The Sun ingressed into Leo on Tuesday and with that changes the vibe for the next month – we should feel like being more creative, expressive and enjoy the company of children. It’s extra strong for Jupiter has just ingressed too, Jupiter is one of the benevolent planets which brings us bounty. So this is a rather glorious Leo new moon, on 26th July 2014 at 10.43 pm, for it touches Jupiter with an almost exact conjunction.
Until then though, we have a very different energy, that of the balsamic moon. Are you working with the moon’s phases? Well this is the perfect time to pay attention to how you might feel your way into doing this. The moon is the fastest way in to dealing with consensus reality issues as she lives in real time, she’s in our bodies. The Moon is our ally as we can observe her wax and wane, and see her effects on the world at large and within. While we humans tend to divide time up artificially, splitting it into years, months, days, hours, minutes – Nature’s kingdom lives only by natural cycles. Of course we are part of nature too, but humanity has largely forgotten this.
The magnetic energy of the moon rules our internal water, she guides our visions and dreams. Her time is mirrored light, from that of the electrical energy of the Sun. The moon’s cycles and rhythms affect body waters. We know that when we have high magnetics and low magnetics we have an opportunity for cleansing and renewal of the body. During the full moon, we absorb more into our bodies. This is when the body’s healing potential is heightened; our bioenergetic weak points can be harmonised, and the body’s energy flow can be stimulated. While at a new moon, the body’s capacity for detoxifying is enhanced, a time for deep energetic cleansing. Take a salt bath at the new moon and you will see what I mean. Additionally each phase of the moon affects a different body organ, placing the organ in healing at the corresponding stage of the moon will support the healing of that organ. You could see this phase of magnetics cycles as earth renewal times, which respectively cycles in our body too.
This is all ancient knowledge that our ancestors instinctively knew. In ancient Neolithic times, our ancestors knew the Moon as the great mother, with her rebirth at new moon every month, she symbolised life as cyclical and phasal. This was a time of lunar consciousness, where there was no demarcation between birth, death and rebirth; we knew we would be reborn beyond this life. Life was accepted as regenerative, a process, not a state, changing yet changeless.
Her waxing and waning nourished our creativity, our imagination, it encouraged reflection, observation and wonder, connecting heaven and earth. As part of this mysterious process of darkness and light, reflected in the womb, women were closely bound to the rhythm of sowing and harvesting. Community thrived as to did relationship, as this was the value that the moon and the natural world brought – totality, imagination, feeling and harmony. At that time the earth was inherently valued.
This is the myth of transformation where women were seen as powerful, mysterious, creator beings. In combination, our menstrual and moon cycles taught us about the relationship between light and dark, they were held in balance and unified. Now, under solar consciousness, they are held in opposition.
Our solar culture began with Myths from Mesopotamia, Greece and Persia where the hero struggled with the dragon (serpent representing instinctive forces). These myths created a divinely sanctioned cosmic battle between darkness and light, ultimately a pathway yielding war, land conquest and power struggles, resulting in violence and murder. This perhaps sounds more familiar than we’d like to believe and, controversially, some contemporary spirituality circles ignorantly widen this gap further feeding this deep chasm with its own battle against darkness.
How can we bring back an essence of totality through our language, and avoid terminology that supports polarisation of light and dark? All our modern wars now are based on this same principle – but its pathological and in both its obvious and subtle manifestations, it eliminates any presence of spirit within our world. So following the moon’s cycle today is like stepping back into the forgotten roots of lunar consciousness, opening up a way for a new us and a new world to reborn. As best we can, we need to encourage an alignment between the moon and our menstrual cycle.
Currently then, we are in the balsamic moon phase. This is where the moon is waning to a small 45 degree crescent, otherwise known as the crone phase. For this reason, she is at the stage of death, and these are the days just before she disappears from the night sky, awaiting her rebirth. During this time, which lasts three or four days, we often feel more withdrawn, in need of more sleep and rest, it’s the winter time, feared by some. Negative feelings towards the winter season will often mirror the fear of this slowing down, rest period, that we tend to endure rather than embrace. But our bodies need downtime now to prepare for the new birthing energy that will emerge in us just after the new moon.
Our balsamic processes are less driven and more intuitive, imaginative, where we can see through the transparent veils between the physical and spiritual worlds. It’s like the body chooses to have its own mini death, so our spirit can soar. It’s asking us to take a more inward journey and focus on our experience internally. At the least, we should be adopting a less active approach life and if we are active at all, it’s to clear out the clutter and empty the bins. That would be a very useful activity during the balsamic moon. If we really want to bring a clear, focussed form to the next new moon cycle, its best to follow the letting go, surrendering to the eldership of the crone’s way – stillness and silence.
Humanity currently deeply resits this stage of life. Perhaps it reminds us of our fear of dying, being more accustomed to fighting passivity which is our solar heritance. The moon is yearning us back to embrace the times in our lives when there is less happening, when we are, as it were, going underground – like our spirit that journeys down, becoming like the Death card in the Tarot, with the bones strewn across the earth. Yes it’s dismantling, it’s like a mini ego death time every month.
To begin with it might be best to ritualise being slow and patient, as I’m not sure it happens unless we do. With your intention, your life will slowly then be guided by the moon, it will start looking after you. She’s only got your best interests at heart and is very kind with her cycles of wisdom. Aligning with her cycles is life-changing, everything takes less time and most importantly, there will be no need for your soul to send a difficult message (illness is a common manifestation) which forces you to slow down or journey inward as you do it of our own volition.
We create more abundance in our lives by less rampant focus on growth and progression and more awareness of balance. If we trust in the flow of life within the death of things, instead of desperately trying to keep things alive all the time, we will be happier in the short and long term. This is living in real time, as its accepting the reality for what it is – when we reject or resist reality we are immediately outside of it – and there’s no groundedness there.
Accepting that our processes are bound to take us where we don’t particularly want to go sometimes speeds them up. Our natural tendency to reject and resist these more inward type of processes only extends the time we journey with them, for it’ll take longer for the message to get through. If through acceptance we give ourselves more space to grow, then we relinquish that which has outlived its purpose quicker and allow the new. Everything from the smallest attachments to the largest feeling of grief can be flowed with; this process is cathartic and can be enjoyed rather suffered.
Change in our lives can be welcomed, even if it’s a change we might not like on the surface, seeing it from different, deeper or higher perspectives can elucidate much joy. If we can see the sacred in the small things, the minor details, that don’t seem to matter that much, then we have come a long way. I learnt this from my grandmother, she taught me about the small things. My childhood is littered with a flicker of visual memories of her doing very little.
This Moon Sun Jupiter in Leo connection brings us a huge potential for some mighty big seeds to bear fruit over the forth-coming weeks, and this energy will be accentuated if we take the time to rejuvenate and regroup our energies prior to its lift off on Saturday night. But the energy right now is in Cancer (the home), in an exhale, a long slow release, before the long, deep inhale. Therefore to really take in that deep inhale, we need to make sure we are properly exhaling, everything. Enter into an organic rest so to be sure to absorb the healing Moon Sun Jupiter – you will recharge as if you were a battery. Perhaps other, larger projects are calling you from the wings, but if you can’t stop thinking about those closets – I say follow the closets, it will ensure the more important thing on your list will get done in half the time after this new moon. As always, everything is not always as it seems….
