Pandora’s Hope
Today’s New Moon offers creativity of thought and an opportunity to view a familiar scenario from a new perspective. If an area of life, or just life itself, is feeling stale and in need of refreshment, this Moon offers the prospect of new understanding which can help shift us through blocks and obstacles created by our habitually pursuing the same old thoughts down the same old ruts. Here we have the chance to think outside the box, or just recognise there was no box to start with – we made it up to keep us safe – but what was once refuge has now become a prison of rigid perspectives and worn out views.And to continue with the box theme, this new Moon occurs conjunct asteroid Pandora. We all know about her box (well, it was actually a jar, but most know it as a box so we’ll stick with that…). From it, when opened out of irresistible curiosity, sprung the ills of the world.
She was only able to snap the lid shut in time to catch one of its contents, which turned out to be the spirit of hope, Elpis, eventually released (according to some versions of the myth) to balance those very things which create the need for it in the first place. Interestingly the asteroid Elpis sits opposite this New Moon as Pandora sits beside it. So what does this all mean for us?
Pandora was not malicious in her opening of the box. It was curiosity that drove her. She’d been told not to and that sparked her intrigue even further. She wanted to know and talked herself into believing it was an unnecessary ruse and not a warning to be taken seriously. We all do this, talk ourselves into and out of things according to our varying desires.
We want to be secure so we come up with a thousand reasons why doing that thing we really want to do but which carries some risk is a very bad idea. Or we want to make a massive change and we downplay the risk to justify doing it no matter what. We don’t want our beliefs challenged so we surround ourselves with those who share our world-view, or we relish challenge and argument so we step into the middle of those who don’t.
Sometimes the decisions we make may open Pandora’s Box and hindsight tells us how unwise we were. Sometimes the box has already been opened and our decision is the thing which causes hope to finally free itself and enter the world once more.
The weighty consequences of decisions made can oppress us if we let them, for every act, thought and word has an effect and if we get too bogged down in the complexities thereof we would never do anything for fear of repercussions. But when we can remember that hope lives where the challenges do, we can overcome the black and white notion of right and wrong in favour of a more accepting view that when things don’t go as we’d planned it’s not the end of the world, because that’s when hope appears. Many of us have had the experience of not getting what we wanted but things making more sense further down the line. Life has its own plans and if ours run contrary to them we may find our own frustrated.
At this New Moon hope shines brightly, reminding us we don’t always know what’s best, no matter how right we may feel, and the intricate tapestry of life’s plan for us is often only fully appreciated once we have lived it and watched as the various bits drop into place over time. As we do this, hope can keep our faith and commitment alive.
Which reveals just what the fresh perspective of this New Moon brings: the promise of possibility we had previously failed to recognise; the gift of potential that we didn’t spot before. There are new perspectives to be enjoyed now and this Moon reminds us that no matter how far we may have strayed from where we want to be, hope strays with us and can be released at any time to reframe our world and remind us that most things are rarely quite what they seem…
Happy New Moon everyone.
Sarah Varcas
© Sarah Varcas 2013. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted
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