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Whether astrology is science or magic, we’re open to most things, if they may be of benefit. ~ Ed.

 

Tucked between Venus and Mercury Direct, February’s New Moon is an exuberant, beneficial time that can bring hopeful outcomes to manifest through 2022.

How’ve you been these last weeks? It’s easy to lose perspective or even to be aware of how we’re feeling when we hunker down to weather something, such as Mercury Retrograde and the time between last quarter moon and new moon.

If events around the world have anything to say about it, the first weeks of the year have been intense, with a lot of polarized views creating drama personally and collectively. I do believe that we can learn a lot about ourselves, what we believe in, and how we create community through more difficult times, because they cause us to question life around us and grow in consciousness.

Our growth is directly connected with our ability to create a reality based on both heart and mind. Our thoughts would lack wisdom if heart was not informing them. Through Mercury Retrograde, we have plenty of opportunity to get caught up in our mind only, because Mercury challenges our capacity to speak, learn and reason. Venus to the rescue though, as it turned Direct on January 29th, easing conflicts within our heart space.

New Moon in Aquarius will also activate mental, intellectual aspects of our being, and if directed into positive applications, will find us social, curious, friendly, clever, objective, and creatively alert.

We are not one-dimensional beings, however, and circumstances or difficulties in our lives can also bring out the negative aspects of an Aquarian influence, such as feeling ungrounded, over-intellectual, meddlesome, inconsistent, or detached.

It’s perfectly okay whatever we are feeling or experiencing, just stay in awareness of your own state, be kind to yourself, aim for learning through the themes playing themselves out.

One thing I find constructive about Aquarius energy is that it helps us to laugh at ourselves—to find humor in life and not take it all too seriously. Everything passes in due time; we find our balance again and then hopefully grow in empathy for others and the world in general.

Have you ever found yourself asking, “Why is this happening to me?” When things don’t make sense, and I can’t find a good reason for that sh*tty thing that just happened, I have come to understand it as my passage toward more love and compassion for myself and others.

Intention Setting at New Moon

Each new moon we set intentions. It’s a familiar ritual for lovers of Luna. She’s a consistent teacher of living by the cycles of nature. I’m participating in this ritual in a slightly different way now.

Tell me if this happens to you—you set an intention but have doubts about whether any of it will transpire. For example, an intention to love yourself more or be kinder to yourself, but you’re not feeling the self-love so much! So, the intention sits in your journal or scribbled on some piece of paper tucked under a candle. You stare at it dubiously a couple of weeks later at full moon…nothing.

I’m trying this: “I am practicing loving myself more” as an intention.

Now this feels more gentle—it allows room for my humanity, it is an action I can exercise.

After writing the first part, you can add how you will be practicing this.

“I will practice loving myself more by saying no when I feel pressured to say yes,” for example.

You can extend this way of setting intentions to just about anything. Sometimes we do have the ability to intend something and follow through without any hiccups. But when we can’t, this is a way to greet ourselves mindfully, without judgement, and know that with the next new moon, we can always keep practicing.

We are new every moment. You are no longer the person you were a month ago, or even a minute ago. We are constantly evolving and growing, changing and flowing. New Moon is a reminder of that. We are born, grow to fullness, let go of the past, and are reborn again many, many times in life. This can give us comfort, to appreciate the one we were moments or years ago, to see her as a continual river whose journey cannot be tamed.

 

 

Blessed New Moon, Wise Ones, and safe travels through this next lunar cycle.

*If you’re crafting spells for your intentions, remember that the best time is once the first crescent appears in the sky. When the moon is not visible, we rest from magic unless to perform banishments.

If inspired, join me in my Wise Woman Dark Moon Circle each month as we explore the themes of the Crone and the Awakening Maiden. Details at monikacarless.com

~

More on this new moon: 4 Ways to Glow with the Moon’s Flow this Lunar New Year. {February 1}