Saturday, June 23, 2018

The Cosmic Story: Capricorn/Cancer Full Moon, June 27-28, 2018

Capricorn/Cancer Full Moon, June 27-28, 2018





Happy Summer Solstice! And Happy Winter Solstice for those of you down under! May the light shine brightly on all of us in these transformational times.

Capricorn and Cancer form the axis of security, family and community responsibility. Since we associate Cancer with Mother and Capricorn with Father, we’re talking about creation, for the child is the creation of the union of woman and man, wife and husband, Earth and Heaven.

As we write our new stories, take time to look at your life with new eyes: to look to the future rather than to the past. To let the sacred marriage of Heaven and Earth at this Summer Solstice engender the Divine Child – who we’ll encounter during the Leo/Aquarius eclipse season coming in July/August.

Cancer is the sign ruling our emotional body, our home, our mother and our country. (The United States is a Cancer Country – born on the 4th of July!) This includes memories of our own life as well as of our ancestors lives. Cancer’s creativity is that she can weave together past, present and future into a new whole.

This is an especially poignant time for me because I’ve just had about 100 boxes of ‘stuff’ returned to me after being in storage for 12 years. The ‘stuff’ is the remnant of my old life as wife and mother – memories (Cancer) of a far distant time. And I have to sort through those memories and let them go, because they no longer serve my life or fit into my cozy 3 room apartment. Children’s clothes and toys, old wedding gifts, china tea cups and champagne glasses passed down to me from my mother, boxes of photo albums (yes, I’m that old!), crystals, rocks and shells, too many tarot decks. Sadly, too many great books.

Since it’s time to release the past and write a new story, going through these memories is sad and funny, happy and frustrating. How do I choose what to release and what to keep? What is precious and needs to go forward? Letting go of the past is a sacrifice. I just look at my wonderful library filled with books on Jungian psychology, astrology, Celtic Arthurian studies, Goddess studies, dreams, magic, fairy tales and myths and I am devastated that I have to get rid of 1/3 of them.

Having a Taurus Sun and Cancer Moon, this is a hard test for me. Releasing the past to get on with the future. But I find myself eager and willing to do it. In reality, the past is already part of me. I can’t lose it. The rest is just ‘stuff’!

How are you doing?

Capricorn Full Moon 2018

This Capricorn/Cancer Full Moon occurs on June 27 at 9:53pm PDT and on June 28th at 12:53am EDT and at 5:53am GMT.



Full Moons are part of the natural rhythms of life. The alternating darkness and light as She travels across our skies from day to night to day give her different shapes and feelings. Sometimes only a small slice of Her is visible and She is Beautiful Possibility. Sometimes she is dark and far away, and She is Mystery. And sometimes She rises full and bright and She is Revelation.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 7* Cancer is: Two nature spirits dancing under the moonlight. These are the magical energies of life, dancing under the power of the Moon’s constantly changing light. We are asked to look with the eyes of our creative right brain to access truths that patriarchy has denied. We can access knowledge of life’s elemental energies through our creative imagination, which is our deep connection to Spirit.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 7* Capricorn is: A veiled prophet speaks, seized by the power of Spirit. In this image we see how the future interacts with the present to release it from the inertia of the past. It speaks to our ability to envision the next step of our new story – of our evolution, personally and collectively.

The Sabian symbol for Saturn retrograde at 6* Capricorn is: Ten logs lie under an archway leading to darker woods. This is a threshold symbol. The number 10 marks a completion as well as a call to go onto the next level of achievement and knowledge. First we must make sure of what we have accomplished and make that the foundation from which we continue to explore the mysteries ahead of us.

This Full Moon manifests the seeds of June 13th’s Gemini New Moon – a call to change our perspectives and believe in the magic of life. It’s time to see just how much we’ve changed how we think about and understand life. When we planted those seeds of possibilities and magic, did we nurture them?

Do you believe in magic yet?



This Capricorn Full Moon will show you if you do or not. With Saturn retrograde joining this Full Moon, it’s time to honestly look at your life and determine if you are on course for the change you’re seeking. Your outer life will manifest your inner beliefs. If there’s a course correction needed, take responsibility and make it so.

This Full Moon squares Chiron in Aries, activating our need to heal our self-identity. If we can’t see ourselves in a new light, how can we create a new story?

The Sabian symbol for Chiron at 3* Aries is: The cameo profile of a man, suggesting the shape of his country. This symbol suggests that once we heal our perception of who we can become, we can be an agent of wholeness for our world. This is the power of the archetypal Self, the ability to express our own divine nature for the benefit of the whole.

The Cancer Sun is part of a Water Grand Trine along with Jupiter retrograde in Scorpio and Neptune retrograde in Pisces. These energies aid the Full Moon with the gift of seeing our shadows (Scorpio) as well as our hopes and dreams (Pisces) for the future. When the Full Moon shines Her light in the darkness, it’s to help us see what is living in the dark, both our hopes and our fears. Her light helps us find our way through the dark mystery of life. So during this Full Moon, pay attention to what is moving in your unconscious, in your own personal darkness, just as we can clearly see our cultural darkness in the abuse of women and children seeking asylum in the US.

With Saturn so close to this Full Moon, we are called to learn emotional responsibility. Just as the Cancer Sun demands that we look at our emotional body and see what it needs, this strong Capricorn Full Moon will show us which rules still shackle us to the past, and which eternal principles can shape our future.

We all need strong principles to live by. That’s the problem with our society today. As we leave behind old religious beliefs, there is a vacuum that needs to be filled. People are lost and afraid because nothing makes sense anymore. If we don’t come to understand the underlying principles of life – without the old religious context – we get misdirected by the ‘fake’ principles of consumer society or we rush back to old religious beliefs to be ‘born again’ in a more rigid and life-denying way. That is what the US Congress and Senate are doing at the bidding of their corporate masters while loudly proclaiming their religious beliefs are the only beliefs to base our laws on.

The Cancer Sun offers us a connection to the Great Mother of Life, the principle that accepts and loves us for who we are: all our gifts, flaws and inconsistencies. Under patriarchy, the mothering principle was twisted by the demand to make us into who the culture expects us to be, creating a very deep negative mother complex that makes us feel unworthy if we don’t meet patriarchy’s demands.

The Capricorn Moon connects us to the Great Father of Life, the principle that builds the structure of our lives which validates who we really are. Under patriarchy, the negative father complex lays out the rules and structures we have to conform to, regardless of what gifts we possess.

We only have to look at Donald Trump to see what that kind of cultural twisting creates – a narcissism that demands constant recognition (since we’re empty and unlovable) and a refusal to change (since it entails a death before new life is possible). He is a big example of our collective SHADOW.

But we can free ourselves from patriarchy and change our stories. There’s an inconjunct from the Capricorn Moon/Saturn to the Leo North Node. We have to adjust ourselves to our own creative power, self-expression and purpose. We have to choose to participate in the new story.

There is an inconjunct from the Cancer Sun to Mars retrograde and the South Node in Aquarius. An inconjunct is a 150* aspect which demands that we make the small adjustments needed to fulfill our purpose. Just as a plant might need more sun, water and time to fully blossom, we need to pay attention to the details during an inconjunct. With Mars stationary retrograde, that means we have to re-examine how our masculine doing is not supporting our feminine being.


Mars is the symbol (g) of man and masculine energy, our drive, our desires and our aggression. Men have fallen behind women in breaking free of patriarchy’s rules, but this Mars retrograde might just turn the tide. With Mars conjunct the South Node, old collective ideas of masculinity must be examined and released – which we are at least talking about. Which masculine energies can meet our new needs of gender equality? How about reclaiming the ideals of protection, respect, honor and truth? What old traits need to go? Domination, bossiness, self-interest, competition. Please make your own lists!

Gentlemen, we have been waiting for you to wake up your inner king. Please start working on it, just as we women need to discover our own inner masculine energy – our own way of doing things based on our feminine being.

Venus symbolizes our feminine creative energy as well as being the symbol of woman (f). Venus symbolizes our need for connection, love, sensuality, wisdom and self-worth/money. Venus in Leo and Mars in Aquarius opposed each other hours after the Summer Solstice, which celebrates the union of Heaven and Earth. Oppositions are complimentary, meaning they need each other’s energy to be complete. Our cosmic instructions are clear: The divine Queen (ft) needs the support of a renewed collective masculine ideal (g[) to move forward in creating the future.

Venus inconjuncts Neptune, testing us to see if we have learned real compassion. Have we? It seems like we’re being shown the hypocrisy of our American culture as we watch the heartbreak of children being ripped away from mothers by patriarchy.

Both Venus and Mars square Jupiter in Scorpio, challenging us to flush out their shadow qualities. Mars in Aquarius can be too stubborn about getting his own way, while Venus in Leo can be too dramatic, proud and self-centered. With Jupiter’s deep dive into our scorpionic depths, I’m sure there’s plenty of material to work on.

Both Mars and Venus are very bright now in the evening sky. Venus is in her Evening Star energy and very bright in the western sky at sunset. She shows us the wisdom needed to be fully embodied. Mars retrograde rises in the eastern sky and is at his brightest. If you look overhead, you can see Jupiter as well. Their T-square is visible now in the night sky. Go out and meditate under their stellar lights if you really want to invoke the magic all around us. Our new stories must be set in the context of our relationship to Nature.

Finally, Pluto in Capricorn opposes Mercury in Cancer. Mercury in Cancer is very intuitive and emotionally involved with life. Pluto can help us analyze what we’re feeling and open us to new insights into our place in life and explore if our cultural story meets our emotional needs.

This Full Moon can help us remember the Cosmic Laws of Life and start to build our new story around them. The first principle of Cosmic Law is that ‘the ALL or Spirit’ is a living, infinite Mind. Like the Moon, it is constantly changing, living, dying and becoming. We are part of that ALL, which is the Magic all around us and within us. Make a connection everyday to this source of infinite power and watch your new life blossom!

We are at the turning points of the year. Where you go from here is up to you!
Walk in the Light!
Cathy
Journey

The mouth of the river may be beautiful.
It doesn't remember the womb of its beginning.
It doesn't look back to where it's been
or wonder who ahead of it polished the rough stones.

It is following the way
in its fullness,
now like satin,
now cresting,
waters meeting, kindred
to travel gathered together,
all knowing it flows
one way, shining or in shadows.
And me, the animal
I ride wants to drive forward,
its longing not always my own,
overrunning its banks and bounds,
edgeless, pilling along the way

because, as I forget,
it knows everything
is before it.

~ Linda Hogan ~

(Rounding the Human Corners)

Please Like and Share! Thank you.

Copyright 2018 Cathy Pagano

Sunday, June 10, 2018

The Cosmic Story: Gemini New Moon 2018

Gemini New Moon 2018

Do You Believe in Magic?

Behold there is magic all around us.
Behold there is magic all around us.
Behold there is magic all around us.
Awaken. Rejoice and Sing.

Abby Spinner McBride “Behold” Fire of Creation





This Gemini New Moon plants the seeds generated by the Sagittarius/Gemini Full Moon, which hopefully helped us release those old beliefs that keep us from truly living our new story. What old beliefs were shed? What heart truth did you need to incorporate? It’s time to plant that seed.

What did you learn about yourself? Accepting who you are leads to knowing what your real purpose is.

I realized that I have to accept ME as I am – one characteristic being that I’m not as organized as I think I should be (should being the clue that it’s a societal expectation).   I am so right-brained! And while I have a strong left-brain, it doesn’t take the lead. Nor should it for me. So what if I don’t understand computer-eeze.

What happens when you just accept who and what you are? I’m not talking about sexual orientation, but accepting how you navigate the world. How your mind works and how you see and understand your place in the web of life.

My Gemini Mercury swims in the 12th house, and is quite happy playing with dreams, symbolic language, myths, stories and intuitions and feelings. Yet I keep ragging on myself when I can’t follow a schedule because each day is new and fresh. My Mind has a hard time getting down to business in a patriarchal manner. I do things my own way, even when I nag at myself! Perhaps our Mother, the World Soul, has a use for me just as I am.

And if so, She has a use for you. She called forth a soul – the real you – for a specific purpose. It doesn’t have to be big or make you famous. It just has to be you vibrating your essence out into the world. Check out what sign and house your Mercury/Mind occupies. It will help you to accept yourself and your innate talents.

So, are you ready to believe in magic? The magic all around us.

We are living in evolutionary times. Jean Houston says this might be the first time that humans are being called upon to collectively evolve to a higher state of consciousness. That would be a unified world consciousness, acknowledging that we’re all in this chaos together. Not the New World Order of our corporate/political overlords, but a new unified Mind that will be ready to meet the challenge of healing the Earth of our reckless degradation of our home planet. We have to clean up the mess we’ve created by our allegiance to uncontrolled consumerism if we want our children to survive on this beautiful planet.

There is a wonderful story about a world in crisis that has to unite if they are to survive. It’s Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonridersof Pern series. I first read them in the 70s, but have just re-read the first few and they seem more pertinent now than ever. Good stories feed the soul. These absolutely do!

 


Pern is a planet in the midst of change. When it was first settled, the people were unaware of a rogue planet with an erratic orbit which periodically swung by Pern and released deadly thread, which could consume all growing life. Through the centuries, they bred dragons who impressed with their riders to destroy the thread, as well as other safeguards. But those other safeguards have been lost to time.

The first story begins with the fact that 500 years have passed without a close pass of the Red Star which heralds the beginning of these thread incursions. People no longer believe there’s any threat. But thread comes and except for the dragonriders, they’re not prepared. Only one weyr remains of the original six, so the dragonriders gather the rulers and craftspeople of Pern to find solutions to dealing with the deadly spores. As time goes on, they have to contend with ‘old-timers’ vs. ‘new-timers’. I’m happy to report that the new vision wins out.

The dragons of Pern act very much like an aware and awake unconscious. Bonding with their riders, they are a perfect combination of unconscious wisdom and rational thinking. They know the need to protect life. When the people later re-discover and impress fire-lizards, we see another example of the unconscious – the collective unconscious. For these new fire-lizards remember both the Red Planet and the original settlers. With many people able to impress fire-lizards, the whole planet becomes more aware and awake.

It’s the ability to communicate – between dragon and rider, person and fire-lizard, weyr, craftshall and hold – that changes things and ultimately saves Pern.

This communication skill is Gemini’s gift to us. It’s not only about the power of our minds and our thoughts, but about how we communicate those ideas and feelings that matter.

We too can connect to an inner dragon when we turn our attention to our soul, which can be symbolized by a sleeping dragon guarding our treasures. We have the ability to become conscious of how our unconscious is communicating with us. And we also have the ability to dive into the collective unconscious to access old memories and abilities via the akashic records.

Gemini is concerned with how the Mind perceives things. We have been caught up in a powerful complex that rejects the unconscious’ knowing and only validates the rational mind and its vision of how the world works. But that very mindset is killing us. It is so out of balance.

We need to let that old perspective die and open up to new ways of understanding and imagining ourselves and the world. Because the old world order will keep us hidebound and stuck. It is fighting back at our new vision, fighting to retain its power over us. The only way to find our freedom from its delusions is to step out of that story. Each and every one of us. Like stepping out of the Matrix. It’s time to go into the forest of the heart and open to the magic of life and death and rebirth.

Evolution happens!

So, do you believe in Magic? For magic is part of our new story. It’s about communicating with all of life – to learn how you fit into the web of life energies. Behold there is Magic all around us!

Are you willing to listen to the voice of your unconscious, the voice of Mother Nature, the voices of those people, animals and plants which are calling to us for help? Can you step into the world of magical thinking without losing your way? Can you see both the magic and the practical reality?

Gemini New Moon 2018

This New Moon in Gemini gives us that opportunity. We associate the Tarot card The Lovers with the sign of Gemini, for lovers unite themselves to one purpose, one heart – or at least that’s the goal! The same goes for something we love that we want to create. We unite our head and our heart, our feminine being with our masculine doing to unite all sides of ourselves to create.

And if Gemini is symbolized by The Lovers, a united Mind, then Mercury, the ruler of Gemini and the Mind, is symbolized by The Magician. If we know how to focus our intention (left-brain), we can create what we imagine (right-brain). And we use our reptilian brain to give us the life energy we need to accomplish our goals as well as our mystical brain to connect us to the collective unconscious. We operate out of the whole brain.

This Gemini New Moon occurs on Wednesday, June 13, 2018 at 12:43pm PDT/ 3:43pm EDT/ 7:43pm GMT.




The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 23* Gemini is: Three fledglings in a nest high in a tree. With 3 as the number of process and birds symbolizing the higher mind and its messages, we get to be inspired, original, inventive and imaginative in our responses to life. These fledglings are young and so need time to develop. Don’t rush things – there are many retrograde planets around now. It’s all about seeing through magical eyes now. The tree of life will protect these visions until they’re ready to fly. Plant those magical seeds and see what develops!

This New Moon squares Neptune in Pisces, which itself is trine Jupiter retrograde in Scorpio. These two spiritual energies combine to strengthen our inner connection to our soul. We are challenged to be inspired and inventive, using our creative imagination in ways that open new avenues of experience, which Gemini craves. Magic qualifies as new avenues of experience.

The New Moon also inconjuncts Pluto in Capricorn, which is setting the stage for our cultural transformation. So how do we integrate this need for a new cultural story with our Gemini Mind? Gemini makes no judgements. Inconjuncts call for minor adjustments. We usually first ask the magic for our own benefit by setting that intention that begins with I have, I am.

But this new story is really about all of us together, so it’s about how we each sit at the Round Table and work together. This is the time to ask the magic for help with our society, with our communities and with our families and tribes. It’s not just about me but about us.

That in itself is a new story, isn’t it? For too long our patriarchal society has been all about the ‘rugged individual’ who doesn’t need help, who can pull himself up by the bootstraps and make a fortune. The new story is that we’re all in this together, so we help each other. And that means, our individual purpose will be supportive of that.

You don’t have to see the whole picture or know the whole story yet. Just step onto the road and see where it takes you. And open your vision to see things in a new light.

Mercury, the ruling planet of Gemini, just moved into the sign of Cancer the day before this New Moon. And it is a powerful Mercury, ready to think outside the box. This Cancer Mind is geared toward the emotional body and its messages and needs. It is creative and nurturing. It is opposed by Saturn retrograde in Capricorn. While these two planets together usually indicate a serious mindset, it feels more true to see that Saturn picks up on his responsibility to make sure that Cancer’s needs are met. Saturn in Capricorn helps us release old karma and get on with building our new world. Take the time to listen to what your emotional body needs.

The square from Chiron in Aries to both Mercury and Saturn challenge us to change our perception of ourselves – to heal the I am in which we see ourselves as initiators and leaders.

Uranus in Taurus supports this New Mind and awakens our StoryMind and brings new landscapes into view. While we are all in this together, a lot depends on each of us. We are the ones who have to meet the new realities and make the changes. Our first clues come from our emotional bodies. If we can’t figure out what we need, how can we figure out what others’ need? Our Mind is especially open to new realities now. So don’t be afraid to talk to yourself and everyone around you.

The other big energy at play during this New Moon is a tense aspect between Venus in Cancer opposite Mars in Aquarius with both challenged by Uranus in Taurus. The Chinese fortune cookie version is Wake up and smell the roses!

Mars is about to enter its retrograde on June 26th so he is extra potent. If you go outside at sundown, you will see him rising in the East, very bright now. Mars in Aquarius is energizing our ideals about the Masculine. Mars is conjunct the South Node. Will we learn from our past mistakes? Will men learn they are not the bosses of the world?

It is time and past time for this old masculine attitude of disdain and domination of the feminine to be left behind. We want and need the New Masculine energy to emerge. What this New Masculine energy will be like is still a mystery, but it will support and balance the New Feminine energy emerging in our world. For we need them to be equal in all ways – both literally as well as psychologically and spiritually. Both ways of seeing and understanding the world are necessary.



So ask yourself these questions. What makes a Man? What is masculine energy? How can we renew it, especially now that our society is acknowledging how abusive men have been to women and the Earth. And how we’ve rejected our feminine right brain wisdom. What makes a Man?

Venus is also at her brightest in the western sky at sundown. She is at the last degree of Cancer, moving into Leo a few hours after this New Moon. Opposites not only attract, they compliment each other. Venus offers Mars a chance to understand (Aquarius is smart!) what our heart needs are. If he’s willing to understand our feminine need to support and nurture each other, when these two planets finally oppose each other on June 21st, they will have a chance to really rock together. Uranus just adds the spice!

If the New Queen (Venus in Leo) is supported by the New Masculine (Mars in Aquarius), we’ll have a real chance of attaining not only gender equality, but the balanced and proper use of our awareness. And from there we will recreate the world!

Neptune goes retrograde on June 18th.
The Sun goes into Cancer on the Summer Solstice on June 21st.
Mars goes retrograde in Aquarius on June 26th.

May you walk in the Light!
Cathy

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haiku -- Masahide
barn's burnt down;
now I can see
the moon
Since Gemini loves Twins!

Morning Poem

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead ---
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging ---

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted ---

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Dream Work)
Copyright 2018 Cathy Pagano