New Moon in Aquarius – Jan 21, 2023

The new moon is at 1 degree of Aquarius. Aquarius represents technology (computers, artificial intelligence), media (including social media), groups and networks (humanitarian and political) and innovations, but, it is also a deeply spiritual sign! Many think that Aquarius is secular, representing communism which rejects belief or religion. The symbol of Aquarius is represented by a man pouring out water from a jar. The man is said to represent Christ and the water, intellect and spirit. The Bible is littered with astrology, and once you know astrology, it’s very easy to see.

Joel 2:28-29

“It will come about after this
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
“Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

The new moon will help to shift us into a new understanding of spirituality shifting away from religion to something more esoteric and visionary and feminine.

The New moon is conjunct with the asteroid Magdalena representing the divine feminine symbolized by Mary Magdalene who was closest to Jesus, and is exactly opposite Lilith in Leo, representing the banished dark feminine and once the equal partner of Adam.

If you read the gospel of Mary Magdalene (one of the lost and forbidden books), you will read a story of a strong feminine leader, spiritually equal to Jesus. She was not without her problems as it also hints at an attack on feminine leadership and power by the other apostles. A deeper level of Mary Magdalene is shared in the channelled books of Anna, Grandmother of Jesus, The Magdalene Manuscript and The Alchemies of Horus and the Sex Magic of Isis (books worth reading) and others. Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute but a powerful woman representing the divine feminine who embodies sensual and magical powers much like in the eastern spiritual practice of tantra.

On the other hand, Lilith is showing up as opposing energy to the divine feminine. In mythology, Lilith was Adam’s first wife who wanted to be equal to Adam. Adam wanted her to serve him and after she said no, she was kicked out of the garden of Eden and was replaced by Eve, who was created from Adam’s rib. In this astrological configuration, opposite the new moon, Lilith shows up as the shadowy aspect of feminism; anger and vengefulness to the existing power (male power).

At this new moon, we are asked to examine the divine feminine and feminism as we move into a new age, the age of Aquarius. How are they the same? How are they different? Both have suffered the injustices of the patriarchy. Lilith in Leo is a bit of a drama queen who overuses the whoa-is-me card. Though rightly pointing to an imbalance of masculine and feminine leadership, she doesn’t want to share power, but wants revenge on the patriarchy (Adam), for all the shitty things he has done. She demands power and ultimately another form of imbalance. Magdalena however, asks us to set our intentions for returning to the divine feminine, which is soft and powerful, creative and healing, forgiving, kind and gentle. She is sensual and heart-centred and far more powerful when working with (not under) the divine masculine. In Aquarius, she asks us to consider her in our technological creations, the things that we say and write in the media, and our forming groups and networks – Power to the people is the pouring out of the spirit on both men and women equally. Intelligence is bringing those two energies (masculine and feminine) together to serve humanity.

With Pluto moving into Aquarius shortly (See the Pluto in Aquarius post) this new moon is asking us to set intentions for what we want, not just for ourselves, but also for humanity.

The Sabian symbol for this new moon is “an unexpected thunderstorm” and points to the energy that has built seemingly out of nowhere. The thunderstorm often creates lightning, which discharges built-up energy. The spiritual meaning of lightning can be anything from a sudden clarity (spark lighting up darkness), to punishment (struck by lightning) to creativity (gods divine spark). The new moon gives you the opportunity to focus your energy in any of these directions. You get to choose!

Though Aquarius is an air sign, set intentions at this new moon using water. Put some water into a jar and focus your intentions on that water. Like the experiments by Dr. Masaru Emoto and others who have worked with focusing intentions on water, putting your intentions in water is a powerful way of creating and spreading your intentions into the world. After you have focused on the water, pour your intention charges water out, letting the air touch it as it spread to the air and the ground!

Happy New Moon in Aquarius!

Ceres; Babies, Losing my Mind and the Politics of Seeds


It started couple of weeks ago when I went to the doctor. She called me in after my physical and wanted to go over my results. I was kind of worried because I didn’t know why she wanted to see me, but it seemed that she just wanted to talk to me about how great she thought things were going and how my results looked really good. Then the real reason seemed to come out. She asked me if I had planned to have children. I didn’t know. I don’t have a guy. Yes, I thought before about a donor bank Dad. Did I want a referral, she asked. I told her yes and thought to myself that I would have it figured out in the six months that it would take to get in to see the specialist. Then, I got into my car and I said out loud “If I need to see a doctor so that I can get drugs, I need to do it soon because my benefits run out in two weeks.” The good ones that cover this kind of stuff, anyhow. By the end of the day, the clinic had called me and I was booked for an appointment the following week. Unheard of in Canada; I asked and I received! This started a whirlwind of activity and I had appointments bang, bang, bang! Blood, ultrasounds, a sonohysterogram and magically, within the two week period, the needed prescription for drugs. I know what you’re thinking… I should try this with money or lottery tickets or a sports car!

In total confusion, I did what I normally do. I threw myself into my work. I needed to write my monthly horoscope and that I did. As I wrote, I noticed that a configuration in the sky, the North Node and Saturn were coming together. These two would also be sextile to Ceres. Sextiles are normally a good thing, but this time I looked at it and became concerned.  The North Node and Saturn both karmic, made me wonder… Would we have an agricultural crisis? Ceres is the Asteroid responsible for motherly love, fertility and food… agriculture.To make things even more baffling, for the third time a friend, oh so generously, offered me his “seed’. 

With this, I began to obsess about seeds. An episode of Lisa Ling’s America came on the TV. She highlighted an older couple who had lost everything in the economic crisis. They were in retirement and getting jobs was not an option. But they set forth to grow a garden to feed themselves. They made bread from the wheat they grew and canned with their extra vegetables. Hmm… Interesting. Then I went to see a friend downtown. Along with some gemstone crystals, she had decorated a table in her house with a seed. This seed, she said, was her boyfriend’s lucky seed and she told me she felt moved to put it on the table when I came. Neither of us knew what kind of a seed it was. We chatted for a while and then I left there and went to my sister’s house to babysit my nephew.

 

As my nephew and I sat and played we also watched an animated movie called The Lorax. Suddenly, I realized the movie was about the outlawing of seeds.

 

And then on the weekend I went to a cottage with a bunch of friends. One friend was very concerned about the recent discovery of radiation levels from Fukushima moving across the Pacific and hitting the LA coast. I shared with her my recent seeds trend and the astrology that made me wonder. “Oh,” she said, “I happen to be selling seeds.” She had arranged for vegetable and flower seeds to be sold to raise funds for her athletes to go to Europe.

Okay, now this seed thing was starting to become a little strange. With this I began to obsess about seeds. I found myself online researching emergency seed kits. I ordered a tin of seeds through the www.rareseeds.com and then jumped on their online forum. As I researched I remembered the politics around seeds. I had seen it in a documentary called The Corporation, where Dr. Vandana Shiva fought alongside advocacy groups in India against the outlawing of saving seeds. I discovered that there were seeds created by corporations to “commit suicide”. I realized that what was important was to find seeds that would produce other seeds so that you could save them and continue to produce future gardens. Not all seeds are created alike. There are God-made seeds and man-made seeds. I made sure to order the former.

But ordering seeds did not stop my seed obsession. Suddenly, I was lying awake at 3 a.m. thinking about the seeds that commit suicide and the corporations that try to make laws to prevent people from saving seeds. This is greed. Pure and simple Greed. It bothered me that people in poverty would not be allowed to provide for themselves. It bothered me that those corporations do not have more accountability and social responsibility. I know there are programs and funding available, at least in the City of Toronto, to build gardens on rooftops. I know there is even funding for corporations. I thought about how I could make team-building exercises using corporate rooftop gardening. I imagined how building gardens on rooftops of corporations could help feed people going to the food banks with healthy foods (rather than peanut butter and pasta) and I imagined how it could help seed-saving programs. My seed obsession was being transmuted into activism and community-building. I started to formulate my first project for Mother Clan. Mother Clan is an online community that I will be launching soon as part of my other website called www.thecorporateculturedetox.com. The Mother Clan community will be a mastermind group of leaders dedicated to corporate change and social responsibility within corporations.

One question remained. What was making me so seed obsessed? I had looked at what was going on in the sky in general but I had not looked at my own astrology. I decided to pull up my own chart. Aha! I have the progressed Moon opposing Ceres almost on the dot! My Ceres is in earthy Taurus, which makes me very concerned about food and security. I nurture myself and others by feeding and ensuring security of needs. But that wasn’t the only thing going on. I also have a progressed Moon trine my Pallas. Pallas and Ceres are in a tight sextile in my chart – a combination that creates political activism around nurturing and caring for the basic need of others. My end-of-the-world/end-of-fertility doom and gloom had solid astrological roots! It never ceases to amaze me how the energy of the planets and asteroids play out in our lives!

So, in two weeks to a month, I will have a two-year garden of seeds in a tin, the seeds of a project for corporate social responsibility begun and a floor plan for my new house. After all, I live in a condo… Where am I going to plant my two-year garden? 

As for the baby… I leave that mustard seed up to God! 

Don’t forget to like me on Google+ and Facebook. Also, if you are interested in becoming a part of Mother Clan, check my new website www.thecorporateculturedetox.com and leave your email address. I’ll notify you when it’s up and running.  

 

 

 

Ceres – How does your garden grow?

The asteroid Ceres is the Mother Goddess Asteroid. She rules mothering, agriculture (gardening, food, nurturing) and is the goddess of unconditional love.

 

How does your garden grow? Every good gardener knows that to grow a healthy plant it must be pruned. The idea of pruning means loss and this can be a difficult concept for Ceres.

 

Here is the story of Ceres.

Ceres had a daughter Persephone and they wandered the world together, the world was in constant harvest and they were happy. As Persephone grew up she became very beautiful and had lots of male interest, but their bond (mother daughter) was so strong that all suitor were rejected and sent away. One day Persephone was out picking some flowers and the earth opened up and swallowed her into the underworld where Pluto, the god of the underworld took her, ravished her (of course) and made her his wife. Ceres was so grief stricken she refused to eat. She then refused the earth harvest in her grief.  Yes others must suffer too. The people and gods prayed for her daughter to be released so that they would not starve, and their prayers were answered, but Persephone had consummated the marriage by eating from a pomegranate and so was still bound to him (Pluto). Ceres and Pluto then agreed to share Persephone… which is why, explained by Greek mythology, we have a summer and a winter.

Ceres is related to how we are able to nurture ourselves and others emotionally and throughfood. If there are hard aspects it can even show eating disorders, difficulty letting go or living through your child. It can show up as being a “bad” mother or not being available to nurture to others.  Some with this strong intheir charts will reject motherhood (or have difficulties with motherhood) because it is so deeply associated with pain.

 

She represents unconditional love in that she must learn to share and not have any exceptions. For those with Ceres strong in their charts, their true lesson is the lesson of non-attachment…  And their gift is being able to nurture and mother. This can be a child or children, or it can be the nurturing and mothering of the world. One person I know with Ceres strong in her chart on the mid heaven (the point for career and fame), teaches career women how to nurture themselves and their families through cooking classes.

 

Tools to help you connect with your Ceres: Gourmet food,  Mediation practices in non-attachment, connecting with your inner little girl (or boy) and soothing him or her, giving him or her what they need, taking the gymnastics classes yourself at 42yrs or doing dancing with the stars, rather than pushing your daughter who doesn’t want to.If you have an eating disorder, one of my favorite sites on body image and eating disorders is Adios Barbie.