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The Festival of Salvation Malvin Artley looks at the meanings inherent in the current Full Moon in Virgo, the Festival of Salvation (or the Festival of the Risen Christ). This subtle and inspiring Full Moon is the Full Moon for Pisces (since the Moon is always full when in the opposite sign to the Sun). Pisces is very much the sign of Salvation and Redemption. Malvin also publishes a regular astrological newsletter, to which you can subscribe by clicking the link at the end of this article. Hello Everyone! We will get to the body of this letter in a minute, but first I have a little story to relate to you which will tie in with the rest of the letter toward the end. I walked down to the beach yesterday evening with a good friend of mine, who had paid me a visit. The past few weeks had been a bit difficult for both of us, each within our own respective lives, and we decided that the beach at sunset was just what the doctor ordered as a tonic for frayed nerves and strained sensibilities. As we sat on a sand dune and watched the Sun dip below the horizon, we talked over the recent events in our lives and the lessons that had come to us as a result. The words from my last letter to you all resonated in my mind as she and I spoke—largely regarding the liberation of the “prisoners” of our individual energy bodies that comes as a result of our service. We had both been feeling stuck over the past few months and circumstances had conspired to give us the freedom that we had each sought in our individual quests. The clouds provided a brilliant backdrop to the just–expired Sun, the temperature was perfect and the gentle breeze, along with the sound of the waves, provided the balm we had sought and a great ending to a most eventful week. As the sky grew darker, Venus made its appearance, offset by the coral-colored clouds. I commented to my friend about the fact that Venus would soon start its rapid descent to the horizon and that there would be a consequent increase in instability on a planetary scale in preparation for its new coming cycle, but that is another letter. Heaven’s Shorthand?Then I pointed up at the Moon and remarked that every time I see the Moon at that position in the sky I know it is time for another full moon letter. “Heaven’s shorthand?” she asked. “Indeed,” I mused. I thought afterwards about how the view of the sea was the perfect symbol and inspiration for this letter. About that time two dolphins swam slowly past and I thought that nature really does have a sense of humor (I rolled my eyes to myself and thought “People are never going to believe this one!”) and perfect timing if we are open to it. I rather felt that I was having a sort of “Hallmark moment” there. I was most appreciative of the beauty of it all, though, along with the company of my good friend and the brilliant symbolism it brought to me regarding what I had been through in the past two weeks. I also thought, too, that regardless of what we go through, nature goes about its business and life goes on in its astounding diversity, sublimity and multitudinous purpose, whether we keep the plot or lose it. This idea of water and ocean symbolism is important in any consideration of Pisces and we will come back to certain aspects of it later, but we need to go back to what has happened on a world scale since the last full moon in order to gain a perspective about what is to come. I have spoken of the coming eclipses in May and what those might possibly bring our way. We are being prepared now for what is to transpire. In speaking with several friends of mine who can see on the inner planes of nature, it has been relayed to me that there have been two big energetic shifts over the past few weeks. The first one occurred just after the Aquarius full moon and concerned shifts in thinking and issues around many aspects of the feminine and women in general. In short, the vast majority of women I know copped a shakeup at that time. There were reports of illness, bloating, emotional difficulties and strange dreams regarding women and people’s mothers. I am deliberately keeping this very simple and bare-boned, but many of you will no doubt be able to resonate with certain aspects of this. I experienced many of these things myself and was happy to hear that I was among good company. I would imagine that many men went through shifts of this sort as well, though the health aspects of it would have been less pronounced. The other shift occurred when the Sun made its ingress into Pisces last weekend and conjoined Uranus. This produced a big shakeup on the astral (desire) plane and pushed out a copious amount of negativity and stuck energy ahead of it. This second hit was what my friend and I experienced most acutely and separately, and—I will have to say—it has been one of the more liberating periods I have had in recent memory. It wasn’t any fun at the time, but the dramatic increase in clarity and purpose I feel in my life now was far and away worth any discomfort I felt at the time. I should add here that, because this occurred mainly at astral levels (and we should note that Pisces has a very intimate connection with that plane), there was also an intensification of misconceptions, glamours and boorish behavior at that time, almost universally reported. These past two lunar months (since the commencement of Chinese New Year) have been fiery months. In fact, the Chinese calendar attributes a very fiery energy to both months—one Yang Fire and one Yin Fire—and, funnily enough, both months express a kind of fire that the Chinese call the “Fiery Furnace”. I can certainly relate to this one. As an aside, we have had some of the hottest days on record in Adelaide over the past two months. It has literally and figuratively felt like a furnace here. The heat engine of the environment has been working overtime since the start of the New Year, producing extremes of weather in both hemispheres. My family and many friends back in the States have had a lot of snow this winter, there has been flooding in New Zealand and people are just generally getting sick of “weather”. With all the above having been said, let us commence with the subject at hand—the Pisces full moon. This full moon will occur at 10:15 AM AEDT on the 7th of March 2004. In the past I have called this one “The Festival of Salvation” or “The Festival of the Risen Christ”. I have outlined the basis for these names in the letter from last year on this same topic. If you want that one I will gladly send it to you. This year, though, it would seem important that we look at the planetary dynamics extant at the time of this full moon. Furthermore, as we shall see, we need to look at the action of Pluto in this full moon figure, especially since Pluto is the subjective (esoteric) ruler of Pisces. In part two of this article, Malvin examines the role of Pluto in the sense of the ocean of being and the process of healing the self through service to others so characteristic of Pisces. Read part two of The Festival of Salvation  |
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