Astrological Antecedents
for September Full Moon Prayers and Rituals

At the Virgo New Moon in which this Full Moon takes place, we began a prayer cycle applying the freeing and beautifying power of Love. This lunation reaches its fullness highlighted by Pluto and Mercury. This configuration, as outlined by Maya, accentuates the transformative power of the word. We can harmonize with these energies now by centering more intensely on the development of love consciousness, to complete our inner harmonization and share its rays with the collective (which Maya reminds us Pluto also refers to).

Love: the Highest Alchemy

Loves springs forth spontaneously for those people and nature beings or structures we hold dear. This sweetest of all emotions is more than a pleasant sensation; it is the organizing, beautifying, healing power of the Universe, in whose awareness we were created to live and move and have our being.

Holding to love towards those we wish to help or heal is actually one of the strongest non-local treatments we can share. A Mexican metaphysician once told me about her participation in a group of light-workers (also including Jesuits), who joined to send love and pink light to Mexico City after the 1986 earthquake, helped avoid another, larger earthquake which had been destined to occur shortly thereafter. José Carreras attributes his miraculous recovery from leukemia "to all the love people sent me."

Of equal import is embracing ourselves. Even Buddhism—focused on disintegrating the ego—includes practices to accept and love the self. The ego seeks to create separation: when we stress loving others, we may find ourselves demoting our own value. Giving ourselves equal booking when meditating on love makes sure we are not excluded from the circle of its healing rays.

Concentrating on those we spontaneously love, those we wish to help, and embracing the self all serve to warm us up for the greatest alchemy: loving that which appears unlovable. Those who go deep with these inner experiments will make the gold of our higher nature shine by the transmuting light of the September, 2003, Full Moon.

Synchronize the Elements with Your Full Moon Prayers

Earth: The days around the September Full Moon are an especially powerful portal for clarifying your intent to fortify a love consciousness, and imprinting it (or reinforcing your imprint, if you already did this at the New Moon) on a rose quartz or amethyst crystal, which will then help connect your magic to the mineral and light queendoms in the earth and beyond. As suggested at the last New Moon, hold it in your palm, "pressing it with your thumb," or place "it over your third eye while laying down. Send the intent to heighten your love vibration, and open to the freeing power of love, by concentrating on that desire and directing it towards the stone."

Fire: Again, as stressed at the New Moon, a pink candle will also "brighten love’s hue in your space, as it activates that emotional center through the pineal gland." Combine it with a purple one to bring in the Pluto alchemical potential, as will wearing purple at this time.

Air: Light pine incense before beginning your Full Moon prayers.

Water: Lunarize your space by saying your prayers by a fountain or stream, or having on hand a chalice or goblet-like vessel with spring water.

Full Moon Alchemy Love Prayers Part I:
Alchemical Love List

Have on hand a sheet of paper and pen, one or both of which can be purple.

On the top part of the page, write the names of those who come to mind as easy to love. These may include dear people, as well as forests, oceans, galaxies, whatever entities spontaneously move your heart most readily.

Below them, write the names of people, groups or other beings you would like to help. Those in need of healing, large sea fish, old-growth and rain forest eco-systems, activists, the homeless, street children, Africa, are some examples to get you going on the second part of your list.

Next, write your own name, with enough space to write above it:

I love myself as much as I love those I most love. I allow myself to receive all of the love, self-esteem and success that are here for me now!

Finally, write the names of those people or groups that are most difficult for you to feel kindly towards. Include politicians. Above them, write some words that help you transmute the apparent discomfort they provoke, such as:

Spirit loves all and frees all through me.

Part II: Go to Your Inner Shrine

In a comfortable position, with your crystal in your hand or on your third eye as described above, close your eyes and visualize the energy shrine at the center of your heart. It is a luminous, opulent, sacred space. Imagine its golden, pink and purple colors. Identify its unique design and textures. Once you can see and feel it clearly, place your entire self in that space.

Part III: The Alchemist's Love Bath

Open your eyes, still centered in your heart’s shrine, and go over your Alchemical Love List. As you do, seek to focus on the love you spontaneous feel, but also to generate more love, sending it freely and generously to each subject on your list. Spend at least 30 minutes doing this, until you are really in the spirit of this transformative emotion.

Part IV: Follow Up

Repeat this treatment for the duration of this Moon cycle, or longer, if you get hooked. In your daily life, seek to mentally place yourself in your heart shrine before judging others, or accepting guilt or shame feelings that might burden your precious self. Watch for the inner and outer testimonies of love’s transmuting power, as you continue to balance out and refine your own and the world’s Mars energy from now to the end of September (when this planet goes direct) or beyond.

Author’s note: Among other personal results, I had the world’s dolphins and whales on my list for a few weeks, and just received word of the NRDC’s miraculous court victory to protect them from the Navy’s proposed sonar system. Expect miracles from the Lover within you.