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Previous Power Portals, 2007:

Winter Solstice

Autumn Equinox

Summer Solstice

Spring Equinox

New Year 2007

by Crystal Pomeroy

Since ancient times, the Sun’s passage into Aries has celebrated the victory of the perennial life force. The chart for the Winter Solstice helps us structure the 12 months ahead, while the influences reigning at the entrance to Spring show how we can breathe new life into that promise. This year’s Equinox chart includes themes that are reiterated and enriched by the influences according to pagan Mexican astrology, especially relating to the power of the word. Our ceremony now is designed to tap that potential as we consciously synchronize with the power of Spring.

The potency of Easter archetypes in the collective unconscious is demonstrated in the modern coordination of this date with the first Full Moon after the Equinox, which falls on Holy Thursday this year. Among multiple, millenary antecedents, one of the most intriguing is the festival of Attis, the Phrygian god of vegetation, described by specialist Peter Ochiogrosso. Attis' effigy was:

...impaled on a pine tree, his death was mourned and his body removed from the tree and laid in a tomb. At dawn on the fourth day the tomb was opened and found empty, eliciting great shouts of joy from the worshippers at the god’s resurrection from the grave into eternal life, symbolic of the return of vegetation in Spring.

View the Aztec Mexica New Year's Chart

According to the pagan tradition in Mexico City where I live, the New Year begins now (on March 11, to be precise). It is Xipetotec (Shee-pay-toe-take), Our Lord of Renovation, who rises to fertilize Mother Earth, Xochiquetzalli (Sow-chee-ket-saw-li), who in turn produces new material and spiritual nourishment with love. To this day, their encounter is symbolically reenacted in traditional ceremony. The sweet sense of anticipation that surrounds Easter subtly invites us to connect with the archetypal power of celebrations such as these.

Both Native Mexican and Occidental astrology for this portal elucidate certain avenues of expression for the new life of spring. Elements of each happen to converge. For the Mexica (Me-shee-ca), the number and name for this New Year is Nine Stone Knife. Those who have seen the Aztec calendar may recall the rather imposing triangular tongue sticking down from the mouth in its center. This is the knife in question, symbolizing the power of the word—informed by intuition and mental agility—to overcome the lower ego, as it does so bringing forth blessings such as justice, affection and supply.

The Aztec Calendar Stone

The Mexica New Year’s ruler is Tlazolteotl, the sacred, “Treasured” energy from which all blessings emerge. The first day ushers in a “tlalpilli”, or “energy wave of days”, whose ruler is the jaguar, representing energetic, focused work and demanding prudence to avoid battle.

What tendencies in the modern Western chart overlap with these symbols? A wide stellium in Pisces joins Mercury, the Divine Messenger, Venus, Goddess of Love, and Uranus, the Great Awakener. Vesta, mistress of devotion and focus, ties these planets together, denoting an ability to consolidate brilliant ideas into striking verbal expression.

The Equinox chart for Washington, D.C. further underscores this emphasis, placing the aforementioned stellium in the third house of communications, opposing Moon in the ninth house of publicity and media. Luna trines chart ruler Jupiter, giving added weight to the ninth house. Furthermore, Mars trines the Pisces stellium, facilitating active expression of skilled communication. The God of War simultaneously sextiles Saturn in Virgo, good for grounding these efforts with daily work. These flowing aspects can help redirect the belligerent tendencies of the Mars’ opposing Pluto, assisting Jaguar in his efforts at prudence to avoid direct battle. Our struggles can be more aptly directed with our relationship to information: the words we assimilate as well as those we express.

In her Daily Success Guide for the Equinox, Nina Bouska elaborates from a Western viewpoint:

“It’s important for each of us to recognize now that we, as individuals, can contribute to a better world by refusing to accept or reject on face value anything that we hear or see….”

Not only the words we take in, but those we use now can also leave a mark in our personal, professional or political arenas. Mexica wisdom puts our words in a more transcendent perspective: not only do they convey information, but they also move energy. This is why the indigenous illustrators of ancient codexes would draw a curly volute coming from the head to show someone that someone was speaking. In Nahuatl, the word for ruler is “Tlatoani”, “S/he who has the word”. Good, true words not only describe existing conditions, they also set subatomic forces in place, capable of producing whatever we persistently describe, including peace, justice and love.

Prayer suggestions for the Spring Equinox portal, 2008

The following options will synchronize your altar or sacred corner with this portal:

• Copal or jasmine or rose incense
• Rose quartz or moss agate
• Wild flowers
• One or more sea-shells, alone or filled with a bit of earth
• An Easter basket or baskets with flower or eggs

A Truth-Out Candle to Select and Direct the Power of Our Words

Pre-Prayer the Truth-Out Candle

This is a very powerful instrument for personal and planetary freedom.

1) First, get your candle or candles, as well as two black felt-tip pens, one for writing on non-paper surfaces and the other normal. The one indispensable candle for this invocation should be a wide or thick white one. If you can, also obtain a pale blue candle for physical protection, and a silver one for psychic protection. Also obtain a picture of the planet to keep near the candles where you light them.

2) On your candle, write in black:

a) The sentence, "My True Words".

b) A reference to any matter you want to know the truth about, physical, personal and/or political. Leave enough space to tape or paste on a small piece of paper on which you have written the following words:

The light of the Higher Power is now bringing out the truth behind the official versions and behind any other information I need to see. I am willing to look at those secrets within me or within my world that are now being brought to light. The true power of my own words is also revealed, and I am the strength to apply that information in daily life. No circumstances or influence can keep the Divine Mind from understanding and expressing itself through me with lucidity, confidence and power.

3) I know that obtaining the materials and preparing this candle goes directly against the inertia of our daily rush, as well as the passivity brain-washing we are receiving, but it is truly powerful magic, especially during or around this Equinox portal. If you absolutely can’t get it together to prepare your candle, try writing the aforementioned phrases on paper, and putting this sheet around a table lamp.

4) Light your candle and/or turn on your lamp as you repeat something like:

I call on the Angel of True Words, Divine Will and any other beings of the High White Light alone to bless and strengthen my prayers.

5) Repeat the prayers on your candles softly, but with strength and concentration, for at least fifteen minutes.

Follow-up.

For the following seven to 28 days, light your lamp or candle/s and repeat the above affirmation several times, followed by three repetitions of the following adaptation for the planet:

The light of the Higher Power is now bringing out the truth behind the official versions and behind any other information the American people need to see. Spirit in us is willing to look at those secrets within us or within our world that are now being brought to light. The true power of our own words is also revealed and we are the strength to apply that information in daily life. No circumstances or influence can keep the Divine Mind from understanding and expressing itself through us with skill, confidence and power.

The fruits will be even more profound if you do this just before sleeping. Our contact with the intuitive realms and powers is intensified while sleeping. To program them in accordance with this new cycle, light your lamp or candle/s and repeat the affirmations as suggested, just before sleeping. Keep a notebook by your bed, and be sure and write down your dreams, deciphering and applying any messages about projects or issues of communication.

The entire Universe responds to the seed of our creative intent. Those who seek a conscious synchronization with this portal, can combine ancient and modern wisdom to begin an era of empowered communication. Resources will magically appear, in the form of books, teachers or other external opportunities, as well as inspiration from the brilliance of the deep mind. Each day that we take the time to reinforce our intent and follow the paths that open before us, we open yet another window through which grace can flow to transmute our words and bless the world.

Happy Springtime of Your Existence.

Resources

Bouska, Nina, Daily Success Guide, www.daykeeperjournal.com

George, Demetra, and Douglas Bloch, Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-Emerging Feminine (ACS Publications, San Diego, 1986)

Morrison, Dorothy, The Craft, A Witch’s Book of Shadows (Llewellyn, St. Paul, 2004).

Occhiogrosso, Peter, The Joy of Sects: A Spirited Guide to the World's Religious Traditions (NY, Bantam, 1996)

Special thanks to Xolotl for his counsel on the Mexica oral tradition.