The Rowan tree celebrates the festival of Imbolc (Ground Hog’s Day, Candlemass Day) and offers us the protection of her pentacle on each berry. The birds are grateful for these berries, and feed on them until spring comes with new food.
The full Moon in Leo is the opportunity to feel our own creative power, balanced with the needs and creativity of the community (Aquarius Sun). This particular full Moon is in the company of Jupiter, who expands the already generous and creative energy of the Leo Moon. This warms and stimulates the cool, airy Sun and retrograde Mercury in Aquarius. Traditionally, Sun in Aquarius is considered diminished because he is opposite the Sun’s home sign, Leo. And, for us in the Northern Hemisphere, his rays are feeble during Aquarian days in January and February. Yet when Aquarian Sun and Leo Moon face one another, as they will this Tuesday there is an excitement and growing sense of light and heat returning! Aquarius Sun/Leo Moon dazzles with new ideas, innovation. Jupiter with the Moon and Mercury with the Sun increase the desire to communicate in a generous way.
This year the Rowan full Moon takes place during the celebration of Imbolc, one of the most important holidays in the Druid’s calendar. This is a celebration of the goddess Bride, midwife, healer, poet and smith. It is a holiday dedicated to feminine energy, but on a very wide spectrum. Perhaps, since this celebration takes place during the time Aquarius, a masculine, but androgynous sign, we can better understand ‘the feminine’ as a symbol of humanity.
Dorothy McLean, one of the founders of Findhorn speaks for the Snowdrop in her Seeds of Inspiration:
I am glad that you have to contact, mfor although my forces here are tenuous, the contact is one that I am glad to renew……A tender regard from humans means much in our worlds.
Imbolc means ewe’s milk. At this time lambs are born in the dark barn of winter. The Snowdrop pushes her way through the snow to celebrate this turning point in the year, when we at last begin to collect daylight with later sunsets and earlier sunrise. Imbolc is the chance to give thanks for a glimpse of faraway spring, it’s Groundhog Day, and winter is on the way out the door.
Here’s my Imbolc poem!
Imbolc
The Full Moon is buried in our lungs,
she breathes with us. Our heart’s in a hurry
to keep up with the passage of sweet air
as it fills and empties from the magic chest
held within, the holy ghost, the spirit place
the toolbox, the home sweet home.
The White Lady draws nigh,
evening comes later. Feel her
breath as she approaches,
leaves muddy footprints in the new snow,
and promises that someday, one day
spring will be here, hot, with chill overtones.
Soundless, she is the moss under crystal,
treasure of February glass on small ponds,
a bird of early arrival, the fox,
as he leaves his lair to venture forth
on a cold morning with breakfast
in mind after long hunger.
Uranus in Aries makes a fiery trine to the Moon and a helpful sextile to the Sun. He continues to square Pluto and we continue to feel the déjà vu of issues fought out in the late sixties when these two were in conjunction. Mars and Chiron are sextile to Pluto and Ceres and they form a Yod to the Moon-Jupiter combination. A Yod is a finger of energy focused upon a point in the chart where we might overlook the significance of a planet(s) placement. This Yod furthers the powerful drive towards a shift in consciousness, which must occur in each of us if we are to imagine, and then manifest, beyond dualism towards unity. . The challenge of this time is in Rumi’s famous quote: ‘Out beyond ideas of wrong and right, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.’
Leo rules the heart and the spine, love and courage, Aquarius, the ankles and the circulation system, support and movement within. Aquarius moves our perceptions beyond gender, race or nationality. As we enter the ‘Age of Aquarius,’ which lasts around two thousand years, we see a deep shift from the duality of two sexes to a spectrum view of male and female. Our culture’s change of view on gay, lesbian and trans gender realities is a reflection of this. Leo gives the joyful experience of self-acceptance and full expression. We are about to experience our own creativity as it intertwines with the larger Aquarius/Leo experience.
This is a very old lunar calendar. But a newer version, the 2015 Lunar Calendar is still available at www.thelunapress.com
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.
Sarah Fuhro Star-Flower Alchemy 