NEW MOON 4/8/05 at 19 Aries 06
Sabian: A young girl feeding birds in winter.
Chandra: An empty courtyard.
Polarity symbols (Libra)
Sabian: A Jewish rabbi.
Chandra: A man with a single horn coming out of his forehead.
Aries/Libra is the "I/Thou" polarity.
The pictures for Aries are dreary - winter and an empty courtyard. Yet, a young girl (the emerging feminine) is feeding birds (spirit), and at any time people can fill the courtyard. In other words, we have a sense of waiting and 'holding on' for the future. Spring will arrive; people will come. Aries just needs to wait - a difficult 'task' for Aries energy - and quietly prepare.
The Libra pictures show 'thou' is not other people, but the Higher Thou, as hinted at by the Aries birds. The Chandra symbol may be puzzling to some. It is most easily explained as a picture of rising kundalini, a Hindi term for the Universal Life Force (or what modern psychologists often term the libido) in each of us. At its most physical manifestation it is the survival instinct of the base chakra. As it 'rises' (but keep in mind that the physical is as sacred as the psychic levels; this is not a value judgment), it energizes the sexual urge (2nd chakra), will (3rd chakra), love center (4th chakra), communication and power-claiming skills (5th chakra), and at the 6th chakra, associated with the 'third eye,' it gives psychic vision, which is what is symbolized here. Horns in ancient symbology always stood for kundalini power, no matter what term the particular culture called it. That is why generative dieties and totems were frequently horned. This man has so successfully balanced his male and female energies, he has attained great psychic powers - the third eye "horn.' Often this horn was pictured in spiral form, as with the unicorn or ram-style horns. The Sabian symbol has the same message in a more common form.
Thus this New Moon supports our spiritual search, of developing our psychic or mystical gifts. The Aries symbol cautions us preparation is necessary - we have to 'feed the birds,' so to speak, to have the power to 'grow a horn.'
FULL MOON 4/24/05 at 4 Scorpio 20
Sabian: A massive rocky shore.
Chandra: An Egyptian queen with a braided beard.
Polarity Symbols (Taurus)
Sabian: A widow at an open grave.
Chandra: Tiny porcelain figures of people.
The Full Moon moves into the Taurus-Scorpio polarity - The Polarity of Power.
Usually Taurus shows what we have power over - possessions, money, resources - and Scorpio shows what has power over us - instincts, death, transformation. But here we basically see only the Scorpio type of power.
The Scorpio symbols show nature's power - the massive rocky shore - and human power - a female Pharaoh. (The false beard was worn by Pharaohs as one of their insignia of office; the first - and by far most powerful - female Pharaoh was Hatshepsut who ruled for 20 years in the 18th dynasty.) I consider her a Scorpio symbol as she was the supreme ruler of her people; no one had more power than she in Egypt.
The Taurus symbols continue the theme of what is more powerful than we are. The first symbol is obvious - death. The second is more ambiguous, but is a presentation of what we are - tiny, fragile beings that can be easily broken.
The goal of the Full Moon symbols is well-expressed by Marc Edmund Jones: 'personal aplomb or an effective transcendence of disappointment and delay in an ever-spiraling self-discovery...'
Taking all these symbols as a group, we see this Lunar Cycle supports spiritual growth. We are cautioned in the Aries symbols that we must have laid the groundwork. Along with this growth we need to develop the ability to transcend whatever comes our way and to stay 'on target' with the New Moon impetus in the face of whatever the physical world does to us.
Looking Further:
Both the New Moon and Full Moon are eclipses. If either falls on a significant point in your chart, you will be especially affected by this energy until October, the next eclipse cycle.
The New Moon is especially potent as it is conjunct the North Node, tightly conjunct Venus, and sextile Neptune. All of these aspects emphasize the spiritual overtones of the New Moon symbols. The square from Saturn can give us the determination and willingness to really work at developing our gifts.
© Kasey Kester - 2005
