Hello friends! The Moon is now waxing toward an auspicious Full Moon “Guru Purnima” culminating on Friday morning, July 31 at ~ 6:43 AM EDT (10:43 AM Universal Time), where it will occur in the sidereal sign of Capricorn, in Shravana nakshatra. According to Vedic tradition, the first Full Moon after Summer Solstice in Ashada month is Guru Purnima, the most auspicious Full Moon of the year. There was another Full Moon in early July that normally would have been the special Guru Purnima but wasn’t because of Adhi Maas (Aadi Masam), the extra intercalary lunar month that we had this year.

Guru Purnima is the most auspicious Full Moon of the year, a time when the whole world is quite receptive to divine blessing. This is the perfect time to begin a new spiritual or healing practice, honor and propitiate our preceptors, and commune with the divine teacher—the gu-ru, dispeller of darkness—who exists within all of nature. The festival of Guru Purnima is dedicated to Veda Vyāsa also, and is therefore also known as Vyāsa Purnima. He is the author of and a character in the Mahabharata, and is considered to have been the narrator of both the Vedas and Puranas, for which Lord Ganesha was his scribe. This day commemorates Veda Vyāsa’s birthday as well as the day when he is said to have divided the Vedas.

Capricorn is a mysterious and magical sign that exemplifies the manifestation of Spirit in matter. The Full Moon here can be a time to pause and enjoy certain *achievements* (that key word for Capricorn). The Moon’s navamsa (ninth harmonic) falls in its exalted sign of Taurus, a pushkara navamsa which gives  an added boost of spiritual and material blessings. Shravana nakshatra itself is an equable and genial section within sidereal Capricorn which relates to listening, contemplation, knowledge, organization and music. The Full Moon in Capricorn gently nudges us to take some quiet time to tune in and really pay attention to the “small still voice within,” and to take time to simply en-joy life.