New Land, New Moon

A few days before the new Moon, we see her rise as a wisp in the light of dawn.   Hard to catch her on a morning so close to the Summer Solstice when light begins early and stays late. Yet this is the new Moon in Cancer, the sign most associated with Moon, and the qualities of Moon: flux, cycles, emotions, the sea, security, family. Friday, the day of the new Moon, she rises in Massachusetts just before 5:00 am and is entirely lost in the brightness of her partner the Sun.   There is a way in which the new Moon in Cancer is a secondary Solstice.   It’s all about merging with a light much brighter than her own.   Yet she is luminary quite as important in astrology as the Sun.

                        photo: Bruce Lhuillier

The Sun has reached his highest point at the Solstice. We are filled with light and heat. Animals and plants celebrate.

                photo: Sarah Fuhro

Mercury is lost in this light, so he must speak in Moon language.   Perhaps he is the young prince in the Tarot card which represents Cancer. The Chariot is a good metaphor for the Moon who represents  constant movement and the passage of time.

The Sabian Symbol for the degree shared by Sun and Moon is a strange one for the gateway  of Sumer! Maybe it marks the Solstice moment with a reminder that we now enter six months of fading light. ‘ A man bundled in fur leads a shaggy deer. The need to overcome stagnation and cold during a test of endurance.’

While the season is lighthearted, the mood of this new Moon cycle is quite serious. Venus arrives in a degree of Taurus, which says the ‘test of endurance’ has been passed. She is ‘A new continent rising out of the ocean, A surge of new potential after the crisis. Spontaneity.’

photo: Robert Fuhro

Birth never comes out of nowhere. There is always a season of gestation. Will I be able to see and embrace what wants to be born in my life? Will you?

           photo: Robert Fuhro 

At the moment of the Solstice, the Moon occupies the same degree of Taurus where Venus stands to greet Sun and Moon. The power of the feminine reverberates throughout this chart, and Venus holds the reins.  But the feminine is always more difficult to see and comprehend. Her light is the Moon, not the bright Sun.

                                           Queen of the Night1800 and 1750 BCE Mesopotamia

Venus  is in a relationship with the lord of the Underworld, Pluto. She is the recipient of the rage and glee of Black Moon Lilith, she points to Jupiter in his sign of marriage and karma. She shakes the isolation of Vesta, queen of the hearth, and dances with Mars. She is indeed the new land arising from the water of mystery. She takes form in  those who have the power to see her.

                                                photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Neptune who rules the seas relates to Venus as well; the mystery of the boundless love, which holds all of creation. There is a song of gratitude held in this chart, the beginning of an awakened relationship between the distracted human mind and the unbending focus of the planet.

              photo: Robert Fuhro

 

Sarah Fuhro

sarahbeagl@aol.com

Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present.  To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

Alchemical full Moon in Sagittarius

 

        photo: Bruce Lhuillier

An Alchemical Full Moon in Sagittarius

 Here  is a story I heard yesterday. It was used by Jung to explain the synchronicity of our inner and outer being.

There was a great drought in the Chinese village where Jung’s friend lived.  For months there had not been a drop of rain and the situation became catastrophic.

Finally the local people said, ‘We will fetch the rain-maker.’ And from another province an old man appeared. The only thing he asked for was a quiet little house somewhere, and there he locked himself in for three days.   On the fourth day the clouds gathered and there was a great rain-storm, an unusual amount, and the town was so full of rumours about the wonderful rain-maker that Wilhelm went to ask the man how he did it. ‘They call you the rain-maker; will you tell me how you made the rain?’

‘I did not make the rain; I am not responsible.’

‘But what have you done these three days?’

‘Oh, I can explain that. I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order; they are not as they should be by the ordinance of heaven. Therefore the whole country is not in Tao, and I also am not in the natural order of things because I am in a disordered country.

So I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao and then naturally the rain came.’”

 

                          photo: Bruce Lhuillier

My soul, my planet.

The symbols for the degrees of this full Moon are earth shaking.   Is there indeed a planetary human mind, a human heart to listen?   Hear what was said of this moment when these images were divined (1920). The Moon, which will be full on Friday, carries this warning, a weary reality:

‘Pelicans menaced by the behavior and refuse of men seek safer areas for bringing up their young. The need for people concerned with the future to discover a new way of living and more wholesome surroundings.’ Pelicans symbolize the love of one generation for the next because in legend, they give of their own flesh and blood to feed their young. Human behavior has caused the extinction of innumerable species since these words were written, but now our own survival is on the line.

photo: Robert Fuhro

But everyone who reads this knows we are in a cataclysmic situation. What can be the balance to the horror we have created on our beautiful earth? How can we find our way out? The degree for the Sun in Gemini offers us a way beyond despair if we are willing to go deeper into consciousness. ‘A large Archaic volume. Contacting the all human planetary Mind underlying any cultural and personal mentality. Seed knowledge.’ If only there is some way in which we can access these ancient books of papyrus at the right moment!   How may be found through other clues in the chart for this full Moon. Each horoscope is a text for living in that moment of time. In this volume, perhaps it says: when we are in balance, the earth will be in balance as well!!

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

.Earth Mother, Demeter is at the same degree with the Sun. Is She the Planetary Mind? Does the medicine for a damaged planet lie in our mind’s connection to the earth? We have used our mind for the technology, which has so, ravaged our home, can we use the same mind to find the way to wholeness?  Gemini is about mental constructs, the mind.   The Moon offers the result of our constructs in the form of the animal and human refugees who scatter over the earth trying to find the Mother again.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

 

This chart also offers us a Venus newly arrived in Taurus. This is her happiest location!   She is like a bee amongst the Roses. For this five petaled flower is her special signature. Venus has five stations in her cycle through the sky. Those who live beneath the sky know this and trace her journey as a pentacle, as a rose, as an apple blossom! The Sabian Symbol for her degree: ‘The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! Riches that come from linking the earthly and the celestial nature.’

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Venus is in a perfect sextile with Mars, the life force of outward motion, just as she is the life force, which draws the world inward. Mars in the sign of Cancer has the Moon in him. He is sensitive, moody and tentative unless he is defending those he loves. Venus in Taurus and Mars in Cancer together create a recipe for feminine forcefulness and male passivity.

 photos: Bruce Lhuiller

 

In a love affair these roles are always in flux, because there has to be transformational energy at work when two people are brave enough to mix their elements, and this ever changing formula is fired in the furnace of Alchemy.   So it is in the sky with the planets who act out our dramas for us, and reflect it back to us on earth!

                                                          photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Sarah Fuhro 

sarahbeagl@aol.com 

Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present.  To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

A New Moon in Gemini…Taking Sides

                            photo: Mona Thaler

A New Moon is a time of great delicacy! An old Moon releases all she gathered during the last cycle, and rests in darkness, before joining the brilliant light of the Sun to begin anew! The last bit of crescent Moon rises at dawn and is lost in daylight. She does not belong to us, but to the process of her cycle!

                     photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Here the two luminaries, Sun and Moon peruse an ancient volume! Interesting that the Sun is a woman in this seal, the Moon is male. Are they Beatrice and Dante pouring over the Divine Comedy?   Dante had a Gemini Sun, and wrote a masterpiece of heaven and hell, which follows no orthodox doctrine of good or evil. And so it is with Gemini. Polarities are always of interest for this sign, which loves to follow the path of curiosity. Gemini enjoys trying out one side and then the other, bi-sexual energy.

But the chart of this new Moon suggests there may be a certain amount of danger in this playful attitude towards opposites. The Sabian Symbol for Sun and Moon as they begin a new cycle suggests the human desire for easy solutions, taken with no thought for those who are the target. ‘A revolutionary magazine asking for action.  The explosive tendency of repressed feelings and root emotions.’ Today three men arrested in Kansas planned to attack an apartment building of Somali refugees. Tonight nineteen people died from an explosion at a concert in Manchester. Where is the imagination to feel the pain of the ‘enemy.’

Astrologically this theme continues in the opposition between Ceres, the Earth Mother who is traveling with the Moon and Sun, and Black Moon Lilith, the rebellious first wife of Adam. These are two indicators of angry feminine energy poised on opposite sides of the chart. The energy of their anger is directed at each other. Frustration mounts until they become allies to solve mutual problems.

And what of Mars in Gemini? He makes a perfect sextile to Eris, Lady Chaos, in Aries, the logic of violence as a way to win an argument. Yet a Gemini Mars would rather make friends than win battles. He quickly loses sight of his own anger and is on to the next way he can release his abundant energy.

Saturn is opposite Mars, in Sagittarius, and in trine to Eris. This has potential for fundamentalist violence, cloaked in high minded beliefs. His Sabian Symbol: ‘A flag bearer in battle.’

                                  photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Sometimes it can feel as if the machine of anger and violence is already constructed and is always ready to spring into action.

                                photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Gemini is a mental sign ruled by Mercury. The mind wanders like the wind. It uses words to sooth and to give pain. Gemini rules the hands, so full of craft and cunning, compassion and harm.  Finally it must be something within us, which chooses to use the power of thought, and the works of our hands for kindness or cruelty.

                              photo: Bruce Lhuillier

In the days before the New Moon occurs on Thursday, May 25 at 3:44 pm, we could release the blind fury of anger, of the misunderstanding that arises from polarity.

“When we embrace anger and take good care of our anger, we obtain relief. We can look deeply into it and gain many insights.’   Thich Nhat Hanh   Anger: Wisdon for Cooling the Flames

Anger, the energy of Mars is one expression of the life force. It is the same energy we feel in creativity, enthusiasm, joy, the growth of the plants and animals around us in the spring.

                    photo: Sarah Fuhro

 

Sarah Fuhro             sarahfuhro@gmail.com

Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present.  To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

 

The Horned God: A Full Moon in Scorpio

                                                 photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Is it possible the three horned animals who parade around the zodiac each year are telling us something about light? about transformation? about horned gods?

The astrological year begins with Aries the Ram, at the moment of the Spring Equinox, moves with expanding daylight into Taurus the Bull and celebrates the return of the Sun to the Northern Hemisphere with Capricorn the Goat. There is a definite sense of horned light in this parade of the animals. The first horned beast, Aries the ram is sacred to the Sun and Mars. The second Taurus the Bull is sacred to Moon and Venus. Sun and Moon are the two ‘luminaries’ of the chart. The astrological year begins, as do our lives with the light of Father and Mother, Sun and Moon.

Taurus the Bull marks the celebration of the festival of Beltane. The Pleiades, the stellium which decorates the Bull’s neck make this constellation especially important to those who live under the sky. At the season of Taurus the Seven Sisters arise with the Sun. This was the beginning of the sailing season on the Mediterranean. In Northern countries, Taurus marks the arrival of the Green Man, bursting with greenery and light where green has been absent for the winter months!

                                                            Bruce Lhuillier

If you look at the picture on the krater below, you see the image of Taurus the Bull on the right, and a strange looking man? god? on the left.   The man or god has horns, and a light and a dark side. The decorations on one side are straight, on the other side wavy. Is he the dark and light side of the year, an ancestor, a shaman who can traverse dark and light places?

             Krater from Hala Sultan Tekke featuring a “horned god”, c. 1200 BCE.  Thank you: Catriona McDonald!

The strange horned figure on the krater, the Green Man, Pan, Satyrs, Cernunnos,  and Dionysius are all clues to the potential for radiance. These are creatures integrated into the natural world. Are the horns simply a way of saying that light streams from those who are connected to the spirit of the woods and their own wildness? And how is it that Christianity reflects back the image of Satan, the Devil, a horned angel with the desire to drag us into evil, even though he was once Lucifer, the light bringer?

                                                 photo: Bruce Lhuillier

This human embraces his horned companions. He knows his animal nature, and allows the natural rhythm of life to be his teacher.  We have lost a tradition of continued transformation beyond physical maturity.  The horned gods and godesses remind us of the potential for continued growth.

                                                 photo: Bruce Lhuillier

The satyrs wear the crescent of the Moon goddess.   The Moon in Taurus is in her ‘exaltation’. Animals with crescent horns are often considered sacred because they remind us of the Moon in her myriad forms.

                                        photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Scorpio Moon belongs to people who are intensely emotional; yet find it difficult to share their emotions.   There is often a lack of trust they will be understood.   They must learn over time how to communicate the intensity of their thoughts and feelings and not shut them down. A creative form must be found for this Moon sign to release the dark light of what it knows and feels. The Sabian Symbol for this full Moon gives a picture of the ‘inner freedom’ of an evolved Scorpion Moon. ‘Obeying his conscience, a soldier refuses to obey orders.’

                                       photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Each year at this time, Scorpio rises in full Moon to shine upon the beauty of the spring. This is a time of great sexual energy as animals start new families and plants blossom to invite pollinators. Taurus and Scorpio opposite one another in the wheel of the year are both involved in sexuality. Taurus is about fertility, birth and new life. Scorpio is about the power of sexuality to touch our emotional and spiritual centers.

                                      photo: Bruce Lhuillier

In the chart of this full Moon for Wednesday, it is Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld with his companion Juno, who celebrate both ends of the Taurus/Scorpio axis. The Sun visits Taurus at a season of peak fertility and life. Scorpio is the sign of change; sexuality, death, the transformation of the fields and woods, when the harvest is over; the hunt is on. Taurus is ruled by the Lady Venus, warrior Mars rules Scorpio.   These energies can be pitted against each other or they can combine to wholeness. Dark and light dance together

                                    photo: Robert Fuhro

Sarah Fuhro       sarahfuhro@gmail.com     Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present.  To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

Saille: ‘I am a Hawk on a Cliff ‘

New Moon in Taurus   April 26, 2017 8:15 am EDT

                             photo: Bruce Lhuillier

This is the New Moon of Saille, the Willow, a tree most sacred to the Moon. She drinks the sacred waters through her roots; she is wet and yet heals illness caused by too much water…arthritis, inflammation. It is from Willow bark that aspirin is derived. Baskets are made from the Willow, containers for food and for the dead. The Willow can take you to lands undiscovered, her connection to water and to dreams, is one reason she is both honored and feared.

         photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Dreams and visions belong to this tree and to the Moon, but especially the Moon in Saille. The Moon loves to be in the sign of Taurus, where she combines with the Earth and Venus to remind us of the lovely planet where we live.  Look deep into the Willow for wisdom from the cycles of the Moon, which are in a dance with the Sun. The lunar cycle is the twisting path around the straight road of the Sun.

                                    photo: Sarah Fuhro

It seems this tree, and this time of the year is also connected to the planet Mercury, because Saille is called the ‘Hawk on the Cliff.’ Hawk has a long connection to Mercury, and to King Arthur’s nephew: Gawain, or Gwalchmai, the ‘Hawk of May.’ This Moon embraces the fire festival of Beltane, May Eve, the mysteries of fertility and height of Spring energy. We have reduced Mercury to the rational, verbal side of the brain, and forgotten that he was also the magician, the messenger of the Sun. Mercury brings us dreams; he is ‘quicksilver,’ the trickster, the thief, the healer.

                        Bruce Lhuillier

The chart for the moment of the new lunar cycle on Wednesday has some powerful combinations of planets. While Sun and Moon are exploring new territory in green and sensual Taurus, old business in the realm of Aries and Pisces trails behind. The combination of Mercury, Uranus and Eris in the fiery sign of Aries, suggests aggression, and impulsive choices. Mercury and Uranus can be a combination for original and revolutionary ideas, but there is so much impatience in the mix that nothing much will come of it without patience. However, Saturn watches from another fiery sign, Sagittarius. His energy can turn the impulsive, aggressive energy of the Aries trio into formal belief systems for the future. Don’t be afraid to plant the seeds of ideas you have during this period in the earthy soil of Taurus, so they can become gifts for the future.

The Sabian Symbol for this new Moon gives further encouragement to our vision of future possibility. ‘The Woman of Samaria at the Ancestral Well. The meeting of the traditional past and the creative spirit point to the future.’ A New Quality of Being.This symbol refers to an important episode of the Christ story.

Early on, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at an ancient well. Samaritans were a group in conflict with the Jews, and she is not married. She lives on the fringe of her own society. But it is to this woman, that Jesus says: ‘I am He,’ (the Messiah). This is something he has not yet told his disciples, at least not in these words because they are not prepared for them. Jesus came to replace the old tribal order with a new order based on universal love. The woman of Samaria who was not of his tribe and who was not accepted as a full person in her own tribe could hear this message of evolutionary possibility.

The highest meets the lowest when the lowest is free from traditional bonds and open to love. The creative future descends first where order has become chaos. The old order is never open to new revelation until it has accepted disorder in the name of Love.

I have adapted this from Dane Rudhyar: An Astrological Mandala.

“So the question today is: ‘What is this beauty that can save the world?’

It is in us.

The beauty that will save the world is generosity, it’s sharing, it’s compassion. All these values we think of as outdated, and yet, where do they lead to?

They lead to a tremendous energy,
the energy of love: And without love, there can be none.”

trans. from a TED talk given by Pierre Rabhi, Algerian-French, organic farmer and specialist in reversing the process of desertification.

                                 photo: Sarah Fuhro

This new Taurus Moon in this fiery moment sets a challenge for us to take a step forward into a new season, a new season of the heart. So many others are ready to take that step. if we reach out we can feel their hands grasp ours in a great circle of courage.

Sarah Fuhro     Sarahfuhro@gmail.com        Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present.  To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

The Gatehouse and the Fountain A Full Moon in Libra

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

The Sun is in Aries, the Warrior King. The Sun likes to be in this sign of spring energy. He shines well from Aries, and it’s not surprising that this is the full Moon, which marks Easter and Passover, holidays of rebirth which take place after containment and suffering. The symbol for Aries is the Ram’s horns. This is a full Moon often associated with war as we have seen over the last days. We entered the war with Iraq (March 20, 2003) just as the Sun entered Aries at the time of the full Moon.   But that war energy can always be transformed into other more constructive forms of life energy, if we have the patience and consciousness.

The Sun is jostled and pressured by Eris and Uranus, or Chaos and Revolution. They are a potent combination for a shake up, both collective and personal. Like clay and bread dough, our Sun is everywhere being pummeled, kneaded, wedged into new shapes.

‘There is no place where those striving after consciousness could find absolute safety. Doubt and insecurity are indispensible components of a complete life.’ (Carl Jung)

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Like this much-weathered bit of wood, the forces at work on the Sun, and so our consciousness are many. Yet this is the basis for new life forms like the moss to flourish.

Uranus is not the only revolutionary in the chart of the full Moon. Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld, is in a square to this spring time Sun. He turns over the soil to expose what is buried beneath, because that is where his kingdom is located. Pluto doesn’t let us forget what we can’t see or would rather not see. Bugs and grubs are probably feasting on this log where it still has moisture and life. The waves and tides of what shaped the bones of a living tree remain in a beautiful design.

‘A complete life does not consist in a theoretical completeness, but in the fact that one accepts, without reservation, the particular fatal issue in which one finds oneself embedded, and that one tries to make sense of it or to create a cosmos from the chaotic mess into which one is born.’ (Carl Jung)

Photo: Robert Fuhro

Venus, traveling in reverse is feeling the power of Saturn. These two are often in conflict and many stories tell the repressive power of Saturn (patriarchy) upon Venus. Yet the signs of these two planets might tell of another story, perhaps the basis for Merlin and Nimue. Each taught the other their style of magic, which gave immortality to both.

Saturn in Sagittarius is the wise philosopher. Venus in Pisces so very close the Chiron the healer, might actually be an expression of love at a higher level of expression. Pisces and Sagittarius are in charge of universal love, a steadfast love that exists from one lifetime to another, but always in a different form.

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

This is the season when the Maiden, Persephone returns from Pluto’s kingdom in the Underworld.   Held captive by the Lord of Darkness, she is now Queen of the Dead, except when she returns to greet her mother the Earth.

Aphrodite   Sarah Fuhro

In the core of our apple,

we call the planet earth,

dwells the great polestar

of the underworld-

Lord of Change,

Transformer eternal,

Hades himself.

With each breath

he draws into his lungs

the Universe is born anew.

His trumpet voice penetrates

where justice has been forgotten.

Hades alone has the key

to every rusted lock.

Why then,

did Lady Aphrodite,

bright and beautiful

among all the gods,

so lightly appoint

dark scowling Hades

for the maiden,

Persephone–to be her

chosen spouse?

Whoever has walked

across a freshly plowed

field at twilight

and raised loving eyes

to see the crescent

Moon adorned

by the evening star,

you are entering

the drama which

has no beginning

and knows no end.

Once more the Maiden

returns pure and slender

to be gathered like wheat

in the brown arms

of her grieving mother.

Once more we are freed

from the dark shelter

of womb and grave,

because the Maiden has

risen to embrace and dance

upon the greening earth.

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

But what of this full Moon in Libra? She is more than a reflection of the beleaguered Sun in Aries. She watches with Jupiter from across the chart and across the sky. If the sky is clear they will be visible as they travel together the next few days.

Photo: Bruce Lhuiller

Jupiter like the Lady Venus is also in retrograde. He went retrograde in February opposite those two change agents, Uranus and Eris, who at this full Moon nestle up to the Aries Sun. Jupiter in Libra, ‘Cosmic Optimism’ for the besieged Aries Sun has kept some balance in a world of uncertainty. But now the Moon must hold that balance.

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

The Moon is the point of an astrological pattern called a Yod or Finger of God.   Creating the energy for this Yod are the Venus/Chiron combination and Mars and Demeter in Taurus. This powerful combination of Venus in conjunction with the healer, Chiron and Mars in partnership with the earth mother, has the potential for a very focused ritual of Earth love and healing.

Photo: Robert Fuhro

The Sabian Symbol for this lovely Libra Moon is: ‘A child giving birds a drink at a fountain.’

It seems like a perfect combination with the Symbol for the Sun in Aries: ‘The gate to the Garden of all fulfilled desires. Abundance made possible by human togetherness and cooperation. Cosmic optimism.’

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

With each turn of the cosmic sky we have the opportunity to enter a new gate, and discover new worlds of possibility!

Sarah Fuhro  sarahfuhro@gmail.com               Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present.  To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

Wind and a new Moon

Photo: Robert Fuhro

Have you noticed the March wind this week? Has it wrenched you to the bones, invaded your coat, and kept you tightly wrapped like these optimistic skunk cabbage spears? In New England we have tasted the gusty mood of the weather ever since the Sun entered the sign of Aries on Monday, the moment of the Spring Equinox. So it’s a lovely coincidence to look at some of the Sabian Symbols for prominent degrees in this chart and find the theme is Wind!

The Sabian Symbol for Sun and Moon in Aries: ‘A large woman’s hat with streamers blown by an East wind.’ The degree of placement for Uranus and Eris in Aries: ‘Blown inward by the wind, the curtains of an open window takes the shape of a cornucopia.’ What does the wind theme in this chart represent for each of us?

The wind is a sculptor of trees and water.   The wind is a musician who plays the harp of leaves and sand. The wind is a poet whose song fills us with terror or hope.

                                 Photo: Sarah Fuhro

Perhaps Chiron, the healer holds the clue to what the wind brings us. The degree of his Sabian Symbol: ‘Watching the very thin moon crescent appearing at sunset, different people realize that the time has come to go ahead with their different projects.’ Is the theme of this new Moon, Transformation?

                 photo: Robert Fuhro

This seems to be a new Moon reminding us we have the opportunity to begin again. The wind blows away the past. It is the voice of spirit to remind us we cannot see everything at work in a situation.  The life energy of Aries, the sign of the spring equinox says we can leave old failures behind.

The Aries Venus in this chart speaks romantically: ‘Two lovers strolling on a secluded walk. ‘

Through the communication of the degree of the Aries Mercury, we learn that the cornucopia of Uranus and Eris contains: ‘more gifts than we can hold’!

                                         Photo: Sarah Fuhro

Maybe we focus too much on the war-like energy of Aries and not enough on the courage, creativity and spring energy this constellation offers us. Here is the fire of Desire, which in the Western Mystery Tradition is the spark, which begins all manifestation. Venus, Moon, Sun, Eris, Uranus and Mercury are dancing to the Aries tune.

Wild Unknown Tarot Deck

The Wild Unknown Tarot deck illustrates this alternative view of Aries. The Emperor is the card associated with the sign of Aries. In this deck, The Emperor is a coniferous tree with an eclipsed Sun.   The Empress (Venus) is the consort of The Emperor. A deciduous tree and a waning crescent Moon represent her. Both luminaries (Sun and Moon) who light up our earth are in some way compromised in these cards.

The Tower represents Mars, the ruler of Aries. There is a special relationship between Mars and Venus at this moment of the new Moon. Venus is in the sign of Aries, ruled by Mars, and Mars is in the sign of Taurus ruled by Venus. This is called ‘mutual reception’ in astrological language. It is a form of integration between these two planets, between two polarities, male and female, Sun and Moon.   Whenever we find a way to marry contradictory energies, we have access to creativity, to greater understanding and insight.

                                   Photo: Robert Fuhro

The Green Man who sprouts green shoots from every orifice symbolizes this powerful green energy. He has no religious affinity with Christianity yet he appears in many old churches. His energy does not imply conquest, only fertility.

Next Monday evening, March 27 around 10:57 EDT, when the Moon is invisible in her dark chamber with the Sun, step out under the stars and remember Chiron’s promise to us:‘Watching the very thin moon crescent appearing at sunset, different people realize that the time has come to go ahead with their different projects.’ Three days after the New Moon, each of our visions will be ready to plant, and to grow with the waxing Moon. What plan do you have to plant in your Moon garden?   What will the Green Man bless for you this season of wind and fire?