February 1, 2026 · 3:08 pm MST

January 31 is my birthday, and this year my new cycle opens directly into one of the most psychologically charged full moons of the year. The timing feels intentional—like a threshold moment where the old skin is ready to shed and something truer is preparing to emerge.

The February 1 Full Moon arrives carrying intensity, depth, and a kind of alchemical intelligence. This is not a light or decorative lunation. It carries shakti—the power that can either bind us tighter to suffering or liberate us through awareness. Under this moon, poison and medicine live side by side.

Enter Ashlesha: The Serpent of the Deep Waters

This Full Moon takes place in Ashlesha nakshatra, symbolized by the serpent. Ashlesha lives in the unseen layers of the psyche—the deep waters of the unconscious where instincts, emotional memory, attachment patterns, and ancestral residue reside. It’s not a comfortable place, but it is a true one.

The serpent has long represented both danger and wisdom. Venom can kill, but it can also heal. Ashlesha teaches us discernment: knowing when something is toxic, and knowing when it contains medicine if handled with care.

This nakshatra is closely associated with Kundalini energy—the coiled life force said to rest at the base of the spine. When awakened, it brings heightened perception, deep intuition, and sometimes intense inner experiences. Under this Full Moon, sensitivity is amplified. Emotions, sensations, dreams, and realizations may feel stronger than usual, especially for empathic or intuitive people.

Magha Purnima: An Ancestral Gate

This Full Moon is also Magha Purnima, considered one of the most auspicious full moons of the year for spiritual practice. Traditionally, this is a time for prayers, offerings, and remembrance of ancestors.

Whether you consciously work with ancestral healing or not, this moon can surface inherited patterns—especially around loyalty, obligation, power, and belonging. You may notice old family dynamics, relational habits, or emotional reflexes asking to be acknowledged and released.

Sometimes healing isn’t about creating something new—it’s about unbinding ourselves from what was never truly ours to carry.

Potency Requires Restraint

Ashlesha governs substances that alter the body and mind. Under this moon, a little goes a long way. Be mindful with medications, supplements, alcohol, stimulants, and even information consumption. What you ingest—physically or energetically—lands more deeply now.

This is not a time for excess. It’s a time for precision.

Ashlesha teaches that healing and harm are separated by awareness. The same substance, behavior, or relationship can either nourish or poison depending on how consciously it is engaged.

Truth Revealed, Attachments Tested

Another hallmark of this Full Moon is revelation. Secrets—internal or external—may surface. Conversations can shift quickly. Relationship dynamics may change, particularly where attachment wounds, control patterns, or emotional enmeshment have been operating quietly beneath the surface.

If something feels exposed, destabilized, or uncomfortable, ask yourself:

• Is this revealing truth, or triggering fear?
• Am I gripping for control, or responding with clarity?
• What would happen if I loosened my hold instead of tightening it?

Ashlesha doesn’t reward avoidance. It rewards honesty.

Collective Pressure & the Promise of Venus

On a broader level, Venus, Mars, and Mercury remain under an intense period of combustion that has been building since the beginning of the year. This has corresponded with rising social tension, strained communication, and visible power struggles—both personally and collectively.

The pressure is real. But it is not permanent.

Venus is preparing for rebirth as the Evening Star in February. Like a goddess rising from the cosmic ocean, she brings renewal—fresh perspectives on love, self-worth, creativity, and finances. What feels compressed now begins to soften in the weeks ahead.

Hope doesn’t arrive loudly under this sky—it arrives quietly, through reorientation rather than force.

How to Work With This Full Moon

This is a powerful time for:

• Meditation and self-inquiry
• Gentle nervous system care
• Journaling around attachment, fear, and control
• Ancestral acknowledgment or prayer
• Simplifying rather than adding

Notice where fear disguises itself as judgment. Where control masks vulnerability. Where gripping tightly is exhausting your life force.

Instead of resisting change, ask:

• What is ready to be disentangled?
• What truth wants air?
• What medicine is hidden inside this discomfort?

The Ashlesha Full Moon doesn’t ask you to fix yourself.
It asks you to see clearly.

And sometimes, that is the deepest healing of all.

Love,

Michelle