Last Quarter Moon: Making the Cut

pruning ... where to cut?

Last Quarter Moon in Pisces: June 11, 2012

Last Quarter Moons can be relaxing––the deep exhale before the next round––or shadowy––stepping into the darkest time of the lunar cycle––or nostalgic––looking back at was has been and is no more.

This Last Quarter Moon is none of those things.

This Last Quarter Moon is filled with challenge, a time of contest and striving. And this Last Quarter Moon is in Pisces, whose default setting is to sacrifice everything.

Luckily, one of the key challenges to this Piscean Last Quarter is Mars in Virgo who says, "Really? Can we talk about this?"

Virgoan Mars serves to keep both Sun and Moon in check, in a Last Quarter T-square. All three are mutable signs, flexible enough to find a solution. Neither Gemini nor Pisces are especially good at staying focused; Mars in Virgo makes sure someone is keeping an eye on the ball.

Another T-square brings home the fierce energies rocking our world. The first Uranus–Pluto square is very close to exact, and is now in a T-square with Mercury in Cancer. This interesting pattern links two of the most traditional signs in the zodiac––Capricorn the Father and Cancer the Mother––with Uranus in Aries, the ultimate revolutionary.

The news is full of ideological and political conflicts about what it means to be a woman in this world.

What rights do we have? What health care are we entitled to? How do commentators view us when we advocate for our needs? Why are those commentators predominantly male? Can religious women speak the truth as they see it and explore scholarly topics without sanction?

Gender as a whole is more fluid today––or maybe not, depending on your point of view.

Are we what our anatomy shows? Are we what we feel? Does anatomy define who we can feel attracted to, who we're allowed to love, who we can partner with to build a life?

Pluto and Uranus are prepared to keep presenting us with those questions until each of us individually, and society as a whole, explore every corner and move into a new paradigm. With Uranus and Pluto, change is certain, and may well be swift and sweeping.

The presence of Mercury brings this issue to our conscious attention.  Mercury in Cancer brings in emotions and ancestry. If key information from the past can help in our journey to the future, now's the time for it to come forward.

Neptune in Pisces, now retrograde, continues to square the Nodes of the Moon. Neptune's presence here calls for a deepening of our life path, an opening to spirituality, and a certain fogginess about exactly how to accomplish this. Neptune's fog facilitates deception of all kinds, including self-deception. Perhaps only the intensity of Uranus and Pluto can strip away lies and leave us face to face with truth.

At the Last Quarter Moon, we turn the corner toward the Dark Moon. Questions arise at this time about whether we're ready to move on, to let go of what's finished, and release what we no longer need.

In the garden, pruning is my least favorite task. It's difficult for me to cut away healthy wood just because it's growing at the wrong angle, or in the wrong place, or there's too much, too close together. Isn't abundant growth a good thing?

Yet the Last Quarter is a time for pruning. Which branches are strong, healthy, and placed so they can support future growth? Which branches need to be trimmed, to make room for the best and strongest? But ... what if I cut the wrong ones? What if I do a bad job?

It's tough, but needs to be done to create strong foundations for the future. This lunar phase calls for a good plan, clear vision, sharp tools, and skillful action. What shapes and structures are we trying to create? Which ideas, values, commitments, paradigms, will support that vision? Which need to go? It's time to make the cut.
         

Disseminating Moon: Who Will Listen?

good listeners wanted!

Disseminating Moon in Aquarius: June 7, 2012

The Full Moon has passed and the Moon now wanes. At this time, we wants to share with the world, recount our experiences, tell our stories. At the Disseminating Moon, the Moon and Sun challenge each other in a sesquiquadrate, a square and a half, and we wonder if anyone's paying any attention at all.

The Sun is still in talkative Gemini, and the Moon has just moved into community-oriented Aquarius. Venus remains in Gemini, and Mercury has just slipped into visionary Pisces: With this particular Disseminating Moon, the urge to share, show and tell might be especially strong. "Listen," we say, a little louder than we intended, "I've got something to tell you about."

The Full Moon Eclipse, Neptune stationing, and the Venus transit combine to bring forth some fascinating images and experiences. Strong dreams, intuitive 'aha' moments, psychic connections––a leap forward in some way. Now we want to get the word out.

And yet, in the swirl of images and messages, which are true? Which are real? Among the voices interpreting these tumultuous times, to whom do we listen? Is this apocalypse or the edge of paradise? Who's right?

Is Queen Elizabeth II a vision of Venus triumphant, or symbol of traditional authority? In this time of Neptunian-influenced communication, I was more entranced by the students of the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir who, thoroughly drenched in a cold rain, kept singing right to the end.

Disseminating Moon

The Aquarius Moon challenges us to clarify our vision and commit to core values––our own, not anyone else's.

The Moon is at the apex of a Finger of the World as she makes a sesquiquadrate to Mars as well as the Sun, and the Sun and Mars square off. At this time, what we think and say (Sun in Gemini) and how we act (Mars in Virgo) resolve differences by sorting out what we truly believe (Moon in Aquarius).

The Moon is trining the South Node and sextiling the North, flowing energy into forward motion on our life path, which is good, as confusing, nebulous Neptune and revolutionary Uranus both aspect the Nodes. Clear thinking does help.

Venus has completed her transit across the face of the Sun, and remains hidden until June 13, when she is reborn as the Morning Star. As the Moon is New when conjunct the Sun, this is a kind of "New Venus" when we look within.

With Venus in Gemini, we rethink our relationships, creative connections, and values––all the relational areas that Venus rules. What, where, and with whom are our core connections? What gives meaning, color, and joy to our lives? During this time of Venusian darkness, we're invited to muse on these issues.

Gemini is sometimes known for speaking first, thinking afterwards. Something interesting can happen when we talk, though––sometimes as we hear what we say, we realize what we really think and feel. Sometimes, in the act of telling the story, the meaning of the story (or dream, or intuitive experience) suddenly shines through.

If we're telling the same old story, in the same old way, this generally doesn't happen. But when we tell a new story, about something that just happened and still has us in its grip, the telling becomes an event with its own power.

So maybe what's important at this Disseminating Moon is that we tell our newest, craziest stories whether anyone listens or not. And maybe that's because our most important listener is ourselves.
   

Full Moon Eclipse: Foolish Wisdom and Wise Fools

Lunar Eclipse

Full Moon in Sagittarius with Partial Lunar Eclipse: June 4, 2012

The Full Moon is on her way, visible tonight (where skies are clear) and including a partial lunar eclipse. EarthSky describes the science of what's happening and where the eclipse will be visible.

A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth lines up between the Sun and Moon, so, during the eclipse we pass between the two luminaries, the lights in our sky, lining up directly with those energies.

This alignment gives an extra boost to the energies flowing at this time, strengthening the natural polarity of any Full Moon.

This is the Full Moon in Sagittarius, sign of the journey. Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter, is the traveling sage, the benevolent philosopher, the exuberant explorer of many lands, the delver into great mysteries. With Sagittarius, we go farther than we have before, stepping outside the familiar to extend our knowledge and experience in many directions and dimensions.

This particular Sagittarean Full Moon points directly at the Great Attractor, the powerful and not-fully-known place in the cosmos toward which our galaxy, and the galaxies around us, inexorably moves.

Which means, since Moon, Earth and Sun are aligned at this Full Moon, we're all pointing like a Sagittarean arrow at the Great Attractor.

One question illuminated for us at this Moon, then, might be: What is the Great Attractor in our lives? What are we drawn to, always, steadily, almost without our realizing we're pointing that way? What mysteries and questions do we come back to again and again, bringing more understanding each time without ever quite working it all out?

The answer is likely related to where this Full Moon falls in our birth charts, and what is touched. Look to where the midpoint of Sagittarius and Gemini fall, and to any planets and points you have in the middle degrees of any sign.

With the Moon in Sagittarius, this places the Sun in Gemini, its polar opposite.

Where Sagittarius is old and wise, Gemini is young and foolish. Where Sagittarius loves deep exploration of the faraway, Gemini scintillates with connecting many aspects of what is right at hand. Where Sagittarius respects ancient traditions and seeks to understand their systems, Gemini spills everything out on the floor of the now to see how this and that might fit together in new ways.

These opposite archetypes potentiate each other. Like yin and yang, the more we have of one, the more the other pushes in. With an eclipse Full Moon at hand, we're placed right between––an excellent opportunity to explore this balance in ourselves.

We're in a strong Gemini time. The last New Moon came with an eclipse of its own, and a powerful jolt of Gemini trickster power. Gemini rules communications, among other things, and some folks are still struggling to get their computer systems back in working order!

Because the last New Moon happened at 0 Gemini, the next New Moon will also fall in Gemini, surrounding this Full Moon.

Gemini is the young student ready to question everything; the crafter, maker of handy, clever, usable things; the innovative problem solver; the irreverent trickster who sees the Emperor clearly and can't stop himself from asking why he's parading around naked.

Sagittarius can find Gemini exasperating, disrespectful, exhausting, and shallow. Gemini can find Sagittarius slow, stodgy, narrow minded, heavy handed, and too ready to accept traditional authority.

Another question illuminated for us at this Moon is where we find the balance between these archetypes in our own lives. Imagine yourself on a line between Sagittarius and Gemini. Are you at the thumb-your-nose-at-all-authority, let's-party, end? Or are you at the life-is-serious, tradition-is-important, end? How comfortable are you with where you are?

Of course we need both archetypes in our lives. We can't avoid it, really, as they call each other out. If we've become too entrenched at one end of this spectrum, chances are we're meeting the other end in people and situations coming into our lives.

The strongest way to work with this, as with other polarities, is recognizing the strengths and weakness of each end and finding our way to integrate them within us. Both are present, both need to be honored, and each of us can find a unique path.

Finding this path is, perhaps, the true illumination of this Full Moon. Venus, retrograde in Gemini, is conjunct the Sun at this Full Moon as she prepares to transit across the Sun's face. Venus draws our attention to our relationships, which includes relationships within ourselves.

Neptune is poised to turn retrograde a few hours after the Full Moon, so her energy is strong as she slows and turns. What is the big picture here? How can we integrate Sagittarius and Gemini, and then take things to a new level, transcending our old understanding and bringing in something new?

This Full Moon is in a wide T-square with Chiron, the wounded healer. Chiron, as a centaur, is also associated with Sagittarius and certainly partakes of the "wise elder" archetype. He challenges us to heal any splits we have along this particular divide, releasing old, wounding ideas and seeking integration.

The Full Moon is in a tight T-square with Mars in Virgo, a sign also associated with healing, and also with analysis and organization. Mars pushes us to act, and to do so in an informed and careful way.

And so we come to the archetype of the Wise Fool, in all its complexities. Sometimes the Wise Fool is seen as an oblivious, inadvertent carrier of wisdom––the "out of the mouths of babes" phenomenon.

There is a deeper aspect to the Wise Fool, though, that stays in touch with the roots of wisdom. The Fool in King Lear, the only one who speaks truth to this deeply disturbed elder, is one. Another is Nasreddin, the tricksterish figure found throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, about whom many stories are told.

At this Full Moon, we're invited to embrace the Wise Fool, holding on to youth and laughter and irreverence, and at the same time, respect for learning and tradition. Each of us will find our own best way, as Nasreddin says:

Nasreddin was walking in the bazaar with a large group of followers. Whatever Nasreddin did, his followers immediately copied. Every few steps Nasreddin would stop and shake his hands in the air, touch his feet and jump up yelling "Hu Hu Hu!" So his followers would also stop and do exactly the same thing.

One of the merchants, who knew Nasreddin, quietly asked him: "What are you doing my old friend? Why are these people imitating you?"

"I have become a Sufi Sheikh," replied Nasreddin. "These are my spiritual seekers; I am helping them reach enlightenment!"

"How do you know when they reach enlightenment?"

"That’s the easy part! Every morning I count them. The ones who have left – have reached enlightenment!"