This Full Moon, Purge Yourself Of Complacency

The moon grew to fullness at midnight last night, positioning itself in Gemini Decan 1, following the day many U.S. citizens celebrate Thanksgiving. On that day and this day too, many of us leaned into duality, duality of mind and duality of spirit. We travelled miles toward family members we can barely stand, all in order to share an hour with them and give thanks for the opportunity. We stood in line to buy a giant bird most of us don't even like to eat—for the symbolism.

For the symbolism, and for sentiment, we gathered with friends new and old who had broken away from the traditions of their families and broke bread with us instead, ate candied yams. And, there were those amongst us who took the opportunity to speak of genocide, named this day a day of mourning.

Many people gave good speeches about their sympathies but few people changed their rituals. And then, there were the ones who abstained, who mourned. But, the smoke of this offering, it surrounded all of us, and surrounds us, still, in the rituals we take on from here on.

George Stonefish, organizer of the Lenape Pow Wow was on the Brian Lehrer show a couple days ago. A white woman called in and asked, "What can I, as a white person returning home, do something for the native lands and the native people… which I grew up on." A dual gesture, of repentance and of demand. George Stonefish had a generous answer. "Very simply," he began. "Enjoy your Thanksgiving, eat your meal, bond with your family, that's a very important thing. But, take some time to take your family into the backyard, break a cigarette and take some tobacco. Hold that tobacco in your hand and have everybody pray in their own way about what has been done to generations who have given their lives for this great United States." He continued, "Sprinkle some tobacco at the base of the tree. Now that little thing, that acknowledgement, personally, is a major step to changing and understanding the holiday of Thanksgiving." If you sit with that conversation, if you go listen to it, you might find your heart charged with the very thing that defines a Gemini decan 1—the desire to devote oneself to learning from the cultures of others and to fighting to protect the sources of that wisdom.

Now, you might venture to ask: A full moon is all about purging, isn't it? A completion of a cycle linking back to the Scorpio new moon. Yes, it's true that the full moon asks us to reflect on what we set forth on the last new moon's eve. The Scorpio new moon asked us to embrace our shadow aspects, our shame and our guilt. It asked us to name the kind of power we felt we lost and give that power a new life.

The full moon asks us to observe what we have called in, versus what came instead. Who won? Who lost? Think of Stacy Abrams; what stayed the same? And, after all that, after the striving and loss and the disappointment—what belief systems are you ready to admit will no longer suffice? What are you ready to let go of so that you can see more clearly what you should hold on to?

This full moon in Gemini sits opposite Jupiter in Sagittarius and, as always, Sun in Sagittarius. A position that can make us pay extra attention to old habits and, if we're not careful, succumb to addictions, this Gemini full moon asks us to sit with what we know about ourselves vs. what we reject knowing. Yes, this is about our rituals, our addiction to tradition and compliance as a replacement for intimacy. This is about the spiritual price of having an inheritance, when you sit in gratitude on a hill of grief.