A homily for the Full Moon on March 13, 2025.
Dearly Beloved,
Blessed Full Moon, my dear siblings. I greet you in the name of Aphrodite and in the name of the Divine on this vibrant night.
The Sun is in watery Pisces while the Moon is in earthy Virgo, a perfect time to discuss those moments that the Water in our heart wells up and overflows into action in the manifested realm of Earth. Thus I am moved to speak of those times we are touched by the goodness of the Other. Those moments that our feelings get so big they just have to come out in action.
I am moved to speak of gratitude.
For many of us it has been a difficult month since the the Moon was last full, as the weight of the political world combines with the weight of the economic world to bear down upon our backs. As part of my Lenten practice of fasting, I have been staying off of social media (except for my writing, of course), which has been a blessing (as fasting usually is). But even without that added psychic noise, the world is hurting and I can’t help but feel it. The world aches and I ache with it.
It is in these moments that I feel deeply drawn into my spiritual life. Despite the ways that the human world can burden us, we must remember that the human world is really only a small part of the world. All around us are the myriad animals, plants, spirits, deities, and forces with which we share the larger universe.
And that larger universe is amazing.
We are all in constant connection with every aspect of creation, an overflowing abundance of life and energy and change that is constantly in process, constantly growing and becoming something new. The Divine, the Source, the One, the Goddess, God, the Good, the True, the Beautiful, the Loving…all of these names are mere titles, fingers pointing at something so fundamental, so transformative, and so powerful that it literally moves and breathes through all of existence and beyond. The reality that all of those titles point at is so profound, that light so clear and ever-present, that, ironically, it’s easy to forget about entirely. Like anything else that is ubiquitous, that divine presence is easy to overlook.
In his mystical science fiction novels “Ubik” and “VALIS”, the legendary author and mystic Philip K. Dick shows us a vision of the Divine that conceals Themselves in the background of the world. A creator that hides in the unnoticed trash on the ground. A deity—which PKD calls “Zebra” at one point—which lays concealed as the Ground Of All Being, lost in the background, but an ever-present witness to the play of Their children. Always informing reality, always giving Themselves to us, always granting being and energy, matter and motion, to us all.
Like I said, amazing. Breathtaking. Awe-inspiring.
When I think about this, when I think of myself as what I am, a simple-minded and silly ape who is made out of light shed by the Divine, I am filled with wonder. When I look at my amazing wife or see the simply wonderful stray cat that wanders my neighborhood, I see that same light behind their eyes. I see the Zebra hiding in the grass, the Divine masquerading as the litter on the sidewalk, the Ground Of All Being in the background of the world. I see the Divine behind every face, and I am overwhelmed with the recognition of how lucky we are. We live in an universe of love and abundance, of life and warmth. Yes, there is pain and loss and entropy and death and the vast emptinesses of space, but in the midst of that, so much wonder! So much life! So much beauty!
So let us look out at this big, wide, amazing universe filled with light, life, love, and liberty and recognize how blessed we really are. Let us recognize the Zebra, the Divine One hidden everywhere in the background, the abundant, exuberant, and infinitely creative Ground Of All Being that has brought us all into existence and sustains us in that existence.
Let us be grateful.
Blessed Full Moon, dear ones.
In love,
Soror Alice
Art: Paul Gauguin, “Maruru: Offerings Of Gratitude”, (1893-1894)