Apropos to the New Year, I’ve been playing with the word “resolution”. I roll it around my mouth like hard candy, pushing it up against my teeth with an inquisitive tongue. (RESolution, resoLUtion, resolutionresolutionresolution.)
Sometimes I squeeze all of the sound out of each syllable like I’m making juice, the hard “s” dribbling over my bottom lip.(Rrreeeh-ssszzoooh-llluuuu-sshhuuuhnn.)
Resolution—a firm decision; the quality of being determined or resolute.
I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself to set new year’s resolutions in December. Preferring instead to ease myself into it as a whole season of newness; which means taking time during January to sort through and clear away old ideas and narratives that no longer serve me, creating the space in my field of attention for something new. So that by the time we reach the days of the Human Design New Year, and the Chinese Lunar New Year, and the New Moon in Progressive Aquarius—which will all fall together on the same day this year—I have primed myself to receive new insights and new energy. A resolution to commit to the new.
And the new can be scary. It’s the unknown, the uncertain. It’s often in the face of the new that we find the most conflict, the most tension. Two opposing forces each desiring a different course of action. In relationships for example, this far too often ends in compromise with neither side being satisfied. But when two forces unify, they create a third force, an answer, a resolution.
Today’s New Moon in Aquarius offers us the option of creating a third thing, a resolution that is progressive, community-minded, and appeals to our higher thinking. Aquarius energy is future-oriented. Our visionary Aquarians might be idealistic, but without them we’d never be able to imagine a healthy functioning society. Ruled by Uranus (say it however you please), this energy is rooted in originality, unorthodoxy, and eccentricity. In an air sign, we get mental energy and wind. There’s a lot of wiggle room here!
The archetype of Aquarius is that of the water bearer; the one who brings water to the community. They nourish us from the foundation up, and seek to bring us into circle around our most common needs and goals.
Our community—how we define it, build it and nurture it—will be in the spotlight, especially when it comes to relationality. This Moon is conjunct Pluto, so it will serve to identify what emotional belief(s) need to be transformed to resolve old conflict patterns. However, we are likely to feel confident and generous in our problem solving skills with favorable aspects to Mars and Jupiter. Venus will be conjunct Saturn, lending some consistency through rules and structure and highlighting the lessons we’ve learned from our values. This can look like finally setting some healthy boundaries within a community, or recognizing that the structure needs an overhaul to support new values. Gathering informed opinions and practicing patience with one another will encourage harmonious communication. It is the unification, the resolution that we are seeking after all.
FOR THE BODY
Aquarius rules the lower leg; tibia, fibula, calves, ankles, and the Achilles tendon.
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Whether you decide that now is the time to start your jogging practice or not, please please please… Stretch your calves by placing the ball of your foot up against the wall, and bending your knee slightly toward the wall.
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Alternatively, you can stand on the balls of your feet on the lowest stair (hold a railing for support) and let your heels hang off of the stair. Let your heel weigh the foot down and stretch the Achilles tendon. From here, you can also practice a couple calf raises by lifting your heels up, and rolling onto the balls of your feet or all the way to your toes like a ballerina.
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Drink lavender or peppermint tea, cacao or kava kava to soothe anxieties and calm the mind.
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Use lemon balm in your aromatherapy for a cleansing and uplifting scent.
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Work with clear quartz, garnet and angelite to filter and cleanse the energy around you, strengthen your resolve, and support your plans with divine guidance.
*I am not a doctor nor registered dietician. Please consult your PCP to make sure that any changes are correct for you and your body.
At the peak of the New Moon, the Sun and Moon will both be in Gate 60, the Gate of Acceptance, Limitation. I go into greater detail about this gate and working with “limitation” in the Human Design New Year series, but suffice it to say, that the energy in the last six days has been geared toward recognizing only the true limitations to our expression, and dispel false limitations. The Human Design New Year begins tonight (around midnight) when the sun moves into Gate 41—Contraction. Sometimes called the Gate of Fantasy, it is here that we experience the necessary pressure to launch.
Join the Human Design New Year!
You may have heard tarot readers talking about how 2023 is a Chariot year, a year of movement, transportation, charting courses and blazing new trails. In Chinese astrology, this is the Year of the Water Rabbit, which also signifies movement and change, but with a penchant for curiosity. Experiences and learning opportunities may be less disruptive than last year, but it will serve us to stay alert in our attention, creative in our thinking, and careful in our step. We're in for a lot of shifts this year, transitions that are going to happen whether we want them or are ready or not. There may even be some reckoning. There is nothing to "go back to.” Now is the time to forge something new.
In conflict and division, there are rarely simple answers because each side is a complex amalgamation of information and experiences. Whether it is conflict between yourself and another person, a person and a community, a person and an institution, or within a person themselves, it's very easy to be misguided by conditioned expressions. This in turn creates further discord and chaos and deepens the conflict or division. But when we seek to express ourselves authentically, when we use the process of inquiry to understand our preferences and our values, we find that many of us are seeking the same things.
You can feel it, when you’re in the field of someone who is authentically themselves. There’s a vibrancy, a vibration to these people that is distinctly different. And just being in their presence is an invitation to express yourself in authentic ways. During Aquarius season, as we prioritize our community and our relationships, we are offered the opportunity to also prioritize our authenticity, to seek relationships with whom we resonate.
You cannot have authenticity without vulnerability.
Please don't mistake my poetic liberty as minimization of the difficulty in vulnerability. It is not usually easy. Neither is growth but it happens nevertheless; a necessity to our existence, a Cosmic Truth. Authenticity requires vulnerability. Acceptance, progress, unity, resolution all require the discomfort of uncertainty and change. We can let this excite us, motivate us, and inspire us. And there are also days where you can’t romanticize the discomfort—or the pain, or the grief—away. There are days when it is h a r d.
These are days when we can fall back on our truths, our authenticity.
As always First name / my dear friend, I hope that this resonated with you and I am so excited to share more about what's to come. I'm happy to answer any questions via email or DM (@honoredbody). If you want to share the Moonsletter with others, feel free to pass it along! And if you're reading this and you haven't signed up, join here!
