by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Leo introduces us to a time when the energy of the past blends into the future. We again must learn and demonstrate balance, since this Lunation features another Cardinal T-square!
This New Moon in Leo is fiery, stabilizing, demonstrative, dramatic, and hard edged. This one will show us the value of the emotional intelligence we’ve reinforced over the past months, and give it a new power of creative expression through a new sense of freedom from what has been.
In a curious circumstance, the next four weeks are directly related to the entire Jupiter in Cancer year, since Mercury now occupies Jupiter’s stationary retrograde degree of last October, and Venus now occupies Jupiter’s stationary direct degree of last March. So Mercury will give us a new look at issues around “success,” while Venus will give us the value of the sense of humor or irony we’ve cultivated since March.
The T-square, along with the Mars square Jupiter, show that we continue to be in a time where we’re all dealing with many cross currents, some of them directly related to the ongoing lessons of balance, fairness, equilibrium, justice, and moderation we’ve learned over many months. Remember that Uranus square Pluto continues, throwing voids into Cancer and Libra. This month Venus is in Cancer, making good Libra skills of utmost importance as we navigate those cross currents.
As with last month’s Lunation in Cancer, this month continues to show us how well we’ve cultivated our emotional intelligence. Just watch out not to get into power struggles with selfish, clutching, defensive, superficial or unbalanced people. Withdraw with dignity, and trust your inner guidance when you’re clear about what’s going on.
This stabilizing, expansive, serendipitous and uniquely gifting New Moon occurs at 4 Leo on July 26, 2014, at 3:42 pm PDT, 6:42 pm EDT, and 11:42 pm BST. The Lunation finds 4 Sagittarius rising in Santa Monica, 22 Scorpio in Vancouver, 2 Capricorn in Toronto, 5 Capricorn in Montreal, and 8 Capricorn in Washington DC. That means the span of Ascendants across North America is between late Scorpio and early Capricorn.
Continuing eastward, we find rising signs of 5 Pisces in Rio, 10 Aries in Lisbon, 4 Taurus in London, 29 Taurus in Berlin (July 27), 1 Gemini in Sofia, 9 Taurus in Johannesburg, and 1 Cancer rising in Moscow. That means the span of Ascendants across Europe and Africa is between mid-Aries through early Cancer.
Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 14 Cancer in Abbottabad, 15 Cancer in New Delhi 6 Cancer in Trivandrum, 28 Cancer in Jakarta, 14 Leo in Hong Kong, 10 Virgo in Tokyo, 25 Cancer in Perth, 29 Leo in Melbourne, 14 Virgo in Brisbane, 18 Libra in Wellington, and 6 Scorpio 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 4 Leo, Mercury is 21 Cancer, Venus is 11 Cancer, Mars is 1 Scorpio, Jupiter is 3 Leo, Saturn is 17 Scorpio (SD degree), Uranus is 17 Aries (SRX degree), Neptune is 8 Pisces retrograde (SRX degree), Pluto is 12 Capricorn retrograde, TransPluto is 1 Virgo, Chiron is 18 Pisces retrograde, and the NN is 23 Libra.
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 Wellington and Maui, and setting in Toronto, Montreal, and Washington DC. The New Moon is on the nadir (IC) in Lisbon, London, Berlin, and Sofia, and rising (near the Ascendant) in Pakistan, India, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Perth, and Melbourne.
This is the thirteenth in a sequence of New Moons that fall in the same sign as the following Full Moon. This is assumed to be the “normal order of Lunation Suns,” whereas the other Lunation order is the opposite, where the New Moon Sun falls in the sign preceding the Sun of the following Full Moon.
In other words, this New Moon in Leo will also have a Full Moon Sun in Leo two weeks from now. 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 last 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
As I said, this will be a creative, freeing, and frictional New Moon, and we all will be tested to keep our balance and sense of equilibrium as we confront the need to clean out our things and relationships that are preventing us from getting the concrete results we’re striving for. Even though the conjunction to Jupiter is barely separating, it will still play a huge part in the next few weeks, since Jupiter will transit the New Moon degree through the first week of August.
With the Lunation biseptile Saturn and tredecile Uranus, we will definitely hit a fork in the road of destiny in the houses where we have early Leo and mid-Scorpio. The tredecile is an aspect of serendipity, so we should be able to find ways to withdraw from a nonproductive area and turn to a situation that is uniquely good for us. And because we have FIVE tredeciles involving Moon, Sun, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, there will be some very uniquely perfect gifts and situations come forth where these fall in our charts, as well as the houses these planets rule.
This Lunation moves a lot forward, since it’s the first New Moon with Mars in Scorpio after 7 months of it being in Libra. As Mars is the dispositor of Saturn and Uranus, it marks a shift in the nature of these two power planets. And of course, the trine to Neptune should allow us to act accurately on our intuition (or at least with an awareness of where we fit into a larger picture.)
Venus square Uranus and opposition Pluto shows powerful polarizations in our relationships to things and people. Given the potential for extreme interpersonal events, watch out for self-serving people, control freaks, egomaniacs who put their needs ahead of everything else, and people that are out of balance. This Lunation begins a process of retiring with dignity from useless wheel spinning, and much will be clear by the end of October.
With Mercury moving forward across Jupiter’s retrograde station degree, we will definitely be thinking about and/or getting signs and signals about what success used to mean, what it means now, what it could mean in the future, and what it will take to achieve it. As Mercury makes only a sesquisquare to Neptune, there may be disturbances in the collective field, but they can prod us forward into hearing a call to rebirth.
So we’re moving into new forms of self-expression, creativity, and play, and much that has been unclear has become very clear by now. Here we show what we know, and prove our ability to wield power in constructive ways, or at least creatively and/or playfully in deconstructive ways. We will most definitely come to new ways of relating to people and a larger social existence through trusting “the God within” and withdrawing with dignity from irritating situations and people.
The next 4 weeks we will be moving into deep emotional waters, so keep a good sense of perspective, and keep it simple, friendly, and detached. Some will find themselves at the beginning of a great group work that will outlive them, while others will find healing, or healing powers, and potentially “the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” Thanks to Mars trine Neptune and Venus trine Saturn, these stabilizing Water trines will help us continue to direct our feeling-knowing to the next level of understanding.
Because of the number of Water trines in play since June 2013, this feeling-knowing has been stabilizing our Dharma in very specific ways. We’ve been in non-stop feeling-knowing class since last Summer, and it’s been a time to build an adequate Astral (emotional) vehicle during this period of quickening following the global human transformation that began at the Winter Solstice 2012.
This New Moon will jumpstart Leo energy wherever it falls in our chart. A sense of play as we prove our abilities within unique interactive situations will help us turn a huge life corner that is already in process of expansion due to the very powerful Jupiter biseptile Saturn triggered by this New Moon. Unlike recent New Moons, this one begins an actional, physical-material “real world” focus.
Because it happens in Leo, the Sun is the ruler of the Lunation. This time of year the Moon and then the Sun are the rulers of Lunations. As the Sun, Mars, and Neptune are all in their “home” signs, they all become ”final dispositors,” which is a very powerful self-referencing energy. So these three planets dominate the background for all the planetary energies. Because of the Leo square to the Water trine, it should be a mix of friction and harmony, challenge and stabilization. But since all these have at least one tredecile made to or from them, it should yield some very favorable unique conditions and gifts for those affected. I’ll speak more about the degree zones affected in part two.
The Leo seed indicated by this New Moon helps us renew our adventure in moving toward a more fulfilling life. We can now cut loose from old insecurities with humor, find a new way of self-expression, and play a little more than we have this past year. While the Leo-Scorpio square will be intense, it will also help us turn corners, or put the brakes on old inertias and move things more to our liking.
Mars is Moving On
This Lunation, like the last several, offers us a practicum in skillfully managing our emotions after many months of major life rebalancing and re-prioritization. While the North Node continues to teach us how to find a reasonable perspective and balanced approach to long term pressures, Mars is now in Scorpio, bringing focused intensity in letting go of all that we no longer need. Mars square Jupiter will show us how to keep thing moderate and balanced, and not spin out of proportion. This of course will most affect those with planets or angles in the early degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius.
This month Jupiter leads the Lunation, and thus is the “herald” for all that is developing in August. It is very strong and promises new adventures, new truths, new futures, and new ways of understanding the spiritual factors in what we can and cannot grasp.
Just try to use the power of the fixed square to move things forward in your advantage, rather than get stuck in gear grinds or friction that throws you off course. The square will be liberating for many, who will realize a new independence.
Pluto has now retrograded back to 12 Capricorn, giving us another look at life as an “experimental science lab,” where we’re learning about the natural world and what makes things work as they do at the core level. We’re squarely in a several month period where we are finding a valid perspective on important events of our past, and separating out the superficial forms to find the enduring essence of our Higher Self that was distilled out of those experiences.
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. Since then it’s been reinforced and triggered by various Lunations, planetary stations, and transits.
This Lunation finds the Grand Irrationality is not an active force, since it is not being triggered by any other planet (though of course those places with any of the 7 “hot zones” occupied by the Asc or MC will find themselves confronting their destiny.) And due to Saturn position, we now are in a period of having just 2 points of the 7 pointed Star pattern occupied by Neptune and Pluto, even though Saturn will again put the configuration in play in August and be exact by September-October.
Even though it’s not specifically triggered in this Lunation, it will be in action at points over this next 11-12 days since the Sun will be triseptile Pluto and then triseptile Neptune, foreshadowing Jupiter’s triseptile to both Neptune and Pluto in August and September. That will be a period when destiny is on the move in our world, so use this time to anticipate what’s coming and prepare accordingly.
For those who are new to the site, here’s a bit of explanation about this thing called “the Grand Irrationality” associated with 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 19 years, and will be in play for a few more years to come.
Thresholds of important choice and change that have heavy future implications were most recently set into play after Mercury went stationary retrograde at 19 Scorpio on October 21, 2013, and again when Venus went stationary direct conjunct Pluto at the end of January 2014. As Saturn is now sitting very close to 19 Scorpio for a number of weeks to come, those Mercury retrograde signs and signals will continue to be important through Summer 2014.
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 the articles 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’ve been dealing with, so please check them out again! (I’ll be updating them soon, since Saturn will again make it heavily active in a few weeks.
The current degree spans that trigger this transformative mass configuration are around 20-25 Scorpio, 11-16 Capricorn, 3-8 Pisces, 24-29 Aries, 16-21 Gemini, 7-12 Leo, and 29 Virgo-4 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.
Neptune and Chiron at the Cusp of the Age:
Now that these two are well 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 thirty-first 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. The article deals specifically with the first degree of Pisces, which is where the Precessional point occupies at present.
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. You can find more about what we’re going through to get to the coming Age of Aquarius in the article The Sun Enters Pisces Today Illuminating the Cusp of the Great Age, Where The Age of Pisces Gives Way to the Age of Aquarius
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 at 18 Pisces, the degree it went stationary retrograde. This will help us heal anew through our positioning within collective consciousness, helping us find a form of self-expression that will bring us our allies, “strengthen our communal spirit,” and bring us to a greater intensity of living. Keep revising your ideas, and you’ll see your faith will “open up a new environment.”
We are again able to find healing through Pisces attributes, strengths, and blessings. This continues to show us how to merge the sacred and the everyday in our lives. Over the past couple of years, we have healed through knowing what we stand for, and heard a call to a life renewal that is now front and center. We’ve had to let go of unnecessary baggage to quicken the pace in achieving some social goal, mastered something important in our spiritual quest, been offered higher responsibilities, and been shown what spiritual goals we’re fit to accomplish.
In this chart Neptune is still at 8 Pisces, a degree we haven’t experienced for almost 150 years, and the degree where it went stationary retrograde on June 9. Over the next few months, this is going to bring a call to renewal as well, where “tomorrow acts through today.” Here we’ll either hear a call, or sound a call, or both.
Because Neptune has not experienced 7 and 8 Pisces for over a century, it indicates that collective consciousness is now in an “unknown zone” of experience, feeling what it stands for amidst the swirl of the tides, preparing us to “hear the call” now in the Summer of 2014. This continues to strengthen our intuition and emotional intelligence, as well as a greater feeling-connection of our positioning within a vaster field.
More on Saturn’s Universally Important Influence
Saturn continues to put a 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.” This Lunation shows Saturn with many powerful aspects, indicating it will be a primary mover of shifts in destiny that should stabilize our values, resources, and relationships.
Saturn tredecile Neptune continues to work its specializing magic. These interactive gifts should be harmonized and stabilized by the trine from Venus to Saturn and Mars to Neptune. We’ll definitely see unique gifts and serendipity at play wherever 4-8 Pisces-Virgo, 10-14 Aries-Libra, 16-20 Taurus-Scorpio, 22-26 Gemini-Sagittarius, and 28-30 Cancer-Capricorn and 1-2 Leo-Aquarius are involved, whether in our charts or by transits.
Saturn in Scorpio continues to help us make 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 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. Now we’re flowing into a long wave period of finding the right focus to allow inspiring teachings to transform our daily lives.
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.
Saturn is now direct, giving us one last time to apply the lessons of the past few months. This one will help us trust our inner Truth or God, become more self-reliant, find a cooperation between the spiritual and material parts of our existence, and find revelations that show us how we are transformed since this time last year. We are now in the final run of Saturn through mid-Scorpio, preparing to enter Sagittarius in late December.
So we’re now in the last act of the play of Saturn in Scorpio, where we complete eliminating and regenerating, seeing what to let go of that which no longer works. We have found ways to get focused and clear about what structures are worthwhile and which need eliminating or purifying, and have finished the long wave process showing us how to conduct ourselves at a higher social level of interaction. This gives us another period of seeing how to use inspiring teachings to change our lives for the better.
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.
This is the sixth Lunation with North Node in Libra and South Node in Aries. Good for reasoned, balanced action! With NN in Libra, our greatest development is through our ability to balance, weigh, judge fairly, be diplomatic peacemakers, and generally cultivate our grace, style, elegance, and sense of beautiful forms.
We have now entered a time of growth through learning how to repair or reconstruct whatever we need to, and can grow by seeing the balances or imbalances in our relationships. Where it is in this Lunation chart shows we can grow through understanding how to alternate between will and love, mind and heart, as we learn to be more adept about when to be yin and when to be yang. Here we begin to learn why we went through repair, reconstruction, or reclamation some things in 2011-2012.
During the time Saturn occupies the last half of Scorpio (between Nov 2013 and Dec 2014) it is concretizing and structuring what we learned via the North Node when it was 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. Last Autumn we 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 some very powerful aspects, as many favorable and specializing as frictional. The many tredeciles show some important gifts and unique interactions, which I’ll speak about in part 2 of this series, along with the Sabian Symbol for the New Moon. This will be a specializing period leading to creative-expressive gifts and a sense of freedom wherever the Lunation, Jupiter, and Uranus are placed and rule in your chart.
I’ll close today by reminding you that we’re in the heart of the long wave friction and crashes symbolized by the encroaching Uranus square Pluto indicating the global collision between a new humanity and an old slave system. So while we all get a joyous break from the pandemic friction in some really enjoyable ways, 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 the Solar Eclipse in Scorpio from last November 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 2+ years. It will definitely take a concrete shape as Saturn transits over those degrees in the next few weeks.
© Copyright 2014 Robert Wilkinson
We are indeed living interesting times and times are moving on. We need to embrace the new that is at our door step and let go of what is keeping us at the door's threshold. Time to move forward on our path.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | July 26, 2014 at 02:49 AM
Wow!! A genuine news man...I insert that as a compliment and an honor to have found my way here today. Thank you Light Worker (my first ever sincere understanding and use of the title). You have sparked something within my patient Soul. I shall learn from you because of you and my need to evolve, my desire to consciously evolve. Thank you Master. Signed, Kim.
Posted by: Solar Rays | July 27, 2014 at 02:31 PM