New Moon at 22 Gemini 44
June 13, 2018, 3:43pm EDT, 12:43pm PDT, 8:43pm BST,
June 14, 5:43am AEST
Image: “Brooklyn Bridge,” Georgia O’Keefe, 1949, oil on masonite. Her farewell painting to New York on the eve of her solo move to New Mexico. What do you want to say farewell to during this switch-up Moon cycle? Photo by author from show at Peabody Art Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, 2018.
Still influenced by Neptune, this New Moon may carry wispy remnants of dreams and otherworlds that challenge our practical focus or create distractions, confusion or inspiration. Reality, as we each perceive it, flips around with various interpretations. News, personal and global, will continue to expose our subjective biases. How are we interpreting— with our rational minds? our logic? our hearts? our intuition?
The mystery of life is great. Some things just do not make rational sense. Are there other forms of “logic”? How do we engage logic within the mystery, especially when we just don’t see (yet) what is going on below the surface? And then, when a psychic volcano erupts and we do see underlying layers exposed, beyond our expectations or stretching our conceptualizations, how do we deal with them? Go to the heart.
What is the best way for you to decode such subtle influence and nuanced information from this type of message stream? It’s like a song. Perhaps you will want to sing it, tone it, play it on the piano?
Something from within, another layer of your life, needs to be expressed, perhaps creatively. When we don’t know what it is that wants to come out, artistic play is a really good way to tap your inner impulses. Especially for the next week and on through the Full Moon, Venus just now entering Leo supports creative endeavors and personal expression. The interplay of Venus and Mars in the next couple of weeks also stimulates the creative juices. Any such medium can be a good means to channel the high emotional charge that can come with the imminent interaction of Venus and Mars across the sky from each other.
Watch for brilliant Venus setting in the west, with ruddy Mars rising in the east. No doubt you will notice glorious Jupiter higher in the eastern sky as well. This mythic pair is stirred into action by the dragons of destiny, Mars riding the Dragon’s Tail, or South Node of the Moon (past influences, a bit of a choppy ride) and Venus riding the Dragon’s Head, or North Node of the Moon, the evolution point. Personal relationships are highlighted, suggesting turning points in our lives and loves.
Perspective is needed to channel energy to be expressed in ways that warm our hearts. We may need to step back, take a deep breath and consider what we are doing and how we like what it. Our hearts want to be richer and happier, more satisfied. That may include fuller expression of ourselves through generosity to others, which precludes judgment and bias to focus on what we have in common. This is a current priority for us to move forward as a human family.
Mars is on the Dragon Tail, representing influences from the past. These can undermine us with disconnected, old energies or alert us to a call for evolutionary ways to channel our energy. Don’t ride on old energies, but engage in the most heart-connected way with whatever is going on.
Venus is on the Dragon Head, representing an evolving direction that can rampantly overdo things— i.e., we get overly emotional, self-centered or self-indulgent. A conscious fulfillment of this call to destiny is to be observant and watchful, detached but not disconnected, witnessing from a higher mind perspective that yet engages in a warm, personal heart-based expression. Objective yet up close and personal at the same time. Consider the impact of actions on others before doing, saying. It will take some practice.
Vedic astrologer James Kelleher advises physical activities, like walking and hiking, to work off any frustrations, as well as more contemplative exercise, i.e., yoga, tai chi, qigong. Bodywork and other holistic wellness modalities can help shift the energies in ways that free up even more motivation and strength, untwisting knots, scars and resistances on various psychosomatic levels.
This is a great Moon in which to ease our body, to relieve tensions and anxieties— always good, but perhaps more necessary these days of cosmic influx and planetary evolution.
This New Moon has a grounding interface with significant factors rooted like sacred geometric standing stones in the good earth of Capricorn—Saturn, Pluto and Black Moon Lilith.
This intense, shadow-ridden Capricorn cluster of Saturn, Black Moon Lilith and Pluto can bust up any plans that don’t match up with the evolutionary re-formation agenda. Powerful volcanos are erupting in several locations, earth on fire. Both Pluto and Uranus, newly in Taurus, are in Earth signs, rumbling our planet and humbling us in front of Nature’s subterranean power. It’s no use trying to get away with outworn, inappropriate ways and means. Every action matters, has consequences. What energy you bring to each moment and each encounter—with human, plant, animal or rock— can make a difference. The leading edge challenge is to become more aware of how we are expressing ourselves, and the implications of our behavior.
Capricorn is about responsibility and mastery. Saturn is seriously strong here, with the natural caprice of a stonemason who relishes fitting the stones in proper relation to each other, or a potter applying the right pressure on both sides of the living clay to shape a useful, perhaps sacred vessel. Pluto is more and more obviously rumbling up from underground with mineral rich lava flows in rivers of fire from deep inside Earth, leaving destruction in its wake even while creating new ground. Black Moon Lilith applies all this to self-mastery, standing like Stonehenge rooted in the ancient foundation of our authentic Being. How are we living in relation to earth energy upgrades, in this era of post-2012 collective evolution?
This call, like a vision quest, is powerful, requiring an alert recognition of where we are at…Do you have the courage to be real, to express more of who you truly are? Are you being honest with yourself? Where, when and with whom do you find yourself relating from a surface personality level? Sometimes this is socially appropriate, but not with your closest loved ones. When emotions are heightened and charged, activating old reactive patterns, how are you showing up? We seek a deeper heart connection, right now, to ourselves, our inner circles and radiating outwards, like Rilke writes,
“I live my life in growing orbits
which move out over the things of the world.
Perhaps I can never achieve the last,
but that will be my attempt.
I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years
and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.”
His poetic passion stirs our souls. Another passionate artist has just come to my attention, though likely you may already know of him: Ukrainian Sergei Polunin, a “graceful beast” and “bad boy” of classical ballet. He abruptly walked out of the Royal Ballet, where he was principal dancer. While filming this interpretation of Hozier’s “Take Me to the Church,” he experienced nine existential hours of deeply emotional soul-searching about his life and his art. Powerful.
We may each be going through our own, maybe less intense, version of this soul searching for a renewed sense of our life path, passion and authentic form of expression.
Heads up! Just as this New Moon turns full in two weeks, Mars will turn retrograde. This happens every other year, with a yellow caution light effect, sometimes a full on red stop. Detour signs are also common. I’ve seen a few already. Mars, the action planet, is slowing down, giving us space to be the witness to our lives. Knowing this helps calm frustration levels and can take some pressure off. In other words, slow down…
Find your flow, moving into this New Moon cycle as slowly and gracefully as you can, feeling the strength of your inner core and your heart, with a playful lift in your smile, a twinkle in your eye, and a dance in each full-bodied step.
