Timely Decisions: Aligning Ourselves for Eclipse Season
New Moon in Gemini | June 13, 2018
22 degrees | 12:43pm PST
In the realm of Gemini, we stand in the face of polarity. We encounter information that stretches us and requires meaningful adaptation, or otherwise, regression. While late Gemini has information swarming around us, this particular lunation has no major aspects from other planets and therefore allows more flexibility in interpreting the information. Many masks will be available for the choosing, but our task is to hone in on the central axis of personal truth, and to make aligned decisions that resonate with that center, for the dragons of Eclipse Season are warming themselves up, preparing to take us into a protracted period of three eclipses...
So, alignment. We can easily understand the value of centering ourselves, but there are a number of celestial events that make the meaning of “alignment” and "center" less than transparent at this time. By the time the Moon renews itself on Wednesday we are well into the preamble of Mars’ 48-day Retrograde that begins on June 26. The red warrior entered his shadow phase on May 12, and since then, momentum has slowed down and somewhat dazed our desire nature. What we want deep down is not entirely clear.
This Retrograde will have ramifications for all projects borne of creative self-assertion, and wants us to remain committed, but to modify the time frame of our expectations. More than anything, it wants us to create the time and space required to get centered.
Don’t be afraid if you find yourself backing off from more evident types of expansion in favor of internal mediation. The encroaching lunar cycle is one in which we’ll be asked to begin going back and reworking existing passion projects. Luck will favor the act of revising the frameworks of these projects much more palpably than it would favor the act of pushing manifest expansion.
Mars conjunct South Node
While the exact conjunction was June 7 - 9, Mars is still very close to the South Node at the time of the New Moon. As Luna renews, there is also a strong call to cleanse the inner warrior before Mars' coming Retrograde cycle. While Mars’ Retrograde occurs during Mar’s opposition to the Sun, this is when Mars is closes to the Earth. Such a perspective offers us new insights on the nature of our baser motivations, our anger and our primal desires. It’s as though the warrior comes home, and requires ritual cleansing from the psychological detritus picked up on the battle field.
For when we fight for a cause, no matter how gentle the cause, we come away with traumas. Mars’ encounter with the South Node wants attention given to those traumas so that the binding energy can be cleared in preparation for his Retrograde and for the Eclipse Season beginning in July. Alternatively, if we go into the Retrograde without seeing, surrendering to, and co-creating with the reality of our internal experience, we may find ourselves responding compulsively to traumas in the heat of Eclipse Season, rather than with all due mindfulness.
It is crucial to take care of the internal landscape now, because the cleansing/purging quality to Mars on the South Node will only intensify as Eclipse Season wakes up, and there will be plenty of battles to fight where your personal sense of alignment is concerned. Mercury sextile Uranus during this New Moon makes it particularly possible to drop old masks, but remember that when we clear space, we need to fill it with something intentional. As you discard behaviors that create profitless noise, incorporate new behaviors that refresh your capacity to make mindful decisions.
Venus ingress into Leo | 2:54pm
Just a couple of hours after the New Moon, Venus will enter Leo. Here the planet of beauty and connection becomes youthful, creative. After her slow, steady wading through Cancer's waters, she prefers warmth, dynamism, and amusement in these fields. From the protective mother archetype of Venus in Cancer, we find ourselves with Venus in Leo’s seductress of all things, opening up the potential for new creative works and a desire to be seen for them.
This further complicates the cooling-off and cleansing effect of Mars on the South Node in Aquarius. While still only a Whole Sign opposition, this marks the beginning of the Venus-Mars opposition that will culminate on the Summer Solstice. The Mars-Venus opposition presents a very palpable conflict in our desire nature, so back to the Gemini New Moon’s call to make aligned decisions –this aspect brings in a substantial amount of discord...
How then to find the right move? When in doubt, lean toward structural, behind-the-scenes work. Make space for yourself to clear the weeds from your garden and see what seeds from the year’s beginning have put down the strongest roots. Get clear on long-term goals and commit to a sustainable method of working toward them. In the next three months, short-term goals may fail to yield the sweeter fruits they often do. Cultivate your garden with the hardier plants that will keep through the winter.
New Moon blessings.