New Moon April 5th - Wisdom of the Third Eye
Wisdom of the third eye – Win the war not just the battle
On April 5th at 9.50 a.m. in London the Moon is new in the sign of Aries. At a New Moon the Sun and Moon (Spirit and Soul) are exactly side by side, sharing the same energy, ready for the start of a new cycle. New Moons are about new seeds and intentions, but when we make these intentions we are doing so when the Moon is dark so we must bring in our intuition and trust.
The Sun is mega happy in Aries – astrologically he is exalted here and as such he is a very honoured guest. The Moon though is a bit out of her comfort zone. She is forced to work through Fire energy rather than her preferred feeling energy. The Moon is sensitive and would much rather go with the flow where she can access the emotional realm. In Aries she is forced to take quick, possibly defensive, reactions and actions. All this makes her just a little bit ‘angtsy’.
This New Moon also picks up Eris – the Goddess of Strife and Discord. In mythology she was the only Goddess not to be invited to an important wedding, mainly because of her somewhat disagreeable nature. Her rage at being excluded is said to have culminated in the Trojan War. Particularly with Brexit in the UK, we have much discord and strife going on and the key here is to try to stay out of the real battlefield of the fight and to remain objective if possible. Eris will take us back to the days of war and conflict the like of which we thought we had left behind.
Aries is about cut and thrust, pioneering, independence and having courage. Aries impulsively rushes to do things. He is the first sign of the zodiac and, therefore, represents new beginnings. As such he is like an impatient excited bunny, a new-born lamb or a seed bursting from its pod – seeing everything new and exciting around him for the first time. He is spontaneous and adventurous, but this makes him potentially impatient, headstrong and naïve. The degree of Aries at which this New Moon falls adds a Leo flavor to his energy. He wants to be seen, he wants to lead and he wants to be King of his domain.
The symbol of Aries is the ram – now that doesn’t sound too courageous you might say. However, in myth it was the golden fleece of a flying ram that Jason and the Argonauts were tasked to find in order that Jason might claim his throne. In Greek myth Crius Chrysomallus was a flying, golden fleeced ram who rescued Phrixos and Helle when they were about to be sacrificed. The ram carried Phrixos to the far end of the Black Sea and then told the boy he must sacrifice him to the gods. Phrixos did as he was asked and then the golden fleece was nailed to an oak tree in the grove of Aries. Guarded by the Colchian Dragon, the golden fleece was a symbol of authority and kingship.
Astrologically Aries rules the head and the skull – the seat of our brain, the mission control of our bodies. Within the brain are three glands of the endocrine system whose job it is to produce the hormones which act as chemical messengers to regulate our functioning – the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the pineal. Seventeenth-century philosopher and scientist Rene Descartes was highly interested in the pineal gland, which he regarded as the seat of the soul and the place where thoughts are formed. In the late 19th century Madame Blavatsky, the founder of theosophy, associated the pineal gland with the third eye.
The head is also the seat of two chakras – the sixth and the seventh – the brow or third eye and the crown, respectively. The sixth chakra links with the pituitary gland or master gland, which is located behind the centre of the forehead behind the eyes. It’s like mission control, sending messages to and regulating the functioning of all the other glands. Some regard it as the seat of the mind (Mercury), regulating both emotional and intellectual thinking, and it is often called our third eye.
The open third eye is linked in myth to the Eye of Horus (symbolised above) and the horn of the unicorn. In early Egypt there was a Temple dedicated to opening the third eye as the seat of all wisdom
The seventh chakra is associated with the pineal gland, which some say provides the intuition behind the reasoning of the pituitary gland. The pineal gland produces melatonin, which regulates the action of light on the body and our sleep patterns. The pineal and the pituitary glands working in harmony represent a ‘mystical marriage’ allowing the expansion of consciousness into much higher dimensions. This represents a true ‘oneness’ of whole brain thinking.
The Lord of this New Moon is Mars, who has now moved from Taurus into Gemini. Aries likes a weapon to do his macho cut and thrusting – in Gemini his weapon is the spoken word so, in order to be effective, this Aries needs to truly engage his brain so that he can properly express the New Moon energy, encompassing the brain, the mind, words, actions and decisions.
If we meander further down the astrological rabbit hole, we find Mercury, the planet of the mind, who governs this Mars, in Pisces alongside Venus and Neptune. Here he is capable of weaving a web of lies or equally of leaping to the heights of dreams, higher consciousness and precognition.
The decisions taken by the mind need the courage of Mars – decision implies action. Tony Robbins, in the book I was talking about at the last Full Moon, says we should never leave the scene of a decision without first also taking a specific action towards its realization. Courage comes in because not all decisions will prove to be successful. Successful people will not waste too much time if a decision proves to be wrong; they will not regard it as something permanent and will instead learn from their screw ups, knowing that this time will soon pass. This is what sets a successful person apart from someone who struggles to succeed.
The chart for this New Moon is somewhat tense, in that the Sun and Moon are involved in a Grand Cross of planets in Cardinal, or ‘doing’, energy – an energy which is both ambitious and competitive. We have the Sun/Moon at one corner, the asteroid Pallas Athena opposite and then the nodal axis at the other two. The South Node also has Saturn and Pluto alongside, indicating that there are problems showing themselves at the basic roots of our society – institutions have been mismanaged and rules are going to need to be redefined. With the nodes involved there is a kind of fated/karmic quality to the energy, as whatever is breaking down leads us into a new zeitgeist and this itself makes the use of the energy of this New Moon even more crucial. Those who survive well within the new zeitgeist will be those who can adapt and have the vision to transcend and look at the future of the next generations, rather than today’s method of instant gratification of only looking at today.
This leads me to another rabbit hole – the ‘fight and flight’ emotion, which activates in the area of the brain called the amygdala, the area that produces feelings of anxiety, fear and stress. For a myriad of reasons it seems that the ‘fight and flight’ senses of our modern society, particularly in young people, are on ‘red alert’. The amygdala works in tandem with the prefrontal cortex which is involved in the strategic phase of response to the fight and flight reactions – it is where we do our thinking, our problem solving and where we process imagination and language. However, the prefrontal cortex does not mature until early adulthood – and boys later than girls – possibly not until later 20’s with boys. So young people are unable to make rational decisions or control their emotions fully. And, furthermore, for the amygdala to fully access the prefrontal cortex fully it needs to be calm, not on ‘red alert’.
In the chart for this New Moon the asteroid Pallas Athena sits on her own opposite the Sun and Moon and in the opposite half of the chart to all the other planets – she acts as a handle or key; whilst the Sun and Moon make a harmonious aspect to asteroid Ceres. So who are these two asteroid Goddesses and why are they important? Ceres represents Earth Mother, the Goddess of agriculture and the harvest. She governs our nurturing, our compassion and our capacity for productivity, growth and stepping up to the mark in terms of self-reliance.
Pallas Athena is the Goddess of Wisdom and Ethics and speaks of mental creativity. Demetra George describes her as lunar energy, grounded through the brain and the mind, giving us the capacity to create or control our reality.
Pallas Athena gave her name to Athens and, as a Goddess of war and victory, she was a master tactician and strategist, invincible in battle. In myth Pallas sprung from Zeus’ forehead as a full-grown warrior queen. Her origin can be traced back to Libya 6000 years ago where she was said to be born from the waters. She was regarded as a majestic woman and credited with advancing the civilizing influence of culture upon humanity, so she has something in common with women of today and the advancement of women in general within society.
She was the strong maiden – protectress of the tribes of her Libyan cult
However, in legend Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Seas, venged her triumph by causing a flood – therefore Pallas indicates that we may indeed win the battle but we may also lose something and ultimately lose the war.
This Moon in general represents females so perhaps the message here is that it is women who will need to find strength, courage and wisdom to deal with the new cycles. This Moon (the feminine principle), who is also the ruler of the north node and therefore implicit in the attainment of our destiny – needs to restrain the impatient impulsive Sun (the masculine principle). She must draw on the qualities of cooperation inherent in her opposite sign of Libra – qualities which are essentially regarded as more feminine in nature rather being drawn into more masculine ‘conflict’ type energy.
How can we get the best out of this New Moon for ourselves?
There’s a lot of pressure on this Moon to restrain fight hungry Aries. The Moon has her fight and flight senses on red alert. She needs to draw on her nurturing and compassionate abilities (Ceres), her tactical, strategic, wiley warrior wisdom (Pallas Athena) and the ability to cooperate and mediate (Libra), so that in the end she can win the war and not just the battle.
Firstly, how can this ‘angtsy’Moon tame her anxieties and fears? The amygdala in brains of those in a state of constant anxiety have been shown to be enlarged, whereas studies have shown that in meditators it shrinks as they calm. If the amygdala is calm and not enlarged, the pre-frontal cortex can be accessed permitting good decision making. It follows, therefore, that regular meditation is one part of the jigsaw puzzle, particularly meditations that focus on the ‘third eye’.
Mercury is in direct motion and Venus has joined Mercury and Neptune in Pisces. This Piscean energy gives the potential to transcend our mental limits to the seat of our higher mind, intuition, precognition in order to find bliss. So with this line up in Pisces, including Venus the ruler of Pallas Athena, doing anything that allows us to transcend our everyday anxieties and worries will be beneficial. Anything where we can lose ourselves – music, dance, yoga and even some sports; being by water, on water, walking beside water or being immersed in water is also incredibly calming. All these things can allow our sense of fight and flight to switch off so that we can engage our more rational, strategic thinking brain and give ourselves a fighting chance of success.
Can we look to any Fixed Stars for assistance? This New Moon sits with Alpheratz in the constellation of Andromeda. This is the navel of the horse. Riding a horse gives us the feeling of speed and freedom, of the wind on our face and through our hair. It links with Pegasus, the mythical, white, winged horse who represented inspiration and wisdom. The message of this Fixed Star is that we need to find our ability to be resourceful, to have the courage to hold our own independent thoughts and beliefs and to walk out of step with the culture of the mainstream and not get caught up in the general mayhem. With the upcoming new cycles (2020 and beyond) we first need to nurture our bodies and our minds, so that we can not only win the battle but also ultimately the war.
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