Nature Spirits at Work

This is what we can expect from the new Moon:  ‘Nature Spirits are seen at work in the light of sunset.’

                                                                                   

                                                painting: Amelia Royce Leonards

But what is the ‘work’ of Nature Spirits?   And how does the light of sunset make them visible to us?    This evening as I drove to a gathering, the Sun set in front of me, casting long fingers of light…..I thought about this symbol for the new Moon, and wondered what Nature Spirits might be at work in the patches of wood land that remain along my route.

The Asteroid Ceres (Demeter), our Mother the Earth is in a warm trine with the Moon and Sun in Aries.  Is the ‘work’ of nature spirits to dance in honor of the beauty of the this planet?   Is it to mend at twilight what has been disrupted and torn during the day?  As humans wringing our hands over the fate of our planet, have we forgotten there are other realms at work in the health of the earth?   

                                           painting: © Bruce Lhuillier

The symbol for the degree of Ceres is ‘The ground hog looking for his shadow on ground hog day.’   Ground Hog Day is Imbolc, February 2nd, the day of the goddess Bride, she who is healer, poet and black smith.  The memory of this long held sacred moment has been in the burrow of the groundhog, the bane of gardeners, and a very down to earth being, who rests all winter, and is ready to start spring on this sacred moment of Bride!    Now we are poised on the first new Moon after the Spring Equinox, to relive the miracle of rebirth in every aspect of our lives!

                          photo: Robert Fuhro

This morning I lit a candle to Bride with a special wish for a friend.  Friday morning, in rhythm with the new Moon and Ceres,  I will light the candle to ask that the earth might feel how my heart overflows with gratitude!

 

                                            photo: Sarah Fuhro

Something about dark and light, shadow and the last rays of sunset mingle here, at this moment of new Moon, new beginning.   Aries is the entry sign to the zodiac procession, the parade of animals which circle the earth.   Friday, as the Moon begins her new cycle with the Sun, and the fiery signs of Aries and Sagittarius set one theme for this moment, there is another element at play in this symphony of light and dark.   The theme is initiation.  Like the man in the Tarot card which represents the Sun and Moon’s degree, we face a challenge from which we cannot turn back.

The person in this card, has come through two steps in the process of growth and evolution.  Like him, all of us, at this precious moment of Sun/Moon/Earth Fire must make a decision about where we go next.  This card is considered a gate to ‘scrying.’   If you enter deep concentration, and look at the ships on the water, they begin to move on the waves.  Continue to focus on this card, and the man will turn to face you, and may offer help to understand your own initiation.

There is another aspect to this chart, this moment of new Moon, which has to do with looking at the past.  Saturn is in relationship to the Sun and Moon, and speaks from a place of the past (South Lunar Node) and deep intensity of concentrated power, Pluto.  Don’t be surprised if something or someone from your past reappears.  This combination of Sun/Moon/ Ceres and Saturn may give each of us a way to know that we too are ‘Nature Spirits  at work in the light of sunset.’  Dancing in the woods at twilight may be an act of great power to heal and mend our home.

                           Painting by Henri Matisse

How you know it’s spring.

photo: Sarah Fuhro

How you know it’s spring:

desire.  Desire for participation.

dance. Stepping quickly from

stone to stone at the brook.

demand. Knowing there is a question

which will soon be answered.

dumbness.  Sorting black and white

peas into separate bowls.

drama.  Hearing the phone ring

and letting it briiiing, briiing, bring.

Stone and Flower

For three nights, I lay on the desert to sleep, and watched the Moon as she grew larger, and more insistent.   She moved between Taurus, Cancer, and Leo and soon she will be in perfect opposition to the Sun!  The Great Bear rose and passed over head.  Mars waved and Orion watched over us.

Once again, the full Moon occurs at the very first moment of a new sign.   And this will also be the moment of the Spring Equinox, when light and dark will be in perfect balance.   Aries Sun is ruled by Mars, Libra by Venus.  We are given the task to blend Mars and Venus, male and female, Sun and Moon.  The desert is that balance between dry stone Aries, and blooming Libra this spring.

The full Moon is the culmination of the Moon’s journey each month, but at 0 degrees, it also feels as if this is a new beginning, a place to start over,  a moment of perfect balance between light and dark, and a place of rebirth.

                     photo: Sarah Fuhro

Everywhere we traveled, we were on the path with migrating butterflies.   They knew their route, even while we looked at maps and my phone.   The butterfly is a perfect balance between the sturdy traveler (Aries) and the delicate presence of beauty and vulnerability (Libra).

Strange to discover that the Sabian Symbol for the degree of this full Moon reflects the butterfly’s journey: ‘In a collection of perfect specimens of many biological forms, a butterfly displays the beauty of its wings.’

A trip to the desert is always a journey into stone and lively forms, but this trip was timed to the rare joy of blossoms everywhere!

                                      photo: Sarah Fuhro

How does it happen that the Moon speaks to us in so many ways which we, like the animals and plants all around us can only see when we are in darkness?   Yet we feel the fullness of emotion, excitement, pleasure as the Moon grows and fills the night sky, even though we have turned our back to the Moon’s light as a way to see our road ahead.

                                     photo: Bruce Lhuillier

The Sun is in close contact with Chiron…he who heals, but cannot heal himself.   What is it at this moment of the spring equinox, this time of the full Moon, which cries out for healing in your life, and on the sweet planet we call Earth? Take a moment to wander out under this miracle of light, the full Moon in Libra, and create a ritual of healing.   Even if the sky is filled with rain or clouds, the all seeing eye of the Moon will find you, and know that you are listening to her, watching for her time.

                                     photo: Sarah Fuhro

 

 

 

 

 

A Dream of the Earth

 

         painting: © Bruce Lhuillier Art

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

from Ozymandias  Percy Byssche Shelley

This new Moon has a strong Dream quality to it. Watch your dreams over the next few days, for Sun and Moon are nestled in the arms of Neptune, the planet who takes us into realms of vision, which we cannot enter with words alone. For this reason Neptune is associated with addiction to narcotics or alcohol, or psychedelics and, yet, this chimeric world is available with a simple turn of the head. Who will go there?   I  have Sun and Neptune permanently enmeshed in my chart, and delight in the journeys of dreams and visions, but I have learned to travel with care, Saturn and Jupiter at my side.  And this chart also demands structure and action not dreams alone.

painting: Louis-Edouard Fournier

When Neptune appeared on the horizon for astronomers and astrologers, (1846),  the ‘Age of Reason’ melted, and religious revivals and romantic poetry flourished. I love this painting by Fournier as the ultimate romantic image!  It is the funeral pyre of Shelley, the poet, who drowned in Neptune’s embrace.   His friends burned him on the beach where he died, his blackened heart (or maybe his liver)  cut  from his body and later given to his wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.  Percy Shelley drowned at 29, the age when Saturn returns to our natal  sign and degree, and gives most people a sense of structure and maturity.  But Shelley’s poetry was not meant for Saturn’s ‘maturity,’  It is about a part of us that is ‘timeless’ and immortal.

                         painting: © Bruce Lhuillier Art

 

So many planets are plugged into this new Moon, it is hard to know how to balance all their demands and contributions. It’s a complicated formula:  the desire to fall into vision or trance (Neptune, Sun and Moon in Pisces) with the demand that the message from another world be shared, and acted upon.  In the painting above, the Druid has become the Owl messenger of the Crystal Circle.  Mercury, the messenger is now in his last degree of the the Zodiac.  Like the Druid-Owl he is  ready  to speak of the experience he gained from his journey through all the degrees of all the signs, a journey he began on March 6, 2018, exactly a year ago today.    Saturn and Mars are in a trine of Earth signs. They bracket the Sun/Moon/Neptune dreams with patience (Saturn) , but a demand for action (Mars). This is a beautiful combination for an artist or a shamanic healer.

 

This might be a formula to awaken our world to the deep wounds we have inflicted upon the earth.  Chiron in his new sign of Aries, waits next to the messenger, Mercury.  Chiron in Aries has returned to the sign where he was at discovery in 1977.  This was a period of unashamed concern for the earth. Mercury is another planet involved in healing.  They are cheek and jowl in this chart.   Mercury in the last degree of Pisces and Chiron in the first degree of Aries,  bring an urgency to our consciousness.  Vesta, the planet of hearth and home is also with the Neptune/Sun/Moon.  She is there to remind us we are as much a part of this planet as the mountains and the trees.

                                               painting ©Bruce Lhuillier Art

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. For an appointment call 508 652 9880 or email her at sarahfuhro@gmail.com.  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.

 

 

Demon Wars

 

Many battles won or lost,

take place in moonlight,

when the big hoop

is caught in a tree top.

 

Tonight was my battle,

into the morning hour,

when birds mark location,

and speak of their intention.

 

These battles end in draw,

no end, no beginning.

No winner will be

announced to the world.

 

 

poetry: Sarah Fuhro

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Embraced by a Seal

 

                                         painting: Bruce Lhuillier

Virgo and Pisces are the healers of the Zodiac.  Maybe Virgo is the ‘doctor’, the diagnostician, the one who plans the course of healing.  Pisces seems to be the ‘nurse’, the one who provides compassionate care. Pisces is prominent in the charts of nurses, and Virgo with the charts of those who are the  primary healer.  At this full Moon,  they are both at zero degree, the gate, the entry to the signs.   As always they form an axis, which spans  the chart, creating a bridge between the two signs.  Lunar nodes in Virgo and Pisces are very common in healers, both allopathic and alternative.   I chose the painting of the megalith above, because there is an element of healing which can only be found in nature, and when I enter the woods and come face to face with a message as clear as this one, I know that healing will take place.  Dowsers say that megaliths marks underground water patterns, spirals, and turns in the current, places of healing for ancient people, and for us as well.

 

Chiron is also about to begin a journey into a new sign, Aries.   Chiron is the marker for an indelible wound in our life, a wound which can never be healed, but which provides us with the healing knowledge to help others.   Those born with Chiron in Aries (1968-1977 and 2018-2027)  treat their wounds with impatience.  They tend to shake off the pain they feel, much like warriors,  the sign of Aries.  1968-77 was a turbulent period, with very little adult attendance to the wounds of children born during this  time of  huge transitions.  Children born with this Chiron, had to take care of themselves and perhaps other children around them.  They are like combat medics, who learned they must quickly bind up wounds, and make choices about who can survive.

                               photo: Bruce Lhuillier

The Sabian Symbol for this degree of Chiron in Aries, is  mysterious:   A WOMAN JUST RISEN FROM THE SEA. A SEAL IS EMBRACING HER.  Impulse to be. Chiron occupies the degree which begins the journey of the zodiac, the degree of the Spring Equinox. In this powerful location he is entirely focused on the evolution of the planet’s consciousness.  Like the image above, we are part, fish, part beast, part winged creature.  We live in the waters of the unconscious, Pisces, and  struggle to analyze where we are and where we have come from, Virgo.

                                         photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Virgo is ‘ruled’ by Mercury, Hermes, he who is always moving about in our heads and swiftly travels with the Sun.  At this moment of the full Moon, Mercury is a close companion to Neptune, one of the rulers of Pisces.  Neptune pulls our rational impulse under water.  Here  we dream, experience visions,  and forget Virgo’s concerns.Hermes (Mercury) was the dream master of the ancient world.  Neptune is an entirely different psychopomp.  My dreams have been vivid and memorable over the last few days as this combination of Pisces/Virgo, Mercury/Neptune has moved into position.

photo: Sarah Fuhro

A few days ago I visited the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, and was fascinated with  strange brass  rings from Liberia, called Nitien.   Made by the Kru and Grebo people,  found in creeks, rivers and lagoons,  they are water spirits or ‘Gods of water’.  Nitien have the ability to stop wars, found villages, heal the sick and guarantee fertility. They are also able to catch people crossing streams. The Nitien live in the water but can be caught and brought into the village, where they serve as protector or guardians.  These rings represent this moment of time to me, this full Moon in Virgo.   We are caught up with the illness to our waters and seas.   Perhaps at this full Moon moment we can walk under the beams of the Virgo Moon/Pisces Sun axis to ask for the Nitien energy to heal us, to heal the waters and the seas of Pisces.  Chiron as he stands at the gate of Aries, offers us the potential of new forms of consciousness. On Tuesday, 19th of February,  take a moment to feel the ‘embrace of the seal.’

              photo: Robert Fuhro

 

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. For an appointment call 508 652 9880 or email her at sarahfuhro@gmail.com.  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.

 

 

The Excitement Mounts

                                            photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Monday’s new Moon  falls on the astrological degree of Imbolc, a festival  of light, which marks the half way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.  There is  a fiery combination of Uranus and Mars in Aries in this chart, which will wake up the earth for many of us this weekend and culminate at the new Moon on Monday.

photo: Sarah Fuhro

Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are all in their favorite constellations, and have tight relationships with each other and the new Moon.  The players in the sky are working together in a way that can inspire and encourage each of us to move through fear and into new realms of creative expression.  It’s an opportunity, to envision and take the first steps towards exploring new territory, a moment of optimism and courage, just like the green shoots coming from the dark and silent seed.

Imbolc celebrates the goddess Bride.  She is the Lady of healers and mid-wives, poets and artists,  and  black smiths and crafts folk.  A triskelion of talents is  available to each of us, if we trust in ourselves and her inspiration.  It’s traditional to light nineteen candles at Imbolc, the number of the Sun,  now returning to Northern lands.  Cleansing is also part of this season when Bride meets us between snow and mud, sunshine and winter storms.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

And then there is the trio of well placed planets: Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Each brings a gift to this new Moon, a triskelion of delicious energy.  Jupiter says: dream big, Saturn suggests work hard to make the dream into a material reality and Neptune takes the dream to the level of vision, something we might share with our community.  Like Bride, they come at this sweet moment of the year to bring gifts to the new Moon in the sign of Aquarius where humanity is ready to evolve.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

A theme of fiery intensity heats up this chart, and makes the triskelion into a twirling wheel of fire. It is  the fire of Aries, the chart ‘signature’ and the sign of Uranus and Mars who might be the kick start to our Jupiterian dream.   Or we can experience Uranus and Mars as anger and impatience.  Irritation will only increase the energy of Aries.    Eris, the Lady of discord is also in Aries, cheek and jowl with Mars.   If you feel chaotic instead of motivated and focused  this weekend, take a minute to converse with this energy.  To add to the intensity, Pluto who always knows what lies below the surface, is in a powerful square with the Aries players.   Expect a challenge, or learn how to call upon this vitality.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

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. For an appointment call 508 652 9880 or email her at sarahfuhro@gmail.com.  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.