Team Vesta & the Creation of a Spiritually Embodied Culture.

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a-girls-basketball-team_1_orig

I have recently been working with Vesta both the asteroid in astrology charts and the mythology. One of the most fascinating things about Vesta- and why I think she is an important archetype for this time- is that by probing her meaning and connecting with her energy she may help us to heal the false split (and shame) in women’s sexuality that was created by patriarchy, as well as aligning us with our true vocation.

In the original zodiacal belt outlined by the Assyrian and Babylonian cultures, Scorpio which was depicted by a serpent was directly followed by Virgo hence there was no Libra as such. Libra was contained within the constellation of Scorpio as the “Chelae” the claws of the scorpion. Only with the rise of patriarchal cultures was Libra- the sign of marriage- placed between Virgo and Scorpio. From then on women were either chaste before marriage or sexual consort after marriage. The recent discovery of Vesta which rules both Virgo and Scorpio can heal this artificial split thus restoring the sacredness of sexuality and allowing expressions of sexuality outside of marriage.

The glyph for Virgo and Scorpio are similar with the M of matter (Mother) turned inward for Virgo ♍ and outward for Scorpio ♏ These different depictions point to energy (particularly sexual energy) being either contained within (Virgo) as in the virgin archetype or directed outward and shared (Scorpio). The Vestal virgins in their original expression were sacred sexual priestesses who practiced the sacred rites by transmitting the fertilising and transformative powers of the Great Mother through their bodies. This facilitated healing, community harmony, and allowed for the possibility of human divine connection. The Vestals would periodically remove themselves from contact with others in order to rejuvenate themselves- become whole unto themselves- before placing themselves in sexual service again. Later, once patriarchy was established, divine lineage through the priestess line was usurped by the kings and it became an offence for the Vestals to practice their sacred rites. Instead their main duty was ensuring the burning of the sacred flame in Rome.

In the natal astrology chart Vesta can tell us much about how we use our sexual energy or libido and also points to our sacred vocation. For those with a strong Vesta signature, depending on house, sign and aspect, sexual energy may be expressed freely and even promiscuously, or else be repressed. Similarly in terms of our calling and vocation, we may be fiercely focused or else scattered and destabilised. Exploring Vesta in the natal chart can convey much of this meaning. Vesta shines a light into the essence of each of us, men, and women.

In todays full moon Vesta is at 20 Virgo.

The sabian Symbol for 21 Virgo is-

SECOND LEVEL: EMOTIONAL/CULTURAL

PHASE 171 (VIRGO 21°): A GIRL’S BASKETBALL TEAM.

KEYNOTE: Physical training as a means to inculcate the feeling of participation in a collective culture.

RECEPTIVITY TO COLLECTIVE FORCES
​Putting aside competitive, individual goals we can tune into higher forces that focus on the bigger picture and collective aspirations

Basketball presents an interesting symbol. The ball must be thrown into a narrow opening high above the head of the player. The ego-consciousness (the ball) must be driven upward to a focal point or circle that is ready to receive it. Here the players operate as a team; what should be stressed here is the formation of a group acting as an organic whole and training itself to operate in a social context.

I love the idea of Team Vesta where each member is aligned with their unique essence and sacred vocation for the purpose of directing the ego consciousness toward a more liberated and connected human experience. To my mind this speaks of collective healing where those of us who feel called to participate in the forming of a spiritually embodied human experience and new Earth, come together as a team to support each other in our individual and collective visions.

If you would like an astrology consultation to explore Vesta in your chart, I am offering a 20% discount form now until the end of July. I am also offering an online workshop on Vesta in the astrology chart on Monday 5th July for those who are interested. Please PM me for details.

Information about the origins of the Vestal Virgins is found in Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-emerging Feminine, by Demetra George and Douglas Bloch.

The Red Death: Menstruation as a Symbol of Renewal- Pt 6.

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This extract from a longer piece of writing was written in 2016, before the explosion of the insistence on gender neutral language specifically in relation to female bodies and female bodily functions and experiences. Yesterday I posted about how gender-neutral language is officially infiltrating our cultural narrative and is being institutionalised particularly within medical literature. I am interested in considering the implications of this beyond linguistics.
“According to the Western medical model, pre-menstrual syndrome is a disease, menstruation is a disease, pregnancy is a disease, childbirth is a disease, and menopause is a disease. From this model, I have reached the conclusion that being a woman is a disease.”
Quote from Women’s Health Advocate Sibyl Shainwald
Part 6 of The Red Death considers the pathologizing of female biology and also touches upon how women’s bodies, due to being pathologized are big business for pharmaceutical companies.

Gnostic Woman

“The medicalization of our [women’s] bodies is particularly ironic because historically, women served as society’s healers, a role that combined wisdom, nurturance, intuition, and skill.”

This quote from Women’s Health Advocate Sibyl Shainwald points to the medicalisation of women’s bodies as usurping traditional feminine wisdom in favor of androcentric medical practices which pathologise the ontological nature of women. Speaking at the conference for Hysterectomy Education Resources and Sources (HERS), she says:

“According to the Western medical model, pre-menstrual syndrome is a disease, menstruation is a disease, pregnancy is a disease, childbirth is a disease, and menopause is a disease. From this model, I have reached the conclusion that being a woman is a disease.”

You can read the full speech here- Sibyl Shainwald Talk

From my own perspective, in considering who ultimately benefits from the wide spread consumption of menstrual suppressants, there is the question of economics: Barr pharmaceuticals earned a $50 million…

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The Red Death: Menstruation as a Symbol of Renewal- Part 5.

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Pharmaceuticals and women’s bodies is not a new issue, from the Thalidomide tragedy, to HPV, questions around the impact of pharmaceutical drugs on the female reproductive system have risen at various times over the past several decades.
With current concerns about the health implications of the vaccination for covid-19 on the reproductive health of women, part 5 of The Red Death, written in 2017 before the pandemic explores another issue related to reproductive health of women and pharmaceuticals- the vaccination against HPV.
In a documentary released in September 2017 entitled “Sacrificial Virgins”, film maker Joan Shenton traces a thread from the HPV vaccinations currently administered to young girls, back to the 1960s “Thalidomide tragedy” when a drug prescribed to pregnant women resulting in thousands of babies being born with deformities. Shenton travels back further on the cultural timeline to draw parallels with sacrificed virgins from ancient cultures where pre-sexual girls were “chosen” to give their life and autonomy to the king or other important men. Shenton says she chose the title Sacrificial Virgins “because the vaccine is often given to girls before they are sexually active”. (SanVax,Inc.,2017).

Gnostic Woman

Mother of GodProtection of the Mother God-Orthodox Image found on google images

What may loosely be termed as a ‘menstrual revival movement’, beginning in the 1970s and taking hold in the 1980s continues today as many women seek to honour menstruation and even utilise it as a method of empowerment for women. Fedele says: “By the end of the 1980’s, a movement to affirm the power and importance of menstruation had developed” (Fedele 2013.p. 151). Chris Knight credits a significant contribution to Shuttle and Redgrove and claims that

“It was above all The Wise Wound that presented a new generation of emancipated women in the 1980’s with what seemed to be at first a daring and paradoxical message: Menstruation can be an empowering and indeed magical experience” (Knight, 1991, p.378).

While much negativity, past and present, has undoubtedly played a part in our current menstrual rejection, it is clear that the empowering…

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The Red Death: Menstruation as a Symbol of Renewal-Part 4

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In part 4 of The Red Death: Menstruation as a Symbol of Renewal my focus is on exploring the wider implications of suppression of the mysteries of the Dark Goddess of which menstruation and menopause are an integral part.

Gnostic Woman

Mary Magadalene Mary Magdalene with Alabaster Jar by EsotericaZosimoto

Within the feminist spirituality movement, professor of religious studies, Anna Fedele describes the practices of a group of Spanish pilgrims for whom “a world-denying and body mortifying Christian attitude is at the root of most present-day evils and the principal cause of the exploitation of the planet” (Fedele 2013. p.145). The pilgrims consider themselves “heirs of an ancient pre-Christian and pre-patriarchal pagan cult of the Goddess” (ibid) and are among many groups involved in what I would describe as a ‘menstrual revival’ movement. The pilgrims believe that “women’s blood is sacred and see the menstrual cycle as a key element in the process of reversing Christianity’s systematic devaluation of the body, particularly the female body” (ibid).

In modern culture the power of menstruation and acknowledgement of the divine feminine has surfaced at various times within literature, art and philosophy- the divine feminine rises…

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The Red Death: Menstruation as a Symbol of Renewal- Part 3

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As more focus and attention is being placed on the menstruak cycle, partucularly in light of the effects of the vaccinations for covid 19, I feel the bio medical consequences on womn’s redproductive heath must be addressed.

Gnostic Woman

Larrissa Morais Painting by Larissa Morais

How is it that menstruation, once considered a sacred process, has become devoid of meaning in our modern times? What has caused a shift from the sacred to the profane? In The Woman in a Shaman’s Body, anthropologist Barbara Tedlock says: “The unease so many Western women feel about their menstrual cycle springs from a combination of masculine sentiments and religious sanctions” (Tedlock, 2005, p.196). While Psychotherapist and Astrologer, Demetra George says, “Women no longer understand that the instinctive movement during menstruation is withdrawal in order to connect with powerful psychic energies to effect healing in their lives” (George, 1992, p.19-20). Feminist scholar Mary Parlee says: “What little we do know of menstruation has been defined in terms of pathology; menstrual studies are incomplete while we only chart the sickness of the cycle, and not its peaks and inspirations” (Parlee, quoted in Shuttle and…

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The Red Death: Menstruation as a Symbol of Renewal. Pt.2

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What progress has been made since the original writing of this in 2016, and what continues to fester at the core of our cultural conditioning?

Gnostic Woman

Apache Sunrise Ceremony- A Woman Coming of Age- Apache Sunrise Ceremony- A Rites of Passage from girlhood to womanhood. Photographer unknown.

Traditional and indigenous cultures have a different relationship to menstruation: anthropologists Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb say, “this apparently ordinary biological event [menstruation] has been subject to extraordinary symbolic elaboration in a wide variety of cultures” (Buckley and Gottlieb, 1988, p. 3). The meaning of menstruation while apparently more symbolic in traditional cultures is no less ambiguous; cross-culturally studies shows that while menstruation is universally ‘taboo’, rules, social mores, and customs “bespeak quite different, even opposite, purposes and meanings…. ambiguous and often multivalent” (ibid).

In our own culture ‘selective’ myths on menstruation may be found within the Judaeo- Christian tradition where, generally speaking, menstruation is viewed as “impure”, “unclean” or “contaminating” – Leviticus 15:19-23, is a typical example: “When a woman has discharge, if the discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual…

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The Link Between Menstruation, the Pineal Gland, DMT, & EMF’s

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Eye of Horus and Pineal Gland
 
 
The link between menstruation, the pineal gland, DMT, & EMF’s as a strong contender as to why women’s menstrual cycles are changing-
 
On 25th March 2021, the Guardian newspaper published and article on the effects of the pandemic on women’s menstrual cycle. The article begins “A majority of menstruating women have experienced changes to their cycle over the last year, surveys suggest. One of the main culprits? Persistent stress.”
 
Gynaecologist Dr Anita Singh posted an informal survey on Instagram in May, asking if women had noticed changes to their cycles or hormonal symptoms, 65% said yes.
 
While the article points to persistent stress and restrictions on releasing pent up emotions as the main culprits, the article fails to mention the impact of EMF’s on the menstrual cycle. Given that so many of us have been spending much more time online, this factor cannot be overlooked… and I’m not even bringing 5G into question here.
 
It has been noted and scientifically proven that long-term exposure to cellular phones EMF may affect the reproductive hormonal balance and impair endocrine homeostasis and it may cause peripheral effects.
 
Interference with natural hormonal activity could have huge impact on the female psyche – hormones according to Vicki Noble (author of Shakti Woman) play a vital part in facilitating and accessing female power:
 
“Just before and during menstruation, women experience their strongest healing and oracular powers” (Noble, 1991, p.173).
 
Birth control and interfering with hormones have been known to cause mental health problems in women – a recently published study sheds light on the alarming relationship between hormonal birth control and depression; the findings according to the study are “only the latest in a long line of battles between women and their doctors over accurate information” (Broadly, 2017).
 
Research in neuroscience has made a link between menstruation and the pineal gland:
 
“Consideration of pineal melatonin functions provides a new dimension into the understanding of the neuroendocrine mechanisms governing the cyclical phenomena of the female reproductive system” (Sanyk 1992).
 
This is corroborated in Clinical Reproductive Medicine and Surgery: Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Ovarian Axis and Control of the Menstrual Cycle by scientists Beshay and Carr, who say:
 
“The menstrual cycle is the result of an orchestra of hormones…. it involves the interaction of many endocrine glands as well as a responsive uterus…. the menstrual cycle remains a complex process where many aspects are still not well understood.” (Beshay and Carr, p.31).
 
The pineal gland, according to Descartes is “the principal seat of the soul and the place in which all our thoughts are formed”. While Descartes, from his materialist perspective ascribes the soul to a physical part of the brain, the spiritual aspects and functions of the pineal gland have been well documented in eastern religions such as Tantra, and more recently in the West by Dr. Rick Strassman, M.D., author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Strassman, who has dedicated years of research to the pineal gland, suggests that it is the “factory for a powerful brain chemical called DMT (Di-Methyl Tryptamine) which when produced induces a person into a psychedelic and mystical experience” (Collective evolution, 2017). Of the curious nature of the pineal gland, Strassman says,
 
“All other brain sites are paired, meaning that they have left and right counterparts; for example, there are left and right frontal lobes and left and right temporal lobes…. as the only unpaired organ deep within the brain, the pineal gland remained an anatomical curiosity for nearly two thousand years…. no one in the west had any idea what its function was.” (Strassman, quoted in collective evolution, 2017).
 
As menstruation is linked with the pineal gland which is linked to altered states of consciousness and spiritual connection, it is not too far a leap to consider that menstruating woman have access to mystical states facilitated by the release of DMT. She (the menstruant) becomes both one in her body- bleeding and present in the physical world- and at the same time is connected to the spirit world. Based on anthropological reports of mystical and magical states of menstruating women and the recent findings on the connection between menstruation and the pineal gland, it does seem likely that menstruation is indeed “the medium of a spiritual-communal bond” (Sjoo and Mor, quoted in Noble, 1991, p.27).
 
Some of this material is from a dissertation I presented for my MA in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred where I consider the implications of the gradual erasure of menstruation and state a strong case as to why this would have a fundamental and devastating effect on not only women but the whole human community.
 
The question as we advance ever deeper into the age of technology and bio medical science is how we can protect and honor the sacredness of our bodies and the “biomystical” experience as it extends beyond the purely physical and biological to a truly interconnected and cosmically aligned reality.
 
 

Solar Eclipse: Rekindle Your Vital Force.

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Leighton,_Frederic_-_Invocation

Invocation by Frederic Leighton

What if I told you that the New Moon solar eclipse happening this Thursday, 10th June is an opportunity for personal and collective soul retrieval? That at the time of a New Moon solar eclipse, when the Sun -our conscious mind- is obscured, we have access to forces of the past that lay buried in the unconscious as psychic complexes and that these forces or powers may be seen, realised, and integrated. This may facilitate a release from past binds or an assimilation of old, previously forgotten gifts, knowledge, skills, and awareness. This concept is articulated by Dane Rudhyar and later Demetra George; Rudhyar goes on to say that whether the Sun is conjunct the north or south node also bears upon the meaning and potential of the eclipse.

In the case of Thursday’s solar eclipse, the Sun is conjunct the north node which symbolizes future possibilities of growth on the basis of what has already been accomplished in the past. The eclipse can awaken new illumination about the future and activate new ways to do things both individually and collectively. When the Sun is conjunct the north node, we are called upon to face the necessity of manifesting new ways to move into our future. Hence eclipses often correspond to stress, crisis and change in our lives. During eclipse season we are involved with the journey of the individual soul and the World Soul.

Eclipses represent major tests that are presented to us in those areas of the chart where the eclipse falls. The position of the Sun and Moon this eclipse is 19 Gemini, 47’. The Sabian symbol which can reveal more about the unfolding energy is-

PHASE 80 (GEMINI 20°): A MODERN CAFETERIA DISPLAYS AN ABUNDANCE OF FOOD, PRODUCTS OF VARIOUS REGIONS.

KEYNOTE: The assimilation of multifarious knowledge through the synthesizing power of the mind.

From the One, the Many arise in due time. The Original Source gives birth to the mountain stream which, gathering to itself the down-flow of rain water, becomes the large river around which cities are built. These in turn pollute the river on its way to the vast ocean. This modern symbol expresses the fact that man, now at the close of a cultural cycle, is able to gather foodstuffs – mental as well as physical – from many regions of the globe. His diet has acquired a planet-wide foundation; history tells us that the search for salt and spices, then for commodities rare in local regions, provided the impetus for global trade and thus eventually for a planetary consciousness. The results may be satiety and indigestion, and mental confusion caused by lack of discrimination.

This is the last symbol of the sixteenth five-fold sequence. As is most often the case such a fifth stage implies a certain kind of synthesis or at least a preparation which leads to a new level. The keynote here is indeed ASSIMILATION; the negative potentiality of the symbol is WASTE.

“Mental confusion caused by lack and discrimination” and a need to either assimilate or eliminate… As we fully enter the information age we are called to exercise our power of discrimination and discernment more keenly… haven’t we become painfully aware of this over the past eighteen months and more?

When we consider our soul’s journey through lifetimes, we may also wonder what extraneous “stuff” we have picked up along the way that has obscured our pure soul essence. Through a process of pollution and contamination our own sacred flame may have diminished and even extinguished. There is also the ancestral field to consider… to what extent is our soul journey bound with ancestral legacies? Vesta inconjunct Chiron on the solar eclipse may reveal information to this end if we are prepared to look.

Keeper of the Sacred Flame, Vesta, represents the flaming torch of illumination that we carry from life time to life time. This light is encoded within our unique vibrational tone, our soul’s essence, and keeps the Home fires burning. No matter how far we stray from our essential self Vesta holds the torch for our return. Like a lighthouse flashing into the dark oceans of the unconscious, She calls to us… and we call back.

On the Full Moon lunar eclipse on 26th May, Vesta was in a square aspect with the Sun and Moon and an exact square with the lunar nodes on the Gemini/Sagittarius axis. As eclipse season continues with the New Moon solar eclipse, Vesta is still squaring the Sun, Moon, and lunar nodes. The Gemini/Sagittarius axis has been prominent this last year as the north node has been retrograding through Gemini and the south node retrograding through Sagittarius. The moon’s nodal axis -or the head and tail of the dragon as it known- is involved with the soul’s journey through lifetimes. Loosely speaking the south node tells of where we have been, lessons learned, experiences gained, and the things we have mastered. The north node pulls us forward into the new for the purpose of our soul’s growth. Closer to the truth is that we continually move on that continuum weaving past and present towards wholeness and integration. Whenever a planet or other celestial body forms an aspect pattern with the lunar nodes, the energy or vibration of that body is highlighted and included in the experience, or Kairos – the uniquely timely, the spontaneous, the radically particular.

Vesta is our commitment and devotion to our sacred calling…  for me personally I have been strongly aware of Vesta’s influence as for the past week or so Jupiter has been conjunct my natal Vesta at 1 Pisces in the 8th house… though her presence is very much a collective event on more levels than I’d initially realised when considering this blog.

As Vesta has been in Virgo for some time, Jupiter’s entry into Pisces highlights Vesta-type concerns as they relate to the Pisces/Virgo axis… surrender to the transcendent flow and the material containers needed to stay rooted in the physical world… or how bring in and anchor spirit in the material realm. Many Astrologers believe that Virgo- 6th house- is under the rulership of Vesta.

Vesta’s hearth kindles a desire for Home, exposes the painful absence and dislocation from it, and inspires joy when we are aligned to it… symbolically at Home with ourselves at the deepest most essential level. Vesta is also involved with the Earth as our collective Home… our Earth Heart. Essentially a spiritualised feminine energy that seeks to take root in the physical world of matter, when inspired by Vesta we are conduits of spirit capable of manifesting and expressing spirit in and through the physical container of our body. It is also where we find and create other containers to express and ground spirit. Each of us are coded to facilitate unique spiritual qualities and anchor them here on Earth. It may be that we have carried our particular Vesta torch or sacred flame through lifetimes igniting the same energetic vibration time and time again. It is what is ours to do and by doing it we are brought more fully into our essential truth. By expressing our unique vibration in this way we  participate in our collective awakening and Homecoming.

For all the above reasons, I feel Vesta features strongly throughout this eclipse season however there’s more…

As the brightest asteroid Vesta is occasionally visible to us with the naked eye… now is one of those rare times!  Between 5th -22nd June, Vesta may be visible in our night sky.

On 19th June Vesta will come within 170.6 million kilometres of Earth which is the closest it has been for two decades and is the closest it will be until 2040.

To find out more about how to spot Vesta go here-

https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/vesta-2018-opposition/

That Vesta is visible to us suggests that we have a direct link to this spiritual dimension and can make it conscious.

And, as these things go, the Vestalia was a Roman religious festival to honour Vesta and the Sacred Flame which took place over several days from June 7th– 15th. During this time women were allowed to enter the inner sanctum of Vesta and make offerings to Her, approaching Her alter barefoot. No official business was conducted in Rome during this week and on the last day the entire city was purified.

According to Ovid, the shrine of Vesta was always a circular building to emulate the earth. Vesta signified the life force of the earth; its ‘vital force’ from which she took her name and which her sacred flame represented.

In Roman mythology, Vesta was the third daughter of the god Saturnus. Unlike her sisters Juno and Ceres, she did not marry but remained a virgin although in this context it is the archaic meaning of the word virgin- whole unto herself.

I have written a lot over the years about Vesta, the Vestal Virgins, and the Vestas as sacred sexual priestesses in my blog www.gnosticwoman.com

To find these blogs simply type “Vesta” into the search bar.

To read more about the Vestalia and the power of Vesta this is an interesting blog-

https://historyandarchaeologyonline.com/the-vestalia-celebrating-vesta-and-purifying-rome/

Somewhere I feel in all of us there is a little flame that burns with the essence of our unique soul code, a distinctive note that only we can add to the collective symphony. Maybe we are fully aware of our flame as a bright phosphorus light illuminating our life and leading us forward toward our sacred calling. Alternatively it may be that the light comes and goes brightening and diminishing depending on how obscured it becomes by life’s events and experiences that take us away from ourselves. It can happen that we forget to tend the flame and for a while and it appears to diminish, even extinguish, but it is always there waiting for us to reignite it and remember who we are and why we are here.

The Full Moon eclipse on Thursday is an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to our sacred commitments. Even if we have strayed far away from home and our sacred flame is faint or has gone out, we can reset our intention and relight our candle by recommitting to what we know in our heart to be our true calling.

There is a mighty asteroid Goddess influence this New Moon with Vesta at 15 Virgo, 33’ in a trine with Uranus (12 Taurus, 54’) and Ceres (12 Taurus, 41’). On an esoteric level, Ceres is involved with the Eleusinian Mysteries, guiding initiates through a death rites of passage, as well as the Blood Mysteries.

At the same time Pallas (24 Pisces, 56’) conjunct Neptune at (23 Pisces, 08’).

But this is for another blog… or two.

If you would like an astro shamanic reading to explore where Vesta sits in your natal chart by sign, house, and aspect and to explore your sacred calling, I am available for online sessions.

To finish this piece I’d like to quote an extract from T.S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding”, as I feel it captures something of this solar eclipse-

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.

—T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets (Gardners Books; Main edition, April 30, 2001) Originally published 1943.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Sophia & Lilith: The Rhythm of Cosmic, God-Ordained Cycles, & the Certification of Self Worth.

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af_klint_hilma_5

“The Dove, no. 5” by Hima af Klint

Tuesday’s New Moon initiated a new lunar cycle with the Sun and Moon at 21° Taurus. The signature- or blueprint- of a new Moon chart resonates throughout the lunar month, increasing in intensity and clarity up until the point of full illumination on the full Moon before the energy begins to dissipate and dissolve in preparation for another cycle. The spiralling Moon orbits around the zodiacal wheel triggering the essence of the points visited in the constellations.

Working with the Sabian symbols and the lunar cycle offers an opening into the fertilising and transformative powers of the moon and her mysteries of renewal.

Sabian Symbols:

The Sabian symbols are 360 expressions or qualities describing each degree of the astrological wheel beginning at 1° Aries through to 30° Pisces. The symbols were realised in 1925 by Marc Edmund Jones, a noted Astrologer, and Elsie Wheeler a gifted spiritualist clairvoyant. Each one of the symbols contain a unique vibrational field which holds a specific meaning for that particular degree.

Themes and vibrations of this lunar cycle:

The Sabian symbol for the new Moon is 22° Taurus (rounded up to the next degree)  WHITE DOVE FLYING OVER TROUBLED WATERS seems timely and appropriate given that we are about to enter Pentecost season.

KEYNOTE: The spiritual inspiration that comes to the individual in the overcoming of crisis.

Pentecost is celebrated on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) from Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit, often symbolised by a white dove, upon the Apostles and other followers of Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feats of Weeks as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Act 2: 31). It is a movable feast which this year falls on May 23 just three days before the culmination of lunar energies with the full Moon total lunar eclipse on May 26.

Throughout time the Holy Spirit has often been considered feminine. According to Irenaeus, a second century Greek Bishop, the great Mother-principle of the universe appears as the first woman, the Holy Spirit (rūha d’qudshā) moving over the waters and is also called the mother of all living. Under her are the four material elements—water, darkness, abyss, and chaos.

In Gnosticism, Sophia is also a feminine figure analogous to the human soul but also simultaneously one of the feminine aspects of God. Gnostics held that she was the syzygy (female twin divine Aeon) of Jesus (i.e. the Bride of Christ), and Holy Spirit of the Trinity. Sophia is not a remote, transcendent figure secluded and contained in the Heavens or Pleroma but is fully immanent in the material world. Sophia is intimate and immediate; her temple resides in the flesh of the human body and in the substances of Earth and Cosmos. She is pervasive, non-discriminatory, loving, and available for interaction with all souls, meeting them where they are to co-create the World Soul, or Anima Mundi. She is the Cosmic Mother and the animating luminous Spirit- the enlightener and heart opener of men and women as well as their inner witness. Sophia awakens, arouses, and entices.  

In the proverbs of ben Sirach- The Search for Wisdom and Her Blessings, an erotic account of the desire to be close to Wisdom, or Sophia is evocatively depicted, and we are told that “those who meditate on her are happy”, as are those who “ponder her ways in their heart, pursue her, peep through her windows and her doors, set up camp beside her, and take refuge in her home”.

In 1904, Rudolph Steiner talks of the Isis power of Christ and the Sophia of Christ:

“We must realize that through the forces of the Christ we must find an inner astronomy that will show us again the cosmos moving and working by the power of the spirit. When we have this insight into the cosmos that is awakened through the newfound Isis power of the Christ—which is now the power of the Divine Sophia—then Christ, united with the Earth since the Mystery of Golgotha, will become active within us, because then we shall know him. It is not the Christ that we lack, but the knowledge and wisdom of Isis, the Sophia of the Christ.” ~ 24 December 1920

This new Moon Sabian symbol at Taurus 22°  unfolds the vibration of WHITE DOVE FLYING OVER TROUBLED WATER further-

It is a message from the Holy Spirit announcing a new Dispensation. This symbolic scene can be applied to personal crises resulting from emotional upheavals or from the irruption of unconscious forces and impulses into the consciousness — if the crisis has been faced in the right spirit.

Here it is not the product of a culture, a “book,” but instead the rhythm of cosmic, God-ordained cycles that reveals its conclusive beat through a living and concretely significant sign — a reward to the Faithful.  

This is a time to call upon the guidance and healing of Sophia to mediate the “troubled waters” and to open our heart and soul to the feminine experience of God.

At the seed moment of the new Moon, Black Moon Lilith, a different and yet profoundly related expression of the cosmic feminine is also conjunct the Sun and Moon by 1° at 22°. Taurus. The relationship between Sophia and Lilith offers rich material- both are said to have fallen from grace, Lilith from the Garden of Eden, and Sophia from the Pleroma (the fullness of God); the journey of their respective return is closely bound with humanity’s redemption.

The Sabian symbol for Lilith’s new Moon position is 23° Taurus of which the Sabia Symbol is:

A JEWELRY SHOP FILLED WITH VALUABLE GEMS:

Two elements should be distinguished in this symbolic picture: the gems that result from natural processes, often induced by extreme volcanic heat and pressure, and the finished products of refined craftsmen. Both the gems themselves and the artistry are highly prized and bring prestige to the owner of the jewels. The symbol applies to any product in which culturally acquired skill has embellished or transformed the end results of a lengthy and demanding natural process.

This is the third stage of the eleventh five-fold sequence of phases. At this stage we are concerned with the social process which brings about a Certification of Personal Worth.

Lilith is no stranger to heat and pressure and when we come into contact with her, we are also forged in the fires of transformation. As uncomfortable as this is the process induces an awakening of Personal Worth and Self Reclamation.

Working with the Sabian symbols and the archetypal powers of Sophia and Lilith opens a portal into the human heart and soul to initiate gnosis (direct experience) of the divine feminine. As technology and science journey deeper into space, both inner and outer, we are in danger of being untethered from the rhythm of cosmic, God-ordained cycles. As the consciousness and emotionality of AI grows evermore sophisticated the distinctions between wo(man) and machine are increasingly blurred. Sophia compels us to turn away from the artificial matrix and align with the beating primal pulse of life through our own bodies and natural cycles of Earth and Cosmos… “turn away from the artificial” she lovingly advises. Of course, to turn away entirely is perhaps neither possible or advisable however for me this simple message speaks to the necessity of rooting oneself in one’s own truth and Source connected wisdom… she is cautioning against losing oneself to a world devoid of soul and at the mercy of man-made laws above the wisdom of the ages.

Lilith beckons us deeper into our personal truth and inner resources, a treasure trove of “valuable gems” waiting to be mined if we are able to resist the temptations of the counterfeit world…  a synthetic structure devoid of the living holy spirit- Sophia.

Both Sophia and Lilith are Wisdom Keepers weaving us into to the web of life through the doorway of ourselves, directing our consciousness not out and up, but in and down, through the wisdom of our cells, igniting and fusing our physical and subtle bodies with the pulse of God. Together they facilitate an inner personal alchemy and regeneration that binds us to the Greater Alchemy of Earth and Cosmos. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lilith & the Mystery of the Dark Moon

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Lilith-John-Collier-painting

Lilith by John Collier

Today’s new moon at 21 ° Taurus is closely conjunct both True Black Moon Lilith and Mean Black Moon Lilith. The “Temple” of Lilith between these two points is no more than a silver slither as both are within a few arc minutes at 22 ° Taurus. Fixed star Algol- the blinking eye of Medusa- is also involved in this Dark Goddess union with the Sun and Moon, a few degrees away at 26 Taurus.

When Mean and True Black Moon are conjunct, we may brace ourselves for a potent Lilith visitation arising suddenly and intensely into our awareness- a breaking through of repressed unconscious material: rage; a sovereign declaration; an inconvenient truth; an admission of desires long buried under the polite weight of the superego; that which is taboo; a refusal to participate in the inauthentic; something beyond the bounds… the realm of the divine is not always “good” but it is always pure.

The heavy door dusty and stiff with the passing of time opens, sometimes a creak, sometimes an explosion. Lilith is in the house.

Lilith has been demonised as bitch, witch, ball breaker, succubus, child killer, femme fatale, demoness, and malevolent wind spirit. Echoes of her voice emerge from exile in the moments when our well-honed skills of self-denial and society pleasing can no longer contain a deeper primal urge for raw authentic expression. This can be harsh and destructive, and sometimes there’s no going back after the showdown… the only way is through. If we learn to surrender to Her wisdom, if we learn to quieten the voice of reason, the rational, safe limitations of dualistic thinking, we may enter the Temple of Lilith- Her temple is a sacred container which holds and oversees the mysterious processes of transformation and initiation. Rather than being blown apart by Her awesomeness, we are guided through steps that may not always make sense; perhaps we are even blindfolded… just because we have for a brief moment entered the realm of the gods there is much we must not see. We feel the Dark Goddess and yet She herself remains a mystery.

The things of Lilith which have been banished and imprisoned in the personal and collective repository of the unacceptable and demonised, or what Sigmund Freud calls the ID, cannot stay locked away for ever. If we are to claim the truth of who we are in all of our multi-dimensional flow of human and divine facets, we must also claim that which has been rejected and exiled. This is a process of symbiosis: feeling and freeing the pain of what has been outcast and unblocking the energetic channels gives way to an influx of pulsating living energy to fuel our renewal.

Lilith is concerned first and foremost with our personal liberation and releasing our unique code or vibration into the collective strata; She is the space where we interact with the anima mundi, the world soul; She facilitates our coming into alignment with our unique vibrational field and plugs us into the wider matrix of life, Earth, and Cosmos.

While we each have a different Lilith story there may be similarities when we consider the collective narrative around the maiming of certain aspects of feminine, or soul expression. This is the territory of the Dark Goddess of whom Lilith is but one, however she is a potent and activated one who forbids us total rest or complacency until we form a relationship with Her and open ourselves to receive Her wisdom.

While Lilith is very much an expression of the feminine divine, her impulse and intention to liberate us from the shackles of ridgified and oppressive thought forms and beliefs is felt in both women and men. Lilith and the other Dark Goddess figures are concerned with freedom of the human soul through contact with the divine… the divine here is not white angel wings and holy on high, it is also the deep fertilising blackness of the void full of potential and the transformative power of the moon. It can be terrible and taboo, shaking our conditioned mind and shut down bodies right to the core. Things can look quite different after an encounter with Lilith.

Who are you really? she asks, looking you boldly in the eye with an unwavering gaze that seems to reflect the many facets of your diamond soul. Her lithe body, muscular and tight, shimmering as a pale blueish grey, snake-like pulse of luminous light. She lifts her upper garment in a swift provocative gesture, her eyes are seductive and even perhaps just a little menacing and you expect the revealing of voluptuous breasts, nipples, erotica… but her naked body is tight and coiled with compressed energy and you realise… the lifting and removal of her garment is the shedding of her skin. Her hair falls in thick sandy coloured tresses over her shoulders, down her undulating body, serpentine streams of light cascading toward the earth. This goddess is calling you home to the very centre of your being, in and down, spiralling through the layers yourself, through the armouring that was put in place to protect and guard the shining pearl at the centre of your being where you and the All are aligned in perfect resonance. “It’s time for deep diving”, she says in a breathy whisper.

This new Moon/Lilith/Algol conjunction could be a portal to contact what lies beneath and what is ready to emerge in you on your journey of self-reclaiming and realisation. It is an opportunity to bring more of yourself home.

In my ongoing Chiron exploration, the question that seems to be arising for myself and others is, can you stand in your truth and claim your uniqueness even while it may be unacceptable to others, even while it has caused you pain and loneliness. What will it take to boldly and unwaveringly state “this is me”.

If you would like to explore Lilith and or Chiron in your life and in your natal chart, I am available for online astro-shamanic sessions.