The Cosmic Story: Eclipse Season, Fall 2021 -- Taurus Lunar Eclipse

The Cosmic Story: Eclipse Season Fall 2021

We’re entering eclipse season again, so get ready for some changes in your life. Eclipses represent portals of transformation and awakening, opening us to unknown parts of ourselves. Perhaps it’s time to cleanse and heal past life patterns that tested us to grow. Lunar eclipses often finish up old business. Eclipses sometimes bring fated events into our lives that help with the evolution and growth of our soul, especially if they contact any of our natal planets.

The lunar nodes are the two points in space where the planes of the Sun, Moon and Earth meet, causing eclipses. Metaphysically, the nodes show us the collective lessons we need to learn. The north node shows us our new direction in life, and the south node shows us what we have to release to move forward. 

 

Lunar Nodes
 

This week’s Lunar eclipse begins the move of the Moon’s nodes from Gemini/Sagittarius to Taurus/Scorpio. The Moon’s nodes shift signs backwards every 18+ months. We have one more eclipse in the Gemini/Sagittarius nodes with the solar eclipse in Sagittarius on December 4, 2021.

And then for the next 18 months or so, the eclipses will occur with the North Node in Taurus and the South Node in Scorpio. The last time the nodes were in Taurus/Scorpio was from July 2003 – December 2004. Think back to what you were doing then. The most potent contacts for this next set of eclipses will be for those of us who have planets in the fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.

Since May, 2020, the north node has been in Gemini and the south node in Sagittarius. We’ve been learning to release old beliefs (Sag) that no longer serve life and open up to new ideas and ways of thinking (Gemini). We’ve been releasing our limiting beliefs that hold us back, our old religious beliefs that no longer make sense to us, and our personal beliefs about who we are and what we’re here on Earth to do.

After two years of Covid, many of our old beliefs have failed us. The political unrest around the world is partially the result of no longer trusting those institutions that govern us, thanks to Pluto in Capricorn. It’s especially true for the U.S., because we are about to experience our country’s first Pluto return next February. A country’s Pluto return is often brings an end to either empire or their role in the world. We can see how America has lost her place as the world leader in many respects. We are in the same intense energies that were present before the American Revolution. (More on that in another newsletter next year.) By 2024 we’ll be ready for a new beginning when Pluto finishes up with Capricorn and moves through Aquarius until 2043.

Taurus - Scorpio Eclipses

This week’s lunar eclipse will be visible over North America overnight on November 18-19. This is a strong partial eclipse, with almost 97% of the Moon covered, leaving a thin sliver of light and a reddish tint to the Moon. Since the Moon is almost at its furthest (apogee) from the Earth, it’s also the longest lunar eclipse since 1440 C.E., lasting a few minutes over 6 hours. 

This Taurus Lunar Eclipse occur near the Pleiades, the star cluster that sits above the constellation of the Bull.  I had a dream back in 2007 about the Pleiades, which might symbolize a new dispensation -- meaning 'all will be well', even when things look darkest.

The Pleiades Star Cluster

You can read more about the astronomy of this eclipse at Earthsky.org:

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/partial-lunar-eclipse-november-19-2021/

In many ways, this long eclipse is perfect for slow-moving, grounded, methodical Taurus. Real change takes time!

 

In ancient times, the Taurus Bull symbolized wealth and power.  It represented what was of value, what was of worth. 

Symbolically, this eclipse deals our social and personal Values – our values (Taurus) as well as how we view and allow other people’s values (Scorpio). These two fixed signs – Fixed Earth/Taurus and Fixed Water/Scorpio – also deal with growth. Taurus wants us to grow into our physical world and Scorpio wants us to grow psychologically and emotionally, by releasing old fears and traumas. Neptune in Pisces, which is in a positive relationship to this Taurus/Scorpio eclipsed Full Moon, helps us grow spiritually.

So how do we grow into our lives and into our deaths? For new life to grow, something has to die away. This is the real crisis our world is facing now. Something has to die. The old way of life isn’t sustainable. If we continue on our present path, the people of the future are ‘f***ed’. The corporate powers of the world will continue to use people for their profits, with less and less resources to share. It looks like a slow death for the future.

Or we can change the system. Patriarchy and capitalism are values that inform our present social structures, and they are wearing out and breaking down. Like the death of the Queen in fairy tales, the emotional impetus behind these systems has drained away. It will be kinder to kill it now, rather than give it a lingering death. It’s already fighting to retain control, like the old god Saturn, who ate his own children rather than give up his power. It’s time to put these energies to bed.

We know we can do better. We have to do better on a global scale, because we now know that we are all connected. Instead of fighting over resources, we need to learn to share them. All parents know this is an important lesson for our children’s future growth. In developing new social systems, it’s possible that we can find our freedom and human potential through the downfall of capitalistic, dominator culture. I vote for freedom for all, with respect for all.

We have to let the old order – patriarchy – die away so a new order of real equality and freedom can grow, both here in the US and around the world. This might mean buying less ‘things’ (which we often don’t need and which makes billionaires of people.); living more sustainably with our food and fuel needs; being responsible for our community’s welfare as well as our personal welfare. Some people won’t like the word sacrifice, because they see it as ‘something is being taken away from them’. But we’ve forgotten that it originally meant ‘to make sacred’.

What are we willing to ‘make sacred’ again by sacrificing some of our expectations of life? Americans have so much comfort compared to other countries. But the price the world pays for our comfort is climate change, the rape of Mother Earth, the destruction of aboriginal peoples and ecosystems, continual war and competition, and unrestrained capitalism. These are the results of our comfort that we don’t think about.

Perhaps now is the time to start. Taurus will be asking us, ‘What is of value to you and your life?’ Scorpio will ask, ‘How long are we going to hold onto childhood’s traumas when the world needs us to grow up?’ Isn’t it exciting to be at the fore-front of shaping a new vision of life, of a new society? If we value the Earth and all her children, if we value our lives and our community’s lives, if we value the future lives of our children’s children, what do we have to do to make it happen?

To Make It So.

One day in the future, we will be a responsible species. I like to think that one day, Earth will be inhabited by grown -up human beings, very much like Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise. And his crew.

Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon Eclipse

Full Moons are emotionally intense because they show us what we need to see and drive us to take action on whatever issues are pressing for us. Eclipses add transformational energy and intensity to the mix. With this strong lunar eclipse in the fixed signs of Taurus and Scorpio, we might find ourselves struggling to make those changes, since fixed signs don’t like to change! But even things that are ‘fixed’ need an upgrade at some point. And with the length of this lunar eclipse, we have time to make those changes stick.

With Uranus in Taurus, though, we can expect the unexpected during the next 18 months as the nodes travel backwards through Taurus. Uranus is awakening us to the needs of Mother Earth, as well as to her creative genius. Hopefully, we’ll start to look to Her to understand how we are part of Her biosphere, and come up with solutions and practical applications to climate change, how we produce our food and energy, and how we can reclaim our place as stewards of this amazing, beautiful, bountiful and wounded planet.

The Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon eclipse occurs on Thursday night November 18 at exactly12:57 am PST through Friday morning November 19 at 3:57am EST. Of course the eclipse will start earlier and end later than exactitude.

 

 

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 28* Taurus is: A post-menopausal woman experiences a new love. I would call this image a Crone (the crown of womanhood) finds new love. In the past, there were never this many post-menopausal woman alive and well in society. This is the time for the wise women and grandmothers to step forward and help the world. Women set the feeling tone for a society, for the feminine part of our nature receives the new information and gestates it. This new beginning will have a more mature response to the new opportunities to experience life. (this goes along with the upcoming Venus retrograde in Capricorn – initiating a new council of Grandmothers to help guide the world. More next month.)

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 28* Scorpio is: The King of the Faeries approaching his domain. While Faerie also has a reigning Queen, the King is charged with protecting the land, while the Queen brings it fertility and new life. While the Moon’s symbol calls on wise women to step into their power in the world, this image asks for grown-up, responsible men to step into their power as well. It’s time for men to accept their own magic.

And so we’re back to the Values we hold. Is life and the Earth’s vitality worth our sacrifice? The King of Faerie protects the natural world, both its health and its beauty. We are being asked to wake up from our ‘sugar-high’ of modern culture and figure out what’s important enough to protect and defend.

Jupiter in Aquarius forms a T-Square to this Full Moon, blowing things out of proportion if we’re not careful. But it’s also a great time to expand our community as we get clear about who and what we value, and help support each other. While a lunar eclipse can be excessively emotional on its own, the Sabian symbol of an older wise woman brings an emotional balance to this energy. And when the Faerie King sees any darkness in his domain, he is responsible for cleansing it and healing any wounds that were caused by it.

With Venus, the ruler of Taurus, in Capricorn, in a very tight trine with Uranus_rx in Taurus, we might be surprised by how well things turn out if we’ve done our work. Although with Uranus closing in on its 3^rd and final square (February 17^th, June 14^th and December 24^th) with Saturn in Aquarius on Christmas Eve, if you need a wake-up call, you’ll get it. Because Mars joins in the fun between these two opposing forces (old vs new) with its dynamic energy. Something is definitely cooking. What happens will all depend on how you meet it. Don’t fight it. Change is happening. Dance with Venus and bring in the new.

When Venus goes retrograde from December 19, 2021 to January 28, 2022, she comes between Earth and the Sun, disappearing from the Evening sky only to re-appear about 14 days later as a Morning Star. Venus will stay in Capricorn from November 5, 2021 to March 6, 2022, going into Aquarius and meeting up with Mars at 1* Aquarius – the degree of 2020’s Jupiter/Saturn conjunction. Things might start moving then as we spread the wisdom of the heart throughout our ‘innernet’ of souls.

Venus’ retrograde in Capricorn might signal a shift from patriarchal top-down rules to a Council of Grandmothers, who gather to help each other and their communities. That is, if we women do it – mentor young people, help young families, volunteer for our causes, go to Town Council or School Committee meetings that are being disrupted by dissenters. We can be a good counter-balance to them, offering a different vision than the one of two opposing sides out to kill each other, which some Americans seem to revel in. Maybe it’s time to give our communities our wisdom, vision and commitment to help all of us make a better future together.

Venus reminds us that we need to stay connected to our hearts, which connect us to the cosmos. We do have a spiritual mission. Especially women. The Feminine aspects of life must be given an equal respect and value as that which we give the masculine technological aspects of society. Uranus is the sword of Truth, which wakes us up. Venus in Capricorn sees what is necessary for the life of her people and makes sure that the Truth is heard.

Two other creative aspects help make this lunar eclipse powerful. Mars in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn work together to create effective change, while the Scorpio Sun gets support for its transformation from Saturn in Aquarius, who is creating the thought-forms and principles that will eventually manifest a new society.

It’s pretty exciting, if you forget to be afraid. We are the grandparents of the future. But it’s not only the Elders who have a role to play. People on a mission to achieve their goals will be the change-makers. It’s like the kids protesting at the Glasgow climate conference. They know what is at stake. Their future. And so they aren’t afraid to confront power with truth. Can we do any less?

Change is still the fuel that will take us into the next year. Prepare yourselves!

Blessings and peace to all of us

Cathy

 

To honor the last months of the North Node in Gemini – the Power of Words!

 

 

Let's Remake The World

Let's remake the world with words.
Not frivolously, nor
To hide from what we fear,
But with a purpose.

Let's,
As Wordsworth said, remove
"The dust of custom" so things
Shine again, each object arrayed
In its robe of original light.

And then we'll see the world
As if for the first time.
As once we gazed at the beloved
Who was gazing at us.

~ Gregory Orr ~

(Concerning The Book That Is the Body Of The Beloved)

Eris: Dark Goddess of the Heart

Eris: The Dark Goddess of the Heart

 

 

Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus sums up the contribution made by Eris:

"The unlike is joined together,

and from the differences results the most beautiful harmony,

and all things take place by strife."

A lot of astrologers today are referring to the dwarf planet Eris as a fierce warrioress who brings about disruption and contention as she stirs things up like a trickster goddess. This is partly true.

Eris, the goddess of discord, is a warrioress. She causes discord in people who do not listen to their hearts. Dis – against; cord – heart = Going against the heart.

When we don’t act on our true desires, when we go against our heart’s longing, our energy gets discordant and distorted; then we attract people that will resonant with that distortion. That’s when we make bad decisions for ourselves and create all sorts of strife and conflict in our lives.

That’s what was happening in patriarchy when this story was written. These ancient Aryan warriors weren’t interested in ‘feeling’ what they were feeling – they’d rather fight and kill and rape and pillage than admit to their feelings or their need for love. They went with the power, wealth and glory.

Patriarchy still doesn’t want to deal with the feminine, feeling side of life. That’s why American society is raging with discord. People are listening to fear rather than to love. That’s the way patriarchy works. Fear god, fear death, fear the Other.

Eris’ discord and strife came from patriarchy’s inability to abide by the laws of the heart. 

 

 The Judgment of Paris 

When Eris threw the golden apple that said, “for the fairest’ into the wedding party, she was testing and initiating them to change their consciousness. The context was a wedding; to be precise, an unwilling wedding on the part of the bride, Thetis. So the story is about relationships – especially the marriage relationship.

Eris was challenging those patriarchal men to answer to the truth of love. Are you marrying for power, wealth or love? The gods wouldn’t choose, so they asked a young human male, (a shepherd who was of the Earth) who he would pick. Of course he picked love and beauty rather than power, wealth or glory.

But this new and emerging patriarchy would not agree to hold love as a supreme value in their society. They believed domination, control and cruelty were the values that mattered. They chose to go to war, kill their own children, abandon their spouses and waste 10 years of their lives rather than value and honor love. (Which might have been an important social value in matriarchy.)

But have you ever wondered why Eris did this. In many fairy tales, patriarchy doesn’t invite the dark feminine to the party. She comes anyway but brings a curse instead of a blessing. 

 

 

Did those patriarchal men in Homer’s story see women like Eris who make a stand as conniving and contentious? Or is Eris a patriarchal parody of a more ancient, matriarchal value? I have to think she is because I am hearing echos of parody when I hear some astrologers talking about the 3 Great Goddesses in the story as silly, air-headed women who just have to win this beauty contest. This is patriarchy’s way of denigrating the real archetypal energies they symbolize.

Hera was originally a Full Moon goddess called the Perfect One, the energy of self-reflection and growing self-knowledge. Athena was the patriarchal version of feminine wisdom (her mother, Metis, goddess of wisdom, was swallowed by Zeus, who gave birth to Athena), who came to represent the energy of strategizing and planning, rather than innate life wisdom. And Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, was the goddess of connection, love, wisdom and the body’s mysteries and pleasures. These feminine gifts are due our respect.

If we want to leave our patriarchal thinking behind, we have to see that this part of Homer’s story is deadly serious. (Well obviously. It starts the whole war!)

Eris comes and issues a challenge. The Aryan gods decline it, pushing it off on a human man. When that man chooses love over power and glory, the gods and their human counterparts go to war.

They Chose Discord.

I like to imagine that this story was a challenge by the matriarchal culture that these Aryans overran; a challenge to figure out to how to get along in a marriage between a man and woman, while on a social level, how to integrate and merge two different cultures and two different sets of values. Merged as equals. Married as equal partners. It didn’t happen.

We haven’t answered this challenge yet. Isn’t it time we did?

The Cosmic Storyteller: Samhain, the Day of the Dead & Aries Full Moon 2021

 

Samhain 2021 & October 20th’s Aries Full Moon

What needs to die so we can create something new?

 

 

Samhain/Halloween 2021

Although most of the leaves here in southern Rhode Island are still green and the temperatures have been in the 70s until today, Autumn is definitely here in New England. And believe it or not, in two weeks we once again turn the Wheel of the Year to Samhain – the days of the Dead.

While we celebrate Samhain on October 31^st – November 1^st, astrologically it has moved to November 7^th, when the Sun is at 15* Scorpio, the power gate of Scorpio. So the whole week is a celebration of the Day of the Dead, All Saint’s Day, All Souls Day and Samhain. The Sabian symbol for 15* Scorpio is about developing the higher mental ability to imagine future-oriented growth.  That includes beyond death!

As the light grows dimmer here in the North, the days of springtime are arriving down South. And they’re celebrating Beltane instead of Samhain and letting the Faerie Folk come visit through the veil to bring fertility back to the land.

Here in the North, the veil thins and Herne the Hunter with his pack of belling hounds will give chase across the sky as the souls of this year’s departed are gathered so they can cross through the veil of Death.

 

The Wild Hunt

As we face the death of the year, and all the deaths after the last two years, death is very much on our minds. This is the seat of people's deepest fears. The truth is most people are afraid of death. Even if you don’t subscribe to a religious belief anymore, those beliefs are rooted in the DNA we inherited from our ancestors. And they were told to be afraid of Death!

Since Covid, death has become a conscious companion, one most people want to ignore until the last moment. Sort of how we are ignoring the environmental crisis until the very last minute. But don Juan’s advise to Carlos Castaneda, ‘Take death as your advisor’ is an idea that helps us make the right decisions for our lives.

Samhain is a great time to reflect on our beliefs about death as we enter the season of death. Astrologically, we are approaching the end of a 20-month cycle of lunar nodes in Gemini/Sagittarius which has pointed us in the direction of examining our beliefs, shedding those limiting beliefs that no longer serve life.  This leaves us open to new ideas and new beliefs.

During these last few month of this lunar node cycle, we are challenged to face our beliefs about death, during the time of greatest darkness here in the North. The other astrological indicator forcing us to face our fears is the big aspect of 2021 – the Saturn square to Uranus. This is a challenge of old vs new. Saturn is the archetype of 3D reality while Uranus opens us to unseen alternative realities. Saturn represents fear while Uranus symbolize freedom and awakening.

So what do we have to awaken to that will diminish the fear everyone is feeling?

We can begin by examining our relationship to death and to change. For our fear is not only about our physical death but also about the death of old societal structures that no longer serve the common good.

What are our beliefs about Death? Lets quickly explore what the majority of people in the world believe about death. While this certainly doesn’t represent everyone’s beliefs, these beliefs form a collective cellular memory that is lodged in the Collective Unconscious/World Soul and our individual DNA.

 

Christianity has affected so much of the world. And its teaching about death is cruel. (And so opposed to what Jesus’ death proclaimed – that death is nothing to fear because the soul lives on.) Christianity has taught that we are sinners and so most probably we’ll go to either Hell or Purgatory when we die. Which basically means, we are bound to burn in a fiery place – either for a while or for eternity. Not many people make it to Heaven, so can you blame people for not wanting to die? Death is pain and suffering, and we get enough of that here in this world.

So we could say, the fear of death comes from an old belief that sits in our unconscious and rules our emotions around death. It’s so telling that our patriarchal religions teach this fear of death and yet patriarchy has killed millions of people through the last 5000 years of its power. Patriarchy has caught us up in a paradox: with its fear of death it creates more death through domination and control. It seems that patriarchy has become a death culture since it’s killing a lot of people, animals and plants as its’ poisons – ideas, chemicals, wars – kill Mother Earth and her children.

 

Hell

 

Judaism is much kinder. It believes in an afterlife where you re-connect with loved ones. But you don’t necessarily stay in ‘heaven’ – you come back in a body again when the Messiah comes and reigns on Earth. So you might have to wait awhile to come back.

In Islam, people are commanded to follow Allah’s laws and will be judged after death on their behavior during a life of trials. Then they will be sent to either paradise or hell depending on their good or bad behavior during life. Another fiery ending depending on what kind of life you’ve lived.

 

Reincarnation

I don’t know a lot about individual Eastern beliefs, but many eastern religions believe in Reincarnation, giving people the responsibility to do good, so their future lives are good. Many Native American tribes believed in Reincarnation and so were not afraid of death. A Lakota Sioux prayer ended with the phrase, ‘It is a good day to die’ showing a warrior’s determination to give his life for a good cause.

And the Celtic people were not afraid of death, believing in the transmigration of souls or reincarnation. There are hints of the idea of reincarnation in early Christianity (the Gnostics) and the New Testament, but once the Roman empire became entangled with the Church, it denied this belief so the authorities/ patriarchs could better control people who thought this life was their only lifetime to achieve salvation. (btw, what kind of god creates bad children?)

 

The Wheel of the Year

As we see from the Wheel of the Year, Mother Earth has lessons about life to teach us. She teaches us that both life and death are a natural part of the life cycle, and so death is not to be feared. When people die, their souls survive and move through other worlds, choosing to reincarnate here or perhaps in another world. Just as the trees lose their leaves in Autumn and grow them again in Spring, so does each soul incarnate to live out its own unique experience. When our life is over, our souls reflect on lessons learned and purposes fulfilled. We meet with our fellow souls, reuniting with loved ones.

This belief that death is just another aspect of life implies that we need to give Death the respect it is due. We honor our dead by remembering and celebrating their lives.

The Gemini/Sagittarius lunar nodes invited us to let go of old beliefs, so we could find some new ones to base our lives on. Have you done that these past few years?

A new belief could be that death is a birth into a new life of greater consciousness, one in which our Soul remembers who it is and why it came to Earth. A place of peace and rest and learning. A paradise? Maybe.

 

Ancestral Healing Spirits

 

This Samhain we have many, many souls to mourn and celebrate and send on their way through the veils. Beloved family and friends – my older brother Brad, who died of complications from Covid, was a warm, kind, charismatic man who died before we wanted to let him go. A beautiful, sweet troubled young woman who was too sensitive for this world. And so many others.

There are also millions of souls who have died from Covid, war, famine and other cruelties of our capitalistic, militaristic world that we don’t know personally. There are also the billions of species – plants and animals – who have died because of human caused climate change in fires, floods, heat, cold and extreme weather.

We are all connected, and as so many humans and other species die, we are left with holes in our web of connection. When we create rituals to honor Earth’s seasons, we can consciously repair those holes. So this Samhain, let your light shine out into the growing darkness and let’s begin to repair those broken connections with others who have suffered loss.

 

Ancestor Spirits

Samhain is also a great time to connect with the Ancestors – both our personal ones and those parts of our soul which have knowledge from other lifetimes. This wisdom can help patch those holes and make us stronger.

Use this next season, from Samhain to Winter Solstice and the rebirth of the Light, to think about what beliefs and ideals no longer serve you. And then let them go with gratitude for what they gave you in the past. It’s time to make some changes.

Women are better at releasing and changing because our bodies do it every month during our fertile years. So we women are especially being called to help people and souls release themselves from energies that no longer serve us.

The Divine Feminine always emerges to birth new life, a new epoch, a new world.

Aries/Libra Full Moon: October 20, 2021

'Only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life.'

Carl G. Jung

With the arrival of Samhain, the dying of the light before its rebirth, we begin to shed our old skins. To go into the darkness and wait for the mystery to manifest.

But this week’s Aries Full Moon is a call to begin to put ourselves out into the world in new ways. A new beginning and an ending. A paradox.

What makes this Aries/Libra Full Moon so potent is its connection to Pluto in Capricorn and Eris in Aries. Both these dwarf planets stand for transformation – Pluto, the transformation of society and Eris, the more intimate transformation that calls us to stand up and follow our hearts.

The Aries Moon is conjunct Eris, the warrioress who causes discord if we refuse to follow our hearts. This Aries Full Moon demands action, since Aries, as the initial impulsive fire of life, wants to move and shake things up. Aries is the energy of new beginnings (once again the paradox of endings and beginnings). It can push us to make necessary changes in our lives, or it can make us impulsive and angry. If you make conscious choices now about what you want the future to look like, this Full Moon can help you begin to bring your intentions into reality. (Although be patient!  The new world isn't here for a few more years. This is the time to test and hone your skills.)

With the Sun in Libra opposite this Aries Full Moon, we reach a culmination and fulfillment of those seeds we planted at the October 6^th New Moon at 13*25’ Libra. That same day, Pluto turned direct and is now heading to its own American Pluto return on February 20, 2022. (2.20.2022) This Full Moon squares Pluto in Capricorn, ensuring that we take into consideration the big cultural changes that Pluto in Capricorn has engendered since 2008. 

 

The Balance of Feminine & Masculine Energies

The Libra Sun concerns the Other, how we relate to other people in a fair and balanced way.  We often say Libra is about our relationships -- and it is.  But it's about more than romantic relationships.  Libra is the lesson that teaches us how to treat another person or the world in a respectful way.  With Aries Moon concerned with our own self-identity, this Full Moon each year always has us readjusting our relationships - I/Thou relationship. This year is especially intense since Mars joins the Libra Sun while Eris joins the Aries Moon. Our instinctual response (the Moon) is shaped by the intensity of Eris to do the right thing for our hearts, while Mars is challenged to act on that inner knowing.

Mars joined the Libra Sun a few days after the Libra New Moon and while the Sun is moving away from Mars, it is still energetically connected to the planet of action, desire, will and courage. And Mars ‘rules’ the Aries Moon, so our need to make things happen is tempered by a more balanced Mars. Hopefully, it's energy can make us more aware of other people’s needs, and give us the ability to balance our needs with those of the Other.

Both Mercury and Jupiter turned direct on October 18^th, so their energy is strong as they slow down and change direction. Jupiter forms good aspects to this Full Moon, encouraging visions and possibilities of future connections (Aquarius).

Mercury in Libra is opened to opportunities to see our heart’s truth by Venus, the ruler of Libra, who is in Sagittarius now. These two planets form a YOD with Uranus in Taurus, another Venus-ruled sign. Yods are called ‘the finger of God’ or ‘the sword in the stone’. It is an aspect of powerful adjustments. I read this YOD as a commitment to listen to the Earth and our body (Uranus in Taurus) to find our truth (Venus in Sagittarius) and to communicate (Mercury in Libra) it to the people we are in relationship with.  

 Another way to say this is:  Are we willing to make the necessary 'adjustments' to change our value systems?  Taurus is the sign where we determine what we find valuable as well as what our VALUES are.  Uranus in Taurus wakes us up to the truth that if we want to heal the planet and heal ourselves, we have to re-connect to Mother Earth's biosphere and live by her values.  The plants and animals are our teachers for these lessons.  Our body transmits our electromagnetic field to the rest of nature. Uranus says 'your body is your tuning fork'.   

So this Aries Full Moon is a new beginning, an opening for us to change our ways and do things differently. Then we can spend the Samhain season figuring out what needs to be shed, laying the dead to rest so that new life can emerge for ourselves and our society.

I just listened to an interesting talk by the German astrologer, Alexander von Schlieffen, on the astrology of the next few years until 2026. We’re definitely not out of the woods yet, but in these coming years, the outer planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – will be revising and reworking our society. Hopefully we’ll each have a part to play, if only to bring down the corporate control of our world by turning away from conspicuous consumption for a simpler, peaceful, more creative life. When people have time to be creative, they do not turn to useless entertainment to fill their time.

“The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes.” Friedrich Nietzsche.

 

So, let us release what no longer serves a fuller, deeper, more creative life.

Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet Again!

Cathy

 

 

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry ~

(The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry)