Astrology
May Full Moon 2025 – Spiritual Bypassing
On Monday, 12th May, the Full Moon will reside in the mysterious water sign of Scorpio. This Full Moon is called the Flower Moon. It is a pretty name to remind us of the beautiful flowers blooming in the Northern Hemisphere.
Flower Moon
The Sun is still in Taurus, the sensual Bull, and during the New Moon, we had a chance to reconnect with our hearts. Read the New Moon blog here.
The Sun in Taurus
The Bull
The Moon in Scorpio
The Scorpion
What does this Full Moon Energy guide and encourage us to focus on for the next two weeks?
The abundance of the Earth all around us now asks us to embrace transformation. When Earth and Water energy combine, they produce powerful change.
The Earth provides us with a stable foundation, and now the water can make lasting changes.
The Grand Canyon
Think of a stream flowing around rocks. Those rocks are worn smooth – they are changed by the gentle but powerful flow of the water.
e.g. The Grand Canyon was formed by the Colorado River eroding the rock and carving the most beautiful formations for us to enjoy millions of years later.
Water represents our feelings and emotions. Some emotions, like love and joy, are easy, while other emotions are difficult for us to process.
So often, when we have experienced pain or trauma, it can be easy to ‘spiritually bypass’ our emotions. This is a term coined by psychotherapist John Welwood, in his book Toward a Psychology of Awakening.
Spiritual bypassing is a coping strategy which uses spiritual or religious practices to avoid and repress any emotions that feel too painful to deal with.
According to Psychology Today “When spiritual practice is used to compensate for challenging traits such as low self-esteem, social isolation, or other emotional issues, Welwood said, they corrupt the actual use of spiritual practice…”.
What are the signs of Spiritual Bypassing?
- When you try to share difficult emotions, and someone tells you that either you’re just being negative, or you’re being too sensitive.
- When someone oversteps your boundaries and you suppress your anger and tolerate their behaviour.
- When you’re trying to deal with a complex issue, and someone tells you to just think positively. This is a way of dismissing your emotions.
- When you try to ‘rise above’ or ‘push down’ difficult emotions without dealing with them.
- Pretending that everything is fine when it’s not.
- Being extremely idealistic, no matter what is going on during the day.
- Trying to avoid feeling anger by either denying or repressing your feelings.
- Feeling ashamed of difficult emotions.
Feeling like you can’t speak
Burying your light
How do we move away from spiritual bypassing and onto a path of healing and growth?
- Avoid using the words ‘negative’ or ‘bad’ to describe difficult emotions. Anger is not bad. It is a sign that an emotional boundary has been crossed.
- Ask yourself why you are feeling this emotion. What wound is it triggering inside you?
- The Buddhists suggest that we should just sit with these uncomfortable emotions, not resist them and not avoid them. Just observe them. Imagine having a conversation with the emotion or feeling. Ask it where it came from and why it is trying to get your attention. Listen to any answers that pop into your mind. If you do this, the feeling starts to dissipate, and you come to a place of inner calmness.
Let your light shine
At this extremely turbulent time we are living through, it is important that we become more authentically ourselves.
The time for hiding ourselves is over. Jesus said, “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house”.
It is time to discover the Divine light within us and shine in a world full of turmoil and pain.
As we begin to do this, that light is able to touch others and give them the hope and courage to begin to transform their lives.
I send you light and love as always
Lee-Anne x 
