Moon Mistress of the Collective Unconscious

The Moon is the Mistress of the Waters of the Collective Unconscious

            There is one last connection to make in our discussion of lunar consciousness: the connection between the Moon and the waters of the Earth.  We know the Moon causes the tides, both in ourselves (composed of 80% salt water) and in the seas and oceans.  In my dream, there is a connection between the Moon and the giant wave.  This giant wave is a recurring motif in the dreams of many people today, and I think it symbolizes an important aspect of the psychic changes that are occurring in the collective unconscious.

            Right now, the equinox position in the sky is shifting from the astrological sign of Pisces the Fish to the sign of Aquarius, the Waterbearer, who empties the water of life out onto us all.  Jung saw Aquarius' image as a symbol of the outpouring of the images of the collective unconscious - an opening to the imagination which could renew our culture.  Some people feel that this will be an age in which humanity will become holy, when we incarnate the Divine Spirit within our humanness, so that the "Godhead might be made manifest in Nature, and all of Nature would become the self-expression of the Godhead."²⁰

            The wave, though potentially destructive, can also give us the energy of the water of new life.  The waters of the Earth are the most ancient creation, the closest to the Primordial Spirit of creation, for everything is born of the waters, whether rivers, springs, wells, lakes or seas.  The ancient Greeks imagined there was a river of live waters surrounding the earth like a serpent swallowing its own tail.  Jung felt that the ocean symbolizes the vastness of the collective unconscious, out of which the individual ego consciousness emerges.  The waters of the collective unconscious are stirring, and the wave, as an image of the new age, is bringing these images to us for conscious realization. 

            But the sea itself is formless, and the Moon is the Mistress of the Seas, for it is the magnetic pull of the Moon that creates the tides and gives form to the life of the waters.²¹ One of the most precious forms that the waters give birth to is Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty and Love, who in turn awakens psyche, or soul, within each of us.

            The waters of the Earth move to the rhythms of the Moon, just as our inner waters, including our feelings and emotions, are influenced by the Moon's force.  In astrology, the Moon rules these inner tides, for they are the flow of psychic energy which moves us through life.  Psychologically, it is our lunar, feminine consciousness, our subliminal consciousness that comes and goes which magnetizes the unconscious and creates the images of our instinctual needs and desires.  If we can tune into these images consciously, we pick up the information we need to live well and wisely.

            The Moon, the ancient symbol of feminine spirit as psyche or soul, mediates between spirit [Sun] and body [Earth].  It is through soul-making that we become conscious of our individual lives; through our souls we express the spirit here on Earth as we live out our individual destinies.   If we are to become whole, we need to bring into balance the forces of the masculine and feminine energies at play in the universe.  And that balance is achieved within the soul. 

            The path of individuation and individual creativity is a journey that each of us must take if we want to transform the way we live on this precious Earth.  Like the Grail knights, we must enter the forest off the beaten track and make our own way to the initiation that awaits us deep within.  As women, we have the great gift of our bodies through which we can experience the rhythmic energies of creation.  When we listen to and trust our body as it responds to the energies of the Moon, we can access the transformative powers of the universe.  As we once again learn to live within the Moon, we will come to understand and honor her light.  The vision and consciousness of this light that manifests in dreams, fantasies and imagination, in the voices of our feelings, our intuitions and our bodies will create the balance that our culture so desperately needs.   

            When we take our standpoint on the Moon, it is a commitment to live consciously within the rhythms of the transformation of life, constantly changing, eternally becoming.  Then we can discover a spirituality that encompasses the world we live in and the many worlds beyond.