16 Aries: Brownies dancing in the
setting sun. One of my favorite stories as a child was about the
brownies who secretly came and did little chores for you while you
were sleeping. It was a lot like the story of the cobbler and the
elves. Except, the story I was told had to do with Brownies cleaning
the house and orchestrating cutesy little stuff that worked in your
favor if they liked you. They came to be wee folk I knew as helpful
to human folk like us who may be attempting to accomplish something
but could also use a little magical help. In my mind, they came to
those with sincere intention and a willingness to attempt what was
ahead of them but may feel overwhelmed. And, sometimes, they would
work against what I knew as “mean” people who tried to create
trouble or manipulate the well intended folks.
In a lot of ways I see this symbol as a
magical degree in which we, too, can encounter almost magical little
happenings that assist us in moving to where we need to be. The trick
is belief as well as remembering to say thank you or even leave little
offerings in response to their assistance or to merely welcome them
in. Then, as Blain Bovee suggests, “Go with the flow, without
resistance or energy blocking disbelief.”
4 Gemini: Holly and Mistletoe. Mars in
Gemini certainly aligns with a spring like feel. However, the symbol
itself seems out of season in our hemisphere. Bovee mentions vines
and their tendency to grow by indiscriminately reaching out for the
next crag to cling to as they do. He speaks of a tendency for things
to move forward but in ways we may not expect. So, in our efforts to
also move forward, again it is suggested we allow things to go as
they will grasping opportunity or “vining out” toward those crags
of opportunity as they are revealed to us. To me this symbol also
gives the connotation of Yule and Christmas time almost like an out
of season alignment with the magical energies of that time of year.
During our part of the year that has
more daylight than darkness, it is the Oak King who holds ruler ship.
But, as the night begins to overtake the day, so does his
counterparts influence grow brought forth by the Holly King. Holly
itself symbolizes hope. Even more interesting, holly repels lighting
and was often planted around homes for protection for this reason.
Quite timely note, if you ask me, as this New Moon phase opens the
door that leads us to our second Full Moon in Libra which occurs just
a blip in degrees ahead of Uranus (lightning) in Taurus. The Sun
finds him by conjunction shortly after that lunation. Perhaps
invoking the power of holly can insulate us from future mal-effect of
this at the end of this Moon cycle.
This plant also denotes vigilance and
the end game of stubborn victories won.
Druids, Romans and the Norse held
mistletoe in venerated status. The Druids blessed the plant in
ceremony and distributed sprigs from the blessed plants to folks for
protection in their homes or to carry with them. The Norse believed
it to be the sacred plant of Frigga, the Goddess of Love and the
mother of Halder the God of the Summer Sun. A spear from the plant
was used to kill the God of the Summer Sun but the tears of Frigga
shed over the loss were believed to have morphed into the white
berries of mistletoe. Thus the parasitic vine became known as a
symbol of death, mourning and the elated rebirth. The Romans invoked
the vine when celebrating Saturn during their annual Saturnalia
celebrations. So, it too is quite renowned with meaning as both
these plants are more related to that which is done in private
(darkness) more so than out in the open Sun of daylight hours.
Plus, both holly and mistletoe are
evergreen. They manage to escape the death of winter and rebel
against wither by continuing to display bold and rich greenness under
blankets of snow. To me, this relates to the sense of endurance and
innate tenacity that comes with living itself. In that, it tends to
go on and that spark of life strives to persevere even in dark or
cold times or how even in death of the body that carries life...the
energy that animates it strives to continue on in other forms once
released from its host.
Even without the symbolism pointing to
the presence of nature's magical creatures and mystical plants, the
energy of the Spring Season in the North holds a special sweet magic
all its own. As Spring unfurls it's as if new colorful delights
surprise us daily seemingly to magically manifested under the cover
of darkness awaiting to surprise us when we arise in the morning.
Streams and creeks begin to bubble creating little splashes that, if
you listen closely enough, sound like laughing sprites. The trees
wake from slumber and stretch tender leaves toward the warmth of the
Sun in greetings to the sky. I've seen plenty moments of Springtime
in my life but it the natural magic of watching the Earth reawaken
again adorned with such tender and yet vivid colors never fails to
inspire and invigorate.
Our human bodies seem to respond to
this awakening energy at springtime. We become ready to get started
with our own warm weather activities and delight at milder
temperatures that assist us to more comfortably embark in outdoor
activities after what has likely become an exceedingly claustrophobic
entrapment indoors by the end of winter. Given the energies of the
end of winter this season that had us spinning our brain gears under
Mercury retrograde and trudging slowly but diligently forth with Mars
in Taurus, what comes next is likely going to feel much lighter
initially encouraging us to spring forth, as well. We too may feel
more animated as the days move forward..at least temporarily. I
definitely would not discourage that. Get outside and shake some of
winters dust off. Open your windows and let the fresh airs of spring
waft across the sills to help re-enliven the energy of the indoors.
Allow yourself to delight in the reawakening of our world.
And...yes...YES...the energized and forward moving feel of this is
supportive of launching intentions and beginning new things. A
greenlight we have not encountered much under the conditions of our
passing skies. It's here now though and we are supported in engaging
with the energy.
However, each spring is just a little
bit different. This one, in particular, has been a bit slow coming
about and it's earliest sprouts in a lot of areas were a bit too
tender to endure the last few bites of cold nights remaining. Chiron
in Aries just barely past the spring point says our seeds and their
eventual tender shoots may still need protection from intermittent
harshness (late season frost) to survive the elements in this spring.
The New Moon's proximity in square to Saturn says there is much
potential for intentions and plants to take root but it will require
due diligence. Venus and Mercury in Pisces near Neptune advise of a
need to proactively tend to matters of irrigation to keep our seeds
from becoming flooded in April's rains while also realizing that
Pisces is not the sign of emergence upon the Earth. Pisces is the
gestational sign that points to ethereal waters where new life is
still being developed. The promise of that life emerging exists but
while it prepares to be born it is protected in silence. What is
conceived now in so far as our personal plans and intentions also
needs this extended protection. Meaning, we may declare our
intentions to the Universe, but on the whole we are greatly
encouraged, still, to kind of keep those plans to ourselves in order
to protect them until the season ripens for their full release. Until
they are truly ready to thrive on their own and until the conditions
are stable enough to support them.
You see, even though we are clearing
ourselves of Mercury retrograde, he still resides in his shadow. We
are starting into Spring but there are still matters that have not
completed their entire story just yet. We may be still crafting our
steps forward with only the first few at the ready to launch as our
minds and eyes remain open for the crag to grasp onto just like the
ever spreading opportunistic vines of mistletoe.
Mercury clears his retrograde shadow
and births into Aries in his own type of awakening in the wee morning
hours of April 17th just a few days before our 2nd
Full Moon in Libra. Then, Venus springs into the Ram's sign a few
days following that on April 20th shortly after the Sun
enters Taurus on the same day. Until then, these bodies (hearts and
mind) require protection in gestation which is a nudge to us that a
lot of the work we do at this New Moon, also takes place undercover
or behind the scenes. These are things we do which are begun now but
are not much spoken of. We allow the results to show themselves once
our private toils are finished.
The main thing, though, is to remember
that this particular season of Spring holds its own unique
challenges. These come in a wide variance of flavors every year. This
one containing the potential of flooding as well as the threat of
late season frost. Yet, the stars themselves when looking forward to
what occurs in the next two weeks that follow this New Moon, hold
warnings of potential harshness within them too. Some of the first
challenges of that comes on the skirts of this New Moon itself.
On Friday evening following this New
Moon, Pluto officially finds the transitting South Node by
conjunction. Of course, Saturn and Pluto both are tight to to the
South Node already straddling it on either side. After this New Moon
sprouts forth, she squares them both which puts pressure on the
planting itself and with Saturn's wintery chill can even threaten our
fresh green with bursts of cold air or frost. Above and beyond the
influence upon intention setting...these two converging on the South
Node are nothing short of a big freaking deal. These are not light
energies nor are they in an “easy” position for the Aries Sun to
deal with. We will likely feel the heavy presence and pressure coming
from them. Much of the circumstances that they are going to squeeze
forth? Aren't going to be much welcomed nor will they likely be felt
as pleasurable. Working with Saturn or Pluto alone is ardourous.
Together? It is definitely not easy business. On the South Node they
operate to excavate metaphorical demons of our past that are in need
of uncovering as they threaten to inhibit our abilities to fully
strive for the potential found in our transiting North Node. I say
excavate, but in sincerity it does feel like a squeezing or perhaps
even a stomping. In ways that does remind of me plucking fresh grapes
from the vine and then stomping them or pressing them to obtain their
juices to create wine. This energy will force us to hold
accountability over the happenings of our past and that past will
include need of correction or at the very least exposure of any ways
we may have used our powers of influence or status toward dark or
malefic intent. We may face matters of our psychology in need of
rectification and come full face frontal for a reckoning with our
personal demons. That is going to scatter across the globe the
results of these excavations making worldly happenings rise in
intensity too. As a result, even with light and active placements for
both the Sun and Mars at this New Moon, everything is going to grow
in intensity as we traverse the full tale of it. And the cue for all
of us is to honestly, bravely and in forth right manner proactively
deal with this karmic junk on personal levels as it is squeezed
forth. To be accountable in this veritable judgement so that the
business of it can be wrapped up and cleared away so that we are able
to move forward. We turn that old and dusky stuff over into the soil
to use as fertilizer for own growth with some of us facing
consequence more severe than others depending on what may reside in
our individual past.
The pressure is likely to really begin
to be apparent as our First Quarter Moon draws nigh. First quarters
or the opening square of ANY cycle contains challenges. Folks are
quick to forget that as we focus in on the return of any given planet
to its natal position and then find ourselves wondering why it meets
with cross purposes and challenges as that planet reaches the sign
that brings it into square with its natal position. The Moon echoes
this type of challenge every month under a first quarter. The one
ahead of us, though, is quite a severe and intense challenge as it
brings Sun in Aries and Moon in Cancer into a Cardinal t-square with
Pluto and the nodal axis. We have hints of that pressure coming forth
as early as Day 1 under this New Moon as the Aries Moon herself moves
forward to square Pluto and the nodal axis later Friday evening.
From here, Mercury continues to move
forward to make his 3rd sextiles with both Saturn (4/7)
and Pluto (4/10). Our mental picture begins to clarify and deepen as
a knowing descends upon us about how these squeezings on the South
Node are in need of rectification as they hang like albatrosses
around our necks in our attempts toward continued growth. Plus,
between these two stabilizing aspects of Mercury and immediately
prior to the first quarter moon, Jupiter turns retrograde during
daylight hours on 4/10 with the Moon in Gemini bearing witness by way
of an opposition as he turns about. As a result of what Mercury
reveals to us and the turn around of Jupiter, many will be prone to
question everything they know and even be faced with questioning
everything they have believed to be true in the first place. All this
feeds directly into the intensity of the Cardinal t-square with Pluto
that our First Quarter Moon challenges us with on 4/12. And, to add a
little more slipperiness to the entirety of the affair, at this same
time Mars in Gemini waxes into hazy square with Neptune in Pisces.
This can surely echo in severe and wet weather in nature but it can
also be indicative of spun out effort...like hydroplaning on puddles
as you zip around in your light bodied quick little sports car. Or,
diffusing effort with things like personal illness, fatigue or
confusion.
Things continue to spin out and
intensify as we keep getting more near this 2nd Full Moon
in Libra which pops forth at the crucial Cardinal 29th
degree on 4/19 after Mercury is birthed into Aries and immediately
prior to the Sun's conjunction to Uranus in Taurus as well as Venus'
birth into Aries. Talk about a moon that will bring about exposure of
some things that have been a long time coming. This one, friends, is
one to watch...as it too holds an often overlooked phenomena by
occurring at what is known as “the bends” meaning we move from a
Cardinal t-square with the nodes into a full blown Cardinal Cross
with the nodes under that Full Moon which leads to the immediate
unsettlement of the Sun's conjunction with Uranus. This marks our
halfway point between eclipses and the Full Moon's that fill in that
spot have proven themselves over the years to pack unexpected
punches. The relevance gets lost in the emerging popularity of
Astrology as SuperMoons and Eclipses have a tendency to catch the
most hype. So, what happens is these formations kind of sneak up on
us.
Uranus in Taurus, I'll remind you, is
NOT Uranus in Aries. With Aries the happenings connected with Uranus
were quick, violent and quite wild. Uranus in Taurus explodes
differently in ways that test our patience in waiting for the
fullness of relief from the building pressure to come. It doesn't
release quickly but rather in oozing and slowly shifting ways that
can cause long lasting changes to the surface of the globe. Maps are
redrawn. Islands emerge or even sink. Landslides. Volcanic eruption.
It's a very slow and sometimes tedious ooze or slowly evolving
sinkhole being produced methodically out of stuff that has been
gurgling under the surface stewing for quite some time.
At our last Full Moon in Libra, we were
encouraged to make initial cuts and begin trimming the fat in regard
to things we did not wish to carry into our future. As time unfolds
on our way to the 2nd Full Moon in Libra, information has
come full circle with Mercury out of shadow and that Moon will
operate likened to the “knock out punch” no one really saw coming
but...in fact...has been in the works for quite some time. At that
point, we should each know what it is we need leave behind us or what
still lies latent in shadow or in our past in need of release/reform
and the proximity of it to Uranus represents our growing restlessness
and intolerance of it. As the Earth may threaten to change her
surface, we too may be encouraged to make very large sweeping and far
reaching changes for ourselves at that time.
Knowing all that helps us to better
understand the guidance that Tarot gives us under Friday's New Moon.
For that, we are given the Hermit. This card and the fact that
Mercury is still in shadow along with the “under the cover of
darkness” indication of both sabians in relationship to this New
Moon suggest go forth...but in quiet. Hold your plans close to your
chest and speak not openly of them just yet except in very small
circles of trusted folks or even...not at all. We are not encouraged
to seek outwardly for truth under these next two weeks but instead to
disconnect from more worldly affairs in search for our own inner sense
of truth. There will be a lot that happens on the world stage which
will eventually meet with rectification also but unless we are
already actively involved in these happenings there will not be much
we can do as individuals to impact it. Those wheels were likely set
in motion in secret too with the results of it just now being
squeezed out into public view. With that, even reporting entities in
attempts to deliver the truth will be struggling to get full grasp of
it themselves. The story will skew and come under question with Mars
in square to Neptune and Jupiter turning retrograde. It is suggested
we focus inward as that all works itself out and become more
concerned with how the energy is impacting us on individual levels
(Aries) and what it is trying to guide us toward as more so than
getting whipped up in the energies of “out there.”
So, in essence, what we are encouraged
to do is, yes, Spring forth. But, quietly. Plant your seeds in
private knowing they may need a little extended protection from late
season threatening elements. Go alone guided by your own inner voice
of wisdom and seek quiet spaces to shade yourself from the
growing uncertainty of global events.
Protect and keep silent your plans and focus in on the work you can
do undercover. As nature opens up her spring door, retreat into her
and allow yourself to contemplate and become enamored with the
magical entities she harbors within her doors. If you want to share
your plans, whisper them unto the Brownies. Whisper them into the
wind. Yet continue to keep them protected from public elements at
that this juncture. Their time for revelation will come. But, they
wholly belong to you for now in the interest of their own protection
and they should be kept flexible to accommodate the continual
unwinding deliverance of Mercury which may prove to show us ways in
which our initial plans might even need to be tweaked a bit as we
move forward and Spring more fully reveals herself. So, into the
woods we go forth unto a personal sacred journey that is focused on
the personal more than the worldly at this Moon. The ground is fertile
and ripe for our planting now but these will be seeds planted in the
soil we have metaphorically accumulated over the course of our
lifetime whose fertility will echo the PH Balance or imbalance we
have each created for ourselves. That makes matters of the personal
even more relevant as we are each tasked with the truth of that and
held under the pressures the next two weeks may hold for us. So if
you feel prone to shout about how you are going to plow and plunder
your way to the future with tremendous force and ego...maybe stow it
so you don't have to eat those words later. Work quietly and in
earnest while shrouded in humility and accountability for best
results from here. As the symbolism draws in strongly the messages of
trees, so should we seek our wisdoms in quiet amongst them becoming
more concerned with our connection to nature through ourselves at
this time while becoming strongly beholden to the duty of our
stewardship to the Earth by leaving more “of the world” things to
side for now. And...as promised, my Libra self has baked up a treat
to help remind us to keep our plans to ourselves for now. Take one
and pass them around.
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