Historical Pivot Point… New Moon in Aries
Art by Madeline McLeod
Aries arose from the mycelial underworld at Spring Equinox, gifting us with a dynamic Full Moon to open the astrological new year. With all planets moving forward through the end of April, we may pre-emptively tempted to ground our collective, post pandemic identity. However, moving through a journey of integration should always be an intentional process. This New Moon at 22 degrees Aries, is providing us with an opportunity to finally close the previous astrological year and plenty of inspiring energy to jump start the new one. As we begin to explore how we’ve evolved this past year, it will be helpful to put a few questions into your pocket, so that you might someday live into the answers. How has the pandemic experience changed us? What still needs to be processed and integrated? What separates us as a society? What separates me from what I love? And how can I feel more connected? Aries is all about identity, the “I am” principle. Even though the energy is pushing us to define these things, it’s important to take our time to hold the inquiry, and to honor the falling away of old stories. In an effort to deepen with these themes, I’ve provided a New Moon Ritual at the bottom of the report.
Art by Marta Sarmiento
As Aries is the initiating sign of the Zodiac, let’s start at the beginning with the mythological Star Tale of this special Ram. The myth of the Ram’s Golden Fleece spans multiple storylines. It is introduced in the myth of Phrixus, and it concludes with, Jason and the Argonaut’s, Epic adventure to recover the Fleece, and claim his destiny on the throne of Thessaly. But before he can claim the throne he’ll needs to slay a dragon, or an “unsleeping serpent” which is always the pivot point of any story. All of these themes are laid out in perfect synergy this New Moon providing us a star map to take the first steps towards authoring our own new story.
Where it Ends…
Venus at 26 Aries is conjunct Sun, and Moon at 22 Aries, Eris at 24 Aries, and Ceres at 19 Aries, all in Square to Pluto at 26 Capricorn.
This is a power packed stellium of purgative underworld energy. If you’ve followed my earlier writing I have talked about the fact that when Venus is in orbit on the opposite side of the sun, she is considered to be “in the underworld”. Most people are aware that Pluto, (Hades) is the “God of the Underworld”. Eris is the “Goddess of Chaos and Discord” who often signifies a leveling of the playing field, or a divine type of “revenge of the underdog”. Ceres, (Demeter) is the Great Agricultural Mother Goddess who’s most beloved daughter was raped, kidnapped, and subsequently trapped in the underworld, is well known in her shadow side as the “Mother of profound Grief”. The loss of her daughter was never properly processed and healed. Her sadness led to bitterness, which became toxic and she laid waste to the land. These are our Nighttime Guardians this month, and they are ready to move on to the next phase of this evolutionary initiation.
Tying this stellium in with the Greek myth of Aries we see the end is the beginning...
“Aries is identified with the golden ram that rescued Phrixus and took him to Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram to the gods. The ram’s skin that he placed in a temple was the Golden Fleece, which later appears in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Phrixus was the son of a Boeotian king. He had a twin sister, Helle. The children had a stepmother, Ino, who hated them and wanted to get rid of them. She came up with a plan to put the land on the brink of famine by making sure the wheat crops failed. When a man was sent to consult the Oracle at Delphi, Ino bribed him to lie and say the Oracle asked for the king’s children to be sacrificed if they did not want the people to starve.
Phrixus and Helle were about to die when a winged ram with golden wool came to their rescue. The ram was sent by their real mother, the cloud nymph Nephele. It took both children and flew east to Colchis. Only Phrixus survived the journey. Helle fell off the ram and drowned in the Dardanelles Channel. The strait was later renamed to Hellespont, or sea of Helle, in her memory.
Phrixus was welcomed by King Aeëtes of Colchis, to whom he presented the Golden Fleece. In return, the king gave Phrixus his daughter Chalciope’s hand.” - (text in quotations taken from constellation-guide.com)
The myth of Aries actually begins with an ending that is steeped in anger, jealousy, loss, betrayal, and a colossal struggle for survival. The Ram, working towards his destiny is sacrificed, and later rises like a phoenix from the ashes, transformed with a powerful new purpose as the Golden Fleece of Jason’s quest.
The middle…
One of the illnesses of our society, is our struggle to retain control at all costs, while we avoid allowing the flames of transmutation to lick at our bones. We’ve yet to learn to yield to the vulture as it pulls every last morsel of the old story away from it’s carcass before initiating our next steps. We do that by surrendering fully to our grief, letting the fear take us down into the shadowy nighttime landscape of our soul. Not realizing that when all of the ashes hit the ground, finally a sacred rest rises to meet us. Cocooning us in imaginal cells.
“The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields, and faces are released from the prison of shape and the burden of exposure. Each thing creeps back into its own nature within the shelter of the dark. Darkness is the ancient womb. Nighttime is womb- time. Our souls come out to play. The darkness absolves everything; the struggle for identity and impression falls away. We rest in the night.” -John O’Donohue
Norbertine von Bresslern-Roth
This New Moon bestows upon us the womb of surrender. Where we can simultaneously grieve the old, and birth the new. Martin Prachtel, in his seminal work, “The Smell of Dust on Rain”, says that “grief is what living beings experience when what or whom they love dies or disappears. Grief is NOT what people feel when they lose what they want, or lose what they want to have happen. That is disappointment.” This past year was full dark symbolism stalking the collective. Death and decay constantly threatening to consume us. Our society often tries to skip over the process of grief, making it imperative that the guardians of the nighttime weep the final tears for us. We don’t want resurrect the viral succubus of 2020 to haunt our future. That means we need to look below the material losses we suffered, and tend to what this cost our heart. So how do expertly perform a burial to completion? Life change rituals should accompany every stage of life, and anticipate the people’s full expression of grief. In this way grief is not left hanging but is converted into ritual beauty and culture supporting continuity. Martin Prachtel says that grief is alchemized by praise.
The expertise of Pluto’s pantheon here is to illuminate how we meet impermanence when the heart of the world shakes us out of comfort zone and pushes us into the unknown. The nighttime guardians help us grieve without abandon. The question is, are you, or can you be, a nighttime guardian? Not only does that take reverence and courage, but also, imagination.
If we are able to drop the reins of control, the energy of this New Moon creates the perfect opportunity to rest in the metaphorical womb of creation. Monthly, woman roughly between the ages of 15-50, experience a cycle of purification and renewal when their lining of their own womb is shed, and then a new lining grows in it’s place, ready to support new life. We are at the same place on the wheel of the year.
“imagination as the ability to still see the mountain behind the mist, and absence as the transformed presence of the vanished” -Pat O’Donohue
If we can complete a full funerary right, by getting into a ritual of weeping and letting go, we will awaken to find we are at a historical pivot point. This is the part of narrative where the golden fleece that spent so much time guarded by the unsleeping serpent in Jason and the Argonaut’s quest, is being released from a period of dormancy and reborn as an instrument of hope and healing. In this same way, we are preparing to create new life in the cocoon of imagination.
Art by Parks New Moon Prints
Where it begins…
Saturn and Jupiter, our “Social Planets” both still in Aquarius have finally risen as visible morning stars, bringing more light to help shape our collective intent. Saturn, still within its square to Uranus in Taurus, continues to interrupt entrenched patterns. While Jupiter, the beneficent guru, is in trine to Mars and sexitile to Venus, both supportive aspects. They help us get clear on where we feel connected and alive, and how we get defensive and disconnect. Mars gets a boost from being in Gemini, helping him to think before he speaks, while Venus in Aries, is able to harness more spontaneity and a spirit of adventure. Mars is squaring Neptune at 21 degrees Pisces, provides fodder for launching a new spiritual practice that liberates us from the mind. Mercury at 14 degrees Aries, has just completed his yearly reunion with Chiron at 9 degrees Aries where they finished composing the background music of 2021. It incorporates an imaginative harmony, and healing melody, that when played, helps us craft a new identity that includes a sense of equanimity for both ourselves and others. Make sure to tune in.
The Chandra Symbol for this New Moon
“A bottle labeled drink me”
The force of events sweeps away who we thought we were and plunges us to a deeper place beyond the known. The sheer immediacy, the sudden clarity shifts mountains of intent into a different octave altogether. Being taken by storm is the most direct path from here to there. And when cosmic worlds are urgently coming through, the only smart thing is to step aside and make a huge amount of room for unexpected guests, at events you could never have arranged in your wildest dream.
-Elias Lonsdale
This is the moment we begin our ascension. Our reclamation of ecstatic being. Brimming with edge of your seat action. We meet the dragon, the pivot point, the first steps to the peak of the mountain. If we harness our imagination, hope can burst onto the scene like a brilliant sunrise. Let me leave you with a thought as you sink into your ritual and carry it forward into this current astrological year. This is quote from the aforementioned book by Martin Prachtel…
“Falling in Love, I mean the beyond-everyday-throw-yourself-away, I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, all-I-do-is-call-your-name—I see your face in the milking pail—in the way my computer cord coils up—I’m terrified-when-I-ca’t-make-out-your-face-in-the-gooshy-surface-of-my-morning-oatmeal-type thing, cannot be found by searching. But love of this kind most certainly exists and is one of life’s most essential stages for it is an ecstatic tailspin right into a bigger full-on life. Because this type of “falling” is a precious brush with seeing and wanting the Divine”
Aries New Moon Deepening Ritual
Come into a quiet space where you will not be disturbed. If you do not already have an altar, this is a good opportunity to create one for this moon cycle. For the ritual you will need a candle, a journal, a pen, and a scarf. Feel free to incorporate any herbs, plant medicine, or scent, that you feel drawn too as it will only help you catalyze your intentions. Set up your space so you feel comfortable, but preferably without sound. Read through the entire ritual before beginning. And have fun. Don’t be too serious.
The New Moon Happens on April 11th at 10:31 est. Do the ritual as close to the New Moon as Possible (the day before and up to three days after)
When you were a baby in your mother’s womb you were connected to her through your umbilical cord and all was well. At the moment of your birth, the cord was cut and you experienced your first separation. Separation is like a spiritual death and connection is like a spiritual birth. Let’s explore and work with the current death and rebirth cycle by plugging into these themes in order to manifest your desires for the coming astrological year.
Get comfortable, in a space and time you can fully surrender to the ritual. Light the candle, and drape the scarf you brought upon your head.
In silence look into the flame and let your gaze soften, while you sink into your breath for several minutes.
Allow an emptiness to arise within you. Come into resonance with the heartbeat of the earth. (you will intuitively know when this has happened)
After you have sunk into a liminal space, outside of the business of life, begin to draw your attention to all that separates us from belonging and connectedness
As a free writing exercise begin to journal what comes up around this inquiry. Do not analyze what is coming across the screen of your mind. Do this for about 5 minutes, or until you feel complete.
After you are complete with that part, look at what you have written. On a separate piece of paper begin to journal about how it would FEEL to belong, and be fully connected. (do not think too hard about what “belonging” and “connection” mean in this context, just write what comes through for you)
Now use your imagination to write a scene that includes a juicy sense of belonging. A scenario that turns you on, and lights you up from inside.
When you have completed step 6. Take the first page you’ve journaled and either burn it (safely) with the flame of your candle and discard the ashes, or bury it under the New Moon to signify a death to the things that keep you separate from our one beating heart.
Keep the second set of pages you wrote and place it on your altar. Each time you interact with it, remember to FEEL connected to what you have written down with immense gratitude. In this way, what you have written will be magnetized to you.
Choose a card from your favorite oracle or Tarot deck. Soak in it’s meaning in relation to all you have just experienced during the ritual. Keep the card on your altar until the next New Moon, so you can review your progress.
Make the Vulture’s ability to recycle, purify, and waste nothing, your totem animal this month. To learn more about Vulture’s unique medicine click here.
Aries New Moon Chart
