(Note:
I’m going to combine the astrology of the seasonal Gateways of the
Wheel of the Year with the Goddess work I’m doing. So while I will
look at the New and Full Moons of each of these seasons, it won’t
as detailed as my old astrological reports.)
While
this edition of the Cosmic Story is about the season from February 1
to March 20th,
I have to start with a brief mention of the American Inauguration
chart and the Women’s March the next day.
Inauguration Chart 2017
Just
a quick look at the
Inaugural chart shows
us that the President (the Sun in the 10th
house) is basically isolated, since
the Sun makes
no major aspects to other planets. An
unaspected Sun is a wild card energy, one that can’t be controlled
from the outside.
The
closest aspect is a wide square to the Moon in Scorpio in the 6th
house—not a happy placement for the Moon, which symbolizes the
public. The President and public are at odds, challenging each
other. The Scorpio Moon shows us a distrustful public mood, at odds
with the Aquarian Sun’s urge for freedom and equality. As a sign
of how this administration will operate, the outer ‘show’ of all
inaugural charts set for January 20th is the Aquarius Sun of unity
and freedom—the US myth, while the Moon shows what the mood of the
administration is—dark, power-hungry, violent, controlling.
The
blessing of the chart is that the chart ruler (the Ascendant is
Taurus), Venus, is in the sign where she is ‘exalted’--Pisces.
With both Venus and Mars, as well as Chiron and Neptune in Pisces in
the 11th
house, we’ll see more women (and men) uniting to bring about the
end of patriarchy during this administration.
Hence
the world-wide Women’s Marches on Saturday. That chart for
Washington D.C. has a Pisces Ascendant with Uranus in Aries in the
1st
house – the urge to freely express ourselves in a show of heartfelt
unity.
I
guess we had to remove the blinders about the utter depravity of
patriarchy so that we’d stand up together and protect our Mother
Earth, our lives and the future. As visionary activist astrologer
Caroline Casey says – this is our beautiful, dangerous assignment
in these times of change.
February
2nd
- 6th:
Imbolc—the Return of the Light
Imbolc
is the Celtic fire festival that celebrates the first signs of
Spring, even if most of us are still in the throes of Winter. The
name Imbolc
comes from ‘ewe’s milk—oi
melc
in Gaelic, because it coincided with the birth of the spring lambs
and the lactating of the ewes. In America, we celebrate Ground
Hog’s Day
on February 2nd,
when we look to see if the ground hog can see his shadow and predict
the coming Spring. (As most of us have seen the movie Ground
Hogs Day,
you can see how archetypal the movie is in dealing with the shadow.
Which is why it’s so popular—it resonates with us on a deep
level.) This year, more than ever before, we have to look at our
Shadow and work through it to see what we can become.
At
Imbolc, we look for the first signs of life and light returning, and
you’ll notice that after Imbolc, the days begin to visibly
lengthen. We’ve arrived at a time when we look more deeply into
what we want to achieve in the coming year. It is a quiet festival
of light, when we light candles and go into the silence to listen to
the voice of Spirit. It is a visionary time, when we journey to the
Goddess to get a clearer vision of what our soul assignment is each
year.
Brighid
Imbolc
is sacred to the Celtic goddess Brighid/Brigit as well as Ceridwen,
the Welsh Goddess of the Cauldron of Inspiration and of Bards.
Brighid is the Goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft, which was a
highly magical skill for the Celts—the smith was a practitioner of
skilled manual arts – creating, forging, fabricating. As you can
see, a poem, a story, a song has to be crafted as well as a sword or
a plow.
Brighid
is also connected to sacred springs (her healing role) as well as the
heat which warms them (her sacred fires). The Celtic Brighid was
associated with an eternal flame which was kept going by her nine
priestesses. As the Goddess of Inspiration, she is associated with
the Greek 9 Muses. Both Brighid and Ceridwen are goddesses of
inspiration and vision.
The
season of Imbolc is the time to ask the Goddess for inspiration for
the coming year as well as offering our services to her. That means
asking how can we serve something bigger than our own personal
agenda. This year, that shouldn’t be hard to do. If we want to be
inspired, we have to take our role as concerned stewards of the Earth
seriously. So it is important to take time to clear our own inner
source of inspiration, our inner wellspring of creativity and vision.
It’s the season to nurture the tender shoots of our new dreams for
the year. It’s time to celebrate the return of Life and Light.
The
Element of Air
While
Imbolc is one of four Celtic fire festivals (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas
and Samhain), we work with the element of AIR
and the direction East
from Imbolc to Beltane. East
is
the direction associated with Spring, sunrise and new beginnings.
Air is the element that symbolizes the energies of the East.
Air
is associated with intelligence as well as eloquence, with clarity
and reason as well as inspiration. The word
inspiration
comes from the Latin inspirare
"blow into, breathe upon," figuratively "inspire,
excite, inflame," from in-
"in" + spirare
"to breathe" "breathe into" to "infuse
animation or influence," thus "affect, rouse, guide or
control," especially by divine influence. Inspire (v.) in Middle
English also was used to mean "breath or put life or spirit into
the human body; impart reason to a human soul." It also means
someone who inspires others.
So
this is a season to get inspired and to inspire others. The
Christian Holy Spirit (which in essence is the Goddess Wisdom) is
associated with Wind/Air as well as the Celtic Awen,
which
means flowing
spirit, their
word
for inspiration.
Air
flows between us and is exchanged between us with every breath we
take. So air is connected with speaking and communicating. When we
speak,we fill our lungs and activate our voicebox and send out a
vibration through the air. We connect through our ability to
communicate.
Crowley Deck
The
Sword is symbolic of Air, the ability to be precise and to discern
between truth and falsehood—a topic that’s been brought to our
attention all last year with the square between Saturn in Sagittarius
and Neptune in Pisces. That square tested us to see if we could
discern between what is true and what is illusion—hence the idea of
‘fake news’ was important. At the moment, it looks like delusion
won out with many people but also gave many others a chance to stand
up for their truths.
So
this year, be clear about what you want to communicate so you can
inspire others instead of shutting them down. It’s time to relearn
the art of conversation. Learn to listen and ask questions. You
already know what you believe, so be open to other people’s beliefs
and let the give and take of differing opinions open you to new
insights.
Words
can heal or harm, bless or curse. Choose your words carefully, but
speak your truth. The Buddhist’s ‘right speech’ says it all –
you should speak at the right moment in the right place. And unless
you can say something useful, keep silent.
Imbolc
Chart: February 2, 2017--Dawn
Imbolc Chart 2017
Since I’m writing about a season from Imbolc to Spring Equinox, we can look at the chart for February 2, 2017 at dawn and see what energies are available to us for the next 6 weeks. The Imbolc chart is intense. The Aquarius Sun is unaspected, meaning it makes no connections with other planets, so it seems we have to find our own independence as we rise to stand up for our vision of a just society. An unaspected Sun gives us more freedom, along with the danger, to act on our own.
It’s
the Moon that comes alive in this chart. The Aries Moon is conjunct
Uranus and Eris, the planet of discord—that which goes against the
heart. When the Moon and Uranus hook up, our unconscious impulses
and psychic abilities are strong. Listen to those intuitive hits and
trust yourself. Don’t go against your heart’s wisdom. It’s
time to act out-of-the-box and instigate change. Re-invent
yourself!
The
Aries Moon is action-oriented and mixed with Uranian energy, it can
mean that each of us has to embrace our vision of what our purpose is
(the Imbolc gift) and stand up against what goes against the
heart/discord/Eris. This Moon is opposite Jupiter in Libra,
embracing justice for all in our stand and squares Pluto and Mercury
in Capricorn, helping us see exactly what is wrong with our society.
The Moon also trines Saturn in Sagittarius, giving us the discipline
to protect our heart values. With Venus at the very end of Pisces,
we have to remember to be compassionate. Just in case we forget,
Venus will retrograde back to 30* Pisces on April 3rd and
once again moving forward at the end of April.
The
New and Full Moons of this Season
The
Aquarius New Moon occurs just before Imbolc on January 27th,
beginning a yearly cycle where we take the needs of the many into
consideration. In this time of radical change, we have to become
true citizens of the world. The New Moon in Aquarius is unaspected,
leaving us to find our own independence. The other major aspect is a
Venus square to Saturn, making sure our hearts are in the right
place. Just after this New Moon, Mars moves out of Pisces and into
its own sign of Aries. Time to take strong action in the area of
your chart where Aries resides.
The
Leo Full Moon is a lunar eclipse on
February 11, 2017 at 23* Leo/Aquarius. A lunar eclipse helps
us become conscious of our unconscious feelings. The eclipse cycle is
changing signs by May, but we’re getting a preview now of that
change from Virgo/Pisces to Leo/Aquarius. The Leo/Aquarius axis will
open us to use our talents and creative self-expression (Leo) for the
good of the group (Aquarius). We can already see that our artists
are ready to use their talents for a larger purpose. Let’s
continue it with our own creativity. The Leo Moon forms a grand
trine (planets in all three fire signs) with Saturn in Sagittarius
and Uranus/Eris in Aries. That’s a lot of fire! How we use our
passion and inner light to transform our lives is crucial now. It’s
not a time to lash out at those we disagree with. It’s time to use
our creativity to create a new story that others want and need.
Instead of using our energies to go against things, use it to
envision something new. There is a ‘finger of God’ aspect at
this eclipsed Moon, from a base of the Moon sextile Jupiter in Libra
up to Chiron in Pisces. Once again, don’t be afraid to use your
creativity to help heal the world.
The
Pisces New Moon on February 26th
is a solar eclipse occurring at 9* Pisces.
We’re back for one more eclipse from the Virgo/Pisces axis,
hopefully releasing old habits of martyrdom, victimhood and
delusions. This is our chance to dream BIG since the Sun and Moon
conjunct Neptune, Pisces ruler and the energy of mysticism, vision
and imagination. Pisces energy—our ability to sink back into the
unity of the collective unconscious—is strong now with the
Sun, Moon, Mercury, Neptune, Chiron, Pallas, and the South
Node working together to cleanse our souls from the karma of the
Piscean Age. We are truly entering the Aquarian Age where freedom is
more important than sacrifice and our original blessings are more
important than our original sins. We get to keep compassion and
vision and imagination as we release the fears instilled in us by our
religious past.
Mars
in Aries joins up with Uranus later in the day, activating the potent
Pluto in Capricorn square to Uranus along with the opposition to
Jupiter in Libra. We’ll still be resonating to that radical energy
for the next few years so keep moving toward your vision of the
possible future. These next few years will see the change we’ve
been talking about as we actually act on the changes we want to
manifest. The Women’s March was just the first step in taking back
the world from the power elites. The election of Donald Trump is the
last vestiges of patriarchy. It’s time to leave the Father’s
House! There’s no time left to linger.
The
last Full Moon of the Imbolc season is the Virgo Full Moon
which occurs on March 12, 2017.
This Pisces/Virgo Full Moon squares Saturn in Sagittarius, focusing
once again on bringing our soul’s purpose into full manifestation.
That means we have to have the discipline and focus to unite our
logical brain with our intuitive brain. Mercury, the ruler of the
Virgo Moon, is in Pisces. We can either get confused or we can
listen to our intuitions and imagination to figure out a way to unite
body, mind and spirit.
Planets
in action
During
this 6 week period, we begin with all 10 planets moving forward.
That changes quickly. Let’s look at the planets for this season.
Jupiter
in Libra turns
retrograde on February 6th
until June 9th.
This
is the time to deepen our relationships and bring more positive
energy into them.
Venus
begins this season at the very end of Pisces, and swims into Aries on
February 3rd.
The
big news is that Venus
in Aries
turns retrograde on March 4th
until April 15th.
Venus
goes retrograde every 18
months and moves
from an evening star to a morning star on March 30th
this year. Venus
retrograde is the time to look at what you value and re-evaluate your
life. Love, money and possessions are examined and you can decide
what really matters in your life.
Mercury
moves into brilliant Aquarius on February 7th
and then slides into
imaginative Pisces on February 25th.
On March 13th,
it jumps into Aries.
Mercury symbolizes how we use our minds, and this season, we’re
asked to open to higher powers—the brilliance of the universal mind
and the compassion of the universal heart. Once it integrates those
two mysteries, it takes action in Aries.
Mars
strides through its own sign of Aries this season until March 9th,
when it moves into grounded Taurus.
Mars stays in a sign for about 6 weeks.
During
this season of Imbolc, use these energies to enhance your vision for
the year. Once we arrive at Spring Equinox, you can take your vision
out into the world for a test run.
See
you at the Equinox!
Walk
in the Light,
Cathy
"Affirmation
of the Disciple" from
World
Goodwill
(posted
by Alan Okan)
I
am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God.
And
thus I stand
I
am a way by which humanity may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And
thus I stand.
And
standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men and women,
And know the ways of God.
And tread this way the ways of men and women,
And know the ways of God.
And
thus I stand.
