Healing Waters: Moving from the Full Moon to the New

Supermoon over Washington, DC

Disseminating Moon in Aquarius
June 26, 2013 12:12 pm EDT

Last Quarter Moon in Aries
June 30, 2013 12:54 am EDT

Balsamic Moon in Taurus
July 4, 2013 12:01 am EDT

Saturn turns direct
July 8, 2013 1:12 am EDT

New Moon in Cancer
July 8, 2013 3:14 am EDT

The echoes of the Full Super Moon still reverberate, as amazing images of her giant, glowing face over beautiful landscapes show up all over the 'net.

This image of the Full Moon rising behind the Washington Monument points to how important this time of year is for the USA astrologically. Born on July 4, the USA has a Cancer Sun, and political astrologers have had much to say lately about where things are going for the nation.

My focus is on the personal realms, and much is happening here as well. We're now in the waning half of the lunar cycle, a time of looking at what's been brought to light, appreciating our achievements, sharing the results, and letting go of what's finished.

The ongoing Grand Water Trine dominates this waning cycle, with Neptune and Saturn staying tightly coupled, and the third point continually activated by the Sun, Jupiter, Lilith, and the Moon. Deep emotions will continue to come up to be experienced, explored, healed, released.

Throughout the cycle, we're offered support for the emotional work we're invited to do. Specific energies of thinking and action will shift into place, tossing us spars to hold on to, then pulling the lifeboat alongside and helping us climb in.

The New Moon to come is in the heart-centered sign of Cancer, castle of the Moon and home of homes. When we reach it, we'll have the chance to renew our hearts from a place of understanding and insight––if we've accepted the invitations offered along the way.

Tomorrow, June 26, we reach the Disseminating Moon. This is the day Mercury turns retrograde in Cancer, which might leave us feeling mired in messy emotions. And here's the Moon with an invitation to insight: She's in cerebral, objective Aquarius, conjunct fair-minded Juno and flowing energy in trine with Mars and Pallas Athena in Gemini.

With the Moon and Mars, Juno and Athena, in Air signs, we get perspective, movement, ideas. New ways of seeing help sort out murky feelings. Pay attention to heart and mind both; they need each other.

June 30 brings the Last Quarter Moon, and a jolt of energy. This Moon's in fiery Aries, joining revolutionary Uranus. No chance to stay stuck here! What needs to change? Got it? Let's change it!

This Last Quarter Moon squares the Sun (that's what the Last Quarter means) and also squares Pluto the alchemist, who is opposite the Sun. More push to change! Transform!

With the Moon and Sun activating the Pluto–Uranus square, we could see big events happening on the world stage. Yet these are strong personal energies too: We're called to reinvent ourselves, to align with what is.

With the Balsamic Moon on July 4, the push to make significant changes continues.  The Moon is in patient, grounded Taurus. A Taurus Moon can be stubborn, so there might be some feeling of not wanting to let go, of needing to hold on to the past, the way things have been.

Let's look again: this Moon's key aspects are two quintiles, an unusual aspect that brings creativity. Those quintiles reach out on either side to Venus in Leo and Chiron in Pisces. What does this pattern offer us?

The Balsamic Moon is THE time to let go of what's finished for us. With all the deep work we've been doing lately, this could feel hard––even impossible. Yet here is the Moon in Taurus, the sign of self-nurturing, creating a crucible of healing and personal expression with Chiron and Venus.

This pattern calls out for a ritual of release, a personal creative act that acknowledges all we have been through, honors all we have felt, and gently lets go of whatever needs to move away from us. Nothing harsh, something loving.

The New Moon in Cancer will bring many openings, which I'll write of later. What you need to know now is that less than two hours before the New Moon arrives, Saturn will turn direct after what seems like another forever-long retrograde.

Saturn is slowing down now, preparing to stop and turn. This places him in a powerful position, adding to the emotional depth and weight of these next weeks. At the New Moon, the place of beginning, he'll be direct in motion again, ready to create and build.

This is a time to go with the flow, knowing light and fire and air will be there to keep our heads (and hearts) above water. We can explore the depths, find our treasure, and carry it safely home.
    

Synchronicity Stew: Mercury–Saturn Trine

the rose chafer ... Jung's synchronicity messenger

Waning Moon Cycle

Moon–Pluto conjunction:
March 6, 2:15 pm EST
Mercury–Saturn trine:
March 7, 2:26 pm EST
Balsamic Moon in Aquarius:
March 8, 2:17 am EST

What do anesthesia, dreams, learning Photoshop and Van Allen Belts have in common? If you're as deep into the Piscean ocean as I've been, you've already spun out half a dozen science fiction plots with all those elements.

In fact (if we can use such a hard word in these Neptunian times), they're ways synchronicity has entered my life recently.

We're still wending our way through the waning Moon phase, in the cycle that initiated with the intense Aquarius New Moon on February 10 and entered its waning period with the amazing Full Moon in Virgo of February 25.  I write this in part as a memo to me, because I'm uncoupled from linear time these days––those Moon events seem liked hours ago and eons ago, simultaneously.

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes, synchronicity.

This afternoon (Wednesday) brings the Capricorn Moon into an up close and personal conjunction with Pluto. Maybe that's why the invitation to Michele Grace Lessirard's New Moon teleclass tonight is about women and money––and why today is a get-'er-done kind of day.

Tomorrow brings a flowing trine between Mercury and Saturn, both retrograde. I mentioned this trine in my post about Mercury retrograde, and suggested we might see issues of emotional power, visionary depth, and the power of dreams surfacing.

I'm seeing a big increase in the flow of synchronicity, in my personal life and the world around me.

Have you noticed the Weather Channel named our current new winter storm "Saturn"? The other name for the storm is "Snowquester" and today it shut down the federal government in Washington, D.C.––which some will see as redundant.

Just the other day, U.S. scientists announced the discovery of a new belt of powerful electrons in the Van Allen Belt, the doughnut-shaped loops of radiation that surround the Earth. It appears that this "new" belt may always have been there, detected now because space probes are now more sensitive.

NASA image of the Van Allen Belt

What could be more Piscean than radiation in space surrounding the Earth, now seen in a new way due to increased sensitivity?

To add another bit of Neptunian fog, the Van Allen Belt radiation is the key element used by conspiracy theorists claiming the Moon landing never happened.

In my life, I had a medical treatment, then in an anesthesia and narcotics-assisted recovery nap, had a dream about a new tarot deck I had designed and created. This past week, as I began playing around with image ideas, I discovered that creativeLIVE was offering a weeks' worth of free broadcasts on Photoshop techniques. I watched when I could, and learned tons of new ways to manipulate images––how Neptunian is that?

And, yes, it's been an intense couple of weeks emotionally, something we can expect to continue right through the coming New Moon in Pisces. Remember the waning phase is ideal of letting things go. So, feel it, understand it, let it move through you, rinse and repeat ... it's that kind of phase.

If you are or have been in the path of this huge, diffuse and wet (all Pisces qualities) winter storm barreling through the U.S. Midwest and East, I hope you're safe, warm and dry. I'd love to hear how synchronicity is entering your life these days!
    

Mercury Retrograde: Treading Water or New Seas?

Toni Frissell photo for Harper's 1947

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces
February 23 through March 13, 2013

Tomorrow, Mercury turns retrograde in the visionary and also confusing sign of Pisces. Today is a good day to back up computers, and send messages that especially need to be clear and direct.

And yet ... I see the coming weeks with Mercury as an invitation to depth, not a time of anxiety.

Back in 2010, I wrote about how Mercury retrogrades are part of this planet's cycle, a time of renewal and reflection.

It's time to slow down. Relentless forward motion is exhausting and ultimately self-defeating. We are cyclical creatures who need are own times to replenish, and this is one.

We're entering the first Mercury retrograde of 2013, an experience quite different from 2012's retrogrades. Last year, Mercury explored the Fire signs––we were asked to look at our motivations, what drives us, what fires us up.

This year, all three retrogrades will be in the Water signs, and so we're diving into emotions, dreams, visionary experiences, lyricism, poetry, and mist.

Mercury turns retrograde in Pisces overnight (4:41 am EST), ushering the North American times zones into this period of reflection while we're deep in dreams. He's just past the Pisces planet conclave and decides ... wait, I'm not done here ... and decides to turn back and reconnect with each of the energies there: Mars, Chiron, the Sun and Neptune are in Pisces now, with Venus poised to enter soon. Each will conjunct Mercury during his journey.

Saturn retrograding through Scorpio makes this a time of power as well as vision. Astrology is about cycles within cycles, and the dance of Mercury and Saturn over the next few weeks will draw each of us into questions about what we desire, what moves us, what triggers us, and where the power lies in it all.

I'm fascinated with what I'm seeing in the charts over the next weeks. At the moment Mercury turns retrograde, the Moon will be in Leo trining Uranus––pulsing underneath the watery calm is intense energy for change and renewal.

On March 7, Mercury trines Saturn, both retrograde, as Mercury conjunct Venus, with both in the middle of a very large Pisces group. Questions of emotional power, visionary depth, and the power of dreams may come to the fore at this time.

March 17, Mercury goes direct sitting between Neptune and Chiron as the Sun and Venus are conjunct in late Pisces. Just days before the Spring Equinox, Mars moves to conjunct Uranus as the Moon moves to meet Jupiter ... Boom!

When we reach the Spring Equinox, the planet party has moved decisively into Aries and everything lights up.

Right now, we're offered a contemplative time, a reflective time, to dig deep, look in the mirror and unpack our emotional baggage. It's likely to be intense, confusing and emotional. Issues of power, manipulation, deception and glamour may raise their threatening heads.

If we accept the invitation, we'll do far more than tread water for the next few weeks hoping nothing gets too messed up––we'll find ourselves in new waters, refreshed and alive, ready for the explosion of Spring, the rebirth of Aries Fire.

It's up to you ... but I'm grabbing my swim fins and diving in!
    

Creating Creative Structures: Saturn in Water

bumblebees can't theoretically fly ... and do

For lots of reasons, I'm thinking about Saturn these days. I am also moving a bookcase. A heavy one. One really too big for me to move alone. But, like the bumblebee, I won't look at limitations and so I'm doing it.

Then I heard a voice saying, "Mary, what are you DOing?" It was my father's voice––in my head, but quite clearly his, and if anyone who knew him reads this, I'm sure you're getting the intonation exactly right.

Because of course I'm not moving this bookcase in the way my very Saturnian Dad would have done it: Carefully clearing everything out of the way, taping, securing, protecting edges.

I'm just, you know, doing it. There are books in piles all over my apartment, and I had to walk the d*#n thing around dressers and tables I did not move first.

When I heard the voice, I thought, well, what am I doing? And what would the sky say about it?

Right now, the Sun and Neptune are conjunct––expressing creativity, deepening spirituality, and doing things in loopy ways.

Mars is just past a flowing trine with Saturn, both in Water––taking action to create structures to support Piscean and Scorpionic stuff.

Venus is conjunct my Descendent, trining my Mercury-Neptune conjunction, both in Air––wanting to support my creative thought and writing in ways that work for me, valuing my own unique process.

The Moon in Cancer is trining the Sun-Neptune conjunction––aligning home and emotions with creativity and spirituality.

I'm moving this bookcase because I decided a few days ago that I need a different space to write. I need a dedicated space that says "writing" to me. My main computer and desk have been in my bedroom, and while I sometime write in bed, it's not the most structured, professional way to do it.

I don't have quite this many books, really...

So, this bookcase is moving into the bedroom so the 'puter and desk can come out to the "library" which is a wall with two other bookcases.

As a side benefit, I will now see a bookshelf from my bed, one of those odd things I find comforting. (Venus in Aquarius conjunct the Descendent = quirky things about me.)

I'm also emerging from a period of being not in 100% health. Feeling my energy coming back, I felt a surge of agency––by gum, I says to myself, that bookcase ain't gonna move itself. Sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

For the record, in case my Dad's actually worried about this (or anyone else is), I moved the bookcase carefully. I didn't lift it, I walked it. I put an old towel under it to make it slide. And I've been working on this for hours, with rests in between.

And once it was in place (yes, books are still stacked all over, but hey, it's progress), I decided to look at the charts and write about it.

This is how Saturn retrograde in Scorpio might look, in the presence of a ton of planets in Pisces: Doing something tangible and specific to support other more nebulous and hopefully creative things happening. And, oh yes, Saturn is retrograding through my 3rd House of writing.

May something magically creative happen today for you!
    

Saturn and Inhibitory Control

The Crystal Ball

Saturn Retrograde in Scorpio
February 18 –– July 8, 2013

Saturn is now retrograde, turning to revisit the early degrees of Scorpio between now and July. The chart of his retrograde moment points to the mystical, transformative potential of this reflective time:

The Sun has just entered visionary Pisces, to conjunct Neptune, Pisces' ruler. The Moon and Jupiter are conjunct in Gemini, eagerly and playfully making new philosophical connections. And last but not least, the Moon and Jupiter sit at the apex of a yod with Saturn and Pluto at its base.

A yod is a tall triangle that points quite pointedly at something significant going on. The sides of the triangle are inconjunct aspects, an awkward link that forces a need for adjustment. So, Saturn and Pluto are ganging up on the Moon and Jupiter, making us uncomfortably aware that maybe some areas of our thinking, values, and understanding need to be revisited. Ouch.

I've been reading about the brain lately, its structure and functions. It turns out that a key feature of our prefrontal cortex, the shiny new part of the brain that makes us human thinkers and problem solvers, is the ability to inhibit the expression of our instincts and impulses.

Inhibition––sounds like Saturn, doesn't it? The planet of responsibility, limits, hard work and consequences.

Being able to control our impulses makes us functional members of society, whichever society we happen to be in. We learn what not to say, what not to do, because it's considered embarrassing or insulting.

Again, sounds like Saturn. If ever a planet relished saying things like "Because I said so," it's Saturn.

And yet ... it's that same inhibitory control that, quite literally, allows us to learn, think and create. Developing the ability to direct attention allows us to focus on something long enough to understand how it works, even if a new bright and shiny comes along to tempt us. Impulse control allows us to do something now that's not all that fun, because we know it will have a positive payoff in the future.

So, even though inhibition sounds like the opposite of choice––inhibition being the voice of "no"–– learning to master our impulses and control our behavior gives us the power to make choices.

The first and best victory is to conquer the self. — Plato

Saturn flows energy in an easy trine with Pluto today, and will again towards the end of his retrograde. With Saturn in Pluto-ruled Scorpio and Pluto in Saturn-ruled Capricorn, they are on the same wavelength. Astrologically, they're said to be in mutual reception.

In other words, the transformative, mystical power of Scorpio and Pluto are flowing with the pragmatic, real-world power of Capricorn and Saturn. This retrograde is about power, and what we do with it.

Thinking about power is not always comfortable. We want to control our own destinies, sure, but power? Isn't that dangerous? Only the power-hungry want power, and we're not like that. Besides, with power comes responsibility, and we don't really want that.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. –– Abraham Lincoln

For the next few months, Saturn will be offering us the opportunity (ok, he's be pushing, possibly even forcing, us) to examine our ideas about power. How we use it, how we let other people use it, what we use it for, and how that's working out.

Which house in your birth chart will Saturn be walking through? In this area in particular, issues around power, discipline, and control are likely to emerge. In fact, these issues have probably emerged already, because Saturn just made his first pass over that very territory. He's now heading back for a second look.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. ––Alice Walker

Saturn wants us to become the CEOs of our own lives, the authors of our own stories. How are we directly our attention (or not)? How are we focusing our energy, disciplining ourselves to attain our own goals? In the world of physics, power is the ability to do work, and Saturn is all about getting the work done.

He's not just interested in physical reality, though. In Scorpio, he's also diving into our psyches, emotions, spirituality, deep creativity and occult connections.

Where is old programming holding us back? Where are we engaging in self sabotage? Where are we getting our wires crossed and inhibiting creative expression because we're still worried about what other people will think? These too are areas up for review in the coming months.

So, work with Saturn instead of resisting him. He can make us really squirm, but his real goal is to get us to claim our power, step into the driver's seat, and get ourselves moving toward our goals. Over the next months we'll have the chance to learn from a master.
    

Crescent Moon to Full: Diving Gear Ready!

prepare to dive ...

First Crescent Moon
February 17, 2013 3:30 pm EST
Gibbous Moon
February 21, 2013 6:44pm EST
Full Moon in Virgo
February 25, 2013 3:26 pm EST

As we turn the corner with the growing Moon (who rode faint but clear in the early afternoon sky as I liked in the woods a few hours ago), let's take a moment to appreciate the First Quarter Moon chart.

It's an intense chart, yes, and maybe the energy has been a bit crazy and jittery. I mean, it's not every week that meteors strike the earth on one continent and flame across the sky in another, while NASA monitors a near-miss asteroid fly-by.

Notice that in the First Quarter chart, everyone is moving direct. Everyone! That won't be true for a while, so we should appreciate it today.

Tomorrow, Saturn turns retrograde in Scorpio, where he'll be backing up until mid July. On February 23 (Saturday), Mercury goes retrograde in Pisces, right in the middle of the cosmic Pisces party.

Saturn and Mercury both turning retrograde in water signs, when there's such a concentration in water already––this is interesting. It is not time to panic. (Although you might want to have your Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy handy ... the one with the large friendly letters on the cover which say, Don't Panic.)

This is a big shift in energy that does not point inevitably to disaster. Honestly. The shift will feel less jarring if you're aware it's coming, and go with the flow. We've been in a time of forward motion that has (at least in my life) felt unpredictable and squirrelly. We are entering a time that is likely to feel slower, more fluid, more languid, more reflective, and also possibly foggier.

Any planet is more powerful when stationing (preparing to turn either retrograde or direct), so Saturn in Scorpio is pretty heavy right now. He could be showing up as the voice of paranoia and fear, or justice and retribution. Making those easy flowing trines to the Pisces guys (Chiron, Mars and Mercury are in range), it might feel easy to get pulled into conspiracy theories, or just get really jumpy about a lot of vague stuff.

This is not the approach I recommend.

Dana Gerhardt's take on Saturn in Scorpio (shared in chart readings) is, this is where he's at his most wizardly. How can we work with this mystical powerhouse? Instead of being taken over by fear, we can explore what our fears are, gain insight into their shape and size, and lessen their control over us.

Notice that the Gibbous Moon is in her home sign of Cancer, just past a trine with Saturn. We'll be experiencing multiple Water trines during this quarter, including Grand Trines in Water among the Moon, Saturn and the many planets in Pisces.

At a recent workshop about living an authentic life, Gregg Lavoy shared the story of the great Buddhist Milarepa who, during a long meditation retreat, found himself beset by his worst demons. After trying in vain to vanquish them, he shifted strategy. He made tea and invited them all to sit down.

In other words, he got to know them. He got to know them as challenges separate from himself, energies he could explore without being controlled. In his book Callings, Gregg quotes the actress Naomi Newman who says "If we wait until our hands stop shaking, we will never open the door."

At the New Moon in Aquarius, we dared greatly, setting intentions for our brightest dreams. During this First Quarter phase, we saw, perhaps, the first unfurlings of those dreams and probably got a few shocks along the way.

In this next quarter, reaching toward the Full Moon, we'll be diving into deep emotional, intuitive and magical territory. With Saturn on our side (and this is possible), we have the chance to channel great power and learn vital truths. This is a time to dive in, open the door, and invite our demons for tea.

The alternative is to stay frozen, and that's no fun. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am myself exploring tea with my demons as part of my writing practice. It's not easy. Scarey things are scarey, and ugly as well. It's really interesting, though. Just like these charts. Go for it!