by Robert Wilkinson
This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in the Sagittarius New Moon chart. We’re learning to listen to “the wisdom of the body,” which can help us figure out how integrated our personality is, and which parts need to “get back to the garden.”
In case you forgot, last month’s Scorpio Solar Eclipse is still in full effect. As I told you last month, we’re now being shown new forms of finding delight as we shed old skins, finding ways to reverse magnetism, and take a new look at stuck situations as we find ourselves “sliding on the ice through the death zone.” This month’s Sagittarius focus can help us break free of any stagnant patterns uncovered since then though a sense of irony and humor about those stuck patterns.
This Lunation, along with the inner planets, puts the spotlight back on the "anchoring" span occupied by slow moving outer planets from Saturn in Scorpio through Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, to Uranus in Aries. Jupiter was the first to put the focus outside of the Scorpio to Aries span when it moved into Gemini and put some distance between it and Uranus. Of course it is now in Cancer, serving as a handle, focal point, and counterweight for the occupied span between Mars in late Virgo and Uranus in early Aries.
The major planet outside the occupied hemisphere is Jupiter in a strong trine to Saturn. However, now that the inner planets have conjuncted Saturn, they’re on track to make conjunctions with Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus over the next 5 months. In other words, we’ve begun a whole new series of year cycles in terms of what the outer planets are teaching us, and how we’re affected in larger, “invisible” spiritual ways.
In this New Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets includes late Virgo through late Capricorn, with 4 planets clustered between mid-Scorpio and mid-Sagittarius. Wherever we have mid-Scorpio through late Capricorn is going to be highly active, due to the presence of 6 planets in that 65 degree span. If you have a planet anywhere in that area of the zodiac, you’re going to go through major changes in the part of your psyche represented by the planet and the part of your external affairs symbolized by the house it’s in.
We’ve now left the “Splay Pattern” we lived with for many months, and for the time being, we’re in what is termed a “Bucket” Jones pattern, even though there are still elements of the Splay Pattern active. So while in the past, the planets were widely spread out around the zodiac, they are now all in the 190 degrees occupied by Mars in Virgo, the planets in Scorpio, Sag, and Capricorn, over to Uranus in Aries.
While we still have one or more planets in 7 of the signs, all but one are in half the wheel, with Jupiter as the sole planet outside of that span, making it the handle, or focal determinator, of how the energies of the pattern are released. Of note is that we shall continue to have a Bucket for many months to come, since none of the inner planets will be back in Gemini until May 2014. Get used to using Jupiter energy wisely!!
So What is a “Bucket Pattern” and how does it work?
This type of spread, with all the planets in about half the signs with one outside that span wide enough to be a handle, creates a “Bucket” Jones Pattern. The energies of the occupied half are focused through the “handle,” or “nozzle,” in this case Jupiter, termed the “focal determinator.”
The handle, or focal determinator, represents the way to greater effectiveness, the cause to be embraced, the lack to be filled, or the way to use the total energies of this time in a focused manner. We had this pattern dominant during the first half of 2013, but with Saturn as the handle, showing we were learning to focus energy through Saturn’s structure. Now with Jupiter in Cancer as the handle, we should have more expansive possibilities, along with more opportunities for productive nurture.
Dr. Jones states “the bucket type indicates a particular and rather uncompromising direction in the life effort.” This pattern gives “interest in a cause,” with executive tendencies that will adapt allegiances to maximize results of the effort. He says “the bucket type at its best reveals the real instructor and inspirer of others, and at its worst the agitator and malcontent.” This is the larger planetary pattern within which we’re all trying to do what we do.
We are also told this pattern is more about finding an effective release for energy within social settings, but also about the individual imposing their patterns on society rather than adapting to what is there. It’s about focused intention. So all of us can expect some sort of focused attention on the house where we have 20 Cancer.
Up to now, the water trines of the past 6 months have ensured a flowing, moving, stabilizing quality. Though the Grand Water Trine early in each sign is now past, we are still in a heavy water period, given the Jupiter trine Saturn in effect through mid-January. Much will become clearer in March, when trines to both Jupiter and Saturn will tie together a lot of the mid-water sign lessons we’re learning now about protection, abundance, and caring.
As I’ve told you before, these Water trines show that if we have learned how to navigate the feeling-flow over past months, we’ll be able to practice our nearly-learned “emotional intelligence,” or “feeling-knowing,” as we learn to trust our deepest intuitions harmonized with a vast view of our needs, whether personal or collective. Given the number of quintile series aspects in this chart, over the next 4 weeks we’ll get more than a few specialized gifts and interactions, opportunities, and ways of applying our will power that are unique to us, while continuing to go deeper into our connectedness with self and others.
Of the traditional 10 planets, there are 4 planets in Water signs, 3 in Fire, 3 in Earth, and none in Air. This indicates a continued heavy emphasis on feelings, experiencing, caring, vulnerability, and self-gathering while flowing through a larger feeling field.
This indicates a balance between inspiration and efficiency, confidence and practicality, as we continue to learn how to organize things so they are in our “enlightened self-interest.,” As this Lunation has no planets in air signs, it’s not particularly relationship oriented, nor very idealistic or associative. We will continue to have to find these within ourselves through the next month, even though the influence will be mitigated when Mars enters Libra for its 7 1/2 month stay in that sign.
Air and Earth are cool, Fire and Water are hot. With the distribution, expect this to continue this period of heightened feelings and emotional challenges. With no Air, try not to become too much of a hermit or refusenik, and go out of your way to try to relate to people with a sense of balanced perspective, even if many interactions get delayed or simply go thud.
Mars in Virgo is powerful through the sextile from Mercury, trine from Venus, quintile to Uranus, and in the Virgo zone of the Grand Irrationality, as I explained yesterday. There is only one minor affliction in the chart, and that’s the out of sign square of Mercury and Neptune. All the other aspects are favorable, so continue to find a plan, follow the plan, make minor adjustments as needed, and use will power to steer a course in your best interests.
With the Jupiter trine Saturn, continue to strip away the veil to see more clearly the true from the false, the greater from the lesser, the core and the peripheral. This should be a very productive time, with specialized skills being polished. We’re now learning to turn what is “uncultivated” into beautiful and functional forms.
The very powerful Grand Water Trines of June and July helped us all to experience a vaster time frame and a sense of finality as we turned various corners in our lives, with feelings of being connected on deep and vast levels. We’ve now flowed downstream, navigating the plunges of the subsequent powerful Cardinal T-squares forcing us to find balance, perspective, a sense of proportion, and new ideals to pursue.
We’ve all had chances to become more emotionally intelligent in 2013, and have set long range future patterns to be fulfilled over time. Stay practical as you navigate new “feeling-knowing,” be humble and adaptable, and do what you must in conformity to the new life order already presenting itself.
We are all finding ways to concentrate and see the whole picture while experiencing the end of a major life chapter opening the door to personal transfiguration. Even though there are no significant afflictions in this Lunation, the Grand Irrationality will be in full swing, making this an incredibly important time of shifts in direction and forks in the road of destiny for those with planets in affected areas. This is a time of rewards for courage, so keep the mind still when it most wants to spin into worry, criticism, and nit-picking.
Saturn's Influence
I include separate sections on Saturn in two articles in this Eclipse series since Saturn continues to wax in importance in all celestial events of these times. This is the fifteenth New Moon of the Saturn in Scorpio era, and for many months it was one of the legs of the “Splay” Jones pattern during the Grand Water Trines, stabilizing the Jupiter in Cancer and Neptune in Pisces energies while in productive mutual reception sextile to Pluto.
We have ended one phase of what we’ve been learning since Saturn went retrograde at 12 Scorpio in February since Saturn has now moved beyond that degree. However, the recent Solar Eclipse at 12 Scorpio has begun to shut down whatever is left of structures related to those lessons that we cannot take with us into the next phase of life.
Our emotional body will be cleared out for months to come, so get used to occasionally intense purifications that may leave us feeling vulnerable for a time, but cleaner and clearer over time. Slowly but surely we are being shown our integrity once we've been cleaned and scrubbed.
Over past months, due to Saturn triseptile Uranus, how our individuality did or did not cooperate with our sense of purpose and breaking free of fear was put through numerous tests within irrational conditions, and which helped us define our expression for years to come. We’ve all been shown how our tradition can transmute and accept our individuality, and how our limitations can be renovated to express our unique qualities. Some had to confront fear of loss with a willingness to be a pioneer in some realm where they could express their genius or unique qualities.
Spirit has walked with us during the times this configuration was in play, as well as any other major septile series aspects between the planets. These are triggered dozens of times a year when The Grand Irrationality is in play, which is in full force in this chart affecting the next 4 weeks.
The choices we make as a result of these non-rational aspects show us our “direction of destiny,” and determines if the Spirit will grow stronger and closer with you, or if you will move in directions away from Spirit. Given that most of this community is intentionally trying to live in harmony with Life, Nature, and each other, chances are that whatever you – yes, YOU the reader – are confronting will show you a deeper, richer, more powerful Spiritual life. Which is a good thing.
Saturn taught us a lot about how to conduct ourselves at a higher, more elegant and/or formal way of relating to others in 2013. The Eclipse in Scorpio again put the light on those Saturn lessons, and we’re learning new ways of applying those truths of our direct experience that will be a part of our lives when Mars next enters Scorpio in late July 2014, with major focus on the third week of August when Mars crosses the Moon, Sun, and Saturn degrees of the Eclipse.
Generally, when Saturn was in Virgo we learned lessons of Divine Discernment, practical functioning, and attention to detail as we were educated through learning to see life as a series of experiments. In Libra, we all went through a transfiguration in our ideals and relationships, and many started living elements of their Divine Archetype. That required some ability to do forms of repair and reconstruction work in the last half of 2011 and most of 2012 to pay some karmic dues and come to a philosophical completion.
Now we’re experiencing deeper relationships, within and in external affairs. We’re cleaning out, letting go, purifying, focusing, dealing with death and loss, restructuring how we share with others, and all those other Scorpio keywords that usually terrify the lower ego.
As Saturn rules Pluto in this chart in worldly affairs, it shows that when we are confronted with the need to deal with something or someone in an organized, efficient manner, reference Saturn in Scorpio and the lessons of focusing intensity. Feel what needs to be eliminated to achieve emotional stability or movement, and being efficient and truthful in getting to the core of any matter.
Naturally, the usual Saturn keywords will be crucial to effective behavior - patience, discipline, organization, patience, structure, maturity, patience, understanding, wisdom, patience, authority, responsibility, and of course, patience.
So as you open to the last New Moon of 2013, take a new look at what Saturn has helped you let go of this year, as well as the long term regenerative self-discipline that’s also been there, if you saw limitations with a mature eye. We continue to let go and go even deeper in a connection with our regenerative life magnetism, or a deeper communion with some inner or outer element of our Being.
Important Aspects
Remember that in reading a Lunation chart (as well as a horary, inceptional, electional, or any event chart) the forming aspects show things to come, while separating aspects show things already past. As noted, this New Moon makes some great aspects, showing high productivity, unique gifts and circumstances, and overall stable relationships that are satisfying and work harmoniously in practical ways.
The prominent aspects in this Lunation include the New Moon novile Venus, biquintile Jupiter, and binovile Neptune, with Mercury sextile Mars and out of sign square to Neptune. Venus is trine Mars, quintile Uranus, and novile Neptune, and Mars makes the aspects already discussed. Besides the trine to Saturn, Jupiter also sesquisquares Neptune and is widely opposed Pluto, and as I told you yesterday, Saturn is anchoring the Scorpio point of the Grand Irrationality. All the quintile series aspects are specializing in some way, so there should be unique interactions and opportunities that will be the reward of prior efforts up to now.
The Sabian Symbols for the New Moon
A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following month will demonstrate. This Lunation falls at 11 Sagittarius. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol for 11 Sagittarius is “The lamp of physical enlightenment at the left temple.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “influence of social mass upon the individual,” Power of primordial images of Unconscious,” and “Activity dominated by fate.”
In the Astrological Mandala he states this degree is one of “the value of the ‘return to the body’ advocated by modern thinkers in order to balance the stress on intellectuality and objective consciousness.” He says this is about relying upon “the wisdom of the body,” such as we find through “sensitivity training and Gestalt psychotherapy.”
He continues by stating “this refers to the process of deconditioning a consciousness that has become a prisoner of intellectual concepts” trapped by left brain thinking, objectivity, and conformity to social or cultural patterns. We are told this shows us the importance of “relying on organismic responses in meeting life’s challenges.” This symbol is said to be in the Span of Receptiveness, Act of Group Integration, and the first degree of the Individual-Mental level of the Scene of Abstraction.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this degree is about ”the enlarged understanding which comes from an inner and outer spiritual outreaching, and of the rewards following on a ceaseless experiment” in our self-expression. Here we reorient “through a continual balancing of consequences and meanings” in our actions and relationships, where “the world is seen as a laboratory for the soul, able to provide each individual with the reality (we) seek for (ourselves).
He offers the keyword of RECONCILIATION. He states that when this degree works positively, it is “personal effectiveness through an intelligent capitalization on past achievement.” This degree involves aspiration, optimism, greater vision and truth, and we are told it’s “manipulating, practical, original, specializing, and spiritual-experimental.”
So we enter a time of opening to new avenues of wisdom and knowing, of letting go of needing to be excessively mind-based, and through sensing the primal imagery at work in our subconscious mind, or the subconscious or unconscious mind of others, we can come to extraordinary perceptions about the influence of society on us and others. We seem to be promised that through our Being reaching out for Spirit, we can find endless means of self-expression, and see the world as a lab where our Soul can find the reality it seeks.
Other Influences
Pluto, the Cosmic Purifier, will be in Capricorn for many years. It continues to teach us deep lessons about practical, organized economy of energy and efficiency in sprouting seed forms of the new "laws of our lives" we can relax into. 2012 and 2013 have been mainly about being organized in finding and demonstrating ways to get beyond fear and radiate harmlessness and mature fellowship with Nature, whether our own, another's, or Nature Herself.
We’re now reviewing Pluto’s path showing us core lessons that we first experienced between mid-January and late February 2013, and again in June and early July. Since March 2013 we’ve been learning how to see life as a science experiment as we find hints of a new dedication within the collective field. From mid-July through late November we finished our lessons around attuning to the realm of Devas and angels, as well as overcoming fear and receiving rewards for cultivating harmlessness.
In 2013 and 2014 we are in a time of opening to new ways of viewing how to claim our divine power and express it creatively and without fear as we explore the natural laws underlying manifestations, and see Nature Herself as a laboratory where we learn about how our system is constructed. We can “pierce through appearances” to see the magic at the core of things, and through a “keen vision” can find or demonstrate a “universal living touch.” This month we learn how to be selective in bringing forth richness and beauty and some will capitalize on an opportunity that will have major ramifications down the road.
Through Jupiter as the handle of the Bucket, we can now see how to enjoy ourselves more abundantly by knowing the place and function things and people play. Some will find great happiness and contentment in associations, while for others it will be a very sentimental time. Dr. Jones says the degree Jupiter occupies is one of “the ever-exuberant music of life itself” with “experience as a symphony of co-operative relationships.”
Whether how to get a handle on things, or how to focus energy, or a cause to be embraced or a problem to be solved, Jupiter is teaching us a greater sensitivity and trust in our emotional intelligence. We are told that this degree “is a perfecting of those personal traits and inclinations which bring an enduring satisfaction to every immediate situation.”
Because Mercury leads the Lunation, the Scorpio influence will be very strong, and so the emotionally receptive mind leads the light. Due to Saturn occupying a degree transited three times by the recent Mercury retrograde, there will be elements of the past that work to structure the present.
This Lunation is the fourteenth New Moon with Saturn in Scorpio. In 2012 we cultivated a new strength, came to a philosophical completion, and finished repairing or reconstructing something so that some final dues are now paid and old karmas left behind. We are growing into a new intensity, focus, emotional depth, and greater maturity relative to shared values, shared resources, deeper ability to commune with others as well as Nature and Spirit, and getting a more structured connection and a more powerful Spiritual linkage with others and ourselves.
This Full Moon is helping us feel what we have to feel, go deeper as well as higher and wider, and offers us a chance to feel the celebration of feeling connected with others, as well as our own process of unfoldment. As a process of moving through events, take a new look at information you’re working from, or which comes your way, and be willing not to take it at face value.
Once you get a clear vision or understanding, then make a decision based on fundamental facts and act! Once you decide and/or act, then rather than going back into thinking, communicating, reviewing and so forth, then go to your “sacred space” and get clear about how and what you’re feeling.
When you know what you’re feeling, it will naturally lead to a new understanding through a new way of viewing or reflecting on things, which will naturally move into a new set of decisions and actions. Then once you’ve done those activities, go deep within to feel new ways of experiencing how those decisions and actions shifts your view, understanding, or interacting.
We are now firmly launched into a great Life Mystery that beckons to each and all of us. Search for it. We are in the heart of the passage. Allow the revelation to present itself so your mind may be illuminated by the feeling-wisdom of your Soul.
We are offered new ways to make our spiritual values real in our life and our world. This one shows us ways of breaking free of our conditioned lower nature and finding wisdom through honoring what we feel and why we feel it. Due to the on-going Scorpio emphasis, we continue to learn what constitutes healthy desire, and how to create voids to attract a greater truth and life, as well as what will fill the voids we’ve created over many years of eliminating old ghosts from our past.
The more you understand how Life itself requires constant elimination of old forms and occasional major restructuring regarding duties, obligations, and ultimate loyalties, the more you make Saturn your friend through embracing its virtues of self-discipline, patience, persistence, understanding, and long range vision. Keep growing into a reflected, illuminated transcendent wisdom that allows your maturity and authority to come forth in potent, focused ways.
Stay focused on how to enjoy the close interactions as you eliminate the next layers of what you no longer need. Accept that some part of your life work is now done, and embrace the transfiguration of knowing you did it as well as you could!
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I gave you these links in last month’s Solar Eclipse article. Since Solar Eclipses are powerful influences that persist for years, I figured I’d give you these again this month so you can peruse them if you want to know more about what’s been shut down and why over these past 3 years. Consider all I’ve written with an eye to these things occurring in the houses where these Eclipses fell. Briefly, we’ve all had major Taurus, Gemini, Scorpio, and Sagittarius energies shut down, and new forms of these have come forth.
As long time readers know, we all had to let go of the ghosts of the past as we experienced many months of Grand Irrationality “forks in the road of destiny” after the June 2011 Gemini Solar Eclipse. Though we’ve finished the effects of that very powerful Eclipse, the other Solar Eclipses since then continue to affect all of us. One thing is for sure - we'll be feeling the effects of the 2013 Solar Eclipse in Scorpio far more than we felt the 2012 Solar Eclipse in Scorpio!!
Here are the articles explaining the Solar Eclipses of late 2011, 2012 and 2013 still playing out on the world stage and in our lives in major ways! They are listed from newest to oldest.
2013
The Annular Solar Eclipse at 20 Taurus May 9-10, 2013 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
The May 2013 Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 3 – How Will This Lunation Affect Us?
The May New Moon Solar Eclipse in Taurus Pt. 4 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means
2012
The Total Solar Eclipse at 22 Scorpio Nov 13-14, 2012 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
The Solar Eclipse at 22 Scorpio Nov 13-14, 2012 Pt. 2 - How Will It Manifest?
Astrology in May 2012 - On The Threshold of an Annular Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini
The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 2 - How Will It Manifest?
The Solar Eclipse at 1 Gemini May 20-21, 2012 Pt. 3 - Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means
2011
The Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius November 24-25, 2011 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
The Solar Eclipse at 3 Sagittarius November 24-25, 2011 Pt. 2 - How Will It Manifest?
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
Question Your Highness,
When I look at my chart i check the "day formula" for Par Fortunae.....=11 Leo. When I don't check the box Par Fortunae lands at 25 sag...is that night formula and what is the diff?
Posted by: chickie | December 03, 2013 at 11:38 PM
Bravo ::). So encouraging.
Posted by: Tasha | December 04, 2013 at 02:17 AM
Quite extraordinary is all I can say. Quite extraordinary indeed!
Posted by: caliban | December 04, 2013 at 10:44 PM
@ Chickie. The day formula for the part of fortune is for daytime biths. If you were born at night like me its the night time formula
Posted by: Micheline | December 07, 2013 at 02:35 AM
Got it!!! Thank u so much Micheline...never understood that.
Posted by: chickie | December 07, 2013 at 05:10 PM
Hi Micheline and Chickie - the problem is that the "night time" POF is a creation by Western astrologers, not the Arabic astrologers who actually use the various Parts. There are a huge number of Arabic Parts, usually calculated by a formula involving adding the longitude of certain planets and subtracting others to find the part. The Part of Fortune is "the secondary Moon," i.e., the POF bears the exact relationship to the Asc that the Moon does to the Sun. If the Moon is 60 degrees waning from the Sun, the POF will be 60 degrees waning from the Asc. If the Moon is waxing square to the Sun, the POF will be waxing square to the Asc. That's my only concern with the "night POF;" it's not Arabic, at least not an Arabic Part I could find when studying the Parts many years ago.
Posted by: Robert | December 07, 2013 at 06:11 PM
Oh hmmm. There is an Arabic parts calculator on the web and it was based on Al Bruni's .... (Sorry I forget the rest if his name). It has the calculation for both night and day births! As well as tons of other stuff. I will post it on Facebook for you.
Posted by: Micheline | December 08, 2013 at 03:27 PM
Ok so if I was born at 11:27 pm Moon in Scorpio 24 degrees...where do I go from here...is my POF 11 Leo or if I use night it's 25 Sag...and if so is my POF then in the Galactic center where the sun will soon be touching base? si/no?? Thanks in advance for info on this Micheline and Robert.
Posted by: chickie | December 09, 2013 at 10:34 PM
Hi chickie - I always used Asc + Moon - Sun = POF. POF is said to be associated with joy, or wealth, or a sense of well being. I'll add that it's where a certain "need" is fulfilled and we find satisfaction. To note, since I believe your POF is 11 Leo, it's exactly conjunct my Asc. Do you think that contact has worked its magic?
Posted by: Robert | December 10, 2013 at 06:40 AM
Your Highness
There is some VERY STRANGE MAGIC going on here that at this point I'm unable to articulate as i seem to be bouncing off the walls. So I think I will interpret that conjunction as my protection???
Posted by: chickie | December 10, 2013 at 10:14 AM