Facing the Light and Dark within Us

As we move into this new lunar cycle, the new Moon is in the sign of Scorpio, calling us to dive deep and to face the shadow aspects of ourselves. What is buried within us does not disappear but often controls us or binds us in unconscious ways. We will often project these shadow aspects of ourselves onto others or act out those repressed feelings or parts of ourselves in reactive and destructive ways. We will repeat or re-enact the trauma from the past that we have not faced or healed and will stay caught in the very patterns and feelings that we fear and are trying to escape from.

 

Take time at this new Moon to meditate on what feelings or aspects of yourself that you have split off or pushed beneath the surface. Allow yourself to face the wounds or pain from the past that you have split off or tried to bury below the surface. 

 

This new Moon in Scorpio is in aspect to Neptune and is calling us to dissolve our defenses and allow ourselves to feel those aspects of ourselves that have been held in the darkness.

 

Take time to imagine looking into the still dark surface of a pond. Allow yourself to see and feel what is there beneath the surface. What you see in the depths of the waters are aspects of yourself. As you face and retrieve these lost or hidden parts of yourself, you are able to begin to heal and to reclaim the gifts that these split off parts of yourself have to offer you.

 

During this time of the new Moon, Uranus is opposite Mercury and is calling us to face those thoughts and beliefs that we have kept in the darkness. These may be false beliefs about ourselves or ways that we have viewed others through our projections, distortions or pain from the past. As Pluto squares Venus, we are also being asked to face the ways in which we have acted out of these shadow aspects of ourselves in our relationships with others.

 

Take time to meditate on how you may react to or reject others who hold the feelings or characteristics that you have rejected in yourself. How is it that you put others down or lash out at others in order to feel better about yourself rather than facing your own inner critic and internal predator? How do you try to control or manipulate others in order to calm your inner fears or insecurities? In what ways do you contort yourself to accommodate others to avoid feeling their criticism or rejection? How is it that you give your power away or deny your own truth or inner voice when you feel that you are different from those around you? Allow yourself to see the ways in which these ways of coping block you from being true to yourself and in authentic relationships with those around you.

In the sky, this new Moon is in the stars of Libra, the scales of justice, guiding us in how to live in balance in our lives and in right relationship with each other and with all of life.

 

Examine where you feel out of balance in your life in ways that are harmful to you? And in what ways are you not treating those around you with love and respect or relating to the natural world around you with gratitude and an honoring of the consciousness of the Earth and all of life? 

 

If you do not face these hidden, wounded or shadow aspects of yourself, you become bound to these traumas and painful experiences from the past and relive them in present in the relationships and circumstances of your life. As you allow yourself to see what is buried in the darkness within you, you are able to bring these wounds into the light of consciousness and the energy of compassion and allow them to heal. Then, you are able to grow more fully into the wholeness and fullness of who you are and live from a place of freedom rather than from constriction, reactivity or defensiveness. 

At the time of the full Moon, the Sun is in the stars of Scorpius, close to the royal star Antares. This star is the heart of the Scorpion and is symbolic of how when we face our own darkness and what we fear and have kept in the shadows, then we are able to transform and emerge into the light in an empowered way.

 

As we move through the turbulence of these times globally and see the increasing levels of polarization, projection, reactivity and destructive acting out in the world around us, let us remember the wisdom of this lunar cycle and the guidance from the stars and planets.

 

Collectively, we are going through a time of death/rebirth and are being called to face the shadow aspects of ourselves as a species. What was hidden in the past in our collective unconscious is now being acted out in dramatic ways that are visible for us all to see. These shadow aspects of our collective humanity relate to our sense of separation from each other and from our interconnectedness with the natural world around us. These dark facets of ourselves manifest in greed and in the devaluation and destruction of those that we see as different from us as well as in our exploitation of the Earth, our home. They also play out in our projections, reactivity, violence and obsession with competition and control rather than awakening to our inner knowing of the healing ways of collaboration, cooperation and being a part of a global community and holding the sense of our place in the web of life. 

 

As we are able to face our shadows individually and collectively, we are able to heal and to transform. We are no longer controlled by what we fear or are unwilling to face but are able to see ourselves in our wholeness and see others with compassion and acceptance. Rather than living as if we are separate from the other life forms around us, we once again remember the consciousness of all that is and reclaim that awareness that only in honoring our interdependence and interconnectedness are we able to truly move into our wholeness and the freedom to be who we uniquely are. 

 

May the energies of this lunar cycle guide us in seeing ourselves more clearly, in facing the shadow aspects of ourselves and in moving more fully into the light of consciousness to heal and to reclaim our wholeness and our relationships with each other and with all of life.