The Full Moon in Aries on September 24, 2018 (7:52pmPST) is our Harvest Moon here in the Northern Hemisphere. It falls within Mabon, the Feast of the Ingathering.
This Harvest Moon this year comes just 2 days after the Equinox, a word that means “equal night.” As the Sun enters Libra now, its great generous fire lingers over the equator, shining upon a middleness, and our Earth hangs in the balance between day and night.
Things are halfsies. Linked with an infinity symbol.
Equal light and equal dark.
In our backyard in the Northern Hemisphere, an ancient apple tree glows in the evening light. Red orbs heavy the branches, and fallen fruit gathers at its feet, riddled with fresh and rotten flesh comingling. It is a reminder of the overwhelming abundance of this summer. That several apples have served as our meals, but many more have gone to waste. We reflect on all the other things we’ve been attending. All that we have achieved in a whirlwind year of transformation. The things completed and yet others undone. The tasks interfering with our apple collections. The realization that for now, like the fruit itself, we will be letting go of anything more. Giving ourselves to the ground.
“Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.”
And so, winter soon comes.
This transition brings the turning of the leaves and marks the turnings of the times. In the Northern Hemisphere, we are transported from summer towards winter, the light of the Sun lessening its glow for the next six months. Southern Hemisphere dwellers move from winter towards the promise of greater light.
These balance points are for harmonizing. This Moon offers an opportunity for reconciliation.
Libra rules peace. Justice. Fairness.
Most peace is active. It is something that is made or found. Mutual respect cultivates soil upon which peace can thrive.
Peace is the product of connection, communion, and relationships free of violence. Where can we cultivate a connection with self, others, and life? Which struggles can we remove energy from now? Which struggle shall we be patient with, as it will ultimately help us to cultivate peace? And which struggles bar us from that destination?
Society could exist on the premise of mutual care. Each one of us could be agents of that, wielding respect, integrity, and nurturance for self and others. If we are to build civilization based on mutual exchange, we must learn what it is to be in healthy relationships, how to value life in love, and how to protect what we hold most dear.
Perhaps in a deep truth, everything is always reciprocal. Even imbalance is folded within an ultimate blanket of equilibrium. When the nights are shorter in one hemisphere, they are longer on the other hemisphere. Acknowledge the mutual flow of giving and receiving.
On this Moon, we make amends. Call in your apologies. Offer your heartfelt thanks. Accept full responsibility for your actions and your learnings. Lead past relationships, projects, and outworn struggles to a close.
The Moon joins Chiron, illuminating wounds of Self, which are pathways to healing. This Moon could bring a test or a healing crisis to overcome. It can be difficult to connect to self, others, life itself. Your identity is challenged. Places where we are stagnant, resistant, and caged are highlighted. Negative thinking and tough or serious conversations can ensue.
This moon is profoundly sensitive, but its expressions may come through anger, frustration, or isolation. We’ve been moving through old content this summer and this moon invites us beyond the threshold of clearing out and into new territory. Trust that emotional healing is happening.
Who are you, really? Something in the past, perhaps from family, childhood, or simply being a member of society, has dis-integrated your identity. It has rattled your courage, strength, or confidence. It has weakened your will. It has interfered with your ability to stand tall and assert your desires – or perhaps it’s made confusion of what to do with anger.
One way to transform the past is through forgiveness. Maybe the person who needs the most forgiveness is you!
You are meant to be here, and you are meant to be exactly who you are. Claim it.
“Being so exposed to the evolutionary edge is exceedingly challenging.”
This Moon brings up tests of insecurity. It shows where boundaries might be misplaced. Take responsibility and ownership for what is yours. Notice what you’re holding that doesn’t belong to you, and put it back where it belongs, with boundaries around it. Sometimes further distance or separation leads to lasting healing.
You are guided to overcome the obstacles to boldly be your Self. Your past need not define you, but that is a decision you can make. Decide. This Moon reveals the power of choice and encourages self-healing, reclamation, and rebirth.
What are you choosing? What are you fighting for? What are you gathering in? What are you reaping? What are you collecting? What are you accounting for? What are you leaving behind? What are you bringing inside to store and work with further?
Where can you be giving more or less? Where can you be receiving more or less? What will help you cultivate peace?
Celebrate Mabon with an Intuitive Astrology Reading. Book a session instantlywith Author and Astrologer Virginia Rosenberg. Just one more moon cycle before she takes November-January off of offering sessions (for maternity leave).
Read Full Moon Reports for your Sun and Rising Sign Below
Aries: I unify myself.
This Moon is particularly sensitive if your birthday falls between March 18-24. It will also be quite sensitive if you were born in 1968 or 1969 (those folks are having their Chiron return and the Moon is stimulating it). For you, sensitivity could look like anger, frustration, isolation, or reaction. Leave behind old tendencies to fight or cut and run. Attend to and mend inflammation. Great time to consume turmeric! You are hanging in the balance between war and peace, selfishness and cooperation. Where is competition serving you, and where is it creating struggle? Where can you advance, and where must you retreat? Which option will cultivate peace? You’ve been on a mission to keep making progress with your profession and career/worldly work. Shed old modes of leadership and step into the new. Allow yourself to be reborn in union.
Taurus: I am enough.
You are certainly in a time of restructuring your life, Taurus. You may still be moving through deep attachments that need to be released in order to turn the soil, and many other opportunities to adapt and reinvent await your future. What is comfortable and familiar will be cast to the lap of mystery. On this Moon, take stock of what gives your strength, meaning, and a sense of home. Is it relationships with your community? Is it your innate creativity? Is it something more subtle that can only be accessed in private? Choose whether it would serve your wellness to retreat or interconnect more deeply with allies. Imagine there’s no way you can do it wrong, and that you are enough exactly where and how you are right now.
Gemini: I heal beyond how others see me.
The ways you are seen and known to the public are going through a transition. Greater balance is being requested in your personal life and at home. Your energies want to focus on creating. What is it that you are making? What keeps you from connecting with that fully? Eliminate distractions. Rebalance by redistributing your attention. Less attention to your work in the world, more attention to new inner developments. If previously, you have defined yourself based on whom you know and mingle with, what your position is in community, or how you are seen by the masses, this Moon will invite you to shift those values. The attention you give to your innermost realms is equally as valuable as external reflections. Relish the intimacy you are making within.
Cancer: I belong wherever I am.
Home is one of the most important things to you, Cancer. On this Moon, ensure that there is harmony and peace at home. Bring extra beauty indoors. Bake apple and chestnut pie. If you are traveling or committed to work, make a space of home wherever you go. Bring with you the comforts and things that soothe. This will help with any frustrations that could arise in transit or with your profession. Take stock of what you have faith in. What do you trust? What are your core beliefs? Where do you feel yourself advancing? What can you diminish in order to further advance? And what can you release altogether?
Leo: I learn the skill of reciprocity.
Not all of us have the same definitions of fairness. Different things mean love to different people. What’s your love language? Is there anyone you’ve had difficulty with lately? Learn their love language. Leo, you are leaving behind old ways of isolating yourself in relationships. Sometimes we need to mature the ways we show up in relationships and realize more accuracy within the balance of give and take. Perhaps you have been distancing yourself from others. This Moon brings an opportunity to get closer. It holds reminders about what you owe to people and what they owe to you. Perhaps, in the end, it’s truly about what you owe to yourself. Sometimes Leo gets caught in the trap of being it all. Being “on” all the time has its pitfalls. You may need love and affection from others to help recharge your soul and your humanity.
Virgo: I embrace intimacy.
What is intimacy? Is it a thing you do? Is it something you are? Is there a formula for producing intimacy, like a guidebook you can follow? That would be convenient, but intimacy seems to be more mysterious and organic than mechanical. Or is it simply the result of showing up and being really present, without dismissing any piece or part of the whole? Intimacy has to do with acceptance. With honesty and vulnerability. With deep listening and a presence that seems to transcend the mundane. This Moon could bring up touchy feelings with others, Virgo. Try not to judge, discriminate against/towards, or fix anything that arises. Just breathe, presence yourself, and be with exactly what is. It’s possible your connections will heal as a result.
Libra: I make amends to heal.
How are your relationships doing these days, Libra? Some of them might be glowing and grand. That’s great! Others might need some work or attention. You’re typically the type to let things slide if something sours with a friend. Rather than address it face on, you might avoid it and smother it in sweetness, hoping it will right itself eventually, but avoiding true reconciliation like the plague. Is there anyone who has been lingering in the back of your mind? Some difficult words that have yet to be said? This Moon is the time to gather your courage and come to the table. We often forget that our physical health is linked to emotional and psychic well-being. In order to set yourself in good shape with your wellness, attend to creating real peace with the people in your life. They will feel better for it, too.
Scorpio: I create health for myself and others.
There is a lot happening for you these days, Scorpio. You are moving and shaking, bringing your creative potentials to life and grounding them in work and service. You are in the midst of some commitments that will have longterm benefits. How exciting! Take a moment on this Moon for inner reflection. It’s possible all the activity is creating a lot of subtle chatter. This Moon could bring in mixed messages that need to be sorted through for accuracy. In order to fine-tune which messages to receive and listen to, take a time out and turn down the volume. Welcome edits from yourself and others, particularly those who are exposed to your work. Ask for their feedback and welcome improvements that come about as a result of it.
Sagittarius: I welcome wealth.
You have been working hard on establishing resources, Sagittarius. The purse might feel tight, but keep striving to set yourself up well for the long-run. Wealth comes in all different forms. One form of wealth is a feeling of inner security. Another form of wealth is the capacity to create. Another form of wealth is the riches that emerge from your network and community. This Moon is a harvest time in all of these areas mentioned. Right now, what would make you feel more of a sense of belonging? Do you have a sanctuary? If not, what could you do to create one in your life now? Notice where you feel your insecurities are triggered and summon confidence in those areas. Open yourself to receive immaterial wealth in addition to banking your finances.
Capricorn: I invest in my continued learning.
The learnings you are partaking in now are helping you to develop yourself towards your deeper purpose, Capricorn. It takes time to come to fruit. And you know it cannot all be done at once. Some apples and opportunities will be left to rot at the bottom of the tree. This is a busy time for you, and the pressure is on. Seek the necessary balance between self and others, personal time and work time. It seems everything hangs in a balance right now and this is a threshold moment in your life. Take a moment to appreciate the fact that you don’t always know, and that you don’t need to know. Attend to what needs attending. Prioritize. Let what you cannot be responsible for go, and in doing so, commit further to yourself and who you came here to grow into.
Aquarius: I am true to my beingness.
Know thyself, Aquarius. When it comes to learning and growing, we need to be true to ourselves. We need to know where we are starting from, and who we are inside. It helps to understand what language we naturally speak, and who we naturally speak that language with most. Learning is not always easy. Sometimes it’s really hard and uncomfortable. It can stir up all kinds of hidden anxieties and create barriers between us and other people. But we can set ourselves up to learn well by finding and cultivating comfort within ourselves. One way you are creating more comfort within yourself is by departing from outworn patterns of behavior. This Moon marks that departure. Celebrate your progress in this area.
Pisces: I am here!
Pisces, your sensitivity can sometimes make it challenging for you to be a human on earth – especially when the world is full of meanies! It can feel easy to seek an escape route or create an alternate reality for yourself to dreamland off into. This Moon asks – where can you show up more fully? Where have you drifted off that you would like to call yourself back to? Is there something that needs attending that you thought you weren’t equipped for? This Moon might make you reconsider. Perhaps you do have the energy for it after all. Invest in yourself and your identity. It’s well and good to be egoless sometimes, but harnessing the power of choice can make us more active participants in the world. And that means we can bring more love and beauty to it. Sounds like something you want to be a part of. Summon your strength.