this restless energy. Aries and Libra are a wonderful system of checks and balances. Where an unchecked passionate Aries can burn recklessly, the cool intellect of Libra will stall the flames and help focus our energy toward our goals. Together they blaze a beautiful trail.

This gorgeous pairing of signs around the Pink Moon is the perfect time to reflect on the obstacles or fears stalling our progress and adapt to the situations at hand so that we may overcome and even transcend this level of internal or external struggle. Now is a time to let love flow around you and release the very human need to cling tightly to the familiar. This kind of trust can open the door to a lot of discomfort and fear. That’s okay. Let that fear in. Sit with it. It is there to try to protect you, and it learned to be fearful from the past. Reassure it that everything is going to be fine. The universe has your back, and always has. Attune with your intuition and meet that fear with love until it tires itself out.

That is an act much easier said than done, of course. We’re human after all. But let me toss a few more cosmic movements into this mixture to see if we can persuade your fears to relax. So we’ve got ambition, and the intellect to focus it, as well as the moon’s transcendent energy. Already a lovely combination, but what if we saw Jupiter, the planet of opportunity, potential, and luck, meet up with Neptune, the planet of the unconscious, evolutions, and imagination for the first time in roughly 150 years? Furthermore, what if we saw them align in Neptune’s home sign of Pisces; ruler of dreams, intuition, and emotional awareness? And, to help focus that wild combination of intuitive luck and imagination, what if Venus, the ruler of Libra, showed up to bring love, beauty, and compassion to the equation?

I know. That’s a lot of information. It can get a little muddy sometimes, so let me try to nutshell all of this as best as I can. Today, on April 12th, the fortune and potential of Jupiter aligned with the evolutionary imagination of Neptune. That evolutionary energy is being emphasized since Neptune is in its home sign of Pisces. These two together, evolution and luck, are going to be with us for the Pink Moon on April 16th. The same Pink Moon that is overflowing with the energy of Becoming, wholeness, and adaptation. The same Pink Moon that is driven by the fiery ambition of Aries season towards our desires, and whose energy is being focused by arriving in the clear intellect of the fair and balanced air sign of Libra.

This Full Moon is about Becoming with a capital B! It is about preparing for the next New Moon. It is begging us to Let. Go. Let go of the fears that keep us stagnant. Let go of the what ifs and anxiety that keep us from opening to opportunities. Because, before the month is out, Jupiter and Neptune will be joined by Venus’ compassion in Pisces just in time for the New Moon. These three are an incredibly powerful manifesting trio, and Venus’ added energy will be leveling up all of our interpersonal relationships. Luck, evolution, and compassionate love coming together. Now is the time to be courageous. Reflect on your big picture, adapt and trust in the world around you, and in that flow you will transcend what you currently perceive to be an obstacle, and see it for what it really is. A stepping stone towards the point where your fortune, love, and evolution meet.

I think the key to harnessing this collective energy under the Pink Moon on Saturday is going to rely a lot on balance. It will require the balance of your gut with your mind. Emotions and intellect must be kept in check of one another. Where Libra sits and ponders over a situation, Aries will light a fire under them to keep moving. Some really good balancing stones to incorporate in your Full Moon ritual this month will be Rhodonite and Unakite.

Rhodonite is a self-esteem and self-image booster, as well as helping open us to the world of possibilities. It can help us look closer at ourselves, and helps enhance our relationships with our self, friends, business, and romantic interests. Unakite is a heart healer. It recalibrates our frequency to resonate with love and compassion while balancing the emotions in the body, such as fear and anxiety. If you’ve ever heard someone say feel your feelings, that’s what they mean. The tightness in the chest or shoulders, the knotted forehead muscles. Unakite will help recalibrate the way we interact physically with our emotions. Letting love flow into the spaces where fear lives can help us let go of the stagnation that makes us feel safe in familiarity. Contrary to the old adage, the devil you know is not actually better than the devil you don’t.

This is already a very lengthy post, so I won’t be going into a step by step for the Pink Moon. My ritual this month is fairly personal and will incorporate a lot of shadow work anyway, so I want to leave you with a few questions to help you fill the corners of your heart and mind with the trusting love of the universe, and a prayer. What gives you vitality and energy? What could you lose if you incorporated this into your life more? What could change? What stops you from tending to the needs of your spirit’s flame? Where does this stem from?

I bask in the fullness of the Pink Moon. As the grasses reach for the sky, I too yearn for growth. I acknowledge the traumas that have marred my spirit. I release the pains that weigh on my heart and mind. I meet my shadows with love. I am open to change and love in all forms. I look to nature for examples of how to relinquish worry and embrace the joy of living in the present. I trust in the abundance and perfect love of the universe. And so it is. And so it is. And so it is. Blessed be.

Note: shadow work is absolutely not for everyone. However, if you find some of these questions touch parts of your mind or heart that scare you, and you feel ready for change, I would encourage you to journal a little on these thoughts, my darlings. Examination of ourselves is the best way to prune away that which doesn’t serve us any longer, in my opinion. And I for one am very ready to remove what’s holding me back from my love filled, evolutionary potential. Blessed be!