WATER

The moon is now in her last quarter lunar water phase in Cancer before she turns dark and is dark in the sign of Libra amidst a solar eclipse

Cancer is the home of the Moon and on this Venus day she is in her motherly form.

On the call on Wednesday we reflected on our own moonthly lunar return - that is the phase of the moon that you were born under and thus a return that you get to experience every month.

Lunar Return

You may also like to find out what sign the moon was under if you dont already know the chartings of the sun, the moon and the horizon at your time of birth

When we layer this on top of our moon blood cycle there may be an interesting illumination for us about where our emotional body is moving - is it in sync with our bleed. Is the cycle of maiden, mother, enchantress and crone - the four women of the cross quarters in harmony with our birth landing, or does it show an intriguing insight into why thinks arent always so black and white. In the priestess mystery schools we learn the depth of nuance that comes with astrology and the layering of so many esoteric maps. From the microcosm to the macrocosm, the layers and webs and codes that we hold are incredible. Charting our course by someone elses map can lead us in the wrong direction!

Ritual

Womb bowl - as we move into the final harvest of this moonth of October - a time where instincts sharpen. The deer of the land come out of the deep forest and are more prevalent under the moonlight. Consider under this Cancer mother moon on the day of Venus ~ placing a bowl that represents your womb on a window ledge and letting the lunar rays imbue it with reflections for this cycle. Steep it with prayers and intentions for mother moon to illuminate the path and in the morning sip some of the water and work with the energies of Libra Cancer Venus Moon to support you to find balance, self love and tend to your inner mother.

Plant Allies

Now in the final moon of the harvest there is still some abundance to be had from the late blooming flowers and plants. We realise how precious they are. The Yew berries have now begun to adorn the feminine yew trees. The yew is deeply sacred in these lands. Every churchyard is full of yews as they mark the Pagan places of worship on leylines. Yew is the tree of Death, Life and Rebirth and a powerful tree to sit with when contemplating anything that requires you to go to the underworld. It is little wonder that they wait until third harvest to fully make themselves known. In my Samhain retreats we pilgrimage to a sacred Yew, many thousands of years old and take in the majesty of its being. True to form you will always find a yew with lots of tiny new yew saplings on its trunk - the ultimate rebirth tree. Yew seeds, bark and leaves are poisonous but the beautiful yew arils (the berries) are powerful medicine. I like to do a ritual of eating a yew berry (usually with an initiate who thinks that they are poisonous - ensuring we spit out the seed and dont crunch through it). My rattle is made from a certain number of yew berry seeds that I sat and deseeded. The berries are delicious and healing. They have a beautiful gelatinous quality that when you hold it between your fingers is much like cervical fluid - giving deep insight into its medicinal powers. Yew is the tree from which breast cancer medicine is derived.

In our remembrance with the tree and plant folk lore we are alchemising Poison to Power

Water & Earth

Paradoxically, in true Libra form, I want to leave you to ponder this … water as a shapeshifter, flows in whatever direction provides the least resistance. As we move through the season of water it may be necessary for us to meet the immovable seeming stone (that through which the water flows) before deciding how we need to carve out the route we need to take. Do we need an anchor from within in this time of flow and potentially great change within us to meet the resistance. On meeting and sitting with it, do we gain new perspective on how we move around or through it. Is more softness, or maybe even more force (focus) required?

Venus Day blessings on the path