It's all about you! March 27, 2017 New Moon in Aries
The Aries new moon arrives on March 27th, one week after the spring equinox. Hello springtime! Aries is Cardinal Fire. It brings the first warmth of the year, it is the promise of life again after winter. It is determination, willpower, assertion, aggression, desire, drive. Aries’ message is I AM! It springs into being and pulls no punches as it surges towards becoming, consuming, and experiencing all that it wants to be. Aries is our egoism. It is the "I" feeling. It lets us know that we exist as individuals and it is the instinct of individualism that expresses through separation, severing, conquering, owning, and dominating.
In our bodies Aries is located in the upper portion of the skull: the brain, the eyes, ears, nose, forehead, and brow. It is the feeling that accumulates in these parts of your body when you’re concentrating or thinking forceful thoughts. It is the face you make when you defend your point of view. Aries' ruling planet Mars governs the desirous and instinctual tissues and substance of our bodies: testosterone, arterial blood, and muscle. it’s important to learn how to work skillfully with Aries energy and to not let it destroy or implode. We need to be conscious of our aggression, but we also need our aggression to survive. Please listen and practice with this guided meditation I’ve made just for this new moon. It is to help you practice equanimity and non-attachment in your thoughts, relax your brain, and return to balance when your mind/heart/body starts to freak. Something that all of us need, most of the time.
This Aries new moon is conjunct Venus in retrograde and trine Lillith in Sagittarius. This is a new moon for doing your own thing, making your own mind up, speaking your truth, doing your you. Aries' ruler Mars is currently in Taurus giving the whole thing a bit of a slowdown. You do you, but give yourself some time to marinate on all that you can be. Mars in Taurus doesn't want to be rushed, but when it moves it can move mountains. Uranus and Eris are still conjunct in Aries so the new moon brings a bit more force to their show. Additionally, these points are aspecting Jupiter in Libra, Pluto (conjunct Juno) in Capricorn, and Vesta in Cancer. What does that all mean? Listen to my podcast and learn more about this new moon astrology.
If you’re hungry to learn more about how astrology uniquely affects you, what your current life era is about, or how to work in best alignment with the stars consider signing up for a personal reading. I regularly hear from clients and friends that astrology is better than therapy! We don’t need to get into the backstory or explain all the how’s and what’s… An astrology reading can get right to heart of the matter, reveal elements that have been obtuse or hiding, and affirm and strengthen your own intuition. Learn more about the kinds of readings I offer here.
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Aries art by Janna Dorothy
These horoscopes are written partially as affirmations. Affirmative thinking and speaking are a form of magic that works through magnetism. If your horoscope affirmation resonates with you, print it out and place it somewhere visible for the next two weeks. Repeat it to yourself often and notice how the magic works. I suggest reading horoscopes for both your sun and rising signs.
ARIES
This new moon is in your sign. It wants to be the epitome of your self-defining. It wants to be a moment of complete self-recognition. This is your season, this is your time, this is you, this is your life. You...
You are made of the earth – its materials formed your body, sustain you day-to-day, house you, and will one day absorb you again. You are made of the sea – its waters flow through your veins, fill your tears, are absorbed by your cells, and cycle through your spinal column. You are moved by the wind – you inhale, exhale, your thoughts responding to your breath. Notice what happens when your thoughts stay with your breath, and notice what happens when they don’t. You are made of fire – passion, connection, sex, the spark that creates life and continues to inspire even when you expire.
You are all the relationships you’ve ever had – the good ones and the bad ones. You are the ways that others have shown you are possible to be. You are the reflections they gave you back to yourself. You are the love, the envy, the hope, the friendship, the resistance, the denial. You are everything you’ve ever loved. You are everything you’ve ever hated and pushed away. You are the ones you grew up with. You are the ones you will grow into.
You are a collection of constantly moving molecules and bits of information that have traveled from the beginning of time itself. You are the shadow of the future and the resonance of what is yet to come. You are the influence of the children now and their children’s children. You are the dream of your ancestors and their ancestor’s ancestors. You are neither here nor there. Even right now as you’re reading this you are changing – cells are dying and birthing, your breath is moving, you are aging.
Happy birthday friend. May this new moon mark a season of newness and oldness all at once. May you recognize yourself in everything around you. May the world sing you back your own name. Your new moon affirmation is, “I am!”
TAURUS
Lucid dreaming is the state of awakening within a dream. It is being self-conscious in the time/space/realm that is normally unconscious. When we lucid dream we know we are within the dream but the knowing doesn’t push us back out. Lucid dreaming might happen randomly to some, but there are others who practice it as a technique. They say, the value of lucid dreaming is to recognize the power of the unconscious and to build our capacity for awareness and choice in the deepest, most unseen layers of our beings.
One way to prepare yourself for lucid dreaming is to begin asking yourself in waking life, “Am I dreaming?” You can choose familiar objects like a car, or a door. You can choose a color or a person. In your waking life you practice whenever you see that object, color, or person by asking yourself, “Am I dreaming?” Then, at some point in a dream you will come across the object, color, and people you’ve been practicing with in waking life. Your mind will do what it’s been training for and you’ll ask, “Am I dreaming?” At that moment you will wake up within the dream, your conscious mind will arise in the unconscious and you will get to choose what to do next.
You might choose to fly, become another person, or explore a hidden realm. Chances are good that your dream will give you limits to work within though, and this is where the magic happens. In our normal dreaming life we are at the mercy of our minds and whatever images or feelings they’re trying to process. In lucid dreaming though we get to practice choosing other options and taking chances we might not normally take. This not only has the potential to make your dreams more interesting, this has the potential to make your life infinitely more satisfying when you remember that waking life is also just a dream. We are constantly at the whim of our minds, we perceive what we are used to perceiving, make choices out of habit, and usually run from the same monsters. This new moon is an invitation to try out something different. Your affirmation is, “I am awake within my dream.”
GEMINI
Good leadership is a healthy balance of individuality and listening. It is made from the accumulated moments of true embodiment, when we feel ourselves aligned with integrity, when we know what we stand for, and recognize the gift of our own clarity. It is also the ability to respond, to see how our influence affects those around us, and to allow ourselves to be affected in turn. You might think of a good leader as a good gardener – someone who understands the delicate and responsive nature of an ecosystem, who can tend to the life of each plant so it gets what it needs, but who continues to prioritize the health (and aesthetic) of the whole.
This month’s new moon is a new idea about what it means to be an individual within the communities and networks that you function in. In many ways this is about leadership. Leadership however, doesn’t mean you need to be the boss or dictate anyone else. Simply, leadership is knowing yourself amidst the crowd; it’s the commitment to stay true to you and what you value even if the group sways another way; but it’s also the ability to sense those around you and make your own choices… Remember that though good leaders have strong minds, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t also willing to change their minds.
There’s something important that’s shifting for you in regards to how you feel yourself, and your role, within community. Because new moons mark new beginnings and are a good time to plant seeds of intention, I encourage you to take the next few weeks for imagining your ideal future scenarios. In a lot of ways the future is up to you, particularly in regards to how you do or do not concern yourself with the interests of those around you. Consider which styles of leadership are most attractive to you: there are quiet, steady, DIY leaders; there are loud, gregarious, champion leaders; there are leaders who coerce, bribe, manipulate and threaten; there are leaders who are generous, joyful, and kind. Your new moon affirmation is, “I lead by example.”
CANCER
There’s a funny paradox about having goals… They’re great and helpful when we’re not attached to them turning out in any particular way. As soon as we have an idea of how the goal should look, feel, act... we tend to get frustrated, slip-up, and impede our own progress. This is the concept of beginner’s mind. When you start a new hobby or pastime that you are simply enthusiastic about you tend to be fairly uncompetitive. In beginner’s mind you see basically anyone else as either a teacher or a peer. You appreciate what there is to be accomplished, but accomplishment happens simply by showing up for something, not by mastering it.
Set goals and ambitions are a prison. There is no way you can know what the future will bring… literally… not even five minutes from now. So when we have goals that are markers of happiness we become enslaved to a future that is always out of reach. We miss the point of the process we are in. We are absent from the joy of doing whatever it is that we are doing now.
This new moon is asking you to find a balance point between yourself and your ambition. It is an acknowledgment that having aim in life is important, it is a YES! to the desires you want to live in to. At the same time it is a not-so-gentle reminder that this moment right now is what you have, and that there is no point in postponing your joy for anything. This new moon is an invitation to be the master beginner. It is a call to wake up to the ways you sell yourself short by not appreciating right now, and at the same time it is the belief that you can, and should, keep going and growing. Your new moon affirmation is, “I aspire to be present. I am present in my aspirations.”
LEO
Have you noticed how many of the great religions have some kind of founding message along the lines of “God is within you?” Yet, those same religions and philosophies then turn around and create formulas for what God is, where to find it, how to worship it, and who to pay for it. Have you noticed how many of the great philosophical leaders have messages somewhere along the lines of, “You hold the power of your self-determination.” Yet, we find those leaders words cut up and pasted onto quotables, delivered in graduation speeches, and sold on coffee mugs so often that we forget what they actually mean…
What do you think it means to contain God? What do you think it means to hold the power of your self-determination? What do you think it means to be a master of your own belief? Who made the philosophies you cherish? Whose voices have filtered the words of God before they reached your ears?
This new moon is a moment to take ownership of your ideas, beliefs, and faith. It is the drive to wake up to the ways that humans co-opt and try to manipulate the life force of fellow humans, animals, plants, and the earth itself. This new moon is an affirmation to hold the power of your self-determination by asserting that no one is better, or has more right to God than you do. And that you in turn are not in any position to dictate what someone else believes.
Imagine what the world would look like if we celebrated and respected everyone’s understanding of divinity... Imagine what the world would look like if we taught our children to attend to others as if all others were an embodiment of God... Imagine what the world would look like if people weren’t so fearful of God that they made God something to be fearful of… Your new moon affirmation is, “I see God, Goddess, Gaia, El, Allah, Hu, Krishna, Pachamama, Jah, Spirit, Divinity, Oneness all around me and within me. This is life, and I am this.”
VIRGO
There’s been some interesting intersection between Western psychology and Eastern traditions such as yoga and Buddhism, especially in the realm of addictions and addictive behavior. Here, I must remind you, that we are all addicts. You might not be addicted to hard drugs or overly co-dependent on another person; but you still succumb to the distraction of your cravings; you still reach for ease during discomfort; you still have moments when you can’t, or won’t, or don’t self-soothe.
That’s ok. You’re not alone. Some of the primary Eastern teachings are to see habits and tendencies objectively, and to recognize that grasping and obsessing are natural states of human instinct that lead to our own suffering. Where this wisdom meets Western psychology is through words like addiction and codependency. You know what these words mean to you, and you know when you feel or have felt them.
This new moon is bringing some light to places and people that bring up your addiction. It is showing you where you’ve been reaching for fixes outside of yourself and getting knocked off balance by your own neediness. This is not a time to pathologize yourself or feel fucked-up. Rather, it’s a time to simply acknowledge that those tendencies are there, and that you have choice about how you meet them.
The key is this. When discomfort arises so does craving. If we reach for craving it placates discomfort momentarily, but ultimately it reinforces the state of discomfort. To work with addiction (everyone’s an addict) it’s recommended to feel the discomfort fully… to not reactively reach for what is habitual, but to truly investigate the qualities and sensation of discomfort, craving, and instinct. This simple practice can have profound impact in allowing you enough time to get familiar with a habit that you can make another choice. Your new moon affirmation is, “I keep no secrets from myself.”
LIBRA
Independence in relationships is something that gets a lot of air time. Most people would agree that in any relationship, it’s important that all people are supported to be individuals, at least to some extent. Relationships that are super ooeygooey or codependent are said to be ‘unhealthy’, and we’re warned to not “lose ourselves in someone else.”
While all that advice may have a lot of truth in it, there is truth also in acknowledging that relationships are basically what we’re made of. If we weren’t cared for, challenged, provoked, appreciated, rewarded, enticed, and competed with by others we would be personality-less, or completely feral, and probably dead.
This new moon is ready for you to ask some new questions about individuality in relationship. It’s urging you to look at who you are and what you want from the most “I” centered place you can find. This is not about adjusting your desires to suit another, this is a time to 100% assert yourself and trust that that’s actually exactly what you want in return.
The notion of compromise is outdated for you. You don’t need to give yourself away to anyone else in order to be satisfied. You also don’t need that from them. What you do need is to feel alive, awake, and inspired. You need to feel supported and encouraged to do you. And in return, you need to be ready to celebrate it when your pals do the same thing. Your new moon affirmation is, “I am easily and joyfully completely myself. I love myself. I am loved for who I am. I love it when my partners are independent and courageous because they remind me that I am too.”
SCORPIO
If you don’t already, it is time for you to feel in charge of your everyday existence. Yes I know… you can’t really control anything, life is constantly creating chaos and we are specks of dust doing our best to stay afloat. But… there is also always choice. It can be simple. You choose what you wear, what you eat, what you read, what you say, how you think, whether or not you exercise, if you stay up late or go to bed early.
Taking charge is probably never going to look like the Wizard of Oz. I don’t necessarily mean go renegade. What I mean is that you are hungry to do your own thing with your own time, and you’re going to have to figure out how to work with whatever your current circumstances are in order to feel that’s possible for you. And when I say it’s possible, I mean it. Even if your circumstances are such that you have relatively little control over your life choices, you still get to decide where to focus your eyes, your ears, and your thoughts.
This new moon is a battle cry for your own time, your own health, your own habits. It is a need to have enough time alone and undefined by anyone other than you. It is the fury that preempts refusal to believe anything you have not confirmed for yourself. It is the ferocity to check your thoughts – again and again – and make sure that you have control over what is in your head. Your new moon affirmation is, “I choose my tasks. I choose my habits. I am awake and aware to my choices. This is my life.”
SAGITTARIUS
There is a preciousness to pleasure that we find alone. We often hear about pleasure glorified as companionship – whether it’s about sex or other sensuality, or simply activities that are fun. But pleasure taken solo has a special kind of magic to it. When we get to do it alone it means we get to be the boss, decide what goes where and how it’s done. Pleasure alone is totally unapologetic, completely uncompromised, and fully satisfied.
This new moon is urging you to indulge yourself in your pleasures: your hobbies, your play, your body and its desires. This new moon is a green light go-ahead to take what you want and leave the rest. It is an affirmation of your individuality and a staunch refusal to play by anyone else’s rules if it means you have to give up what you really want.
If you have kids and they’re modeling this kind of behavior to you, thank them for being your teachers, allow them their space, and take yours in turn. If life situations mean that you don’t have much free time or space at your disposal, see if you can find moments here and there to: draw pictures on the back of blank surfaces; take a 10-minute walk with no destination; masturbate in the bathroom; have a solo dance party; sing in your car; play dress-up to work. The bottom line for you these next few weeks is that you want to feel alive, and that means you need to feel yourself and your own desire. Your new moon affirmation is, “I am in charge of my pleasure. I can have what I want.”
CAPRICORN
Let’s practice this statement together friend, “I need some space.” Ok? You got it? Now let’s expand on that. You need some space. You need space to feel where you stand and what you’re made of. You need some space at home. You need to be able to hear your own thoughts, do your own thing, to make (and clean up) your own messes, to be in charge of your own stuff.
You need space from your family. You need to feel that you are you, not them. You need some space from family ties, dramas, and habits. You can still love them, deeply. You can still give to them, just not all the time. You need some space. You need to separate your head from others’ concerns in whatever ways you can, and/or realize where there’s still separating to be done.
Even if you live with a million people you need to see where and how you get to decide and be the boss of you. Even if you can’t get away from constantly attending to a million needs, there are some needs you absolutely must attend to right now and those are yours… for space.
And in the space this is what you need to do: see yourself, acknowledge yourself, respect yourself, love yourself. This new moon is calling for some separation in the deepest depths of your being. This is home, this is family, this is roots. This doesn’t need to mean severing or isolating. It just means you need to feel yourself and recognize that you are not who you come from, or who you live with. It also means that there needs to be valuing, recognition, and love from you to yourself. It takes courage, self-love, and confidence to ask for it. Your new moon affirmation is, “I take the space I need.”
AQUARIUS
We’ve learned from developmental psychology that around two-years old is the time when most of us “individuate.” This is the time we learn to say NO, when we learn to mark boundaries between ourselves and another, when we learn that we are our own people and not our parents, siblings or environments. This turning point is crucial. Without it we would not be able to develop a healthy ego. And though ego is a word we often associate negatively, it is absolutely necessary that we have enough of a solid sense of “I am” that we can care for ourselves, make good choices, pursue our own interests, and be good partners in relationship.
On the other hand, in Buddhism and Vedanta there is a concept called asmita, which is sometimes translated as egoism. Asmita is not the same as individuation. It is considered an affliction of mind and a cause of suffering that arises from thinking of ourselves as the star of life’s show. It is the way we tell ourselves stories of the world that revolve around our own needs and dramas. It is the egoic self-focus that most of us have, most of the time. It is the inability to see outside of our own box and remember that there are another 7 billion people, plus all kinds of animals and plant lives that are all having their own experiences too.
This new moon is an invitation to examine both of these concepts. Right now you are needing individuation – especially from your immediate environment and daily relations. This is a need to separate yourself from your normal a bit, and to see that you don’t have to dress, talk, act like the people around you. At the same time, this moon is asking you to take responsibility for your own story, and to see the ways that your mind becomes afflicted when the story is constantly about you. The puzzle you’re figuring out here is how to be an unapologetic individual that is also conscious, compassionate, and caring for the world around them. Your new moon affirmation is, “I tell myself the stories of who I am. What kind of stories am I telling?”
PISCES
This new moon brings an invitation to do some self re-defining around your values and assets. This new moon is a time to take control and assert yourself in your own finances. This new moon is a time to consider how to go after what you want, and how to do your own thing for your own rewards. This new moon is asking you to get feisty and fierce, to see your own capacity for earning, and to set your own definitions around what that means.
If you don’t currently work for yourself there may be some questions about how you could. It doesn’t mean that you need to be self-employed, but perhaps there is a passion or project that you see some potential for growing into monetary, or bartered, gain. Remember that earning doesn’t just have to mean cash… In fact, I suspect that in the coming years we will see more and more value placed on other resources that we all need like food, water, childcare, and hard labor.
Seeing yourself as a determining agent who creates value in your own life is important. You don’t need to be a breadwinner to recognize the wealth you bring, or how you just being you is a contribution. But you do need to see those things… So this new moon is a time for you to look closely at what, how, where and when you contribute, and what that’s worth to you. It is a time to assert leadership, independence, desire, and focus towards the elements of your life that keep life going and feeling good. Your new moon affirmation is, “I easily sustain myself.”