The Cosmic Story: Aries New Moon 2019

The Cosmic Story: Aries New Moon, April 5, 2019

The Fool’s Journey: Just Begin

Take the whole kit
with the caboodle
Experience life
don't deplore it
Shake hands with time
don't kill it
Open a lookout
Dance on a brink
Run with your wildfire
You are closer to glory
leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut

~ James Broughton ~

(Little Sermons of the Big Joy)

April. Such a trickster month. The Sun shines higher and warmer. The air is either bright with light or stormy. In New England, the inside of houses are colder because of warmer moisture. If you go outside to bask in the warmth of (finally) 60* weather, you get smacked in the face with a winter wind. Cold and hot. Dry and moist. Anything is possible or probable.

April, come she will / When streams are ripe and swelled with rain.

April Simon and Garfunkle

In April as in Aries, streams are juicy with the run-off energy of winter snow and ice, waters free at last from winter’s chill. Do you know where your emotional currents are heading? Maybe. Maybe not.

Isn’t that what new life is all about? Vulnerability and possibility. 

 

Aries. Such a strong sign. The fire couldn’t be brighter or more intense. Like a runaway forest fire in California. The will and desire to BE overwhelms everything else. Where do we put all that energy? It’s the fires of creation, coming to the inner theater in you.

Just sit back and enjoy the movie. See it. Own it. It’s your story. You don’t have to have a full blown plan. You don’t need to have anything up and running. You just need to take that first step. First baby step! Aries will want to run with things, but it’s better to go slow and build to last. That’s the instructions from Saturn’s square to the New Moon. Slow down and go deep (that’s Pluto take on things).

You have to imagine your new story into being. For now. The action called for now is to gather information and make plans. Your Aries action is in the realm of ideas – since Mars, as the ruler of Aries, is moving through Gemini, an air sign. Fire and Air mix easily. Let Mars gather information. Use it to feed your imagination for possible answers to your questions. 

 

Everything starts in the Imagination.

Three planets are swimming together and generating energy that can help with this. Venus, Neptune and Mercury direct are gathering together (in the middle degrees) in Pisces. Mercury joined Neptune for the 3^rd time on April 2^nd. Venus joins Neptune on April 10^th. Both Venus and Mercury help us connect with others as well as connecting us to our inner guides. This is a great time for bringing out the artist within you. Try your hand at writing and painting, dance and play music. Tune in.

This trio of energies is woven together in a harmony of compassion, deep insight and Imagination – the imagination of positive possibilities. Don’t waste your Imagination on worries. Worry is the negative use of the Imagination. Use your imagination to create – that’s what it’s for.

This Aries New Moon is potent for many reasons. It’s bursting with new life. The new life of Spring. Aries is the exuberant Ram who butts head with life and most often wins. But because of a square from the South Node, Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, this Aries New Moon energy offers each of us a choice. Aries is big on Free Will. Build a new structure (Pluto/Saturn in Capricorn) that supports you future life, or butt heads with the old habits, patterns and outer authorities who ‘stand in your way’. Old karma needs to be released. Set down the burden.

This combination of energies calls us to release the karmic past, to restructure our lives so we can begin our new story. There’s a death involved – the death of the patriarchy within each of us which distorts our soul’s truth. It’s a great time in the days before this New Moon to set our ghosts and shadows to rest and trust that we are indeed ready to live our soul’s assignment. 

 

What we might have to leave behind is a belief or an attitude we’ve carried all our life and through many lifetimes. These are the limiting beliefs that stop us from evolving. Maybe these beliefs helped us in the past. But do we still need them? We have to ask ourselves, what do I believe in now? What’s my guiding vision? Do I have faith in myself? Do I trust my own instincts enough to follow my bliss?

In my case, I tend to live out a 12^th harmonic, karmic theme of the Suffering Servant, here to help save the world. This is my past life mission. Now I am a Taurus, with Venus and Mars in Taurus. This is not the signature of a suffering servant! Lately, I keep getting the message: let it go. No more suffering. Have some fun. Enjoy life. You’ve done well so far! I think that’s the key ingredient – we have to feel that we’ve done our job so far. So we can let it go and find another fit that takes us to a whole new level of engagement.

This hope in the future is sent to us by way of a trine to the New Moon from Jupiter in Sagittarius, both planet and sign the archetypal energies of cosmic order and truth, journeying and teaching. What a great gift to own as we begin our journey! Every new beginning needs hope and the imagination of possibilities. And Jupiter will be extra potent, since Jupiter is slowing down to turn retrograde on April 10^th just shy of the Galactic Center.

The Universe supports us in our evolution. Take advantage of her gifts! Ride the cosmic energies. It will take the courage of Aries to do it. To begin again. Without the baggage.

It is The Fool’s journey. 

 

If you know the Tarot, you know the image. The Fool is totally free. A young person stands on a cliff, head raised to a vision seen in the sky, ready to move forward despite the cliff edge. The Fool takes a step away from the ordinary world and plunges into the Unknown. That’s such an Aries move. Aries are the explorers, scouts and pioneers of the zodiac.

You are closer to glory leaping an abyss than upholstering a rut.

With the New Moon in Aries, we all intuitively know how to take that step into the Unknown. We’ve all been Aries in one life or another. We all have Aries in our charts. That Aries house is where our adventure begins.

So are you ready to play the Fool? Are you ready to trust yourself and go on the journey your soul stamped on your heart before you were born? If you have the courage to keep going, the journey can bring you joy, wisdom and liberation. Who wouldn’t want to journey if these are the gifts we discover along the way?

One of the gifts of the Fool’s journey is speaking the Truth. In this way, the Fool is also the Trickster, the shapeshifter who mimics our shadows and tricks us into consciousness.

The Fool, you see, is the Wise Child. The Innocent who sees the world in truth, like a lover, like a saint.

The Fool travels with his animal guide, sometimes a dog or cat, the instinctual wisdom of the body. We need to be embodied if we’re going to travel. Especially now. In some decks, the Fool is a mis-shapened dwarf, an image of scorn. Interestingly, the King’s Fool was the only one who could speak truth to power. Sometimes you have to be outside of things to see clearly.

The Fool always carries his bag of tricks over his shoulder. His baggage is the essence of experiences from his old life. Action, eagerness and instincts are available when needed. That’s the task. To know when to take action.

So who’s a Fool? Anyone ready to start the journey? It’s up to you to stay or go.

Aries New Moon, April 5, 2019

The Aries New Moon occurs on Friday, April 5 at 1:50am PDT/ 4:50am EDT/ 9:50am GMT.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 16* Aries is: Brightly clad brownies, dancing in warm dying light. Brownies are household spirits said to come out at night while the owners of the house are asleep to perform various chores and farming tasks. They are helping, sometimes mischievous, spirits who make your life easier. To see them brightly clad and dancing lets us see them for who they really are – nature spirits who need to be asked for help. These might be dream messengers as well as external spirit helpers.

So ask for help from unseen forces. The help will be there if you respect it – people always left milk by the hearth for the brownies as payment for their help.

This New Moon in Aries is setting us up for the second Aries/Libra Full Moon on April 19^th. This is the Blue Moon, that comes once in a blue moon to switch up the Moon cycle. We can take this time to explore new ways of relating to ourselves, to each other and to Mother Earth. But first we need to have a sure sense of who we are and be brave enough to stand up for ourselves so we meet the Other in truth and with purpose.

This year, Earth Day (April 22^nd) follows both Passover (April 20^th) and Easter (April 21^st). These two religious celebrations speak to us of freedom – not just the freedom of the body, but the freedom of the soul. Let’s take that freedom and do something with it for Earth Day.

This Earth Day, let’s stand up for Mother Earth. Leave work, band together and show the world that our lovely Earth needs protection.

That’s Aries most important work – to protect and defend life.

Aries is bursting with life energy. Get out and do something physical – start working the dirt in your garden, go walking and hiking, start dancing, go play!

Walk in the Light!

Cathy

For Freedom

As a bird soars high
In the free holding of the wind,
Clear of the certainty of ground,
Opening the imagination of wings
Into the grace of emptiness
To fulfill new voyagings,
May your life awaken
To the call of its freedom.

As the ocean absolves itself
Of the expectation of land,
Approaching only
In the form of waves
That fill and pleat and fall
With such gradual elegance
As to make of the limit

A sonorous threshold
Whose music echoes back among
The give and strain of memory,
Thus may your heart know the patience
That can draw infinity from limitation.

As the embrace of the earth
Welcomes all we call death,
Taking deep into itself
The right solitude of a seed,
Allowing it time
To shed the grip of former form
And give way to a deeper generosity
That will one day send it forth,
A tree into springtime,
May all that holds you
Fall from its hungry ledge
Into the fecund surge of your heart.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)

Please Like and Share.  Thank you!

Copyright 2019 ~ Cathy Pagano's The Cosmic Story

The Cosmic Story: The Wheel of the Year: Spring Equinox 2019

The Cosmic Story:

The Wheel of the Year: Spring Equinox 2019

The Courage to Stand up for Freedom

Onward we go round the spiral

Touching darkness, touching light

Twice each turn we rest in balance

Make choices on this night

Make choices on this night.

Pagan Equinox chant 

The Wheel of the Year: Spring Equinox 2019

The Wheel of the Year is turning once again and we’ve arrived back at Spring Equinox in the North and Autumn Equinox in the South. At this time of balance between the Light and the Dark, we are called to find that balance within ourselves, so that we might bring balance to our world in the coming year.

And for the first time in 19 years (since 2000) there is a Full Moon a few hours after the Equinox. This will be the first Full Moon in Aries/Libra and there will be a second one on April 19^th – our true Blue Moon, when there are two full Moons in a zodiac sign rather than in a calendar month. With this second Aries/Libra Full Moon we switch back to a regular lunar cycle of New Moon/Full Moon. (for the past few years it’s been Full Moon/New Moon).

Spring Equinox occurs when the Sun rises above the equator, bringing longer days and warmer weather to the North, while in the South, the days grow shorter and darker. For us in the North, we welcome Spring and her bounty. We welcome the return of Light. And with it, we look forward to new beginnings. With Pluto joining the South Node in Capricorn later in the month, we have a chance to release past karma so we can get on with the future.

On this day when we experience the balance the Light and the Dark outside, we can find our internal balance as well. And we’ll need it this year. This is the year of preparation for the big cosmic events coming to us next year in 2020: the Saturn/Pluto conjunction in January with Jupiter joining them later in the year, and at the end of the year, the 20 year Saturn/Jupiter conjunction in Aquarius (the conjunction that deals with our social and financial conditions), which shifts this conjunction from the element of Earth to Air for the first time in 800 years.

We’re already feeling the upcoming conjunction of the two most serious planetary energies in our solar system – in the sign of Capricorn, which concerns our society and those institutions which focus our collective energies, such as government, financial systems and our patriarchal rules. Saturn, the planet of 3D reality, of responsibility and limitation, authority and structures meets Pluto, the planet that destroys what is outmoded and dead, first bringing them up to the surface so we all see the stagnation and corruption underneath. Ultimately, their union will bring about new structures, new authority and a new culture. With every ending, a new beginning.

But for a while, we’re just going to have to deal with the chaos of and resistance to patriarchy’s death. Right-wing white nationalism is rearing its ugly, and cowardly, head because we are at the end of that ruling system. Unfortunately, this old paradigm seems to want to take down the whole world rather than letting go and dying out so rebirth can happen.

This year prepare for transformation and stay committed to using your power to stand up for your values. Do we value the Earth and all her children (Nature is literally dying) including humanity or will we sleep our way through to the End? We’ll just keep getting deeper and deeper into transformative energies as humanity is offered the choice of conscious evolution – change or die.

And it is the youth of our world who will lead the way, since the future is theirs to deal with. Just as my generation did in the 60s, Millennials like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar are taking the bull by the horns and standing up to the tyranny of the patriarchy. The rest of us need to follow their lead and support them, since we have all contributed to the big mess we find ourselves in. Especially the baby-boomers, who have either made things worse or gone off to meditate. It’s time to change that. It’s time to stand up for the future.

Astrologers consider the Spring Equinox the beginning of the astrological year and look at its chart to see what the new year has in store, especially the next three months til the Summer Solstice. Let’s look at the Equinox chart as an indicated of what our Spring might look like energetically.

Spring/Autumn Equinox occurs on Wednesday, March 20^th at 2:59pm PDT/ 5:59pm EDT/ 9:59pm GMT. 

Spring Equinox 2019

The Sun in Aries and Taurus

The Sun rises above the equator into the sign of Aries and joins the asteroid Chiron this year. The Sun in Aries is like a rambunctious Ram, ready to take on the world. And it comes face to face with Chiron, forcing us to face our woundedness and also our destiny, both individually and collectively.

Aries is the sign of our individual identity, the ‘I am’ of the zodiac. Aries is the divine fire of life which seeks existence here in 3D reality. Aries seeks an inner sense of aliveness, identity and initiative. Aries is the hero of the zodiac, stepping into the world with a pioneering attitude of adventure. Life is here now, so let’s live it!

Chiron the centaur was a philosopher, healer and the mentor of heroes, who was wounded by a poisoned arrow and could not heal himself. The asteroid Chiron confronts us with our woundedness and mentors us to our greatest gifts. If we were supposed to be perfect, we wouldn’t have to incarnate! So our task, if we accept it, is to acknowledge our woundedness with love and self-acceptence. Nobody promised that our lives would be easy, especially not if we’re on the path of consciousness.

Chiron, an asteroid that circles the Sun between Saturn and Uranus, is a gateway and bridge between the visible and invisible worlds, initiating us into expanded consciousness through our woundedness. (Synchronistically, at the moment I’m writing this, I’m listening to George Harrison sing ‘My guitar gently weeps’.) With all the hatred erupting around the world, this Equinox chart asks us to understand woundedness with compassion instead of fear. 

 

Uranus, the great Awakener, has just left Aries and moved into the sign of Taurus, where he’ll bring much needed changes to our financial system and hopefully, open us to saving our Mother Earth through invention and world-wide intervention for climate change. While in Aries for the past 7 years, Uranus has awakened us to a new sense of ourselves – to an archetypal sense of ourselves if you will. Have we acknowledged to ourselves that, despite our human flaws, we are agents of the archetypal forces of life? That besides our small ego identity, we are also called to our archetypal identity of healer, priestess, shaman, bard, warrior, pioneer, inventor, Earth steward, teacher, leader?

If we have done our work, then Chiron in Aries will help us mentor those who are still in the process of awakening to themselves. Chiron in Aries will push us to accept all the many facets of ourselves. In the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ Baby tells her father, ‘There are a lot of things about me that aren’t what you thought. But if you love me, you have to love all the things about me.’ Self-acceptance comes first. That’s what Aries is all about.

Chiron in Aries is also poised to heal the wounded masculine, which has been trained to be a warrior for thousands of years. Haven’t we grown beyond the need for war, killing and cruelty? Doesn’t our world need healing and cooperation rather than more rugged individualism and domination? Does America really need almost a trillion dollar military budget? What about using that money for life instead of death?

Chiron in Aries will hopefully give rise to the new masculine, to a new sense of what it means to be a man of heart, as well as a new way of doing, which is what the masculine energies are all about. What the ‘new masculine’ will look like after Chiron gets through Aries is open to many possibilities, but my hope is that the men of our world will welcome back a newly awakened King Arthur and his knights, who protect the defenseless, create a new civilization and honor the Goddess of the land. The divine masculine in women will give us the heart courage to stand up to oppression and use love, wisdom and compassion as a force for change. 

 

During this next 6 weeks, the Sun, which symbolizes consciousness, will be challenged by Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn (April 10-13) to change our ways as we see more of the corruption of our western way of life. The Aries Sun will also square/ challenge the lunar nodes around April 12^th, a check-in to see if we’re listening to our heart’s needs or still following the rules. The Sun will be supported by Jupiter in Sagittarius (April 14) to help us expand our vision of the possibilities available to us to meet our future. The Sun will stand opposite the Moon in Libra twice this season (March 20 & April 19), helping us find ways to get along with each other.

The Sun enters Taurus on April 20 (Passover/Easter) and on April 22, Earth Day, it conjuncts Uranus. If we don’t wake up this Earth Day, will we ever? Hopefully, the whole world will go on strike in support of Mother Earth that day.

The Moon

Libra Full Moon

The Moon at the time of the Equinox is in Virgo, approaching fullness as it moves into Libra a few hours after the Equinox. One of my sons is an Aries with a Virgo Moon, and he always plans (Virgo) his adventures (Aries)! And he does things his own way.

Virgo is the sign of the harvest, bringing a sense of wholeness and completion, for she is the Mother and Child, the source and fruit of our labor. Virgo is where we develop discernment and integration of body, mind and spirit. Virgo energy helps us make use of those gifts and talents we apply ourselves to with dedication and diligence.  This Equinox chart indicates that it's time to harvest what we've sown in the past year.  As we end the old astrological year, what have we learned from all those retrogrades last year?  What harvest can we bring into this year to develop even more?

Great Mother Goddess of Earth

With the Sun and Chiron opposite the Moon clothed in her ‘virginity’ – belonging to herself and owning her creativity – this chart suggests that if we hold true to ourselves and face our woundedness, we will overcome the old hatreds and fears that keep us separated. And with the Aries/Libra Full Moon to guide us, we’ll keep our balance and stay true to ourselves while being open to the Other in relationship.

The Virgo Moon is part of an Earth grand trine between Mars in Taurus and Saturn, Pluto and the South Node in Capricorn. This earthy trine represents a talent for manifestation, which can keep us grounded at the same time as we ascend to a higher state of consciousness. Spirituality needs to be grounded in our physical 3D forms. Mars in Taurus gives us the stamina we need to make changes in our lives. The Virgo Moon gives us the discernment we need to make the right choices. Saturn, Pluto and the SN can release us from old karma and rebirth a sense of dedication to the whole.

 

Grand Trine/Kite

This earth trine forms a kite figure with the North Node in Cancer. Often trines, since they represent an easy flow of energy, aren’t challenged enough to do the work, but when another planet or point opposes one of the points of the triangle, it pushes us to get going and develop the opportunity presented by the grand trine. The North Node in Cancer is pushing us to find out what we really need to make life worth-while, and when we look to our emotional body (Cancer) to see what we need, we will activate the power of the grand trine to help us manifest it. The waters of Cancer will moisten the earthy energies of this trine and make it flower.

Other Planetary Energies

The conjunction of Pluto with the South Node in Capricorn (peaking March 28 – April 2) gives us the chance to compost what is dead and dragging on us, especially old patriarchal beliefs around religion and the domination by the male of the species. Old karma needs to be faced and released now. Especially if we want real change in our lives. Not superficial change, but the deep transformative change that puts us on a new path. With Uranus still squaring the Nodes of the Moon, we have that extra charge of rebellion and awakening to shatter what no longer serves us, individually and collectively.

It’s time to step out of our individual patriarchal mindset, which means stepping back from wanting more than we need, stepping away from the colonization of our imaginations by the mass media and by acknowledging that rugged individualism is no longer the way to go. We need each other and we need community to flourish. This is the Aquarian ideal.

There is a mutable grand square in the chart between the Moon in Virgo, Jupiter in Sagittarius, Neptune, Vesta and Mercury retrograde in Pisces and Juno in Gemini. Mutable signs make this grand square easier to handle, since mutable signs are more flexible than the cardinal and fixed signs.

The mutable grand cross reflects the process of aligning with information (Gemini) that is founded in natural laws and truth (Sagittarius), and adjustment (Virgo) of outdated viewpoints and opinions that are not based on universal, timeless principles (Pisces). In other words, as we seek to understand the human journey in a holistic and universal sense, our viewpoints and perspectives naturally shift (mutable archetypes) to reflect this evolution within consciousness. It has been described as the process of moving from the microscope to the telescope. (https://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/2538)

Juno is the energy of right relationship, the know-how to maintain a balance between self and other. If we approach all relationships with curiosity and open-mindedness – Jupiter in Sagittarius, we will be able to live out the universal truth that we are all one In Greek and Roman mythology, Juno and Jupiter/ Hera and Zeus are the divine couple, the sacred marriage of Heaven and Earth. While patriarchy turned Hera, the Queen of Heaven, into a jealous shrew, in reality, she was the Full Moon, called the Perfect One and Zeus, her consort, was meant to perfect her. Symbolically, this means that what our Moon nature shows us must be owned by our ego consciousness and worked on.

Jupiter in his own sign of Sagittarius reminds us of the cosmic order, of the expansive energies of life that allow us to grow and evolve. He wants us to incorporate an expansive vision, one that is inclusive rather than exclusive. This energy will help us move beyond the narrow-mindedness of our present religious beliefs and help us recognize that the god-force lives within all of us. One way is not better than another from this higher perspective. Especially concerning the Divine Feminine, which has been made irrelevant by the religions of the Book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It’s time for the Divine Feminine to reclaim her place as the consort of the God and the foundation of Life.

Jupiter sextiles Venus in Aquarius, opening up our network of friends and giving us opportunities to explore new relationships. With Venus in Aquarius opening up new paradigms of feminine power, we have to remember that while warrior women are needed (Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel can lead the way there) we also have to recognize that women’s power can come from other feminine talents: being a medial woman – a woman who can see through the veils to other dimensions and bring back wisdom and knowledge for the good of the group, being a mother, being a healer and being an artist. These energies will be easier to access once Venus moves into Pisces (March 26) and conjuncts Neptune (April 10). There are many ways to find our feminine power. Being a warrior isn’t the only way.

All things come from the Goddess, the great Shakti who is the energy of creation. The God’s energy bestows consciousness and self-awareness. Perhaps we are growing conscious enough to work on our Shadow nature and allow the true union of Hera/Juno and Zeus/Jupiter to show us how to be whole.

Mars starts the season in Taurus, trining the Capricorn stellium and sextiling the Cancer North Node, giving us the stamina to release ourselves from those stuck places through the power of the Great Mother Goddess of Life. Mars moves into Gemini on March 30^th - 31^st, so watch that you don’t get too scattered during April and May since Mars in Gemini is interested in everything. Mars squares Neptune in Pisces on April 27^th, a good day to stay focused.

The lineup of energies in Pisces – Neptune, Mercury retrograde and Vesta – get reflected by the discerning Virgo Moon. These three energies want to awaken us to our soul depths, to the memories of our ancient capacities. With Vesta, the priestess and keeper of the sacred fires of life, keeping us centered, we can work with Mercury and Neptune in the creative imagination to find our truth in the midst of the chaos and craziness of our times. Mercury conjuncts Neptune three times this Winter/Spring – February 19, March 24 & April 2 – due to its retrograde, which ends on March 28^th.

We’ve had an unusual Winter season without any retrogrades until Mercury went retrograde on March 6 – 28. Mercury finally ends its 2 ½ month visit to Pisces and enters Aries on April 17^th, raring to go with new ideas, imagination and ideals.

Once we hit April, 3 planets turn retrograde.

Jupiter turns retrograde at 25* Sagittarius to 15* Sagittarius on April 10^th until August 11^th.

Pluto turns retrograde at 24* Capricorn to 21* Capricorn on April 24^th until October 2^nd – 3^rd.

Saturn turns retrograde at 21* Capricorn to 14* Capricorn on April 29^th until September 18^th.

Full Moon at 1* Aries/Libra on March 20, 2019.

New Moon at 16* Aries on April 5, 2019.

Full Moon at 30* Aries/Libra on April 19, 2019.

Beltane – May 1-5, 2019 – next newsletter 

 

The Goddess of Spring: Ostara

Ostara, the Goddess of Dawn (Saxon), who was responsible for bringing spring each year, was feeling guilty about arriving so late – Mercury was retrograde you see. To make matters worse, she arrived to find a pitiful little bird who lay dying, his wings frozen by the snow. Lovingly, Ostara cradled the shivering creature and saved his life.

Legend has it that she then made him her pet or, in the X-rated versions, her lover. Filled with compassion for him since he could no longer fly because of his frost-damaged wings, the goddess Ostara turned him into a rabbit, a snow hare, and gave hime the name Lepus.

She also gave him the gift of being able to run with astonishing speed so he could easily evade all the hunters. To honor his earlier form as a bird, she also gave him the ability to lay eggs (in all the colors of the rainbow, no less), but he was only allowed to lay eggs on one day out of each year. 

 

Eventually Ostara lost her temper with Lepus (some say the raunchy rabbit was involved with another woman), and she flung him into the skies where he would remain for eternity as the constellation Lepus (The Hare), forever positioned under the feet of the constellation Orion the Hunter. 

 

But later, remembering all the good times they had once enjoyed, Ostara softened a bit and allowed the hare to return to earth once each year, but only to give away his eggs to the children attending the Ostara festivals that were held each spring.

Ostara, Eástre is the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning was easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the Christian’s God. Bonfires were lit at Easter to help welcome the Sun back on his journey north, and according to popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives three joyful leaps, dancing for joy.

With the return of Spring, new hope and life and light are born again in the world. While many of us have left behind our religions, we can’t leave behind the symbolic meaning of the seasons if we want to stay connected to life and its truth. So rejoice in the Springtime, and find meaning within and without. 

Ostara Blessing:

We hail the Goddess of Spring, of vibrancy, of stirring bounty, of the waking earth that readies Herself for the seed. We hail the Goddess of Sunshine, and cycles and changes, and all good and terrifying things. Bring fertility in our work of minds and hearts and hands. Bring blessings and the gift of hope’s manifestation. We hail the Goddess of Spring as Her bounty covers the land. Hail Ostara.

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

May the Blessings of Spring give birth to your new life!

Cathy

I’m still available for astrology readings, dream work and spiritual coaching. Email me at cathy@imaginecoachingservices.com to set up an appointment.

The Cosmic Story: Mercury Retrograde in Pisces 2019

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces & Uranus into Taurus

at the New Moon in Pisces:

Dreaming the Future into Being

It’s time to slow the Mind down. It’s time to stop listening to outside news and tune into the inner news. There’s a lot going on in there this month, so whose news would you rather tune into? Fox News or your news?

Mercury, the Messenger God and Psychopomp, is no longer in the Shallow. He’s into the deep end now. After navigating his way through the entire sign of Pisces, he’s decided to heed the call of Mother Ocean and turning, dives deep into his retrograde back through Pisces. There’s nothing shallow about our Mother Ocean so his journey will be deep, mysterious and perhaps dangerous, for Pisces is also the sign of the Collective Unconscious – the source of our collective longings and hopes, our fears and terrors. The Source that gave us birth.

I’m sure Mother Ocean has a lot to say to us. If we choose to listen.

Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac. And Mercury turns back in the very last degree of Pisces. The End of the End.

We are indeed at an End Time. The end of patriarchy, perhaps even the end of our civilization. Mother Earth is wounded and we humans get to choose if we kill her and us, or if we step up, as AOC says, and choose the transformational cost of a new Green Deal over the cost of war and pollution and unrelieved climate change.

The Sabian Symbol for this very last degree of the zodiac, 30* Pisces is: A majestic rock formation resembling a face is idealized by a child who makes it the ideal of greatness, and growing up, begins to look like it.

This message of potential transformation is clear. Nature’s amazing grace and beauty is our foundation and strength. Spirit is alive in Nature and her laws, and if we pattern ourselves after one of these archetypal principles of life, we transform ourselves and our world. We allow that archetypal value to live through us and in us.

This is the perfect message for us right now. With the Pisces New Moon occurring hours after the Great Awakener, Uranus, thunders into Taurus (when he was there for a few months last year, Hawaii’s Kilauea erupted for over a month), we get to plant the last seed of the 2018 astrological year with a bang.  Uranus in Taurus will bring up new lands and new manifestations of life.

We can plant the seeds of our imagination for a transformed life and a transformed world and Neptune, which is conjunct the Pisces Sun, will carry it into his watery realm to share with the dreams of not only humanity, but of Mother Earth herself for all her children. 

 

So find time Tuesday night or Wednesday to plant those seeds of hope and possibility. Worry is the negative use of the imagination, so don’t waste this precious New Moon gift on fear or worry. Be playful and use the imagination as it was created to be used – as a blueprint of possibilities and the workshop of the soul.

The best way we can work with the whole Mercury retrograde cycle this month is to decide on an archetypal principle or deity to meditate on, and use our creative imagination to develop a personal relationship with the energy we want to incarnate. With this kind of meditation, we’ll be exploring our own inner depths and discovering what is waiting to be unveiled and understood.

Pick an energy you want to incorporate into your life, such as courage or intelligence, beauty or love, discipline or artistry. Pick a Goddess or God image that incorporates that power. Or open up and see which energy wants to choose you. One Mercury retrograde cycle, Grandmother Spider came to me and taught me many things about myself for those three weeks of Mercury’s backward travel. So work with your image or symbol and do active imagination with this archetypal energy.

Saraswati

Perhaps you want to find backers for your project. Talk with the Hindu goddess Saraswati, the energy that flows into language and insight and sound. Perhaps you’re completing school and need to focus on studying – talk with Athena, goddess of strategic knowledge. Perhaps you want to do more of your inner work – talk with Vesta, the virgin priestess of flames, to inspire you to find your Self. Perhaps you need to let go of a relationship without the drama and pain – talk with Aphrodite, who after love-making goes to her bath to restore her virginity (she belongs to herself). Perhaps you need to defend your people – talk with Arthur or Lancelot about getting the Round Table to muster and help stand against injustice.

The Divine Feminine is the life-force behind all evolution and change, the ground of all being. The Divine Masculine is the source of consciousness and self-awareness. Just as Sophia is Divine Wisdom and Jesus is Christ-consciousness – knowing we are Spirit as well as flesh.

Every time we journey or do active imagination with our inner guides and goddesses and gods, we glean new information to help us with our lives. What better time to do it than during Mercury retrograde?

This year, all three of the Mercury retrogrades are in water signs. That means we’re dealing with our emotional bodies. How do we heal the trauma that’s being inflicted on the people, animals, plants and landscapes of the world? How do we heal ourselves (so we can heal the world)?

We heal ourselves through the play of the creative imagination. Not the stuck ‘daydreams’ of unfulfilled desires, but the moving, active creativity that fills our hearts and whets our appetites. The imagination is where creation begins – the quantum field of dreams that creates the vision that only needs to be filled with our passion and our intentions to manifest.

If we could dream a collective dream, what would it be? What about a peaceful world, where war is a distant memory and creativity and beauty are the norm? Where love comes into its own and is no longer bought and sold, or held in ransom to make sure it’s returned in full measure. Where men and women are equally valued and honored for their different gifts and their cooperative endeavors. Where the community is at the center of the Circle of Life rather than the economy? Where humans are once more part of Mother Nature’s biosphere, taking up our rightful place as stewards of this amazing planet.

That's my dream.  What's yours?

This amazingly fertile Mercury retrograde waits for you to dive in and renew yourself in the life-giving waters of the Anima Mundi—the World Soul.

Bring back your treasure!