The Lunar Planner: This Month's Lunar Theme

This Lunar Cycle

Our September 3 New Moon in mid-sidereal Leo conjoins Suhail Velorum, on the sail of Argo Navis and Zosma of Leo, the hind of the Lion. The Arab Suhail articulates the nature of the Sail of the Argo--of the elegant and subtle evolutionary currents guiding the plane (ship) of the soul. "Suhail, among the Persians, is synonymous for wisdom; as in the Al Anwar i Suhaili, the Lights of Canopus. Suhail is also a personal title taken in Arabia as a symbol for what is brilliant, glorious, and beautiful--it is still used by the Arab nomads when referring to a handsome person" (Allen).

Suhail Velorum is of the transcendent / subtle energy currents or winds that underlie the material world, those that support our greater incarnational sojourn--the flow and unfoldment of our lives. Catching and riding these currents bring us through the more tumultuous and dramatic winds common to the grosser level world, those embodied by Zosma of Leo, one of the three stars creating the hind of the Lion. Zosma is of foul or diversionary winds, and can also be indicative of being diverted due to our own toxicity, or doe that around us, thus leaving is insensitive to the transcendent but opportunistic currents leading to the brilliant, glorious, and beautiful--our greater wellbeing and happiness.

Either way the winds of change are stirring once again. The currents we attune ourselves to determine the nature of our ride and just where we end up. We can follow our transcendent, long-term, heart and soul intent (being in our own power and responsible for self) or get swirled and tossed around in the psycho-dramatics created by others performing on the stage of the human world (laying blame and judgment on others for our own folly).

Expanding on the Theme

The hours before the Crescent Moon provide a time when we relinquish patterns of the past that would limit our creative ability to expand on the theme now unfolding. The Crescent Moon is the time when the sprouting seedling sloughs off its protective coat of the past, and emerges in its new expression. As the Crescent Moon unfolds, the growing phase of the lunar cycle begins as we start to amalgamate our personal creativity with the original lunar theme.

Aphrodite
Click here to learn more about Venus

Just hours prior to the Crescent Moon of Sept 7, the Moon conjoins Venus and Pallas, just as Venus and Pallas conjoin themselves--a significant sequence of triggers. An opportunity for growth: We can withdraw from opportunistic change due to our own judgments about what is right or wrong, black or white, good or bad (or any other dualistic choice we perceive we must make in our lives), a righteous or spiteful response that only hurts ourselves; or we can live true to our hearts, the intuitive, the feminine knowing, in the rapture of love--all that our jewel of the sky Venus / Aphrodite embodies.

In one instance we shut our hearts down in judgment and fear (often driven by programmed beliefs), in the other we live in the essence of love, the essential key to ride the transcendental currents guiding us to the greater fulfillment we desire.

Each neuro-endocrine gland in our bodies, also our associated organs and muscles, resonate with specific psycho-emotional patterns--thus our mental-emotional-and physical are not separate but compose one coherent body. Fear is the emotion that resonates at the heart-thymus neurological level. Fear shuts this center down, not only resulting in a closed heart, unable to flourish in the rapture of love, but also a week or closed immune system, which is governed by the thymus. Like the thyroid / Throat (seat of suppressed anger) is reflexed to (tied-into) the liver, the thymus is reflexed to the spleen. The thyroid-liver is outwardly expressive / masculine / right side/ red / red blood cells--our power to act in the external world. The thymus-spleen is inwardly expressive / feminine / left side / violet / white blood cells--our ability to care for self, our immune response.

The Venus-Pallas conjunction resides on the sidereal Virgo-Libra cusp, with Venus in the Virgo constellation, just past Spica, the vesica pisces of the Virgin, and with Pallas lying north in Bootes, under Archturus. Spica and Archturus embody the essence of the divine couple. To learn more of Spica and Archturus see The Astronomical Truth of the Virgin. Our Crescent Moon of Sep 7 conjoins the Holy Cross anti-vernal point (5° sidereal Virgo / where the sun resides on the upcoming September equinox).

The few degree area of early sidereal Libra (within the upper thighs of the Virgin) is about the synthesis of intimacy, mutual support and compatibility, and bonds of love. It is about creating and ensuring harmonious environments and mutually compatible relations that support our psychophysiological (mental-emotional-physical) wellbeing and the healthy unfoldment of consciousness.

Environmental support is a key phrase here, this includes the environmental conditions of the Earth, our personal living environments, and a harmonious environment (resonance) in our relations. Thus, art, intimacy, and beauty are all of significance in creating a nurturing environmental resonance in our lives. Living at or traveling to the right locations at various times in our lives is also of importance--to be in proper (space-time) harmony.

Initiate Action

The First Quarter Moon of each lunar cycle draws an external stimulus to initiate action as we move from the inspirational quarter of the lunar cycle into the action quarter. Our external stimulus occurs on Sept 10, in the 24 hours before the First Quarter Moon. Our action moon of Sept 11 lies just before Pluto in late sidereal Scorpio conjoining the Ara Black Hole on the Altar of the Centaur.

Ara, Altar of the Centaur, has also been imaged as the Altar of Dionysus, son of Zeus and Semele, god of wine and fertility, this was before the creation of Norma the square which is oddly placed between Lupus and Ara. Here was a censer in which perfumes were burned before the dead, also a brazier, both of which were associated with Vesta, goddess of the Hearth. Ara also represents the altars on the summits of temple towers, serving as lighthouses for the ancients, with the Alexandrian Pharos being the great example. The illustrations of Hyginus (1488-1535) show an altar from which flames ascended with demons (being cast out) on either side. Poetically it was described with flames rising northward through the Milky Way--along the starry stream and through galactic centre (Allen). Dionysus, god of ecstasy and wine, a mystic and lover, is known, in part, for rescuing women (descending to Helle--mortality--to save is mother) and restoring their office to Goddess--to their immortality. All of this refers to the purification process, the surrendering, or casting out that which is degenerative (the accumulations of judgments that bind us to mortality (judge ye not lest ye be judged) so we may attain our divine birthright, awakened to the illumined durative (immortal) souls that we are. In this light we have the principles underlying healing and the transmutation process, for which our northern illumined Ophiuchus stands.

Our First Quarter action Moon conjoining the Ara Black Hole simply provides us opportunity to relinquish a lesser aspect of self, or life mode, for one greater, but requires an action that is all or nothing, with no in-between. The true meaning of the word sacrifice is to give up a lower office for one higher, here surrendering the lower resonances created by holding grief, guilt, anger, etc. (self-judgment) so we can move forth into our future

The mystery of healing / transmutation is revealed in the all or nothing nature of the Ara black hole. To allow this level of transmutation requires total surrender of the tension held within our cellular structure, that is, to consciously embrace in unconditional love, in total non-judgmental acceptance, all emotion we hold within that has been created from suppressed (denied) experience; or that we experience in any present action-moment. E-motion is the result of the unwillingness to allow the motion of experience to pass through us--to grow and change. Thus the suppressed emotion from denying (resisting the motion of) experience molds our cellular patterning. To relinquish this lower-order mold or form is the essence conveyed by the mythical image of the Centaur placing Lupus upon the altar. This is the key that frees the cellular patterning that perpetuates repetitive experience, emotional discord, and degenerative disease, to allow a transmutation of elements to occur. Learning to unconditionally embrace all experience in love as our normal mode of living is essential to change and grow, it precedes illumination of the molecular structure of the DNA into one radiant spiral of light. The bio-illumined mode of the DNA allows us to live in unified awareness--beyond making duality-based judgments, which is common to the bio-logical mode of the unillumined DNA.

Attraction & Involvement

The 24-hour period just before the Gibbous Moon is a time of perseverance, of pushing through in the midst of the action quarter of the lunar cycle. The Gibbous Moon is when the pressure releases and we enter the pollinating phase of the lunar cycle, which begins a social and communicative time of magnetic attraction. Our Gibbous Moon occurs on Sept 17 in sidereal Capricorn conjoining the tip of the missile of Zeus (Gamma Sagitta) veiled by the Dumbbell Nebula, and the super nova remnant 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

On February 23, 1987, a star called Sanduleak suddenly blew to bits in a spectacular supernova, now labeled SN1987A. We normally see a neutron star in the midst of a Super Nova Remnant. A neutron star is the dead remains of the original star made of neutrons compressed into an extraordinary density. In this case there should have been a neutron star in place of Sanduleak, but perplexingly it was non-existent.

A precarious place in mid-Capricorn, here we find the ramifications of applying our arsenal of strategic tools (whether for war or peace)--hopefully strength applied in balance rather than a blind force applied from personal interest alone without concern for all involved--thus a trust issue arises. When force is applied without concern for the surrounding effect, the ramifications may be such that there is nothing left after the fact but few spectacular rings of light and dust (the remnant 1987-A).

Vision, Enthusiasm, & Realization

The Full Moon marks the point of coition in the lunar cycle, the climax, the point of excitement and celebration. The hours leading up to the Full Moon provide a time of "vision and enthusiasm." The time just after Full Moon is a one of "realization of the lunar month's theme," a time to kick back and relax to allow our realizations to surface in consciousness.

Our Full Moon of Sept 17/18 occurs at the same time the Sun moves into sidereal Virgo, placing the Moon on the cusp of sidereal Pisces conjoining Matar on the left forearm of Pegasus. Matar is from Al Sa'd al Matar--the Fortunate Rain--the wet emotional gush point in the zodiak providing a release from psychic-emotional tension. Just prior to full, the Moon squares Pluto. Just after, Mercury makes its superior conjunction with the Sun--all making for an emotionally combust event.

Manifestation & Demonstration

The hours leading up to the Disseminating Moon is an accelerated and busy time of last minute preparation that leads into the birth point in the lunar cycle, the time of bearing the fruit in the cycle. Our Disseminating Moon of September 21 occurs in sidereal Aries conjoining Tish, the whip of Queen Cassiopeia, Almach, the beautiful but snagged foot of the princess Andromeda, and the entrapping jaws of Cetus, the technobureaucratic monster of collective human consciousness. Inattentive, spiteful, arrogant, or stupid moves will only entrap us more than we already are, tightening the chain of human bondage. Patience and gentleness is required to move forth into the light we seek.

This is also the Sun's exalted location in the ecliptic. The message here is about our own personal healing, the need to take responsibility for our own lives, not waiting around for someone else to change first, for events to change on their own, or for someone to come save us, but instead to diligently do with focus and brilliance that which we must do to claim our freedom and manifest our dreams.

Mars and Sedna

Hours later, the Moon conjoins Mars and the Kuiper Belt asteroid Sedna. The astrological character of Sedna, being a relatively new discovery, is still being explored by astrologers. I do find the theme of the woman who spitefully refuses to marry resultantly only hurting the unfoldment of her own future being appropriate. The general theme of spiteful withdrawal of the feminine principle only hurts the feminine further seems fitting Sedna. And here, with Sedna conjoining Mars, without the feminine balance, we only have the awry use of creative power (and the masculine principle), or misguided action, or worse yet no action, rather than creative action being taken with instinctual wisdom, strength, audacious confidence, and passion that leads to victory and fulfillment in our life endeavors.

The Equinox occurs on Sep 22, 22:23 GMT (Sep 22, 3:23 PM MST). This is the time in Earth's orbit around the sun when the line of sight from the sun to the Earth crosses from Earth's northern hemisphere to the southern, crossing the equator. This is the 270° point in Earth's annual solar cycle--a time of "Change."

Time for Change

Our Last Quarter Moon of September 24/25 brings our inner need to initiate change in the lunar cycle as we move into its last quarter.

The moon lies at 7° sidereal Gemini, opposite the Solar Apex at 7° sidereal Sag, which marks the direction our Sun travels in our galaxy. Here, the Moon conjoins Tejat, Eta Gemini on the foot of Castor. Tejat portends eminence and renown, and will make that which it aligns with stand out in a unique fashion. Tejat will make visible that which has been suppressed, oppressed, hidden, in the closet, but destined to be seen. Thus our lunar cycle's point of change is about taking the steps to come out of hiding, or to make visible that which had been hidden.

Alignments with the foot of Castor can also indicate the need to emerge from our own mental obscurations and illusions. Tejat indicates that it is time to come out of hiding, to become visible, to stand forth in the limelight, and to make self visible, available, and approachable. Tejat may indicate it is time to claim one's role in the physical world, and to take the steps required for physical unfoldment and participation in the world. It is time to do what is required. Tejat can also indicate those who are physically marked in some way: including birth marks, genetic marks, or other unique features including tattoos, and especially jewels.

Focus to the Future

The Balsamic Moon marks the time in lunar cycle when we coalesce the experience of the lunar cycle into its seed essence, which will then sprout through the theme of the following lunar cycle. It is when we turn our attention from this lunar cycle in anticipation of the next to come. The hours before the Balsamic Moon provide our time of coalescence while those after mark the time when we turn from looking back over the past cycle and look toward the future cycle to come. This Balsamic Moon occurs on September 29 in the last few degree of sidereal Cancer, but under the auspices of Algenubi, Eye of the Lion, influencing the coalescence of our experience: that we are breaking trail into new territory in our lives.

Our next New Moon of October 3 produces an annular solar eclipse in mid-sidereal Virgo--more to come then.