A homily for the Full Moon on July 21, 2024.
Dearly beloved,
Happy Full Moon! In the “Farmer’s Almanac”, this month’s Full Moon is traditionally called the “Full Buck Moon”, named such because this is the time of year when the antlers of the young bucks have fully come in. Given this, I am moved to speak about growth and development.
Growth is usually seen as a good thing in our culture. The endless push of capitalism is for constant and eternal expansion and growth, and stock exchanges throughout the world always want to see the lines on their graphs go higher, the bars grow taller, and their “parts of the pie” get bigger. Growth is the name of the game in the world we live in…growth at all costs.
But is growth at all costs really a good thing?
As pagans, we believe in a naturalized theology. Our ideas about the Divine and the spiritual world are extensions of our ideas about the natural world and we look to the features and processes of the natural world to inform us about the features and processes of the supernatural world. So what does nature teach us about growth?
Growth is often a beautiful but bittersweet process. As we grow up, we exult in our new powers, while simultaneously our bodies ache from growing pains, and our minds and hearts wrestle with our new responsibilities. I don’t know of anyone who thinks of their teen years, a time of dramatic growth and development, as “easy”. Even those of us who were happy during our teens suffered the pangs of physical, mental, and emotional growth. Growth is difficult, and often leaves a trail of painful memories behind us.
Unlimited growth is also dangerous, as any of our siblings who have suffered with cancer can tell you. Our bodies, minds, and hearts simply can’t deal with the constant strain of growth, with cells, thoughts, and feelings multiplying out of control. Things that should be small grow too large, while things that should be large and robust wither and sicken as their resources are stolen. It is clear that growth of the wrong sort, growth in the wrong directions, is to be avoided when possible.
But these detriments aside, growth is almost always a good thing. One of the most important goals of the Great Work, the life of mystical exploration and growth pursued by many of our siblings (including myself!), is to purposely keep growing, keep changing, over the course of our lives, like a tree reaching towards the Sun. We wish to grow in our spiritual lives, in our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with the Divine, and to do so we must remember that true growth takes place within and without, above and below, and in both the light and the dark. Spirit, that fifth element which guides, reconciles, and unifies the other four, is also that within us which aspires to rise to the Divine and that within us which pulls us down into the underworld to walk in the darkness and be reborn.
So as we look up at the beautiful light of the Full Moon tonight, as we greet Her in all Her glory, let us remember the joy and pain of reaching up towards the Sun with our branches and down into the darkness with our roots. Let us remember the joy and pain of expanding our horizons, testing ourselves in new and unexplored territories, and reaching out to new people and ideas. Let us remember to change for the best and avoid changes for the worst. And let us always remember to grow.
Happy Full Moon.
In love, Soror Alice
Art: Raden Saleh, “Young Stag”, (~1844)