New Moon in Aquarius; “There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

It has been quite a week, a month, a year, a decade. The old ways of understanding our world feel as though they are crumbling around us. I keep asking myself, “how can I find my center, the point of calm, amid the storm?” I grew up in chaos and have spent years learning to connect with the deepest part of who I am so that I could integrate the losses and disappointments experienced during those early years.

Reflecting on what I have learned over the past 20 years, what I am still learning, my answer is a simple one: slow down, stop, feel my body, tend to my fears, connect with what is happening, listen, find out what is needed, and take small steps every day to respond to that need. Be humble.

The hardest part of the path of humility is that it exposes us to feeling the pain of the reality of what is happening in the world. I’ve been listening to Pema Chodron lately, a retreat called “Smile at Fear,” where she starts by explaining that scientists have found that people are more afraid of experiencing change and uncertainty than they are of experiencing physical pain. Hence fundamentalism. Hence Maga.

Our minds long to know what is next, to imagine they have found a safe cozy space where nothing will disturb us. To return to the womb.

Our bodies and our souls know a different reality. That to be an embodied human being is to experience life’s ever-changing shifts. The births, the deaths, the beginnings, the endings, the gains, the losses. To connect with and adapt to the ebbs and flows of the constantly shifting cycles of existence.

Astrology, at its best, is a tool that helps us connect with life. By observing the cycles of the planets, especially the rhythms of the Moon cycles, we gain a deeper understanding of what is being born and what is dying at any given moment. Understanding what “is” allows our poor minds to let go into the dynamic nature of life rather than clinging to our belief systems to comfort ourselves.

So where are we at right now? What new lessons might we face in the next Moon cycle? The New Moon on January 29 falls in the first decan (10 degrees) of Aquarius. As I look at this chart, I see an invitation for all of us to take in loss and defeat. Not just a little bit. All the way. To feel what it is to have lost something that matters to us.

I also see the possibility that out of feeling this loss, we allow the Creative to enter our lives, to adapt to what is before us and think “outside of the box” for solutions to any difficulties we are experiencing in our lives and collectively. This is not the big lofty “I’m going to save the world” solution, rather the small, humble step that allows us to engage with life and offer a hand to someone in need.

The tarot card associated with this decan is the 5 of Swords. 5’s are tense cards, they ask us to break out of the stability of the 4’s, and bring moments of conflict, one-up/one-down. There is an energy of Mars in each of the 5’s, the cutting that happens at moments of defeat.

5 of Swords, Rider-Waite Tarot

The swords in tarot, like the air signs in astrology, relate to the mind, to mental energy, ideas and thoughts. The 5 of Swords expresses the moment when we have lost the battle to hold onto our fixed (Aquarius) ideas, our ideology. The humiliation we can experience when what we thought was a safe, secure way of understanding the world is defeated. We see a man with a smug smile holding three swords with 2 men weeping in the background as they have lost the battle, their swords lying at the feet of their opponent.

In the moment of humiliation, it feels as if all is lost.

But there is another side of the 5’s. The losses in the 5’s pave the way for the new path, the utter defeat of the ego expressed by 5’s, opens the heart to new possibilities. In any conflict a part of us is defeated. Defeat allows the creative to enter. Understanding our vulnerability, our weakness, allows the creative spirit to enter. In the words of Leonard Cohen: “There is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

Indeed, the number 5 is associated not just with conflict, but also with creativity; the “quintile” in astrology is 72 degrees, or one-fifth of the 360-degree chart. When planets are in a quintile aspect, it is a dynamic, creative force. Moreover, the tense energy of the 5’s in tarot lead to the 6’s, gate cards that prepare us on for the spiritual path opened by the 7’s.

This New Moon is an invitation to be present to what it means to lose. To feel humiliated. To sit with the discomfort of letting go of what you thought you knew to be true forever. To allow the light of the creative to emerge from the crack in the broken vessel. To see how it may open you to connect with something larger than yourself that may guide you as you weather the storms of the moment. To allow your own pain and loss to open your heart to the wider suffering of the world. To listen to that guidance as you ask the questions that call to you.

If you want some help riding the waves of change, check out Pema Chodron’s audiobook from her retreat “Smile at Fear,” I’ve included a link to her foundation website below where you can find this and her many books, including “When Things Fall Apart,” one of my favorites.

“Smile at Fear,” by Pema Chödrön

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Saturdays, Feb. 1-March 8, 10 am CST (live over Zoom with recordings)

$180

If you’d like to learn about the meanings of the houses, planets, and signs in your chart, I have a few spots left in my upcoming Introduction to Astrology Course. It will be live over Zoom on Saturday mornings (10 am CST/11 am EST) from February 1-March 8 (6 classes). Sessions will be recorded and limited to 20 students. Cost: $180.

We will cover the ABCs of astrology, including house meanings. The class offers all the tools you need to read a simple birth chart for yourself, friends, or family. The best way to learn astrology is by working with your chart, so the class also includes weekly chart practice using volunteers from the class.

Feel free to use the “Contact” form above or email me at cathygnatek@me.com if you have any questions. I hope to see you in class!