Last Quarter Moon in Aries

Tuesday evening's Last Quarter Moon, taking place about a week before the mid-July New Moon in late Cancer, is traditionally a time of reassessment, when we look back to the more familiar lunation now ending and attempt to make sense of what has already gone down, as we prepare for the new cycle that piggy-backs as always on the shoulders of the past. This time in particular we are aided in this quest by the transformative nature of the Uranus-Pluto square still so very prominent in our summer skies, and by the confluence of Jupiter and Venus in aspect to that stunning combination of powerhouse outer planet energies. Since Pluto is about bringing to awareness our hidden motivations, we will all go through a great deal of soul-searching at this time, as we assess our relationships in a perhaps painful and yet still radically honest attempt at resolving some of our potentially dysfunctional patterns in this area.

Venus, planet of relationship connection, and as well exemplar of art and beauty, recently retrograde but now direct, is newly baptized as the Morning Star, and visible in the early morning hours just before dawn in a beautiful display with Jupiter, also bright, bringer of light and understanding. She is the esoteric ruler of Gemini, which is also the sign she and Jupiter now occupy, and therefore the sign that is highlighted in her newly acquired status as she begins another synodic cycle, so that a more thoughtful stance regarding our connection with each other indeed characterizes this next year and a half. Venus also currently squares Chiron in Pisces, which brings up some of the more difficult factors of relating. You and everyone you know are thus currently quite fully engaged in sussing out the underlying motivations that cause you to act as you do, and relate as you do, for better or for worse. When you discover difficult and painful truths about yourself, rather than shying away, you benefit enormously if you can have the courage to face these darker places within your psyche head-on, and begin to accept the parts of yourself that in all honesty you would rather not accept.

The concretizing, critical and limiting psychological archetype represented by the Saturnian Senex is also powerfully configured in this Quarter Moon, which makes a T-square to Saturn. As you mull over your prior and present choices you are also in the process running up against restriction, but this negative turns into a positive if it also makes you more aware.

This Quarter Moon time is therefore uniquely powerful, and has the capability to make us stop and think. We do well to take advantage of this time period by spending a few quiet moments each day in contemplation of all of our varied behavior, especially in the area of relationship and soul growth. We are enjoined to be as aware as we possibly can be. Only in this way will we have the ability to transcend the past and emerge into what we can manufacture – with dedication – into a brighter future for ourselves, our community and our world.