DECEMBER LUNAR CYCLE 2019

By Heather Ensworth

On November 26, 2019, we begin a new lunar cycle.  We are entering more deeply into the dark time of the year here in the northern hemisphere. Our new Moon is in the sky (conjunct the Sun) in the stars of Scorpius, the Scorpion.  Ancient cultures saw this constellation as the portal into the underworld, the place of deep transformation.  

 
 
 

The new Moon and Sun are in the head of the Scorpion near the royal star, Antares.  Antares guides us through times of transition and transformation and helps us to see these intense times as an alchemical process, helping us to burn away what no longer serves us to enter into new ways of being.  However, if we don’t work with these energies consciously, we can get caught in fear and emotional turmoil.  

 
The new Moon and Sun are in aspect (in a trine) with Chiron, calling us to heal and to trust that the tumult that we are in is a time of transition and rebirth rather than resisting it and seeing it only as chaos or crisis.  The underworld darkness that we are guided into in this time is one of death/rebirth.  
 
We are still in the energies of Saturn conjunct Pluto guiding us to let go of old patterns and paradigms that are out of balance, corrupt, unjust or destructive.  Again, if we are not working with these transits consciously, we will tend to cling to the old forms with even more intensity, seeing these old patterns as the source of our security.  But these old paradigms need to die to allow us individually and collectively to move into new more balanced and healthy ways of being.  
 
The asteroid Ceres, symbolic of the Earth Mother, is now next to the south lunar node and is squaring Chiron.  This configuration is helping us to realize that it is only as we heal and let go of these destructive patterns that we are able to support the healing of the Earth.  As I write this newsletter, huge storms are hitting the west coast and moving across the country here in the US.  Around the world, we are seeing increasing intense storms and unusual weather patterns.  The Earthherself is showing us that we are out of balance.  Many indigenous healers see the storms and turmoil in our weather as a reflection of the storminess and tumult in our collective consciousness.  Only as we each heal within ourselves and come back into balance and right relationship with each other and with the Earth will the weather patterns come back into balance.  
 
Also, there is increasing evidence that we are moving through aturbulent part of our galaxy in which our solar system is being flooded with energies that activate our shifting weather patterns and are affecting our human consciousness.  We are in a cauldron of galactic as well as planetary energies guiding us to heal, to transform and to increase in consciousness.  
 
Next to the new Moon and Sun is the asteroid Pallas Athene.  This asteroid is reminding us to listen to our intuition and our spiritual guidance to help us through this intense time.  We can not think or rationalize our way through this time of change.  We need to listen to our inner knowing and the wisdom coming to us from the creative consciousness of the cosmos.  
 
As we move into the time of the full Moon on December 12th, the Sun is now opposite the Moon and is in the stars of Ophiuchus, and the full Moon is in the stars of Taurus, near the tip of one of the horns of the Bull and above the stars of Orion.  The placement of this full Moon speaks to the horns of the dilemma that we are in and calls us to make a choice and to act with integrity and courage.  The Moon is near the star of Aldebaran, the eye of the Bull, guiding us to live with integrity, to not make choices out of fear or survival mode, but to act in alignment with our inner knowing and spiritual guidance.  
 
The full Moon is also over the constellation Orion, symbolic of theEgyptian deity Osiris, the god who dies and is reborn.  Individually and collectively, we are being called into the underworld and into the alchemical cauldron of transmutation and transformation.  Do not fear this process but honor its deeper purpose. As we release the patterns of the past, we are being healed and guided to move into new ways of life that are more in balance and harmony with all that is.  The Moon and Sun are now squaring Neptune, guiding us to dissolve our egos and open more fully to the guidance available to us through dreams, imagination, spiritual guidance and intuition. 
 
Remember that we can not see the outcome of this transformational process but need to trust the process and know that we are being held and guided through this death/rebirth.  The Sun is now in the stars of Ophiuchus at the foot of the great healer who holds the understanding ofhealing and transformation.  Ophiuchus is the serpent bearer, holding the wisdom of the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine, of healing that is both spiritual and embodied.  He is guiding us to heal emotionally and spiritually so that we can then manifest these new ways of being in how we relate to each other and to the Earth.  The Sun is also in the sky in alignment with the galactic center, calling us to keep our eyes on Source and to trust that the energies that we are moving through in the galaxy are helping us to heal, to transform and to become enlightened.  Enlightenment means awakening to the awareness that we are beings of light.  Within us, we hold the radiant light of the stars and of Source.  It is only in letting go of our attachments to what blocks us from this awareness that we rediscover our true nature and emanate love and light.  
 
Take time during this powerful lunar cycle to tune into what needs to change and be transformed in your life.  In what ways are you living in survival mode rather than listening to your deeper purpose and being in alignment with your soul self?  How are you caught in fear and fighting to cling to familiar patterns even though you know that these behaviors or thoughts are holding you back and blocking you from your true self?  How are you acting, thinking or speaking in ways that are destructive to yourself, to others and to the Earth?  How are you honoring your inner light?  How are you listening to your dreams, intuition and the wisdom of your soul self?  
 
Honor the Moon as she moves through this lunar cycle, and take time, especially at the phase of the full Moon to honor the Sun as moves into alignment with the galactic center.  Call in the energy of the Sun to fill you with its healing light, and honor the central Sun (our Source, the galactic center) as it radiates these powerful energies guiding us through this cauldron of healing, transformation, transmutation and rebirth.
 

 

— Sky Watch for this Month —

 
 
Mercury– is visible at sunrise, low on the horizon in the eastern sky
Venus – is an evening star and is visible after sunset in the western sky
Mars– is visible in the morning in the eastern sky just before sunrise
Jupiter– is visible low in the western sky after sunset
Saturn – is visible in the western sky after sunset and is just above Jupiter