The full Snow Moon in Virgo peaks with full shine — leaving us nowhere to hide — on February 24, 2024, at 7:28 a.m. EST.
In these early-ish morning hours, the moon will be below the horizon, so the best window for viewing will be Friday night.
The full moon forever falls in the opposite sign the sun is moving through; this weekend the moon is glowing in the ‘don’t be sorry, be better’ dirt of Virgo while the sun squints in the dreamy, diluted depths of Pisces.
The purpose of this lunation is to find the golden mean between these archetypes, the sweet spot of integration between extremes.
In addition to the sun, this full moon will be opposing Mercury, planet of the mind and Saturn planet of restriction, both in the spilled ink of Pisces.
Mercury rules information and exchange and in Pisces it can easily confuse feelings for facts, making communication ambiguous at best and aggravating at worst.
Saturn meanwhile is concerned with limits and edges and Pisces is allergic to last call, a line in the sand, or a hard no.
These oppositional forces are conspiring to aid us; by testing our boundaries, we become aware of them and by practicing clarity in conversation, we deliver compassion to all parties.
This weekend the moon is glowing in the ‘don’t be sorry be better’ dirt of Virgo while the sun squints in the dreamy, diluted depths of Pisces.
This full moon, the last before the spring equinox and the onset of a new astrological cycle, also happens to be a micromoon.
A micromoon is the opposite of a supermoon and in accordance, the moon will appear smaller in the night sky as it is shining from the farthest point from Earth.
This vantage is an apt metaphor for the Pisces/Virgo axis that encourages us to move minutely yet resolutely from feelings to form, and intention to action.
Full moon meaning
Full moons represent the pinnacle of a 29.5-day lunar cycle which begins with the dark skies and pure potential of the new moon.
Full moons are heightened affairs when culminations get to culminating, revelations stand stark naked in the light and cycles; menstrual, romantic, traumatic, habitual, and otherwise run their course.
Virgo is a sign synonymous with ritual rites of purification, making this full moon a particularly prime time for refinement and removal; taking out the trash, cutting away rotten roots and clearing the clutter.
This energy is amplified by this full moon being a Snow Moon, a fresh to death symbol of renewal and the frozen ground’s promise of new growth to come.
Spiritual meaning of the Snow Moon
The names for the full moons given in “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” are drawn from Native American, European and Colonial American traditions and were used to describe not just the full moon, but the entire lunar month in which it fell.
February’s full moon is known as the Snow Moon, as the second month of the year historically held the highest levels of snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere.
The “Farmer’s Almanac,” reminds us that Indigenous tribes also referred to February’s full moon as the Bony Moon and Hungry Moon, indicating that food was scarce and people were wanting.
Strategy is and was of utmost importance during these waning days of winter, the home stretch of conservation before the dawn of spring.
In what areas of our lives have we learned to anticipate or accept scarcity rather than expect or imagine radical plenty?
The idea of hunger is important to consider under this lunation and this full moon invites us to investigate what makes us feel full and what we consciously or unconsciously store up and starve ourselves of.
In what areas of our lives; physical, sexual, sensual, mental, spiritual, relational, professional, have we learned to anticipate or accept scarcity rather than expect or imagine radical plenty?
Meaning of the full moon in Virgo
Virgo and Pisces are associated with the sixth house of service and the twelfth house of the subconscious mind, or to simplify; action and intuition.
At their underbelly extremes, Virgo is an exhausting perfectionist with clinically clean fingernails and a pinched expression, fixated on the details at the expense of the dream and Pisces is an emotionally immobilized sea sponge, preoccupied with the feelings of others and divorced from the realities of the world and their role within it.
At their darkest moments, both signs suffer from inertia; Pisces from lack of follow-through and Virgo due to a fear of failure.
This paralysis can turn magic/the muse malignant, as creative energy, gone unspent, sets its sights on destruction.
Yet, blue skies and forward momentum lie at the intersection of these two energies, where the poetic meets the practical and the dream digs itself into the dirt of actualization.
Both signs are also wholly preoccupied with healing, Virgo of the physical and Pisces of the psychic and this axis teaches us that the maladies of the body are evidence of the pains of the spirit.
Often, the most readily available medicine for this constellation of ails is creative expression and physical release. This purging, pruning, and clarifying allows for the exaltation of the essential.
Both Virgo and Pisces are vulnerable to codependent dynamics, losing themselves in their attempts to rescue others. Under these skies we are all advised to keep a steady hand at our own sutures as it through this tending that we find a medicine worth sharing.
Lessons of this lunation
This polarity of the Pisces/Virgo axis is made manifest in barefoot, epically bearded producer Rick Rubin. A Pisces sun with a Virgo moon, Rubin is noted for his pared-down production style, a bare bones approach that reduces in service of revealing.
Rubin is also the author of “The Creative Act: A Way of Being,” a kind of existential self-help book that lives and breathes at the intersection of divine inspiration (Pisces) and practical application (Virgo).
Rubin writes, “Turning something from an idea into a reality can make it seem smaller. It changes from unearthly to earthly. The imagination has no limits. The physical world does. The work exists in both.”
Just as the mircromoon gives the illusion of smallness, so too does this axis and the last gasp of winter rescale our concept of vision and action.
Below the cold ground, the stirrings of spring are well underway, reminding us that renewal is a process made possible by a thousand small steps in a determined direction and that the monumental often begins with the subtle.
We’re all under the influence when it comes to lunar cycles but the mutable signs Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces will be feeling the fullness most acutely this weekend.
Be well, stitch up, shine on. I’ll see you for the Full Worm Moon in Libra on March 25, 2024.
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girl’s guide” to strip clubs, and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.
