Strawberry Moon: Be the Change You Wish to See

June 30, 9:49 a.m. EDT
The full moon for the month of June is known as the Strawberry Moon. It was named, as most full moons are, by the Algonquin tribe of Indians of North America. This same full moon in June is often referred to, in Europe, as the Rose Moon. The North American version came about because of the comparatively short season for harvesting strawberries which arrives each year during the month of June. By the same token, of course, June is the month of the flowering of many beautiful roses.

Whether you believe in astrology in any sense (even in a playful 'fun to check out' kind of way), this full moon is known as the 'full moon in Capricorn.' As such, this Strawberry moon arising as the full moon in Capricorn, symbolizes a calling out to each and everyone of us to find ways to express love and and feelings of connectedness in our lives. This is especially true when love is not our first response. When we feel other emotions because our sense of love is drowned out by pain, or fear, or even hatred...... it drowns out the inner voice of love as a universal emotion, a path towards communication and union with others.

This full moon is one of facing the reality of love lost or even love denied. That lost love may be simply the missing of opportunity, or it can be represented by an actual loss, or even the death ,of someone you have loved. It is a time to be open to loss, a time to open our hearts and share that love, that loss with others. It is hard at times like these, to allow ourselves that openness, because it also opens our hearts once again to pain or perhaps even to judgment. If we can allow ourselves to have the courage to face these possibilities and rise above them, then we also allow ourselves the opportunities for further growth and transformation.

As the moon seems to pull us in our own human cycles, she also pulls us in her full moon energies. It is an invitation to look with depth at the suffering in our lives. A chance to see how being connected to love and loving is also an opportunity for releasing our attachment to the process of holding on to emotional wounds created by that love. The energies at this time can become a test, if you will, to see how selfless and openhearted each of us can be. It is also a time that calls out to us for self-care, lest we become too emotional or too sensitive. So on one hand, we reach out and open our hearts to sharing our inner truths, but on the other, we increase our chance and re-opening our own wounds. This is the power of the full moon energy. A time of release of the old, the promise of the healing those old pains and beginning anew.

On a global scale, it is also an opportunity for each of us to come to terms with deep rooted fears and to look at the war within as it pertains to the war we see outside of ourselves. As such, it creates a thoughtful space to willingly transcend the human-made divisions of race, religion, nationality or gender. If we can acknowledge that we are all, somehow connected, that we find parts of ourselves within the other. Then and only then, can we reach out with our hearts to feel those heartstrings that bind us together instead of the differences that hold and push us apart.

The Full Moon in Capricorn, the Strawberry Moon of 2007, is therefore an opportunity, a potential point for transition . By allowing ourselves to see our own fears, our own loss, we also allow the possibility in a global shift of human consciousness. A chance to move away from our ego's need to separate and feel superior to the heart's much greater need to connect and to feel a part of all that is. When we open to the transparent and transcendent Self, realizing that love is the true nature of all existent life, we open to change. When we open to change, we open to possibility and begin our own inner process of transformation. As Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi said so eloquently: “we must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Whether, we 'stop to smell the roses' or to savor the sweet juiciness of a fresh strawberry. Look up at the full moon tonight, in all her glory, and reach out with your hearts to another. Release your own inner pain and judgment and allow yourself to receive a feeling of acceptance and connectedness.