Aquarian Age Dawning Still with a New Moon

Even though the 5th dimension said it best over 50 years ago, this is still the dawning of the age of Aquarius. 

With a New Moon today in Aquarius just as Aquarius season kicks off, and a powerful join up of Venus and Saturn in this sign as well, it is a good time to consider ‘the mind’s true liberation’. 

50 years ago, the Aquarian Age was celebrated as a hopeful future of ‘harmony and understanding’. The year the song was released was 1969, a most momentous year of change. 

Every time I hear that song on the radio I prepare myself. If it’s raining I even remove myself a bit from the song by not turning it up too loud. For I can’t help but sing along with tears streaming. Maybe it’s the images of Treat Williams marching off to war, bewildered, while the peace protesters storm Washington (as depicted in the end scene of the movie ‘Hair’). Maybe it’s that simple suggestion; “let the sunshine in”. Above all it is the momentum of the song, and a reminder of the momentum of 1969. 

I didn’t even live through this time. Yet, like anyone else who loves Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, I am deeply connected to this time. There was awful stuff happening like Vietnam and the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, but there was a momentous unity emerging that was undeniable. And the music reflects this as perfectly as water reflects moonlight. 

Now in 2023, the idea of the future is dissipating into anyone’s best guess. We will need to go deeper into the archetype of Aquarius in order to get a grasp on this new age, and perhaps even attain a “mystic crystal revelation”. 

Aquarius is not only the sign of future, innovation and change, it is also the sign of the individual. Not everyone loves the song that drives me to tears in traffic. The reason for this is that each individual has their own subjectivity. 

The philosopher F.W.J Schelling saw human subjectivity to be the highest potency of nature. 

The momentum of the changing times are easily recognized in a song. But what about the momentum of an individual’s changes? The changes that generate measurable changes in one’s chemistry? Is there a sense of future here? 

Aquarius is the waterbearer, the subjectivity-owner, the one with a capacity to be moved, changed and affected. As the song chants towards the end “you’ve got to feel it”. 

Heraclitus said “it is the tension between each opposite end of a harp string that allows us to hear the music”. 

Time is also a kind of tension between ‘the times that are a changin’ and the changes that occur within you. Instead of Woodstock we have the world wide web. It is a bit harder to hear the music that unites us, but the uniting capacity of ideas and people across the globe has never been more robust. 

New moons are more quiet than full moons. The introspective tone that they emit is similar to the harp player tuning her strings. She needs quiet, she needs focus, she needs to establish her correct tension. 

Aquarius wavy lines are like the vibrations on a string. Will the tension be right to produce music? Can you find the right tension between the changes within you and the changes of the times ? The Age of Aquarius might still become an age of ‘harmony and understanding’, but not if we don’t establish this first as individuals.

Today’s new moon might as well be a new moon for the ages. This is to say, a new respect for ‘the highest potency of nature’; human subjectivity. We bear this potency, and with it comes responsibility. The evolution of nature is the evolution of human nature. The ‘mind’s true liberation’ is the liberation of nature and its freedom to create and build.

But first, you’ve got to feel it.

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Sparks at Dusk; Libra’s Creative Observation

Metaphorcast for 10/4-10, 2021

Listen to this episode here

William Burroughs wrote, “nothing exists until or unless it is observed.”  He said “an artist is making something exist by observing it.  And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it.”  Burroughs called this “creative observation” or “creative viewing.”

There is a New Moon coming in Libra this week, on Wednesday October 6th.  Libra is the sign of the artist but what too soon gets overlooked with Libra is how much her artistry centers on keen observation, or how much her wit centers on impeccable listening.  Her receptiveness is active, and it brings things into existence.

To highlight her activeness, Mars will be snuggled into the New Moon.  The artist Eugene Delacroix said “Seeing artistically does not happen automatically.  We must constantly develop our powers of observation.”  

Did you ever notice how there is a certain time of evening, call it dusk, when the powers of observation seem to rush back to you as a divine gift?  Photographers and filmmakers call it “magic hour”, John Steinbeck called it “the hour of pearl” when “time stops and examines itself.”  There’s an odd suspension of duality as day and night blend.  What is observed on the outside seems more intimately connected to what is felt on the inside.  

Dusk comes with extra magic this week as it will be the best time to view the Draconid Meteor shower which will peak just an evening after the New Moon.  Unlike most meteor showers that are best viewed near dawn, the Draconids are best viewed at dusk. These fiery bits emanate from the constellation of Draco, a dragon that wraps itself around the North Pole.

Draco’s constellation is in the shape of the sign of Leo, the light of the Sun.  It hugs the north pole which, symbolically is a Lunar place, as they are both connected to the mysteries of magnetism and navigation.

He also goes by the name Ladon, which backwards spells Nodal, the intersection of the Moon’s path and the apparent path of the sun which is the ecliptic. 

Draco seems to symbolize a merging between the creative and conscious qualities of light and the magnetic, subconscious pull of the Moon.  He seems to be a blend of day and night, a creature of the dusk.

Let’s consider for a moment that fine feeling we feel at dusk, when a magic bridge seems to connect the outside world to the inner.  In that moment, with that feeling, we are also creatures of dusk.  The powers of observation are keen as can be and a certain creative fire stirs inside.  There is active receptiveness, a blend of day and night.  

There is a sense that meaningful change can be brought about, as the deep subconscious seems to be registering important new conscious observations.  A close cooperation is taking place between the conscious light of day and the subconscious dark of night.  There is a hope that our habits might shift into ones that better serve our futures as we begin to remember a mysterious sense of purpose.

Venus has been in the depth of the subconscious in the latest degree of Scorpio but will begin her ascent back to the light of day on Thursday, the day after the New Moon in the fiery confidence of Sagittarius. The artist arises full of renewed life. 

Van Gogh said “art demands constant observation”. 

The same could be said for the art of living. 

Until next time,

Happy astro pondering

What’s so Special About a New Moon?

Metaphorcast 7/5-11, 2021

Listen to this here

There is a new moon coming this week on Friday, July 9th.  Maybe you are wondering what is so special about a new moon.  Well, let’s ponder it, so we can better enjoy it when it comes!

New moons occur when the moon is in between the earth and the sun, whereas for a full moon, it is the earth that is between the sun and moon.  

The full moon is the popular one.  It makes a dazzling spectacle that is usually impossible to miss.  With the earth at the center, full moons are ‘centered’ around earthly things.  Sensory things.  Beauty, tastes, aroma, textures and so on.  Some people are lucky enough to find their ways to a moonlit swim.  Others may find a simple walk home to turn into the most mystical of experiences, all because of these heightened senses.

A few weeks back we had a Full Strawberry Moon and I was lucky enough to eat some of the best tasting strawberries I’ve ever tasted!

But we are now going to ponder the new moon, which finds its ‘center’ with the moon itself.  With the new moon it isn’t the senses in the middle of it all, it is the intuitions, the instincts, the songs in our blood.  In the darkened night distant stars appear with startling clarity.  In the same way, meaningful ideas and connections may find you, bright with purpose, and seemingly out of nowhere.  

The ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides said “Gaze steadfastly at things which, though far away, are yet present to the mind.”

A full moon may light up the details of a flower, but a new moon brings a vast distance into your own place of detail-making; your own mind that makes order out of chaos. 

Distant stars, coming into focus from so far away.

Tennessee Williams said that time is the longest distance between two places.

But what if the light of the stars is a world beyond time?  A world where myths are made as living guides, changing as the people that made them continue to change.  Where would we be without these myths that made us?

Where would we be without these new moons?   

Also fun with a new moon is watching for its return.  In the depths of winter she is gracious enough to return with a smile!  Though now, in summer, she will return with her signature right-sided waxing crescent.  Thankfully she never returns with a frown.  

Look to the western sky this weekend just after sunset.  After being new in Cancer, she will be visible again in Leo, and… ready for her closeup.

As always, happy astro pondering!

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Action Is The New Atom. New Moon in Aries

Have you ever wondered what it is that exists at the utmost root of things?  It was not long ago that science responded to this question with the atom, whose name means indivisible one.  But as we know now, atoms can be split and there is a whole weird quantum world beyond it.  So what is it then, that is most fundamental to our existence?

In his book, The Reflexive Universe, inventor and cosmologist Arthur M. Young sees this answer to be clear: it is action, not matter that is most basic to the universe we live in.  He also sees this universe to be purposeful in it’s evolution.

“Science builds its edifice on mass, length and time.  The suspicion of purpose only occurs in action, which combines all three.  Is it possible that there is something present in the whole that is not in the parts?”

Who, if anyone, does not long for a sense of wholeness?  Wholeness beckons us from grocery aisles with green marketing logos and from the bulletin boards on the way out that features happy yoga people in a moment of bliss.  But have you ever considered that wholeness is what lies in your decision to drive to the store in the first place?

As Young points out; you can’t make a decision one and a half times.  Actions come in wholes.

It was Max Planck who first came up with the notion that action comes in wholes, or quanta.  He discovered the constant, an elementary quantum of action, which lead Einstein to discovering that light exists in discrete quantity of energy, or photons.

Unlike the atom, this quantum of action can’t be split apart.  It’s a notion of true undivided wholeness, you might even say, the true atom.

“There’s a new one?”

Young explains that light itself is pure action because “light is not seen; it is seeing.”  A photon can not be seen twice.  It’s detection is it’s annihilation.  

“Light is pure action, unattached to any object, like the smile without the cat.”

-Arthur M. Young, The Reflexive Universe  

Emerson said “A right action seems to fill the eye and be related to all of nature.” 

The Aries New Moon (Sunday, April 11th) is an invitation to ponder a “new atom”.  A new answer to what exists at the utmost root of all existence.  A new point of view that sees wholeness as inherent in the nature of action, decision, and purposive activity.

This New Moon receives a square from powerful Pluto in lawful Capricorn, empowering us to, as Young advises, “ use law instead of being blocked by it”.  For Young, deterministic laws of nature are what is necessary for us to have means to achieve a goal.  Rather than a question of determinism versus free-will, he sees determinism as the agency of free-will.  How could you plan to start your car if you couldn’t count on the keys starting the ignition?

With goals and the means to carry them out, actions can vibrate stronger with purpose!

A New Moon, a new atom, a new you!  On the most fundamental level, you are free as a photon!  You are light and laughter!  Beyond even time itself, for as Young points out, “clocks stop at the speed of light.”

Happy actions, and happy astro pondering!

Astro art by Johnnie Day Durand

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Fusing Fact and Value. New Moon in Pisces

A New Moon in Pisces is in store for us this Saturday.  New Moons “hide” from us, thus they hold a signature of privacy. With the archetype of Pisces, the most inward of all signs, the privacy dimension gains more depth.  Throw in the fact that harmonizing Venus and mystery-of-mysteries Neptune are right there too, and we have, what seems like, a romantic quest.  To the inner-most bounds!  A loving quest for the universe within! 

Psychologist, Abraham Maslow saw this quest to be paramount to discovering a person’s “isness”.  This “isness” is very important, because in knowing this, one can find their “oughtness”.  Maslow saw this as a crucial fusing of fact and value, is and ought. 

 In a storybook, this “is” would be the landscape, conditions, and basic reality of the hero.  The “ought” would be the hero’s desires and visions.  The ultimate question, or quest of the story would be: can the facts of reality merge with the value of the vision?  

Maslow applies this dynamic recipe for good ficiton straight to our own sense of well-being.  Of the person willing to look inward to his “isness” he says,

“The more he knows about his own nature, his deep wishes, his temperament, his constitution, what he seeks and yearns for and what really satisfies him, the more effortless, automatic, and epiphenomenal becomes his value choices… Discovering one’s own nature is simultaneously an ought quest and is quest.

This is celestial music straight from the effortless graces of Pisces and Venus.  A song that is no song at all, like John Cage’s 4:33.  

Notice that when he talks about discovering one’s inner nature he focuses on “deep wishes” as well as “temperament” and “constitution”.  It’s a balanced inventory- a real assessment, but an assessment of a hero/ heroinne, and all that he/she seeks and yearns for.

Don’t even think about taking the romance out of your “isness”!  And at the same time, two feet on the ground please. 

Will you indulge in the Fishes inner plunge tonight and alchemize some facts and values?  

Happy Astro Pondering!

Astro Art by Johnnie Day Durand.

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

Nothing Happens Until Something Moves. New Moon in Aquarius

In 1936 a not-yet-famous Tennessee William sat in the audience of Ibsens’ play “Ghosts.” But he didn’t sit for long. The play soon moved him so much that it moved him straight out of his seat and he had to pace up and down in the back aisle.

This Thursday the 11th, we have a New Moon in Aquarius, the sign of the Water Bearer, the sign of us, of human beings, with full potential to feel things and allow ourselves to be moved.

You can practically see movement in Aquarius’ glyph of two wavy lines.

Einstein said, “Nothing happens until something moves. When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected.”

Most of the planets in the sky are currently buzzing in Aquarius. Uranus, the planet associated with Aquarius is in the self-sustaining sign of Taurus, along with Mars, resonating like a Tibetan singing bowl over the rest of the buzz.

Taurus, often associated with money, is also the notion of taking stock in something. Just think what would have not happened if Tennessee Williams put no stock in the emotion that propelled him off his seat.

What has been moving you lately? Anything worthy of taking stock in? Anything worthy of cultivating?

The movement you feel might be strong enough to propel you off your seat, but it also might be more subtle. A special shift, and all of a sudden some chemicals inside stir. Maybe you feel a quickening of energy. Maybe the other side of the universe feels it too!

The movement of Aquarius’ wavy lines hint at the magic of feedback loops, always at work in the present moment.

Alfred North Whitehead said “What we perceive as the present is the vivid fringe of memory tinged with anticipation.”    

That sure adds a dose of dynamism to the moment! The fringe of memory and the tinge of anticipation, fringe and tinge! Vibrating sounds, vibration abounds!

These feedback loops show the logic of an optimistic attitude (i.e don’t let that fringe sabotage the tinge and vice versa!) Such a correspondence also shows the grand potential of letting art, love, or anything else move us.

Put some stock in those special emotions!

Happy Astro Pondering!

Astro Art by Johnnie Day Durand

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

New Moon Solar Eclipse and a Well Placed Pause

Metaphorcast 12/14-20, 2020

What a week we have in store, with a Solar Eclipse and so much more.  The New Moon Sagittarius Solar Eclipse kicks of the beginning of the week with a burst of spirited horsepower.  For the people in Chile it will really be a treat- as the Full light of the Sun will it’s opposite meet, in the darkness of daylight the insects will pause their applause, the  temperature drops along with thousands of jaws.  Parts of Argentina will see this as well, but alas, not here in the NorthEast of the U.S.  Yet even though en masse, our heads won’t be up, this event invites us to still get revved up, and feel united in a moment when time seems to disengage-  Silent and in sight of, a brilliant New Age.

As Existentialist writer and philosopher, Rollo May said, “Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.”

Saturn, the old SeaGoat of Time and Order, is at last committing to it’s forward journey into Aquarius on Thursday, the 17th. Back in late March, Saturn tested these strange Aquarian waters, but retrograded back into Capricorn by the beginning of July.  This time, he advances with out looking back, and to make matters ever the more exciting, he will be joined by our Seasonal spirited horse, Jupiter, who will as well move into Aquarius on Saturday, the 19th.  Saturn will continue in Aquarius until 2023, and Jupiter, until the end of next year.  By the year 2023, big and powerful Pluto will step into this future as well, and be in the sign of Man until the year 2043.

It could be said, quite naturally, that the Aquarian Age is officially here.  Aquarius, the sign of Freedom, Future, Evolution and Awareness.  The Age of Aquarius is the age in which we become dynamically aware of our own Evolution.  

Freedom, and the capacity to pause to choose a worthy response.  A great cause for a pause.   

As Mark Twain said, “the right word may be effective; but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”

A worthy response reflects your true values. Little bells that ring like wind chimes inside and integrate a strong resonance of self.  To become aware of our evolution is to become aware of the truly important values, for one and for all.  A global wind chime with a resonance so strong, it is sensed in the present as a place we belong.  

The future lives strong in the open space of a pause. 

Speaking of open spaces, we are in the last week of Sagittarius, the sign of the horse, who’s affinity for open spaces is surpassed by none.  The heart of the Sun and the mind of Mercury are already galavanting in the open green, and they will be joined on Tuesday by the gorgeous goddess of love.  She charges forth with spirit, inspired by the previous day’s New Moon Eclipse.    

The Goddess of Love knows all about the pause, as others might call it a rest.  It is her sacred space, her negatively charged grace, like a waterfall under a Full Moon, or the aftermath of a rainy afternoon- she will applause the pause as one of nature’s best laws.  

Mars deep in Aries, standing tall like Michelangelo’s The David, demonstrating courage in a most powerful and mature way as he comes into square with Pluto in Capricorn.  His power coming from a  sense of readiness.  A mature and powerful readiness, to choose the right response to which he throws his weight.

Uranus in Taurus- Conscious evolution strengthening the all in tandem with strengthening the self- as Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “No evolutionary future awaits man except in association with all other men.”

Neptune in Pisces- Imagine all the people living for today

The Moon

After the phenomenon of Mondays New Moon Eclipse, she will grow with sturdiness, as into Capricorn she slips.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be excellent times, to reel in your energies and hear those wind chimes.

Expect strong breezes on Thursday, as she grows in Aquarius, the same day that Saturn takes that bold first step into the reality of the Water Bearer.  We bearers of water, holding shape-shifts of responses, with awareness is birthed many new rennaisances! Celebrate the coming of a new age today, in the Season of the Horse, indulge in some full-hearted faith in the future.

The weekend welcomes a growing Pisces Moon and the atmosphere takes on a dreamy dimension, just in time for Jupiter’s entrance into Aquarius, where optimism meets the reality of future.  Mercury will also be conjunct the Sun, integrating the life of the mind with the centrality of the heart.   Limitless mind and centering heart, both which operate on through the powers of connection.  To value these powers is to know our direction.  

In the wake of this week’s New Moon Solar Eclipse, 

when into obscurity, the Sun itself slips,

And people react with their oohs and ahs

Remember the revolution

Of a well placed

Pause.  

As Always, happy astro pondering!

Weekly Astrology Metaphorcast 10/12-18, 2020

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn tree”.  Lovely words of appreciation from Emily Bronte as onward we move through Libra Season, the sign of appreciation itself.  

But what if all those tree leaf hues where all the same ‘gainst that sky of blue?  Would the scenery speak such bliss?  What’s that element that we’d miss?

Not only the lover, Libra also represents the other. The one who is different from you, of whom you do not share a point of view.

As our Libra Sun moves into deeper degrees, she finds herself in quite a bit of tension. Her lover Mars baits her from the opposite end, stirring up conflict, and reveling in the spirit of disagreement.  Saturn and Pluto now in a tight conjunction in Capricorn putting a squeeze on her as well, battering her appreciative instinct down with hard-knocks reality, with struggle, and the depths of despair.

Good things these energies are designed to interact.  In the spirit of conflict, Libra’s treasured perspective is widened.  As Carl Jung said “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”  In the spirit of struggle, when all control seems to be lost, the one place that it always has the chance to be regained is in perspective, Libra’s gift of distance.  

Above all else, what Libra abhors is narrowness.  She beckons us from outside the swampy marshes of narrow-mindedness into an open channel, with plenty of space and fresh air.  Plenty of opportunity to appreciate other viewpoints.  In the words of American activist Pauli Murray, “When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them.  Where they speak out for the privileges of a puny group, I shall shout for the rights of all mankind.”

Mercury the planet of perception moving through the mysterious waters of Scorpio- Aldous Huxley’s doors of perception between things known and unknown.  Question your assumptions, like a good gumshoe.

Venus the Seasonal planet moves through Virgo, in grace and humility.  With humility we discover, the viewpoint of another, with grace we put our eyes on, a glorious shared horizon. 

Jupiter, the planet of morality marching forth in Capricorn, the sign of striving.  A striving for a better summit of moral reasoning and understanding.  An elevated place,  where minds actually meet.  And conflicts birth fresh new dawns.  Conflict, which comes from the latin roots “struck together”, can clue us in on its importance.  Fists can strike, but so can emotional chords, ideas, and realizations.  Like lightning, like love!

Uranus in Taurus- lightning in the body

Neptune in Pisces- ever widening circles of understanding

The Moon

The Moon begins in Leo, waning crescent in its final quarter.  Though the moonlight be slight, the Lionbeams pack a lot of might.  Lend yourself not only to an open mind but also to an affirmative mood.  Alive with the fire of presence and action.  As William James said “Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.”

Tuesday and Wednesday host a Virgo Moon, slimmer and slimmer.  Gentle Earthlight of tolerance and leisure.  A thinking mood of mind that has no other place it would rather be.

By Thursday she is in Libra and by Friday she has vanished, into the essence of Libra, as Sun and Moon come together and the tides rise in their honor.  Where are these lessons of tolerance and open-mindedness finding you?  How can you widen your own circle of understanding, and see the moral strengths of others who’s opinions differ from your own?  There’s no Moon tonight, but there is open air.  Plenty of space.  Plenty of chords that haven’t been struck, plenty of ways to become unstuck.   

By the weekend, a Scorpio Moon peaks out from the darkness.  Rebirth of Moonlight in the sign of rebirth.  Emerging out from the marshes and into a fresh atmosphere of better understanding.  An atmosphere that hints at a world we can truly breathe in.

As always, happy astro pondering! 

https://www.happyastropondering.com/

New Moon in Scorpio and Inspirations from Georgia O’Keefe

Sometimes the best way to meditate on what a New Moon may mean for you is to see what if you can sense what it means for someone who was born under that configuration.

A human embodiment of a New Moon in Scorpio:  Georgia O’Keefe.

The signature is so close to her Ascendant (who she identifies as) with Mercury and Jupiter nearby (mind and sense of meaning) and opposite Pluto Neptune (transcendental  spirituality).

So what are the some deliciously dark and lunar inspirations we can take from this brilliant woman?  And how can we apply these inspirations to our own lives to celebrate the coming of the New Moon in Scorpio this Sunday, 10/27 ?

• Inspiration #1- Being afraid and standing still in your tracks don’t mix

This is Mars talk (Scorpio’s original ruler), the planet of adrenalin and motive, with the kernel of it all being in the word motion.  Call it shark-mentality, or being highly motivated, the message here is to keep moving.  Even if you are “absolutely terrified”, don’t let that get in the way of you and your goals.

• Inspiration #2- Unlearning can be as important as learning 

Stripping away and starting anew is where Scorpio thrives.  When something is learned that isn’t healthy for our spirit, sometimes this goes undetected for decades, as our dutiful robotic subconscious mind sees to it that we continue to repeat bad habits that re-enforce a false sense of self.  Scorpio seeks to blow the lid off of this conspiracy.  Life is too short.

• Inspiration #3-  Don’t cheapen your sense of reality with too much “reality”

Being a realist is a good thing.  But being too much of a realist at the expense of the unheard poetry behind something significant, or the subjective stun of bright moonlight, or the signatures of spirituality embedded in every natural creation, this is a catastrophe!  Especially for the artist!  O’Keefe also famously said “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.”  Scorpio understands the reality of feeling.  It is not some bit of subjectivism waiting to be activated.  These are the undercurrents of reality.

Let’s see some more of O’Keefe’s reality as she experiences it:

 Head with Broken Pot, 1943

Ladder to the Moon, 1958

Music Pink and Blue, 1918

I hope these inspirations serve you well to plant some healthy Scorpionic seeds of intention into the fertile soils of your New Moon subconscious mind!

Happy astro  pondering!