{"id":60456,"date":"2012-08-16T04:10:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T08:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=60456"},"modified":"2012-08-16T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T15:22:11","slug":"leo-new-moon-opposite-nessus-individual-power-collective-sexual-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/leo-new-moon-opposite-nessus-individual-power-collective-sexual-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo New Moon opposite Nessus in Aquarius"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s Mars-Saturn conjunction in Libra, though just past its peak, is feeding directly into this week\u2019s next astrological highlight: Friday\u2019s Leo New Moon. Both events have a direct connection to the centaur planet Nessus, which is in Aquarius. <\/p>\n

\"\"
Simplified chart section showing the Sun-Moon conjunction in Leo (New Moon) opposite Nessus (aqua glyph) in Aquarius. Making a sextile to the New Moon and a trine to Nessus is the Mars-Saturn conjunction in Libra, just past its peak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a centaur planet, Nessus is focused on the theme of healing. Yet it has a special job: it carries the themes of working through and understanding potentially inappropriate sexual contact (whether current, or in the past) as well as karmic cycles coming to an endpoint or release. Nessus in Aquarius in aspect to both the Sun and Moon conjunct in Leo, plus Mars and Saturn in Libra, is rather loaded. We get the additional question of crossing relationship boundaries (in a non-consensual sense) versus stretching them.<\/p>\n

The New Moon in Leo is exact at 11:54 am EDT Friday. It can be thought of as our monthly \u2018reset button\u2019, a time when we can assimilate what we\u2019ve learned over the past four weeks and set our sights (and intentions) on applying the insights to our next endeavors. <\/p>\n

Given the presence of Nessus in the setup, the insights you come to in these days could tap into deep, old \u2018stuff\u2019 and\/or may come via difficult interactions that trigger emotional reactions. Mars-Saturn felt like building relationship pressure for some \u2013 though it has had positive expressions, too. Nessus upped the sexual baggage ante and continues to play that card in its conversation with the Sun: when it comes to our sexual expression in the world (the collective \u2018group\u2019 of society), all sex becomes potentially questionable. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For example, there are situations in which perfectly consensual sex leads to a guilt reaction in a person. There are also situations in which the perception<\/em> of inappropriateness dictates whether or not someone feels violated — rightly or wrongly. There are a great deal of unexpressed desires and partially-articulated boundaries that blur the fine line between \u2018okay\u2019 and \u2018not okay\u2019. Those blurred boundaries only serve to keep us from standing fully in our power as individuals, whether we\u2019re dealing with one person or a whole group.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re being called to continually check whether we\u2019re staying in our power as individuals, with a voice, in every interaction we have \u2013 especially any that are perceived to have sexual overtones. If you communicate when you feel that your power — your sense of safety or your sense of autonomy — is being threatened, you gain it back for yourself. You offer others clarity and awareness at the same time you claim it for yourself. <\/p>\n

Articulating allows you to maintain some control over framing your experience — rather than letting your unquestioned perceptions frame you in a way that leaves you feeling powerless. When you give up the power of speaking up for yourself, any intimate contact can seem like a sexual violation \u2013 rather than a miscommunication of desires or boundaries — and old inner scripts can control the meaning of the experience. (Note, I am not talking about clear violations such as rape or child abuse). <\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to share an example of the Leo Sun opposite Nessus in Aquarius in action. This weekend, I had an experience in a dance workshop at dance camp that made me very uncomfortable \u2013 a rare thing for me in a community where I generally feel quite comfortable and safe with a wide range of physically, emotionally and energetically intimate exchange. In this case, I was engaged in a workshop known for a lot of close, emotionally vulnerable paired exercises. <\/p>\n

One exercise was intimate in ways I did not think it should be, according to how it was demonstrated. I had paired up with a man I was familiar with, and was taken aback immediately by how physically confined I felt by how he was holding me. His movements and sounds also felt more sexual\/physical than energetic\/spiritual — my take was that we were aiming for the latter. I was not comfortable with any of it, but feeling physically restricted immediately prompted me to speak up during what was supposed to be a silent exercise. I said, \u201cI\u2019m feeling very restricted.\u201d He immediately thanked me for speaking up and released the bear hug \u2013 but the rest of his movements continued to make me very uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

I did not speak up again. Part of what bothered me was that he did not seem to be doing the exercise \u2018like we were supposed to\u2019. Immediately, an old inner script about not wanting to be overly critical or a control freak stepped in and shut me up. Once I had that story running, it totally overrode the relevance of my discomfort with what seemed like sexually charged contact. All I could do was wish for everything to end already — even opening my eyes and staring toward the instructor in hopes of being \u2018rescued\u2019.<\/p>\n

I spoke with a couple friends later that night; they suggested I address it with the guy — for closure, for a chance to regain my power, for a chance to let him know my experience in case he was acting unintentionally and doing the same to others. It made some sense, but I was reluctant. I just wanted to forget the sense of violation.<\/p>\n

I chose not to seek him out, but did agree with myself to initiate a conversation about my experience if I happened to see him before I left camp — which I did. As I began talking, I felt the well of emotion rise up. Not sure where it was coming from, and feeling embarrassed about it (another old, old reaction, I am figuring out), I stuffed it down and kept talking. <\/p>\n

He received my words gracefully and with genuine appreciation, letting me know he may have been over-eager with the intimacy due to having just taken three different versions of the same workshop and knowing how \u2018deep\u2019 things get. He had not thought he was being sexual and intended nothing of the sort, but honored my experience of it being so, and was incredibly supportive of my need to address it with him. I began to cry and he held me — appropriately. He understood my release as well as the greater vibrational importance to our wider dance camp community for us to engage in this expression and processing. <\/p>\n

I realized that my emotion had far less to do with the sense of inappropriate sexual energy and touching and more to do with my shame at not being able to continue speaking up — even though I knew that my saying, \u201cI\u2019m feeling restricted\u201d was still more than I would have said three or four years ago in the same situation. I felt shame about getting stuck in a head trip — and he reminded me that I could feel good about the way in which I had<\/em> spoken up, as well as taking initiative after the fact to speak further and allow some healing to take place.<\/p>\n

Do I still think he was way off base in how he interpreted the demonstration of that exercise? Yes. But I also have some very visceral reminders (and support from my camp community) that expressing my discomfort is not the same as being hypercritical. <\/p>\n

Eric made the point in his podcast this week that individuals often hand over their power to groups, and groups can become collective bullies. In my case, I handed over my power (in part) to the idea that the group exercise was more important than my individual experience. Luckily, that idea was not enforced by my community.<\/p>\n

As we move through the rest of this week, in the background is an aspect offering an extra hand with any healing that may be necessary with the assimilation and reset process: Venus in Cancer trine Chiron in Pisces, which is exact as of this writing. Our emotional bodies, hosting the goddess of love, are open to receiving the deep, creative influence of a master healer. The key is allowing the flow; that means receiving the gifts being offered, even when the lessons giving them are prickly — or come disguised as a momentary loss of power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s Mars-Saturn conjunction in Libra, though just past its peak, is feeding directly into this week\u2019s next astrological highlight: Friday\u2019s Leo New Moon. Both events have a direct connection to the centaur planet Nessus, which is in Aquarius. As a centaur planet, Nessus is focused on the theme of healing. Yet it has a special … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}