Springtime is the season of awakening. All of nature is conspiring to wake up: the Sun warms the birds so they’ll sing, likewise encouraging the buds. This encourages certain housecats to chase said birds. We feel this, too. We get the equivalent of cabin fever in our bodies, lives and relationships: it becomes increasingly impossible to put up with the same old same old. It is a time when, as my friend said on his Facebook status update, we discover that “Staying in my comfort zone for too long gets uncomfortable. It’s Spring, it’s time to get growing again.” The comfort zone may not even be all that comfortable, but it’s the old familiar, the same song and dance we always do, the one we let our self get away with doing. That’s the beauty of springtime — we get impatient with this old ball of tricks. At Spring, if we don’t take action to step outside of our comfort zone, we may even start to annoy our self.

Or worse. In the past, the hardest thing for me to do was slow down (Aries Moon). An Aries Moon born, I’ve been weaned on the mother’s milk of non-stop action. In the face of impossibility and adversity, I just keep moving forward. I’ve pondered the idea that my soul is basically okay with adversity, and that I may even need it.  Yet I also have the shadow of this moon sign whose comfort zone is being uncomfortable. High-stress emergency mode feels somewhat comfortable. Case in point: last year at this time, I just wasn’t dealing well with stress and like most people who don’t want to deal with their stress, I thought I was doing a great job. I actually believed: surviving house remodels, teenagers, career transitions, working forty hour weeks by pushing through it, meant I was handling my stress. My attitude of negativity and misery should have been a dead giveaway but it wasn’t.

It took a major crisis to put my priorities and values back in order again. I got adrenal fatigue…and a great naturopath and a therapist. These people have changed my life. I was so used to being the one who people come to, but I learned even the astrologer needs an astrologer, and a coach needs a coach. Frankly, alone, I didn’t know how to do anything more than the same old pattern I had been doing. There are certain things we cannot find in our self without deeply interfacing with others. One person holds the lock and the other, the key. With the help of others, I was handed resources and perspectives that I did not have in myself, what a gift! I could not have done this alone. By surrendering my problems to others and trusting them, my life changed absolutely.

This Libra Full Moon is no typical Libra moon; Uranus joins the Sun in Aries as the Libra Moon opposes. Like springtime, Uranus is the Great Awakener.  If you’re in a crisis, crisis is a sign you need to take an innovative new approach to the same old problem, find new resources. Aries says, “Do Something” and Libra Moon replies, “Don’t do it alone. Others can help you.” Pluto is nearby, having just squared off with Mars, so there is an element of working with our own power/powerlessness and self-protection. We need to remember that we are always in charge of our attitude, habits, choices, decisions, even if that’s the only power we have.

We may also come up against our own stubborn denial. When asked why people don’t heal, intuitive physician Carolyn Myss said: Procrastination. She says (and I believe this) everyone knows deep down what they need to do next. Problems happen when they don’t do it. Procrastination is the enemy of healing. It is also the enemy of personal growth, which is also probably not a coincidence.  We are stubborn creatures and change is scary. But what if Mother Nature said to Spring, “Grow new buds all over these trees? Nah, that would take wayyy to much energy. I think I’ll sit this season out.” Yet we say this to our self.

This lunation may be difficult, but because I don’t believe in monsters, I don’t believe it’s the “Monster Moon”. I think it’s more like the Dragon Mama Moon — fierce, loving, with an instinct for truth and protection. Sit with your self at this full moon, listen to the small still voice within. You already know what you need to do next.  You already know what you need to do, change, eliminate in order to more deeply live in accord with your own True Nature. With Uranus involved, we need to break from an attitude, habit, way of being — which may be a socially acceptable norm, but it is not what our True Self needs. Reach out to others, they are allies; we need other people’s perspectives right now. If you’re facing something difficult, breathe in your dragon mama self: your ferocity, gentleness, kindness toward all of life. If threatened, she can certainly breathe fire, but deep down the dragon is a gentle, vulnerable creature who needs the help of a noble princess as much as the princess needs her.