Aries New Moon 2018

Sometime between the evening of April 15th and the morning of April 16th depending on our location in the world, Lady Luna will be New in the sky. She will grace us in the sign of fiery Aries. Even so, this is a less challenging New Moon than the previous two.

Every New Moon is perfect for new beginnings. This one is particularly good for connecting with our Spiritual Self and Whoever or Whatever we believe in.

The Aries New Moon opens space for our questions about our beliefs, our attitudes and our actions, forcing us to define ourselves and to face what may no longer be working in our lives. Those questions may demand that we step beyond our comfort zones, something Aries both supports and calls forth. The intent is to provide more balance and gentle harmony in our lives.

Our relationships may also come under a new scrutiny with the influence of the Aries New Moon. Parts of those relationships may need to be redefined or issues within them may need to be addressed. Perhaps most importantly, this applies to our relationship with ourselves as well. We may be called to commit to a personal goal or to take positive action. Perhaps to move forward in confidence on a new project or simply to take charge of a part of our life that has slipped our notice until now. Aries brings a positive forward-moving action to all we begin during this New Moon.

What needs to change in your relationship to yourself? What attitude or habit do you want or need to change? What practice is being called into your life to connect your with your Spiritual Self? How will you take better care of yourself?

Aries Full Moon 2017

©2017 ML Monroe

Wow! Time is certainly moving more quickly every day. Wasn't it yesterday, I wrote about the Solar Eclipse?

Are the two events related? Short answer: of course they are. Everything that has followed the Solar Eclipse is related to it.

The Solar Eclipse brought strong, sometimes subtle, sometimes strong, changes for everyone. The Aries Full Moon brings the time to face whatever obstacles stand in the midst of our life. Then it gives us the light and power to move through and past them as needed. First, though, it requires our surrender of the obstacle that lives within.

Sometimes Aries pulls us into a confrontation mode. We want to battle everyone. What this Full Moon calls us to do is feel deeply into that confrontation to uncover what part of it is assertiveness and what is sheer aggression. We need to shed the aggression and focus on the assertive. Since this Full Moon is happening in conjunction with the Sun sign of Libra, we have the opportunity to draw from that sign to work positively on relationships ~~ not simply charge at and crash into everyone and everything.

Much of what is happening in our world reflects the Shadow. This Full Moon shines a light for us to explore new ways to consciously voice our emotions, to own our wishes, hopes and desires, and to bring honest, open communication into our relationships. It is time to fully grow into and express our true selves, to bring that part of our beingness into Light. We also are in a time where we focus on our place in the Divine Plan.

The proximity of this Full Moon to a Venus-Mars alignment adds a flavor of intensity and passion. There is opportunity and danger as well as both fate and freewill concerning those strong emotions. Though the Aries Full Moon is generally impulsive about moving forward without a backward glance, this one is inhibited by a sulky Pluto in Capricorn and a hesitant Mercury in Libra.

The Aries Full Moon illuminates our need and desire for balance in every aspect of our world. Watch carefully what it brings into illumination for you.

What can you do about violence? in yourself? in your world? How can you create relationships in beauty and remain true to yourself? How do you disagree with others without violating them or yourself? How do you find and maintain balance? How do you break through the learned fear of showing your true self?

Aquarius Full Moon 2017

This Aquarius Full Moon turns up the heat on the intensity of activity in astrological terms. This is the sign of our social conscience, our community self. This Full Moon is accompanied by a lunar eclipse only two weeks before the solar eclipse occurring at the coming New Moon. We are riding the lunar waves of change and challenge for our future.

Eclipses often bring change and shift in our lives. This can show up like the symbolic turning of a page, or beginning of a new chapter. We have all been experiencing this influence to greater or lesser degrees for days or even weeks prior to the eclipse. What we experience sets the tone for the next several months of our lives. Paying attention to how our entire system feels makes the most sense right now.

We also have the opportunity to open our hearts and trust the seismic movement that shakes us is uprooting the stuckness we have gotten ourselves into. This is a time to be gentle with ourselves and with others, to cultivate with care our close relationships.

There are deeper questions surfacing ~ about relationships to others and to our work. We are being called to be proactive rather than reactionary, to step into and use our power rather than to sit back and watch what others do before acting. With each of these callings, we are asked to respond with care, thoughtfulness and compassion.

Although eclipses are seen as times of darkness, they bring everything into sharpness and clarity no matter the emotions that clarity elicits. We experience the shadows differently. What we see in the dark presents us with a new sense of who we are, where we are and what we are here to do. The dark moment passes quickly enough, yet it leaves a lasting impression on our minds and psyches.

We are in a unique time to attend to our inner world and pull the outer world into alignment with the greater story we desire to bring into the Light. It's not often the heavenly bodies align to provide such strong motivation to unfold our own myths and to watch them form the connections we need.

One more awareness is that Mercury is on its way to retrograde (start: August 12th at 11° Virgo; end: September 5th at 28° Leo). My sense of Mercury retrograde is that it is the perfect time for information gathering, reflection, research and deep breaths. Many really deep breaths. Don't make major decisions. Or quick changes. Or spendy purchases. Breathe. Continue to do your behind-the-scenes work. Mercury retrograde is often blamed when we move too quickly to a new position on something. It's only the conduit of the energetic to pause, rest, reflect. Another moment or two ~ or week or two ~ of decision-making generally won't hurt the outcome. And if quick decisions are necessary, be sure to do whatever research possible and move forward.

Mercury retrograde will continue through the solar eclipse. More on that later. Just sayin'.

What relationship changes are necessary in your life? friends? colleagues? networks? other groups? What are these relationships teaching you? Have you learned your lessons? Are you caught in a collective space? Are you speaking your unique truth? What is ready to expand and move in your life? and in your relationships? What patterns of interaction no longer serve you? How can you change them?

April 2017 Libra Full Moon

©2017 ML Monroe

This month's Full Wind Moon is accompanied by the steady little light of Jupiter (bright dot on the right side of the image higher than the Moon). Considering this in mythic terms: Jupiter always watched the beautiful and powerful women around him ~ mostly in order to capture them and get them with child. The salient point to remember is that he watched those who were significant and powerful in some manner. That makes this a time to be aware of being observed as well as of the nature of the observer. Dance in the fullness of that attention and be awake to what's bearing fruit. [True for every person, regardless of gender.]

There is also a continuing Grand Square in the cardinal signs [Libra, Capricorn, Aries, Cancer] keeping us on our toes and calling forth the necessity of connecting with our spiritual source. It creates a dance of crisis leading to opportunity. Since the interaction with this Full Moon is in Libra, a mental air sign, it will partner with both emotional analysis and emotional objectivity. An overriding energy in the collective continues with expansive, fortunate Jupiter opposite changeable, original Uranus and evolutionary, hidden Pluto squares them both. Working with this energy, we have the opportunity to change our story.

This Libra Full Moon is about relationships ~ ALL relationships. Strengthening them. Living life fully within them. Sharing ourselves honestly. Respecting the Earth and all Her creatures and resources. Recognizing we are in relationship with all that is around us. It's the time and space where we are called to heal our woundedness concerning the Divine Feminine. Bringing all to wholeness.

Another pattern is also happening: a Yod with Mars, Ceres, Vesta and Saturn ~ known as a 'Finger of God' ~ helping heal sorrows we carry from our past and allow to get between us and others. For the time it is with this configuration, action-oriented Mars can focus and assist us to move more fully and directly into that healing.

What are you called to do in this lifetime? How do you allow others to be themselves? How do you release judgments you have of yourself? of others? Can you be fully yourself with others? What masks do you wear that you can release at this time? How can you be of benefit to others? How can you best be your truest and most authentic self? Who do you most influence? Who most influences you?

October New Moon in Libra

Wow! It's been a long time since I've written in this blog. September was a wild ride month. Anyone else experience that? Lots of energy buzzing and zapping around with the eclipses, the equinox and Mercury retrograde. It's good to be on the other side of that.

Now there's a New Moon in Libra ~ which is all about relationships ~ and that will be greatly assisted by being past the wild and wacky energy of the past month!

Now is the time for balance. Settling in just enough to make me recognize my own need for self-care in all areas: mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It's also the time to honor communications as the leading edge for growth. Listen with an open mind. Speak from the heart's truth. Remember to express gratitude.

Continuing on the path of change, making big plans and keeping track of the details finds support at this time too. It's about Choice: tension or release? movement or stagnation? healing or rage? being awake or staying asleep? owning what needs to be healed or projecting it on others?

Personally, I'm being challenged to be more centered and reflect what is being mirrored to me by the world. I continue to learn to use ~ as well as to rest ~ my voice, speaking clearly from my own truth and expressing my feelings. If I believe in my purpose and myself, I can stand in relationship with those around me without causing harm to either myself or the other. I am also working through and with balancing the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine. For me, this balance has been going on for years. It's a dance I enjoy having.

I recall something one of my former teachers said: "Each time you let go, each time you learn a lesson, it will come back to you in the old way again. Only the next time, you will go deeper to release it. And so it will go until you are done." Learning the lessons, evolving to the next level, continues in a spiral, looping back over and over again so the mastery can get deeper and deeper.

What lesson are you learning? What is the truth that is seeking you? What change is poking itself into your life? How do your relationships support you? How do you balance it all?

God's Tools

I've spent entirely too much time in my life being afraid of making a misstep off the path. To paraphrase another famous quote, sometimes the path diverges and I've had a choice to make. Do I continue on the one I've been walking? Do I step onto another, that leads in an unknown direction? Which path at which time is the best one for me? The questions rise and fall like my breath flowing in and out of my lungs.

I've been afraid of making mistakes. Felt more of the perfectionist coming out in me. Ha! Not sure the status of being a perfectionist. The feeling arose more from the drive to not fail, not look like a fool, not be wrong.

Then there were the moments when I took the steps irregardless of the consequences. My moves from one place to another, across the country and the world, were like that. Stepping into and out of relationships was like that. My path often found me and I tripped onto it, making mistakes and friends along the way.

I've considered disappointment as God's tool. It's provided me the impetus to shift gears, to reach out, to lean into counting my blessings and looking for the brighter side. I've been afraid that it's meant I'm not good enough for or at whatever. I've sunk into the depths of feeling bad and wanting to run and hide. Somehow, I've found something to rest my gratitude on ~ a phone call or a card, a sunset or a quarter on the street. Something that slips a different tone into my vision and I am grateful.

How have you found your path? How many times has it changed, twisted, turned, diverged? How have God's tools kept you going? What or who has helped you get or stay on your path?