From the Great Above to the Great Below: October New Moon

In tomorrow’s new moon chart, the Sun & Moon are at the apex of a Yod involving the outer planets Uranus and Neptune both at the critical 0 degree. And with Chiron in the first of a series of squares to Jupiter, the stage is set for some potent astro-alchemy. Venus is also in Libra conjunct asteroid Ishtar: What better way to initiate our Alchemy of Menopause journey than a shamanic dance with the myth of Inanna.

To cross the threshold of menopause, is to enter the dark phase of the moon. It is an alchemical journey in which we glimpse behind the veil to learn the ways of the dark goddess, wisdom keeper of death, rebirth, and renewal. It is a time to come to wholeness, for having traversed the lunar path of the crescent (maiden), and the fullness of the mother, we now step into the mysteries of the soul.

The myth of Inanna is an excellent myth to work with in making sense of our menopausal journey. Like Inanna, queen of Heaven and Earth, we too are called to the inward, downward spiral.

“From the Great Above the goddess opened her ear, her receptor for wisdom to the Great Below”.

The reason for Innana’s journey is to pay her respects to her older sister’s deceased husband Gugalanna, but this is only a pretext. Inanna does not realise that the death she is being called to witness is her own. Before the deathly eye of Ereshkigal, Inanna is found guilty by the judges of the underworld.

On a deeper level the descent is a meeting with the repressed cut-off and abandoned parts of the goddess that have been banished to the underworld. Ereshkigal is the repository of all that has been split off from the light of consciousness; she has paid a price for Inanna’s brightness, and an integration of the opposites must now occur.

In the trauma psychology of modern women, we might say that our dark sister shadow has paid a price, not necessarily for our brightness, but for our survival.

A meeting with the dark goddess is a trial of humility. Forced to release that which is artificial, the looking glass of menopause is a dark mirror.

Menopause is a time to get real. But how do we do that when we still have responsibilities in the outer world? Establishing a pathway to the unconscious during menopause is valuable and important work of our time. Instead of being blasted by menopause or feeling that we have no alternative but to medicate our symptoms, there is another way: a descent to the goddess. Jungian analyst and author Sylvia Brinton Perera calls this a “controlled regression”. She says,

The descent then is also a soul retrieval to reclaim the lost child. By retaining our essence or spark within, the divine child holds the key to our wholeness.

With a series of exact Chiron/Jupiter squares beginning on 23rd October, and ending on 3rd July 2026, we are offered the possibility for healing on the deepest level.