The Lunar Planner: This Month's Lunar Theme & Moon Calendar

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The Lunar Theme for the
August 23, 2006 New Moon

Heart of the Lioness
Courage to live Heart

The Lunar Month of
August 23, 2006 - September 22, 2006

Nick Anthony Fiorenza

Astronomical Myth is a "picture language," imagery that articulates the qualities of cosmic intelligence expressing throughout the greater heavens and through our lives. We are not separate from the greater heavens, from the stars and planets around us, or from our beloved Earth, but are intimate parts of this dynamic, continually unfolding heavenly symphony. This entirety is our cosmic consciousness, the totality of our being. To explore the greater heavens and the heavenly cycles is to explore that which we are--our embracing consciousness and our spiritual evolution.

The stars would not be in the heavens
if we were meant to walk in darkness.

Please remember that the purpose of the Lunar Planner is to learn to live in the experiential awareness of the present. Although the material below can provide philosophical context for your personal experience, the New Moon is the ideal time to experientially "tune in" to get your unique new lunar month theme. Then, consciously participate with the changing Lunar Phase Characteristics in the unfoldment of that theme in your daily life.

This Lunar Cycle

Our New Moon of August 23, 2006 conjoins Regulus of Leo, Heart of the Lion. Regulus is "Chief or King of the Four Royal Stars," (Regulus Fomalhaut, Aldebaran, and Antares). Throughout antiquity Regulus was associated with royalty and kings (the colors royal blue and gold). Its name is given as “the Regulus” or “the Rex,” meaning the “Law Giver.” Placed as the "heart" of the Lion reveals where the law / our truth resides. Regulus is considered the governing star of the heavens for several reasons. It lies almost exactly upon the ecliptic, thus, once a year around Aug 22-23, during Earth's orbit around the sun, the sun occults Regulus. Now, on Aug 23, 2006, we also happen to have a new moon occurring at the same time of this particular occultation. Residing at about 5 degrees sidereal Leo, Regulus is the only one of the four royal stars prominently aspecting the Holy Cross (the Gate of God at 5° Sag and the Gate of Man at 5° Gemini.), both in longitude and in latitude). The Rex is therefore an administrative seat, a foundational star insuring integrity and order.

On the personal level, Regulus is about "vertical integrity," that is, living true to self. This means walking in confidence and with self-respect, aligned with the truth in our hearts, in thought, word, and deed. Our personal integrity, our inner vertical attunement, must precede any horizontal, humanitarian participation in the world (Leo’s opposite Aquarian pole). Without this inner integrity we become self-sacrificing, entrapped in a sympathetic resonance or dance, giving self away at the cost of our heart / soul truth. This perpetuates discord and dysfunction for self and for others because we are simply living a lie. Only by living our hearts' truths do we provide opportunity for others to also stand in integrity and live theirs.

Regulus is shaped like an egg due to its rapid spin. At five times the diameter of our own Sun, Regulus completes a rotation in only 15.9 hours, where as our Sun takes 24 days to rotate once. This extreme rotational speed gives Regulus a bulge. Regulus is spinning at 86% of its breakup speed. Any faster, the star would rip apart. Our sun's equatorial spin speed is roughly 4,500 miles per hour. Regulus' equatorial spin speed is nearly 700,000 miles per hour at its diameter, about five times greater than our sun's. Regulus is also traveling through the galaxy at a direction along it polar axis. (Technical info credit: Hal McAlister et al. (2005, astro-ph/0501261), director of Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, using the CHARA array.)

Regulus also has nearby companion double star as well as a nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxy, Leo 1, believed to be one of the most distant small satellite galaxies orbiting our Milky Way Galaxy. Although Regulus and Leo 1 are visibly close, Regulus is located about 75 light years away while Leo 1 is located about 800,000 light years away.

In this lunar cycle, we have two sun-planet conjunctions, one with Mercury and one with the asteroid Juno. This marks the revalatory points those planets'longer synodic cycles. We have the start of Uranus' new synodic cycle; and we also have Pallas and Pluto completing their retrograde periods. We will explore these events below, as they occur in the lunar cycle.

Pallas

Pallas returns direct on Aug 24, just after the New Moon. This marks the full commencement of the Pallas 465-day synodic theme that began on July 1, discussed in the June 25 lunar planner.

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.

Venus and Saturn

Venus and Saturn conjoin in late sidereal Cancer opposite Neptune and Ceres just before the crescent moon of Aug 27 bringing attention to restrictions we place upon our hearts verses living our more nurturing dreams and visions. The Crescent Moon (sextile Venus) reveals the opportunity for growth in this cycle is to realize the strength of heart and to claim it.

The moon in sidereal Virgo conjoins Seginus and Muphrid of Boötes and Alpha Volantis of the very southern Flying Fish.

Muphrid just above the left knee of Boötes, on his thigh, is the facilitator to the transmutational process involved in the new birth from the Virgin (principle of pure intent). Muphrid provides personal and intimate support by making possible and ensuring proper energetic environments are created so the spiritual to physical transmutation for the new birth can occur. Conjoining Seginus, the left shoulder of Boötes, inspires us to take the responsibility to ensure proper environments are maintained and not interfered with by meddling forces or ill-intented world powers that would like to see otherwise and that attempt to manipulate our evolutionary fulfillment. Boötes functions not by brute force but by spiritual awareness and prowess in the application of the knowledge about such external environmental issues and transcendent subtle forces. Muphrid and Seginus lie over the lower spinal sacrum (sanctum) of the Virgin--protecting the principles of sacred sex, its purity and the secrets behind gestation, birth and life itself.

Conjoining Muphrid and Eta Carina is Alpha Volantis, the Flying Fish, which lies quite south under the keel of the Argo in the area associated with navigational mapping and directing of evolutionary currents that guide our lives. Piscis Volantis is associated with the soular plane (not earth plane), specifically, the foundation for souls, the ability to support souls' uninhibited true expression. The flying fish provides an extraordinary force and ability to leap into and spread its wings to glide through new or other dimensional realms, realms not common to its normal experience.

Alpha Volantis' conjunction with Eta Carina, the thigh of Boötes, and the sacrum of the Virgin brings awareness about the subtle but powerful soul-directed primal / sexual / creative forces guiding our lives and the need to participate with powerfully directed intimate sensitivity of intent to pierce the limiting envelope of our existing perceptional bubble to birth a new life expression.

Lying between Muphrid and Seginus (in latitude) is the seyfert galaxy NGC 5548. Seyfert Galaxies express as an intensely focused purpose. They reveal a tendency to be self-dependent on inner core beliefs and convictions, thus undaunted by external affairs of the human world. They provide and explosive power to overcome obstacles in the outer world. When challenged, this unbounded energy can express almost vehemently if not applied in a focused way. Seyfert 5548 provides the powerful creative force, undaunted will, and inner determination of Boötes to ensure safe passage on Earth, to ensure humanity's evolutionary fulfillment (the Archturus theme).

Initiate Action / Sun & Mercury

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 First Quarter Moon of Aug 31 resides in mid sidereal Scorpio about to conjoin Antares, while Mercury and the Sun also conjoin which marks the culmination point in Mercury's 116-day synodic cycle. (Mercury is in superior conjunction with the Sun; i.e., on the Sun's far side). Mercury's current synodic theme, which began on March 11, was discussed in the Feb 27 lunar planner.

Realizations about that synodic theme explode into our awareness and add to our stimulus to act now--to see through any diversions that may have been keeping us from moving forth on those currents that can truly take us to the rewards we seek in our lives.

Antares, heart of the scorpion, provides stimulus to take responsibility for our reality, for the lives we create, and to "take a stand" for our truth and live it; and especially to take a stand against the established conditions of our personal lives and against the established order or authority directing our lives when those conditions or that authority are no longer in our best interest nor supporting our evolutionary freedom and fulfillment.

Realization in Partnerships - Sun & Juno

On Sept 1/2 the Sun and Juno conjoin. This means Juno is on the far side of the Sun and is at the culmination point in its current 486-day synodic cycle, which began on Dec 9, 2005. The theme of this synodic cycle was presented in the Dec 1, 2005 Lunar Planner. Now is the time of realization about this synodic theme, that is, about the nature of our relationships and any new enterprises engaged upon in those relations since the beginning of this year. This conjunction may also bring to awareness any Juno-related issues we may carry.

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 4 in the first couple degrees of sidereal Capricorn. A few hours later, Pluto completes its retrograde.

The first couple degrees of Capricorn inspire the manifestation of our high spiritual ideals and beauty (of lat Sag / Lyra) into practical and applicable concretized form. Also conjoining a supernova remnant Pulsar CP1919 (the first discovered) and pulsar PSR1929, both in northern Vulpecula, the fox. The supernova remnant / pulsar has a pulse rate of 1.33730115212 seconds, which translates to the extremes in the color spectrum (at 3560Å Near UV and at 7120Å Deep Red) inspiring integration of the high spiritual and deep emotionally passionate material plane, a resonance with the star and root chakras. The other pulsar has a pulse rate of 0.2265170380 sec, which translates to a perfect turquoise (at 4824Å). Turquoise is an ideal balancing color, one used in color therapy for sexual imbalances, dyslexic, vertigo, perceptual problems or other related conditions associated with the equilibrium and balance center of the brain.

Here we have inspiration to create equipoise between the spiritual and carnal/material in our lives and in our relations.

The New Uranus Synodic Cycle

Sept 5 marks the end of the previous Uranus 370-day synodic cycle and the start of the next. The previous synodic theme was presented in the snippet: The Pouring Waters of the Waterman.

The Uranus synodic cycle transition occurs when the Sun and Uranus are opposite as seen from Earth. From the Sun's perspective, this is when Earth catches up with Uranus in their respective orbits. Thus, the Sun, Earth, and Uranus align. Click here to learn more of Planetary Synodic Cycles.

Uranus Psychophysiology

Uranus inspires new frontiers in experience and consciousness, the true pioneer and humanitarian. Uranus asks us to break from tradition--uninhibited by convention and establishment. Uranus (Qabalistic Shin) is the embodiment and expression of unified and unique soul-level self in radical confidence. Uranus produces uninhibited spontaneity and individuality. Uranus provides a future focus and orientation; and embodies quickness and alertness of consciousness with a lightning like mind. Uranus provides an ability to work with higher orders and principles, providing a higher-mind prowess for telepathy and all super-consciousness functions and mechanisms. Uranus brings appreciation of excellence and perfection; is super-consciousness in creative expression; is applier of the higher sciences in technology; is electrical and of light impluses; and is of global mind and global communication.

Suppressed Uranus can express as fear to change or to take radical steps; as self judgmental, self sacrificing, self diminishment; invalidation of one's uniqueness or gifts, or those of others; seeking sameness as a means for gaining acceptance rather than having confidence in one's uniqueness and likewise not being threatened by another's uniqueness; expressing another's truth and philosophies, or those of mass consciousness, rather than one's own; fear of being accepted or rejected. ACUTE: Impatient, unstable, erratic, hyperactive & unreliable; body-electronics miss-function--ungrounded electrically.

Primary associated bio-energy centers: Nervous system and higher brain centers--Mental Ability, prefrontal and frontal lobes; neurological and synoptic circuitry and firing, the body's electronics.

Retrograde Uranus, in sidereal Aquarius, now resides just before the longitude of Achernar of Eridanus. This is the location of Neptune's exaltation in the ecliptic (~18° sidereal Aquarius). Here we find a release from tension, from the long winding road we have been on, dissolving what has been into universality.

Achernar, Alpha Eridanus marks the end of the river Eridanus. A bright blue star, Achernar is the ninth brightest in the sky. Achernar indicates fulfillment, completion, integration, and rewards from what has been gained from the long and winding incarnational journey of life--or what ever sojourn we have been on. Achernar reveals we have paid our dues, we have arrived from the winding tumultuous river of life to the ocean of being.

This next 370-day Uranian period supports fulfillment if we are willing to take the steps to break from the conformity of our past life scenarios, to leave the comfy-cozy ole patterns we have come to call normal--to graduate from the struggles and work we have been involved in for so long. It indicates a completion period, a release, one of dissolution, of expansiveness. This new cycle will fully commences as Uranus returns direct on Nov 19 2006.

The last Uranus-Earth synodic cycle occurring at this location in the ecliptic began on Sept 4, 1922. This date marked the start of the Radio Era: "Cutting & Washington Radio Corporation helped erect a 500-Watt Western Electric transmitter in 1922. Radio went live on Labor Day, September 4, 1922, under the call numbers of WLAG. By the year's end, nine radio stations were broadcasting, including WBAD owned by the Minneapolis Journal, WAAL owned by the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, and WBAH owned by the Dayton Company." (Source: Minneapolis Public Library) Here is an example of technology (Uranus-Aquarius) expanding or dissolving in into universality humanity's ability to interrelate at an entirely new and more expansive level. Of course, ham radio technology was being evolved for several years prior to this time--a long effort--but more for one-to-one communications and private messaging especially through World War I. Setting up radio tower transmitters and distributing radio receivers to reach the masses was the breakthrough of this effort--fitting to the theme of Achernar--arriving to the end of the river, of a long effort coming to expansive fruition.

Are we now seeing a similar process occurring with internet technology?

Fifteen Years ago the web went worldwide.
In August 1995 there were 18,957 websites online.
In August 1996 there were 342,081 websites online.
* Uranus enter sidereal Aquarius in 2002
In October 2005, 17 million new sites went online.
In August 2006 there are 92,615,362 websites online.
Now, free internet access is soon to become the norm.

Will all of this birth an entirely new technological advancement in Global Communications over the immediate years ahead?

Vision, Enthusiasm, & Realization of the Theme

The Full Moon marks the culmination point 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.

The Full Moon (a partial lunar eclipse) occurs on Sept 7 a few hours after conjoining Uranus. (The high energy Full Moon eve will be felt on Sept 6.) Thus, this eclipse Full Moon is imbued with Uranian energy--and all that is electrical, high witted, spontaneous, radical and unexpected. The Moon conjoins Achernar, again emphasizing the "end of the river theme, here in the context of our "Heart of the Lion" lunar cycle theme. This is indicative of claiming the courage for radical change to live aligned to one's personal integrity and truth.

Also conjoining Achernar is Ankaa, Alpha Phoenix, the lucida of the Thunderbird. Ankaa embodies the essence conveyed in the symbol of the phoenix rising from the ashes of the trials of the long and winding road in full illuminated glory. In another mythical imaging, Ankaa is the talisman upon the staff of Aaron, the high priest-scientist, brother of Miriam and Moses. The Ankh / Ankaa emblematic of the fulfillment of a journey, a galactic mission begun long ago, is Aaron’s amulet of power--having claimed the wisdom for the journey.

The effects of this Uranian lunar eclipse may set in motion a radical change or an unexpected break from the confomity existing in certain areas of our lives (depending on where it occurs in our personal charts) that may continue to unfold over the months ahead.

Our Disseminating Moon of Sept occurs in sidereal Aries and conjoins Tyl of Draco, which lies in the far northern Heavens, Fornax A, a spiral galaxy in the the Fornax Cluster, Mesartim and Sharatan of Aries.
Tecnical Eclipse info can be found here:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html
http://www.mreclipse.com/MrEclipse.html

Manifestation & Demonstration

The hours leading up to the Disseminating Moon generally 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.
Tyl is one of many stars composing Draco the Dragon which lies coiled around and guarding the North Celestial Pole. Tyl (along with Nodus Secundus--Delta Draco) makes the convolution in the Dragon’s neck, here concerning primordial transformation of the soul through the experience of human life. Tyl is the Human Cry--not that of grief, but of anguish, of the pain of the human plight. Tyl is the scream of our human struggle. Tyl’s cry is for fulfillment at a very fundamental human level. Tyl is the cry of desire for one’s physical needs to be met, for one’s truth to be heard, and for one’s dreams to be realized. Tyl is the burning cry in the initiatory fires of life.

Tyl asks us to honor that life’s fire can hurt like Hell sometimes; to hear the cry; to not deny, squelch or pretend all is well in either denial or uppity arrogance. Tyl asks us to be real, to honor the pain we feel, to honor our humanness, and to have compassion for the struggle of others. Only unconditional acceptance of all emotion--especially pain--not the suppression of it, opens the transmutative process within to allow the searing, burning, digestive juices of Cetus (being in the belly of life) to truly transform our lives and to set us free. It is not with denial or arrogance that Perseus flies above Cetus, it is by claiming his mastery while immersed in the initiatory fires of life.

South of the ecliptic lies Fornax the Furnace that provides the transmutational fire while in the whale (Cetus) of human experience creating the alchemical process of turning mortal to god. Alpha Fornax is the lucida (brightest star) of this southern constellation. Nearby is Fornax A, a spiral galaxy of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster that provides the intense heat under initiatory, fiery Aries.

Conjoining is Sharatan the Beta star of the Ram and Mesartim, mouth of the ram. Sharatan is two marks, scars, wounds, or rounds in the initiatory fire of life. Sharatan and Mesartim provide a warning: Pursuits from arrogant righteousness or adamant denial can lead to great resistance and will perpetuate the human cry in the transmutational fires of life.

Time for Change

The Last Quarter Moon creates our "inner need to initiate change" in the lunar cycle as we move into the cycle's last quarter. Our Last Quarter Moon of Sept 14 occurs in late sidereal Taurus and conjoins the renegade AE Auriga & Flaming Star Nebula C405 in AURIGA, Bellatrix of Orion, and the Alpha and Beta stars of the Camel.

Image credit: Adam Block
/NOAO/AURA/NSF

"IC 405 is the red/blue nebula to the left of center. It is being illuminated by the energetic star AE Aurigae (embedded in the nebula). However AE Aurigae's story is inextricably linked to another star called Mu Columbae. Around 2.7 million years ago these two stars were formed and had a close encounter with one another in the Great Orion Nebula. The encounter was so close (another star was certainly involved) that each of them was ejected from the Orion complex never to return again. Currently these stars are 66 degrees away from one another in the sky. Astronomer's discovered these two runaway stars by measuring their appearent (fast) motion and noting that if you work backwards in time- the origin is in the same place at the same time! But AE Auriga is certainly the more glamorous of the two stars since it just happens to be moving through a region of gas that makes it look like a Flaming Star."
(http://www.noao.edu/outreach)

Renegade AE Auriga lives outside the beliefs and conventions of its group, a free thinker moving on its own, quite fitting to this longitude of Taurus, and even to impious Orion, its pace of origin.

Bellatrix, Gamma Orion is the Female Amazon Warrior, the conqueror, star of the Amazon. Bellatrix holds excellent capacities in “strategic planning,” (in contrast to Betelgeuse, the male warrior, whose capacity is response in the moment) Bellatrix is lucky in administrative accomplishment--in civil, political, and military office. Bellatrix is especially favorable for women, and brings a loquacious quality.

The northern Camel (Alpha and Beta conjoining Bellatrix) articulates the nature of this zodiakal band in Taurus well. The Camel spreads wealth around the world through commerce and business, is a resilient hard working intelligent beast of burden with the ability to go for days (without water) before becoming distressed, one suited for long and arduous journeys. This also articulates the planning nature of Bellatrix and the ability to execute and carry out plans.

This Last Quarter Moon inspires us to create a plan of action to execute that which we have gained form this lunar cycle's spiral of growth.

Mercury and Mars

Mercury and Mars conjoin in Virgo on Sept 15, the day after Last Quarter--further inspiring us to act upon our plans, to walk our talk. The twosome conjoin Zaniah of Virgo and Turais of Argo Navis. The theme here is right use of will, and the need to act in the present upon that which we are motivated, knowing that the proper timing of our actions is imperative so the ramifications of those actions occur in the proper time of that which is unfolding in the greater scheme of things. Right use of will is not only about right action, but also about acting in tune and in time.

The Sun moves into sidereal Virgo on Sept 17-18.

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 of Sept 18 resides in mid-sidereal Cancer conjoining the exalted location of Jupiter and Gianfar of Draco helping to set the tone of the seed about to unfold in the upcoming lunar cycle. Gianfar, Lambda Draco, on the tail of the Dragon, is the poisoned place and conjoins the stars of Hydra's head, a multifarious source of undermining.

Movement and expansion from any bitterness from past carried in the heart is essential. Lest we emerge from such resentments of the heart, we remain battling the same ole undermining conditions rather than making the changes that lead to our greater fulfillment.

Venus and Juno

Appropriately, in this heart-related lunar cycle, Venus and Juno conjoin in sidereal Leo and conjoin Mizar of the Great Bear on Sept 19-20, the last significant alignment occurring in this lunar cycle: Partnerships of the Heart must express - need I say more.

Our next Moon occurs on Sept 22 in early sidereal Virgo - more to come then.

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To learn how one lunar phase shifts and changes into the next, and to learn how to live in attunement to the lunar cycles, in the experiential empowerment doing so offers, please download the Lunar Planner Introduction and each monthly Lunar Calendar, and use them daily (PDF file links below)--its all a gift.

* * *

We need not live in endless struggle, overwhelmed by the surface turbulence of our growth and awakening process. We can establish an inner peace instead, with life becoming a graceful dance when we attune ourselves to the natural spiral of growth that is guiding our lives. Living in attunement to the natural Lunar Cycles is an effective and empowering way to do this. Living in attunement to the natural astronomical cycles of life is living in faith and trust in the Divine Creative Intelligence expressing throughout our lives.

The Lunar Planner is an experiential tool teaching us how to live in attunement to the natural lunar cycles. Astronomical Sidereal Astrology and Star Lore reveal each lunar month's theme, and the planetary themes unfolding throughout the year. Each lunar month's theme weaves a continuing story line of the patterns of growth unfolding in our lives.

The Lunar Calendar reveals the dates and times of each lunar phase shift and their changing characteristics as well as key planetary alignments. Use this like a calendar or daily planner. The Lunar Calendar goes hand-in-hand with the introductory material. Use this daily to learn how to live attuned to the Lunar Cycles of Life.

Step by step instructions on how to use the Lunar Calendar with a detailed description of the changing lunar phases. This will teach you how to live in attunement to the Lunar Cycle. The Introduction goes hand-in-hand with the Lunar Calendar.

The Lunar Theme for the August 23, 2006 New Moon

Heart of the Lioness Courage to live Heart

The Lunar Month of August 23, 2006 - September 22, 2006