Winding my way toward a pledge

I'm still thinking about Imbolc. I like what Arachne has to say about celebrating the creative spark at this time of year, about making art out of "just more winter." We celebrated poetry on February 2, but I haven't yet made my commitments for the year. Maybe it's because I spent Saturday cleaning and shopping for the party and Sunday sleeping, but I wasn't able to gather energy to make promises for the week, let alone a year and a day.

I decided that it would make more sense to do ritual and make pledges tomorrow, on the new moon in Aquarius. The energy will be powerful, with Chiron aligning the sun during a solar eclipse at 18 degrees Aquarius. The Sabian symbol for 18 Aquarius is: "The masquerade has long been in progress and laughing young ladies at last have forced the final male to unmask."

In my own natal chart, Aquarius fits neatly in the 10th house, the house of career and public reputation; the only planet nearby is Mercury, the communicator, at 24 Aquarius. ("A man obviously of the world has turned his back on passion and is giving people a deep and undying wisdom.") Tomorrow's new moon is thus "a cosmically ordered moment to shake lose the restrictions that limit me from fulfilling my potential" in the realms of the tenth house: career, role modeling, teaching, public reputation.

The symbol is one of final unmasking in a masquerade that has long been in progress; the realm is that of my public face, my public role. My transformation from devotedly rational academic to mystically minded...what? what is my work, my path, my identity now? - has been vertiginous. What commitment do I make when the energy is that of the trickster god teasing away masks?

And then there's Chiron, the wounded healer. Astrologer Simone Butler says of tomorrow that

"We will all have an opportunity to heal old wounds as Chiron...aligns with the Sun in a solar eclipse in Aquarius.... During this extra-powerful New Moon eclipse, a time when electromagnetic patterns get short-circuited and rerouted in the heavens, a giant leap in awareness is possible. Whichever house and/or planets in our charts fall at or near 18 degrees of Aquarius are about to be triggered for the purpose of healing and growth. Old wounds reflected by our natal Chiron placement may also be activated."

My natal Chiron is in Aries in the 12th house, the house of spirit and the unconscious. I don't yet understand what my wound is, but here is a question posed by Elizabeth Rose Campbell for those with Chiron in the 12th house: "How can I trust my own unique bridge to the sacred, not getting caught in anyone else's definition of it?"

I think I need to sleep on all of this, perchance to dream, and revisit the idea of pledges tomorrow.