by Robert Wilkinson
This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in the Libra New Moon chart. This one is inspiring, transformational, somewhat joyous, and the Grand Irrationality is in motion!
Last month’s New Moon in Virgo brought Divine help when all else seemed to fail, and the Mars conjunct Saturn at 18 Scorpio brought a 2 year cycle to an end and the beginning of another! Given the lack of afflictions in this Lunation, it should be a very productive and unique time.
This Lunation, along with the inner planets, are now in the span between Jupiter in Leo and Saturn in Scorpio, which as I told you last month creates a different Jones Pattern than we’ve known in recent months. So we’ve left the “Splay” Jones pattern, and (depending on where the Moon is) we’re mainly into a “Locomotive” Jones pattern until the late October New Moon.
An aside for astrologers: It could still be a “See Saw,” but there are no planets forming strong axes of opposition other than the Lunation in an extremely wide opposition to Uranus. We shall encounter fewer and fewer oppositions in New Moon charts through the rest of the year. A quick look at the New Moons for September through December show no significant oppositions until the Winter Solstice New Moon, which features Mars in Aquarius opposed Jupiter in Leo.
However, as the inner planets get far enough away from Jupiter, then we’ll have a “Bucket” Jones pattern, with Jupiter the handle/nozzle. That will predominate in the October New Moon at 1 Scorpio, since Mercury in mid-Libra is 57 degrees away. More on that next month.
In this New Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets through Jupiter is 112+ degrees, and includes mid-Leo through early Sagittarius, making it an extremely intense cluster. Within that band, we have an even more intense focus, with 6 planets in the 74 degrees between Venus and Mars.
This month we continue the spread of last month, with 10 planets occupying 8 signs, which are not fairly spread out around the zodiacal wheel. As mentioned, we’re now in “Locomotive” pattern, defined by planets between Leo and Aries, with a void in the empty third between Aries and Leo.
So What is a “Locomotive Pattern” and how does it work?
This type of spread, with all the planets occupying 2/3 of the signs with an empty third, creates an imbalance that leads to power if we can find the compensatory “weight” to make things move forward smoothly rather than rock side to side creating friction. Target what is needed, and provide compensatory energies accordingly.
As Marc Jones put it, “this type of horoscope reveals a balance of this sort in the life. A third part of things… consisting of a free span in experience, is set against a two-thirds part, embracing a related but limited span in experience…. The basis of the dynamic is found in the native’s resulting strong sense of a lack or a need, of a problem to be solved, a task to be achieved in the social and intellectual world around him.”
Dr. Jones states “The temperament reveals a self-driving individuality, an executive eccentricity that is not … unbalance but rather is power. It exhibits a dynamic and exceptionally practical capacity which is neither the broad universality of the Splash pattern, nor the special obsession with some particularly narrowed aspect of experience characteristic of the Bundle people.
He goes on to state “The Locomotive classification is … moved more by external factors in the environment than by aspects of its own character. The point of application for the powers of the self is shown … by the “leading planet,” or the one of the two in the empty trine which forms its aspect clockwise in the zodiac, irrespective of any distinction as “applying” or “separating.”
Jupiter is the leading planet in the Locomotive. Show humor, vision, and go for the loving protection of the heart when called upon to express yourself. Jupiter can bring joy and enthusiasm when it's being its natural expansive self, and in Leo, it's giving us all the chance to open our hearts to the joyous song of life!
This is the power of focused dramatic expression that can rouse others to a greater feeling-state. With Jupiter leading the way, it’s important to remember the wise words of the great wit Wavy Gravy that if you don’t have a sense of humor, it’s not funny!
For a year, the water trines of June 2013 through May 2014 ensured a flowing, moving, stabilizing quality. Though the Grand Water Trines have only been in play off and on since then, we all had opportunities to learn various forms of emotional intelligence, and the Mars conjunct Saturn began a two year period of learning to apply that intelligence.
Element Balance
Of the traditional 10 planets, there are 2 planets in Water signs, 3 in Fire, 2 in Earth, and 3 in Air. This indicates a fairly good balance between feelings, inspiration, practicality, and relatedness. This is the first time we’ve had planets in Air signs for quite a while, which should restore some balance to how we view things.
With Fire and Air dominant, we should be able to be fairly inspired as we make new connections and find new ideals. At least we have a strong grounding practicality via Venus, ruling the New Moon, in the Earth sign of Virgo in very favorable tredecile to Pluto in Capricorn.
Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, things are going to heat up, with inspiration being fed by ideas and ideals. As Water will be strong for the next several months, keep applying the emotional intelligence you’ve been cultivating since last Summer.
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-fifth New Moon of the Saturn in Scorpio era, and it continues to keep the focus on intense Water energy. The recent conjunction with Mars that was tredecile Neptune shows a two year period of serendipitous events related to where that conjunction fell in our charts, so many should reap gifts and blessings from how we’ve learned to use emotional intelligence to navigate through the fogs and mists of the collective field.
Some backstory: In 2012 Saturn helped us cultivate a new strength, came to a philosophical completion, and finish repairing or reconstructing something so that some final dues were paid and old karmas left behind. We grew 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 got 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 2013 has been shutting down parts of our life related to those lessons that we couldn’t take with us into 2014 and beyond.
Our emotional body will continue to be cleared out for months to come, so get used to experiencing occasional intense purifications. While it may lead to feelings of being vulnerable, it will strengthen us and we’ll become 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. We had opportunities to break free of fear through numerous irrational situations, and this helped us define our expression for years to come. We were shown how limitations could 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 now that Mars is conjunct Saturn, we’re learning new ways of applying those truths of our direct experience
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 Sagittarius disposits Saturn in Scorpio. Mars in Libra between Dec 2013 and July 2014 helped us all learn qualities of moderation, grace, elegance, and refinement to blunt Saturn in Scorpio extremes. With Mars in Sagittarius, Saturn’s energies should have lightened up and opened up after the very intense and concentrated period of Mars conjunct Saturn in Scorpio that dominated July, August, and the first half of September.
So as you open to the tenth 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. This section covers only forming aspects.
As noted in Part 1, this New Moon has almost no frictional aspects, and does have a tremendous number of harmonizing and specializing aspects. With the Grand Fire Trine of Mars in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Leo, and Uranus in Aries, things should continue to be inspired and freeing, and the New Moon sextile Mars should make for an open balanced productivity that is inspired and shows a larger perspective on the creative process.
As also noted in Part 1, the Lunation is triseptile Neptune, triggering the Grand Irrationality, with Saturn contributing a biseptile to Neptune. So the next 4 weeks will bring more important “forks in the road of destiny” for nations and individuals affected by this configuration. Sensitive degree zones were given in that article.
Besides the aspects just mentioned, prominent aspects in this Lunation feature the Lunation semisquare Saturn, Mercury novile Mars, quintile Jupiter and Pluto, Venus conjunct the Sun, quintile Mars, novile Jupiter, and tredecile Pluto, Jupiter quadranovile Neptune and biquintile Pluto, Saturn biquintile Uranus, and Uranus square Pluto. Of these, only the Lunation semisquare Saturn is frictional, and shows a point of closure on the old Saturn cycle set into motion last November.
Because we’re now in the Mars conjunct Saturn in Scorpio period, keep moving that which is stuck, or leave it be if necessary. That August conjunction fulfilled the old Mars/Saturn cycle that began 2 years ago at 25 Libra. We’ve all come to a deeper wisdom when we’ve detached from the restlessness of the mind, and some have gone through “deaths” to come to understand vaster life processes. I sure have.
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 2 Libra. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol for 2 Libra is “The light of the sixth race transmuted to the seventh.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “Inspiration through creative identification with the large sweep of cycles,” “spiritual expansion,” and “renewed encouragement.”
In the Astrological Mandala he states this degree is one of “A repolarization of inner energies leading to a creative centralization of consciousness.” He goes on to tell us that while it can be interpreted as related to humanity development across the 7 great Root Races described in the Secret Doctrine, it can also be related to the six stages of creation, with the seventh being the seed synthesis of all six stages, or approaches, or “Rays.” He also reminds us that the 6 pointed Star of Solomon symbolizes “the synthesis of descending spirit and ascending matter,” where the 7th is the fruition of the creative process.
He concludes by stating that this symbols “refers to the process of centralization in the Self after the experience of fulfillment in the perfect Form of manifestation” represented by 1 Libra. It’s a dynamic process rather than a static form, where the form is transcended in “creative centralization.” This symbol is said to be in the Span of Expectation, Act of Group Integration, and is the counterpoint degree of the Actional level of the Scene of Transfiguration.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this degree is one of “the mirror which history provides for (humanity), so that each new generation may see itself reflected in its own past and therefore may be challenged to its real future.” We are told “the characteristics of a modern and global society (identified by occultists as the sixth root manifestation of human culture) are idealized in the vision ahead (a seventh and climactic manifestation) and every individual is seen within full reach of (their) own ultimate potential.”
He offers us the keyword of THRESHOLD. He states that when this degree works positively, it is one of “the imaginative sweep of (our) vision and an eagerness to execute its promise.”
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 went retrograde at 14 Capricorn in April 2014. 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!)
Since then we’ve been reviewing the lessons of 11-14 Capricorn. We learned to attune to invisible realms and get beyond fear in 2012 and 2013, during 2013 and 2014 we’ve been 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 Jan-Feb 2014 we moved into signs and signs of self-transcendence. These set the stage for another phase of self-transcendence in June and the first half of July 2014, with the completion of the process achieved by February 2016.
As noted in Part 1, because Venus in Virgo both leads the Lunation and is the ruler of the Lunation, the Virgo influence will be extraordinarily strong. This shows us valuable and elegant ways to mirror practicality, learn through social and emotional experimentation, and embrace some form of training of our “animal nature” using resoluteness and patience.
Neptune represents what is “in fashion” in the collective. Different cultures and subcultures interpret this global pulse in different ways. The Sabian Symbol for 6 Pisces indicates we must take a new look at whatever we’ve believed we’re dedicated to since May 2013, and during this process of “hearing the call,” prepare to defend values we believe in.
This is the next to the last point where we’re feeling 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 had an important impact on the collective atmosphere in August 2014. We’ve been learning to 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 Deciding, then Thinking
As a process of moving through events, over the next 4 weeks we’re all going to be inclined to feel our way into decisions and actions. After we decide and/or act, it will be important to get new information to come to a new vision or understanding. Once we get the right view or understanding, then a new feeling-experience will naturally arise that points the way to the next action.
over the next 4 weeks we’ll still be leading with our feelings, then making decisions on the basis of those feeling experiences, followed by new information, new ideas, new interpretations, and new views. We’ll be “feeling our way” into new experiences, then deciding and acting on the basis of those feelings. After a decision or action, then we’ll have to find newer, more up to date information, facts, and understanding so we can get a new vision.
So learn and teach through anecdotes, seeing how others handled things practically, or how you handed things practically in the past. Let your thinking and communicating and envisioning follow your actions, and let your feelings follow a new understanding, a new perception, or a new view.
This Lunation will show us who we’re connected to as we embrace a larger view of what we’ve done and what is yet to do. We’ll all be stirred deeply and inspiration will be sky high! Use your training to “plan the pageant and put on a show” if need be, and be willing to move beyond old feelings into unknown zones of egolessness, fearlessness, and willingness to go beyond wherever you’ve been.
A final reminder: 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. Because so much ended between January and July, we should be experiencing a sense of relief that things are moving forward in a slow but measured pace.
To sum up, this is a specializing and very favorable New Moon that will help us continue to flame on! Keep withdrawing from obnoxious and nasty people and situations, trust your inner Truth, see what’s culminated in a glorious transfiguration, and if things get weird and magical, use your emotional intelligence to keep in the center of the river as you flow toward your destiny.
Embrace a new ideal and a training regimen that will do the job in bringing forth a new long wave creativity, or see how your long wave creativity has resulted in the need for further training. Remember to find the humor in situations. Things are not as weird and under pressure as it seems, even if these are present in some way. Much is now already done, so leave it behind and face forward!
Live the freedom of the Grand Fire Trine of Mars in Sagittarius trine Jupiter in Leo trine Uranus in Aries! This configuration should show us the path to joyous action and understanding wherever it falls in our charts.
This feeds the inspiration that will bust loose in late September and early October when Mars in Sagittarius makes an almost exact Grand Fire Trine, lighting up the sky! It should prove profoundly satisfying to those with planets in the middle sections of the Fire and Air signs. And of course, since God loves gratitude, practice appreciation for what is gone, what is, and what’s to come.
© Copyright 2014 Robert Wilkinson
Ah...Thank you Teacher. This is helpful and reassuring insight.
Posted by: Elah | September 23, 2014 at 07:07 PM
Right on the mark, as usual! The best form of psycho-analysis I've encountered. Thank you for sharing your soul strengths hard earned, which endlessly benefit all of us. Loved the right use of Saturn - so we can turn it into a positive. So grateful for the highly nurturing and authentic guidance, best counseling I could receive!
Posted by: Julie | September 25, 2014 at 05:41 AM
Just after the phrase about egolessness I suddenly found myself bursting out (mentally) "To boldly go where no man has gone before" and my whole inner world played out the Star Trek Theme...
Posted by: Rand Russell | September 25, 2014 at 07:28 PM