Moving Towards Meaning, First Quarter Moon in Sagittarius
Though we don’t usually consciously acknowledge it, we, our lives, are always moving through cycles of becoming. From an astrological perspective there is this unending gorgeous dance of archetypal energies unfolding and these reflect the threads within all of our lives. Threads that weave a breathing tapestry that is our life.
No where is this more evident that in the monthly cycle of the Moon which moves through all of the signs in a little less than 30 days. Many people pay attention to the New and Full Moon yet they are part of a larger rhythm that is constantly ebbing and flowing. As I write this we are moving to the 1st quarter of the cycle which represents a turning point.
As I said in my last post. each New Moon is a cycle unto itself, it contains a particular quality. Last week I spoke about the connection to vocation, our spirit calling, that is contained within the Virgo archetype. The Virgo cycle, meaning what was initiated at the new Moon, is part of the mutable cross which contains four signs; Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and finally Pisces.
Each of the three crosses, cardinal, fixed and mutable represents a particular process. Cardinal is where we begin (initiate) taking place at the beginning of each season, the fixed cross sustains and blooms taking place at the height of each season and finally mutable on a certain level is the place of change - where one season begins to transition to another.
Virgo rules our digestion, where we assimilate. Where we separate the chaff from the grain essentially taking in what nourishes us. If we use the perspective we spoke of in our last conversation(here is a direct link to that article) perhaps there is a new clarity about the vocation, the thing that is pulling you forward essentially your soul's lifework asking you to make it real. The ability to absorb, to take things in is one of Virgo’s superpowers but from there, within the cycle , the next quarter of the mutable cross, we move to Sagittarius.
Sagittarius, at its best, is about the pursuit of meaning. It’s travelling truth is not about wanderlust for its own sake, but for the exploring we must do, into unfamiliar territory, in order to broaden our internal horizons. The poet David Whyte said “The Poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world.” To me this beautifully describes the symbolic process of moving from Virgo to Sagittarius for all of us. The potential of the Virgo New Moon cycle.
When you are consciously working at embodying (cultivating it as a spiritual practice) your calling life unfolds at this frontier he describes. . Honestly it does anyway, we however are often oblivious. As we awaken little by little we viscerally experience what is described in the hymn Amazing Grace - “I was blind but now I see.”
This is the practice of moving towards Sagittarius. Virgo is where we do the work, where we ‘chop wood and carry water.’ Sagittarius is where we bring meaning to our task.
Author and survivor of Auschwitz, Victor Frankl who wrote the iconic book Man’s Search For Meaning believed that freedom came from three possible sources: purposeful work, love, and courage in the face of difficulty. He said “ Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self.”
Process is another very Virgo strength, note digestion itself is a biological process.
So, I invite you to view make use of the first quarter of this cycle, this turning point by assimilating where you are at this point in your year. Journal and go deeper into your conscious relationship with your calling. Take stock: How do you nurture it? Do you even make a little time to attend to it? Do you celebrate it? Do you discount it impossible? Are you receptive to it?
Astrological truth states that the more we become aware of ourselves, our processes and our perceptions, the less will ‘happen’ to us from the outside. This is because the more aware we are, the more we are at one with the world. (Of course, sometimes we are part of happenings that involve us on a group or collective level, and are not part of our individual awareness.)
Deepening our inner relationship with ourselves, where ultimately our relationship with outer reality is seeded, leads to revelations in the outer world to paraphrase David Whyte. Just taking the time to process, to honestly assess with yourself the actual quality of your relationship with this part of yourself, without judgement, creates a subtle adjustment.
