posted February 11, 2010 06:19 PM
Lynda Hill's Newsletter: Measuring Emotional Responses: February's Valentine New MoonHumanity is moving in a circle. The progress in mechanical things of the past hundred years has proceeded at the cost of losing many other things which perhaps were much more important for it. George Gurdjieff
The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools. Confucius
One's suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields - even to sadness. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary. Mark Twain
How much has to be explored and discarded before reaching the naked flesh of feeling. Claude Debussy
We boil at different degrees. Ralph Waldo Emerson
With 5 planets in Aquarius (counting Lilith), February's new Moon is a doozy - it's one of idealism, color, love, vibrations, things in the air, our wounds, the stories that run through our minds, the need for clarity and with a touch of the propensity for confusion. Occurring on Sunday February 14, this new Moon in the minds of many will be colored by the fact it lands smack on Valentine's Day. Most years, depending where we are in the leap year cycle, the Sabian Symbol for the Sun on Valentine's Day is Aquarius 27: An Ancient Pottery Bowl Filled With Fresh Violets. This is totally in rhythm with the inherent and underlying meaning of Valentine's Day; the need for beauty, simplicity, sensitivity, care, love and sharing (more on this later).
This year, on Valentine's Day, the Sun is on the degree before; Aquarius 26: A Garage Man Testing a Car's Battery With a Hydrometer. This speaks of situations that have "boiled over", bringing all to a stop, breakdowns and the need for repair, checking water levels, anticipating future problems, the need for good batteries, cars being serviced, checkups and tune ups, bringing forward movement to a halt.
It can show the need for testing our earthly vehicle for its road-worthiness... how are you traveling in the health department? How are your emotions? Do you get to say what you feel? Do you gauge what's going on or do you let others take the lead while you adjust your levels constantly? Performing the necessary checks and balances to ensure the smooth running of our lives is part of the everyday maintenance of society, our appliances and ourselves. The "Garage Man" could be "Testing the Battery" because there is a problem he needs to analyze or he could be performing routine preventative maintenance. Certainly it is better to keep an eye on things before they go wrong. However, we can find ourselves being too vigilant, keeping a watchful eye on outcomes rather than cruising along and trusting our own emotional levels.
This is quite a special Valentine's Day (acknowledging that it's actually a commercial construct) as this year Chiron and Neptune are smack on the new Moon. The Sabian Symbol for Chiron and Neptune is Aquarius 27: An Ancient Pottery Bowl Filled With Fresh Violets. Such a Valentine's image of love, simplicity, sharing and caring and containment. So, how are you going around this story? Remember that Chiron is "the Wounded Healer" and the stories we tell ourselves and Neptune can be the dream or the nightmare... are you looking after yourself, your emotions, your sensibilities, or are you doing the 'what ifs' and the 'how to's' and the 'if onlys'.
So, here we have the Sun, the Moon, Chiron and Neptune all within one degree of each other. This speaks of gentleness and caring, sense and sensibility, responses and responsibility and the necessity of being true not only to others, but to yourself. How is your emotional measure? How 'topped-up' emotionally are you and those with whom you share your journey?
Lilith - the Dark Moon and the woman who would not be subjugated by Adam (who would not 'just lie down and take it' - on any level) - is on Aquarius 15 right up to this new Moon. The Symbol is quite telling: Two Lovebirds Sitting on a Fence and Singing Happily. This speaks of faith in love or waiting for signs of commitment, friendship and companionship, issues of fences, borders and barriers, showing love for all to see, mating for life versus failing to commit, sitting on the fence, complaining about relationships, waiting to see what the other will do, being stuck in a situation when one would rather fly off and be free, having a fixed position, not wanting to comply with the other, neighborhood disputes, noises from next door... On Valentine's Day, Lilith flips onto Aquarius 16: A Big Businessman at His Desk. This can speak of needing to take care of business, get things done, be organized, make money, be 'managerial', all the way to situations where things are 'business as usual' (which can drive one bats).
Mercury, the ruler of communication, thoughts, thinking and getting one's mind clear is a rather interesting Symbol - it's on Aquarius 6: A Masked Figure Performs Ritualistic Acts in a Mystery Play. This speaks of rituals, shamanism, archetypes of personality, putting on a show, portrayals of performances that don't always add up, the unmasking of someone, comedy, banditry, mystery, drama, acting, smoke screens, doing the technical but not the emotional, saying or doing things because one "should", having alternate personalities. With this Sabian Symbol, Mercury is likely to be one confused bunny. The "Mystery Plays" can be hard to pierce, often being a front for a bigger agenda - the trick is to see past the performances and into the hearts of those in the "Play".
Venus is at Pisces 4: Heavy Traffic on a Narrow Isthmus Linking Two Seaside Resorts. This can have people running back and forth, going with the flow or experiencing 'road rage', plans for arrivals and departures, traffic backing up, detours, packing and unpacking, luggage, travel itineraries, impasses, nervous systems, constant phone calls, switchboard jams, heat and smog. It can show situations where people are in one place and want to be in another, bringing an interesting interaction all the way to annoying indigestion as one finds it hard to settle or to know exactly where someone or something is going to be. After all, where is the real party when there's so much to-ing and fro-ing?
Mars is on Leo 5: Rock Formations Towering Over a Deep Canyon. This speaks of old structures and deep hazards and the choice of taking chances or standing still. Mars can have us walking very close to the edge, painting ourselves into a corner, having to leap into the void or doing a 'Geronimo'. Do you stand with your back to the wall with the whole gamut of experience reaching far out in front of you while you wonder what the risks are of leaving safety?
Uranus, the planetary ruler of this new Moon and the ruler of Mercury, Lilith, Chiron and Neptune, is on Pisces 25: The Purging of the Priesthood. This brings up issues of revealing the truth of people for who and what they truly are, cutting people off, throwing out things that don't measure up, forced retirements and redundancies, payouts at the end of employment, dismissals, opting out for moral reasons, being fired (or being fired up about people not living up to expectations), holes left where someone took up a lot of space, etc. Needless to say, some will fall from grace over the next month or so. However, some will take their rightful place in the scheme of things as others either vacate their positions or seats, or, there's a change in the guard. The Purging of the Priesthood asks you what, or who, do you want in life... are you operating under old strictures, with the same old reasoning, with the same people that have perhaps let you down again and again?
The trick now is to regain faith and Jupiter, the planet of abundance, faith, hope and many good things is on Pisces 7: Illuminated By a Shaft of Light, a Large Cross Lies on Rocks Surrounded By Sea and Mist. This speaks of the need for renewed dedication after loss, looking for signs of hope and recovery, coming to terms with loss or failure, important and substantial sacrifices, being devastated by events, finding your way through the dark, etc. Jupiter here can bring back that hope - but on this degree after periods of loss it can strip away trust and the belief in the goodness of life.
The image of the cherubs with the heart and butterfly wings fits perfectly with the Sabian Symbol of Aquarius 29: A Butterfly Emerging From a Chrysalis. This degree will be a focus of energy in the coming days, weeks and months as first the Moon, then the Sun, then Chiron and Neptune will all be going over this degree. It seems certain that we're emerging from our shells, from those things that have bound us, to a more perfect representation of what and where we're meant to be.
Combining the beauty and simplicity of the new Moon on An Ancient Pottery Bowl Filled With Violets with the need to rebuild hope through the Shaft of Light degree of Jupiter, we can see how beauty, simplicity, joy, love and acceptance are the right tools for measuring our emotional responses and finding those things that are near and dear to our hearts.
Lindaland
UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! 
posted February 11, 2010 06:19 PM