2012 New Moon in Aquarius: Beginnings Are Often Continuations

New Quickening Moon in Aquarius

The New Moon begins at 1:39am CST on January 23^rd. The Quickening Moon phase is a good time to slough off the lethargy that often ensues after the holiday season. As if your body, and everything around you, is trying to ‘quicken’ to spring…there is often an urge to really follow through with actions that are ‘out with the old, in with the new’. During the daytime, this New Moon in Aquarius is the time to initiate those early spring cleanings. Like the water bearer, it’s time to wash the world anew.

The New Moon meets the Sun in the 3^rd degree of Aquarius, which is a particularly rebellious degree. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is ‘a deserter from the navy’. There is an urge toward defiance under this influence. In its highest expression, this energy gives us the collective courage to turn our backs on what doesn’t resonate with the greatest good…and support humanitarian challenges. This kind of rebellion proposes ethical opposition, freedom of choice, and champions diversity. At the very core of this energy is an urge to be free from unnecessary control…whether that is from the oppression of a hierarchical patriarchy or, on an inner level, freedom from your own self-limiting thought patterns and bad habits. The desire to be different, to change ourselves for the better, will be bursting at our seams during this moon phase. New life is stirring, preparing for the thaw into the coming season of new growth.

The Year of the Water Dragon Begins

So maybe 2012 started off with the wrong kind of bang. You were expecting immediate changes, possibly, because of all the hype surrounding the year? Government is still the same old shadowy institution, cranking out needless power plays rather than giving focus to what will really change the world to a better place. Corruption is still a driving force in our mainstream. People are still playing the same old game that keeps them numb, dumb, and complacent…ignoring the periphery that screams for them to wake up. But before you spiral down into hopelessness or defeat, take another look. Everything has been waking up…and still is. Don’t expect everything to be drastic this year (though, like in recent years, there will be plenty that causes the whole world to take notice). Many of the positive changes are happening (and have been) gradually, blossoming gently in the tumult surrounding global change. This is new growth at its finest...it starts small, but it just keeps growing without being a threat, in fact it enriches lives rather than destroying them. While the old foundations are cracking and crumbling, new life grows within the cracks...almost unnoticeable until a whole garden grows where an old business was.

The 2012 New Moon of the Water Bearer ushers in the Year of the Water Dragon. The luckiest of all of the Chinese Astrology signs, the Dragon is creative and powerful. The element of water abounds this year as Neptune enters Pisces (the sign it rules) on February 3^rd…giving further strength to the awesome power of water that has been showering the world by storm. This will likely manifest both literally in some ways and also symbolically. Water is not only an element that represents emotion, it also has memory and intellect. If you are not yet familiar with Dr. Masaru Emoto’s studies of water crystals…this may be a good time to look into it. It will give you a better understanding and appreciation for the water around and inside us.

In October of last year, my friend (Dan Furst) and I co-created an event here in Omaha called ‘Water Rites: A Ceremony of Communal Intention to Heal Our Waters’…he is another of many of us who understands the importance of water, and writes a flood of information about calendars, astrology, and global happenings that correlate with the Age of Aquarius. For more information on the Water Dragon and some celestial dynamics of 2012, check out his website: http://www.hermes3.net/jan112.htm

Mars Retrograde in Virgo

All of that being said about the New Quickening Moon of the Water Dragon, another astrological event occurs the same day that may have an opposite effect on momentum for getting things going. At 6:54pm CST, Mars goes retrograde in Virgo and stays in this direction until April 14^th when it turns direct again. Mars stations and retrogrades in the 24^th degree of Virgo. The sabian symbol for this degree is ‘Mary and her white lamb’. This retrograde clearly starts with the intention of purifying something that has gotten too complicated and muddied to see the divine that is illuminated in simplicity. Mars Retrogrades, even when they begin on the same day of a New Moon and a New Year, aren’t really known for being a good time to initiate new projects. It’s a time to reinforce something you already began…something that needs to be scaled down and simplified now.

In GOOD DAYS ACTION PLANNING GUIDE, Mary Shea describes an ideal way to handle Mars retrograde. “You go back over situations (either in your mind or in reality), doing things again and again while making corrections in the way you handle events. While Mars is retrograde, you will be reviewing the way you handle anger, self-defense, self-motivation and sexual relationships… outward anger or conflicts may not be appropriate. If you are normally non-assertive, you may be forced to defend yourself. Whatever your tactics, you must give thought to what you are doing. If your tactics do not work or they are inappropriate to the situation, your anger will continue to build while Mars is retrograde. You can expect the anger to manifest full-blown by the time Mars turns direct. If you have seriously wronged or angered another with…acts of aggression, you can expect the backlash as Mars turns direct.”

Now all of this raises the question, what kind of beginning includes a warning to not start anything new? A beginning of the most important kind…the kind that makes you take a long hard look at what you keep saying you should have done or should be doing, and re-work the details. Virgo is a very detail-oriented sign and our actions during this retrograde will be geared toward separating the wheat from the chaff (an appropriate Virgo phrase). What self-imposed limitation no longer serves your best interests? Get rid of it, finally, so you can focus on what’s really important. What did you start but fail to finish that now plagues you like you can’t do anything right? Pick it up again and work through the difficulties. Especially since this retrograde is in Virgo, anything that relates to cleaning and organizing, purifying and healing, will be especially beneficial right now. Detoxing, sticking to your exercise routine, cleaning the house, reorganizing and getting rid of excess, eating better, analyzing old projects and re-working them….all of this comes with the energy of Mars in Virgo. It’s best to take advantage of the good things about this retrograde instead of getting stuck in the frustrated aggressions and impatience of its negative side.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

P.S. Listen to this beautiful song that resonates with the energy of this time: 'Scale Down' by Rising Appalachia

A Note to the Collective Caterpillar

A Caterpillar does not gently blossom into a beautiful Monarch. It consumes and consumes until it is fat with everything it can possibly stomach. Then it finds a lonely place and creates a shell of itself around itself. And then it begins transforming...because it must. It's body fights this change...the transformation is a battle between what was and what must be. And then it becomes. It becomes, but it is still surrounded by the walls it created. It inevitably must break free of this barrier in order to reintroduce itself to the world, transformed. Because it must. It is nature.

And there is a brief time of strengthening those wings, pumping the lifeblood into those newly transformed wings. But then it happens...the first flight. And the world is different, just because of the changes it made. And there is no more need to consume and consume only. There is need to fly...and to fly home, like all the others. Because it must. It is nature.

The sustenance is different now...its purpose has even changed. It is drinking the nectar of the rainbow of Earth's flowers. It is drinking for energy and strength, for endurance on a long and arduous journey and no longer just to grow larger. It must make an impossible flight possible. It must make the delicacies of its transformation withstand the harshest of elements. Because it must. It is nature.

They do not all make it to the southern forest. But many do...and those many co-create more. And they will find their family. And they will find home.

*********

The following is a recent answer of mine to a common question. Each person with this question thinks they are alone, but they are many. Perhaps you, too, have the question that could be answered with this.

You are transforming. We all are. This is a necessary time of transition for all...and we will all go through our own hurts, our own wounds, and find the gift within. The light is there within the shadows, not without.

Those who ignore this transition...or try to stifle it somehow...they are ignoring enlightenment, THEY are feeding the shadows. Not you. Not us. We are warriors of light together, not apart.

You're seeking help in this transition...like so many others...that's the first sign that consciousness is greater now than ever before. We are seeking togetherness in our work to light up the darkness...not to destroy it...but to allow it to see the light. Only then can we integrate those shadows and become whole.

This applies to everyone, everywhere, on all levels. It applies on the individual level (where we seek our own wholeness) as it applies on a collective level (where we seek togetherness). It applies on the inner level (where seek holistic health) as it applies on an environmental level (where we seek global health).

We can not narrow the focus only to one...not only to ourselves. Do not only notice the finger you're pointing at yourself...because when you point a finger, three more are pointing the opposite direction. The focus is meant to expand now, not at others...but at the world around us. Here is where we make the changes, which create the changes within.

The past is no matter now. It is just a story. It may be your story, and you feel it has importance because it is yours and you own it...but you have to release it. It's happened. It's not happening.

And you may consider that the present seems strangely like the past now, and you don't like it...because the story's repeating...it's not getting anywhere. But that's when the storyteller wakes up and begins again. The present is soon the past as well.

And the future, it's always blank pages to be written. You, as well as the world you sense and perceive, are what you create in every NOW that passes. Every moment is another chance for change.

Love yourself because you have to, not only because you want to. You have a responsibility just like the rest of us to do just that and quit sabotaging yourself with ideas from the past. You grab those negative thoughts by their jugular, you examine them in the light, then you see that they are only meant to sabotage your awakening...they then transform just by being caught in the light...you say 'that's right, i wasn't being very helpful...not to myself or anyone.' and by this you transmute those shadows, those negativities, into enlightened wisdom of yourself as well as human nature.

When you do this, you help others do this. THAT is the key to enlightenment. THAT is the togetherness we seek.

Love and Gratitude,
Felina Lune Kavi

Psychopompic Journey for Bill's Soul Release

Every New Year, the Dog Star (Sirius) reaches its midnight culmination…its zenith in our night sky. Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major (the Great Dog), is the brightest star in our sky and has always been significant to many cultures that look to the sky for messages. The Ancient Egyptians saw it as a symbol of Anubis, the jackal-headed neter of the afterlife, who guided the souls of the dead to cross over safely. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Anubis was the psychopomp (soul guide) the dead called upon in order to pass safely into the afterlife. Though I wasn’t aware of it at first, because I had to go through some days of intense grieving before I could see the signs, Bill’s soul chose for his body to die at this auspicious and widely celebrated time for good reason. The soul agreement we made earlier last year had come to realization in a very big way. He knew I would see it written in the stars and remember to help him cross over…that I would remember everything, in fact, that we had talked about concerning his death.

He knew there would have to be two ceremonies. His family would gather themselves and his friends at their church in Laurens for a funeral, respecting tradition while simultaneously honoring the unique expression of his life. They did that quite beautifully, indeed.

He also knew he wanted to be cremated. When I asked if he would be kept in an urn or if his ashes would be scattered somewhere he said ‘I don’t want to be in an urn on someone’s mantle. And I don’t want my ashes in just one place either. I should be scattered in a bunch of different places, I think.” When I asked if he knew where, he didn’t know yet. He said he’d get back to me on that, though he never did. He only mentioned one place, but he didn’t know the name of it…so it was hard to understand where it was. I really wasn’t asking these questions to keep a record of it for his death. We were just talking and sharing both of our ideas of what we’d want to have happen if we died.

But one thing was clear, and that was that he didn’t want a lot of crying, mourning, and grieving. He never wanted to affect anyone’s life in a negative way. So he wanted there to be a celebration after the funeral, and he knew his ‘Farmily’ of friends would understand that and make it happen. He wanted more smiles than sobs, more laughter than sadness, more remembrance of good times shared than regrets or guilt about the should-have-done’s.

And so we made that happen. After leaving the funeral, we went to Hidden Acres Music Farm for a couple of hours to enjoy the place where Bill brought us all together the past few years. Some gathered around the fire Ed created, some walked around the property, some gathered at the Spirit Center as well as in the Silo. Smokin’ Joe Scarpellino played some songs around the campfire as fire spinners performed, and it felt like a cloud was being lifted. We were finding our peace, together again.

Later we gathered at Alta’s Community Center for a sacred circle ceremony. I told everyone that it was Bill’s encouragement that allowed me to lead such ceremonies for large groups. Before knowing him, I kept my practices mostly to myself…helping only a select few, usually one at a time. I’ve always been a healer in subtle ways…but Bill saw it in me and brought it out into the open, no matter the initial discomfort I felt about ‘letting my light shine’ in such a public way. He knew that I could help more people this way, and in doing so, they could help me blossom rapidly into the healer I was becoming. And that’s exactly what he made happen, a friendly push for which I’ll always be grateful.

I told this large circle of friends that Bill was raised with a strong Christian background, and he never lost that faith…it was always strong with him. He understood that faith in such a positive way that it allowed him to embrace anyone…no matter their beliefs. It allowed him to see the undercurrents of oneness within many beliefs, and that love and acceptance is important no matter our differences. I also grew up with a Christian background, as many do growing up in the heartland. Later on, I studied many more religions and also found the interconnectedness that flowed between belief systems. I realized my understanding was always a little more open than what Christianity itself had come to allow, and so I embraced eclectic paganism…a very inclusive spirituality that is unique to each individual. In marrying my husband, who is a Christian, we have learned that inter-spirituality is one of the most harmonious understandings of humanity that we could ever express. And we embody that love and acceptance, showing it to others…that it’s not only possible, it’s essential to peace and happiness.

I’m telling you this because I made it clear to everyone in the circle that all beliefs are welcome, accepted, and appreciated. The sacred circles that I create for large groups are for protection and containment of energy only, not for initiations into my own ways. We were surrounding ourselves with heightened spiritual energy, and all forms of Spirit were welcome within our sacred space.

When we were safe inside the circle, where only love could enter and only love could emerge, we prepared for a shamanic journey. I explained that the intention they should carry with them for this journey would be to say farewell to Bill and encourage him to cross over. Then I explained that I would be journeying to the Land of the Dead in order to guide his soul directly to where he needed to go. This is my journey….

Psychopompic Journey at Bill’s Soul Release Ceremony

by Felina Lune Kavi

Beautiful souls gathered around us in the sacred circle we cast in honor of our friend, Bill Hertz. Diana's dog, Kita, was our watchdog within the circle while 11 of us performed the ceremonial tasks of ensuring the strength of the sphere of protection around us. After some introduction to what was about to happen, everyone rested themselves around the circle with their heads pointed inward. My husband, Michael, drummed the Eagle Beat as I rested with my head pointed toward the Spirit Candle in the center. In my giving hand, I held a satchel of tsentsak (a rattle from a rattlesnake given to me by a goddess named Ronnie upon leaving the last festival at Hidden Acres, a small owl carved of agate given to me after a journey last year from my dear friend and fellow shamanic practitioner Sue, a silver Jaguar coin from my husband, and a Hawk’s Eye stone my husband just got for me before making the trip back to Iowa). In my receiving hand, I held a small bag filled with herbs and healing intentions that I prepared at Next Millennium’s Midsummer rite last year.

I allowed the drum to carry me to Hidden Acres Music Farm. I began in the Spirit Center, where many acts of love and healing have been performed in the recent past. I gathered some of the joy and spiritual wealth of the earth upon which my soul stood…like the four-leaved clovers buried beneath by Andrea were surging through my soul as protection for this journey. Then I walked to the fire circle, where we often gathered for so many sacred circles, campfire performances, or warmth. I was alone, but Ed’s fire was still smoldering from earlier in the day when we gathered at his farm. Without hesitation, I jumped into the embers and ashes.

I was immediately thrust into the river that often cleanses me at the start of my journey through the lower world. The water was warm and smelled sweet this time, like lotus flowers. After I came out upon the bank of the river, Jaguar was there waiting. With his power to shape-shift, I suddenly had on the clothes and adornments of my own Spirit Guide, a gypsy I often call Dejavu (though her true name is my secret). Still wearing purple, but now with bells and coins and many more crystals. It went without saying that Jaguar and I agreed that Bill would expect me in this way.

Jaguar led me to the forest. The jingling of my gypsy adornments seemed to awaken life all around us. The trees could hear me coming, and whispered to the animals within. Great Horned Owl flew down from her watchtower tree as we reached the opening into the forest. She flew overhead and in front of us to guide the way. But soon, it was apparent to me that they could go no further. I was on my own, which meant I was about to enter the Land of the Dead.

The trees began to disappear all around me. The ground started to gray. I looked behind me. The forest was gone. There was only a wall of gray rock as I noticed the jagged expanse of a great mountain. When I turned back around, I saw that I was on the edge of a cliff with Bill standing before a rainbow’s end.

He tried to smile at me, but it came across as a grimace of embarrassment. His skin was as gray as the rock on which we stood; his thin frame even thinner. His clothes hung from his limbs, ragged and loose.

“It’s okay. I’m here to help you…like I promised.” I told him which seemed to ease some discomfort.

“I’m stuck here.” He told me, and then all of his worries began spilling forth. “I don’t know which way to go! I mean, they were telling me to go up…but how can I? I tried climbing the mountain but I keep sliding back down to here. I have no strength to get there!”

“Did you try going up this rainbow?” I asked. “That seems a lot easier than climbing, doesn’t it?”

“No. It doesn’t.” He said, looking at me as if I were crazy. “I can’t do that.”

“I’m here to tell you that you can. I can help if you’d like.”

“Look down there! I know I would fall…I’m heavier than I look.” He said as fear washed over his face. I looked below us. The rocks were steep and jagged and a dark river raged far below. I could make out flailing limbs and heads of other dead souls struggling in the river below. “I don’t want to be like them. They don’t understand they’re dead.”

“Bill, you won’t fall. You’re not meant to fall, you’re meant to follow this rainbow. You see that portal up there?” I said, pointing to a filmy and translucent swirl surrounding the middle of the rainbow. “That’s where you can cross over.”

“I can’t.” He said. Then he got distracted. “Is that Ed snoring…?” His voice trailed off. He seemed to fade in and out for several moments. Then I noticed he was trying to communicate, but not with me. The sounds he made were indecipherable to me. This part is hard to explain, but he looked as if he was on a screen that kept changing channels.

When he was present again, he was happier. He was no longer in his loose and ragged clothing. He wore a long white robe that I recognized from a time that he described a man he saw at a show the year before, an older man that looked like what he wished to look like one day. His smile was gentle, and he appeared stronger than before. I wondered if the farewell intentions of the others in the circle had just reached him. He seemed ready to be released from his fear.

“Are you ready to cross?” I asked him.

“I am, but there’s something else first.” He said. Then he reached both hands into each pocket. He opened his left hand and a small light flickered. The light was in the shape of a dragonfly. It flew up and out of his hand and into my bag. “That’s Megan’s. Please give it back to her. I didn’t realize it until I came here, but she gave it to me when I was at a very low point in my life. She didn’t know she was giving it to me, she just wanted to help me.”

“I know. It happens.” I said, understanding that it was a fragment of her soul. “She needs this back more than ever right now.”

Bill nodded. Then he opened his right hand. Music poured out of his palm, and though I couldn’t see it…I could hear it float into my bag.

“That belongs to Joe.” He said. “I never meant to take it from him. I don’t know how I did. I just cared about him a lot…and I guess I wanted to take a piece of him with me when I left Iowa City. Please return it to him.”

“I will.” I said. “It’s a song?”

“It’s a beautiful song.” He said.

I smiled. “Now you’re ready?”

He nodded and smiled back. There was still a little fear on his face when he looked below, so I held out my hand. He grasped it and we began to float up the rainbow. Once he realized that it was going to be okay, his hand relaxed a little. His body felt lighter. He even laughed a little. Then we stopped before we reached the portal.

“I can take it from here.” He said. “And thank you…for everything. Everyone gathered there in the circle…and everyone I’ve ever loved wishing me well in their own ways…it’s exactly what I needed. Love really is all you need.”

We both smiled. He was radiant now. His soul was about to be transformed into pure consciousness again.

“We love you, Bill.” I said. “Now go make things happen like you’ve always wanted to do.”

“Phodeph.” His last message to me was an inside joke that made me laugh at the sound of it. In his time spent living at our house last year, he came up with the word as a replacement for an overused ‘for sure’.

Then he turned to face the portal, and passed through.

When I came back to my body, I went to Megan first and blew her soul fragment back into her. Then I went to Joe and did the same. Michael sounded the call back, and everyone returned.

After releasing the circle, many of us went outside. The night air was refreshing. Someone looked up and saw that a circular halo surrounded the moon. The Cold Moon was nearly full in Cancer (sign of home and family). Everyone was amazed at the sight. Some of us are aware that halos and moon dogs are formed by light’s interplay with ice crystals in the sky, but we were no less amazed by the beauty and deeper meaning we could all glean from the rare phenomenon of that night.

Bill was finally at rest in a place he could truly call Home.