The Maidens of the Wells_Full eclipse in Cancer-Oil spill

[Guest guest]

The Maidens of the Wells

In ancient times, Logres was a rich country but it was turned into a Wasteland so that it was worth scarcely a couple of hazelnuts. For the kingdom lost the voices of the wells and the damsels that were in them. These damsels would offer food and drink to wayfarers. A traveler had only to wish for food and seek out one of the wells and a damsel would appear from out of the well with the food he liked best, a cup of gold in her hand. No wayfarers were excluded from this service.

But King Amangons broke this custom. Although it was his duty to guard the damsels and keep them within his peace, he raped one of them and took away her golden cup for his own service. After that time no damsel was seen issuing from the well and the only service which wayfarers received was done invisibly. The king's vassals followed their king's actions and raped the other damsels also, carrying off the golden cups.

And so the service of the wells ceased. The land was laid waste: trees lost their leaves, meadows and plants withered and the waters were dried

up so that no man might find the Court of the Rich Fisherman, he that once made the land bright with his treasures.

We have created the Wasteland. Western culture has raped the Maidens of the Wells and stolen their golden cups of refreshment and joy, not only in the Gulf but also in disregarding the power of the Imagination to heal, to inspire, to nurture. We have rejected the feminine spirit of Life by thinking the Earth and her bounty are ours to use and abuse. We have enslaved the imagination to the whims of our capitalistic economy, instead of freeing it to create and sustain a healthy, vibrant society. We think we can use the power of these archetypal symbols to make more money, to have more power. We are misusing our most precious gifts, just

as we are polluting the Earth's waters for gain and greed.

The Cancer new Moon calls us to refresh our Souls in the Waters of Life.

It is time we go in search of the Grail castle, the court of the Rich Fisherman and ask the question: Whom does the Grail/the Wells serve? The

answer of course is Love and Life. We need to become Warriors of Life and start defending our home, our Mother Earth.

This Cancer Solar Eclipse begins a new cycle of self-relatedness and self-development. A good relationship with the moon helps us to become " emotionally self-possessed, a prerequisite of which is assuming the responsibility of consciously working with our emotional inner life. If we do not, then other people must carry our moods for us. Other times, we end up carrying those of someone else.' (Caroline Casey: Making the Gods Work for You) We have to learn to be responsible for our own self-nourishment before we can really nourish another. Otherwise the well runs dry and we get crabby, another Cancer trait.

Like the Pearl of Great Price, which is another symbol associated with the Moon and Cancer, our love for the World Soul, the anima mundi, must become central to our search and our purpose. The great Pearl is believed to be the union of fire and water, symbolizing birth and rebirth, fertility, innocence, purity and perfection. The " flaming pearl' is the pearl of perfection, the third eye of the Buddha, the crystallization of light and transcendent wisdom.

To open our inner sight to discover this Pearl is our task for the new Moon. Rumi speaks of the work it takes to find this pearl.

If such knowledge were attainable merely by asking others, there would be no need for the effort and the work, and no one would put themselves through such pain and sacrifice to

know. For example, people come to the sea, and see nothing but salt water, sharks and fishes. They say, " Where is this pearl others speak about? Perhaps there is no pearl. " How can the pearl be gained merely by

looking at the sea? Even if they measured out the sea, cup by cup, a hundred thousand times, they would never find the pearl. A diver is needed to discover that pearl, and not just any diver, but a diver who is both fortunate and nimble.

Humanity's sciences and arts are like measuring the ocean with a cup. To

find the pearl calls for something else. There are people gifted with every skill, with wealth and good looks to boot, yet this vital quality is not in them. There are others who are outwardly a wreck, who have neither good looks nor elegant speech, yet in them is this element that is immortal. By this element we are ennobled and honored, and become superior to all other creatures. Leopards, crocodiles, and lions each have their own peculiar skills and abilities, but these qualities will not survive. When a person discovers the essential element, they attain the secret of their own eternal reality.

So picture, if you will, the Full Moon rising over the ocean, silvering and shadowing the waters as they ebb and flow. Watch as the foam races up the shore, offering a necklace of white bubbles to the sand as a magical gift. There in the night, dolphins leap up out at sea to greet the Great Moon Mother - dancing in the Light of the Pearl of the Night.

This is Cancer, the watery realm of empathy, of the emotional body, of Mother and of Home. Cancer is the sign and the Moon is the vehicle of change and time, of birth and growth, nurturing and harvest, death and re-birth. Cancer asks us to go with the flow, to listen to our moods, which are messages from the depths, pulling and pushing us to greater life. While Mother Earth is our grounding, Mother Moon is our becoming.

As we watch our Mother's oily blood flow into the Gulf, this Solar Eclipse in Cancer demands that we face this issue of our becoming. Who are we evolving into? Or are we at a dead end as a species? I choose to have faith that we can still turn things around, not only in the Gulf but in our world at large.

To do this, we have to evolve into our becoming. We have to let go of our patriarchally-conditioned ego stance and become our Higher Selves. We do this through the re-birth of our emotional intelligence, the acceptance of our instinctual body, the focus of our rational intelligence and the opening to our spiritual vision.

And perhaps, as we leap up like the dolphins, we will discover new talents and powers of perception and intent which will take us all to the next stage of human evolution.

Whatever the next stage of evolution is for our species, we are the foremothers and forefathers of it. We need to trust that we have been prepared to handle this evolutionary jump in consciousness. Mother Earth

does not waste resources, and we are her resource just as surely as we are Her children.

The message for this Solar Eclipse New Moon in Cancer is: Figure out how

you can help Mother Earth heal and flourish at the same time as you incarnate your own deepest longings and desires. How can you be of service to others if you can't be true to yourself? How can you heal yourself enough to really Love one another and the whole Earth? First you have to love yourself!

The Moon in Cancer wants us to feel that all encompassing, nurturing Love the love of the Mother which sustains us through Life. The absolute

awe and divine love you feel for the baby you just gave birth to, through long labor and sometimes wracking pain. This solar eclipse is our collective moment of Birth giving birth to the larger Self.

The Mother doesn't require sacrifice from us as much as she requires respect, love and discipline. When we understand how she regulates life here on Earth, we can find happiness in living in her rhythms. That is what we lost in the past 400 years our connection to the rhythms of life

regulated by the Moon.