by Robert Wilkinson
This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in the recent Virgo Solar Eclipse chart. This one is distributive, innovating, and initiating, and paves the way to strength, freedom, and forms of play over the next 53 months.
With this Lunation, we’re definitely back in the land of the Locomotive Jones pattern! This time is similar to the period when Jupiter was in Leo trine Uranus in Aries defining the empty span. We then went through a time when the span was between Saturn in Sagittarius and Uranus in Aries.
Now after a few months of the pattern shifting at almost every Lunation, we’re back to a time of the empty span being between Venus and Mars in Leo and Uranus in Aries. This will persist a while, though as time goes on the pattern will fall away from the ideal since the empty span will be between Uranus in Aries and Jupiter in Virgo.
In a strange twist, this gap from Jupiter through the other signs ending with Uranus is as it was last year, but with Jupiter in a different sign. Remembering the “imbalances that led to power” the last times Jupiter and Uranus defined the Locomotive should yield insights into how that duo work together, since we’ll have two different Jupiter manifestations, the former in fire, this one in earth. If you’re interested, the articles on the Fire Locomotive are in the archives.
In this New Moon, the span occupied by the inner planets (in this chart Venus in Leo through Mercury in Libra) is 59+ degrees, making it the major focus in our charts. Since it includes Jupiter, we can officially kick off the Jupiter in Virgo year, since it’s the first Lunation in Virgo since Jupiter entered that sign. Still, there’s no intense focus, since the planets are spread out within the sextile span between Mercury and Venus.
This month we have 10 planets occupying 7 signs, which are fairly spread out around the zodiacal wheel. We have Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces, and Aries represented, and that makes it a classic “Locomotive” Jones pattern.
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.”
As I noted earlier, Jupiter was the leading planet in the Locomotive for many months, but this month Venus becomes the leading planet. It also means this will be an influence for the next 4+ years, so we’ll be dealing with imbalances that force us to focus!
With Venus as the lead planet in this Eclipse Locomotive Pattern, understand what is of value, what needs to be actively appreciated and/or admired, and be open to major life renewals in how you relate to your world. Venus teaches us lessons involving Wisdom v Folly, and how our subconscious mind reacts to our self-conscious mind. Here we can see how our vanities function, and find ways to capture beautiful forms of a higher elegance in life and relationships.
With so much fire, and Venus echoing the Jupiter in Leo Locomotive energy from last year and earlier this one, value and appreciate the strength you were taught then, and express the joy and power of new beginnings, accepting a life renewal based directly on the training you’ve gotten since last December when Jupiter went stationary retrograde on the exact degree Mars occupies in this Eclipse. This continues to assist us to express our loving, creative self, and open our hearts to the joyous song of life! Be light, see light, live light, express light!
Jupiter in Leo taught us the power of focused dramatic expression that can rouse others to a greater feeling-state. Here we can translate that Jupiterian honesty of genuine natural expression into Venusian forms, And as I told you before, the main lesson has been found in the wise words of the great wit Wavy Gravy: “If you don’t have a sense of humor, it’s not funny!”
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 21 Virgo. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol for the 21st degree of Virgo is “A Girls’ Basketball Team.” In "the Astrology of Personality," where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, 21 Virgo is said to symbolize “physical wholesomeness as prelude to inner integration,” “self-evaluation, or refusal to face self,” and “the rhythm of instincts.”
We are told in the Astrological Mandala that this symbolizes “physical training as a means to inculcate the feeling of participation in a collective culture.” He states the basketball symbolizes the ego-consciousness aimed at a “focal point or circle” with an emphasis on the players cooperating as a team, and thus “the formation of a group acting as an organic whole and training itself to operate in a social context.”
He goes on to state “a definite type of educational activity is implied with cultural, and as well emotional overtones. It implies the training for group integration of ‘girls,’ i.e. of a type of consciousness more specifically receptive to collective forces.” He says it falls in the span of Experimentation, and it’s the initial degree in the emotional-cultural level of the scene of Education in the Act of Stabilization.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, this degree is about “the integrated divisions of labor by which any higher reality is manifest in everyday terms,” and the opportunities which life provides us so that we can specialize and refine our individuality. He states “the self cannot exist in a vacuum, and there is no satisfaction in any effort expended for ends in which others are not vitally concerned.”
He says our fulfillment is “primarily a continued participation in common goals, with rewards” that both we and others enjoy through our cooperative efforts. The keyword is EXPRESSION, and when functioning positively, is “effective self-consummation through exceptional co-operation and adaptability.”
As I alluded to earlier, of major importance is that in this Eclipse, Mars is on the degree where Jupiter went stationary retrograde late last year, as well as the degree of the Venus inferior conjunction with the Sun during its retrograde. That implies the themes and lessons of the next 4 weeks (and 53 weeks!) are directly related to those significant events. So Mars will now activate the training theme of that degree, supported by the practical training indicated by the Eclipse degree.
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 I outlined in part 1, the Sun and Moon make no major aspects, though there are a few important aspects, both harmonious and frictional, made by other planets. The most prominent involve Mercury sextile Venus, Venus conjunct Mars, biseptile Saturn, and trine Uranus, Mars square Saturn, Jupiter binovile Saturn, opposition Neptune, and trine Pluto, Saturn trielftile (11th harmonic) Neptune, and Uranus novile Neptune and square Pluto. The 11th harmonic aspects deal with learning to make leaps of faith to overcome types of duality, and in doing so come to a form of mastery of those planetary energies making the 11th harmonic aspect.
So really, Venus and Jupiter are the main aspect players in this Eclipse. Jupiter opposition Neptune should help us get and stay clear about some big picture elements in reality, and show us larger trends. Just stay connected, don’t drift, and find opportunities to grow, teach, or learn within unclear conditions.
Jupiter’s trine to Pluto on a transfiguration, self-transcending degree shows us another part of our training regimen, helping us develop powers and skills we will use in a time yet to come, when we shall have to mobilize joyously to secure assets and conditions. This can show us essential practical plans, skills, and disciplines of an expansive plan. Be strong, yet flexible. When in doubt, learn through imitation, and seek to understand the basic elements of what is elusive.
Venus opens many vistas of renewal over the next 4+ years wherever we have Leo in our chart. There will be moments of pause which can sustain us, as long as we’re alertly ready to act and don’t fall into distress over not knowing what’s coming. This will give us flashes of inspiration that show us how to prepare for the future, and do what we have to do in the present to ensure some sort of supply down the road.
Venus biseptile Saturn puts us at a fork in the road of life renewal based in the lessons we’ve learned while Saturn was in Scorpio, and requires we find safe ways of relieving pressure. This will put us all at turning points in life areas where we have Taurus, Libra, Capricorn, and Aquarius in our charts, driven by the new values and relationships in our Leo sector and our mature emotions and desires in our Scorpio sector. Most impacted are those with planets or angles near 14-18 Leo, 6-10 Libra, 28 Scorpio-2 Sagittarius, 19-23 Capricorn, 10-14 Pisces, 2-6 Taurus, and 23-27 Gemini.
As Venus is still in its retrograde “shadow zone,” and Mercury is about to go retrograde and also in its “shadow zone,” there may be strange flashes that show how past, present, and future overlap. Many things will be seen in terms of cyclic patterns, and taking the initiative to develop skills will be extraordinarily favored, if we can take a long view and not believe it has to make sense right now.
If things get bogged down or obstructed, make sure the plan has been structured effectively. Mars approaching the square to Saturn shows we’re learning not to get deflected into hassles that aren’t really ours, and know when it’s time to back off or back down and go do something else somewhere else. Beware of false starts and plans that are founded on at least one fundamental flaw. Still, it is good for getting some relief from old pressures as we grow into a new archetypal worldly function or role.
Element Balance
Of the traditional 10 planets, there are 3 planets in Fire signs, 2 in Water, 4 in Earth, and 1 in Air. This indicates a major emphasis on practicality and the material world backed by inspiration, with some degree of strong feelings and almost no intellectual energy.
At least Mercury in Libra provides relatedness, even if it is about to go retrograde and usher in a period from now to the end of the year where Libra will occupy the stage. I’ve also found a lack of an element puts an intense focus on the qualities of that element, but from a sense of lack rather than what’s there.
With the Lunation in Earth, practicality and making things work more satisfactorily will run very high, with an emphasis on service. Backed by the Leo/Aries inspired trine, we should be able to find natural ways to express heart energy as we end the Saturn in Scorpio era.
Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, things will be running a little more hot than cold, with the Earth element steadying the energy somewhat. Remember that “to rule is to serve,” so see how to blend inspiration with practicality and a lot should be accomplished!
An Overview of Saturn’s Influence the Past 2 Years
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 late that year put the light on those Saturn lessons, and since the Mars-Saturn conjunction of August 2014, we’re learning new Scorpio ways of applying those truths of our direct experience
We’re now at the final moment of the Saturn in Scorpio era, and we’ve all experienced deeper feelings about relationships. We’ve cleaned out, let go, purified, focused, dealt with death and loss, restructured how we share with others, and all those other Scorpio keywords that usually terrify the lower ego.
As Saturn co-rules 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 Fiery heart power of Mars in Leo, Saturn’s dispositor. This can bring news ways of proving our power and skills to our world, and bring us to the heart of the creative process.
This brings our late Scorpio lessons to fulfillment as we prepare to leave the Saturn in Scorpio era. Saturn’s direct station in Scorpio is leaving us with two final lessons: to be compassionate, and find ways to allow grace to short-circuit the karmic law. When appropriate, ask Divine Mother to bless and protect in situations where the karmic law could harm someone or something.
Since late 2012, Saturn in Scorpio has taught us what we had to eliminate some things to find the emotional stability we now have. Earlier this year Saturn in Sagittarius opened us to a greater view of why we had to let go of whatever or whoever to see where we want to go from here. We are now in our final exams of how we use Saturn in Scorpio wisely in our lives.
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.
So as you open to the ninth New Moon of 2015, take a new look at what Saturn helped you let go of throughout 2013 and 2014, as well as the long term regenerative self-discipline that’s also been there, if you saw limitations with a mature eye. We deepened our regenerative life magnetism, or a deeper communion with some inner or outer element of our Being. Now we’re feeling the swell of the wave to come, and preparing to surf that wave over the next several months!
What's the proper sequence at present of deciding, feeling, and thinking, with an Overview of the Lunation
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.
The Leo energy leading the occupied 2/3 of the map should continue to bring stabilized autonomous pressure to harmonize a broader, more unique and individual power that will be a permanent part of our tool box in 2016. Now is when we take the promise of the past Jupiter in Leo year and bring it to action via Venus and Mars so we can live what now should be a more loving or heart-oriented future.
The next 4 weeks (and 4+ years) will offer us all opportunities to come to a balanced creative and even playful self-expression, going through different kinds of training (via Mars, Jupiter, and the Eclipse) that can bring us peace through clarity in understand recurring patterns in our lives. Some of what we experience through Venus and Mars will seem like it’s coming back from the past or completing it in dynamic ways, whereas some of what we’re about to experience through Mercury will seem to be going everywhere and nowhere at the same time. As it’s almost retrograde, it’s “back to the future” time!
Mercury Retrograde
Mercury will go retrograde at 16 Libra on September 17 at 11:10 am PDT, 7:10 pm BST. It’s been in its “shadow zone” for about 2 weeks, and thus has been slowing, or as I put it, “crashing into retrograde.” If you’ve wondered why things already seem to be retrograde, that’s why.
You can find out a lot more about the coming Mercury retrograde in Libra by getting a copy of the new expanded 2nd edition of my pioneering book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde, the 2015 winner in its category of The Indie Spiritual Book Awards. The first major work on Mercury retrograde ever written, it offers in-depth information about Mercury retrograde people, Mercury retrograde in the various signs and houses, and what the entire Mercury Retrograde phenomenon is about. If you want to know what we can expect from Mercury retrograde in Libra, or the last one in Gemini, or the others in any other sign and the influence in the houses, it’s all in there.
The paperback is available through Amazon.com or your local bookstore, so if you want the newest edition go there and order your copy. Of course, it’s also available as an ebook through Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble Nook. I've included links to both sites.
As I’ve mentioned before, it is written for both astrologers and laypeople. I have just about everything you could want to know about Mercury retrograde, including how it works, what it means, celebrities who have it in their charts, historic events that happened during Mercury retrograde, and what signs are involved in future Mercury retrograde periods.
By knowing more about 2014's Mercury retrograde periods in Pisces/Aquarius, Cancer/Gemini, and Scorpio/Libra, as well as 2015’s Mercury retrograde periods in Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra, you may see patterns in what was going on in your life, what you were taking a new look at and why, and how this "looking back" influenced your choices as you moved through past events.
Here's the link to where you can order your copy of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. to check out possible ways this Mercury retrograde effect could play out over the next 4 months. Just make sure it's the 2015 edition and not the 1997 Weiser edition.
Of course, I'll be composing the articles on the coming Mercury retrograde this week and next, so I'll see you soon with the inside skinny on what we can expect from this retrograde in Libra that begins with repair work and ends showing us a new archetypal way of Being!
© Copyright 2015 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks Robert. Lots of opportunities ahead and the ending of a lot that has been moving the world actions as we have seen them in these last years. That opens new fields of understanding and doing. Progress on the making, the future being desing in the now. Time to move on and see new ways of creating the future that is around the corner. Even though, as you say, Mercury's retrograde will play its part very soon.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | September 14, 2015 at 02:33 PM
Just reading your words about getting a new vision...
A vision long awaited flowed through and grounded in perfect synchronicity.
Thank you
Posted by: sue | September 15, 2015 at 10:29 AM
Hi Robert,
A wonderful article...thank you.
Im approaching an interesting period of time and wondered if you might have some knowledge for me. The upcoming lunar eclipse c onjuncts my south node in the 6th house at 3libra...Also conjunction my descendent and part of fortune at 12 libra. Interestingly this is directly after saturn has left scorpio.. ..like a test after the saturn experience... I of course am a Scorpio 15 Nov 1959 3:22am Tarrytown ny Westchester)
So it feels as if this is "endings, doors closing, the shadow/ south node/past
habits and conditioning ending.
the solar eclipse in march of course is on my natal north node at 3 libra in the 12th house conjunct my venus at 5 libra and my ascendant at 12 libra.
"New day dawns, new abilities, new identity. Beginnings....
Posted by: Suzanne Browne | September 16, 2015 at 08:24 AM