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~ astrology for Feb 2023
Lammas is a harvest festival – a festival of thanksgiving, deriving from the Anglo-Saxon Half-Mass or Loaf-Mass, meaning ‘feast of bread’. The first loaves of bread from the grain harvest are baked, broken, and shared to honour the bounty of the earth. Traditional drinks are beer, cider, and anything brewed from grains or the ripe fruits of the orchard. Altars are decorated with fresh loaves, wreaths of flowers, and the fruits of the harvest. Seeds are gathered for the next season’s crops.
Lammas is a harvest not only of fresh produce, but of all that has been sown since spring, many months ago. Lammas is a time to harvest, to share, to count our blessings, and give thanks for the blessings to come.
Full moons are times of powerful energy when emotions run high and projects often come to fruition. Quirky Uranus sits exactly halfway between sun and moon providing spark and surprises. Meanwhile Venus in romantic Pisces clashes with Mars in impatient Gemini, making this an intense time for lovers and partners.
Because the energy is so erratic and unpredictable, allow extra time to complete important projects and avoid clashing with others. The best way to use this full moon energy is to do something fun, exciting, and out of the ordinary. Be creative and make sweeping changes. And remember, Leo always loves a party!
- Life is short – work out how many years you might have left and decide what you’re going to do with that time, so that when it’s your turn to leave the planet you can look back on your personal contribution with a sense of pride, achievement, and satisfaction.
- Avoid wasting time on friendships and relationships that have clearly outgrown their purpose. Have the courage to move on and spend time with people whose goals, values, and interests are aligned with yours.
- Stop gossiping about others and create your own story.
- Don’t be so serious – laugh and have more fun – every day, every week, every year.
- Tell everyone important in your life that you love them and then tell them why.
- Let go of the need to be right and agree to differ.
- Clean out your closets and garage and get rid of everything you don’t need or want.
- Do something you’ve always wanted to but never made the time, space, or money for.
- Stop complaining about the faults and shortcomings of others and take action to change difficult situations.
- Be kind to yourself and others and give thanks every day for the miracle of life – you never know when it will end!
The 14th–15th February is a particularly powerful time as Venus meets up with Neptune, ruler of Pisces. And this of course is Valentine’s Day, making this the perfect time to take a romantic risk and declare your love for someone special. In a world where we’re encouraged to be sensible, logical, practical, and control our emotions, Venus in Pisces helps us smell the flowers and chase the rainbows.
For example, Christians celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon of the northern hemisphere spring equinox. And Christmas always falls three days after the northern hemisphere winter solstice on 22nd December, with Christ’s birth on 25th December symbolising the gradual return of the light following the darkest day of the year.
The Hebrew calendar is also based on lunar cycles. Passover, marking the emancipation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, begins on the night of the first full moon after the spring equinox. Buddhists and Hindus follow lunar calendars, while the Chinese celebrate their new year on the second new moon after the northern hemisphere winter solstice.
We in Australia have adopted these dates for our own celebrations, even though our seasons are reversed. And of course, indigenous Australians have their own lunar-based celebrations. Ceremonies involving large groups of people storytelling, singing, and dancing are usually held at the time of the full moon, when the skies are at their brightest.
An Adnyamathanha Dreaming story from the Northern Flinders ranges describes how the moon was created by a greedy nephew who kept stealing his uncle’s food. The uncle would hunt a kangaroo, bring it back to camp, and cook it in a ground oven with hot coals. As his uncle slept, the nephew would steal the kangaroo and eat it. His uncle punished him by making him climb a tall tree and then cutting it down, leaving the fat, round nephew in the sky in the form of the moon!
Queenslander Thomas Zimmer has been producing an excellent Astrological Calendar & Moon Planting Guide for decades. Thomas writes: “Planting by the moon is a simple method of planning your activities in the garden to take place at certain preferred times of the lunar month. This is based on an age-old observation that the moon is somehow a regulator of growth processes on earth. By adapting your gardening timetable to coincide with this natural monthly rhythm, you not only find it an ideal system for organising the various tasks that have to be done on a recurring basis, but you also discover an added success factor in the outcome of your growing efforts – better germination rate, more vital plants, and better quality of produce.”
This gentle lunation promises hope, kindness, compassion, love, and positive new beginnings. Take time out to dream, reflect, and meditate. Play your favourite music, enjoy a stroll in nature, or a glass of wine. Elevate your spirit and open your heart. Practise empathy.
Venus is exalted in Pisces, giving us the ability to see the best in others. And Neptune rules Pisces, opening us up to higher spiritual and creative dimensions.
My plan is to arrive in Malta in time to visit the Mnajdra Temple complex at sunrise on the spring equinox (21st March). These megalithic temples can be found on the south coast of Malta. Built over 5000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, they are some of most ancient religious sites on earth and form part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
It seems as though the Southern Temple was used as an astronomical observatory, with its walls featuring carved spirals and small drilled holes. On one of the stones (dubbed the Calendar Stone) these holes are arranged in rows of different lengths. The first row has 19 holes, probably corresponding with the 19 years of the moon’s Metonic cycle. There are many theories about these holes and their meaning, so I am keen to find out more.
Some researchers believe that many of the Maltese temples are much, much older than the conventional dating, and could even have been built in the era of Göbekli Tepe, 11,000 years ago. Incredibly, there are over 66 temples on this tiny island. I will be travelling through Malta in a group with Dutch author Lenie Reedijk, whose book Sirius, The Star of the Maltese Temples promises to reveal the astronomical purpose of these magnificent buildings and how they were aligned to Sirius over a period of 5000 years. Stay tuned!
Stella Woods is an astrology teacher, writer, and consultant. Contact Stella at stella@stellastarwoman.com or www.stellastarwoman.com or
www.facebook.com/stellastarwoman
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