There comes a day
when you realize
turning the page
is the best feeling
in the world,
because you realize
there is so much more
to the book
than the page
you are stuck on.
Taryn Malik
The Full Moon on October 17 at 24 Aries brings an intensity that spikes adrenaline and gets our blood flowing. We are ready to turn a page in our lives and be done with a particular narrative, thought pattern or habit, and feel the freedom to embark on a new course.
There is heat rising from deep within that we may feel as pressure or discomfort, anger or frustration, passion or a drive to take initiative. Strong emotions or reactions highlight areas ripe for healing and for shifts that can restore our inner balance.
We are encouraged to move: take a walk or run, go to the gym, chop wood, or clean out the car. Sitting on or repressing this energy can cause us to implode, have an accident or get sick. Mindlessly and impulsively expressing it can be destructive.
We are to be present to the intensity, befriend it, and identify with it as a healing fire. By welcoming and not pushing the discomfort away, we are to explore what triggers us. The healing and creative potential is then given permission to pave new openings and pathways within and before us.
The Aries Moon conjunct Eris and Chiron
Full Moon Ruler: Mars in a Cardinal Grand Square
Jupiter sextile the Moon and Chiron, and trine Sun
Venus at 29 Scorpio exact sextile to Pluto, oppose Uranus, trine Neptune
and
A Personal Update on Helene and the road to recovery in the NC Mountains
Full Moons are the peak moment of each lunar cycle when something in our life reaches a culmination point. The days leading up to the Full Moon bring increased momentum, activity and mounting pressure. At the Full Moon, emotions and tides run high. Something comes to a head, experienced as a crisis or breakthrough, and a desired resolution can be achieved. During the two weeks following the Full Moon, we are completing a month's journey and distilling the wisdom of the recent lunar cycle, so we are ready for the invitation that is presented with the next New Moon.
For those of us with planets between 22 and 29 degrees of a cardinal sign (Aries, Capricorn, Cancer, Libra), we are likely to feel the heat of this Full Moon more acutely, which increases the potential for a breakthrough in our healing or movement forward.
The house where 24 Aries resides in our natal chart will indicate the area of life where we are experiencing intensity and are ready for a big shift to take place.
Let the painful assist you.
Get intimate with
what hurts and bugs you.
Date your loneliness,
cuddle your grief,
dance with your anger,
cradle your shame.
Stop making such a virtue
out of comfort.
Stop expecting spiritual practice
to make you feel better.
Get intimate with discomfort,
without becoming
an ascetic or devotee
of diseased renunciation.
Robert Augustus Masters.
Playing with Fire
Moon, Chiron and Eris conjunct in Aries
The Moon is our emotional nature and how we look to feel nurtured. In Aries, we are inspired to be honest, courageous and proactive.
Eris is the Goddess of Discord. In Aries, she is willing to upset the status quo in order to right a wrong.
Chiron is the Wounded Healer. Chiron in Aries is healing confidence and self-trust.
Traveling together in Aries, they create a Healing and Creative fire that quickens our Fighting Spirit.
A Healing Fire
Aries is primal fire. It is subjective, personal and instinctive. The Moon in Aries is not given to reflection, but action. We are attuned to our individual and collective wounds (Moon conjunct Eris and Chiron) and have the initiative to meet the pain head on, recognizing that we are larger and more powerful than the hurt we hold. It is less about overcoming blocks, and more about having the willingness to encounter the blocks, to feel what emotions are held tight within them as a means to producing healing.
It is possible that deep fear, rage or grief is triggered. There is potential for re-traumatization, and an even greater potential to redirect and work with the triggers on our own terms. We can find a generative way to work with, acknowledge and be present to the intensity that surfaces. Powerful feelings may surface related to a past injustice or trauma. We can let the intensity of sensation move through us and release like a wave coming to break on the shore. In this process, we can strengthen our belief in ourselves and in our capacity to successfully encounter intensity and discomfort.
Aries is often associated with the feeling of Anger. Anger can help us recognize what is important to us, help us set clear boundaries, and give us the courage to defend ourselves when necessary. It is far more socially acceptable for men to express anger than women, which can be a mask for more vulnerable feelings like sadness and hurt, loss or powerlessness.
"Anger is like flowing water; there's nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats, paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human." ~ C. JoyBell
A Creative Fire
We are primed for a new beginning with a renewed strength of self to strike out in a new direction. Those of us who are artists may become inspired and absorbed in a new work of art. Others of us may be ready to take a stand for something. Those with an entrepreneurial spirit may take initiative to launch a new business or project.
A Fighting Spirit
We are ready to do something different. It is up to each of us to direct the fighting energy that is being catalyzed into the good fight, the fight worth giving ourselves to. We can fight for healing and the improvement of our wellbeing. We can fight to stand up for ourselves or for something we believe. We can have the strength of self to listen to our heart’s calling and fight for something we want to create in our life.
Victim/aggressor patterns lie at the heart of the Full Moon shadow. Strong reactions or feelings associated with trauma can be activated. It is up to each of us to redirect the impulse to cry victim or to strike out in a hurtful way to protect ourselves, or as a way to right a wrong. The Full Moon is very much about justice, but justice cannot be found if it is sought in an aggressive or rage-filled manner. Actions that reinforce an identification of oneself as a victim, or cause harm to another, is a misguided use of the Full Moon dynamic. Instead, by facing the deep fear that is triggered, we will discover that that fear has less power over us in the future.
How many of us each day
are trying to hold onto
something solid, when inside
it feels like its falling apart.
Act gently.
Use your words as words,
and not as swords,
because the last thing
we need is another battle
when we are already
at war with ourselves.
Kai Skye
How to Pack a Punch
Full Moon Ruler: Mars
Mars in a Cardinal Grand Cross square The Sun, Juno, the Moon, Chiron, and oppose Pluto
The current position of Mars, ruler of the Full Moon, reinforces and amplifies a message of intensity, healing, creativity and new beginnings. The warrior spirit of Mars lies at the heart of a powerful Cardinal Grand Cross, the most dynamic and activating of astrological configurations
Mars is in Mutual Reception with the Aries Moon, which means that the two planets are in each other’s ruling sign. In Cancer, Mars seeks to protect and find safe ground. The Aries Moon looks to resolve discomfort with courage and bold action. Emotional release is favored and catalyzed.
Sun and Juno in Libra cools us down a bit, at least enough to take a breath and seek some objectivity. We are encouraged to slow down enough to be strategic, to grasp the big picture to better understand what is out of whack. We can pause to anticipate how potential actions may impact others.
Mars square planets in Aries and Libra. We don’t feel much like reasoning or negotiating. The time for diplomacy or evaluation is over for the time being. We are moved to take action. We are motivated by emotion and less by rational thought. This can be beneficial if the intention is to heal or to create, as it can bypass the mind’s conversation around what is or is not possible - as it is our limiting beliefs or self-talk that has most likely kept us from previously Turning the Page.
Mars oppose Pluto. The planet of Fight (Mars) opposing the planet of Power (Pluto) creates incredible tension that can lead to explosive acts. These two planets will oppose each other until the end of April 2025.
The U.S. Presidential Election. Mars is moving closer to the exact opposition with Pluto that will happen on November 3 and 4, the day before the election. The second exact conjunction will be on January 3, just before Congress certifies the election results. The potential volatility is further accentuated in that United States is completing its Pluto Return and both presidential candidate’s charts are highly activated by the Mars/Pluto opposition. We can only assume that the election will be contentious and initiate a tumultuous period as the country seeks to successfully transfer presidential power to a new president.
Historically, a hard aspect between Mars and Pluto reflects circumstances of intense disagreements, declarations/escalations of war, explosive behaviors and/or exertions of brute force. The upcoming months will see a big release of emotional intensity, catalyzing a personal and collective revolution.
For each of us, we can recognize that Mars/Pluto opposition represents great and powerful energies that can create disruption but can also move mountains, launch new businesses, and heal deep rifts. It is up to each of us how we wield the great power that will be moving through us and our lives in the coming months.
Mars is currently in its shadow zone before it turns retrograde on December 6. We are getting a glimpse now of the journey we will each take during the winter months to harness, ground and grow power within ourselves and our lives.
The Cardinal Grand Cross, a powerfully dramatic dynamic that is created from the combined the planets and dynamics named above between Sun, Juno, Moon, Chiron, Mars and Pluto. This is a powerful energy that speaks of instability and of new initiatives (all 4 cardinal signs are engaged). We are being pushed forward. We may be compelled to resolve a deep-seated issue we have around power - either in our personal, work or social relationships. We may find ourself ensnared in a power struggle and are cautioned to slow down and not jump to conclusions or react impulsively.
This is the final time the Sun, Mars or Full Moon will square Pluto in Capricorn in our lifetime. We are completing lessons around accountability, and how to better step up and take leadership of our lives. A time of deconstruction (Pluto in Capricorn 2008-2024) is now completing; there is an energy of collapse, where structures that lack integrity or no longer serve us are imploding or falling away. For us individually, we are to look at how we can best handle big change. We have lifetimes of experience where change ended badly. We can easily get reactionary (frazzled, anxious, aggressive…) as we seek to control outcomes we cannot yet foresee. Instead, we can look to heal the traumas associated with change in the past and open to a deep trust in the potentials that will be opening for us.
Facing Ourselves with Honesty and Kindness
Venus at 29 Scorpio exact sextile Pluto oppose Uranus trine Neptune
We have insight into the darkness, the nature of the shadow within. We can see the truth of ourselves, and the root of our urges and desires. We can also feel a longing for freedom and for spiritual connection. There is recognition of where we have transformed and what is ready to be transformed. We acknowledge what we have completed and how far we have come and the attention that is still needed to heal what still remains unwhole and unintegrated. We are facing ourselves, not turning away, seeing ourselves with the honesty and compassion we deserve. This paves the way for great healing and powerful new beginnings.
Never be afraid to turn the page;
there is a whole book ahead.
Omar Cherif
Post Helene Update 2
(in relation to, and as a contemplation of, the Aries Full Moon)
As we transition from Rescue mode into Recovery mode here in the mountains of North Carolina, I have been contemplating this Full Moon in the light of what I am experiencing around me as we restore and recover power, roads, utilities…some sense of normalcy.
We are turning the page, each of us in our own way. We grapple with the losses - of homes and cars, loved ones and businesses. Beyond this, there is the loss of peace of mind, of feeling secure on the mountain. There is loss of income and of a clear direction forward. There is disorientation as the terrain has changed, both inside and out. The terrain of the mountain has been altered and my orientation to it. For instance, I need to take different roads as ones I am used to are washed away or in need of repair. And we have woken up recently to discover that the storm swept through each of us, changing something essential around how we are made up on the inside.
Daily life is coming back online but in a limited capacity as people, homes and businesses are in recovery mode every which way we turn. The first two weeks virtually no businesses (except gas stations and grocery stores in a limited way) were open. And then, one by one, a business reopened here or there.
So I reached out to my hairdresser last week to reschedule a haircut that was initially scheduled for a few days after the hurricane. We scheduled it for today. Then last night, I got a text from her canceling the appointment with no options for rescheduling. It read, “I am sorry but I am not okay…I don’t know what is going on, but I am in a bad place mentally.” She and her family and extended family have lived on this mountain for generations. I can only guess at what she is trying to process and grapple with. So, haircuts and the getting things back up and running may need to wait as we each encounter the Helene’s destruction of our inner landscape and peace of mind.
For some, like my hairdresser, now that the danger has subsided, an intensity of feeling has emerged – grief, fear, anger, disillusionment. This is how the Aries fire is moving through them that cannot be denied. Making space for the feelings will lead to healing and the ability to then Turn the Page.
For others, turning the page looks like getting back to work. My chiropractor had a tree fall on his house, flooding his upstairs, but I was grateful when he rescheduled me for this week. For him, getting back to work was grounding and helped him to orient. Both my chiropractor and my hairdresser are honoring what they need. There is no best way or right way to Turn the Page. We each need to honor the best way for ourselves and appreciate how others are moved to do it.
Now, this Full Moon is also about taking great initiative and I must say I have never in my life seen such heroic and industrious action. I have never encountered 'when there is a will there is a way' put into play as I have on this mountain. Amazing as the rescue efforts and the relief supplies were and the generosity, organization and manpower it took to pull this off, I have been astounded at the effort, time and what feels like superhuman exertion that has been put into the rebuilding of infrastructure and a way of life.
At the outset, over 500 roads in the NC mountains, from interstates to dirt streets that wind up into hollers, were damaged or gone. Initially, I thought there would be no way in or out of our town for perhaps weeks. But I did not know about the human ingenuity that would inspire a great movement that still continues three weeks later.
I discovered that a bridge can be rebuilt in a matter of days. Roads are being unearthed in record time as rocks and mud and debris and trees and whatever was carried on the cascading waters is removed. New sections of roads are simply being erected in not just a handful of locations but in towns up and down the mountain. Upwards of 79 water treatment and many sewage plants are being repaired, or temporary ones are being erected until a new one can be built. Long stretches of utility poles and electrical lines are being mounted in what seems no time at all. Rivers that rerouted themselves are being rerouted back. Trees are removed from houses and roads left and right throughout each day. There is a level of initiative and efficiency I have never witnessed or new was possible.
Of course we are not doing this all ourselves. By and large, the vast majority of people I have encountered and have heard about have risen above themselves and their personal circumstance to help each other, to support the community in some way. Hearing story after story after story of how people have given of themselves has my heart swell and eyes tear trying to take in the incredible beauty of the human spirit in action. I am still overwhelmed by the still powerful support FEMA, the Army, National Guard and the many city and stage organizations countrywide are giving. The sheer number of electrical company vehicles dump trucks, backhoes, helicopters and personnel from cities around the country is staggering.
And then…
Every once in a while, there is a complaint that is shouted out with a sizeable sense of alarm. The complaint usually rings discordant in juxtaposition with everything I have experienced. This is the shadow expression of the Full Moon. Those in the public eye who are declaring that we are not getting government support, motivated by political gain or just a desire to distract, saddens me. This is a time when there is such a sense of 'pulling together' and yet I am dismayed by those who are invested in 'tearing us apart'.
But perhaps what saddened me the most is a post I saw on social media about a week after the hurricane. A woman who appeared noticeably distraught, scared and angry took a video of herself on her phone and posted it. In the video, she cried out that the government was not doing anything to help anyone in North Carolina and that we were on our own. She then said that we could expect the looting to start soon, that it was time to ‘open and carry’ and counseled us to ‘leave the safety off.’
I could feel how the alarm she was sounding came from the depths of her own wounding. My guess is that it came from a deep-seated experience of not being supported and of having other scary experiences that only served to retraumatize her.
My hope is that she had another post, before or after, where she let people know where she is and what she needed. I get for her being vulnerable and letting someone know where she lives might be risky, but I truly believe that she would have received what she needed if she asked for it. Because the mountain terrain is dense with trees, FEMA and the Army relied on social media posts to identify the many, many people who needed their help who live out on the mountain and whose roads into town had been washed away. Without having any outside contact, I can assume that some of these people truly felt that no help was coming.
Now, why other individuals would stir her fears and the fears of others like her by declaring on social media that FEMA was coming to confiscate their home and possessions, is beyond my understanding. Perhaps they believed it, even without evidence. Perhaps, the deep-seated distrust of the government led them to projecting that 'the deep state' will take advantage of a situation where a person finds themselves powerless. It is my sincere prayer that the amplification of fear does not spread like an infection, but that it is washed away by the incredible generosity of spirit that is currently sweeping across the mountain.
All the expressions currently happening on the mountain in the wake of Helene are powerful reflections of the Aries Full Moon and Cardinal Grand Cross - including intense feelings that stop us in our tracks, a fighting spirit that puts the next foot forward, a rage that lashes out, and a movement to support our neighbors and rebuild what was lost. It is a mighty fire moving through all of us. From what I have witnessed, the vast, vast majority of those on the mountain, and I venture to say on the planet, wish to harness the fire to sow seeds of peace, of healing, and of creative ways to successfully move forward.
We are to each look to what we can do to honor the deep feelings that stir in us, to heal what has been hurt, to feel the creative fire ready to blaze a new trail, and to take the initiative to effectively Turn the Page.
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