Welcome to the Lunar Flip
In the old story of the Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, the King her father wants to invite the Wise Women or Faeries to bless his daughter and his kingdom. There are 13 Wise Women but the King only has 12 golden plates, and so he leaves out the 13th Wise Woman, which causes all the trouble. He can only honor the solar consciousness those 12 plates represent. His kingdom has no room for the 13th, symbolizing the mystical and magical aspects of the Divine Feminine. Patriarchy rejects those aspects of the Feminine that cannot be controlled. Hopefully not for much longer!
Just so, our society lives within a solar calendar of 12 months, instead of the ancient lunar calendars that included a 13th Moon cycle. Because of this difference, every 18 months or so we experience a flip in the lunar cycle to accommodate that 13th cycle. At the flip, we either have 2 New Moons or 2 Full Moons in the same astrological sign. Hence our Dark Moon and Blue Moon.
For the next 18 months, we'll find ourselves experiencing a Full Moon in a sign before we experience the New Moon in that sign, an inversion of the usual cycle. It seems this leads to a perceptual split, a sense that two very different energies have to be reconciled.
These energies will occur in signs that are 30*/150* apart, acting like an inconjunct. Each month we will have to reconcile two energies that usually have a hard time being integrated, causing lots of frustration. The way of integration lies in becoming more discerning and disciplined so we can break down behavior patterns that no longer serve us. When we rub up against these energies, we have to adjust and refine our behavior.
The Virgo-Pisces Axis
The flip cycle is underway.
After the last New Moon at 30* Aquarius, this Full Moon will occur in Virgo opposite the Pisces Sun. That means the integration needs to happen between the fixed air Aquarian New Moon seed, our ideals, the mutable water of Pisces, our understanding and vision of life, and the mutable earth energy of the Full Moon in Virgo, our ability to integrate change and grow. This tripled energy will demand discipline and focus to access and understand the images and feelings arising from the Pisces Sun that will nurture that Aquarian seed.
Thankfully, Virgo is just the sign to do it! Virgo's need is to integrate knowledge on all levels of body, mind and spirit: to continue to grow, to become a master at the work, whether a potter, weaver, carpenter, clockmaker, computer programmer, dancer, lawyer, mid-wife etc. What better energy to have working for us than this attention to detail that will bring Aquarius' ideals down to Earth in a practical way.
The Pisces Sun sends us dreams and visions like memories of past ages that can teach us to face the disruption that occurs at the end of an Age. This is the mythic story we're living in. Climate change, terrorism, nuclear war, poverty, violence, corporate control of the world; these are expressions of how the end times play out for us. They are the dark distillation of the patriarchy that has to die.
They are the shadow side of patriarchy, erupting out of the collective unconscious out of fear of this change we have to go through. Will we learn the correct use of technology or will we continue to let technology dominate our world? Do we really seek freedom or will we let our fear of death hold us hostage to an unending 'war on terrorism'? We're all going to die anyway, so why not say along with Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death!"
Patriarchal thinking is linear, and stubbornly refuses to understand that death is required so re-birth can happen. The light and goodness we achieved under patriarchy will certainly be part of any new society we build.
The re-birth begins with a new balance being struck between masculine and feminine spirit, between the left and right brains, between the head and the heart. Intuition is just as valid as sensation. Emotional intelligence is just as valuable as our rational intellect. The only way we'll create a viable future is become whole and become Wise!
So let us invite that 13th Wise Woman to the feast. We need her blessings to meet the future.
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