Growing into a New Life: Our
Initiation into Love
Center of the Milky Way Galaxy
If we’ve worked with the Virgo New Moon’s energies, grounding in new behaviors and ideas, we’re ready to grow into our new life, our new story. It’s going to be an initiation and a stretch for us to listen to the voice of our soul rather than the chaotic voices of our world. So how do we keep on track as we learn and grow into our new selves?
We need a story
to walk with.
We need a vision that holds us in wonder and awe, in magic and
possibilities. That’s what good astrology and mythology and sacred
stories do. They
walk with us through life and change how we see ourselves and our
possibilities.
When we walk with someone as a companion, we want to be the best we
can be. Because we’re walking in a field of love. Whether it’s
love of God/Goddess, love of partner or child, love of nature or for
poor, suffering humanity, we are most ourselves in the interchange of
love.
Unbeknownst to most people, we
have a living mythology we can relate to and walk with. The cosmic story
that the planets tell us every day. Most especially the Moon, which
moves through the astrological signs every 2 ½ days, receiving the
light and energy of all the other planets as she circles us every
month. The Moon tells stories if we know how to listen.
Mystery Moon
The Moon is a mystery-keeper
as well as a time-keeper. Working with the cycle of the Moon can
keep us centered in the NOW
as well as in Eternity.
For there are two types of time. Chronos
time is our clock time, the time we agree to share with others.
Kairos
time is Spirit’s time – real time, eternal time. The Moon can
ground us in both.
This Aries/Libra
Full Moon is the
beginning of a another cycle, since Aries is that fire-bolt from
heaven that starts the whole thing rolling. Every year at this time,
we begin a new emotional, lunar cycle through the zodiac. While the
solar cycle starts in March/April with the Sun in Aries and impels us
to find out who I
am, the Aries
lunar cycle begins in August/September with the question, who
am I in relationship with others? It coincides with the harvest times in the northern hemisphere.
The storyline for each
Aries Full Moon is the Libra mystery: how do you and I compliment
each other? How well do we fit together? How do we achieve some
kind of balance between me and my desires, and you and your desires?
How do I relate to others? To my family and friends, lovers and
strangers? How do I relate to the world?
So if that’s the energy of
this Full Moon, let’s walk with that story for the next
astrological month of Libra.
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Sunset over Cape Cod Bay
All of the planetary energies
are filtered through our Moon, which aspects them all as She moves
through the month. As the Moon Mother, she sheds the Love
of the Universe
down on each of us. Libra and the 7th
house are associated with relationships, perhaps because, if we look
at the astrological chart, it is when the Sun comes down from the
heavens to be welcomed by the Earth as mate and partner before
slipping below the Equator for the next few seasons.
If you know your chart, these
stories will have deeper meaning and resonance for you. But they
still describe the energies available to each of us, energies that
reshape our lunar life each year.
Aries/Libra Full Moon
2018
This year’s Aries/Libra Full
Moon occurs on September 24th
at 7:52pm PDT/ 10:52pm EDT and on September 25th
at 3:52am GMT.
This Full Moon’s energy is
enhanced by Mercury and Ceres in Libra, Chiron Rx in Aries and Saturn
and Vesta in Capricorn.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun
at 2* Libra is: The
light of the sixth Race transmuted to the seventh.
(SS)
This can be understood in terms of the meaning of the numbers 6 and 7
and is illustrated in the Seed
of Life.
The number 6 represents the synthesis of descending spirit and
ascending matter – the union of opposites and the fruition of all
our past efforts. Within the six-fold fruition the seed is found –
the seventh.
The Seed of Life
It’s
time to live out of this seed Self. This is the new birth we are
striving to grow into. We
need the emotional strength and courage of the Aries Full Moon to
achieve it.
The
Sabian symbol for Mercury at 6* Libra is: A
man watches his ideals taking a concrete form before his inner
vision.
(SS)
We have to learn to visualize what it is we want to create, so that
this new creation will manifest as we will it to be.
The
Sabian symbol for Ceres at 9* Libra is: Three
‘old masters’ hanging on the wall of a special room in an art
gallery. (SS)
It’s
always important to reground ourselves in eternal values. The number
3 symbols a process of manifestation – something is happening that is
essential. How we relate to power, Love-Wisdom and intelligence-in-
action depends on being grounded in great, unchanging spiritual
realities.
These
three planetary energies are engaged in a new birth – a new way of
being grounded in the Self yet
opened to the Other,
nurtured by Ceres’ spiritual realities and Mercury’s inner
visualization. We can achieve our goals if we ground them in the
spiritual necessities of our times. We are not here for ourselves
anymore – we are here for the future.
Often
the Full Moon in Aries is seen as a struggle between being
‘self-centered’ and ‘other-centered’. But if we keep in mind
what we’ve learned through this year, this Aries Full Moon could be
a game-changer. With Chiron retrograde conjunct the Aries Moon, we
can either spend our time being re-traumatized by our old wounds or
finally free of them. And free to start a new life with Aries
courage and leadership.
We
call Chiron the wounded
healer
because in the myth, he was wounded by a poisoned arrow and, being
immortal, couldn’t die. But before his wound, Chiron was the
mentor of heroes. And that’s his function now if we let him mentor
us into a true sense of who
we are
that doesn’t take away from who
the other is.
If we take up our archetypal identity, our deep soul identity,
Chiron can mentor us so we do become the person we’re meant to be.
And
integrating our Aries emotional body with the conscious Libra Sun,
Mercury and Ceres, we can become the hero/heroine of our own story.
And that story includes our purpose in the world and for the world.
The
Sabian symbol for the Moon at 2* Aries is: A
comedian reveals human nature.
(SS)
Comedians give us an objective view of ourselves and others and show
us both our strengths and our weaknesses. At
the moment, they seem to be the ‘real news’ carriers.
And they do it with humour because if we can laugh at ourselves, we
won’t get caught up in pride, stubbornness and anger. A good way
to deal with an Aries Moon! Chiron’s
mentoring will help us hear the truth and perhaps live that truth.
The
Sabian symbol for Chiron retrograde at 1* Aries is: A
woman just risen from the sea. A seal is embracing her.
(SS)
Here
Chiron can heal and mentor the new form arising from the ocean
of the
collective unconscious. We are all participating in this awakening,
and we each have to do our part in our own re-birth.
Mermaid - Woman Rising from the Sea.
But
we are also part of collective humanity’s awakening and evolution,
which
includes nature.
We
are part of Mother Earth’s ecosystem, and we have to re-claim
our place in it.
In
Celtic mythology, the seal holds a special connection to humans and
is believed to have the ability to shed its skin and become a human.
But it is the mournful song of the seals, so human-sounding,
that tugs at the heart. A
magical call of the sea, the
seal song
reminds us that we too came from the great ocean of life and
long to be united with Spirit.
(A great Neptune retrograde in Pisces image!)
This
woman, arising along with the Leo Solar Eclipse’s mermaid
desiring a human form, is
the New
Feminine, ready to give birth to a new world. It
is a call for women
to embody
our souls, and for men
to listen to their
souls. And it’s
time to step forward and be the vanguard of the future. Let Chiron
heal the wounds to your old identity and mentor you into your new
archetypal identity,
with Love
at
the center.
Saturn
and Vesta come into this picture via a Cardinal T-Square, a tense 90*
aspect to the opposition of the Full Moon. With these planets in
Cardinal signs, there are three different urges for action that have
to be integrated –
Self,
Other, Society.
Saturn: Lord of Boundaries
Saturn
is the Great Initiator, the energy that tests us with limits,
frustrations and obstacles. And yet, his gifts are responsibility,
authority and manifestation. Coupled with Vesta, the great Priestess
of the Fires of Life, they will test our will to success in this new
birth. Vesta can help integrate the Cardinal call to action, uniting
the three needs of self, other and society. Call on the Priestess to
guide you through these initiations, always
staying
true to your Self
and open to the Other.
The Sabian symbol for Saturn
and Vesta at 3* Capricorn is: The
human soul, in its eagerness for new experiences, seeks embodiment.
(SS)
Here
we see a strong desire to prove oneself in this new life we’re
creating. We
need our emotional body to embody fully now. So the 4th
leg of this triangle, which is in Cancer, suggests that we really
know what we need and then ask for it to ground in this new life.
(It’s what your heart needs, not your head!)
Our
initiation challenge is to desire this new life with passion, love
and vision. To do this, we have to listen to our hearts. Gregg
Braden has a program on Gaia
that speaks to how we can listen more clearly to our hearts. The
exercise is simple:
1)
touch your heart to bring your consciousness there. 2) slow down your
breathing and 3) feel appreciation, gratitude, care and/or compassion
for at least 3 minutes.
Do
this
exercise every day, and
it
will open up your heart’s channel of communication with your brain
so you are more in touch with your intuition, feelings, and creative
imagination.
So we do have some tension at
this Full Moon, but it can be the exciting (Aries) tension of
adventure and determination rather than fear. Fortunately, we do
have the tools to meet our initiation and pass through it.
However, there’s another
T-Square of tension between the rulers of Aries and Libra which has
to be resolved. And it is linked to the Full Moon by an inconjunct
from Uranus in Taurus to the Sun and Moon. This aspect forces us to
stretch ourselves to bring in this new energy. We have to look wider
afield than we usually do. A new world needs new forms of energy,
vision and empowerment. And Uranus can awaken us to these new forms,
especially because it is still in a helpful trine to Saturn/Vesta.
The old is giving way to the new. Believe it!
There is a Fixed T-Square
between Aries’ ruler Mars in Aquarius (conjunct the South Node),
Libra’s ruler Venus in Scorpio and Uranus retrograde in Taurus.
Fixed signs shape and form the energies. It can be stubborn about it
too. With this T-Square, the forms have to learn to be compatible. It is grounded in the 4th leg of the North Node in Leo, asking us to own our creative self-expression -- what we are sent here to develop!
Love Conquers War.
Mars has just come out of its
retrograde and is moving ahead in Aquarius. Mars is our
action-oriented energy, and in Aquarius Mars is altruistic, and so
the energy is unselfish and public-spirited. So right there we see
that this Aries Full Moon probably won’t descend into selfishness.
Our Mars energy is transforming from aggression to assertion, from
competition to cooperation, from domination to equality. We can see
that our society still has a long way to go, but at least the
injustice and inequality is out in the open now.
Venus is the ruler of Libra,
bringing her beauty, harmony and artistry into our lives. She is
willing to compromise to keep the peace because she understands the
fine art of diplomacy. But more importantly, She describes what and
how we value and give meaning to our life experiences. It is Her
values that motivate our Mars actions and guide our life goals. She
is the heart of the matter – Goddess of Love/Goddess of
Wisdom.
(see Wisdom’sDaughters: How Women Can Change the World
for more on Venus/Aphrodite.)
Venus
is traveling in the underworld of Scorpio now and is about to turn
retrograde as she hurries to meet up with the Sun. All bets are off
now. What will She be willing to do to find justice and equality as
She ends her journey in Libra once again? Venus will be ending her
cycle as an Evening Star of Wisdom and after the retrograde will
become a Morning Star again. The Morning Star is the Warrior Maiden,
springing new and fresh from the Underworld. Just so you know
what to expect!
Venus
turns retrograde on October 5th
at 11*
Scorpio and travels back to 26* Libra by November 16th.
Venus
in Scorpio can
release
our old relationship wounds, whether from parents, siblings, friends
or lovers. Dane
Rudhyar calls it a ‘new quality of will and purpose.’ The fierce
feminine is rising up.
(I
will be writing about Venus retrograde and the myth of Psyche and
Eros during her time in the Underworld.)
With
Venus opposite Uranus retrograde, a real breakthrough is possible.
What this means for this T-Square is still a mystery, a mystery that
we must each discover in our own hearts. Once again, try out
Braden’s Heart connection exercise to keep in touch with your Venus
as she travels through the underworld.
(I’ve been using Dane
Rudhyar’s book on Sabian Symbols: An Astrological Mandala (SS)
but the meaning it gave for the following energies just doesn’t
feel right. So I explored other astrological meanings and I like
using David Cochrane’s (DC), an incredible
vibrational astrologer. )
During
the Full Moon, Venus is at 9* Scorpio. The
meaning of 9* Scorpio is that of intelligence, spontaneous
inspiration and expression of feelings, and the capability to deal
with the public (DC).
These might be qualities we need to release from the Underworld and
bring back with us. And with
Venus, the shadow quality most likely would be jealousy, of others
who do what you do, or love who you love.
Until
we love and value ourselves, we will be
insecure and need to deal
with our Shadows. When we embrace all of who we are, we do much
better at living
life.
The
meaning of 4* Aquarius is idealistic, sensitive, compassionate,
concerned with inner, spiritual development (DC). With Mars here, it
confirms the transformation that occurred during Mars’ retrograde.
Venus
and Mars are in a challenging
square to each other, but it is a waning square, so it’s about
preserving the seeds of our values and true beliefs. Uranus
retrograde will help inspire these two energies. Prepare yourselves!
And keep your journal close by.
The
meaning of 1* Taurus is inner strength and intensity, deeply loving
and magnetic. (DC) And the Sabian symbol for 1* Taurus is: An
electric storm.(SS)
That’s
what this might feel like! (We’ve been having them all day during
Mars square Uranus – also a waning square.)
It fits Uranus to a T.
This
is the Harvest Moon. Go out and let it shine on you.
Blessings
of the Harvest and Autumn Equinox,
Cathy
Zion National Park
I
should be content
to
look at a mountain
for
what it is
and
not as a comment
on
my life.
~
David Ignatow ~
(News
of the Universe,
ed. by Robert Bly)
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THANK YOU.
