By JILLIAN KRISTINA
The darkest phase of the moon, the New Moon, is approaching. On August 16th, this transit will occur in the astrological sign of Leo – the sign of fire, of sun, of radiance, of occupying the spotlight, especially when it pertains to (re)claiming and owning our own sovereignty. Our ability to be seen, to be recognized. Our legacy. Our personal light in the darkness.
Traditionally, the New Moon lunar phase is ideal for setting intentions. For visualizing what we want. For dreaming and speaking and writing our desires into reality.
For casting spells.
“Movement is never mute. It is a language. It is a series of energetic shapes, written in the air like words forming sentences. Like poems. Like prayers.”
Spells?
In Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 homage to Dario Argento’s 1977 occult classic, SUSPIRIA, one could say every word, every glance, every arch and bend and sway and sigh is a spell. Set during autumn in West Berlin, the prestigious Markos Dance Academy exudes a thrumming pulse beneath the bleak, damp landscape. Within the walls of the academy, a collective of instructors and dancers led by Madam Blanc (Tilda Swinson) engage in choreography that is equal parts interpretive and hypnotic and sharp and primal. Gusts of forced breath accompany precise movements, the girls angling and twisting and jumping and engaging in ways that set this particular dance company apart – especially as they practice their parts in Madam Blanc’s personal offering, Volk.
“When you dance the dance of another, you make yourself in the image of its creator. You empty yourself so that her work can live within you. Do you understand?”
Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) understands. Susie has been ritually running away from her oppressive Mennonite homestead in Ohio to New York City to see the Markos dance company perform. She’s obsessed over its documentary at her local library, committing the moves, the rhythms and breaths to memory. She’s traveled across the globe to audition, to become part of a group that has stirred something irresistible within her. Something calling to her. Summoning her.
I came here for this.
It would seem she has. And Madam Blanc senses there is… something else within Susie. She can feel the power behind Susie’s movements. She hones in on her right away, her magnetism shining an electric spotlight on the American dancer. A transference of sorts.
“She’s incredible. The way she transmits her work, her energy, when it shines on you, ‘addictive’ is the word for it.”
But this transference is more than that. It goes beyond the feet, beyond the floor. It pulls strings. It twists. Contorts. Snaps. Cracks. Breaks. It eradicates. It silences. And just as quickly as it is given, it can be taken away.
“In the beginning, she gave me things. Perfect balance. Perfect sleep. Talking with our minds. But they took my hair. They took my urine. They took my eyes.”
Everything is an exchange, and every exchange must be made with intent. Just like every movement must be made with intent, with precision. There’s an end goal to all things within the company. A strategy. A moving of pawns. Drawing a grid in which these pawns will perform, in which these players will manifest the energy to do the bidding of those who watch and wheeze from the shadows.
Of those who await resurrection.
Adorned in red, dripping strings, the company begins the last rendition of Volk they will ever perform. Their bodies, an offering. Their breath, an incantation. Their movement, the catalyst. Their synergy, the essential spark to ignite the ritual and bring life to death.
An ancient rite. A primal protest. A desperate defense. A radical act of preservation.
“She’s tough. She kept the company alive through the war. When the Reich just wanted women to shut off their minds and keep their uteruses open, that was Blanc.”
But what is it they seek to preserve? What tradition, what decaying hierarchy are they so desperately seeking to keep intact? Surviving days of deprivation – surviving the war – changed them. This school has become their crypt. These dancers, their maidens, continue to carry their torches, breathing new life into a rotting corpse.
“I want to start work on a new piece. A piece about rebirths. The inevitable pull that they exert, and our efforts to escape them. The piece will be called, ‘Weider Offnen’ – ‘Open Again.’”
That is, until Susie. For there is power in not only remembering your birthright but knowing it so deeply. You can feel it in the marrow of your bones. It flows through your veins. It guides you and directs you. To deny it would be ruin, but to embrace it… Ah, to embrace it, is ecstasy. To embrace it is destiny. Reclamation. Rising, like a radiant, ghoulish phoenix, peeling itself from the pile of bones and blood and maggots they tried to bury you under, shedding the ragged, decomposing feathers to be born anew. To shine, anew. Just like Susie. She knew her way. And she took it, no matter the distance. No matter the cost. So when the night came when it was time for Susie to take her place at the head of the company, she did, and she did it with ease, with ecstatic grace, and with a confident command that split her chest apart and finally revealed the glory of who she had always been beneath her coccoon of mortal flesh.
I Know Who I Am.
Movement is power. Movement is manipulation. Movement is our body’s offering. Our vessel’s spell. We are living, breathing rituals, after all, and this New Moon in Leo is roaring those rituals to life. There is great power here, both within and without. How we choose to harness this power will carve out new pathways in our psyches and our lives. This energy hands us the ability to rewire, restructure, and mold new shapes, new symbols, and new ways in which we both live and tell our stories. New ways in which we move through this world.
So set your intentions. Cast your spells. Raise the flames of passion and inspiration into roaring infernos of action, and prepare to blaze your legacy into the very soil of this earth. It just may be the spark of light – the dawn of revelation and revolution – that we so sorely need, right now.
Suggested Tarot Spread for the New Moon in Leo – tag #suspiriatarot to share yours!
- How can I summon my wild – the wild that others have feared and shunned – back into my life?
- What can act as my guiding sun as I blaze forward on this new path?
- What do I need to release to begin this next phase?
- A foundational card to support me in this new terrain.
