dark moon..or ..Saturn in Virgo?

'other half of eden' ds'o8

"The humanly impossible, rapid change out of dark motherhood into bright virginity is discernible against the cosmic background. The inner tension and opposition between motherhood and a maidenhood that is dedicated to the father and signifies a prohibition against all other men is a human reality. If we have understood the peculiar birth of Pallas Athene through the epiphany of the new moon, we must not forget the bondedness of a real father's daughter to her progenitor, to the dominant spirit of the father."

(Karl Kerenyi, Athene)

bibliomancy for mars in libra

'waiting for moonrise' ds '08

"This is a story about being at home on the earth. To abide requires an abode - where one fits. Vocation is right dwelling, a way of possessing the here and now as a place in which I abide. It has taken over in a modern West in which other homelands, the more traditional ones, have been left to run down, or abandoned - the tribe, community, town and suburb, church, and even family. Ever present, in the near vicinity of I am, it is that trustworthy intimate who is also portable, like a favourite light coat. Snug in that homely coat, the I am may speak through the act of doing the work, speak the grace note. Vocation informs being."

(John Carroll, The Western Dreaming)

bibliomancy for a long void of course moon (a post that went missing early in the week!)

'naked babbler' d sinclair '08

"When you dream about something, it is always a match to the thoughts that you have been thinking. And so, since each of your dreams is, in fact, your creation, it is not possible for you to dream about anything that you have not created through your thoughts. The fact that it has now manifested in your dream state means that you have given it a significant amount of thought."

(Abraham Hicks, Ask And It Is Given)

Have you ever had a night where your dreams keep waking you up so you can check that you are in fact still here - where your dreams seem to be yelling at you for some reason?

I had one of those last night. I woke up twice, wondering why I was clutching a rose quartz crystal heart to my chest, and with a strong sense that I'm somehow sending the wrong message to the world. I don't know how the crystal got into my hand, but I do know that lately all the wrong words seem to come from my mouth as well as flying too fast from my mind onto the page.

There's nothing worse than wanting to communicate one thing, but actually saying something else entirely...

bibliomancy for a Monday morning

"On the evening of the second day, the crescent of the new moon would become visible in the evening sky, as though having sprung from the head of the sun, a phenomenon in which we recognise the cosmic referent in the birth of Athene. The greatest festival of Athene thus contained two cosmic situations: the time of the conjunction, the night of the new moon, which is shrouded in darkness and during which the sun and the moon seemingly encounter each other, and an epiphany." (Karl Kerenyi, Athene, p41)

memories like mould

"...Aphrodite is the 'psyche tou kosmou' or soul in all things... if we would recuperate the lost soul, which is after all the aim of all depth psychologies, we must recover our lost aesthetic reactions, our sense of beauty.." (Hillman, Thought of the Heart, p41)


There's not much traffic to this blog at the moment, and life elsewhere has gone very, very quiet too. After a week or so of intense heat, the air is cooler and the days are clear and calm. The children seem more centered, less demanding and we're in the house simply going about our business, with no plans.

Today is the darkest phase of the moon before renewing again this evening in the vicinity of the sky we call Capricorn (but that is only metaphoric - the moon is still in her wobbly orbit around the earth).

There was a moment that this would have meant Something Very Important to me, but I'm in the process of stripping the meaning from things - this is a teaching from the Course in Miracles, and it helps with the stories that bind the mind and cause suffering. Without the story of a tree, for example, one can allow the tree to reveal its true nature. Without the story of 'me' I allow my own true nature to be known.

So the moon is dark, the moon will be new again. Yes. What am I getting at? Am I going anywhere with this? I've already written that I won't be doing any 'de-cluttering' - rather that I'm taking stock, re-visioning my clutter, my rubbish, my mess. And the memories continue to surface, and I watch, knowing I need them for something, although I don't know what yet. Maybe only this.

I do truly believe that I have everything I need, and nothing I don't. Wanting any part of my life to be any other way is to argue with reality. Reality always wins. Its exhausting to do battle with the way things are, to want what 'is not' and to deny one's own emotions.

Perhaps what it is I want from all this - what this wants from me - is to honour my Lunar nature, as an expression of my inner cosmos, even though all meaning is illusion.

In fact what I'm called to do is to honour the entire Pantheon. I want to put an end to my Solar Heroics - my questing and striving and overcoming.

As for Aphrodite - as a true child of Venus I have no trouble at all with paying homage to beauty, or so I thought. Upon presentation of the above quote this morning I questioned that. Have I turned away from beauty - from notitia, seeing with one's heart - because it has often been such a focus of mine that I've seen nothing else?

Like this - I met a man in a bar; he swaggered past me, then, turned his head and with one eyebrow raised asked 'are you bored? come with me!'.

Dirty, I thought - Beautiful, my heart insisted. A year later I found myself giving birth to his daughter, and he was elsewhere.

But things are exactly as they are; no more, no less. It may be that this is what it is to be at the darkest phase of the moon - to let go of the solar consciousness - singlemindedness - and live by lamplight, where shadows can be beautiful - to dwell in wisdom rather than understanding; to be still and watch life take shape.