Week 34--in which we notice a Volcano erupting under a Black Moon.

Beautiful Ones,

This is the weekend of a Black Moon. Sound a tad ominous? Maybe “black” is the perfect description of the moment we are slogging through. The world does feel pretty bleak, dark, and cold, doesn’t it.

Black Moon is a term coined to describe the third New Moon in a season that has four. A typical season has three. Think: three lunar cycles, three months, three New Moons. Having a fourth New Moon squeezed into one season is a rather odd astronomical event that happens once every 29-33 months.

I pay attention to all New Moons, tracking the events of that lunar cycle in my The Moon is My Calendar. But this one seems to require additional focus. A little more silence. A lot more openness, a lot more inquiry.

I honor every New Moon in several ways. Whether you do these things or not, I have a feeling there’s something important for each one of us to notice in this particular moment of time.

Here’s what I do:

I begin by looking at the specific degree of the New Moon.

Today’s New Moon is at 0° 23’ of Virgo. That’s interesting just by itself. Something rather big is definitely beginning. All New Moons mark a beginning of a new lunar cycle, but if it’s at 0 degrees, then it feels like a doubly important beginning. Why? Because it’s so early in the 30-degree cycle, that it creates room for a second New Moon in the same sign. And that is strange indeed.

Is it ominous? We shall see.

On Sunday, September 21, we will have our second New Moon in Virgo arriving at the tail end of the cycle at 29° 5’. And, if that’s not strange enough, it will arrive on the eve of the Libra Equinox, a season of intense importance in the pagan, Celtic, Goddess, dragon calendar. Plus, minor detail, it will be a Solar Eclipse!

Whew!

What does all that mean? I don’t know. And I don’t think anyone, not even the wisest astrologers can tell us. They can offer what they’ve learned in decades of research, but the reality of what it means will have to wait until we live through it.

I know this:

Something is definitely arriving today that wants our attention.

Does it portend massive change? One can only hope it does. We can’t continue to live in a world tumbling in a matter of months into full-blown white christian fascist theocracy. I trust you understand what theocracy does to women and children, racial minorities, gays and lesbians, the disabled, anyone coloring outside the static lines of white christian male domination.

Your body knows what’s coming even if your brain is trying desperately to tell you that it’s going to be OK. It’s not.

My body might be a tad more sensitive than yours because I’ve spent the last five years studying what “good” white christian theocracy did to women—women the church labeled witches.

Call a woman a witch and you can grab her out of her home, throw her in prison, isolate her from everyone she knows, tell lies about her, torture her until she confesses to something, anything, steal her property, and finally murder her.

It’s important to follow the money trail. When you do, you discover that the church split the proceeds from the sale of her property with her accuser. Betraying women was a business. A lucrative business.

In our world, we hear a different label. But isn’t it exactly the same story?

Power can call someone an illegal immigrant and do exactly the same things: pluck you off the street, toss you in prison, isolate you from everyone you know, tell lies about you, steal your property, and send you to a concentration camp. As of this moment, we’re not witnessing murder. Not that I’m aware of. Not in the US anyway. Although one inmate on a hunger strike is being force fed.

What is happening is not OK. And your body knows it.

That’s why so many of us are sick. Emotionally yes, but also physically. Don’t you know people who are suddenly diagnosed with cancer? How about friends falling down? Everyone is exhausted. Unable to focus. Afraid to speak. Afraid to say no.

Afraid. That's the primary sensation right now.

We are afraid. Afraid of what's being done in our name. Afraid of who we are and what we are becoming. Afraid that we can't stop the bleeding.

So maybe, we can learn something from our first Virgo New Moon. Our Black Moon.

And for that, we go to the Chandra for that degree in Inside Degrees by Ellias Lonsdale. The Chandras are intense Oracles. Like mysterious Tarot cards, they are evocative, obtuse, and often a bit scary. And yet, every single time I sit with one, I come away fed. Supported. Propped up. Nurtured. Comforted. Renewed.

See how this lands for you:

A volcano erupting at night

photo by Xihao Liu for Unsplash

Stop right there and picture stepping outside and seeing in the distance a volcano erupting. Smell the magma, feel the heat, hear the deafening explosion. Watch in awe mixed with terror as the red fire explodes into the sky generating massive lightning storms.

Do you know who Madame Pele is?

Seeing a volcano erupt, even just in a picture, is seeing Madame Pele, the queen of creation, at work. She is creating new ground. New earth. Isn’t that exactly what we need right now?

Before you read the rest of the oracle, take a moment to jot down your feelings and sensations. And ask yourself how a volcano erupting at night fits or feeds you in this moment.

Now read the rest of the oracle. Don’t rush. Take your time. Repeat sentences. Let the mystery of the language wash over you like dust falling from a volcano.

“Burning through the restrictions of the day. Taking on and transmuting the world of ordinary consciousness. Inwardly erupting with all that it leaves out, you become a conduit for the suppressed, the repressed, and the denied facets of self and life. Exposing yourself to the onslaught of conventional ideas and their consequences.

Aching and longing to turn the world around, you are given to subtle or obvious ways to channel and express what lives inside; you feel intensely committed to bringing it all together within the ordinary compass of everyday life.

Saturated with deep impressions of what this Earth is moving through, you are being given the chance to stand in for that—to bring it, and perhaps even to become it.”

What do you feel reading that?

I feel hope. And an intense call, a command really, to “bring it”. Bring everything I am, everything I know, every spec of love and reverence I can muster into this wasteland. Bring the sacred desire to create new ground, new land, a new way of living.

If not me, who?
If not you, who?
If not now, when?

Life is Fragile. Handle with Reverence.

Janet

PS: Registration for ART 6 on Reverence and Devotion is closed. But all previous ART intensives are available On Demand at a fraction of the cost. If you wish to be in the final intensive on Dragon next Spring, start acquiring the other WitchArts.

Deep Soul Writing with Friends is also available.
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