“Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?” Antonio Machado
“The sacred world of love and wisdom, fiery intelligence and passionate will, imagination and delight- is a world of freedom. It is liberating. But it is also binding and connecting.” David Spangler.
One of my favorite fairy tales is about a young mermaid who lived in a marsh near the ocean. In the day time she loved to swim out in the ocean and play with her friends and return to the marsh at night.
One day she met a merman who gave her a beautiful necklace woven of reeds and small, glittering stones from the ocean floor. Beautiful though it was, the minute she put it on, her feet became tangled in the roots deep in the water and she was unable to swim away. Though she tried and tried to remove the necklace, she could not.
This story reminds me a bit of Thursday’s New Moon Eclipse at 20 degrees of Cancer. Cancer is a water sign whose symbol is the crab – an inhabitant of both land and sea. This sign is ruled by the Moon and also governs the past and the unconscious.
This New Moon Eclipse in Cancer is opposed to the powerful planet of transformation and evolution, Pluto. In mythology Pluto is known for taking hostages- similar to what happened to the mermaid. The capturing of the mermaid involved something she couldn’t see – she trusted the merman and did not think that he would trap her.
Often in life when there is a desire to move forward – to pursue a long sought after aspiration, to leave an oppressive job or to make a more rewarding life, there is something hidden that holds us back.
Very often the underlying causes of this kind of paralysis are related to the past – to ancestry, past life influences, early childhood conditioning or conditioning from religious or cultural beliefs. These influences are all related in astrology to the Moon and to the sign of Cancer. The down side of these influences can sometimes be hard to see.
This particular New Moon in a powerful alignment to Pluto is a time when secrets can be unveiled and hidden information revealed particularly about these areas of life. Jupiter is now powerful in the sky in the sign of Scorpio – another indication that what’s hidden or deeply hidden that can be brought to light now.
And as for the mermaid, she needs someone (symbolizing a part of herself) to free her from the spell that holds her captive. And one day a hamster comes paddling along on his raft boat and meets the mermaid. She explains her plight and he reaches over and is able to remove the necklace from around her neck. At this point the mermaid swims happily off to the ocean – free.
New Moons are an excellent time to set, tweak and affirm intentions and this week is an especially powerful time for that. It is wise to raise your awareness to recognize significant information that surfaces now that has a freeing and empowering quality to it and that may have been previously hidden.
Saturn and Uranus are in a harmonious aspect now – indicating the ability to blend tradition and innovation in a harmonious way that builds a bridge between the past and the future.
One of the Sabian symbols for this time is, “A young woman awaiting a sailboat.”
Sabian symbol reference from Lynda Hill