The New Moon in Mutable Earth on the 15th of September 2023 at 2:39 am BST
Cover Art by Antonio del Pollaiuolo
In a quaint little village nestled at the edge of an ancient forest, lived Little Spirit. Deeply connected to nature, she found solace and peace among the trees and the whispers of the wind. Known for her reserved but kind constitution, her gentle heart and vivid imagination, little did the villagers know about her extraordinary secret.
One bright and sunny morning, as Little Spirit wandered through the woods, she stumbled upon an ancient oak tree, its majestic branches reaching towards the heavens. Mesmerised by its presence, she approached it, her fingertips lightly grazing the rough bark. To her astonishment, a soft voice echoed in her mind, “Hello, young one, what brings you here?”
Startled yet intrigued, Little Spirit whispered back, “Is that you, dear tree? Can you truly speak?”
The oak tree chuckled, its voice gently sonorous yet filled with depth and understanding. “Indeed, my child. For centuries I have stood rooted in this spot, witnessing the wonders of the world. I have heard every secret whispered in the forest’s embrace.”
From that moment on, Little Spirit visited the tree daily, pouring her heart out to her woody confidant. The tree became her mentor, guiding her through life’s challenges with ancient wisdom. Enveloped in the tree’s nurturing presence, Little Spirit felt a spark ignite within her, unlocking hidden powers she never knew she possessed.
One balmy evening, as the sun began to set and its golden rays danced through the leaves, Little Spirit spoke softly to the tree, “Oh wise friend, I wish to know what it feels like to be one with nature, to experience the world through the eyes of a tree.”
The ancient oak listened intently, its branches rustling in contemplation. With a knowing smile, it whispered, “My dear Little Spirit, your pure heart and boundless curiosity have earned this gift. Embrace me tightly, and together, we shall intertwine our souls.”
Without hesitation, Little Spirit embraced the tree, feeling a surge of energy coursing through her veins. She closed her eyes and felt her body merging with the ancient oak. Roots sprouted from her feet, grounding her to the earth, while leaves adorned her limbs, swaying gently in the breeze.
As Little Spirit opened her eyes, she perceived the world in a new light. She could feel the whispers of the wind and the hushed conversations between the forest creatures. She could hear toning of the second ‘A’ between the intermingling roots of the trees, their tone vibrating with her very core releasing clear images, akin to a waking dream, directing and informing her of the forest’s knowledge and experiences. The rhythm of life pulsed through her, connecting her to every living being around her.
With each passing day, Little Spirit ventured deeper into the heart of the forest, exploring its hidden wonders as a part of the tree itself. As spring arrived, she bore delicate blossoms on her fingertips, offering beauty and hope to those who stumbled upon her path.
And so, Little Spirit’s existence became an enchanting tale, a symbiosis of human and nature, reminding all who witnessed her grace that the boundaries between worlds, between all souls, are interpermeable for those who take the time to transmit and respond.
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Art by Godbye
Remnants of an ancient consciousness, locked away deep within each living being, or a pure flight of fantasy, conjured up to titillate young children’s imagination, the concept of shaping shifting is ubiquitous to all cultures and all peoples, even if it has been hijacked by Gothic writers who ask us to be careful when walking under a Full Moon, lest those who Howl devour us in a frenzied, wolf-like state.
The journey a child’s tale is to walk through a landscape filled with Presence, a world teeming with life and awareness, be it a helpful, yet unwillingly deceptive faun; a gnarled face in a tree; a rock that becomes a giant or ogre at night. To enter this landscape is to enter a field of subjectivity, in which everything is already alive, with a life of its own or charged with the psychic life of the world at large.
But the interiority, or subjectivity, of anyone or anything, is fluid, protean and ultimately mutable, permeable to the subjectivity of another. When this subjectivity, or fixed nature, is penetrated by the subjectivity of other, it is transformed, and this transformation will manifest outwardly in a change in the material aspect.
There was a time when humanity truly knew that every physical entity on the Earth was an expression of a unified field of consciousness. As such, knowledge, insight and understanding could be sought from a rock, a tree, a bird, the land itself, just as freely as conversing with another human. Consciousness was not seen as something uniquely human, as it is now. In this world, remembered now as a fairy story, wherein human subjectivity is permeated with the subjectivity of the forest, the tree, the lion, the wardrobe, shape-shifting is a figurative representation of the regime of subjectival transmission.
Virgo
In astrology, the term used to account of the somatic interpermeation between two physical entities, or people, is Virgo. It is one of the twelve pathways that exists within you and it is a reminder that you fundamentally change another’s world by your intimate experience of their physical presence, and vice versa.
Why physical?
Because the sign of Virgo is an Earth sign, and the element of Earth, one of the four fundamental building blocks of consciousness, accounts for our physical and somatic experience of Nature.
This differs to the other elements that view the world through Light (Fire), Sound (Air) or Heart (Water). The concept of mutability, which is one of the three ways in which consciousness is directed through this plane of existence, describes the process of interpermeable exchange between Self and Other.
Virgo, which is forged by combining the notion of Mutability and that of Earth, is a reminder that your very being is susceptible to receiving experiential and embodied knowledge of another by being in their physical presence, and by being open to sharing your interiority, or subjectivity, with another.
As humanity has increasingly retracted into the element of Air, or the mind, Nature no longer holds that same allure. As we have forgotten to receive from Her, she in turn is no longer receiving from us. But there is one overt way in which the interpermeable exchange between two humans continues to remain alive – love!
Falling in Love
What happens when you ‘fall in’ love? You become permeable to another’s subjectivity. Your own inner world is cracked open by contact with another, or even by the prospect of another. Even if the connection lacks ‘romance’, as you encounter another, you become susceptible to transformation by the worldview of another, a composite of their personal life experiences, memories and inner private reflections. The world becomes effervescent, sung alive by the magical enthrallment of discovery, enticed by the hunger of exchange and wilded by the irrationality of connection.
The experience of love is one wherein you are inducted into the essence of full life and is one wherein you become consciously aware that all of life is teeming with meaning, insight and has come alive.
Love is not exclusively a Virgoan concept, as love is an omnipresence state of grace. But in a world that is removed from the holism of consciousness, deeming that life is merely an epiphenomenon of the brain, a bland creation of neurochemical reactions within your biology, the experience of love is a more immediate reminder of this animistic consciousness that exists within you.
But love is a shape shifting experience for those who truly give of themselves to the experience of lOve. As you encounter another, and by encounter I mean allowing the full implications of another to permeate your being, you transmute. Consider Little Spirit’s encounter with the Tree. It is a story of lOve. Not what you would expect, as you have been trained to consider love to revolve around sexual intimacy, and you would be forgiven if you assume that the notion of falling in love also involves a physical love.
But love is love. When your world is beloved, when you are consumed with a state of being-in-lOve, lOve is enduring, as opposed to ‘falling in love’ which sadly is a transitory state, a fleeting moment of metaphysical illumination. Our fairy stories are a reminder of this beloved state of consciousness, and whilst each story is seemingly about a quest for ‘love’, the love that is told is that a deeper lOve. It is a love that is permeable, transmutable and alive to the call of life. It is a lOve that is exchanged between Nature and Self. It is a somatic transmission of energy between two open and receptive beings. It is a reminder of the Virgoan state of being that exists within you, a state that is being replenished and renewed during the sacred union of the Lights of our consciousness, the Sun and the Moon, on the 15th of September at 2:40 am BST.
Consideration
The next time you pick up a rock, why not listen to the images that spontaneously arise upon touch? When you prepare a meal, why not give thanks to the food that is yielding its energy to sustain you and experience the difference in the quality of its taste and energy exchange with you? The next time you are in a forest, why not ask the tree how it is, as opposed to pouring out your hearts pain? The next time you place a crystal on your third eye, why not ‘feel’ into the mutual energy exchange that is taking place and become consciously aware of what you are transmitting to ‘it’ as much as what eidetic imagery you are responding to? If you have the occasion of touch with another, go beyond the sensation of your skin and truly open yourself to the encounter, trusting the experiences that are transmitted between you as a mutual exchange, as opposed to merely just an interpretation of your subjectivity.
Virgo is an alive state of somatic and experiential exchange. And it is this state that is being opened up in you during this New Moon. My wish for you during this forthcoming New Moon is that you become consciously aware of the impact that another’s subjectivity has on your own, regardless of whether that ‘other’ is a person or something else; and how alive Nature is within you and how you are alive within Nature.
Written and completed on the 2nd of September 2023 at 06:44 am CEDT
