Yesterday’s new moon in Aries highlights a theme of primal impulses, instinctual awareness (and instinctual wounding), as well as returning feminine consciousness, and body mind integration.

With the sun and moon at 4 degrees of Aries accompanied by a close conjunction with Chiron at 5 degrees and Black moon Lilith at 6 degrees, this lunar cycle (and the coronavirus) offers an opportunity to bring our instinctual wisdom back on-line. And let’s face it, with all the heady deluge of information -often conflicting information- our rational minds have been sent into a frenzy of confusion. But there is another place from which to draw wisdom- our bodies.

Mars is the natural ruler of Aries and as concentrated desire including the desire for incarnation, our instincts-though a bit damaged and wild from repression- may show us what we truly need and desire at this time. Mars is associated with primal forces such as raw anger, desire, passion, and sexuality. In its intensified expression it can be narcissistic, aggressive and even violent. As well as being a god of war, Mars is also a fertility and vegetative god and thus capable of expressing the mysterious forces of nature therein. Essentially Mars is primal power and seeks to manifest that which it desires… sometimes through sheer brute force.

In this new moon pattern, Mars (25 degrees of Capricorn) is also powerfully echoed in tight conjunction to Pluto at (24 Capricorn), and Jupiter (23 Capricorn).

The signature of instincts in the new moon chart reflects the necessity for engaging with our inner knowing and basic awareness born from an innate sense of what is important at this time. These inner stirrings will make themselves known to varying degrees of consciousness though it is not necessarily through the conditioned ego and the rational mind that this information reaches us. In a rare opportunity to silence the overactive, over controlling mind of societal protocol-and if we can tear ourselves away form the onslaught of panic driven information-we might just touch in with the still silent voice of our deeper knowing.

What surfaces could very well get messy as a critical mix of fear, uncertainty, and insecurity contained in the pressure cooker of being locked down with family, friends and lovers, reaches boiling point. Sudden eruptions could break free from the usual well controlled psychic structures, causing shockwaves and disruption to the usual flow of interpersonal relationships. These outbursts may intensify as old Chironic wounds surface forcing us to acknowledge psychic material buried under layers of ‘normal’ daily life.

The Chiron wound is a wound of the instincts- often it is initiated in childhood when we are forced to deny our primal nature in favour of a more socially acceptable personality. Like an untamed horse the unintegrated instincts gallop through our inner landscapes in a constant bid to overcome the primacy of the ego.

The original wound of Chiron is constellated when he is rejected by his mother on account of his appearance. Abandoned by her shortly after birth Chiron becomes the foster son of Apollo who tutors him in many noble skills and crafts. The second wound of Chiron occurs when he is accidentally pierced by the spear of Hercules which has been dipped in the blood of the Learnean Hydra, the many headed serpent that cannot be slain until Hercules defeats her in his second labour.

This detail in the story of Hercules’ conquest of the Hydra is important in the myth of Chiron… while it is Hercules that causes the wound of Chiron it is also Hercules who sets him free by convincing Zeus to allow Chiron to trade places with the Titan hero and trickster Prometheus. This godly sanctioned trade-off facilitates the end of Chiron’s suffering as he is released form his immortal status.

The theme of snake medicine as pharmakon- the power to heal and the power to destroy is seen when Hercules both injures and redeems Chiron. In our own lives, Chiron in our birth chart by house and by sign may describe the nature of our wound, the poison and also the cure… and we discover that they are very often one in the same.

Could this be the medicine of the coronavirus? Many have speculated that what in the first instance appeared as a terrifying crisis for humanity also offers healing as perception shifts from one of fear to a heightened sense of awareness and responsibility.

Ultimately Chiron is the reintegration of our instincts and our conscious mind- not only bringing previously buried material to consciousness but also releasing instinctual awareness through the body thereby rebooting our inner knowing and guidance. In this respect Chiron and Black Moon Lilith carry a similar medicine- BML is also involved with the redemptive processes of releasing previously trapped psychic material and power from bondage. In the case of BML her healing comes from the reintegration of a particularly feminine pattern of consciousness directly linked with instinctual awareness, intuition and the ability to mediate the transference of energy between self and other, self and environment, and self and cosmos. Both BML and Chiron are masters of what may loosely be termed the ‘bio mystica’l process, that is the filtering of spirit through the world of matter thereby becoming agents of spirit in action.

Bringing it back to the coronavirus, questions to ask this lunar cycle may include-

What is it that weakens our immune system leaving us vulnerable to invasion? For sure, an early trauma and Chiron- like wounds that remain acknowledged lowers our resistance either through a weakened nervous system and/or repeated patterns and cycles of the original wound as the soul attempts to heals itself.

On the collective level, one question might be, what is it that humanity needs to bridge between the personal and collective at this time? Also, the human/ divine; unconscious/ conscious; heaven/earth… after all Chiron is also known as the Rainbow Bridge positioned as it is between Saturn and the outer planets.

And for our individual journey of healing… where is your Chiron wound, how conscious of it are you, and how can the cause also be the cure?

The Serpent’s Egg by Jake Badderly

March new moon in Aries on Tuesday 24^th places asteroid Pythia at 26 Capricorn, conjunct Mars (25), Pluto (24), and Jupiter (23). Asteroid Hygeia who is connected with snake medicine, purifying toxicity, and cleansing, sits at 6 degrees of Gemini where she is sextile to the Moon and Sun at 4 degrees of Aries, and also Chiron at 5 Aries.

For Demetra George, Hygeia is involved with maintaining health through right living and connection to nature. At this time when many are choosing to stay home and self-isolate, this new moon offers a timely opening to consider our connection with the natural world… including our own bodies.

The necessity to avoid inside spaces with others may finally point the way to deeper connection with our natural environment.

On the train the other day I overheard a conversation – or at least one end of a conversation. A young man in his twenties was talking on his phone, he said “This pandemic and all pandemics are caused by contact with wildlife.” There was a pause while the recipient replied, to which the young man further replied, “Well, we’ll have to herd them or kill them.”- Presumably he meant wild animals. I shuddered. In that moment I saw the potential for the COVID-19 crisis to engineer further disconnection from nature.

It seems to me that a great deal of the trouble we are in stems precisely from our disconnection from nature… the natural world and our own nature.

With asteroid Pythia conjuncting the mighty stellium in Capricorn, including Pluto, I consider the potential meaning for the collective. In Greek mythology The Pythia was the chosen Oracle in the temple of Delphi, a very ancient site with its earliest roots in the late bronze age, 1600 BC. The Pythia Priestesses emerged around 7^th century BC and by 9^th – 11^th century BC the temple had been taken over by the Sun god Apollo to whom they were subsequently in service.

Previously Delphi had been a sacred shrine dedicated to Gaia and the sea god Poseidon. In usurping the ancient snake priestesses the roots of patriarchy established a new cult where the ancient wisdom of the Great Mother and her priestesses was repressed or assimilated. The new agenda was less about Gaia and direct contact with the natural world and more about sovereignty of the priesthood, kingship, and worship of the solar gods- and in time one solar god.

Delphi is connected with the womb as a portal of cosmic consciousness and a bridge between heaven and earth- the place where spirit enters the material world and the mysteries of renewal symbolised by the serpent. The word (πίθος pithos), is thought to mean large jar, which may also have connotations to the womb. Although some believe that the Pythia Priestesses were in a half mad state of intoxication caused by putrid fumes from the earth, other scholars claim that far from gibberish their prophecies were intelligible and clear. Divine wisdom uttered by the Pythia was sought by the great and good of the time who were influenced by their prophecies (including Socrates) up until the 4^th century AD.

The word uterus is connected to the word utterance and when the Pythia- again from the word pithos- womb- opened themselves to the divine inspiration it was the voice of the Great Mother that spoke.

Hygeia who figures in this new moon pattern is also involved with the serpent mysteries. As the daughter of the Greco-Roman demigod Asclepius who was born of Apollo and Coronis, (which may have a shared root with the word crone) the birth of Asclepius echoes the usurping and assimilation of feminine power.

When Coronis is pregnant she falls in love with a mortal man, this enrages Apollo who kills both her and her lover. As she lay burning on her funeral pyre, Apollo performs the first caesarean section by cutting baby Asclepius from her womb thus saving him from certain death- he becomes the god of medicine.

Robert Graves suggests that the myth of Coronis represents the suppression of medical practice by women and its transference into the hands of the patriarchy. For Graves, the death of Coronis heralds a point when wisdom originally carried by the wise woman was now passed only from father to son. The Rod of Asclepius- a serpent entwined staff is still the symbol of medicine and healing today.

By now I am sure you have realised the uncanny link between the name Coronis and the Corona Virus… could it be that the virus is directing us to conscious self-care and the innate intelligence of our own bodies? Is it time for the return of the shamanic wise woman and… realistically can we continue to live without her?

On the other hand the fear surrounding the Corona virus may legitimise further pharmaceutical and medical intervention. Afterall, we are dealing with the serpent mysteries that can either heal or destroy.

In the new moon chart asteroid Coronis sits at 16 degrees of Pisces conjunct Neptune at 19 degrees. Neptune or Poseidon is also strongly involved with the serpent mysteries- the original shrine at Delphi was shared by Poseidon and Gaia, and he also features in the myth of Medusa, causing her banishment from the temple of Athena and her terrible transformation into the serpent headed gorgon.

In astrology Neptune rules Pisces and is associated with qualities such as intuition, sensitivity, psychic abilities, and spiritual enlightenment, however as with all planets there is a shadow side too and in the case of Neptune may induce confusion, trickery, escapism, illusion and generally an obscuration of reality.

Are things really as they seem?

In the Oracle of Delphi, carved above the door is the phrase “Know thyself”. Today it is information that has reached pandemic levels, there is so much information and misinformation out there causing mass confusion and panic. My advice is to go inside to your inner knowing… turn away from reactionary responses, breathe, take time, and consult your inner wise woman or man.

The serpent, strongly symbolised in this new moon chart, has the power to heal or destroy. When Athena gives Asclepius the blood from the severed head of Medusa, he separates it into two vials- one that has the power to kill and the other to restore life.

Pharmakon, a Greek word which means both medicine and poison is linked with the serpent mysteries of resurrection and healing- as is Asclepius. A ‘Pharmakeus’ is a magician or sorcerer who works with this magic, and the ‘Pharmakos’ is the scapegoat who may be sacrificed in the process.

Questions to contemplate in our own inner temple these coming weeks and months include -what is healing and what is poison in our lives individually and collectively? In whose interest are these powers administered? Who benefits and who is the scapegoat?

As we advance further into scientific knowledge, technology, biomedicine, and genetics, worthy of consideration are the consequences of this Promethean power and the implications on our relationship with the natural world including our own bodies. In a culture that appears to esteem mastery over nature,  and where it seems that the natural world and the natural human are endangered species, perhaps now is the time to reclaim the wise woman and the serpent mysteries of renewal.

Calling the Pythia Priestesses- the ones who are able to deeply connect with the chthonic and telluric energies of the land, the ones who open their bodies as receptacles of cosmic wisdom and the secrets of heaven and earth, the ones who listen to their own truth through shamanic awareness and abilities. To those who embrace the wisdom of renewal, the integration of the dark and light, life and death and the art of resurrection, we call you.

Canterbury Moon Lodge will take place on Tuesday 24^th March in a without words medicine walk with drum along the banks of the River Stour under the new moon, and the winking eye of Medusa.

Beginning on December 26, Holy days are Twelve (sometimes Thirteen) in number up to and including January 6^th which in the Christian calendar is Epiphany. Epiphany means ‘great light’ or ‘illumination’ and refers to the manifestation of Christ on earth. The Twelve Holy days are observed within the Christian mysteries, as well as the ancient mysteries, the Arcane School, and the ‘Ageless Wisdom’.

Epiphany is connected to the Star of Bethlehem which rose in the east guiding the three magi (or Astrologers) to the place of Jesus’ birth. Modern astrologers speculate that the Star of Bethlehem may have been a Venus/Jupiter conjunction, a comet, or a supernova.

The Twelve Holy days are believed to be of profound spiritual significance and are said to be under the influence of the Twelve Zodiacal Hierarchies which during the period leading up to Epiphany imprint their archetypal vibration onto the earth in order to create a harmonic resonance that completes at the end of the solar year. (You can read more about this by refering to the work of Rosicrucian author Corinne Heline).

Holy days are also believed to initiate the redemption of the earth and involves the 9^th Degree of the Lesser Mysteries. The process refers to the role and status of Earth as it relates to cosmic alchemy. This is found in the teaching of Alice Bailey.

The light building through the Twelve Holy days culminates and is released on Epiphany when the manifestation of divine light is anchored on earth. This is represented by the embodiment of Christ.

In some church traditions only full days are counted, so that 5 January is counted as the Eleventh Day, 6 January as the Twelfth Day, and the evening of 6 January is counted as the Twelfth Night. In these traditions, Twelfth Night is the same as Epiphany and is also known as the “Thirteenth Day” (Van Wagenberg-Ter Hoeven, Anke A. (1993).

The number thirteen is symbolic of feminine power, creative life force, and wisdom. While in modern culture the number thirteen is considered an omen of bad luck and ill fortune, in previous times and in many other cultures it was considered auspicious. The number 13 is connected to the Goddess, the sacred feminine, Venus and Mary Magdalene.

Perhaps the Star of Bethlehem was in fact Venus as the Morning Star for in the last chapter of the Bible, Jesus called Himself “the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16).

Lucifer or ‘Light Bringer’ is also a name for Venus as the Morning Star.

On planet earth, humans are activating, or reactivating, and anchoring the light of the divine feminine, a light which has been seriously obscured in the last few thousand years.

But while the birth of Christ is the physical incarnation of the divine on the planet- matter infused with the Christos – many teachings show that it is through the feminine that Christ consciousness is birthed… Mother Mary with the infant Jesus on her lap, mirroring the image of Isis with Horus… both solar deities birthed from the Mother.

Are these times heralding the manifestation, or realisation, of the feminine Christ?

Are we awakening to the necessity of a wholly acknowledged and fully realised feminine vibration toward the facilitation of human ascension? Is this what the questers after the Grail sought? Is it the heretical wisdom of the Knights Templars and other mysterious Brotherhoods? And could it be the gnosis behind the ‘Court of Love’ initiated by Eleanor of Aquitaine in Poitiers?

Is this the true mystery of the dance of Venus? The harmonic that will awaken humankind when the seat of human, now divine, consciousness awakens in the spiritual heart.

Like in the castle surrounded by thorns where Beauty (the Rose) sleeps, the true feminine has laid unconscious and absent from human activities for millennium.

And who was it that put a curse on Beauty?  It was the 13^th fairy.

But this myth may be read in a different way: Rather than scapegoating the dark feminine, or the witch, it points to the rejection of Her by a fear-of-the-feminine based consciousness that both lives in terror of feminine power, and fails to anticipate the destruction that results in its absence.

People are coming to appreciate the imbalance and discord that has been created through the uprooting of feminine power. Women and men are becoming conscious of how this principle lives within themselves and the collective and are experiencing the consequences of its suppression. The past few decades have witnessed a feminine revival and renaissance – though not always wholesome and often subject to manipulation and distortion – the time has nevertheless come for the Princess to awaken and claim her seat of power so that the castle, or the Waste Land may once again flourish.

In the fairy tale, it is a brave knight, perhaps the Grail quester, who awakens the sleeping beauty. Here is a symbol of the masculine kissing awake his own anima (often represented by Venus), and at the same time, embedded in this myth is the awakening animus (inner man) of the feminine. It is the hieros gamos of the gnostic texts.

Herein lies a key to the return of feminine power. In activating and making union with her animus, a woman cannot simply adopt masculine symbols of power such as those that are held in regard by the patriarchy. In that instance, nothing would change, and the imbalance would continue. Instead, the feminine needs to refine her masculinity through her heart centre. Similarly, the masculine cannot merge with his anima in a wholly feminine manner less he becomes emasculated. He must contact his feminine through his masculine energy.

The much-maligned power of the 13^th fairy is nothing less that the principles of renewal, regeneration, and transformation. It is not only the acceptance of death and an adherence to the principles of nature that the dark feminine symbolises, it is also the link to cosmic consciousness and the non- dualism that is required to merge with universal and planetary energies. It is a circular rather than linear way of human-beingness within the wider cosmic influence.

What is most feared about the integration of this consciousness is the ability to experience beyond limitations of time and space and imbibe the merging with God. This is an alchemical process which in true Grail fashion cannot be mediated or gained by proxy. It must be got through direct experience… and the Grail is different for everyone. What is clear however is that it is unobtainable without the feminine.

As I see it, the Grail is no less than the awakening and manifestation of human/divine feminine consciousness and living according to those principles. What’s more, the time of year from Christmas to Epiphany -these days little more than a faint idea in most modern minds – is in fact a time when the door to anchoring divine light within human beings and earth is wide open. That Venus as the Light Bringer heralds this opening points to the profound energies currently available for ‘cording- in’ the divine feminine.