I’ve been having an intense experience with this Virgo full moon. I’ve boasted before that full moons don’t really get to me, but I could feel the full weight of it upon me this weekend. I was reluctant to write about the experience earlier not only because it felt deeply personal, but also I was also confused as to what exactly was happening with it’s powerful energy.

Virgo is the priestess archetype. She is an Earth sign and she reminds us to perform our sacred duties and take care of all the details in our lives. She calls us to honor the sacred within the mundane tasks of our daily lives, helping us to understand that in truth, the difference between the sacred and mundane is an illusion. All is sacred, especially our connection to the Earth through our bodies. The Virgo priestess celebrates the passing of time ceremonially and with great reverence. She loves to honor the seasons, births, deaths, weddings, anniversaries… Any excuse for a ceremony will do!

I’ve been learning how to actively work with this priestess energy since I stepped into the Priestess Process back on the Virgo New Moon in September. It’s been a lovely and powerfully introspective journey  so far and it all feels so familiar. It feels like I’ve simply been reawakening  the parts of myself that were lying dormant. None of the the energies are new-they actually feel ancient. Their awakening has connected me more deeply to my inner self, my ancestors, my lineage, to all of my sisters on the planet, to the earth herself- to everything really. I can’t begin to explain how worthwhile it has been, and now that we’re preparing for our emergence it feels like these energies are rising even more powerfully in my life.

Case in point: this Virgo  full moon energy has literally been stirring things up within me, in my womb; my power center of creativity. Since going off hormonal contraceptives last year my cycle has been unpredictable. For the first few months I was synced right up with the new moon and I felt proud that my body seemed to get back on track so quickly. I had read that you were supposed to bleed with the new moon, so everything seemed to be in order.

Then, as the year went on, things became a little more unsettled, with cycles of varying lengths. I’m sure all the travel didn’t help and the timing of my cycles switched back and forth from new moon to full moon and to something in between. It was all very confusing as I attempted to track and make sense of it all as part of my practice of listening to my body.

Then  today with the light of the full moon, I began my cycle (after a longer than usual time) and it felt significant some how. Using my google-fu I found an article on  Yogagodess called ‘Should your period land on the new moon or the full moon to be in sync with nature?’ written by Zhara Haji. She revealed that there are two traditional moon cycles for women: the red moon (full moon) and the white moon (new moon).

You won’t find a lot of literature about women who cycle with the Red Moon.  My guess is that’s because of what menstruating with the full moon represented in the past.  According to Miranda Gray, this cycle was linked to the archetype of the seductress, the enchantress and the woman who knew how to wield healing power and magic.  This was the kind of woman whose sexuality was applied to something ‘other than’ the formation of the next generation. The woman who dives deep into her depths to develop her self-awareness and then turns her energy out to help the world She was considered by our patriarchal ancestors as the ‘evil woman.’

In truth, the Red Moon cycle belonged to the medicine women, to the mid-wives, the magic-makers and the wisdom keepers of the community.  These women were not focusing their feminine energies to give birth to children. Rather their energy was used to empower other women and their communities. -Zahra Haji

Zhara summarizes this energy as  “The woman who dives deep into her depths to develop her self-awareness and then turns her energy out to help the world”. This archetypal energy resonated with me in such a deep way that reading these words was like having a bucket of cold water poured over my soul, jolting me awake, reminding me that this is who I am, this healer woman, priestess in service to spirit and to all of the universe.

Deep, deep gratitude for this new level of awareness of how my body is deeply connected to the earth, the moon and the star, reflecting the mysteries: As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul.

Full moon blessings to you all!