Lunar Month August/September 2011

:: 30 July '11 New Moon 7° Leo

New Moon in Leo: it is the right time to touch base with our creative needs. The next 28 days can be used to process, metabolize and integrate in our life this new impulse. It is a phase in which we can feel the need to attract attention, to be at the center of attention, to feel reassured. In reality, we don’t need to create big dramas: the best way to get the attention we need is to shine in what we do—this will put us in the situation of being a natural leader in the house in which the lunation occurs in our chart.

The lunation is in trine with Uranus in Aries, underlining the urge to express our individual identity through creative and transformative acts. But these acts should not be only informed by ideology, abstract principles and dogmatic attitudes, other wise we will project an image of rigidity and intransigency that will provoke a subsequent defensive responses. So we need to be in touch with the human factor, as the axis Leo-Aquarius suggests we need to see through ideology in order to be in contact with our soul and heart.

:: Axis Leo / Aquarius

The New Moon quincunxes both Neptune and Pluto and occupies the apex of a sharp triangle, called Yod, a very instable and dynamic configuration, requiring constant adjustment in order to be constructive. The quincunx, 150-degree aspect, stays between the square—symbol of a crisis, of growth, and the opposition, image of direct confrontation.

:: Yod

With this in mind we can look at Venus-Moon-Sun quincunx with Pluto as mirroring of our challenges in finding a way to relate with power, and with people in position of power with a different attitude in order to affirm our values. While the Venus-Moon-Sun quincunx with Neptune requires progressive adjustment to what concerns our vision of reality, our approach to attracting in our life what we love and value most. It requires adjustment and adaptation in the houses of our personal life in which we tend to daydream or romanticize, to escape the inner pressure of discontent, instead of using this same resource for finding new solutions.

The lunation squares Jupiter in Taurus, and because Jupiter is in trine with Pluto, the lunation is intensely charged with immense potentiality; overdoing can be risky, and can aggravate the situation. The good news is that this planetary configuration is also a symbol of an abundance of resources we can tap and utilize to support and manifest our creativity, joy and enthusiasm for what we are doing.

Mars in Gemini and Mercury in Virgo work on fine-tuning our ability to communicate what we feel we need. The energy of Mars in Gemini can be hectic and instable, but Mercury in Virgo suggests us to slow down, pay attention to small details, and analyze our thinking process, to understand better our reasoning patterns.

:: Mercury

Mercury on the 1° of Virgo will start to retrograde —moving apparently backward—from the 3rd of August until the 26th, but will be back on the same degree only on the 10th of September. In these weeks caution will be the best attitude to life, in order to avoid minor annoyances and disruption. Try to get the best from this situation of a relative loss of control, and be very aware of sidetracks, coincidences and casual encounters with people re-emerging from your past.  From the 12th of September Mercury will trine Pluto and Jupiter, creating a grand trine in signs of earth, that will unlock material resources, transformative potential, mental and conceptual ability, to learn and to communicate.

Saturn in Libra with no aspects to any of the other planets, point out the importance of autonomy and independence of judgment. “The guardian of the threshold” as Saturn is often called, is in Libra, his sign of exaltation, and represents the balance we need when we look at others and ourselves with the intention of evaluating actions or choices. Libra is the sign connected to the arts and to aesthetics, to our taste for beauty: Venus rules Libra and Taurus making a difference between material values—for example the value we give to art—and moral values—for example the meaning we give to art.

The contemporary art scene is a pyrotechnic display of media; the vocabulary of art has never been so rich of expressive possibilities. The Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo defines our age as “technocratic nihilism” and he mentions that this is evident in the world of contemporary art. Post-modernity distances itself from modernity in reference to one of the dominant ideals: especially that of progress, overcoming the critical and, in the arts, the avant-garde. But is it really so?  The global economy is able to turn everything it touches into a product empty of its essence. The titular work of art in Walter Benjamin’s essay The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction is really losing its value and appeal. There is an interesting blog on this subject here:  http://www.artasiapacific.com/Blog/BookBlogMultiplicity

:: W. Benjamin - Book cover

When we talk about value, what do we mean? Venus is the planet of love and by extension of value, the value we give to and what or whom we love and desire. This lunation—when Venus conjuncts the new Moon and quincunxes Pluto—provides us an opportunity to think about the art of power and the power of art. Is art still capable of conveying a transformative charge, or is it overpowered by bureaucracy, manipulated by money, and distorted by the need to please museum donors?

:: W.Bouguereau Nascita di Venere

Venus also quincunxes Neptune and Chiron, the creative response required by this aspect concerns the abundance of imaginary values in our society and culture that is causing confusion. How can we establish the essential values for our lives, the society, our culture and us? There is a need to revaluate the imagination by accepting the pain of disillusionment that teaches us to see beyond.

Not so long ago, with the new moon in Aries of April and Uranus having just entered this fiery sign, the ignition for change was potent and travelled worldwide. The new Moon in Taurus gave substance to strife for change, the new Moon in Gemini disseminated this concretized idea of change, and last month new Moon in Cancer showed the critical issues of fear and insecurity that this growing need for change is creating, while we try to find new ways to bring the necessary order for our life, our economy, our public institutions.

July’s New Moon in Cancer was about the need to emerge form entrapments we had been living in, old structures of consciousness, personal and collective dogmas that perpetuate stagnation. This process has taught us that before casting aside our protective old habits, we need to learn to trust our inner compass, and have faith in the subtle currents flowing in the depth of our subconscious.

The guiding image of the New Moon in Leo is one of personal engagement with creative acts, inspired by a deep contact with the emotional realm. Leo can be manipulative and controlling, and supportive of the dogmas of society by using its dramatizing ability to divert attention from real problems and, most importantly, from the real aim of its own actions. But this is not the time of following dictators and gurus: we need to live in the freedom of our own choices and recognize the importance of becoming self-empowered and awakened, with wide-open eyes.

The New Moon in Leo is a time to discover our inner source of infinite “solar energy”: to learn to be independent and self-sustaining by the fruits derived from the expression of our creative potential.

Let the Sun shine in….
  :: Hair : www.youtube.com/watch?v=klObyJY1W_I

Monica "sky"

Lunar Month July/August 2011

The Sun/Moon interplay starts this new cycle in sensitive Cancer, the first of the water signs,
connected with the constant fluid movement of our emotions. This lunar month sees the New Moon
in 9 degrees Cancer completing the missing angle of a grand square, a powerful configuration of planets
in the cardinal sign that has been in place since 2008.

The New Moon squares Uranus in Aries and Saturn in Libra opposing each other. The Moon also opposes
Pluto in Capricorn, slowly moving through the sign in 13 years, representing a time of radical deconstruction,
of a collapse of all weak, obsolete and corrupt structures. Together with Uranus, Saturn and Pluto, the Moon
forms a Grand Square (see fig.). This is the moment when the shovel turns the turf to bring to light new nutrients
to fertilize the fresh beginning heralded by Uranus in Aries.

From the perspective of the Moon in Cancer, the grand square appears to be imparting an intense energy to the
Sun/Moon conjunction, occurring briefly in Cancer, a delicate area in the zodiac, as the Moon quickly passes
through the first decade (the first 10 degrees) of the sign. The emotional charge is very high, on these days.
We can all feel it, but it is not easy to express, there are no words, everything is about feelings. This configuration r
epresents the end of the gestation period of something that wants to emerge in the collective psyche.

Cancer—representing the tenacity of attachments to people, memories, places, emotions—is that place in the zodiac
in which it is hard to let go and move on to a new situation. Since Cancer represents family, tradition, belonging
to a tribe, a community, a nation, it is very territorial. Therefore, Cancer is bound to what we consider to be our roots,
the source of all the energy that pushes us forward in life, that make us confident that we will grow strong and that we
will be able to fulfil our aims, and realize our deepest aspirations.
To get the picture we must see Cancer as complemented by the sign Capricorn, which signifies the opposite of roots—
branches, one’s place in the society, career and achievements, the two are a dynamic duo, in constant flow from
winter solstice to summer solstice, from the minimum of light to the brightness of the summer.

The New Moon is facing all this, like all of us are facing something similar in our lives—feelings alternating between
expectation and anxiety. This situation has been protracting for quite a while, but we are now at the climax. Saturn,

retrograde since January, is now moving direct, getting definitively out of the opposition with Uranus, the dies are
cast, from now on the two will move separate ways, at different rhythms.

Saturn directs mirrors to those aspects of our collective and personal lives in which we will feel as if an obstacle has
been removed, an inner obstacle that has been preventing us from making impulsive, impatient, rushed choices.
Now, while Saturn regains terrain reaching back in mid-September, to the place where it started to retrograde
at 17 degrees Libra, there is still time to confront any intractable problem, decision or a situation, with no more
confusion and hesitation, but hopefully with wiser attitude and wider perspective.

From now on things will start to happen, to be on the move, not necessary in an easier way but it will be clearer,
more consistent and manifest. Relationships that are proving to be inadequate to our needs in any field of
life—friendship, marriage, work—will break down and/or be reshaped and formed in new, deeper and more meaningful ways.
All this is in order to give space to the New that is emerging, which needs the right conditions and an adequate structure
to manifest itself through.

The lunation in Cancer is also a Solar Eclipse, and this in a way is a double new beginning. Both the Sun and the
Moon are passing through a phase of darkness and regeneration, which enables them to become the symbolic recipients
of a new stage of integration and growth of all our projects, with the Moon bringing nourishment to all facets of the
zodiac in the next 28 days.
The receptive, feminine sign of Cancer will be highly empowered. And in synchronicity something similar will
also be likely to be happening in our psyche: we will start to value more the imaginative, sensitive part of our self.
For example, in the face of an external threat, there will be an inner response determined to protect and to
consolidate the seeds of change.

This is likely to be about one’s roots and about a potential uprooting of oneself from home and family,
ceasing to cling to the old, familiar and exclusive; and embracing the new and the inclusive. From now on all that is decaying,
and connected to an old worldview, will slowly give way to the new—but not without a period of deep introspection,
experimentation with new formulas, rules and ideas on how we can live on this planet, as well as lead our personal
lives in a state of constant of flux.

In the art world this is mirrored by the many artists who are working on the subject of identity, belonging,
gender and cultural integration, in a world in which all kinds of boundaries are becoming extremely fluid, challenging
individualism, nations and cultures.
 Transitions are not easy, unsettling and require an inner adaptability, an awareness and a respect for others, in the making
of a new sense of identity, not bound to places, races or religions, but to a deeper and larger concept of consciousness.
“I use art to awaken consciences,” says Ingrid Mwangi an Afro-German artist from Kenya who in her very intense
performances seems to be looking for ways of communicating in a new language.

Sometimes the performance becomes one nearly neurotic episode, as if she was on the verge of becoming another person.
“Born in a society, where hope deteriorates into fear … part of what I am and what I do involves my partner, my children,
my mother, every person whom I depend on. Instead of self-indulgence this is rather an exercise of inclusion…[and]
because it is performed with our two bodies, mine and [my husband] Robert’s, [it] becomes [both] social and human,”
says Mwangi.

To reinforce this idea she and her husband now perform as one artist, calling themselves IngridMwangiRobertHutter.
Her statements contains all the elements of this Cancer New Moon as part of the cardinal grand cross: the family tree,
caught between the inclusive Saturn in Libra and Uranus encouraging collective growth, and facing Pluto reflecting
the perception of  “hope deteriorat[ing] into fear”.

This sensitive spiritual vision imbued with the desire of transcending individual narcissism brings us back to the lunation
chart that mirrors this praiseworthy intent: Sun and Moon trine Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, to reflect the dialogue
between the collective waters of the unconscious and the individual emotional field. There is the need and the opportunity
for all of us to heal old generational wounds and to recognize that at a deeper level our roots are all running in a common
ground.

Because this new Moon in Cancer is completing the Grand Square, we can see it is also as reflecting an important stabilizing
element in our lives, because it is only when we are connected to our guts, and not overwhelmed by feeling, yet aware
of our fundamental needs, that we can nourish and receive nourishment, love and respect. The lunation is at 9 degrees
Cancer and will touch different areas in our personal charts, this is where we can expect to find more emotional stability
to be more confident; to not to over identify with collective anxiety; and make the choices and changes that are needed
in that area of life described by the house the New Moon falls in. 

The sextile of Jupiter from Taurus is a symbol of confidence in the natural resource that each one of us can count on to get
on with his or her life and expect to find the emotional nourishment we need to live a fulfilling life. This can all feel very
naïve in the face of the dreadful situation the world is facing, but it is crucial not to become cynical and disillusioned,
fanatic and obsessed, or lose oneself in ideology and delusional visions.

The mirror in the sky above us is offering a map we can use to navigate this harsh reality, well grounded, with open eyes
and open hearts.

Monica "sky"

Lunar Month June/July 2011

This new moon in Gemini brings movement, trade and communication. The seeds of change have sprouted and growing strong by the day, thanks to the perseverance with which they were nurtured during the preceding Moon cycle that started in Taurus.

The world is experiencing a period of long-needed deconstruction—whatever area of our life this might be impacting, the proper course of action now is to be alert to news and ideas coming one’s way. In case you have news or ideas for others, now is the time to give them a voice, to disseminate and communicate them. In the coming weeks all types of media will be indispensable. Seek the company of stimulating people. Be flexible, adaptable, spontaneous, and let us remember to think with our own head.

Mercury rules Gemini. In Greek mythology Mercury is the winged messenger, Hermes, the god who wears a winged hat, symbol of the agility of the mind. The energy of Gemini will be an excellent ally now that we need to introduce lightness to complete the daunting task at hand, by the force of thought, irony, and intelligence.

“Beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.” – Comte de Lautréamont

We need surrealism in these times in which reality confronts us with increasingly unsettling situations. We need to tap into the inventive richness of the Surreal. We need to transcend the limiting perspective of what is or is not possible; not in a spirit of transgression for its own sake, but to allow room for answers never thought of before.

Surreal beauty, comes from finding two real objects, real, existing, that have nothing in common, together in a place equally alien to both. This situation generates an unexpected vision that gives us the idea of a different order of reality. In this sense, mobile and versatile, mercurial intelligence has the resources to walk between worlds, with an added child-like innocence, to precipitate new ideas and different perspectives.

The chart of the lunation, sees the Aries boost still highly concentrated, with Uranus at the beginning of the sign and Jupiter about to leave it, while Venus, Mars and Mercury in Taurus, are firmly anchored in concrete values, practical action and deliberation before action.  On our ability to use the data we will collect during this period, will depend the opportunity to combine them in new creative ways—experiment with new connections and invent new responses to old situations.

Saturn in Libra forms a trine with the New Moon, a supportive aspect that brings concreteness, balance and caution, continues to counterbalance the impetuous urge for change. Saturn’s function is of great importance, his conservative spirit prefers to stick to the tried-and-tested, and he is seldom wrong. Uranus, often very radical, impersonal and ideological, does not care much about the single individual and his or hers practical needs or limitations. Saturn as a defence system must protect individual priorities, and address the major Uranian transpersonal force, so that it can be constructive.

In the classical mythological images, Mercury/Hermes also wears shoes with wings as a symbol of his great mobility that takes him along numerous roads and across many borders. Mercury alone, among all the immortal gods, can enter into the darkness of the Underworld; only he can cross the threshold of Hades, where Pluto reigns, and then return to the world of the living. This aspect of the mind, is recognized in psychology as an ability of the mind to dip into the subconscious.

We will need these introspective skills. New Moon in Gemini forms a Quincunx, 150°angle, with Pluto in Capricorn, a very unstable aspect that requires creativity to resolve things constructively. It is not easy to relate the hard, ragged ground of Capricorn, shaken by Pluto conjuring up fearful, dark scenarios, and the Sun and Moon in Gemini forming a dynamic sign, all underlining a mutability in the air, where life is best faced with lightness and irony. More crucial is the need and the ability to downplay our anxieties and fears that we need most at this time.

Jupiter sextile Neptune puts us in touch with our feelings and expands our sensibilities, while the square of Neptune to Mercury greatly increases our ability for abstract thinking and can inspire our words. This Neptune-Mercury contact is very powerful, so it is important to find the right balance, and to avoid disappointment and disillusionment. The tension of the square, is a necessary challenge to learn to distinguish between reality and illusion, and give the right space to imagination.

With this New Moon there will be a Partial Solar Eclipse, the darkening of the luminaries of both the outer and inner light, in which we will have to find courage to tread new paths. It is the dark moment of transition and Mercury will be the guide of our souls that takes us beyond the boundaries. It is he who governs this eclipse of the Sun in Gemini, this new beginning, whose cornerstone is the renewal of ways of thinking, communicating, interpreting reality.

Mercury’s ability to transcend boundaries is akin to the ability of the mind to think freely; thinking can take us very far. Although this seems impractical, in reality it will be exactly the same mercurial intelligence that will, with it inventiveness, help us to implement ideas that seem so far from reality.

In this period, ideas will get hitched to innovative thinking. If we were stuck in a mode of expression that is obsolete, trapped in eternal contradictory, lost in blind alleys, or any rut into which our Taurean obstinacy had kept us, now is the time to get out. How? Say, for instance, through irony, the ability to be self-mocking. Jokes are sometimes so destabilizing that they can create an unstoppable shockwave capable of sweeping away all resistance. Finally, let’s not forget the innocent comment of a mercurial child that revealed to the people, mesmerized by the powerful king, the manipulator of minds, “The emperor has no clothes.”

The potential of this period, in which the Moon will pass from sign to sign dispensing her nourishment of awareness, depends on how well we can integrate all this in our lives. That in turn depends on in which house of one’s birth chart, the sign of Gemini is in. Let’s take note when we begin to be restless and be easily distracted, because these are the litmus tests of a conflict, deep inside. It’s up to us to investigate, paying attention to the things that irritate us, that trigger our impatience or boredom. It could to be because we cannot communicate, or because we do not see any way out of a situation, or we are angry, frustrated because they do not listen to us, or we do not know how to listen.

These are all valuable lessons that can help us overcome internal tensions and to blend in better. Listening to the inner voice is something we often think we should to do; this is definitely the time to try to listen to it now.

Monica "sky"

Lunar Month May/June 2011

New Moon in Taurus

The New Moon in Taurus on 3rd of May, is a time for concrete and practical activity, time for dealing with the material dimension of life. The challenge of a new beginning is to keep the fire going, and this lunation sows the seed of a cycle focused on giving concrete material support to what has just started to manifest in the previous cycle in Aries.

The sequence of the zodiacal signs is mirroring the unfolding of all natural growth processes; each lunation sees the Moon travelling across all signs, in 28 days, spreading a new impulse, so that all perspectives will be taken into consideration, metabolized and hopefully integrated in our worldview.

With a stellium of planets in Aries still in place (Uranus-Venus-Mercury-Mars-Jupiter), the atmosphere is charged with impatience, restlessness and high expectations. If we are the agents of this wave of change, and for the adjustments that need to be made, it is necessary for us to find the means to support this process: the frame of mind, the perseverance and determination to endure. If, on the contrary, we are unwillingly involved and/or pushed by external situations, to make the necessary adjustments, it is necessary for us to deal matter-of factly with reality; playing a victim in this case will not help but only delay inevitable decisions.

In the art world, Saturn in Libra in opposition to Venus in Aries can be seen reflected in the many episodes of intolerance towards artists that, as we can see, are becoming more violent and frequent. In periods of transition toward a new worldview, artists get a whiff of the new order more keenly and earlier than others, because their sensitive spirits resonate and seek eagerly to explore new ways, long before the actual need emerges. New paradigms manifest themselves in art, literature, poetry, much before philosophy and politics start to get a grip on them: the resultant creative growth is a natural response to a deeper need that is often hard to articulate, and not merely an intellectual construct. Art is the humus, the rich nourishment for the spirit in search of cathartic images, manifest expressions of a new aesthetic ethic.

Ai Wei Wei
Chinese artist / architect / social commentator
arrested a month ago,and disappeared since then.

                                  http://www.artasiapacific.com/Magazine/73/LoveTheFuture

That is the reason why artists are often at the center of revolutionary movements, at least at their beginning, and they are perceived and depicted by the status quo as dangerous, and their art is seen as deviant and destructive. With Saturn in Libra, the ruling aesthetic norm is “beautiful, good, and true”: Venus in Aries, on the other hand, spurs art and artists to actively challenge this aesthetic, not just with their visually challenging, works.

Tenzing Rigdol’s Bollywood Buddha 
"Beyond the Mandala" harshly contested show in Mumbai -
protestors tried to remove Rigdol’s painting from the wall with an intention to destroy it.

                                   http://www.artasiapacific.com/News/LostInTranslationAlmost

In this phase, we feel pulled in two directions: on the one side, fear and desire to control the situation grips us, and this leads to new rules against the existing aesthetic order in an attempt to contain it; on the other side, we become anxious and impatient to solve the problems as soon as possible, in order to get back to “normal.” But even if in our personal life we are prone to misperceptions, delusions or confusion, the phase brings major changes that cannot be controlled or ignored. We need to understand that it doesn’t matter how far these upheavals will affect us, as long as we know that we are in their thrall.

The great instability we experience, also means great opportunities, but only when we allow the transformation to go deep inside and shake our core thought structures and old habits, we will be left high and dry. Without the transformation that accompanies them, these opportunities will bring little satisfaction and only a great feeling of unsettledness.

How difficult will the transition be depends how and when we will start, and how long we take to at last acknowledge and address issues regarding our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life. That’s why it is important to increase the awareness of the global situation in which we are living and wake up to our responsibility to our world and to ourselves to be able to realize fully our nature, talents, ideas, and dreams. What we need is to be open, flexible, and accept the necessity of making major changes in our life.

The need for practical adjustment in the chart is shown by the quincunxes of the New Moon with Saturn. It is an angular relation of 150° degree, different from an opposition (180°), or a trine (120°), because it is connecting two signs that are not so compatible in terms of elements: Taurus/Earth and Libra/Air. Materialistic pragmatism versus ethical diplomacy, fact versus dialogue: there is little space for communication if we don’t dig deeper and find a possible common ground.

Quincunxes are aspects that can represent unpredictable outcomes, because a creative approach is needed in order to express their energy. Earth and Air have different qualities, but if we consider that it is “the empty vessel which makes the greatest sound,” with matter and space having a very important connection that we need to recognize in order to appreciate and take full advantage of this natural creative relation.

Venus rules both Taurus and Libra, signs connected by this quincunx, and transiting in Aries, Venus is picking up elements that can be useful bridging the gap between ideals and practical actions. In our lives, this means that we can solve the contradictions between practical aspects of living and our ideals by learning to travel light, find a model of essentiality, a Zen quality, in a sense.

This communion between something beautiful and something real, authentic and connected with the “material” aspect of life occurred in the 1930s with the emergence of the Bauhaus; in the 1960s in Warhol’s Factory. Nowadays, artists are engaged in raising social and ecological issues, using their visibility to give voice to collective issues, and exploring new creative kind of connections between art and economy.

Pluto-Saturn-Uranus T-square is still active in the chart, with Pluto representing a kind of cellular disaggregation and purification, necessary to reach the deeper strata of the crystallized structures in society as well as in our psyche, in order to reach new humus and allow transformative renewal.

The Czech philosopher Z. Bauman defines “liquid society” as the one we live in made of networks that constantly fluctuate. It is important to develop new ideas and new model-images of what today could be considered as “stability.” We need to find a good balance between fullness and emptiness, to be practical but leave an open space for different types of content. To maintain a connection to the earth allows movement and growth.

Neptune, now in Pisces, makes no major aspects to other planets, beside the large sextile with Pluto that is in place since the 1960s. Its move from Aquarius to Pisces is an important transition, even if it is not accompanied by a big press. The elusive planet that rules collective trends, art, imagination and spirituality, is back in his own sign after travelling the zodiac for more than 160 years and it is now shifting focus.

The social network

From the Aquarian area of innovative science and technology, once considered a source of solutions to all human problems, with the expansion of social networks and virtual friends, salvation will soon assume another face. The need for a state of fusion and empathic connection will be expressed in different ways, but first possibly there will be a sort of disillusionment, a sense of emotional dissatisfaction: we have already started to feel the first “symptoms.”

In our personal life, the passage of the New Moon from Aries to Taurus, suggests that there is now a need to give solid foundation to those dimensions of life in which the spark of a new idea gives you hope and enthusiasm … or an unexpected offer generates a sudden change that pushes you in a new territory. We can feel excited and hopeful, scared and insecure, or a bit of both, because the tension between the desire for “freedom” and the need of “security” is still present, but the phase we are entering will contribute, with all the concrete elements, towards a careful evaluation of the pros and cons.

On the 1st of June the cycle will start again with the Sun and the Moon in communicative Gemini, but this of course is another story….

Monica "sky"