‘Dancing on the Edge’. That’s what it feels like at present. Astrologers have a double-edged tool: access to the ever-shifting energy patterns of our tiny corner of the cosmos via an ancient symbolic art which has long drawn meaning, both collective and personal, from those patterns. Double-edged especially in times of crisis, ie NOW.
These times are volatile, unstable, dangerous. We can examine the horoscopes eg of Trump, Putin, Assad in relation to the latest escalation of the dreadful events in Syria. We can scare ourselves and our readers, students and clients witless if we choose to do so. The Web is full of fevered speculation regarding what the upcoming 16.4.18 Aries New Moon, with its dramatic, tempestuous pattern, could bring to our troubled world. It feels at present as though we are ‘dancing on the edge’(i). Of what, no-one knows…
Aries New Moon 2018
As I write today, uk time, Mercury has just turned direct at 4 degrees Aries. Monday’s Aries New Moon at 26 Aries triggers off the Eris/Uranus conjunction, square Pluto. Mars is on the Saturn/Pluto midpoint in Capricorn. On Tuesday Chiron enters Aries for the first time since 1968 – think Vietnam War protests, students rioting in the streets of Paris – and Saturn turns retrograde. As though all of that weren’t more than enough, Pluto also turns retrograde on Sunday next.
Looks like it’s going to be quite a week!
However, I will leave those more inclined and probably more knowledgeable than I am to get on with the speculating, and go off on a different tack.
Having been born in Moondark, ie the very end of the monthly Sun/Moon cycle, I am very sensitive to the need periodically to retreat, contemplate, take stock – a fundamental aspect of human experience which has increasingly been squeezed out by the 24/7 freneticism of contemporary living, to the increasing detriment of our collective mental and physical wellbeing.
We tend to think of the annual 20th March equinox, the day the Sun enters Aries, as the symbolic beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere. But you could argue that the true beginning takes place with a New Moon in that sign. This year we have been in Moondark since the 27 Pisces New Moon on the 17th March – anticipating the fresh energy upsurge of the 26 Aries New Moon on 16th April 2018.
Today, at the very end not only of the lunar month’s Moondark, but also the whole zodiacal year’s Moondark, I am in a deeply withdrawn, sensitive, pensive state, feeling very open to our collective vulnerability and suffering as fragile creatures on a tiny planet.
I’m very aware that Chiron, the planetoid which concerns both our suffering and our healing, is at 29 degrees 53 minutes of Pisces, about to move into 0 degrees Aries after his seven year sojourn in that sign of the zodiac which most concerns our unity with the One, the Ground of our being. Liz Greene points out re the centaur Chiron’s unhealable wound, that “….the wound exists in the collective and is ancestral..” (ii) With Chiron poised at the edge of Pisces, along with so many of us right now I am feeling deeply connected to our world’s pain, and wondering what his shift to fiery, Mars-ruled Aries may mean.
Will it be more brutality towards the vulnerable and the innocent, orchestrated by powerful men whose humanity has become debased? Or will it signify a new generation arising, whose values are not rooted in accumulation of wealth and power at the expense of our mother planet? Thankfully, we are seeing evidence of the latter option arising already…
The Big Why?
In contemplative moments such as this, poised in the stillness of a whole year’s Moondark, being temperamentally inclined to brood on questions most sensible folk prefer to avoid much of the time, I tend to return to The Big Why, and its attendant questions: Why are we here at all? What does it all mean? What am I to do with my small life?
It would appear from numerous surveys one tends to come across both in print and social media, that despite conventional religions losing ground, most people are just as inclined as they have ever been toward some sort of faith, some belief that despite its painful, turbulent dimensions life has meaning.
In times of suffering and turbulence, one of the great offerings of astrological knowledge, despite its being a double-edged gift with just as much capacity to scare us as to offer enlightenment, is a pointing through its symbols to something both collectively and personally meaningful going on. Looking through an astrological lens reveals patterns, not randomness.
Astrology is not a religion or a belief system – but it offers a clear lens through which to look out at the vastness of Mystery in which we exist, inviting us toward some form of belief that there is a Bigger Picture of which we are all part, however small. Personally, I have found that lens to have been a vitally important tool on my own journey toward a deep faith that we are all part of the One, and that even the dreadful things in life which afflict us both collectively and individually at times are woven into a tapestry of meaning, at some level which we are too ill-equipped to comprehend.
I find it supportive and comforting to centre myself in that faith when times are tough for the world – as they certainly are right now – and for those to whom I am personally connected with bonds of friendship and of love.
I’ve spent this morning reading a contemplative book by one of my favourite writers, Richard Holloway, in which he considers the challenging question of faith from the perspective of those, like himself, who are ‘dancing on the edge’.
I leave him with the last word:
“…the persistence of belief…could be a valid response to reality.That is why it is important to offer faith the compliment of a respectful hearing and to afford it the status of a reasonable response to the mystery of life…even if we ourselves find it personally elusive …”
Endnotes:
(i) Richard Holloway Dancing on the Edge, 1997, Fount Paperbacks, p12
(ii) Liz Greene ‘Wounding and the will to live’ in Issue 3 of Apollon, the Journal of Psychological Astrology (1999). This article is now available on Astrodienst, and I would strongly suggest that any readers interested in exploring Chiron’s meaning at profound depth should read it.
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page of Writing from the Twelfth House
110 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2018
Astrology: Questions and Answers 
Quite thought-provoking, Anne. I got a lot out of this post today. The term Moondark really struck me in a personal way. Dancing on the edge is exactly how I’ve been feeling over the past few months and feel like there’s no relief in sight.
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Many thanks, Paula. Glad the post has offered you something useful…And yes I too am experiencing that ‘dancing on the edge’ feeling…
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Yes, it is all crazy in our world. And yes, it feels like ‘dancing on the edge’! I am also very contemplative these days and a strong believer in faith, whatever will happen to our mankind…Crazy people are making dangerous decisions and nature will also strike back with Uranus coming into Taurus in mid May…Let us hope and talk about the good things and hold on staying positive. Love and light Sabine
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Thanks for dropping by with your thoughts, Sabine! Yes, agreed…holding onto the good things and living in the moment is what the Sages all prescribe for getting through our lives…
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15.4.18:
Margo Cline: Beautiful!
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Thanks, Margo!
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15.4.18:
Mara Owens:
Dancing on the Edge is also the title of a 1980 essay where humanistic psychologist, Carl Rogers, contemplated the future. He described those who would usher in this new era as people with the capacity to understand, bring about and absorb a paradigm shift.
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That’s brilliant, Mara! I had it in the back of my mind that I had heard that title before – you brought it forward for me… I actually read the essay during the 1980s… just shows you how we forget things as we get older!
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Helen Tremeer:
Thank you… I’ve spent this weekend exploring altered states and inner psyche on a shamanic training course and resonate very much with your words ❤
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Glad to hear that, Helen. There is definitely a collective energy holding us together in a very specific way at core at present, despite our varying branches of expression…
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So glad to see your post today, Anne. I’ve pulled away from all social media, and continue to contemplate the “ties that bind” and the faith and beliefs which connect us without the technology tethers. The world seems very dangerous for all of the reasons you included here and oh so many more. And I believe there are very good things happening that we are not aware of. Faith, presence, quiet time in nature give me the food I need to stay nurtured, strong and healthy. That is my contribution to the wholeness/holiness of the collective. Sending blessings for new beginnings, dear Anne.
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I can just imagine you as you walk quietly by the sea, letting your mind roam, Carrie. Returned blessings – and many thanks for your thoughtful and much appreciated comments over the zodiac year now passing…
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Being online so little, I need to brush up on current affairs – I see headlines but it’s been at least a week since I’ve inspected those headlines. Here in Ecuador, three kidnapped prensa/press workers were murdered, and we’re in day three of four days of mourning in their honor…. My friends’ son/husband/brother – depending on which friend – died early this morning after a horrid 2-week battle with pancreatitis. It’s been a very challenging time, one that makes us numb,which helps us get through the worst.
I embrace this new moon, as it’s time for new plans, new ideas, etc…
When the friend died around 1:40am Ecuador time, a new baby was born about ten minutes after that… my friends were weeping and on the other side of the room, a proud father was rejoicing the arrival of his beautiful son. It gave me comfort to think of this new one entering the world’s stage.
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Thanks for this powerful feedback illustrating Life’s spectrum from dark to light, Lisa.
Where would we be without hope? This is an especially powerful New Moon, the first one of the zodiacal year. Let’s hope it brings us all more light than dark…
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While attending a sobering conference with a doctor in friends’ behalf, I noted the digital clock on the wall roll over to 1:11:11 am. The patient died about thirty minutes later. This happened on April 15, new moon day..
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ps.. i know part of that was repeated, but i wondered if the 1:11:11 was of any importance.. at the time i thought that it either meant something good – or else something bad, though the doctor’s eyes told me there was little hope…
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Thank you, Anne, for this soulful reflection. I, too, find myself drawn inward at times for replenishment and reflection — sometimes just when the ‘shared field’ is so stirred up and turbulent. Deep faith may be like a deep well that we have to sink our roots deep to replenish and sustain, but it seems as important as it ever was! Thanks again for sharing.
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And thanks for this wise comment, Jamie. “…Deep faith may be like a deep well that we have to sink our roots deep to replenish and sustain, but it seems as important as it ever was…” Yes. I love the way you put this…so very true. New Moon blessings, Anne
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