by Robert Wilkinson
This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in the Gemini New Moon chart. After April’s Great Fracturing that busted up some log jams, we’re now beginning to rebuild on what’s left, and what beckons.
This month features some aftershocks to the recent Grand Cardinal Cross, since every time the Moon is in early to mid-Libra, Capricorn, Aries, and Cancer, the cross is triggered anew. As Jupiter is moving on in a couple of weeks while Mars hangs around making frictional aspects, know what you need, defend what you care about, and play good defense demonstrating the same balance and reasonableness that you’ve been practicing for the past 5+ months.
This Lunation, along with the inner planets, continues this period when the New Moon will be between Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Cancer, filling in that part of the zodiac. Therefore, we enter a period where we are again in a “Splay” Jones pattern.
In this New Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets includes late Aries through late Gemini, with no intense clusters. Still, Aries through Gemini are highly active! This month we find 6 planets plus Chiron in the 112+ degrees between Neptune and Mercury.
So this month continues to even the spread in terms of planets in signs, since the 10 planets occupy 7 signs, and are fairly spread out around the zodiacal wheel. So this modifies the “See Saw” defined by planets in Cancer, Libra, and Scorpio opposed by planets in Capricorn, Aries, and Taurus, and turns it into another pattern. In other words, the planets are all over the map!
So What is a “Splay Pattern” and how does it work?
This type of spread, with all the planets in odd angles to each other with differing distributions among the signs, creates a “Splay” Jones Pattern. As Marc Jones put it, “the arrangement is neither even nor symmetrical,” revealing “strong and sharp aggregations of the planets at irregular points.”
Dr. Jones states “This suggests highly individual or purposeful emphases in the life, where the temperament juts out into experiences according to its own very special tastes.” This pattern “makes its own anchorage in existence,” and has a quality of “rugged resistance to pigeonholing, either in the near conventional compartments of nature, or in the idea-pockets of associates.”
He goes on to state this pattern gives a “persistent emphasis on individuality,” and the “spokelike emphases of the planetary groupings” are random, but have a “tripod” footing and approach to life circumstances. He says this pattern “reveals a very intensive personality who cannot be limited to any single steady point of application.” This temperament is “particular and impersonal in its interests,” rather than “universal-impersonal” or “particular-personal.”
This implies that affairs will be diversely spread out, some will not mesh well with others, and there will be a “hub and spoke" quality to what happens these next 4 weeks. This spread shows a wide diversity of things going on that promotes individuality.
Up to now, the water trines of the past 11 months have ensured a flowing, moving, stabilizing quality. Though the Grand Water Trine in the early degrees of each Water sign is now past, we are still in a heavy water period, given the Jupiter trine Saturn in effect from last Summer pretty much through mid-January and back in play for the past two months. Much became clearer in March as transiting trines to both Jupiter and Saturn tied 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. The numerous conjunctions, square, and oppositions will show us how to integrate frictional energies in dynamic ways and express the understandings and gifts we’ve learned since June.
Element Balance
Of the traditional 10 planets, there are 3 planets in Water signs, 2 in Fire, 1 in Earth, and 4 in Air. This indicates a huge emphasis on thinking, relationships, and interactivity, with a lesser emphasis on feeling and inspiration, and practicality in short supply. Due to the harmony of Air planets with the Fire planets, there should be inspired thinking and interactions where a lot of ideas are exchanged in potential new initiatives.
Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, things may feel strangely balanced even as the tides move us forward. Just keep in mind that Air plus Water could be very moveable and not very stable, with emotions high even if reasoning is scattered.
Various Important Influences
While they have receded, last year’s 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.
As noted earlier, with Mars still retrograde in Libra just coming off the void of the Cardinal T-square made by Jupiter opposed Pluto and Uranus squared by each, we’re still in a time of practicing extreme moderation, peacemaking, reasonableness, and fairness while maintaining balance in situations that pull us off center. Be graceful in adapting and refining your responses to challenges.
We all became more emotionally intelligent in some way in 2013, and have set long range future patterns to be fulfilled over time. Stay practical as you navigate your now-established “feeling-knowing,” be humble and adaptable, and follow the growth path while not allowing things to get too blown out of proportion.
Saturn's Influence
I include separate sections on Saturn in two articles in this Lunation series since Saturn continues to wax in importance in all celestial events of these times. This is the twenty-first 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.
In 2012 Saturn helped us cultivate 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.
We ended the first phase of Saturn in Scorpio set into motion when it went retrograde at 12 Scorpio in February 2013 when Saturn moved beyond that degree last October. However, the Solar Eclipse at 12 Scorpio in early November 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.
In 2012-2013, Saturn triseptile Uranus showed us 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 that configuration was in play, as well as any other major septile series aspects between the planets. 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.
Mars in Libra disposits Saturn in Scorpio. That is adding an element of moderation, refinement, and blunting Saturn in Scorpio extremes. Libra is also where we refine our expression to make it more graceful, elegant, and understanding of other views. As long as Mars is in Libra, Saturn will be made more graceful in its expression.
So as you open to the sixth New Moon of 2014, take a new look at what Saturn helped you let go of throughout 2013, 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 trines Mars and squares Neptune, building through the Air element and releasing through Neptune, and vise versa.
Besides the aspects just mentioned, prominent aspects in this Lunation feature the Lunation making a novile to Jupiter and a quadranovile to Saturn, Mercury sextile Venus and sesquisquare Saturn, Venus decile Sun, quadranovile Mars, binovile Jupiter, and tredecile Pluto, Mars binovile Jupiter and opposed Uranus and square Pluto, Jupiter sesquisquare Neptune, and Saturn tredecile Neptune. Take nothing for granted, keep it all balanced and moderate, and you’ll find over the next 4 weeks that multiple interlocking realizations are coming your way!
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 8 Gemini. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol for 8 Gemini is “An industrial strike.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “A stirring of the collective, unconscious factors of being toward the repolarization of the conscious ego,” and “idle protest.”
In the Astrological Mandala he states this degree is one of “the disruptive power of the ambitious mind upon the organic wholeness of human relationship.” He states that in this symbol we see the unrest generated by industrial, “intellect-generated energy” where “conflicts and disruptive processes are initiated.” He notes this “leads to a revolt against privileges.” This symbol is said to be in the Span of Zeal, Act of Differentiation, and is the third degree of the Emotional-Cultural level of the Scene of Discovery.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this degree is one of “the necessity that (we) act in (our) own interest whenever (our) general situation fails to provide (us) with the creative outlet (we) need, or proves inadequate for (our) relations.” We are told there is an “emphasis on the instabilities of life as a dynamic for accomplishment, calling on the human spirit for constructive reorganization.”
He continues with “there is here the dignity of a personality which may be exalted but never exploited. He offers us the keyword of PROTEST. He states that when this degree works positively, it is one of “undeviating self-assertiveness and a refusal to accept any lesser in lieu of a greater.”
So we enter a time of some things melting down, especially those Neptunian ideals at odds with the signs and signals of rebirth we’re getting. This one will help us be flexible in seeing a bigger picture while taking care of details, and putting a lot of minor things together in a balanced overview of a greater whole.
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 were 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.
Pluto is now in a zone in Capricorn it hasn’t been in for 250 years, and has gone retrograde at 14 Capricorn. 14 Capricorn is a technique for sorting out what’s valuable and what’s not in our past, so we can find a way to a greater assurance and “personal immortality” (as strange as that concept is!)
This is a threshold where we can see how the seeds of the future have been “gestating in the past,” or conversely, how the present transformational energy was set into motion in the past. Take on a graceful self-discipline, and you will know Divine Grace in operation.
Now that we’ve learned to attune to the invisible realms and to whatever degree gotten beyond fear, 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 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.”
In February we moved into signs and signs of self-transcendence. These set the stage for current and future new perspectives that will lead to another phase of self-transcendence in June and the first half of July 2014, with the completion of the process achieved by February 2016.
Because Venus in Aries leads the Lunation, the Aries influence will be extraordinarily strong. This will show us how we need to accept certain natural restrictions and limitations so we can play exactly where we’re supposed to be. As it is sextile Mercury, ruler of the lunation, this should be a very productive period of time, especially in every way we regard our spirituality.
Neptune represents what is “in fashion” in the collective. Different cultures and subcultures interpret this global pulse in different ways. The Sabian Symbol for 8 Pisces indicates we stand on the threshold of a major life renewal by hearing “the call,” or “sounding the call.” This one shows us the future, and many will be called to a larger social or global work. See how you can best be of service to a greater whole, and allowing your Spirit to find its best expression in a social form.
Since Summer 2013, we’ve found a new dedication to “collective values” we want to uphold and defend, and many have perceived higher goals through a process of “self-testing.” We now flow deeper into that dedication. This will have an impact on the collective atmosphere in August 2014. Withdraw from an old experience so you can regrasp reality in another realm, especially when the situation attempts to repudiate your higher ideals.
Be active in defending and/or maintaining your allegiances “through which life has been made worthwhile,” and by listening to your inner voice, you’ll quicken your Soul’s expression. Follow your conscience into a great compassion for yourself and others, and be independent of spirit while courageously rejecting that which would compromise your highest spiritual principles.
Feeling, then Thinking, then Deciding
As a process of moving through events, we’re all going to be inclined to feel our way into decisions and actions. Once we’ve flowed into a clear sense of what to do and/or how to do it, then allow for new ideas, visions, interactions, and understanding. Do not rely on old information! Once we’ve found a new vision, understanding, or interaction, then a new feeling will naturally arise showing the next action to take.
So feel, flow, experience, since these will lead you to decisions that will in turn lead to new information and understanding. When your understanding leads to a clear vision, then follow your feelings and sense of experience to find the fundamental fact, or act that must be done to move it all one step forward. Then go get even newer views and understanding.
This Lunation will show us how to think and act in different ways, and help us see a new standard of value or performance we can aspire to in the new era. We continue to walk on out of old ways into new lives, and should help us adapt and be more flexible in approaching this aftermath of the recent time of fracturing. And we continue to synthesize “feeling-knowing” with “mental-knowing” at the threshold of a new life era.
With Saturn in Scorpio, 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 experiencing feelings of deep connectedness with the life that’s all around you as you eliminate the next layers of what you no longer need and move into a new expression of your individuality and/or unique qualities. Now that much has ended, we should be experiencing a sense of relief that things are moving forward in a slow but measured pace. And take time to enjoy yourself by seeing how everything is playing the exact part it should!
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I’ve given you these links the past several months, since Solar Eclipses are powerful influences that persist for years. Please 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 (gave you the links yesterday) 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 2014 Robert Wilkinson
Many thanks for a clear and deep information on what is going on and what is at stake at these times. Very interesting post, specially the part devoted to the collective as explained in the "Sabian Symbols" (among many other parts).
Blessing be to all
Posted by: Nic | May 30, 2014 at 01:28 PM