A Meditative Last Quarter Moon

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Henry Seltzer of ASTROGRAPH.COM

Monday's Last Quarter Moon represents a further and deeper taste of the Mercury retrograde period that we are currently in the midst of, and that began in tune with the recent Virgo Full Moon during the last week of February. Traditionally, this Last Quarter phase already represents, in any case, our taking a backward look over our collective shoulder at the previous three weeks of the cycle, with the idea of coming to a better set of conclusions concerning the actual import of the events that have transpired since the creative impulse of the New Moon. That was way back there in Aquarius; after the recent very powerful Pisces-Virgo Full Moon, accompanied as it was by a Pisces line-up of six planets, this recent Aquarius energy indeed seems like a distant dream. Especially since Mercury is currently retrograding through Pisces, we have been overtaken by the dreaminess and outright spaced-out energy of this most mystical and unreal of signs.

Of course in another way, Pisces represents the truest glimpse of actual reality, a glimpse of the other-dimensional super reality of spheres beyond the strictly physical, best represented within our earth-bound existence by the arts: music, poetry and dance. As this Quarter Moon approaches we find that the six planets from a week ago are still in Pisces, and with a different pattern now that brings Venus into forming conjunction with Chiron, while Jupiter squares both, and while the Sun is also in close conjunction with retrograde Mercury. Mercury's conjunction with the Sun is in fact one peak of the retrograde period, among three. The others are the actual station to retrograde motion, when Mercury seems to stand still in the sky, with the final peak moment being Mercury's station to direct motion that will occur on the 17th, which is also Saint Patrick's Day, a Sunday.

The drive toward the inside that retrograde Mercury represents, and that this lunar phase also represents, is therefore at its most intense now and over this next week. Our inward urge is also very much aided and abetted by the relationship planet, Venus, in conjunction with Chiron, the Wounded Healer. This combination symbolizes the painful realizations that can come up as we see ourselves in the sudden clarity that the partnership mirror can provide.

When you sense the possibility of feelings such as the torment of abandonment, or for that matter of unfounded reactivity, or if you detect these emotions in someone around you, you need to not only take a deep breath and step away for a moment, but you also might want to look for the source within yourself of these types of unexpected and untoward emotions. The potential for such triggering stems from inner wounding, the residue of ancient trauma that has become lodged deep inside the unconscious.

Bringing the light of conscious awareness to these dark places inside yourself or within others is the initial step toward healing these issues, and the time period surrounding this configuration, all day on Monday and for several days into the week that follows, is an excellent one for doing just that.

This is indeed the perfect time; for deep conversation, or for journaling — a form of conversation with yourself — or simply for meditative introspection. That way you might find within the normally frustrating period of Mercury retrograde an occasion for celebration.