I Did, I Taw a PuddyTat

Posted “I Tot I Saw Dat Ol’ PuddyTat” prematurely; lemme finish.

Okay, so what about the New Moon chart from six months ago?  Drastically different chart, about being Challenged to Understand and Act on our Understanding…

In this chart, it’s Mercury Opposite Mars that makes a Grand Cross with the Nodes, with Trine-Grace from the Conjunction of Venus with Ceres (Sustaining Goddess Energy).

and about a massive transformation of the Self (ie, massive Confusion)…

The New Moon forms a Stellium (multiple Conjunction) with Neptune, Pallas, and Chiron.  Let’s take that apart.  Neptune represents Confusion when one sees the World through material eyes and Clarity when one looks through Spiritual eyes.  Pallas represents, in a word, Boundaries.  And Chiron the transformation of Despair into Miracles, if one is willing to look beyond the Birdcage of one’s Limiting Beliefs.

Whoa, that’s pretty clear – the temptation to set Boundaries against the New Paradigm!  I mean, who wouldn’t, since a New Paradigm is always disruptive, even when Uranus isn’t intimately involved?  Uranus (which is Squaring Pluto in case you’ve forgotten) symbolizes Disruption, when you’re listening with the Ego’s ears, and Integrity when hearing with the ears of the Soul.  You of course remember that Confusion is good, right?  Cuz Confusion is always the first stage of personal growth.  But wait –

This is actually a rather amazing phenomenon – the New Moon is almost exactly (10 minutes of arc off – less than one 2,000th of the way round the Zodiac) at the Midpoint of Chiron and Neptune!  The Midpoint is a Power Point halfway between two planets – that is, this February New Moon embodied the New Paradigm.

If the current Full Moon period indeed reflects the February New Moon, then we’re about to launch.

Which brings us to an interesting point.  In the Unconscious, y’know, Opposites are Equal, and there are no negations.  In the Unconscious, “I’d do anything for Love, but I won’t do THAT” becomes “I’ll have more of THAT please.”  It’s only the Mercury-Mind that does Duality; everybody else lives in Unity.  And when the outer planets are lit up (like now, when everybody from Chiron out is aflame), the New Moons Oppose what they Conjoined six months ago and Conjoin what they Opposed six months ago.  So inna lotta ways it’s the same chart – New Moon Conjunct Neptune in the February chart, and New Moon Opposite Neptune in the August chart.

So, Big Surprise – it’s Both/And!  Whooda thunkit!?!  The important information comes out no matter how you approach astrology; different approaches just yield different insights – so the more perspectives you use, the better you understand yer Reality, as always.  All intellectualizations are just metaphors.  There’s no such thing as a True intellectualization, because Reality is not Dual.  Once we integrate Raven and Moses and Turtle and visitors from Outer Space, and check to see whether or not Atlas shrugged, we might gain a few meager insights about how the World ticks.  Maybe.

Here’s a hypothesis forya.  Based on this Sample of One, purely anecdotal, but a curious question nonetheless – what if the six-months-prior New Moon described how we’re likely to encounter the current Lunar Cycle when we’re Unconscious, and the current New Moon described how we’re likely to encounter the Lunar Cycle when we’re Conscious.  Of course we’re all Conscious about a few (different) things, and mostly Unconscious about everything else, so if this turned out to be relevant it’d still recommend Both/And.

Here’s an interesting tidbit.  In her Tarot Handbook, Angie Arrien describes a method for assigning a Tarot Major Arcana card to a date.  The trump card for the current New Moon is The Hanged Man.  The Hanged Man means yer literally hanging upside down, by the ankles (not the neck), which means you can see everything from a new perspective.  Hence the Hanged Man is the Pattern-Breaker.  The certainly adds an exclamation point or two to the chart of the current New Moon.  The Hanged Dude trump further breaks down into Empress – Love with Wisdom – as with turning Despair into Miracle, we also turn Hanging into Less Limiting Beliefs through the medium of Love.  Self-rejection just deepens our trauma – hence my assignment to work with my father.

The February New Moon, on the contrary, is symbolized by the Wheel of Fortune trump – Abundance!  If the transition to the New Paradigm is so rough on everybody (well, 99% of us anyway), how can we see this veritable launch as Abundant?  The 99%-1% split that is so obviously associated with the Paradigm Change is like Buddhist Heaven and Hell.  In both places, we’re all sitting around a big table laden with a sumptuous feast – and our elbows are locked!  So in Buddhist Hell there’s no way we can get the feast to our mouth, and we’re stuck getting hungrier and hungrier while our Hungry Ghost, our Desire Body, yuks it up at our expense.  In Buddhist Heaven we feed one another.

Hang by yer toes, mix in a little Love, and voila! – Despair into Miracle.

You Saw Me Standing Alone

Well, it’s been two days since the New Moon, and I can definitively answer the question about whether it would be more appropriate to interpret the Full Moon from the chart of the preceding New Moon (ie, two weeks earlier, that is, now), or from the chart of the preceding New Moon in the sign of the Full Moon (ie, six-anda-half months ago).  It’ll be a Pisces Full Moon, so the preceding Pisces New Moon was February 21.  And the current New Moon chart is very blatantly in effect.

Lets compare the charts.  First the current New Moon.

There is a “deadly” serious challenge here for us to align our Mission with the New Paradigm…

“Deadly” because Juno (unconscious Identity) is still sitting on the Dragon’s Head (Mission), squared (Challenge) by the New Moon itself AND by Neptune (along with Chiron symbolizing the New Paradigm) – in other words, the New Moon makes a Grand Cross by Squaring the Moon’s Nodes and Opposing Neptune.

In this chart it’s obvious that the New Paradimes is not just a shuffling of the financial house of cards, but a shift to bring the Goddess more into balance with the Old Male, in spite of the propaganda to the contrary that fills the media.

Uranus (Yin Integrity, aka direct contact with the individual Soul), Conjoined to Pallas (Boundaries), makes a T-Square (Big Challenge offering Mastery) with the Venus (Goddess) – Pluto (inevitable Trance-Formation) Opposition (Awareness).

We’re here at this time to assist in the Transition of the Planet, and the time is now to drop our disguises and tune into our Mission, which will automatically – but not effortlessly – align with the New Paradigm.  For which we will need to drop our fear about letting go of our attachment to the Mod Cons of the Old Nickel.  There are choices to be made, and we need to lean toward Integrity more than toward Comfort.  It may feel like some of those choices will kill us, but we know we have to do it anyway.

Don’t hesitate to be “defensive” – we will be called to not just exercise our Integrity, but to defend it.

This isn’t a Journey we need to take alone – there is ample Grace to help, first because these two Challenges assist one another, and because to some extent we may even understand what’s happening.

Uranus Trines the Dragon’s Head, meaning our Integrity and our Mission align perfectly – and meaning that the Grand Cross and the T-Square are on the same page, supporting the Mastery that each of the Challenges will be pulling out of us.  Mercury (potential understanding) makes the Uranus-Dragon Trine into a Grand Trine (High Grace).

The Neptune (our relationship with the Goddess) corner of the Grand Trine (High Grace) is also Trine (Ease) to the Venus (the Essential Feminine) corner of the T-Square.  That is, as within, so without; defending our Heart (Venus) aligns with adapting to the New Ways to Form Communities (Neptune).

And our natural outrage will make it quite easy to defend our Integrity.

The Mars-Saturn Conjunction (Focused Energy) in Libra (Community and Charisma) Trines (Grace) Neptune (New Paradigm) and Sextiles (Creative Ease) the New Moon (the Essence of what’s going down) – that is, we’ll know what to do intuitively.

Meanwhile, Jupiter (the amplifier) Conjoins Vesta (that which we Hold Sacred) sextile (Creative Ease) to Pallas-Uranus (our Integrity) – it’s more likely to feel like blasphemy that we  react to than injustice.

Which doesn’t mean we won’t have to tap out our Guilt when our outrage offends our “Play Nice Now” programming.  That’s how we can tell when we’re defending our Integrity from when we’re just being an Asshole – if the intensity of our Guilt diminishes when we tap on it, we’re defending our Integrity.  If not, make amends, then PIAVA (Pray, Intend, Ask, Visualize, Affirm) understanding.

So this would be the Energy that’s initiating over the last few days, and expanding over the next coupla weeks.

I’m already deep into it – a neighbor kid comes by and “pesters” me while I’m trying to work, and it becomes very clear why my father didn’t want me around when he was working.  So how do I react to the kid – well, of course, the way my father reacted to me – curt responses, and pretending like I/he wasn’t there!  Do I feel Guilt about that?  You bet!  Does the Guilt diminish when I tap?  Yes.  Do I still feel compassion for the poor kid?  Absolutely.

But is rescuing him/me my Mission?  God, I dunno.  I mean, what a legend in my own mind I’d be if I could!  Is that programming, or Integrity?  Got two weeks to work that out, eh?  What is clear is that I need to work on my own relationship with my own father.  That feels a little terrifying.  I tap on this Fear, and what happens?  The same Energy remains in my back, but it no longer feels much like Fear.  Maybe it’s filling in a hole in my Aura.  It promises to be an interesting coupla weeks.

My New Moon Dream went like this…

I’m with a group of friends waiting inna long line to get into some event, but I gotta go do something else, while they hold the place in line.  Everybody’s well coiffed and clean, and casually but very neatly dressed, high school or college age.  The line grows, till it’s twice ’round the block.  When I finish my task and rejoin the line, my friends have already gone into the event.  As I look for them, people act like they think I’m trying to crowd in.

I have no idea what the event was, just that everyone was in their Sunday best for it.  I know I’m not threatening the other line-standers, so I don’t feel embarrassed or bothered by their defending their space.  I’d like to be with my friends, but I don’t feel like the event itself is important.  When I imagine myself inside the event, the only feeling is a mild smugness – it’s about being cool, following the crowd, being acceptable and accepted, belonging.  Yow, is that what’s dying, giving up my normal disguise and just being me?  Does bias control confirm that?  Yes, when I try that on, I’m disoriented.  If I’m learning something real, it’s disorienting.  Exactly what the kid now and me then longed for, a sense of belonging.

We’ll compare all this to the New Moon from six months ago next time.  Sounds like I’ve made up my mind already, eh?  You might be surprised.

Moonstone is a Potassium Feldspar, one with an Opal-like “fire” or glint, when the angle is right, often a Blue glint.  Feldspar is one of the most underappreciated of minerals.  Like Quartz, it’s a tectosilicate, meaning that the Aluminated Silicate units are arranged in a three-dimensional matrix, giving it maximum, even holographic, information-carrying ability.  Like Labradorite (a Calcium Sodium Feldspar), Mom can speak to you through it on many levels, and it’s a good time to listen.

Lughnasa

Mercury turned Direct again about an hour ago, so we can move forward on stalled projects.

Got another fabulous Mythic Times newsletter from Steve Nelson today.  As I’ve mentioned, Steve is literate in many mythologies, and weaves them together in quite wonderful ways.  A few tantalizing quotes…

“In Celtic tradition, Lughnasa is when the power of the Sun god Lugh is felt most strongly.  Whatever is seeded now extends its influence through the August 7-22 hora, the Lammas Season.  Whatever occurs or is brought forth in this time shapes the Autumn harvest to be.  Sun, Moon and other cosmic forces come together now to realize our dreams, the dreams of the world.  Sun in Leo illuminates who we are and what we’re here for. Everything comes into focus during the Aug 6-8 mid-Leo power gate and the 2-week solar hora that follows.  We are supported by the dance of the planets and stars now to realize what we are here to do.  And, if all goes to plan, we will know completely by the Aug 22 Point of the Sphinx (Leo/ Virgo cusp).  This is an opportunity to understand our unique purpose and destiny for the coming time.  The work we’re to do, living it through, will follow as the new creation flowers in months that follow.  First the awakened global woman, the new queen, mediates the emergence of the new king.  Then New Woman and New Man come together in the Seventh Moon (9/16-30) and from their divine union the new creation will flower.”

“The August 6-8 World Peace Festival commemorates the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  This great tragedy and the US Embassy Bombings in East Africa on August 7th 1998 remind us of the shadow aspect of this Mid-Leo Power Gate.  The more we honor this time with spiritual awareness the less there will be negative effect.  More energetically charged locations and times may have effect for good or ill according to how these energies are channeled.  The more energy is raised and directed positively the less will be misapplied.  Mountain tops condition all that is below.  Whatever comes to be in the mountain heights extends influence through the realm.  True noon is an ideal time to be on a mountain aligning with spirit and channeling blessings to the world.  Solar prana is more present at higher elevations where magnetic inversions occur and solar prana flows down the magnetic lines of force.  Jesus often went to a mountain to pray because here he could better be heard by ‘the father who art in heaven.’ “

“The classical Mayan way of ritual celebration is to take food and flowers to a mountain top power spot and lay these out in a mandala-like pattern.  The food is then blessed, presented as a offering to the gods and finally consumed in feasting so vital energy focused on the mountain is taken into the body and the spiritual ideal is literally embodied.”

“Most accounts of the Transfiguration leave out the significant role of Mary Magdalene, still her story appears in apocryphal texts.  Lady Mary Magdalene is a mediator for us now, an archetypal feminine avatar.  She is the Woman of Revelation who gives birth to the new consciousness in this magic time.  When it was time [August 6-7, Mid-Leo], the Lord took a few of his close male disciples along with Mary Magdalene up on top of a holy mountain.  He was transfigured before them into a Light-image, showing his close companions the Pleroma of Light and the Light-continuum.  The men were afraid and wished to shelter themselves from the glory and power.  Then the men fell unconscious, overwhelmed by the glory of the Truth and Light, but St. Mary Magdalene was not overwhelmed and remained awake in the Light-presence…  What the men beheld was merely the outset of the divine revelation.  Because they fell unconscious, they did not receive the Light-transmission, and the Light-transmission passed to Lady Mary.  She beheld the whole divine revelation, and she herself shone with visible glory…”

If anybody wants me to forward the whole (long) email, just post a comment to that effect.  I won’t publish these comments unless you say it’s okay to do so.

In the old Pagan calendar, there were eight holidays – the Solstices (cusps of the “negative” or magnetic signs, also known as the “Tropics” – not warm climates, but latitudes where the Sun reverse its relative direction) and Equinoxes (cusps of the “positive” or dynamic signs), and the four “Cross-Quarter Days,” or midpoints of the fixed signs.  Also known as the “Four Horsemen” of you-know-what.

It’s impossible to capture the glory of Sunstone with a still camera, and probably difficult with video, because like Opal, the color and fire change with the angle of observation.  Sunstone is a Feldspar with either Iron or Copper embedded in it.  Lovely stuff!  Even without the embedments, Feldspars are quite magical.