The Cosmic Story: Aquarius New Moon, January 21, 2023

 

The Cosmic Story: Aquarius New Moon, January 21, 2023

The Aquarius New Moon occurs today, Saturday January 21, 2023 at 12:53 pm PST/ 3:53pm EST/ 8:53 pm GMT at 01*32’ Aquarius. It is a SuperMoon, meaning that the Moon is very close to the Earth, so we’ll feel its tides moving strongly through us.

This is the same degree of the conjunction of the social planets Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius on December 21, 2020. That conjunction shifted society’s concerns from the material plane (for over 200 years in earth signs) to about 200 years in the social air signs. This shift in our collective attention is echoed in this Aquarius New Moon, which offers another preview of the upcoming transit of Pluto through Aquarius which occurs from 2025-2044. More on this in future newsletters.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 2* Aquarius is: An unexpected thunderstorm. Since thunderstorms are intense, there’s something about this symbol which warns us to be prepared for something that could either be devastating or exciting. With Aquarian ruler Uranus, the planet of sudden change, about to turn direct tomorrow, expect the unexpected.

 

 

The Sabian symbol for Uranus turning direct at 15* Taurus is: Head covered with a rakish silk hat, muffled against the cold, a man braves a storm. Once again, expect the unexpected! But be prepared, with the right tools and most important with the right attitude. Don’t be afraid to go with the flow. And have fun!

The Gene Key for this degree is # 60: The Cracking of the Vessel. Another symbol of a change that breaks something already established. 

 

 

This Gene Key deals with the laws and limitations that govern the world of matter. At the lowest common denominator, it is a set of rigid rules that bind and trap us, whether externally or internally. (an example: in the show 1923, the Irish nuns and priests in charge of the Native children have horrific rules and nasty attitudes and beliefs.)

The 60^th shadow is Rigidity which leads to Dissolution – Death. It is the rigidity of patriarchy in our times. All structures must go at some point. But when those structures refuse to die out, we suffer from hopelessness. (For a great movie about this, watch Everything, Everywhere All At Once). Isn’t this what we have going on now, with fascists and dictators wanting to keep their power over the people. We are up against this Shadow and we must go through it to get to the promise of Aquarian freedom on the other side.

The question is: what kind of structure do we want to live in. One of limitations, of rigidity? This is what fearful people choose. Or do we choose chaos? This is what dictators use. It seems part of the world has chosen this.

But there is always a third way – what Jung called the Transcendent Function. What if we let a more organic structure shape what we become? What if corporation weren’t people and not only the rich had power? What if work wasn’t as important as a fulfilled life? We probably don’t need most of the things we buy and do. Corporations need us tied up and unbalanced to perpetuate their system. We can bring it down by building a new system along side it. Perhaps when Saturn goes into Pisces on March 7, 2023, we’ll begin to let a structure form organically from within, like crystals in a saline solution.

The gift of the 60^th Gene Key is Realism or the common sense of Magic! This is the balance between youthfulness and wisdom, idealism and structure. For our visions to manifest, they need to begin with the basics. The foundational one is structure – forms that will channel the energy of change without dissipating it.

This is where a knowledge of the archetypes can help you shape this realism once you throw off your patriarchal structures. Working consciously with the archetypal energies is exactly what Jung meant when he said that during the Aquarian Age, the archetypes will become consciousness – these are the waters flowing out of the Water Bearer’s jar.

The blessing/Siddhi of the 60^th Gene Key is Divine Justice. Or the Merkaba – the chariot of Light which is our living Spirit.  While most of us won’t achieve the Siddhi of this Gene Key, we can embrace the realism of magical common sense to get us through the chaos of our times and into a new reality that is waiting for us to birth it.

2023 is the year to enter the chaos of the times consciously (be of the world but not in it) and begin to imagine how we can help create a better future for ourselves and our communities – knowing we have that larger community to help, support and encourage us.

Early 2023 will see us finishing up old business from 2022. By March, the energies will shift into a more gentle, hopeful radiance. Like this year’s Chinese Year of the Rabbit, the fierceness of the past year of the Tiger will give way to a time of reflection, peace, empathy and grounding. 

 

And let that peace and contentment begin in your body. Isn’t it time to stop punishing our bodies for not being ‘perfect’ and start listening to what our body has to say for itself. The Body Knows! It knows what it needs. After the pandemic’s disruption and shutdowns, the body needs to stretch and move and re-balance. Our ego’s job is to listen to its needs.

 

 

This New Moon in Aquarius is conjunct Pluto at the last few degrees of Capricorn, bringing forward a new vision for the future as our patriarchal social systems go through their final breakdown. Pluto will travel back and forth over the last degrees of Capricorn and the first degrees of Aquarius during 2023-2024 before entering and staying in Aquarius from 2025-2044. Last time Pluto was in Aquarius was during the years after the American Revolutionary war when our founders wrote the Constitution. Maybe it’s time to revisit our Constitution and clarify what a living democracy looks like. Nothing is once and for all. Something living is always evolving, and if corporations can be ‘declared’ living beings, then it’s obvious that something as precious as our Constitution must be ‘living’. And therefore evolving.

At this New Moon, Venus is coming up to conjunct Saturn in Aquarius on Sunday January 22, 2023. Venus wants to make sure that Saturn integrates her values into his ideas of social justice. 

 

The Sabian symbol for Saturn and Venus at 25* Aquarius is: A butterfly with the right wing more perfectly formed. What a perfect image of this conjunction, taking the feeling values of Venus and integrating it into our social consciousness. And making it beautiful.

Jupiter in Aries forms a nice sextile to both the New Moon and to Mars in Gemini, which just stationed direct January 12, 2023. Jupiter in Mars’ sign of Aries brings a nice balance of fire to the airy trine between Mars and the New Moon. This fiery inspiration and dynamism brings passion and energy into whatever new visions have been brewing in us.

But it’s still not time to rush ahead with our ideas and plans. Mercury in Capricorn, which just turned direct on January 18, 2023, makes an inconjunct to Mars in Mercury-ruled Gemini and squares Jupiter in Aries. Our ideas need to settle down before we can really begin to articulate them. Just let things percolate until Spring Equinox.

Entrance

Whoever you are: in the evening step out

of your room, where you know everything;

yours is the last house before the far-off:

whoever you are.

With your eyes, which in their weariness

barely free themselves from the worn-out threshold,

you lift very slowly one black tree

and place it against the sky: slender, alone.

And you made the world. And it is huge

and like a word which grows ripe in silence.

And as your will seizes on its meaning,

tenderly your eyes let go. . . .

Rainer Maria Rilke

***************************

This year is a time of transition, a change in the cosmic energy radiance that will help us catch our breaths and get into our bodies to meet our destinies. Each year we choose how we engage in our life, either by wasting those months in unconscious behaviors or by growing our awareness by consciously dealing with our life. And happily, each new turn of the Wheel gives us a new chance at growth and evolution. 

 

Sometimes, some years, our destinies sleep and dream. And then suddenly, our destiny wakes up and hands us the thread of our lives to do something with. When we live our life in harmony with all of nature – including the planets – we learn to know and understand those rhythms, to be patient with our Being so we know when our Doing is necessary. Sometimes we just have to take care of the business in front of us. Sometimes we have to reach for the stars. Our cosmic call will come when we’re needed. Our job is to prepare ourselves for it by living wisely.

I am offering a discount of 25% on solar return/annual perfection readings for your birthday to help you develop a blueprint for the year ahead.

Each birthday begins a new cycle of life for us, and these readings will be focused on how your energies are in play for the year and what direction they’re pointing you in. A little objective direction in the chaos is always helpful.

I’m working with an old/new technique called Annual Perfections which can predict where your energy will be focused for the year. It points to the aspect of life that will concern you and how your energies will support or distract from it.

Beginning with those of you who are Capricorns, Aquarians and Pisceans, my $140 reading will be $105.

If you want a reading, please email me at info@cathypagano.com to set up an appointment. I’ll need your birth data: date, time, place.

Birthdays from

December 21, 2022 to January 20,2023 – Capricorns

January 20, 2023 to February 18, 2023 – Aquarians

February 18, 2023 to March 20, 2023 – Pisceans

Winter Solstice 2022: the Divine Mother gives birth to the Light.

 

The Wheel of the Year: Winter Solstice, 2022

The Divine Mother Gives Birth to the New Light

 

 

The Wheel of the Year: Winter Solstice

Each year the northern hemisphere of Mother Earth celebrates the re-birth of the Light from December 20^th -25^th. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, or New Year’s Day, we rejoice in the return of the light. Many of our cultural holidays, such as these, are aligned with the Wheel of the Year, the yearly cycle of the Sun and Earth.

We are just leaving the energy of Samhain/Halloween, the Gateway of Death. When we began the season of Samhain, we invoked the ancient goddess Hekate, Goddess of the Crossroads (and of Witches – Women In Total Control of Herself) as our guardian spirit. Did you ask her for guidance? Her dogs sniff out what lies beyond our seeing. Her torch gives us light in the dark. Her power is the power of choice and transformation. 

 

Hekate

 

Did you decide what you’re leaving behind? Have you chosen a road? That’s all it needs to be right now. A decision, a knowing, a casting off of an old attitude. We are in the very darkest days around Winter Solstice. Surrender to the Dark one last time and see what you find out about yourself.

With Winter Solstice, the Wheel of the Year begins the new cycle with (Re)Birth – the (re)birth of the new Light. Because we simultaneously live in a linear consciousness and a cyclical one, this light and our individual consciousness, are something we know and yet the light contains a mystery, the unknown future light. Together, a straight line and a circle create a spiral – and suddenly, we’re in tune with the universe.

We get a chance each year to create something new with the light, with our energy, with our consciousness: still rooted in who we are – our BEING – while giving birth to a new DOING. The Feminine Being is eternal. The Masculine Doing is eternally re-incarnating. (Or not. We might be content with how we’re living life and so we just renew our energy and continue doing as we’ve always done.)

While at Winter Solstice/Christmas, we celebrate the Light and the Child, let’s not forget to celebrate the Mother, who gives birth to the Child of Light. She is the source of this new life and light. For me, this is the season of The Mother Goddess.

 

 

For those of you who haven’t experienced the birth of a child, it is the mother who is, and needs to be, the center of this archetypal drama. Without the Mother’s body, there would be no baby’s body. Without the Mother’s labor, there would be no birth into this world of ours. Without the Mother’s caring, the new life will not thrive. While we are blessed to live in a time when fathers are becoming great caretakers, it is still the realm of the Divine Mother who oversees the care and growth of new life.

In patriarchy, motherhood has been elevated (Madonna) as well as devalued (negative mother/witch). Supermom, especially a single mom, is often exhausted and stressed over her children’s expectations. And in our present patriarchal world-view, those expectations have become excessive and unrealistic.

Modern moms need a break from patriarchal expectations that are being planted in our children. Moms need to remember who we are before we can expect others to respect our needs and vision.

So let’s go back to basics and explore our ideas of Mother.

 

 

First, there is the archetype of the Great Mother – Mother Earth. This divine being created life here on our planet and continues to do so, despite the devastation of her natural habitats which help sustain Her life. A good metaphor for what is happening to Mother Earth with climate change is that She is in MEN-o-pause – she is putting ‘hu-men’ beings on pause as she tries to regulate her systems. Hot flashes and cold sweats are all part of ‘the change’ older women go through. Whether we believe it or not, women are created in the image of this Divine Mother, so thank goodness we have so many healthy, intelligent, creative post-menopausal women to help re-set our human systems as Mother Earth works to re-set hers.

Don’t you think it’s time to listen to the wisdom of the Grand-Mothers?

Aside from Mother Earth, how does this archetypal Mother manifest on a human scale? Basically, Mother is the doorway into life. It is the only way (for mammals) for a new baby, whether human or animal, to enter this world. Not only does Mother create our bodies out of her own, but she willingly suffers the pains of birth (a sacrifice, which means to make sacred – because pain and blood are the payment for the power of birthing something new into the world).

So with power and love, Mother births us into the world.

When did we forget that power and love? That divine purpose? Not every woman can or should have children, but the process is imprinted in our bodies. Women’s bodies are shaped to create life. Isn’t it time we remembered to honor it? Hint: It’s not by legislating that creativity though. Sometimes Mother Earth grows weeds that don’t support life and so die out early on. We really need deeper, feminine, spiritual insights into pregnancy and developing life. And we also have to speak to the issue of free will. This is about a woman’s choice.

Let’s also honor the ground we live on, since Mother Earth sustains us. I live in a tidal river valley that slopes up to cliffs that overlook the Atlantic Ocean just as it begins to become Narragansett Bay. I am embraced by water, sheltered by water birches and old oak trees.

This specific landscape shapes my everyday world with earth and sunlight, wind and water. The four elements are constantly moving and shaping not only the landscape but my life. I’m seeing that the wind plays a big role in my landscape, blowing leaves and trash cans with abandon. I’m going to have to go talk with the wind and understand its fierceness.

What landscape are you a part of? How is it birthing you this year?

Winter Solstice Goddess: the Divine Mother

With the Christian Christmas story, our focus is on the miraculous Child being born. Winter Solstice is the right time to celebrate the birth of this new Child of Light being born into the world, since that’s what happens on Winter Solstice.

For the northern hemisphere of Earth, the weeks before Solstice are the darkest of the year. There is less daylight and more dark night in our 24 hour cycle. At Winter Solstice, the Sun descends to the tropic of Capricorn in the south, stops and goes no further south. It ‘stands still’ (the meaning of solstice) for about 3 days and then begins to move north again. The darkness feels just like Susan Cooper imagines in her magical Winter Solstice book – The Dark is Rising.

In the Christian Christmas story, there are Three Wise Men (magi meaning astrologer) who came to worship the Child and leave gifts. Perhaps they suggested that we celebrate the Divine Birth of the Christ Child on Christmas Day, like the Persian god Mithra, who was also born on December 25^th, because that is the day the Light begins to move north again for another year.

In looking for an aspect of the Goddess who embodies the virtues and gifts that are necessary at this point in the Earth’s life cycle, it is obvious that we are calling on the Great Mother. Whether we see her as Mother Mary or Isis or Haumea or Demeter, we do have archetypal stories that show us what the positive Mother energy is for. (In patriarchy, which devalued and suppressed so much of feminine wisdom, we often have too many stories of the negative mother/ stepmother/ witch.) 

Haumea

 

Haumea is the guardian goddess of the Hawaiian Islands, a goddess of fertility and childbirth and the mother of Pele and her sister, Namaka, the waters that surround the island and which receive Pele’s fiery lava, as well as many other Hawaiian deities. Haumea, like the Greek Mother Goddess Gaia, creates out of her whole body – not just her womb. Like the Earth, Haumea changes from maiden to mother to crone as the seasons change, so she takes many forms and comes back in many rebirths. Haumea is the archetypal energy of earthly creation and abundance, as well as the necessary death that proceeds new life. (Also see Pachamama.)

Demeter, the Greek Mother Goddess of the growing grain and agricultural abundance, was also the Mother of Kore, who became Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. This is an archetypal imagination of the Great Mother who is a nurturer of human life – providing not just for our physical needs but for our spiritual needs as well. 

 

      Demeter & Persephone

In the ancient world, there was a mystery religion that centered on women, abundance, life and death as well as the knowledge of re-birth. The Eleusinian Mysteries, dedicated to Demeter and her daughter Persephone, was one of the most sacred and secret initiations in the ancient world; it’s mysteries celebrated for over a thousand years. While we don’t know all the particulars of these ancient mysteries, (not one of the initiates ever revealed the secret knowledge – pretty impressive statement of the power of these initiations), we do know it was an experience of the immortality of the soul and possibly the knowledge of reincarnation. This story shows that Demeter was more than just a fertility goddess; she was the guide and guardian of our human soul – a fitting job for a Mother.

Isn’t that what mothers do? We want to guide our children so they have the tools to survive in the world and the values that will help them thrive. The world needs this wisdom of the eternal return of life so we can step away from our fear of, and fascination with, Death. Since the Great Mother is not only the life-giver but the death-bringer, she can give us the faith and courage to face death without fear and in hope of our spiritual survival. That’s what Christianity was supposed to teach us but it looks like it failed, because the Church concentrated on sin and death rather than resurrection and renewed life.

The other two Mother Goddesses, Isis and Mary, have similar birthing stories. Both are impregnated by an absent Father god. Isis is more pro-active about it than Mary, but she began as a goddess while Mary had to deal with being human. And of course, we’ll never know how pro-active Mary actually was!

The importance of these two Mothers is that we know their personal stories. We can connect with them on a human level. Both gave birth in hidden places; both had to deal with someone (a king, a brother) who wanted their baby dead.

 

 

With Mother Mary, she was the Virgin who gave birth to the Sun King. While she ended up playing an archetypal role, Mary as a human mother was the source of life for her son Jesus. Mary went into labor and gave birth to a son. She nursed him and kept him warm and safe, even though the world was turned against them. Mary gave all her attention to making sure that her son survived those first few months of life. She was his world, and he was hers. That’s what mother’s do after a baby is born.

If we want to ask for guidance on mothering this new Light that is coming into our world on December 21^st, Mary tells us that it takes focus and love and nurturing to make sure that our child’s life force gets strong. It’s hard work and it takes a while to get to those quiet nights, but contentment washes through us every time we hold our child. That’s what this winter time is for – that quiet focus and contentment. To stop our patriarchal programming to do, do, do, we have to turn to our inner mother and ask to be held in her loving arms. Even when we try to squirm out of them!

This Winter Solstice season (from December 21, 2022 to February 2, 2023), skip trying to exercise and diet your way through January. Instead, listen within and ask yourself what does your body need. What does your heart need? What does your soul need? You can start your new programs after Spring Equinox, with big planets changing sign, therefore of focus, from March to May.

Winter Solstice December 21, 2022

The Sun enters the sign of Capricorn on Winter Solstice, December 21, 2022 at 1:48pm PST/ 4:48 pm EST/ 9:48pm GMT.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 1* Capricorn is: An Indian chief claims power from the assembled tribe. Each year at the Winter Solstice and the birth of the light, this symbol asks us to take on our authentic authority. It is wonderfully symbolic that our most revered mythic leader, King Arthur, was born on Winter Solstice. This need to step into our own power is a repeating theme this year. The power of leadership means to take responsibility for our world, our people and ourselves.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 9* Sagittarius is: A Mother leads her small child step by step up a steep stairway. Our emotional body wants the Mother to teach us how to move in our new life. How do we do things differently? How do we learn things thoroughly? How do we build the muscle to get up to this next phase of human consciousness?

We can read this chart as shaping the cosmic energies for the next three months until the Spring Equinox. I cast the chart for Washington, D.C. so the Cancer ascendant is specific to the United States.

The first thing I noticed in this Solstice chart is that the Moon is in its Balsamic phase, the phase right before the New Moon. This is a finishing up and ending energy. It’s interesting that as the US Pluto return is energized for the last of three passes on December 28^th, the January 6^th committee has recommended criminal prosecution against Donald Trump for inciting a riot against the US government and against the rule of law. A country’s Pluto return is often experienced as a disintegration of its power, but ultimately as a renewal of that country’s ideals. If Pluto’s evolutionary energy can stabilize the rule of law over personality here in the US, it will finally and truly mark our independence from the mindset of ‘divine rule’ by kings or despots. We have to stop idolizing the ‘rich and famous’ – our homegrown, American bourgeois royalty.

Personally, we might find these next 3 months to be a time of finishing up old business in many ways. Mars and Mercury will be retrograde as we begin 2023, so both our mind and our energy are being reconfigured. After they turn direct on January 12^th for Mars in Gemini and January 18^th for Mercury in Capricorn, we’ll still need to re-orient ourselves to a new year. When Uranus also turns direct on January 22^nd, a day after the Aquarius New Moon, we can begin to make some changes in our outer life.

But remember the Mother Goddess, who is our guide this season, and go slowly. Kids learn to crawl before they learn to walk, and walking is a pretty shaky business for awhile, until they get running down pat. Climbing steep stairs is also a challenge. So start slowly and make what you do now count.

Both luminaries make major aspects to one planet each. The Sun at 0* Capricorn squares Jupiter which just entered 0* Aries. The Sun in conservative Capricorn will be challenged to act too quickly by Jupiter in Aries if we don’t pay attention. Jupiter in Aries is all set to explore new possibilities. But remember, Mars will be in Gemini (ruled by Mercury), the realm of ideas and the mind, until March 25^th, so let your imagination and mind explore and play with ideas until then. Those plans can begin to manifest when Jupiter moves into the sign of Taurus in mid-May.

The Moon in Sagittarius is opposite Mars retrograde in Gemini. Our lunar emotional body will want to light up the night and go on our quest, but Mars will stay stuck in his head for a while longer. Moon in Sagittarius will need to move and possibly shake things up, so spend the first few months of 2023 organizing and consolidating files, throwing things out, planning a trip or a quest. Give your Sag Moon something to do while you’re contemplating what you want to do with the rest of the year.

Saturn will finish up his business in Aquarius and move into Pisces for the next 2 ½ years on March 7^th. After about 5 years in two signs (Capricorn & Aquarius) he rules, Saturn is going to let go of control and sink back into the collective unconscious to reacquaint himself with the heart of the Anima Mundi/World Soul.

Saturn takes 28-30 years to complete its cycle. Looking back, in April, 1966, when Saturn was in Pisces, Time Magazine asked the question on its cover, Is God Dead? Looking back, it seems like that was a pertinent question. What will Saturn’s passage through Pisces ask us this year?

In early 1994, with Saturn in Pisces, “Ukraine announces that it will give up the world’s third biggest nuclear arsenal. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had received over 1,800 warheads and 175 long-range missiles. After two years of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, the country agreed to get rid of all nuclear weapons if Russia would respect its sovereignty.” Perhaps Russia will remember its promise when Saturn returns to Pisces.

Chiron in Aries turns direct right before the Capricorn New Moon on December 23^rd, moving us forward again to reclaim our own unique identity from our patriarchal patterning. This is echoed by the Sabian symbol for the Winter Solstice sun. Take on your authority, with humility, grace and wisdom.

 

 

Winter Solstice is the time of the Longest Nights. During this time of great darkness, why not let your imaginations run wild, much like we did as children.  It is a time to return to the child-like wonder of life.

This year on December 20^th, Jupiter passes out of the Omega sign of Pisces into the Alpha sign of Aries, signaling a shift from deep spiritual connection to a cosmic curiosity, which can have us exploring (at least in our minds with Aries’ ruler Mars retrograde in Gemini) what we envision for next year in this new light.

This time between Winter Solstice and 12^th Night/January 6^th was once the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, a time out of time when the world descended back into chaos so it could be reborn anew. After the past few years, it’s time to really renew ourselves and our culture. Use this time to let go of your old story and experience each day without expectations – but with delight. Set your world on its head – let the servant be the master, as it was during these ancient celebrations. Let your imagination be the master during these magical days. Let your rational side take a control break and serve the imagination. Use both to create magic, which will filter down through the year. What we do now sets up a template for the coming year. (Check out how to record your dreams for the 12 Days of Christmas.)

And check out my Winter Solstice Story.

May the peace and the love of the Goddess and the God be ever in your hearts. Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again.

See you next year!

Cathy