Wisdom from Seanmháthair Gealach (Grandmother Moon)
Third Quarter Moon in Aries arrives on Day 22 at:
16-July @ 12:25 PM Pacific Time / 16-July @ 20:25 UTC
Moon Rise 12:33 AM PT
Full Moon Set 1:37 PM PT
Moon Mansion 2 Al-Butain until 4:01 PM PT (Essence: Effort, courage, will and energy. Conflict.)
Theme for this Lunar Journey: Authentic Self (Re)Born

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Sunday, July 16th finds us three-quarters of our way through this month’s lunar journey… a journey of rebirth and reconnection to our Authentic Self.

At the Third Quarter, we connect most strongly to The Matriarch within… confident… secure… balanced between light and dark like LaLuna. Having started this journey with the rising Yang energy we now can see the result — the shifts and the outcomes — of the rising upward and outward Waxing energy. And now we are once again embracing the increasing Yin energy of the lunar darkness as the moon’s illuminations wane and decrease, as the Yin pulls us deeply inward.

This is the time to shed, to release, and to integrate and deepen our understanding… to ponder on our learning and wisdom from the journey.

SOUL WORK FOR THE THIRD QUARTER: Working with the Darkness
So let’s speak a moment of the darkness of this Waning Moon, as we approach the deep, deep darkness of the Dark Moon / New Moon on July 22nd.

When we talk of darkness, we often are speaking of the Shadow side of our work and our Self… of the “stuff” we have buried deep within, of the “stuff” we hide. But perhaps it’s more…

Jung reminds us that each archetype has a shadow side and a light side. Like a magnet, each has a positive and a negative pole. Not good nor bad… more like opposing qualities which ultimately work together for balance and strength. This is also true of the Mother and the Matriarch — the Dark Mother — as the lunar darkness increases.

The Dark Mothers are the Goddesses of our transitions… the liminal moments between life and death, between the conscious and unconscious, between the shadows and reality. They are creation and destruction. Kali. Hecate. Cerridwen. Arianrhod. The Morrigan. These are the Dark Mothers.

And they are your allies in the Waning and Dark Moon, these Matriarchs and Mothers of the Dark, because their darkness is not just shadow… but power and knowledge.

Their Yin intuitive energy is the deep moist womb where the seeds of promise and growth are planted… the Dark Matter of our internal cosmos, birthing the Goddess within each of us. (Judith Laura’s book Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century explores this idea in depth.)

This is where we transform.

SOUL QUESTIONS FOR THE WANING MOON

In our New Moon Medicine Wheel layout, the Third Quarter moon represents the West… Water… emotion… intuition… the Autumn. We ask the question, What is Transforming? Such a profound question for our theme of Authentic Self (Re)Born!

As you meditate on this question and this journey, as the dark intuitive Yin energy of the Moon pulls you deeply within your Self, ask additional questions (and pull additional tarot or oracle cards) that will integrate the wisdom and prepare you for any releases required.

Create your own questions or consider using these:

• How do you feel as you step into the darker intuitive Yin energy?
• What is revealed as you step away from the light of the Full Moon and embrace the deep wisdom of the Dark?
• What part of you is being (re)born in the Dark Matter of your Inner Self?
• From the reborn Goddess you now are, what can now be released? (a belief, an emotion, a behaviour, a relationship, etc.)

Time to release!

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In PART TWO of the Third-Quarter Moon Wisdom, the Soul Work continues with A Sweet Release Ritual for the Third Quarter Moon.

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