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@21 degrees Taurus 12:00 p.m PT

Taurus and Relationship to the Phenomenal World

I now experience a different, more subtle connection between mind and body. It does not require that I flex muscles. It does not dissipate in the presence of increasing inward silence.

… It does require, however, that I seek more profoundly within my own experience and do so with an open mind. It means that I must reach intuitively into what may feel like darkness. ~Matthew Sandford commenting on how he has processed paralysis. ~from Daily Good 4.27.21 https://www.mindbodysolutions.org/about-us/matthew-sanford/

New Moon in Taurus and a time to consider our relationship with the physical—the body and the senses that define the physical experience. As we gain a deeper understanding of the physical experience we find passage to a source of infinite unfolding. We intuit rather than rely strictly on the mind to figure things out. We measure by what we feel that moves us in the physical domain with agility and ease, confident that our infinite source, always in motion, and I that, naturally travel together without resistance, question or doubt.

A natural understanding of the phenomenal world is a gift of dear Taurus the Bull who stands ground in times of crisis and leads followers on a path to ‘higher ground’. You can always count on Taureans to expertly guide you to safety or to find necessary supplies if the going gets tough. In Taurus we find confidence to create what we need to feel secure and stable, prerequisites for venturing further, deeper into unknown territory; areas that represent our evolutionary intent.

Venus as planetary ruler of Taurus is our desire nature and relationship to the environment as the source of life. As the journey in Taurus unfolds we eventually realize that everything we need is always provided according to our evolutionary intent. We experience, we learn, we transcend. A repetitive process until the physical world is less of a concern and we naturally focus upon the sense of values that appear to determine our way. We become less self centered, more centered and the emergence of Self is a natural occurrence.

This New Moon directs us toward standing our ground also, being as we are, and not wavering as Taurus is a fixed sign and known for their immovability at times. In this case a powerful quality as we find Black Moon Lilith conjunct this New Moon. Freedom to Be—wild abandon is the theme and to reflect the Truth of that, is a healing ‘gesture’ that rewards us with peace. This peace gives us a greater sense of security than any thing that may be acquired in the phenomenal world.

A recurring aspect in the chart for May 11^th is the sextile, there are four. A sextile is a 60 degree aspect between planets, half a trine, that speaks of opportunity and challenge that can be met more easily than when we are confronted with a square, 90 degree aspect but not as easy as a trine where the energy flows so smoothly that we may take some experiences in life for granted and ‘fall asleep’. Sextiles work with co-operation between two planets in different but supportive elements. Two sextile themes here: one earth and water-each nurtures the other—and two fire and air again both nurture each other.

Our energy is being put towards realizing the positive outcome of taking care of our selves, each other and the planet. It is the only way to traverse this present landscape. We are waking up to that in greater numbers by the day. We are now on a fast track to healing some very deep, old wounds that have conditioned us to react for a very long time. Both earth/water sextiles speak of all of our individual/collective resources being applied to caring for us and what ails us.

The recent Full Moon and tsunami super solar flares at the same time, with brilliant fire and light helped to burn off a little more dross here and illuminate the path. What an intense time! We were getting pretty darn hot under the microscope! What do I need to let go of to contribute in a positive way to this evolutionary moment?

Reading Pema Chondron who has written, No Time to Lose a commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva. Much of her book relates to the wisdom of developing patience, how that benefits self, others and the collective and is the antidote to anger/irritation. Cultivating patience in a somewhat impatient world is a way to contribute tremendously to collective well-being.

The other two sextiles are in fire and air. Here we are challenged to reassess how we communicate, how our words can be motivating and inspiring rather than draining and negative. We can take responsibility for contributing truth to the collective conscious and generating clarity rather than putting information out there that is confusing, misleading and erroneous. We rob our selves of energy and power to act in a supportive way.

The beauty of these sextiles can be seen in a quote from astrologer Steven Arroyo: “The Sextile seems to be an aspect of openness to the new: new people, new ideas, new attitudes; and it symbolizes the potential for making new connections with either people or ideas that can ultimately lead to new learning.”  ~from liveabout.com

So, much new possibility we are presented with and at this time of year. It contributes to this sublime panorama of vitality and goodness. Everything is fully alive! Our senses are filled to overflowing. Little room for disparaging thoughts. We open the door in the morning and are free to move as we please. This New Moon as every New Moon is a doorway of tremendous possibility.

Ninety, fragile
in so many ways.
Yet girlish, naive
and particular.
Particularity of place,
of time,
of ways.
Filling it with
dreams made real; all 
to be washed away
when night rises.


Center
Everything leaps out 
from the center.
Tiny leaps of a centipede.
Great leaps of a gazelle.
The steady leaps of you and I,
intent upon finding ourselves
knowing that the leap into Being
is the same Being as
before the leap. 

“Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.”― Eckhart Tolle

There is nothing here to be seen or not seen

but every time the breeze passes the meadow bows.

It was in a dream that you asked,
"what is the meaning of life?
why are we here"
I looked at you and couldn't answer,
simply uttered "Oh",
as the passing breeze coaxed a sound.
Continued to contemplate words
passing by 
knowing that at 
some point
the words will not come.
That will be the answer
nothing to do with me.
 

Soul on Deck

“…One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times.” ~Clarissa Pinkola Estes, You were made for this…

As we proceed through this year of healing and reset we welcome change, embrace what is new and courageously forge ahead in unknown territory. We honour the growth we witness happening all around us and embrace each other as we valiantly leap hurdles and keep moving with the ever present flow. It is refreshing to feel our selves rise up and into authenticity. This is occurring as we step further away from habitual patterns of behaviour that do not reflect Reality.

As witnesses to all that goes on around us we gain the ability to listen to and feel the path that is always the way. As we are relieved of the illusion of our beliefs, we gain clarity and the opportunity to quietly observe. As observers we offer compassion, strength and light to confusion and apparent chaos. The message is to continue creating from a place of quiet knowing in various situations without becoming part of the suffering. In the suffering is the perpetuation of the problem rather than the clarity to see one’s way out.

How do we manage to avoid being affected by the world’s goings on? As human beings we are conditioned to, in some way or another, be involved. As victim, as hero but rarely as just an observer free to watch without judgment. Step out of the conditioning and be free to share the light of awareness. “I am that” which I find fault with and what I find fault with is “that”, cannot not be in this moment other than what it is. Shine your light through and beyond the myopic vision that limits us.

In Pema Chondron’s book No Time to Lose she discusses, The Way of the Bodhisattva written twelve centuries ago by Shantideva in India. From this text we gain insight into ways in which humans are yoked to their negative emotions and repetitive responses.

“When habitual reactions are strong and longstanding, it is difficult to choose intelligently. We don’t intentionally choose pain; we just do what’s familiar.”

We become attached to the familiar as it can be relied upon. It will deliver the same emotional experience and in this we feel secure, somewhat comfortable even when there is suffering involved. It may seem an arduous task to choose freedom over familiarity thus we proceed slowly and with gentle care of the self as we move on, always moving on. And with every insight, glimpse of Truth we are encouraged to let go more. We find our self standing at the edge of a cliff anxious perhaps but willing to leap. Something tells us there is nothing to fear. We have recently acquired the ability to leave thoughts alone and so are not attending to the many reasons the ego can contrive to prevent its own demise.

With the recent arrival of Spring and this first New Moon of the season, we can consciously align with expanding experience and pay attention to habitual expression. Any amount of light begins to dispel darkness; slowly seeps across what once may have been a troubled landscape with little peace. Is an organic process that happens without the interference of mind. In other words beyond awareness of resistance, ‘no effort required’!

Spring offers us a fresh start. Everything is new! My intention is to trust what is unknown and to be open to letting go of and setting free ‘the Truth that lies within’. Revealed as I dispense with the known.

One step at a time will suffice. The ‘unknown’ can seem like frightening territory. With each step approaching this territory we become surer of the destination though at no time will we be able to successfully articulate what it is. All good. We continue. Not knowing is when my beliefs are no longer guiding me. What guides me is the much deeper, all pervasive sense of Being that solves all ‘problems’ and answers all questions.

‘There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.”~Clarissa Pinkola Estes, You were made for this

New Moon In Aries 22 degrees 25 minutes April 11 7:31 p.m PT

“The Moon represents our deepest personal needs, our basic habits and reactions, and our unconscious. Where the Sun acts, the Moon reacts.  How do we instinctively react or respond to problems? What do we feel we need for a sense of security?” ~Cafe Astrology

The moon in Aries is the first ship out of the harbour, willing to test the waters and pursue the objective. Cardinal fire! The ultimate explorer—instinctive, authentic, spontaneous and impulsive.

The New Moon as the dark of the moon, in Aries, can direct all that energy inward, to explore uncharted waters of the ‘hidden’ Self (during the New Moon Sun/Moon act and react in unison); that which lies beyond the mind/ego. New Moon in Aries can search with child-like enthusiasm, overcome obstacles with ease (there are no obstacles) and shine light into areas that others may fear to acknowledge.

These few days are an ideal time therefore to take a step or two or maybe a profound leap toward freedom from confining habits. The New Moon chart benefits our goals in 3 ways:

1. Grand *trine in air involving Mars the planet of action aspecting Jupiter the planet of expansion, growth and wisdom and both aspecting the point of fortune where we find our greatest sense of satisfaction. Rather simply put, this geometry gives us the energy/motivation for further growth into wisdom for a deeper sense of fulfillment. Their is great trust in proceeding no matter how we perceive the lay of the land.

2. Small talent trine: Mars trine Jupiter and both **sextile Sun/Moon. The small talent trine is present in the charts of many famous and creative people. With the Mars and Jupiter aspect there is again the energy/motivation for growth into wisdom and now involving the Sun/Moon conjunction that allows us deeper insight into that which is beyond our perception of this physical world. There is creative energy to realize that we are capable of a great deal more!

3. Pluto square Venus exact: Pluto, the planet of elimination and transformation directly challenges Venus the goddess of desire, relationship and values to desist from personal gratification, of relying predominantly on material things in favour of our deeper desire for the unseen, unmanifest expression wherein we discover peace. Pluto demands and Venus may want to charm her way out of the inevitable. It is simply a matter of ‘time’ before she relents to the all pervasive power of Pluto.

One may wonder how, during the relatively few days of a New Moon, I shall accomplish all that I envision. It is enough that at this time I plant the seeds. Planting the seeds and allowing nature to do the rest. Maybe once in awhile I pull weeds.

“Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas and live by truth alone.” ~Nisargadatta Maharaj

Born April 17, 1897 (double Aries Sun conjunct the ascendant) Nisargadatta was a nondual teacher (his book, I am That) who first became an affluent merchant owning several stores and having a family before intently pursuing deeper spiritual knowing.

*Trine a 120 degree aspect with ease of flow

**Sextile a 60 degree aspect with a little more challenge

“To understand is to stand under which is to look up to which

is a good way to understand.” ~Corita Kent

We tend to be earth bound in our gaze. Tied to detail and the tread mill of the mind constantly attending to our thoughts. Planning, solving, anticipating, deep in thought we proceed with our often sheltered perspective of the world. That as it may be, is part of our experience here which serves a purpose perhaps, until one decides that bogged down by minutia is not the only way to live. We can open up and breathe in the stars and realize the breath is a common denominator as is the star or the sky or a tree or that moment of darkness that inevitably drives us inward that we might reach outward to ultimately go deeper within.

It all begins when we put down our distractions and look.

“Look upward, and there is the sky of the clear light timeless purity, the spontaneous, unproduced illumination brighter than the sun and clearer than the moon, beyond this, there is no view, no meditation, no deeds to be done, young man, your mind is freed in the vast expanse of the blue sky above.” ~ from the Memoirs of Jigme Lingpa as quoted in Dreams and Truths from the Ocean of Mind by Sogan Rinpoche Tulku*

The most interesting experiences are available to us when we look, just look. The up suggests that the looking occurs without judgment; that we free ourselves of the ordinary way of seeing and sorting to really open up to the view. Allow our selves space to breathe and expand into the unseen. Glide between the known and the unknown. Love the feeling of not knowing. Embrace the potential.

“Climb up a ladder to reach the sky.

Try ladders of different heights.

See if the sky looks any closer

from a higher ladder.” ~Yoko Ono, Sky Piece VII

New Moon December 14–Sagittarius 23 degrees 8 minutes @ 8:17 a.m. PT

The last new moon of the year during which we may feel exuberance, enthusiasm, dynamic euphoria and profound trust. The way of things to come? These feelings relate to the sign of the Archer, Sagittarius ruled by the planet Jupiter, of vision, expansion, growth, wisdom and seeking, stretching, travelling into new territory if it affords a glimpse of the indefinable Truth.

The Archer with his arrow pointed skyward shows the way as the journey continues into a new year.

This new moon is at 23 degrees. Just 3-4 degrees away from exact conjunction with the Galactic Center. Excuse me for borrowing heavily for this article. This article written by astrologer Melanie Reinhart (Chiron and the Healing Journey and Incarnation: The Four Angles and the Moon’s Nodes) for Astrodienst puts it all quite succinctly.

Awakening…

When the last five degrees of Sagittarius are stimulated by transiting planets, a process of awakening is initiated. The arrow of the centaur points ‘beyond what we know’, and at the same time refer us symbolically to ‘what we have always known’ in our inner depths. These intimations have a strong ‘felt sense’ but are not easily verbalised or quantified. A time of accelerated spiritual development occurs, with its attendant life challenges which may include rapid change, separations, crisis, illness and stress as outmoded ideas are released. Phil Sedgwick likens this to a ‘defragging’ process of our mental ‘hard drives’!

Expect a major ‘life-review’ of a very particular kind. Density, opaqueness and blockages within the mind the soul are being spun off, as in a centrifuge. This is a perhaps useful image for the Galactic Centre – a centrifuge – where everything is spun away from the dark centre, revealing an empty space.

This ‘empty space’ is where we are receptive to Grace, and like the black holes said to reside at the core of the galaxy, it generates the substance which will birth the new, individually and collectively. www.astro.com/astrology/aa_article170503_e.htm

These moments leading us one to the next feel like exiting the forest for the wide open spaces of rolling meadows where eventually, with little to distract us, we run free. The thoughts, that like a drum beat command us, have become a distant, barely audible tapping.

At this new moon we might also consider the environment in which Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius finds itself in the chart. In conjunction to Saturn all of Jupiter’s good graces are focused toward responsible and discerning, practical application. Jupiter is expansion. Saturn offers the wisdom to grow and expand minus ego gratification. Both planets move into Aquarius from Capricorn within days of each other. (Saturn December 18 and Jupiter December 20)

This bodes well for the development of what’s to come. as we will continue to look up toward Truth that serves humanity. Rules may be broken in favor of the vision that we, as a collective, hold for the continuation of the unfolding. Aquarius, with ruler Uranus, regularly acts to illuminate the darkness leaving no stone unturned. The Waterbearer shares his treasure with all, equally.

Jupiter and Saturn are closer together than they have been in 800 years and will appear to almost merge as we view them in the night sky. This occurs most precisely on the 21^st, winter solstice, the day when we can turn our attention inward and reflect upon deeper connections, deeper meaning, deeper awareness. The heart, the deepest aspect of our physical form is the target for our deepest desire.

Love will flow in trickles, in streams, in torrents.

Another outstanding feature of this chart is an exact (to the minute) inconjunct/quincunx to the Sun/Moon from Black Moon Lilith. We might look at this point (BLM is a point in space where the Moon’s shadow cast toward the Earth ends) as similar to the black hole lying at the center of the galactic center. Therein is our emptiness, our knowing that we know not—the undefinable. BML at 150 degrees from Sun/Moon suggests that it is through freedom from attachment, from being immersed in the illusion that we find the liberation that the Archer seeks.

Answers lie in the darkness of the void.

Sagittarius is a centaur a mythical creature that is half man, half horse—wild and free at heart. These are qualities associated with this sign. Very quick, capable and sociable. Blended are the intuitive nature of the horse to protect the herd and the thinking capacity of the human to extend. It is a fine combination that we have an opportunity to access during the increased dark hours in these few days leading up Solstice.

We can approach it as a heroes journey combining individual insight with what will ultimately be of greatest service to the collective. The Fool in the Tarot, looks skyward as he takes his leap of faith, trusting without any further information to guide him. He finds his ‘security’ in having divested himself of all worldly possessions. He no longer has anything to focus on below his lifted gaze. He is indeed a hero leading us from a microcosmic view to a macrocosmic perspective.

One last aspect of this new moon chart is the exact trine of Mars in Aries to Mercury in Sagittarius. Bold and deliberate, passionate expression to guide us further toward Truth. Are we free to experience all that is available to us or are we limited by the structures that surround and define us? The mind breaks through constraints, revels in vast open space.

We have glimpsed freedom. We yearn for freedom. All we need do is remain here, free.

“Once you have tasted the taste of sky, you will forever look up.” ~Leonardo da Vinci

May we soar into this New Year unfettered, Self aware and with ease and grace. Happy holidays and a peace-full new year!