The height of this moonth’s cycle comes with the full moon arriving overnight tonight, the 26th to the 27th (exact at 10:26pm ET on the 26th), and offers a revelation about how the lunar energies initiated on the April 11th new moon are developing. The new moon, guided by its association with The Emperor invited us to contemplate issues of power. Out of our full moon revelations about this developing energy, we are issued an invitation to return a gift to the world in the final weeks of the lunar cycle.
The exact moment of the moon’s fullness comes in the sign of Scorpio associated with the Tarot’s Death card.
This meetup of Death and The Emperor reinforces the themes we explored at the new moon where I wrote:
“In this vision of power, our power grows because we are constantly releasing it. In flow, we don’t hold on, but instead open to receive but then let go, passing the power on. Once we’ve let go, we are open to the next wave coming to fill us. In this vision of power, a scarcity mindset and need to control are replaced with a dynamic relationship to the flow of power.”
In this way of working with power, we are constantly letting the power we have built up and given form (the work of the Emperor) die, shape shift, and be renewed (the work of Death).
Power becomes concentrated in the structures of our lives, both personal (daily habits, your place in work’s org chart, family dynamics, ect.) and collective (our institutions of government, education, and policing, for example). This full moon invites us to look with fresh eyes at these structures and then let whatever power we have flow through us to help these structures “die,” which means really to be transformed. Death and its Tarot representation are fearsome in part because we connect them to a hard stop ending, but Death is card number 13, coming basically in the middle of the 22 Major Arcana cards. Death comes in the middle. Death is a step in a continuing journey.
To encourage revelation about the structures of our lives transforming, you are invited to one, some, or all of these practices:
- Moon bathe by sitting or lying under a window or outside on the ground. Let go of your thoughts and soak in the light.
- Take out any reading or your reflections from the new moon and look at them in a new light. How does your understanding of the cards shift now that time has passed and light has shifted? (If you haven’t done a reading yet, no problem, just do it now under the light of the full moon. You can try the one from the new moon.)
- Bring out your Emperor and Death cards from your Tarot deck and connect them to your new moon reading / reflections. You could place/imagine these cards on either side of your reading or above and below, and then look at how they add meaning into the story your original cards offered you.
- Reflect on questions such as: What structures in my life need to be reshaped? How could I do that? Where can I most beneficially release my power? What transformation can this make possible? How can I be an agent of change transforming structures that no longer serve? You could, of course, pull cards as responses to any of these questions. You may want to engage in Visio Divina to find the layers of wisdom within the cards.
When you are done, remember to offer gratitude for what you have received. Consider what gift you now want to return to the world. Pulling a card for guidance on the gift is always a fine thing to do. In the coming weeks and before the moon returns to dark around May 9th offer your gift to the world.
Program Note: The Summer Solstice-hinged e-retreat, Walking the Ways of the Summer Light, is coming up in May. We begin with wisdom wanders to loosen what binds us and seek the questions we most need to be asking.