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Do New Moons really matter?

By Dana Gerhardt

I’ve been doing New Moon rituals for years.  There’s always a voice inside that wonders “What good is this anyway?”  Another voice usually replies, “Shut up, this is magic.  You want magic, don’t you?”  The skeptical voice persists: “So what.  You do a ritual or you skip it.  It doesn’t change the world.”  Cries the magic-loving voice: “Skip the New Moon and the gods will be angry.  Better do it.”

When all else fails, guilt wins.  I do it.  And because I’ve kept the commitment, I’ve received a teaching over the years that goes beyond the intelligence of either the skeptic or the magic-lover.  This knowledge is deeply lunar.  And that it came gradually, across many New Moon rituals, is precisely the point.

Rituals can be a means for joining with the natural order.  In ancient traditions, ceremonies timed to the Sun, Moon and seasons were genuinely collaborative, a way to ensure that the natural rhythms were sustained.  Fail to keep the rhythms and the world would sicken.  Today we’re hampered by knowing the Sun and Moon will rise without our help.  We cannot be as convinced, however, that the world hasn’t sickened without our ritual attentions.

This is not my reason for keeping New Moon ceremonies.  It’s more personal.  It’s about the developmental value of repetition, returning to the same moment, with a similar intent, over time.  This is what the Moon does, always bringing the Full Moon to the eastern horizon at sunset, without fail returning the waxing Crescent to the western sky two weeks later. I return too.  At times I’ll simply mouth words or mime gestures without much feeling or connection, until at one New Moon, I get such a deep “aha!” it resonates backwards and forward, charging both past and future ceremonies.  Over the next New Moon something else is building.  Nourished by the subtle weave of change, reflection and return, transformations come.

We get what anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson calls “longitudinal epiphanies,” discoveries that can only be made by walking the same path again and again.1  It’s a natural mode of learning well suited to ritual.  Bates worries that we are losing our capacity for it.  Our desires for freedom, novelty, entertainment, and speed make a stronger call.  We hate being boxed in.  Repeating traditional words and forms feels artificial.  We worry that our ritualized spiritual experience lacks sincerity.  We get bored.  Especially if the ritual doesn’t bring instant results, we may feel like we’ve been conned.

Perhaps we could learn from children, who can watch, with remarkably little restlessness, the same video, play the same game, listen to the same story, again and again.  Not only can they do it, they love to do it.  To the observing parent what the child gets from such repetition is often a mystery.  But it might draw from the same reassuring secret the Moon tells every month:  “You’re back!  Stay awhile.  Let’s go deeper.  Who are you now?  What do you see?”  With each New Moon return, the particulars of our lives may have altered, but there is both continuity and opportunity in reaching the same temporal crossroads again.

A child watching Land Before Time over and over can seem possessed, as though the video had captured her, not the other way around.  But what if no ritual form ever captures us?  Can we borrow a ritual from some foreign tradition?  Without its heritage or training, will it have meaning for us?  Or if we decide to invent our own, will it lack the secret substance and power of forms created by ones spiritually wiser?  What if we regularly show up for the New Moon, but improvise our ceremony every time?  Does that count?

I wish I knew the answers.  We live in chaotic times.  Our desire to build stable but meaningful structures will increase.  In the meantime I think of one of my favorite B movies, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”  In the movie, a group of post-apocalyptic children are stranded after an airplane crash.  They learn how to survive in the deserted landscape.  But they also develop rituals honoring their presumed past world, based on objects they find in the airplane debris – a broken videocassette, a girlie photo, a post card of the New York skyline.  Their assumptions about the past are wildly inaccurate, but their rituals are creative and inspired.  Reciting their stories, returning to their ritual container, is what binds the spirit of these stranded innocents together.

In the end, it matters less which ritual we choose, but that we choose one at all.  It may not matter when we do our rituals either.  At the Full Moon.  On the fifteenth of every month.  When a favorite flower blooms.  I happen to like the New Moon.  A nature-inspired time of renewal, it returns us, again and again, to the energy of beginning.  Truth is, we begin many times, astrologically and otherwise.   When you keep a New Moon practice, you get wiser and wiser about what beginning means.

Support yourself with the insights and vibrance of my monthly Moon workshop  .  Learn how to see the gods of the moment and dance with them artfully.  

© 2018 Dana Gerhardt
All rights reserved

 

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About Dana Gerhardt

A popular columnist with The Mountain Astrologer since 1991, Dana Gerhardt is an internationally respected astrologer. She has lectured extensively and written for astrology publications on several continents. Her ongoing passions are the moon and living the intuitive life. Dana worked for many years in the corporate sector, where she observed the undeniable influence of natural cycles. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles and did graduate work in literature at Columbia University and CSULA. Dana can be contacted by email.

Comments

  1. Ellen McPherson says

    Dec 8, 2018 at 4:19 am

    your insight about the relationship children have with rituals is so accurate and the importance of rituals for us all timely… thanks

    Reply
  2. Susan Gill Sproul says

    Dec 5, 2018 at 4:48 am

    Just lovely.

    Reply
  3. Polly MacDavid says

    Dec 5, 2018 at 2:18 am

    Beautiful essay. I love New Moons.

    Reply
  4. Jenny Quinn says

    Dec 4, 2018 at 5:33 pm

    Thank you, Dana!

    Reply
    • Dana Gerhardt says

      Dec 4, 2018 at 5:51 pm

      You’re welcome, Jenny!

      Reply

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The Moon is in its
Last Quarter Phase

in the
Sign of Capricorn


Today's Lunar Aspects:

  • Moon sextile Neptune, 2:41pm  Mar 8 2021
  • Moon conjunct Pluto, 12:52am  Mar 9 2021
  • Moon sextile Sun, 5:38am  Mar 9 2021

Venus is currently
In the Underworld

in the sign of Pisces


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m  Conjunction:  Like peas in a pod, planets in conjunction tend to come from the same place. They act together, but it’s also hard to tell them apart. This aspect can increase talent, focus, and intensity (“two are better than one”). Or one planet can disappear as the other dominates. Their connection feels so natural, it’s easy to think everyone blends these planetary energies just as you do—but mostly, they don’t!.

p  Sextile:  Planets in sextile are compatible, though without any fireworks. This aspect doesn’t demand your attention. It quietly presents an opportunity. You can join these archetypal forces. Donna Cunningham has called this the “Oh, that!” aspect, because that’s generally what her clients say when she describes their benefits.  To get the most from sextiles you need to actively work them.

q  Square:  Squares are wild and wonderful—but difficult too. The power struggle between these planets was likely defined in your youth, when they were impossibly challenging. People are usually aware of their squares. They force the issues that make you to grow. And that’s their gift. They ensure you learn your lessons. When you rise to the occasion, they bless you with energy, action, and success.

r  Trine:  Michael Munkasey has dubbed this the “goddess aspect” because it’s so lovely. Identifying talents you may have perfected in a previous life, trines can bring you joy. There’s a nice flow of energy between planets in trine. They support and reinforce each another. But without any struggle, you might take them for granted—neither using nor developing their gifts. An unattended trine can sometimes trick you into negative behaviors.

t  Inconjunct/Quincunx:  Your quincunx planets are innately incompatible. Bringing them into harmonious expression requires constant adjustments. This can be stressful, also motivating. You’ve got to keep changing your process, opinions or attitude—which promotes highly creative solutions.

u  Opposition:  They say opposites attract—and planets in opposition are never far from each other, though they’re constantly bickering. You may be triggered into awareness of this aspect by other people who seem to resist or undermine you.  An opposition can make you feel uncertain, insecure, or discontent, until you can accept and see yourself in both energies. Typically people find it easier to identify with one side and project the other onto unsuspecting others in the outer world.

First House: Personality, physical body, beginnings. Includes the Ascendant and rules physical appearance, the image you project to others, your general outlook on life, how you start things; may describe your role in your family system, often guides your first impression of immediate environment.

Second House: Money and personal finances, sense of self-worth and basic values, personal possessions, talents.

Third House: Communication, thoughts, language skills like writing and speaking, early schooling, siblings and neighbors, short trips, coming and going around town.

Fourth House: Your home, psychological foundations and roots, family, parents, domestic life, instinctive behavior, ancestry, your connection with the past, sense of security, domestic life, real estate. conditions at the end of life.

Fifth House: Children, creativity, romance; pleasure, entertainment, self-expression; all forms of “play”, speculation, gambling, and attitude towards taking risks; hobbies, attitude towards romance, lovers as opposed to partners, attitude towards having fun.

Sixth House: Work and job (as opposed to career), daily life, attitude towards service and coworkers, helpfulness, pets, attitude towards routine and organization, how you refine and perfect your skills.

Seventh House: Partnerships, one-to-one relationships, marriage, the first marriage, the “significant other”, business partnerships, competitors, open enemies, lawyers, mediators, counselors, contracts, negotiations, agreements. clients/the public.

Eighth House: Transformations and crisis, your ability to meet and rebound from crisis and change, sexuality; sex, death and rebirth, rituals and personal growth, your partner’s resources, addictions, psychology, other people’s money, taxes, divorce/alimony, inheritance.

Ninth House: Attitude toward expanding horizons, religious beliefs and personal philosophy, higher education, long-distance travel, morals, foreign languages and cultures, personal truths, publishing, commerce, advertising, your sense of adventure.

Tenth House: Career and profession, your contribution to society, social status, public reputation, material success, how you carve out a public identity for yourself; attitude toward authority figures, parents, caregivers, bosses, governments, attitude towards responsibility, desire for achievement.

Eleventh House: Friends, groups, organizations; hopes, wishes, aspirations, personal goals; your philanthropic attitude, concern for the collective, humanity; like tenth, can bring recognition and honors for fulfilling hopes and dreams.

Twelfth House: What’s hidden beneath the surface, karmic dustbin, limiting childhood/past-life messages, self-undoing, hidden enemies, hidden weaknesses, dreams, secret affairs, lost items, hospitals and prisons, hidden strengths, spiritual studies and soul growth.

A  Sun: Our vitality and magnetism; self-identity, ego.
Roles: The Self, the Hero, the Performer, the King.

B  Moon: Intuition, emotion, nurture.
Roles: The Mother, the High Priestess, the Child.

C  Mercury: Mind; physical dexterity and mental agility.
Roles: The Thinker, the Communicator, the Student, the Trickster, the Merchant, the Thief.

D  Venus: Our capacity for pleasure, receptivity, creativity, and social connection. Also indicates our relationships, self esteem, and financial abundance.
Roles: The Lover, the Seductress, the Artist.

E  Mars: Desire, initiative, anger.
Roles: The Protector, the Athlete, the Warrior.

F  Jupiter: Luck, opportunity, expansion, higher learning, religion.
Roles: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Traveler, the Monk, the Professor.

G  Saturn: Hard work, commitment, focus, inadequacy, leadership, suffering, loss.
Roles: The Task Master, the Grim Reaper, the Wise Old Man, the Builder, the Cynic, the Boss.

H  Uranus: Change, breakthroughs, upsets, discoveries.
Roles: The Revolutionary, the Humanitarian, the Visionary, the Snob.

I  Neptune: Imagination, spirituality, idealism, addictions, deception, compassion.
Roles: The Artist, the Romantic, the Guru, the Addict, the Martyr, the Victim.

J  Pluto: Transformation, power, psychological dynamics, helplessness.
Roles: The Terrorist, the Detective, the Psychotherapist, the Dictator, shady people.

a  Aries: Pioneering, competitive, selfish, impatient, courageous, reckless, independent, dynamic, domineering, “Me first!”

b  Taurus: Patient, stable, lazy, dependable, practical, sensual, stubborn, artistic, possessive, greedy, gentle, loyal.

c  Gemini: Intelligent, curious, adaptable, quick-witted, restless, clever, scatterbrained, lacking follow-through.

d  Cancer: Nourishing, intuitive, protective, moody, sensitive, maternal, domestic, childish, cautious, creative.

e  Leo: Proud, dignified, vain, expressive, romantic, generous, childish, overbearing, self-assured, creative.

f  Virgo: Perfection-seeking, practical, methodical, petty, critical, studious, discriminating, cautious, never satisfied.

g  Libra: Charming, sociable, peace-loving, refined, diplomatic, artistic, indecisive, apathetic, easily deterred.

h  Scorpio: Passionate, secretive, penetrating, resourceful, suspicious, manipulative, jealous, sarcastic, intolerant, determined, aware.

i  Sagittarius: Freedom-loving, philosophical, optimistic, enthusiastic, careless, impatient, talkative, a know-it-all, broadminded, athletic, honest.

j  Capricorn: Serious, responsible, practical, hardworking, stubborn, brooding, inhibited, status-conscious, domineering, unforgiving.

k  Aquarius: Progressive, individualistic, unpredictable, cold, intellectual, artistic, eccentric, shy, impersonal, scientific.

l  Pisces: Compassionate, intuitive, ungrounded, romantic, impractical, self-sacrificing, seductive, musical, artistic.