by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Aquarius indicates a time when many will receive messages from Spirit, with many blessings promised by the very powerful Venus trine Jupiter!
This is the fifth New Moon since the launch of the Saturn in Sagittarius era in late September after a last blast of Saturn in Scorpio from mid-June through mid-September. There are a number of important aspects in play which I’ll discuss in part two. And we’re still in an imperfect Bowl Jones pattern, showing more of a sense of what we have and what we don’t, set in the context of practicality, education, experimentation in action, training, and willingness to test our faith, strength, and valor.
So What’s Happening?
Today we’ll do an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In part 2 we’ll cover Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.
This associative, idealistic, stabilizing, and “big picture” New Moon focusing on managing actions occurs at 20 Aquarius on February 8 at 6:39 am PST, 9:39 am EST, 2:39 pm GMT. This one shows rewards, signs, and signals from Spirit are coming, and offers us a promise of being able to anticipate events to come down the road. This will help us release all that would block the expression of our integrity as we show faith and see our evolving mastery.
As Mercury is still in its shadow zone from the recent retrograde, we are still dealing with the aftermath of that “back to the future” period that mobilized us to some form of action via a “cosmic visitation.” And yes, there are more to come as Mercury and Venus cross 2 Aquarius, the degree of the retrograde station.
This brings blasts from the past, or indirect or roundabout ways to find a form of transcendent security. As with the last two New Moons, this one will also feature an enormously productive 4 weeks, and open doors to what we believe are venerable standards we’ve been living since 2009.
This New Moon is the thirteenth in a sequence where the Sun falls in the sign preceding the next Full Moon. This is the opposite of the “normal order of Lunation Suns,” where the New Moon Sun is in the same sign as the next Full Moon Sun. In other words, while this New Moon Sun is in Aquarius, the coming Full Moon Sun will be in Pisces. Since I explain this phenomenon and what it means in the Full Moon articles, you can find out more by consulting the Full Moon articles of two weeks ago or two weeks from now.
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
There are quite a few major forming aspects in this chart, most of which are exceptionally favorable. Those who have cultivated their garden will see excellent growth and expansion, and those who have been waiting the return of something should find themselves pleased with what shows up!
This Lunation at 20 Aquarius features the same extraordinarily favorable trine to Jupiter from a planet in Capricorn as the last New Moon. This time it’s Venus at 20 Capricorn to Jupiter at 22 Virgo conjunct the North Node at 23 Virgo. The spread of harmonious degrees created by these trine should trigger numerous positive developments wherever we have late Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces in our charts.
The Lunation makes only one major aspect, a quincunx to Jupiter. While forcing needed adjustments and corrections to embrace a more practical ideal, it shows a lot of productivity regarding seeing our higher purpose and linking with others to generate optimism and new initiatives, as well as the possibility of a degree of festivity as we anticipate good things to come.
There are actually relatively few major aspects in this chart, and a tremendous number of spiritual ones! The more prominent ones include Mercury semisquare Neptune, Venus trine Jupiter, Mars sextile Jupiter and tredecile Neptune, Jupiter opposition Neptune and trine Pluto, and Saturn square Neptune.
The aspects in various spiritual series provide us some interesting combinations, and there are a few very obscure minor aspects involving the 5th harmonic series. Of the spiritual aspects, we find the Lunation bielftile (11th harmonic) Saturn, Mercury bielftile Mars and novile Saturn, Jupiter exactly triseptile Uranus, and Uranus novile Neptune. I’ll elaborate on these and various 5th harmonic aspects in part 2. Since there are so many spiritual aspects in this Lunation, if you want to know more about the septile (7th harmonic), novile (9th harmonic), and elftile (11th harmonic) series aspects, when you’re done here you can check out The Spiritual Aspects – Novile, Septile, and Elftile Series. I also have a recorded class for those who want more on these important aspects.
As almost all the planets are concentrated between mid-Capricorn and early Pisces, you can bet those sectors will be highly active over the next 4 weeks. This New Moon will jumpstart Aquarius energy wherever it falls in our chart. That's why this New Moon can yield a lot of stabilized visionary action, with a harmonized practicality due to Venus in Capricorn and Jupiter in Virgo.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Aquarius makes Saturn the worldly ruler of the Lunation, and Uranus is the spiritual ruler of the Lunation. Because Saturn is in Sagittarius and Uranus is in Aries, there is a harmony between the rulers of the Lunation. Saturn in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter in Virgo, which is ruled by Mercury in Capricorn, which is ruled by Saturn in Sagittarius. This sets up a “chain of dispositors” as one of the ruling energies to the chart.
So the chart shows an interesting blend of three backdrop energies, with one predominating. Beside the chain of dispositors listed above, we also have Uranus in Aries is ruled by Mars in Scorpio, which is a sign it rules. That makes Mars a final dispositor for itself and Uranus. They are outside the influence of the chain of dispositors just mentioned, as is Neptune in its home sign of Pisces.
Planets involved in a chain of dispositors or a mutual reception are both “closed loop” powerful self-reinforcing energies that governs the backdrop for all the other planets in the map. You can find out more about dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.
Because Mercury in Capricorn leads the Lunation, the energies leading the Light are practical, pragmatic, self-organizing, and will lead many to a form of emotional or social security in simple circumstances. This is the close of old ideas to assist the quickening, so stay clear about the roles you’re no longer willing to play, and the roles that are waiting for your acceptance. While the next 4 weeks will bring adjustments and sacrifices, it’s also a tremendously productive period where many higher and deeper things can be known.
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, as well as subsequent Solar Eclipses whose influence continues. These effects are 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 that the Grand Irrationality is not in play, since there are no septile series aspects to either Neptune or Pluto. However, has been very active in recent weeks due to planetary positions at Mercury’s recent retrograde station, as well as the recent Venus conjunct Pluto and septile Neptune. Recent global events clearly show seeds were set into motion related to some sort of “fork in the road of global destiny.”
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. We’ve been living with it for almost 25 years, and it will be active for a couple more years to come, even though we’ve begun to be on the far side of that influence.
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! We’re certainly still seeing some global craziness and irrational behavior, so be aware!
Because late Autumn through mid-Spring shows Neptune in close septile with Pluto, we’ve been in several weeks where the configuration acts as a simultaneous “pulse” that will activate Neptune and Pluto at the same time. However, as we get into late Spring through mid-Autumn, we’ll experience a lag in how Neptune and Pluto are experienced, since they’ll be out of the septile and again approaching the sextile they made from 1942-1995.
The current degree spans that trigger this transformative mass configuration are around 7-11 Pisces, 28 Aries- 2 Taurus, 19-23 Gemini, 10-14 Leo, 2-6 Libra, 23-27 Scorpio, and 15-19 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 2011-2012, and Where We're At Now
I offer this segment each month to give you a broader perspective on the collective atmosphere, and the long wave changes humanity is going through.
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 forty-ninth 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 20 Pisces. It first crossed this degree in April 2015, and then retrograded across this degree in August-September 2015. It’s now making its third pass over this degree, and it won’t return for another entire cycle. This will help us heal anew through our positioning within collective consciousness, helping us find ways to mentor and be mentored in the themes of feeling an “encompassing richness of experience whenever a particular ordeal is over” and “spiritual nourishment” when we’ve completed our metaphoric “day of labor.”
20 Pisces is also the degree where Mercury went stationary retrograde in February 2013. So something of the greater healing/mentoring energies now in some way relate to events of February and March 2013, as well as the two periods in 2015 when this degree was activated. And it will have implications for when Neptune occupies this degree in 2020-2021.
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 9 Pisces, reinforcing the quickening in collective consciousness awakened by Uranus in 2005-2006, and pervading the collective atmosphere since Neptune first crossed this degree in March 2015. As Neptune will not transit this degree again for almost 150 years, this Lunation is giving us one last burst of energy to drop everything that is unnecessary to a speedy achievement of some social or emotional goal.
This is assisting our long term renewal that began in the Summer of 2014. Because Neptune has not experienced 6 through 10 Pisces since the 1850s, it indicates that collective consciousness in 2014-2016 has been in an “unknown zone” relative to the recent past, but somehow echoing lessons of the last period. The past 18 months, we’ve strengthened our intuition and emotional intelligence, as well as a greater feeling-connection of our positioning within a vaster field.
This quickening has helped us drop many irrelevant considerations and able us to a new form of mastery that will lead to new functional roles and truths in the next year. We’re definitely learning how to be precise in moving through the larger fogs and vast feelings in the collective atmosphere.
Once it moves past its previously occupied span by mid-March, collective consciousness will again enter an “unknown zone” of experience, feeling what it stands for amidst the swirl of the tides, preparing us to demonstrate courage and focused will within a larger collective circumstance. The collective consciousness will again be officially in uncharted waters that it has not experienced since 1852-1854.
The North Node
This is the third New Moon with North Node in Virgo and South Node in Pisces. Good for learning precision, practicality, refined discipleship and service! With NN in Virgo, our greatest development is through our ability to analyze, figure out what’s core and peripheral, what’s important and unimportant, and how each detail fits the bigger picture. We will demonstrate these qualities through compassion, forgiveness, and the ability to get emotional closure while relating our experiences to the general timeless human condition.
The North Node in late Virgo brings a more specific focus on growth in that direction. We now begin many months of developing many of the Saturn skills and disciplines we took on and learned to deal with when Saturn was in this face of late Virgo between mid-November 2008 and mid-February 2009, and again in August and September 2009.
This NN degree is 23 Virgo, exactly conjunct Jupiter. That is the degree of “An animal trainer,” showing the next four weeks are about a radical expansion of, or teaching around the themes of demonstrating our training, resoluteness, faith, patience, valor, and mastery of our animal nature and vital energies. Be willing to teach and/or learn through emotional, social, and/or cultural forms of experimentation. This helps us synthesize skills we’ll need in the future.
Uranus Square Pluto is now Separating!
Though we’re finally at the “far side” of the long wave friction and crashes symbolized by Uranus square Pluto, the energies are still thick and heavy in the atmosphere at present, since the square is barely separating! This square is indicative of the global collision between a new humanity and an old slave/control system.
Now that Uranus is direct, the square which has been strong the past few months is again separating, pretty much exact for the last time. Finally!! Just stay alert the next couple of months for the conjunctions, squares, and oppositions when the Moon moves through Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, and when Mercury, Venus, and the Sun move through Aries, since that will activate the square in huge ways.
I’ll close today by reminding you that the powerful Earth trine made in this Lunation, along with a very strong Mars sextile Jupiter, shows that this is a time of great harmony and productive, practical movement. This should help us capture much of the favorable promise of the recent Mercury retrograde. This is a time when we should get a tremendous amount accomplished that slowed down or even reversed course in December and January, and we should receive rewards for prior efforts.
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Mother Earth has just put on her big girl pants...
Posted by: sue | February 09, 2016 at 06:45 AM
Dear Robert,
Your words 'harmonized practicalities' resonates straight to the minds eye of things...
Thanks
Posted by: sue | February 09, 2016 at 07:21 AM
Do you think the Mercury/Sun inferior conjunction point (23Cap) is a trigger for anything?
This new moon was extremely painful for me for some reason. I also had my lunar return a couple degrees (and a few hours) later, but I wasn't stable until yesterday evening.
Posted by: bomega | February 09, 2016 at 05:14 PM
Really feels good to read this... somehow the last 3-4 years have been an overall struggle globally.
Good to see the end near.
BTW, what would it be like when the Grand Irrationality ends? Will things start making sense again?
Posted by: Radha Kunke | February 10, 2016 at 12:09 PM