.: Mountain of the Moon :.

...On the Taurus New Moon & Mercury escaping the shadow

"A Templar's duty does not end with the setting sun, for our watchful eye never rests."

-Templar saying

I find myself in the shadow of the Mountain of the Moon.  Arriving in the fruitful darkness of the New Moon (Taurus), I have set up camp as the Templars did nearly a thousand years ago in the West of Portugal to do some work.  The reason I chose this location was elusive to me, yet it became apparent when I spotted the Palace of Pena from the view of my temporary abode.  There is something to be remembered here.

As I always say: during the Mercury retrograde, it is wise we are alert for the Idea that is stalking us; it wants in so that we can nourish it and it does the same to us.  The reason is just as elusive as the nature of my third trip to Portugal, but it's clearly a 'thing.'  The Idea clearly wants to change our minds and get us closer to the Truth.  It has become the most exciting cycle to track in my experience.

And this cycle is well on its way.  Having stationed Rx on April Fool's Day and going direct on the 25th of April with the shadows stretching from March 19th to May 13th (15º-27º Aries), we have been in this delicious confusion for months.  For myself, it has reignited my interest in the secret history of money and how to play the game as it currently stands in a way that feels like a cheat code.  And now, at the end of the post-shadow, I find myself at the base of the mountain where the Templars came in the 12th century to build the world's first nation-state (this is isn't consensus fact, but is widely talked about in alternative history circles).

The Templars weren't just tasked with protecting pilgrims on their way to the holy land, they were also bankers.  Not the first, but incredibly successful ones in the Middle Ages.  The way they dealt with lending and interest and the leverage that it offered them with the kings, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants of the time created a clear model for what was to come. As is the case with most in the profession of banking, much is shrouded in secrecy, but money is power, and it's clear that much of the power the Templars held was financial—not just from God and their devotion to Mary and the Grail.

Being that we are now in a lunar cycle themed around the world's first money (bull/cattle), I find it even more appropriate to explore this idea.  Until I was orange-pilled back in 2017, I couldn't care less about money; 7 years later, I'm still hardly motivated by it, but Bitcoin has offered me an education I never expected to receive.  As an example, when it comes to the preservation of wealth, we often think that if we have cash in the bank—or under the mattress—or in a hole in the yard—or protected by some Templar knight—our money is safe, but this isn't the case.  Inflation eats away at it like a cancer.  We don't see it until it's too late.  A million today is not what it was a hundred years ago, yet we think a millionaire is filthy rich, but the truth is that billionaires are the new millionaires.  We must both understand how to keep up with the odious nature of inflation and also make sure we have preserved our hard work.  A thousand years ago, perhaps the Templars were the way you did that, they were the proof-of-work, but today, our options are limited.

If you ask your parents or an advisor how to do it, they will say buy the S&P 500, put it in an IRA, reinvest the dividends, get that compounding interest, and get on the housing ladder.  And for them, that has worked and still may for many.  The problem is, that the younger generations can't even make ends meet, let alone put extra cash into an IRA or buy a house.  Older generations have stolen from the future of younger ones.  And it's not their fault.  It's the way the system is designed: constant "progress" and growth, the printing of money, with sticky inflation eating away at our savings and our capacity to preserve wealth.  It's the dark arts.

Now, you probably intuit that I have a solution to this.  I'm not going to go there.  It's not the point of this piece.  What I'm more interested in doing is bringing awareness to the issue within this Taurus lunar cycle, and inviting you to turn your awareness to Mercury to ask for a solution.  I'm no financial advisor, and I already have enough friends and family in my life asking me questions about the most misunderstood coin in the universe.

With Astrology, we are students of light and time.  We study it through the cycles of the spheres, yet sometimes miss that when it comes to light, it is also eaten and captured by the plants. This trapped light has immense value. It is life. Literally! When we can preserve it, it has even more value.  It gives us energy for work.  We can thus move around and create mysterious structures like the Palace of Pena I'm looking at out my window. 

Plants and planets have more in common than their letters.  They may not look the same, but they teach in similar ways.  They help us to stay in time.  Without that, where would we be?  And in our world, to stay in time, we need purchasing power that is secured, has endured the test of time, and holds its value through it all.  Gold is good, but something else is much better. It takes light and secures it in the safest way ever devised. This is the genius of proof-of-work. It also has a clever way of helping clean up the environment and empowering people without any power (more on that in a future piece).

The "Templar's duty does not end with the setting sun," which in some ways echoes the certainty of death and taxes.  There is no way around the two. The Templars would make you pay your debts, no matter where you were—living or not.  We may think we can run from what is owed, but it has an uncanny way of keeping up with us.  It's a nasty business, one that we can never ignore.  Taurus themes through and through.  And so, may Mercury help you in the coming cycle to understand something essential on this topic that allows you to finally feel like you have gotten ahead, that you have managed risk, and that you are no longer being kept up at night due to the mountain of debt looming over your head.  May it get replaced with a mountain named after your favorite luminary.

• a final note: I recently was banned from using Stripe for offering astrological services. Mailchimp did the same to me a year ago. Censorship resistance is another point that cannot be stressed enough. There are ways around this…take the orange pill, not the black one!

**If you'd like to have a reading with this as our central focus, I'm here for you.  Links below.

Facts:

• New Moon in Taurus: May 8th; 18º 02' Taurus

• Mercury leaves shadow: May 13th; 27º 13' Aries

Eudaimonia,

Adam

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