By Esther Frances
I’m writing this a couple of hours after the Equinox, feeling optimistic about our human species, feeling that the Great Turning has begun. Like the wee sliver of a crescent moon, I’m feeling the new babe of awakened awareness attempting its first steps.
It’s easy to point the finger at the many examples of atrocities still with us and feel discouraged. The barbarism has been here a long, long time. It is not new. Like a body flushing out toxins, the poisons of prejudice, patriarchy and war testify to the sick mind, body and soul of humanity that has raped and pillaged, extracted and dominated, driven by ignorance, fear and greed, the cause of countless suffering.
YET, in the midst of the horror and the breakdown of the blinded beliefs, a passionate love for Mother Earth is awakening. Tonight at a poetry workshop and open mic I saw men share their feelings, women powerfully express their “no” to the claws of male priviledge while saying yes to their dignity, strength, and beauty, not needing an external source of approval.
I am encouraged because I see young men and women throwing off their invisible cages, their chains of “conned-ditioning,” the narrow, skimpy shoes that society wants them to fit into. Instead they are listening, learning to love and accept themselves and seeing the sacred Earth as a beautiful, endangered home that they are going to heal.
I see the human caterpillar becoming the butterfly, one imaginal cell at a time, then coming together as like Monarchs migrating to the promised land of warmth, where winter cannot eradicate them.
On Sunday, the day of peace, rivers of “us” walked together and spoke out to defend Mother Earth from her rapists. Regeneration time is here. The dying dinosaurs are flailing their tails in vain. The grassroots are becoming passionate pastures.
We are jumping the fences of complacency because of our love for the Earth and each other can no longer be corralled by fear.
The new Moon in Libra on September 23 west coast, (24th east coast) furthers the theme of social and ecological justice. No longer are labor and environmental causes divided by false separation. As the old “be-leafs” are released we shed the false divisions that kept us weak as we realize strength of unity.
Two eclipses are with us in October. The Lunar Full Moon Eclipse on Wednesday, October 8 at 6:51am Eastern Time at 16 degrees Aries and the Solar Eclipse on Thursday, October 23 at 5:57pm Eastern Time at 1 degree Scorpio. I see eclipses as an opportunity to release the old programming and bring in a new, cosmic download.
Photo Credit: Seth Anderson on Flickr
Aries is the primal fire sign, capable of courage and adventure when in its maturity and aggressive and war-like in its immaturity. Scorpio can run the gamut from self-destruction to re-generation, death to resurrection.
Pluto went direct September 22, at 8:34pm Eastern Time at 11degrees Capricorn. You can focus on your intent and fire it up with the Aries lunar eclipse. Then take a good look at all the beliefs and behaviors that hold you back from realizing what you want and release them into the lava of Plutonic transformation with the Solar Eclipse.
Uranus and Earth in Aries is trined by Mars in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Leo on Wednesday,
October 8, just to make sure that the day of the lunar eclipse is charged with possibilities. Mars and Jupiter travel in a harmonious relationship with each other until the October 24. This gives you the invitation to let your heart learn from the Sun. What if you were to allow your heart to just pour out its love without the filters and conditions that you impose? What if you were to let go of the clouds that say not here or there because of hurts or judgments of deserving or not? Why not try an experiment to see if you can allow yourself to taste a smidgen of unconditional love, to let the Sun be your mentor, and learn for yourself what freedom such a radical choice can set free?
October the 5th brings us another Mercury retrograde in early Scorpio, backing up into Libra territory until November 9th. Mercury goes direct at 17 degrees Libra on October the 26th, in time for Halloween. In Scorpio one can dive really deep, and come out in the light at the end of the tunnel in time to resonate with the pumpkins lit from within.
I’d like to conclude with a poem called The Whole Enchilada. It seems apt for this potent planetary moment.
What if being whole is being great and being gruff,
grim and grinning,
guts and grace?
What if we no longer paint with a palette that makes everything good or bad?
Can we tolerate a complex complexity
where the sublime and the shit,
guilty and innocent,
beauty and brash,
are in bed (are embedded) together?
We want the paint-by-numbers distinction,
the lazy, simplistic, judgments and authorities
that seem to take us off the hook by placing the culprits “out there,”
beyond our blurry boundaries and confused considerations.
We like to talk Oneness, magnificence, radiance and peace,
yet we are challenged by unity, multiplicity, interconnectedness and the intricacies implied.
Try contemplating the apparent contradictions,
the paradoxical inside of the sandwich of dark and light,
good and bad, black and white.
Inside these labels lives a truth that defies our attempts to wrestle out the wrinkles,
and wring out the rusted waters of coexistence.
What if you choose to embrace the W-hole-y Grail of Great Grace?
Can you allow ailing and wailing to play their parts in this play of shadow and light?
Can we step into the forest of ambiguity holding hands?
Can we leave the hunting hounds of blame behind us?
Can we find the clearing of peace that penetrates and pervades all paradox
within us, each and “everyOne” of us,
without the denial that makes it so easy to manipulate us?
Can we grow up and settle down
into the sacred seed at the core of our species,
into the heart that heals the hurt
and brings back laughter?
May we remember, awaken, celebrate and turn the tide,
not from darkness to light
but to the deep acceptance that puts its arms around it all
and says
“I’m home.”
Poem © Esther Frances, December 22, 2011:
Estrology © Esther Frances, 9/22/2014
We are extending our special $45, 30 minute reading, and are available for full sessions. It is empowering to see how and where these transits impact your astrological map and itinerary.
Blessings & Beauty,
Esther
