A First Quarter Moon of Feistiness, Courage and Stamina

Sunday’s First Quarter Moon in Leo, with the Sun in Taurus, follows upon last weekend’s very potent New Moon that featured Pluto, as well as Venus and Mars, representing relationship struggles. The First Quarter is a testing time, when the ideas and impulses from the seed-moment of the New Moon must strive for continued existence within the context of the difficulty inherent in working themselves out in the real world. Therefore in this current configuration, our relationships are somewhat on trial, to see if they can survive the test. Here, also, we find that Mars has drawn to within two degrees of his conjunction with Pluto, Lord of Death and Rebirth, a combination known to bring buried anger up from our depths, potentially to surface as reactivity. Chiron, the Wounded Healer, is also now in Aries, ruled by Mars, which may strengthen the urge to get to know ourselves in the dark places within us. Finally, Venus, in late Taurus, remains connected to Uranus and to Chiron, bringing our relationship patterns, another subject of last weekend’s New Moon, into greater focus. With Mercury recovering from its recent retrograde, we remain in an introspective mode. Additionally to Mercury making up its lost zodiacal ground this week and next, we find it in a forming square to Saturn, so that it still feels difficult to get our thoughts and our mechanical arrangements in order. Mercury gets past Saturn by the end of the week, when also Venus slips into Gemini, changing the thought process concerning our key partnerships to a more lively one.

Mars represents our anger, and as well our courage in the face of adversity. In these fractious times it is important to remember that there is nothing wrong with feelings of anger, per se, but only in the way that this emotion finds its outlet. We have a right to all our feelings, after all, not only those that are softer and lovelier, but also the more difficult ones, such as the suppressed fear and rage that have arisen, usually, out of childhood trauma. And this is the subject matter of somber yet essential Chiron, in aspect with both Venus and with Mars in this current phase. You are being invited not to turn away from the dark places within you, but rather to open your heart and mind to these potential inner demons and touch them with your consciousness. Becoming more aware is only the first rung of the ladder, but it is also the most significant step that you can take, in order to come to better terms with the hurt child inside you that is still longing for constructive attention.

Consideration of our primary relationships are also quite important for us in the midst of this somewhat difficult juncture when Pluto and Mars are combining, and when Venus is aligned with Uranus, the Awakener. All that is old, while still there, is vanishing like water under the bridge to be replaced by something new; a novel conception and startling way of seeing into the true substance of your intimate and other connections with others.

It is more than possible at this time as well that you will start to see your way through the major changes taking place within you and outside of yourself, that have perhaps been hovering on the very edge of your awareness. With all this Uranus and Pluto in the mix, you might be able to visualize yourself as part of the massive shift in society that is currently occurring. This implies major change at personal levels as part and parcel of what is going on in the surrounding collective. As far as societal changes go, in addition to the political/legal issues that the public and the media tends to fasten on, we might also want to recognize in a deeper way that Environmental themes are definitely “up” for all of us as a culture, we tribal inhabitants of “spaceship earth,” and be prepared for new wrinkles in this vital set of issues to make themselves known over the remainder of the current month.

The Sabian symbols for this First Quarter Moon have also something to contribute. They are, for the Sun in the third degree of Taurus, “Steps up to a lawn blooming with clover.” This seems to be a sweet symbol involving nature, here seen as purely benign and beneficial. Marc Edmund Jones has, “the indomitable outreaching of the human spirit on the side of a possible and profitable cooperation with the natural universe… creative optimism.” For the Moon, in the same degree of Leo, we find, “A woman having her hair bobbed.” This symbol, too, speaks of positive change, in the process of letting go of outmoded notions, thus coming to true freedom of expression. Jones references, “human independence carried to a point of extreme self-examination, here emphasized in a desire for greater [social] participation. The soul accepts [what is necessary] in order to perfect the channels of its self-expression.” Indeed the time has come for all of us to take the steps forward that we feel to be in our own personal interest, and moreover, in the interest of our soul intention. This is for the sake of ourselves, our expectations, and for the future of our fellow humans co-inhabiting with us this earthly paradise.

A First Quarter Moon of Feistiness, Courage and Stamina

What is in store for you in the next few months?

Chart for the First Quarter Moon on April 22, 2018

Get Your Free Birth Chart!

April 2024