I asked two of my favorite writers, astrologers, thinkers and hearts to comment on this dark moon and this is what they told me:
Hurray-Or How I Am Not Afraid That The Masquerade Is Over
by Laurence Joseph Jones
To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that’s political, in its most profound way. – June Jordan
I stood in the shower midday Sunday thinking “it’s almost over.” The past 5 months (astrologically) have me feeling like this Pontiac “Car Of The Year” ad from 1968. Trust, I’ve taken quite a few blows from quite a few different folks. Meanwhile I know all well that I’m not allowing the façade to break. In reality underneath that fiberglass artifice I have, often interpreted as durability and strength, I’d rather just break, make an insurance claim and go get fixed.
I know I’m not the only one that has taken a crowbar to the face lately, either. We’ve all been engineered by this society to be strong to the point of fossilizing ourselves. There’s nothing more important (if you look around and absorb all the corrupt messages) than putting your best face forward, day after day. That turns into week after week, through months; years add up until it becomes who you are. Who cares about the structural damage that underlies this myth about how to best portray yourself and protect yourself?
There’s many ways that the sky has rattled us around against our neatly constructed selves over the past few weeks. There’s so many neat little ways society has allowed us to craft visions of perfection that we really can’t live up to. One of my tools came up in conversation with my mother in a sideways fashion that I didn’t acknowledge in the moment. There’s a tendency I’ve inherited, that my nearly 75 year old Grandfather does, she does, and I do when things aren’t going right. We retreat. We cut ourselves off from the imperfect world and find sanctuary in insular worlds (that have perfect hardwood floors). Little known Black Gemini facts (it’s a bit eerie how all of our charts reflect each others), but I digress.
I know, in retreat, I open up more questions for those around me than I answer for myself internally. If I want that “insurance claim” to work, I really need to be open to the questions of how I was broken, what actual damage happened, and what really needs to be done to get it fixed. There’s a big question about how much it’ll cost to get it fixed, and how much of a deductible do I have to come out of pocket with.
So here I sit, halfway in retreat, halfway surveying the damage of bumping into the world. I look to this coming eclipse, with loads of Sun-Mercury-Moon solidity in the ever-loving comforting embodiments of Taurus. In this shifting of light I see the opportunities to start answering the questions of how to say what I need, what I want, what will sustain me moving forward. My hope is that, after the shattering (or recognizing the damage underneath your perfection) over the last few months, is that you can love yourself enough to do the same. Perfection, façade is so overrated. Accolades of accomplishment for one feat are fleeting. And if you’re a full embodiment of a Pontiac GTO, you have so many more delicious talents to share than just a pretty face.
Blessings for planting in your garden beautiful seeds of truth and healing; may they sprout new soul food to nourish you in the days ahead.
What better seeds to plant than musings, wishes and hopes in the fertile soil under an Eclipse? More musings from Laurence Jones to come in the next few months as he starts breathing in and letting his words live in the astrology of the moment. Meanwhile you can catch his photography, music blogging and other musings on non-astrological items here.
Blood From A Stone
By Diego Basdeo
I believe in the choice to not heal wounds. Open sores, serrated skin, and blunt force trauma are memories that are endowed with blood. Trauma can be the visual, metaphorical, and emotional ground for the source of our survival to be witnessed. I believe in repression and whatever promise of fractured will it brings. I believe in choosing to ignore potential, in denying progress, and in becoming stagnant. I believe in all these things both as choices and non-choices. I want to believe that life goes on without having to swallow a million bitter pills or battling your shadow every time Saturn bats an eye. This might sound strange for an astrologer and skeptic to say but I have to tell it from the heart.
Just before the infamous grand cross went exact the moon was eclipsed in Libra with an Aries sun, we were told to start breaking down old patterns, get in touch with what you love to do, and prioritize our desire. Then comes the grand cross, which can have as many manifestations as there are people on this earth, but generally speaking is a call to action. That action can be reframing problems, accepting challenges, seeking out or seizing new opportunities, or simply surviving. Now comes this magnanimous Taurus solar eclipse whom, according to some, is here to bring us a sympathetic shoulder to cry on and nap with. I simply MUST beg to differ. Dear Taureans, thank you for the lifetimes of invaluable service, the hard work, and incredibly sweet and steadfast dedication. But today, my sweet Taurus, I want to thank you for your stubbornness. Just as exploration, a bold heart, and a quick and courageous hand are vital to survival, so are stability, stillness, and security. Aries, in this survivalist metaphor, is the hunter-gatherer, a keen eye for new things on the horizon, a taste for unfamiliarity, high energy and a lust for adrenaline. Taurus is the earth worker, the agriculturalist. If Aries is associated with anger, Taurus is then the transmutation of that anger into pure will. Processing feelings and internalizing experience takes a LOT of work and requires placidity to take on the tempest of incongruent experience.
The tragic wisdom of Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart” is within the premise that time seldom goes backwards and that love will tear us apart, again, and again and again. In this depth of irreversible heartache she expresses the complex feeling of beholding memory in the wound of a broken heart and the impossible future without it. Through this song of her desire against the impassable forward of time, by brilliantly framing it as unbreaking, she is pushing against the gravity of passing time on the precipice of surrender. During the solar eclipses around 4000 years ago the ancient Chinese exercised this same emotional process by making as much noise as possible to scare off the demon that was eating their sun. It could appear an exercise in futility, but on an emotional and perhaps subconscious level it is doing serious work. These songs, the shouts, the ritual and simultaneous knowledge that there are times in life where we have no control over happens/has happened are expressions of our very humanity. If there was any sympathy that this eclipsed new moon in Taurus has to offer it is the connection with the senses and the integration of our consciousness.
In the wake of great change we witness our own attachments to our wounds and our behavior when they are threatened. The lunar Aries/Libra eclipse on the 15th had Neptune (addiction/transcendence), Venus(relationships/self-worth), and Chiron (the wounded healer) conjunct charging Chiron’s trine with Saturn in Scorpio. One of Taurus’ many gifts is that the bull endures due to its ability to take in pleasure and abundance. While Taureans might not be the first to slap the salve on their wounds, we can be aware that the wound exists and find its purpose in our lives through art. As we pause and feel that ancestral call to look up at the sky and ward off bad omens I hope that we can understand the importance of change to our sense of security as a way of receiving emotional intelligence. We may not be able to unbreak our hearts but we can mend them. If you’re too damn tired and those wounds stay open and fresh use this steadfast energy to be in-between inevitable surrender and forever fighting for healing with the undying hope that you may breathe again.
Diego Basdeo bathes in rose water and lavender tonight. He offers no “should” or “ought”. He wishes you well in pleasure or pain. You can find him and his project “Dude, Where’s My Chiron” at https://www.facebook.com/dudeandchiron. He offers sliding scale natal chart readings and is based in the ever green Portland Oregon.