Full Moon Magic, Transformation, and the Science of Worms
It's the full moon in Virgo AND, the last full moon before spring arrives! Can you feel it? We can. The longer exposure to daylight is signaling our bodies and metabolisms to WAKE UP, and there are a number of ways to help that process along! The Virgo moon is a healing moon (I mean, aren’t they all in some way, shape, or form?). But specifically, Virgo encourages order, thus it's a perfect time to release habitual patterns that stagnate our bodies, minds, and souls, thus creating dis-order.
One excellent tip from Brittany Nickerson Wood of Thyme Herbal in Western Massachusetts is to eat more bitter and fermented foods (bitter greens like dandelion greens and chicory and some delicious kimchi would work) to cleanse the blood, and get the immune system moving (Herbal Homestead Journal available at www.thymeherbal.com). And a tip from our yoga teacher in-residence, Chrissy, at Rebel Yell Yoga: start to actually MOVE your body. Check out her yoga blog at www.rebelyellyogalife.com for lots of mind-body goodness. Get to yoga, go for a jog, start a regular fitness program. Use that extra energy to your advantage! Drink tea, drink water with unfiltered apple cider vinegar, and get some fresh air, goddammit.
Fascinatingly enough, this full moon is known as the worm moon in Native American cultures. Ecologically, worms play an enormous role in cleansing, renewal, and transformation. What does this sound like moon magic junkies? Why yes, it’s ALL connected! The moon, the earth, the universe! Around this time of year as the soil thaws, our friendly ecological engineer, the earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) , starts to metabolically activate and MOVE! When worms move through soil, their little squirmy wormy tunnels aerate the earth (I always make sure my garden boxes are full of these little dude/dudettes (they are hermaphrodites) for good plant growth and survival). Aerated soil allows cleansing and creates space, so that water, nutrients, and oxygen can move with ease and nourish newly sown seeds and previously established roots. Worms also nourish the soil through their own existences (i.e., through worm poop or "castings") and provide minerals and nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which literally transforms seeds into plants from spring until fall. This is ecology, this is life, this is magic, this is TRANSFORMATION! The little Lumbricus transforms the entire subsurface environment to allow growth, expansion, and abundance. They are quite the tapestry weavers, and thus, this moon is aptly named.
All in all, spring is nearly here and it’s a good time to anchor and focus: for the transformation within you (magic is merely the art of transformation) will begin to unfurl, like the petals of a flower reaching for the sun, or the sails of a ship setting out on a great journey.
Blessed Be.
Artist Unknown.
