Mourning Moon Eclipse: If You Love Something, Set It Free...

The Full Mourning Moon is always a time when we feel the need (or are sometimes forced) to let go of something that we have clung to out of dependency, addiction, habit, fear, or insecurity.  It’s a time of purification by washing away the past which we no longer need and creating room to focus on the joys of the future.

Unhealthy habits, toxic relationships, fears of our own power, damaging thought patterns, and old ways that get us nowhere are just a few of the things that may have come up to the surface in order to be dealt with now.  Regardless of what specific effects this eclipsed full moon is having in your life, the point is that the choice is yours and yours alone.  What patterns do you see playing out in your life that sabotage your own empowerment?  Now is the time to replace those worn out patterns with a tapestry more vibrant, more full of life, and more representative of the life story you wish to create.

On Monday, Mercury ended the last retrograde period of this year…stationing direct in the 19^th degree of Scorpio.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree (that Mercury is still slowly creeping forward in until today) is ‘A parrot listening and then talking’.  Parrot totem medicine has much to do with color and communication.  These are very social, colorful birds that show us the power of our creative voice, and the many things we can do with it.  With our collective mind intent on listening and keeping the lines of communication open…this past week has been like one long conversation we’ve been needing to hear and then continue by voicing our own truths.  What is coming up in conversation may be more important than we realize…so listen up…this is a portal to changes and shifts of direction that will lead you to where you’ve been meaning to go.

Throughout the week so far, the aspects between planets in the sky have carried on this conversation with as much emphasis on letting go of what no longer works as they have on demonstrating your commitment to something you are truly passionate about.  We are making room for new opportunities to unfold here…and that brings us to this morning’s eclipse of the full moon.

Every eclipse brings up matters that are crucial and that need our careful attention.  After all, decisions made and circumstances brought up are likely to have an effect on your life for at least 6 months…sometimes for the rest of your life.  The eclipse of the lunar light indicates the shadows that move across our emotional state in times when we need to balance between extremes.  As the penumbral veil passes, the sun shines a spotlight on how we feel about the events transpiring in our lives.  If we are in a state of crisis, we would do well to remedy the situation with clearer intent.  If we are in a state of balance, then we can help others who may be feeling less harmonious at this time.

The Full Moon was in the 7^th degree of Gemini yesterday morning, and the sabian symbol for this degree is ‘an old fashioned well’.  Water wells are ancient symbols of nurturing and fertility; a physical representation of the live-giving qualities of the Sacred Feminine.  Wells are associated with divine wisdom, the deep understanding of the ultimate nature of reality and the plentitude of the void (Sunyata). The Moon at full mirrors these same qualities, as she is the symbol of the Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess.  This full moon represents an upwelling of possibility and the source of all potentialities that flow from the ground of all being (Mother Earth).  Now is a time to ask yourself, figuratively, are you drinking pure knowledge directly from the source?  Or are you buying into something bottled and shipped by man?  This is a timely question when we consider the doomsday scenarios entertained by the masses this year.  But on a more individual level, in any scenario, are you trusting the wisdom within?

As with every full moon, the Sun is opposite the moon…this time in the 7^th degree of Sagittarius.  The sabian symbol for this degree is ‘cupid knocking at the door of the human heart’.  In our house, we call him Eros…not quite the winged baby flying around shooting arrows, but more the young man who fell in love with Psyche (as depicted in the drawing on the header of this blog from the children’s story ‘The Arrow and the Lamp’).  This is a call to open your heart to universal love, allowing an open and honest exchange on a heart level between you and others.  Love is knocking…let it in.  This is the key to opening yourself to the possibilities and potentials symbolized by the wellspring of the full moon.  Again, these symbols hearken back to commitment in relationships just as Venus conjunct Saturn brought up at the beginning of this week. 

And speaking of love, which the lessons of this Full Moon are primarily about, Venus is involved in a sextile (60 degree aspect of opportunity) with the Mars-Pluto conjunction from Tuesday.  First, on the day of the full moon, she sextiled Pluto.  Strong attraction often occurs under this influence, when something deep inside you draws you to relationships that reveal your hidden self.  With the shadow of the eclipse leading up to this opportunity, there was likely an intense need to share, give and receive love…and to be accepted and wanted in return.  Your emotions may have been deepened by the circumstances brought up during the eclipse.  Here we were guided to release something that may have kept us from being truly close with others…and then opened the door to let love in.

Then today, Venus sextiles Mars, when the result of our efforts and communications within relationships may bring us back around to romance, flirtation, and warmer expressions of love.  The emotional and artistic influences of Venus combine supportively with the action urges of Mars to create a cooperative effort in almost anything attempted.  This favors not only love relationships but also formation of friendships.  Happiness today, after the strong planetary pulls of the week, is there if you reach out for it and take the opportunities before you.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

Pallas Athene at the Apex of Agitation

Tonight, at 7:25pm CST, Pallas in Pisces shifts out of retrograde and into direct motion.  Pallas is the asteroid of the wise warrior princess, a motherless goddess said to have sprung from the forehead of Jupiter/Zeus.  She is the feminine equivalent of Mars, though she is much more the mental strategist than the gung-ho warrior.  All areas that she rules are prevalent today while she is stationed, such as:  creative intelligence, invention, strategy, patterns, diplomacy, feminine wisdom, order, visualization, intellectual skill, and the father-daughter relationship. 

In Pisces, Pallas sees through the material world to grasp reality through imagination, visions, and fantasies…the energy of the enlightened warrior.  However, she is not well placed in this sign (her usual clear-headedness becomes a bit blurred around the edges with the Piscean view.  But she is also under a lot of celestial stress as she is at the apex of a T-square aspect configuration…which means she’s at a 90 degree square with the opposition between Juno in Sagittarius and Vesta in Gemini.  The stress of this opposition focuses its energy on Pallas’s apex, and can cause us to put too much emphasis on the dream world and lose connections with what is real and what is not. 

As usual, we’ll see a lot of this happening on a grand scale…but let’s take a look into the specific degrees we’re dealing with here so that we might find a better outlet for the focus of this hard-hitting energy on the individual level.

Pallas is in the 23^rd degree of Pisces.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree is ‘a materializing medium facilitating a séance’.  The keyword for this degree is ‘sensitivity’.  This degree points to the ability to give of one’s own vital energy to substantiate one’s conscious ideals or unconscious desires.  Depending on the motives of the ‘medium’ in each situation you encounter, the display of psychic power can be positive (such as receiving communications from the spirit realm) or negative (such as deception or psychic attacks).  Look deeper into this symbol and you can see that it refers to any person, possibly even yourself, who believes they have a mission, or any special gift that can be of value to the community, and must substantiate this belief by producing results.  Such results always demand, to some extent, the gift of some power of value which is deeply one’s own.  Afterwards, the medium is usually exhausted as they are giving of their own energy to help others connect to something meaningful.

Juno, the asteroid of the Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth who rules commitment, the wife-husband relationship and protection of females, is in the 20^th degree of Sagittarius.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree is ‘men cutting through ice for summer use’.  The keyword is ‘procurement’ and refers to the foresighted use of natural resources to supply future needs.  Active planning for and commitment to the future needs of humanity and foresight based on knowledge of the cyclical processes of nature will assure supply.  Juno in Sagittarius will have a lot to say about what is needed for the future, and while she may come across as a queen making self-righteous demands…there is truth to her words.

Vesta, the asteroid of the Goddess of Hearth and Home and the priestess who rules the sacred flame, sisterhood, and security, is retrograde in the 23^rd degree of Gemini.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree is ‘Three fledglings in a nest high in a tree’.  The keyword is ‘elevation’ and refers to a secluded haven promoting comfort, safety and protection.  This degree is about the growth of spiritually creative processes in an at least relatively integrated mind.  Birds usually refer to spirit, or the higher and freer aspects of the mind.  This is about creative integration, and suggests that the ambitious mass protests of aroused and largely blind desires should be transmuted through harmonization with natural drives and attuned to the phases of natural evolution.  Vesta in Gemini elevates the collective mind on a spiritual level and seeks to secure as much information as she can to ensure the enlightenment of the global village.  However, she is under stress with this T-square and this can create a scattered mind or lack of focus and a diffusion of intimacy through trivial chatting or rationalizing feelings. 

What the combination of these three feminine asteroids is telling us is that while we balance the security of the home and the commitment of our relationships, we may find ourselves focused on the psychic attacks or draining of our power from ‘emotional vampires’ that may be creating obstacles around us.  However, if we keep in mind that Pallas is skilled at strategy and creative intelligence, as well as recognizing the patterns of things, we can tap into her warrior spirit in a diplomatic way and ensure the best outcome for all involved. 

These 90 degree angles indicate frictional contacts possibly related to the communication of personal wisdom and truth.  Differing ideals are creating clashes, and Pallas in Pisces is working overtime to teach us how to stay fluid and adaptable through the friction in order to manifest desired results. 

Hers is not an energy that is simply here today, gone tomorrow.  This asteroid which represents the female warrior who did it as well as, if not better than, the men has been highly prominent over the past months.  Her energy was an integral part of the first two exact squares of Uranus and Pluto in June and September…adding the element of establishment-busting female fight, leadership, and strategic direction to the world changes being made at those times.  This was when she was in Aries, conjunct Uranus (the rebel).  She retrograded back into watery Pisces on October 3^rd…and on January 10^th, 2012 she will move back into fiery Aries.  On January 28^th, 2013, Pallas will conjunct Uranus again and then square Pluto again on February 12^th, 2013. 

But this T-square energy (like a celestial cat-fight) is in effect into the first week of December.  A fever-pitch may come on the day of the Full Moon (November 28^th) when Juno and Pallas exact their square while Mars and Pluto are conjunct in Capricorn and Venus and Saturn are conjunct in Scorpio.  Discernment is key here, so choose your angles and your battles…we are meant to get very clear now on our own truth and beliefs, but forcing the issues (especially when outnumbered) will only lead to more obstacles and stress. 

The Sagittarius New Moon on December 13^th will stir it all up again, with a conjunction to Juno and a square to Pallas, though Vesta will have retrograded out of range of a T-square by then.  This is closely followed by the Sun reaching an exact square to Pallas on December 15^th.  On December 22^nd, the Sun will exact a conjunction with Juno at the beginning of Capricorn by that point.  Then on December 29^th, Mercury squares Pallas…so there is no shortage of emphasis on these themes above causing a bit of an uproar throughout the rest of this year.  Pay attention to social tension as a guidance mechanism through these tumultuous times and adjust accordingly.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

New Moon Eclipse in Scorpio: Diana the Huntress

Shift Happens

You're not losing your mind.  Losing control, though?  Maybe.  But that's the point, really. You never had it fully to begin with...no matter how many choices you've made that were distinctly your own.  We're not super-human after all, and we can't do it all...some things fall through the cracks while we're sifting through priorities.  And then the shifts happen.  Slow down, stand still, move ahead, back it up...the energy of the Universe moves in mysterious ways, but the timing is always impeccable.  The rhythm is down to a science, and the messages move us like art.  

November begins the 'time which is no time'...the deepest dark of the year between Samhain (October 31st-November 1st) and the 12 days of Yule (December 21st-January 1st).  This transition between the Celtic New Year and the Winter Solstice Holidays is as magickal as it is mysterious.  There certainly is an otherworldly undertone to all happenings as we float along with our bodies, trying to keep up with a societal pace that no longer allows the time to pause and reflect at the crucial crossroads of the seasons.  We're seeing ourselves do all this business, and hearing ourselves say all these words...but are our feet even touching the ground?  What on Earth is real, and what is illusion?

So, on U.S. Election Day, Mercury steps in and focuses our attention on the 5th degree of Sagittarius before retrograding (backtracking, from our point-of-view) to pick up those pieces we overlooked while speeding ahead through autumn.  Mercury rules communication, transportation, and the mind.  In Sagittarius, Mercury takes our collective mind on an adventurous journey, seeking meaning in the bigger picture and expanding our perspective. The degree where it stationed is represented by the Sabian Symbol 'an old owl sitting in a tree'.  The image calls to mind a double-shot of wisdom, as the Owl totem and Tree totems are well known for wisdom medicine.  It also suggests that this retrograde got us to stop a moment and view a situation from all sides, piercing through the surface for the truth with sharpened eyes.  Many hear 'Mercury Retrograde' and automatically assume the worst will happen.  Mechanical and technological delays, communication breakdowns, scheduling snafus and Murphy's Law often come up at this time...especially if you are in a full-speed-ahead mindset needing to get too many things done.  Try to see it differently.  My printer ran out of ink and paper when I needed a bunch of scripts for my class, but what I did have was sufficient.  A mother stopped me after class that day to talk about costumes and makeup, and if I had left on time I might have gotten into an accident with the crushed car that was holding up traffic on my way home.  The delays often have good reason.  This is a time to look inward and re-evaluate what you put forth before the shift, rediscover something important you may have overlooked, and reconnect with the still voice inside you.  Make time to rethink some things, and you'll be using this retrograde to your best advantage.

Now this particular retrograde goes on most of the month, and shifts back to direct motion on November 26th.  We're not exactly clear of the lessons of this time, though, until December 14th when it gets back to this same degree where it first stationed.  

On Sunday, November 11th, we had another planetary shift...but a much slower one.  Neptune stationed that weekend in the 1st degree of Pisces and is now moving slowly forward again in direct motion.  When Neptune's at a standstill, prevalent themes play out in the areas of dreams, spirituality, inspiration, imagination but can also get hazy in the areas of addiction, deception, and confusion.  Anything that you can't quite define or control usually comes up around these times.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree of Pisces is 'a public marketplace'.  Commerce is the theme, and during a mercury retrograde mixed with the nebulous nature of Neptune...what's being bought and sold (whether figuratively or literally) may be questionable.  Social exchanges may have been a bit heavy or confusing...but we're coming out of all that with a certain indescribable enlightenment.  

On Wednesday, November 14th, Chiron (the Wounded Healer) will also station direct in Pisces, though in the 5th degree.  So, this whole week is also colored with our deepest wounds either reopening to be properly healed or healing others with the gift within our own wounds.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree is 'a church bazaar'.  With Neptune and Chiron working together in Pisces, we'll either be swimming through emotional seas or streaming the currents of spirit.  And to make matters a little more emotionally in-depth, Mercury Retrograde brings us back into the intense waters of the Scorpio mind this same day.  Sensitivities may be on high, but remember that everyone will be feeling these effects in some way.  You may feel alone in your woundedness, but we're all in it together working on our own wounds while healing the wounds of others.  This 'church bazaar' that brings community together is a light social gathering full of strange items and treasures from all around the world.  There is something for everyone here, whether it be something that reminds us of our childhood, something that recalls a lost piece of our soul, or something that connects us to our spirituality.  You will find what you never realized you were looking for.

Diana the Huntress

The New Moon clocks in at 4:08pm CST today (Tuesday, November 13th), followed by a solar eclipse at 4:17pm...all in the 22nd degree of Scorpio.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree is 'hunters starting out for wild ducks'.  Appropriately, the new moon represents the maiden aspect of the triple goddess...Diana, the huntress.  This degree also suggests the stealth and strategy involved in keeping hidden while stalking the prey you are after, which resonates with the shadowy nature of the Solar Eclipse.  Every new moon is an opportunity for new beginnings...when we release what no longer serves us from the last moon phase and move on with better intentions and goals for the next few weeks.  To avoid being the 'sitting ducks' in this image, we imagine ourselves as the hunters instead...waiting in the shadows and readying ourselves to aim directly for our goal.  

Diana is the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and birthing...associated with wild animals and woodland.  Animal totem messages may show much insight during this time.  Whatever it is you've been meaning to bring to birth in your life...focus your intentions on that goal and make it happen during this moon phase.  The effects of eclipses have far-reaching implications...so whatever you make your focus now, may be a significant part of your life for at least half a year to come, if not for the rest of your life.  Steady your aim.

Happy New Moon!

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi