Opening Hearts & Changing Minds

Although you will be reading this newsletter after the New Year, marking the beginning of 2010 (I’ve heard one should pronounce it Twenty Ten), it is being written a few hours after the Lunar Eclipse (Full Moon) on December 31, 2009. By the way, it is considered to be a Blue Moon (meaning that there are two Full Moons this month), but as far as I know that fact has no astrological significance. The fact that it is an Eclipse, however, is another matter entirely. That’s what makes this Full Moon significant. It is occurring at 10 degs. of Cancer and Capricorn and it strongly affects any planets one has at 10 Aries and 10 Libra as well. A Solar Eclipse (New Moon) will occur in two weeks on January 14, 2010 at 25 degs. of Capricorn, so the eclipse of today is a harbinger of things to come.

There are a lot of writings out there about eclipses and some are quite negative. I do not regard them so simplistically and certainly not uniformly negative. As many of you know, I refer to them as “inertia changers,” meaning that the series of lunar and solar eclipses that occurs every 6 months create conditions where we are asked or sometimes forced to look and deal with life conditions in a totally new way. Depending on how one’s natal chart is affected by a particular eclipse, we can have life-changing events occur to us. These can, on occasions, be difficult or disconcerting, but often they are not. They are simply changing the game, and sometimes even the rules. The truth is that we need these eclipses because we can be lazy and often get into a rut, resisting change even when it may be good for us. It is our nature to resist the new.

A Lunar eclipse which occurs at the Full Moon is when the earth is between the Sun and the Moon. Here is an incredible website that will show you what this looks like as well as the coming solar eclipse: http://shadowandsubstance.com/. (Thanks to Jim Schultz for this amazing website). My view of any lunar eclipse is that it allows us to open to our own unconscious and actually feel freer from its pull. Now, how this can occur differs for each of us. Sometimes it can simply be experienced as an opening of our hearts to new possibilities. At other times, though, the inner changes are accompanied by a cathartic event, sometimes, explosive, that results from an upsurge of unexamined aspects of our psyche that need to see the light of day. Just as a fever often rises before we can get well, the lunar eclipse amplify feelings so that we can actually ‘feel’ them, perhaps more deeply than ever. The heart opening result is often the same whether or not the change occurs peacefully or more severely. We are free to feel something that we have not felt and make conscious decisions from a very new place. Will these decisions work out? Not automatically, of course. But our hearts are open now and we will do well to allow them to be so, no matter what the outcome may be.

This is especially true for a second astrological reason. Along with Mars, Mercury is now retrograde as well. It went retrograde on Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 21 Capricorn and will go all the way back to 5 degs. of Capricorn on Jan. 15, 2010. We are accustomed to the retrograde Mercury cycle as it occurs every 4 months or so. We are capable of intuiting it because, frankly, it’s part of our DNA. Whenever Mercury is retrograde we have to review, re-think and re-evaluate some aspect of our lives. We need to do it as we have overlooked something and can now discover what is missing. Again, astrology writings are rife with negative takes on Mercury retrograde, but the fact is that we need them. Our minds have been racing forward, tying to accomplish more and more, but now is when we have to slow down or even stop, catch our breath and take a second look. We need to see something new before we can successfully move forward. Also, in the middle of the cycle there is the Inferior conjunction which will occur on Jan. 4 at 14 Capricorn which makes some new ‘Seed’ idea emerge within us and which may start us in a new direction. Sure, this new direction may be unwelcome. Whether we ‘think’ of it as welcome or unwelcome is indicated by how it affects our personal birth chart, but it is always revealing something that we must take into account and with which we must work.

When we look at the meaning of these two astronomical events happening at the same time, these coinciding phenomena strongly suggest that we be as open as we can to something new that is just now beginning to emerge. It hasn’t fully revealed itself yet. In fact, there may be many more things that will unfold before all of what’s developing will be fully seen. The fact is that January of 2010 is very busy with astrological signatures. We are all under very shifting sands right now, much of which we will not be able to act on as of yet. In other words, dealing with the shifting sands will also have to include actively ‘sifting’ through all that is emerging, looking for gold, for new opportunities while simultaneously letting go of what is falling away. We may find ourselves in a mysterious mixture of new and old. This could frustrate us, if we become impatient, but this is just not the time for clear action. Perhaps, the only actions we can be clear about are the ones that are happening TO us and which we know we must respond to and act upon. Allowing things to grow as organically as possible is always a pretty good axiom to live be, but right now this seems especially true. We are now dealing fully with both Mercury and Mars being in retrograde motion, deepening the review process.

I find times like this to be exhilarating in many ways. Not because I’m clear, but because I’m not. When I’m clear, it’s due to the fact that I know ‘what is what’ and what needs to be done or what I want to do. That’s great, but I also know that it is at times like the one we in now in which change is happening. Doorways are just now appearing, though perhaps seen only dimly. Our hearts are opening to new possibilities, but we are just beginning to feel this. We can only decide now to let them grow, for they will do just that. All we have to do is allow whatever is emerging to be acknowledged and let the big decisions wait until much more is known.

The “Jack and Jill” series will return in the next newsletter with a specific article on “Jack.”As always, your replies are appreciated. Those of you who have never replied, I encourage you to let me and our readers know what your thoughts are. You can remain anonymous if you like or use a different name if you prefer. My hope is for the newsletter articles to stimulate your thinking and to help you look at your life in a slightly different way. That is what is fun for me.

I know sometimes I am asked questions by my interested and insightful readers. I will try to answer some of them, but please forgive me if I am not able to attend to all of them.

Have a very Happy New Year and a successful one.

All the best,

Jim