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Mar 11 2023

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Today at 12:53 pm PST, we get our first new moon o

Today at 12:53 pm PST, we get our first new moon of the year – a new moon at 1° of Aquarius. There are many benevolent contexts surrounding this new moon that deserve a brief mention and celebration. Mercury in Capricorn and Mars in Gemini are both now direct, hallelujah, liberating our flow of physical energy and increasing the fidelity of our communications. Venus is also closing in on an exact conjunction with Saturn in Aquarius, bathing the gateway of form in the scented, healing waters of Love and further blessing this new moon. Then on Sunday – also the lunar new year – Uranus turns direct in Taurus, ushering in a period of 3 months where all planets and energies are moving freely forward.

Have you been experiencing a welcome shift in energies in the last few days? Are you taking longer, more luxurious breaths? Has a great question happened to you? Would you like to climb onto a proper throne of wonder this weekend?

Aquarius is a fixed air sign, the most air of the air signs. The energy is very mental and future-y visionary here, which is good for loosening the hold of tradition or others’ expectations, getting free and far far out. Wherever we are at on our winter vision quest, these are excellent conditions for doing some inner spelunking, exploring and expanding on the questions and dreams that have been showing up. What do they tell you about what is emerging for you, and what might be particularly valuable to focus your energies on? What might you want to do to show it how important it is to you?

If you’re ready to manifest some new direction or feeling, just remember that Aquarian rituals are most powerful when we play our desires a few octaves higher, and want something for not just ourselves but for everyone. Like, I don’t just want abundant love and resources and meaningful work and play for myself, I want that for everyone. Call it in for everyone. That’s what time it is. We are all containers for the living forces of the universe, made out of the living forces of the universe. May this new moon free our minds from fear fuel so that we can feel it, relax into faith and awe, and imagine creatable futures where all is in right relationship.

This Friday at 3:08 pm PST, the first full moon of

This Friday at 3:08 pm PST, the first full moon of 2023 crests at 16° of Cancer – the moon’s home sign – and bathes us in dreamy, stirring light. Cancer is cardinal water, an archetype of nuturance and protection. In the northern hemisphere it guides the first month of summer, the time after the rebirth of spring when a lot of young, still-vulnerable life has been born. Cancer teaches us how to mother that which is new and needs some time and safety and care to establish itself; it teaches us the art of emotional labor.

This full moon is arriving just as the year has been freshly born. The general astrological weather conditions – a retrograde Mercury in Capricorn, a still retrograde Mars in Gemini – want us to be moving slowly, as energies are still solidifying and reflecting on what they want to do. While this might frustrate any rational linear planning, it’s creating ideal conditions for intuitive navigation.

Intuitive navigation often begins with cultivating receptivity – pausing any and all unnecessary doing in favor of unwinding and nourishing, listening and resonating, dreaming and being. As we re-enter our routines after hopefully getting some of that time to contract and be, Cancer wants to give us a heightened sensitivity to our bodies and feelings and needs, to any part of us that might need some extra support. The year ahead has some very dramatic turns in store. We don’t have to know anything about all that to prepare - by meeting those needs, filling cups that need filling, emptying cups that need emptying.

We might find ourselves cleaning to trance music or having a good hard cry. We might schedule some therapy or massages or vacations. We might curl into a pocket of quiet time to study and think and feel and journal and, if not have a proper vision for the year, at least have a vision of a vision. The Sabian symbol for 16° of Cancer is "A person studying a mandala in front of them, with the help of a very ancient book." Conditions seem very good for receiving insight into how to nurture our individuation this year. Let’s open up a channel and find out.

***

Want more? Sign up for my Substack, In the River of What’s Happening Now.

Happy anniversary and new marriage year to my husb

Happy anniversary and new marriage year to my husband, my best friend, my ride or die ❤️❤️❤️ and happy new year to you all!

This morning at 2:17am, the moon went dark and ren

This morning at 2:17am, the moon went dark and renewed herself at 1° of Capricorn, the holy sea goat. Deep breaths. It’s been a year and we’re being called into the dark cave where imagination sleeps and dreams and cooks up the new new, so I’ll try to keep this short. Capricorn is cardinal earth. While all earth signs teach the art of manifestation, Capricorn teaches lessons in its initiation, how to begin working an idea into something actual in the world of physical, concrete, limited forms - how to make something very real.

The archetype resonates back to Amalthea’s horn of plenty, the original cornucopia. Amalthea was the she-goat who nursed Zeus as an infant on Mount Dicte. “Dicte” is a referent to language itself—“dict” is Latin for “say.” What we say, the words we use, is one way to begin the manifestation process. When we set intentions ritually, like we do on new moons, we choose words that call in a desired meaning, and this communicates to the universe and to every part of us the direction we need to start moving in. If we do this wholeheartedly, it can harness a lot of lifeforce, which we will need. Because then we have to embody and enact that intention. We have to climb the mountain of it every day for as long as it takes. We have to greet obstacles with curiosity and attend to them with grit. We have to surrender fully to the steady, rigorous, mundane process of creation.

This Capricorn new moon wants you to plant such a seed of power. It wants you to dream about what you would like to create in your life and in the world next. And when you know what it is - it might be a minute, since we are still in the early first days of winter - it wants you to commit to it formally, ritually, whole heartedly. As this moon grows in light over the next six months, the spirit of Capricorn can gift us the sturdiness we need, the willingness to be uncomfortable we need, the love of hard but meaningful work we need, so that we can be the living cause of the effect we want to see in our lives and the world.

That’s it - happy new moon friends. Rest up. Dream. Call in a vision of how to use your power wonderfully and wisely. Ice sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy ❄️

Happy winter solstice to my northern hemisphere fr

Happy winter solstice to my northern hemisphere friends! The long night is tonight! Winter is officially here! May our fires be hot and crackling, our hearts protected by love and sincerity, and our wishes well received by the great giving Is. Usually I go dark fully on the solstices, but I’ll be back on Friday to post a love note to the new moon - until then, strong wassail and good tidings to you 🔥🔥

Tonight at 8:08 pm PST, the last full moon of the

Tonight at 8:08 pm PST, the last full moon of the year will peak at 16° of Gemini. Gemini is represented by doubly by The Lovers and The Twins. Mystically speaking, it’s an archetype of separation and unification – it teaches us about how wholes split off into parts, create a lot of drama and electricity, and then somehow realize themselves as whole again. It teaches us how evolution happens, how oppositional tensions can be frustrating but also sexy and generative: it’s how we create new states and beings. Ruled by Mercury, Gemini is also associated with speech and communication, speaking to how words are one of our most powerful vehicles for evolving consciousness.

This full moon is in an exact conjunction with Mars, highlighting the shadow work Mars has been trying to accomplish here. We are being asked to reclaim the power of our own voices as one of the powers we do have, in a world of forces that are larger than us. The Sabian symbol for 16° of Gemini is “woman activist on a platform, giving an emotional speech, dramatizing her cause." If we’ve been playing small to stay safe, avoiding confrontation with our oppressors, consider that these are difficult but also ideal conditions for moving beyond those old, passive defenses.

Wherever you are at in your own journey to claim your voice, hone its powers, and use it to free yourself and others, this full moon wants you to celebrate how far you’ve come. Healing comes from transcending the entrapment of former paradigms, but it takes time – years, lifetimes, generations. We are at a culmination point in our expansion. Let’s honor that. A part of us will always need control and safety, and a part of us will always need freedom and power. The tension between those two parts won’t ever fully resolve, but as our evolution proceeds, as we find a way to both/and, the tension loses its charge. Here’s to releasing more fear from our bodies, to replacing it with trust and permission, and building capacity for the electric life to come.

**art inspiration is a doubled figure from Kazumasa Nagai**

To get fuller readings & prompts on new & full moons, sign up for my substack - In the River of What’s Happening Now.

Hey friends, Mars is crazy activated right now as

Hey friends, Mars is crazy activated right now as it the full moon draws closer. So just an old perfect meme to remind us to focus on fighting for what matters most, and let the rest rest, at least while emotional temperatures are so high.

And - some potential gifts! Just in case it’s really helpful for some of you during this season of gift giving, I've put up 10 signed copies each of Glitter in the Blood and Open Your Mouth Like a Bell on my shop page. Glitter in the Blood is my how-to book on writing good poems, it’s a perfect gift for someone new to writing poetry or just trying deepen their seriousness and curiosity about the poem writing process. And Open Your Mouth Like a Bell is my most recent collection of poems, its good for anyone healing, falling in love, or going through some big change. You can leave me a note when buying with any special requests for personalization.

The last day I'll be shipping is Wednesday, December 14th, so they can arrive for the holidays - so books are only for sale for one week, through the 13th or while supplies last.

You can also find a link on the shop page or at the link in my bio to buy a gift subscription to my Substack In the River of What's Happening Now. Anyone who loves my poetry books and moon posts will likely love getting these writings in their inbox. Paid subscribers get new content on new and full moons and the quarter moons in between, almost all of them with ritual and creative writing prompts. Subscriptions are also a gift to me, they help me make time to write and create the three (!) books I’m cooking up.

All links in my bio, or up at thecultofmindy.com. Hope this helps someone out there get some inspiration or pass some inspiration along! And even if you don’t buy my books, thank you for giving poetry to yourself and others when you can.

There’s a very buoyant, hopeful feeling to Sagit

There’s a very buoyant, hopeful feeling to Sagittarius season. It’s ruled by Jupiter, so while it’s a philosopher/teacher archetype, it also has a very sky daddy/cosmic Santa/blessings-raining-down thing going on. Jupiter is an archetype of expansion, and in Sagittarius it wants to expand and evolve consciousness. Represented by the centaur archer, it activates this far-seeing part of us – the part of us that wants to get stoned on the wisdom of the stars, the part of us capable of glimpsing the whole. Sagittarius knows how an idea becomes a philosophy; how a poem becomes a religion; how to plant an ember in the darkest night and call the light back.

Here in the north, Sagittarius guides the last month of fall and our transition into winter. In a practical sense, it’s like Libra guides the harvest and preparation for dark times, Scorpio brings the actual dying and death rites, and Sagittarius hosts the wake that follows, where everyone is still in mourning but also cracking jokes. There is really only so much grieving we can do before we need to break the tension. We need to drink and dance and affirm that we are still, in fact, alive. That’s Sagittarius, partying with honor, restoring any part of us that has lost faith in the return of the light, because winter hasn’t even started yet – we have to fix our spirits now or we might not make it.

So this is an ecstatic new moon as far as new moons go. Coming in right after an epic healing/eclipsing, sliding in at 1° of Sagittarius, it’s inviting us to find the meaning in our pain and struggle. It wants us to be open to the insights and ethical calls arriving now, intuitions about how we might apply ourselves next to making this world a better, more just, more loving place. New moons and the days that follow them are times when we plant seeds and place calls to the future. Consider what new growth is needed right now. Imagine that it has already happened, what it will look and feel like fully flowered, write it down, light a fire, and then tell the fire all about it.

***

For extended moon readings delivered right in your inbox, subscribe to my Substack 🔥

At 3:02 am PT on Tuesday morning, the final eclips

At 3:02 am PT on Tuesday morning, the final eclipse arrives, a total lunar eclipse at 16° of Taurus. That’s the exact degree of a retrograde Uranus, the Promethean fire-bringer. I’m not sure what the chances are of that – it seems very unlikely, but here we are. Later this same day, Mercury makes an exact conjunction with the sun, with Venus just a few degrees off. Saturn is also at 18° of Aquarius, near an exact square to all of this. This is astrology of revolution.

First – hi. How are you doing? Are you getting enough water? Rest? Attuned attention? Are your kids and plants and other people ok? Has nothing been working the usual way? Do you feel swirly and uprooted? We have been in the currents of this eclipse season for 3 weeks now, and the south node clearing effects of the Scorpio eclipse have been ongoing. We are now hitting the north node increase side of this vortex. It’s happening wherever Taurus rules your chart, where you might be used to feeling a lot of steadiness, and these are incredibly destabilizing conditions.

This eclipse is coinciding with an election here in the U.S, at a time when the democratic experiment is in crisis. If it were simply a matter of the majority speaking, I want to think we’d be good. Protections for abortion rights would be reinstated; policies would advance that increased the affordability and availability of basic needs AND addressed climate change; we would check greed, the growth of white supremacist violence, and the Christian right’s project of control. But Republicans have been manipulating the structures of our democracy for decades to make minority rule possible. They are counting on us being confused and overwhelmed, going numb to the chaos.

So let’s not be confused. Let’s vote. And let’s also be clear that voting alone is not going to get it done. As Diane di Prima said, “No one way works. It will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down.” Taurus knows one of the secrets to our success will be falling in love with liberating the world & finding joy and pleasure in enacting this revolution. Let’s fight joyfully, and make beauty everywhere we go.

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