The dark moon shroud has settlled deeply upon us. Even as we feel the weight of the rampaging Aries eclipse taking shape, we still have blessed hours left in the balsam of the dark. Here may we tie a final bow on much of the unholy madness and mayhem ready to be left behind.

The dark moon descends like a blanket thrown over us just in time. Drawing the shutters - if you will - on a rampaging last month that arrived with full notice of revolution and then knocked it into the stratosphere. The constant step ball change of retrograde mania. That full on full moon eclipse that tipped us all over its falls. Lifequake after truth bomb after rabid revelation. Tides and tempers peaked and rinsed on repeat. And all as own ready renovations and reckonings - or is that whole life edit - echo and churn.

Quietly now, below the braying noise of the world, the moon takes her leave. On soft silver she slips silently behind the veil that shepherds her transition. Her rebirth in Aquaria will deliver the next lunar year and fresh threshold in a brand new cycle full of them. Mythologies will glitch and shift as wings and fire breath give way to the itch of ill fitting skins and a promising gleam beyond the moult.

Dark moon, thy name is respite and relief. Time to tend arrives now as the barely there crescent turns her face away and tucks back into herself. If you will let yourself linger long, this dark moon offers a wonderful scrying pool to craft uncommon sense from the fray.

Every month in a row she calls us to temporary retirement. The beautiful moon hides her face, the stars blaze in her absence and the tides within us ebb. The bone tired exhaustion of all these modern gauntlets run on repeat catches up with us. We are world weary and craving retreat, rest and recalibration. The dark moon envelops us in her soft folds.

Dark moon bolthole, anyone? You know by now darklings my penchant for the isolation and wonder of the dark moon. And its blessed bliss is now upon us in the midst of madness, mayhem and a solid first week Mercing.

Deep in the dark of the moon before our world quakes with change, we occupy a curious confounding space. It will not answer our constant questions or petitions for mercy and grace. It ignores our demands and discomfort. It offers little beyond its balming void. It is without boundaries, an unknowable abyss that asks only for our surrender.

The dark moon in Pisces before she emerges anew is a deep abyss in the cavernous ocean of the self. These are the closing moments of eclipsia, whose peculiar medicine has been as unsettling as it has been instructive. Holy mother of Neptune what a colossal catalyst she was. Here now we tread water in the closing degrees of the zodiac, a place built on drawing conclusion.

Time once and again for the deep dark moon dreaming that is de rigeur for the balsamic lunar phase, aka right now. You know the dark moon drill my darlings: declutter, release and repeat. This is *the* time every single month in a row to let go of anything / everything that irks, niggles, pains, blocks or bothers Beautiful You.