FULL MOON IN LIBRA
Ruled astrologically by the Moon, as some other bitter plants, it is time to tincture Myrrh. Today’s full moon in Libra, is closest to the spring equinox and appropriately, represents equilibrium and balance. The symbol for Libra are the scales. Its keyword is Balance. Balance between male and female energies. Winter and Summer. inner and outer, self and other. As the sun and the seasons progress with Aries passion towards another Solstice, new beginnings, renewed direction, goals and ambitions are in the air, with a timely reminder to temper our actions and reactions, with balance. Sometimes easy to forget when swept up in Spring projects and passions.
Anatomical Man in the Duke Berry’s Très Riches Heures (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I love the way the full moons are always poised against, and illuminated by their opposite Sun sign. A perfect balance of friction and attraction. A choreographed dance of opposites made in heaven. Aries Sun and its opposite, Libra Moon. The Moon’s feminine and watery reflective ebb and flow, contrasting the direct intensity of the Sun, especially when in fiery Aries, makes them a dynamic match of opposites.
.”The spark is Netzach, the friction of life. In a motor, this generates the engine. Netzach is Nature, the Tree of Life’s power base. The friction of lightning and rain in Earth’s aeons, generated life. The friction of male and female re-kindles the soul, a lamp in the womb for the soul.” http://janeaquariel.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/solomon/
Now is the time. It has built up for weeks. Thinking, pondering, planning, waiting, distilling water, preparing. Waiting… Writing ….. In the fridge it waited as per my earlier post of how to grind resins. It is appropriate that it come out of the cold of the fridge (Frig, Frigga) /winter to spin around, be ground to nondescript powder. Then, in the bright of the full Libra Moon and the waxing warm Sun, dissolves into the waters of life, (Aqua Vitae), like the salt of the sea, becoming one with the liquid, and turned into a tincture. Losing itself into the menstruum. Transformation. This is the time, for the Alchemical “Solve’ “, the first step in the process.
Beautifully formed Myrrh resin chunk
Myrrh,( Mor, Hebrew), Mar,(Hebrew, bitter), , Mar Yam, (Mariam, Miriam, Mary, Maria), Mar Yam-(,Hebrew Bitter of the sea), or froth of the sea, salt of the sea, perhaps also known as Ashtoreth, Astarte, Ostara. Shechinah. The Holy Consort and feminine counterpart to YHWH. Feminine principles of the Moon and element of water.
English: Astarte with horned (moon crescent) crown (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Seems today is my , Ostara ,Easter and Passover. At 05:27 AM this morning, I covered the finely ground, powdered brown bitterness of Myrrh with the menstruum. Pondering while nibbling on the Myrrh as I work, it is SO bitter! Grinding and thinking about the Passover Seder. It always felt like a bit of a sham with no one around that could give an answer that “rang” with Truth of deeper meanings for the traditional symbols. Mostly receiving information that no one has actually understood, or personally stood under in decades. The representative “bitter” element or “Maror”, on the Seder platter now days is Horseradish, and not bitter in any way. Pungent? Yes. Bitter? No. In fact the “Maror” (the “bitter herb), may well have been and more likely was,” Mar”(, Hebrew-Bitter), and “Mor” ,(Hebrew-Myrrh), so (MARMOR?), Maror? My feeling is that Myrrh is likely the original basis of the original Passover Maror.
I can think of nothing that represents palatable bitterness as perfectly as Myrrh, which was readily available for thousands of years in ancient Israel. Also Interesting is the inclusion in the Seder platter of salt water as “the tears we shed as slaves”, (The above mentioned froth of the sea/Moon reference). The lambs shank bone, a symbol of a tender young Aries Ram Sun? The “Karpas” or greens, a symbol of spring growth. The egg on the platter at the Seder, fertility and Spring, but also representative of the duality and union of Yin and Yang, Equinox/Balance, Yolk as Sun, White as moon, (“Ha Levanah”, or the “White one”, is the Hebrew word for “The Moon”). Moon Feminine and Yin embracing and receiving the Sun and Yang principal, the yolk.
Deutsch: Yin Yang (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It is a time for new beginnings, rebirth, regardless of one’s faith. A time when we might have more impetus to try, and succeed. To emancipate ourselves from forms of slavery we laboured under till now. Whether self-created and self-defeating patterns and habits, or unhealthy dynamics we have perpetuated with others. Patterns we have accepted and tolerated to our detriment for too long for all the wrong reasons. Libra seems to imply the dynamics between ourselves and others. Relationships. Our Easter, Ostara, Passover ,Equinox passage is an opportunity for both reflection and action. Self-examination, new choices, new beginnings. A time we might see our light reflected back to us, and a time for us, like the Sun, to wax bright. With any luck we can hope to ride this wave of seasonal growth, and work with the natural cycles around and within us to carry ourselves closer to our goals..
And all the while, try to remember, balance.
Moses, Exodus, Liberation of the bondservants, the Jews in Egypt go free, Holy Bible Etching, 1885 (Photo credit: Wonderlane)
The Myrrh Tincture: Created at 05:27 EST. During the Pisces Lunation cycle, Full Moon in Libra, Sun in Aries. Ascendant in Taurus? A solvent mix of 55% distilled water to 45% pure alcohol, (mirroring the assumed ratio of gum to oleo-resin in the Myrrh), was poured and covered the powdered Myrrh. It basked in the predawn moonlight symbolically, and was put away to gestate and circulate. Left in the care of natures rhythms till it is time for me to step in and give Nature a little help. Take the tincture to the next level. Likely on the path to becoming a Spagyric tincture.
Thank you Dan, for this wonderful and timely course-setting, full of profound resonances and reminders, like ship setting compass by the stars. Myrhh also – la mer, the sea: la mere, mother. I woke up and saw the full moon Libra moving along the window. Then I got up and found this. It is beautiful that the equinoxes this year mutually reflect. Beyond thought, beyond speech as the process is put away under the moon, to grow like the moon’s tides which wax and wane, breathe in and out. Alchemy.
Pesach, renewal and that very special bitter clean fresh flavour from the roots of history, as you say, self examining and greeting the new. Piscean lunation, the old, cradling the Yang-Yin Aries Libra, the new. I wish you a joyous Pesach!
Thank you Jane. And I hope you have a wonderful Easter! Thanks also for adding to the depth and breadth of Myrrh! How appropriate and perfectly dovetailed to its roots. Like a puzzle that has no edges, just keeps getting broader and deeper. Sorry i still have not sent you and Genie a tally for the package. It will come. How is that pesky tooth doing? The oil draw? Spring is just starting to manifest here, though still chilly and often overcast, there are signs of snowdrops and the first of the crocuses poking out. Finally!!
The pesky tooth is much better thanks. Oil draw with coconut for 20 mins swish before breakfast each day, followed by myrrh and salt to clean out. It worked. I shall carry on doing it. Today the sun poked out at last! The daffs are doing quite well.
Nice!!! Does the coconut oil taste like coconuts?
Yes it does. Delicious and pleasant, a dessertspoonful from the jar. You chew it up to melt it, then it turns watery, and swish around slowly for 20 mins, then spit out – any oil will have turned cloudy white by then, having leached out the toxins – and rinse out the residue with preferred mouthwash. The coconut was the most soothing for my toothache – everything else hurt. Recommended to do it on empty tum, 4 hours after last eating, or an hour after drink, coffee, etc. Seems to lift the spirits too.