FULL MOON at 3 AQUARIUS-LEO 29
January 23, 8:46pm EST, 5:46pm PST, January 24, 1:46 GMT
Image: ORION IN DECEMBER, 1959 watercolor by Charles Burchfield, visionary American landscape painter. With apologies and a plea for understanding to those in the southern hemisphere, I am sharing this obviously deep winter image of Orion, one of the clear beacons in the northern sky during the cold, clear season when the snow field sparkles as much as the star field. As above, so below, indeed!
This FULL MOON has a passionate charge of intensity behind it, with powerful MARS in SCORPIO in a spicy square, spurring on both the expressive MOON in LEO and the typically objective SUN in AQUARIUS. Are you feeling it? What does your energy want to do? What com-passionate urge is surging? Water signs are fully immersed.
MERCURY is STILL retrograde, but slowing down to turn around shortly—on the 25th. Mercury is hunkered in close conversation with PLUTO, exact on this Full Moon, deconstructing and redesigning the way we are thinking about life. We are pushed deeply and darkly into our mental processes. Are you able are you to grab onto, halt and change around negative thoughts, to let go and even transform them into alignment with the higher will? Or are you caught up in the media spin of fear-driven chaos? With so much collective attention on terrorism, what are the personal terrors that may be tormenting you? Get out that sharp sword of wild Plutonian goddess Kali, to cut away what is no longer life giving and vital.
Look back to December Solstice time when Mercury was last conjunct Pluto, auguring this New Year. Mercury is the only god who has an open door to Pluto’s underworld, able to usher souls in and, sometimes, out of the dark. This Mercury retrograde cycle is one of those times. AS URANUS continues to awaken the Higher Mind, it closely squares Pluto-Mercury, helping to turn on dormant brain cells and excite impulses toward freedom and revolution. We may be past the series of exact squares between those heavy-hitter outer planets, Uranus and Pluto, that we faced from 2012-2015, but this is a REALLY close call! I bet you can feel it, and we can certainly see it “out there” in the world, with so much shadow material of the collective being exposed.
We continue to enjoy the benefits—and natural stretch—offered by JUPITER in VIRGO, still conjunct the NORTH NODE, the collective destiny point. Remember what I wrote last time: “Earth intelligence is extraordinarily informative, whatever your weather.”
I feature the Goddess Virgo in my Vermont Star Woman column in the Feb-March issue of VERMONT WOMAN magazine:
“VIRGO is one of the few female constellations in the sky. She carries a sheaf of wheat, Nature’s bounty—rather like our own Vermont goddess, Ceres, on the Capitol’s golden dome. Often “The Virgin” is pictured with wings, suggesting angelic stature. In former times, “virgin” meant “belonging to herself,” rather than referring to sexual status. It is said that in the distant Golden Age, Goddess Virgo once lived on Earth among us. As humanity became increasing ignorant and corrupt, and pollution spread around the globe, she could no longer remain. Sorrowful, angry and distressed, she retreated to the heavens to live among the stars. Are we ready to call her back? With beneficent Jupiter, King of the Gods, visiting this High Priestess of the sky through next summer, we do well to learn what we can from her. She points out the sensuous delicacy and power of Nature through all the seasons, and teaches the organic wisdom of the body. Every one of our cells has an innate intelligence that naturally responds to rhythms of time and place to enhance our wellbeing. These days we are so quick to pop a pill or shoot chemicals into our systems. Let us consult Virgo’s eternal wisdom as we listen to the unique nuances of our own physical vehicles in choosing the best ways and means to personal health.”
Lessons of Virgo are discernment and discrimination. The clarity of these capacities is diverted and undermined when we fall into subjective criticism. Virgo refines our sense of orderliness, but can become too perfectionistic. With its “fix-it” mentality that seeks to serve, nevertheless it can look for what is going wrong (to fix) instead of what is going right. This can be expressed as criticism.
I’ve mentioned before the esoteric postings from my colleague, Marguerite DarBoggia (maitreya33@csiway.com). Here are this week’s timely observations:
“… It should be remembered that criticism is a virulent POISON. It damages in every case eventually the one who criticizes…it hurts still more the one who is criticizedUnvoiced criticism is very dangerous…It issues continuously and as a steady stream, sent forth on the wings of jealousy, ambition, pride in a personal grasp of a supposed situation and a belief that the one who criticizes is in a position to understand correctly and given right opportunity, could take right action.”
This piece addresses outward-focused criticism in group dynamics, but self-criticism is equally toxic. We weaken our spirit and body when we undermine our individual worth. We deserve honor just for being on Earth at this time. Saturn in Sagittarius puts up a couple of stumbling blocks that contribute to a critical stance. One is self-righteousness that produces outward criticism, as if we know what is right for everybody. Another is limiting belief systems that inhibit or block our sense of destiny and give rise to personal fears that engender self-criticism.
Here is another piece I want to share, from the January 2016 blog called “The Heart of Destiny—Finding Purpose” by my colleague and friend Paula Upton:
“My fear of the unknown set up blockades,… barriers to realizing my destiny. Those blockages, enforced by the frightened, lower mind of the personality include the old tapes, ancient imprints of the past, ones that seem so imperishable and bullet proof, the ones that repeatedly say,
Your presence does not matter.
The work you do is not enough.
The person you are is insufficient.
Your dreams are unrealistic.
Your hopes are frivolous and will never be realized.
Your flaws will hold you back.
Your life and circumstances are meaningless.
Your inner resolve will not hold center.
You are going to give up or die before you realize your purpose.
Regardless of these negative imprints, deep down I knew better. I knew that that these statements were just a false story that perhaps had been perpetrated one lifetime after another. That perhaps this lifetime could be my chance to wake up and break free from bondage that once kept me enslaved to negative programming.”
You can read the whole article at: http://www.pauladianneupton.com/#!blog-home/c17ig/date/2016-01
If any of these negative statements sound like what’s going on in your mind, pay attention and allow a clear, clean vision to arise and blow those thoughts away. Remember that we are all contending with toxic collective thought forms during this Mercury retrograde. These may not be your thoughts.
When the clouds disperse, look to the stars, so stark in their invitation to come into the heart of the Universe. You in the southern climes, soak up your appropriate ration of the beneficial rays of the life-giving Sun, that fuels your inspiration, vitality and wellbeing.
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BIRTHDAY MONTH ASTRO SPECIAL—AQUARIUS claim your birthday overview. We use the special window of your birthday chart along with current planetary cycles. One hour, $120. This special fee also applies to a birthday gift. Give a Gift of the Stars! I have special e-cards you can use.
