Full Moon Eclipse: The Instability of Stasis

new day dawning

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

In the middle of April, the cruelest month, we walk through a Full Moon Eclipse in Libra, dramatic sign of our nonstop-high speed-unpredictably changing times. (Like we needed another ...)

This Full Moon will shine most brightly on Monday night. The Full Moon alignment occurs Tuesday morning. The total lunar eclipse with its blood-red Moon will be visible in most of the United States beginning at 2am EDT.

All this month, we're cooking in the crucible of a Grand Cardinal Cross with powerful agents of change Pluto and Uranus triggered by Jupiter (let's make this really big!) and Mars (and then we can blow it up!). There's plenty written about the pattern, with Steven Forrest's essay one of the more balanced.

Not only is this powerful Full Moon highlighting an extra-powerful Grand Cross, it's opening a series of four total lunar eclipses, called a tetrad (scientists call it that ... this time it's not astrological jargon).  Learn more about the cool science here at NASA's Space.com and dive into an amazingly thorough exploration of the astrology part here at Blue Moon Astrology.

OK, now you've got multiple windows and tabs going, the virtual equivalent of piles of books and papers strewn across the desk and drifting to the floor ... and you ask, What does it mean?

One look at the chart for this Full Moon shows us the incredible focus we have. This is not just a Full Moon––this is a Full Moon PLUS. Libra and Aries polarized: This is what we're looking at.

The Full Moon herself is in Libra, sign of balance, harmony, fairness, diplomacy, charm, and consideration for others. She is joined by the North Node (our path of becoming), Demeter (goddess of fierce mothering), Vesta (goddess of hearth and home) and Mars (of all people! the warrior and ruler of Aries).

The Sun opposes her in Aries, sign of action, singularity, hard-driving focus, compelling energy, and protector of the self. With the Sun, we see the South Node (what we've brought with us), Juno (goddess of fair partnership), Eris (edgy goddess of karmic justice), and a Mercury–Uranus conjunction bringing instant messaging from the cosmos.

Are you noticing the same interplay of checks and balances here?

Mars who rules Aries is in Libra. Juno who rules fair partners is in Aries. Past and future are both implicated, as are gentleness and fierceness, with lots of energy all over the place.

So, this Full Moon will illuminate how we're doing balancing the many balls we've got in the air right now, especially in the arena of relationships.

As always, check your birth chart. Where does the Full Moon fall? This area of life, and any planets touched, will receive extra high-watt spotlighting. With this Full Moon, watch the world stage too. The Grand Cardinal Cross signals change at every level of life, and that too may be illuminated with this Full Moon eclipse.

This Full Moon is not likely to feel comfortable. (I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty jumpy already, but that could just be me.) With Aries and Libra facing off, we're looking straight into some of our toughest issues:

• When do I hold tight to me and what I want, and when do I let go and focus on others?
• How do I say what I want in a convincing, compelling way and still include, invite and take care of important others in my life?
• When is it ok for me to go it alone, and when do I need my team? How do I be on someone else's team while still reaching my own goals?

None of these are easy, and we can really start to squirm when we're forced to face them. What can we do?

Well, notice another group in the chart: The ruler of this Full Moon is Venus, and she sits right between visionary Neptune and Chiron the wounded healer. She's telling us sailing through these knotty problems calls for special skills:

In these times, we want to follow our dreams, use all our senses to be in the right place at the right time, learn from what's happened in our lives, and turn that learning into gold.

So, what about that blood-red Moon? The ancients saw it as blood, a sign of war, conflict, pestilence, endings. Today, we know a bit more about what creates the color, which leads to a new, deeper, more hopeful view of this sign.

Because the Moon is smaller than the Earth, when they line up and obscure each other (which is what happens at an eclipse), the edge of the Earth still shows. Around that edge is a bright red ring of light. That ring shines back to the Moon, coloring it red.

That bright red ring is every sunrise and every sunset happening on Earth at that moment, all shining at once. So, if you're watching the eclipse at night, you're seeing all the other places, all over, where the day is dawning or ending.

In other words, you're looking at change, at transition, and it's beautiful.

These days, the world won't let us stay still. Somehow we have to find the right place between the poised balance of Libra and the headlong rush of Aries. Looking at the eclipse, we're seeing a world full of poised balances rushing into what comes next.

We can do that, too.
    

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.