Everything Has Changed: How I Plan My Life With the Cycles of the Moon
When I was working as a whole sign, hellenistic astrologer and life coach, one tool I used with my clients was utilizing the cycles of the moon to help plan and make changes. As we approach the full moon in Sagittarius coming up tomorrow on June 3, 2023, I think this is a great time to talk about the different cycles of the moon and review how I have used the moon cycle myself to plan and implement my own career change.
Note: for the purposes of this entry, I'm not going to spend time going over, in detail, what each moon phase means, but rather, I'll supply an abbreviated summary. For more information on what each phase of the moon means, I recommend you read both the science side of how the light grows with the moon phases and the astrology side as the astrology side is rooted in the movement of light around the zodiacal wheel.
First, for my practice, the moon has three cycles, There's the monthly cycle we're all familiar with: new moon, followed by first quarter (or waxing), full, and fourth quarter (or waning) moons, all roughly 7 days apart for a 28-day cycle.
Then there's what I call the annual moon cycle. Every year there's one new and one full moon per sign. So every calendar year, at some point, there's a new moon in Virgo, for example, and a full moon in Virgo. That's what I call the annual moon cycle, and in planning my own career change, that's the first level of moon cycles I'm working at.
Last, there's the long, 27-month moon cycle. This cycle looks like a new moon in Virgo, for example, and then nine-months later, the first quarter moon phase in Virgo, then nine months after that, the full moon phase in Virgo, etc. Let's look at some concrete dates using the moon cycles I'm currently working with.
The annual moon cycle: back on November 23, 2022, there was a new moon at 1° 37 minutes of Sagittarius. Now, on June 3, 2023, there's about to be a full moon at 13° 17 minutes of Sagittarius (for the annual cycles, I just use the new and full moons).
The 27-month moon cycle I'm working with started with that new moon in Sagittarius on November 23, 2022. The first quarter moon phase in that cycle will be on August 23, 2023. The full moon phase will be May 23, 2024, and the fourth quarter or waning moon phase will be on February 23, 2025. Now that we have the dates down, let's look at how I'm using them.
First, the annual cycle: the new moon last November landed right on top of my sun/Mars conjunction in my first house. So this whole cycle, both the annual and the 9-month, are occurring in my first house. Something new is seeding, growing, and evolving in the house of me. I did not choose this cycle to work with by accident. I have a five-planet stellium (sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, and Neptune), plus my ascendant and lots of fortune and spirit in my first house. Needless to say, that house is the focal point of my birth chart, so when the new moon last November hit directly on top of my 0° 25 minutes sun and my cazimi Mars, I knew this moon cycle was the perfect time to seed a new me. I didn't know who or what the new me was yet, so I asked the universe, and as always, it answered.
Just days after that new moon, I made the offhand comment to a friend, something along the lines of, "I think it would be so much fun to be a puzzle artist, because I love puzzles, and it'd be a great way to help people." We'll return to that comment in a few months.
One week to the day of that new moon, a post from a prominent astrophotographer showed up in my explore feed on Instagram, and I immediately felt the pull. I wanted to become an astrophotographer! I jumped head first into upgrading my gear, purchasing new gear, learning all sorts of software and apps, and watching hours of YouTube videos. Doing everything just short of actually shooting the night sky, because it was the dead of winter in Nebraska and the sky was gray and overcast more than it wasn't.
So here I sat with all this gear and a now burning desire to take pictures, and so I began to photograph something I had easy access to and love so much: flowers and plants. I'm a gardener at my core (my chart ruler is in Taurus). I have a super green thumb and can grow just about anything. My home is filled year-round with fresh flowers, and I grow as much as I can from seed given my limited apartment space. If you keep up with me on YouTube, you heard me talk about my lifelong dream of growing my own food and flowers and starting a community garden and sanctuary someday. I'll link that video below if you want to give it a watch.
So in lieu of clear skies, I started shooting flowers, and I felt my soul start to buzz like I don't think I've ever felt before. I watched my skills as a photographer grow, and I saw myself working longer hours than I had in years and being more and more energized the longer I worked. The other thing that happened was that the more I worked with the flowers, the less I was attracted to the high-tech version of astrophotography I'd been learning. I just wanted me, my camera, maybe a star tracker, that's it. I started to de-tech lots of areas of my life, and the more I did, the happier I became.
In March, I planted my spring garden seeds like normal, but something weird happened. The seeds all germinated in half the time they were scheduled to germinate. They were like these super seeds that couldn't wait to burst into this world, and I took that as a metaphor for what I had started to imagine might be a floral photography career, though I still couldn't see how it would come together to be something financially sustainable. But I trust the universe and understand the moon cycles, so I just kept working, knowing I was in flow with the cosmos and expecting that by the full moon in June, all would be illuminated.
Fast-forward to June, skipping all the not-so-tiny details like how I took a one-day workshop on entrepreneurship and met a woman who would later watch my YouTube channel and want to offer me some entry start-up money to fund my puzzle idea (which I ultimately turned down, but the offer was enough to propel me forward with this idea), or how my ex-husband believed in my puzzle idea so much he offered to become an angel investor in the company should I decide to pursue it (I have an entry coming on the long-term effects of complex trauma on our ability to see our own potential). I'm neck-deep in launching a small business late this summer that will feature my floral art on beautiful, hand-crafted, limited edition and exclusive eco-friendly puzzles, my homegrown botanicals in hand-poured, small batch, chemical-free candles, and so much more. I have a LLC, and I'm working with an attorney to trademark my company. I have a flower studio in my apartment now, and I've rekindled my love of watercolor painting as I work to bring even more of my handmade botanical art into luxurious products I'm creating for my future clients.
I've had to pull back on some other ventures I thought I'd be pursuing like traveling. At the start of this year, I had seven solid months of travel scheduled that I just can't do with starting this business now. That's what happens under the full moon, all is illuminated. We can see where we're at, and we make adjustments accordingly. I've also had to scale back on my learning filmmaking. I'm still adapting my novel to a screenplay, but I won't be able to move forward with the film plans I had as I had them scheduled. I will do them, just not at this time. Adjusting. Tweaking. Pruning. That's what usually happens after the full moon peaks, but I live with my natal moon conjunct Neptune on my ascendant. For all the challenges that placement presents, one of the benefits is that I'm usually ahead of the cosmic curve, feeling the energy as it's building and long before it actually peaks (especially as this full moon is about to land directly on top of my moon/Neptune/ASC conjunction).
As to the 9-month moon cycle, obviously the seed for the puzzle business was planted in November. The first quarter moon will be August 23, 2023, and I plan to launch the pre-order period for my company in September. The first quarter period is the time when you take action, when the light is growing. Ideally, by May 23, 2024 when the full moon period arrives, my company will be running at full bloom, and I'll be able to make changes as needed. Speaking of full bloom, in hindsight, it's probably not coincidence that I picked "bloom" as my 2023 word back in December of 2022. Synchronicity anyone?
I love this example of how to work with the moon cycles, because it shows how we can use our knowledge of the cycles to ask questions and lean into possibilities and opportunities that the universe presents to us. It also shows how you never know what seed you plant will actually be the one to grow (and sometimes you don't even know you've planted them), but if you understand the flow of these cycles, you can recognize the thriving seed when the universe starts to show it to you. I've also limited the conversation here to the career focus, but I could have written about the changes to my health, my body, my relationships. It's been a whirlwind seven-months (first house new moon, it's literally the Cyn show).
I've used this method so much myself, and I've watched others use this method of working with the moon cycles to write and publish books, plan weddings, start a number of new businesses, launch Youtube channels, plot long-distance moves, etc. It's important to note here that in all of these cases, it's not the moon making anything happen. It's that there's a flow to energy, and if you can learn about it, you can learn how to work (and flow) with it rather than against it. There's a rhythm to it all, and sometimes we're better at feeling that rhythm than other times. Learning how to work with the moon is one way to feel the rhythm, but it calls for so much trust and faith and putting one foot in front of the other, often in the dark, until the path is illuminated. For many, that's the challenging part, the faith, the hanging on in the dark, but for me, the faith comes easy. It's the waiting I can't stand :)