by Robert Wilkinson
This month I'll give you part 1 on the coming New Moon a day early. Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Aquarius opens the door to a new inspiration for those who go inward to see the bigger picture. Expect adjustments and things either being put on hold or coming in out of the wilderness. Venus shows the Grand Irrationality continues on center stage in all our lives, as well as the world at large!!
This New Moon in Aquarius is airy, idealizing, consolidating, and self-transcending. As with last month, decisions will be made that affect our destiny, and the world at large will seem to be spinning off its axis due to the powerful Cardinal T-square made by Venus conjunct Pluto opposed Jupiter with everything square revolutionary Uranus! So basically this continues the themes of the New Moon in Capricorn while allowing us to get a new picture of what’s possible.
We continue to be in a time where we’re all dealing with many cross currents. These challenge us to do our own thing in our own way based in rethinking old images and symbols from a higher, wider, more abstract view. Those who have persevered in techniques of turning their physical-instinctive limitations and/or boundaries to a higher spiritual discipline will see their perseverance finally paying off!
This stabilizing, synthesizing, idealistic and inspiring New Moon occurs at 11 Aquarius on January 30, 2014, at 1:38 pm PST, 4:38 pm EST, and 9:38 pm Greenwich (UT). The Lunation finds 24 Gemini rising in Santa Monica, 2 Cancer in Vancouver, 3 Leo in Toronto, 9 Leo in Montreal, and 3 Leo in Washington DC. That means the span of Ascendants across North America is between late Gemini and early Leo.
Continuing eastward, we find rising signs of 12 Leo in Rio, 27 Virgo in Lisbon, 4 Libra in London, 13 Libra in Berlin, 22 Libra in Sofia, 13 Scorpio in Johannesburg, and 28 Libra rising in Moscow (Jan 31). That means the span of Ascendants across Europe and Africa is between late Virgo and mid-Scorpio.
Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 5 Sagittarius in Abbottabad, 11 Sagittarius in New Delhi, 19 Sagittarius in Trivandrum, 23 Capricorn in Jakarta, 18 Capricorn in Hong Kong, 9 Aquarius in Tokyo, 10 Aquarius in Perth, 6 Pisces in Melbourne, 11 Pisces in Brisbane, 30 Pisces in Wellington, and 6 Taurus rising on Maui (Jan 30).
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 Aquarius, Mercury is 30 Aquarius, Venus is 14 Capricorn retrograde on its SD degree, Mars is 23 Libra, Jupiter is 13 Cancer retrograde, Saturn is 23 Scorpio, Uranus is 10 Aries, Neptune is 5 Pisces, Pluto is 13 Capricorn, TransPluto is 1 Virgo retrograde, Chiron is 12 Pisces, and the NN is 3 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 (near the MC) in Santa Monica, Vancouver, and Maui, and setting in Toronto, Montreal, Washington DC, and Rio. The New Moon is on the nadir (IC) from Berlin to Moscow through eastern Europe down to Johannesburg, and rising (near the Ascendant) in Jakarta, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Perth, and Melbourne.
This is the seventh 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 Aquarius helps us consolidate and stabilize a new vision while continuing the crucial choices and shifts indicated by the Grand Irrationality. We continue a deep transformational process while getting new interpretations of what we’ve been through. This one should help us put a lot together, despite the friction, cross currents, and hard edge to the general atmosphere.
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 show how well we can embrace some form of life renewal, so be “creative and joyous” in your responses the next month. This will assist the transformation of our life energies from “rabbit” to “nature spirit.”
The Aquarius seed indicated by this New Moon can help us see a greater vision or how we can contribute to a greater future good in timeless ways. As with last month’s New Moon in Capricorn, there will be some hard edges and radical choices and changes due to the Grand Irrationality in full play involving Venus going direct in the Capricorn zone making septiles to Saturn and Neptune. While things may seem a bit crazy, maintain your equilibrium and find ways to refocus the future.
This Lunation shows us our effectiveness in managing our emotions and mind, while helping us get a reasonable perspective and balanced approach to long term pressures. We continue to focus on eliminating stagnant feelings and responses, finding appropriate boundaries and a sense of responsibility for our magnetism as we continue to shed various “skins of personality.”
Like last month, because Venus is in mid-Capricorn it leads the Lunation, and thus is the “herald” for all that is developing in February. Its retrograde has brought it back to the conjunction with Pluto and opposition to Jupiter, making it an important player. It indicates that wherever we’re doing a radical self-transcendence, it will externalize as a combination of flexibility and strength of character. And because it goes stationary direct at 14 Capricorn, we’ll begin to get clear Venusian signs and signals about what is coming at the Great Fracturing of late April when Pluto is stationary retrograde on that degree.
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 last 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.
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 will jumpstart Aquarius energy wherever it falls in our chart. This helps us see a wider application for the personal power we assumed in Capricorn. By what we’ve accepted or transcended, we continue our restructuring of our desires and ability to attract more appropriate duties and roles in the future.
This New Moon has an individual, mental, and spiritual focus. Because it happens in Aquarius, 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 transmutation, even as Uranus continues to help us reinterpret our past.
So like last month’s Capricorn New Moon, this New Moon in Aquarius 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.
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 Venus conjuncts Pluto and septiles Saturn and Neptune, with Saturn 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. These articles sum up what we’re dealing with, so please check them out again!
The current degree spans that trigger this transformative mass configuration are around 19-23 Scorpio, 10-14 Capricorn, 1-5 Pisces, 23-27 Aries, 15-19 Gemini, 6-10 Leo, and 28 Virgo-2 Libra. If you have a planet or angle in any of these zones, you are making critical choices and decisions that will alter your future in important ways. And because it’s in motion due to outer planets, these are pretty much forces beyond your ability to control, even if you can always control your response to these critical events.
To note, this configuration has been in full force during the time Saturn has occupied the Scorpio zone through about now. Even though Saturn is quickly leaving the zone, it’s still active for the next four weeks via Venus in this chart. This has given 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 31-Feb 1, 4, 8-9, 13, 17-18, 21-22, 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-fifth 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 12 Pisces. This will help us heal anew through our positioning within collective consciousness, helping us “prove our qualifications” as we enter a broader life. This awakened in everyone June 2005 through December 2006. We can now heal wounds from that time, or see how what we’ve awakened to since then has helped us healing into our higher Self.
We have now “entered the sanctuary” and been examined for our dedication and skill. It’s time to take responsibility for using our skills productively within the larger dedication we’ve already declared.
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 all mastered something, been offered higher responsibilities, and been shown what spiritual goals we’re fit to accomplish.
In this chart Neptune is at 5 Pisces, a degree we first experienced in the Spring and Summer of 2013. This degree gives us glimpses through intuition and a greater feeling-connection of our positioning within a vaster field. According to the Sabian Symbols, this shows the collective field is about “interchange of spirit and understanding on which groups are built,” “new self-development,” and “discouragement mastered.”
More on Saturn’s Universally Important Influence
Because of Saturn’s path the past year, through our magnetism and desires 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 the Solar Eclipse from November 2013 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 deepening our feeling connections with others in cooperative enterprises. Here we build social values as we contribute our efforts to something.
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, we are now almost at a threshold of reviewing how we’ve contacted 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. Now we get to do transmutation practices.
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 quincunx Jupiter and binovile Saturn and Venus in the Cardinal T-square triggering the Grand Irrationality. There’s also a Mars biseptile Jupiter, Saturn sesquisquare Uranus and biseptile Neptune, and the encroaching 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 38.
© Copyright 2014 Robert Wilkinson
Ur Highness......moon opposing my 11 leo Par Fortunae.....
Posted by: chickie | January 28, 2014 at 12:06 PM
The surprising thing to me right now is that my perception or idea or way I see things are doin a 180. It's trippy.
Posted by: caliban | January 28, 2014 at 03:21 PM
New moons come and go, I don't' get too fazed by them, In the multiple layers of complexity within any given chart; natal, current transits, or progressed, I try hard not to loose perspective. In my humble opinion, we are ALL of our charts at any given moment.
Chiron has done its dance around my natal chart and now for the return, more, yes more! interesting days ahead... even more so with its opposition to my Virgo Stellium, my great wound never heals...but thats ok! :)
Posted by: RodJM | January 28, 2014 at 03:33 PM
Conjunct POF (4th) opposite Divine mother (10th)square neptune (1st) )square Vesta (7th) all within less than a degree, oh lookie another cross to bear, thank goodness its not another cardinal one for a change so my 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th can have a breather for a moment, but a fixed one, good grief, I hope it does indeed "fix" the repercussions of that which broke under the cardinal ones...
Posted by: debbie | January 28, 2014 at 07:43 PM
thank you!
Christy
Posted by: christy | January 29, 2014 at 11:01 AM
Ya know…I just can’t take anything else going on at my 11 Can/Cap ASC/DSC axis…I just really can’t. Yes, JUP and PLU are 2 deg past, and thank goodness they’ve both moved off my 9 Cap MOO. MER is 1 deg applying inconjunct/quincunx (can’t keep those two straight) to my PLU 0Vir, which is a new view of their natal relationship. URA was trining URA at 7 Leo, and NEP trine NEP was less foggy. Both SAT and MAR are 1 deg off my SUN 22 Pis. The SAT trine has been a welcome change from our usual misunderstandings. And tomorrow is my NN return. I have been reformatting the expression of my outer personality in all my relationships.
TL;DR: Like Madeline Kahn in “Blazing Saddles,” I’m tired.
Posted by: Mary | January 29, 2014 at 04:28 PM
Whew. This new moon is right on my fixed square - conjunct my Chiron at 12 Aquarius, opposite Uranus, square the Scor/Taur nodes. I've had a very rough time the past couple of weeks - hope that the tide starts to turn. Warmest wishes to you, Robert, and I hope Venus's turn brings beauty and ease to you.
Posted by: Lainie | January 29, 2014 at 08:13 PM