Full Moon in Aslesha: Unfurling the Serpent

by Alexis Cox (radhahomeyoga)

The Moon will be full in her own sign of Cancer on Sunday, February 5th at 8:28 am HT (10:28 am PDT) in the star of Aslesha. This is the “clinging star”, the place in the sky where we must learn to let go of whatever we have been nurturing that we are still clinging to. Just like a mother has trouble releasing her child into the world after raising it, we are being asked to look at the ways in which we are trying to control what we love, and in the process coiling ourselves around it so tight that it may suffocate the life from it. The deity of Aslesha is the Naga, the serpent kingdom that is our subconscious fears and desires. It is this realm that holds up our everyday reality and how we imagine it to be (which dictates what we do, say, think and feel). There is poison when we go deep, and if we go even deeper and transmute that poison, there is immortal bliss, amrita to be discovered.

Jupiter is giving a one-way dristhi (energetic gaze) to this Full Moon from his own sign of Pisces, offering us the deep and watery wisdom from another serpentine star, Uttara Bhadrapada. This star is ruled by the Serpent of the Deep, Ahir Budhnya, and is again asking us to travel down to what holds us. This is a universal and cosmic placement, where we see the collective subconscious and how it keeps us locked in shared beliefs that create the reality we all agree upon. How does our individual willingness to see, feel and share our truest feelings fit into the world we are interwoven into? Can we witness one another and the whole and release judgement to access healing? Can we erase all the lines around what we believe to find shared values and beliefs that include all of us and our deepest most intimate truths?

Cancer deals in the emotions, and across from our Sun in Capricorn (and our New Moon cycle that we are at the apex of) we are now seeing the reflection of how hard we work to get to a goal post, or to survive, and what we sweep by the wayside in the process. Our feelings. The feelings of the others we come into contact with in our agenda-driven world. The ends do not often justify the means. It is important that we stop and allow ourselves to feel moment-to-moment and offer this space to others too. Otherwise we are not ensuring that we or anyone else is a full “yes” to what we put our time and energy into. We are not creating the intimacy that truly bonds us to one another. This is an important aspect to look at when we think of the humility and commitment that Saturn brings us through in his signs of Capricorn and Aquarius. Much of it is founded in fear. Fear that we will run out of time. In fact, we are running out of time. It is the only thing we can be sure of. These bodies will not make it. If we spend all our time humble and committed to surviving when it is the only thing we can be sure we will not ultimately do, what do have to show for ourselves? Rattled nervous systems, disconnected connections and a pile of people and things (including ourselves) that we have used for an agenda and then dumped to the wayside when they are no longer functioning in the direction we think we need to go?

Surely there is a better way. We must accomplish things, and we must make sure that we are taking care of one another and ourselves along the way.. And how can we be sure we are doing that if we do not know how we feel? Giving ourselves or someone else what we think they need is not necessarily helpful or loving. Asking them may also be ineffective, as many of us have no idea what we truly need because we’ve been programmed to look for outside answers to that. Checking in with how we feel is the only true gauge of where we are at. If we don’t mostly feel happy, relaxed, and comfortable with what we are doing or who we are doing it with, it is a strong indicator that something needs to shift.

With Saturn recently moved into Aquarius, it is time we look at the little people and see what each of us has to offer the collective, instead of relying on those in power or who have collected the most money to tell us what skills and knowledge we have to share. It is time to reimagine the future in a way that meets the needs of all, rather than just a few. Venus’ transit here is helping us do that one relationships at a time.