Today’s Moon House
Today the Moon enters the Nakshatra of Magha, anchored by the bright star Regulus near the head of Leo. Magha is ruled by Ketu, the shadow cast by the Moon as its South Pole crosses the ecliptic. Leo is ruled by the Sun, the source of all visible planetary light as well as the center of gravity for the planets. Sun is the birthplace of the elements that allowed life to form on earth, the sustainer of life by its heat, and the likely future destroyer of the earth due to the predictable expansion of the solar body as its nuclear fuel exhausts in a few billion years.
In the Sun we see the Vedic trinity of Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), and Shiva (destroyer) and as such the Sun naturally both by its physical and energetic presence plays a central role in our lives and draws our attention to it on a regular basis.
Under the influence of Ketu and Moon the beginnings of transcendence may occur. Ketu’s shadow eclipses the light of reality as it hides the energetic presence of the giver of life. This influence can leave the mind grasping for material purchase, seeking hand and footholds in the darkness of groundless feeling and strong emotion. If we use Ketu’s power to release, to move beyond material grasping, we gain freedom to create a new relationship with ourselves and others.
As with all energetic influences the exercise of free will is permitted and will, to a great extent, determine consequences (karma) of every action. Under Magha, especially as we kickoff the holiday shopping season in the USA, the pursuit of materialism may lead to impulsive or poor choices that damage relationships or finances for the year to come. Succumbing to the strong feelings of need brings out the demonic aspect of Magha and leads to actions more resembling an ill-mannered courtier or petty tyrant than a giver and sustainer of life.
Magha’s shakti (power) is the ability to leave the body, as in death or certain conditions of meditation, and sleep. Working with this energy is the source of rituals of mourning, which fulfills the desire to have more time with those who have gone ahead into the next realm. This desire to commune with our ancestors brought about the practice of genealogy, rituals commemorative of those who preceded us, and in Leo also reminds us that both the mighty and meek are subject to the passage of time and the inevitable end of our life in the body.
Our eternal energy will shed this life and continue in other forms, other realms, a consequence shaped by the quality of our choices here and now.
If you are standing in line, shopping online, dealing with the many possible frustrations attending the busy, time-crowded season, it is incumbent on you to pause. Look around you and see the diffuse sunlight that fills the day, illuminates the moon and all the planets, and creates and sustains life. Ketu’s shadow, while ever present, cannot alter the reality that exists whether we see it or not. Our actions and reactions can and do change the moment.
Ketu is an invitation to look both forwards and backwards in time—to remember those who have left this realm into another form of being, to mourn them and look ahead to our own crossing of that threshold as an invitation into a realm of greater freedom because of the wisdom of this life’s experiences. Having done that, focus on the present, on what you are doing and how it relates to the care of both yourself and others.
Living a life where mourning is a ritual that both clears sorrow and makes room for good can increase the freedom to dance in the light for everyone, to form our personal system of orbiting planets around the life-sustaining energy of creation that we all share. We co-create the world, aided by sunlight and all living things. We are each a center of light and gravity, built on the genes and actions of our ancestors. To honor their gift of life by our actions and reactions brings more light and life to the world.
A final, sobering thought—COVID 19 arrived under a strong Ketu influence. We are all still learning to mourn and live with it and its effects. Until we learn the lesson that we are all part of the same system of cause and effect, action and reaction, and work together for a greater good than mere material comfort, expect the virus to continue disrupting our lives in significant ways. Today’s new variant out of South Africa reflects the reality of the moment.
American Vedic Astrology 