Sunday, March 27, 2011

Moonwalk: Aries




© 2011 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

Author’s Note: This article is time sensitive, especially the section, This Aries New Moon. Please note the influence of Mercury Retrograde, March 30 – April 23.

I’m writing this in a hurry! That’s what Aries Moon does —launches headlong into the next adventure. For Aries, it’s not a Moonwalk; it’s a Moonsprint.

In fact, I imagine this Ram Goddess pictured to be lingering in one of the few rare moments of quiet where Lunar Aries might actually pause and let her fiery nature simmer. The occasion? Looking up at the Moon to contemplate her next new birth. That might be a pioneering journey to the Moon itself, the launch of a new company, or any other start of something big. She is the world’s expert at start-ups. During the boring, mundane, daily routine phase of projects, she’s not so hot. If your plans are stuck, let her put a match under the stick-in-the-muds that can’t get it off the ground. There’s a movie title, Failure to Launch. Aries Moon is Failure to Stall.

Whether male or female, the Ram Moon is ruled by the yang or male energy, the assertive side of nature that sparked the Nike slogan, “Just do it.” (S/he needs the Nikes running shoes for the Moonsprint.) The Aries Moons I know talk fast and suffer no fools. They are not long on the P-word—patience. (Read my humorous piece, God Is Not an Aries, which may apply even more to Aries Moon than Sun when it comes to the impulse to get on with it.)

These folks are doers. They are only happy when they’re making something happen. The best way to understand what makes Aries Moon tick is to realize is that this Moon sign is the King or Queen of New Beginnings. Aries starts the zodiac, the season of spring, the time when new seeds are planted—the natural New Year. Imagine that energy ruling your feeling life. You’d feel best being first, being on time, being #1—you get the picture. That launch thing? Aries Moon is a firecracker and the spark that ignites the rocket launcher.

About the pyrotechnics. We are talking hair-trigger temper in many instances—or at least until this Moon sign matures from explosives to sparklers.

A number of Aries Moons I know frequently sound a bit angry, edgy, and tend to throw their weight around. Their best offense is a good offense! And I mean offense both in terms of plays in football or life, as well as offense as in offending someone. I recall the wake left by an Aries Moon I know, a man who also happened to have several other Rambuctious planets to fan the flames of his Aries Moon. After he had come into a room and thrown his considerable weight around, demanding immediate attention, one person asked, “What was that?” Or at least the strong one left standing that could still walk and talk! (The others were still peeling themselves off the floor from being Rammed into and run over.) Don’t pick a fight with this person unless you can put up a good one, and there are some Aries Moons that love to fight so much; they’ll egg you on just to be able to get their adrenaline fix/release for the day—and maybe a few slugs in, verbal or otherwise. Extreme cases? Yes. But good to be able to identify so you can duck or head for the fallout shelter.

On the plus side, you’ll never find anyone who falls in love more quickly and befriends you with more loyalty. Passion rules Aries Moon and creates a vessel for accomplishing great things in the world because of that zeal and fire. If you’re in love with an Aries Moon, the trick in the Romance Department is to keep the love fires burning. That thing about not being so hot when it comes to the mundane parts of projects also applies to his or her love life. If you can’t keep your Aries love object sparked, you may find him or her wandering off to the next new and exciting romantic adventure. And your ability to deal with conflict in a positive way is a must.

Remember, if you’re in love with a Mars-driven being, both anger and sex are ruled by this same planet. Aries Moons not only love a good argument; they often find it so simulating, it’s foreplay.

Aries Moon characteristics stand out most when contemplating the opposite Moon sign, Libra. While Libra is comfortable and fed by partnership, as the Moon feeds and comforts us all, Aries Moon tends toward being self-centered and going it alone—unless you can make him or her always feel like s/he’s your Number One. If s/he doesn’t have a lot of other planets that are oriented toward the interpersonal, Aries Moon can often be happy flying solo—in-between hot, short-term romances. Libra Moon wants peace. Aries Moon likes to stir it up. Libra Moon has a strong sense of justice for all. Aries Moon cares what’s in it for him or her.

This often wild and wonderful individual is unique and quite a treasure, if you don’t take a tendency toward lack of tact too seriously (another opposition to Libra). If you keep your sense of humor well polished, you will love Aries Moon—whether or not you are one! I speak from experience. I have several planets in Libra and find my Aries friends, both Sun and Moon, balance my Scales and add a big shot of adrenaline to my life.  My first love—my adoptive mom who raised me—had an Aries Moon that both scared the scrap off my Libra planets and entertained me in a way that still has me laughing, almost daily, and she’s been gone over 30 years. Mom was an Italian-American, a “bottle redhead,” someone I have often called Chicago’s answer to I Love Lucy—except that she had Ricky Ricardo’s temper. No one could hug, encourage me, or fire me up quite like her. I’m sure her vitality rubbed off on me and plays a large role in why I’m so “high energy.”

For those who don’t already own an Aries Moon, let’s try one on.

Aries Moon Role Play

Now that you’ve reacquainted yourself with some Aries Moon characteristics, let’s imagine what it would be like to “play Aries Moon” this month, colored by the Aries Sun/Moon conjunction. (If you actually have Aries Moon, play anyway!) Think of things you want to get off the ground in your life. Imagine you could put on a Ram mask or costume, like the woman in the opening photo and abracadabra! You have Aries Moon! Review your vision of the month ahead and ask yourself:

  1. Of everything on my plate, what needs to be cooked in a hurry? What has to get done by May 1st?

  2. How can I light an Aries fire under it? I am a fearless Ram, an Amazon (if a woman), and I will focus as pointedly as the arrow of the Mars glyph for the next four weeks on ….

  3. Which Aries Sun or Moons in my life can I consult or observe to give me that fiery, pioneering Aries courage?

  4. How can I turn on my Inner Pioneer and not only get it done but also allow my creativity such free rein, moments of genius come through?

  5. Forget work for a minute—is this a good time to spark some romance, either with an existing love or to look for a new one? Spring has sprung; love is in the air. Should I go for it?

  6. What does it feel like to be: hot, first, Number One—brilliant? If you’re one of the more modest signs, permission granted to bask in fiery You-ness and leave tact and humility for another time.

  7. Drink in all the bursting blooms of spring, the shift of weather, and decide of playing Aries at this time of the Natural New Year might become one of your permanent “New Year’s Evolutions.”



This Month’s Aries New Moon


Click on chart to enlarge


Now that I got you all excited about playing Aries Moon this month, I’m going to have to put the kibosh a bit on your impersonation of a Man or Woman from Mars. As you can see by this month’s New Moon chart, a pack of no less than six Aries planets is led by Mercury Retrograde. What do we do with that, just when we’re all stoked to try our hand at living the life of a lunar Ram? These are my thoughts.

Mercury is retrograde this time for 3½ long weeks, March 30 – April 23. Its retrograde arc is from 24-13 Aries. Individuals with Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) will be most affected.

The key areas of life Mercury Retrograde affects are communications and the tools related to it, commerce, and short-term trips. It’s not the time to “go forward,” especially with something new—just what Aries Moon wants to do—now! (What, slow down? Shift into reverse?)

It’s a timing thing. If you can hurry up (what Aries Moon likes to do) and start those projects before March 30 when Mercury shifts into retrograde (1:48 pm PDT, adjust for your time zone), then you can use the Mercury Retro period for revising what you began when Mercury was still direct. Example: I’m giving several presentations in April and May. All my slide shows are started—or will be—before the Quicksilver God shifts gears. Mercury Retro is excellent for all “re”-things, including revising (editing), revisioning, reconsidering, and the fun re-things like recreation and relaxation. If you can get your new things started before the shift in Mercury’s direction, you can review, revise, refine, and reconsider with the zeal of a Ram, knowing that when Mercury goes forward on April 23, you and your projects will be ready for the second stage of launching. (Even rockets to the Moon launch in stages.)

When Michael Jackson did his trademark dance backwards, it was known as Moonwalking. Here’s your chance—Aries Moon or Ram Moon for a Month—to learn how to use your Nike sprinters in their full range of direction and speed, including slow and reverse. Go ahead and Moonwalk, knowing that life is full of low-speed zones and it’s part of the rounding out of the Aries character to learn to accept the slowdowns that sometimes become full-out stops, if the low-speed zones are not honored (like by the police stopping you for speeding). To experiment with what it feels like to have an Aries Moon during a time like this is to experience the challenges a native Aries Moon feels, but in a compressed time span, including those irritating slowdowns.

Another thought: If you’re “playing Aries” in a month when Mercury is Retro, you are using Mercury Retrograde well by revisioning or reconsidering yourself. If you are “playing” Aries, it’s got the factor of recreation, another positive resonance to the purpose of Mercury Retrograde. Martian Aries energy is met all the time by situations where full tilt boogie is not the best way to operate at the moment, but it doesn’t have to stop you from doing it in your mind, then bursting forth when the cosmic clock is more action-friendly. Then count down to the next phase of blast-off.

Other New Moon chart factors: Mars/Uranus are tightly conjunct. Be careful out there. Things are easily explosive; tempers may flare and be triggered easily. It’s a time where accidents happen more frequently, so be more cautious than usual. Combined with Mercury Retro, it’s a good time check your car for routine maintenance that left undone could be the inadvertent cause of a vehicular mishap. Use sharp objects with care, as they are ruled by Mars while it’s in an unstable condition joined with Uranus.

Saturn in Libra opposes the Sun/Moon conjunction in Aries, which adds the third set of “slow down and live” warnings behind Mercury Retro, and the Mars/Uranus conjunction. This is a time to plan your strategies like a true self-starter but leave the major new doing till later in April.

With Chiron conjunct Venus, there is opportunity for relationship healing. You might need some with the Aries pile-up of planets. Before Chiron, Aries was “the wounder,” and one of the “re” things you can do combined with Mercury Retro this month is to repair and rejuvenate yourself from any relationship mishaps and hurts. With Pluto squaring most of the planets in Aries, there’s yet another theme of a potentially explosive time—but also one where deep change can take root with the spring seeds of new intentions you plant. Be the change, as the saying goes.

It’s interesting to me that the North Node in Sagittarius trines Mercury Retrograde in Aries in this chart. These are the planets of learning and exploring the mind. In retrograde, the prescription for learning this month is inner.

Weaving this all together, the New Moon chart asks us to start projects before Mercury Retro but to play Aries Moon in our minds—to use the pause Mercury Retrograde requests for creative planning and revisioning, for recreation and re-creating ourselves and the next leg of our journey from a mental perspective. All manifestations start in our thoughts, so a Mercury Retrograde when we want to burst forth is actually a blessing in disguise. We get to check our map, along with our safety and navigation tools, to be sure we blast off without a hitch.

North Node in Sag reminds us that this is a journey. As on all journeys, no matter how exciting or far we travel, we have to stop to rest and replenish ourselves. This month’s chart of the New Moon moment suggests we’re in a time that’s wild and woolly in many respects, but we can navigate it by finding an oasis in our minds for rest, recheck, and rejuvenation—and by honoring the wisdom of cosmic cycles and nature itself.

~~~

Photo Credit: Ram Zodiac Woman © Photowitch | Dreamstime.com




Up-Dates! (Literally) 

The Spring Equinox Contest to give Chiron a new tagline has a new deadline, April 24. I felt the notice was simply too short and want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to throw their hats and ideas into the ring. Please help me find an improvement on "the wounded healer." Contest details here. 

My Chiron Research has an extended date, too. You may now submit your personal anecdotes through June 1, 2011. Be a part of the continuing discovery!

Want to keep up-to-date on all the happenings in front of and behind the scenes at The Radical Virgo? Sign up for the monthly New Moongram on the sidebar, if you don't already receive it, and visit my website periodically for other news and previews.


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