” All of  life springs from the primeval waters that flow from the tree of life and gather at its base, waters which are limitless, an essential sea circulating through all of nature. These waters are the beginning and end of all existence, the ever-moving matrix that nurtures and preserves life. The World Tree, expressing its milky golden sap, denotes ‘absolute reality’, a return to the center and place of origin, the home of wisdom that heals.”*

Under the influence of Pisces I am having trouble giving form to my thoughts and  I am still sorting my impressions of this New Moon as it approaches the waxing phase of the cycle. Two days after the New Moon I saw a delicate sliver of light rising in the night sky, a budding crescent open to the cosmos to receive the light of the Sun, and I felt the haunting beauty and tender vulnerability experienced with every new birth. The birthing of this New Moon is the last New Moon of winter and it is illuminating a deepening empathy for all of life.

When the Sun and Moon, luminous lights of spirit and soul, conjoin in Pisces the collective feelings of humanity are emerging from the primal flow of life, and tasting the golden sap of immortality we on Earth understand the precious giving back of our mortality. When we are under the influence of Pisces ridged boundaries dissolve allowing the numinous light of the source of our origin to filter into conscious awareness.  We feel what others are feeling and we suffer what others are suffering.  In the wake of this new born consciousness our usual indifference to the eternal flow of nature subsides and our joyful participation in the totality of life bestows a deepening  gratitude for the rich nourishing we receive in kind.

This New Moon foretold of a healing to that aspect of our soul deprived of the spontaneous and joyful celebrating of life. At the time of the New Moon the transiting Nodes changed signs ** and immediately bumped into the rebellious nature of Uranus.  Radical change is in the air demanding that we break free from collective thoughts, feelings, and actions that, however well intended, have censured our efforts to creatively express our unique self.

For those of us with a world weary cynicism or a tyrannical mistrusting of realities beyond the pale of our rational mind this New Moon may surprise us. We are promised the opportunity to release our attachment to ideas we inherited from our past that are not reflecting our individual experiencing of life.  The waxing phase of the New Moon has activated our emotional defenses and challenged us to break free from our patterned behavior in order that a new aspect of our consciousness come to light.  The cosmos is asking us to honor our contribution to the ebb and flow of our daily life and to witness with conscious light the life that we created in the past,  are creating in the present, and hope to create in the future.

The approaching Jupiter-Saturn opposition will rock the ocean waters of our collective feelings turning our individuality upside down and inside out. This is not going to be an easy month for many of us feeling at times that our individuality is being overwhelmed by external forces beyond our control. When this happens it may bring comfort remembering that we alone have woven the illusory web separating our inner realty from our outer reality. Under the watchful guiding of Pisces we can remove the illusory veiling of our separateness and feel our interconnection with all of life.

The influencing of the element air, the waxing Moon in Gemini and transiting Saturn in Libra, adds perspective and emotional distance from the sorrows and sadness reflecting the shadow face of Pisces. We are warned not to drown the light of our life vitality with emotional withdrawal or to become a victim to our external circumstances.  It is worth reminding our self that while we cannot control the actions of others we can control our responses to those actions, and in so doing, accept responsibility for what our actions manifest in the world. One healing offered by Pisces is the gift of  acceptance, and the grace given when we accept what is at the deepest level of our self.

* Joan Halifax, Shaman : The Wounded Healer

** The North Node is Sagittarius and the South Node is Gemini

The message in 2011 is love: opening our mind to receive it; opening our heart to give it. I spent the first hours of 2011 watching the balsamic Moon in Sagittarius rise from the frothy foam of Neptune’s snarl and lie crescent fallen in the sky  a delicate sliver receiving the illuminated light of Mercury poised above. It was a dreamer’s vision bringing with it the sensual embracing of the New Year ‘s breath gently caressing my lips. 

A balsamic Moon brings the gift of stillness, contemplation, and the bitter sweet knowing that something in life is ending. One archetype of the Moon is maternal nurturing and when in the sign of Sagittarius our personal beliefs are nourished  with plump morsels from our past. When we are under the influence of Sagittarius we can be fanatical in our beliefs and rather than opening our mind and heart to new ideas we seek security  and safety in an array of fundamental ideologies. The illuminated light of Sagittarius is the archetype of both the wanderer and the philosopher each seeking the meaning within the experience; one by way of the ordinary the other by way of the abstract.

To begin 2011 under the reflecting rays of this Moon is helping us gain a more far reaching understanding of our past that can help us to be more inclusive and less fearful of that which is unknown and foreign to us. The Moon lying under the light of Mercury guarantees a year of emotional and mental traveling that will expand our awareness, deepen our self-knowledge, and broaden our perception of reality. When Mercury, the archetypal communicator and translator, journeys in Sagittarius we are given the celestial gift of insight  to help us navigate  every aspect of our life. Remembering that Sagittarius is that aspect in human consciousness challenging each individual to travel beyond the familiar, embrace the foreign, and cherish the unknown will help us break down the walls of defensive behavior protecting our deepest fears.

The boldest signature inscribing the birth of 2011 is the January 4th Solar Eclipse illuminating the greatest obstruction to love, our fear.  Hours before the Moon conjoined the Sun in Capricorn it conjoined Pluto underscoring the archetypal principles of death, destruction, and rebirth. Pluto is that aspect in each of us  intimately connected to the chthonic  forces in nature that turn the wheel of life in the wake of death. Under the influence of Pluto our fear for survival is on red alert. When coupled with the Moon in Sagittarius we instinctively prepare to attack the unknown. If we project our fear of survival onto external events  and blame others for what is inside ourself we attack what is unknown within ourself and tragically forfeit the self-understanding that gives birth to a deeper self- acceptance.

Capricorn is the archetype of a leader who is guided by responsibility, discipline, commitment, and tenacious hard work. Every Solar Eclipse garners an awakening in consciousness and in the sign of Capricorn our wakening requires a  sobering reality check if we want to accomplish our goals. When we are under the influence of Capricorn we are aware of contributing the best of who we are to life.  2011 is not a year for mindless, frivolous effort. Every moment will be measured and accounted for so it is important that we live in each moment with awareness and take nothing in life for granted.

The first aspect the Moon and Sun made after the eclipse was a hard aspect to Saturn in Libra challenging our relationships and insuring  a year of working hard to create peace and justice in the world. 2011 is asking us to take personal responsibility for the well fare of our collective humanity and work together, regardless of our differences, to end  the pain and suffering of social injustices and to bring love and light into the world.

The last aspect the Moon and Sun made after the eclipse, and before changing signs, was a harmonious aspect with the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Pisces. Pisces is the archetypal principle of our collective feelings. When we are under the influence of Pisces we lose our sense of separateness and feel a deep empathy for the suffering of others. Jupiter, the archetype of expansion, and Uranus, the archetype of revolution, have been dancing  cheek to cheek since the spring of 2010. ( For wonderful commentary and wise insight into the significance of the 2010 Jupiter-Uranus I direct you to astrologer Anne Whitaker’s “Tales From The Wild Side”.)

When the archetypal principle of expansion meets the archetypal principle of revolution it is time to break the chains that bind us to  our old, out dated modes of being in the world. Our personal beliefs are in revolt and nothing in life will be the same. Our perception of who we are and what our life can be is expanding beyond what we have imagined thus far. Our only limitation is our fear of who we can be and what e can do.The choice is ours to make.

Happy New Year and may our individual and collective choices in 2011 reflect the light of our love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMyq7xvlH08

Today, planet Earth has entered the celestial sign of Cancer and the Sun, having swallowed night nibble by nibble since the first day of spring, stands still triumphant in glory the longest day of the year. Each year, when our Earth reaches the ecliptic at 00 Cancer those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the solar promiscuity of Summer Solstice splashing our naked flesh with incandescent rays slithering across our skin like golden honey unleashing the spirit of Dionysus within. Hedonism rising with the zenith of  our solar vitality we stand stilled by the Sun mesmerized by the prodigious powers of a miraculous living spirit mysteriously incarnate in matter bedazzled that it is ” I “.

Summer Solstice is the courier of three glorious months of unabashed celebration appreciating the “I” that dwells within beginning with the bright face of Cancer, the domicile of the Moon and substance of our soul. When we are under the influence of Cancer our poetic musing guides our perilous journey to the depths of our unconscious yearnings and speaking in the tongue of our soul we weave a protective web insuring our nourishment. Cancer is that aspect in each of us entwined amongst the deepest roots of our source  and succor providing form and substance for what we were, are, and will be. There is a deep sensitivity, astute caring, and sincere wanting to nourish all of life reflecting the bright light of Cancer; the darkness of Cancer can bind our fear of change, our fear of differences, so that we inadvertently horde our nurturing care birthing stinginess and greed into the world.

Cancer garners a new birth in season, a new birth in conscious awareness, and a new  birth in our creative self-expression bringing me to the crux of  what is being offered this Summer Solstice, which is nothing less than a regenerative purging of our fear of not having enough in life. Today, we dance in passionate rhythm with Venus and Mars fused as one in Taurus creating a magnetic attraction to the abundance of life, and enlivening our capacity to share in the wealth of our human family. If we cling to our past binding our fear of scarcity to the present we may forfeit celebrating the mystery of the home and substance of our spirit in our forgetting that celebrating the one is in reverent worship of the other.

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/2009/06/21/nourishing-the-spirit-within/feed/ 2 laurenlesko Bacchus http://laurenlesko.com/2009/05/27/a-cycle-within-a-cycle/ http://laurenlesko.com/2009/05/27/a-cycle-within-a-cycle/#comments Wed, 27 May 2009 21:54:58 +0000 Lauren Lesko http://laurenlesko.com/?p=5482 ]]> click on the image to read about the art

“Since the dawn of time itself, Man has measured his life by the cycles of the planets – from sunrise to sunrise and from one new Moon to the next he has reckoned his existence by the heavens.”*

Cycles, within cycles, within cycles, the pulse of our beloved astrology, plumbing the life blood of our universe; circulating Earth, Moon, planets and asteroids, named and unnamed; transfusing human experience with a profane and sacred significance. The celestial cycles most familiar to us are the daily rising and setting of the Sun charting the axial rotation of the Earth gliding through the entire zodiac in one day, the changing faces of the Moon gathering and dispersing the light of the Sun enfolding the entire zodiac in one month, and the annual changing of season from spring to summer to fall to winter mirroring the faithful marriage of Earth and Sun dancing cheek-to-cheek round the zodiac in one year. Each of these cycles observable with our naked eye delivers a new birth in the processes of life on Earth and in particular within the individual.

Every known planetary body whether observable or not with the naked eye engages in a cyclical unfolding of time with every other planetary body lasting hours, days, weeks, months, or years depending upon the distance of the Sun. These interlacing cycles weave the diverse complexity of  human experience that unfolds within a universe infused with a living intelligence refusing to be reduced to a mechanistic and meaningless experience. Today, for the first time since 1843 Jupiter and Neptune conjoin in Aquarius heralding a new birth in humanitarian awareness accompanying a spiritual vision that includes the whole of humanity replacing individual privilege with individual participation and collective ostracism with collective co-habitation.

Jupiter journeys through every sign of the zodiac in twelve years while Neptune journeys through one sign of the zodiac in thirteen years with the two conjoining in a different sign every thirteen years and the same sign every 169 years. In other words, orbiting Jupiter and Neptune entwine two  distinct cycles simultaneously giving birth to a thirteen year cycle of individual awakening  and a 169 year cycle of collective awakening suggesting that one is dependent upon the other.

When we are under the influence of Aquarius the events in our life remind us that our individual self-expression is on behalf of the whole of humanity and that the evolution of human consciousness requires that each of us accept personal responsibility for contributing the best of our creative potential to the whole of life. With the birth of a new Jupiter-Neptune cycle in Aquarius we on Earth are given a golden opportunity to do just that. Is there any more altruistic sign of the zodiac than Aquarius, a more benevolent teacher than Jupiter, or a better spiritual guardian of the collective unconscious than Neptune, acting as celestial guides helping us navigate the stormy waters of our individual and collective evolving in consciousness?

I began this post speaking of cycles within cycles within cycles and the new Jupiter-Neptune cycle has some unexpected turns. The asteroid Chiron in Aquarius is at the exact degree as the two and embracing them both may offer healing insight into a wounding of the collective unconscious that every individual suffers, being a part of the collective whole, in recognizing, albeit unconsciously so, a lopsided evolving of human consciousness that resists envisioning the unity of Life.

The other significant cycles at this time are the retrograde station of all three planetary bodies within three weeks of today’s conjoining; Neptune stations retrograde May 28, Chiron June 2, and Jupiter June 15. Each Rx cycle is imprinting a highly personalized experiencing of the Jupiter-Neptune cycle, and if we consider the archetype resonating within our experience of Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron then it seems possible that each of us may internalize external events and challenge the norm by expanding our conscious awareness beyond what we know and entering the unknown dissolve thought and feeling forms that are contributing to humanitarian discord. We are well advised to spend the coming months fine tuning our unique understanding and appreciation of our individual participation in the  evolution of humanity by re-examining, re-evaluating, re-considering our personal belief and vision for the future of humanity.

In the spirit of re-examining, re-evaluating, and re-considering I direct your attention to an astrology blog using a wide humanitarian aperture, Astrological Repair Manuel, and encourage you to read astrologer, Alexander Zoltai’s, evocative post A Positive Interpretation of Hitler’s Chart.

* Cycles of Becoming, Alexander Ruperti

And so………... it was two weeks ago that we set our intention for the next six months by deciding how we want to contribute our unique individuality to humanity. The influence of Aquarius is helping us understand that change comes from the effort of separate individuals working together on behalf of the greater whole. Today, two weeks after the Solar Eclipse, we glimpse the other face of the ecliptic cycle as we turn our gaze 180 degrees to face the Lunar Eclipse. A Lunar Eclipse is a Full Moon, a Sun and Moon opposition, illuminating a  unique time when the Moon gently moves into the Earth’s shadow and the Earth positioned between the Sun and Moon casts a shadow over the face of the Moon. When this happens we on Earth are made aware that an aspect of our individuality has eclipsed our unconscious and in order to grow in self-awareness we need to become consciously aware of that aspect of our self and whether it is a constructive or destructive force in our life.

The Moon in Leo emphasizes our emotional need for recognition from others reassuring us that who we are and what we are doing is making a valuable contribution to humanity. When we are under the influence of Leo we are hyper- sensitive to what others think about our individual uniqueness, and while we generously give our life vitality for others to enjoy, we tend to suffer self-doubts and insecurities concerning the true value of our self. When we experience a Lunar Eclipse in Leo the time has arrived for us to make an honest self- evaluation of how we express our self, and in turn, what we are contributing to the continuum of human consciousness.

One of the unabashed gifts of Leo is our learning to appreciation our process of  creative self-expression as the spiritual act of watching our self creating our self. It is all too easy to dismiss this process as self indulgent but  in so doing we deny the importance of affirming our unique individuality in tribute to the living intelligence of which we are apart. The Buddha taught that we are creating our self in each moment lived. Once we affirm our creative self-expression we can affirm the creative expression of all others and truly manifest the Aquarius aspect in each of us seeking to honor the diversity and differences of humanity.

This next six months may garner times when our ego flaring like a wild fire insists on unbridled freedom of expression.  At these times it is best not to take our self too seriously, instead, mindfully observe that we have set ablaze our self-doubts and insecurities. It might be helpful to consider this Lunar Eclipse as a tremendous healing for humanity. Chiron, the wounded healer, is in Aquarius and the Lunar Eclipse will make an exact conjunction and opposition with Chiron suggesting that our individual and collective healing has something to do with eliminating self-doubts and insecurities that are the source of defensive and brutish bulling of others. It is time to set aside our childish fears of doubt and inadequacy without sacrificing our child-like joy and pleasure in self-creating. The challenge facing each of us is gaining a true appreciation for the unique gift that we are contributing on behalf of the collective human experience of being alive in the world.

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/2009/02/08/cosmic-purifying/feed/ 1 laurenlesko Lunar Eclipse http://laurenlesko.com/2008/12/26/getting-our-act-together/ http://laurenlesko.com/2008/12/26/getting-our-act-together/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:00:44 +0000 Lauren Lesko http://laurenlesko.com/?p=1084 ]]> click on the image to read about the art

What a celestial line up above our head this morning rising: the Moon in Sagittarius leading the pack followed by Mars getting ready to enter Capricorn; Pluto, the Sun, Mercury, and Jupiter in alignment in Capricorn; and the North Node, Chiron, Venus, and Neptune in Aquarius. This unusual clustering of planets is sandwiched between the Saturn- Uranus opposition with the singleton South Node in Leo hinting that our shinning light must resonate with self-respect and confidence if we are to achieve the lasting changes in our life that will improve the quality of all life on Earth. And so it seems among our many blessings this year is our ending the year with the bright promise of lasting change! Mercury and Saturn have been in mutual exchange since December 12 and today they make a loving trine together insuring that we will end the year giving concrete form to something a long time on our mind. Whatever it is comes just in time, that is just before, both planets station retrograde in early January giving us a celestial nudge to “get our act together” in the New Year.

Taking concrete action certainly is the focus today as Mars in exalted dignity enters Capricorn to temper our impatience and sober our rash, brash enthusiasm so that we can actually instigate a plan of action with the serious intention of achieving our goal. Hallelujah. Establishing the foundation for taking action is the Moon-Pluto conjoining in ambitious Capricorn strengthening the depth of our emotional commitment to make the necessary changes in  how we assert our will to get what we want in life. The Capricorn face of Mars is deadly serious, determined, and cautious; which is blessed news considering that the first aspect Mars in Capricorn makes is face to face combat with Pluto igniting a brute force of will that if not tempered with prudence could turn into a harsh ruthlessness. The planet disposing Mars this month is Saturn stationing retrograde on January 1 and delivering a cautionary message that if we do not want to turn that brute force within we need be mindful to begin our New Year in victorious self-awareness.

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/2008/12/26/getting-our-act-together/feed/ 0 laurenlesko Cosimo I http://laurenlesko.com/2008/12/25/a-celestial-gift/ http://laurenlesko.com/2008/12/25/a-celestial-gift/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:10:46 +0000 Lauren Lesko http://laurenlesko.com/?p=1023 ]]> click on the image to red about the art

Today, the Sun is born anew and with each new day gaining  in light  as the Sun journey’s toward the Vernal Equinox we on Earth are gaining in conscious awareness. Yesterday, Mercury made a sweet sextile to Uranus stimulating our self- conscious awakening to speak in the voice of our truth. Chances are the experience of speaking our truth with others was unexpectedly contentious and definitely not a meeting of like minded friends. Fortunately, the experience gave us the celestial gift of self- differentiation and clarity of intention just in time for the Moon to make a jolting T-Square with the Saturn-Uranus opposition triggering an emotional discontent  hidden deep within and in chronic need of forgiveness. We are under the influence of a waning Virgo Moon flashing neon bright “self-forgiveness” and today, held in the loving embrace of the Moon and Venus, we are promised the emotional distance necessary to expand our view of what we need to feel safe and secure in relationship with ourself and others.

The Sagittarius Full Moon is stimulating a restlessness within each of us which may be pricking our dissatisfaction with the way things are. This is especially  true for those of us born with a strong influence of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces at 21 degrees. This is not a negative experience, in fact, this Full Moon is spurring us onward to fulfill our dreams of the future aided with a tempering of our expectations of what that future will be. Gemini and Sagittarius have difficulty concentrating on the mundane concerns of life and yet this is exactly what we are challenged to do. One lesson taught, and hopefully learned, under the influence of this Full Moon is the necessity to create “boundaries”, which means to respect both the sovereignty of ourself and others. Another lesson offered is learning to take responsibility for fulfilling our commitments by keeping our mind focused on the goal and taking one precious step after another. In other words, this is not a fortuitous time for  entertaining distractions.  We need  to be watchful of becoming discouraged if things are not moving as fast as our mental imagining. The trick this week is to give ourself enough mental breath to “realize” what we think and feel, separate and distinct from others, without escaping into imaginary flights of fancy.

The exuberance of the Sun in Sagittarius opposing the Moon in Gemini conjures a wild horse ready to bolt, which is exactly what we may feel like doing because this Sagittarius Full Moon makes a Grand- Square to Saturn in Virgo opposing Uranus in Pisces, and corrals our expansive vision for the future.  Remember this Full Moon is teaching us about boundaries and corralling our vision for the future can actually work in our favor if we accept the celestial challenge and become more methodical in accomplishing our goals. It is also possible that this transit will highlight where in our life we tend to give up too easily fostering frustration, regret, even resentment toward others.

A real treasure of this Full Moon is found in the supportive relationship between Mercury and Jupiter reinforcing that we can accomplishment our goals but it will require self-discipline, an unwavering commitment, and personal sacrifice.  Hours before the Full Moon, Mercury, the ruling planet for Gemini and Virgo, entered Capricorn  straight into the arms of Pluto a clear signal for transforming our perception of social power, authority, and leadership. Jupiter, the ruling planet for Sagittarius and Pisces, is in the sign of Capricorn and having recently made a trine to Saturn is valiantly navigating a stormy sea of uncertainty. Together, Mercury and Jupiter in Capricorn are helping us achieve what we imagine our future to be by keeping our feet firmly planted on Earth.

The first aspect the Moon made in Gemini was to nourish Venus in Aquarius which accentuated the universal theme of “human value”, and insured that we can experience grace and beauty in the arms of this Full Moon if we put our judgement from the past to sleep and awaken our appreciation for each unique expression of life. This Gemini Moon is also nourishing the North Node, Chiron, and Neptune Aquarius, which is helping us heal a deep wounding to humanity by opening our mind and heart to the unimaginable. Aquarius is that aspect in each of us learning to receive from others, and with the help of the Full Moon after-glow our thirst for new experiences and our quest for the unknown can guide our discovery of the full potential of what the human imagination can accomplish accompanied by self-determination.

I am writing this posthumous of an event of which I am well aware having gazed with affection at the sliver of the new Moon cradled below the punctuated lights of Venus and Jupiter; all three celestial bodies nestled in the arms of Capricorn. I did think at the time to take a photograph and fortunately my camera was out of batteries leaving me content to experience the moment undisturbed. When I opened an enthusiastic email from a dear friend inquiring into the significance of such beauty in the sky, the likes of which will not be seen again until 2054, I was inspired to  articulate in words one possible meaning of this celestial event. The conjunction of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter took place on December 1, the first day of the new month, and for that reason alone a momentous offering of significance when we consider that the “birth” of any moment be it a body, an event, or an idea carries the seeds for the potential flowering of that birth.

Traditional astrology foretells beneficence whenever Venus and Jupiter are in harmony their conjoining construed with “our cup  runneth over”; yet, if we look at Jupiter through a modern lens we see that Jupiter magnifies whatever it touches, in this case, a conserving Venus in Capricorn graciously maintaining the status quo. It seems unlikely that this conjoining of Venus and Jupiter will manifest in immediate, tangible  good fortune because the fortune we are offered is of a more subtle variety.

Venus is that aspect in ourself manifesting in what we value; and the places, the people, and the things that give us the most pleasure and satisfaction in our life all reside under the canopy of our personal values. When Venus is in Capricorn one thing that we value is our ability to preserve that which we value most in life. Not surprising then that our attention turns toward “relationship” adding a more mature hue to our view challenging us to seriously consider the lasting consequences of our actions. When we are under the influence of Venus in Capricorn we accept personal responsibility, and self-discipline in all matters of our heart; we are even  willing to sacrifice our immediate pleasuring, a tragedy for our goddess of love, in order to insure that what we value in life continues to thrive for generations to come.

The heady exuberance of Jupiter is noticeably restrained in Capricorn frustrating our enthusiasm to broaden our experiencing of life by planting our feet firmly upon the earth, taking one measured step at a time, and keeping our attention focused on accomplishing the goal in hand. In the modern world of “perpetual distraction” maintaining a single point of focus is becoming a lost art but the gift of Jupiter in Capricorn offers us the capacity to focus our intention in order to actualize what we aspire to be, to do, and to have in life. It is worth our remembering that Capricorn is an earthy sign full of robust sensuality bridled just beneath the surface of social respectability and when in company with Jupiter we can experience a healthy dose of unleashed sensual appreciation for being alive tempered with our sobering respect for life and awareness of the consequence and accountability of our actions.

This month seems destined to be remembered as one in which we consciously committed ourself to the hard work necessary to accomplish our cherished goals, and while, we may have to sacrifice the seductive sensuality of Venus and the jubilance of Jupiter, we gain the emotional maturity, self-determination, and personal authority to withstand whatever hardship might lie ahead knowing that each step we take contributes something of lasting value to our life.

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/2008/12/03/of-lasting-value/feed/ 0 laurenlesko Venus and Cupid http://laurenlesko.com/2008/11/27/unwavering-belief/ http://laurenlesko.com/2008/11/27/unwavering-belief/#comments Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:00:00 +0000 Lauren Lesko http://laurenlesko.com/?p=451 ]]> click on the image to read about the art

A Sagittarius new Moon heralds a golden dawn challenging each of us to break free from the  bondage of our tribal rhetoric so that we can dance in naked splendor with the universe falling blissfully into the open arms of the cosmos. When we are under the influence of Sagittarius we have an unshakable faith in our future and in our trust of life. What matters most to us is our unwavering belief that life is so much more than the sum of its parts. Sagittarius is that aspect in each of us expanding beyond the contours of what is familiar, shattering the prosaic realities of our daily life, disregarding our sentimental attachment with the past, and insisting that life be a mythic adventure riding gloriously off into the sunset of our future. Unfortunately, for those of us with a healthy dose of Sagittarius in our natal chart, I have Sagittarius on the cusp of my first house, we can be susceptible to Jupiterian inflation and defying the gravitational pull of Earth can be a major obstacle to achieving our goals in life; so too can be the believing that what is right for “me” is right for “thee”.

Every month, when the Sun and Moon kiss they share an intimate secret which then takes us on Earth the entire month to comprehend. This month the Sun and Moon are not alone in their shared secret, Mercury and Mars are nearby sharing in the intimacy of the moment. When the personal planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, involve themselves in a lunar transit the theme of “the personal” is accentuated. However, this offers a quandary to the Sagittarius new Moon considering first, that Jupiter ruling Sagittarius is a social planet, and second, the Sagittarius thirst for universal wisdom tends to be rejecting of the personal.  So then, what exactly is the cosmic message we are about to receive?

In my last post, Epimetheus Mercury, I wrote about the underpinnings of the celestial cycles governing human experiencing which leads me to think that the Sagittarius new Moon is working in tandem with the Epimetheus cycle of Mercury to underscore the importance to personally break free from self- imposed didactic rules and regulations governing our worldly perspective. In the coming month we will be challenged to let go of our cherished beliefs especially those that chime a self-righteous note or two. Sagittarius can be our teacher and our healer if we allow our self to grow in tolerance of difference in the world, and in acceptance that perception, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. Questioning why we believe what we believe is not an easy task. We need to be willing to break free from the dogma of our past and look at the present with new eyes. Sagittarius is a universal principal in human consciousness and without conscious awareness of the unity of humanity what we believe can segregate and isolate especially when we think that  our belief is more righteous or sacred than another.

The shadow faces of Sagittarius are fundamentalism and fanaticism which when left  unattended become the poisoned faces of fascism. This is not the month for pointing fingers, on the contrary, the Sagittarius new Moon is suggesting that we stop blaming others for the difficulties we perceive in the world. We have a golden opportunity this month to claim ownership of our behavior and to stop projecting our beliefs onto the beliefs of others. Under the guidance of Sagittarius we can break free of the limited view of human potential that we have internalized as truth by broadening our perception of what is humanly possible, and with a little luck we may experience Sagittarian wisdom trusting in life knowing that it is so much more than the sum of its parts.

]]> http://laurenlesko.com/2008/11/27/unwavering-belief/feed/ 3 laurenlesko The Astronomer