SCORPIO NEW MOON: Wishing Well

This month the Sun and Moon conjoin in the heart of Scorpio.  The sign of Scorpio has been a celestial center stage recently, with the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter transiting the sign.  Scorpio is also host to two current retrograde cycles--Mercury who will move back into the sign as he retrogrades from his current abode in Sagittarius, and Venus, currently in Libra, who will retrace her steps through the sign after she turns direct.   

Marianne Williamson famously said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”  This quote speaks to the nature of Scorpio.  The sign of Scorpio rules death, sex, and shared resources.  These subjects are rife with the dynamics of power and are potential tools for manipulation.  It is no wonder this sign carries a loaded social stigma!  Ruled by Mars, the planet of raw energy, and Pluto, the planet of transformation, when properly focused, Scorpio is indomitable.  This archetype connects us to our primal urges, our sexual vitality, and our subconscious desires.  It serves to remind us of the mandate of our incarnation.  It contains the remnants of the rituals of socialization that existed before the pressure of civilization coerced the individual to keep a lid on their creative cauldron.

The energy of Scorpio plunges us into the depths of our self-identity as social interactions challenge our commitment to our values.  It is in the proper channeling of the power of our personal energy that we discover our magic.  Magic is earthly art, a manipulation of the material realm.  Magic involves harnessing one’s personal will power to engage with the natural forces that conspire to create form.  Being of the incarnate realm, magic is bound by the laws of cause and effect, and requires self-mastery to avoid its pitfalls.  

Thus we encounter the secretive quality of Scorpio.  In many ways, the magic of Scorpio was forced into hiding, as social expectations shifted and turned towards subjugating the power of the felt-sense in favor of logic.  In other ways, this hidden nature is a chosen condition.  All matter is energy, and energy is characterized by its vibration.  For human beings, sound is the most direct way to manipulate energy.  For this reason, Scorpio’s power is in its silence, for Scorpio understands to speak idle thoughts is to dilute the magical power inherent in one’s voice.  Being ruled by assertive Mars, Scorpio favors direct action, but is not of an impulsive nature like the Fire sign Aries, the other sign ruled by Mars.  As the Fixed Water sign, Scorpio instead pools its strength, and like its symbol the Scorpion, waits for the right moment to strike.

The Water element is particularly strong this new moon, and we may find ourselves sinking deep into our own inner well with the darkening of the Moon.  A Grand Water Trine has been uniting the latter degrees of the three water signs in harmonious connection--Chiron in Pisces, Jupiter in Scorpio, and the North Node which has recently entered Cancer.  This arrangement reveals connections of deep wounds (Chiron), faith (Jupiter), and destiny (North Node).  Meanwhile, the new moon itself makes a trine to Neptune, the mythological ruler of the sea, in the oceanic sign of Pisces.  The modern ruler of Pisces, Neptune connects us to the Cosmic Heart of our spiritual source.  As the traditional ruler of Pisces, Jupiter imparts the optimistic nature of faith.  The day following the new moon, the Moon meets Jupiter on the threshold of Sagittarius, making the new moon the last major astrological event in which Jupiter remains in Scorpio.

This new moon, examine the balance of power in your relationships.  What relationships, emotional, financial or otherwise, drain your energy and deplete your magic?  Conversely, what fills your well?  Consider what debts need to be repaid, and what your investments have yielded.  Don’t be afraid to cut your losses.  Even when we find ourselves on the losing end of a bargain, we may still find value in the lesson of the experience.  Before he leaves the sign, take this new moon to channel the optimism of Jupiter, and carry with you the faith that in every death is a rebirth.  Your power is beyond measure. Tap the deep well of your heart-space, be honest about your desires, and speak your wish.

VIRGO NEW MOON: Tending the Fire Within

This month’s marriage of Sun and Moon has an active set of celestial aspects in attendance.  Conjoining in the center of the sign of Virgo, this new moon creates a harmonious aspect pattern with expansive Jupiter and incisive Pluto, while opposing idealistic Neptune.  All in Water and Earth signs, in this planetary combination we are presented with a primordial clay, the mud upon which we may mold our manifestation.  

Meanwhile, Venus, Mars, and Uranus are tangled up in a T-square aspect, suggesting our relationships may be subjected to unexpected strain.  With Venus exiting diplomatic Libra and on the precipice of passionate Scorpio, this tension has the potential to initiate us into deeper levels of understanding by dismantling the ways we disguise our true desires while conducting our affairs.  

With Saturn in trine to Uranus, only Mercury, the planetary ruler of this moon, is involved in no major aspects.  Having recently entered Virgo, Mercury carries with it the energy of the Grand Earth Trine it formed with Saturn and Uranus in the days before the new moon.  However, Mercury’s unaspected status at the time of the new moon indicates the necessity of claiming our own agency despite pressures from without, whether good or ill intentioned, that encourage us to deviate from our path.

Well armed with keen discernment, the healthy Virgo expression is well poised to deflect detrimental influences.  Virgo, as the archetypal vessel, is the sign of self-containment.  She is the keeper of the hearth, she who tends the sacred fire that is Life itself.  In dedicating herself as servant of the Divine, she becomes channel to it.  This dynamic is indicated by Virgo’s opposition with Pisces, the sign closest to our spiritual source, and its rulership by Mercury, planet of communication.  

This new moon is opposed by Neptune, accentuating its Piscean character.  The grounded and orderly manner of Virgo is challenged by the impressionable and quixotic demeanor of Pisces.  Find your footing by applying the healthiest qualities of one sign to the other this new moon. 

Virgo corresponds to the sixth house of personal responsibility and daily duties.  In keeping the hearth alive, Virgo creates a warm room in which to gather and connect, hot food to nourish and grow, and light by which to read and learn.  Virgo’s motto is I serve, or by other traditions, I analyze, a reflection of its rulership by inquisitive Mercury.

Pisces corresponds to the twelfth house of spirituality and self-sacrifice.  Pisces and its planetary ruler, Neptune, are both closely linked to the oceanic realms and the watery depths of dreamtime.  The motto of Pisces is I believe.

This is an excellent moon cycle to commit to creating a dream journal.  The medium of dreams is a symbolic one, a set of signals from our deeper subconscious whose messages can be integrated through conscious interpretation.  By writing down our dreams, we pass the information from the right hemisphere of the brain associated with imagery to the left hemisphere associated with language, integrated through the body as the hand writes, and manifested into an objective form.  When we believe and invest in our dreams, they yield pertinent information for us to analyze for our own self-improvement.

This is one of many daily rituals you may consider initiating this new moon, in service to your personal connection with spirit.  The practice of prayer is another expression of a healthy Virgo/Pisces balance.  By bringing a conscious form to expressions of faith, we create a vessel through which to channel intention into manifestation.  Assess the state of your spiritual hygiene, and attend to your mundane responsibilities knowing that by doing so, you are tending the creative fire within.  Take this moon cycle to experiment with simple daily practices with the aim to purify mind, body, and spirit.  

LEO SOLAR ECLIPSE: KNOW YOUR HEART

The final eclipse of this rare triple eclipse season occurs this week.  As a new moon, this is a partial solar eclipse in Leo, about ten degrees away from where the Sun and Moon conjoined for total solar eclipse of August 2017.  It is one of the final installments of the Leo-Aquarius eclipse cycle.*  The lessons that have been stirred up over the last couple years are now re-settling.  Some things will need to be released, others will need to find root.  We complete the eclipse cycle within ourselves by finding our personal dynamic balance of the archetypes, not only within the context of Leo-Aquarius, but more fundamentally within the meeting of Sun and Shadow.  The former refers to our intentional awareness, while the latter refers to our subconscious sentiments.

The polarity of light and dark is a fundamental metaphorical motif within our culture.  Contemporary Western civilization is strongly solar-oriented.  This is reflected in its mythology, which consistently uses “light” to represent that which is “good,” thus defaulting “dark” to symbolize that which is “bad.”  Hence, when we peruse our history, we find eclipses, times when either the Sun or Moon “goes dark,” are written of with fear and foreboding.  The simplicity of such binary thinking met a major disruption in the work of Carl Jung, whose work dove deep into the psychological nature of the “shadow.”  He wrote, “Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the shadow and the world of darkness.  One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”**  Carl Jung delved into the realms of repression, and revealed that our self-sabotaging behaviors result from this “shadow”--the bits of our selves that we have consciously disowned.  Without our care and attention, these bits begin to take on a life of their own, finding expression despite our best attempts to silence them.  “Shadow work” involves re-integrating these bits in a healthy way.  Doing so requires that we humble ourselves to our own internal darkness and discover our self-compassion.

The astrological axis of the eclipses indicates the themes emerging from the shadow.  The Leo-Aquarius axis represents the polarity of Self and Collective, Creative Self Expression and Radical Social Justice, Youthful Determination and Aged Wisdom.  While these archetypes exist as opposites, that does not mean they are enemies.  Rather, polar signs are best expressed as complements.  When in healthy balance, the youthful exuberance of Leo is guided by the social experience of Aquarius.  The Leonine drive towards self-expression is given purpose in the context of the Aquarian concept of the collective good.  The subject matter of the shadow material arising from the eclipses of the last couple years has included finding balance between one’s pride and one’s knowledge, the centering of the heart-felt amidst increasing technological diffusion, and the celebration of the creative individual within a stratified social structure.

There will be one final eclipse in Leo before the eclipse axis fully realigns itself to the Cancer-Capricorn polarity at the start of 2019.  The celestial movements are sometimes haunting in their poetry.   As the Sun and Moon meet in Leo this week, Mars will be at zero degrees Aquarius, on the precipice of Capricorn.  In this same degree the total lunar eclipse on Jan 21, 2019.  All lunar eclipses are full moons, and all full moons are phases of completion.  All solar eclipses are new moons, and all new moons are the still-points preceding initiation.  This is the start of the final chapter, the beginning of the end of the Leo-Aquarius eclipse cycle, which will not be revisited until 2026.  

How fitting then, to have so many planets in retrograde motion!  A planet in retrograde appears to reverse its movement across our sky.  Likewise, its energetic movement “reverses,” focusing inward instead of outward, much akin to the shadow nature of the eclipse period, which draws our focus from the conscious drive to the subconscious desires.  This is the time to internally integrate the experiences gained through the Leo-Aquarius eclipse cycle that began in February 2017.  This phase of integration brings the lessons from mind to body, to prepare our intentions to move from vision towards manifestation.  

Earlier in the week, Uranus moves retrograde, bringing the total number of retrograde planets to six.  As there are only ten astrological “planets,” of which only eight move retrograde, the scales are heavily tipped towards this inward flow.  All told, Mercury (mind, commerce, and communication), Mars (energy, assertion, conflict), Saturn (structure, boundaries, discipline), Uranus (unpredictability), Neptune (spirituality), and Pluto (power) are retrograde.  Stamina may be low (Mars), communications interrupted (Mercury), and progress may dwindle (Saturn).  Take a celestial perspective to recognize these movements outside of your own personal context.  These stutters in the plan are not signs of individual failure.  Success in shadow work is not measure by height, but by depth.  If you feel you have plateaued, look more closely at what is already here with you.  Oftentimes when we are unable to move forward it is a signal to look within and recognize what internal resources we possess, but have not yet learned to harness (Pluto).  Have faith that you are enough (Neptune).  If you feel you are lacking, dig deeper into what unexpected treasures (Uranus) remain hidden in your shadow.  Apart from the retrogrades, this week Venus moves from Virgo into Libra, helping to alleviate the anxious heart.  Jupiter, the planet of luck and vision, meanwhile sits in Scorpio, the sign most associated with the “shadow.”  Here, Jupiter provides a torch to help us navigate these hidden realms.

If everything feels it is falling apart, take comfort in the knowledge that this is a false perception.  You control the narrative of your own life.  The more awareness we bring to our shadow, the less we trip over our own feet as we walk our path, but never will we be free from obstacle or injury.  Although we are exiting this eclipse period, remember the Shadow remains as long as the Sun is shining--the two are inextricable parts of a unified whole.  “Light” and “dark” exist independent of our morality, yet how we choose to consciously engage, integrate, and balance the two, determines what is “good” or “bad.”  Take the lesson from the Lion that is Leo--move forward with the confidence that comes with knowing one’s own heart.  Take the lesson from the Star that is Aquarius--plant the seed of your intention, but let the light overhead, not the ego within, signal when it is time to sprout.  Leo-Aquarius inspires the radical reinvention of self.  Integrate the shadow to show up more fully as you are--the world needs your light!

*For further reading on the Leo-Aquarius eclipse cycle, see:
Full Moon: Lunar Eclipse in Leo
Leo New Moon: Light of Liberation
Leo Solar Eclipse: Forging a New Way of Being

**From Carl Jung's essay, The Philosophical Tree