The Moon is a waxing gibbous this week, gathering more and more light unto itself until it slips through the Heaven’s Gate among the stars of Virgo on Sunday, March 24, and then into the Earth’s shadow at Full phase next week.
Along the way, equinox will occur (March 19 at 11:06 p.m. EDT), when day and night strike a balance and Winter finally gives way to Spring.
It’s striking when the first Full Moon of the Spring is eclipsed, because this is the Moon that is used in most cultural and religious traditions of the Northern Hemisphere to determine the dates for the Spring festivals of renewal.
What does it mean to renew in the shadow?
The path of the Moon this week may hold a clue, since it’s primarily journeying through the stars of Leo, the Lion. In story, the Lion depicts the Sun-like nature of the human being, that which is the most noble, the kingly self or Higher Ego.
In the fairy tale of “The Golden Lion,” the hero goes out into the world to seek his fortune, making his way to the kingdom where he must find the hidden princess, or lose his head.
His kindness to a needy old woman leads him to a goldsmith to have a golden lion made with crystal eyes, and that can play tunes.
The old woman hides the boy inside the lion and offers it to the king, who takes the beautiful plaything to his daughter, where she is hidden with her 11 playmates behind seven locked doors.
Seven locked doors are our seven classical planets, each one a portal into the mystery of the self, surrounded by 12 signs of the zodiac, the 12 maidens, only one through which the human being’s true nature shines into the world, no matter the shadow.