Balsamic Moon: Cat's Cradle

compost!

Balsamic Moon in Libra
November 10, 2013

In the ancient Celtic calendar, we've entered the dark half of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, this direct link to the Sun's leaving us in darkness has symbolic depth as well.

We're now in the ancient Celtic month of Seed Fall, when seeds die in the dark earth and we wait for the new plants to emerge... later, when they're ready, when the time is right.

The Balsamic Moon is the seed fall of each lunar month, preparing to push new seeds into the earth, composting carefully with what is ready to break down and nourish the future. We will choose the seeds carefully based on what we hope to harvest, knowing that not all will sprout and even among the sprouts, not all will fruit––not knowing which ones will make it.

It's been an intense month. The losses are many and still being counted––even if you're happy with US election outcomes overall, the campaign season took a toll, and then there's storms, floods, fires, and the urgent, ongoing need to reach those still isolated and alone.

At this time, we're invited ... called ... even pushed to let go of what doesn't serve us. Let go of rancor and bad feeling. Let go of outmoded ideas. Let go of models that aren't working. Let go of stuff that's broken or damaged or simply not needed. Compost it.

Seed planting will come soon, it's time to prepare the ground.

The aspect patterns surrounding this Balsamic Moon are complicated, interwoven. Like a cat's cradle, the pattern shifts as we move our hands and look from another angle.

Notice all the planets in the early degrees of signs, connecting the dots:

The Moon at 3 Libra squares Ceres at 3 Cancer and opposed Uranus at 5 Aries, a Cardinal T-square challenging us to find a new balance amid sharply delineated changes.

The same Moon sextiles Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius, who trines Uranus in Aries––let's rethink our philosophies, look with new eyes at the world and find points of creative compromise.

Between the Moon and Mercury sits Saturn at 4 Scorpio, the wizard anchoring one node of this web. He semisextiles Moon and Mercury, and maintains still the Grand Water Trine with Ceres at 3 Cancer, and Chiron at 4 Pisces with Neptune at 0 Pisces. Emotions and intuition flow easily and powerfully, opening doors to insight and growth.

Saturn is inconjunct Uranus, the two rulers of Aquarius, sign of the new age, pushing at each other, challenging each to greater depth (Saturn) and wider revolution (Uranus).

And then there's Pluto, at 7 Capricorn, a big far away from the planets grouped at 3 and 4 perhaps, and yet Pluto's power has a long reach. He squares the Moon and Uranus, opposes Ceres, sextiles Saturn and Chiron, semisextiles Mercury, as if to say it's all, every bit of it, part of a grand movement, and alchemical shift towards ... towards what, eactly?

We don't know. This is not a time for clear sight; it's dark out there. Dark, however is not the same as evil. Darkness brings rest, release, rejuvenation, healing. Venus is in mid Libra, one of her home signs, and she trines Jupiter reflectively retrograde in Gemini. They remind us we're in a time of review that will bring a new flowering.

This is a time to appreciate the creative complexity of the cosmos, realize we can't possibly comprehend it all, and resolutely take the steps before us. Whatever's ready to go, let go of it. It will feel good, and you'll feel lighter afterwards. I promise.
    

Last Quarter Moon & Samhain: Light the Dark

lighting the dark

Last Quarter Moon in Leo
Astrological Samhain
Mercury Retrograde
November 6, 2012

Tuesday's Last Quarter Moon happens at 15 degrees of Leo (for the Moon) and Scorpio (for the Sun), making this waning Sun–Moon square coincide with astrological Samhain, when the Sun reaches the Scorpio midpoint.

As we turn the corner toward the New Moon in Scorpio, the skies mark the turning into the dark half of the year.

For those living along the Eastern seaboard of North America and the Caribbean who suffer the worst losses of hurricane Sandy, for US citizens trying to vote, and for those watching the election returns (and there will be watchers worldwide), this time might look dark indeed.

The Last Quarter Moon is the time in the lunar cycle when we release what is lost, what is finished, what no longer serves us. We enter the time of clearing the ground, composting, preparing by paring away.

At Samhain, also celebrated as the Day of the Dead, we enter the time of the ancestors, when we honor those who have gone before us, remembering their contributions to our lives and communities. For many reasons, this is a sobering time, a somber time, a quiet time.

And yet, the patterns of the heavens point us to life, passion, and creative action. The bright Leo Moon challenges the Sun in Scorpio, as she moves into the trine with Mars in optimistic Sagittarius. The Moon also sits in energized sextiles to Jupiter and Venus, who trine each other in Libra (Venus) and Gemini (Jupiter).

These patterns say, hey, when it looks dark, we light fires! When challenge comes, we rise to meet it! We let go of what's no good anymore and find the juice, light the spark, live without fear!

Wait ... isn't Mercury turning retrograde today? Yes, it's a complicated day, I admit. But notice that at the moment Mercury stations, he's less than a degree from trining revolutionary Uranus. There's great change and a big jolt of power here.

Mercury retrograde is not about communication breakdown––it's about careful communication, paying attention, rethinking what we do and say. Even Mercury retro is saying, seize the day!

Underneath everything, the Grand Water Trine continues to hold sway, linking deeply responsible Saturn to fiercely nurturing Ceres, visionary creative Neptune, and Chiron the healer-sage. The power of emotions, the strength of community, are paramount here.

The combination of patterns at this Last Quarter Moon invites us to:

• face our fears,
• rethink our goals and priorities,
• build community,
• find creative solutions.

Some, on this day, will find creative solutions to the great needs for food, housing, and safety in the face of Sandy's challenges.

Some, on this day, will make a fierce commitment to voting, no matter how long the lines or how many documents are required to prove their rights. Others will document the voting process, as a community of citizens committed to democratic action, to assure that challenges to this bedrock of government are met firmly.

Around the world, there are extraordinary challenges, and people will find ways to stand together with strength and find a way.

This Grand Trine in Water encompasses the largest possibly community. As we honor our ancestors, we reach out to new friends, neighbors and family. Sometimes, we honor the ancestors in this very way, by building new links to create a new world:

The Indian Country Today Media Network reported on special teams of marathon runners who, arriving in NYC to find the race cancelled, stayed to help: Eight aboriginal runners of Australia's Indigenous Marathon Project and the Lakota Five from Pine Ridge.

Let the waters of emotion and spirit connect us all. Let fire kindle our hearts to passionate, creative action. These elements are the focus of this Last Quarter Moon. Classically considered to be incompatible, we see across the world today that the greatest floods cannot put out the light of hope, and the bonds of community support our most powerful acts.
    

Disseminating Moon: Life Lessons

Disseminating Moon in Gemini
November 2, 2012

The Disseminating Moon is the square-and-a-half that follows each Full Moon, asking us what we've learned. At this Disseminating Moon, in bright, connected Gemini, we're children sitting on the shore, trying to put the pieces together.

The Grand Water Trine is with us still, with Saturn in Scorpio tightly trine Ceres in Cancer, trined by Neptune and Chiron in Pisces.

The Moon is 8 degrees away from Ceres, and Uranus less than 2 degrees from squaring Ceres––the fierce mother archetype morphs suddenly into something much larger than we've ever seen.

The oceans command our attention today in direct, unavoidable ways. Weather patterns, storms, wind, rain, rising sea levels. Things that are huge. Things we cannot control. Events that change the world as we know it.

Once, years ago when my daughter was little, she and I were caught in a rip tide off the North Carolina coast. It was a sunny afternoon, we were in sight of the shore, many people were around, and help came. Still it was terrifying––knowing I was in a current stronger than me, and I needed help to free myself and protect my child. I had nightmares about it for years afterwards. I cannot imagine facing a storm of Sandy's magnitude.

So, at one level, this Disseminating Moon brings messages about the power of wind, water and tides, and about the limits of human intervention, and also about our capacity for survival, adaptation, courage, hope, and compassion.

As I write this Thursday morning, 2 million people are still without power on the East Coast, over 100 people have died in the Caribbean and across Eastern North America, and more are missing. Many pieces have yet to be put together, to understand the total impact of this storm, and where we go from here.

Those of us not living in Sandy's path send prayers, good wishes, and support, as we think those "what if" thoughts ... because an event of this power brings up issues for everyone.

This Full Moon in Taurus brought us face to face with the gifts of Earth and also her limits, with the power of emotion and intuition, and also its shadows. Like the goddess Ceres, who we know better as Demeter, the Earth goes so far and no farther.

And yet, the Earth is neither vengeful nor angry. We take our place in the great pattern of life, our actions create changes we cannot see, and other things happen––because of what we did, perhaps, but the equation is not a simple one. We live within complex, interwoven systems in which decisions made by others somehow lead to where we stand among tangled strands we try to unwind.

Mary Oliver's poem Shadows closes with these words:

... Whatever
power of the earth rampages, we turn to it
dazed but anonymous eyes; whatever
the name of the catastrophe, it is never
the opposite of love.

And so we pick up the pieces, weave new patterns, and get on with things. We help those who have suffered loss. We honor those whose courage saved lives and homes. We breathe. We understand that love is something we can bring to the pattern, something that changes things, something of great power. 
     

rainbow over NYC after Sandy