Aries Full Moon of Unlocking Nutrients with Chicken of the Woods

09°08' Aries

3:04 PM MST

Thursday, October 1, 2020

Fungus: Laetiporus spp. (Chicken of the Woods)

Welcome to this Aries Full Moon of Unlocking Nutrients. What emotional cycles are being released?

Join me in observing this Full Moon by taking a few conscious breaths. 

How can you sense your body from the inside?

Full Moons speak to a heightened energy -- and thus a heightened receptivity. Be gentle with yourself and with others, as this cyclical release also engages tangled, unconscious, and old wounding.

With this Aries Full Moon we engage with the fullness and maturity of our raw spirit -- of unfiltered and groundbreaking boldness. In the midst of this fullness, there might be some leakage spilling out onto one another during this collective experience. Last night, I came across not one, but two tiny white dogs standing in the middle of the road in my neighborhood, only an hour apart from one another. I eventually found each tiny, old dog's owner. Is the full moon engaging these dogs' groundbreaking boldness?

A core aspect of this Full Moon is Moon's conjunction with asteroid Chiron, who is enjoying a long stay in Aries. Due to an elliptical orbit, Chiron stays for varying years in each sign. Libra is the shortest stay -- about 1.5 years, and Aries the longest -- about 8 years in total. Chiron dances through Aries until December 2027. In these years, something about the wounds of our identity and of our spirit are being confronted and transformed.

Chiron lives between Saturn (the last visible planet from earth) and Uranus (the first invisible planet); bridging the material and the spiritual (a very fungal trait). A fusion of Chiron and Moon means that in this moment, the vibes are opportune for release of emotional cycles having to do with old wounding or habitual response. It is through knowing our wounding that we begin to know our own medicinal resources and capacity for bridging the material with the spiritual. 

Laetiporus gilbertsonii growing as heart rot (shelf clusters).

As funga are the grand unlockers of nutrients that would otherwise be indigestible for the rest of the organisms on earth, what in your spirit is being unlocked? What in your habitual response is becoming unraveled?

Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus species) mushrooms have been popping all over North America. A sign of autumn and decay, these mushrooms are called "brown rot" and fruit on trees. Being saprobes (though sometimes parasites), these fungi do the important job of digesting cellulose, something that most animals cannot digest! Known as fiber to us, cellulose is an integral component of plant cell walls.

In a way, the digestion of cellulose unlocks it in the environment -- otherwise hardly any other organisms would be able to transform cellulose into new life. In a way, cellulose, constitutional to plant cell walls, is akin to suffering, as pain and suffering are inherent to our universal experience on this planet we inhabit. Aries Full Moon, hands held with Chiron, reminds us of the fullness of this universal truth.

Living in close connection with our intuitive experiences helps us become present to the fact that each person carries their own trauma and suffering. We are each uniquely embodied microcosms of universal shedding, transforming, and embodying of truth.

Often, it is through unlocking our own suffering that we begin to find nourishment. (And yes, Chicken of the Woods are some of the tastiest!)

Laetiporus gilbertsonii.

Mercury entered Scorpio on September 27th.

Language, communication, transportation, and socialization are changing as our seasons shift. We swim into the complexity, the meaning, and the subsurface qualities about our connections. How do you (or do you not) let others in? How are our connections (virtual and otherwise) nourishing or malnourishing to our emotions? 

Venus will enter Virgo on October 3rd.

Venus, our shifting body of the capacity to love and attract, will enter Virgo -- the herbalist. This can be a good check-in with the service of our love. Are we in love just to receive? Is your environment just an opportunity? Or is it community? 

Also on October 3rd, Jupiter in Capricorn will form a Quincunx with Venus in Leo. A wave of redirection reminds us the importance of moderation and humiliation.