Mother of the Stars 
By Pythia Peay

It's a breeze in the sails, cast your fate to the wind New Moon.  Mercury, freshly direct, is moving quickly now, flying on winged feet to rise soon as messenger of the Sun. Saturn, too, planet of imponderable slowness, has shifted into forward gear from its station in Gemini.  The mutual reception between these two planets (Ruler of Mercury in Capricorn is Saturn; the ruler of Saturn in Gemini is Mercury) tells us that communications during this retrograde phase have been deepened into timeless wisdom with practical uses.  Revolutionary Uranus conjunct this Aquarian lunation rains this newfound inspiration onto a receptive earth.

Reflecting upon the pattern in the heavens, I was reminded of the Egyptian Sky Goddess, Nut.  In Greek mythology, for instance, the male sky god Ouranus, or Uranus, embraces Gaia, the feminine earth.  But in Egyptian mythology, the sky is a woman, Nut.  Her body is imaged as the starry firmament bent lovingly and protectively over earth; Nut's legs and arms are steadied by four gods known as pillars of the sky - placing the masculine in a position of support to the feminine. Among her many divine names, Nut was called The Great Deep, The Starry One, Mother of the Sun, and Mystery of the Heavens. 

Thus if you feel as if you are emerging from a winter cave of deep introspection this New Moon, now is the time to go outside and lift your face toward the sky to receive inspiration for the next Moon and Mercury cycles. Let this outward action be mirrored by an inner movement, as you turn your soul outward and upward toward the body of the Sky Goddess.  Like an open vessel, allow the light from the heavens to pour down upon your receptive spirit like a rain of stars.  Feel illuminated, awakened, and enlivened within and without.  You may even feel the neurons that light up your autonomous nervous system shimmering with electricity, transforming your physical body into a luminous starry cosmos.  This is the meaning of mystical transfiguration - the body transmuted into light.

One of Nut's names was Cow Goddess, as the cow was one of several Egyptian concepts of the sky.  This gives us a beautiful image to work with the potent stellar energies swirling throughout the psychic atmosphere this New Moon.  Rather than feel ungrounded or overwhelmed by the visions and insights we may be receiving, for instance, we can accept them as nurturing food from the Divine Mother.  Absorb them, be strengthened by them, let them flow throughout you like warm milk.  Fed by the milk of the stars, sustained by this spiritual soul food, claim your inheritance as a child of the Mother of Heaven.   

So this New Moon, be grounded in the spirit.  Stand firm on the extraterrestrial firmament of the planets, stars, and distant suns and galaxies.  Root your soul in the visions of future worlds to come.  Inscribe the celestial instructions you have received into the very flesh of your body and the template of your soul. Then, on the wings of Mercury, go out into the  world and spread the message of a new age of light, hope, and peace.