New Moon in Capricorn: Commitment to Transformation

 

'Threshold III' by Jake Baddeley

New Moon in Capricorn:  Commitment to Transformation

Moon conjunct Sun- 1-12-21 @11:00 pm CST

 

So many transformations we’ve been going through…for over a decade, it has accelerated.  Humanity is becoming more attentive and attuned to Natural Law.  Not that we have it all figured out yet…this is a long but necessary process.  And we keep coming to these initiatory points that evolve us further along the path of reconnection to Earth.  Some are huge societal and world changes like the bookends of 2020, the Saturn-Pluto and Jupiter-Saturn Conjunctions.  But within those larger changes, there are smaller (but no less important) changes that occur.  This Lunar Cycle is one of them.

But the fixed air of Aquarius is the dominant theme now, right?  Jupiter-Saturn on December Solstice ushered in this new wave…and the struggles of Capricorn Saturn-Pluto that marked the beginning of 2020 are in the past, yes?  Well, yes…and we’re still learning our Saturn lessons this year.  These are not the same lessons, but the underlying theme is the same:  Responsibility.  Saturn guides the lessons of both Capricorn and Aquarius like the two-headed Janus that gave this month its name.  Janus is a threshold guide, God of Doorways.  One head looks to the past, one to the present.  Two perspectives in one entity, a conjunction of opposites.  Where we have been and where we are going are two sides of the same coin, and our response in the present joins what we have learned to what we will learn.

This present initiation is marked by our luminaries conjunct Pluto in Capricorn.  Pluto has been traveling through this cardinal earth sign since 2008.  Slow-moving as this outer planet is, Pluto’s lessons are deep and enduring…always prevalent just under the surface of things until crisis brings it out for catharsis. 

Tonight’s conjunction is in the same area of the sky where the Capricorn Council met throughout last year.  The emphasis on Capricorn now brings our recent past to the present for another transformation, one which will bring us through this lunar month.

 

Moon-Sun in Capricorn 24

Sabian Symbol:  ‘A woman entering a convent’

This symbol represents our initiations of intent where we dedicate and commit ourselves to a life transformation.  We step beyond the threshold from what was known to what is unknown.  We make a commitment to follow through with our choice.  For each of us, this is a personal choice…though you may feel you have no choice in the matter, as we are following a soul urge that is calling us to surrender to change.  But the very foundation of this choice is in responsibility…in our ability to respond.  It is how we respond to the call of the transformational initiation in this lunar month that guides our change. 

In the initiation of this New Moon, our previous comforts may be stripped away…revealing the bare bones of who we really are.  Whatever it is personally that requires your total commitment now is likely to take you beyond your previous comfort zone.  That which was excessive or frivolous in your life will not help you transform into who you are becoming.  It may be that a health issue requires you to give up certain foods, or maybe time management is required in the weeks ahead to bring focus to your priorities.  Whatever it is, this is a good time to set yourself up for success in your endeavors.  If you come out of this lunar month feeling like you took care of your responsibilities through hard work and dedication, you’ll have made the best of this time.  But if you focus on all you’ve had to give up rather than what you’re giving it up for…you may find this lunar month to be particularly difficult. 

Pluto in Capricorn 25

Sabian Symbol:  ‘A store filled with precious oriental rugs’

The woman entering the convent chooses to no longer rely on the comforts and conveniences of the outside world, no precious rugs beneath her as she kneels to pray.  While Pluto’s influence is always about the depths of the transformational process, this God of the Underworld also rules material wealth.  With this symbol, Pluto is bringing up the deep chasm between comforts that the affluent may take for granted and the hardships of those who struggle just to live or provide for their families.  Pluto here is dismantling traditions of Wealth Comfort through Soul Crisis.  This larger transformation in our world enters the personal experience through understanding what we can live without and what is necessary for our survival. 

Some may cling to their comforts and not make the changes that their soul urges them to make.  They’re likely to learn these lessons the hard way.  But if you choose to let go of what no longer serves you and find a new way to move forward, you’ll thank yourself for that choice later. 

 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

 

 

Full Moon in Cancer: The Medicine of Requiem

 

Art by Lisa Evans

Full Moon in Cancer: The Medicine of Requiem

Moon opposite Sun- 12/29/20 @ 9:28pm CST

 

As we lay to rest a year that faced us all with our mortality, may we find solace in the requiem song of all that passed.  Our final full moon of 2020, known as the Long Nights Moon in our Northern Hemisphere, sings a song of comfort and care from the cardinal waters of Cancer.  Again, as the New Moon whispered weeks ago, these comforts are not without some sadness as we look back at all that transpired this year.  But we who are greeting this Full Moon now…we made it through, and we can sing for those who didn’t.

Often, this Full Moon in Cancer each year is one which illuminates the importance of emotional bonds and familiar protection, no matter what we may be going through.  This time, our luminaries are in a 90 degree square to Chiron in Aries, the Cosmic Shaman who has been teaching the Aries medicine of self-reliance with a call to ‘heal thyself’.  Alongside Chiron is the asteroid Requiem.  This main-belt asteroid was discovered and named in 1977 by Nikolai Chernykh, whose mother (Melaniya) died the day he discovered it. 

Chiron’s wisdom, at the end of this year, tells of the great healing power in honoring all we have lost in 2020 with a collective prayer of Requiescat in Pace (Rest in Peace).  And, at the same time, this dynamic square calls for a Requiem of Woundedness that has been viral for centuries longer than Covid19.  May we lay it all to rest in this year where we learned we cannot live well without each other.  May we lay it all to rest in this year where we learned our natural world can heal in the absence of who we were.

And may this teaching provide the solid foundation from which Humanity creates a future of Peace with all life on Earth.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

Art by Luqman Reza Mulyono (aka. 'Jongkie')

 

 

 

 

 

Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius: The South Node Seeding

 

Art by Susan Seddon Boulet

Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius:  The South Node Seeding

Moon conjunct Sun- 12/14/20 @ 10:16am CST

 

In the shadows of Eclipse Season, we begin the last lunar cycle of 2020, a year to remember.  Here in the Northern Hemisphere, as we approach the Midwinter Solstice, we welcome the Long Nights Moon cycle.  Our sisters and brothers in the Southern Hemisphere, as they approach Midsummer Solstice, welcome the Strong Sun Moon cycle.  Together, we are welcoming a shift of season that holds a solar standstill and a Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. 

We also say our goodbyes to the previous Jupiter-Saturn cycles so we may usher in the Aquarian air of the next.  As the story goes with the 20 year conjunction cycle of these two planets, ‘one king dies as the next king reigns’.  This Aquarian conjunction happens on December 21^st, Solstice Day, and carries a strikingly similar theme to a story of our Solstices.  Within each solar standstill, the Holly King and the Oak King engage in battle.  Each rules for half a year, before the other usurps them.  This story tells of the growing, dying, and rebirthing of the Sun throughout our seasons. 

'The Riddle of Strider' by J.R.R. Tolkien

And within this total solar eclipse, this ‘death and rebirth cycle of the Sun King’ theme is accelerated as the shadow of Moon sails across our Sun for 2 minutes and 10 seconds of darkness.  Not all Earthlings can visibly observe this totality, but every one of us can feel it.  On the other side of this eclipse portal, a rapid rebirth of light ensues…reminding us of so many ‘changing of the guard’ moments in our Earthly lives. 

This total eclipse is at Moon’s South Node…seeding a new cycle with Sun that honors the fruit, flower, and root from whence it came.  Within this seed, past provides future potential as we approach Solstice.   

Yes, but shadows…so many of us would hide from seeing the truth within them.  The Shadowland seems dangerous territory…we cannot rely upon our sight and we are challenged to practice the extra-sensory navigation we were born with, but often forget how to use.  The Unknown envelops us as we cross into the Void.  We search for some comfort or safety as we have known it before…but there is only what can be birthed from this darkness.  Even the words to describe where we are now have acquired some dreadful connotation from a past that has tried to dissociate from Goddess Wisdom.  But as all Dark Moons in Dark Nights teach us, light is reborn in the dark. 

 

South Lunar Node in Sagittarius 20

Sabian Symbol- ‘in an old fashioned Northern village, men cut ice from a frozen pond for use during the Summer’

 

There is an interplay of hindsight and foresight within this last month of the 2020 vision…one in which the shadows of the past reveal a message for the future.  Where we come from arrives at this threshold in a transformed state, supporting our growth into where we are going.    We are leaving something behind in a South Node Eclipse, but we carry forth the past that matters most to our growth:  the wisdom of experience.  This is where hindsight gives birth to foresight in Sagittarius South Node medicine.  We anticipate the needs of our Collective Soul by surviving and learning from past experience.  Within this symbol, we carry forth what we need of “frozen” memory as a way to care for each other in times to come.  The South Lunar Node, a portal to the soul’s past, carries experiential wisdom from our Ancestors that they pass through to us.  In bringing forth the ice cutting symbol, our Ancestors of many realms provide insight to the natural cycles.  As Earthlings, this is our rhythm…the drumming of Gaia’s Heart.  Listening to that rhythm, even in the dark, connects us to the beat of our Collective Earthdance.  There is a message in that song, being seeded now within the compost from past cycles, of planning for our Descendants…considering who we are as Ancestors and how we may show our support for the future Now.  This message, this cyclical rhythm of Mother Nature, it holds true for us even through the Shadowlands of our journey on Earth.

 

Moon-Sun in Sagittarius 24

Sabian Symbol-  ‘a bluebird perched on the gate of a cottage’

Our luminaries resonate with the medicine of Bluebird…often considered a threshold guide in many cultures.  Bluebird sings a Sacred Song to the rhythm of our earthly cycles and invites us to show our true colors. 

You may have heard of the Bluebird of Happiness.  As a child, I first encountered this winged symbol in my favorite Shirley Temple movie…where her character follows a bluebird into a magical Otherworld much like White Rabbit leads Alice and a Twister guides Dorothy.  The coming-of-age journey of these young girls mirrors Bluebird medicine, which guides us through our passages in life.  The search for happiness brings us through unexpected realms…what we once knew can go through reversal to be understood more wisely.  And so not all experiences on the path to happiness are as joyful as we hoped.  

When Bluebird perches on the gate, as it does in this symbol, there is an invitation to a journey guided by what illuminates happiness.  There is a promise of joy and good fortune here, when we move beyond the gate, and yet happiness is not separate from the blues of our sadness.  There is a type of joy that is only experienced through grief…one where compassionate care and support embraces us in both states at once. 

Sadness and Joy with core memory
in 'Inside Out'

This is a theme seeded now and amplified in the Solstice Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  Jupiter expands, Saturn contracts.  Jupiter is jovial and festive, Saturn is serious and solemn.  And their conjunction has them expressing as one for our Collective…just as a New Moon marries the Spirit of Sun and the Soul of Moon in the Matter of Earth. 

 

Perhaps, in our pursuit of Happiness during this holiday season, we may find the truth of that journey in our Sadness.  What we have collectively experienced throughout 2020 has largely been a Saturnian lesson of limits and responsibility.  The year began with a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Saturn’s nocturnal sign of Capricorn earth, a necessary breakdown of our societal structures through soul crisis.  The year closes with a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Saturn’s diurnal sign of Aquarius air, a productive progression of ingenuity for our societal systems.  As we head into 2021, multiple planetary cycles are seeded in Air signs.  But what have we learned of our Earth cycles?  We will carry forth the wisdom of those past experiences, both happy and sad, to inform and provide for our future.

You may ponder, in this eclipse, what you have learned from your past adventures…in the saddest challenges and the happiest blessings.  What truth have you found there that can sustain you through the months ahead?  The hard work initiated this year does not disappear after 2020 closes and the new year begins.  We are to see it through in new ways.  And in this renewal of many cycles, we have a responsibility to ourselves, to each other, and to our future…that this new vision of society is sustainable and supportive of Life on Earth.

I wish you all a Blessed Solstice, Happy Holidays, and a Prosperous New Year!  May our light shine bright, even through the dark.

 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

 

 

 

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse in Gemini: The North Node Calling

 

'The Magician' by Graciela Bello

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse in Gemini:  The North Node Calling

Moon opposite Sun - 11/30/2020 @ 3:29am CST

 

At this Full Moon in Gemini, our Moon is close enough to her North Node that the penumbral shadow of our Earth reveals itself upon Lady Luna’s face.  This shadow may be subtle, but it carries a long history and a hint of where we are headed as a collective. 

There is often some kind of world crisis involved within the lessons of Eclipse Season.  Depending on how each eclipse interacts with your own natal makeup, the personal crisis can also be apparent to varying degrees.  When we navigate through crisis, we are being invited to respond with necessary change and transformation.  Crisis has taken on a rather negative connotation…because there is an edge to it, a transition from known to unknown…where faith can either falter or become our strongest ally.  When we come to these critical turning points in our year, we are faced with what of the past can no longer continue as it was…and faced with potential choices we want to dream into our future. 

There is great opportunity within crises, and much experiential wisdom born from them.  Yet such rewards cannot be reached without entering through that Eclipse Portal and crossing beyond that shadowy threshold.  You are certainly not alone if you are being faced with your fears, the roots of your insecurities, and many of the untruths that have clouded your own truth.  This year, the eclipses have held the added imperative of Neptune squaring the Lunar Nodes.  All these transformations feel a bit hazier and indescribable this year…like we can’t quite put our finger on any of it, really.  And yet, we are inspired to create a new dream within this mystical haze.  We are challenged to take those leaps of faith, not knowing where we will land.  And we are drawn to integrate all the disparate parts of our Collective Soul into wholeness…all without the definition and clear guidelines of ‘How’.

The strongest opportunity we are blessed with during this time, which is still rather subtle, is from Mercury (the Messenger planet and the guide of this Gemini lunation) in harmonious rapport with our social planets, Jupiter and Saturn in Capricorn.  Both Jupiter and Saturn are now in the last leg of their journey through Cardinal Earth, where they have been joining with Pluto all year for the massive renovations of our societal structures.  On December Solstice, they meet in the 1^st degree of Aquarius for their Great Conjunction…ushering in an era of elemental air conjunctions after a long stretch of earth focus.  But we’re not quite in the Era of Air just yet.  The Mercury sextile provides us with some useful information from the depths of Scorpio waters.  Something that has been hidden in the subconscious realms of our Collective Mind is coming to the surface to be worked out before we move on from these Capricorn lessons.  A helpful way to tap into this sextile is to communicate your observations with others.  Also, the Capricorn-Scorpio sextile can be helpful in moving one step at a time with a thought or idea.  In a Neptunian fog, this can be very useful.

Another subtle sextile opportunity arising at this time is that Mars in Aries is inspiring us to move forward again.  Because this is an applying sextile and trine to the Lunar Nodes, our inspiration to work with the Collective Soul’s needs will grow over the next couple weeks.  In this Full Moon, we may catch a glimpse of what we are building toward. 

The harmonious sextile and trine from Chiron Rx to the luminaries is also a helpful healing influence during this eclipse.  The Chiron aspects to the luminaries are fleeting, and already on the wane, but are still accessible in the Full Moon opening of this Eclipse Portal.  Wounding from the past may find healing in the future if its cast into the eclipse cauldron to transform. 

But aside from the very apparent dynamic of Neptune’s mystification, and the subtle harmonies offering opportunity for relief, there is also a waning Venus-Uranus Rx opposition still working seemingly unrelated and strange magic behind the scenes during this eclipse.  And though we may not currently see how the inconjunct aspects to our luminaries apply to this aperture of Eclipse magic, their Strangelove vibration is part of the integration of these lessons.  The exaction of this Venus-Uranus Rx opposition was a few days ago…and whatever new, out-of-the-box observation about love or finances came up this past week will want to be integrated (however uncomfortable, it brings unexpected growth).

'Psyche Opening
the Golden Box'
by John William Waterhouse

It is good to keep in mind the way of Gemini in this Sagittarius Season, not just because this is a Gemini Full Moon (though that’s a very good reason) but also because her North Node has been and will continue to be in Gemini for many months to come.  North Node represents the Collective Soul’s evolutionary needs…what we are taking in for our growth though it is not what we’re used to.  The North Node journey through Gemini asks us to follow our curiosity and fascination.  We may be taking in a lot of new information (Gemini North Node) as we release some old reasons and beliefs (Sagittarius South Node).  As we do this, we feel drawn to communicate with fellow souls when our paths cross.  Because this Lunar Eclipse takes place near the North Node, what is calling us now is to allow Psyche to speak through curiosity.  The asteroid Psyche is conjunct the North Node and strengthening in influence right now.  Her Heroine’s Journey is guiding our Collective Soul Journey throughout this Eclipse Season. 

 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

New Moon in Scorpio: Entering the Charnel Grounds

 

New Moon in Scorpio:  Entering the Charnel Grounds

Moon conjunct Sun- 11/14/20 @ 11:07pm CST

 

“What you resist not only persists, but it will grow in size.” -Carl Jung

 

As we lead into another eclipse season, Moon conjoins Sun at perigee (where she is closer to Earth in her orbit).  Not only is she closer to us (and more intensely felt), but she is also in a sign that is counter-intuitive to her naturally protective and comforting emotional nature.  Scorpio is a path of complexity, intensity, and extremity.  What is safe, relaxing, and predictable is of little concern on this path.  Scorpio often pushes us to the edges of what we fear most…so that we may find the deeper truth of it and transform.  Along the Scorpio path, that which must die is brought to the charnel grounds to decompose.

Not a pretty picture to open with…but bear with me, I was born under a Scorpio Moon.  It’s almost impossible for me to unsee what is dying of our former lives still walking around and interacting as if it is immortal.  It will not ‘go gentle into that goodnight’…mostly because many of us have been conditioned to fear death as an absolute end.  We hold on to even that which hurts us or holds us back from truly living.  Scorpio teaches that death is necessary and leads to regeneration.

This Scorpio New Moon is in a sextile to Jupiter, Pallas Athene, and Pluto in Capricorn.  The sextile provides an opportunity to begin this lunar cycle with some wise insight about where we need to transform.  By now, as Saturn, Jupiter, and Pallas wrap up some of their last lessons of sustainability in Capricorn (eventually leaving Pluto to continue the transformation process in cardinal earth)…we have witnessed the bare bones of our societal structures being rattled and tested by the force of natural law.  It has been undeniable and unavoidable.  But on the personal level, each one of us is feeling our own necessity to change as well.  Step by step, we are transforming in our own ways.  Some have a harder time with this process than others.  But really, none of it is easy.  It involves so much letting go of what we have previously relied upon.  It requires a great deal of trust in the unknown, and as much patience as we can muster.

There is likely an inclination to fall back into suppression of our feelings so that we can power through all that is being asked of us now.  The feelings are so intense, many will fear they will only further complicate the process and bring us into states where all control is lost.  In Scorpio season, we tend to cling to a desire to control things.  And yet, Scorpio shows us our hidden power to transform when we let go of our desire to control.  That’s a scary lesson for most people to accept.

We often hear that what we resist persists.  But the other part of that quote from Jung, that what we resist also grows, is a large part of the theme of this New Moon sextile Jupiter.  Jupiter, the planet of expansion, amplifies things.  So if we’re trying to suppress our complicated feelings right now…they are bound to grow, eventually erupting from under the surface of that suppression.  Pallas Athene suggests the best strategy is to have a solid emotional outlet.

What might be most suppressed right now is what is coming from Eris in Aries, who squares the Capricorn planets and is in an uncomfortable quincunx with our luminaries in Scorpio.  Feeling unseen, unheard, and unappreciated…Eris, Goddess of Discord, is tapping the masses to sound the ‘Devil’s Tri-tone’ and unleash their chaotic fury.  This has been a recurring theme all year with Eris squared by the Capricorn Council, but the protests continue to evolve into new territories…some more chaotic than others.  Whether we act on it visibly or not, everyone’s feeling that chaos in some way in their own lives.  Eris’s call in Aries has really always been about integrity…but integrity is often challenged when pitted against established societal structures.  Even worse when we are conditioned to be pitted against each other so the establishment can maintain business as usual while we fight amongst ourselves.

 

As Mars, traditional ruler of both Aries and Scorpio, has been retrograding through Aries and recently slowed down to station direct…I have been pondering the Mars-Eris connection and what it has been bringing up lately.  In this New Moon, I feel it is an appropriate time to share my thoughts on this.  The following is something I’ve been writing about lately…

 

Eris, Uninvited

 

In a world gone mad, Discord makes herself known.  She’s not just lurking in dark corners…she is crashing every party that wasn’t expecting her.  Her reputation of stirring up chaos and strife precedes her…but there is much overlooked about the Goddess Eris.  It is when she is overlooked or ignored that she wreaks havoc on what we guarded as our comfort zone. 

In Astronomy and Astrology, we were introduced to Eris in 2005, though this celestial body wasn’t named after the Goddess of Strife and Discord until 2006.  Eris is well known in her mythological storyline for shaking up the order of things…and her discovery led to Pluto being ‘demoted’ to ‘dwarf planet’ status along with her.  Not only was she uninvited to the planetary party by Astronomers, the threat of her importance took Pluto down as well.  Neither Eris nor Pluto will be exiled without a fight, and this year has been one to remember as they square each other multiple times.

'Eris, Goddess of Chaos' by Emily Balivet

Since her discovery, we Astrologers have become more and more acquainted with Eris.  We see the beauty in her chaos…there is great purpose in it.  When we’re ignoring the integral things that seem too complicated to deal with, too outside of our comfort zone, too threatening to our complacency and convenience…Eris arrives to cut through the very fabric of falsity we enable.  In tatters after her blow, we can finally see our true self and what we are really meant to do.  Eris isn’t subtle, though she often creeps up on us unannounced.

And humanity was in a state of complacency before this rising state of emergency alerted us to what has been out of integrity all along.  No matter how many times we’ve gotten her message since Eris let herself be known to us…we still kept falling back into complacency after the dust would settle.  Rejection after rejection, Eris’s message has by now reached a fever pitch in 2020. 

Slow as her faraway orbit is, the vast majority of people alive today were born with Eris in the cardinal fire sign of Aries.  This is a sign ruled by Eris’s brother (Ares/Mars), whom she would join on the battlefield to ensure that justice was served.  She’s quite powerful here in Mars’s fire sign, and is acknowledged with respect as a fierce warrioress by her brother.  Perhaps this is part of why she spends more of her 560 year cycle in Aries than in any other sign.  Like Mars, she has a lot of agency in cardinal fire.

Mars has been enjoying an extended stay in his home sign this year too, retrograding through the last half of the Aries degrees lately.  From August through October, Mars has made conjunctions with Eris…calling upon her warrioress gifts to aid him in the battle this year.  This has strengthened Eris’s presence in our collective awareness along with discordant square aspects activating her from the Capricorn Council. 

And what interests me most, since I was born in 1982, is that this Mars Retrograde in Aries has been either doubly or triply activating the natal Eris of each person born in the last 38 years.  Really, for most of us under 80 years old…we’ve been at least twice within the orb of influence with Mars activating our natal Eris.  Mars stationed direct at 15 degrees of Aries on November 13^th, the very same degree Eris was in between 1982-1987.  When anything contacts our personal Eris degree, it stirs up whatever has been keeping us out of integrity with our purpose.  The discord becomes more pronounced internally so that we feel we have to do something about it. 

And at this Scorpio New Moon, which follows both the final Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn and Mars’s direct station in Aries, all signs point to a big change toward greater integrity with our soul’s path.  Perhaps if we actually invite Eris to the party, rather than shunning her out of fear for what chaos might ensue, she’ll help us grow through our discomfort.

 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

Full Moon in Taurus: Samhain Illumination

 

Full Moon in Taurus:  Samhain Illumination

Moon opposite Sun- 10/31/20 @ 9:49am CDT

 

“Those who have died have never, never left.

The dead are not under the earth.

They are in the rustling trees,

They are in the groaning woods,

They are in the crying grass,

They are in the moaning rocks.”

-‘Breaths’ by Sweet Honey in the Rock

 

This Full Moon ushers in Witches’ New Year, and we begin what we call ‘the time which is no time’ from now till Solstice.  For those of us who celebrate it as such, the Full Moon closest to the Scorpio cross-quarter is known as ‘Lunar Samhain’, which just so happens to fall on Halloween this year.  There are few subtleties of cosmic timing in 2020, you may have noticed. 

Samhain Greetings from the Kavi House

And though the seasonal cross-quarter (‘Solar Samhain’, when Sun reaches the midpoint of Scorpio) is on Friday, November 6^th…Lunar Samhain initiates this week where the Otherworld is in closest contact with us.  Stepping beyond the veil of sensory consciousness, we invite the Ancestors in for an extraordinary celebration of life and death on Earth.  We may communicate with them, we may feast with them, we may put on costumes and perform for their amusement, we may pay our respects to the dead in ceremony.  No matter what you do, or don’t do, to celebrate this time of year…the vibration of this Full Moon will be felt one way or another.  Don’t let it spook you.  Seeing more ‘trick’ than ‘treat’ right now is part of the vibe this year.  However, the blessings far outweigh the unfortunate events surrounding us.  

'Taurus' by Cynthia Sheppard

Moon loves being cloaked in the earthy comforts of Venusian Taurus…and here she is, in full, to show herself in exaltation.  But at this Lunar Samhain, she is closely conjunct Uranus Retrograde.  This stirs many surprises into the cauldron of our High Priestess, Luna.  It is an improvised recipe bubbling within this strange brew when Uranus Rx is in the mix.  Since Uranus has been traveling through Taurus (May 2018), this earth sign has not felt as stable and dependable as it often is.  There is an electricity surging through solid earth…that’s what Uranus in Taurus feels like.  All of our sudden changes for 2 and a half years (so far) have been pushing us through our own resistance to change drastically.  It isn’t the easiest sign for Uranus to express, but no matter.  Innovation, currently through retrograde renovation, is inevitable where we least expect it for the next several years.  In the way of Taurus, you can’t force a flower to bloom until it is ready.  But with Uranus here, you also can’t resist the acceleration of awakening.  So where we see our strongest resistance, we may also see our necessity to change. 

And this is quite like Death…unpredictable, often sudden, not what we’d expect even if we thought we’d had a pretty good grasp on it.  Tis the Scorpio Season where we either greet or hide from Death, decay, darkness, loss, and transformation.  I choose to greet the season with open arms toward all that is dying and all that have passed beyond the veil.  And this year…there were so many deaths.  It seems fitting we have such cosmic synchronicity to attune us to the wisdom of the departed.  It is so apparent that we need their assistance to navigate this coming season as much as we need each other. 

Scorpio medicine, which Sun illuminates while conjunct the asteroid Astraea, is the path that brings us to the edges of what we have felt to find deeper truth beyond the liminal spaces.  This is a path of transformation and regeneration, brought forth through emotional catharsis.  It can feel intense, because it requires us to be ‘all in’ to reap the rewards of rebirth, even through the pain of separation.  It is Mars’s domain, where cutting away that which must die is the way to move forward. 

Astraea, the Star Maiden of Justice, may straddle that threshold…both aiding the transformation of what is being composted and what is being seeded for the coming year.  Astraea’s strength is in her compassion and her fairness.  Her influence right now tells us we must learn when to let go, but with grace and gratitude for what it was meant to be for its time. 

'Vesta' by Pamela Matthews

We also have a Grand Earth Trine with Taurus Moon-Uranus Rx as she harmonizes with the asteroids Vesta in Virgo and Hekate in Capricorn.  This creates a pattern called a ‘Kite’ with Sun-Astraea as the watery anchor for the earthy flow.  This kite vibration allows for creative manifestations rooted in the depths of our feelings.  Vesta the Priestess is the Guardian of the Sacred Flame, Goddess of hearth and home.  Hekate the Mother of Witches is Guardian of the Crossroads, Goddess of magic and night.  Together in harmony with this Uranian Full Moon at Samhain, they invite us Earthlings into a Sacred Passageway.  When we approach a passage, the soul of us calls out for ritual.  We may do this in varied ways during this time (which is ‘no time’)…but when we do this with reverence for the dead and gratitude for our Ancestors, we are fully supported.

'Hekate' by Kaysha Siemens

 

You don’t have to be a witch to do this, though many of us are.  Everyone has Ancestors and loved ones who have passed.  You may call it Halloween and think of candy, costumes, and creepy creatures first.  But Halloween has sacred origins, too.  Even the candy, costumes, and creepy creatures are part of the Rite. 

So, whether you’ve ever done something special in the past for this holiday or not…this particular one is uniquely magical.  You may simply find your awareness pulled toward the Moon on this night.  You might have already felt this as she’s traveled past Mars this week…and you’ll likely continue to be drawn to her brilliance in the days following the Full Moon.  Lady Luna is a visible reflection of what is wide awake within us now.  Sing to her, dance with her, bless the way she guides us toward swift change in her monthly cycles.  Join us witches in drawing her reflection down to our Earth, bathing in the radiance of her exaltation.  There is much to celebrate, even during the heavy chaos of this year.  And really, we could all benefit from a little magic right now.

Remember your Ancestors, and blessed be.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

New Moon in Libra: Patience in our Impatience

 

'Woman Holding a Balance' by Johannes Vermeer

New Moon in Libra:  Patience in our Impatience

Moon conjunct Sun- 10/16/20 @ 2:31pm CDT

 

Satisfaction, success, peace, and the ‘Aha’ moments of our lives are the very things that shift us into who we are as humans.  But they don’t happen every day.  For some, they don’t happen very often at all.  Sometimes it just is what it is, and sometimes we’re actually missing opportunities to shine.  In the latter case, we’re almost always standing in our own way to achieving the many things that make us happy with ourselves. 

And so we become frustrated, bitter, angry, and disappointed with ourselves or the world around us (often both).  For many, these dissatisfied feelings are more frequent and obvious.  It’s especially obvious because it often hurts to feel them.  We can’t miss what hurts. 

And, depending on the circles of voices you surround yourself with, you may hear so often how you have the power to manifest anything with intention at any time.  The truth is, not everyone is wired with that Manifestor Magic.  Most of us have different, but equally important, magical wiring.  Most of us have to wait for invitations to respond with our magic.  Some very lunar beings have to wait a moon cycle.

And in this culture of convenience…patience is a lost art. 

I bring all this up because we are all wanting to manifest dramatic changes in our lives and in our world…even those who want a change against these growing changes so that things can stay the same. And pretty much everyone is dissatisfied on some level…with the state of the world, with humanity, with ourselves.

For those who follow Astrological transits, we can see this tension pool into the heavy emphasis of the Capricorn Council at this New Moon…creating a sharp edge that demands a big structural change to outmoded operating systems.  The Capricorn Council (especially Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter) have had a weighty influence on this year already.  And now they’re at the apex of a Cardinal T-square with Retrograde Mars-Eris in Aries and our luminaries in Libra.  We humans notice the frequency of squares, especially in activating Cardinal signs, whether we have technical terms for the feeling or not.  We notice them because, often, they hurt in some way.  They create enough dissonance with ourselves to provoke a change.  And creating a change to alleviate the clash is really the point of the squares…the dissonance itself is actually the invitation we’ve been waiting for.

'The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame'
by Georges de la Tour

So while our frustrated efforts to push forth our will to act have been getting many of us down lately…this Libra New Moon opposite the Retrogrades of Aries invites us to be patient in our impatience.  Mars Retrograde in his own sign shows us that there’s a perspective on activity that we’ve been missing in all our rushing.  And this Libra New Moon illuminates how peace grows patiently from a seed.  In these newly planted perspectives, there is also the death of old ones that we are asked to make peace with.  The amplified death cries of what is on its way out are so loud now and full of fight that it appears as if they are getting worse…getting out of hand…getting stubbornly fixed into the very fabric of who we are as humans.  This is an illusion.  What is real is that everything is changing.  We’ll all look back on 2020 as a crucial turning point between the way things were and what we were meant to become.

So, the opposition to this Libra New Moon clues us in that we may get increasingly frustrated in this long process of change we’re moving through.  Libra, full of consideration for others, teaches us to not react out of anger when we feel frustrated by having to weigh things out before we respond.  Consider that we are all feeling some level of this personally…even those you don’t want to relate with as human beings.  Libra New Moon points to the purpose of relating. 

In every New Moon, we don’t see Luna in our sky.  A potential is born from this darkness, but it takes some days to grow into our awareness.  If you notice you have been feeling frustrated, or continue to feel frustrated, with your desires being impeded lately…sit with that frustration.  Feel it.  Let it wash over you and finally dissipate…every time it arises.  It is not your natural state of being…it is a momentary indicator to realign.  No matter how long, or how many times, it takes.  This is how we adapt in these hard times.  This is how we make peace with our feelings.  We feel it so that it may move us onward. 

Things we couldn’t possibly plan for are coming our way in this lunar phase.  Some may seem good, some may seem not so good.  Ultimately, it’s all neutral…but still shocking.  Mercury (the Collective Mind) has just stationed retrograde in Scorpio a few days ago…and is now moving back into opposition with Uranus Rx in Taurus, the planet of Group Awakening.  By the Full Moon in Taurus (Oct. 31^st), these Uranian surprises will be fully illuminated, fully felt.  So taking the time now to rest in our potential for peace in these times of great change, as the Libra seed of this year is planted, is crucial to our adaptability in whatever changes are coming.  And with this New Moon at Libra 24, the Sabian Symbol is ‘a third wing on the left side of a butterfly’.  The very symbol carries the imagery of one of our most transformative (Pluto) creature teachers with a surprising and unique (Uranus) adaptation. 

And because Libra is a Venusian air sign, allow yourself some time to connect with others who help you to feel at peace with yourself and what you are experiencing.  It is true of humans that in our toughest times, we get by with a little help from our friends. 

 

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

 

Full Moon in Aries: The Healer’s Moon

 

'Gift of Healing' by Kirk Reinert

Full Moon in Aries: The Healer’s Moon

Moon opposite Sun- 10/1/20 @ 4:05pm CDT

 

This Full Moon is closely conjunct Chiron Retrograde in Aries, illuminating the wisdom of the Wounded Healer/Mentor archetype.  On September 29^th, about an hour before Mars Retrograde was exactly square with Saturn, the exact opposition between Sun and Chiron occurred.  In these aspects, much of the pain of our identity wounds (Chiron in Aries) was illuminated (Sun in Libra) as we felt the frustration of our will (Mars in Aries) being blocked, stifled, or altogether halted (Saturn in Capricorn).  And the feeling is still present with us, being further reflected upon now as we enter this Full Moon period. 

Where the Full Moon is will show us where our emotional needs can be met now that the initial seed of the New Moon is in full bloom.  And Full Moon in Aries shows us Chiron, the Cosmic Shaman, here to guide us through the healing process of re-membering who we are.  In the Virgo New Moon, we were feeling into the various pieces of what we were starting with in this lunar cycle.  We were discerning between what is essential now and what needed to be discarded to make room for the new we were ushering in.  Now we see, in the full light of Luna’s reflection of Libra Sun, how we have grown into our self-expression.  What is revealed in this lunation is who we are as healers, teachers, mentors, and guides for this larger process of healing that we are all moving through together.  The Healer within is illuminated now…as we heal our own identity wounds to better be able to heal the collective identity wound.

Whatever ‘who am I?’ process you have been going through internally through this Chiron Retrograde has reached a point of illumination now.  We are more conscious now of our own innate abilities to heal from whatever has fractured our sense of self in the past.  Chiron may bring up other healers, teachers, and guides into our awareness surrounding this time…yet, we now understand how crucial our own part in our healing is.  Aries energy teaches self-reliance and integrity…so this Chiron Full Moon illuminates the integral role we each play in the healing process (within and without).

To learn more about the themes of Chiron in Aries, you may want to retrograde back to when Chiron entered Aries in 2018.  Here is my post from that time:  Chiron in Aries:  Heal Thyself.

And if you missed this interview from June of this year, where Stormie Grace and I explored the many facets of the Chiron journey, it will help to illuminate the main themes of this Full Moon.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi