By Len Wallick
The Moon entered Aries early this morning. It exacted a square to the Cancer Sun less than 4 hours later, at about 7:49 am EDT. That means Luna has entered the last quarter of a cycle that began on the first day of June. In the course of a day it will symbolically pull the events of over three years, past and future, into the present. In the course of a week it will bring this month, year and decade to a crossroads. If you have ever wondered what it is like to peck your way out of an egg, or emerge from a chrysalis, the opportunity may be at hand. First, let us pause to catch up on the month so far.
On June 1 we had a New Moon. That means the Moon and the Sun had come together from our perspective. That is called a conjunction. The place where they conjoined is one of two points where their respective paths cross in the sky. Those are the lunar nodes. When the luminaries are in conjunction where their paths cross, a straight line can be drawn through both of them that connects with our planet. Where that connection touched us was a shadow. That was a solar eclipse.
Two weeks later the luminaries were on opposite sides of our planet. That is an called an opposition, or in this case, a Full Moon. Each one of them were very near the two nodes, which are always opposed. Again, there was a straight line through all three. Where that line connected with the Moon was another shadow. That was a lunar eclipse. Two down, one to go.
In between a conjunction (New Moon) and opposition (Full Moon) the luminaries are at right angles to each other from our point of view. That is a square. That was the first quarter. If you saw Luna looking like a bright silver coin sliced in two, that was it. Now Luna looks that way again, except shiny on the other side. That is where we are today and how we got here, the last quarter, the last week of a lunar cycle punctuated at every opportunity by three eclipses.