The Full Moon in the sky, seen from any angle, any perspective, is a deeply moving experience. On the
horizon, rising or setting, it seems to touch and illumine hidden recesses in the brain; angular, it
whispers to the heart to make light and love; and then, it draws the spirit upwards, to partake of ethereal
enchantment. Beings of light are abroad in the magical dimensions, as all the portals through the universe
are ajar with the force of this subtle, yet intense radiation. It is as though the lights of the Sun and the
Moon are dancing in the romance of a soulful symphony, moving all earth sentience, illumined by the divine
interplay of their radiation. It is one of those mystical cosmic events, full and free, imbued with love and
the sheer synergy of universal creativity, which makes life on earth such a blessed experience.
Troubles and worries will take their turn, in tandem with the waxing and waning of the Moon, but the three
days of the Full Moon – one day before and after – are a special invitation to bathe in the radiation and to
be inspired, to pray and be touched by the love and grace of the Formless Absolute in its many refined ways.
Many a poet has compared the Full Moon to the face of the beloved. For supreme goddess of illusion she is,
healing souls seared by the harsh glare and unremitting heat of the Sun, applying the cool and refreshing
balm of the munificent glow, if only for a night or so.
On earth, the sap rises. It surges within the magnetic, molten core. It overwhelmingly rushes with the tide,
filling all the nooks and crannies of the rocks on the shores and in labyrinthine passageways in bodies and
mind. Deep into the silvery night, a bird sheds its tears in longing, releasing the song of unrequieted
passion, for his alluring beloved is high up there in the skies, unattainable. The bittersweet pain of the
fullness of his love makes life worth living for him, for this one occasion, when he can see her from afar,
undisturbed, in her full glory. This is the legendary Chakor, the bird that pines for none other than the
exalted and ethereal Moon, entrancing kings, poets and sages with his sweet melody of love.
The great ascetic guru and philosopher of Advaita, Adi Shankaracharya, describes in the most sensuously
moving, lilting words in Sanskrit in Saundaryalahari (Ripples of Beauty), the divine glory of the Goddess
Tripurasundari as Amba, revealed in the face of the Full Moon. She rises from the ocean, clad in the
luminescent jewels of the spray of the surging tide. High above in the sky, the luminous sweep of her full
light releases waves of chaitanya – cosmic consciousness – dripping with the nectar of immortality. And the
Chakor, thirsting for the charm of her enchanting smile, drinks in this nectar, which brings the fulfillment
of his life’s purpose!
Contemplation on the sixteenth degree of the Moon, that is the Full Moon, brings spiritual enlightenment and
liberation for the advanced soul, through merging with the great Lord of the Moon, Shiva, according to
occult lore. Sometimes such merging, or samarasya occurs at the etheric lingam in the Manipur chakra in the
region of the navel; at other times, it happens through contemplation on the white light of the Full Moon in
the region between the two eyebrows; and still other times, when it is the full union of Shiva and Shakti in
the Sahasrar, bringing in its wake amritvarsha, or the shower of the nectar of immortality, bliss and
liberation.
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