Material Girl

Capricorn Full Moon Deep Dive

“Cause we are living in a material world and I am a material girl” -Madonna

Material reality gets a bad rap, particularly in a New Age woo world obsessed with notions of unplugging from the matrix, breaking the wheel of consumerism, and transcending our own, inevitable biological mortality.

But it’s not just the New Agers hating on our material world.

In the world’s oldest religions, the material world is seen as low-vibration and even flat-out evil. In fact, the materium is overwhelmingly viewed as the very substance that we need to evade or reject in order to achieve enlightenment.

Hindus call material reality samsara, and the goal of their entire faith system is to prison-break from its unending cycle of reincarnation and suffering.

In Catholicism, Catharism, and Puritanism, human bodies are seen as inherently sinful. Only through renunciation of the flesh— sometimes through self-imposed physical torture, like self-flagellation— can the soul be free of sin and damnation.

Vows of poverty, abstinence and silence abound in the Buddhist, Christian, Mormon, Jain and other faith systems.

And money— perhaps the most crucial element of our material reality— is simultaneously coveted and reviled. I mean, Jesus himself straight up said, “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

So, what’s a material girl to do? After all, we are living in a material world, and we have bills to pay!

This is the question of this Capricorn Full Moon.

How can we balance the seemingly mutually-exclusive demands of spirit with the realities of the materium in which we live? And, if this place and these bodies and these currencies are so terrible, why are we here? Is all of this some kind of bad joke?

I mean, are David Icke and other OG conspiracy theorists right? Is earth just one big holographic illusion prison planet, like the plot of the terrifying sci-fi movie Dark City?

I, for one, have a big problem with the intense focus on hyper-materialism in spirituality, with unethical coaches or practitioners offering courses in abundance…all for a high price, of course. And I’ve stared at our U.S. dollar bill more than once, ruminating on the overt ancient Babylonian money magic symbolism hinting at something truly nefarious within the energy of our currency.

And now, with the ushering-in of AI, all of our “stable” jobs or professions are inching closer and closer to the chopping block.

But maybe this isn’t the whole picture. Maybe we’re just out of balance.

And maybe there’s a deeper wisdom to this physical labyrinth on planet earth: an older game within the game waiting to unfold for those of us that can integrate the spiritual and the physical. Do our shadow work. Play with the materium without giving it power over us.

What if I told you that this material reality, with its constraints and physical matter and biological bodies and money, is kind of the ultimate spiritual game? An interactive “choose your own ending” book with layers of meaning and endless options to go “white hat” or “black hat” as you proceed?

And, most importantly, an experience with very real stakes?

What if all manner of beings designed this place to grow, learn, and have fun in time/space, pushing themselves in ways they had never before experienced? A kind of physical theme park for non-corporeal, sentient spiritual beings to come into and experience the ultimate challenge: planet earth?

And what if, perhaps, some of these same beings wanted to incubate a whole new species of 2.0 godlings? What if they understood that only through the compression of time/space— with its pressure and stress and limitation—could something truly novel incubate, grow and become? Kind of like a collective, living intellectual property, stimulating their senses and driving innovation for their own, far-flung civilizations?

[Yes: this is the plot of the brilliant HBO show Westworld, which I’ll be digging into further below. And yes: Westworld is all Kabbalah— from top to bottom.]

And maybe, just maybe, the key isn’t to renounce this reality but to dive in headfirst, playing and joyfully interacting with material reality in order to learn, alchemize and transmute “the suck” into the spiritual equivalent of pure, solid gold.

What if we conquer the sway money has over us by learning how to use it in balance with spirit? What if we learn to love our bodies in the context of being awesome, super advanced soul-carrying machines? What if we started to see the possibilities of planet earth instead of letting the stresses of material reality loom over us in all-pervasive ways?

I personally believe that this month’s Capricorn Full Moon (coming on July 3rd), ruled by the planet Saturn, is here to help us do the old work of the gods, reclaiming our power and taking back our birthright as we shift from being little gestational-phase godlings into beings with personal agency— and with a say in the design of this 3D theme park!

But accountability and agency aren’t easy, especially here in 3D reality. As the uncle of the famous Spiderman Peter Parker once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

It will be easier to talk the talk than walk the walk, but what’s the other option? Stay in samsara, repeating our loops through multiple lifetimes, continually building layers of epigenetic trauma as we sit on the spiritual couch?

In this Capricorn Full Moon Deep Dive, we will explore this month’s celestial energy through the lenses of astrology, greek myths, shamanism, Kabbalah, and yes— even the material girl herself: Madonna.

And I’m not saying it’s fun work. Material reality is heavy, governed by forces like gravity and entropy and riddled with pitfalls and problems. There are bad guys here, contributing to the challenges we must face and overcome as we undertake our personal alchemy.

But is it work worth doing? I think so.

Besides: where else do you have to be? We’re all here right now, so we might as well dig in.