Capricorn Full Moon~ Anchoring the Wind
The first week of the 2nd Gemini cycle has been pretty sweet. Much of the eclipse heaviness has burned off with the summer solstice sun and people seem to be feeling lighter, clearer, on all levels. And for the first time since I realized we would have a Capricorn full moon during Gemini, I am feeling the absolute perfection of the pulsation.
Gemini is almost always paired with Sagittarius, mutable air to mutable fire. However, because of a 2nd new moon falling in Gemini, rather than Cancer, Capricorn's usual partner, we are seeing a very unusual lunar dance. I often joke that out of all the signs, Capricorns are who I struggle with the most. I remember reading in some astrology book, maybe Linda Goodman, that these two signs are NOT compatible, that the steadier mountain goat (Capricorn) is bewildered by the twins (Gemini). Bewildered!!! I love that word, and it is definitely one I would use to describe both my reaction to my Capricorn friends and their response to me.
And yet, I was always drawn to Capricorn folk, and my struggles with them all resulted in beautiful growth and transformation. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, good old "father time." Cardinal earth, the sign that heralds winter solstice and demands structure, steadiness and material intention; symbolized by the mountain goat, a relation that can scale the summit without losing her footing once. I also just like to think of Capricorn as the mountain... cardinal earth at it's finest... these beautiful, powerful mountains that take thousands of years to move.
In this auspicious year of endings and beginnings, we get to experience the twins dancing on the mountain, rather than 'round the bonfire (Sag) under the full moon light.
Truth be told, from here on out, every sign will be coupled with an unlikely partner, and I think we will all be the better for it. It is always an interesting game to be teaching a class or workshop, telling students to partner up, but then following with "find someone you have never worked with before" and then watching what unfolds. There is always a moment of collective groaning, looking longingly at your BFF, and then, with a sigh, looking around the room for the someone who looks "normal." It never fails that they find the exact right person for the task, and both people learn and experience something they never would have, if they had stayed with the familiar.
Embrace the mountain and the wind on this full moon. The Gemini cycle, when she is with Sag, is so quick and energetic, fire and air pulsing and weaving all month long. No sense of time, boundaries or responsibilites, just mutable energy at it's strongest.
Enjoy this calmer, steadier Gemini, supported by Capricorn, and be grateful, also, for the softening of Saturn, his little brother Mercury nipping at his heels and urging him to have a little fun. I was just hanging out with friends who have an older dog. It had seemed like her puppy days were truly past, but then they got a brand new pup, who brought the energy back to the old dog. And the old dog, in turn, has helped train and calm the pup.
The universe knows what she is doing. Time is passing as it needs to pass and the wheel turns. This full moon, and in the next full moons ahead, we have a beautiful opportunity to move a little differently, shake up our dance card. It is so fitting that it begins with the unlikeliest of partners, quick, changeable, airy Gemini and the anchoring, grounding, responsible Capricorn.
I plan on spending the full moon on a mountain, feeling the firmness of earth and at the same time reaching my arms to the wind, knowing that at this time, it is possible to bring all creativity, intellect and movement down into reality, into manifestation. Capricorn is just the friend we need to slow down our racing thoughts and plans, to remind us to stay connected to our foundation. Imagine this full moon as a colorful kite, able to dance, swirl and fly in the wild winds, knowing there is someone keeping it's roots close to earth, supported and safe. You need both air and earth to successfully and joyfully fly a kite, right? What can you do, in your life, to experience that kind of freedom and grounding?
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Gemini New Moon & Summer Solstice 6/20~ Duality
Whew~ we made it through another eclipse cycle and the culmination of the rare Venus transit. As the moon wanes and the days lengthen, most of us are still feeling the intense effects of Gemini's duality. Confusion/clarity, calamity/serenity, birth/death, light/dark are just a few of the polarities dancing around my head... one moment I feel focused, at the next, utterly overwhelmed. We are being transformed, our old patterns/karma/fears dissolved. This process will continue through the next month as we welcome a second new moon in Gemini the day before Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.
Venus is retrograde until June 27th, and on July 14th, Mercury will begin it's next backward cycle. We are still in the underworld, my friends, probably, in one form or another, until 2013. This whole year has been about re-birth, re-newal and re-aligning with our highest truths, so it is appropriate that we are experiencing so many astrological line-ups that encourage the clearing away of the old and bringing us ever closer to our authenticity and destiny.
Summer solstice marks the exact half-way point in a highly charged year. Next Wednesday, we will greet the longest day with the discerning eye, inquiring mind and open hands of the previous night's Gemini new moon. This moment of strongest sun is the most powerful, palpable, pranic time of the year, an auspicious day for healing and illumination. Then, the very next day, nights slowly lengthen and the gentle ebb of the seasons begins. As Gemini teaches us, while we live in this world, there will be duality, and it is only through this opposition that we can truly experience life.
I don't think that the point to being human is to transcend our nature, or to be one with everything else. The philosophies I resonate with say being human means constant change and experiencing the extremes of nature: hot, cold, light, dark, up, down. Living with so many different expressions means we sometimes suffer and the best antidote to suffering is to develop a relationship with the dualities and discover how to live as happy, joyous and free as you can while being in the moment.
As we move into this next month, I want to encourage you to keep going and to slow down. I want you to play, and get more rest, let something go and welcome someone in, enjoy the sun but allow the darkness. Much of our lessons right now are in letting the mind think, the emotions feel, the spirit fly and the body move. Each of these aspects is completely different and sometimes what they want are equally different that is seems impossible to take action! All are part of being human and as Gemini continues to light our way through the summer, trust that you are letting go of what you need to let go of and making space for what you want and these things happen simultaneously.
It is not about simply balancing our differences, our schedules, our victories and defeats, it is about allowing each to come to light and allowing that experience to blend into our individual and collective 2012 transformations. We are all transitioning in many ways, some that make no sense right now. And they don't have to. Human life is finite and we are playing with the infinite, so stay in the game, loving each play for what it teaches you about your journey.
One of my favorite simple sanskrit mantra's is "Om Shiva Shakti" and it honors both the yin/yang, masculine/feminine, light/dark, life/death, sun/moon through the aspects of Lord Shiva and Goddess Shakti. Sometimes, when my Gemini nature is making me crazy, I say this chant over and over. It reminds me that though right/wrong would make some decisions easier, it would take the magic out of being alive.
Welcome the light of summer and the dark of the new moon to move through you this month, mind, body, emotion and spirit. Make decisions based on where the light is shining and trust the play of the infinite. Gemini can make you crazy with her mind games, but she is also the messenger of the divine, if you can stop taking her riddles literally and instead, make them part of the dance. Use your energy and life force wisely now, honor the clarity received through last month's chaos and from the center of light and dark allow your own color to shine.
Venus is retrograde until June 27th, and on July 14th, Mercury will begin it's next backward cycle. We are still in the underworld, my friends, probably, in one form or another, until 2013. This whole year has been about re-birth, re-newal and re-aligning with our highest truths, so it is appropriate that we are experiencing so many astrological line-ups that encourage the clearing away of the old and bringing us ever closer to our authenticity and destiny.
Summer solstice marks the exact half-way point in a highly charged year. Next Wednesday, we will greet the longest day with the discerning eye, inquiring mind and open hands of the previous night's Gemini new moon. This moment of strongest sun is the most powerful, palpable, pranic time of the year, an auspicious day for healing and illumination. Then, the very next day, nights slowly lengthen and the gentle ebb of the seasons begins. As Gemini teaches us, while we live in this world, there will be duality, and it is only through this opposition that we can truly experience life.
I don't think that the point to being human is to transcend our nature, or to be one with everything else. The philosophies I resonate with say being human means constant change and experiencing the extremes of nature: hot, cold, light, dark, up, down. Living with so many different expressions means we sometimes suffer and the best antidote to suffering is to develop a relationship with the dualities and discover how to live as happy, joyous and free as you can while being in the moment.
As we move into this next month, I want to encourage you to keep going and to slow down. I want you to play, and get more rest, let something go and welcome someone in, enjoy the sun but allow the darkness. Much of our lessons right now are in letting the mind think, the emotions feel, the spirit fly and the body move. Each of these aspects is completely different and sometimes what they want are equally different that is seems impossible to take action! All are part of being human and as Gemini continues to light our way through the summer, trust that you are letting go of what you need to let go of and making space for what you want and these things happen simultaneously.
It is not about simply balancing our differences, our schedules, our victories and defeats, it is about allowing each to come to light and allowing that experience to blend into our individual and collective 2012 transformations. We are all transitioning in many ways, some that make no sense right now. And they don't have to. Human life is finite and we are playing with the infinite, so stay in the game, loving each play for what it teaches you about your journey.
One of my favorite simple sanskrit mantra's is "Om Shiva Shakti" and it honors both the yin/yang, masculine/feminine, light/dark, life/death, sun/moon through the aspects of Lord Shiva and Goddess Shakti. Sometimes, when my Gemini nature is making me crazy, I say this chant over and over. It reminds me that though right/wrong would make some decisions easier, it would take the magic out of being alive.
Welcome the light of summer and the dark of the new moon to move through you this month, mind, body, emotion and spirit. Make decisions based on where the light is shining and trust the play of the infinite. Gemini can make you crazy with her mind games, but she is also the messenger of the divine, if you can stop taking her riddles literally and instead, make them part of the dance. Use your energy and life force wisely now, honor the clarity received through last month's chaos and from the center of light and dark allow your own color to shine.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Scorpio Full Moon/Lunar Beltane 5/5
Scorpio Full Moon~ The Depths of Desire
I am writing this on an overcast and chilly Beltane afternoon. Beltane, one of four cross-quarter holy days, celebrates Mid-spring and the marriage of the fertile earth Goddess to the strapping sun God, who is coming into his power more and more as each day passes. This holy day favors dancing around the May Pole, lighting a giant bonfire and encouraging men and women to flirt, frolic, drink, dance and make love. These rites have been practiced for many years, but spent some time underground when the activities were considered heretic. Even then, the celebration of the first of May lingered, as all holy days will, no matter what new names or meanings we give them.
And yet, today, there is no trace of the Sun God and the Earth Goddess, while present in the chirping birds and green grasses, seems sleepy, and not quite in the mood to dance. I also feel a little tired, cranky and even a little grateful that the day is not very inviting, otherwise I would have to go outdoors and greet the height of spring. Instead, I am called to write about the other waxing energy, the full moon in Scorpio, whose phase begins Friday and will carry over into Sunday.
Just as the cross-quarter days herald the middle of each season, the full moon also marks the climax of the current lunar cycle. It is auspicious to have them fall so close together and this is a potent week for filling up. But filling up with what?
Taurus, the ruling sign of the month, is fixed earth, the goddess Venus herself, clothed in the grandeur of Spring. The sign that opposes her in the glow of the full moon, is Scorpio, fixed water. Water energy is emotional and it's fixed nature demands the deepest emotions available, the unconscious; imagine a deep, dark well. Where Taurus is led by beautiful, fertile Venus, Scorpio carries the banner of Pluto, ruler of the underworld and master of sex, power, passion and death. Their dance is a mighty one, a passionate one and an unrequited one. For while Venus may occasionally retreat to the underworld, as Persephone or Inanna, she always returns to her sunnier suitors. But it is her visits to the underworld and her encounters with Pluto, that make her powerful. The stories of goddesses embarking below are legendary. She may enter a maiden or princess, but she emerges a queen.
Perhaps that is the message of this gloomy Beltane as the moon waxes beneath a clouded sky; it is not enough to frolic in the spring time, wrap a ribbon around a pole, light a fire or mate frivolously. It may be fun, and we do need to play and find pleasure at this time, but it might be that more is demanded. What do you really want to bring into your life? What truly fulfills you and your soul's purpose?
I have posed that question to myself for months now. But Pluto has a patience fiery Aries did not have and waters that Taurus's roots cannot touch. Next month Gemini rides in on a summer wind bringing eclipses and mutable energy sent to dissolve anything not firmly held. Now is the time to leave the warm fires and soft earth with her blossoming flowers and follow Scorpio down the deep well. When you sit alone, in the dark, what dreams keep your will strong? What do you hold so dear it keeps your fear at bay as you go deeper and deeper? Pluto is the lord of the underworld, and he is counseled by dark goddesses like Kali and Ershkigal, and they will accept nothing but your rawest truths and most powerful desires.
If you can muster the courage to speak to them under the Scorpio full moon, perhaps, like Persephone or Inanna, you will emerge victorious, with new allies and carrying a vision and direction that will hold through the windy Gemini summer. It is only when we are able to look the lords and ladies of the underworld in the face that we can see what matters most. They are not enemies or villains, they are our truest teachers.
Their eyes will be hard to miss this weekend within the full moon, and I encourage you to take the time to look. The sun will come out from the clouds and Beltane festivities will abound, as they should and as is needed to bring love, light and abundance to the earth, but Pluto is there, too, and in that dark well lie the waters of life. Drink deeply, meet their gaze and do not fear to follow into the depth of your desires.
I am writing this on an overcast and chilly Beltane afternoon. Beltane, one of four cross-quarter holy days, celebrates Mid-spring and the marriage of the fertile earth Goddess to the strapping sun God, who is coming into his power more and more as each day passes. This holy day favors dancing around the May Pole, lighting a giant bonfire and encouraging men and women to flirt, frolic, drink, dance and make love. These rites have been practiced for many years, but spent some time underground when the activities were considered heretic. Even then, the celebration of the first of May lingered, as all holy days will, no matter what new names or meanings we give them.
And yet, today, there is no trace of the Sun God and the Earth Goddess, while present in the chirping birds and green grasses, seems sleepy, and not quite in the mood to dance. I also feel a little tired, cranky and even a little grateful that the day is not very inviting, otherwise I would have to go outdoors and greet the height of spring. Instead, I am called to write about the other waxing energy, the full moon in Scorpio, whose phase begins Friday and will carry over into Sunday.
Just as the cross-quarter days herald the middle of each season, the full moon also marks the climax of the current lunar cycle. It is auspicious to have them fall so close together and this is a potent week for filling up. But filling up with what?
Taurus, the ruling sign of the month, is fixed earth, the goddess Venus herself, clothed in the grandeur of Spring. The sign that opposes her in the glow of the full moon, is Scorpio, fixed water. Water energy is emotional and it's fixed nature demands the deepest emotions available, the unconscious; imagine a deep, dark well. Where Taurus is led by beautiful, fertile Venus, Scorpio carries the banner of Pluto, ruler of the underworld and master of sex, power, passion and death. Their dance is a mighty one, a passionate one and an unrequited one. For while Venus may occasionally retreat to the underworld, as Persephone or Inanna, she always returns to her sunnier suitors. But it is her visits to the underworld and her encounters with Pluto, that make her powerful. The stories of goddesses embarking below are legendary. She may enter a maiden or princess, but she emerges a queen.
Perhaps that is the message of this gloomy Beltane as the moon waxes beneath a clouded sky; it is not enough to frolic in the spring time, wrap a ribbon around a pole, light a fire or mate frivolously. It may be fun, and we do need to play and find pleasure at this time, but it might be that more is demanded. What do you really want to bring into your life? What truly fulfills you and your soul's purpose?
I have posed that question to myself for months now. But Pluto has a patience fiery Aries did not have and waters that Taurus's roots cannot touch. Next month Gemini rides in on a summer wind bringing eclipses and mutable energy sent to dissolve anything not firmly held. Now is the time to leave the warm fires and soft earth with her blossoming flowers and follow Scorpio down the deep well. When you sit alone, in the dark, what dreams keep your will strong? What do you hold so dear it keeps your fear at bay as you go deeper and deeper? Pluto is the lord of the underworld, and he is counseled by dark goddesses like Kali and Ershkigal, and they will accept nothing but your rawest truths and most powerful desires.
If you can muster the courage to speak to them under the Scorpio full moon, perhaps, like Persephone or Inanna, you will emerge victorious, with new allies and carrying a vision and direction that will hold through the windy Gemini summer. It is only when we are able to look the lords and ladies of the underworld in the face that we can see what matters most. They are not enemies or villains, they are our truest teachers.
Their eyes will be hard to miss this weekend within the full moon, and I encourage you to take the time to look. The sun will come out from the clouds and Beltane festivities will abound, as they should and as is needed to bring love, light and abundance to the earth, but Pluto is there, too, and in that dark well lie the waters of life. Drink deeply, meet their gaze and do not fear to follow into the depth of your desires.
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