Glimpses of the Stars by James Page

I turst we all survived the retrograde Mercury period in one piece even though in my experience there was a power outage in my apartment complex and some computer and printer issues at a community center I use frequently as well as some irritating delays and interruptions several times as I went through my daily routine.

None of it was earth shattering however, what it did was to provide me with more evidence of the co-relation of these kinds of issues and their manifestation in our everyday affairs.  One of the more observable aspects of astrology is this Mercury retrograde period.

Last time I promise some words about the Moon and since the 26th will give us a New Moon in Sagittarius this would be an appropriate time to speak about the subject.

In astrology three components standout of paramount importance.  These are the Sun, the Moon and the Ascendant or sign rising on the eastern horizon at the time of birth also known as The Rising Sign.  With regard to the Moon it play complement to the Sun in that while the Sun is representative of the Purpose of the individual personality the Moon is indicative of how the individual's purpose might play itself out in everyday experience.

We have know for some time the Moon's effects on the tides of the oceans and there is the urban cliche (perhaps older than cities) of those with mental health issues "acting up" during periods when the Moon is New or especailly Full. The Moon is primarily connected to out instinctive emotions such as fear, saddness (melancholy) and anger, the need for food, sex and shelter and the fight or flight  syndrome can be clasified here.

The Moon along with its phases can if studied, learned and followed bring us closer in tune with those natural rhythms by which we can be who we actualy are.  We have a New Moon when the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun where as a Full Moon is when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon.  There is a possiblity of a solar eclipse when he Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun.

The Moon passing from one New Moon tot henexrt is broken up into four major phases each lastingapproximately 7.4 days.  These are: The New Moon, The first Quarter, The Full Moon and The third Quarter respectively.  The point of the New Moon is this is a good time for any new beginnnings.  This is the time to formulate intentions, to make plans as how those intentions might manifest planning beginnning generally during the first quarter as we appraoch the Full Moon the internal processes concerning the project should be coming to a close and this is a time of endings and getting rid of or letting go whatever is not useful to the project at hand and during the third quarter our attiutde and behavior should be defined by action to bring the intention to fruition.

If we could learn to regulate ourselves in general to the pattern symbolize by the Moon we might find our lives becoming more and more smooth and we find ourselves learning how to"go-with-the-flow" indeed.

The Moon rules the astrological sign Cancer which is associated with both Mother and Home (4th House).  As a consequence it has to do with all things maternal that have to do both with the physical home or domicile but also history especially family history, ancestors, heritage and linage. The Moon also does well (is exalted) in the sign of Taurus but does not do so well in Capricorn (it's detriment) and Scorpio (it's fall).

Well there you have it.  This is all for now.  Have a Happy Holiday Season and I hope you will join me next month when I will say something about The Solitices and The Sun.  See you then.