Aries New Moon + Eclipse Season
the dark planting moon
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Last month's new moon was in the sign of Aries, and today's new moon is also in Aries; it includes a hybrid solar eclipse. This rare astronomical phenomenon takes place only a few times a century.
A hybrid solar eclipse combines an annular eclipse (a solar eclipse in which the moon covers all but a bright ring around the sun's circumference) and a total eclipse. The annular eclipse turns into a total eclipse and then reverses back due to the natural curve of the earth's surface as the moon's shadow moves across the globe.
It seems especially auspicious that this rare event is taking place in Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, filled with initiating spirit and the archetypal energy of a leader, warrior, and trailblazer.
This new moon and unusual solar eclipse comes just as the season of the spring equinox, Ostara, is ending, and the energies of Walpurgis Night (Curious? Read about Walpurgis Night HERE) and Beltane are rising.
Time to pay attention.
I'm not an astrologer or an astronomer, but that doesn't stop me from being captivated by the cosmos. Star gazing and moon watching is what humans have been doing since the beginning. Our earliest myths place our origin in the stars, and many say that we will return to our star home upon our death.
So many magnificent monolithic standing stones, burial mounds, temples, and pyramids were constructed by our ancestors to align with astronomical phenomena and heavenly bodies.
Many people want to know how to tap into ancestral wisdom and connect with and honor their Ancestors. First, pay attention to the moon. Next, keep track of the night sky, the solstices, and equinoxes. Doing what our ancestors did is an excellent way to start. If you want to feel connected and grounded, becoming aware of the seasons, cycles, and rhythms we live within is a powerful way to begin.
Not only will you be in tune with the earth, but it is also a way to stay connected to the grander forces beyond the material realm.
This new moon is called The Dark Planting Moon, and it corresponds to the germination process.
Germination - The process of development of the embryo of a seed into a perfect plant. As an immediate result of the growing process thus excited and carried on in the seed, a root is produced which strikes downward, fixing itself in the soil and beginning to absorb thence nourishment for the new plant. At the same time the other extremity of the axis of growth is directed upward and develops a stem and leaves.
~ The Century Dictionary.
So many profound words in this definition can spark creativity, art-making, and writing or journaling…
Process, perfect, excited, root, strike, downward, development, fixing, absorb, growth, nourishment, and upward to highlight but a few.
To intentionally become aware of the moon's lunation, its cycle of waxing and waning, is to place yourself within an energetic flow that takes you on a journey each month.
A few days ago, I stood outside, around 10:00 pm, taking the dogs on their last run before bed. The air had that damp, early spring chill, but it was warm enough for the peepers and green frogs to sound a deafening weird, warbling amphibian love song across the wetlands. The atmosphere was clear, and the sky above was a silky dark blue-black. I could see Venus, big and bright to the northwest through the bare tree branches. Over the house was the Big Dipper floating in the darkness as if pouring an invisible blessing of holy water upon my home.
Standing there and gazing up, I had the sensation I always get when I take the time to connect with the stars. It's a sense of being held in a vast web, unseen threads connecting and protecting everything.
In a time when society feels fractured, divisions seem unbridgable, and collapse haunts or perhaps hunts us, that feeling of cohesion is a remedy.
It's taken me a long time to observe and correctly identify just a few of the more obvious planets and constellations. Likewise, it's taken some effort to pay attention to the moon, to remember when she rises early in the evening, sometimes before sunset, and when she will only appear while I am fast asleep in the wee hours of the morning. But now I know when to expect the moon in the morning after the sun is up and in what phase she will be. I also know when she will keep low to the horizon and when she will ride high in the sky.
As basic as this is, it feels profound, meaningful, and powerful, as if I've been initiated into some hidden knowledge written on ancient scrolls.
Eclipse Season, The Sun Embracing The Moon
The alchemy of uniting opposing forces and the ever-changing balance of sun and moon in nature is worth pondering.
The spring eclipse season begins now, and the dance of the sun, moon, and earth will be played out again in the heavens with a resultant effect on the earth and in our bodies and lives. In these very turbulent times, these cosmic occurrences have a more potent impact than usual.
April 19–20, 2023: Annular Total Eclipse of the Sun.
May 5, 2023: Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon.
We'll see another set of solar and lunar eclipses in the fall.
October 14, 2023: Annular Eclipse of the Sun.
October 28, 2023: Partial Eclipse of the Moon.
Eclipse Divination
Eclipses, when things are changeable, and normalcy is upended, and new moons, when much is hidden, are tricky times for divination (i.e., consulting the Divine) and the oracular arts; however, today seems like a singular opportunity for gathering insight. To that end, I offer you a tarot card reading tailored to this new moon and eclipse event.
The Dark Planting - six of wands.
You are enjoying a secret success; something positive has happened, but rather than wishing to be publicly celebrated, you’re keeping it to yourself and savoring it. This card could also indicate that you were a “dark horse,” someone not expected or considered who has suddenly achieved success or victory. This is likely happening with something creative in your life or around some ambition you have.
Germination - The Knight of Wands
This unexpected or secret success has energized and emboldened you, ensuring your advancement. Self-doubt is fading, and you have experienced a boost to your confidence.
What Will Grow - The Chariot
This major arcana card brings archetypal energy to bear on your situation. You will learn to expertly control the burst of energy from the Knight of Wands, and your momentum will grow as you continue to build on your unexpected success.
Given the instability of eclipse season, this may be something that has just happened or something that may be coming your way.
Reading for the collective always means that this will resonate with some of you and mean nothing at all to others. If you find something here for you, wonderful! If not, sit with these cards and see if they speak directly to you, even if you know nothing about the Tarot. Or feel free to use your own deck and re-create this spread for yourself.
How to Work with Eclipse Energy
While it may not be a great moment for accuracy, it is superb for channeling the healing powers of storytelling. Where the imagination wanders isn’t void of truth - Chani Nicholas, Astrologer
Lean into the darkness and find the stories waiting for you there.
Stories that hold healing potential are ready to arise.
Visual storytelling employs symbols, totems, and archetypes to get at the essence of the story in ways that may deviate from linear, detailed, event-based, “factual” tellings.
Try dreamy creating.
Dim the lights, and use a guided meditation, meditation music, rattle, drum, or movement to shift your consciousness.
Open the taps of intuition and let it all flow out. Set aside fear, intention, agenda, and intellect and swim in the river of unconscious knowing.
Tear, cut, crumple, push, pull, knot, weave, mark, smear, erase, layer, peel back.
Create-Destroy.
Create-Destroy.
Repeat.
Suspend expectations and judgment.
Delay meaning-making and analysis until after the new moon and eclipse.
In fact, don’t expect much in the way of understanding until the full moon arrives in two weeks.
Be content with the process of telling healing tales and the opportunity offered by the eclipse right now.
Do you love the moon? Do you notice eclipse energy, or does it go by without your noticing?
Eclipse is an interesting word. Sometimes we can feel "eclipsed" by someone more extroverted, visible, or influential. Other times parts of our life or even parts of our Self can be eclipsed by things like grief, trauma, or responsibility.
Please help build the Hedge Mystic community by sharing your "eclipse" stories, stories about actual eclipses, or experiences of metaphorically being eclipsed. Or tell us about your tarot reading if you did one. The comments section is a welcoming space for sacred witness and sharing.
PS Aries New Moon Addendum
The joy of writing a post ahead of time means that I experience less pressure and enjoy the feeling of everything being under control and running smoothly.
The downside is that as a Projector in the Human Design system, my greatest gift to you is my insight and vision to help you understand yourself and your unique life path and soul work. That has to happen in response to the energies in real-time.
Here is what Amy Lea, Astrology + Human Design Coach + Mentor, says about Projectors...
As a Projector...it is a more valuable and sustainable use of your energy for you to be using your insights, vision, and ability to see others clearly, to guide and direct their energy. This is why Projectors typically make such wonderful teachers, leaders, coaches, mentors, and guides.... Know that you have a unique perspective and skills that will support your ability to guide others...As a Projector, your value cannot be measured in time; it's about the impact you provide through your penetrative awareness. You have a significant role to play in our world by guiding others to use their energy more effectively.
My most valuable insights and perceptive skills happen in the moment. I read the energies and understand their impact on others in real time as things are happening. This is why powerful things happen when I engage with clients in a coaching session or tarot reading.
Thus, as we are now swimming in new moon and eclipse energies, I have more to share with you, hence this addendum.
I formalized my practice of creating with the new and full moons over a year ago and now rely on that creative exploration to provide valuable insights into my personal situation and the energetic flow of the collective. Of course, this new moon/solar eclipse is all about beginnings and endings, but endings will take priority and be the most intensely felt energy in the collective.
Here's how and why I see the uncomfortable energies producing the lion's share of what we'll all experience.
On March 21st, the first new moon in Aries brought the element and energy of Fire. This was a spark, the strike of a match, the moment of ignition. My moon card showed me that this fire was earth-fire; it began underground and set in motion the incubating and germinating energy of the season. This corresponds with my tarot reading above; some warming and success have happened, but it's underground, secret, hidden. We have yet to see it above ground.
Greening, growth, sweetness, and industry have been set in motion, but all that momentum (The Chariot) is waiting in the wings to manifest.
Before that successful momentum is realized, we have an unusual second new moon in Aries during a rare hybrid solar eclipse.
My latest moon card for this new moon amplifies the energy of endings. In it, we see and feel discomfort, a distortion, an odd perspective, or a pause in motion. The initial ignition spark has been interrupted, and we have to deal with an ending that feels very uncomfortable. There's something cryptic about this particular ending. This is because it's an energy mismatch, an end that needs to happen during the Aries new moon, a time of powerful new beginnings. The fact this is the second Aries new moon, happening in April, where it really doesn't belong (Aries new moon is happier in March, closer to the spring equinox) heightens the unease.
As above, so below, as within, so without, as in the macrocosm, so in the microcosm. This is the secret in plain sight that we always need to heed.
Whether this hits home for you internally, in your wider sphere, or in your observations and experiences of society, the message is the same. Let what needs to end, end. To hold on to it will poison the well. When the impediment is removed, the initial Aries new moon fire burns bright with successful new beginnings.
Remember that you can also engage, diffuse, harness, or deflate these potent energies through the creative process. Lean into what you feel around you and inside. Then let art making, with symbols and images, help you process and discover what is meant for you now.