There is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don’t even know it.
Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
Listen once more, my child — for I return to you in this week of great power. After my last visit at Samhaintide, prepare yourself for the fabric of the mundane to part; for a time of change and mystery is upon us.
During this week when the Sun moves into the sign of Cancer, heralding the arrival of Solstice, and the New Moon, too, is born in Her home sign of Cancer, I return again.
This Is My Temple, This Is My Service
Come closer and admire my throne, which is none other than the cubic stone, the Philosopher’s Stone of alchemy. As Dianic Priestess Marion Weinstein has defined it, “Magic is transformation, ” from which all things may be transformed.
I gaze straight into your eyes from between the columns of Boaz and Jakin, pillars of the ancient Temple of Solomon. But as I have told you before, I am in service to Goddess, for my temple is also that of the great Goddess Isis, as well as the Shekhinah, the Hebrew God’s glory made manifest in the world and, according to the mystical Kabbalists, the feminine face of the Divine.
These pillars are black and white, representatives of the duality of dark and light, active and passive, order and chaos. Yet, like the ancient Yin-Yang symbol of Asia, the white lettering on the black column, and the black lettering on the white show that duality is only a perception. Each side holds the seed of its opposite.
In me, the opposites are reconciled, for I bridge and balance the spaces between.
Ignoring the taboos of some of your male priestly class, I hold the scrolled Torah, the book of Law. Like the embellishments on the original Temple of Solomon, the veil behind me is decorated with lush reminders of life’s fertility and sweetness — pomegranates and dates.
I am a priestess of the holy Sun, for the solar cross covers my heart.
But I am also devoted to the Moon, as I wear the lunar crown of Isis, and the New Moon’s crescent is woven into the hem of my robe.
The Gatekeeper of the Sun and New Moon
I have come to you rarely over the years, but my return this week is no accident. My devotee, Diotima, writes:
We have two significant astrological events coming up this week. The first is the Summer Solstice, the moment that Sun enters Cancer. The chart of this event is predictive for about three months ahead.
The chart of the New Moon, which happens about 3 days later, is predictive for the month ahead. Both charts, when cast for Washington, DC, are predictive for the entire country and its people. These effects are general, but can be quite specific depending on your personal natal chart.
I’ll look at what’s ahead in a bit, but first, for those of you who practice magic, or work to shape reality through meditation, mental discipline, and energy work (even if you don’t call it magic), this is a good week to “fire up the cauldron” (as a teacher of mine used to say).
Change is in the air this week, and it’s always a good idea to work with Nature’s changes, to make sure you catch the tide.
We are on “a full sea” right now, in a time of intense change and growth. A shining path to progress (both spiritual and technological) is more available to us than ever, but so is a descent into the chaotic depths of human fear, hatred, and destruction.
We need all hands on deck to steer this ship, and your magical work can help keep us on course. We aren’t drifting lazily in a rowboat right now, we’re sailing treacherous waters.
Pay attention, and don’t shirk your magical practice…
…Women’s rights and financial acumen will be very much in the news over the next three months, as will issues of social justice for the disadvantaged.
All of these issues will be brought in front of the courts — and the court of public opinion may be the most powerful.
Where Have You Been?
Since you last saw me, there has indeed been a “sea change,” and not much of it for the better. My warnings about your long history of misogyny and institutionalized Earth-rape have not only failed to abate those actions, but it appears that in many lands, these problems have metastasized at a ferocious rate.
I am seeing a nauseating upsurge in racial violence, vicious bigotry, and cruelties large and small, particularly towards those who are the most vulnerable: women, children, the elderly, the poor, those in fragile health.
Environmental protections against poisonous water, air, and land; and the laws that ensure safe and health-bringing food and medicines, respect for our oceans, mountains, and the family of living beings are being gleefully dismantled faster than you can say, “Extinct.”
As I warned you before, for thousands of years, I have watched the rise and fall of your civilizations as your tribes have warred over claims of territory, religion, inheritance, and pride, just to name a few.
Much of that violence and bloodshed is fed by the corruption your cultures have created regarding the genders of your people.
For instance, the three dominant, monotheistic faiths have at their heart a story that shames, blames, and demonizes women. You fear, lust for, and despise what is feminine, both in humans of female gender, and in humans of all genders that celebrate the feminine within them.
Right now, there is controversy among some of you, as to whether rape, sexual assault, and cruelty towards women and girls, is, in fact, wrong.
Where have YOU been, and what are you doing about this?
Enough
I have come this week to remind you that each and every one of you has within you my blessings.
To you belong the intuitive, non-linear kinds of knowing; the gentle, the wild, the changeable promptings you feel in your heart; the rich emotional life that waxes and wanes within you like tides and rivers.
And my greatest gift to you is that you need no intermediary for your own direct, unchaperoned communion with the Divine.
This, of course, is an extremely dangerous concept for systems of religion that have built a powerful, exclusive priest class that acts, rules, and judges the souls of the flock. It is also a threat to the cultures that are built on misogyny and patriarchy.
Because what if it turns out that the Divine One you personally encounter is not a God-the-Father, but Goddess?
Once Upon a Time
For thousands of years, you have feared (or been robbed of) the gifts of the Feminine Mysteries within you.
But despite what your history has told you, there have been times and cultures when women were respected equally with men. Their role as intermediaries with the Divine was not only allowed, but revered, right along with their male (and other gendered) counterparts.
Women were seen as the givers of Life, yes, like the Empress of the Tarot, but they were also recognized as healers, midwives, and seers.
There was a time, before the warring conquests that led to patriarchal domination, when critical logic was not exclusively worshiped, but considered an equal partner with intuition, emotional depth, and gentleness.
That which we today would consider “feminine” within every male’s nature was welcomed, not feared or repressed.
But now, at this very important crossroads of history, I have come to challenge you to open your eyes and see how your civilizations have been poisoned by this lack.
Lost
I am the Priestess of Life, Death, and Rebirth. At my feet is the Moon, and upon my breast, the Solar Cross, indicating the balance of light and dark necessary, to access the wisdom within your heart.
Without both, you are cut off from the indomitable voice from within, the deep soul guidance that we can only name Mystery.
Without your inner knowing, you are lost. How can you feel the empathy that stays the hand of violence, and turns it to compassion? How can you quiet your greed and need, and trust the cycles of Life? How will you hear the small, quiet voice within that helps you make sometimes difficult choices that are for the higher good, or for generations not yet born?
The current unraveling of your civilization is similar to others in the past, and it is in large measure a result of repressing and demeaning the mystical nature of the feminine.
Without the gifts of my Mysteries, life is very hard to navigate. Every shiny thing, every clever lie, every whispered fear is equally seductive.
Like lost children, you have been told your “mommy” is evil or dumb. You have been taught to depend on your “daddy” to tell you what to do.
But in my hands is the scroll of the Law, and I offer its power to you.
You need no rescuer, for you are enough. You are the one responsible for your choices, your future, and your life or destruction. Like all the Twos of the Tarot, I am about choices; and I offer you the ultimate choice.
I give you the gift of knowledge that cannot be explained; my path is curved, sometimes dark. But I will teach you how to reflect and find your sacred patterns and rhythms.
Mine is the face of the Feminine Divine that is both the independent Maiden, and the ancient Wise One. Unlike The Empress, the Great Mother and nurturer that makes everyone feel like cherished family, I am not here to help you feel comfortable.
But if you will take this time for your own inner explorations, the results can be profoundly valuable.
I offer you the authority of silence, containment, and being sovereign unto yourself. Mine is the power of those things so intimate, so ancient within you, that you cannot, indeed should not, attempt to express them in words.
Yes, my alignment with the Moon, and my emotional, psychic, solitary ways of worshiping the Divine have long been labeled heresy in the dominant patriarchal religions.
I am the undomesticated feminine power (belonging to both men and women) that has been feared, punished, shunned, and tormented for thousands of years, by misogynist cultures and institutions.
But that must change, and change now.
Now is the time for you to take up the self-possessed power of magic, potential, secrets, and inner understanding.
In the times ahead, you will need all these and more.
The turning has come, and the power of the ancient, holy Feminine within you must awaken, or else evil is sure to triumph, bringing unprecedented misery to this world.
The Awakening
This weekend, astrologer Eric Francis Coppolino tells us that the Aries Full Moon (a Supermoon, in fact)
“makes an exact conjunction to the Goddess of discord and identity crisis, Eris. It’s also conjunct Uranus, a planet associated with the electrical and electronic realm. It’s also the planet of revolt and ‘expect the unexpected.’ There’s a hint of violence with the Moon, Uranus and Eris in the sign associated with aggression.”
And devoted daughter of the Moon, Diotima Mantineia, adds, “This year, the Aries Full Moon is collaborating with iconoclastic Uranus and Eris, so over the next couple of weeks, we can expect not only change, but sudden, shocking changes and awakenings.”
She also warns (as have others) that there is a troubling potential for violence and death with these agents at work.
Which is why I am here, this week, just for you.
What soul revelation must you consider this week? What revolutionary change needs your steady hand, your courage, your sense of justice, and your focused intention?
Are your dreams and premonitions on high alert at this time? What do you seek behind my veil?
Rather than verbalize, analyze, or hypothesize, I am offering you the chance to directly experience the Divine through your visions, your intuition, and the powerful Feminine beauty and understanding that is alive, within your own body, regardless of your gender or sexual preference.
The time has come to stand up to systemic violence, hate, and dismissal of women.
The obscenities that have been paraded across the media and twisted into normalcy must be recognized for the violence they really are. I ask you to consider that we are now seeing the climax of 4,000 years of women’s repression, shaming, and disregard.
I am calling you, here and now, to break the shackles of those old fears, those poisonous myths.
Look into my eyes and see your own truth. Now is the awakening of a nation of women, with wings.
Embrace your sweet wild spirit, and with this intense Aries Full Moon, take back your power. Open your heart to the Divine within you. Take up the mantle of Priestess in service to the majestic cycles of light, shadow, and love that flow through All That Is.
May the inner knowing that cannot be spoken guide you to your soul’s wholeness, with the greatest, most tender wisdom. May it bring, at long last, profound healing to men and women everywhere.