New Moon + Nodes
Welcome to, in my opinion, some of the most transformative astro happenings of our year. Today is a New Moon in Cancer - the sign that is ruled by the moon - as well as a nodal shift into the Aries/Libra Axis.
New Moons are a time of cultivation; we have an empty canvas or palate or block of clay before us and a period in which to bring that which is within us into the world around us.
So much of this moon feels like boundaries and desire. Desire has been the biggest theme of my life this year, and I feel like as we move through this 7 year I’m seeing more of what thats about. If 7 is risk, luck, gamble and willingness it all stems from desire. The desire to win, learn, try, achieve. Cancer allows us to wade into the inky waters of what we want and take our time in the immersion. It wants us to get slow and low and take a deep breath as what we’re feeling shifts, as we adjust to a different temperature of our emotional landscape. It’s a time to face fears head on, even if it means running into the water at first or holding the hand of someone alongside us. It means learning the difference between the fish in the water and the fish in our minds and staying still long enough to see what is truly around us. It’s vulnerable and fortified. It’s tender and patient. It’s diligent and disarming. It lightens our load, if we let it.
The nodes are where we learn our lessons. In the birth chart the north node signifies the overarching lesson of our life, where the south node tells us of what we’ve already learned and what feels safe for us to fall back on. The nodes collectively shift every ~18 months, giving us a year and a half to cycle our way through their lessons. The nodes are always in sister signs - or signs of opposition - on the astrological wheel.
Today on July 17th, we not only have the height of the full moon in Cancer but also the North Node moving into Aries and the South Node moving into Libra. To me this feels like reclaiming personal decisiveness - being able to assess and chose for ourselves first. It looks like holding space for the others information and experience but not giving way to it for the sake of people pleasing or “othered” ease. Here we must find the delicate balance between being self-assured and self-righteous. About building community and connections around authentic expression and allowing ourselves to have experiences that allow us to explore than authenticity. You don’t have to know every detail about yourself and your life to know what it feels like to be in a moment of knowing who you are.
There is a tension here of what others give us through experience/comparison/tension/friction that allows us to experience ourselves more clearly. But it is up to us to determine what we want to embody within the borders of the self. This is a time of less “what are they doing?” and more “how do I learn what I want to be doing?”. To me Aries-Libra is the axis of desire and values. What do we deeply want, where does it stem from, what does it fulfill within us, where do we find it. What and where, what and where. So much of this is releasing the desire to understand why or how.
I was having a conversation with my partner last night - it was really emotional for both of us as so much of what we were discussing was layered in shame and trying to figure out exactly why each of us was a certain way and needed certain things - figuring it out within ourselves. Wanting answers to share explanations. And with this the realization that even if there was a definitive “this is why” we still need to figure out the how. The where and the when and the with who and the for what. So sometimes it is better to not have the reason, sometimes it is better to cultivate ones life around the exploration of finding more questions instead of fitting into answers. Sometimes looking for a reason gives the shadows time to take shape; inner corners becoming full with something looming and watching in on our fantasies. Wanting to know why we are the way we are is a perversion of being.
So the question that propels me forward into action on this full moon and nodal shift, is what shape will I take on in my becoming - an answer than can only be found through pushing oneself through their life. An answer that requires the deepest well of desire to be tapped into, resourcing our quest with curiosity.
OVERVIEW
Fish, Shade, Mountain, and Wellspring
Finding and allowing joy in small, hidden, underrated places. Allowing the current of our lives not just to carry us but to cool us. Knowing there is a natural fear within the water to go too deep, to follow ones way into the depth of the mountain to an under-ground lake that will stagnate; the fear that what we cannot see doesn’t move. The shade and shadow stay moving, and also dense. They are an inevitable pattern; the current is an inevitable pattern; the distributions and systems of water an inevitable pattern. When we find ourselves going in and going deep the best way out is through - to find the place the ground pushes us up out again into the well-spring. Finding joy is also finding reprieve - let yourself ride out the final darkening of this part of the path and find yourself re-mineralized and re-sourced as you make your way above ground again. Pull what you can from the path and the earth - don’t let it’s lack of directness deter you from believing in it’s necessity. You do not want to fall flat or acidic as you reach the soil you’re meant to nourish.
THE NODES
Aries North Node and The Emperor
How can you embody the space that is required within yourself to fill out the you you need to be to take your being into action? In other words, The Emperor needs to at some point step away from the planning of the empire to move towards the building of it. The real-time real-paced venture of building a story or a kingdom. A recognition of the starting place, acknowledging the reality of what it truly means to start. What unknown faults and challenges and secrets and rewards lay ahead that cannot be conceived of in the planning, in the taking stock of. You are required to stop taking stock and stop gathering resources for stockpile. It is time to utilize what you’ve gained. It’s time for the investment of your learning in real time.
Libra South Node and Blank
The gathering of anything to make it into something is a noble, unrelenting and admirable path. To take the brain waves and the wantings and put it together into a story which becomes a possibility which becomes a plan, which becomes something truly lived. The blank card indicates having all the resources needed to start - specifically to learn, to be okay with the messy middle in between of it all. It indicates it can be easy to stay in the place of culling the resources and cultivating the ideas vs the actionable building of it. It’s okay to go back to the drawing board but be wary of this having become a pattern and learning this is the time we’re building new ones that are more external and 3D world rooted.
THE MOON
The Fool and 5 of Swords
As we embark on a new moon and new nodes, there is something illuminating our path. There is this silly hope that fills our chest and allows us to look at things with the eyes of one who hasn’t be scorned. Here we are free, here we are fresh, here we are not in the pattern we used to be in but instead allowing ourselves to slough off a layer. It is so felt, and yet the mind falters. For something with very little physical mass and an inability to physically show up and do things the way the body does the mind has it’s fair share of power. Notice if you’re feeling isolate or sad or disassociated and reconcile with how your thoughts and stories are pushing you away from yourself. This is a deeply intimate time to be in touch with yourself and notice the ways you shut yourself down - the way you yearn for the very thing you are scared to act upon. Do not let your own self rejection be the reflection of your outer experience. Do not reject your own need to try for the fear of its failure thus making it true. Don’t feed the pattern that entraps you to your fears. Instead, find what liberation you can in truly preparing yourself to venture the journey you’ve been dreaming of. The first step is admitting it is real. Use the energy of the world around you and it’s opportunities right now to clear away whatever isn’t the truth for you.