Alicorn Moon

I’ve been to a lot of full moon rituals, so the one I attended the other night did not, or so I thought, hold any surprises for me. Surprise!!

Like many rituals, this one included a guided meditation, and through this guidance I found myself standing a top a cliff, overlooking the sea, standing in an open-air, pagoda-like Temple of the Moon. In the center of this small structure was a low altar holding a large basin of water, above which, suspended from the ceiling, hung the big, silver, metallic smile of a crescent moon.

Suddenly SHE was there. The Moon Goddess. Artemis. Putting one foot up on the altar she held her quiver strap with one hand and, with the other still grasping her bow, leaned forward on her knee toward me. With an impish smirk on her face she says, “Took you long enough.”

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There was more exchanges between us, none of which I remember. Eventually our meditation guide told us to look into the bowl of water to receive a word that we needed right now to move forward on our path. Even before gazing into the water, words started floating through my mind - Grace... Purity... Regality... - Then as I looked into the water, Artemis reached out a single finger and touched the surface. As the rings from this contact started to spread out across the basin, she slowly withdrew her finger. As it lifted so too did a golden, shining, spiral alicorn, her finger on the point as if magnetically drawing the unicorn horn from the water. Once the alicorn rose a good two feet out of the water it stopped and she pulled her hand away.

I knew I was supposed to pay attention to the words coming up for me, specifically one word that would be my focus for moving forward in my life, empowered and whole, but the unicorn horn protruding from the water spoke volumes that words could only hint at. As I watched the alicorn I felt myself sinking out of my head and into my heart. This is my essence and the purest part of me. I joke about being a unicorn, but at my deepest levels nothing else better describes me. It truly is who I am. And here in the Full Virgo Moon, my actual moon sign, I was being shown my most virginal aspect by the Virgin Goddess herself. And by “virginal” here I mean untouchable, unassailable, sovereign, pure, wild, innocent.

Along with these pure and virginal parts, there is another aspect to my Unicorness that was emphasized - Regality. There is a natural regality and majesty to someone who walks in alignment with who they really are. Even my name ‘Patrick’ means ‘Noble Man’. The unicorn is the most noble of beasts because he is the purest, and therein lies his strength and power. This is not pride, at least not the ego variety of being ‘better than’ others. This is empowerment. This is becoming who I was born to be, wholly and unapologetically. And that itself is scary as hell. What that means is, no more hiding, no more excuses, pretenses, or self-deceptions, and, what seems to be a major theme of this year, No more playing small!

It has been a challenging time for me recently, but here was my answer to those challenges. Rather than staying in my head and trying to figure out how to fix things, it’s more important to drop into my heart and surrender to my True Nature. It’s not about doing but about being. And as a result of my moving from my essence and my authenticity, life will take care of itself. The only real challenge, rather than facing an outside force, is becoming the one I already am, moving from the inside out, and remaining true to who I am. As simple as that sounds, after a lifetime of being led to believe in one’s intrinsic inadequacy - even still with years of work and self examination - this seems like a daunting task. But it is also the choiceless choice. This is the work I can not not do - becoming the one I can not not be.

“It’s not what you do but who you become that changes the world.”

~Sandra Ingerman