As We Are Tested - First Quarter Moon

The Moon reaches first quarter phase from late Pisces at 12:19 am EST Thursday, symbolizing a time of inner trial even as we are tested by external events. It will be the midpoint between the last New Moon of a season now departing, and the first Full Moon of a season about to begin.

It will also be a square aspect from the Sun to the Moon, the first of the lunar cycle, when we are at pains to wonder whether we can emulate Luna by becoming more luminous in the week to come.

The week just past concluded with unspeakable loss at a vulnerable time. It is as if everybody on Earth is being compelled to share simultaneous grief. The question now is what common and concurrent sorrow will do to those of us who remain to pick up the pieces.

The Sagittarius Sun will conjoin with an asteroid named after the ancient goddess Isis as it squares the Pisces Moon later this week. Central to the myth of Isis is a tale of how she was compelled to overcome sorrow and pick up the pieces so that life could go on.

As it has reached us, the story relates the murder of Osiris, brother and spouse to Isis. Following his death, Osiris was dismembered, and his body parts were scattered far and wide. Isis set out, even as she grieved, to recover and reassemble the body of her beloved so that they could conceive their son, Horus.

To know the myth of Isis is to know that human beings have always borne with devastating loss, and recovered, only to repeat the story again and again. To be aware that all of us, together and at once, are now in emulation of Isis’ suffering and predicament is to be aware that we have reached a tipping point. We can choose to depart from repeating ancient patterns and stories, amplifying and magnifying the horror with each turn of the cycle, or we can elect to remain on a path towards departing from life altogether, all together.

The first quarter Moon is also a tipping point. Unlike our current situation, each month the Moon passes its first quarter with a dependable outcome. For thousands upon thousands of years humans have come to rely on the outcome but have never seen fit to follow its example. Now is finally the time to pay attention and emulate the Moon.

At its first quadrature, the Moon is half lit and half darkened. We see it that way because we are at the ‘corner’ of Luna’s square from the Sun. Every month we reliably feel that corner, wondering whether we can get out of it. Most of the time we react, in the words of astrologer Bill Tierney, by constructing “blockages, barriers, shells and shields”, ostensibly to protect ourselves in the corner.

The Moon doesn’t do that. The half lit Moon does not struggle as though divided against itself, though, for a night or two it may seem that way. The Moon keeps on moving, opening the corner and opening to the light. Following the first quarter, the Moon expands the light to include its darker half, and continues to do so until it is whole. So it is time for you, and all of us, to do the same, for yourself and for everybody else, all together, and at once.

We cannot assuage our pain by designating a dark side, either within or without, to struggle against. To do so would only, once again, take us out of synchrony with the example set by the Cosmos. This is not easy for anybody to say, especially as we are tested further by unrelenting pain. Nor is it easy to do what no humans have done before, but it must be done lest we be done. We must, for once, come out of the corner without fighting lest we go down for the count at our own hand.

Offered In Service        

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Article Source: Planetwaves