Full Moon in Leo: Center Stage!

Full in bloom!

Full Moon in Leo
February 14, 2014
6:53 pm EST / 11:53 pm GMT


Oh, the Full Moon in Leo! In any year, this is the Full Moon illuminating our passions, creativity, and personal expression. Are we living from the heart? Are we courageous where we need to be? Can we take the lead? And ... can we be playful, living in the moment, alive in the juiciest way possible?

This year's Full Moon falls toward the end of Leo, 26 degrees, with the Sun at 26 Aquarius. See where that falls in your birth chart, as that area of life will be highlighted.

And ... hmmm ... look there by the Sun. Mercury Retrograde is conjunct the Sun, opposing the Full Moon. And, wow, there's Saturn in Scorpio squaring Sun, Mercury and Moon, turning this Full Moon into a challenging T-Square.

So, bring up the spotlights, get ready for your moment in center stage––and keep a weather eye out because it could be a bumpy night.

IF we are in our hearts, allowing this Mercury retrograde to bring us into inner, reflective spaces. IF we've been traveling with Saturn in Scorpio, finding the rough spots, working through deep issues, willing to learning. IF we've been open to transformation (for Pluto and Uranus and Venus are also in this Full Moon picture) ...

THEN this Full Moon can feel like a big, fat red rose bursting open, gorgeous to see, redolent with beautiful rose for the nose, full of creative possibilities. Oh! we might say, that's me!

On the other hand, this Full Moon does carry the potential for miscommunication (Mercury Rx) especially involving groups or technology (in Aquarius) that leads to hurt feelings and drama (Full Moon in Leo).

With Saturn in Scorpio squaring, issues could arise around the difference between what we thought was going on and what's really going on. Or, perhaps, something from the past we've not completely worked through could reappear (maybe in a new guise).

Since tomorrow is also Valentine's Day, which, whether you're celebrating, avoiding, or ignoring, gets us thinking about where we are in the realms of love, the call to stay in the moment, listen carefully, and communicate clearly, and remain compassionate and kind is there.

It's all about transformation, the signature energy of our time. The message there could not be more clear: A second T-Square has Uranus the revolutionary squaring Pluto and Venus in Capricorn, and Jupiter retrograde in Cancer.

We are deep into processes of assessing old relationships of all kinds, choosing to take (or having to take) hard looks at what's working, what's not working, and what needs to happen. Venus in Capricorn can be very pragmatic––willing to work hard, there for the long haul, but at some point, ready to say, look, this isn't going anywhere.

Pluto and Uranus are ALL about our need to change, and Jupiter in Cancer is highlighting our needs for security and nurturing. Uranus is there to push, prod, and sometimes light a fire: The past is fine as far as it goes, he says, but look at what's happening NOW. Shifts happen.

We're not without resources here. Mars in Libra trines the Sun and sextiles the Full Moon. He's ready to act, and brings charm, diplomacy, and skills at finding the win-win to the table. And these are good energies, overall; they really are. There's a lot of power flowing with this Full Moon.

The challenge will be to stay with the heart, stay with what we're truly passionate about, avoid shifting into places of hurt and misunderstanding, and being open, open, open to creativity and passion. It's going to be an amazing show. I can't wait for the curtain to rise...
    

This Moon's Quarter: Dreaming True

White Stone (detail) by Nicholas Roerich

Crescent Moon in Pisces
10:35 pm February 2 EST
3:35 am February 3 GMT

Imbolc (astrological)
February 3, 2014
5:03 pm EST / 10:03 pm GMT

First Quarter Moon in Taurus
February 6, 2014
2:22 pm EST / 7:22 pm GMT

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces
February 6, 2014
4:43 pm EST / 9:43 pm GMT

There's so much happening, this First Quarter gets its own post. We're now in the midst of celebrations for the new Chinese Year of the Wood Horse. Tomorrow brings the Crescent Moon, followed by the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc, the First Quarter Moon, and our first Mercury Rertrograde of 2014 ... what's going on??

As promised, the New Moon in Aquarius awakened a new vision, and we're already getting glimmers of what's coming. What? You thought an Aquarian New Moon would be slow?

Still in the dark of the New Moon time, the Pisces Moon brings strong dreams. Right now, she's traveling with Neptune and Chiron, so be sure you have a notebook or recorder handy. (I use my iPhone.)

Tomorrow night's Crescent Moon, the edgy half-square when we get our first glimmer of our New Moon intentions, finds the Moon in the last, powerful, anaretic degree of Pisces. Poised to jump into a new cycle of Fire, this Moon is widely trine Saturn is mysterious Scorpio. Perhaps tonight's dreams will show us obstacles––along with the magic to work through them.

The next day, the ancient festival of Imbolc arrives. Known as Candelmas in later calendars, Imbolc arrives astrologically when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Aquarius, the middle of winter. At this deeply quiet, frozen, silent, time, we look for early signs of Spring: snowdrops blooming through snow, the stirring of unborn lambs, the peeking out of a groundhog.

The middle of winter is deepest yin, when yang is potentiated most strongly. We have planted seeds. Now, before we see the first shoots, we feel the seed crack open in the dark earth. Somehow, the growth tip knows how to find the Sun, and heads upward.

And, oh! what a sprouting this will be! The Imbolc Moon sits right with Uranus the trickster revolutionary, igniting Fire that will light our way for the year to come. The goddess and saint associated with Imbolc is Brigid, whose triple skills in smithcraft, healing and poetry are all based in the inspiration of Fire.

The First Quarter Moon grounds us firmly in Earth, as she sits at 17 Taurus, squaring the Sun, opposite Saturn, and trine Venus and Pluto. The First Quarter is the challenge: Are we ready to step into our new vision?

The Moon's pattern is challenging, alright, and thumps us back down in the middle of the New Moon's pattern: This is about reality AND vision, coinciding, working together, becoming real.

No getting lost in the clouds at this First Quarter, it's all about what works from top to bottom, high to low, edge to edge, and every bit in between.

Which is good, because we're about to offered time to think it through: Just a few hours after the First Quarter, Mercury goes retrograde in Pisces.

Mercury is very close to Neptune as he stations, continuing the strong dreaming vibe. Keep those notebooks and recorders handy!

Over the course of the month, Mercury will move back into Aquarian territory, giving us the time to check and double check our plans. Remember, Mercury retrograde is not about making us miserable with constant glitches. It's about taking the time to reflect, review, revisit, retreat (when necessary), revise ... all the "re" words.

These periods are vital for us. We can't go, go, go all the time. Embracing the gifts of Mercury retrograde, taking time for meditation and slowness, will reduce frustration and most likely the number of mishaps as well.

So will backing up your computer and other tech devices. and making allowances for more dreaminess than usual––this is Piscean and Aquarian territory, after all.

This first week of the new lunar cycle is crowded with incident, and then we slow down. Pay attention to what's coming up for you now. This is a time of thinking and feeling, mind and body, the vision and the manifestation. Noticing where things don't fit will alert us to where those new shoots will soon be breaking through.

This Full Moon coming up is in passionate Leo, and falls on Valentine's Day. Can't wait to tell you more about that one ...
    

New Moon in Aquarius: Real Vision

fractal geometry

New Moon in Aquarius
Thursday, January 30, 2014
4:39 pm EST / 9:39 pm GMT

Today's the New Moon in Aquarius, sign of vision, community, our common being-ness with all that is. Aquarius is a formal sign, fixed Air, sometimes building castles in the air, always searching for the "Why not?"

That quote itself, dreaming things that never were and asking, why not? has a history: Often attributed to Robert Kennedy, it was first quoted by John F. Kennedy, from a play by George Bernard Shaw, where it was spoken by the Serpent. Interesting, no?

Here we are on a New Moon day about vision, and the real is so present, so unavoidably here, visions seem (perhaps) laughable if not irrelevant. This winter of biting cold and storms to shake foundations, of changes in air pressure and temperature so extreme we wonder which season it is at all, has triggered more discussions about vision and planning and projection and foresight than any airy debates could.

The charts for this New Moon show that pattern. Yes, the Sun and Moon sit in the 10th degree of Aquarius––check where this falls in your birth chart to see where clarity and new perspectives can enter your life––and yet another powerful pattern is here:

Venus and Pluto sit together in Capricorn, offering all the "real" we can handle. Opposite is Jupiter in Cancer, making it all bigger. These two, Capricorn and Cancer, are the tradition-holders of the zodiac, the places where we value what has been, how things are, and what needs to continue.

And yet ... and yet ... this opposition is squared by Uranus the revolutionary. The hard question posed by this T-Square is, our realities are changing. What are we going to do about it?

Change is happening all around us, on every level. Personal, professional, environmental, political––name a realm, an area of life, where huge changes are not the norm. What do we do?

There's the vision thing. Derided by some, this New Moon brings us back to that point. Life is uncertain. Our control over events is limited. Without a dream, a vision, a plan in some form of where we're headed and what we hope for––without something like that, how do we get anywhere at all?

That opposition of traditions, Pluto, Venus and Jupiter, is also linked in positive flows of energy to energies of dreaming and planning: There's a lovely rectangle of trines and sextiles connecting those three to Pallas Athena in Virgo (always clear-headed) and Chiron and Juno in Pisces, with Neptune nearby (open to the needs and wounding of others, looking for healing).

NB: For those of you looking at your birth charts, notice how much is happening in and around 10 degrees, especially in Capricorn, Cancer, Pisces and Aries. Anything in our charts in these degrees is being touched by these larger patterns.

There are also yods (fingers of fate), two of them, at this New Moon. The key yod points at the New Moon itself, with Jupiter and Pallas Athena at its base: In the contest between emotional connection to the past, and clear-eyed dedication to the best possible future, moving into a new vision is desperately needed.

We cannot, and should not, let go of what is best in the past. (This includes, by the way, our biosphere, which is our Cancerian home place at its most fundemental.) But the old ways alone will not bring us into the world we hope for.

This is not a comfortable time. This New Moon feels to me like that moment when an important deadline looms, the make-or-break presentation, and I suddenly realize my whole concept for the project is flawed. At the 11th hour, do I have the guts to tear up what I have and start over?

Over the last weeks, we've been brought face to face in some way with things that are and are not working in the realities of our lives. We've been asked to let go of something––beliefs, assumptions, convictions, relationships, tangible stuff, whatever. It hasn't been easy, although there has been some relief.

Now we're at the point of looking at what's in front of us and asking, what next? This is the "What next?" New Moon.

Keep in mind that Aquarius is also quirky, innovative, and iconoclastic. This is an outside-the-box New Moon. Also remember the New Moon is a dark time. We are looking for a vision, asking for one, hoping for one, but it won't be clear just yet.

This is the time to set intentions for where we want clarity, hope and commitment. Where we pledge to boldly go, and hold onto the dream. The choices we make and the directions we set are important.

Think about it.
     

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
Robert Kennedy
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robert_kennedy.html#v4AWfKpfCwfzW8xL.99