93: KEEP YOUR DISATANCE
TUES 24 MAR 09:28 - Mooning Monthly observing prescribed social distances.....
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Happy Spring Equinox dear Mooners This coming Tuesday brings us a new moon isolated in Aries, hot on the heels of the weekend's Spring Equinox. This one is a Micro Moon meaning that she sits at her apogee, the furthest point on her orbit away from Mother Earth. The astrological theory goes that new moons provide us with a little bit of quiet space in which to contemplate our present circumstances before planting seeds of intent for our future. This is exacerbated during the Equinox when there is an energetic pause of perfect balance between the hours of day and night. Our astrological reading for the next couple of weeks is one of calm amidst the chaos, a period available for apt and overdue self reflection. As human activity on our planet slows to a Coronavirus standstill, we will have time on our hands to consider how we have contrived to create this current dramatic narrative, how we might negotiate the crisis in good health and what we might alter in our future behaviour to mitigate repeats of such circumstances. What is undeniable is that the problem has arisen as a result of human behaviour and is symptomatic of the arrogant disposition we adopt regarding our ever generous planet and the rest of its gracious inhabitants. Our willfulness as a species to dominate our environment for material gain rather than choosing a respectful, empathic coexistence with all life, has led our species to something of an end game: align our perception of life with the inextricably interrelated reality or our separatist attitudes and associated behaviour will mean life on Planet Earth continuing without human influence. In short, we are perilously close to consuming ourselves into extinction. (Article on the likely origins of Coronavirus) The messages are clear and relentless (Informative and inspiring YouTube dispatch from Jane Goodall). We are living through a period of biblical flood, famine and plague, all at our own hands. Why do we continue to ignore the portents, or worse, in blithe disdain, shoot down messengers warning us of the tragedy at hand? Traditionally Aries is seen as kind, focused, self reliant but hugely stubborn and regularly intolerant and dismissive of others. An Aries mindset over the next fortnight could be both blessing and curse. On the upside, the creative, independently minded Aries influence might give rise to innovative short and long term solutions to the issues we have caused. Hopefully, these may include treatments and immunisation against the Covid-19 virus. We are likely to draw on reserves of Aries resilience as we hunker down in isolation with hope of riding out the infectious storm. It won't be beyond us to make sacrifices and offer generous help to those that really need it as the situation unfolds, which is all very commendable but, on the downside, a dominant Aries trait would be to stubbornly refrain from admitting any fault for the mess we're in. Merely 'getting through' this thing will be tantamount to sticking our heads in the increasingly available areas of barren desert sand currently spreading across a variety of denuded landscapes. We should be asking some very serious questions of ourselves and our default, pervasive consumer culture before we further debilitate and diminish the remains of our once, much richer biosphere. Bizarrely, the world lockdown might present the pause for reflection we so badly need. Can we rally to the call for living with less if it means keeping people and planet safe and healthy? If our paradigm of living drastically shifts as a result of this pandemic and our appreciation for life expands, why return to the values which perpetuate war, poverty, sexual abuse, violence, competition, avarice, discrimination, fear and hatred? Under this Aries New Moon perhaps we have an opportunity to recalibrate our own order of life priorities, placing the well being of the planet as a whole to the fore. As a species we have everything to gain from such a shift of understanding. More poignantly perhaps, in not changing our patterns of long term behaviour as the Covid-19 death toll rises, we have everything to lose - quite literally. On a more upbeat note, here are a few suggestions to get stuck into on your lonesome or with isolated family groupings at prescribed social distances under this intransigent Aries New Moon: DO admit your mistakes. To yourself and anyone else that you know needs to hear that you're sorry for being an arsehole. DON'T EVER believe that your opinion is indefatigably correct or the only one that matters. If your beliefs work for you fine but don't define others by a lack of imagination on your part. DO find new ways to learn. If, as seems likely, we are going to have time on our hands, let's use it to good purpose under this Aries New Moon.....and beyond. Expand the mind, exercise the brain by developing new skills. Enroll in an online language course or explore meditation/mindfulness as a legitimate practice with scientifically proven mental and physical benefits - not just the domain of hippies. Get musical. Get creative. Leave sceptical preconceived notions behind at the door. Let direct experience speak for itself and guide your path consciously into the unknown. DON'T buy into any school of thought advocating that it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. We dogs can learn, at any age. We just need to find the appropriately patient trainer.....woof. DO be innovative with the time you have available under this Aries New Moon. Innovation might mean doing less and enjoying it. Practice sitting still, devices off, carefully observing your breath. Just saying...... DON'T miss the very real opportunity provided by this enforced hiatus in our busyness to shift the paradigm of our own habitual belief systems. Things can and must change. How is up to us. Let's not let others fill the collective cultural void with their greedy nonsense just because we haven't had the courage or discipline to think about and enact alternatives. Dismiss Hollywood and it's prevailing fictitious archetypes for the distorted, malignant (albeit occasionally entertaining) cockwomble that they are. DO re-imagine the world you want to inhabit and how you want to live within it when this sorry episode in human history comes to an end. Start to work towards those dreams in small achievable steps in the coming days and weeks. DON'T underestimate the power of consistent discipline - in thought, word and deed - to realising your desired intentions
DO sow your seed. Dearest Mooners, this is the first day of spring call to your gardens and window boxes. Let's learn what we can about growing our own food, free from chemical intervention. YouTube is full of green fingered geniuses offering great advice about how to turn the smallest patch of Planet Earth into an organic, productive, bee and biosphere friendly plot. (Check out Charles Dowding on YouTube) A personal tip from Mooning HQ: sow Rocket (Arugola) seed. It sprouts like a weed at all times of year; is delicious, full of nutrition and ridiculously expensive in the supermarkets for something that's so easy to grow ANY FRICKIN' WHERE! Get some seed now and sow in successive summer plantings for fresh green leaf right the way through the year and into next winter. DON'T buy salad leaf that's been packed in plastic for the rest of this year. DO get serious about your immune system. There is a huge amount of information available on the web which details what you can do to build a healthier antiviral microbiome. (How to support your immune system article). Research this advice and act on it. Your body will thank you for it in soooo many ways. DON'T eat that processed sugary shit! We realise we sound like a broken record on this matter but sugar immediately compromises your immune system for a number of hours upon consumption. (How sugar affects your immune system article) Give it up! Now please wash your hands.......to the following classic 70s soliloquy (genius Youtube link - you'll be glad you watched it ladies...) All by myself Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore All by myself Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore 'All by Myself' Eric Carmen 1975 (Spotify link) On a further community note, fellow Mooner and centenarian Bob Weighton has, through no conscious intention of his own, become the oldest man currently living on this planet in this peculiar little corner of the entire Universe. He is a human of inspirational warmth, kindness and insatiable curiosity. He is also currently under lockdown in his two bedroom apartment, unable to see people as he would ordinarily like despite being of keen mind and relatively good health. Should you care to write to our venerable eldest elder with words of love and good cheer I'm sure he would be glad to hear from you. He doesn't have email so here's his address should you feel inclined to use the postal service: Bob Weighton, Flat 30, Mary Rose Mews, Adams Way, Alton, Hampshire GU34 2UU. His 112th birthday falls next week on the 29th March. He was of course born with his Sun in Aries. We here at Mooning HQ hope you continue to enjoy these missives, written for and exclusively delivered every fortnight to our burgeoning international Mooning Monthly community. Please encourage friends of a similarly Moonish persuasion to subscribe (below) and share the Mooner's bounty, all of which can occasionally be found uploaded to the website www.mooningmonthly.com. With Love from an appropriate distance 'til next time....
Many happy returns Bob. Born 29th March 1908. Sun in Aries