From centerstage to backstage: New moon in Virgo

Ripened fruit upon the vine

Your sleeves are rolled up

The vision is distant

Blurred in its edges

But vast and deep

This dream draws you in

And you are ready

Invigorated and charming

You the discerning one

With the quiet flame

When the wax melts

And the metal tarnishes

You will exhale

Into softer intestines

As rules or delays

Bump into your plans

So perfect the vine

That births the fruit

Even after you weave

Vine into flexible rope

The shadows of decay will

Nip at its junctions

Consuming its strength

And dissolving its function

so what does remain?

gaze at the shadows cast by your proud and waving flag: new moon-solar eclipse in Leo

As creator of ‘nataleo.com’ I’d be remiss not to publish an article about the giant, important, awe-and-fear-inspiring, so-called “Great American Solar Eclipse” that is happening in the late degrees of Leo on Monday, wouldn’t I?

SO MUCH has been written on it, by vague, new-age-y astrologers and excellent, critical, well-researched astrologers and everyone in between. It can be overwhelming to try and contribute something interesting, unique, and fresh.

I don’t wish to repeat what others have said so well, and there are so many layers to this moment in time.

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Rhymes for the New Moon in Cancer

from high skies to fitful streams

sipping on placental dreams

 

though our eyes & minds may agree

our fallen warrior is moist & moody

 

to feel warm and safe and surely held

supports paths on which we are compelled

 

a threat makes our eyes pop wide

do we lash out or run and hide

 

protecting that which we hold dear

turning away from what we fear

 

a sweet, supported new beginning

injected with desires of winning

 

today's lunation in the crab's sign

impresses value on what is mine

 

be wary as we crawl this moon

enough abounds for all to bloom

Queen of Heaven Dances Through Her Lover's Castle

Venus is a glimmering diamond in our skies and her beautiful, cyclical dance with the Sun, as seen from our perspective on Earth, inspired ancient people to dub her with such lovely titles as Queen of Heaven. The ancients watched Venus alternate between her visible and invisible phases, when she regally shines in the night sky, she is Hesperos, when she dares to grace the morning skies before the Sun, she is Lucifer (bringer of light), and when her glimmer is absent from our skies, she visits her dark sister, Ereshkigal, in the Underworld.

Unlike the erratic and less predictable cycle of her cosmic lover Mars, Venus’ dance with the Sun creates a 584-day cycle as measured from one conjunction -when Venus is aligned with the Sun - to the next. During her inferior conjunctions, Venus is directly in between the Earth and the Sun and during her superior conjunctions, Venus is directly behind the Sun from Earth’s vantage point. She alternates between being invisible - when she’s in front of (60 days) or behind the Sun (7-8 days) because the Sun’s glare blots out her sparkle - and visibly shining in the night skies (260 days) or morning skies (260 days).

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Pisces Promises: Renewal In The Dark

For people who follow tropical astrological or solstice-equinox-type of calendars (ie. people in Iran), the spring equinox on March 21st heralds the new year, so by those systems, we are now in the deep dark of the end, where everything dissolves and unwinds and dies to make way for the new.

I love the dark moon chaos stillness so much that I can find the dark moon everywhere: the end of every lunation (every 28 days); the end of the Gregorian year; the end of the Chinese year; the end of each project; the onset of blood time…

With every new life form there exists death and decay.

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