Willow Wand

                                        photo: Sarah Fuhro

 

 

When the wind sweeps

 

the basket of my body,

 

I feel each of the ribs,

 

once Willow’s wands,

 

which bent and swayed

 

near water, under Moon.

 

 

I know myself water,

 

tears and sparkling smiles,

 

laughter and shadow,

 

the form transformed,

 

pushed by the torrent

 

or held in the trickle.

 

 

Sarah Fuhro   May 22, 2015

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Scorpio Moon Beats the Drum for Beltane!

Is this a picture of protestors protecting police from protestors? Or is it protestors protecting protestors from police? Whatever happened on this street yesterday, it illustrates the high pulse of the full Moon. Perspective is everything, and each full Moon allows us to see things in two very different ways at the same time. The Sabian Symbol for this Scorpio Moon is a further illumination of this moment in time: ‘Telephone Linemen at Work/The need to establish new channels of communication.’ Are these men ‘Linemen’ at work?

photo: Bob Fuhro

The Full Moon in Scorpio falls at Beltane this year!  Beltane! the fire festival that cleanses our souls and releases spring energy of growth and joyful greeness aligns with the heartbeat of the dance between the Sun in Taurus and the Moon in Scorpio.  And,  like the Aries/ Libra full Moon of last month we have the opportunity to explore feminine (Venus) and masculine (Mars) energies as they swirl within and without. Are they pitted against one another,  or are they woven into our psyches and how we view the world?  The tradition of the Maypole dance to celebrate Beltane is a reminder  how intricate this process can be! Maypole dancing is a moving meditation on the spring energies, and the fertile mix of male and female. The dance around the Maypole involves the intricate pattern of the spiral, like the fiddlehead of a fern in the picture above.  The dancers weave in and out, up and down  with the ribbons from the pole which reaches up to the sky.  Having made a Maypole for my Druid Grove, I know how complicated this spring tradition of weaving and dancing can be. The picture below is of the woven ribbons around a Maypole when the dance is finshed.

photo and Maypole by Susan McNeil Spuhler

At this moment, when Sun and Moon watch each other across the zodiac, we are reminded that the earth, our mother, our home, our body celebrates spring (Beltane) and autumn (Scorpio) at the same time. Northern Hemisphere is full of the budding and opening of new life, while the Southern Hemisphere is releasing the seeds for the next spring as winter approaches. This particular full Moon on the Taurus/Scorpio axis falls close to the 15th degree of Taurus, the Fifth Day of May, the moment of Beltane fullness.

‘I married Isis on the fifth day of May

But I could not hold on to her very long

So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away

For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong.

I came to a high place of darkness and light

The dividing line ran through the center of town

I hitched up my pony to a post on the right

Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down.’

Bob Dylan, Isis, 1976

Beltane in the North is celebrated as the Pleiades rise at sunset. The Pleiades are a group of stars to be found in the constellation of Taurus, a decoration on the neck of the Bull.   This was the time cattle were moved to summer pastures, and new life was bursting into flower. Here are pictures of spring flowers (Blood Root) from my garden:

photo: Sarah Fuhro

and from the woods: (Trout Lilly) .

photo: Bob Fuhro

Meanwhile in the Southern Hemisphere the celebration of Samhain bids farewell to a year of growth and expansion, and begins a new cycle in the darkness of short days and harvest. The World is united in celebration of the beginning of summer and the beginning of winter.   Like this full Moon, we are also in the midst of the joys of Taurus and the sorrows of Scorpio.   Taurus is happy with stability and comfort and beauty. Scorpio demands truth and transformation. We swing back and forth between these two poles and at the full Moon we embrace them both!

photo: Virginia McEachern

 April’s flowers celebrate Beltane as we too flower At this moment of the full Moon, Jupiter makes an exact square to the Moon and Sun. Like an archer who uses the energy of both luminaries, Jupiter is ready to integrate the earth loving values of Taurus and Scorpio’s deep recognition of the Underworld. His Sabian Symbol for his position in Leo helps us to understand the potential in this moment of opposition and high manifestation:   ‘A Human Soul Seeking Opportunities for Outward Manifestation/ the yearning for self-actualization.‘   Could we ask for a more powerful voice of support than this!

Willow, for this is the Moon of Willow is a cauldron of ancient spells and healing medicine. She is both tender and fierce like this full Moon of Taurus and Scorpio, and like our hearts at springtime as they dance to the Beltane beat!

Sarah Fuhro

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.

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A New Moon in Willow’s Realm

New Moon, Old Sign

 

When I write about a new Moon, I am always in the dark of the old Moon. And instead of the high energy of the full Moon, we have to wait for several days to see the proof of a new birth in the sky as she sets at sundown.

Unlike the full Moon where we are on a journey of greater and greater manifestation and integration, the new Moon begins a new cycle, preceded by the finish of the old–there is a sense of hurry, the light is fading. But to continue the complexity of the last few Moons, this one is in the last few degrees of the sign of Aries. The Moon will begin anew linked to the final days of the Sun in spring’s fiery initiation.

 Like all new things, the new Moon is born from darkness.   Here in New England we have experienced a winter like no other with unending cold and storms.   The earth has been sealed shut under layers of snow. What will emerge, what plants and animals survived is still a mystery.

That most ancient of plants, the skunk cabbage is definitely up and out, unfolding in a spiral deeply rooted in dark swamps.

photo by Bob Fuhro

This new Moon of Saille, the Willow, celebrates water, the great transformer. The Willow belongs to the Moon, and grows close by or sometimes, knee deep in water.   Willow is an herbal remedy, which cools fevers, and heals the ravages of damp diseases. White Willow bark is lovely tea for achy joints from arthritis and rheumatism, or any kind of swelling. Aspirin is Salicylic acid taken from the word Saille, Willow, and originally made from the Willow herself. Willow (Saille) is associated with the feminine energies of the earth and sky. This is a good time to stop to listen and respect your intuition, your powers of divination and your connection to ancestral spirits.

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-620/h–/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/9/5/1378381407508/Gregory-Porter-011.jpg

Here is a beautiful tribute to Water from Gregory Porter: ‘Liquid Spirit’.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS6JV-veVAE.

Are we not alive in a time of water consciousness?   While the oceans fill with melting ice from both poles, many lands are turning to desert, and California, that paradise of fertility is now in crisis because water will not come when it is needed.  Water in solid form has stood three feet deep for months, holding back spring for my garden.

Moon and Sun meet at 28° Aries, and listen to the Sabian Symbol held at this degree:   ‘The Music of the Spheres … Attunement of Cosmic Order. The music of the Spheres is the celestial embodiment of principles of polyphonic interplay. The individual advancing ‘on the Path’ should seek to understand and realize his place in the vast scheme of mankind’s evolution, in the immense chord of the harmony of the universe… Listen to the inner voice.’ Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala.  

 http://www.crystalinks.com/dantespheres.jpg

 The chart of this poignant moment on April 18^th contains a powerful T-Square.  Venus, our lady of beauty and love, and Saturn, teacher and he who constricts spirit into material form are in opposition. This is a combination most artists know well. Venus is there to inspire, while Saturn demands the ceaseless work needed to make inspiration into form. Neptune and Vesta square them, like a bow pulled back to shoot an arrow at the Point of Fortune in the chart. Neptune is the universal form of Venus….Cosmic Music of the Spheres. And what about the virgin goddess Vesta, Hestia of the hearth? She is the companion of Neptune in this triangle of love and mutable potential. A triangle is a stable form. Take something wordless, universal, full of music (Neptune), pair it with the sweet surety of the inner voice (Vesta), and bring it into form (Saturn) as an act of love (Venus).   Take the tide of this new Moon where it wants to go!

 http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/04/a5/70/1e/pyramids-view-inn.jpg

 I want to share the poem which celebrates this April Moon of Saille in the 2015 Lunar Calendar ( http://www.thelunapress.com).

Message: New Moon in April

Are you awake yet

and has any voice, human,

feathered or furred,

whispered to you by this lightening hour

the secrets of a new moon in April?

 

I hope so

I hope twenty messages by sunset

have let you know

that you, there under the granite cliff & the silver oak,

are held close, held warm

-and that the hills thick with sage

and the bare boulders rising above you

hold you safe in their strength

and their mighty pleasure

 

Oh, may you know

that the grey dove in her thoughtful murmuring,

the red tail hawks tilting in the wet spring wind

and behind the rough bracken’s veil, the voices,

the mountain-full of rivulets

 

all flicker and beckon and sing, brimming

with love of you

 

And I would, this ordinary morning, a continent away,

add a cool splash

and a merry whistle, if you’re still asleep,

and have you wake laughing, surprised,

spilling over

 

– Diana Rowan ©2014

 

 

Sarah Fuhro 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 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Fuhro-Star-Flower-Alchemy-Astrology-Flower-Essences-and-Tarot/71299491502.

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