STAR GUIDANCE

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Cancer New Moon – July 5, 2024

The New Moon is on July 5/6th depending on where you are. It’s a cancer new moon at 14 degrees of Cancer. Cancer rules family, tribe, lineage and family trees. It rules archeology and history. It rules food, meals eaten together; family gatherings and picnics. It is connected to real estate and homes. It is also associated with business, especially family business. It is a water sign and is therefore connected with emotions and nurturing. At this New Moon, we can set intentions connected with any of these Cancer topics.

This new moon is making lots of aspects! It is conjunct fixed star Sirius, Venus and is trine Saturn. It is in aspect to the following asteroids; Pallas, Ceres, Hades, Askalaphus, and Apophos.

The new moon makes a grand trine with Saturn in Pisces and Pallas in Scorpio. Grand trines provide opportunities and this grand trine will help us to work through our emotions and spirituality. We can also use the energy and channel our emotions into finding creative solutions to anything that has been perplexing us; Pallas rules weaving and strategy. Pallas was said to have been birthed out of her father’s head. She is, logical and somewhat masculine. Saturn in Pisces is calling us to put a structure around our spirituality. Saturn in Pisces has at times created depression or an existential crisis, but now we have an opportunity to alleviate some of our angst by taking some well-placed steps. You may find yourself connecting with a group, or joining a church or other spiritual establishment where you feel emotionally safe.

The New Moon is conjunct with the fixed star Sirius. Sirius is a beneficial fixed star that gives us success in business, along with honours and riches. Sirius is also family. It’s the only star that does not precess like the others (as in precession of the equinox).

For it is remarkable that owing to the precession of the equinoxes, on the one hand, and the movement of Sirius on the other, the position of the sun with respect to Sirius is displaced in the same direction, almost exactly to the same extent. [R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Sacred Science, Inner Traditions (1982)]

Since Egyptian times, Sirius has barely moved at all. For this reason, many believe that Sirius is a binary star of our Sun and some believe it’s a double-double binary star with our solar system. Sirius B is 205 times smaller than Sirius A and moves around Sirius A in overlapping orbits. Mars is 205 times smaller than our Sun and Simon Shack has geometrically proven that Mars and the Sun are in a similar dance. The Dogon tribe, (who told us that Sirius B was there before our telescopes could see it) tell us that there is also a Sirius C. This one we haven’t been able to see, but scientists speculate that it is there. Could Earth, the Sun and Mars be in a similar dance as Sirius A, B and C? As above so below! This would make our solar system a double-double binary system with Sirius… which would mean we are either sisters or cousins! At any rate, we are family! Cancer represents our family and how perfect is it that Sirius is there in Cancer? But what does it mean for the New Moon? Maybe it’s time to explore and find out who is in our family and what relationship they have to us. The New Moon is widely conjunct with Venus in Cancer, emphasizing building stronger bonds and family ties. It’s a great time to define our tribe!

The New Moon is opposing Ceres. Ceres is similar to the moon in that it represents feminine emotions. It is also associated with seasons and the change of seasons or loss. In the myth, Ceres lost her child to the underworld and then starved everyone by refusing to allow crops to grow until she got her child back. At this new moon, we need to acknowledge loss and how it plays into building a new future. Ceres got her child back, but only for half the year. We may need to factor such compromises into our connections and realize that we cannot hold those around us too tightly. This is further verified by the fact that asteroid Hades, the one who tricked Ceres’ daughter into the underworld, is conjunct with the New Moon. Hades is the Roman equivalent of Pluto and Demeter is the Roman equivalent of Ceres.

Askalaphus is also conjunct with the New Moon. Askalaphus also played a part in the myth related to Hades/Pluto and Ceres/Demeter. Persephone/Proserpina was the daughter who went into the underworld. She was told that if she didn’t eat anything in the underworld she could return to her mother. However, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds! It was Askalaphus the gardener who saw and reported it! Askalaphus in astrology is related to truth-telling, spying, eavesdropping or meddling. We won’t be able to get away with trying to pretend that things have not changed. If we have moved on from certain circumstances, a truth will come to light to make that clear. If we are trying to pretend nothing has changed to hold on to the old ways, someone will meddle to stop that from happening.

Klotho is also conjunct with the New Moon. She is one of the three fates and signifies new beginnings. Though she doesn’t play a part in the story of Ceres/Demeter, she does have the power to return to life those who have visited the underworld. Astrologically this represents new beginnings and the circumstances with which those new beginnings are initiated. This is a time to embrace the new, even if it feels weird, unfamiliar or makes us sad that it is not the same as before.

The Sabian symbol for the new moon is a “group who have overeaten and enjoyed it” reminding us of moments of the satisfaction that come from breaking bread with those we love. It highlights that satisfaction comes from the right food and the right crowd!

Finally, the new moon is widely squaring the North Node, so this is a time for making decisions about which path we will take, however, it’s likely that the path has already been chosen for us!

Before I end this post I will mention one more asteroid. It’s Apophos… and it’s also conjunct with the New Moon. In fact lately, Apophos has been keeping pace with all full and new moons as it is currently keeping pace with our sun. Apophos is choas… so yes, there is still chaos around us. Yet we don’t have to be pulled in by the chaos. Check out my last New Moon post for a New Moon ritual that you can incorporate into any New Moon intentions you make. It’s a ritual for getting rid of chaos!

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Gemini New Moon – June 6, 2024

Tomb of Inherkau no. 359 Second chamber, South wall “The great cat of Heliopolis” killing the enemy of the sun, Apophis.

New Moon in Gemini

The new moon is at 16 degrees of Gemini and its conjunct Venus and the Asteroid Apophis, also called Apep, Panacea and square to Saturn in Pisces.

The ruler of the New Moon is Mercury, which is conjunct Jupiter…  and all of these planets are in Gemini!

Gemini rules learning, communication, news, editors, and reporters. Storytelling and gossip. Vehicles; planes, trains and automobiles. It also rules twins, pairs, and any two. It’s comedy and trickster energy. And it’s writers, mathematicians and magicians.

The new moon, as always, is a time for setting new intentions. With all of this Gemini energy, the focus of your intentions can and should be on any of the above areas ruled by mercury. Do you want to complete a book? Are you planning to go back to school? Have you always wanted to do stand-up? Set intentions to make them a reality! With so much Gemini energy, powerful manifesting magic is available to us. Venus conjunct the New Moon invites us to include our partners (relationship, marriage or business). The power of two will be magnified.

The ruler of the New Moon, Mercury is also trine Pluto which adds power to your thoughts, feelings and words. This recipe for powerful manifestation must be approached with maturity as there are a couple of challenges to this powerful magic. Saturn is square to the New Moon and Venus causing us to feel insecure in our thoughts and feelings and to have difficulty expressing ourselves.

The New Moon is also conjunct Apophis. Does Apophis (also called Apep) sound familiar? During the eclipse in April, NASA sent up several probes in a mission they called APEP (Atmospheric Perturbation around Eclipse Path). This was on top of the ‘devil comet’ passing by the eclipse and the reactivation of CERN on the eclipse day had everyone freaking out! This was because the mission was named after the Egyptian god who was an opponent of the light or MAAT and therefore the opponent of order and truth. In fact, Apophis/Apep was a giant snake that tried to swallow the Sun in its journey through the underworld (nighttime). Apep was temporarily successful when darkening the Sun during an eclipse. Eclipses happen twice a year and are mostly unnoticed, but this one pushed everyone’s fear button. This fear energy is reignited at this New Moon!

Apophis is not a god to worship. In ancient Egypt, rituals instead were performed to banish chaos/Apophis/Apep. They created an effigy to burn once a year, and worrying about creating chaos with the image, they also made sure to create images of other chaos-conquering gods.

The Sabian symbol for the new moon is “The head of a youth changes into that of a mature thinker.” What do you need to do to change from a youthful to a mature thinker? While the ancients used a ritual to defeat chaos, all of this mercury energy is inviting you to learn, study, communicate with your lover or business partner, and avoid gossip, lies or trickster energy. This is easier said than done! To create powerful magic with our partners, we need to be on the same page or at least able to hold our center and “banish chaos” when we are not in agreement.

F Scott Fitzgerald wrote “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time. H. Maynard Smith said, “A broad-minded man, who can see both sides of the question and is ready to hold opposed truths while confessing that he cannot reconcile them, is at a manifest disadvantage with a narrow-minded man who sees but one side, sees it clearly and is ready to interpret the whole Bible, or, if need be, the whole universe, in accordance with his formula.”

Recently the Internet has been abuzz with the ideas of Terrance Howard. He starts his many arguments with the idea that 1 x 1 does not equal 1 but rather it equals 2. This has created two opposing camps; camp Terrance and camp ‘stick to acting’. However, with all of this Gemini energy, we are being asked to be mentally flexible, and curious, to develop our minds to hold two opposing ideas. A good Gemini will get you going, piss you off mentally, and once you are good and pissed off will say “I was just being devil’s advocate”. Can you withstand Gemini’s upending?

Perhaps a Terrance exercise can help you. If you are camp ‘stick to acting’, stretch your mind to consider Buckminster Fuller’s quote “unity is plural and at minimum two. In his book Physics Aristotle wrote “the smallest number, in its strictest sense of the word, is two” In fact according to D.E Smith, up until the late 1700’s “school arithmetic’ still taught that one was not a number. You can find these quotes and more in this video on court astrologer and polymath John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica, wherein Dee refuses to use the number 1 and instead replaces it in all instances with an L –  Check out videos 2 and 3

If you are team Terrance, explore the ideas of his detractors. Dr. Hossenfelder is a good one

If you are not interested in the least with what Terrance Howard has to say, try the exercise with whatever conflict of ideas or opinions that arise – challenging yourself to hold two opposing views. This is the trick for banishing the Apophis, or the chaos in our minds, and more importantly, It is the Panacea, the other asteroid conjunct the New Moon, which represents finding solutions and healing.

At this new moon, burn an effigy of all that is creating chaos in your life, but make sure to also create, welcome, and embrace things that will overpower the chaos (curiosity, communication, understanding, and mental flexibility). This will be the key to working magic with your partners and manifesting any intentions you seek to create.

Here is the Apophis/Apep Ritual:

In the The Books of Overthrowing Apep or the Book of the Ritual consisted of a making wax model or small drawing of the serpent, which would be spat on, mutilated and burned while reciting spells that would aid Ra. These are the chapters from the first book:

    • Chapter of Spitting Upon Apep
    • Chapter of Defiling Apep with the Left Foot
    • Chapter of Taking a Lance to Smite Apep
    • Chapter of Fettering Apep
    • Chapter of Taking a Knife to Smite Apep
    • Chapter of Putting Fire Upon Apep

Happy New Moon in Gemini!

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Sagittarius Full Moon – May 23, 2024

Full Moon May 23, 2024

The Full Moon is at 2 degrees of Sagittarius. Sagittarius rules beliefs, international affairs, travel, publiLilith - Inannashing, and religion. In its lower form is fundamentalism, international issues and issues related to publishing.

The Moon is conjunct with Lilith and opposite the Sun conjunct Venus, Jupiter, Terpsichore and Admetos…. So for this post, I will focus on our beliefs!

In my upcoming book Mary Magdelene; The Sacred Relationship Path to the Age of Aquarius (tentative title), I explore Lilith in depth. From the book:

In early Sumerian mythology, love poems between Innana and Dummuzi were sexual and explicit. One story of Iannana involves Lilith. The more familiar story of Lilith is that she was Adams’s first wife. The lesser-told story is the one told in the epic of Gilgamesh; a Sumerian tale that involves Inanna and a Huluppu tree. In this story, a snake is in the roots of Inanna’s tree and is described as ‘uncharmable’. The dark maiden Lilith is at the trunk and an Anzu-bird (lion-headed eagle) is seated on the branches. Innana has been growing and nurturing this tree, but now she wants to use it to create a seat and a bed. The clash of Lilith, the snake and the bird in the tree stops Inanna from being able to transform the tree into the creations she desires.

The Anzu bird is said to be the stealer of destinies. The snake, however, was a symbol of fertility and sexuality, and Lilith is traditionally a wind demon. Lilith’s name comes from the Sumerian word lilitu, which means a wind spirit or a female demon. But what exactly is a wind demon? In Akkadian, the four winds of the cardinal directions were wind spirits with the South West wind being female and the other four male. The wind was considered the breath of the demon.

It should be first understood that demons were not necessarily bad. Mesopotamian academic Irving Finkel reminds us that we cannot impose our conception of demons onto the ancients. Demons in this period held both good and bad qualities. They were simply spirits on the earth plane, intermediaries between the gods and humans. For example, the demon ruling over the Lilith, Pazuzu, was feared as the king of the southwesterly wind that brought famine and loved as the demon that protected children from other child-destroying demons.

In Mesopotamia, the wind direction associated with Lilith, the South West direction, was stormy and hot. It was recorded that many rainstorm came from southwesterly winds and that the wind moved counter to the “normal” wind, which blew in the other direction. Normal wind in Mesopotamia was North Westerly wind.

But why would wind be a demon? The wind is not uncommon in the world of ancient medicine. In Tibetan it’s called rlung; translated as ‘wind’, the Greek equivalent is pneuma, (where pneumonia comes from) and it is qi in the Chinese tradition. In the astrological/hermetic tradition wind can be inferred to be related to the humours (hot, dry, cold, wet), which in turn are connected to the cardinal directions. Wind is related to the seasons; heat in summer, wet in the shoulder seasons such as spring and autumn, and cold in winter. The manifestation of wind is matched to the seasons.

In Chinese medicine, healing is related to yin and yang, the balance of energy and it is often winds that throw this balance off causing illness.

Wind can be considered good until it becomes too much! Imagine your mother telling you to do up your jacket or you’ll “catch a draft”. Or that you are trying to light a fire… some ‘wind’ is needed to stoke the fire, but too much can blow the fire out!

Going back to Inanna’s story, we can say that the snake is energy (sexual energy) and Lilith, the wind demon is a hot and stormy wind which stokes the energy. Lilith was said to come and have sex with men at night, hinting at a wet dream or something that would cause him to be uninterested in sexual relations with his wife. In women “The ardat liliµ is a sexually frustrated and infertile female who behaves aggressively toward young men.” So to put it bluntly, Lilith is a hot summer wind that can throw sexual energy out of balance.

With this new understanding of Lilith and with Lilith conjunct the moon at this full moon, we can shift the winds of our understanding, allowing us to release or balance belief systems, specifically around sexuality. We can let go of our traditional idea of demons as all good or all bad. We shift its connection to our beliefs about sex, sexual expression and sexual health.

The ruler of the full moon is Jupiter. Jupiter is conjunct Venus at the last degree of Taurus. This expands and increases our desire for love and relationships to a heightened place. It has a feeling like “now or never”. Jupiter and Venus are also in an out-of-sign conjunction with the Sun now in Gemini. The Gemini Sun is curious and needs to explore. We want to explore love. We want to explore sex and sexual expression!

This is further evidenced by the Sun conjunct the asteroid Terpsichore. In Greek mythology, Terpsichore is one of the nine muses and goddesses of dance and chorus. Terpsichore is related to dance, aerobics, flexibility; coordination, agility, grace and mobility; It is also connected to body image/ego and body language. We have a strong desire to move, dance, sing and express!

The problem comes with Admetos (a hypothetical planet). Ademos is also conjunct the Sun. Admetos is associated with matters that get blocked and come to a standstill.

Pull it all together and it can be said that this full moon is an astrological retelling of the story of Inanna and the Huluppu tree. Venus and Jupiter are expanding our desire for love, and Terpsichore is enchanting us with a need to express ourselves. Lilith with the moon is stoking the hot winds of desire… putting the flames of our desires out of balance, and Admetos like the Anzu-bird is blocking our expression. We are likely to feel hot bothered and out of sorts!

Fortunately, the Full Moon is creating angel wings with Neptune at the last degree of Pisces and Pluto newly in Aquarius. This provides a place for the full moon to express her emotions and sense of being. One angel wing is the moon is trine and the Sun sextile to Neptune.  This connects us with our intuition and feelings and provides an outlet for self-expression and creativity, especially if connected to a sense of spirituality. The other angel wing is the moon sextile and the Sun trine to Pluto. This gives us access to emotional control and the ability to channel our emotions in a desired direction. It also connects us to personal power, and since Pluto is in Aquarius, we can also connect to the power that comes from groups and cooperation.

All in all, this energy provides a means for transmuting “bad demons” or negative feelings about sex and sexual expression, and to channel any traumas into art or artistic expression. We have an opportunity to balance the winds, to release and to invite into our lives whatever will help bring yin and yang…. what is it for you? aligning chakras? tantra? Abstinence? A Pole dancing class?

The key to accessing the full power of this full moon is expressed in the Sabian symbol “two men playing chess”. The goal of the game is “checkmate”, which is to put the king in a position where he has nowhere else to go. Chess can teach us how to be strategic, aware of the entire board (our surroundings) and to tame our impulses. Ultimately it is a game of balance; the chess board being a famous symbol of good and evil, yin and yang.

Happy Full Moon in Sagittarius