Astronomical Myth is a "picture language," imagery that articulates the qualities of cosmic intelligence expressing throughout the greater heavens and through our lives. We are not separate from the greater heavens, from the stars and planets around us, or from our beloved Earth, but are intimate parts of this dynamic, continually unfolding heavenly symphony. This entirety is our cosmic consciousness, the totality of our being. To explore the greater heavens and the heavenly cycles is to explore that which we are--our embracing consciousness and our spiritual evolution.
Please remember that the purpose of the Lunar Planner
is to learn to live in the experiential awareness of the present. Although
the material below can provide philosophical context for your personal
experience, the New Moon is the ideal time to experientially "tune in" to
get your unique new lunar month theme. Then, consciously participate with
the changing Lunar Phase Characteristics in the unfoldment of that theme in
your daily life.
Our New Moon of Sept 22, 2006 resides in early sidereal Virgo, quite close to the Anti-Vernal point (about 5° sidereal Virgo). This means that this New Moon occurs quite close the Equinox, which happens just several hours after the New Moon. This New Moon also produces an annular solar eclipse. The eclipse occurs mostly over the South Atlantic Ocean, but a partial eclipse can be seen in South America, the eastern Caribbean, and Africa.
Thus, we have the New Moon, solar eclipse, and equinox all
coinciding--producing a significant activation of Earth's precessional
a portal (opportunity) for significant change in this lunar cycle.
Technical Eclipse info can be found here:
Sept 23 marks the anniversary of the discovery of
which occurred in 1846 by the German astronomer Johann Galle
using a prediction of its presence by the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier.
The September Eclipse marks the 3/4 point in Earth's annual orbit
around the sun. It can be equated to the Last Quarter Moon in a Lunar
Cycle--thus stimulating "inner motivation to initiate change" in our annual
Earth's Annual Cycle
The December Solstice in Earth's orbital cycle equates to the New Moon in the Lunar Cycle. This is when Earth resides at the location in its orbit around the sun where the line of sight from the Sun to the Earth is at its most southern latitude on the Earth. This creates the "new birth" in the annual cycle.
The March Equinox in Earth's orbital cycle equates to the First Quarter Moon in the Lunar Cycle. This is when Earth resides at the location in its orbit around the sun where the line of sight from the Sun to the Earth crosses the equator from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere. This creates "stimulus to action" in the annual cycle.
The June Solstice in Earth's orbital cycle equates to the Full Moon in the Lunar Cycle. This is when Earth resides at the location in its orbit around the sun where the line of sight from the Sun to the Earth is at its most northern latitude on the Earth. This creates the time of vision, enthusiasm and realization" in the annual cycle.
The September Equinox in Earth's orbital cycle equates to the Last Quarter Moon in the Lunar Cycle. This is when Earth resides at the location in its orbit around the sun where the line of sight from the Sun to the Earth crosses the equator from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere. This creates an "inner need to change" in the annual cycle.
The Sun / Earth line of sight alignment
spirals across the face of the Earth from the southern tropical latitude to
the northern tropical latitude and then back again due to Earth's daily
rotation creating a 365 intertwined helix in one annual cycle, which nests
in and synchronizes with the ecliptical Holy Cross.
Eclipses (either solar or lunar) occur when the Sun, Earth and
Moon align with the Lunar Nodes. The Lunar nodes are locations in the
ecliptic (which move retrograde around the ecliptic) where the orbital plane
of the Moon (around Earth) intersects the orbital plane of Earth around the
Sun (the ecliptic). The Moon's orbital plane is tilted about 5° to the
ecliptic plane, thus creating the "lunar nodal axis." This Solar Eclipse
occurs quite close to the South Lunar (descending) Node, producing the
annular eclipse--an eclipse where a "ring of solar fire" can be seen
surrounding the Moon.
from the past, our past life scenarios, our roles in life, or how we see and
present ourselves in the world, thus bringing a sense of freedom from what
we identify ourselves with and the hold those identities can have upon our
Our New Moon eclipse conjoins the Super-giant Spiral Galaxy M100 in Coma Berenices, the halo of the Virgin; the North Galactic Pole also in Coma (at 5° Virgo); "Deep-3"; and the Eyes, the spiral galaxy NGC 4438 of Virgo. Close to this longitude (at 7° Virgo) resides our Super Galactic Center"--the embodiment of our spiritual origins.
"Messier 100, the 100th entry in Charles Messier catalogue, was discovered in 1781 by French astronomer Pierre Méchain. Located in the Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair) constellation, slightly north of the celestial equator, it is one of the brightest members of the Virgo-Coma cluster of galaxies, about 60 million light-years away. Its visual magnitude is about 9, meaning it is about 15 times fainter than what the unaided eye can see. Messier 100 is one of the more distant galaxies where accurate measurements of Cepheid variables have been made." (credit ESO)
The North Galactic Pole (NGP), the polar mount around which our entire galaxy spins, marks a principle geometric orientation of our ecliptic plane to the galactic plane. Astrologically, the North Galactic Pole brings confidence, stability, and guidance for a greater evolutionary purpose, mission and fulfillment for all souls. The anti-vernal point of the moving vernal axis currently resides at this location as well (~2000 AD in Earth's precessional cycle) creating the Erect Holy Cross--alignments to the 5° Pisces / Virgo axis indicate direct involvement with our evolutionary transition at a very human level.
The Eyes, spiral galaxy NGC 4438 of Virgo, implies there is a Supreme Spiritual Power watching over--the Divine Intelligence expressing through this Super Galactic Portal (SGC)--where the essence of the Divine Mother principle expresses.
Also conjoining this ecliptical longitude is Deep-3, south of the
ecliptic in Crateris, the cup of salvation.
Peering into the Depths of Consciousness
Our ability to see further and further into the greater depths of the heavens and discovering an amazing richness of cosmic life is one of the indicators revealing the rapid and intensified expansion of consciousness occurring on Earth. This process of bringing what had been invisible into the visible, making the unknown known, in the astronomical world is indicative of our movement toward galactic awareness / cosmic consciousness.
One area of heavenly revelation is due to a project called the "Deep Public Survey" (DPS) catalyzed by ideas submitted by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) community that implements the 3.5-meter New Technology Telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chili.
The deep space survey is imaging areas of the heavens that heretofore
appeared to be "empty." Now, in these "empty areas" we are finding a myriad
of stars of a variety of colors forming amazing asterisms, and tens of
thousands of galaxies of a wide variety of shapes and forms, as well as
other deep-space objects like quasars and gravitational lenses. "DPS is
revealing objects that are 100 million times fainter than what the unaided
eye can see." (ESO)
"The variable star UW Crateris shines bright
for the telescopic eyes of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). A red
giant star by nature, UW Crateris at the upper right is about eight times
fainter than what the naked eye can detect. But the object is not alone in
this view. An S-shaped group of galaxies sits at the lower region of this
image, while another galaxy – ESO 570-19 – sits in the top middle right,
about 60 million light-years from Earth. A star with a mass slightly more
than that of our Sun - HD 98081 – and a red giat dubbed HD 98507 sit in the
lower middle right and lower middle left, respectively. This view is merely
of ESO’s Deep 3 Deep Public Survey, a night sky scan that includes about 714
separate images and covers approximately larger than one square degree of
sky. For comparison, one degree is about twice the width of the full Moon.
ESO’s Deep 3 field joins its earlier Deep 1 and Deep 2 fields to comprise
the Deep Public Survey." (ESO statement)
Deep-3, one of three areas in the survey (a couple of degrees wide), resides in the southern constellation Crateris, the Cup of Salvation, which expresses into early sidereal Virgo. The base of the cup, marked by Alkes, Alpha Crateris and Beta Crateris, sits upon the Hydra, on the cusp of Leo-Virgo. The cup itself, marked by Epsilon, Delta, Theta, Zeta, and Eta, leans eastward, into the first decan of Virgo. Directly above the cup is the northern constellation Coma Berenices, the hair of the Virgin, in which we find our Super Galactic Center (SGC) the halo of the Virgin. Further north is the North Pole of our Galaxy (NGP), all being indicative of our greater spiritual origins, heritage, Divine Guidance, and directives in life.
Crateris in general articulates the transcendent rewards received by seeking "spiritual truth." which is often hidden behind religious belief structures often spouted by self-proclaimed political religious figureheads upon the world stage. Here the issue of discernment arises. Here we must discern genuine spiritual truth from totalitarian dictatorial religious dogma--to see the truth transcendent to that which we assumed to be truth to an undiscerning eye.
Deep-3's placement in Crateris indicates not only humanity's desire to
explore our spiritual essence, dissolving the obscure nature of it, and
subsequent religious dogmas of the world that attempt to explain the
unknown, invisible nature of it previously conveyed by the "apparent
emptiness" in the Cup. It reveals there is a far deeper level of Divine
Intelligence currently being revealed to human consciousness--if we are but
willing to open our eyes.
This Lunar Cycle provides opportunity to see a greater spiritual truth
beyond our currently accepted envisionings or mentalizations and to initiate
changes in our lives based upon the greater revelations we have.
The hours before the Crescent Moon provide a time when we relinquish patterns of the past that would limit our creative ability to expand on the theme now unfolding. The Crescent Moon is the time when the sprouting seedling sloughs off its protective coat of the past and emerges in its new expression. As the Crescent Moon unfolds, the growing phase of the lunar cycle begins as we start to amalgamate our personal creativity with the original lunar theme.
This Crescent Moon of Sept 26 resides in late sidereal Libra and appropriately conjoins mobilizing and expansive Jupiter inspiring us to live a greater spiritual law beyond the limiting laws (traditional belief structures) created by man.
The Crescent Moon and Jupiter conjoin Zubenschamali, Libra's northern
scale (the northern chelae of the Scorpion), the dharmic seat for humanity
(in contrast to the southern claw and karmic seat, Zubenelgenubi).
Zubenschamali inspires us to move form the repetitive patterns of the past
and to create a new way or path in our lives that leads to a greater freedom
Venus and the asteroid
on Sept 27 inspiring us to get clear and focused on living our hearts'
The First Quarter Moon of each lunar cycle draws an external stimulus to initiate action as we move from the inspirational quarter of the lunar cycle into the action quarter.
Our First Quarter Moon of Sept 30 resides in early to mid-sidereal Sag. It conjoins the asteroid Pallas just a few hours before it reaches first quarter thus providing a significant part of our external stimulus to intiate action in this lunar cycle. Here we may be challenged to initiate action from beyond our own judgments of right verses wrong, of this side verses that, and instead from our own personal creative intelligence gained from our experience in the world of duality.
The Moon conjoins Meridionalis of Sag, the hand holding the bow of the
Zen archer (Kaus Aus and Kaus Bor), and Alpha Teliscopium. These stars
inspire undaunted stability and strength to deliberately move forth on the
steps at hand while holding perfect sight upon our ideals and with long-term
That which is Nurturing
Ceres returns direct from its retrograde period just as the Moon and
Ceres conjoin in sidereal Capricorn. This marks the full commencement of the
synodic cycle theme, which began in mid August and was presented in the
July 24 Lunar Planner.
The 24-hour period just before the Gibbous Moon is a time of
perseverance, of pushing through in the midst of the action quarter of the
lunar cycle. The Gibbous Moon is when the pressure releases and we enter the
Pollinating Phase of the lunar cycle, which begins a social and
communicative time of magnetic attraction. Our Gibbous Moon occurs on Oct 3
on the cusp of sidereal Aquarius.
Retrograde Uranus, in sidereal Aquarius, now resides just before the longitude of Achernar of Eridanus. This is the location of Neptune's exaltation in the ecliptic (~18° sidereal Aquarius). Here we find a release from tension, from the long winding road we have been on, dissolving what has been into universality.
The principal star here is Sadr of Cygnus, heart of the swan. Sadr marks
the point in the ecliptic where fears about blatantly living one's genuine
open soul truth for the greater nourishment of all must be
confronted--bearing one's open heart--striping off the cloaks of
personality-based shenanigans to reveal true self at all levels of being and
participating with others from this truth.
Full Moon Phase Characteristics
The Full Moon marks the culmination point in the lunar cycle, the climax, the point of excitement and celebration. The hours leading up to the Full Moon provide a time of "vision and enthusiasm." The time just after Full Moon is a one of "realization of the lunar month's theme," a time to kick back and relax, to allow our realizations to surface in consciousness.
The Full Moon occurs on Oct 6-7 in wet and emotional sidereal Pisces
conjoining Alpheratz of Andromeda and Alderamin of Cepheus.
The Entrapped Princess and the Denial of the King
Alpheratz is one of four stars of the Great Square of Pegasus and is part of Andromeda and Pegasus both. As Alpha Andromeda, it is the "head of the princess in chains." By its alternative name Sirrah, it is "Delta Pegasus" referring to the horse's navel (the umbilical tie between the two themes).
The stars of the Great Square of Pegasus, and the relationship of Andromeda and Pegasus, reveal the means to free our selves from the lower psycho-emotional world, to claim our mastery while incarnate upon the stage of material dramatics. This is to claim our bodies of light, our illumined awareness. Alpheratz, Algenib, the wing of Pegasus, and Caph of Cassiopeia, the beneficent, generous, and guiding hand of the queen, are referred to as the three guides (because of their alignment at one time marking Earth's prime meridian, 0 hrs). These three stars provide another cosmic key for us in our quest for true freedom. Algenib, a very fortuitous star brings the message of the need to refine all aspects of our bodies and lives so we can lift ourselves above the entrapping psychic-emotional drama and claim our divine destiny.
Alpheratz is unadulterated, innocent, naive, uncorrupted by evil, wrong-doing or malice; and holds a position of extraordinary honor and advantage--this star often portending honor and riches--but this requires removal of the psychic webs of entanglement in order to fulfill our greater soul destinies. Alpheratz requires we have faith that there are those who are destined to be by our sides to support our freedom from the entanglements that we find ourselves in.
Alignments with Alpheratz can indicate being caught in the power plays unconsciously created by the arrogance or denials of others. Alpheratz can indicate our vulnerability to the emotional and psychic delusions of others, especially those in our genealogical line or karmic past--often manifesting as elaborate emotional dramatics. Alpheratz asks us to get un-entangled from the human psycho-emotional drama, or accept a sentence of bondage not rightfully ours.
Although the stage setting in which Andromeda is trapped seems complex,
two primary things must occur for her freedom. One is an inner
metamorphosis, a psycho-emotional maturing into the readiness to receive,
the other is the outside aid from her destined partner, who also had to
mature through his own initiatory rite to even arrive in the nick-of-time
(the Perseus theme). The two go hand in hand. The change within becomes
possible only in the chains of the human struggle. Here lies the inner
process of breaking free from genetic human mold that we had birthed
into--the cultural dogmatic pattering of incarnate life. Forceful attempts
to break free only tighten the chain. Only Andromeda's inner readiness can
allow her to receive the aid from her true soul partner and to meet the
intended destiny that waits. Andromeda represents the highest human
potential in exquisite beauty, yet held in entrapment until the time is
ripe. Andromeda represents the struggle for freedom from the collective and
tormenting forces of the human world, to claim our true galactic birthright
and evolutionary destiny.
Alderamin embodies the aspect of the king turning his head the other way because of seemingly more important matters, ignoring arrogance of the Queen that got Andromeda sentence to start with. Alderamin expresses as denial, avoidance, what we do not want to look at. Alderamin can express as denial of the manipulative power plays causing our or other people's entrapment, and the unwillingness to do anything about them. Here we can live in submission to manipulative forces rather than to stand up for self and for those unjustly punished, even when it is our responsibility to do so.
The primary star here is Mirphak, Alpha Perseus. Conjoining are the stars creating the foot of Perseus.
Mirphak, a fortuitous star, star of the hero, embodies the totality and success of all that Perseus has been through in his initiatory trials with need to now live his destiny.
Here we are asked to claim the true gift of the inner refinement that the past initiatory fires of life have catalyzed, and to accept that our trials had to precede stepping forth into our greater fulfillment and destiny. Here we must begin to live that destiny in the material world.
The foot of Perseus, (created by the stars Atiks, Omi Perseus; Zeta
Perseus; and the potent neutron star, X-Perseus) brings a powerful capacity
to infuse the spiritual power gained from our initiations in life and to
manifest our longer-term purpose and destiny in the physical world.
The Last Quarter Moon creates our "inner need to initiate change" in
the lunar cycle as we move into the cycle's last quarter. Our Last
Quarter Moon of Oct 13-14 occurs in late sidereal Gemini conjoining
Castor of the Twins.
The Extraterrestrial Twins are marked by the two principal lucidas: Pollux the immortal, extraterrestrial one, and Castor is the mortal, the terrestrial one, the extraterrestrial incarnate--these two stars which mark the last few degrees of sidereal Gemini, embody the essence of the Twins, and are depicted as their heads in mythical illustration.
Castor is also a binary star system as is Pollux. Castor is appropriately the first double star recognized as a "binary star system" and is responsible for this terminology, coined by Sir William Herschel in 1802--this bi-nature being the quality of Gemini in general. Of magnitudes 2.0 and 2.8 this binary system has a period of ~400 years, with a third 9.1 magnitude star with a period of ~10,000 years orbiting the pair.
Castor is of partnerships in the daily world of human affairs, our
colleagues and companions with whom we participate hand-in-hand to
accomplish the activities in our lives. This Last Quarter Moon inspires
partnering and companionship to accomplish that which we could not
The Balsamic Moon marks the time in lunar cycle when we coalesce the experience of the lunar cycle into its seed essence, which will then sprout through the theme of the following lunar cycle. It is when we turn our attention from this lunar cycle in anticipation of the next to come. The hours before the Balsamic Moon provide our time of coalescence while those after mark the time when we turn from looking back over the past cycle and look toward the future cycle to come.
This Balsamic Moon of Oct 17-18 resides in mid-sidereal Leo conjoining
Beta Sextans and Suhail Velorum on the sail of the Argo. Here we are
reminded to plot our course based upon the subtle transcendent currents and
breezes flowing through and guiding our lives.
The Sun moves into sidereal Libra on Oct 18. Our next New Moon occurs on
Oct 21-22 in early sidereal Libra while conjoining Mars - more to come