Waxing Moon: Sailing Off the Edge of the World

At the edge ... ?

Crescent Moon in Taurus
April 3, 2014
5:03 am EDT / 10:03 am BST

First Quarter Moon in Cancer
April 7, 2014
4:31 am EDT / 9:31 am BST

Gibbous Moon in Virgo
April 11, 2014
6:57 am EDT / 11:57 am BST

Full Moon in Libra
Full Lunar Eclipse
April 15, 2014
3:42 am EDT / 8:42 am BST


Think of something you've always wanted to do, dreamed of doing, known you were MEANT to do, forget 'want'––would LOVE to do, would be more of who you're really meant to be if you did it.

Got that thing in mind? Does it scare you?

Now, do it. (I'm serious. DO it. Start working on it NOW.)

We've sown our Aries New Moon seeds. We're sailing toward late April's Cardinal Cross. The coming Full Moon arrives with a full lunar eclipse. These are days for MOVEMENT, for ACTION, for living life full on.

Every single Moon in the next few weeks emphasizes the gathering Cardinal Cross, with its focus on complete and utter change.  

Today's Crescent Moon rests (ha!) in the final degrees of peaceful Taurus, but the Aries Sun blazes right next to Uranus the Awakener and makes a very tight square to Pluto the Alchemist.

That Taurus Moon is sextiling Mercury in visionary Pisces, so watch and listen for dreams. Here's a perfect Taurus–Pisces dream: A dreamworker friend reported yesterday his two-year-old son dreamt of holding flowers. Taurus the patient gardener visits us with dreams of a hopeful Earth.

In a few days, the challenge of the First Quarter Moon arrives as the Sun and Moon both align with the gathering Cardinal Cross: The Sun remains with Uranus and the Moon in Cancer has moved to fund Jupiter. Meanwhile, Mercury clings to the final, powerful degree of Pisces.

April 7, look for something that looks like a BIG challenge (Jupiter does BIG) that. when you look more closely, turns out to be something you can totally own. Yes, it's a challenge and no, you're not stopping, thank you very much.

When the big-bellied Gibbous Moon arrives on April 11, the Sun will be lighting up the sky between Uranus and the South Node, showing us exactly where we need to shift out of the past (South Node) to move into the now (Uranus).

Meanwhile, the Virgo Moon will be opposite a Venus–Neptune conjunction in Pisces, while getting an edgy nudge from Mercury now in Aries.

Are you noticing how strong the energy of dreams is here? Aries is a time for action, and throughout, we are offered insights through dreams and visions. These are our navigation aids now.

The Full Moon arrives April15 with a full lunar eclipse, which means the Sun and Moon are aligned with the Moon's Nodes. Mercury will tightly conjunct Uranus, and asteroid Lilith squares the Full Moon.

There will be a full post just on this Moon later, and we can note right now we're heading for an especially intense Full Moon that will resonate for months to come.

So ... why would anyone choose to sail off the edge of the world? (Apart from the fact that that's where the dragons are, and dragons are always worth finding.)

Here's the interesting thing: We are all told at some point that sailors thought the Earth was flat. (Oh no!) We are all told how wonderfully courageous they were to go sailing at all, let alone approach those nasty edges.

BUT sailors, more than any other people, knew all along the Earth was round. They had the knowledge, tools, insight and experience to know they were NOT going to fall off.

And so do we.

It is really, really easy to find fear-mongers anywhere and everywhere. If we don't have them in our lives, we have them in our heads: "Don't try it, don't do it, it will never work, you're not [whatever] enough, you'll fail." Familiar, right?

These are the days we recognize in a new and wonderful way that all those messages are coming straight from the Flat Earth Society and our world is wonderfully and completely round.

That thing that looks like an edge is really a lovely curve, and if we use the tools, insight and experience we already have, we know that.

Sail on, sailor!
    

New Moon in Aries: Singularity

New Moon, New Fire

New Moon in Aries
March 30, 2014
2:45 pm EST / 6:45 pm BST

One look at the chart for Sunday's New Moon in Aries tells the story: A strong point of focus on this New Moon of new beginnings, pioneering, stepping out and up into whatever is heading toward us.

This New Moon aligns with Uranus, the revolutionary trickster who shakes us and wakes us up. Squared by Jupiter and Pluto, there is no way we can miss the alchemical fire.

The Spring Equinox highlighted where we needed to clear out and clean up. Now, with the New Moon asks us to set our personal trajectory. Where are we heading? What's the direction? What's the goal? What do we WANT?

Detachment is a lovely value, and it is NOT Aries. With this energy of initiating Fire, we move directly into the heart of our own desires. This is the moment to connect with our true longings. Forget playing it cool, and turn up the heat.

Aries is passionate. Did you know we can't remember things we have no feelings about? Emotion is what moves us, what gets us going, what drives us.

So, at this New Moon, touch the core of what you feel most strongly about. How can you honor that in your life, infusing all you do with light, passion and fire?

As always, check you birth chart. The House in which the New Moon falls, and planets and points aspected by this Moon (anything in and around 0 to 19 degrees, especially if close to 9 degrees and in the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer Libra, and Capricorn and the other two Fire signs, Leo and Sagittarius). Molly Hall offers a good overview of the impact of this New Moon through the Houses.

Our passions can definitely bring problems, so check in with those too. Here are some questions that might highlight Aries issues:

• Where am I letting my emotions rule my behavior, acting out, displaying anger inappropriately, or dominating others?

• Where am I letting my desires run the show? Where do I find myself unable to make good choices because I want something too much?

• Where am I taking unwise risks or acting impulsively in ways I later regret?

At this New Moon, we can set intentions and make wishes to channel our passions clearly and strongly toward heartfelt goals, while releasing tendencies to let anger or desire run amok and ruin our lives.

This New Moon wants its own banner saying THIS IS IMPORTANT. An Aries New Moon arrives every year around this time, so, what's the big deal?

The big deal is right there in the chart: All those triangles pointing at the New Moon, with all those transformational energies doing the pointing.

We live in unusual times, surrounded by heightened energies. The next Full Moon brings an eclipse, followed not long after by the Cardinal Grand Cross of Pluto, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars. These converging patterns bring us a singular energy, one we won't see again in our lifetimes (or for lifetimes after).

Singularities are crazy events. In mathematics, in the sciences, in technology, a singularity happens when limits are reached and we can no longer predict what might occur. This is interesting to study, but possibly unnerving to live through.

Aries, though, LOVES singularity. Aries represents the point focus of something new made manifest. At this New Moon, we align our personal energies with our own goals so we're ready to engage with whatever happens in the weeks to come.

This waning Moon time is the "READY." The New Moon will be the "AIM." The coming weeks will bring the "FIRE!". Let's make sure we've got the first two steps down, at this, the opportune moment.
    

New Beginnings and the Aries Point

The new emerging from the old

Spring Equinox
March 20, 2104
12:57 pm EDT / 4:57 pm GMT

Last Quarter Moon in Capricorn
March 23, 2014, 9:46 pm EDT
March 24, 2014, 1:46 am GMT

Balsamic Moon in Aquarius
March 27, 2014
6:28 am EDT / 10:28 am GMT

New Moon in Aries
March 30, 2014
2:45 pm EDT / 6:45 pm GMT


It's officially Spring now, after a long, cold winter. The Equinox arrived, the beginning of the astrological and agricultural year. We're finally seeing signs of Spring: Bluebirds, robins, phoebes, crocuses, the green tips of daffodils, the first shoots of woodland flowers.

This is a powerful time of new beginnings, the annual reset button, a time when new and (hopefully) exciting things come into our lives.

So it's something of a paradox this year that it's happening in a waning lunar cycle, in a time of releasing, letting go, and composting. How do we balance this?

As I look at the charts for the Equinox, the Last Quarter and Balsamic Moon charts, and the soon-to-arrive New Moon in Aries, it seems to me the cosmos is easing us into something at this time, something significant.

Now, "easing" may not be the word that first leaps to mind when we consider how things have felt lately. Maybe words like "challenging" or at least "interesting" or possibly "overwhelming" come to mind as more accurate. In times of great change, though––and we are definitely in such times––support for our transitions and transformations is welcome and (sometimes) vital.

I've written before about the Pluto–Uranus squares (as many astrologers have). This challenge between the lighting bolt of revolution (Uranus) and the slow, inexorable shifting of tectonic plates (Pluto) has already happened four times, with three more to come. This pattern is the signature of our times, signaling the depth of change, its rapidity, and the polarization it brings.

The next exact square happens as part of a Cardinal Cross on April 21. On that day, Pluto and Uranus reach an exact square, with Jupiter opposite Pluto squaring Uranus, and Mars opposite Uranus squaring Pluto (and Jupiter). In the cardinal signs, which are the initiators, the beginners, this Grand Cross opens yet another gateway for BIG CHANGE.

So when we roll back to look at the Equinox, arriving during a waning lunar cycle when we're getting rid of stuff we don't need, we can think, hmmm, maybe I need to put more energy (Sun in Aries) into clearing the decks and making room for what's showing up.

Astrologically, the Spring Equinox arrives when the Sun reaches 0 Aries. This opening degree of Aries is called the Aries Point, and indicates where new things come into our lives.

Check your birth chart to see where 0 Aries falls for you, by House and aspect to major planets. As an example, my Aries Point falls in my Eighth House exactly opposite my Sun, which says important new stuff shows up in my life as deeply transformative experiences (8th House) that shake up and transform my sense of who I am (Sun opposition) … which for me is about right.

At today's Last Quarter, the Moon in pragmatic Capricorn squares the Aries Sun, a combination that says, yeah, there's lots of new energy here (Sun in Aries) but what are you going to DO with it? (Moon in Cap)

A few days later (March 27), the Balsamic Moon in Aquarius lines up with Venus, also in Aquarius, to say, ok, what are our core values? What's the grand plan? And … since this is a Balsamic Moon … what needs to get kicked to the curb so it can happen?

When the New Moon arrives on March 30, it will be in Aries, only 9 degrees away from the Aries Point, and conjunct Uranus the trickster revolutionary. Here we are invited to begin anew, to give birth to ourselves in a new form. This is the personal rebirth that will help set the stage for the Cardinal Cross about three weeks later.

Aries is a bright, fiery energy that wants to move, to act, to blaze new trails, set new marks, and reach them all. To have Aries show up in the waning time gives us a boost (or maybe a boot!) to get moving on what needs to shift.

See where Aries falls in your chart. Invite in the new energy, and use the Spring fire to clean out the last of winter and make space for something new and big. It's time!