The New Moon in Gemini created the seed of a new, star-powered vision somewhere in your inner sky. With today’s First Quarter Moon, the time to act on it arrives.

Somewhere in your inner sky, the seed energy of a new way of seeing was created last week at the Gemini New Moon. This was no ordinary seed. It was full of star power, infused with the auspicious, illuminated energy of the great star Aldebaran. Also known as Buddha’s Star, Aldebaran has been associated with great good fortune and wisdom since ancient times. When the Sun and Moon came together in Gemini last week, Aldebaran was just two degrees away.

Today’s First Quarter Moon in Virgo, the ancient sign of Isis and Persephone, brings a crisis: what is the right action?

How to See and What to Do: Your First Quarter Moon Crisis

A week from today, that auspicious seed will ripen at the Full Moon in Sagittarius. That’s Jupiter’s sign, home of the quest. It’s the luckiest sign in the sky. While that’s where you’re headed, today you’re at a turning point – the crisis that comes with the First Quarter Moon.

Every quarter moon brings a crisis. Though we’re taught to shrink from the word “crisis,” it’s hard-wired into the Cosmos. In fact, from the Cosmic point of view, crisis is one of the Universe’s favorite growth-stimulators.

The crisis that every First Quarter Moon brings is about action.  At the First Quarter Moon, we can’t feel right until we find the action that will bring the New Moon energy into reality.

It’s complicated, though.  When the Sun and the Moon are at odds, as they are at every quarter moon, what we want conflicts with what we need.  And the only way to align them is to expand our awareness of the choices before us.  Buddhists call this “right action.” It’s an essential element of the Noble Eight-fold Path out of suffering.

Last week’s new moon was our first since the Taurus Solar Eclipse, amidst the seismic shifts of April. By the time the Gemini New Moon occurred on May 28, how and what we see as reality was being redefined.  With today’s “crisis moon,” you’re getting a big push from the Cosmos to make some choices about the reality you believe in — and to take some actions that are aligned with them.

Sun Square Moon: When Your Will & Your Needs Collide

The crisis between what you want and what you need  awakens another element of the Buddha’s Eight-fold Path out of suffering — Right View. The perception that lets you see reality differently shows you the action that will lead you forward. Both of them will arise right out of the tension between your will and your needs.  The key is

Here are the key energies at play in this crisis of Right Action and Right View:

The Cosmic Messenger,
ruler of both Sol and Luna at today’s 1st Quarter Moon, is at the center of the crisis it brings.

Mercury, the Messenger: Choosing How You See

The Cosmic Messenger rules both the Sun, our life-giving center, and the Moon, our life-sustaining pulse, at this First Quarter Moon. With Mercury in the driver’s seat, the way you’re perceiving reality is at the heart of the conflict between what you want and what you need.  Likewise, our shared perception of reality is at the heart of what we want as a collective — and what we need.

A key question here is who defines what is real — within you and around you?  And whose interests does that definition serve?

The day after last week’s Gemini New Moon, Mercury entered the watery, feeling-based sign of Cancer.  Everything we see now is saturated with emotion, much of it beneath the threshold of our awareness. The messages he’s bringing you are coming from the depths.  Imaginative and creative, they can nurture the new life within you.

First, though, you’ll have to re-think some things. You’ll have to become aware of which emotions are driving which perceptions.  And Mercury is about to do all he can to help you.  Today’s First Quarter Moon takes place amid what’s known as Mercury “retrograde storm.”  The Messenger is at a near-standstill, preparing to change direction in just two more days.

On the outer level, events are unfolding in slow motion. That’s amplifying their emotional, intuitive impact. Together with the quantum electricity Uranus is adding to the sky, you’re walking a boundary between realities today. If you like your feet firmly on the ground, the coming days may not be the easiest for you to navigate.

Uranus’ quantum, cosmic electricity is a challenge for Luna in Virgo to ground.

Uranus, the Cosmic Awakener:  Liberating Your Life

The Awakener’s vibrations are non-linear and always full of surprise. The energy set in motion today is saturated with them – and with the shock that comes from perceiving, all in a flash, the world around you in ways that are startling and new.

• As she squares the Sun, Luna is making a very close quincunx to Uranus. The awkwardness of the very word “quincunx” perfectly captures the feel of this contact. It’s uncomfortable .  It’s stressful.  Absorbing Uranus’ quantum energy on the emotional level today is going to take effort – and guess what? That’s also part of the Eightfold Path.  Right Effort is what the quincunx is pushing you towards.  It’s the cosmic version of “no pain, no gain.”
• Luna’s in Virgo. She really wants you to  stay grounded. Staying open to the unpredictable revelations from the quantum realm — and grounding them —  is going to take Right View, Right Intention, and Right Effort.  That’s exactly what the Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Uranus are awakening in you.

• The Sun, on the other hand, is all over the exciting and unpredictable vibrations of the Awakener. In fact, these two are creating new opportunity via the collaborative aspect astrologers call a sextile.

The core wound in our hearts and in our minds is the split between Earth and Cosmos.

Chiron, the Sacred Healer:  The Cure Is in the Wound   

Chiron, the Sacred Healer, is at a near-standstill in the sky, around you and within you. The day before the Summer Solstice, he’ll begin his own retrograde vision quest. Already, though, he’s slowing down, and his vibrations have nowhere to go but deep within you.

Chiron is the healer of the Cosmos, and the medicine he uses is homeopathic:  the cure is in the wound. Chiron is the energy within you that understands that all the wounds within you and around you come from the perception that you are separate from the Whole.  The healing he brings comes from the re-joining of that which has been broken apart.

Squaring the Sun and opposing the Moon, Chiron is opening the deepest wound within us all – the split between spirit and matter. And as he does, your neurological system is being activated with the potent life-force energy that the spring released into the world within us and around us. Find a way to ground this energy — through yoga, through acupuncture, through emotional or physical release — and bring your intention.   Think of yourself as having a live energetic connection to the Cosmos fully activated within you.

By next week’s Full Moon, Saturn will be trining Chiron and serving as a grounding rod.  Until then, consider Chiron as you contemplate the right action for you now.

Gaining momentum after his 11-week vision quest, Mars is put to the test this month.

Mars, Uranus, and Pluto:  Taking Action that Transforms

• Mars is the energy we tap when we go after what we want. With an 11-week vision behind him now, the Warrior is beginning to pick up speed. He’s heading straight towards a confrontation with both Pluto and Uranus.
• Over the next two weeks, you’ll feel the tension build as these three draw closer and closer. You can think of the entire month of June as a test of what happened while Mars was  vision questing (March 1-May 19),  re-assessing how and why you take action in your life. The actions you take over the next three weeks will set the stage for the events unfolding in the coming months.
• Today’s First Quarter Moon brings Mars and Pluto within two degrees of each other. Contacts between the Warrior and the Transformer activate ambition at the deepest levels. Here’s the important part: the ambition that Mars and Pluto create isn’t   despite overwhelming obstacles. It’s because of them. Injustice, anger, blockage – they all become catalysts for transformation. This is the element of the Noble Eightfold Path the Buddha called Right Concentration.

And this, my friend, is what the Cosmos is asking of you in the days to come:  honor your vision, hone your intention and use everything as a catalyst.  On this, everything now depends.