“Monday, Monday, so good to me, Monday morning it was all I hoped it would be…” The Mamas and the Papas ring in my ears. This song always made me appreciate Mondays more. People tend to reject Monday, it signals the end of freedom.
Naturally, every week day is associated with a planetary body. Tuesday is the day for Mars/Ares, the god of war. On Wednesday we hear from Mercury, the messenger. Jupiter/Zeus reigns supreme on Thursday. Venus the goddess of beauty greets us with love on Friday. Saturn/Kronos, father time rules our Saturdays. The bright, glowing sun starts the week again and shines down on Sunday.
Then it’s moon day. Monday is such a practical day on our modern calendar. It’s the first day of work and school and yet it is the day ruled by the moon. An interesting juxtaposition because the moon is a mystical being, one that rules our dreams and controls the ebbs and flows of the ocean. Interesting that an archetype of such mystery would rule a day viewed as being so mundane.
The moon is the mother of the ocean and the ocean is a symbol of the great collective unconscious. She controls women’s cycles and women’s cycles are the source of life. The moon is a night goddess. Her energy mothers each and every inhabitant of this planet. She is the keeper of rhythms and seasons, she brings balance to the sun, and she whispers to us while we sleep. She shares the secrets of the universe and so much more. She helps us remember because she kindly stores our memories for us.
“Everything we remember, everything we have experienced, is stored in the cauldron of the Goddess. Thus the moon represents our feelings, our habit patterns; in short the personal unconscious. Some esoteric astrologers call the Moon the planet of past karma—which is another way of saying that the Moon represents that limitless well of feeling patterns which, for the most part, unconsciously directs our actions in the present,” (Mythic Astrology p.64).
Maybe we need that energy to start the work week. We need our great mother to watch over us on Monday as we enter the world. There is no denying Monday gets a bad rap. No surprise really, the goddess usually gets the raw end of the stick.
But as stated the moon represents our past, our karma and included in that are things we aren’t always eager to face. In that way she reminds us of the work we came to do on this planet, not just your regular day job kind of work, but the big time karmic work. The moon wakes us up on Monday and says “honey get up, you have a lot of work to do.” She’s a friendly alarm clock but we still say, “Damn it mom, no I don’t want to work I want to keep sleeping!”
The mother is there for you when you need her. She will hold your hand and help you through the tough times. But she is usually the last to receive much in return. That is her job. There is a difference though between not being applauded and being blatantly disrespected. Mothers, like the moon, are mirrors and they show us things we don’t always want to see. That’s not a reason to reject the mother, instead we should be thanking her for reminding us of our goals and pushing us to always be better.
“It is a well-known concept in the astrological world that the Moon represents negative emotional patterning from the past that must be overcome or transcended in order to fulfill one’s solar destiny. This sometimes results in a belief that the Moon itself is negative while the Sun is positive and must be developed at the expense of the Moon. This kind of one-sided emphasis tends to devalue the feminine. Such negative labeling of the Moon reflects a deep-seated fear of the unconscious or feminine principle characteristic of solar or patriarchal societies,” (Mythic Astrology p.66)
The last year has been a reminder that women on this planet still do not always get the credit and respect that they deserve. Our patriarchal world is out of balance, more than I realized a year ago. The goddess has so much to say right now. She is the only way this planet will heal. And yet often when goddesses speak truth, they’re “bitching”, or their voice is off putting, or they’re hysterical. “How dare that woman profusely express her emotion,” they proclaim.
When people react negatively to women who use their voice well and loudly, they don’t realize they are shutting out the goddess and it is obvious they are not ready to evolve. The silencing of women is more rampant and persistent than we readily acknowledge. We have come a long way in terms of equality but the double standards are still glaring and frustrating.
For so long women have been quiet. In many parts of the world right now women are being silenced. Times are changing. If women cannot speak then this planet is doomed. The mother, the goddess, the moon has much to remind us of and it is time we all pay attention. We can no longer reject the goddess and if we do there will be consequences.
“But whenever Monday comes you can find me crying all of the time. Monday, Monday can’t trust that day.” Many of us inherently don’t trust the goddess or our inner feminine side. The masculine has been so overemphasized that we have come to think of it as better. This could not be further form the truth. Masculine and feminine are both equal and totally necessary for life on this planet and they must both be balanced and relied on equally for a healthy psychological state.
Sunday is filled with ease and Monday with work. Do we learn from ease? Or do we learn from pain? Struggle? I’d rather dig deep than glide across the surface. And both are great! That’s the beauty it’s a perfect dance, an eternal balance. But right now digging deep and working hard doesn’t get enough credit. Everyone wants free and easy, but that’s not what life is, that’s not what it was built to offer. Maybe we fear Monday because it has the most to offer, within it lays our greatest potential and that can sometimes be a difficult thing to face.
*Mythic Astrology: Internalizing the Planetary Powers (Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson)