March 2019 Spring Equinox Super Worm Moon in Libra, Aries Solar Festival Cosmic Weather Forecast
Welcome to the March 2019 Spring Equinox Super Worm Moon in Libra, Aries Solar Festival Cosmic Weather Forecast. Warm greetings from South Florida from your editors, Jane Sherry and Curtis Lang.
This has been an extraordinary news week. We saw massive global climate strikes by young people around the world demanding immediate transformation of our global hydrocarbon fueled civilization to preserve a livable ecosystem, escalation of the ongoing face-off between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, a white terrorist massacre in New Zealand, the meltdown of Britain's political system over Brexit, and so much more. We'll be sending out a separate State of the World Update newsletter with an abundance of global news in a week or so.
For now, we focus on the Cosmic Weather patterns swirling overhead, on the spiritual significance of this week's Spring Equinox Full Moon and on one of the most important and news worthy Boca Raton Garden Reports we've ever published!
Jane's Boca Raton Garden Report
Here in Jane's Uber-suburban South Florida micro-garden, tropical flora, kitchen herbs, exotic spices and stout green veggies continue to flourish in a turn to spring characterized by above average daytime temperatures, balmy nights, and intermittent rains. Rainfall has been strong enough to end an incipient winter drought and trigger vast releases of water from Lake Okeechobee to prevent catastrophic hydro-systems failure during hurricane season, sparking renewed fears of toxic algae blooms along coastal waters.
Readers in California are no doubt delighted to know that for the first time in years the entire state is no longer in a drought! That's something to celebrate this Spring Equinox Full Moon week!
Photo of Dill Flowers and Caterpillar, Boca Raton, by Jane Sherry
Jane's dill weed is flowering wildly right next to the pool, nearly four feet high, extruding globular clusters of spiny, yellow, edible flowers resembling Queen Anne's Lace that scatter loads of pollen and provide welcoming habitat for a couple of gigantic yellow and black striped caterpillars that are on track to transform into Monarch butterflies.
We have discovered the dill flowers and immature seeds provide startling flavor bursts when added to soups, salads and smoked salmon sandwiches. The flowers and seeds are fine eating, but you need to know that the flowers have a concentrated dill flavor that may not be universally accessible.
Last Thursday, March 14, was National Pi Day and to celebrate Jane made a delicious home grown kale, turnip green, dandelion and three cheese pie that calls out for dill flowers. It's our new favorite treat from Jane's kitchen garden.
Photo of Dill Flowers, Rose Geranium and Three Greens Cheese Pie, Boca Raton, by Jane Sherry
We are extremely careful as we walk by the Monarchs in waiting on the dill flowers every day. We cherish our garden beneficials, butterflies, worms, ladybugs, wasps, and bees, and we don't want to disturb the minor garden miracle currently underway.
Like foodies, gardeners and farmers worldwide, Jane and I have been extremely upset about the ongoing collapse of bee colonies. Honeybees are the most prolific pollinators on Earth.
Along with other pollinators such as bats, birds, butterflies, and bumblebees, honeybees are responsible in one way or another for the pollination of approximately 100 major crops feeding 90% of the world, according to Dr. Reese Halter, Ph.D., author of The Incomparable Honeybee and distinguished conservation biologist. More than $15 billion worth of crops are pollinated by bees each year just in the United States alone, according to the National Resources Defense Council.
Apples, almonds, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, pears, plums, avocados, cucumbers, cranberries, peaches, onions, grapefruit, oranges, cantaloupe, watermelons, and pumpkins all rely upon honeybees to propagate.
And over the last decade, bee colonies worldwide have been collapsing. Since 2008, scientists have struggled to pinpoint the causation, but it is clear that an increase in bee pathogens and parasites, loss of habitat, pollution and the use of neonicotinoid pesticides are implicated in the global decline of Earth's signature pollinators. There have been no magic bullets forthcoming or even any substantive, innovative treatments designed to reverse this apocalyptic bee decline, until now.
Now, thanks to a Eureka moment experienced by mushroom farmer, author and bee keeper Paul Stamets, we may all be able to participate in a global effort to reverse bee collapse and restore this crucial species to good health.
Jane and I first encountered Stamets when Jane was studying biodynamic agriculture in the early 2000s, and prominent biodynamic farmers introduced Jane to his work.
Last October Nature: Scientific Reports published an article based on Stamets' work with honeybees showing dramatic reductions in bee viruses when bees are fed with a solution of water, honey and extracts of two types of mushrooms.
“Tennessee lost about 74 percent of its beehives from last winter to this spring. Imagine you are a cattle rancher and lost that percentage of your herd. Economically devastating,” Paul Stamets, lead author on the study and mycologist told Newsweek. “This is what is happening to bees and the bee industry. Some states report fewer losses, many are reporting more than 50 percent. The beekeepers are struggling to survive, too.”
Honeybees infected with Varroa mites, visible on their backs, which are responsible for the spread of Deformed Wing Virus worldwide.
Photo by Piscisgate [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
Stamets believes a major cause of bee colony collapse can be found in two viruses infecting the vast majority of bees worldwide: Lake Sinai virus and Deformed Wing Virus, which is spread by Varroa mites that attach themselves to the backs of honeybees and inject viruses into the stricken bees.
“There have been no treatments reducing viruses that are decimating wild and domesticated bees until now,” Stamets said. “And these mushroom extracts dramatically reduce viruses, in some cases thousands of times with one treatment.”
“The implications are that these extracts could help the immunity of not only bees, but people, swine and birds. This could be a paradigm-shifting breakthrough,” Stamets said. “We suspect the antiviral activity is due to an up-regulation of the immune system. Future studies will address this question. And we have many more species of mushrooms to test.”
Stamets came to his Eureka moment about treatment of bee viruses over a long span of years working with bees and mushrooms on his farm, and he outlines the long and winding road he traveled in an eye-opening video entitled Action on the Bee Crisis you can view on YouTube.
By USDA NRCS - 2431_NRCS_projects.jpg, Public Domain,
[https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65891341]
In the video, Stamets discusses how he and his team administered the mushroom mixture to a myriad of bees in the almond fields of California for the scientific study and also unveils the creation of a new bee feeder that is used to deliver the mushroom infused liquid to bees by anyone with a yard, a farm, a garden, or a balcony or porch in urban or rural settings.
Stamets has been granted patents in numerous countries worldwide for these bee feeders and says that Norway has placed an order for several hundred thousand already.
Stamets plans to release an inexpensive version of the bee feeder later this year worldwide. Jane and I are looking forward to installing one of these in our garden as soon as we can.
In Stamets' YouTube video we saw swarms of bees visiting one of these bee feeders and we feel certain the bee feeders will attract more of these beneficial pollinators to our garden.
Perennial Basil in Jane's Garden, photo by Jane Sherry
Since Hurricane Irma hit Boca Raton in 2017, we've noticed that our garden has far fewer bee visitors and far fewer butterflies and other beneficials than before, so we need to do all we can to help these insect allies recover from the environmental trauma.
We hope that you will also make a commitment to helping restore the world bee population to health this year by installing a Stamets bee feeder. We are in contact with the Stamets bee team and we will be sure to stay on top of this story and let you know as soon as they are available.
Full Super Worm Moon in Libra, Aries Solar Festival Cosmic Weather Forecast
The Full Super Worm Moon at 0 degrees 8 minutes of Libra occurs Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 9:43 PM EST. The Sun will oppose the Moon at 0 degrees 8 minutes of Aries. This Full Moon occurs mere hours after the Spring Equinox.
This is the first time in 19 years the Spring Equinox and the Full Moon have coincided in this way, and it will be 11 years from now before we see a similar configuration.
The coincidence of the Spring Equinox and the Full Moon strengthens stellar energies and influences and indicates that the coming season and the coming astrological year will be unusually intense. Think back to what you were doing and where you were in spring of the year 2000. Al Gore was gearing up to lose the election to George Bush, Jr.
I was working at Ameritrade in Rye, New York, as an Executive in charge of financial content on Ameritrade's OnMoney.com website, a financial portal. We were expecting to be spun off and to go public. That year we spent over $1 million on a single TV ad at the Superbowl. By year's end, George Bush, Jr. was President, the dot.com bubble was bursting, tech stocks were in a long-term rolling top formation, and the handwriting was on the wall. Bad things were about to happen. Very intense indeed. So buckle up, there could be some turbulence ahead.
This will be the third in a series of Super Moons this year, so you can expect more light in the night sky for several days surrounding this auspicious Lunar Festival.
This Full Moon is known as the Worm Moon in North America, because this is the time of the year in Northern climes when the ground has thawed sufficiently for worm castings to reappear, attracting birds who feed on spring's return. Roots begin to push their way up through the topsoil and a new cycle of growth begins at this moment when we celebrate the astrological New Year, and the beginning of a new yearly cycle life on Planet Earth.
For Esoteric astrologers, the Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival highlights relationships and the power of Love.
The Sun in Aries accentuates the drive to individuation, and at this time of year, the power of the individual will forces in humanity are vastly strengthened. Aries is a fire sign, the sign of the pioneer, the risk-taker, the way-shower, the ground-breaker, and sometimes of the me-first individualist.
The Aries Solar Festival coincides with the Full Moon in Libra, the sign of relationships, dynamic equilibrium, diplomacy and tact.
Libra is the polar opposite of Aries, and Libra energies are the perfect complement for Aries individualism and impetuosity. Libra energies are all about achievement of a dynamic balance between individuals, a hallmark of all loving relationships, depicted in the Tarot Trump VIII, called Balance or Adjustment.
This Libra Full Moon, Venus in Aquarius squares Mars in Taurus, a fast moving aspect that creates heightened sexual tension and a tendency to irritability that is increased by a longer duration quincunx between Uranus in Taurus and Moon in Libra.
With both Uranus and Mars in Taurus we could benefit from becoming aware of any relationship issues that are reaching flash points, and choose to apply the calm, objective gaze of the Inner Witness to the situation. Mercury in Gemini sextile Saturn in Capricorn can help provide us with the mental stability and fortitude to maintain our stance as the Inner Witness in a moment of potentially combustible emotions.
Venus in Aquarius sextile Jupiter in Sagittarius supports an expansive, universal kind of love, making this Full Moon Spring Equinox week ideal for spiritual practices that emphasize the practice of loving kindness and unconditional love for all humanity during this time of mass shootings by anti-immigrant right wing extremists, religious wars such as the low intensity warfare in Kashmir, trade wars, and political trench warfare in Washington.
At the time of the Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival the Hierarchy of Ascended Masters pours forth a potent, healing stream of unconditional love and creates an enhanced energetic field supportive of all Ascension practices.
These energies are available to all Lightworkers, meditators and seekers who choose to access this Love and Light by participating in spiritual practices of their choice during the three day period of the Libra Full Moon Aries Solar Festival.
The world is in crisis, but the crisis is precipitating an expansion of consciousness. The awakening of the vast majority of the world’s population is already well underway.
To avoid environmental devastation, to manage the challenges of the era of peak oil, to avoid widespread world war and nuclear annihilation, requires a complete restructuring of human society.
To achieve world peace and to achieve a new post-hydrocarbon global society based upon political democracy, sustainable economies, localized agricultural production and energy efficiency, requires a new set of social and political relations and a new group of world leaders.
To achieve peace among the world’s races and religions requires a new, more tolerant, ecumenical spirit and a total separation of religion and warfare. There can be no more widespread support for warrior religions if humanity is to survive.
Above all, there must be a healing of the wounded heart of the world. Right now, the vast majority of the world’s people are locked into issues related to the lower chakras – survival, sexual gratification and conquest, personal and collective will to power and conquest, and perpetuation of ancient patterns of dominance and submission.
The human heart is wounded by the war between the sexes, by the inability of the average human being to open his or her heart to love. This war has all but destroyed the basis for the human family.
The human heart is wounded by the constant human war to subdue Mother Nature – and that war is wrecking the world’s human-friendly ecology.
The human heart is wounded by the war of the priests, which has gone on for millennia, pitting one vision of God against another in bloody battles for the souls and wealth of entire peoples.
The human heart is wounded by the war of the rich against the poor, which has gone on for millennia, as those who have power use that power to exploit those whom they should be protecting and nurturing.
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"Healing the Wounded Heart of the World" |
There is only one way to heal the wounded heart of the world, and that way is the way that all true Spiritual Masters of both East and West have long traveled and taught. That way is the way of the open heart, the way of Love.
Only by opening our hearts to the suffering of our fellow human beings in countries and religions currently opposed to our own will we be able to understand them, forgive them, and work together with them to establish peaceful relations.
Only by opening our hearts to the suffering of the billions of people living in poverty around the world will be able to create social and economic systems that provide the necessities of life for all human beings.
Only by opening our hearts to the suffering of the billions of people who will be adversely affected by global climate change can we find within ourselves the strength to change our addictive patterns of behavior, engrained in our daily lives by the global hydrocarbon economy.
Only by opening our hearts to our fellowship with all living creatures, on land, sea and air, and only by opening our hearts to the web of life that constitutes the living, breathing heart and mind of our planetary Mother will we become sensitive enough to fashion a new human society that can thrive in co-operation with that web of life rather than seeking to subdue, conquer and exploit every element of life on Earth.
The solution to all our problems on Earth can be found if we have the courage to open our hearts to love. Love is the answer. Love is the way, and love will find a way.
I have every confidence that humanity's current trials and tribulations will result in the acquisition of newfound Wisdom, and that in our newfound Wisdom we will as a species choose Love, in its many forms and guises, for the attainment of Loving Wisdom is the evolutionary goal of humanity.
The manifestation of that goal is the development within humanity of a Higher Consciousness, which will operate in a state of ever-Self-conscious Unity with the web of life and also of Self-conscious Unity with Higher Worlds. This Higher Human Consciousness has a Divine Purpose.
That Higher Purpose is to do the work of a world-transforming Divine Will. That Divine Will requires that humanity consciously infuse every particle of the web of life on Earth, every sentient and non-sentient being, with the energy of universal unity, healing, affirmation and co-operation known as unconditional Love. This is what the alchemists called The Great Work.
You can be a part of this great work. In your meditations this Full Moon week, concentrate and see the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, magenta and violet light emanating from your seven chakras and surrounding you in a brilliant rainbow colored aura.
When you have seen this rainbow aura strengthen around you, visualize the Earth itself surrounded by a shimmering rainbow of light, just as your aura surrounds you. Hold this image and feel yourself connected to the web of life birthed by Mother Earth. As you feel this loving connection deepen, visualize the rainbow colors surrounding the Earth deepen and strengthen. Sit with this feeling and this vision and allow yourself to realize that this is your true and normal state of being.
This will infuse your aura and the planetary aura with particles of loving light, conscious loving light that can heal humanity and restore a balance to our beloved Mother Earth.
Awareness of this state of loving connection to the entire web of life is what is meant by Teachers who speak of Universal Brotherhood, by Wise Ones who speak of the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
As a species, we are currently in a process of recognizing the limits of our egoistic consciousness. On a planetary level we are recognizing the limits to economic growth and the limits to our current social systems which are based upon domination and control, the twin pillars of the egoistic mind.
This leads to suffering, but this suffering is essential so we can understand with great clarity the results of slavery to the egoistic personality. This process must occur on an individual and planetary scale prior to the surrender to Higher Consciousness. That surrender takes place when we open our hearts to love, when we make a choice to serve Love, to experience Love, to seek Love out.
Let us all make the loving choice this Full Moon Festival. Let the lamb lie down with the lion and let peace prevail in our lives, in all we do and say.
We can all engage in spontaneous acts of loving kindness and unexpected generosity throughout this Full Moon week and in this way we can demonstrate the practice of loving wisdom.
This Libra Full Moon of Balancing Relationships we can make a practice of extending love, tolerance, gratitude, kindness and understanding to everyone we encounter this week. In this way we can make all we do a conscious, waking meditation on Love. This is another path toward establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Spring Equinox 2019 Global Festivities and Meditations
In the Northern Hemisphere, when the Sun enters Aries, the Spring Equinox heralds the approach of a time of blossoming flowers, blooming trees and vivifying rains. Conditions are ripe for the planting of seeds, the tending of sprouts and preparations for another year’s agricultural cycle. Humanity feels the quickening of dormant life within the Earth, after winter’s cycle of hibernation and involuted energies. Spirits rise, sexual energies are aroused, and we greet a new astrological year with a sense of renewal and anticipation.
According to the Initiates of the Wisdom School Traditions of the East and West, the Vernal Equinox is one of the four great seasonal festivals marking moments when the activity of the Sun, the sustainer of all life, is at its peak.
The Feast of Archangel Raphael, who is the Guide and Protector of new plant growth and of human healers, and who presides over the Spring Season, occurs at approximately the same time as the Equinox.
In 2019, the Equinox is on March 20. We celebrate the moment when Universal Life Force Energy on planet Earth takes on the frequency of growth and healing under the guidance of Archangel Raphael, and the spring season begins. At the time of the Vernal Equinox, the sun appears to rise between the constellations of Pisces and Aquarius, and every year, due to the precession of the equinoxes, the sun appear to rise a tiny bit closer to Aquarius.
This is the astronomical basis for the idea that we are approaching the Age of Aquarius and exiting the Age of Pisces.