Sagittarius New Moon/Partial Solar Eclipse~ Balancing Spirit

Thanksgiving day is usually filled with family, food, tradition and all the things that come along with them. That can include: traveling, shopping, prepping, driving, cooking, eating, drinking, fussing, fighting, laughing, crying, glutton, excess, pleasure, pain, cleaning and I am sure you can each personally add a few more.

 

All of this is intensified by both the Sagittarius new moon & a partial solar eclipse that occur on Thursday November 24th.

 

I am still trying to find the earth from the emotional, watery depths of the Scorpio cycle, even after the grounding Taurus full moon last week. But earth is not the element inviting us into the next month; it is the beckoning of mutable fire that claims the twenty-eight days ahead.

 

The Sagittarus cycle is normally quite welcome, especially in the holiday season. Sag is the centaur, gypsy, philosopher and story-teller. The energy is gregarious, voracious, social and hard to keep still. It's kinda like being hauled out of a deep, dark well (Scorpio) that you have been sitting in for a month and being plopped in front of a giant bonfire with a cup of tea and a camp full of gypsies, singing, laughing, telling stories. It can be a relief, but also a pretty extreme change of scenery.

 

An eclipse intensifies whatever sign it falls on, and solar eclipses intensify the outer, masculine, active qualities, where lunar amp up the emotional, feminine energies. The eclipse on Thursday is partial solar (not as powerful as total solar) and as the sun and moon will be in Sagittarius, that is a lot of fire energy.

 

I feel like we are going to want to do one of two things during this new moon.

 

The first is to completely rebel against all the truth seeking, cleansing and changing Scorpio was demanding and to just hide our heads in too much food, drink, shopping, socializing and playing. I get that, I am tempted to do the same. I am half way through the cleanse I started with the waning cycle and every ounce of me wants to justify ending early and starting to enjoy the pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, cookies and goodies already springing up everywhere. Sag, after all, is the fun loving story teller that can easily make up a really good reason why you have done enough work and should party party party.

 

OR you may just want to burn out. Scorpio brings up all our deep dark secrets, fears, resentments and with the heightening fire energy, it may feel appropriate to spend Thanksgiving telling your relatives exactly what you think of them or forcing your spouse into discussing every intimate issue you have or any other extreme heated exchange you can come up with. Fire energy is always alchemical, always trans-formative and mutable energy makes it faster, hotter and more changeable. It can be really appealing to want to harness all that hot stuff and just burn those metaphorical bridges, houses and villages to the ground. Because, again, we all are recognizing that we have stuff to work on, things to release, why not just get it over with in a huge blaze of drama and glory?

 

Naturally, neither of those plans is sustainable. Neither support our overall health or the healing of our communities and countries. Following the moon generally means we are invoking more of those intuitive, nurturing, balancing qualities rather than the linear aggressive desires solar energy creates. We start to sense, based on the movements of moon and earth, that everything is cyclical and gradual changes stand the test of the seasons better than immediate destruction and instant gratification.

 

The challenge in this cycle is to build a healthy fire and care for it in a good way. Yes, you deserve rest, joy and a full tummy AND yes, you must continue to let go of the things that no longer serve you and work towards the life you want.

 

Use that visualization this month, if you can. Imagine the fire in your belly, see it being built upon the foundation that supports your dreams, lit by your new intentions and the things that bring you joy and burning through that which you carefully choose to let go of. As you move into celebration, see your fire being tended to by love as well as release. When you feel it getting too high, or dampening, use your breath to come back to center and bring it back to that middle place. The place where it is warm, inviting and likely to last all night.

 

Perhaps you will spend Thanksgiving somewhere an actual fire can be lit, either candles, fire place or outdoors. Take time to look into the flames and again, use your breath, imagination and intention to clear negative energy or honor positive. Remember that Thanksgiving is ultimately about gratitude. Be grateful for the heat, the ability to make and use fire. Be grateful for the moments you can let worries go and be with loved ones and be grateful for the times you can burn away something you don't need anymore.

 

Sagittarius can be a mischievous one, but like most gypsies, if you are straight with her about what you need, she will make sure you get exactly the right medicine, be it food, dance, drink, sleep or a good story.

Fall Equinox & Libra New Moon

Libra New Moon~ Choosing Harmony~

 

If you accepted the Virgo invitation from August's new moon, you may have experienced a wide range of weeding, cleansing, clearing, sweating, releasing and transforming your physical world. I clocked more hours of yard and housework time this last month than probably in the last 5 years. It was much needed and worth every drop of sweat and ounce of frustration.

 

From Mutable Earth, the realm of the healer, we now move to Cardinal Air and the symbolism of the scales. If you really did the deep work Virgo required of you, you let go of a lot and you may still find yourself wanting to "do" more but summer is officially over with Libra's entrance into the sky, and the energy all around is releasing. We must now find the way to balance what we are left with.

 

The seasonal shifts are instigated by the movement of earth on her axis as she circles the sun, as well as by the movement of zodiac constellations in the sky. When Libra takes center stage, it coincides with the perfect alignment of our planet for 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness (Autumn Equinox), followed by the shift into shorter days and longer nights for our side of the globe. Libra, ruled by the Goddess Venus, and as I mentioned, symbolized by the scales, seeks harmony. As a Cardinal sign, Libra initiates the creativity needed for compromise and balance. As an Air sign, this initiation starts in the mind.

 

We went camping in the woods this last weekend, a fitting end to the Virgo cycle. As I sat around the campfire with my family, watching the transformation of earth through the burning of wood, my stepson asked me to tell a story. It took me a moment, but as I have Libra rising and Venus ruling my chart, I was quickly nudged to tell my favorite equinox story, a myth that both explained the seasonal change to our ancestors and symbolizes beautifully the act of making choices, compromising, and being in relationship: The myth of Demeter & Persephone~

 

Demeter is the Goddess of Earth, grain, agriculture and all that grows. She was a great nurturing mama and loved to nurture the whole planet all year long, but especially her daughter, the innocent and beautiful Persephone. Demeter was not the only one to adore her child, the lord of darkness and the underworld, Hades, also had taken an interest. Hades got permission, behind Demeter's back, from the King of Gods, Zeus, to take Persephone as his bride, so one day, when the girl had left her mother's sight to gather flowers, the earth cracked open and Hades dragged her down into the underworld. There was no trace of the abduction and Demeter was devastated. She could not eat, sleep or grow any grain until she found her child. She searched and searched and the earth got more and more bare. Finally, Zeus had to tell Demeter that Hades had taken Persephone. Demeter demanded her return or she swore she would never let anything grow again. Zeus agreed.

 

Meanwhile, Persephone was suffering below the earth. She also refused to eat or drink and nothing Hades tried could pull his bride from her sadness. When word came that Demeter was going to take Persephone, Hades grew desperate. He told his wife that she would soon be leaving but to please just eat something so she wouldn't seem so weak. Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds to pacify him. There is a law that if you eat or drink anything while in the underworld that you cannot leave, which Hades triumphantly announced when Demeter arrived. Demeter was beyond outraged and again told Zeus she would let Earth die if she had to return without her daughter; so Zeus was forced to compromise. Persephone would spend six months of the year on earth and six in the underworld. Demeter also compromised, stating that nothing would grow when her child went under but that life would return with Persephone, hence the creation of seasons.

 

There is a lot to this story and many perspectives to consider, but as the the fall equinox and Libra new moon draw close, I want you to consider the journey of Persephone. Demeter represents the light part of the year, the summer growth and blossoming. Hades is the dark time, Winter death, decay and retreat to the underworld. It is Persephone who symbolizes the balance between them, the innocent child of Spring, and the dutiful wife of Fall. It is she who must enter the underworld at fall equinox and return to the earth at spring equinox. Whatever her own feelings, fears and wants, she honors the compromise from Zeus and over time is revered as the Queen of the underworld.

 

Though at first she is just a victim to deities more powerful than she (I think we can all relate to that!) It is still her decision to cultivate the relationships between and within the light and dark. Persephone is the embodiment of the scales and the true creator of harmony and compromise.

 

Whatever may have come up for you on the mental level during this physical cycle of Virgo, it is time to reconcile it. In what places and ways are you having to give up some of your lighter aspects and move into your dark? Perhaps the physical work brought up a lot of darkness and your job during this cycle where there is less sun is to try to find the lightness in them? What can you learn about your relationships and where you can and cannot compromise? Relationships are our greatest mirrors, our most powerful teachers, as we see through Persephone and her connection to both Demeter and Hades. Neither is really better than the other, but they both force Persephone into initiation.

 

This is the month of final harvest, but for many of us, it is in the mental realm of air: practicing slow, balanced breathing, making mental inventories of your own assets/debits as well those of your relationships, reading inspiring books/stories and every day considering how you can bring more harmony into your life. It is not always easy to find balance and compromise, particularly between light and dark, but if Persephone can accept a life split between earth and the underworld, we can utilize twenty eight days for our own exploration of the scales.

Virgo New Moon & Women's Moon Camp

Om Chandraya Namaha, ladies~ it is almost time to welcome another lunar cycle!

It is still a week away, but I can't tell you how excited I am for both the Virgo cycle and our 1st Moon Camp. We specifically chose the Virgo new moon for camp, and the reasons were many.

Virgo is mutable (transform) Earth (form, physical) and is the sign most connected to making changes in the physical realm. Virgo is associated with the healer, and the perfectionist. This is the best sign to get into details and detoxification of the physical world we live in. The trouble can often be that we, especially women, get too critical, too perfection driven, either about ourselves, or we turn this keen eye on to those around us; particularly if we are not ready to do the work that needs to be done.

Choosing this cycle to spend a couple days together in the mountains, on the earth, taking time to do our individual and collective work, sitting in circle sharing our truths and new intentions, making healthy meals together, hiking, sitting around the fire... these are all such powerful ways to welcome an energy that can either be powerfully transformative, or powerfully destructive. 

Especially coming out of Mercury Retrograde (goes direct 8/26!) many of us had a lot of stuff coming up the last couple weeks: challenges, fears, illnesses, communication issues, doubts, anxieties about ourselves and maybe even the world around us.

I found myself more sensitive than usual to the news of famine in Somalia, the seeming hopelessness within our own economy, cases of brain eating amoebas in the South... I was feeling desperate, angry, sad. Is there nothing we can do?

Enter Virgo, problem solver, hard worker, wounded healer, patient, focused, humble and eager to create change. The first challenge is to put your eyes on yourself, and be gentle. Through lovingly assessing and cleansing our own bodies, minds, spirits and environments, we may find a way to share the healing. Perhaps through eating cleaner food, you decide to plant a garden, and then get your neighbors involved. Or if you discover that clean water is your passion, maybe you get inspired to donate to clean water funds or become active in Heal the bay. Perhaps you sign up for a composting class, and decide education needs more attention, think of all the ways you can take action in that field! The possibilities are limitless, as is the nature of mutability. 

Virgo is tireless in her effort to be of service, and as long as she keeps her eyes on herself and stays focused on the progress, not the perfection, this is the cycle that can change the world.

If you would like to join us in Ojai for Moon Camp, you can check out details on the facebook page (www.facebook.com/newmoonwomengather) and I will be sending directions this week, once I get final RSVP's. So please, RSVP:) you do not have to stay the whole time, but we will have Sky Ranch from Saturday around 2pm to Sunday afternoon. We recommend car pooling, bringing food to share for lunch, dinner, breakfast and snacks, as well as warm clothes, optional hiking shoes, sleeping bag, a tent that does not need to be staked (we will be camping out on the deck) and any of your Virgo inspired tasks like journals, crafting, reading, music, etc. There is not a specific ritual or ceremony, as the intent is to simply have time in Nature with our circle, as our ancestors always did at this time of the month, for cleansing, dreaming, processing and sharing. Virgo is the healer and nothing has proven more healing than Mama earth and a loving circle of sisters. The new moon falls on Sunday, but the dark moon was the night most associated with cleansing, and so it was perfect to spend the dark moon night together and then emerge on the new moon refreshed, filled and ready for what promises to be a very busy cycle of creating change. 

If you cannot join us, know that we hold your spirits in our circle, and please take time to welcome Virgo. Take care of your body through diet, exercise and cleansing, take care of your mind through journaling, talking with trusted friends, reading up on things you are interested in and take care of your spirit through meditation, getting out in Nature and sitting with the new moon to receive the wisdom of Virgo.

I hope to see you at Sky Ranch & I wish you a healing, productive and transformative cycle.