Ground Control for a New Moon in Aries

Stillness, soul retrieval, and the courage to move from wholeness

This morning I woke up with David Bowie in my head:

Ground Control to Major Tom. Take your protein pills and put your helmet on.

It struck me as more than a song lyric. It felt like a transmission for the moment.

Preparation and orientation. A reminder that when the atmosphere is charged, our task is not only to launch. It is to prepare well enough that the launch is conscious.

This Aries New Moon arrives in a field of unusually concentrated Aries energy. Fire is high. Forward momentum is high. Reactivity is high. The atmosphere carries the feeling of ignition, initiation, movement, heat. 

Aries is the first sign of the zodiac. It is young, brave, instinctive, willing to begin. It is often associated with courage, leadership, clean desire, and the capacity to move first.

But the youngest part of us can also be reactive. Defensive. Impulsive. Quick to act before we have actually listened.

This is why stillness matters so much in times like these.

Stillness is not the opposite of fire

One of the gates in my Fire Horse guide is Return to Stillness.

I do not mean withdrawal, numbing out, or passivity/self-abandonment disguised as peace.

I mean the kind of stillness that lets us hear.

Stillness as discernment, orientation, and a way of separating instinct from reactivity.

In highly charged times, everything can feel like urgency. The body wants to move. The mind wants to decide. The field is loud. But not every inner surge is wisdom. Sometimes what feels urgent is simply unprocessed fear wearing the costume of instinct.

Stillness lets us tell the difference.

It lets us ask:

Is this movement coming from soul? Or is it coming from an old defense? Is this fire my aliveness and vitality? Or is this my bracing? Am I responding to what is here, or reacting from what has not yet been healed?

These are Aries questions, too.

Not because Aries is weak, but because Aries is powerful. And power without discernment can burn through what it is trying to create.

The youngest sign and the youngest parts of us

I think one reason Aries can feel so activating is that it touches something very young in the psyche.

The part that wants to leap. The part that wants to survive. The part that wants to prove itself. The part that does not yet know the difference between danger and expansion. The part that rushes because resting feels too vulnerable.

Sometimes Aries brings out our sacred beginner and adventurer. Sometimes it brings out our defended child.

And the difference matters.

This is especially true when people are trying to make changes in their lives, leave old dynamics, recover from addiction, move through grief, heal from disease, or step into a new level of purpose. In all of those thresholds, forward motion is important. But if movement is coming from fragmentation, it tends to cost us more than it needs to.

What soul retrieval has to do with any of this

Recently I received a beautiful soul retrieval around the grief of my mother.

There was a part of me still clinging to her. A part that had not fully been seen or grieved in the trauma of her death. In those final hours, I moved into shamanic role. I was tending the ceremonial field. Assisting in crossing. Doing what I knew to do.

And yet there was also a part of me that did not get to stay fully in daughter.

A part that remained in shock and trauma. A very young part of me that has stayed in attachment, holding on to her for dear life, and a part that held unfinished grief that has felt like a tsunami these last few weeks.

This is something I have seen again and again in shamanic healing work: even when we are strong, even when we function beautifully, even when we serve with love, parts of us can remain behind in moments of trauma, overwhelm, heartbreak, addiction, loss, or deep transition.

Not because we have failed. Because something was too much, too fast, too painful, or too sacred to process all at once.

Soul retrieval, as I understand and practice it, is one of the ways those parts can be invited home.

And when they return, people often experience more vitality, more presence, more coherence, more access to themselves. Life does not necessarily become instantly easy, but it often becomes less forced. A gift comes back, maybe more joy or laughter or something that was lost with the young part of us. There is more room to choose. More room to feel. More room to move without abandoning one’s own body and soul in the process. More awareness of the body and the sacred water moving within. More connection to the soul’s channel to Source.

Fragmentation, compulsion, and the longing to feel whole

This is one of the reasons I think soul retrieval can be such profound support in recovery work and other healing journeys.

I do not mean that addiction, compulsion, or self-destructive patterns are solved by one spiritual intervention. Human healing is layered. It includes relationship, body, psyche, circumstance, over culture and conditioning, support, and often many forms of care.

But I do think that for many people, addiction and compulsion are not only about behavior.  They are also about fragmentation. They are about unmetabolized grief. Lost vitality. Exiled innocence. Trauma. Protective adaptations that once made sense.  Same with illnesses.  They are about separation.  They are about force.  They are about disembodiment for whatever reason (usually good at the time).

When parts of us have gone missing, we often try to fill the absence.

Sometimes with substances. Sometimes with relationships. Sometimes with work. Sometimes with control and judgment. Sometimes with endless movement. Sometimes with collapse.

Sometimes in spirituality and bypassing.

Calling those parts home can change the quality of the path.

Not by bypassing the real work, but by restoring some of the self who is trying to do it.

This is why I find the current Aries moment so fascinating.

A culture full of activation often tells us to push harder. Go faster. Make the move. Start the thing. Reinvent yourself now.

But what if the most powerful question is not only, What should I do next?

What if the deeper question is: How much of me is actually here for the doing?

Holy shift, holy fire

There is a “holy shit” quality to the times right now.

A lot is changing. A lot is accelerating. A lot is asking to be born.

There is also a “holy shift” quality available if we meet this wisely.

The shift is not simply from stuck to moving. It is from fragmented movement to coherent movement. From reflex to response.From defense to discernment. From force to aligned action.

And that kind of shift requires preparation.  That kind of shift is the Fire Horse. 

Not only the outer preparation of plans and courage, but the inner preparation of stillness, attunement, and enough honesty to recognize when what feels like instinct is actually an old wound grabbing the wheel.

The role of the shaman in a time like this

People often ask what the role of a shaman is, especially now.

For me, at least part of the role is this:

To help restore relationship. To help listen beneath the noise. To help what is fragmented come back into coherence. To help people retrieve life force that has been stranded in grief, trauma, fear, or survival. To help them move forward with more of themselves intact.

To be in service to the whole.

This can look like soul retrieval. It can look like energy clearing. It can look like ceremonial tending. It can look like helping a person listen to the deeper truth underneath their symptoms, confusion, compulsions, or crossroads.

Sometimes what someone needs most is not more advice.

Sometimes they need help coming back into right relationship with themselves.

What this new moon asks

So under this Aries New Moon, I am less interested in the question, What are you going to conquer?

I am more interested in these questions:

What is true in you beneath the noise? What is asking to begin? What is asking to come home first? What would change if you did not have to force your next step? What if stillness were part of your preparation, not a delay of it? What if courage included tenderness? What if dancing or singing (whatever you love) is part of the creation? What if the real ignition happened when more of your soul was actually here?

These feel like worthy new moon questions.

An invitation

I am currently opening space for individual healing sessions.

These sessions are field-led and responsive to the person in front of me. Depending on what is needed, they may include shamanic healing, soul retrieval, energy work, nervous system support, and ceremonial tending.

They can be especially supportive for those moving through grief, major life transition, identity change, addiction recovery, spiritual threshold, working with an illness, or the sense that something in you is ready to move, but not all of you has arrived for the movement yet.

Sometimes the next step is not more force.

Sometimes the next step is to call yourself home.

You can learn more or book a session here.

For the half day retreat with horses go here.

With love,

Emily RiverStar