Full Moon in Pisces ♓ Aug 26, 2018

Sunday, Aug 26 at 4.58am PST

Sun and moon oppose one another in Virgo and Pisces: finite vs infinite. In the Great Lakes region, the August full moon is called the Sturgeon Moon as it coincides with abundant fish catches. The moon will rise at sunset, peak at midnight and set at sunrise.

Here we are, one foot on earth and the other quickly turning translucent, pulled by an unseen force to the farthest star. What is the connection between the mundane and the extraordinary? In yoga, day-to-day observances such as cleaning are just as important as the poses. Simple yet fundamental acts illuminate that our bodies and the spaces they inhabit are one and the same.

Virgo is tied to the earth, endlessly busy with tasks. Pisces lives in bottomless REM cycles. In human form, she is like a fish out of water. Her dreams take her so far away that when she is suddenly drawn back here to confront something, she would rather die. Pisces yearns to leave this world and go back to her Neptunian bliss, her otherworldly homeland where time and space are unknown. Does Virgo realize that her work pulls her to the same placeless place, so divine it cannot be named? Virgo encourages pragmatism and organization, but these are mere means to an end, a bridge to body-spirit union.

The Full Moon in Pisces can either hypnotize or release the spirit. To be mesmerized is to be unconscious, in a way, but a true release of the spirit is a totally conscious moment. Pisces oscillates between these two modes: at one moment awake and alive in the cosmos, and the next ensorcelled by mirages, deceptions, tricks. Pisces is the sign of denial and delusion, and she lies so well that she can lie to herself without realizing. Do not mistake illusions for dreams – swim toward the light.

Full moons are high energy and felt not just the day of, but for days before and after. They heighten emotions and intuition, such as women experience before menstruation. During the full moon, we are more likely to overreact.

In our feet the fishes glide in a ring of perpetuity, urging us toward the ocean’s rocky depths. I see a swimmer suspended in holy water, detached from terrestrial limitations: flowing, folding, flowering, reemerging again and again. Once I spent this full moon with three other women. We swallowed the diamond sky and slithered naked like mermaids between mighty boulders of the Yuba river, dazzled by the sun. I laughed until I cried. I sang. I sat high on a bridge above the rocks. I walked barefoot and reveled in it all.

Fill your days with divine service, yoga, meditation, proper diet and dreams of what comes next. Too much Pisces makes us trip out, but too much Virgo makes us mechanical and insensitive, and this is far more dangerous in a world so starved for spiritual water. Let your dreams gush out into moonlit streets. Wear cool or white tones. In meditation, focus on the third eye and crown chakra. Give yourself a foot massage and try Pisces Yoga. To find your personal moon sign, click here.

Mantra:  I surrender / ishvara pranidhana