Taurus Full Moon 2024
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2024, 03:28 CST
cleaning the catacombs.
It takes tenacity to clean out the spaces we cannot see.
Tools must be selected
(which long-handled spoon is thin enough to scrape the edges of this nut butter jar?)
a light must be projected just right
or
trust in thrusting ourselves
into the gross darkness
the slime and substance our fingers sift out
the dry poofs of dust cascading from the catacombs you investigate
the tinge of discomfort
your mind playing tricks on you
as you navigate the dark places
that your mind fills in the perceptual vacancies
If we don’t clean out the drain
it will keep flooding putrid
if we don’t clean out the pipe
it will stop working or break
and the more we prolong the clean-up
the more we wait to deal with the issue
the worse it gets.
Do it now
One step at a time
you’ve been doing it all along
Make a plan in your mind
and watching it crumble in the world
yet you are still on the path
your path
connecting with what is for you.
Imagine the commitment it takes to build a dam
the foresight, the vision, the plan
choices, precision, jaw-clenching endurance
teamwork, collaboration
amphibious tendency.
It takes courage to swim in uncharted waters
it takes fearlessness and trust in not knowing
what’s beneath the surface
be it jellyfish or water moccasin
there is always a risk in getting in.
but first, you must know how to swim.
but you can’t learn to swim without getting in
thus
the double-edged sword in everything.
Welcome to the Moon Mailer
Welcome to this space.
This whole astrology writing thing was a freak incident instigated by a request for bespoke astrological musings for a unique shop in Des Moines, Iowa (hometown!) called KIN.
Those who know my story know that “my mom is/was the astrologer” and for me, energy work has always been my calling in other forms… typically, through my hands and voice, my writing. Then my mom challenged me that astrology IS energy work.
Those of you who’ve stuck around the nearly six years I’ve produced these moon meditations, I appreciate you and feel honored by your attention, sporadic emails of revelation, and patronage of my services, classes, and offerings.
The Format:
a) planetary poetry/musings
b) astrological jargon and deeper interpretation
c) random thoughts, often an additional poem, play, inspiration, quote, photograph or rant about society, corruption, oppression or something whimsical. tends to depend on the mood (mine or the moon’s).
d) “notes from this one” refers to me, being a bit more direct about stuff happening in my world that I don’t mind sharing. I like being vulnerable because it helps me process things and I’m told it helps others to feel more human. So that’s good.
the Moon Mailer is free.
I consider the Moon Mailer an offering. This is my work and a heartfelt outpour. The financial gifts and tips sent via Venmo @laurenkhickman or a monthly contribution to Dragon Dāna as a teaching offering help provide the platform. Thank you.
Dāna (dahna) is a tradition of supporting spiritual teachers through financial gifts. Grief work, emotional work, and spiritual service are oft unpaid labor. Femmes, healers, and wisdom keepers tend to go uncompensated and under-supported for their time and skill in modern society — historically, we were integral parts of community and cared for as such. Discounting healers coincides with gender bias— that it’s not considered “work” to hold space or share art and inspiration. Many great teachers, artists, and healers have discontinued their offerings because their time is not compensated and reciprocity is not present.
I think about that a lot. How much content I consume and I forget who is paying for it. On some platforms, the advertisements are paying the producers. For others, it is an algorithmic game of cat and mouse and our attention is the commodity more than the quality of content.
Your donations and commitment to the material keep me motivated and help to cover the annual costs of website domains and all the add-ons. This is also my opportunity to offer value and advertise that the Moon Mailer is only one facet of Ursidae.
I am here to be of service.
I provide peer support (akin to coaching except without the power dynamic), astrological readings, reiki energy balancing, and now mentorship accompanied by years of metaphysical education, herbal and nutritional education, and studies in anthropology and psychology to serve you and help doula you through the darkness.
You can read about my background, commitment to ongoing education, my path as a clinical social worker (i.e., psychotherapist), and commitment to educating other healers (and those seeking healing) without causing harm.
Here, you will get me raw, directly sent to your inbox. I’ve been putting the work up on my blog WORDS in the archives of my beautiful website.
Enjoy. <3
lauren k. hickman, MSW
this lunation
That Super Moon last night was bright. It was electrified. It was pulsating, and my nervous system was reactive all day. Nothing better than having a panic attack in an IKEA.
I didn’t have it in me to write and I had to give myself the grace to sit with my own stuff and wait for insight to come. Don’t seek distraction. Don’t pacify. Just sit with this situation and wait for information.
Uranus has that quality. In this brief moment of the Moon emphasized and energized by the Sun at its full point passing its alignment with Uranus — we have to see this as a lightning bolt of a lunation.
Uranus is my favorite planet because it protects and embodies the energy of us outsiders and weirdos. Turned on its axis, Uranus has a perspective that zooms out so much further than Mercury in its more myopic and higher vibration of witnessing. Uranus has a slow and earth-shaking quality in its perception. It’s viewpoint is broader than we can ever experience and it is often the one we don’t want to know/hear/feel or have to confront.
Uranus is associated with change. Change is a constant. It is the only real permanent thing we can count on. Change is inevitable and yet we cling to our comforts, our ways, our traditions, our “mine.” That is the Saturn way. Rigidity vs. Uranian enlightenment which allows and welcomes change and its maddening currents.
Yet we fucking fight it. We want it, we crave it, but we fight it anyway.
I don’t wish to reiterate all the amazing work written online by other astrologers. My friend Shea Malloy (student/colleague/teacher) @MartianLune had some powerful thoughts on Venus in Capricorn in this lunation as well as Pluto’s final breaths in Capricorn. There have been all sorts of meaningful reflections on what the Taurus/Scorpio axis has to teach us about letting go. Taurus is stubborn. It’s pleasure seeking. It wants to be comfortable. Scorpio is like DEATH COMES FOR US ALL and Taurus shoves an apple in Scorpio’s mouth and puts a flower behind its ear and Scorpio immediately transmutes those into their most basic, primal, decayed form.
Life to Death.
Beginning to End.
Pluto leaving Capricorn after hanging since 2008 is a weird revelation in considering an entire chapter of our life and considering what that underbelly theme was about. Where was Pluto transiting in your natal chart? What are you noticing? What’s the rub?
We may have thought we could do it “the traditional way” the old way. Saturn moved from its Retrograde period just 7 hours before the Full Moon drove in this structure/chaos flavor to consider.
What have you outgrown?
Where are you stagnant?
What are you avoiding?
What structures have you clung to that have failed you?
What perceptions have you had that were cause for false hope or false reality?
So, anyways.
Thanks for being patient with the Moon Mailer. I’m not a robot, not an AI generator. I have a nervous system, and in order to do this work, I must tend to it. Hope you are doing the same, dude.
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NOTES FROM THIS ONE…
I have to say, this has been a tough year for me to be the one writing the astrology reports when I am also the one experiencing them.
We humans have universal transits that bolster our progress in the human life cycle: Our first Chiron return around 17; a Pluto-Neptune conjunction mid-twenties that shocks us into our purpose. We have the first Saturn return at 29.5, coinciding keenly with the full lunar progression through the 12 seasons of the zodiac. We have a Pluto square, a Uranus opposition.
We have transits that are our generational stepping stones that collectively shift awareness and the minor and major lightning bolts that zap us into our personal timeline.
Some of us evade major activations during periods of our lives. Some of us seem to experience them all at once and with relentless fervor. My astrologer mom feels I am the latter.
The good news is that it’s all benefiting our growth. Tension breeds innovation, response, and creativity and ultimately catalyzes growth.
But sometimes you just feel like you aren’t up for one more friggin’ assignment from the cosmos. My friend and yoga teacher Anna tells me — if you are walking through hell— keep going.
In my Reiki trainings, I speak to the spiritual principles developed by Mikao Usui, the founder of the Usui Reiki Method. One of these principles is to accept your many blessings.
Blessings don’t always look like blessings. Sometimes they look like a pile of dog doo you just unknowingly stepped — or worse!— sat in. But one unexpected intervention can lead to the next odd circumstance that leads to the next weird thing that eventually leads you to a time in your life that feels pretty darn amazing.
This is one of those Taurus-Scorpio analogies that is basic af but makes a lot of sense.
You gotta deal with the poop to get to the flowers.
Scorpio season is that compost heap of refuse we don’t want to deal with — we set it aside, knowing we will have to deal with it later. This compost hope can be the analogy of the subconscious, the shadow, the underworld. There are a lot of things we don’t want to have to deal with this life.
But if we want to plant in the Spring, we have to let go of the previous year’s garden.
It’s sad. It’s hard work. It’s exhausting. We don’t want to do it, but if we don’t — we will have to confront it later in a more mysterious or even mutated form.
I hope that your compost heap isn’t too slimy or smelly. I hope you can play in the decaying leaves and remember what they were and what they may become. All of this is part of the cycle — in your life, your community and on the larger scale we cannot see.
So when I remind you to accept your many blessings, it means with a soft hand and an even softer jaw. Unclench. Winter is coming… but longer days are ahead. Keep going.
stay inspired.
ursidae
