Disseminating Moon: In Like a Lion!

Takarabune!

Disseminating Moon in Leo
January 1, 2013

Of course, I first typed "2012" in that header, then had to correct for the new year. Here we are, crossing yet another threshold, stepping through another portal, into what promises to be another amazing journey round the Sun.

Calendar time and astrological time don't always mesh gracefully. Yet on January 1, New Year's Day, we step into the Disseminating Moon––the waning phase after the Full Moon when we share out what we've learned, gained, and come to understand.

Since this is the calendar time of new beginnings, resolutions, and good wishes, it's intriguing that the lunar calendar invites us to put into practice all the things we've learned in this lunar cycle, and by extension, the past year.

The Moon's in passionate, creative, playful Leo, which is wonderful because Leo is feisty, fiery and warm, and we're in Capricorn time. The Sun is just slightly past conjunction with deep, deep Pluto, and Juno and Mercury are likewise in Capricorn. Saturn holds steady to his mutual-reception-sextile with Pluto, increasing the rock-hard, iron-fist qualities of cardinal Earth that Capricorn brings.

We're in deep winter here in southern Indiana, with more snow than Chicago or Boston, which, honestly, just isn't right. The weather's got me thinking about Capricorn, and the qualities that sign represents.

Saturn-ruled Capricorn is often described as the quintessential patriarch, the archetypal Father, authoritarian to the max. Capricorn can definitely wear that suit, and it fits well ... but as an Earth sign, Capricorn also carries feminine, or perhaps we might say, yin, energy.

In woman's garb, Capricorn is the Cailleach, the hag of winter who's bones are hard rock, and who can be pitiless in enforcing the laws of nature. This is the Baba Yaga, whose key question when we show up at her door is, "Are you here of your own free will?"

Which isn't a bad question for New Year's. Are we? Are we, wherever we are in our lives, there of our own free will? What does it mean to even ask that question?

The Moon in Leo knows––the Leo Moon, a square-and-a-half from the Cailleach, knows all about free will, and the absolute necessity of personal creative expression.

Within what is frozen, there is a burning ember waiting to ignite. Within the rock, there is gold. At this turning of the year, what commitments will we make to acknowledge the force of the Cailleach, while reaching with courage for the gold that is ours?

Luckily, help is available. Lots of help, always, actually, but I'm thinking of the Takarabune, the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan, whose night this is. Tonight and tomorrow, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, sleep with an image of the ship of these gods under your pillow, and your dreams may show you good fortune to come.

The Leo Moon is squaring the Moon's Nodes, which mark the pathway from the past into the future. A planet squaring the Nodes is said to be a missed step, something we haven't yet done, that may block us from moving forward.

At this Disseminating Moon in Leo, arriving on New Year's Day, we step forward boldly and reach for whatever good luck and good fortune are available to us, carrying these gifts into the coming year with a high heart.