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

Full Moon in Taurus: Beautiful Mother

the feast of life

Full Moon in Taurus
October 29, 2012

Tomorrow brings the Full Moon in Taurus, our yearly northern hemisphere reminder, as nights grow long and winds sharp, that the Earth is a place of abundance.

It's time to prepare for the lean season, so the cosmos sends a message––our bodies need feeding, homes need heat, children need warm coats, people need safety in winter storms, and the Earth will provide with our help.

Taurus is the sign of patience, perseverance, and nurturing; the sign that loves the precious physicality of life. Taurus also understands how the world works––systems have cycles and some include loss, so each of us needs to step up for all of us to enjoy the good things of life.

The loaves and the fishes may have appeared miraculously, but they came in answer to a recognized need––someone who noticed, then said out loud, wow, there's a lot of people here who haven't eaten. And all that plenty didn't distribute itself––people came forward to carry, hand out, make sure everyone got some, and collect the leftovers. Pot luck supper where everybody helps, not the miracle drive-thru where someone hands you a bag and you're gone.

Taurus sticks around.

Across from the Taurus Moon, we find the Sun and Saturn in that other sign of great staying power, Scorpio. Here we experience the deeper reverberations of our physical life.

In one framework, we could see Scorpio (especially with Saturn right there), as the big stick behind the carrot, the hellfire consequence of failures of virtue. Scorpio as darkness with a capital "D," as the things we run from.

In another, Scorpio becomes the messenger of the unseen, the one who knows what is not obvious, the one who understands the deeper meanings of our simplest actions. At this Full Moon, the unseen but deeply felt is especially strong:

The Grand Trine in Water still flows, as the Sun and Saturn together trine Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, and Ceres in Cancer. This pattern connects strong energies of dreaming, manifesting, healing and abundance, bringing them all closer to our conscious awareness.

With the Moon opposite the Sun (as always at a Full Moon), this Taurus Moon becomes the apex of a wide kite, receiving sextiles from Neptune and Chiron, and from Ceres. Pluto the Alchemist trines the Full Moon, and sextile the Sun and Chiron.

Meanwhile, Venus has entered her home sign of Libra, and sextiles Mercury in generous, optimistic Sagittarius. Mars is also in open-handed Sagittarius, opposite Sag's ruler, Jupiter the Sage, still reflectively retrograde in Gemini. Uranus, too, is part of the picture, as he semisextiles the Moon and forms an inconjunct to the Sun, edgy as always.

Much can be illuminated at this Full Moon. Look at your birth chart to see where the Full Moon will fall, as issues related to this part of your chart will be in the spotlight. For all of us, the Full Moon in Taurus will ask:

• Where am I feeling well provided for in my life? Where am I feeling deprived or left out? What actions do I need to take, to feel and experience more abundance?

• What deeper motives support (or interfere with) my actions? Where do I need to look below the surface at what's really going on in my life?

• How am I connecting with intuition or guidance in its many forms? Am I listening to compassionate voices seeking my highest good? How can I deepen my most positive, life-enhancing connections?

• Am I a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty kind of person? What are the consequences of that? If I am less happy than I would like to be, where can I invite conscious, deliberate optimism into my life, and express that to others?

You'll notice that each of these areas end with "what can I do?" kinds of questions ... Saturn is strongly present in this Full Moon, and he doesn't like to see anyone sitting around, wasting time and resources. On the other hand, this is the Taurus Full Moon, and appreciating the wonderful things of life becomes a responsibility too, one we embrace now.

So, sitting around worrying about what's going wrong? Not so much. Resting in the abundance of our Earth Mother, savoring the good things of our lives and sharing them with others––that's a responsible, as well as responsive, way to live this Full Moon.