On Inheritance and Transmutation
Thinking through the New Moon in Pisces.
Embodiment is rooted in storytelling, and music is a storytelling technology that emerges from every culture. For as long as humans have been on this planet, we’ve found a way to carry on the resonance within the land and the heavens by making sounds through vocal and material experimentation. At the top of every newsletter, I share a song I’ve been listening to as an offering and ritual to express my gratitude for your presence here.
Here is a song to set the vibe:
A quote to help us dream:
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
― Arundhati Roy
Dear relatives,
Since my grandparents passed away in 2012, I’ve been thinking a lot about inheritance or the stuff that we leave behind. I remember being alone in the home that my grandmother and grandfather shared for over 30 years; a place where my family would gather in times of feast and famine. My grandmother had a painting that hung in the living room of an elderly Black couple counting their coins, only to realize they don’t have enough. A Penny Short, by Harry Herman Roseland, provides a visual description of the reality that Black people faced in the early 20th century, especially the fate of Black women, including diviners or fortune tellers.
I’ve looked at this painting so many times in my life that I’ve lost count. The story behind it, until this point, seemed elusive. I always considered it to hold a negative connotation as it highlights the plight of Black people in such an obvious way. As I learn more about Roseland—a white, self-taught artist of German descent from Brooklyn—and his work, I am starting to reframe my ideas about the painting. In context to his popular paintings of Black women reading palms and tea leaves for white women, I am reconsidering what message this work of art might symbolize for me. It may very well be a piece of the puzzle.
For the past year, I’ve been working with my mom to help get her estate in order. It’s interesting and tedious work. The process has also led me to get curious about how inheritance can work and materialize in a person’s life. My mother’s house is a prime example. It is the house where I grew up (and currently live) and it sits on a plot of fertile loam. This home is a shared space between my partner, child, mother, and myself. Goddess bless my little one, whose Sun sign is ruled by Mars and has zero qualms with being direct, navigating life with three mutable Sun signs ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion. The soil that sustains us is home to a large south-facing Maple tree in the front yard that frames the property. The root system of this tree has a robust ecosystem that exchanges nourishment with everything around it. This Maple is, in many ways, our matriarch.
There is also a compost pile on the north side of my garden that came to be on a whim. At first, I had intended to plant root vegetables there: sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. Over time, as with all things in my family, other things were added—broadcasted really—into the surrounding soil. Two years ago, watermelons took over the space, reaching their tendrils across great distances to hook into any place that would have them. We had watermelons growing on the ground, hanging over fragile fencing, and creeping into the yard. Shaded by broad, and prickly leaves, many were hidden from plain sight. All this growth inevitably led to an abundance of shriveled plant parts; decay that demanded my attention.
As more was added, more needed discarding, and I found a place for it in the most convenient (and economical) spot available on the outskirts of the garden. Through the summer months, the pile rises high as I add organic plant matter, kitchen scraps, and debris from the yard. This compost heap has shapeshifted from an in-ground root vegetable bed to a makeshift humus laboratory. This past week, for the first time, I utilized some of the soil for starter plants in preparation for the coming season.
We can think through the role inheritance from many angles. As an acupuncturist, for example, I work with the Elements every day and observe how their significations and interactions apply to health. I utilize words like generating cycle, mother, child, and grandmother to think through these relationships. And in my studies of astrology, I see similarities in the treatment of planets, signs, and modalities. There is a relational foundation to both practices. It is true for most things. This is something that I learned in reading and writing about nature. There is, of course, the infamous quote that states, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Iterations of this saying have been attributed to many authors, including Chief Seattle, Wendall Barry, and Oscar Wilde. Still, the sentiment is impressed upon us; it plants a seed in the heart and mind. Read it again, aloud, and see how it lands within you.
Seeds, inheritance, and imagination are themes for this New Moon in Pisces. A precursor to this New Moon is Mars in Aquarius squaring Uranus in Taurus at 19 degrees. This aspect, occurring in fixed Air and Earth, brings both tension and action. This pairing can generate a stalemate which requires a catalyst to shift the energy. It serves as a reminder that fixed ideas or materials can lead to fixed solutions. The New Moon in Pisces is here to show us that a necessary change is coming.
On Sunday, March 10, 2024, at 5:00 AM ET, there is a New Moon at 20 degrees in Pisces. This mutable water sign, iconized by two fish tied together by a cord, is a symbol of winter transforming into spring. Pisces can hold the tension of opposition and contradiction and thrives in liminal spaces. This archetype knows that ice will thaw to nourish life coming into being.
Beyond dreaming, this New Moon is about harnessing the power of hope. What actions and thoughts are necessary to shape a new reality? By being vulnerable enough to transmute, we open ourselves up to what bell hook’s calls a Love Ethic. She writes, “To bring a love ethic to every dimension of our lives our society would need to embrace change.” Here, hook’s nudges us to reweave right relationship, and reclaim love as a guiding value.
We will also witness a conjunction between Neptune and the Moon in Pisces and a sextile to Uranus in Taurus. This combination can support our intuition, offering the space to envision freedom and awaken the illusion of what we’ve been told about our capacity to change. We might ask ourselves, What beliefs have I inherited that either support or hinder the vision I have for my life? During this lunation cycle, which will flavor the next two weeks, we will have the chance to spiritually put the puzzle pieces together as we begin to materialize and embody new definitions of power.
As Spring swells within and around us, the Equinox is on her way. I look forward to reconnecting with you later this month in honor of the Lunar South Node Eclipse in Libra.
Until then, many blessings.
With gratitude,
C