New Moon Journal

Saturn and the 7 year itch

“I am not getting married until I am 28 years old; who wants to be just a housewife? A woman doesn’t need to ‘get married’ to be her own person. Marriage stifles her creativity.” These words barely escape my 17 year old mouth when Mr. G my high school history teacher lets out a huge belly laugh, “Bailey, some man will sweep you off your feet and you’ll drop all that feminism stuff to walk down the isle in a heart beat!”

Mr. G was right.

Two years later, in the spring of 1975, we find our feminist a college freshman at UF. One evening a tall shaggy haired frat boy, reeking of cologne, dressed in his finest baby blue bell bottom pants and nic-nic shirt, comes knocking on the door to pick me up for a blind date. We fall in love and three years later, at tender age of 22, we marry. He’s my best friend. Here I sit on the eve of our 29th year of marriage, and Saturn has returned to Virgo, the sign it occupied on our wedding day.

I knew nothing about astrology, cycles or right timing, that would come years later. Somehow I knew 28 was a magical number in one’s life. But what’s a person to do when they fall in love ahead of time?

Last week I asked April Kent, fellow astrologer extraordinaire, to share her thoughts on a Saturn Return for a marriage. April’s new book Star Guide to Weddings: Your Horoscope for Living Happily Ever After is coming out in February.

Our wedding day is wedged between my graduation from art school and moving to Chicago so Dear Husband can start law school. Looking back was I too practical in my decisions? Our special moment November 25 is jammed into a demanding schedule.

Let’s pick a holiday weekend everybody’s off from work or home from school-celebrate Thanksgiving, get married Saturday at noon, go to the reception, leave at six to watch the Gators play football and beat FSU with family and friends at the hotel. Good golly what was I thinking?

Solo, I plan and execute the entire event in six months, while going to school full time, getting a senior portfolio in order and working on my first interior design commission- a beach condo that had to be completed in 40 days. I pick out the dress and veil in about 1 hour, meet with the hotel and select the food. Bridezilla I was not.

Any wonder why the getting married part is really a blur to me.

Our three day honeymoon in the Bahamas? Dear Feverish Husband is shivering and shaking either from the marriage vows or the stomach flu. He bravely waves from the 8th story balcony; a trash can by his side, while his solitary new bride sips strawberry daiquiris floating in the pool below. My thoughts at that moment? “I am so glad I didn’t save myself for the wedding night.”

So I laughed when April assured me (in contradiction to the dire warnings on her website), not to worry about the Venus retrograde in my marriage chart. “It’s less of a concern for those who are operating at a higher level of consciousness. Which you must be – I mean, 29 years later you’re still together, right?” Higher level of consciousness — is she kidding me?

That set me to thinking, maybe the wanting to be my own person was being conscious. (“Bingo!” laughed April.) Maybe all that practical Saturn in Virgo energy at play in the marriage had worked to our advantage. And this is why.

Saturn, marriage and the seven year itch

They talk about the seven year itch in a marriage. Saturn rules timing in a person’s life and it takes approximately 28-29 years for a Saturn return. Saturn’s energy highlights the Self’s restrictions and limitations- the tribal conditioning one has to work with, move through and let go of. Thus the Saturn impulse can be experienced in seven year increments both in the Essential Self and in one’s marriage.

I consider Dear Husband and myself soul mates. I don’t make light of that statement. A conscious relationship means that one works at the partnership because the other person means more to you than you do. At the same time balancing a woman’s issues of sovereignty. It’s not easy being real and rubbed raw by another person. Even so, after twenty-nine years Dear Husband lights up the room and makes me laugh. So let’s look at this through the lens of Saturn in Virgo, Sag, Pisces and Gemini.

First Quarter – the honeymoon phase, 1-7 year anniversaries. Saturn in Virgo: I am born with a Pisces Sun and Mercury buried deep within the 4th house with a Scorpio rising; I need a soul mate that would force me to come out into the light, yet still help me ground. Here comes my blind date, a very Sag guy with a Leo rising who loves an adventure. First generation born American, raised by strong matriarch- a single working French mother; he’s a latch key kid before his time. Thus he is not put off by the feminist me, soon to be successful business woman. Yet Sag man still wants his home to be a home. Can you see the picture here? Interior designer marries traveling salesman.

Donna Reed I am not. Dear Husband has no problem when I start my own company at 24, make more money, travel and work 70 hours a week. He was tempered in childhood to be around this type of working woman.

Second Quarter, the Power Level- 7-14 year anniversaries, Saturn in Sagittarius: During this time the partnership is being tested. Both of us at 29 are experiencing our Saturn return. Can I be me and still be in relationship with you? Honeymoon’s over, and the true person’s inner child [or demon] comes up and out.

“You better believe it,” writes April. “And even if you still basically like one another, Saturn will make damn sure you get tested from outside your relationship. Financial problems, career worries, plagues of locusts… expect anything!”

I swore I would never marry a stock broker. I come from a family of stock brokers who always seemed to be broke. At our first quarter Saturn square Dear Husband announces out of the blue “I am going to be a stock broker”; within a month he passes the Series 7 to get his license. Damn, I am now married to a stock broker!

We face fertility issues and through a miracle of events Dear Daughter is born. Now Dear Mom can’t keep up her workaholic ways. Dear Dad must step up to the plate to be the dad he never had. It’s going to get a little wacky here but neither of us know it yet because ‘wow look at the baby.’

The Third Quarter- The Psychological Level 14-21 year anniversaries, Saturn in Pisces: Like a full moon phase there is a release, a surrender. Truth be told, it’s more like a pummeling to your head and your heart! I am left wondering"What happen to our happily ever after?" Saturn is now whacking at my Mercury (communication) and Sun (power). Pluto’s (the transformer) moving from Scorpio into Sag, over my ascendant and into the first house to sit on my Saturn. All first house stuff related to self. Pluto wakes one up from within, death and rebirth. We are being rendered.

Domestic Diva I am not. I swore I would never be a stay at home mom -let a man take care of me, no way. I need to make my own money because of childhood fears; staying at home brings up those trust and abandonment issues. April writes,

“My husband and I just celebrated our 14th anniversary, and the past few years have brought up a lot of the same issues for me. At the same time, my husband has been having something of a career crisis. You can imagine what a delight it’s been around our house. I think so much of our experiences of Saturn are culturally prescribed; women experience Saturn in terms of structure, security and support, and men in terms of being successful in the world and good providers. I suppose that’s part of what a marriage faces at the 14 year mark: confronting those societal expectations and figuring out how to co-exist with them.”

As Saturn moves into opposition I leave my business career in the dust to become a full time housewife and mommy. My high school self is screaming “what the hell is wrong with you!” Dear Husband is now a road warrior, home on weekends; soon he’ll be a proud card carrying member of Delta Airlines Million Miler club.

Eventually the marriage suffers from lack of attention- his travel and my shape shifting. As I heal, Dear Husband feels side swiped- “why can’t you stay the same?” The road offers him respite from the wild-woman housewife sitting at home. Saturn’s now sitting on my Mercury in Pisces demanding that I speak up in new ways. Everyone wants me to be quiet. That doesn’t work, I go metaphysical on everyone.

Then a wonderful thing happens. Dear Husband bravely tells me “you’re too spiritual and I am leaving you.” What’s driving all this- his own parent’s divorce when he was 8; we get to see how his unconscious inner child impacts our lives. No coincidence Dear Daughter is fast approaching her own 8th birthday. My inner child is screaming “I told you so!” I see a bumper sticker on the back of a car while stopped in traffic “I used to be alone, then I got a divorce.” I cry.

Please don’t tell me your unconscious inner child doesn’t affect a marriage- that child is driving the bus of the coupleship until you and your partner wake up. Usually this occurs around the time one decides to ditch their significant other.

“We pick up emotions and values that surround us, and to a greater or lesser degree, feel them as if they were our own. This is why it is crucial that we know ourselves deeply. In order to see through what is happening a couple must either be centered in their own being, or they must have a shared approach that automatically protects them.”- Prather, pg. 20.

Dear Husband’s has left the house. Nothing changes because he hadn’t been home in years. Deeply afraid, I make a list of jobs I can do; once I get to job 20 the fear abates. I’ll be okay. As his walls come crashing down. Seeing what really matters, how being on the road changed us and him, this honorable man starts taking back his life with no guarantees that I will be in the picture.

No, we didn’t divorce but we came close to the threshold of going our separate ways, cleared the air. One of my favorite relationship books at that moment- “I Will Never Leave You: How Couples Can Achieve The Power Of Lasting Love” by Hugh and Gayle Prather.

The separation forces my spiritual self to have a greater voice. At the time Uranus is transiting my Mercury in Pisces. For couples at the threshold of divorce the keyword here is “Imago Therapy”. Today Dear Husband swears by it and recommends the process to all his suffering buddies contemplating divorce.

The Fourth Quarter, The Social-Cultural Level- 21- 28 anniversaries, Saturn in Gemini: The unconscious baggage from our childhoods is no longer hidden, and most times we both feel supported, heard and seen. Loved. Thank you couples dialog!

Dear Husband puts me on a pedestal, cherishes me. To my feminist self the pedestal part just feels weird. One day I complained, “I don’t want to be up on a pedestal we’re equal.” DH replies… “It’s good to be a Goddess, besides on the pedestal I can look up your skirt.” Sag man still makes me laugh. Just before September 11th, 2001 Dear Husband’s territory realigns, no more week long air travel. Home. In essence we have come home to ourselves as well.

Saturn returns to Virgo. This is our annual week long celebration. Dear Daughter comes home from FSU, a new Seminole with a proud Gator Mom and Dad. This Thanksgiving week we not only celebrate with turkey but also our 29th wedding anniversary with Saturn in Virgo. FSU meets the Gators in the swamp, party at our house. A blind date, married at 22, and Venus in retrograde does work out.

Warm wishes to you and yours, may you have a peaceful and safe Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Maybe these Saturn insights will help you get clarity on where your own marriage sits in the Saturn cycle. Where was Saturn at the moment you were married? Where are you now in that Saturn return cycle? If you are divorced at what junction did the split happen? Did that mirror anything from your childhood? April notes,

“Saturn’s turning points, about every seven years, always point out that we’ve outgrown our old structures and forms and are ready to become something new. We see it as Saturn moves through the birth chart, but it’s true for marriages as well.

As your own story illustrates, Michele, from time to time we outgrow our marriages. Suddenly we realize they’re too small to accommodate who we’ve become as individuals, and they need renovation. The challenge lies in recognizing these moments, and finding ways to keep refashioning a marriage into something that suits both partners better. Now, at the Saturn return mark, it starts all over again for you and Dear Husband!”

Thank you to Dear Husband for a wonderful 29 years. Shout out of gratitude to April Kent for feeding me additional insights on the Saturn cycle in a marriage. April notes,

I so enjoyed reading your story… It must be marvelous having your Moons in exactly the same degree of the same sign! Ah, to always be in such sync. As opposed to my hubby with his Taurus Moon and me with the fidgety Gemini Moon – you’d laugh if you watched us trying to get out the front door in the morning. Me, hopping up and down on one foot: “Hurry up!” Him: “I’m coming…” as he casually wanders off to do one or two more things.

April Elliott Kent is a San Diego astrologer and writer whose website, http://www.bigskyastrology.com, offers seasonal essays, tutorials, and wedding services. Her first book, Star Guide to Weddings: Your Horoscope for Living Happily Ever After takes a fresh, fun look at your marriage’s Sun Sign. It will be published by Llewellyn Worldwide in February 2008. April can be contacted by email: april@bigskyastrology.com

Jupiter in Capricorn-fix-it

February 8, 2007- The Oprah Show reveals The Secret. Minions across the planet start discussing the Laws of Attraction and creating the life they want. So very Jupiter in Sagittarius. Now on December 19, 2007 Jupiter enters Capricorn for the first time in 12 years. One month later Pluto enters Capricorn to stay for the next 17 years. Jupiter’s asks us to take a risk.

Pluto’s energy transforms by taking things apart from the inside out. Pluto in Capricorn is a rendering energy-fix the structure. "[We may see] a true New World Order based on an in-depth understanding of reality united with a deep respect for the need for material power to be illuminated by the Light of Transcendence."-astrologer MJ Abadie

Rev’Ed note: This post was to be published on 11/29 but for some reason TypePad published it early and it went out across the blogosphere. Rather than delete it, I said so be it. If you get double dosed with the post, my apologies. There is a reason. Just transport yourself to 11/29 a few weeks ahead. Or mark your calendars to come back on December 19th. - michele

Saturn rules Capricorn- in that sign you become disciplined, practical and persistant. I am the One who Builds. Capricorn rules structures, ie governments, social security, the patriarchy.

Jupiter rules Sagittarius-this energy provides a foundation for systems of beliefs- religious, philosophical, ethical attitudes. How you frame your images and beliefs based on the system, society you were raised in. Example-think the recent troubles of ’Dog the Bounty Hunter’ racist remarks, his not thinking anything of it.

Pluto traveled through Sagittarius from 1995-2007 de-structuring the belief systems. This happened within you and around you.

At the end of this Pluto in Sag journey in 2007 The Secret was revealed on Oprah with people telling you why it works. Now that Jupiter is moving into Capricorn we’ll become more focused and practical. I would imagine people like Bill Harris from the Secret will be sharing why it has not worked for you. That’s the practical side of Jupiter in Capricorn.

Contraction, expansion and stasis: How is your Life Pulse around money? Saturn contracts and Jupiter wants to expand. This push/pull energy occurs in our bodies through our 1st [Saturn] and 2nd [Jupiter] chakras. You can know how grounded [1st chakra and Saturn] you are by looking at your money issues. Are you in a...

Contracted state- fight or flight, how are you moving money in your life? Are you constantly on edge not knowing where it all goes, there’s never enough. Do you feel the need for silence/contemplation or just plain “I want to stop reading because she’s tapping a nerve.” An energetic contraction may bring up “I need to get out of my body and numb out” This is mud may be related to the earth of Saturn, your 1st chakra.

Expanded state-merged with spirit, mystic…feet off the ground “I am merged and the physical doesn’t matter.” Or the flip of this there’s never enough so I need to hoard or get things for free. Expanded states bring on creativity, growth, building…expansion also translates to greed, cruelty, and hoarding. This mud (emotions in the body) is related to the fire of Jupiter 2nd chakra, the earth of Taurus. (Taurus rules hoarding and we saw a lot of that negative intent while Saturn moved through Taurus in 1999).

Stasis- balanced, heart centered, loving. Can also represent the inner state of stagnation, putrefication and inertia. Muddy water of Mars in Scorpio/3rd chakra, power issues, don’t worry here’s where Pluto steps in. Now you have the picture of contraction, expansion and stasis related to your money issues and self-worth issues.

Jupiter in Capricorn offers up a combination of tasks- first ground then expand into. How are you contracting in fear, refusing to change, connected to your tribal conditioning [Saturn]? Trust yourself, expand into a new venture, a new way of being. Where is Capricorn in your chart? That is where the action is.

Or the flip of this- how have you expanded too fast and now you don’t feel like your feet touch the ground? Check in- are you grounded? If not, then fix-it. Get grounded. It’s all about balance (heart chakra and Libra).

Fiery Jupiter asks you to take a risk; it’s archetypal force represents truth and wisdom. With Jupiter’s energy we are collectively called to expand, venture out beyond our comfort zone. To travel beyond our borders, to learn something new. To connect with, embody the God of our understanding through our own inner knowing [versus what we are told about God]. Angeles Arien in the Four Fold Way shares "To tell your truth without attachment to the outcome is the Way of the Warrior." Collectively aren’t we all rubbing up against one another’s cultural truth for God, so very attached to the outcome.

Jupiter entered the sign Sagittarius in December of 2006¹⁾. His home town. Jupiter rules Sagittarius. It takes Jupiter 12 years to complete a cycle in one’s birth chart. Pluto had been dismantling and renovating the Sagittarius house since 1995. When Jupiter entered the sign for the first time in 12 years things had changed. It’s been a year of discoveries.

Now that Jupiter is entering the sign Capricorn, a new structure is needed. There is a natural contraction. In Capricorn we are cautioned to not go at this too fast, because a firm foundation is in order. Think of a pressure cooker.

Saturn in Virgo, September 2007 through 2009 -brings up our fear of not being perfect. Keep in mind that Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, is now moving through the sign Virgo bringing up work and health issues, asking you to edit and sort through the clutter of your life and heart to find a new balance. With Jupiter entering Saturn’s sign, an auspicious occasion, there is a natural dance between Saturn and Jupiter. Just remember Saturn’s taking the lead. Are you ready? The pressure is on.

As Pluto gets ready to move into Capricorn in the next 35 days, our Essential Self knows something is up in the collective psyche, but we can’t see it yet. That is making people on edge. Earth rumblings. Add the holiday stress, and well you get the picture.

Your 3rd Chakra is ruled by Mars. Are you feeling queasy? Mars is still retrograding through the sign of Cancer [stomach] and Gemini [throat chakra] from November 12 through January 30; this retrograde period is bringing up our issues around feeling safe in speaking our truth, in home and heart matters.

Fiery Mars does not like to be in watery Cancer. Fire is yelling, "Hey water don’t put me out!" The archetypal force of Mars is forward motion, go get what I want now, action energy. Now Mars has stopped, forcing you to deal with issues of power in your emotional body (the Moon in you). The last thing Mars wants to do is spend time dealing with feelings and communication issues- ’get over it already.’ If you are causing trauma/drama then deal with your issues, don’t spew on people.

If you slay people with your angry words, isn’t it time to do things differently? The power of your words have the ability to harm or heal, which are you opting in for?

• What happened for you the last time Jupiter moved through the sign Capricorn?
• How old were you during these years?
• Are your children or grandchildren the same age, how are you being triggered? Who and what’s tweaking you? Wake up.
• Where does Capricorn sit in your birth chart? What house? Any planets there in Capricorn, Aires, Cancer, Libra. Those areas will be affected during this transit.

To start the new year maybe it’s time to get an astrology reading. As a reference point these are the years Jupiter moved through Capricorn:

March 1960-1961
February 1972-1973
January 1984- February 1985
January 1996-1997
Now December 2007-2008

Become an observer, create a self portrait through the SoulCollage® process. Expect to be revisiting issues, people or places and taking the Jupiter in Capricorn experience [wisdom] to a new level of understanding during the next year in 2008.

Before Jupiter enters Capricorn, journey to your Shamanic Teacher, Helping Ally and ask what is necessary. It’s an excellent time for a dismemberment journey.

Create a SoulCollage for this Jupiter in Capricorn energy. The best way to work with Jupiter is to create with the energy of the moment, start with an image from a magazine that calls to you. Work with the process of "I am the One who...and then allow a dialog to unfold in your journaling. Release what isn’t working, and allow the new structure to be created.

Fix-it and be reborn. It’s time.

1) Jupiter in Sagittarius:

February 1971-1972
January 1983-1984
January 1995-1996
December 2006-2007

What was happening for you in those years? You may have aha’s and/or you may be screaming ‘aaarrggh’. During the past year in 2007 you may have revisited issues, people or places and taken the experience [wisdom] to a new level of understanding.

Virgo New Moon- 5 alchemical steps

Here’s a shamanic journey for the New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo, it’s a five step process. There’s a whole lot of learning going on at this New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo. Look at the players involved..

• Sun/Moon in Virgo
• Uranus in Pisces
• Jupiter/Vesta in Sagittarius.

Vesta¹, the Goddess energy that rules Virgo, is keeper of the sacred flame, representative of hearth and home. Her energy is like sinking into a warm wooly blanket, comforting. I have written about the Virgo energies for the last two posts- Saturn in Virgo and The Babbling Woman. I added new information to the Virgo Journal PDF and this post information is there as well.

Rather than write more about the new moon let’s just dive into the energies. In the next 24-48 hours spend 15-20 minutes in meditation.

If you know how to shamanic journey, then grab your drumming cd and go to your shamanic teacher/helping Ally.

Step 1. Print out the PDF chart of the New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo. The Call- to perfect the mundane through rituals that feed my soul.

Step 2. Reflect on the symbols [don’t worry about knowing astrology, just look at the symbols, feel into them] and ask your Higher Self what is necessary. What do I need at this time? Don’t try and make sense of it all. Trust your inner Muse will step forward and guide you.

Step 3. Meditate or Journey for 15-20 minutes at least 24-48 hours before the New Moon occurs on September 11 at 8:44 am eastern standard time.

Step 4. On return journal about the experiences. Note any images or symbols that may come up, make note of them. Place the
Virgo New Moon chart on your altar.

<<< Wait you are not fully cooked yet. >>>

Step 5. Dreamtime. For the next two days watch your dreams, watch what animals come to you in sleep or during the day. How are you being inspired? What is tripping you up? Be ready to make adjustments. Again make a note these events in your journal. You might be inspired to create a SoulCollage card. Implement a daily ritual that connects you to spirit and heart[h].

With Saturn in Virgo, the energy of this eclipse continues to impact of our lives in a positive way for many months.

Thanks to Diane for her New Moon SoulCollage card- "I am the One who weaves magic."

¹ HESTIA was the gentle, virgin goddess of the hearth (both private & municipal), the home and family. She voluntarily relinquished her position as one of the twelve Olympian’s (which every believer was required to honor) in place of Dionysus. As recompense she was made goddess of the sacrificial flame and granted a portion of all sacrifices to the gods. Hestia is also known as Vesta:

VESTA } : Virgo is the maintenance room of the chart, a mutable earth sign whose symbol is the Virgin, the six pointed star. The Virgin from the Vesta’s perspective is a woman whole unto herself. Virgo rules the higher mind. We don’t really understand the Virgin archetype in our society (see the attached article regarding the highest expression of Virgo Vesta -the sacred Virgin). Vesta in Virgo as an archetypal force represents the principle of focus and commitment. - Demetra George from her book the Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-Emerging Feminine.

The story of a babbling woman

Virgo is the sign of the healer. Virgo is the sign of the mentor. In order to be a great healer one has to have a strong connection to all things Virgo. There are key times in your life where you are forced to open up, to move beyond who you think you are. Most times one can’t see it coming...your inner earth shakes. The experiences leave you feeling raw and on edge.

When Saturn moved through Pisces [February 1994 through April 1996] I became a babbling woman. As past trauma’s cleared and the energy merged within I went on spiritual overload that left me very ungrounded. Later my friend Wendy, a therapist, joking told me that I didn’t make much sense. In essence I was learning a new language... all healers go through this initiation.

A healer must understand their connection to earth [Virgo], all things matter, while being infused with Spirit [Pisces]. This story is important because you may now be called to mentor others, especially if you were part of the group of women who woke up in the early 90’s. I know because I was in the rooms with some wonderful souls, healing our pasts and reclaiming our power in a new way.

It may now be time for you to mentor others who are being initiated. Or as you awaken to your healership, you may be in need of a mentor.

In order to seek new lands one has to let go of the shore. Back in 1994 I leaped out of my body and traveled the cosmos. It was scary for there were very few roadmap’s and I was forced to learn how to trust the world behind my eyes. Collectively we learned how to ride the waves and stay in our bodies to ground the energy in a new way.

And that ability to ground came from understanding and appreciating the relationship to my mother- a Pisces who acts more Virgo, and my beloved maternal grandmother, a Virgo who seemed more Piscean in nature.

One of the key events in that Saturn in Pisces time period was during a guided meditation where I was asked to go to my safe place as a child- I found myself at grandma’s house at the shore.

For two years I had horrible oceanic dreams of drowning, of rendering, of baptizing. At these times the sky was dark, the sea swelled and swirled, but I’d find my way to grandma’s house and then I was safe. I had forgotten that when hurricane Donna¹ hit the Jersey shore my parents took my sister and I on a Sunday drive to see the damage. At the age of five it was devastating for me to see huge houses knocked off their foundations and the world whacked in all directions from wind and water. I remember the utter joy I felt seeing Grandma’s house survived, with only the wooden stairs floating away.

The House stood solid. When my inner child needed a hug, I’d climb the back stairs, hear the screen door slam and walk into the kitchen to get a hug and talk to with grandma. It was as real as real could be. I eventually learned that our loving ancestors are always with us, even after they pass. I just needed to learn how to communicate in a new way.

During that Saturn in Pisces period I craved new colors in my life (yellows, purples and spring greens), I craved hydrangeas. In renovating our new home I unconsciously selected colors from the grandma’s house at the shore (later I found pictures)...I filled the house with baskets of blue silk flowers. I literally was recreating the safe place of my childhood past in the here and now.

Why is this Saturn in Pisces story important? Well 13 years later, it’s like a full moon energy. There is a release, there are spiritual gifts being offered up. So today I share my SoulCollage Community card I created. There’s foundational of earth- the rustic well worn pine wood floors. A picture of the home that offers me sanctuary, reminding me to remember while heading out in life, Grandma has my back. "I am the One who is your grandma, your mentor, I loved my family well." She was a farmer’s wife, a teacher, who infused her family and friends with an innate wisdom that still lives as a legacy through each of us today.

So before Saturn gets deeper into Virgo I invite you to work with the energies [Virgo Journal PDF], to uncover and begin to unfold your myth and discover your mystery.

*In transpersonal psychology rather than medicating the client different modalities are offered that creates a container and allows the energy a voice, it is celebrated as a time of spiritual awakening.

^1. I think it must have been Donna who hit New Jersey on September 12, 1960: Hurricane Donna, the only tropical cyclone to bring hurricane force winds to every state on the East Coast of the United States passed New Jersey as a Category 2 hurricane while moving at a high speed. Damage was significant along the coastline, but was less than in other states struck directly by Donna. The hurricane caused winds gusts of up to 105 mph (169 km/h), heavy rainfall, and a storm surge of 6 feet (2 m).

Saturn in Virgo

At 9:49 am Sunday, September 2, 2007 Saturn enters earthy Virgo for the first time in 29 years and stays for two years. Over the next 10 days I will be discussing these Virgo energies in short posts every other day. My goal is to serve you with a series of constructive creative insights into how Saturn in Virgo may be working and learning you...especially as we approach the New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Virgo on September 11, 2007.

“I am creatively expressing my soul’s purpose that benefits and serves others. Today I seek a clear understanding of my function and role in society.” - A Virgo affirmation from Alan Oken’s Soul Astrology

Get Grounded. Honor what you know. Saturn represents the connection to all things of matter- earth, your 1st chakra, structure, the masculine principle, the Father. Tribal conditioning that may no longer serve you. The will to survive. Something is being birthed, you may not see it yet for it still sits on the spiritual realm ready for manifestation. But only if there is order and structure to give the energy form.

First lets look at your cast of characters and how the vibration of Virgo impacts your life:

1. Where is the sign Virgo in your chart? What house?
2. Are there any planets in that house?
3. Who are those mentors that serve as a Virgo mirror in your life’s journey?
4. Who are the important people born in the sign of Virgo [August 21 through September 22]?
5. Are these Virgo people a challenge or a joy to be around? Look to past relationships?
6. In those Virgo relationships what have you learned?
7. List significant events that occurred in your life around mid-August through mid-September.
8. Look at the last time Saturn was in Virgo. List significant events in your life from August 1978 through October 1980.
9. Look at the Pisces people in your life? Again where they a challenge or a joy to be around? What lessons did these Piscean people bring you?
10. List significant events in your life from February 1994 through April 1996.
11. I invite you to create a SoulCollage Community card to honor these significant people in you life. For more information read The Community Suit in the SoulCollage book by Seena Frost, pages 23-32.

I created a Virgo Journal PDF for use in this exercise. The task is to gather information about how Virgo/Pisces has impacted you life- both the negative and the positive.

Virgo asks you to embrace a common sense practical approach to life, your day-to-day routines infused with Spirit. Spirit and matter working in union brings transfiguration. More light and life rather than more drama/trauma. It’s a choice. Virgo is earthy and grounded.

Working with clients for over ten years in the soul retrieval process I have met several people who get so fixated on their storyline that leaves no room for healing to occur. "How I was wounded" is the negative aspect of Virgo’s analytical quality gone astray.

The story’s constant repeat creates a vicious numbing cycle that can create additional soul loss in your life, in essence you missed the gift of the experience. But when we dance the story, breath the story, infuse it with meaning and magic the energy moves, transmutes and transforms.

What is true for you?

Can you voice that truth?

Can you keep your peace?

When we hold onto a belief, become inflexible, rigid and stubborn we create trauma/drama in our lives. There is so much misrepresentation of truth out in the world right now, so much mind chatter. What’s true for you may not be right for another. How do you embrace and embody the law of allowing?

Pisces and Virgo work together to balance the mystical side of Pisces and the practical world of Virgo. Holding the tension of the opposites we walk the razors edge. Pisces is ruled by Neptune, a water element, fluid and boundless. For a person to work the Pisces area of their life and forget Virgo’s energy can bring a mystical union with the divine yet leave the person unable to function in their day to day world (chaos).

A strong Pisces personality needs to be grounded- two feet planted on the ground!!

A strong analytical Virgo personality needs to be lifted!!

Balance these too extremes and the person is highly intuitive and grounded; one who is able to manifest their dreams in the material world, face their challenges and still laugh like a child. There is faith and trust in their ability to be present in their own lives.

Here is another article about Saturn in Virgo: http://www.astrodynamics.net/Articles/Saturn-Virgo.htm

Go to the Virgo Journal PDF

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...

A woman's place is in the home

Going to get the mail Dear Daughter toddled down the narrow hall in front of me, laughing and smiling with all the innocence of a one year old when suddenly the broker stuck his head out of the conference room door to give me a angry glare that psychically screamed “shut that damn kid up”.

I felt guilty for bothering him. Later on I got very angry at myself…my vision of motherhood, having both career and family each seamlessly blending, was falling apart. Working* with fortune 500 companies in the corporate world I had a foot on two shores- the business world and mommy world, then I fell into the waters (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) where nothing would ever be the same.

A year into my Mommyhood I attended a Nawbo Conference in LA. One speaker was Sharon Poindexter, a past national president of Nawbo and one of the founding members who helped shape the vision and mission of the National Association of Women Business Owners in the early 80’s.

That day Sharon took the stage she didn’t talk about business matters, making money or networking. She shared the story of her soul loss and the missing piece we were all collectively searching for- the divine connection... heart and soul, a woman’s ability to create. She called us to look beyond the known, to blend our leadership, power and spirituality in the service for humanity.

In the late 80’s Sharon had the courage to let go of her corporate life to become a Unity minister, that day she got a standing ovation from her peers. I stood there clapping and crying, not knowing why. Even today I cry as share the legacy how her inspiring words touched me.

A woman’s place in the Home.

“I was raised to believe that you must aspire to be a homemaker or Miss America. I never wanted to be Jane. I always wanted to be Tarzan. I didn’t want to vacuum the tree house and take care of Cheetah and Boy. I wanted to swing from the vines”- Cybill Shepherd in Fearless Women.

At what point did Homemaker become a dirty word?

Homemaking felt so limiting to me in high school. Like Cybill I embraced the freedom of Tarzan, abandoned Jane. The sign Cancer rules intuition, feelings, emotions, moods, Moon, mothering, roots, home and family. Homemaker. There is a new moon in Cancer at 22 degrees on July 14th at 8:04 am.

Why this topic? Why now? Conversations. My best friends unmarried, frustrated artist-daughter announces she wants to have a baby. We sent our only child off to college last week. I fell into a deep conversation about soul loss, mothering and creativity with a woman I just met and well this morning I woke up to read a blog post from one of my favorite coaches -

And...lest you be worried, let me assure you - no this won’t be turning into a fertility blog although I’m sure my writing will take on some of these new flavors in the pursuit of money and meaning transparently with your company. My goal is to remain as useful and enjoyable as ever!

Useful and enjoyable as ever? Oh my, sadly it sounds like my coaching friend won’t ever share her insights again about trying to become a mom...let’s just focus on the business of coaching, networking, making money. She seems almost apologetic. Less Jane, more Tarzan.

I just want to say Yes!! share your struggle, Yes!! share how this is impacting your business women persona. Would we have this discussion if a great blogger shared some of his daddy insights about his journey? What is wrong with mommyhood, being a blogger, being an entrepreneur? The soul of you- in all facets of living life.

Does anyone else see the creative connection? Cancer is the archetypal force of fertility. Pregnancy is the divine form of creativity. We give birth in so many forms- we birth a business, we birth a book, we birth a child, we birth a home; sharing our personal journey makes us human, even in the business world of trying to become a mom.

Fertility and today’s modern woman.

InFertility is a creative issue women are facing at alarming rates. Especially in business women. Energy. Vibration. Collectively women are out of sync with their Moon and internal MOM, the waters within. Leadership, power and spirit is a creative process found in HomeMaking. Sadly many women find the need to hide their mommyhood, sensing that sharing their experience in everyday matters somehow intrudes on our ability as business women. Makes us less credible. Pam Smart asks- Are you in the mom (or dad) closet?

For me it’s a 30 year journey that I am now looking at with a wider lens. Upon graduating from college I swore I would never be a stay at home mom. Never. Ever. Fourteen years later I changed my mind. Oops! It wasn’t easy and I felt very guilty leaving my business and my business women friends.

When I left the corporate world* to be a full time Mom and Homemaker I saw things differently... I began the journey to heal my pain, but then I saw the same pain in my Nawbo friends and neighbors.

Take Jane, an IBM programmer, who went through two intense in vitro fertilizations to conceive her first child. At her baby shower the corporate bankers and IBM moms separated themselves from the non-working mothers. There was no mixing or mingling, there was no common ground. It was a bizarre evening...With her second child on the way, Jane was at a crossroads; sharing my story, exploring what her heart really wanted gave Jane the courage to transition from corporate life to HomeMaker.

How are you living your mother’s Fractured Fairy Tale?

Today young women are making their way through the old consciousness we left behind (from the 70’s and 80’s) about what it means to be a woman, wife, a mother, a professional in business. Think for a moment about Anna Nicole, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton. Aren’t they living out their mother’s fractured fairy tale?

As a former corporate person who has lived and witnessed this split (in herself and others)...I offer this- if one discounts any aspect of their life, pushes it into the shadow then that person and their family suffers, because you are not being real. How are you living an Authentic Life?

In my practice with clients I see a collective soul loss in the psyche of women around all forms of mothering- becoming a Mom and being seen as a Mommy in the business world. Through birth we bring Spirit into matter. Heaven into earth. Maybe this all started with…

Good Girls don’t get pregnant.

Did you grow up in a time where it was not okay to ‘get pregnant’ if you weren’t married? Good girls don’t..don’t sleep around (hook-up). Don’t get pregnant. The call- focus on your career (not the home). Swing from the vine.

Career= Capricorn= masculine= practical= more Tarzan
Home = Cancer= feminine= mystic= less Jane

Birth control pills did the trick for me, but the concept of not getting pregnant was so engrained in my psyche (even while I was married) that by the time I wanted to ‘get pregnant’ I couldn’t. Duh?

What about the energetic consequences of discounting the Cancerian qualities womanhood offers you (intuition, feelings, emotions, moods, Moon, mothering, roots, home and family) in favor of being more masculine? Do you still call it the Curse?

From the age of twelve each monthly period brought an unconscious awareness-grinding in my mother’s message- good girls don’t get pregnant (many of my older female cousins had to ’get married’). Fractured fairy tales.

What does that say about my relationship with the 2nd chakra, the divine feminine within. It was pretty wounded. As women the true spirit of our work is to blend both the practical and mystical (Cancer/Capricorn), then we live in authenticity and can be of service. Healthy caretaking at it’s best.

Cancer represents our relationship with the Great Cosmic Mother…

"In indigenous cultures [a woman’s period, blood time] is revered as a sacred mystery where psychic powers open us up for revelation. Ancient women were able to access power and vision during their periods that lead to tribal decision making and the laying down of tribal law". (Noble, p. 22)

And now there is a pill that reduces this fertile time away from young women to just four times a year? Don’t conceive, don’t bleed, don’t create!!

And what happens when you want to conceive?? What happens to your intuition along the way? Your creativity? What are we saying to young women? What are we thinking as a society?

Are you Dressed for Success?

In the 80’s women dressed like men for business. Remember the concept of “Power Dressing?” Thankfully that trend has abated, but do you really understand the dance of Cancer and how that time period still impacts your life today? Have you made sense of your own fractured fairy tale?

Especially related to the creative juices of your womb, your self, your career, your home? How has the journey impacted our daughters and sons?

Wait I hear a pregnant pause!

For those maidens born in the 1970’s and onward…you were raised at the time of women’s rights, women in business, Gloria Steinem.

How did your Mom model this concept of womanhood for you? What constitutes power for you as a woman today? HomeMaker. DreamMaker. Business woman. How are rubbing up against those choices (conscious and unconscious)- you made, your mother made and yes even your feminine ancestors made at this New Moon in Cancer?

Good Girls don’t get Pregnant…

Coach friend I lived with the pain of infertility. My period was always on time. As a married couple it took us five years to conceive. I underwent laparoscopic surgery to find out nothing was wrong. We waited a year. Then Dear Husband and I spent six months for an appointment with the best fertility doctor in our area. We had the session with the noted doctor and his swimmers checked out fine. I checked out fine. Doctor said meds in a month. It was a mystery.

The following weekend I volunteered our services to baby-sit for a friend/client who was in a childcare bind. Hubby and I moved into their waterfront home (think Moon and the tides) for four days of instant family soup. Suddenly we had three kids- ages 3, 6, and 8. It was a blast. Within two weeks I was pregnant. That family experience said to my psyche it’s okay now, you can do this…

Find the WOW in your Mom and being a MOM.

In the 70’s, with the equal rights movement women abandoned home and hearth (Cancer) for the corporate office (Capricorn) thinking that it would complete us. We collectively made HomeMaking a dirty word. I pushed off one shore for another, fell in the waters and was called to find my WOW in being a Mom. Nine months after the weekend with the kids Motherhood followed and some seventeen years later Dear Daughter wrote this on a college application:

My mother is quiet, artistic and very progressive. From her, I have been influenced to always assess the true meaning of a situation and to think before I act, which balances out the outspoken attitude I have learned from my dad. I have watched her make countless businesses before my eyes over the years, and now I am convinced that it is not as hard as I once thought it was to create something out of nothing for yourself.

Embrace the fine art of shedding

Dear Daughter got me. I beam with pride. "Create something out of nothing for yourself" is the feminine aspect of meeting your intuition, trusting your gut instincts and taking action. DreamMaking. Moon meeting Saturn. Creativity in action. Shedding.

Death and rebirth..being a vessel of vision.

The goal is to make ourselves strong enough to be leaders, healers and teachers in our time. To create a strong central axis that each of us can stand her ground in the face of opposition, visible or invisible, that attempts to stop the expulsion of the possessing entity that has taking over the world.

A process of embodiment is taking place wherein women are called to become willing vessels of the vision. The women who perform this function are called Shakti women. Shakti meaning "to be able" refers to the power of the feminine force that is creative, instinctual and becoming. (Nobel, p. 240)

In these Cancer energies from June 21st through July 22 reflect on your own journey through periods, pregnancy and birth. Your Heart(h) energy represented by home and family. Where are you in the life cycle of death and rebirth, how do you embrace the fine art of shedding?

Like the Moon our body, mind and spirit mirrors these processes of letting go, going into the dark to birth the light; the creative process of building up and letting go. Holding the vision. The womb, our connection to place and space (home and work) and our intuition is our vessel to birth-new ideas, children, home, businesses. That is why the Moon is so important, her Light reflects our mystery and the nature of our earthly dance. From Full to dark to Full there is great leadership, power and spirit.

At this Capricorn Full Moon (check our April’s post) and the following New Moon in Cancer on July 14th check-in with your little girl, maiden, mother and crone.

An Altar creates your intent.

To me an Altar is a living SoulCollage in my home. We bring bits and pieces of our self, nature and spirit, together to set an intention, to claim and honor parts of our Soul. A process of HomeMaking and VisionKeeping that can be done at Home and Work. Each altar like a SoulCollage card has a Presence~it invokes the One, the Neter.

To work with the Cancer energy honor the Moon and your Vessel by setting up an Altar in your home/work area to meet that part of your fractured fairy tale, to embody your own Shakti Woman. I created a pdf with some journaling questions to take you deeper into the energies and to explain altar making in more detail.

What house is this new moon in? Where does 22 degrees of Cancer fall in your birth chart? That is where the action is.

24 hours before the New Moon contemplate on what you want to create in that area of your life. 24 hours after the new moon let your intentions go. Expect a shift by the Full Moon.

*President of Bailey-Lessirard Designs/MLDA- an interior design and architectural firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and BLD Purchasing- a contract purchasing of FF&E for hospitality services. During this time Michele achieved an outstanding reputation as a leader in the restaurant and hospitality markets through her marketing and design talents. Major accomplishments included 22 restaurants; flagship hotels for Holiday Inn and Hilton Hotel Chains and life care design for the elderly through Life Care Services, a specialist in retirement living facilities. Past President of the Broward County Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (Nawbo). Former member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), Institute of Business Designers (IBD) and the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS).

Today Michele is a well trained spiritual counselor who combines the visible elements with the invisible- the spiritual aspects of you that is mirrored through your day-to-day relationships with family, home and work. You and I are practical mystics. To read more journey on over to Shared Journeys.

Resources Cited:

Vicki Noble. 1991. Shakti Woman-feeling our fire, healing the world.
Nancy Alspaugh and Marilyn Kentz. Fearless Women- midlife portraits.

A big thanks to these women for their SoulCollages® at this Cancer New Moon:
Lena’s "Mother of the Universe" visit her at DropWithin
Brown Bear SoulCollage Card by Anne Marie Bennett-a trained SoulCollage® facilitator by Seena Frost, author of the book SoulCollage®. Visit her website KaliedoSoul.

Moms and Dads whose blogs I read :
Work it Mom
Visit Pam Slim’s Blog where she writes about escaping the corporate life.
E-Moms at home- the Unbearable lightness of being a mom and a dad
Success from the Nest has a great post on moving your dream forward.
Inside Fatherhood

Embracing the Web of Inclusion within and without

We greet the New Moon in Capricorn on Thursday, January 18th looking for omens and symbols that you are on the right track. In Capricorn I want to build something tangible. I want to leave my mark. A month ago without knowing the energy of this Capricorn New Moon I created this SoulCollage® card for the Capricorn energies…

I am  the One who...
explores the Mysteries.
I seek the truth behind the veil as
I travel to lands beyond the beyond.

I am the One who dreams True
the feminine spirit
who flies into the night
traveling to the stars and
back Home again.

I map the realms
of the fiery rock
where matter
meets and melts
Transforms and builds anew.

The unseasoned search for me
everywhere
but their hearts,
becoming shadows
and empty shells
fighting without cause.

Men think they know me
but they don't
I shape shift realities
earth to fire, fire to earth.

Woman of power
connected to Spirit
diving into matter

I ground your dreams now.

The New Moon in Capricorn
January 18th, 2007 at 11:01 pm est
28 Capricorn 41
Printable PDF Version of this post.

The Sabian Symbol for 29 degrees of Capricorn is A WOMAN READING TEA LEAVES. At this degree we embrace the art of divination, the power of symbols and omens, the ability to know what I know. To dream True.

In order to build [1st chakra, Saturn in Capricorn] I have to know where I am going. I take my dream and make it real- I move this dream energy through all my chakras. Embody my dream, earth it, ground it.

Dreaming this into being means I trust my intuition [6th chakra]. I speak clearly about what it is I am about to create, even if it hasn’t manifested [5th chakra]. I call this the future NOW. I trust myself to move into action. I love what I am about to do and that love imbrues the dream with my own spiritual force [4th chakra]. Even if I am afraid, my connection with Spirit [the God/Goddess of my understanding] is stronger than my fear. Through my strong will, faith and determination to make this dream happen I stand in my power [3rd chakra]. I am a fearless woman.

I create my dream it brings up both my fear and my joy. I call this the sweet and the sour- like Chinese food. I am birthing something [2nd chakra] tangible. Who am I answering to– the fear or the joy? What am I feeding?

And finally I ground it all by making it real. I build my dream by going out and getting the resources I need to make my dream happen [1st chakra]. I know what I know, I know what I have to do, and I take action to make things happen. I am responding. I am responsible. Saturn in Capricorn.

This is how Cancer [6th chakra] and Capricorn [1st chakra] talk to each other in everyday matters. I am embracing the web of inclusion, my own feminine nature within and without. This is an ongoing dialog that we as a society take for granted until we really, really want something. The bigness of it all, the power of it scares us. Who am I to be brilliant as Marianne Williams speaks too in her famous quote– “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our Light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves -- Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?”

We forget we are working with these sacred principles…everyday. It’s how you are birthed from your mother’s womb…spirit into matter…

it’s how you get from your house to Starbucks.

This energy, these symbols and omens (Tea leaves) I meet and greet does not mean I go around asking every Tom, Dick and Sally what they think. That my friends undermines your third chakra and weakens your own knowing- [6th chakra]. It is a failure to take responsibility and a lack of trust that Spirit is working with you, through you. If I consult others, I am able to speak my truth, use my voice [5th chakra] and discern what is right for me. I do not give away my power.

Saturn rules the sign Capricorn. I build relates to our first chakra- the tribal conditioning I have break down in order to break through…at the first chakra I face my fears, my survival issues (especially related to our parents). At this new moon we have been dancing through these energies for the last month. A new moon in Capricorn at 29 degrees means the energy is completed– it is spent. You are cooked.

This new moon in Capricorn will shed light on what you are now called to invent…innovate in your life. This New Moon in Capricorn acts more Aquarius with a Virgo flare. Virgo wants attention to details, a creative way to order things. Aquarius wants you to inspire others with your own original thought– your brilliance shines bright and attracts others.

What are you called to create at a New Moon at 29 degrees? I edited the description of this Sabian Symbol from Linda Hill’s book Sabian Symbol as an Oracle:

A WOMAN READING TEA LEAVES: You are called to see, to read the signs and meanings in things that most people would never stop to notice or know how to read.

In order to read the signs one has to put aside their skepticism and be able to embrace trust and intuitive knowing in order to be able to listen to the messages that are there. One must also employ the art of discrimination, don’t take everything verbatim, and use thoughtful interpretation.

Keywords: Symbolism, opening pathways to the spiritual center. Seeing the signs, seeing signatures in small things that others miss. Intuition and clairvoyance. Creative Visualization. Tea leaves and coffee grounds.

The Caution: Reliance on superstition or esoteric advice. Constantly seeking assurance. Taking things literally, not symbolically. Looking for answers or significance everywhere.

 A good resource to help you build your dreams– The Dream Book – Dream>Plan>Track from Ameriprise Financial. I highly recommend this free resource, the book makes one think and put those plans into action.

Click to learn more about the New Moon SoulCollage® Process.
Join the New Moon Yahoo Group to take these teachings deeper and dialog with others of like mind and heart.

Stay tuned tomorrow as I present two SoulCollage® cards readers have submitted for this Capricorn New Moon.

Some journal questions:

Each New Moon asks for introspection. A WOMAN READING TEA LEAVES:

What does this SYMBOL say to you? Where in my life am I called to let go, cross into the unknown? Thomas Edison the master inventor said “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

• What does my heart want this month, what do I want to create?
• What is your little story- little self? Here's your victim/perpetrator, "I am not good enough, smart enough, etc., I never have money, I am afraid. . . track the fear and do it anyway.
• What is your myth- the Greater Story of your soul/self fused? I am divine.  I am Light.
  Which energy supports your passion and joy? Both synthesized!
  
• If you have your birth chart - what house does 29 degrees of Capricorn (new moon) fall into?
• Does fear inhibit some part of my inner expression of power? How is that impacting my life? What am I  called to surrender to at this lunation? Where is my light? Is it bright or dimly lit?
• What could I not do in 1997 that I am now ready to move forward with? How have I changed since then?
• What is my connection to my Tribe? Where did I come from, who am I from this ancestral heritage?
• How have I challenged or gone against the status-quo? Has it worked for me? What serves me now?
• What do I dream about on this new moon? I express this energy by writing or drawing or creating a New Moon SoulCollage® card on the New Moon. . . The Foundation (Capricorn) has been set now what are my intentions?

24 Hours before the New Moon go within and connect to what the need is for that area of your life.

24 Hours after the New Moon, write down your intentions. Verbalize them. Visualize them. Send it out. It is done!

The real 12 days of Christmas-a year in review and the WABAC Machine

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a strong believer in the importance of cycles. You’d better try to understand them, because all of your timing and often your luck is tied up in them.”  Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca

After holiday cheer with family and friends we collectively turn our attention to the New Year. Dear Husband is busy as we speak writing a business plan and finishing up CE credits. Me I am creating cartoons and making collages. What do you plan to create in 2007? Did you know that the 12 Days of Christmas really starts on December 25th lending support for building the new year…

After presents and holiday cheer comes clean up in more ways than one.

Business cycles: A cycle involves shifts over time between periods of relatively rapid growth of output (recovery and prosperity), alternating with periods of relative stagnation or decline (contraction or recession). Business cycles require the providence of Jupiter and the right timing of Saturn. The archetype of Saturn could be called “The Planner”:

• one who commands discipline, clarity and focus
• one who lays the foundation to build a new structure in the coming year.
• one who knows how to work with stagnation and contraction periods.
• Saturn rules business cycles and your career. Saturn is still moving through the sign Leo (for the first time in 28 years -1977/78).

From the WaBac Machine of Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman* : over the next 12 days take time to reflect on those years & the last 12 months, what happened? In September 2007 Saturn moves into Virgo and this Saturn in Leo energy won’t be active again until 2034.

How are the current conditions in your life related to the Fractured Fairy Tales of that 1977/78 time period?

These 12 days after Christmas* are a time of renewal…a 12 day year in review, a time to recapitulate to seize the coming year. Was there a month your creativity soared? Was there a month your creativity soured? Where do you sit today?

At the time of the Full moon in Cancer on January 3rd we’ll be well into the energies that "really exist outside of linear time. [These days] are in a sense, the fruit of the past year, and one day for each month that has past." (Mathews, p. 173)

January 6th celebrates Epiphany in the Christian faith, the day the three wise men- The Magi- arrived to see the Christ child after their long journey. Expect your own Epiphany. The Wise Men represent the shaman and priests of their tribes coming to honor a new King.  By the time we get to the New Moon in Capricorn on January 18 you’ll be cooked in these Capricorn energies. Saturn rules Capricorn. Saturn rules responsibility and right timing. Saturn rules business cycles. I build. 10th house career issues.

If I want abundance in my life then I need the archetypal force of my inner Magi (Sun and 7th chakra) and Planner (Saturn and 1st chakra) as the vehicle to drive those hopes, wishes and dreams home.

For the next SoulCollage® challenge we’ll drive this energy home by actively engaging the energies of Saturn and Capricorn. Leo and the Sun is about creating your heart's desire. Saturn brings you the structure, the support to create with.

I am the One who....

Here are some of the themes for a Capricorn and/or Saturn collage:

• Fire and Earth. Leo in Saturn.
• 1st Chakra, tribal conditioning, father issues- good father, bad father
• Future Security- time, decisions, maturity, Social Security i.e. - retirement and old-age.
• Handling responsibility- self-discipline, adult behavior, keeping commitments, competency, and public image.
• Goals- ambition, defining goals, using opportunities, professions, hard work.
• Success- accomplishments, recognition, social status, achieving goals.
• Management- following protocol, delegating responsibility, being in charge, respect.
• Authority- issues with authority, people outside of our self where we give our power away.
• Fathers, bosses and other authority figures, tradition, reputation.
• The Shadow energy: obsessive, excessive CONTROL- lack of joy, sternness, fear of new approaches, pessimism, inflexibility, self-justification, obsession with power, status and appearance, fear.
• Restoring health of the bones and joints, Arthritis and rheumatism, gall bladder and gallstones, Knees, Skin- psoriasis and itching.

The SoulCollage® challenge for the next new moon is due January 8th. Online you’ll see I opened up the New Moon Yahoo group as a community to talk about this process- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newmoonjournal . You are invited to join in, share your SoulCollage® cards,upload images, ask questions and take these new moon teachings deeper.

Find out where Saturn in Leo is in your chart and then read this from the archives.

WANT MORE: To read the rest of this story click here to print out Part 2 from the PDF- Saturn retrograde, shamanic journey and more....

* The WaBac Machine of Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman: The WABAC was a time machine which Peabody and Sherman would use to travel back in time to witness various historical events. However, on each visit, they would discover that things didn't happen the way they were supposed to (such as Paul Revere not being able to make his ride due to only having a statue of a horse instead of a real one), and would subsequently wind up working to fix whatever the problem was (using Peabody's great intellect to do so), so that history would be accurate.

**  Following the 12 days of Christmas: Aries New Moon/March on December 27th I plan to be reviewing March 2006 energy in my journal. One day = 1 month of 2006. 12 days = 12 months.

If something happened to you in June of 2006 then on December 30 you have the opportunity to look at the experiences again with a fresh perspective. Do you see how this tracks with the 12 days of Christmas?

Was there a month your creativity soared? Was there a month your creativity soured? Check in and relate it to the New Moon energy of that month:  Aries– I am, Taurus– I have, Gemini– I think, Cancer– I feel, Leo– I will,  Virgo– I analyze, Libra-I balance, Scorpio– I create,  Sag– I perceive,  Capricorn– I use,  Aquarius– I know, Pisces– I believe.

RESOURCES:

John Mathews quoted from his book The Winter Solstice: The Sacred Traditions of Christmas (Paperback) ISBN-10: 0835608344

Mr. Peabody image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Peabody

Here is a Christian perspective about the symbology of the 12 days in the Christian Mysteries http://www.crivoice.org/cy12days.html

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"This article is reprinted from The New Moon Journal, an online e-zine featuring astrological coaching tips, tricks and techniques for using the sky energies for personal empowerment written by Michele Bailey-Lessirard. The New Moon Journal © 2001-2006. All rights reserved. Author retains all copyright privileges. This journal is published monthly at http://www.newmoonjournal.com. Please subscribe through Feedblitz http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?ListHTML=40628.”