Conscious self-reflection is the Courage of authenticity

“If you cannot trust yourself, you cannot even trust your mistrust of yourself – so that without this underlying trust in the whole system of nature you are simply paralyzed.” Alan Watts

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, symbolising our unique, individual self, helping us shape ourselves through trial and error and eventually leading us to understand our limitations of tightly held beliefs or models. And yet we foolishly continue to repeat our self sabotaging behaviours expecting something different. Mars and Eris in retrograde are both in Aries. They are quite significant energies, digging deep into our psyche to uncover and reveal our hidden sacred and spiritual power, courage and truth.

We can associate Aries with many low frequency terms, such as barbaric, selfish, fire starter, self centred, aggressive, and a determined force with a narrow perspective. Alternatively, we can see Aries as discovering a deeper layer of ourselves, discovering our own power, courage, or qualities that make us unique, allows us to focus all of who we are and yet to become. When Mars and Eris is in this sign, the quality or the flavour of Aries is different with a stronger emphasis in revealing our power, the truth of our connections, our manipulative and perhaps narcissistic or gaslighting qualities, our self betrayal and even our dogmatic ways to control situations.

Both Eris and Mars are assisting all of us to peel away the layers from lifetimes, karmic conditioning, past relationships and bandaid like qualities we have adopted to reach our true state of being. This energy is breaking down our model of Self, in all its glory. Although, Mars and Eris won’t rip the illusion away so fast, nor work in isolation, they are collaborating with Pluto, and Saturn in a strong square in the sign Capricorn, and the Sun and Moon in opposition in Libra. We are learning the truth of who we really are, and there is no escape from this work, unless of course you’re happy living a superficial, numb and shallow way and making connections with those that give us attention, and we continue to have the same lessons again and again.

This is a week of deep inner work. This week demands us to be in isolation more than ever, to use this powerful cosmic force, without the influence of others to truly understand and reshape the way we relate to others. And, how we create a supporting environment that resonates a commitment of personal allegiance. We are learning the importance of creating and sharing our world with real connections, conscious and deep. Remember this is not about spiritual bypassing the work, but practicing expressing our truth around our human state, with healthy needs and desires.

As the moon travels from its full phase to new moon phase, called waning decreasing its light to dark, it indicates the work is internal, personal and private in many ways. She will help us to reflect upon our behaviours, attitudes that trigger the influctuations of mind and emotions that require acknowledging, addressing and transforming. The moon is a powerful emotional trigger, pulling us through various inner scenarios awakening us to the behaviours, attitudes and beliefs we’ve adopted because we simply do not always have the tools to relate to others in healthy ways.

Our past catches up, the residue of our deepest fears shoots out when we least expect it, and we finally realise the work is inner to understand ourselves better. We start from where we are, although this energy will bring so much more into the mix, which is all part of the realisation how we are easily enchanted and distracted when we get attention from others. Enchantment can lead us up a illusionary path, unconscious about how we modifying our needs to meet the other, blinded by control and power. Eris and Mars, opposite the Sun beckons us to stop, question those relations unapologetically, you are hear to follow what is right in your heart and doesn’t require approval from anyone.

The energy is amplified as Mercury is now officially retrograde in Scorpio making an opposition to Uranus in Taurus. Scorpio is a fixed water sign, with profound qualities of digging deep into our shadow and pulls to surface unapologetically any unresolved, unconscious and unhealthy or non serving frame of mind, in particular when Mercury and Uranus are involved. Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, thus communication, expression and perception of Self is at war with our ego, beliefs, old patterns and behaviours.

We can drop into the mind and believe all that we see, we can be direct and affirmative, we can dive into the past and bring it right back to the present. We can also use this moment to expand to where we want to go, with Uranus in Taurus this ultimately puts the lens of value, self worth, safety, security and beliefs as the forefront to when we speak from a place of truth. Those that cannot hear your truth, or your perspective or want to shift it in anyway, is the writing on the wall to take action where you are held safely.

These very qualities can be subconsciously used as barricades to protect us from being judged, wronged, discriminated, not accepted by other. As a result of this, we can fall short of placing illusions, misconceptions and manipulative slants to avoid the pain of being exposed. Our tendency is to hide our true feelings, wants and needs because in the past we were not heard, seen or felt comfortable about being exposed or we expressed a truth and got completely ghosted, ignored and left traumatised.

We can work with this energy by focusing on the teachings of Mercury in Scorpio which rules Pluto but also Mars was its ancient ruler. Mercury is thus answering to either Pluto for a authentic and thorough transformation of Self, shifting our approach of control, speaking the unspoken to express our authority in a healthy way or we can look to Mars, where we can act upon what we know to be true and to speak from a place of non-attachment and control to further develop our connection with others or collaborate to get to a mutual agreement to end the struggle. Relationships are not easy, neither hard, they are connections that we make, through a ‘chance’ meeting, and this dance of connectivity leads us to trust and open to explore our shadow, if left incomplete then true healing cannot take place. We will inevitably meet the same lessons again.

Prior to experiencing this strong new moon in Libra on Saturday we will be put to test with the inner work with the Sun in Libra opposite both Mars and Eris in Aries, a opening for a psychologically transformation. This can ultimately bring sudden and overdue change of our hearts, with Venus in Virgo opposite Neptune can bring deep healing or illuminate the manipulative behaviours that stem from fear. Uranus in Taurus opens our psyche to see how much of our connections are superficial, when we deeply desire to be seen and connected as we are, Eris in Aries is a pioneer of removing the veil or the fog from our eyes to our shadow and golden shadow, which if unconscious can trigger some very impulsive and hostile responses. She will be backed by the Moon and the Sun making a square to Pluto and Saturn. If we stay as we are, and not spend time working through our shadow, Pluto and Saturn can and will shake up our inner world, the intensity and dynamic force of this energy will certainly be a discomfort we will not be able to hide.

The longer we continue to hide in our own shadow, and show up in a pretence to be accepted or morphed into what others want us to be, the longer it will take for each of us to deeply connect and heal. The next six months are not going to be easy, if we ignore that niggling feeling. Venus in Virgo demands perfection, not because we want to make a point, but because we are celebrating our worthiness to ourselves and thus demanding an environment with ripe conditions for a awakened community and connection.

The new moon in Libra along with the Sun will peak on Saturday 17 October 6:31am AEST, harnessing and elevating our psyche and emotional body to walk a deep integral path. This is a week of cultivating all the choices we’ve made around last year in October, this year in January, March and July. The Sun will make a powerful opposition to Mars, which can shift the way we compromise for others to keep peace or harmony. Mars is clearly indicating, in order to know a deep truth we need to rock the boat by tuning in and finding that core truth and act upon it with grace.

The Sun also makes strong squares to Pluto and Saturn, this creates a t-square energy which is dynamic and demanding for shifts, pushing a high level of intensity that needs to be channelled out in a healthy way. The energetic pulls come from the lessons we all have experienced, but haven’t processed spiritually. This very point in the cosmic unravelling we are required to undertake a critical self journey of why we do not walk in our truth, make amends to unfinished connections, and with Pluto and Saturn direct we are asked to move forward, in a reconnected perhaps reformed way.

Mercury will stay in Scorpio for a long time, shifting our perceptions, diving deeper and deeper so we can embody the Scorpio qualities to communicate what needs to be said. If the effort is not put into doing the work on Self, at this cosmic alignment, we may have to wait another 36 years for when Pluto and Saturn meet. We are invited and supported by the Divine Feminine, Eris in Aries, Venus in Virgo, the Moon in Libra and Black Lilith in Taurus along with the start of the 9 day celebration of the Divine Feminine, Navaratri. A powerful sacred ritual of dancing, worshiping and blessing the many forms and states of the Divine Feminine Durga.