VIRGO FULL MOON AND LUNAR ECLIPSE
reflecting on the conclusion of eclipse season...breaking the seal of shame
2026 FULL MOONS // Virgo Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse, March 3rd, 2026
Greetings friends,
How was your eclipse season? How have you been feeling? While we are technically out of eclipse season, because of Mercury retrograde ruling this lunation, we may find that the themes that were highlighted by this eclipse are going to be lingering for the next month or so—that’s also because that usually happens with eclipses in general.
You may find yourself in the midst of a big energetic purge, one that may be resulting in unusual feelings of sluggishness, fogginess, exhaustion, and sensitivity. This is a very important time for us to listen to our bodies and follow their lead, but it is equally important that we not confuse our bodily cues for escapism cravings. We may be feeling pressure to perform in a certain way, perhaps because we have such high aspirations, but the body may be struggling to keep up—perhaps you’ll find that the way you respond to shame, self-criticism, or other uncomfortable feelings is by reaching for something that allows you to avoid, escape, or evade, something that pulls you out of your conscious, present experience. That’s what we were examining through this eclipse, but as I mentioned above, you may notice that this eclipse’s themes are overarchingly the themes of March as a whole.
This moon invites us to examine how we unconsciously try to save ourselves. I’ve been reading a book called Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self Preservation by Jen Percy—it’s an examination of women’s response to sexual assault, specifically by “playing dead,” freezing, or seemingly “leaving the body.” Leaving my own body is something that I’ve done to survive sexual assault; I’m still trying to figure out how to get back into it. This moon formed right around the one-year anniversary of when I was sexually assaulted by a (then) friend. I had assumed I would never encounter sexual violence again; I thought I knew what to look for and how to prevent it…but there it was! The eve of my 24th birthday. I’ve faced varying waves of frustration over the past several months for how I responded—I didn’t. I checked out and froze. But some choices were made for us long before we were conceived; we may recognize only in retrospect how little control we actually had in the matter. They’re decisions made by the millions who survived before us; they are choices made by millennia of self-preservation infused into our very cells. I am not the first to freeze, and unfortunately, I am sure I will not be the last.
This book has brought me some solace and validation; it’s a heavy but important read. While my experience may be an intense topic to illustrate what the body does to self-preserve, we may be reflecting upon all the ways that our bodies attempt to keep us safe in moments of distress, regardless of what the material is. Let’s discuss this further below.
PERSONAL READINGS — LIMITED AVAILABILITY!
I have had a very busy past month; my books were nearly full with readings and meetings, and I am SO incredibly grateful! I have a couple of different trips planned for this month, and all of my March availability has been booked, so if you’d like to work with me in the near future, I’d encourage you to check out my available times in April. We are nearing the beginning of the astrological year; now would be a great time to start strategizing how you want to proceed once we’re out of this Piscean haze.
If you don’t know where to start or want to learn more about my process, I’d suggest you book a (free!) discovery call. You can do that here.
My Quarter Ahead session is a great option to consider at this time as well, considering we’re soon moving into a new season and are steadily shifting into a very different energetic dynamic. You can learn more and book a discussion of your next few months here.
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EXPAND YOUR MIND — BECOME AN EXCLUSIVE MEMBER
Reliving the Past as a Means of Self-Preservation
Virgo is an archetype often associated with perfectionists, organizers, and critics, but I prefer to think of the hunter-gatherer era of Indigenous peoples. Virgo is an archetype of skepticism and cautiousness; it’s an archetype of self-preservation. Virgo is who urges us to pause before biting into a piece of blemished fruit or leftovers that have a funky smell. Virgo keeps us alive. This is why this archetype is so well suited for technical work and meticulous tasks; this heightened awareness of things that look out of place can prevent future issues, calamities, and delays—it helps the machine keep running. It is through Virgo that we see the value of refinement, of looking at a practice, a system, a structure and asking, “What could I improve?” But going back to the hunter-gatherers, we can understand the value in Virgo’s pickiness by considering the scenarios that the early Indigenous peoples of the world encountered throughout their daily life. There were far more immediate dangers that early people faced—poisonous plants, venomous creatures, predators, elements, enemies. Many of these dangers are not as pressing to us in our modern-day experience, which is why I think, now, we can more frequently find ourselves trying to temper the Virgo-ness that exists in each of us, instead of needing to magnify it.
Virgo is an expert at organizing existing information so that it can be easily found and referenced to inform the way we approach making new decisions or taking new actions. And because of Virgo’s relationship to the body, we may find this is most visible in the way that the nervous system functions and unconsciously advises our daily movements. Over the course of Jupiter’s transit through Cancer, we’ve been invited to examine our earliest experiences of emotions, as these encounters have created the baseline for how our nervous systems respond to those emotions when they are faced again in the future. Perhaps we’ve been realizing the differences between what feels “safe” to the body and what feels “right” to us intuitively; we’ve probably found ourselves confronted by the intuitive body telling us to do things that agitate our attachment wounds and internal sense of safety. But in this process, we’ve likely realized that unresolved emotional trauma, either from a first-time or childhood experience, is actually driving the ship, which has forced us to answer the question, Is this me making this decision, or is this my emotional body clinging to familiarity?
I recently sent out a newsletter on Jupiter turning direct—you can read it here.
While we are bound to be examining this concept more intricately over the next few months as Jupiter completes its stay in Cancer, we may find that this full moon and lunar eclipse brought this into a more pointed expression, perhaps facilitating a tough realization that prompted us to make some notable changes to the way we navigate the material plane and our healing processes. Mercury, currently retrograde in Pisces, ruled this lunation. This may mean the experience that this lunation facilitated will be a theme we are continuing to dissect through the remainder of the retrograde period (March 20), and perhaps we’ll find ourselves making sense of something that previously confused us in the post-shadow period (March 20 - April 9). This is significant for an additional reason. We may find that this symbolizes us bringing our conscious awareness to behaviors, decisions, or reactions that have been primarily unconscious responses, which means that this lunation perhaps has had us catching ourselves in the act of repeating patterns or cycles we’ve unknowingly submitted ourselves to—over and over and over again—and overriding them with a response that is more mindful and sovereign.
Perhaps you have been noticing in the aftermath of this eclipse that your decisions are not actually your decisions; they’re the decisions of a past version of you replaying through new material. You may be piecing together the ways that you are still enslaved by emotional distress and its associated memories that happened years—or even decades—ago. Pisces governs the subconscious and non-time, reminding us that narratives, memories, emotions, experiences, and other such things that are stored in the subconscious do not exist on a timeline. They just exist. And because of that, until we alter the reality that lives in the subconscious, it won’t matter what physical materials we’re interfacing with in our external experience. Old material, new material—we are going to encounter the same result. You may find that this lunation has pointed this truth out to you. Our internal reality is what writes the script for the production we experience in the physical world.
Dissatisfied with the show? Change the story.
I think one final thing I’d like to share is that this lunation, and more broadly, the bigger energetic landscape we are shifting into, is pointing out that we can make all the physical changes we wish. But if there is no alteration to our inner state of being, the effort is in vain. As we move further into 2026 and beyond, we are going to be dissecting the idea of how appearances can be deceiving—the face of something can be very misleading about what the truth of its soul is. People, scenarios, experiences—they can have the physical features or take the necessary actions to appear a certain way to us, but we may have an inner sense that something is off. And that’s the tricky thing…from an outsider’s perspective, nothing may seem wrong, so our assessment may not sound believable. You can go to therapy and never improve. You can be attractive and still hate yourself. We can all play “happy family” in the public eye, but the reality behind closed doors could be anything but happy.
This moon urges us to identify how we may also be moving through the motions of something without participating in the spiritual or emotional evolutionary process that the action intends to represent. It invites us to practically assess ourselves, not from a place of self-criticism or judgment, but from one of true honesty. Similar to how a doctor can only help you if they know all your symptoms, medical history, allergies, etc., we can only truly help ourselves by looking at ourselves, our lives, and our relationships from a holistic and factual perspective. If we continue living as the victim of our circumstances, all the while denying our role in our suffering, we are only further hurting ourselves.
In the wake of this eclipse season, and as we wrap up our final week of Mercury retrograde, I encourage you to do an audit of your life and your satisfaction in it.
What emotional narratives are you still living through?
Are you doing the physical work but neglecting the inner process?
Are there behaviors or patterns you are continuing to repeat, justifying their continuation because “that’s just how you are”?
Is that how you are?
Or is that who you’ve had to be, and you’ve now found a sense of comfort in being that way because it’s familiar?
Are you satisfied with that? What do you want to do about that?
All of these may be worthwhile to consider. We are in a very fascinating, once-in-a-lifetime rebirth process, individually, socially, collectively, globally. It’s happening right now. I feel very excited to be able to translate these astrological shifts for you.
More soon.
xx, Aspen
CREATING CAPACITY — GET YOUR SEAT TO ATTEND LIVE, OR TO RECEIVE THE REPLAY
In one week’s time, I’ll be hosting my next seminar, Creating Capacity, to discuss how we can work with this last stage of Jupiter in Cancer and how that will be translating into longer-term processes unfolding over the following Jupiter transit through Leo. This seminar is going to be about how to expand our emotional and energetic capacity so that we can sustain the things we are working so hard to acquire and maintain—the inner world half of the work I described above.
It’s going to be on Friday, March 20th, at 2:30 pm EST, but if you can’t make it to the live event, purchasing a ticket will give you access to the replay, which I’ll be sending out to all registrants post-seminar via email, regardless of attendance. I hope to see you there! Learn more and secure your seat through the button below.
Read your rising sign for primary messages, sun and moon signs for additional insights.
ARIES, this may involve fated endings in your material life that are meant to clear space for new practices that will meet your needs in more than just practical ways. You could find that certain work structures, a lifestyle, or responsibilities are dissolving, giving you the opportunity to listen inward to identify what you may want to shift your attention to. This could be a time of confusion, and clarity may not be immediately accessible, but this lunation reminds you that there are opportunities being aligned for you, even if you cannot see them yet. This could be a helpful time to assess whether or not your lifestyle is meeting both your physical and material and your emotional and spiritual needs. Have some habits become so routine that you aren’t identifying if they’re still working for and benefitting you?
TAURUS, this moon may be having you divesting from an identity or self-concept that has resulted from self-containment or self-preservation; you may be recognizing how some of your personality is not truly you, but is rather a self-protective response that resulted from feeling unsafe or insignificant in social environments. This is bound to be a time in which you are returning to personal desire, which may mean that you are shedding hobbies, romantic connections, creative practices, and ways of expressing that don’t feel authentic to you any longer. You may be noticing how fear of criticism or failure has resulted in you evading important evolution processes entirely, as you may internalize invitations for growth or loving constructive criticism as a threat to your security and a message that you are “bad.” This moon asks you to see the wisdom in the feedback you receive from others, but it urges you to see it merely as information that can help your self-development process, rather than a permanent truth about who you are.
GEMINI, this lunation may reveal to you how you are reliving a narrative that you heard in childhood, which may be impacting your ability to accurately define what success means to you as an individual. Perhaps this is a time in which you are detangling your beliefs and definitions of what productivity and accomplishment look like from those that were shaped by your parents and early environment. This may also be a time in which you are having to depart perceived safety in order to pursue something more fulfilling—this may pertain to career, but it may more broadly apply to your long-term fulfillment. This would be a good time to notice limiting or scarcity-based thoughts and beliefs without allowing them to dictate your actions. Try focusing on feeling deserving of your dreams and desires.
CANCER, this lunation invites you to consider how you may be clinging to a specific method or process of achieving your goals; perhaps this is going to be an important time to observe the thoughts that run through your mind on a daily basis to identify how they are or are not reinforcing the beliefs you’d like to have. This may be a time in which you are reaching an important conclusion in a conversational matter that you’ve likely tried to reason with. This may also be an important time for you to depart a familiar place; this does not necessarily reference literally moving, but you may be letting go of a community, mentality, habit, or familiar space that has granted you a feeling of safety but has held you back from moving from your intuition more fluidly. You may have to go back to the drawing board regarding something you have started, maybe pertaining to learning, teaching, or traveling, but this is to identify how you may be pursuing new ventures from scarcity or self-preservation mindsets that will ultimately make the maintenance of new ventures unsustainable.
LEO, this moon urges you to examine your value system in terms of both your material and financial habits and your self-esteem and morals. Perhaps you are realizing through this lunation that you’ve maintained your alignment with a certain moral identity, not because it feels true to you, but because you’re afraid of what will result if you divert from it. You may be having to realize the truth of matters that you’ve justified or explained as something else to avoid the pain or discomfort attached to it. Perhaps you are realizing you’ve chosen the “safe option” over and over again because of a fear of risk, vulnerability, or loss. This moon is pointing your attention to how you may do this in moral matters, finances, confidence, and sexual identity. Only you know the truth of these things, which is what makes this moon tricky. You could remain in these narratives forever if you wish but are bound to be disappointed by your doing so. Do you want what you want because it’s what you feel safe desiring? Is there something grander you dream of that requires you to face yourself with more conviction?
VIRGO, this moon may involve you going through an important shedding process, one that may involve you recognizing behaviors or identity concepts that have resulted from environments where you felt you must protect yourself from something. You may find that this pertains to partnership; perhaps you’ll be realizing how unhealthy behaviors—defense mechanisms that were developed in toxic dynamics of past relationships—are being projected toward current friends or partners. This may be a time in which you’ll be identifying how some unhealed matters within you may be sabotaging relationships that are quite good for you, or perhaps they’ve already pushed some people away. This is an important time to remember that while it was not your fault that the defense mechanism developed, it is your responsibility to no longer operate from it if you wish to have more spiritually expansive or enriching relationships. You may find value in softening yourself through this lunation to notice what you are bracing for. You can be imperfect and still be deserving of love and acceptance.
LIBRA, this is a lunation for you to face matters that you have long avoided to maintain a false reality, perhaps to keep you from feeling shame, self-criticism, failure, or worthlessness. There may be a hard truth that is being revealed to you about the consequences of a pattern you’ve repeated when it comes to life management; perhaps responsibilities are piling up and you can no longer run from them, and in comparison to past experiences, no one is there to help you. You may find yourself in a liminal space, transitioning from one state of being to another, as you reckon with the fact that something must change. This is an important time to catch yourself in patterns of avoidance of responsibility, the truth, or accountability so that you can consciously override your evasion tactics and reinforce a new behavior rooted in authority.
SCORPIO, through this lunation, you may recognize how you have remained in social spaces that have made you feel a sense of community, even though they may not nourish you at a deeper level—perhaps it is companionship and nothing more. This eclipse has likely pointed out to you the importance of maintaining your authentic identity amongst people who may misunderstand you. You may find that this translates into your romantic life as well. This is a valuable time for you to consider how your social environment and approach to romance or creativity may be reflecting back to you evolutionary processes you may benefit from participating in more intentionally. This moon asks you to identify what the people around you say about you. Perhaps they are pointing out inner work that you have been refusing to participate in, either by emulating what you wish to be or causing you to feel held back. There may be information revealed to you at this time that will demand you assess what is truly important to you and adjust your actions and behaviors to reflect that.
SAGITTARIUS, you may be trying to control a development process toward your long-term desires, so this moon aims to point out that you may be sabotaging your movement toward your desires because of your thinking you know what is best. Perhaps you’re realizing how you’ve micromanaged your way to success in the past, and this moon is pointing out that, because your movement toward current objectives likely involves other people, you cannot always dictate exactly how and how quickly a process unfolds. You may be asked by this lunation to trust others with your secrets or wishes, or perhaps you’ll be asked to loosen your grip on the future that you think you want. This lunation urges you to look within to understand how your rigid perception of how you think things are “supposed” to go may be driven by a distrust of your own intuition. This would be a good time to get out of the thinking mind and into the feeling one. Perhaps you will realize your intuition has been saying something all along and your desire for control has been talking over it. If some long-term desires or professional matters are not panning out as you had hoped, don’t lose faith. Something more sustainable is being prepared for you.
CAPRICORN, this may be a time in which you’re realizing that you’re adhering to a belief or value system that doesn’t actually benefit you; perhaps it only benefits others, and you’ve found a sense of pride in sacrificing for their comfort. This lunation may have you contemplating an important decision; you may be noting the differences between what feels right and what you think is right, from a factual standpoint. You may keep yourself so busy in your day-to-day experience that you don’t give yourself the time to sit with discomfort; perhaps you have been pushing something off as tomorrow’s issue. This moon points out that you repeatedly doing that, while not very impactful once or twice, will have an increasingly detrimental impact on you the longer you avoid it. You may feel as if you have to stay devoted to someone or something because you must prove something to yourself. This moon reminds you that enduring suffering to prove a point is never as noble as we may think it is. This may be the time to reevaluate how well your belief systems are actually benefitting you.
AQUARIUS, this moon is bound to illuminate how you evade intimacy or being known more deeply, perhaps because you experienced harm at the hands of people you have trusted in the past. You may be made aware of how you’ve tried to compartmentalize trauma or your “shadow qualities” to continue making progress toward your material objectives, even if your doing so has resulted in you feeling distant from your sensuality or an important healing process. This may be a time in which you are consciously choosing to address shame, resentment, or self-criticism that is stifling you from having the emotional or physical intimate experiences that you likely deeply crave. This could also be a time in which your narrative around money is changing; perhaps you’re being asked to receive in a way that feels unequal to you. Embrace deservingness, and don’t press the wound to heal in a specific timeframe, but remember that avoidance is only a temporary solution. Sometimes it hurts more before it feels better.
PISCES, this lunation may have you letting go of control of how others perceive you, but it, more prominently, may be pointing out to you that your love cannot force change or evolution in others. You may find yourself relinquishing control of your relationships with others in some way, or perhaps you’ll be recognizing that nothing in your life is as set in stone as you’ve perceived it to be—you can choose something else. Perhaps you have limited yourself because of compassion you have for others and their suffering, but this lunation points out that your boundless empathy may not be as noble as you’ve thought it to be. You may be concluding some relationship narratives revolving around caretaking or being of service, which may mean that some connections will be falling away—some permanently, some temporarily. This moon reminds you that growth is not supposed to be comfortable at all times, but it is never meant to be restrictive. Perhaps you’ve been identifying restrictive relationships or commitments that are adding more strife than peace to your life. Everyone has their limits, even you. You do not have to compensate for others’ incapability or lack of capacity. It’s okay to let them go to take care of yourself.