Tag Archives: self-awareness

Making Your Moves: Leo Full Moon and Eclipse

By Amanda Painter

We’re entering the home stretch of the current eclipse season: on Monday, Jan. 21 (Jan. 20 in some time zones), we’ll get the Leo Full Moon and a total lunar eclipse. This occurs one day after the Sun enters Aquarius — which happens at 3:59 am EST (8:59:25 UTC) on Jan. 20.

Lunar eclipse between the statues of Hera and Apollo in Athens, Greece, July 27, 2018. Photo by Aris Messins

Lunar eclipse between the statues of Hera and Apollo in Athens, Greece, on July 27, 2018. Monday’s event will be visible from North and South America, Europe and western Africa. Central and eastern Africa and Asia will see a partial eclipse of the Moon. Photo by Aris Messins

So there will be a shift in tone accompanying this event — fitting enough, given the way modern astrology views eclipses as times for releasing what has run its course and for moving into a new pattern or toward a new phase of development.

This is also the last eclipse on the Leo-Aquarius axis for the time being. In whatever way it relates to the eclipses of this past summer for you, there may be a sense of closing a chapter or springboarding into new territory.

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They Can’t Shut Down the Cosmos

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By Amanda Painter

We’re not quite at the midpoint between eclipses — that occurs Jan. 14 with the first quarter Moon. How are you doing with ‘looking where you want to be’? Are you feeling drawn to continue clearing out some space, or to initiate a project, or to dive into something? Are you feeling optimistic or frustrated (or something else entirely)?

M100, known as a ‘grand design’ galaxy, is 56 million light-years away, and is similar to our Milky Way. Studies of variable stars in M100 have played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe. Photo by NASA / ESA / Hubble.

I ask simply as a prompt for some reflection and self-assessment; a way of taking a barometric reading on your inner and outer environment. With all the major sign-ruling planets in direct motion — and therefore not ‘forcing’ introspection — it occurred to me these questions might be useful.

Did you watch Pres. Trump’s Oval Office address Tuesday night? I confess I did not, trusting that I could read all about it afterwards if needed, without subjecting myself to his toxic projections in real time. It’s challenging enough being surrounded by its effects as they ripple through the collective. But in researching some of the current astrological aspects, it occurred to me just how reflective his speech and government-by-tantrum are of the astrology.

The first aspect to really speak to me of this is tomorrow’s Sun-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn. Now, on the level of your own personal life, you may experience this as another wave of deep cleaning and space clearing related to the recent eclipse — particularly regarding how you express or present yourself to the world. Or it could come through as the drive to get beneath the surface of something. Or perhaps as the need to repair a thing or situation that’s broken and needs radical changes to be able to continue.

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Approaching the Capricorn New Moon and Eclipse

A 12-step (+1) Process for Personal Involvement and Conscious Evolution

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By Steve Guettermann

Unlike some “12-step programs,” these steps¹ have no particular order. Rather, they work in tandem and harmony. Often the opportunity to demonstrate or experience these proven ways for a more magical life simply comes along. All we have to do is recognize it.

Ridge Waterfall; photo by Anne Rockhold.

Over time, though, through reflection, intent and practice, these ways become part of our modus operandi, our preferred way to be, and can lead to a more refined and intuitive life, replacing a reactive, or insensitive, style that undermines personal evolution and right relationship.

None of these steps is likely to surprise you, but putting them together may conveniently help you put them together in life. Although more can be said about each step, specific “sub-steps” are woven within most major ones. The article is not meant to be all-inclusive, but simply a contemplative primer for self-discovery and adaptation.

With that said, I’d like to offer this caveat. I mention “allies,” forces and beneficent energies a few times. This implies we live in an animated Universe with seen and unseen beings we can attract for mutually beneficial relationships. My experiences tell me these are present and nothing to fear or avoid. Your experiences may tell you something else.

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Getting Ready to Get Going

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By Amanda Painter

Even though the calendar page will turn to a new year in a few days, the astrological year still has most of a season left to it. Yet the sense of one thing ending and something new beginning is still strong — and there is some major astrology on its way to support that sensation, even if the timing is not exact.

Photo by Amanda Painter

For one thing, Uranus will station direct on Jan. 6. This means that ALL the sign-ruling planets will be in direct motion for a spell — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (the Sun and Moon are never retrograde).

If that doesn’t sound like a cosmic green light to finally move important projects forward, I’m not sure what does. I don’t know about you, but after the continual feeling of limbo I experienced with this year’s inner-planet retrogrades, I’m really looking forward to a phase of momentum and traction, even if it’s brief.

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A Full-Moon Pholus on the Solstice

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By Amanda Painter

As you likely already know, late tomorrow the Sun enters Capricorn for the solstice. The next day, we get a potent-looking Cancer Full Moon. So we’re about to enter a moment of (possibly) heightened emotions, layered on top of cultural holiday busy-ness, layered on top of a seasonal point of contraction and interiority, all nestled into the personal-is-political Aries Point — with a twist.

Photo by Amanda Painter

These are days to keep a finger on the pulse of how you’re feeling.

What catches your attention as a possible synchronicity or as having meaning, and what (or who) starts to trigger your reactivity? Are you going along with the crowd because it’s expected or you’ve ‘always done this’, or is a small, inner voice whispering something about needing to spend a little time differently this year?

To help you get your bearings, here’s the timing of the main astro events: on Friday, Dec. 21, the Sun enters Capricorn at 5:23 pm EST (22:22:37 UTC), immediately making a conjunction to the centaur Pholus (technically exact the next day). That’s the “twist” I mentioned, and I’ll come back to it in a moment.

At 11:28 am EST (16:27:54 UTC) on Saturday, Dec. 22, the Moon ingresses Cancer. Then, just over an hour later at 12:48 pm EST (17:48:29 UTC), the Cancer Moon and Capricorn Sun oppose each other.

With a Full Moon in the very first degree of Cancer, we’re ringing the bell of the Aries Point pretty strongly (the Aries Point is the first degree of Aries, which resonates with the first degree of all the cardinal signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra and Cap). I know many people don’t pay as much attention to the news on the weekends, though with social media interaction it still may enter your awareness. Even so, you might want to pay attention to it over the next few days.

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Things to Do When It’s 3:00 pm All Day

A Mercury Station, a New Moon, and You Are Enough

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By Amanda Painter

Often misworded, the quotation “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are” is also overwhelmingly misattributed to Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy did not come up with it; he quotes it in his autobiography, and attributes it to one Squire Bill Widener of Widener’s Valley, Virginia). Be that as it may, it struck me as perhaps a useful mantra for the current astrology as we head into the weekend. With Mercury stationing direct today, a New Moon in Sagittarius tomorrow, and various other planets interacting with those two events, you might be feeling a mix of push-pull on the one hand, and a lull in energy on the other hand.

Rocking chairs at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

If that’s the case, I suspect it would be useful to stay in touch with your actual circumstances, resources and honest desires. I’m not only referring to the seeming ‘limitations’ of What Is, but also to something that you may sometimes push aside or not believe: your inherent enough-ness; that is, the fact that you are enough, as you are right now.

But, I get ahead of myself. Let’s go over the astrology in a little more detail.

As mentioned, Mercury stations direct in late Scorpio today at 4:22 pm EST (21:21:59 UTC). I don’t know about you, but the last few weeks (most of which Mercury spent in Sagittarius) seem to have been marked by a number of interesting things coming to light — both in the public/political realm, and also in my personal life.

Given that Scorpio is the sign of secrets (among other things), I’m very curious to witness what shakes out as it stations direct today. See if you can keep your awareness tuned to that sense of something being revealed, and make a note of what you discover.

Tomorrow, at 2:20 am EST (7:20:15 UTC), the Sagittarius Moon and Sun form their conjunction for the month, for the New Moon. They do so conjunct a deep-space phenomenon called the Great Attractor (you can read more about that here) and square Mars and Neptune in Pisces.

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