by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Sagittarius introduces us to a time of new inspiration through seeing a new day dawning in our lives, what we need to confirm those conditions, and new training routines that demand our “self-induced movement.” There will be a lot of inner changes opening doors to alternative universes!
This New Moon in Sagittarius is freeing, distributing, exciting, and completely future oriented as we can play with it or demonstrate it in the NOW! This helps us move into a greater ideal, and with Mercury biseptile Neptune, it puts the Grand Irrationality in play in a big way. Purification time! Very big changes in how we perceive power, structure, duty, and responsibility will be in motion, and once we find the right way to view our social role, we’ll be able to put on the show.
The coming 4 week period initiated by this New Moon will help us get very clear about what roles we are and are not willing to play, and we’ll all need to stay focused, not become hesitant, timid, or scattered in our responses while opening to new discoveries and a wise use of imagination. One great piece of news is that Venus in Sagittarius is now trine Uranus, beginning a series of Grand Fire Trines that should make everything somewhat lighter!
While the recent Cardinal squares set off aftershocks of the Great Fracturing of the first half of 2014, the recent heaviness of the recent Fixed squares between planets in Scorpio to Jupiter in Leo will be visited one last time this year via Mercury conjunct Saturn and square Jupiter. We may get glimpses of insight and understanding into recent conflicts and jarring challenges, and find ourselves actually more secure, grounded, and seeing a bigger picture.
So What’s Happening Where?
This truth-seeking, adventurous, open-minded, inspired, and brightening New Moon occurs at 1 Sagittarius on November 22, 2014, at 4:32 am PST, 7:32 am EST, 12:32 pm Greenwich. The Lunation finds 5 Scorpio rising in Santa Monica, 27 Libra in Vancouver, 2 Sagittarius in Toronto, 5 Sagittarius in Montreal, and 6 Sagittarius in Washington DC. That means the span of Ascendants across North America is between late Libra and early Sagittarius.
Continuing eastward, we find rising signs of 3 Aquarius in Rio, 14 Aquarius in Lisbon, 16 Aquarius in London, 13 Pisces in Berlin, 5 Aries in Sofia, 7 Aries in Johannesburg, and 15 Taurus in Moscow. That means the span of Ascendants across Europe and Africa is between mid-Aquarius and mid-Taurus.
Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 11 Gemini in Abbottabad, 11 Gemini in New Delhi, 2 Gemini in Trivandrum, 25 Gemini in Jakarta, 13 Cancer in Hong Kong, 11 Leo in Tokyo, 21 Gemini in Perth, 15 Cancer in Melbourne, 30 Cancer in Brisbane, 18 Leo in Wellington (Nov 23), and 10 Libra rising on Maui.
So you can construct a rough chart for where you are in the world, I’ll give you the rounded up degree for each planet. Use the Ascendants given above to get a rough sense of what’s on the eastern horizon where you are, and using an Equal House system, you can see what’s going on in your part of the world for the next 4 weeks.
In this New Moon at 1 Sagittarius, Mercury is 22 Scorpio, Venus is 8 Sagittarius, Mars is 21 Capricorn, Jupiter is 23 Leo (SRX degree!), Saturn is 27 Scorpio, Uranus is 13 Aries retrograde, Neptune is 5 Pisces (SD degree!), Pluto is 12 Capricorn, TransPluto is 2 Virgo, Chiron is 14 Pisces, and the NN is 19 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 in Lisbon, London, and Berlin, and setting in Moscow, Abbottabad, New Delhi, Trivandrum, Jakarta, and Perth. The Eclipse is on the nadir in Tokyo and Wellington, and rising in Toronto, Montreal, and Washington DC.
This is the seventeenth 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 Sagittarius will also have a Full Moon Sun in Sagittarius. This is the reverse of what we experienced between July 2011-July 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 2013. 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
With the very mixed bag of aspects in this New Moon chart, we’ll see a combination of building and releasing, confusion and clarity, concentration and expansion, and productivity coupled with sacrifices and adjustments. As with the past two weeks, we still have a very prominent set of squares between Mercury conjunct Saturn in Scorpio and Jupiter in Leo, so the gear grind continues. Be strong and clear as you purify whatever you need to!
This last square of the season between Scorpio and Leo just as Venus in Sagittarius begins the first of the Fire trines with Uranus and Jupiter brings a lot together from recent weeks while offering us a promise for the future. Since there are DEEP changes going on indicated by several planets in the chart, be aware of them, since something powerful and new is gestating within each of us.
Due to the Lunation square Neptune, this is one of the final periods where we are “mastering discouragement,” and learning to see clearly as we demonstrate our mastery over our “animal nature.” It is said that when the Divine Spark within us tames the animal self and trains it to manifest our Highest Self, we will be the masters of any and all situations we’re in, since that Divine Self can never be “defeated.” The next weeks offer tremendous opportunities to demonstrate focus and discipline, as well as courage, valor, and mastery.
The square between the Sun and Moon with Neptune gives us a great opportunity to direct your feeling-knowing to the next level of understanding. This feeling-knowing has stabilized our Dharma in very specific ways, and this Lunation in Sagittarius should open new doors of potential growth. We’ve been in non-stop feeling-knowing class since June 2013, building an adequate Astral (emotional) vehicle that has beckoned us since the global human transformation that began at the Winter Solstice 2012.
This New Moon will jumpstart Sagittarius energy wherever it falls in our chart. A sense of the relatively permanent patterns within a larger growth perspective will bring movement and opportunities to show your skill. The coming weeks will offer subtle but powerful lessons where we will need to demonstrate a form of faith to overcome some type of duality, and in overcoming the duality, we will develop a form of mastery. Like the last 4 New Moons, this one continues an actional, physical-material “real world” focus.
Because it happens in Sagittarius, Jupiter is the worldly ruler of the Lunation. Because Jupiter is in Leo, and Leo’s ruler the Sun is in Sagittarius, they are in ”mutual reception.” This is a very powerful self-referencing, self-reinforcing energy loop.
We also find Mars in Capricorn is ruled by Saturn in Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars. This is a second mutual reception in this chart, and these 4 planets are the final dispositors for all the other planets except Neptune, which is also in its home sign of Pisces. A final dispositor is a very powerful backdrop, so these planets dominate the background for all the planetary energies.
The Sagittarius seed indicated by this New Moon helps us renew our inspiration to reunite with what warms our spirit, as well as old comrades. This will help us get and stay focused as we embrace a greater life vision or adventure. We’ll be able to see how to be more socially effective through adaptation and faith, and cut lose from old unclear or confused conditions.
Jupiter will be leading the occupied span of signs for quite a while, since it opens the Locomotive span. I’ll discuss more about this in part 2. Because Saturn in Scorpio leads the Lunation, this should be a very heavy and/or important period where duty and responsibility will be important. Be willing to “put on the show,” however that needs to happen.
This is not a specializing Lunation, and with quite a few Octile-series aspects involving all the planets except Venus, Mars, and Neptune, you can expect some gear grinding in many areas of life. Of special note is Saturn sesquisquare Uranus and semisquare Pluto, with Uranus now again in an exact square to Pluto. This is an extraordinarily volatile configuration, and those with planets or angles near 10-15 Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, or 25-30 Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius will be most affected.
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 set into motion by Mercury from the Scorpio zone for the last time in 2014. This should be a relief for those of us affected by the long term Saturn in Scorpio transit that taught some major lessons about magnetism and maturity, and how what we chose related to these created forks in the road of our destiny between November 2013 and October 2014. Life changes related to these choices have been activated by Mars, the Sun, Venus, and now Mercury since late August 2014.
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 20 years, and will be in play for a few more years to come. Though it will wane in intensity in the future, there will be enough set into motion that won’t make sense that we certainly can’t be lulled into a false sense of complacency!
Because late Autumn through mid-Spring shows Neptune in close septile with Pluto, we’ll have the configuration operating in close sequence at this time. For the next few months, every time a planet makes a septile-series aspect to either Neptune or Pluto, it’ll create a simultaneous “pulse” that will activate Neptune and Pluto at the same time, unlike the late Spring through mid-Autumn, when we have a lag in how these energies express.
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! (And yes, I know I've been promising to update them, which I'll get to at some point hopefully before the end of the year.
The current degree spans that trigger this transformative mass configuration are around 3-7 Pisces, 24-28 Aries, 16-20 Gemini, 7-11 Leo, 29 Virgo-3 Libra, 20-24 Scorpio, and 12-16 Capricorn. 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-fifth New Moon with Neptune in Pisces for the next approximately 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 14 Pisces. This will help us heal anew through our positioning within collective consciousness, helping us to find the right "camouflage" so we can do the work we need to do. We are solidly in a time of healing through accepting and demonstrating positive 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 at 5 Pisces. The degrees Neptune is transiting in 2014 is a span we haven’t experienced for almost 150 years, and the degree where it went stationary retrograde in June 2014 shows that we’ve all being summoned to hear “a call to renewal,” where “tomorrow acts through today.”
This month’s degree is related to collective lessons we were first exposed to in the Spring and Summer of 2013, and as it's the degree where Neptune went stationary direct in the middle of November, this marks a platform in collective consciousness that will lead many out of discouragement into a new understanding of their place in the Whole. (As an aside, last month’s Solar Eclipse in Scorpio trine Neptune in Pisces shows that forgiveness and compassion will allow much to slip down the time stream with no stuck emotional residue over the future months that Eclipse is in effect.
Because Neptune has not experienced 6, 7 and 8 Pisces for over a century, it indicates that collective consciousness in 2014 has been in an “unknown zone” of experience, feeling what it stands for amidst the swirl of the tides, “hearing the call” during 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. By April, we'll again enter uncharted waters.
More on Saturn’s Universally Important Influence
Saturn in Scorpio 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 prominent via the conjunction with Mercury that sets the square to Jupiter into play, The sextile from Mars should favor organization and disciplined activity, though the heavier Saturn sesquisquare to Uranus and semisquare to Pluto already mentioned will be a grind for those with planets in the affected zones. I gave them to you earlier.
Scorpio helps 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 the future. Now that Mars conjuncted Saturn in late August at 18 Scorpio, we’re into a two year period when we’ll see what we’ve completed that has transfigured our lives.
It is also showing us an on-going process of self-transformation at the end of a cycle if we’ve done what we needed to with excellence and found the right perspective on the dues we’ve had to pay these past two years. 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 last 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 has now entered a part of Scorpio that is beyond what it's known for 28 years. We are headed toward Sagittarius, which will be a MUCH different Saturn experience than we've had! This one will help us raise the instinctual to the intellectual. We've now glimpsed what's on the other side of "the veil," faced fear, and deepened our faith.
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 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 focus our social-emotional energy.
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 (and much different than the Saturn in Sagittarius era on the way)!
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 tenth 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 are now in 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 what is fair or unfair in what we confront, and many will find they have strong feelings for what is out of balance. Those who claim privileges they are not entitled to will find others challenging them. Just figure out a way to find a “strife transcending and unattached outlook” at the uncivil ugliness of modern existence and rude people. This one helps us repair something we may not have known needed it. Here we continue learn why we went through repair, reconstruction, or reclamation of some things in 2011-2012.
During the time Saturn occupies the last half of Scorpio (between Nov 2013 and Dec 2014 and mid-Summer 2015) 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.
This Lunation features some very powerful aspects, mostly unfavorable and therefore challenging. This is a testing time, given the very favorable aspects in previous New Moon charts. I’ll cover these in part 2 of this series, along with the Sabian Symbol for the Lunation. This period is one of challenge, integration, irritation, and showing what we know. Those who have trained and achieved self discipline will find new creativity, new freedom, new opportunities, and an expanded heart awareness.
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. This Lunation opens us to greater, broader, and higher Truths and adventures so we can deal with the pandemic friction using the marvelous efficiency of Mars sextile Saturn. As things go every which way due to the Sagittarius-Pisces squares, keep relying on the emotional intelligence and stability you’ve cultivated since Summer 2013, and as always, show patience.....
© Copyright 2014 Robert Wilkinson
"Now we’re flowing into a long wave period of finding the right focus to allow inspiring teachings to transform our daily lives." The opportunities are there, specially when we have to let go of the old and useless to face the test that come our way. Difficulties can also be opportunities.
Ready for part 2 on this New Moon.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | November 21, 2014 at 02:41 PM
when is this encroaching uranus square pluto? just curio. thank you!
Posted by: jon reddish | November 21, 2014 at 03:44 PM
Hi Nic - Well, it seems there's a cosmic joke going on. The recent Eclipses actually had some great aspects, promising some very positive and unique developments that will come from whatever is being shut down. OTOH, this New Moon has some very challenging configurations, even though it's extremely future oriented.
Hi Jon - It's been ongoing for several years. It will be in and out of close square (+/- 2.5 degree orb) from now through late April, and then for the last time, Dec 2015 through March 2016. And of course, every transit through mid Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn will set it off through March 2017. I'll be publishing a multi-part series on that square next week.
Posted by: Robert | November 21, 2014 at 03:53 PM
thanks!
Posted by: jon reddish | November 21, 2014 at 04:12 PM
Hi, This is a bit off topic but... I was just wondering.. I have the majority of my personal planets in the 4th house which is stretched across Leo/Virgo (My sun is in Late Leo) but I identify very strongly with the sign of Cancer. I'm thinking this could be because I have so many planets stacked in the 4th? However, I have no Moon or Asc in Cancer. Would welcome your thoughts?
All the best, Helen
Posted by: Helen | November 23, 2014 at 04:18 PM