NEW MOON in 7 Aries 37
March 27, 2017, 10:57pm EDT, 7:57pm PDT,
March 28, 2017, 2:57am GMT, 1:57pm AEDT

Image: Red Rose photo. Did I take this photo at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, on Peaks Island, Maine, at Dunbarton Oaks in Washington DC’s Georgetown? Or did you sent it to me? Let me know if you did. Red rose radiance is perfect for Venus and this New Moon in fiery Aries.

This New Moon comes two days after a New Venus. A “New Venus” is when our next door planetary neighbor makes its closest approach to Earth in its 584-day Venus cycle. The Heart Goddess is conjunct the Sun, between Earth and Sun. Imagine the heart of a rose, of a lily, or of any flower you love. See the bees gathering the pollen to make honey. Think of the “woman clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet,” from the Biblical Book of Revelations, or the Virgin of Guadalupe with her radiant, radiating golden aura.

This is the key point in the Venus cycle, half way through the 40 days and 40 nights of the retrograde period. In a few days—on the 30th or 31st—Venus will appear in as the Morning Star, even while still retrograde for another couple of weeks.

She dips back into Pisces for most of April, tuning and fine tuning into fields of energy. It can be confusing in the stormy waters out there in the world. Venus invites us to take refuge in a quiet bay for a swim or soak in the healing turquoise waters of the universal ocean of love under her golden pink light. In other words, be kind to yourself and to others, even as we move in the world. We are all in this together.

The flavor and scent of this retrograde Venus in Aries is garnered from a deep engagement with Personal Self. This is not the ego selfish self, that Aries is sometimes accused of expressing. This is the centered, clear Self, tapping into the heart of its Essence, strong and resilient in its core.

“Essence is the promise. Essence is the life. Essence is the fulfillment of all our deepest longings. Essence is the answer to all our fundamental questions, absolutely—” writes A.H. Almaas in Diamond Heart, Book One.

Our Personal Essence is where Venus retrograde wants to take us, to the shoreline where the personal stream meets the ocean. This particular retro Venus offers healing waters to wash away hurts, regrets, self-deprecating habits, wounds from rejection, self doubt, unworthiness, and any other feelings that block the flow of love to heal the soul and allow it to shine more brightly.

I have lately been inspired by a perspective from Puran Bain, in his book, Living From the Heart. He writes, “Our deeply personal feelings are so incredibly valuable that we should preserve them, using their energy to find the universal emotion of the universe behind them…When we see that it is the universal emotion emerging within us, we can follow the emotion of our personal heart into the whole, One Heart.”

That is where the personal melds with the impersonal and we find our Personal Essence, the divine drop of the universal ocean that we be.

Venus takes her stand, soon rising before the Sun in the East, announcing the new day. You are you and I am me and we are we. It’s worth it to get up in time to see her first appearance in the pre-dawn sky, emerging from the light of the Sun. The Mayans considered this rather a dangerous moment, when her rays may strike piercingly after her sojourn in the underworld, where she was unseen for a week or more, taking a revitalizing Sun bath.

“Here I come, ready or not.” Imagine Botticelli’s painting of The Birth of Venus, with a Xena, Warrior Princess, edge.

This is not her sweetheart appearance, as when she shines as the Evening Star. Not that she doesn’t have a sweet heart! But here she appears as a sword-wielding Kali type, ready to take her stand and act from her heart of gold, with fierce and fiery courage.

Are you ready to be there and stand with her?

“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me…and I’m feeling good,” as the song goes.
“And this old world is a new world, and a bold world for me.
Stars when you shine, you know how I feel.
Freedom is mine when I know how I feel.
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life…..
FEELING GOOD.”

Nina Simone’s version is hearty, raw and real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Y11hwjMNs

We’re getting there. We may have a bit more work to do, as Venus is still retrograde, still stirring up emotions, perhaps especially the hot ones—anger, rage, jealousy, even restlessness, excitement, enthusiasm, inspiration, joy— in the healing vessel of the heart. This alchemy has the potential to transform how we express our feelings through words and actions. Venus asks that we take into account how the party on the receiving end is going to comprehend what we are expressing. Is our behavior going to be effective and invite the kind of response and results that we want? Are we coming from a loving place, being true to our feelings and clear about them? Are we spewing emotions because they are too strong for us and we end up adding to the surrounding negative atmosphere?

Here’s something else from Puran Bair that caught my attention:
“We have the ability to choose how we express our emotions. It’s like sailing: you harness the wind energy of your emotion to take you in the direction you intend. Even if the wind is blowing North, you can sail Southeast.”

This New Venus and this New Moon ask you: What direction are you intending to sail into? What emotions do you want to be the wind at your back?

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