Full Moon - Awareness & Awakening
Here at the Traveler's Well, there is a quote that is at the heart of our service.
You are the architect of your life
and you decide your destiny. - Swami Rama
Full Moons are a time of awareness and of using that awareness to make choices. You could say that each month on the Full Moon, the Sun fully illuminates the Moon, providing an opportunity to gain awareness of the circumstances in some aspect of our lives and then to take on the mantel of the architect and make the choices that feel right. To be the architect!
The Full Moon on July 19, 2016 finds the Sun in Cancer illuminating the Moon in Capricorn. These two signs, Cancer and Capricorn, share a tendency to make choices that are safe, comfortable and that allow us to fit in with the world around us. But with this Full Moon, transiting Uranus is in a tight square to the Sun and Moon. As a result, this Full Moon is also a T-Square.
Sometimes astrology can be quite straightforward. This is one of those times.
Let me share the keys steps to the simple recipe for working with this Full Moon:
- The Sun in Cancer needs to honor what feels right - for you!
- The Moon in Capricorn contains a seed of wisdom - to make the choices that are wise - for you!
- Uranus in Aries provides the burst of energy that awakens us to new possibilities and options that are right - for you! Uranus seeks to liberate us from the rigid patterns of the past that limit our potentials and keep you from trusting yourself.
- The empty space of this T-Square is in the sign of Libra. You could say that this T-Square is seeking, desperately seeking Libra's love of life, joy, harmony and balance. Libra seeks joy in life and in our relationships with others. You could say that Libra seeks Win - Win outcomes. Together, Uranus opens us to the possibility of trusting our feelings (Sun in Cancer), which leads to making wise choices (Moon in Capricorn), and the result is achieving greater balance and more joy. This Full Moon is an opportunity to choose Win - Win and more joy and happiness.
This might seem to be a bit too simple, but it isn't. Follow the recipe and trust the ingredients. The Full Moon is an invitation to trust the awareness that is clear at the Full Moon that is not clear at other times.
Trust the Full Moon.
Best wishes that this Full Moon finds you embracing your role as the architect of your life and in the process, moving in harmony with the Sun, Moon and stars!
Summer Of Love (Part II)
In June's newsletter, we wrote about the energy of this Summer being the Summer of Love for a new generation and the concept of Let Your Love Shine as Venus was conjunct the Sun at the time of Solstice.
We all may find ourselves questioning this notion in response to the news at present. But, we hold firm, there is no more important time to let your love shine than now!
We were reminded of this as we finally rented Clash of the Titans this week. While the movie takes more than a little liberty in changing parts of the story, it does a great job of expressing the differences between Jupiter and Pluto.
In this movie, we see glistening Jupiter (Liam Neeson) and dark smoldering Pluto (Ralph Fiennes). While Jupiter can get angry, he is the God of optimistic hospitality, ultimate caring and love for humanity! He gives boons to help his demi-God son, Perseus, just as he gives us times of support in our lives when his transits make an aspect to our birth charts. One of Jupiter's most important attributes in myth is to have noble offspring (demi-Gods) that have the potential to guide humanity forward, just as he, through his transits is guiding each of us!
Then, we see Pluto who is dark and calculating and can spin only fear and darkness back into the world. In the movie, Pluto says he did not choose to rule the underworld, but was tricked into ruling the underworld and secretly plots his revenge. While Jupiter is nourished by the love and worship of humanity, Pluto in the underworld is sustained only by experiencing the fear of humanity. When we write of Pluto and the sign of Scorpio that he rules, we use heavy dark brooding language for this reason. We all have these Plutonic wounds that we seek to understand and heal.
As you watch the movie, you see the powers played out before your eyes and recognize the energy of fear and how it can spread. Light contains no darkness and we each should strive to see only light.
This is a reminder that we each feed ourselves and the collective with the power of our thoughts and emotions. The world is very uncertain and much of the news is not uplifting. When we take unpleasant in information, what do we do with that? What energy do we give back to ourselves and the collective? Do we give back fear and anxiety or do we give back love? Remember the ultimate vision of Jupiter is to be guided forward with optimism and love and not sending out fear and feeding brooding Pluto.
We do not want to be naïve or to ignore or to suppress what is happening in the world. We cannot change what has happened, but we can choose love and light in the face of it. We can send compassion to those who have suffered and are suffering and embrace love as our aura that we radiate out to life.
In an uncertain world, we need more love within and without! Back in the original Summer of Love in 1967, the world was also very uncertain. Let love be your strength and be a strong warrior for love each day!
Solar & Lunar Eclipses - Energizing Jupiter in Virgo
Since September 2015, about one year ago, transiting Jupiter in Virgo has been powerfully energized by Solar and Lunar Eclipses as he transits Virgo (and Pisces). Thus, Jupiter's optimism for the future has been given a once in a lifetime jolt of energy from these eclipses.
This once in a lifetime combination has been impacting the Virgo and Pisces planets in the charts of each of us, but in particular, those born in roughly the mid 1960's are feeling this transit most.
To the extent that you have been feeling the negative side of Virgo/Pisces (feeling guilty and doubting ourselves, feeling a need to rescue or redeem others), this is a time of both opportunity and challenge.
The opportunity is that we can strive to replace feelings of doubt and guilt, which lead us to feeling anxiety and even depression, with an awareness that "You are important, you are loving and you are worth being loved", by yourself and by others.
Virgo needs to slow down (not busy itself with endless To Do lists) so that it can see the bigger picture, via the presence of the Divine that Pisces brings. Busying ourselves in a Virgo way simply distracts us from paying attention to what is most important to us: inner sacred purity and beauty where peace and calm reside.
The challenge is that we must first recognize when we are unconsciously driven by doubt and guilt and fear.
The opportunity provided by Jupiter in the sign of Virgo is for us to heal very old, very karmic emotional wounds. The challenge is that in order to heal, these wounds must be brought into our conscious awareness. These deep karmic wounds belong to Pluto, the Lord of Hades. As you might guess, many of us are uncomfortable bringing these wounds into the light (or, these invisible wounds might be hidden in Pluto's darkness). They can be scary, just like Pluto. This is true for everyone, but particularly of those born in the 60's with Pluto and Uranus in Virgo (you may be feeling anxiety at this time).
But remember, there is an important spiritual truth:
When the light of truth and love is turned on,
the darkness goes away!
What is darkness (ignorance), but an absence of light (intelligence and love).
Jupiter is the light of optimism, the future and what we can become and what we can be healed from. The eclipses are a burst of energy telling us, "This is the time to trust Jupiter and to take action to heal these karmic wounds and to become who we are meant to be!"
We can each only do our best, but doing so is in our best interest right now.