New Moon Gemini 2018
Exact June 13 @ 12:43pm PDT

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Hello, New Moon in Gemini. You feel so fun to me. Light. Not drenched in sorrow. Curious. Yes.

It’s true that this New Moon exists largely unaffected by the other planets — if we can ever see anything as unaffected by anything else. OH, but that’s such a philosophical statement! More the realms of Gemini’s polarity, Sagittarius. Where Sagittarius has synthesized and arrived at wisdom and truth, Gemini is learning. Mapping. Skimming the surface with excitement for the diversities of the human experience and the ways those experiences shape the mind and consciousness.

This New Moon might not be linked in to other planetary alignments in any major way, but the lunar cycle itself, from its mostly unaspected start to its very consequential finish with a solar eclipse at the next New Moon (which happens July 12 in Cancer) contains multitudes, including:

• Planets switching signs, including the Sun’s ingress into Cancer, otherwise known as Summer Solstice;
• Neptune stationing retrograde
• the beginning of Mars retrograde happening on June 26, which will challenge us to own our desires and the power we give them in light of what’s going on with the collective — a journey into our path of becoming who we’re meant to be while dealing with the anger and frustration that can come from not feeling seen;
• several key oppositions that give us the opportunity — or perhaps force us — to seek balance and integration…

Summer is looking like it has the potential for some turbulence. So how do we use this New Moon as a staging ground for that potentiality?

Gemini is constantly mapping experience. We’ve come through the courage and impulse to exist, to be born (that’s Aries); we’ve established what our resources are, whether or not we’re safe to exist, and how to be self-reliant (that’s Taurus). And now? Conscious awareness emerges. We start to understand categories. Colors. Sounds. Shapes. We begin to link our perceptions and thoughts together to form speech. In Gemini our eyes are open to those multitudes, and we want to learn all about every single thing.

The thing is that you, too, contain multitudes. This is an important thing to remember. Your inner world is vast and worthy of exploration — and is in fact a microcosm of the macrocosm (well, hello as above, so below!). At the New Moon, you can simply choose to learn a little more about your inner world and how it is reflected in your outer world and vice versa. There’s an option for you there.

But let’s take that up a notch. Gemini is also associated with communication. With the love of speaking about what we discover, labeling our experience. It’s associated with storytelling. Our personal narratives, and the predominant mythologies of our culture help us to orient to our experience. They help us to form a solid ego identity through Cancer and Leo, the preceding signs of the zodiac.

So this lunar cycle can be a fantastic opportunity to let go of the narratives and stories that aren’t servicing you anymore, and to perhaps play around with new ones. Or just play around with storytelling in general, with an eye to the fact that sometimes Gemini is also associated with lies and deceit. The lies we tell others, and the lies we tell ourselves.

With this lunar cycle, we can build on our communication skills in all kinds of ways. Communication is vital to healthy relationships of all kinds, and it can be an incredible foundation for processing your experience in healthy ways. We need that tool now

Here’s another thing, though, that’s come to my attention several times in the days leading up to this New Moon. It has to do with the stories we tell ourselves about relationships, and particularly what we want in them. It has to do with the stories our culture has taught us about ideal relationships.

In the tarot, the Geminian correspondence with the Twins is expressed through the card most often known as The Lovers. The dark and light coming together. Two parts seeking each other.

I’ve come across several articles in the past week referring to the quest for the ‘Twin Flame.’ One’s other half. Rather than dissect what an overblown and potentially harmful overlying mythos we seem to have there, not because it’s inherently untrue but because it endorses an already rampant tendency to externalize our power and happiness,  what I’ll remind you of is this: what would it be like to imagine that perhaps you are your own Twin Flame? You contain multitudes, after all.

That’s not to say embracing that notion or even just examining it means you have to do everything alone. But let’s take a look at some other expressions of the Lovers just to get the full picture — or day I say story.

In one deck I’ve worked with, the Intuitive Tarot, The Lovers is depicted with the usual three figures, but the two cast in the role of “lovers” look pained and agonized. You see, their torsos have begun to fuse together, as the third figure — usually depicted as an angel, but dark and formidable here — looks on.

In Gemini there is danger of fusing with ideas. Of not being discerning (that’s the square to Virgo). Of becoming the stories we tell ourselves, but to our detriment.

Taking it a step further, The Lovers card is often seen as an internal expression of union. Puzzle pieces fitting together in order to form epiphany. Some kind of synthesis before an idea is displayed to the world as ego identity in The Chariot/Cancer.

The outward expression of that union, then doesn’t come until later. Until we get to The Devil.

No joke.

And The Devil in this context represents our fears. Our shadow material. What we are chained to, what binds us. Perhaps where we’ve chosen social norms or stories that we thought were right and then solidified them in ways that are challenging.

Now, The Devil definitely gets a bad reputation. It can also represent the material world we’ve created and get to play in. But still, the attachment component remains: When you put too much emphasis on any one idea or part (even if the emphasis is an incessant demand for more ideas — that’s shadow Gemini for you, and…well, social media addiction is a pretty good example of that), you become chained to it. It gets gravity and takes over.  There’s the Devil’s association with Capricorn for ya!

So!

For this New Moon… what are the stories you tell yourself? What narratives need some revising or dumping? How do you communicate? Is it time to start a journal? Take a nonviolent communication class?

Gemini is about consciousness and curiosity. So put those things together and enjoy! Get some new ideas! Learn! Grow!

…and I’ll see you in a few weeks with some preparation for the upcoming eclipse window. But for now, a little hint with that: It’s OK to work through feelings first and then communicate.

Loves!

Uranus in Taurus: The Roots of Change

Birth. Growth. Death. Decay. Birth. Growth. Death. Decay. Rinse. Repeat.

This is the natural order. Literal, metaphorical, however you wanna slice it. These are the natural laws of our planet, implicit or not, that have governed all life. Carbon to oxygen. Sunlight to energy. We humans have given these processes and components words and qualities, but it’s true with or without our categorical language: we die, become compost, food for worms…

(Well, unless our bodies are placed in boxes after being filled with formaldehyde. Nothing wants to eat that.)

But I digress.

On May 15, 2018, change-maker Uranus shifted into the sign of Taurus, an energy that prefers its change on the long, drawn out side (if it wants change at all). The lord of lightning bolts meets the bull. That which is solid, stubborn and potentially furious staring down that which is unpredictable and unexpected. Well hello, tension.

We cannot know what exactly will happen at the material level during this seven-year transit. Changes to the Taurean realms of existence, sure — money, values, bodies, the earth herself — but we cannot predict the concrete forms those changes will take, only that they will likely come on suddenly, from out of nowhere. Or so it will seem.

This is why context is important. Few things come from out of nowhere. We can understand at least one layer of our current world situation by thinking about where Uranus has been for the past seven years. What the energy has been up to during its time in Aries, and what astrology reveals about what is being asked of us now.

On March 11, 2011, Uranus shifted from Pisces into Aries kicking off the era of the Uranus-Pluto square. The earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear meltdowns that hit Japan that day are the perfect metaphors for the energies of this dynamic alignment which was technically in direct effect through 2015. We are still dealing with the aftermath now.

You can reflect on the changes that have occurred in your own life since 2011 to get a feel for the shifts I’m talking about. You are, after all, the microcosm existing in the macrocosm. As above, so below.

On the collective level, Uranus in Aries sparked revolution, collective movements, attempts at breaking down the powers and structures that be. The occupy movement and Arab spring were the kickstarters. Black Lives Matter, Me Too…

We also had technological innovations that have been hard to track because they’ve moved so quickly. I didn’t even have an inkling of wanting to own a smartphone in 2011. Now, I can’t imagine living my life without one (although I oftentimes want to).

In short, the lord of lightning bolts had an extended period of facing off with the lord of the underworld, and the scorch marks and crevasses that resulted felt like traumatic shock to many. Opportunities to move forward with innovations in our society — particularly those that have attempted to stop and reverse the incredible destruction we’ve brought to the earth — have been largely foiled by the Pluto in Capricorn powers that be. They have not only clung to and gained power, but they’ve stepped out into the light as if to say, “yes the evil empire has arrived, and there is no longer any need to hide that fact.”

What is the most potent antidote to the evil empire? Communities of creatively self-actualizing humans who are moving out of trauma and dissociation and into their hearts to roar forth like lions, claiming their individual callings for the sake of the tribe. Humans living from the solid ground of the heart. That’s what the Leo-Aquarius nodal axis has been trying to evoke since May 2017. Healing collective trauma and karma.

But we’re still working on that solid foundation thing. The internal, true power of the individual. That’s where Taurus comes in.

More About Taurus

As the second sign of the Zodiac, Taurus represents self-worth, values and resources. Through Taurus we internalize a sense of being held after flailing out of the womb as a young spark of life (that’s Aries), all impulsive and fiery.

Through our senses, we begin to perceive our surroundings and create a basic imprint of the world around us: is it safe? Am I held? Am I getting what I need to survive? How does it feel to be here?

Ideally speaking, we internalize a sense of safety. Of having our survival needs met. Through this process, as we mature, this translates into self-worth. Values. An understanding of resources, both internal and external. When we know what we have and love what we are and align the two through a sense of values, creative self actualization is a natural part of our evolution. The Leonian heart can expand and give warmth and light, to others, to tribe. That’s the ideal.

Sometimes tribe is a problematic thing, however. Sometimes the Other does not respond well to our individual spark of genius, especially in a society that has to create constructs that are put in place to keep natural urges down.  A culture where we have been taught that the body is sinful, that life is only worthwhile when it has laid claim to property and green paper.

All the more important, then, that that sense of self-worth and self-reliance is bold and strong within us.

Uranus: Liberation, Individuation & Trauma

The archetype of Uranus (which goes hand in hand with Aquarius and therefore has similar qualities) is associated with tribe, yes. Our existence within and membership to tribes, sure. But also the archetypes of the exile, the outsider, the humanitarian, the [mad] scientist. Uranus is the force that pushes us into processes of deconditioning. It strives to help us strip away what we’ve accepted as truth without pitting it against our experience, and old structures and forms that are not serving our paths.

Uranus is the force of individuation. It is the process where we hear the call of our own individual genius, that which would bring us into creative self actualization in order to serve the betterment of humanity. Through this process, the Leo-Aquarius axis gets its fuel.

Hearing the call of one’s own soul is a potent and powerful thing, for sure. In fact, we romanticize the heck out of it in our culture. And for good reason — this planet needs more folks who are listening to and actualizing what it is they’re here to do on the earth. It also gets confused with individualism, which is not the same. Individualism inflates narcissistic bubbles and robs us each of our opportunity to step out of our wounds. Instead we, and all others around us, become distorted objects of another person’s obsessive self-reflection.

Individuation is, again, tuning into an inner knowing of who we are supposed to be in the world, and following that path. Because we understand the importance of fulfilling that goal for the sake of bettering the community.

But here’s the thing: stepping into one’s own process of individuation also involves embracing difference. And in the past 10,000 years or so, difference has not been such a great thing. It’s what gets you killed. Burned at the stake, chased out of your home, ridiculed, exiled. Tortured.

We need connection. We do not like being cast out. And so, we strive to belong, oftentimes to the detriment of our soul path. Trading in one discomfort for another.

Therefore Uranus is also associated with trauma.

What is Trauma?

A basic definition of trauma tells us that it refers to an overwhelming experience that the psyche can’t integrate fully. It’s a physical, emotional, mental or spiritual experience that makes it so that a person isn’t able to continue on as they were.

Symptoms or indications of trauma usually include some combination of dissociation (often chronic), anxiety, phobias, paranoia, avoidance, enhanced or suppressed emotional responses, or numbness. The most common expression of traumatic response in the moment is what we refer to as fight, flight or freeze.

Uranus is considered a marker of a trauma signature in an individual’s chart. This doesn’t mean that a Uranian passage will bring great trauma. The symbolism is to vast for that kind of narrow interpretation. It does usually, however, indicate at least the potential for moving through and healing karma related to whatever it’s impacting.

And that’s not just trauma from this lifetime. Uranus is also related to deep memory and the subtle energies that travel with us from many lifetimes. Unresolved traumas from our soul’s journey. Uranus is long-term memory and as such oftentimes points the way towards unconscious contents.

Blending Taurus and Uranus

So how do we bring this all together to help us understand, yes, what themes to potentially expect from Uranus’ transit through Taurus, but more importantly how we can grab onto this edge for growth and do the required work with more awareness? Let’s take a look at what Taurus represents in its more shadowy manifestations. Then we’ll bring the positive back in, cuz Taurean medicine is good, good stuff and can help us keep perspective here.

We’ve talked a bit about stubbornness, and really all of the fixed signs have that quality. But Taurus…well, Taurus can be the epitome of stubbornness. It can be stuck and it doesn’t like change and oftentimes with Taurus everything is black and white.

Taurus is associated with our survival needs, as we’ve discussed. Because of this link, Taurus is how we do (or do not) feel safe in our bodies, on this earth. Taurean karmic complexes involve survival fears, isolation, self-worth and value, the ways we collapse in on ourselves and suppress our emotions, the ways we shut down (often, at least in the karmic past, to survive), possessiveness, stuckness…

…and body memory.

As I’ve leaned into Uranus in Taurus, body memory is what has come to the forefront a lot. The body’s memories of trauma. The ways it holds those imprints in the first, thin layer of energy directly around our physical beings. This, the etheric body, is where imprints from past life and early current life traumas live.

Trauma of the body. There’s one selection of keywords for Uranus in Taurus for ya.

A Digression

A few weeks ago, as I was bouncing around ideas for a webinar I was gonna do for this subject, I found myself walking down the road listening to music. It was an April day, just after a moody mid-afternoon storm, and the sky was half dark clouds and half blue with white billows.

I looked at a meadow on my right, grass surrounded by tall trees, daisies, and everything looked so…happy. Stable. Solid. Ecstatic.

The Earth is reclaiming herself, a voice said in my head. Strong. Clear. It’s so rare I hear things in that way. But there it was. Taurean earth communicating through Uranian flash of insight.

I didn’t feel fear. I felt strength. Stability. Ecstacy. Solid, grounded truth. And relief.

I also tuned into the song that had been playing for about a minute*:

A man of solid oak and his fine new bride
Found themselves a farm by the river side
Everything has changed yeah it’s all come undone
All they have now are their hand and the light from the sun
The wind it came for days and days
And the earth did try to shake away our kind
But they held on tight and a few survived
And they light their fires on the cold, cold, cold, cold night
But the earth is still tryin’ to shake em down

/End Digression

Earthquakes are a great metaphor for Uranus in Taurus. And in fact, in the days preceeding the shift I saw an article entitled: Volcanoes. Geysers. Earthquakes. Mother Earth is doing all kinds of scary stuff in the US right now.

Ah, yup.

I don’t know whether it’s helpful to view the earth as a being or entity that is out to get us, just as I don’t know whether it’s helpful to view the earth as a benevolent or nurturing energy. The fact of the matter is that in my personal worldview, it’s all connected and earth is indeed a mama to me — she’s nurtured life for quite some time, although not without help from others. In my bones, I feel a deep resonance with the idea that the wisdom of the earth — and the universe that houses her — just might in fact respond when human values exclude the protection of the ultimate human home — which IS the earth. The universe. And within both of those, our bodies.

If I take the personification out of it, I can just put it in different terms: When we disregard the fact that humans require abundant clean, fresh water, food that does not contain chemicals, shelter from the elements and touch… well, our systems will collapse. The big ones and the little ones. Or evolve into something that reflects values of rape, aggression and domination. When we poison our bodies — any of them — we will get sick. Of mind, body and emotions. Because we cannot separate them. This is simple cause and effect, even if the effects occur too slowly for anyone living day-to-day and not tracking cycles to observe.

When we apply values of love, sharing, giving, receiving, reverence and life, we ultimately create new systems and laws and structures and ways of being that reflect those values. We create methods of exchange that work within those values as law.

But that shift might be difficult. Because of tension. Because of grief and anger that have been locked away — suppressed or stuck in the Taurean sense out of survival fears or fears of overwhelm. Taurean shut down makes it so that energy gets stuck within. Uranus in Taurus provides the opportunity for that energy to move again and be freed up for use in innovating new ideas based in tribal values.

It’s also just a huge, fucking stretch to imagine how we’re going to get ourselves out of the mess we’re in. But what better challenge to confront.

That’s where the positive potentials for this transit come in.

Here’s a whole gaggle of key words for you to use for your imagining-the-best (and then bringing it down to earth) purposes:

Stable Revolution. Genius made practical. Stable shifting. Rooted Revolution. Liberating Self-reliance.  Agrarian Tribes. Body Freedom. Inventive Earth-Systems. Being/Embodying the Change. Earth Technology. Abundant Currency.  Innovative Agriculture. Values-Based Currency. Embodying the Change. Vision of a Sustainable Life. Grounding the Vision. Deconditioning from Outdated Values. Breaking through Avoidance & Discomfort. Freedom through Inner Resources.  Progressive Self-Worth. Embodied Individuation. Patient Individuation. Wise embodiment. Innovations in Food & agriculture.

OH the possibilities! What if, through community-based values of giving, sharing and inclusion we created systems where all basic needs were just covered? Where the fact that you were born guarantees you unlimited access to everything you need to live, just by the very virtue of your existing? Food, water, shelter… What if we lived in a world where touch was seen as vital to life, and where consent was taught from an early age and boundaries were gleefully respected?

Because, you know, touch is a vital part of human development.

What if we took the shake ups and awakenings of the past several years and used the insights provoked to create earth systems that respected rather than raped the earth and individual human bodies, as well as our place in a larger cosmological framework?

What if the heart was a safe space to dwell?

Practicality

So how do we work with all of this? Well, the specifics will vary from person to person. But generally speaking, I recommend a daily grounding practice. Daily gratitude. Grounding and gratitude for the abundances we have (that’s Taurus) create containers for transformation (that’s the Taurean polarity — Scorpio). When we cultivate these practices while out of crisis, they hold even better. As opposed to, say, waiting for the crisis and then grounding.

But there are other more tangible, practical preparations as well. As fears related to survival surface, it can be nice to know we have savings. Or a 3 month plan. Or an emergency backpack.

Or a network of friends.

Or a reminder that life does not end at death. And that the compost metaphor is great here: we can use the destroyed and decaying material of the society we’ve built to build a new one. One that values regeneration and creativity.

It might also be helpful, in the coming years, to spend some time getting to know your own triggers. To be able to name what they are, but also to be able to recognize what they feel like, how they ripple, and what we need when they’re occurring. The emphasis here is self-reliance, which does not mean you have to go through it alone, but that you are responsible for knowing what you need and advocating for yourself while having the maturity to accept other people’s limits and wishes.

Having humans around you who know your worth and who value you is a vital step in having a reliable support system. But you have to uncover and recognize it first.

The goal is internalizing power, not externalizing it. Because solid foundations arise amidst inner work supported by the outer world. And if there is some cataclysmic change upon us (it seems it’s been happening for a while, friends), best to face it with strength AND agility AND a commitment to returning to the heart.

Oh, and you know what’ll be real helpful? Astrology. Astrology is a Uranian discipline when used in it’s best ways (which, in my humble opinion, is in the pursuit of self-actualizing while relating to the greater picture) — and its “best ways” are through embodied, experiential practice.

There’s so much more to be said about these archetypes. The times we’re living in as framed by these energies and shifts. I’m sure it’ll come as the transit unfolds. For now, I leave you with some key dates and key questions to ponder. And even a few more suggestions.

Key Dates (a few!):

Uranus Moves into Taurus May 15, 2018

Uranus stations retrograde August 7, 2018

Uranus moves back into Aries for a final tour through the 27-30th degrees of the sign November 6, 2018

Uranus moves back into Taurus on March 6, 2019 and stays there until July 7, 2025

Uranus final (for 84 years) tour through Taurus is November 8, 2025 – April 26, 2026

Multimedia Understanding-ehnahcers

*Shook Twins “Shake” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybbIZgUl0-c

“Little Earthquakes” by Tori Amos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC_3I34I8CA

Books: The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk; The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin (this is my favorite trilogy ever)

Scents: Sandalwood, Lemon, Geranium, Rose

Stones: Anything grounding

(Pro tip: when you’re all woo-tastic (or just, you know, a reasonable human who believes in working with ALL their tools) and wanting to work with things like essential oils or stones in conjunction with planetary or zodiacal archetypes, it’s not just a matter of googling “essential oils for Uranus” (ha!).

I mean, if you’re building an altar and wanna give offerings to Uranus (ha!), sure! Look into oils/stones that other people say are aligned with…it. Then you’re working towards creating resonance. That’s grand.

But if you’re trying to work with an energy or concept or deity or whatever, and want an oil or stone that will help with whatever affect you’re experiencing, don’t just google “Uranus” (ha!). Identify the affect. Anxious? Jittery? Sluggish? Then see what oils or stones help to remedy THAT. Get something grounding. Or energizing.

And as always, your intuition or what you drawn to is usually far more on point than anything a google search will tell you. Why? Cuz this shit’s FLUID and dependent on a whole host of intersecting factors. Kinda like life.)

~~My New and Improved Patron tiers are here! Lotsa bang for your buck, starting at $3/month. Help me help your revolutionize your consciousness and empower your soul. Seriously, y’all. If you life what you read here and wanna support the work for that reason, or if you want some really great incentives in exchange for your support, give it a try. ~~

Oh, hi 🙂

Just a heads up that a summer of experiential astro learning awaits you (if you live in the Seattle area).

Early bird registration for this 6-part class ends tomorrow. If you buy the full course, you’ll get:

• A recording of each session
• Printed charts and materials
• Email access to me for the duration of the course for all your question/processing needs
• FREE access to June and July AstroCircles
• And So. Much. More.

These classes will be opened up for individual purchase if there is still room June 1.

Click on the image for more info:

Taurus New Moon 2018
May 15, 2017; 4:47am Pacific Time @24˚ 36′ Taurus
Trine Pluto/Lilith; Uranus about to go into Taurus, Mars into Aquarius
(last time Mars shifted into Aquarius was just hours before the cheetoh won the election)

New Moon Collage by Amanda

We are always shifting. Changing. Always moving, even when we feel like we’re still. We are, after all, hurtling through space on a giant ball at millions of miles per hour (ish). Safety is but an illusion, and yet…we strive for it constantly. Perhaps because at our most unconscious levels, we understand how little control we have. Our cells remember times the earth has shaken or stormed and wiped us out without remorse or warning.

As consciousness evolves, as we understand the way the world works… as we grapple with the complexities of the human condition… we become more prone to fears of discomfort and instability.

Furthermore, we live in a system where the very fact of birth does not guarantee one’s basic survival needs will be met. We draw up arbitrary systems of value that say a person with more green paper than another has the right to life, dignity, health and happiness. Nevermind the fact that green paper isn’t backed up by anything of tangible value other than our belief in it.

What if we lived in a world where just the fact of being born — of being a soul that has chosen to take embodied form — guaranteed you unconditional access to healthy food, clean water, a safe space to sleep, touch…and a private, clean place to shit?

Because necessary conditions of life, and the natural functions of our animal body, should be supported because every human being has worth, shouldn’t they? What if we lived in a world where the necessary conditions of life were not contingent on whether we had enough money?

And let’s not just keep this in the realms of basic survival. We need food, water, shelter and touch to ensure we survive, yes. But what do we need to thrive? Knowledge. Communication skills. A sense of connection, sharing and inclusion. These are the natural laws we have forgotten.

What if we lived in a world where the values of giving, sharing, inclusion and respect for all life were the foundation?

Systems that commodify basic needs are fucked. Systems that see some humans as more worthy of food and water — or systems that see some humans as worthy of healthy food and water — are abhorrent. Systems that tell people it’s OK to say “to each their own” when it comes to rationalizing ways hungry children are acceptable will inevitably crash and crumble, even under the auspices of providing security and structure.

Life is not inherently stable. It is not balanced. We never know what’s right around the bend. How does that make you feel? Like you want to cry? Laugh? Puke? Ignore me? Hmmm? Life is vibrant and glistening all around you. Life is an incredible blessing at least partially because it is so woven with unknowns and unseens and unimaginables. It is magic.

Oh, this Taurus New Moon. The seed of embodied change and grounded abundance amidst such fire and chaos…

But remember. Taurus can also be understood through its sextile to/from Pisces. Bliss embodied. The divine embodied. Ultimately supported by the very fact of being a universal being. From the dispersed, undifferentiated matter of Pisces, we are birthed and come into form. Molecules experiencing the ecstacy of a container. What a gift.

When I lean into this lunar cycle, I keep seeing green. Grass rustling in a warm breeze. Sunshine so bright and golden that all colors look unbelievably sharp. Daisies. Dark green pines on either side of a meadow where I am sitting, listening to rustling and water, feeling sun on skin, lying back into the earth, supported. Loving. Laughing. Breathing deep.

Taurus as a fixed earth sign is associated with the middle of spring. The season is finally displaying itself, and we’re able to fully relax into the notion that we’ve made it through the winter. We water plants, we tend soil, we swap out rain boots for flip flops.

Simplicity. Calm. The joy that comes with each.

This Taurean New Moon has undertones of that kind of grounded, stable simplicity. But there’s so much rumbling as well. The New Moon takes place just hours before Uranus, lord of lightning bolts and sudden, surprising change shifts into Taurus. And Taurus doesn’t really like change.

As the tree grows roots, so it’s able to raise its arms, its roots to the sky, and withstand the storm. Most of the time. Until that one, random crack of lightning slices through. But even then, the tree stands, continuing the inevitable process of returning to the soil, to the earth, to feed life in new ways…

But there’s something else there. The tree metaphor only goes so far. We as humans dig down deep, yes. But we move forward with fire. We ground and center and then apply. We blend our primal natures with the fires of our imaginations and we move forward with the result: creativity in action. The vision manifests. We bloom.

For those looking for simple intention setting or ritual guidance then, this New Moon provides an opportunity to ground and center, and feel strong in our bodies. Think of it as sending a firm message that you are here for these times and that you are a self-reliant, strong and fully embodied vessel of love, health and abundance on the earth.

For those looking for a little meditation on the different energies of this New Moon, let’s start at the beginning…

I started contemplating this upcoming lunar cycle a few weeks ago, as it gets right to the heart of my own karmic story, therefore providing an opportunity to plant some new seeds for some very old patterns. This contemplation came as I thought about Uranus entering Taurus (I’m hosting a webinar on the topic Tuesday evening).

What I’ve come into is a very strong awareness that mama Earth is on the brink of reclaiming herself. On the brink, in process… and it feels amazing. At the risk of uber-anthropomorphizing, I’d say she as a body is very excited.

Just as we are being taught and encouraged taught to come into our own power as human beings, so is the body of Gaia herself, and the radiant love that is pouring forth from that shift is all at once tangible and ethereal.

Taurus is often associated with body and embodiment. But it is also associated with the etheric body – the energy body that exists in closest contact with our physical bodies. We can think of it as a layer of energy that connects us to the other subtle bodies. As such, it is where imprints come to us — spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. Physical traumas that occurred in past lifetimes stay in the etheric body, oftentimes re-imprinting as similar traumas occur. You can have that knife in the back or spear in the gut or noose around the neck in the metaphorical sense, but it’s often quite literal from the point of view of the etheric body.

We humans often live much of our lives in fear of physical pain, sickness and suffering. This is in some ways a fear of death, as death often involves suffering (even if just the suffering that comes from not knowing or understanding what comes after this life). But it’s more than that. The civilization that arose in the past 10,000 years has made it so that the physical body is often a very unpleasant place to live – and die.

But what about before that? What about 15,000 years ago? Or 20,000? We as a species have been around for hundreds of thousands of years. And yet it’s just in the past 10,000 that war and carnage and genocide have sprung to the surface. That’s not to say that existence in a physical body wasn’t without pain and suffering before the rise of agriculture, nor do I mean to romanticize the time before, cuz there’s a lot that’s come from the modern world that does indeed make life in a flesh suit better.

The time before, however, might have some secrets to teach us if we can continue figuring out how to learn them. Just remember… we are the divine embodied. There is such grace in that memory.

As I sink into recognition of what this Uranus in Taurus transit might bring — all changes that seek to liberate us from anything stuck or stubborn, outdated value systems, the ways we wreck and harvest the Earth — I think about what it might be like to experience earthquakes 10,000 years ago. Scary, I’m sure. Rumblings that we can’t control always are. But what about experiencing the earth quaking from a hut in the middle of a meadow or savannah? No fear of failed infrastructure, destruction of cities, being electrocuted by downed power lines… How much simpler that must be.

And yet we have to move forward with the wisdom of the old ways combining with the knowledge of the new ways, salvaging what has worth in a world that values life, and retaining only the lessons and not the practices of the rest.

For this New Moon, ground. Center. Commit to being the change, and allow your heart to feel the radiance of what actions you might take…and then allow them to solidify in your mind in the coming weeks.

For further and more specific ritual guidance, sign up as a Patron, cuz my Patrons get specific guidance every single month. This is also a great spot for your to support the work in whatever amount makes sense for you. (www.aquarianspirals.com/patreon)

This Full Moon…well…It’s a gateway, for sure.

So many gateways these days. Each precious, transformative. Sometimes rife with heartache, sometimes wide-eyed wonder. For me personally, it’s usually a good mix of both.

Art by Katy Paulson

Saturday’s Full Moon in Libra (exact at 5:36AM Pacific Time) puts us right in the heart of balance. Which is, of course, never a static process. We stand in the middle of two polarities, one with arms out, beaming heart love at the thought of freedom, autonomy and personal initiative — a genuine sunshiney care bear stare; the other with arms out extended towards the other, not for ecstatic hugs, but to calmly look them in the eye and say “I hear you. Your view is important. Let’s talk about it.”

Or perhaps we’re feeling like placing our arms across our heart, in a kind of protective stand-off. Ah, the many faces of the archetypes.

Full Moons always invite the tension of the opposites. They are times for revelry, for dancing naked in the woods, magic created with others. Sometimes the only way to work with that tension is to feel the ways it hums and beats through the body. Something has come to full power. Whatever seed was planted at the New Moon two weeks ago. Or, if we look at expanding cycles, whatever seed was planted in the lunar cycle six months ago, when the polarities were reversed (Full Moon in Aries).

By their very nature, each and every Full Moon is associated with the polarity of Libra and Aries. This is the natural opposition in the zodiac, and oppositions inherently have something to do with extending out to the other. Those born on or near a Full Moon have lifetimes that emphasize relationship-oriented activity.

One of the keys to relationship — if I might make yet another very oversimplified generalization — lies in balancing autonomy with connection.

There’s a crisis indicated with this lunation, however. A cardinal square between the both Sun and Moon with Mars and Saturn in Capricorn. An adjustment needs to be made between who we are in the world, how we feel, and what we’re building. Our emotional nature, indicated now by the Moon in Libra, and our solar nature, indicated by the Sun in Aries, are trying to reach balance between self and other. Mars-Saturn in Capricorn, however, are pushing our conditioning to the surface, forcing us to look at the structures of our lives, the way these structures and this conditioning distort and support the desires of our egos, and the ways we’re rushing into initiating things that need more time, support, or re-structuring.

Structure and time. Why are you pushing things that are not ready for you just yet? Why are you trying to force something that is resisting? What are the power struggles you’re engaged in, and what are they unlocking for you? Are you projecting? Are you externalizing? Are you continuing to engage something that is causing you pain? Why?

None of those questions are to be posed with judgment or as challenges. There are no right answers here, just room for reflection and wondering. Bringing awareness.

We have to remember that Mercury is also retrograde now, right up near that Aries Sun. This means that some of the secrets might be unlocked as we review and reimagine the ways we initiate, how we uncover and act on our personal desires, what the place of anger is in the mix.

This is even more so because Black Moon Lilith (the Mean version, at least) is tied into this lunation as well. She’s sitting not too far off of Saturn and Mars, also in Capricorn. As Lilith is already linked to themes of repression — in this case, the repression and casting out of parts of ourselves we have learned to despise — this energy might be churning and throwing some wild cards into the mix.

Our repressed parts often get air even more often than the parts of ourselves we love. They control the show because they have the benefit of being unconscious. That shit’s powerful, y’all.

When Lilith wants attention, she is not subtle. She screeches and howls. She laughs maniacally when you attribute her deeds to something outside yourself. Because you are just missing the point. You’re contributing to an increase in ways the most primal and vital parts of you are being repressed and disowned to your own detriment. And that primal energy has been driven nearly insane by the ways we refuse to listen to its wisdom.

The power you cast out as being other is oftentimes actually your own.  For better or worse. In the coming days then, better to take note if not action to reclaim what you’re casting out, my loves. I’m so sorry we’ve all been through the restrictive and distorting paradigm of patriarchal rule. And yet… there are lessons to be learned in the reclaiming of Self… and Other. This Libra Full Moon allows us a glimpse into so many mirrors. What do we need to reclaim? What parts of ourselves have we disowned that we need to learn to be at peace with? To integrate?

We have to love the other as we love ourselves and vice versa because in the grand scheme of things, there is no difference. Because we often can’t know the difference between what we are projecting and what is external (and most of the time, there is a lot of overlap). Sometimes it seems like archetypal energies such as Lilith (or Eris or Kali) are fueled by their frustration at trying to hard to get us to listen to our own primal urges — only to have us disown them, or cast them out.

One more thing? Many folks have a lot on their plates right now, all of it clamoring around to be finished Right Now. Be realistic. Be disciplined. Try to prioritize, and recognize that you can’t do everything at once. Ah, yes. There we are again: Balance.

~~To support this work, please sign up to be a Patron. You’ll get more specific guidance for each major lunation (New and Full Moons), and have access to getting answers about your chart through email. Plus, you’ll be supporting my ability to continue doing this work. Hooray!~~

**We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Astrology Reading for This Special Announcement**

Today marks the Sun’s movement into the zone of the sky we can “Aries” – and therefore the beginning of the astrological year! Know what that means? Specials and discounts abound just for you!

I love astrology. So much. I love the way it helps us tap into cycles and processes and allows us to gain perspective while also going into the depths. At this time in our collective evolution, tools like this can help to bring you into direct awareness of your purpose. Because, quite honestly, the world needs you now. And it is my purpose in life to help empower you to actualize your path.

In celebration of that fact, and in hopes of helping those who want it to get insight into their life purpose, path and ways they can rise up to become the most empowered, radiant version of themselves, I’m offering the specials you’ll see below. This includes a 15 minute Life Path MP3 reading that’s great for you OR as a gift.

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Pretty straight forward, yeah? Click on the image to go to the scheduling site, choose an in person or skype/phone initial consult session, and then enter coupon code SPRING at checkout. BOOM! Done.

Accessibility is key. I like to keep that in mind. So for those who’d not otherwise be able to get a consult, this special’s for you. Take half off an initial astrology consult. Good for the first two people to book and pay for a session using coupon code: HEART. Just click on the image to go to the scheduling site. You can choose in person or Skype sessions

Want some high velocity, left brain meets right brain insight into your life purpose in a quick little burst? This reading, based on your chart, a tarot card I’ll pull and some intuitive wisdom, will give you just that in the form of a 15 minute MP3 emailed to you within four days of purchase. Email me with your birth date, place and time and I’ll send you an invoice for $20.

Well, THIS never happens. DMP is not a modality I tend to discount, mainly cuz it’s super fairly priced give that it’s very time/energy intensive. However, here we are. Take $20 off a DMP session, great for those who are working with deeply embedded and stuck-feeling complexes. This service is available to anyone who has had an initial astrological consult with me already. Email me to schedule.

And last but not least…schedule a transit update reading (to get insight into your current astrological transits) and get a 20 minute tarot reading thrown in for free. Go to my scheduling website, choose either an in person or Skype transit session, and I’ll adjust the time of the appointment accordingly

Welcome to the last New Moon of the astrological year. In it, the vision of a prism splitting light apart and arranging it into rainbows. Light and matter participating together flawlessly. Healing. Health. Wholeness. At the end of the zodiac, in Pisces, we are getting ready to begin again in deep acknowledgment that time and life are not linear paths but part of ever widening circles.

This New Moon can bring us fully into presence and flow. It is also, however, a powerful portal for transmuting, or perhaps just accepting and releasing, our pain.

There is some pain too deep to be accessed. Some pain too close to the surface to be buried. There are some wounds that are so much a part of us that we cannot heal them, but instead must learn to accept, embrace, reveal and subvert.

This New moon brings us in touch with what we are ready to release and surrender as well as what we are learning to accept. Sometimes it can be difficult to discern. But there can come a time when instead of continuing to dig and attempt to heal and process, transmute, transform…we just…say…mercy. We give in.

And we resist the temptation to become defined by this wound that just won’t go. But we nestle it within us, alongside all our other identities and constructs, using it as a tool, but not making it the center.

This New Moon speaks of endings. The endings of endings. It’s all kinds of waning, and releasing at multiple levels. And yet there it is: Chiron right there in the mix. Chiron teaches us that even the most masterful of healers have wounds that will not go. This does not make them victims, however. It does not make them toil and grovel — at least not in perpetuity. It becomes their strength. They learn to accept and say, “this is a way that I am different. A way that I will never be like the rest of you.

But yet… through my difference, I have learned a new way of doing things. I’ve learned about the blessing of the wound, its sacred nature, and the ways it brings me into greater health. I can no longer risk the harm it does to my soul to fight back against something so crucial to my nature.”

Chiron in Pisces has been teaching us about the deepest wounds we have: the wounds of separation. Not from lovers or family, necessarily. Wounds of separation from source. Which are essentially wounds of separation from ourselves. Because of lies we’ve been told that burrowed into our souls, impressing us with one fatal fallacy: that our bodies and flesh are sinful and wrong.

And that Spirit, in addition to being separate, is higher and better and that we are undeserving of it.

We then twist through lives in which we are seeking redemption and forgiveness, whether consciously or not, as a consequence for some really bad take on an age-old myth. Mythologies that speak of separation as a vital part of the cosmic dance are everywhere. Mythologies that fling the blame for this separation onto the shoulders of humans — typically female humans — are few and far between. And yet the latter rule our entire worldview, be we religious or not.

There is insanity here, in the Piscean void. We see madness when the veil is lifted. Just look around. There comes a point, however, when it all gets so senseless that we put down the sword, we stop the constant self-criticism, in a moment of re-awakening to love. However that happens, in whatever form that takes.

So for this New Moon, release. Surrender your patterns of hate, the ways they flow out and then in again. Bless those core wounds and feed them with eternal and unconditional love. Accept. Renew. Bask in the rainbow. Connect to source. Purify, float and imagine what true freedom would look like for you, and maybe for all of us…

…and make a wish…

Pisces New Moon at 26+ Degrees of Pisces
Saturday, March 17 at 6:11am

~*Part Two of this Pisces New Moon writing contains specific ritual guidance and is available to those who have subscribed to my Patreon Campaign at the $10+ levels. To support my ability to continue doing this work and gain valuable monthly insight, please visit this site.*~

Time for another little tide change, ya’ll. So let’s break it down a bit.

On the one hand we have Jupiter.  Traditionally known as the deity of benevolence. Luck! The spinning wheel. Society, culture, travel and philosophy. A big-bellied laugh and…could it be a white beard, too?

Death & The Wheel of Fortune from the Thoth Tarot deck. Along with some magnetized hematite, pyrite and green goldstone.

On the other hand we have Jupiter taking a tour through Scorpio. Sign of death. Chaos. Sex, magic, drugs and the occult. Transformation. The barrel of the wave. Also potentially laughing, but… perhaps a bit maniacally. And at you rather than with you.

These are stereotypical depictions of these archetypes. Cliches because there’s truth there. But as with every archetype, they twist and turn through our experiences of them, revealing greater depths all the time. Archetypes just can’t be pinned down. Or fully understood, really.

I’ve often looked at depictions of Jupiter with some degree of skepticism. There’s an inherent distrust there that I don’t quite understand. In my days of being a young(er) astrologer, I started to notice something. My Jupiter transits weren’t always notable, but when they were it was usually for not-so-great reasons. Stripped of qualified words like luck and joviality, Jupiter is about expansion. Sometimes things have to be pushed out in order to make room for expansion. Sometimes that pushing out feels like loss.

On October 10, 2017, Jupiter moved from Libra into Scorpio, where it will stay until November 8, 2018. What did we see with the shift? The birth of the Me Too movement. Jupiter took his magnifying glass and put it right over the heart of what our society has repressed for so long. No more! Abuses of power and sexual perpetrators being exposed left and right.

Our culture has a way of avoiding death and sex. This avoidance is highly problematic being as sex and death are arguably the two most important and universal aspects of human life. But there it was: humans coming forward in droves, publicly admitting that they, too, had been sexually assaulted.

What did we realize? The absolutely pervasive nature of sexual assault and misconduct. In a more nuanced way, we also realized that sexual power plays are so insidious that many don’t even realize they’ve been assaulted because verbal assault has become a part of everyday life.

You mean walking down the street and not being told to smile is an option? You mean it’s OK to feel uncomfortable when someone hoots and hollers at me for what I’m wearing? I don’t just have to accept it? Yes, all of these things are forms of sexual violence.

Like that, the collective pain body was magnified and exposed. There’s Jupiter. In Scorpio.

This transit is calling on us to expand upon our beliefs about sex and sexuality. Responsible, ecstatic and transformative sex requires that we have knowledge and wisdom — those are Jupiter’s realms — about sex. Knowledge and wisdom about sex require that we know about our own body, what we find pleasurable, and how to engage in sex in ways that are safe for our physical health.

But more than that — sex is at its essence an emotional act. Through its association with Scorpio, we understand that the act of merging with another human can be terrifying, but also transformative at the most profound levels imaginable.

My belief in sex is that it can be used as a vehicle to facilitate healing processes rather than power. But for that to be the case, we have to explore and experiment and experience. And we have to understand how sex effects our own emotions. And be honest about that.
Jupiter in Scorpio shines a light on and magnifies the underworld. It’s expanding taboos so that we can face them and unveil them to reveal truth, or at least our current beliefs about truth. At its core, the drive is to help us understand our relationship to Death with a capital D, but those beliefs can be made more general: how do we deal with loss? Change? Transformation? Sex — which is in fact the little death? What hides in our shadows – personally and collectively?

Time for a personal belief: our globalized capitalist culture is way too enmeshed with a death cult (ahem: Christianity). On the one hand, we’re obsessed with death at some very surface levels. Look at our Blockbusters, the ways we glorify the hoarding of money so that it can pass on to our children (or just make us worth something).

On the other hand, we have been stripped of mythologies, religions and ways of understanding that help us to orient to death — the ONE thing that will happen to each and every one of us. These denials and repressions essentially lead to us using the earth as a sewer without regard for the fact that without a healthy environment, we… well, we die. Our species just flops the fuck over. Whether or not we take time to think about it or prepare for it in ways that actually matter.

Yes, I’m questioning whether preparation for a $5000 coffin is a way that really matters.

As Jupiter retrogrades through Scorpio (from March 8 – July 10, from 23-13 degrees), we have an opportunity to review our beliefs. Our beliefs about death, sex, power, emotional self-reliance (especially in times of chaos or transformation), shared assets, our own shadows…

We get to consciously reveal what needs to be exposed, which is a much easier task than having someone or something else reveal it for us. At least in my experience it is.

Speaking of exposure. I wrote a weekly column for two years that was largely comprised of personal narrative about these kinds of topics. I exposed myself over and over again. Why? Well, because writing that way is just easier for me — telling my own personal stories to show illustrations of astrological concepts just takes less time than trying to generalize and sound like I know what I’m talking about outside my personal stuff.

Point being: I haven’t done much of that style of writing since I left that position in the fall of 2016. But this Jupiter in Scorpio stuff hits home, so here it goes.

I have a whole lotta chart action between 15-29 degrees of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius). This means that when any of the slower moving planets tour those spots, I get to learn a lot. Jupiter’s not super slow, but given that it takes 12 months to travel, it gives enough time to pay attention to what’s being revealed and healed.

As Jupiter heads towards its station this evening (Thursday, March 8), it’s riiiiiiiiight there in the heart of my karmic story. I’ve been feeling it for a few weeks now, just taking note. Ok, and sometimes clenching up and throwing a temper tantrum and texting my AstroSupport Team (two friends of mine) to say, “Ack! No! It’s just so much roiling Scorpio energy! The intensity! I’ve loved feeling more dried out! Ack! No!”

Last time a heavy hitter move through this space — those three years of Saturn in Scorpio — I had to face pretty much every fear I had. I was hoping for just one or two, but…nope! It all got dredged up. The more dramatic sides of me have some PTSD. But when it comes down to it that transit served to reinforce my emotional foundations, and my inner parent is pretty on task now. At the very least, I know when I’m being emotionally triggered and know not to fly off the handle.

I decided to take a look at what was going on in my life the last time Jupiter was in Scorpio. Ah, yes. My brother committed suicide. Sudden loss. Pain, grief, terror. Confrontation with severe mental illness. Confrontation with my own beliefs about death, purgatory, hell, the afterlife, the bardo states, the soul’s journey, reincarnation…

That was rough.

But you know what? Through all the grief and loss, and everything I watched my family go through, I expanded into some of the most important and fundamental beliefs and truths of my life thus far.

I confirmed that I was officially done with Christianity, yes, but that rather than being in the nihilist-atheist binge I’d been on for several years, my mind had been opened to something more vast, and more meaningful.

Through the many synchronicities of my brother’s death (oh, there were so many totally improbable and fucking strange things that happened to show me how deeply we are all connected), my exposure to Buddhist beliefs about death and dying, and they ways it clarified to me that I have to do exactly what I want to do in this life rather than what others expect of me…

…through experiencing little cosmic giggles and the ways random people in my life showed up…and the ways I saw family members clinging onto their own beliefs and spewing some pretty hateful stuff…

…through recognizing with full bodied awareness just how short and precious life is…

…I was suddenly free. Free to move through the world with the spaciousness that comes only when you truly understand that you are on this planet to self-actualize. Not to play by rules and social standards that make no sense to you. I realized the best thing I could do was live my life the way I wanted to, and to figure out how to do that, because my brother never got to…

…and I realized that in so many ways, my brother’s death was one of the most incredible gifts I could have ever received.

The gift of life through death. That’s Jupiter in Scorpio.

Sounds great, yeah?

Well, it kinda is. BUT! Still…who likes to go through that kind of change? Ok, maybe some do. Parts of me do! Not to say that I like it when people I love die. No, not at all. But when I recognize I’m once again going through a death-journey, there’s a part of me that says “ah-HA! Time to learn some more,” and I lean in.

I have to keep that in mind when I’m in the barrel of the Scorpio wave, being tossed around. I have to remember to laugh…

And there it is again. That image of Jupiter belly laughing. But this time, it’s as he gathers up the courage of curiosity, the centeredness of belief, and the audacity to plunge into the underworld on a quest to learn what lies at the heart of it this round.

Sometime last week, as I moaned and groaned via text to my AstroSupport Team (and, by the way, that’s totally a name I just made up for two dear friends with whom I have an ongoing group text thread), about being able to feel this sensitive area of my chart being constellated. What was their advice?

JUST HAVE FAITH.

And it’s true.

We have an invitation to fall into the depths. No doubt some of us are just being taken there. But what holds us when we fall? What do we believe in?

So for this retrograde period, in effect until July 10, you might want to review your beliefs about death, the afterlife, sex, sexuality, your most intimate relationships, your emotional self-reliance, and any hidden parts that start to emerge.  Face your fears, remember to laugh, and then after July 10, begin to integrate what you’ve learned as the foundations of your new belief system.\

No biggie, right?

Interested in how this Jupiter in Scorpio transit might effect your life and ways you can work with it? An astrology consultation is where it’s at, y’all. Book a Session with me to find out more. 

Or, you can support my work (and participate in it, too!) through Patreon. 

Full Moon exact on March 1, 2018 at 4:51pm Pacific Time
(Part One — a 15 minute guided visualization/meditation for the Full Moon — is available to Patrons who have pledged at the $20+ levels. Join today at any level and I’ll send it to you, too! Your support at any level ensures I can keep doing this work. )

Today’s Virgo Full Moon, which highlights the Virgo-Pisces axis feels like a quiet moment of integration amidst the past few weeks of what has been an emotionally turbulent roller coaster for some. February’s eclipse window brought a lot of unresolved business to the forefront. Yet it all seems like just a dream right now…doesn’t it?

That’s Pisces for ya.

Now, I have to make a little disclaimer. Do I do that a lot? Perhaps that’s a device of my writing style, but it’s also a way to keep it a little more honest. That last eclipse on February 15 was smack dab on top of my South Node, which is a karmic hotspot. Actually, I’ve been dancing in a big ol puddle of karmic hotsprings since the August eclipses. So when I say “emotionally turbulent roller coaster” I am very much speaking to my personal experience, as I found a whole lotta unresolved emotions — or better yet, emotions I thought I’d resolved but found out I hadn’t — flowing to the surface all at once (seriously – ALL of them. At once!). That experience seems to be echoed by many around me, but not all.

It’s always fascinating to become so attuned to your own triggers, and yet unable to stop the emotional response when they happen. To be able to observe and feel as your body goes into shock responses from events that passed so long ago, but not stop them with rational thinking. To have to just say, “yes, my self, my love… all those bad things have in fact happened. But you know what? You got through it. That’s over now. What if you stop focusing on what you have to lose and instead imagine all that you have to gain?”

Ah, there’s the inspiration. The faith. The drive to figure out how to DO the thing. That’s what Virgo does. It figures out how to get the damned thing done.

This Full Moon feels like a detoxifying agent. A time for purification. More than that, though, it feels like a time for digesting and assimilating and…well…laughing. Release! Surrender. There’s the Pisces. And we have Venus, Mercury, Chiron and Neptune all joining the Sun in Pisces. There’s a dissolution happening. And with Jupiter trining Venus, there’s a sense of reverie — of bringing our memories and our longings together in our bodies to experience the bittersweetness of life.

The Virgo, though. That’s all about digestion and assimilation. Virgo is associated with the intestines, those many feet of innards through which everything we consume travels, being slowly digested and taken apart, assigned tasks, put to further use for the good of our entire being (that’s the Pisces). Virgo is super task oriented. And hey — hasn’t the gut been recently deemed the “second brain”? Virgo’s pretty brainy. There’s a lot of fine detail going into those processes, and Virgo wants to figure out how all of that works. Pretty magical, no?

Virgo energy has so much to do. So little time. Then it looks across the circle at Pisces, notices the abyss of totally undifferentiation that is the Piscean totality, and its eyes get big and it starts to hyper focus. Out of fear for what goes on in that abyss, maybe. But also out of a need to get it all done, to make all the disparate parts and all the tasks happen before the final breath takes hold.

There is a longing in Virgo. A longing to move from being special to being useful. A longing to contribute. To serve. To get it right, to make it perfect.

There’s so much integrity in that process. But it can also be distorted when we forget that all of the cosmos is absolutely perfect in its imperfection. That ultimately we will have to let go, to surrender all that we have and everything we think we are in processes of death and rebirth both large and small. We exist in an infinitely loving universe, and ultimately we all go back to stardust, so…time to get to work.

What do we need to let go of to make room for our great work to commence — or continue? What emotional undercurrents that have long laid dormant have reawoken in the past few weeks, ready for release and purification? What have we learned from our patterns, and the patterns in the world around us, and how can we make use of those lessons?

Perhaps these are questions for reflection today. Regardless, time to bask in the flow…but also? Time to get shit done.

Have I said that enough yet this year? 😉

Cheers,

Amanda

~~My Patrons at the $10+ levels received specific ritual guidance for this month’s New Moon, as they do each month. Want in? Wanna support this work while getting the option to participate in it, too? Visit www.patreon.com/aquarianspirals to find out more~~

Today’s New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Aquarius feels…auspicious? Draining. Enlightening? Exhausting. There’s a lot going on in the heavens now, and as above so below – a lot in the realm of humankind as well.

Photo by Amanda; “Lust” from Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, “Island of Jewels” from the Secret Dakini Oracle

Aquarius is very much about humankind. In the tarot it is depicted as The Star, the figure that comes out of the aftermath of the Tower, or total egoic breakdown, with a sense of having been purified and stripped down. What happens when we’re purified and stripped down? A sense of calm. Centeredness. Being able to see objectively again after going through total deconstruction. Bringing what we’ve learned and what we see back to the tribe for the betterment of all.

My favorite depiction of the card comes from an oracle deck called The Secret Dakini Oracle. It’s called “Island of Jewels,” and depicts twelve jewels symbolizing the purest, most exalted forms of the signs of the zodiac arranged around a central crystal, representing the self. All of these gathered together yet floating in space as pure transmitters of celestial magnificence. Yet the jewels are in fact of the earth. Matter containing pure light, pure wisdom. The card speaks to the revitalization and realization of hopes and dreams that have been achieved through opening the inner eye and reaching a pinnacle of the envisioning process.

Aquarian energy at its best is totally tapped into the  inspiration, insight and limitless possibilities of the spirit. It is psychic in the sense that it can take all the information filtering in and synthesize it at speeds that are irrationally fast, putting visions of the future together in ways that non-Aquarian energies or people can’t quite understand. Aquarius sees. It sees possibilities and sometimes mistakes those possibilities for concrete truth. But we know that courses can change, even if they seem fated. We must still heed the cries of the visionaries among us, however. Honor the power and potency of that kind of vision.

As I’ve said many times now, this New Moon is somewhat of a chapter-closer from the eclipses last August. But that’s not entirely true. They are linked, but they are just part of the story. Today a seed is planted that is based on what we’ve learned since August, but that will be re-visited on July 31 with the final set of Aqua-Leo eclipses for this cycle (the next ones occurring around 2026).

For this New Moon, we have Venus in Pisces channeling in divine love, and Mercury in Aquarius reminding us to remember to question what we think we know, especially what we’re most stubborn about. The chance for revolutionary clarity is here, however.

There are two things I’d like to make very clear for this lunar cycle.

First: It’s time to remember your own multitudes. You are infinite. So much more than words and identities and structures. You are beyond concept and beyond mind. The mind is what has created this plane we exist in.

For this New Moon, we have the opportunity to sew seeds of change that make the best use of our personal brilliance at the collective level. We can see the island of jewels before us, and how magical a utopia we can build together. But it has to start within.

So call your consciousness home now. Invite back the parts of you that have left, be it due to traumatic fragmentation, depression, hunger, horror or loss, despair or just a random sudden jolt. Invite your essence to return to the core of your being. Welcome and breathe yourself in.  Imagine all of your energy bodies (there are layers of them wrapped all around you) full of the parts of you that have left over time, compact and cozy against your physical frame. Breathe in the fullness of you, whatever that means.

The second thing is this: It is important to also focus on the collective for this lunation. To let go of the avoidance and spiritual bypassing that also goes along with Aquarius. ‘Spiritual bypassing’ is often even done by those who do not consider themselves to be spiritual at all — it’s what happens when we avoid our emotions for any reason, avoid the dark places… avoid the reality that using the earth as a sewer is not ok… avoid the fact that continuing our rampant and ridiculous consumption of products coated in and made of life-killing plastic is not ok… accepting as fact that children are going to be killing children…. Over and over again…

Our collective way of life in Capitalist consumer culture has got to change — be it through us using our minds, hearts and intellects together to decide how it changes, or through dramatic breakdown as the earth and human-made systems that support us give way. Aquarian energy fully supports either of these methods of revolution. I know which one I choose. How about you?

Here’s the thing: our experience here on earth, as well as our technologies and the things that ail us, have been created by the mind, they can also be undone by the mind. But we have to be centered within ourselves to do that work. And we have to be centered within ourselves while also working together. We have to be warriors and revolutionaries of the heart.*

So for this New Moon Eclipse, make a wish or two, and take action. I’ll be right there with you.

*This is the myth of the Shambhala Warrior. You can watch this video to see a fantastic retelling of it.