Sausalito, CA, Sept. 20, 2000, LAST QUARTER MOON. Sun is at the end of Virgo, Moon at the end of Gemini, both mutable, changeable signs, both ruled by breezy Mercury.

Here on the northern California coast we felt Mercury rush in on a huge blast of refreshing cold fog. In the morning we were still perspiring in the grip of a several-day heat wave; by evening we were wearing coats and fighting to keep our balance in the strong wind from the sea. Now it is the morning after, and I awakened to the soft drip of unseasonable rain. Talk about changeable!

Now, at Virgo’s last swan song, many things came up for me to fix. The night before, paper jammed in my printer. In the morning I heard a family member, Virgo Sun, spewing verbal toxins—and pulled out the rescue remedy. At noon a fresh chicken which I had in the refrigerator for a couple of hours turned out to be rotting, and even though it was in plastic, left an odor in my frig which had to be cleaned out. My toilet overflowed, and the floors and rugs had to be cleaned. At the exact moment of the Quarter Moon, my Gemini landlord was here fixing the plumbing.

We also found the answer to the mystery of the bathtub left in our side yard. And now, next day, I finally mopped my floors and washed my windows! All in all, strong connections with water. This Quarter Moon follows on the energy of the watery Pisces Full Moon.

Pluto also shows here—abuse, toxins, catharsis, cleaning out the dirt, and investigating. Pluto was a major influence at the Virgo New Moon cycle which we are now finishing.

Fourth Quarter is a time to sum up what we have learned or developed, and choose what we want to carry through with us into future cycles. My intentions of self-improvement at Virgo New Moon were to walk more and to write more. On the first count there is little progress, but on the second I’m very pleased.

I’ve learned that to write much I have to rise early. The hard part about that is getting to bed very early—I need a lot of sleep. I have made good progress here, and this I intend to retain into the future. A wonderful dividend is enjoying the starry morning sky. It is spectacular this time of year, with the great constellations of Taurus, Orion, The Twins, and the Charioteer riding high. Now, shining brightly in the midst of Taurus, near Aldebaran, the red eye of the bull, and the Pleiades, are sparkling Jupiter and bright Saturn.

I also got deeply into learning to work with essences, using them to enhance, heal and balance various conditions. I will carry this work into the future.

Emerging with my beautiful website feels like a center of my future. Already it is inspiring me to be more creative, and I feel vast vistas of creativity opening ahead of me. I feel filled with both deep satisfaction and excitement to know that this will endure.

This Virgo New Moon, remember, featured Pluto, the Regenerator.

Geopolitical regeneration is also occurring.

In Washington DC, Neptune was high overhead at Quarter Moon, beaming down on the city. Neptune promotes unification, and Congress passed the historic China trade bill. On Sept. 21, 1949, Mao Tse-tung announced the establishment of the Peoples’ Republic of China. The Sun then was exactly where it was today. Mercury, associated with Virgo, was also exactly where it is now, at 20 Libra. This means that a major new cycle begins now for China.

China entered its first Chiron return at the Seattle WTO meeting. Now Chiron has just turned direct and is picking up steam. The Chiron return, at 50-51, lifts one to a new vibrational level, a new dimensional space. Chiron acts in concert with Jupiter, and right now the Moon’s South Node in the sky exactly conjoins China’s Jupiter. Security-minded Vesta, in the business sign of Capricorn, will be at that point in a few days.

All of these degrees hang out together around the degrees of last July’s total Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn, and next Jan. 9’s total Solar Eclipse in Capricorn. You can see here a common phenomenon—the major manifestation of an eclipse cycle occurring midway between eclipses, which occur about every six months.

For all of us, any planetary or sensitive points in our charts between 18-25 degrees Cancer or Capricorn are now becoming windows for new growth and major change in our lives.

The Chinese chart set for Sept. 21, 1949 has a balsamic, or old, moon. Currently we are moving into the balsamic moon phase. This is the most visionary phase of the moon, and indicates China’s stance of releasing the past and moving into the future—first for itself, and now for the world.

It is time for us all to gather our visions as we move into a new season of both balance and transition.

Sausalito, California. Sept. 14, FULL MOON IN PISCES. Would or wouldn’t it rain? For three days the sky here was filled with unseasonable warm clouds, and sometimes sprinkles. Very Piscean. Susan wanted to celebrate her birthday with a night picnic amongst the redwoods with the Full Moon shining through the trees. Optimistically we went ahead with plans, and strong visions of that bright Full Moon. Pisces, after all, supports dreams and visions.

As dusk gathered under the redwoods, and Clarke made a heart-warming fire, the sky began to clear. We made our guesses about where the Moon would appear, and soon it rose brightly, surprising us all. The night was balmy, very rare here, and we spent several magical hours eating and talking amongst the tall, mysterious redwood guardians, overlit by a bright moon.

"Who’s going to vote for Nader?" was the question of the hour. (Ralph Nader is a Pisces.) With that we were off and running talking about the state of the earth and sharing our concerns about the consequences of our way of life. Virgo was the chord of this moon, and Virgo is an earth sign, the great harvest goddess who separates the wheat from the chaff.

Pisces is universal, global. It puts Virgo’s carefully chosen bits together into a meaningful whole. We did that, pooling our readings, observations, knowledge, and common sense to make global pictures of current conditions.

We are all profoundly disturbed by genetic alteration. Scientists are using all of life as a vast laboratory for their experiments, and they lack the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to set into motion these permanent changes in the structures of life. The book Beyond Evolution by Michael W. Fox describes some of what is happening, and it is pure horror story. We compared these times to the myths of Atlantis which speak of its destruction for this very reason, scientists overcome with hubris overstepping their limits and doing genetic manipulation.

Clarke works for Whole Foods, and thus contributes to the single most important thing we can all do to slow this destructive engine: buy organic products. There is no more effective way we can benefit both our own bodies and the earth. (Clarke has six of his ten major planets split between Virgo and Pisces. He is tuned into the food chain and its larger implications—one of the main subjects of this Full Moon.)

And we have to do it now. Organic farmers are saying that as pollen spreads, soon there will be no organic food. As of now, in the United States, 80% of packaged food contains genetically altered products. Europeans, closer to the land than most of us, are rebelling against what they call "frankenfoods," both in Europe and in regard to importing U.S. food. The U.S. government, of course, is fighting these restrictions through the WTO.

Cycles work together and overlap. Do you remember that at last quarter of the Leo Moon the thing which remained for me from the Leo cycle was my enjoyment of being with my children and being in nature? Well, here we are at this next Full Moon, exactly there. And we are involved in this current Virgo-Pisces subject of improvement and purification of our lives.

A Penelope Breakthrough

Another major culmination of this full moon was in Virgo’s healing realm. My daughter Penelope has been psychically possessed for four years. It’s a nightmarish situation for her, made even more difficult by the fact that this paradigm is ignored and devalued in western culture. Her voice is thus stilled, her support is limited, and her isolation is crushing. However, she has bravely and determinedly persisted on a path of strong spiritual discipline and continuing to try to communicate what it’s like for her.

She has been with me this week, and over the Full Moon she made big breakthroughs in finding her voice, in speaking up for herself. She left for home with new and effective moment-by-moment tools which are speeding her healing process, and she feels very heartened. In Virgo we can develop our tools and skills.

And the Essences

At Virgo New Moon I talked about new starts in health, and then went on to visit Machaelle Wright at her magical garden, Perelandra. As the Full Moon approached, I really got into working with Machaelle’s essences, which are for the purpose of healing through energy balancing. I also continued with Connie Grauds’ inspiration from Susan’s and my plant shaman work, and made my first plant essence by myself—glorious Morning Glory.

A glorious new morning is exactly how this plant work feels—like I am opening up to the glories of the nature spirits ever surrounding us in a new, expansive and very wonderful way.

The essence of earthy Virgo and spiritual Pisces are beautifully fused in the plant essences. I tested Penelope for the local plant essences which we have made in class, and sent her home with a few, plants she grew up with in the California hills—thistle, coyote bush, pennyroyal.

As regular readers know, Pluto and Chiron are strutting their stuff now. Pluto is a regenerating energy, and Chiron is healing. It heals by putting us into new spaces where we call on new parts of ourselves. These influences have stood out for our family during this Virgo-Pisces Full Moon week.

Virgo’s energy field, which dominates this month, is about healing, and I have been surrounded by and participating in healing bigtime, culminating with this Pisces Full Moon. Great Goddess, I thank you.

Peru

Peru has dominated the news this month—through the fallout from Pres. Fujimori’s protested election, Pres. Clinton’s visit to Latin America, and American activist Lori Berenson’s new trial in Lima with a civilian tribunal.

Peru’s chart has a Pisces North Node and a Virgo South Node, which was conjoined by our Virgo New Moon. South Node is about old stuff, and letting the past go.

Now, at this Pisces Full Moon, Pres. Fujimori is surprising the world by resigning and calling for new elections for which he will not run. He has also fired his second-in-command, Vladimir Montecinos, who has been responsible for innumerable gross human rights violations, and he has disbanded his intelligence service.

All month a corruption scandal has been unraveling which involves arms smuggling by the Peruvian military and selling those arms to the rebel movement, FARC, in exchange for drugs.

Now, at the illumination by the Full Moon, Pres. Fujimori is being exposed. Indeed, the Pisces-Virgo axis deals with healing and purification. Peruvians are talking excitedly about a new opportunity to rebuild democracy in their nation.

The United States has aggressively supported both Fujimori and Montecinos. This public revelation must be a shock. Indeed, shocking Uranus ran right through Lima at the Virgo New Moon. Saturn was close, and Saturn is about government, heads of state, and structure. Saturn ran exactly through Washington DC.

Uranus, now in Aquarius, is truly a promise of democracy for Peruvians.

SEPTEMBER 6 FIRST QUARTER MOON in SAGITTARIUS indicates expansive action in enhancing the quality of our lives. The great gathering of world leaders now gathered at the United Nations for the purpose of talking about improving the lives of people all over the globe is a marvelous example. The underlying influence is the strong Aquarius vibration of these transition years, now released by the grand air sign triangle in the sky to do its positive work.

Jupiter and Saturn, concerned with work, government, and all of our social frameworks, have just moved into Gemini, sign of communication. Messenger Mercury is in Libra, sign of peace and justice, and she is supported there by a strong goddess contingent—Venus—love, Pallas Athena—strategy, and Ceres, the great mother. Now in air signs, all of these celestial players support the idealism of Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius, aiming for a better society.

Juno, goddess of married women, is also in Aquarius, where she wants partnerships to be fair and equal, where everyone’s voice is heard.

Thus six of the ten major planets and three of the four big asteroids are all working creatively together in the service of higher idealism (air).

They are under the direction of powerhouse Pluto in Sagittarius, sign of fraternal groups where people join for a common purpose, as in the UN. Pluto’s sidekick right now is Chiron, the maverick healer. Together they indicate deep regeneration, which is ultimately healing.

All of these forces are dancing together at this Quarter Moon, and Moon is right there to pick up the music and bring it into our personal lives.

It DID bring new and wonderful music into my life.

Two momentous events occurred, both of which open new doors for me. Virgo is in my second house of resources, and they are both tremendous new resources which expand (Jupiter) and transform (Pluto) my world.

On Sept. 1 this, my new web site, which you are now reading, debuted, and I feel like I have a new baby. I had no idea how proud and happy I would feel. My daughter, Susan Pomeroy, has put it together, and she has done a splendid job.

Fresh from the joy of rebirth, I flew to Baltimore and met my friend Linda Parker—an Iceland companion—who drove us to the wonderland of Perelandra—where we met Ann. The Iceland connection—where nature spirits (the "little people") are part of the culture—is fitting for our experience there. Perelandra is a research garden and center where all activity is in accordance with nature intelligences.

Machaelle Small Wright, the Sagittarian mother of Perelandra, calls her research a study of reality and how it works. She calls herself a co-creative scientist, and she links with nature intelligences to work in partnership with nature. They work to balance, to harmonize life, and she uses kinesiology to test events as they proceed together.

Nature wants to balance, and wants to work with us. It says, "Tell us what you want and we will tell you what to do to achieve your balance."

We just need to listen and to follow instructions. Nature is always giving a balance reading. What does not work is when we try to force nature into a submissive role.

Machaelle applies these principles to all of her life, not only her garden. She shares her findings and experiences through books, seminars, and three open houses each year. Her aim is self-help so that each of us can find solutions for problems and have a better quality of life—so Virgo!

I had heard of Perelandra through its fine rose essences, sold in metaphysical stores, and used for healing. Machaelle now has an extensive line of essences, and they are major tools for working with balancing.

She also publishes workbooks that tell the student how to work with nature, and that includes the soil-less garden, i.e., any part of your life that you want to work with.

In addition she has developed MAP, a comprehensive medical program for humans which addresses all health problems. Again, she tells the student how to work with nature—and literally develop his/her own team of helpers.

Microbial balancing is her most recent program. This program provides tools to balance the microbes within our bodies.

Machaelle talked and answered questions for several hours. She stood before the small audience (attendance is limited) gathered under the tent roof in the woods, tall and sturdy in her red dress, like a courageous beacon. She is delightful, yes—down to earth, focused, and with a great sense of humor. Her husband, Clarence, handled the sound and video.l

Reading Machaelle’s book, Dancing in the Shadows of the Moon (see review, this issue), visiting her garden, and becoming acquainted with her and her programs has expanded my consciousness enormously.