FULL MOON in PISCES
I was in Fire Island recently, and It felt like a fairytale: I was a child on an adventure, viewing the world through innocent eyes. An evening ferry ride under the light of the almost full moon. The dark sky dotted with stars. The shining moon, lighting a path in the darkness. The shimmering water holding us. A reminder that this earth,
this universe, we live in is alive. I looked around with wonder and awe, felt the night air on my skin, the vast ocean around me, the wide sky above me. I took it all in.
The full moon in Pisces symbolizes innocence/purity, the vastness of
life, and our connection to the spiritual realms (the unseen realms) of this world we fleetingly inhabit. It awakens us to the beauty, the depth, the complexities of life, pushes us to FEEL and breathe and be with the emotions that arise. Throughout the two days I was in Fire Island, which felt more like 5 days because time had slowed down, I felt a sense of child-like reverence.
Adults become so easily cut off from joy and wonder, living in the realms of the mind. When we reside in the mind, we shut down our ability to experience, to feel. We get consumed by the minutia (Seinfeld anyone? Haha), losing sight of the bigger picture and forgetting that we are here, on this earth, for a finite
time.
In Fire Island, I was walking back from the beach when a deer, nonchalantly, strolled by. The deer on this island, I learned, are basically domesticated, not fearful of humans. I paused, struck by the beauty of this majestic creature, who would have
come right up to me and put his face in mine, like a dog, had I not hesitated, a learned fear rising up in me for a moment. I heard the grumbling of a woman who was approaching; she looked at me, seemingly disgusted, and repeated her statement, which I had half heard but ignored because I was too "in the moment." "Move along!" she said, waving her hand at the deer. "They are vehicles for ticks," she announced, as she shooed the deer away. I smiled at her and said,
"But they are beautiful." Her friend smiled back at me with eyes that said, don't mind her; she's a little uptight and, yes, I agree with you that they are beautiful.
Yes, it is wise to be aware and cautious in life (I agree that Lyme disease is no joke), and no, I was not going to
pet the deer (although I kind of wish I had), however to close yourself off to the beauty of nature, to the magical moments that life offers up, is to close yourself off to the fullness and bounty of living and to your ability to receive. You can only truly receive with an open heart, otherwise you stop being (i.e., experiencing life) and become a shell of yourself (believe me, I know; I've been there)-- life becomes
one dimensional and people become depressed. The antidote to negativity is gratitude, yet you cannot simply tell yourself to "be grateful" because the mind won't understand it; it's not the concept that heals but the action; it is something that you need to feel, and this is the message of the Pisces full moon. You can do this step by step, breath by breath. If you feel stuck in "the mind," all you need to do right now is breathe more fully
and deeply, then pause and listen, look, feel, smell: the senses are a vehicle to the present moment, to feeling 'alive' again.
Dive in. Pisces is the ocean, the primordial womb of life, and we are but a drop in it. Enjoy the time you have here as much as you can because,
as I am learning (from my vantage point at age 40), it goes by fast.
