New Moon in Purvaphalguni: More than Meets the Eye

The Moon and Sun will come together in exact degrees on Monday, September 6 at 2:52 pm Hawaii time in the star of Purvaphalguni in sidereal Leo. Purvaphalguni can be translated as the “Early Reddish Lady”, as it is part of pair of stars (Uttaraphalguni “Later Reddish Lady” being the second). These two stars have to do with both love and romance and the power and responsibilities of the King, as they are in Leo. Purvaphalguni is ruled by Venus, the planet of happiness and relationships and its deity is Bhaga, a god who brings both the blessings and curses of good fortune and beauty. In the mythology, Bhaga has his eye put out by Shiva in a rage and as such, when planets are in this star we need to be careful about what we desire through especially our vision. Often our eyes deceive us by leading us by merely external beauty or superficial desires, as opposed to lasting love and peace. In relationship, we can easily see how this can bring us to attach ourselves to relationships that on the surface meets our wants, but when things get serious, likely will not meet our needs. In Uttaraphalguni, we are asked to make commitments and write contracts, so it is important that those are founded on trust, integrity and true friendship. Since Leo is the realm of the King and the Sun is our own personal king of our own little kingdoms, we can see how this New Moon is a cycle of standing in our power and authority. As anyone who has ever led anything knows, if you don’t have anyone following you, then you aren’t a leader. All too often power breeds enjoyment of that power and those who have it aim to either maintain it or get their fill of the luxuries associated with that power. This includes the riches, as well as the pleasures. Eventually, every “king” must reckon with the fact that he is either serving himself or his kingdom and if he is just serving himself, he will eventually have to face the people.

The opposite house of Leo is Aquarius where we are seeing Jupiter Retrograde in the very final degree, a reminder that if it doesn’t work for all, it doesn’t work at all. Saturn, the planet of time and humility and fear rules both the 6th and 7th house from Leo, indicating that a lack of humility & fear is both how leaders end up leading and how they end of falling too. People will follow someone whom they believe is serving society, but as soon as they get wind that they are not, they will not waste much time stripping the king of their crown and throne and giving it to someone else they think will do better.  As a society we can feel this tension heating up. Those in power are digging in their heels more, forgetting that power only exists when others allow it to. As Jupiter dips back into debility in Capricorn on September 14th, we will see how oppressive fear can be, again, as this retrograde cycle is ultimately taking us back to where we were a year ago but with new eyes. Without the hope and optimism that a strong Jupiter brings, we have already seen what constrictive and restrictive beliefs people will hold and more importantly, how this affects legislation as Jupiter is related to court and legal issues. Saturn is still holding court in Capricorn, as he also was last year, but now he too is retrograde and less sure of what he is committing us to. With both of these planets stationing and then not moving forward again until in mid-October, we will see some stagnation in both what we believe and what we are willing to commit to for those beliefs in this month ahead.

Mars has just crossed into Virgo, and is in close proximity to the Sun. The movement from the fiery sign of Leo into the somewhat mental earth sign of Virgo, is not as grounding as it may sound. Ultimately, Mars’ sense of action, courage and discipline needs an outlet and he prefers the long term vision and planning of Capricorn to the overly detail oriented landscape of Virgo. When our action  lacks purpose and is just moving in circles trying to clean, purify and organize everything rather than strengthen us or accomplish a goal, then we can feel frustrated. This frustration can come out in the hyper-critical way of Virgo, trying to discipline others rather than oneself. The closeness to the Sun, can cause our anger to be on a short fuse, creating a situation where anyone who messes up that nice tidy area which you just organized will likely feel your angry blast! Mercury is still here in not only his own sign, but in exaltation, so our capacity to communicate clearly and effectively is strong but when fueled by anger the lack of emotion in our words can come off robotic or harsh. The other thing is that Mercury is the “landlord” of Virgo and only debilitated planets really fare well with the landlord being present. If someone has a full-on handicap it can be helpful to have the owner there to take care of the things that need to be done (as with Saturn being in Capricorn when depilated Jupiter arrives), but when any other planet is joined it feels squashed and limited by the ruler being in the house and tensions arise.

Fortunately, Venus has just left Virgo herself, where she was debilitated, and is now in her own sign of Libra. Here we are more likely to compromise and focus on harmony in our relationships. This is a blessing after months of poor placements for our planet of happiness, but there is also a price to pay in this. Venus in Cancer created a situation where we felt used and abused. Venus then went into Leo where we “took back our power”. Then she traversed Virgo, where we got real nit-picky about what was wrong with each other and now in her own sign we can sigh with relief, right? Not exactly. One thing to be careful of is that transits do not change our natal chart, they just affect our experiences in a transitory way. If you were in a toxic relationship, that run of challenges Venus just went through may have highlighted to you the very real issues in your relationship. If you now “make peace” with your partner, you might very well be compromising in ways that you shouldn’t. More people can successfully navigate relationships when Venus is in Libra, but this does not mean they should or that they are partnered with the right people. With a new cycle in the sign of power (which often dismisses others and what they want), Jupiter in debility, Saturn’s fear radar still on high and a combust Mars, there is likely to be plenty of fight and fire in the air and while it will focus heavily in the societal realms, it is also likely to light some matches in our relationships too. We have to ask ourselves why we want our relationships to work out…is it because we are comfortable and/or “want somebody” or is our partner aligned with our values, beliefs and mode of operating in life? If not then, use the beauty and harmony of Venus in Libra to exit stage left gracefully and go paint a beautiful picture of what you do want your relations to look like, or choreograph a lovely dance with your gorgeous self:)

Many blessings on this New Moon! May your power be sourced in Truth. Hare Ohm

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