by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Capricorn opens the door to new ways of “capitalizing on opportunity,” with a lot being blown apart via the intense T-square. This one puts us between old and new perspectives, and there may be a sense of chaos as we yield to our feelings and learn how to “create beauty from wilderness.” And of course, the Grand Irrationality is center stage in all our lives, as well as the world at large!!
This New Moon in Capricorn is earthy, intense, efficient, initiating, and self-transcending. Decisions will be made that affect our destiny, and the world at large will seem to be spinning off its axis! Many cross currents will be evident, showing us how to do our own thing in our own way based in a higher order we will glimpse and have to find a way to ground. Tear yourself away from “the known and familiar,” and those with courage could very well find new territory opening for them.
This initiating, organizing, pragmatic and grounded New Moon occurs at 11 Capricorn on January 1, 2014, at 3:14 am PST, 6:14 am EST, and 11:14 am Greenwich (UT). The Lunation finds 21 Scorpio rising in Santa Monica, 11 Scorpio in Vancouver, 18 Sagittarius in Toronto, 21 Sagittarius in Montreal, and 23 Sagittarius in Washington DC. That means the span of Ascendants across North America is between early Scorpio and late Sagittarius.
Continuing eastward, we find rising signs of 21 Aquarius in Rio, 15 Pisces in Lisbon, 29 Pisces in London, 1 Taurus in Berlin, 10 Taurus in Sofia, 25 Aries in Johannesburg, and 17 Gemini rising in Moscow. That means the span of Ascendants across Europe and Africa is between mid-Pisces through mid-Gemini.
Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 30 Gemini in Abbottabad, 1 Cancer in New Delhi, 21 Gemini in Trivandrum, 13 Cancer in Jakarta, 1 Leo in Hong Kong, 27 Leo in Tokyo, 10 Cancer in Perth, 8 Leo in Melbourne, 23 Leo in Brisbane, 21 Virgo in Wellington, and 22 Libra rising on Maui.
So you can construct a rough chart for where you are in the world, I’ll give you the rounded up degree for each planet. Use the Ascendants given above to get a rough sense of what’s on the eastern horizon where you are, and using an Equal House system, you can see what’s going on in your part of the world for the next 4 weeks.
In this New Moon at 11 Capricorn, Mercury is 13 Capricorn, Venus is 27 Capricorn retrograde, Mars is 12 Libra, Jupiter is 17 Cancer retrograde, Saturn is 21 Scorpio, Uranus is 9 Aries, Neptune is 4 Pisces, Pluto is 12 Capricorn, TransPluto is 1 Virgo retrograde, Chiron is 10 Pisces, and the NN is 6 Scorpio.
When a Lunation is on one of the angles of a chart, it is said to be particularly powerful. Among the cities covered in this column, this month the Lunation is culminating in Lisbon, London, Berlin, and Johannesburg, and setting in Moscow, Pakistan, India, Jakarta, and Perth. The New Moon is on the nadir in NeZ and Maui, and rising in Toronto, Montreal, and Washington DC.
This is the sixth in a sequence of New Moons that fall in the same sign as the following Full Moon, This reverses many months of the New Moon falling in the sign preceding the Sun of the following Full Moon. In other words, this New Moon in Capricorn also has a Full Moon in Capricorn and Cancer. This is the reverse of what we experienced between July 2011-June 2013, when we had a sequence of Lunations where the Full Moon Sun was in the sign after the New Moon Sun.
We shifted back to “normal” with the New and Full Moons of August. Since I explain this phenomenon and what it means in the Full Moon articles, I’ll elaborate more on this shift into the “normal order of things,” and when the pattern will next be reversed, in the next Full Moon articles coming in about two weeks.
The New Moons and Full Moons are “God’s footprints in time.” Each shows the next in the 12 phases of how things come to be each year. The cycle could be described as follows: Life energy is initiated in Aries, substantiated in Taurus, explored in Gemini, grounded in Cancer, renewed and creatively expressed in Leo, refined and ordered in Virgo, balanced in Libra, purified in Scorpio, expanded in Sagittarius, organized in Capricorn, solidified into a vision in Aquarius, and ended/perpetuated in Pisces.
An Overview of the New Moon
This New Moon in Capricorn marks a point of entrance into an even deeper transformational process. We will see to the core of things, so that we can reorganize along natural lines and do “self-transcendence” practices. This one takes us into unknown zones, and shows us the results of prior choices as well as multiple potential futures.
The next 4 weeks we continue to understand how we’re dealing with our Scorpio issues we’ve been dealing with for over a year. Here we face “chaos” so we can yield to our feelings, as well as embrace alternative futures. This one will help us go deeper into our dedication, or come up for fresh air.
The Capricorn seed indicated by this New Moon can help us see what needs refining or reorganizing to work more efficiently. There will some hard edges and radical choices and changes due to the Grand Irrationality in full play involving the Lunation, Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto. While things may seem a bit crazy, maintain your equilibrium and find ways to exercise “soft power.”
This Lunation shows us our effectiveness in managing our emotions, while helping us get a reasonable perspective on things that threaten to explode into formlessness. We continue to learn how to manage fears that have led to stagnant emotions, even as we see concrete growth that is based in what began last Summer. We also continue to shed various “skins of personality.”
Since Venus in late Capricorn leads the cluster of inner planets between Libra and Capricorn, it is the “herald” for all that is developing in January and February. Though now retrograde, it has a couple of very fortunate aspects in this chart, showing productivity and unique gifts and developments. We’ll certainly know we’re “on the Path,” as well as see who is with us on the “pilgrimage.”
Due to Saturn’s continuing influence as a major player in this Lunation through anchoring the Scorpio zone of the Grand Irrationality, we will find ourselves at forks in the road of destiny, making choices about what to eliminate, what to regenerate, and how to let go of all that we don’t want nor need to take with us into a future that began to rapidly unfold in July and August around the time Mars conjuncted Jupiter. And as I’ve told you before, when in doubt, you might as well let go, since you cannot hold on to those things anyway.
This New Moon will jumpstart Capricorn energy wherever it falls in our chart. This helps us take responsibility for living the truths glimpsed in Sagittarius. We will learn to accept our duties, or transcend old ones, through an intensification of the purification process. This one helps us maneuver through the “traffic jams” in the collective consciousness.
Saturn, along with the North Node in Scorpio, continues to help us see a) how we have shifted our magnetism on relationships since Summer, and/or b) how we need to find a new view or way of understanding the losses and eliminations of the past we’ve been through. We’ve all passed through major choices and changes in the first half of 2013 when Saturn triseptiled Uranus. Now we’re flowing into a long wave period of finding the right focus to bring forth a higher way to be with others.
This New Moon has an individual, mental, and spiritual focus. Because it happens in Capricorn, Saturn is the worldly ruler of the Lunation, and Uranus is the spiritual ruler. Due to Saturn’s position, the backdrop to the message of this New Moon puts the focus on deep feelings, faith, and emotional challenges that show us new perspectives and possibilities, even as Uranus continues to help us concentrate to see the whole picture.
So this Capricorn New Moon is ruled (in worldly things) by Saturn in Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars in Libra, which is ruled by Venus in Capricorn. This Saturn-Mars-Venus “closed circuit” is the ”chain of final dispositors,” which is a very powerful self-reinforcing energy. That makes these 3 planets dominant as the background for all the planetary energies except for Neptune, which occupies its “home” sign, making it a standalone force unto itself. (I’ll be posting an update to that article soon, since the positions mentioned as examples happened a while ago.)
The Grand Irrationality
The reason this section is a recurring feature in the Lunation articles is because it was set into long term play by the 2011 Solar Eclipse, which is triggered each time any transiting planet occupies any of the 7 zones of the Grand Irrationality. This Lunation puts the Grand Irrationality front and center, since the Sun and Moon are conjunct Pluto and septile Saturn and Neptune, with Saturn septile Pluto and biseptile Neptune. This highlights 3 points of the 7 pointed Star pattern, making this an extremely important month in terms of global events that will throw people and nations into hard edged choices and change.
For those who are new to the site, here’s a bit of explanation about this thing called “the Grand Irrationality” that may help new visitors understand why everything continues to be so weird. As I’ve explained many times before, the Grand Irrationality is a long wave non-rational influence that has put everyone on Earth on the unceasing edge of major choice and change.
Everyone has been confronting inner compulsions, continual choices that seem to have a major impact on our destiny, and occasionally irrational behaviors in others or external conditions. It is why things seem to have an unending hard edge, why so many choices are continually thrown in our faces that require immediate attention, and why reason seems to fail at critical moments of decision.
When the Grand Irrationality is in play, it’s a time when things don’t have to make sense. Get used to it, since we’ve been living with it for about 18 years, and will be in play for a few more years to come.
Much was promised when Mercury went stationary retrograde at 19 Scorpio on October 21. Saturn has just crossed that degree, and will again transit it in the Spring. Please refer to the articles I gave you about Mercury retrograde back then to learn more. I’ve written extensively about the Grand Irrationality in past articles, most recently in Astrology in November-December 2013 - The Grand Irrationality Affecting Everyone and Astrology in late November and Early December 2013 – In the Heart of the Grand Irrationality. When you’re done here, please check out those articles to find the current seven “hot zone” spans and times when this larger configuration associated with non-rational behavior and conditions will be activated.
To note, this configuration will be in full force during the time Saturn occupies the Scorpio zone through late January, giving us a taste of what will be happening when it retrogrades back through the zone in March and early April. This configuration is activated every day the Moon and Ascendant are in any of the 7 hot zones. The days the Moon focuses the energy are Jan 4, 7-8, 12-13, 16, 21, 25, and 28-29.
Neptune and Chiron at the Cusp of the Age:
Now that these two are further into Pisces, they are no longer at the Cusp of the Age. Since they first entered the zone back in 2011-2012, we’ve been navigating through the threshold of an entirely new era that will not resemble the old Age in any way within just a few decades. We’re already solidly in the Dreamscape, and are already seeing long wave manifestations of the ending of the old and the emerging field we’re all learning how to maneuver through.
Other than the brief look we had in mid-2011, this is only the twenty-fourth New Moon with Neptune in Pisces for the next 150 years. We had Neptune in Pisces for the 3 New Moons for May, June, and July 2011 which gave us a front end look at how Neptune will function through 2025.
Between August 2011, when Neptune retrograded back into late Aquarius, and the January 2012 New Moon, we were given one last look back at a greater ideal, and the changes of the last half of 2011 helped many to break out of our "chrysalis" and transform how we live and all our relationships. That is now established in the collective consciousness, as well as a growing sense of the larger light field in which all sentient Beings live and love.
If you want to know what's coming for many years to come, take a look back at the intuitions and sense of belonging to a vaster interrelated whole you were shown in May, June, and July 2011. It may help to give a sense of our collective lesson in dissolving our separateness as we finish this transition through "the Winter of the 21st Century" on our way to Spring, beginning in 2025!
In 2011 both Neptune and Chiron revealed our unique part to play within a larger light/life field. During that time, these planets at the beginning of Pisces and end of Aquarius occupied degrees representing "the Cusp of the Age," the span where the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius meet. From one point of view, where we were collectively between February 2011 and March 2012 revealed what the period of (approximately) 1990-2140 is all about in the broader context of human evolution. I suspect that future generations will look back at 2011 and 2012 as being crucial in showing long range patterns of larger evolutionary necessities.
Neptune and Chiron dancing between signs on "the Cusp of the Age" had the effect of making it seem like we have all been occupying a very weird dreamscape which we'll be navigating for years to come. The trick for us is to apply our new strengths and understanding freed from the ghosts of the past, and by riding the waves of intense (but curiously steady) pulses of spiritual energies shaping our minds, we can find techniques where our efforts will lead us to forms of good fortune.
In this chart, Chiron is direct in motion at 10 Pisces. We have now reviewed and healed something related to our positioning within collective consciousness, where we can take skills we’ve mastered into a more wholehearted embrace of some new dedication we awakened to over the past year.
We have healed through knowing what we stand for, hearing a call to a life renewal, and letting go of unnecessary baggage to quicken the pace in achieving some social goal. We have now healed, and are ready to take on higher responsibilities.
In this chart Neptune is at 4 Pisces, a degree of psychic traffic jams where we’re learning how to maneuver through collisions in collective consciousness. Now that it’s move beyond its stationary direct degree, we’ve seen the indestructible parts of our Self and life, and are free to embrace a more “immortal” form of self-expression. We can now be more conscious of how we handle our existence within a larger context, and participate in broader forms of service.
More on Saturn’s Universally Important Influence
Because of Saturn’s path these past 11 months, through past understanding and practice we have begun to demonstrate a higher level of social functioning. Now that we’ve learned what is permanent and stable in our life structures, this is the next step in practicing those Saturn lessons. This one will help us get past old feeling states, and help us eliminate what we need to in order to move into a new social or cultural power.
Saturn in Scorpio indicates a period of elimination and regeneration, as well as seeing what to let go of that which no longer works. We are finding ways to get focused and clear about what structures are worthwhile and which need eliminating or purifying, and have finished the preliminary stage of a long wave process showing us how to conduct ourselves at a higher social level of interaction.
This has “confirmed our social status” and helped us be part of a refined display of interactive class, style, and culture. We’ve now finished the primary Saturn lessons of 2013, and now that Saturn has moved beyond its 2013 SRX degree, we confront a new set of Saturn in Scorpio lessons through December 2014.
As Saturn rules the bones, and Scorpio rules regenerative processes, you may want to regard the current Saturn in Scorpio transit as symbolizing a type of “bone regeneration,” or the elimination of all in our skin and bones that would block our ability to meet and greet others at a higher level of dignity, reserve, and “civilized” behavior. This shows us a long wave elimination and regeneration work each of us is doing in our own ways and times.
2012 finished our philosophical and ideological understanding in life areas related to Libra, Capricorn, and Aquarius in our charts, and since October 2012 we have entered a Scorpio experience of an intensification of magnetics to attract what we need and repel what is not needed. Saturn in Scorpio will continue to be a MUCH different manifestation of Saturn than we were used to between 2010-2012!
Due to the 2012 and 2013 Scorpio Solar Eclipses, we’ve been looking back to rehearse the future after eliminating elements of the past. This opened the doors that we walked through in late December 2012 that continued through January 2013, and November’s Solar Eclipse renewed the pulse. Whether we want to or not, we’ve all had to be willing to embrace a purification process, especially purifying the life of stuck feelings and desires, and open to a new game and a new way of playing that game.
As noted in other Lunation articles, with North Node still in Scorpio, our greatest development is through our ability to eliminate, regenerate, attract, and repel as part of a greater effectiveness. Consider this as a time of learning more from our losses than what we hold on to. How we’ve been growing since mid-2012 will pay major dividends now that Saturn is in the second half of Scorpio.
North Node in Scorpio show we can grow through understanding magnetism in a more focused, active way. Where it is in this Lunation chart shows we can grow through tearing ourselves away from the known and familiar, moving into a greater zeal, a more intense quest, and a more universal set of values that may be destructive of our “cultural ease of living,” where we leap to greet an opportunity that can help us leave the past behind.
As Saturn moves forward, it is concretizing all that we’ve been learning via the North Node while it’s been in middle and late Scorpio. Though the lessons will take a Saturnine form, by early 2014 we’ll have had many opportunities to contact our innermost “God force” and move beyond old forms. This past Autumn we have learned to go to our “center of reality” and see how Spirit and Soul are dancing with whatever in our personality is conflicted.
This Lunation features a number of very powerful favorable aspects between the planets, which I’ll speak about in the next article of this series. Among the most powerful, we have the New Moon square Mars, opposed Jupiter, septile Saturn and Neptune, and conjunct Pluto. We also find Mercury opposed Jupiter, Venus biseptile Mars, opposed Jupiter, sextile Saturn, and quintile Uranus, Mars square Jupiter, Jupiter oppsition Pluto, Saturn sesquisquare Uranus and biseptile Neptune, and the return of the ongoing Uranus square Pluto indicating the global collision between a new humanity and an old slave system. As you can see, there are a LOT of very frictional aspects forming, which will break a lot loose in life areas where these squares and oppositions fall. Just keep relying on the emotional intelligence and stability you’ve cultivated since last Summer, and as always, show patience.....
In the next part of the series we'll discuss the various aspects at play in the chart, as well as some important degree symbols and other interesting elements affecting all of us for 4 weeks to come.
Since November’s Solar Eclipse in Scorpio is still a powerful influence, here are the articles for your review.
Astrology in November 2013 - On The Threshold of a Hybrid Solar Eclipse at 12 Scorpio
The Hybrid Solar Eclipse at 12 Scorpio Nov 3, 2013 Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?
Since that Solar Eclipse occurred so close to the Inferior Conjunction of the Sun and Mercury, here's the article outlining how that influence was a factor in what we experienced this past month, and will be dealing with for the next 39.
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
Ever since a full-on spiritual awakening that came from an encounter with an unrealized love last Saturday, I have been searching everywhere for answers. This explanation is helping me to heal, integrate, and move to a higher level. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this knowledge and blessing.
Posted by: Shelby | January 01, 2014 at 07:29 AM
What can I say? During the last few days I have come across subjects that i would like to use in my practice as I have outgrown the need to abide by conventional psychology. I have found energy psychological healing on the one hand, and past life regression on the other. My studying and applying on myself, I have been fascinated by both. By reading your article, I think that you have written it to fit my experience, or that my experience fits your article? what way is it? :)
Posted by: Kate Minogianni | January 01, 2014 at 10:59 AM
Hi Shelley - Glad this helps you understand what's being navigated and why. And of course, healing and integration and moving to higher levels is always a very good thing!! Of course you are most welcome.
Hi Kate - Just glad to be able to call it as I see it, and that your life and ongoing realization process is in tune with the larger pulse.
A little history: I bailed on a MA in Counseling Psych in 1972 since I couldn't see straightjacketing myself in someone else's rules that made no sense and clearly indicated a game was being played. That's how Professor Robert came to be who he is today.
I am cautious about past life regression therapy, since in the 1970s I did a lot of counseling about past lives as they are shown in our birth chart. I came to realize over time that regardless of what was indicated, NOW is really the only time there is, the only life there is, and the only moment we can do whatever about whatever. That said, I'm a big fan of Brian Weiss and "Many Lives Many Masters." And if you haven't read it, another take I found interesting is Michael Newton's "Journey of Souls," which focuses on the Life between lives.
After analyzing hundreds of past lives, I kept being brought back to the universal punch line in counseling: "And what are you going to do about it?" We can know (or believe we know) the sources of confusion, fear, doubt, aversion, and other problems, but in the final analysis it's all about NOW, changing pattern if appropriate, and moving forward in our unending journey from darkness to light. That's why regardless of our past life issues, if we practice our life with detachment, compassion, dispassion, discernment, and learn to generate positive movement toward our highest best interests, here and now, whatever that may look like, then it doesn't matter what seemed to be in another place and time (which can also be said for our "past lives" in this current lifetime!)
As our old friend the I Ching notes, "The best way to fight evil is to make progress in the good." That means not feeding the illusion, nor granting it any more "reality" than it deserves, which is zero. Examining the sources of ours and others' suffering is always good, but ultimately all suffering arises in some mix of attachment, aversion, illusion, or the mind's natural pessimism, usually with a dose of fear, vanity, desire, or attachment to strong sensation spicing the mix. And yes, the subconscious mind does store memories of old traumas which must be confronted one way or another. It's all very, very human.......
Posted by: Robert | January 01, 2014 at 11:31 AM
I too found Michael Newton's Journey of Souls a fascinating read. I find myself being reminded of it quite a bit these last two years.
Posted by: Diane S. | January 01, 2014 at 07:11 PM
I never really meant to regress. A door was opened and the pictures came out. I think it may have been opened by someone I met, although we never spoke of it. The person's energy, or so I sensed, went to the heart of the matter. At first I had curiosity about the pictures that were from other times. Whether actual or symbolic, they are something I work with to release illusion so I can be more present. I don't suggest anyone do it. One situation was very graphic. And every once in awhile I pushed to go deeper and release yet another thing that is related. It showed up so I use it to get off the merry go round of suffering. Lately I am considering awareness of my selfishness generated by attachment or attachment generated by selfishness, which may have to do with uranus in aries. If it causes suffering, why am I doin it? Can't be good. I'll have to run all this up against newton's book.
Posted by: caliban | January 02, 2014 at 10:19 AM
Hi Robert
Thank you for sharing your experience as an MA student. I absolutely emphathize with that. Professionally, I am exactly at the point that I have outgrown my need to work with addiction, struggling to help people who don't want to help themselves. I have come to the point, like you had, that I realized that the old theories are very limiting and I need a wider view on looking at the world and myself.
I like past life regression in terms of what it offers to shedding light to past life's contribution to what we are today. Understanding of that, sometimes, but not always, is sufficient to alleviate bad physical and psychological symptoms. I certainly agree that the next question is "what next?" to go on with our life. Unfortunately, not many people are mature enough to start right from the "what next?" question and knowledge of their past helps them proceed with their life. Not to mention the curiosity factor :).
I already attempted a past life regression for myself, which I find very revealing and therapeutic. I found myself somewhere in Sweden, in the country in the year 1831. To my surprise, as Sweden has never been a country emotionally meaningful to me. I saw myself as a beautiful young woman of 22-25 y.of age at the time. After that, I have been feeling very confident about my looks considering my age today.... just joking :). I saw the place where I lived, the place where I used to work - the stable of the big wooden mansion, which I felt it was mine, probably a member of an affluent family. I saw a young boy, about 14-15, who I think he was a brother to me. I saw my parents, who happened to be the same parents in this life. When I asked my father to tell me something significant in this life, he said "I love you". Asked the same question my mother said "You have to stand on your own feet". It was an emotionally stormy experience for me. My father never told me "I love you" in this life, and my mother's role has always been so negative and threatening that I indeed had to stand on my own feet to survive. When asked to go to the happiest moment of that life, I saw a wedding banquet outside our mansion, with a lot of people and me as the bride. The groom, a Swedish type guy then, was my friend psychiatrist in this life, who helped me so much to start my internship as a psychologist, and later find a job in the field. I have been also quite helpful in all spheres of his life, too, and we have had a very close mutually beneficial and loving relationship for years, so it was not surprise for me that we are so old acquaintances :). I will not go into more details of this regression. But I really find it very beneficial from my own experience. That's the reason why I share it here with you.... and all the people on the internet.... lol!! :)
I really like Weiss' work. I am not familiar with Newton's work, though. But you convinced me to order it from amazon :).
Blessings for the new year.
Kate
Posted by: Kate Minogianni | January 04, 2014 at 07:23 AM