The Cosmic Story: The Leo Gateway of Lammas: Leo New Moon & 2nd Aquarius Blue Full Moon 2021

We’ve just arrived at the cross-quarter day of Lammas here in the north, a time of harvest and fulfillment. With the receding light and warmth, we are now definitely heading toward Autumn.

Welcome to Lammas season, the Harvest Season.

 

 

Regardless of what’s happening in our world regarding COVID and politics, Mother Earth still holds us in her yearly cycle of life and death and renewal. When we orient ourselves with these cycles, we can ground and connect to Earth’s biosphere, giving us the energy to align with our life’s evolution in a natural way.

Here in the North, we’re at the beginning of harvest time and the second half of summer. We’ll begin to notice the days growing shorter more quickly now as the Sun continues on its journey south as we head into Autumn. Down in the southern hemisphere, you are experiencing the light returning, heading out of late winter and into spring.

For us in the northern hemisphere, we can celebrate our personal harvest through ritual and meditation, gratefully acknowledging the new harvest this year. Is it a new job, a new book you’re writing, a new relationship with yourself or another, a new attitude or perspective on your life? Have you let go of fear and opened to your heart’s desires? Have you faces your shadow and freed up new energy? Whatever you’ve created this year, it’s now time to name and acknowledge it with gratitude.

Change is here, whether we like it or not. The question is, who is going to be making those changes? This summer’s astrological energies are intense, urging us to release what no longer serves us so we can start following our heart’s wisdom and start living our soul’s story.

The power of Leo’s energy is to help us discover and attend to the Heart and what really matters in life, giving full expression to our creativity. This year, while the Sun is in the sign of Leo, we will experience two Aquarian Full Moons (the first was on July 23^rd at 2* Leo and the second is on August 22^nd at 30* Leo and is the Blue Moon) with the upcoming Leo New Moon on August 8^th near the Leo power gate of 15* Leo.

Uranus, about to turn retrograde on August 19^th, is stopping at the Taurus power gate at 15* Taurus, squaring this week’s New Moon. It is a reminder to us that what we create must be sustainable and must benefit the whole group in some way. It can no longer be ‘art for art’s sake’ but ‘art as a healing modality for the collective psyche’.

It is only through the heart’s wisdom that we’ll get through these global health and environmental crises.

These power gates occur at 15* of the fixed signs – Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius – and are represented by the cross-quarter holidays of Beltane, Lammas, Samhain (Halloween) and Imbolc that mark the halfway point between the solstices and equinoxes. They are the energetic center of these ‘fixed’ sign, generating portals to other dimensions. If you have planets at any of these gateways, their energies will give you a persistence and determination to get through any troubles in life.

 

 

So as people continue to get in touch with their heart needs, they are quitting jobs that no longer satisfy them or leaving relationships that no longer give them the freedom to be themselves. We see this struggle between the old, repressive behaviors of patriarchy and the new freedom we each want to express in light of the Saturn/Uranus square – pitting the old (Saturn) against the new (Uranus). It’s up to each of us to break the chains of old patriarchal rules and beliefs within ourselves so that this societal paradigm dies out in the collective consciousness, leaving room for something new to arise – something better to arise.

For these past few years, we’ve talked about discovering our new story, which implies changing our beliefs and behaviors. Well, the need for change is upon us now! Yes things are getting chaotic, but the truth is out of chaos emerges the new forms we need to recreate our global society. And while there are a lot of powers in our world that want to take us back to the past, there is no way the past will win out. We are set to move into the future – the Age of Aquarius is calling to us. We just has to deal with the shadow karma of the Piscean Age – the old Them vs. Us beliefs that hinder the truth of Pisces – that we are all one.

When we re-emerge into a post-covid world, we have an opportunity to change our society and culture. Many of us want to change. How that’s going to happen will become apparent when we begin to let go of our fears and worries about the future. We are heading into that future and the one thing you need for the trip is a sure sense of yourself, a grounded presence that is willing to go with the flow and change when it’s appropriate, yet is strong enough to support and protect you.

We each have to find our wholeness so we can become holograms for collective wholeness.

 

 

Astrological influences through Leo and Virgo

There are a lot of planetary changes going on this season, especially between the two Aquarian Full Moons on July 23^rd and August 22^nd.

The themes coming up now in your life are important to the future, so pay attention. We’ll be making decisions about how we want to live our lives as we go forward. It’s time to take some action on our personal changes.

If you’ve been frustrated lately, blame it on Saturn in Aquarius opposite the Leo Sun on August 2^nd, with both squaring Uranus in Taurus. Once again, the theme is out with the old, in with the new.

 

 Sekhmet: the Heart of the Sun

Leo is all about heart energy. Leo is the fire that is passionate, creative and utterly unique. Leo is a shining Light that warms everything it touches. So this month, burn brightly and let your light shine out.

Mercury met the Sun at 9* Leo on August 1^st and rushes through the rest of Leo, moving into Virgo on August 11^th. Our creative vision gets down to earth and practical.

 

 

The Leo New Moon occurs on Sunday, August 9^th near the Lion’s Gate at 15* Leo. With the square to Uranus in Taurus and opposite Saturn in Aquarius, it’s time to actively work on changing our ways, discarding what no longer serves our future Self. With Venus in Virgo channeling Neptune in Pisces, we can begin to make our dreams a reality. Don’t forget that beauty and embodiment go together. It’s time to let go of the ugliness we’ve created in our world and remember how beauty makes us feel.

It’s always good to let go of expectations and just accept the reality of the Now. Yes, old patterns need to be broken, but everyone is doing it in their own time and way. The frustration comes from how slow vast changes take.

So it’s up to us to make the small changes in ourselves that can make change happen in the world.

Uranus turns retrograde on August 19^th at 15* Taurus. It’s time to turn all that revolutionary, transformative energy inward. Awaken your soul body. 

 

 

The 2^nd Aquarius Blue Full Moon on August 22^nd occurs at 30* Leo. Blue Moons occur when there are two Full Moon in an astrological sign – NOT when they occur in a calendar month. This is because they switch the lunar cycle back to its original rhythm of New Moon followed by a Full Moon in the same sign. For the past two years, the cycle flipped and so we’ve had the Full Moon come before the New Moon in a sign. This part of the lunar cycle splits us open to encompass different energies. Now we can get back in rhythm and feel more whole.

For this second Aquarius Full Moon, Jupiter is conjunct the Moon, opening up our perspective to what is possible. Jupiter can make magic happen, so stay open to the synchronicity in your life that can show you the path forward.

While Uranus is now retrograde, it is still squaring Saturn retrograde in Aquarius, so the tension between old habits and new turn inward. Uranian awakenings are strengthened by a nice earth trine to both Mars and Mercury in Virgo, who can help plan out the small changes we need to make to shift our energies. Venus is in Libra opposite Chiron in Aries, asking us to love and respect ourselves as much as the Other. Because we have to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves’, we need to do the work of loving ourselves and facing our inner critics, those voices of old patriarchal beliefs that we need to shed now.

 

                                             Virgo with her Wheat Shaft

 

The Sun enters Virgo late in the day August 22^nd . I’ll leave you to find out about the Virgo New Moon on September 6^th and the Pisces-Virgo Full Moon on September 20^th, two days before Fall Equinox arrives on September 22^nd.

Virgo is the sign of the Great Mother and Child, the womb and the fruit together. What have we woven into being this year? How do we integrate that into our ongoing evolution? Virgo’s great gift of service comes from being aware of what’s really needed in any situation.

Exploring the Myth of Psyche & Eros: Part 2

Psyche & Eros

 

Venus stays in Virgo until August 15^{th –} 16^th, when she enters one of her home signs, Libra. But while she’s still with Mars in Virgo, this pair wants to work out the details of their union at 20* Leo on July 13^th.

I wrote about their union in relationship to the ancient myth of Psyche & Eros.

If you remember their story of an initiation into the mysteries of Love and Desire:

Psyche (our word for Soul) is married to Eros in a secret marriage. She can only make love to her new husband in the dark of night, without seeing who he is. When she finally lights a lamp to consciously see who her secret lover is, she discovers that it is the god of Desire himself who is her mate. But he flies off, leaving her to search the world for him.

She finally presents herself to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty and Love, who is the mother of Eros and who initiates Psyche into the wonder and magic of this divine love. Aphrodite sets Psyche four tasks to complete before she can be reunited with Eros.

1) The first task is to sort and separate out a big pile of different seeds. When Psyche despairs of the job, friendly ants come to help her sort things out. Ant is a symbol of discipline, hard work, strength, unity, determination, teamwork, and patience. Sometimes, if we stick to the work of Love, we have to trust our instinctual nature to sort things out when relationship issues arise. A sorting of seeds lets us understand where things began. This is also the type of sorting that Virgo is good at, because it asks us to use this initiation’s gift of discernment in this sorting.

2) The second task is to harvest the golden wool from the sun rams. She gets advice from a friendly river reed to wait until the Sun is descending and losing power so the rams can settle down. Then she’ll be able to gather the wool that got stuck to the brambles. This initiation makes us face our fierce aggressive need to compete with the Other – to make our point and take our stand. It asks us to use our golden intellect in a different way. Can we stand in our own power without having to destroy the Other? How do we relate to power in relationships?

The ram symbolizes boldness, new beginnings, new paths and power. Like the reed who gives Psyche this advice, we need to understand the flow of life and not go head to head with our loved ones in the midst of powerful emotions and power plays. Instead, we need to let things calm down and then find out what really is going on. The gifts Psyche receives from this initiation are a sense of her own courage, strength and spirit.

3) The third initiation demands that Psyche find the source of the River Styx, or the river of life, and draw up a crystal cupful to take back to Aphrodite. There are dangers surrounding this river. But Zeus’ eagle comes to help, taking the goblet and filling it.

This is a test of our faith, our belief in love and our ability to fly high and see with the eyes of Spirit. It is also a challenge to take a larger perspective on the issues. And the paradox is that to do this, we have to stay in the NOW and deal with the present moment. There are so many possibilities in life to drink from, but we need the wisdom to know which possibility is the best to foster and deepen love. I would say that the gift of this initiation is that higher, spiritual perspective.

4) The fourth and last test is the most important. Aphrodite wants Psyche to travel to the underworld and obtain from Persephone, the Queen of the underworld, a little cask of her own beauty ointment.

 

 Psyche's last task

This initiation involves staying on track and not getting thrown off track by other people’s needs. This is a journey into our own inner world to discover our own unique Beauty and Truth. On this journey, we have to curb our instilled sense of generosity and kindness and own our dark side. Persephone, Hecate, Kali all represent the dark energies that influence our decisions, those shadow aspects of our personality that used to keep us safe but now just keep us stuck in old patterns of low self-worth and self-criticisms. The gift of this initiation is a grounded “NO” in response to outer demands on our freedom of choice. Love must be freely given, never demanded.

This initiation asks us to die to the innocence of our youthful imagination and expectations of what love is and means. Then we can be reborn without fear, allowing a transformation of our consciousness to ripen and mature our understanding of the Other and ourselves. This is the path of individuation, where we can embrace all our ourselves so we can see and embrace the wholeness of the Other.

As the story ends, Psyche and Eros are reunited and Psyche gives birth to a daughter, who is Pleasure.

A life lived in and with love blesses us with all sorts of pleasure, especially joy and wonder.

 

Our task at the end of the Age of Pisces is to learn Love in all its forms.  Love is never easy.  It takes work.  So work on loving yourself and then you'll know how to love others.

May the many blessings of Lammas flow through your life,

Cathy

 

Now is the Time

 

Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.

Now, why not consider 

A lasting truce with yourself and God.

Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.

Hafiz is a divine envoy
Whom the Beloved
Has written a holy message upon.

My dear, please tell me,
Why do you still
Throw sticks at your heart
And God?

What is it in that sweet voice inside
That incites you to fear?

Now is the time for the world to know
That every thought and action is sacred.

This is the time
For you to compute the impossibility
That there is anything
But Grace.

Now is the season to know.

That everything you do

Is sacred.

~ Hafiz ~

(The Gift - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

The Cosmic Story: Taurus New Moon 2021 -- Beauty and Hope

Taurus New Moon 2021

A Time to Dedicate Ourselves to Beauty and Hope

May is the blossoming time, so there is beauty all around us these days. The lilacs are blooming and their fragrance is intoxicating. The dogwoods, the cherry trees, the apple blossoms, the azaleas, and now the rhododendrons are coming out. The trees have their green leaves back. In just a short time, nature has come alive again.

Nature’s promise to all of us that life goes on. Mother Nature gives us hope.

Caroline Casey says that when we dedicate ourselves to beauty, we strengthen our frequencies, drawing our accomplices to us – those people who comprise our tribe. Those accomplices can be our people, but they can also be Nature spirits, animal guides, archetypes or god/desses. Ask them how you can help create a more beautiful world – perhaps you’ll have to negotiate terms – and then watch how it works out. Since we are facing an unknown future, instead of being afraid of it, why not allow mystery into our lives and see where it leads us! This is the role of the Virgin aspect of the Great Goddess, the part of us who is open to mystery.

It’s always amazed me at how ugly our society so often is – not just how we act, but also how we build things. Only in America would we come up with concrete blocks for buildings, for strip malls and row houses. Somehow with all the natural beauty in America, we so often create ugliness instead.

 

 

So if there’s one thing we can do on this Taurus New Moon, it is to create and enjoy beauty. And the best way to do it is with sympathetic magic – so go out and plant some flowers, feed the hummingbirds, walk by the ocean.

It’s important to understand that there is an unconscious story energized in some right wing - Christian sects that are driving the Trump Republicans. It is a story that says we are at the End Times so you better be following the rules. That’s why we’re seeing so many people willing to fight against racial and gender equality, climate change and our individual freedoms. They want the End Times to come and they think they’re making it happen. So perhaps it’s not just white supremacy on the rise, but also right-wing Christian supremacy. (obviously, I’m not talking about all Christians).

Somehow the struggles of people for individual freedom are not as important as following their rules. This comes from the odious idea that some people are chosen – which means that others are not. It is an idea that is central to all of our western religions. This overriding story makes people self-righteous about their own goodness and ready to throw the rest of us to the devil. We see it happening in all the states that are rushing to make laws restricting voting rights or a woman’s right to an abortion. 

 

 

To offset this unconscious belief, the world needs a better overriding story, one that captures everyone’s imagination, one that brings us into the future without the Us vs Them mentality. We need a uniting story that says we are all ONE on this beautiful planet, Earth. Perhaps if we listen, Mother Earth will tell us that story. Let’s hope our artists are listening.

Caroline also says that we can be back stage helpers: by interacting with archetypal and natural entities, by using our imaginations to foster good possible outcomes, we can be the invisible river that strengthens the new energy that’s being born over the objections of those in power.

As Jupiter moves out of Aquarius on May 13^th and into Pisces for a few months, we’ll move into a more fluid, imaginal state, ready to dream the desirable society that we envisioned while Jupiter was in Aquarius. Once Jupiter goes back into Aquarius in late July, we’ll fine-tune our vision for when Jupiter re-enters Pisces again in 2022. When Jupiter goes into Pisces next year, we can hope that our spiritual imagination will awaken. But we also have to watch out for religious fanaticism as well, since Jupiter expands what it touches. So ground in your spiritual practices now to prepare you for next year.

Taurus New Moon 2021

The Taurus New Moon occurres Tuesday, May 11^th at 11am Alaska time, 12 pm PDT/ 3pm EDT and 8pm GMT.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 22* Taurus is: White dove flying over troubled waters. This is a message from the Holy Spirit (Sophia) showing us the way to a new dispensation. The dove is a bird of love and peace, sacred to Aphrodite/Venus/ Mary – the divine Feminine. So this New Moon tells us to have hope, that the Divine Feminine will lead us out of troubling times. This is a call to women especially. The world needs us now!

 

 

This Taurus New Moon is supported by Pluto_rx in Capricorn, and both Neptune in Pisces and Mars in Cancer. If we want to deconstruct our society (Pluto) to make it more fair and equitable, we need our spiritual imagination to come online, and then we have to make sure that our concrete nurturing needs are met. Family and home should be the central concern of society – and it can be if we all open our spiritual eyes and make it so.

As we leave the Age of Pisces for the Aquarian Age, we have to leave behind the guilt, shame and suffering of Pisces, and turn our attention to being the best version of ourselves we can be. That means we have to be embodied and individuated – we have to become our essential Self. And then we have to band together to create a better world.

 

 

If any sign of the zodiac signified the Garden (of Eden, Paradise, Delight), it is Taurus.

A fixed Earth sign, Taurus is all about sensual delight – the beauty, tastes, touch, sounds and fragrances that feed the senses. Taurus says: indulge in your body, in life’s pleasures, in beauty and Nature. Learn what life is really about. The Piscean Age wanted us to ignore our body’s pleasure, seeing it as sinful. So many of the masculine religions think that we have to deny our lives here for a better ‘hereafter’. This is an attitude that needs adjusting!

Taurus embodies the fires of Aries, giving that fiery spark a form to experience life with. Taurus delights in the five senses, so take some time to enjoy life instead of hurrying through it. Get off the computer and go out into Nature. Stop and smell the lilacs!

Taurus is the sign where we engage with Nature’s bounty. Where we can connect (or re-connect) with Nature’s biosphere. Our proper place in creation. For we are meant to be stewards of the Earth. So let Nature enchant you into connecting with her and while she heals you, you are also healing her. This is humanity’s superpower – that we can choose to connect with the rest of the natural world in understanding and love.

I finally watched ‘A Social Dilemma’ after my son insisted – again – that I watch it. I knew, but didn’t know, how these people consciously made our social media addictive. So if you haven’t seen it already, please watch. And then disconnect from your devices as much as you can. Spend the same amount of time outside as you do on your computer.

With the Uranus in Taurus square to Saturn in Aquarius activated all year, this is a time for us to listen to Earth’s experimental creative genius in relationship to our technology. There are great strides already being made with bio-mimicry, allowing Nature to show us how things relate. But unless we want to become The Borg, we need to control our technology, or else it will (and already is) control us. While I use this technology sparingly (gladly remembering a time when we didn’t have it), I feel sad for the kids who are caught up in it. This is one of the things we Elders need to address – teaching the younger generation how to relate to each other in person!

Mercury went into his own sign of Gemini on May 3^rd and will stay in Gemini for longer than usual because it will retrograde in Gemini on May 29^th to June 22^nd, and will finally leave Gemini on July 11^th. Venus left Taurus on May 8^th and will stay in Gemini talking it up with Mercury until June 3^rd. So these two planets will get us talking and studying and conversing. And having fun!

My birthday week took over and I didn’t get much work done. So this is short and sweet.

Blessings on all of us,

Cathy

Blessing for the Senses

May your body be blessed.

May you realize that your body is a faithful

and beautiful friend of your soul.

And may you be peaceful and joyful

and recognize that your senses

are sacred thresholds.

May you realize that holiness is

mindful, gazing, feeling, hearing, and touching.

May your senses gather you and bring you home.

May your senses always enable you to

celebrate the universe and the mystery

and possibilities in your presence here.

May the Eros of the Earth bless you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

(Anam Cara)

The Cosmic Story: Aries New Moon 2021

 

The Cosmic Story: Aries New Moon 2021

The Fire of Creation 

Motherpeace Deck

In many ways, this Sunday’s Aries New Moon is another beginning of the astrological new year – another aspect of Spring Equinox. Now the Light and Dark will grow imbalanced until Summer Solstice/Winter Solstice.

Up North, the Light is returning.

Astrology is based on cycles. Such as the soli-lunar cycle of Sun and Moon. Astrology looks at the planetary cycles and tries to understand what happens when two planets connect to each other in different mathematical configurations. It also looks at how present cycles are related to past cycles.

This New Moon is connected to a few past cycles and planetary aspects, so we’ll be revisiting what happened in the past so we can move into the future.

Aries symbolizes the fire of Spirit descending upon us, giving us life, giving us the opportunity to start over, to begin again. Just as we’re energized by this fiery Spirit, Spirit wants to be expressed. Fire wants to burn! 

 

 

The paradox is that fire is both creative and destructive – it is up to us to shape something with the fire into the third, transformative state. (You can read more about the magic of Fire and its patrons at The Bard's Grove) We humans can use fire to both create consciousness as well as destroy life.

At this moment of cultural crisis and transformation, we’re each being asked by destiny to make our choice – will we create a new life here on Earth and heal ourselves and Mother Earth or will we continue to kill and destroy life?

This Aries New Moon will square the sensitive degrees of Capricorn where Saturn, Pluto, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury came together last year to such devastating effects. Now these archetypal energies have been regenerated (Pluto) and infused with hope and imagination (Neptune in Pisces). We have opportunities now with Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius to affect collective consciousness through our technology and our common visions.

The world is at a turning point. We can collapse back into a death culture that thrives on war and power, or we can emerge into a new world where peace and cooperation can set our energies flowing to heal Nature and re-create ourselves.

Will we use the pure fires of this powerful Aries New Moon to heal or destroy ourselves? Never doubt that our individual choices will unite and set the vision for our future.

Whatever you think of President Biden, he is setting a course to re-build America from the bottom up. This is a vision that helps people while it works towards climate accountability. Hopefully, COVID has given us a sense of sacrifice and community. Pluto says it’s time for us to take responsibility and sacrifice our time or money to create ‘a more perfect union’. (Abraham Lincoln) 

 

Like the new light of sunrise, Aries and Mars embody a pioneering energy, the same type of energy used to explore and later unfortunately dominate the New World. After people settling in America used this Mars energy to fight and conquer this wild, beautiful continent, their descendants focused that Mars energy on commercial enterprises and scientific and technological discoveries. It is the energy that America has thrived on. It is a young, eager, adventurous energy that made us a great power in the world.

Lately, though, we seem to have lost this pioneering spirit as a country. Perhaps turning away from it because we’ve seen and understood what its done to our Native peoples, to the land and to other countries. Or perhaps our relative wealth breeds contentment and sometimes laziness.

But this decline aligns with the fact that we’re at the end of America’s Pluto cycle (our power and our past), which runs from 2021 – 2024 and perfects (conjuncts natal Pluto) for the first time on February 20, 2022 (2/20/22).

As the cycle ends, a new one begins. What will we make of it? While Pluto works to destroy what is no longer viable, it also wants us to evolve and grow. Will our evolutionary track lead us to extinction? Or to new heights of human consciousness, compassion and wisdom? We have to work with Pluto on this one. As this archetypal energy of power and surrender is renewed, we the people will partake of it. Just like Americans engaged with it before we declared our independence in 1776.

This death and rebirth energy compels us to question ourselves and our values. What are our country’s values? What do we stand for? How do we value our natural and cultural resources? How do we value our people, who are all immigrants and therefore orphans who have been uprooted from their motherlands. What are we willing to fight to protect – people or things? How should our government be structured and should our collective government provide us with basic necessities for ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’? How should the country’s finances be organized – should the economy be the cultural center or just a tool when we put life at the center? What role does private business play in our country? What role do citizens play?

While Aries is about the individual Hero’s Journey, the truth is our whole world culture needs regenerating. So humanity is being called to the Hero’s Journey. 

 

Will we answer the call?

This is who we were born to be. This is what we were born to do.

Aries New Moon 2021

The Aries New Moon occurs on April 11, 2021 at 3:31pm Alaska time, 4:31pm PDT/ 7:31pm EDT and on April 12, 2021 at 12:31am GMT.

 

 

The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 23* Aries is: A pregnant woman in a light summer dress. Besides being an image of fertility, pregnancy is an inner process. This New Moon is so juicy and full of potential. Summer is the time when the Earth is most fertile. Take this image with you as you plant your New Moon seeds in the dark. Watch for the slim crescent Moon on Tuesday. That’s the day to begin something new.

This Aries New Moon is comprised of a conjunction of 6 planetary bodies: Chiron, Mercury, Sun, Moon, Eris and Venus join energies to fill us with the courage and strength to be authentic, strategically engaging in the world in new ways. If we ask these archetypal energies to guide us, they can help us manifest what creative ideas we’ve been working with this past year.

We’ll need some guidance as this New Moon squares 23-24* Capricorn where the transformative conjunction of Pluto and Saturn happened last year on January 11, 2020. As well as to the degrees of the three Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions during 2020.

This Aries New Moon squares where the Capricorn New Moon on January 13, 2021 occurred. That New Moon was conjunct Pluto, hopefully helping us confront our fears. With this New Moon in a first quarter square to January’s New Moon, we get to move past our fears to a clearer vision of what’s needed. We are being asked to choose. That’s what free will is all about. The choices we make.

Since we are helping rebuild our society (sq to Pluto), we as citizens have the responsibility to find out what our government is doing. When we go to City or Town Council meetings, we have a voice in what happens in our local, state and national communities. If we all pay attention, we can help communities steer our way through these troubled waters. This is the time to make new commitments to transform the world. Just don’t settle on the exact form yet. Play with your options! Aries loves to play.

This Aries New Moon fire is fanned by Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in air signs, sparking new ideas and possibilities. With Saturn in the mix, we have to come up with good, solid ideas before we act on them.

Like the shifting, dancing flames, however, it isn’t time to settle in on one answer or way. That comes later on this Spring. Now is the time to dance with the flame and try out new shapes and patterns to see which one rings true for you.

 

With Venus and Mars dancing together in a cooperative, encouraging sextile, our values and our desires dance well together. Our values and what we love will become clear to our authentic Self. It’s time to brake free from patriarchy’s capitalistic spell controlling our desires.

Mars, which rules these Aries planets, is in Gemini and likes to play around with different ideas and information – so it’s a good time to do more research. With a creative trine to Jupiter in Aquarius, it’s a great time to talk with people and find out what they’re thinking about, which will help you consolidate your own ideas.

Communication is key here, especially since Mercury in Aries is in what’s called mutual reception with Mars in Gemini – they’re staying in each other’s home sign. Mars can be argumentative, so please try to listen before you speak. It’s about really hearing what others say before you respond.

We do have to watch out for Mars since he’s out-of-bounds – meaning he’s going to be a wild card energy, that refuses to play within the lines. Allow your thoughts and ideas to be outrageous if you want. You’ll be winnowing through them in the next month or so.

With Mars in Gemini and Jupiter in Aquarius closely supporting this New Moon, you’ll want to pick and choose which seeds to plant, since you might have an over-abundance of them.

 

 

Mars’ sister, Eris, warrior goddess of the Heart, mediates between this New Moon and Venus. She will insist that we listen to our hearts and our values (Venus) when we set our seed intentions – otherwise she’ll create dis-cord for going against our hearts’ desire.

Find your Aries house. Look at what sign and house your Mars occupies. These will tell you which road is right for you. Understand what underlying motives make you want to take action. With Mars in Gemini, first and foremost, you are going on an adventure of the mind (Georgia Stathis). Think of all those possibilities!

When Mars goes into Cancer on April 23^rd, the same day as Mercury conjuncts Uranus in Taurus, your emotional body will come online and you’ll know what direction to take.

Over the next week or so, Venus, the Sun and Mercury will square Pluto, helping us leave behind old habits and ideas that no longer serve us in our new story. You might run into some old power dynamics that you’ll have to deal with. Don’t react! Try to understand what’s going on and choose how you want to deal with it.

 

Venus moves into Taurus from April 14 – May 8. Things will feel more gentle and enjoyable. Venus is beginning her Evening Star phase as the Goddess of Love and Wisdom rather than her Morning Star phase as a Goddess of War and outer engagement.

All the planets are moving forward now until Pluto goes retrograde on April 27^th. So things might move forward rapidly now. Just go with the flow and see what happens.

The Sabian symbol for Pluto turning retrograde at 27* Capricorn is: Pilgrims climbing the steep steps leading to a mountain shrine.  It's time to go in search of higher consciousness.

Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Pluto and Pallas Athena are connecting to the Gemini/Sagittarius nodes. This bit of information from astrologer Anne Ortlee: when planets aspects the nodes like this watch for people to come into your life who will have an affect on you in some way. So see who you connect with in the next few weeks. They might be bringing you the help you need.

The Sky is ever changing and so are its energies. Try to keep up but be good to yourself. This is still a new and emerging energy we’re dealing with. Take care of it as you would a beloved child.

Blessings of the Spring to you all!

Cathy

I Want A Lot

You see, I want a lot.
Perhaps I want everything:
the darkness that comes with every infinite fall
and the shivering blaze of every step up.

So many live on and want nothing
and are raised to the rank of prince
by the slippery ease of their light judgments.

But what you love to see are faces
that so work and feel thirst....

You have not grown old, and it is not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out its own secret.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

(Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. By Robert Bly)