Welcome to the New Moon in Aquarius, the first new moon of the new year, which waned at 8:14 am EST. During the time of the new moon, the rise of the moon and the sun are within moments of each other… sunrise today at 8:01 am with the moon rising at 7:41 am.
The moon, our sense of perception, that which we need for our emotional security, the feminine side of our personality as the receptor of the energy from the sun in the sign of Aquarius… the original, free spirited and independent, the perpetual wanderer who dares to go against the grain. Aquarius is the epitome of the selfless charity. This past week’s episode of Last Man Standing with Tim Allen, his middle daughter was reading Maimonides, the medieval Sephardic jewish philosopher and was taking charity to heart doing various chores around the house which her younger sister kept getting the credit for… but it backfired when Mom’s favorite new t-shirt shrunk in the laundry. I’ve seen a lot of lessons this week with people getting their just rewards.. and it’s funny how that makes us feel kinda safe in the world. It’s a little unsettling though when things don’t go that way. Aquarius would be the revolutionary that would fight for the society where things were better or more fair. The dark moon waned in the 12th house, the house of our consciousness where we meet the results of our outer lives, so the laws of reaping and sowing are prevalent in the energies of this New Moon.
The Sun being conjunct at the new moon in the same house and sign is a place of unity with the moon, concurs with the Moon’s standing.
The only other aspect to this new moon is the sextile with Saturn in Sagitarius. The sextile is a position of harmony. Saturn represents structure and discipline… having the need to accept responsibility. She can be stifling if one gets too critical…self righteousness is an effect of ill balanced Saturn energies. But in the sextile with the new moon, Aquarius keeps Saturn from being overly critical, keeping in mind that it’s never productive to judge others, the point of the exercise of self analysis is “self,” just like the purpose of a selfie is a photo of one self, period.
At the time of the new moon, Saturn sat in the 10th house symbolizing our goals in life.
Today in the Hebrew calendar is the first or Rosh Chodesh of the month of Sh’vat. Last year, the new moon in Aquarius fell at the end of the month.
The Bnei Yissaskhar explains that the action of Aquarius, called the bucket, is to pump and draw water… to draw from one place to another and on Sh’vat it allows us to bring abundance and bliss from the upper worlds into our life. Coincidentally, the associated hebrew letter, the Tsadi is called the fish hook. We sometimes have a tendency though, to draw from sources that don’t positively affect us, picking up energies from negative sources, absorbing anger, hate, malice, etc. The church used to teach these were spirits that had overtaken an individual, and kabbalah seems in some ways to agree with that premise, but not to the extent that a person becomes possessed with a spirit or demon of such, but has absorbed a certain amount of that energy. Sh’vat is the month to overcome his “evil inclination.” According to the school of Shamai, the first of the month of Sh’vat is the new year of trees called, TuBeeshvat which is celebrated by partaking of the fruit the land has been blessed with. It’s a metaphor for reaping the blessing of what has been sowed. If we take inventory of what is going on in our lives, understanding that we only get out that which we put forth, how much of what goes on directly relates to our actions or inaction. I was reading an article by Grant Morrison called Pop Magic on creating sigils, and he stated, if you create a sigil to win the lottery, understand that you actually have to buy a ticket; actions and results are interrelated.
The Hebrew letter which created the month of Sh’vat is the Tsadi, the righteous one. The sages say that during the month of Sh’vat, the waters from the winter months as the snow begins to melt descends into the veins of the trees and bring it new life. On the tree of life, the energies descend from the upper triad of kether, Chokmah and Binah through the veil to the lower spheres… we move up along the spheres of the tree to receive the light.
The letter Tsadi was originally associated with the tarot card, the Star, but Aleister Crowley corrected this association to the Emperor, a symbol for law and order and the archetypical father figure, the disciplinarian; The God of the Torah and the giver of the mitzvots in which respect, the church of christianity who said the law was done away with the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, are likened to the rebellious nature of Aquarius, but considering the absolute law of reaping and sowing, one might consider a set of instructions on how to conduct oneself might be just a set of guidelines for living a life of giving and receiving blessing. The problem comes in when you gather a group of people together who, instead of the holy convocation’s original purpose of gathering family and community, that gathering presumes to attempt to instruct other gatherings on how they should live or what they should believe. The theory of Thelema as found in the writings of Aleister Crowley state, love is the law… love under will. Everyone, each piece of the grand puzzle, has a purpose they wrote for each existence. A lot of well intentioned thelema practitioners today follow that love under will relates to sex magick and they are certainly entitled to their opinion. I tend to prefer to relate the phrase to the will being the most powerful force in the universe and that by gaining self control, you can find your true purpose in life…love of self compels one to be true to oneself and precludes one from doing anything that brings disrespect or harm to the spirit, which would include causing harm to another, in any manner… at the very heart of the Aquarian spirit. I’m sure Aleister Crowley had something in mind when he composed all of his writings, and the Aquarian spirit in me says I really hate it when someone tries to decipher the mind or the intent of someone else…his words speak for themselves and it is up to the individual and his or her path, how they are perceived.
The Tsadi and the Emperor lead us to the 28th path, that which reaches between Netzhach and Yesod, Victory and Foundation respectively, spheres 9 and 7.
http://sandyanastasi.com/education/kabbala-webinars/kabbala-path-28/
Today is under the watchful eye of the Prince of Swords and the 5 of swords, the card of defeat, which reminds us to be careful of the steps along our path.
On January 30th, we move from the year of the horse in chinese astrology to the year of the goat. The goat is described as having delicate thoughts, being strong creatively and showing great perseverance.
May there be peace between us now and forever to all beings in every direction.
Enjoy a meditation on the corresponding solfeggio frequency.
Marika's Moon Rituals 