New Moon / Eclipse in Aries
Peace — what is it good for?
An essay by Mike Zizis
April 5, 2024
The fiery new Moon in Aries is often said to be one of the most powerful; this new Moon in Aries is both powerful and supercharged.
The human journey and condition is drenched to the bone and spirit with memory. We worship memory — remember God? Without memory there is no identity. On the other fist — memory can often be the first step towards war. The Jews remember. The Palestinians remember. The Russians remember. The Ukrainians remember. Symbolically memory is guided by the moon’s reflected light.
It is not memory, but attachment to it — enslavement to it — that seems to be at the root of most of human conflict. The dangerous illusions of scarcity dictates that I only win when you lose.
I remember the six million …
I remember the Nakba …
I remember the Russian Soviet empire …
Never forget the slave ships …
Never forget that you are ‘white’ …
Memory is not the problem. Upon reflection the reflected light of the moon is not the problem. Attachment to memory often feels like attachment to misery.
The 12 to 13 new moons every year give us individually and collectively the opportunity to begin again. This new moon in the sign of Aries bestows {in the northern hemisphere} the unquiet, tumultuous, and disruptive revolution of Spring overthrowing frozen Winter. Yet we invest in the same old thing in our bodies, minds, and spirits while waiting for a miracle.
During the first 14 days of any new Moon, her light grows and becomes brighter. This is a wonderful time to think, plan, and execute your better way, including what works and discarding what does not. This is also a wonderful time to wait without the dangerous illusion that the miracle of light contains secret instructions in hidden meanings. What does this feel like? For me it feels like exactly this; I am a very small part of a very large picture. Our deadly disease of ‘doing’ is MOST OFTEN based on the distortions of memory.
Let’s suppose that you wish to overthrow an old habit that is problematic for your health, but you are turned off by the physical pain it may cause. Letting go of a destructive health habit during this new Moon cycle {14 days} will be far less physically painful than if you do it at any other time during a lunar cycle. When we become more athletic during the same cycle — the body whispers to us — yes.
The full moon, the time of maximum illumination, is good to bring out what worked in the private workshop of the soul, and let the world do it’s part - collaboration, confusion, and conflict resulting in that better whatever.
Aries is a Cardinal sign. Cardinal signs insist that the truth is ‘out there’. Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn are the cardinal signs. They desire, yearn to create something new; the next job, the next lover, the next city, the next mountain, the next etc.
Now add to this the new Moon eclipse in Aries. Personally I think this particular cycle means the demands for peace will grow louder by the minute. The story of the previous 50 years has been a human experiment of ever greater power yet little wisdom — how to use that power. It’s time for peace to breakout.
As a new Moon meditation, and new moons are especially good for meditation before action, consider analyzing card number 12 in the tarot; the Hanged Man.
This card does not depict or say the hanged person or the hanged woman. It does depict a man hung upside down tied to a tree by his right ankle. The traditional meaning of this card, among others, is a new perspective, a male’s new perspective. Symbolically what is male within any of us is the will towards order and war.
The man in this card hung upside down is smiling, while tied to the world tree — the tree is a symbol of all the natural world pushing upwards towards the light. This card clearly states that when the lower portion of the instincts to war and destruction are tied to the tree of life by that ropey umbilical cord, we are in the perspective of new visions. Let’s not destroy for the hell or righteousness of it; in other words, our journey can be more than a pissing contest. No longer a world of slaughter because we can.
