As you have probably figured out, I write a lot about the Moon, the phases, and how each phase affects our lives. Following the cycle of the Moon is a powerful way to connect with our energy, and an invaluable way in which we can organize our life to its fullest advantage. Getting in touch with her cycles helps to remind us that we are all a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
I use the New Moon and Full Moon phases in my monthly horoscope predictions, usually focusing on the houses or areas of life that the Moon is inhabiting at those times of the month.
The one area I haven’t discussed is what it means when the New and Full Moons are in the different zodiac signs and how amazing it is to work with the energy of each sign that the Moon is in. I am going to take a journey through each sign and share specific ways to word intentions based on the energy of that particular Moon sign. I always find it much more powerful to perform a New or Full Moon meditation before I write down my intentions. When you handwrite your intentions during a New Moon, you are letting the Universe know your desires and you will begin to see the manifestation of your dreams. When you align with the New Moon to put your desires and dreams out there, you are activating the Law of Attraction.
During a Full Moon you will learn the things that you need to release control of, discover where forgiveness is needed and the things you are grateful for, and you may see the results of your intentions begin to manifest. If something hasn’t worked out, release it in love, and be grateful for all the good things in your life.
The Moon moves so quickly we barely have time to register how we feel. We are very used to her movement. The Moon orbits one full turn around the Earth in 28 days and passes through each of the Zodiac signs for about 2 to 2 1/2 days. The sign of the Moon on any given day will transmit a very subtle emotional feeling. It is sometimes hard to put our finger on why we feel different on certain days, but there is something there. Almost a background vibration. Which is why I will just focus on the New and Full Moons in this article.
First, as a general explanation to describe the collective tone of a Moon phase we can look at the modality of the sign. Is it Cardinal, Fixed or Mutable? The modalities refer to the behavioral style of the sign. The modality of the Moon’s sign will have greater influence over how you process or react to anything emotionally driven.
The Cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. We automatically will know these are action moons. These signs like to take charge, show leadership, and are initiating and enterprising. We can expect to feel this energy as part of our behavior for the month.
The Fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. This suggests the energy will be more serious, focusing on responsibility and practical matters. This is a time to take of business and show our reliability.
The Mutable signs are Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo, and Pisces. The energy of the Moon in a mutable sign will be all about variety, change, a flurry of thoughts and ideas, spontaneity, and enthusiasm. We will tend to feel more flexible and social.
Now that we know the overall tone of each sign, let’s look deeper at the individual sign and what it means when I write about the Moon in Aries, or Taurus, or any of the other 10 zodiac signs.
Moon in Aries: Brings courage, independence, a time to initiate something new in our lives. This would be the time to put yourself out there in the world and engage in the things that encourage actions regarding who you want to be and how to get there. With a New Moon in Aries, you may want your intentions to include high energy initiatives, intentions that would further self-discovery that would lead to personal growth or wishes that give you courage and strength to use your leadership qualities to pursue your dreams. With a Full Moon in Aries, you are being asked to align with your true self and release any old versions of yourself that may be holding you back from your life’s purpose.
Moon in Taurus: Provides a calmness and serenity to our emotional lives. There is a steadiness or a grounded energy with this Moon. This is a time to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, to concentrate on the beauty surrounding you, and to pamper yourself a bit. It is also a good time to re-evaluate how you stand with your finances and possessions and discover what you truly value. With a New Moon in Taurus, your intentions could include ways to appropriately create financial independence or provide clarity in handling your resources, ways to appreciate and feel gratitude for the blessings in your life that bring in more love and joy, or intentions to increase your self-worth, determination, and self-acceptance. A Taurus Full Moon wants you to release any behaviors that may have created self-indulgence. Have you been eating too much, NOT exercising enough, spending too much money? Find a balance and get grounded in a plan to bring beauty and abundance into your life without overdoing it.
Moon in Gemini: Everything is about intellectualizing. There is a need to communicate our feelings and moods. This is a time that brings in more socialization and a desire for lots of mental stimulation. With a New Moon in Gemini, your intentions may include ways to enhance learning, promote effective communication, develop and improve your social skills, or improve your relationships with your siblings, family, or neighbors. A Gemini Full Moon is asking you to slow down and find a balance between wanting to know everything about everything and taking the time to really learn something useful that will help you on your life’s path.
Moon in Cancer: The Moon is in her rulership in this sign and is very sensitive, nurturing and caring. Be prepared for some emotional ups and downs and a need to be near your home, your comfort zone and security. With a New Moon in Cancer, your intentions should include ways to strengthen your personal foundations of home and family, ways to increase feelings of safety and security, ways to increase emotional closeness and caring within personal relationships, and positive ways to nurture and be nurtured. A Cancer Full Moon reminds us to learn to nurture ourselves and allow our own emotional needs to become illuminated. It can be a time of enlightenment marking a new path in our self-knowledge and emotional maturation.
Moon in Leo: This sign brings out our warm and generous emotions, as well as our passions and creativity. This Moon wants us to shine our light, have fun, be recognized. This is a time when you will have more self-confidence and radiate a strength of purpose. With a New Moon in Leo, if you are looking for love, this is the time to ask for a healthy, happy and fun romantic relationship. Your wishes could also include ways to stimulate your creative projects, artistic expression, and innate talents, as well as ways to enhance your desire to be recognized and take center stage. A Leo Full Moon is the time to release any blockages around your heart’s desires and anything stopping you from expressing your creativity and passions. Move forward with courage and show up for yourself with confidence.
Moon in Virgo: Virgo brings more caution to our emotional state. It is more difficult to show how we feel, and we may do this through acts of service to others. This is a time when we may show our feelings through being that person in the background keeping everyone on point through organization and routine. With a New Moon in Virgo your intentions could include ways to create a healthier lifestyle through better diet and exercise, ways to begin creating efficiency and order in your home and life, become more aware of ways to use critical thinking, discernment and problem solving efficiently, or consciously be able to feel satisfaction through service to others. A Virgo Full Moon is all about self-forgiveness. To forgive yourself for the ways you perceive your imperfections, the mistakes you felt you made, the areas where you expect too much of yourself, so that you can move forward with self-love and align with your true gifts that you can share with the collective.
Moon in Libra: This sign has strong emotional attachments to intellectual and artistic activities. Anything too deep and disturbing does not bode well with Libra. They like everything balanced, peaceful and harmonious in their lives. There is a fairness and beauty to everything attached to this sign. With a New Moon in Libra, your wishes could include attracting, creating and having happiness, love, respect and passion in a committed and monogamous relationship. It could also include anything to do with promoting fairness and equality, creating beauty, attracting sociability with others, or attracting more elegance in your life. A Libra Full Moon wants us to find peace and balance within all of our relationships, both personal and business. Reflect on how the people in your life are supporting you and how you are supporting them. Decide on which relationships need some adjustment and which ones need to be released. You’ll want to move forward with those you want in your life to support your growth, encourage your creativity, and help you enjoy life, and vice versa.
Moon in Scorpio: Scorpio provides powerful feelings of intuition, intense emotions of love bordering on a need to completely merge with another, and deep emotional sensitivities. A Scorpio Moon can bring out your secretive side. With a New Moon in Scorpio your intentions could include asking for positive transformations and empowerment to promote psychological healing, you may want to include right ideas to improve your intimate relationships, or perhaps finding ways to successfully manage financial partnerships, debts, loans, or financial negotiations. A Scorpio Full Moon is all about shadow work. This is the time to look beneath the surface of your psyche, face your deepest fears and blockages, and take control of your life and personal behaviors. This gives you an amazing ability to transform and empower yourself.
Moon in Sagittarius: Such a happy placement. It brings feelings of enthusiasm, the quest for new adventures, the search for higher truths, and the desire to expand our horizons. The feeling is that of the glass being half full instead of half empty. No matter the difficulties of life, there is still hope of a brighter tomorrow. With a New Moon in Sagittarius, your wishes may include your desire to enlist a Higher Power in your life direction, intentions to include spontaneity and freedom to experience positive adventures and exciting travel in your life, ways to enhance higher education or accepting more philosophical points or view, or perhaps finding a mentor to help you on your journey. A Sagittarius Full Moon is a good time to reflect on the times when optimism and faith worked in your favor. Release any attitudes that are blocking your hidden truths and be open to opportunities that will allow you to pursue the things that will uplift your soul.
Moon in Capricorn: Brings a serious and responsible vibration. This sign likes to have a very stable and drama free emotional life. You may feel more ambitious and goal oriented during a Capricorn Moon. With a New Moon in this sign, you may want to focus your intentions on preparing for the future such as retirement plans, sensible finance decisions and so forth. You also could wish for mature and responsible behavior within your relationships, in achieving professional success and recognition or gaining clarity on your professional goals and career. A Capricorn Full Moon is all about centering your energy and releasing any heaviness you may have been carrying. It is time to balance your outside world with your inside world and bring in the emotional nurturance of home and family that provide a different kind of security and structure.
Moon in Aquarius: Emotions tend to be guided by intellect and a sort of detachment. Aquarius is compassionate, but more in a big picture way. This energy will steady your emotions. You may feel more inventive and progressive with the Moon in this sign. With a New Moon in Aquarius, you may wish for ways to be more inventive and unique with your ideas, to become aware of ways to adopt new trends into your life and follow your dreams, to find ways to support humanitarian issues for the good of others either on a global or community level, or wish for ways to promote healthy friendships and feelings of comfortability in group situations. An Aquarius Full Moon is the time to reflect on any friendships or groups of people who are no longer vibrating with your soul purpose. Find a way to begin networking with others who share a common goal and provide support to your dreams for the future.
Moon in Pisces: This is a highly sensitive, intuitive and compassionate energy. Inspiration and creativity will be a driving factor with everything you do. It can inspire strong feelings of faith and spirituality, or some may find ways to escape the intensity of emotions through drugs or alcohol. With a New Moon in Pisces, your intentions could include ways to support your psychic sensitivities at this time and increase your connection to source/spirit, to trust in a High Power to guide your life and enable you to make right choices, to have an easier time focusing on things that bring inner peace such as meditation, journaling, yoga, or nature activities, or to be open to creating artistically with the support and help of spirit/angels. A Pisces Full Moon wants you to release any and all things that are clouding your vision or judgement. Allow your creative visions and ideas to flow and know that your gifts and creations are valuable assets just waiting to be manifested.
When we follow the phases of the Moon, it enables us to understand how best to utilize our energy each month. Each phase brings its own flavor and guidance to our lives. Eclipses bring their own unique perspective for a longer period of time. By just finding out the phase you were born under brings a greater understanding to your purpose for being, then following each phase through a certain time period in your life can show the evolution of your story and its timing. It takes much longer than a month to flesh out a full cycle in your life. And of course, there are the lunar progressions, which is another level of the story. Just know that our lives our divinely guided and be open to the magic.
This month’s Full Moon occurs on July 13th in the sign of Capricorn followed by the New Moon in Leo on July 28th. You can start thinking about the adjustments you would like to make according to the information you now have available to you.
As an added bonus, Jupiter goes retrograde in Aries on the same day as the New Moon, so this is a good time to develop any personal talents you have or to work on self-improvement projects. Jupiter retrograde in combination with the New Moon in Leo is a big factor in being able to reassess what inspires and motivates you, what your beliefs and values are, and where you find meaning in your life. It is a time to come to a realization of what your core desires are and work toward manifesting those wishes when Jupiter stations direct again in November. Take the time to fully fine-tune your ideas so that you can finally execute them.
(As appearing in July 2022 edition of Live, Love and Eat Magazine