Here’s what to watch for:
* First of all, we’ve been riding an intense wave of heavy astrological influences since eclipse season began in July, and although this new Moon cycle appears significantly lighter, we can’t forget that it was toned by a square to Uranus at its opening. This first quarter Moon moment coming through today and tomorrow will, therefore, reactivate the Uranian energy as the Moon opposes Uranus from the sign of Scorpio, which points to some larger and potentially more volatile emotional events coming through.
* At the same time, it is promising that Venus and the Sun are picking up trines to Jupiter, just as Jupiter is turning direct. While we are likely to encounter some choppy waters in the next 48 hours, we are also likely to experience some breakthroughs, find help or support, receive a favorable wind, and push through the troubles or stresses of the moment more quickly.
* With the Moon in its fall and its ruler, Mars, combust the Sun in Leo, we should be especially careful about outbursts of ego and power struggles, especially if something isn’t going our way, we feel wronged or disrespected, or something isn’t being done as we want it to be done or as quickly as we want it to be done.
* With Venus and the Sun both hitting trines to Jupiter, whatever ego disappointment, bitterness, anger, or emotional complexities we might be facing, it’s important to remain patient with ourselves and with our negative emotions (or those of others). They will pass, and we will become the benefactors of our patience.
* In this day and age, it is popular to believe that forgiveness is weak or passive. We feel that to be forgiving is to be condoning of bad behavior, or that to forgive someone means that you implicitly approve of their behavior, even our own. Because we believe our moral principles make us righteous, and to compromise in any way on those principles makes us weak, forgiveness is frequently attacked as a form of passivity or even compliance. But actually, real forgiveness does not mean condoning. We can’t forgive anyone, for anything, even ourselves, unless we have first recognized an offense. Offenses and forgiveness always go hand in hand, just as much as offenses and warfare go hand in hand. So, if we try to eliminate forgiveness, real and regular forgiveness, from our vocabulary, our principles become hypersensitive targeting weapons rather than living guidance systems in service to the heart and soul. It is the forgiveness we display within ourselves, for ourselves, for others, and for the world, that strengthens our principles, making them both strong and flexible at once, just as trees are both firm and flexible, hard and yet constantly swaying in the social streams of the wind.
* Why mention forgiveness? Because with the first quarter Moon in Scorpio opposing Uranus, and its ruler Mars burning up in Leo, it might be tempting for us to feel offended, or disrespected. But as soon as we close our white-knuckled fists around our right or need to be offended, or to retaliate, we are closing down the posture most needed to receive the blessings flowing through, the blessings that such offenses always provide us with when we open our hearts to whatever has offended us, choosing to see the hand of divinity at work, rather than “an offender” alone. Seeing an offender, alone, then we are also alone, while when we choose to forgive it’s because we have seen more than an offense at work. We’ve chosen to see the hand of divinity as a more compelling, a more beautiful force, than merely the branding mark of an offense or an offender.
* Our principles are like stones, constantly being soothed and smoothed by time. The quality of time, which is how we experience our lives, changes when we forgive because we have allowed ourselves to be changed in relation to whatever we have now freely chosen to endure. Being a good person is not the point. Being a real person is. The only reality in us is the reality of love, and…. as we know: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then shall I know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-13).
Prayer: teach me to be courageously patient, forgiving, and loving.
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