This link begins my musings about the Pisces Full Moon symbolism…. if you’ve come from that post, read on-
The Sabian Symbol for the Virgo Sun at 6-7° is: “A harem”. My image of a harem used to be influenced by Scheherazade in One Thousand and One Nights, paintings by the artist Ingres and the musical, The King and I.
But since reading Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren, I realize that harems still exist.
This book is not for everyone. It graphically recounts a young woman’s life in the sex industry and how she becomes part of a bevy of international women whose sole purpose is to entertain the royal family men of Brunei. A harem seems 180° away from the spiritual promise of a cross. Yet a Full Moon always reminds us of opposites, since the Sun lights the Moon by facing it. The contrast of the symbol of a cross with a harem is a puzzle for the integration that is offered with this Full Moon.
Here’s my take. Virgo is the sign of the vestal virgin; the temple virgins kept the flame of the goddess Vesta. She was the goddess of the hearth. Vesta kept the fire that warmed a home, cooked food and forged metals.
The hearth symbolizes the heart of the home: the center of a family or community. The virgins who kept Vesta’s temple were “owned by no man”.
In ancient Rome the temple virgins were celibate, or dishonor and death was a consequence. Failure to tend the fire was a failure to the community, home and the faith. Rome was a patriarchal society.
However, Vesta’s lineage came from the Greek Hestia. Although the importance of tending her fire was the same, the farther back in the culture, the more disparate is the interpretation of ancient texts. Always, the goddess of the hearth was the first to be honored. Without fire, a community or home faced hardship; they required the warmth and energy that fire provided.
The fire keeper held power and the farther back one goes to cultures that emulated the goddess, the less restricted were the lives of women.
In Lauren’s book, Some Girls, she experiences confusion because of lack of self-worth, the ease of self-medication and the lure of money and possessions. Yet in time, she extricates herself from identifying her sole value as a pretty young body and finds her writer/artist voice. She uses the material unearthed from her experience as an object and commodity to tell an unsettling tale. She educates and separates herself from her past.
As a result, Jillian Lauren has become one of the vestal virgins, who tends a fire of knowledge.
When you consider the horizontal line of the cross and our lessons here on the Earth plane, the pull of the vertical line shows how to connect to the Universal Spirit. The Pisces Moon calls to your spiritual drive. We use the plumb line connection to our material lives as our daily bread.
Yet this Pisces Full Moon asks you to elevate your Spirit. The Virgo Sun encourages you to use its bright light to illuminate a creative project or routine to get you in better touch with your inner fire.
What project needs tending to allow fulfillment?
If you don’t already have this project in motion, now is a perfect time to start the swing in the right direction. As we finish the summer months and lean towards the season of eclipses, the urge to create plans for growth beckons. Register for the free monthly forecast of September’s eclipses & meditations here
Recent Comments