Full Moon in Libra: Relating Under the Pressure of Performance

Full Moon in Libra:  Relating Under the Pressure of Performance

Moon opposite Sun @ 7:36am CDT on 3-31-18

Welcome to the second, and final, blue moon of our year!  As it was at the end of January, this is another social ‘blue moon’…significant only to the calendar month (which is a more modern way of tracking time than the stars or the seasons).  The ‘once in a blue moon’ advice still applies, though it is less of a cosmic urge (blue moon within the same sign) or a biological urge (blue moon in a particular season)…and more of a subtle, societal opportunity that can arise.

This Full Moon is primarily influenced by Mercury Retrograde in Aries, since the Interior Conjunction of Sun and Mercury will be the next day (April 1^st).  During these inner planet retrograde conjunctions, the planet is always closest to Earth.  With Mercury in close proximity to us, mercurial energy has a potent effect on our world…and especially on our minds (the personal mind, the collective mind, and the Mother Mind of our Earth).  The archetype of the Aries Mercury Mind could be defined as the Mental Motivator.  New ideas are forming like seeds from the fruit of the last Mercury cycle.  Aries can be a spicy seed, no doubt, as it is the first of the fire signs. 

Sweet or spicy, this pepper seed within the Aries Mercury cycle means to motivate some mental action during this shift.  Whatever it is that you need to do at this time (and Eris will make sure that you honor it or she’ll chuck a ‘Golden Apple’ at your head), this Mercury energy is meant to encourage and inspire you to blaze your trail.  How it does that is actually more up to you, personally, than some astrologers you’ve read might project.  Do you want to get this Mercury lesson from Heyokah…who teaches through humor and opposites?  Tap into the Fool archetype and enjoy it this April Fool’s Day.  Would it work best for you through Thoth…the ‘voice of Ra’, creator of language, and patron of the written word?  That’s my go to, of course.  If that resonates for you, write your rapid-fire, inspired thoughts this weekend.  Is Jesus your go to guy?  Connect with the phoenix-like rebirth of this Easter weekend and rebirth yourself along your spiritual path.  I was born on an Easter Sunday, so even though I’m only connected to Christianity through the paths of others that I love…I do resonate with the Phoenix/Butterfly totem medicine that permeates the collective consciousness of this season.  There are many more beneficial teachers of this mercurial medicine, and if you resonate with one…set your intention with them to be inspired and transformed from the inside out.

So, this Full Moon in Libra is our pre-show to this big Mercury transformation…setting the stage with a luminous spotlight day and night.  The players are many, though Retrograde Mercury has a lead role in this.  The conflict of the cosmic storyline comes from Saturn and Mars in Capricorn, the Wise One and the Worldly Warrior (like Felix and Oscar in ‘The Odd Couple’ in some ways).  Some astrologers might focus on these two as ‘malefics’…and their version of the show might sound a little more ‘doom and gloom’ than it has to be.  Remember the Fool archetype of this season, and lighten things up as a counter balance.  It is truly a Divine Comedy playing out, and when we fail to see the humor in our oppositions…we can color a whole event through an unnecessarily depressing lens.  Just because it’s a Blue Moon doesn’t mean the gels on the stage lights need to cast a dark blue glow…bright blue might be a better choice if you want the effect to be more awe-inspiring. 

The cosmic storyline of this Divine Comedy teaches us how to relate with opposites.  Full Moons do this in general, but when they are on the Aries-Libra axis…it illuminates the essence of our relationship between Self and Other.  And because Mercury is the star of this show (in the spotlight of our star, the Sun)…the dialogue of the script is key.  Appreciate the comic timing of it all, and it may inspire you to laugh and learn to change your mind all at once.  Get swept up in the drama, and you could have a very different interpretation of the show.  It really is up to us to enjoy it or not. 

In your own personal show inspired by it, you might forget your lines or trip on your fellow actor’s performance…but you might also be able to save the show even with the mishaps, if you play it right.  The Aries energy of Sun-Mercury gives you the encouragement to understand your role, your character, within your personal performance as well as the collective production.  However, it is the Moon in Libra that insists we get outside of ourselves and relate to our fellow actors and the collective audience.  The symbols of this celestial show will give us clues along the way as to what we might glean from the story.

Moon in 11 Libra:  An Aside to the Audience

Cuthbert Binns, Hogwarts' History of Magic professor,

was unaware that he had died long ago and just continued to teach. 

"I teach the facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends."

The Sabian Symbol of the Moon’s degree is “a professor peering over his glasses at his students”.  This image presents the necessity to transmit knowledge to a new generation of thinkers and seekers.  In this symbol, the glasses are key.  These glasses allude to the strain on sight that so much knowledge (from reading) can lead to.  So here we have a professor with a wealth of knowledge to pass on to younger generations, but he can only really ‘see’ his students by looking away from his book or notes and out into where his students are.  This is about an ability to relate to others, though our knowledge can sometimes set us apart or distance ourselves from others as well.  This technological age is like that blessing/curse conundrum brought up here.  It helps us to relate our knowledge to many diverse groups of people while being very inwardly drawn in this retrograde energy…but it also separates us from people at the same time.  Essentially, a boring lecture on whatever your most pressing topic is will not connect to others.  How best to engage an audience?  Tell a story that makes them think and feel…move them and motivate them.  And that brings us to the Aries energy of this time.

Sun in 11 Aries: The Emperor Stripped Bare in the Spotlight

"The President has the finest clothes, made of the best fabrics.

The media just unfairly reports on it."

The Sabian Symbol of the Sun’s degree is “the ruler of a nation”.  Here’s my story of this symbolism:  There once was a beautiful notion of the Sovereignty of the land.  In order  for anyone to rule upon the land, they had to have a respectful relationship with Lady Sovereignty.  Rulers were wiped out or usurped if this relationship was lacking.  This notion was widely accepted and honored, for a time anyway.  Fast-forward to present day rulership, though, and we are often left wondering where that relationship was lost.  Conflict after conflict arises because of this lack of reverence toward the land and the lives upon it.  The greedy few are often in control of the masses as well as the land’s resources.  For as long as we’ve all been alive, we’ve seen how this kind of ‘rulership’ plays out, accruing more and more damage over many cycles of the same old thing.  Now, you can apply this story of Sovereignty both collectively as well as personally.  Collectively, it is inspiring more and more people to either fight this fire with raging fire, drown it out with the water of compassion, fan the flames with the air of their displeasure, or ground it down into the earth with 6:20 minutes of reverent silence for those who have taken unnecessary hits in the madness of our modern times.  It is hard to find any humor in what is happening here in our own nation, but evoking laughter is not actually the superobjective of a comedy.  The purpose is actually, much like Heyokah medicine, to teach by uncovering the truth in opposition. 

On the individual level, this can translate to you as a question that brings about a necessary decision:  “How am I relating?”  The answer is, at once, the intention for this next cycle…and it begins with the Aries phrase followed by the Libra phrase “I am…and I relate…”  So, how DO you relate your self-expression to others?  Mercury Retrograde in Aries reminds us to “BE the change”.  After all, the only ones we can truly rule are ourselves. 

Mercury Rx in 13 Aries:  A Comedy of Errors

The Sabian Symbol of Mercury’s degree is ‘a bomb fails to explode’.  This symbol carries the essence of divine comic timing that is often apparent in Mercury Retrogrades.  We planned this thing, and then it doesn’t work out…but why?  I like to use this example to highlight the nature of this occurrence (because it has manifested this way on the mundane level for me many times).  Something happens that makes you late for work/an appointment/a meeting…even in all of your rushing it seems you are ‘doomed’ to be late (red lights, slow traffic, etc.)…and then you notice there is an accident ahead of you.  Being just a bit earlier may have put you in line to get hit in that moment.  For some reason, and for the personal mishaps that caused your delay, a worse crisis may have been averted.  A symbolic ‘bomb fails to explode’ and you realize that being late could have been the least of your troubles.  You can realize, in such moments, patience is needed…rushing can result in accidents.  Of course, you can also look at it as another thing to make you more late, but that’s not an outlook that will help you understand much of what’s playing out.  This degree of Aries, there is an element of flipping a coin in every situation.  Prosperity or destruction?  Especially with Mars and Saturn squaring off against this energy, impulsivity and caution are both in the mix.  However, the energy does suggest a sense of momentary peace and protection…or even lucking out.  Unless you’re the one trying to ‘drop the bomb’, I guess…in which case, your expectations might not come to fruition.  As it was in the last full moon where this symbol was highlighted (last October), planned out preparations are not the way of this energy.  There is a larger story pushing for us, the characters, to be in other situations than where we thought we’d be focusing.  The plot thickens as the Author/Playwright brings even the readers/audience to an unexpected turn of events.  If something doesn’t go as planned, there is likely a more pressing situation that will need to be defused elsewhere in your life.  This Comedy of Errors has much to do with social relationships, the kind where they may be thrust into crisis for the purpose of stripping down the unnecessary forms they have taken on over time...thus confronting the usual laws and social norms to reveal a higher state of awareness of self and others.  I wish you well on each crisis narrowly averted!

Of note is that Mercury Retrograde meets with the Aries Sun the next day in the symbol between the two described here.  In Aries 12, the Sabian Symbol is ‘a triangularly shaped flight of wild geese’.  So while the scene is set at the full moon for a distinctly socio-political Comedy of Errors, the planetary play concludes the following day with an image of cosmic order.  Just like most comedies, filled with human error and ridiculous mishaps, we are often brought to a sense of everything working out before the curtain closes.  The main difference between comedy and tragedy, after all, is how the characters respond to conflict.  The same conflicts of a comedy can be played out in a tragedy, and vice versa, and the tone is different based on the response to the upsets that arise…thus leading to either the happy ending or the tragic one.  There will certainly be pressure to perform pooling into the T-square of Mars-Saturn in Capricorn, but there are some very fortunate opportunities that can arise from the flowing aspects of the lunar nodes.  This weekend, you may be able to see how the aspects of fate (lunar nodes) can be improvised with your own free will choices of how you respond to them.  The energy triggered in Capricorn by our luminary axis this Full Moon is pushing us to respond wisely under pressure. 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

Mercury Retrograde in Aries: The Importance of Being Purposeful

Mercury Retrograde in Aries:  The Importance of Being Purposeful

Retrograde pre-shadow begins on 3-8

Mercury Stations Retrograde on 3-22 @ 7:19pm CDT

Sun-Mercury conjunction on 4-1 @ 12:52pm CDT

Mercury Stations Direct on 4-15 @ 4:21am CDT

Retrograde post-shadow ends on 5-3

Mercury stationed today in the 17^th degree of Aries, and has officially entered the realm of retrograde since 7:19pm CDT tonight…inclining the collective Mind to pause and consider what we’ve been thinking and communicating these past two weeks of the retrograde pre-shadow.  Thoughts may shift from ‘What do I need to be doing?’ to ‘Who am I being?’.  This is an inward shift…it sets us on a journey to recall important things we might have overlooked (or, perhaps, ignored while we were busy concentrating on what lessons from the Deep were resurfacing from Jupiter’s retrograde shift in Scorpio).  Planetary stations are like cosmic calls for meditative focus, and Mercury’s stations are so noticeable that there’s almost a comic timing to each ‘pregnant pause’.  Oh, you needed your computer to work flawlessly right now so you could go full-speed ahead on what you’re working on?  Mercury, in true Heyokah fashion, might interrupt your plans to shift your focus to something that needs your here-and-now attention.  Or…you are trying to schedule something with multiple people?  If it’s necessary at this time…please go ahead (don’t listen to those who warn about scheduling Mercury Retrograde appointments…avoiding interactions for three weeks is ridiculous).  But if it’s not the right timing, be prepared for things to not work out as planned or need a reschedule.  And really, check yourself when you get frustrated about that.  What’s that all about?  Do make time to notice what is shifting in your mind during these times.  There are important pieces of the puzzle that can be picked up in this time that lends itself well to revision, re-thinking, and rediscovery.  We’re all going through our own mental shifts at these times, so be gentle with yourself and others (okay, try your best).  Mercury in Aries can incline a bit…or a lot…of impatience during times of pause and delay, and communications can get snappish. 

I was born with Mercury (Direct) in Aries in the same degree as my Sun…so immediate self-expression and improvisational quick-thinking (and often thinking or communicating ahead of myself) is my baseline M.O.  On bad days, when stress is overwhelming, my communication can be impulsive (add Scorpio Moon emotional overwhelm to the mental stress mix, and my expression of that fire-water steam has the capacity to reach volcanic levels).  These are things I have had to learn to temper with love (Venus in Pisces) and peacekeeping action (Mars Retrograde in Libra).  I have learned, over many Mercury Retrogrades, to appreciate these stationary times of stillness and inward reflection.  If this Aries Woman can develop patience (imperfect as this patience is), anyone can.  Even if it’s the kind of patience that develops immediately after awareness of impatience…that’s often the case for me…being aware of how those thoughts manifest is a step in the right direction. 

We live in a world that is so often dominated by expressions of go-go-go and me-first, sometimes to the point of aggression.  This is not what Aries is really about, but every energy has its shadow expressions.  Aries is about those trust-your-gut instincts to protect, encourage, and inspire what is essential for our survival (not just for ourselves but for our whole world).  It is also about passionate and initiating energy.  These are some of the reasons why Aries is said to be ruled by Mars, the Warrior.  It’s important to recognize these times when our focus shifts away from that outward striving and takes us on a trip into an otherworldly mindscape. 

Also of importance is that if you happen to be between the ages of approximately 30-80…you are likely to experience this particular three weeks of Mercury Retrograde in Aries (and the shadow periods before and after) bringing up that undeniable ‘purpose’ within you:  that thing you must do because your soul is here for it and it will not be ignored or you will feel the distinct burn of mental chaos.  Yes, that’s Mercury travelling over your natal Eris in Aries.  Three hits of it coming into your awareness between March 8^th and May 3^rd, and you’ll have a better grasp on what that essential purpose is for you personally.  At least I hope so.  Eris energy is best welcomed as an honored guest.  Denying her an invitation never worked out so well in her mythic storyline.  While Eris (Discordia) is often well known for the chaos she instigates when scorned, there is much more to this Feminine archetype than meets the fearful, patriarchal eye that paints her as a hysterical Crazy Woman.  Sister to Ares (Mars), this Warrioress joined him in battle…not for the fight, but for the cause.  She represents pure purpose and operates with the protectivity of the Cosmic Order like a fierce Mama Bear.  Her Wild Woman power cannot be denied.

Venus, representing the Sacred Feminine, is currently in Aries…in her wise evening star phase within the larger cycle of Venus in Aries that began last spring and ends this autumn.  This means that the Sacred Feminine within us all has been learning through this Aries energy the powerful expressions of the Wild Woman, the Warrioress, and the passionately protective Creatrix during this cycle.  We have recently stripped down these archetypes to their essence and transformed them for our collective enlightenment into expressions that rebirth and reclaim that feminine fire.  Venus is approaching a conjunction with Eris now, which will be exact on March 25^th…so Eris’s essence is intertwined with Venus’s expression during the first part of this Mercury Retrograde as well.  Get to know Eris and your own expression of her energy better in this cycle.  Learn the purpose and necessity of Chaos and how it reflects the purpose and necessity of Order.  In doing so, you’ll be faced with your own essential self and your soul purpose.  Much as we want to know it and activate it, we also fear it.  Perhaps this Mercury Retrograde is a good time to face it as well as embrace it. 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

New Moon in Pisces: Healing the Wounds of the Passing Piscean Age

New Moon in Pisces:  Healing the Wounds of the Passing Piscean Age

Moon conjunct Sun @ 8:11am CDT on 3-17-18

It is raining here in Omaha as I am writing this…cleansing in the abundance of the water element now and softening the ground as spring approaches.  As a spring-born pluviophile, a good rain is an absolute blessing to me.  Let the Piscean waters flow!  This moon phase will build to fullness at the end of this month, when we will experience the second blue moon of our year.  So this phase is much like a continuation of the previous one that was full at the beginning of March…and we are at the beginning of the Sap Moon (named for the time when maple sap is flowing at the annual tapping of sugar maples).  At this New Moon, much is flowing out of us too…we are ‘tapping into’ the last degrees of the final sign of the zodiac (Pisces) through the luminaries and Chiron…feeling and healing are abundant if we tap into this energy. Chiron is conjunct this New Moon and has returned to the degree he stationed retrograde in last July…which means we are at the final lessons of the post-shadow of that previous retrograde period (that Chiron retrograde period was from 7-1 through 12-5 last year).  On March 28^th, Chiron moves out of that retrograde post-shadow as he wraps up his teachings, for now, on Piscean healing.  Then, on April 17^th, Chiron moves on into Aries.   So Chiron is integral medicine right now for us all, and continues to bring important lessons as we move into our Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere. 

As we are transitioning at this Turning of the Ages, Chiron has much to teach us about what is calling to be healed from the Piscean Age.  Chiron in Pisces shows us the wound of separation (from the Universe, from Spirit, from the Earth, from each other, etc) as a core wound that has been prevalent in our era. This wound expresses through us in many ways:  powerlessness, victimization, martyrdom, escapism (through drugs, alcohol, or other addictions), blaming and shaming, extreme duality, fear of opening to others, fear of being hurt or abandoned, lack of trust (in others or in a higher power), retreat into our shells,  extreme sensitivity (and often hiding it in unhealthy ways), avoidance of spiritual or higher mind subjects (or, conversely, getting lost there), or susceptibility to various forms of enslavement or brain-washing.  Looking back over the last 2000 years or more, we can see the wound of separation we’ve been trying to escape in these ways and more.  We’ve been on a long search for oneness, transcendent and omnipresent love, for the meaning behind so many seemingly senseless injustices we humans create.  How can we trust anything?  How can we feel connected when the world seems to be falling apart, often by our own collective undoing?  There is a paradox on this healing path that we must accept and embrace so that we can move forward…we can only regain trust by trusting and we can only feel love by loving.  It is through each experience…mystical or mundane, joyful or painful…that we return to wholeness, oneness, and unity.  We discover the gift within this wound when we are able to acknowledge the blessings within the crises and the fairness within the unfairness.  And if enough of us can collectively unwrap this gift for our world, a vast healing of ancestral karma can occur.

This is the larger picture of Chiron moving through Pisces for the past 7+ years (recalling lessons from the previous Chiron in Pisces cycle between 1962-1968).  Some of these lessons are being illuminated more specifically by our current Sun-Moon conjunction.  Looking to the degrees that are being highlighted now can give us a better understanding of the wisdom we need now on this healing path.

The Sun and Moon meet in Pisces 27.  The Sabian Symbol for this degree is “a harvest moon illumines a clear autumnal sky”.  And while autumn approaches in the Southern Hemisphere, this symbol (at first) may seem out of place in our Northern Hemisphere (as well as the reference to a full moon during a new moon).  But beyond the season, we have all just come out of a couple months where all planets were direct (which is almost like an ‘astrological summertime’ where activity heightens and we’re busy working our various ‘fields’, preparing for a harvest).  The energy was pushing us forward, even as winter was still upon us in the North, encouraging us to set things in motion.  So now, as Jupiter has been retrograde since March 8^th and Mercury is about to station retrograde on the 22^nd, we are beginning to reap what we have sown (or failed to cultivate) in that time.  This New Moon may bring blessings of fulfillment for work well done…or feelings of lack for not quite getting there before these energetic shifts (or both).  But either way, there is still work to do…and much of it is now about going inward to illuminate anything we may have overlooked as we were speeding along.

Chiron is now in Pisces 29, just a couple degrees ahead of our luminaries.  The Sabian Symbol here is “light breaking into many colors as it passes through a prism”.  This process is symbolic of our own process of differentiation we go through in life.  We are, before conceived, unified with source light.  We are brought to Earth through the womb of our mother (the prism), and then shaped through that process into our individual expression (a rainbow of different colors, expressing different angles of deviation).  We do not lose the source light, but we reflect it in many different ways.  Essentially, there is no real separation from the Universe…only one of human perception.  We go from unity to multi-unity…where we express our Divine Spark in a multitude of ways. This is the lesson Chiron is reiterating for us in the next couple weeks…on his second pass through this previous retrograde degree.  This is when it can really sink in and allow more of us to understand that the illusion of separation has been tearing us apart…but we are actually just varied expressions of the source light that unites us.  We really are all one.

So as the focus upon woundedness, healing, and the gifts within the wounds is potent right now…allow yourself the freedom to explore what arises.  Hiding from, or trying to escape, our wounds only prolongs the healing process we all must go through to come to wholeness.  Painful as it can be, depending on where you are in your path, such shifts of energy are present as opportunities to heal ourselves in whatever way we most need at this time.  And in healing ourselves, we are healing our world.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi