"Why don't you come in, Curdie?" said the voice. "Did you never see moonlight before?"
"Never without a moon," answered Curdie, in a trembling tone, but gathering courage.
"Certainly not," returned the voice, which was thin and quivering: "I never saw moonlight without a moon."
"But there's no moon outside," said Curdie.
"Ah! but you're inside now," said the voice.
The Princess and Curdie, George MacDonald
"Never without a moon," answered Curdie, in a trembling tone, but gathering courage.
"Certainly not," returned the voice, which was thin and quivering: "I never saw moonlight without a moon."
"But there's no moon outside," said Curdie.
"Ah! but you're inside now," said the voice.
The Princess and Curdie, George MacDonald
Article by: Cathy Pagano, M.A.
To live inside the Moon! That's the gift of this Solar Eclipse in Moon-ruled Cancer. The total Solar Eclipse of July 11, 2010, (3:40pm EDT/ 12:40pm PDT) a powerful new Moon in its own sign of Cancer, is visible across the Pacific, from New Zealand to the lower part of South America. Our southern neighbor's have just gone through their Winter Solstice and this eclipse should be intense, with total coverage lasting over 5 minutes.
The Earth is aligned now on the same plane as the Moon and Sun. The Moon crosses in front of the Sun, coming between Earth and the Sun, blocking the Sun's light. A mystery occurs! The Moon is visible on a New Moon day. A disruption of the usual energies; a shadowing of solar consciousness that can put us in touch with our unconscious depths and feelings.
The Cancer Solar Eclipse calls us to come and Be inside the Moon.
The sign of Cancer is important to all of us. It evokes the Mother, the ebb and flow of tides, the nurturing waters of womb and well, the emotional body that animates the Soul. We are too quick to disregard the Mother in our society, too busy to pay attention to the ebb tides of life, too stressed to listen to the emotional body's messages, too unconscious to heed the call of the Soul. And we have poisoned our waters, so how can they nurture us?
We need to learn to live inside the Moon again. The Moon symbolizes the Unconscious, the inner matrix and Mother that births the Ego and hopefully the Self into the world. The Moon has her own type of consciousness and her own language symbolic language, the language of the Soul.
It's time to re-learn this ancient language, for it is the voice of Wisdom within us. When we enter the Moon's realm of the Imagination, we will discover the solutions to the world's problems, because those very problems are our tests, our initiation into a different relationship with Life on this planet.
So do not despair open yourself to the Moon's light, step inside it and begin your initiation. Let your imagination lead the way.
There is an ancient story about the Wasteland that speaks to what our initiation is all about.
To live inside the Moon! That's the gift of this Solar Eclipse in Moon-ruled Cancer. The total Solar Eclipse of July 11, 2010, (3:40pm EDT/ 12:40pm PDT) a powerful new Moon in its own sign of Cancer, is visible across the Pacific, from New Zealand to the lower part of South America. Our southern neighbor's have just gone through their Winter Solstice and this eclipse should be intense, with total coverage lasting over 5 minutes.
The Earth is aligned now on the same plane as the Moon and Sun. The Moon crosses in front of the Sun, coming between Earth and the Sun, blocking the Sun's light. A mystery occurs! The Moon is visible on a New Moon day. A disruption of the usual energies; a shadowing of solar consciousness that can put us in touch with our unconscious depths and feelings.
The Cancer Solar Eclipse calls us to come and Be inside the Moon.
The sign of Cancer is important to all of us. It evokes the Mother, the ebb and flow of tides, the nurturing waters of womb and well, the emotional body that animates the Soul. We are too quick to disregard the Mother in our society, too busy to pay attention to the ebb tides of life, too stressed to listen to the emotional body's messages, too unconscious to heed the call of the Soul. And we have poisoned our waters, so how can they nurture us?
We need to learn to live inside the Moon again. The Moon symbolizes the Unconscious, the inner matrix and Mother that births the Ego and hopefully the Self into the world. The Moon has her own type of consciousness and her own language symbolic language, the language of the Soul.
It's time to re-learn this ancient language, for it is the voice of Wisdom within us. When we enter the Moon's realm of the Imagination, we will discover the solutions to the world's problems, because those very problems are our tests, our initiation into a different relationship with Life on this planet.
So do not despair open yourself to the Moon's light, step inside it and begin your initiation. Let your imagination lead the way.
There is an ancient story about the Wasteland that speaks to what our initiation is all about.
The Maidens of the Wells
In ancient times, Logres was a rich country but it was turned into a Wasteland so that it was worth scarcely a couple of hazelnuts. For the kingdom lost the voices of the wells and the damsels that were in them. These damsels would offer food and drink to wayfarers. A traveler had only to wish for food and seek out one of the wells and a damsel would appear from out of the well with the food he liked best, a cup of gold in her hand. No wayfarers were excluded from this service.
But King Amangons broke this custom. Although it was his duty to guard the damsels and keep them within his peace, he raped one of them and took away her golden cup for his own service. After that time no damsel was seen issuing from the well and the only service which wayfarers received was done invisibly. The king's vassals followed their king's actions and raped the other damsels also, carrying off the golden cups.
And so the service of the wells ceased. The land was laid waste: trees lost their leaves, meadows and plants withered and the waters were dried up so that no man might find the Court of the Rich Fisherman, he that once made the land bright with his treasures.
We have created the Wasteland. Western culture has raped the Maidens of the Wells and stolen their golden cups of refreshment and joy, not only in the Gulf but also in disregarding the power of the Imagination to heal, to inspire, to nurture. We have rejected the feminine spirit of Life by thinking the Earth and her bounty are ours to use and abuse. We have enslaved the imagination to the whims of our capitalistic economy, instead of freeing it to create and sustain a healthy, vibrant society. We think we can use the power of these archetypal symbols to make more money, to have more power. We are misusing our most precious gifts, just as we are polluting the Earth's waters for gain and greed.
The Cancer new Moon calls us to refresh our Souls in the Waters of Life. It is time we go in search of the Grail castle, the court of the Rich Fisherman and ask the question: Whom does the Grail/the Wells serve? The answer of course is Love and Life. We need to become Warriors of Life and start defending our home, our Mother Earth.
This Cancer Solar Eclipse begins a new cycle of self-relatedness and self-development. A good relationship with the moon helps us to become "emotionally self-possessed, a prerequisite of which is assuming the responsibility of consciously working with our emotional inner life. If we do not, then other people must carry our moods for us. Other times, we end up carrying those of someone else.' (Caroline Casey: Making the Gods Work for You) We have to learn to be responsible for our own self-nourishment before we can really nourish another. Otherwise the well runs dry and we get crabby, another Cancer trait.
Like the Pearl of Great Price, which is another symbol associated with the Moon and Cancer, our love for the World Soul, the anima mundi, must become central to our search and our purpose. The great Pearl is believed to be the union of fire and water, symbolizing birth and rebirth, fertility, innocence, purity and perfection. The "flaming pearl' is the pearl of perfection, the third eye of the Buddha, the crystallization of light and transcendent wisdom.
To open our inner sight to discover this Pearl is our task for the new Moon. Rumi speaks of the work it takes to find this pearl.
If such knowledge were attainable merely by asking others, there would be no need for the effort and the work, and no one would put themselves through such pain and sacrifice to know. For example, people come to the sea, and see nothing but salt water, sharks and fishes. They say, "Where is this pearl others speak about? Perhaps there is no pearl." How can the pearl be gained merely by looking at the sea? Even if they measured out the sea, cup by cup, a hundred thousand times, they would never find the pearl. A diver is needed to discover that pearl, and not just any diver, but a diver who is both fortunate and nimble.
Humanity's sciences and arts are like measuring the ocean with a cup. To find the pearl calls for something else. There are people gifted with every skill, with wealth and good looks to boot, yet this vital quality is not in them. There are others who are outwardly a wreck, who have neither good looks nor elegant speech, yet in them is this element that is immortal. By this element we are ennobled and honored, and become superior to all other creatures. Leopards, crocodiles, and lions each have their own peculiar skills and abilities, but these qualities will not survive. When a person discovers the essential element, they attain the secret of their own eternal reality.
So picture, if you will, the Full Moon rising over the ocean, silvering and shadowing the waters as they ebb and flow. Watch as the foam races up the shore, offering a necklace of white bubbles to the sand as a magical gift. There in the night, dolphins leap up out at sea to greet the Great Moon Mother - dancing in the Light of the Pearl of the Night.
This is Cancer, the watery realm of empathy, of the emotional body, of Mother and of Home. Cancer is the sign and the Moon is the vehicle of change and time, of birth and growth, nurturing and harvest, death and re-birth. Cancer asks us to go with the flow, to listen to our moods, which are messages from the depths, pulling and pushing us to greater life. While Mother Earth is our grounding, Mother Moon is our becoming.
As we watch our Mother's oily blood flow into the Gulf, this Solar Eclipse in Cancer demands that we face this issue of our becoming. Who are we evolving into? Or are we at a dead end as a species? I choose to have faith that we can still turn things around, not only in the Gulf but in our world at large.
To do this, we have to evolve into our becoming. We have to let go of our patriarchally-conditioned ego stance and become our Higher Selves. We do this through the re-birth of our emotional intelligence, the acceptance of our instinctual body, the focus of our rational intelligence and the opening to our spiritual vision.
And perhaps, as we leap up like the dolphins, we will discover new talents and powers of perception and intent which will take us all to the next stage of human evolution.
Whatever the next stage of evolution is for our species, we are the foremothers and forefathers of it. We need to trust that we have been prepared to handle this evolutionary jump in consciousness. Mother Earth does not waste resources, and we are her resource just as surely as we are Her children.
The message for this Solar Eclipse New Moon in Cancer is: Figure out how you can help Mother Earth heal and flourish at the same time as you incarnate your own deepest longings and desires. How can you be of service to others if you can't be true to yourself? How can you heal yourself enough to really Love one another and the whole Earth? First you have to love yourself!
The Moon in Cancer wants us to feel that all encompassing, nurturing Love the love of the Mother which sustains us through Life. The absolute awe and divine love you feel for the baby you just gave birth to, through long labor and sometimes wracking pain. This solar eclipse is our collective moment of Birth giving birth to the larger Self.
The Mother doesn't require sacrifice from us as much as she requires respect, love and discipline. When we understand how she regulates life here on Earth, we can find happiness in living in her rhythms. That is what we lost in the past 400 years our connection to the rhythms of life regulated by the Moon.
In ancient times, Logres was a rich country but it was turned into a Wasteland so that it was worth scarcely a couple of hazelnuts. For the kingdom lost the voices of the wells and the damsels that were in them. These damsels would offer food and drink to wayfarers. A traveler had only to wish for food and seek out one of the wells and a damsel would appear from out of the well with the food he liked best, a cup of gold in her hand. No wayfarers were excluded from this service.
But King Amangons broke this custom. Although it was his duty to guard the damsels and keep them within his peace, he raped one of them and took away her golden cup for his own service. After that time no damsel was seen issuing from the well and the only service which wayfarers received was done invisibly. The king's vassals followed their king's actions and raped the other damsels also, carrying off the golden cups.
And so the service of the wells ceased. The land was laid waste: trees lost their leaves, meadows and plants withered and the waters were dried up so that no man might find the Court of the Rich Fisherman, he that once made the land bright with his treasures.
We have created the Wasteland. Western culture has raped the Maidens of the Wells and stolen their golden cups of refreshment and joy, not only in the Gulf but also in disregarding the power of the Imagination to heal, to inspire, to nurture. We have rejected the feminine spirit of Life by thinking the Earth and her bounty are ours to use and abuse. We have enslaved the imagination to the whims of our capitalistic economy, instead of freeing it to create and sustain a healthy, vibrant society. We think we can use the power of these archetypal symbols to make more money, to have more power. We are misusing our most precious gifts, just as we are polluting the Earth's waters for gain and greed.
The Cancer new Moon calls us to refresh our Souls in the Waters of Life. It is time we go in search of the Grail castle, the court of the Rich Fisherman and ask the question: Whom does the Grail/the Wells serve? The answer of course is Love and Life. We need to become Warriors of Life and start defending our home, our Mother Earth.
This Cancer Solar Eclipse begins a new cycle of self-relatedness and self-development. A good relationship with the moon helps us to become "emotionally self-possessed, a prerequisite of which is assuming the responsibility of consciously working with our emotional inner life. If we do not, then other people must carry our moods for us. Other times, we end up carrying those of someone else.' (Caroline Casey: Making the Gods Work for You) We have to learn to be responsible for our own self-nourishment before we can really nourish another. Otherwise the well runs dry and we get crabby, another Cancer trait.
Like the Pearl of Great Price, which is another symbol associated with the Moon and Cancer, our love for the World Soul, the anima mundi, must become central to our search and our purpose. The great Pearl is believed to be the union of fire and water, symbolizing birth and rebirth, fertility, innocence, purity and perfection. The "flaming pearl' is the pearl of perfection, the third eye of the Buddha, the crystallization of light and transcendent wisdom.
To open our inner sight to discover this Pearl is our task for the new Moon. Rumi speaks of the work it takes to find this pearl.
If such knowledge were attainable merely by asking others, there would be no need for the effort and the work, and no one would put themselves through such pain and sacrifice to know. For example, people come to the sea, and see nothing but salt water, sharks and fishes. They say, "Where is this pearl others speak about? Perhaps there is no pearl." How can the pearl be gained merely by looking at the sea? Even if they measured out the sea, cup by cup, a hundred thousand times, they would never find the pearl. A diver is needed to discover that pearl, and not just any diver, but a diver who is both fortunate and nimble.
Humanity's sciences and arts are like measuring the ocean with a cup. To find the pearl calls for something else. There are people gifted with every skill, with wealth and good looks to boot, yet this vital quality is not in them. There are others who are outwardly a wreck, who have neither good looks nor elegant speech, yet in them is this element that is immortal. By this element we are ennobled and honored, and become superior to all other creatures. Leopards, crocodiles, and lions each have their own peculiar skills and abilities, but these qualities will not survive. When a person discovers the essential element, they attain the secret of their own eternal reality.
So picture, if you will, the Full Moon rising over the ocean, silvering and shadowing the waters as they ebb and flow. Watch as the foam races up the shore, offering a necklace of white bubbles to the sand as a magical gift. There in the night, dolphins leap up out at sea to greet the Great Moon Mother - dancing in the Light of the Pearl of the Night.
This is Cancer, the watery realm of empathy, of the emotional body, of Mother and of Home. Cancer is the sign and the Moon is the vehicle of change and time, of birth and growth, nurturing and harvest, death and re-birth. Cancer asks us to go with the flow, to listen to our moods, which are messages from the depths, pulling and pushing us to greater life. While Mother Earth is our grounding, Mother Moon is our becoming.
As we watch our Mother's oily blood flow into the Gulf, this Solar Eclipse in Cancer demands that we face this issue of our becoming. Who are we evolving into? Or are we at a dead end as a species? I choose to have faith that we can still turn things around, not only in the Gulf but in our world at large.
To do this, we have to evolve into our becoming. We have to let go of our patriarchally-conditioned ego stance and become our Higher Selves. We do this through the re-birth of our emotional intelligence, the acceptance of our instinctual body, the focus of our rational intelligence and the opening to our spiritual vision.
And perhaps, as we leap up like the dolphins, we will discover new talents and powers of perception and intent which will take us all to the next stage of human evolution.
Whatever the next stage of evolution is for our species, we are the foremothers and forefathers of it. We need to trust that we have been prepared to handle this evolutionary jump in consciousness. Mother Earth does not waste resources, and we are her resource just as surely as we are Her children.
The message for this Solar Eclipse New Moon in Cancer is: Figure out how you can help Mother Earth heal and flourish at the same time as you incarnate your own deepest longings and desires. How can you be of service to others if you can't be true to yourself? How can you heal yourself enough to really Love one another and the whole Earth? First you have to love yourself!
The Moon in Cancer wants us to feel that all encompassing, nurturing Love the love of the Mother which sustains us through Life. The absolute awe and divine love you feel for the baby you just gave birth to, through long labor and sometimes wracking pain. This solar eclipse is our collective moment of Birth giving birth to the larger Self.
The Mother doesn't require sacrifice from us as much as she requires respect, love and discipline. When we understand how she regulates life here on Earth, we can find happiness in living in her rhythms. That is what we lost in the past 400 years our connection to the rhythms of life regulated by the Moon.
Cancer is the Moon's home. The Pearl of great price and the dragon of enlightenment are both associated with the Moon. To understand Cancer, we need to understand the Moon's role in our lives and how we can transform our personal moon and her moods into the Pearl of Great Price: the awakened Soul.
The Moon is our gateway to paradise here on Earth. So find the precious Pearl. Enjoy life. Live. Give. Share. Rejoice. Appreciate. Live in the Now. Be grateful. Fill yourself with creativity, laughter, love and family. Open to your imagination and learn to honor it, work with it and co-create with it.
The Sabian symbol for 20* Cancer is: Venetian gondoliers giving a serenade. The Venetians used the waters as a means of transportation. It's time to learn to navigate the watery, feeling realms with skill and passion. The gondoliers steer their boats with joy and happiness, imagination and love. That's the serenade. We have to learn to travel on the watery paths again, the paths that sustain us with love and hope, happiness and joy.
This is not an invitation to delusion and childish fantasy. We must learn to live in the simple joy of life instead of the hassle and hustle of making more bucks. It's all about attitude!
Uranus turned retrograde on July 5th, so now we have to integrate that new archetypal energy we stepped into this month. Uranus is moving back to form its last of 5 oppositions with Saturn on July 26th. The first four oppositions formed from Pisces to Virgo, concentrating on personal awareness and improvement. This last opposition will be from Aries to Libra, as Saturn moves back into Libra on July 21st. This last meeting asks us to see how we are really interdependent. We have to learn to work together.
Venus moves into Virgo the day before the Solar Eclipse and opposes Chiron in Pisces. Venus in Virgo demands that we "become virginal' again we have to belong to ourselves. Opposing Chiron opens us to universal healing energies and connects us emotionally with others. We can feel our oneness now.
Mercury in Leo is trining both Uranus and Jupiter in Aries, stretching our minds to think outside the box this week.
For those of you who live near the waters, this is a great time to go and immerse yourself in them and send them your love. As Dr. Emoto has proved, water reacts to our thoughts and speech. Tell the waters how much you love them. And ask them to take your message to the Gulf.
Bright Blessings,
The Moon is our gateway to paradise here on Earth. So find the precious Pearl. Enjoy life. Live. Give. Share. Rejoice. Appreciate. Live in the Now. Be grateful. Fill yourself with creativity, laughter, love and family. Open to your imagination and learn to honor it, work with it and co-create with it.
The Sabian symbol for 20* Cancer is: Venetian gondoliers giving a serenade. The Venetians used the waters as a means of transportation. It's time to learn to navigate the watery, feeling realms with skill and passion. The gondoliers steer their boats with joy and happiness, imagination and love. That's the serenade. We have to learn to travel on the watery paths again, the paths that sustain us with love and hope, happiness and joy.
This is not an invitation to delusion and childish fantasy. We must learn to live in the simple joy of life instead of the hassle and hustle of making more bucks. It's all about attitude!
Uranus turned retrograde on July 5th, so now we have to integrate that new archetypal energy we stepped into this month. Uranus is moving back to form its last of 5 oppositions with Saturn on July 26th. The first four oppositions formed from Pisces to Virgo, concentrating on personal awareness and improvement. This last opposition will be from Aries to Libra, as Saturn moves back into Libra on July 21st. This last meeting asks us to see how we are really interdependent. We have to learn to work together.
Venus moves into Virgo the day before the Solar Eclipse and opposes Chiron in Pisces. Venus in Virgo demands that we "become virginal' again we have to belong to ourselves. Opposing Chiron opens us to universal healing energies and connects us emotionally with others. We can feel our oneness now.
Mercury in Leo is trining both Uranus and Jupiter in Aries, stretching our minds to think outside the box this week.
For those of you who live near the waters, this is a great time to go and immerse yourself in them and send them your love. As Dr. Emoto has proved, water reacts to our thoughts and speech. Tell the waters how much you love them. And ask them to take your message to the Gulf.
Bright Blessings,
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