by Robert Wilkinson
This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this Taurus New Moon chart. This one is stabilizing, steadying, grounding, practical, and brings the possibility of cultivating or expressing our natural enthusiasm. This will also awaken some effects related to the May 2012 Wesak Festival, since this Lunation is the same degree as the Sun at that Wesak, which profoundly affected our entire world. It will also bring Mercury retrograde signs and signals from the recent 2016 Wesak, since Mercury is on the same degree as it was during that momentous event!
At this time, the planetary layout has moved between many different Jones Patterns, depending on the position of the Moon. These patterns operate their own independent influence, regardless of which planet is in which sign.
Currently, the occupied span is between Mars in early Sag and Mercury retrograde in late Taurus, with only Jupiter outside that span. This spread is called a Bucket pattern, with all the planets occupying one half of the signs except for Jupiter, which serves as a handle or “focal determinator.”
In this New Moon, the span occupied by the innermost planets (in this chart Venus through Mercury in Taurus) is 12 degrees, showing the major focus in play. This is a very intense cluster, and if we add Uranus to the mix, we have 5 planets in a 29+ degree span.
This month we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 6 signs, which are fairly spread out around the zodiacal wheel. We have Virgo, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Pisces, Aries, and Taurus represented, with 6 planets plus Chiron clustered between mid-Pisces and late Taurus. That 69+ degree span will be the primary zone of action these next 4 weeks.
The Bucket Pattern and how it works
Because the Bucket pattern has been in play off and on for many months during the times when the Moon has been between late Scorpio and mid-Cancer, let’s take another look at this Jones pattern and how it works. As I explained above, with all the planets on one side of the zodiac and Jupiter in Virgo far enough away from the nearest planet to become a nozzle for the focus of all the other planetary energies, it becomes the “handle,” or nozzle for focusing the energies of the rest. The handle, or focal determinator, represents the way to greater effectiveness, the cause to be embraced, the lack to be filled, or the way to use the total energies of this time in a focused manner.
Dr. Jones states “the Bucket type indicates a particular and rather uncompromising direction in the life effort.” This pattern gives “interest in a cause,” with executive tendencies that will adapt allegiances to maximize results of the effort. He says “the Bucket type at its best reveals the real instructor and inspirer of others, and at its worst the agitator and malcontent.” This is the larger planetary pattern within which we’re all trying to do what we do.
We are also told this pattern is more about finding an effective release for energy within social settings, but also about the individual imposing their patterns on society rather than adapting to what is there. It’s about focused intention. So all of us can expect some sort of focused attention on the house where we have 14 Virgo.
We also had Jupiter as the handle of a Bucket pattern off and on through the past two years. In 2014, Jupiter was the nozzle then as now, but was in Cancer at that time. It then became the nozzle, or handle, when it was in Leo in 2015. Now it’s in Virgo. Same handle, different expression. It would seem we’re all learning a lot about how to manage Jupiter’s energies as the nozzle for the fire hose!
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 17 Taurus. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol for the 17th degree of Taurus is “A battle between the swords and the torches.” In the Astrology of Personality," where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, 17 Taurus is said to symbolize “Struggle between might and enlightenment, physical desires and higher inspirations,” “Self-orientation,” and “Divine enthusiasm.”
In "The Astrological Mandala" he states this is a degree of “Refusing to depend upon the past, the seeker turns warrior, fighting anew the eternal ‘Great War.’” In an interesting correlation to the 2012 Wesak Festival, celebrating the Full Moon that marked Gautama Siddhartha (the Buddha’s) birth, enlightenment, commencement of the teaching, and his death, for this symbol Rudhyar notes “When Gautama, having sought in vain for the answers to his questions among the teacher of tradition, sat under the Bodhi Tree, he had to fight his own battle in his own way, even though it is an eternal fight.”
He offers that “the spiritual light within the greater Soul must struggle against the ego-will that only knows how to use the powers of this material and intellectual world... It is the energy that arises out of the present moment – the inescapable NOW – that the daring individual has to use in the struggle.” He also suggests this degree infers that enlightenment is attained through facing all issues “as if there were only two opposed sides” suggesting a “polarization of values.” He says this degree falls in the Span of Enjoyment, Act of Differentiation, and Scene of Confirmation on the Actional-Physical level.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of "the eternal struggle between the practical necessities or transient competitions of life on the one hand and the motives and meanings which give them direction and order on the other.” He states this symbol is one of surviving and gaining genuine self-fulfillment by aligning ourselves with the causes of enlightenment while respecting “the manifestations of might.”
He offers the keyword RESOLUTION. When operating positively, the degree is "high organizational skill and an ability to bring the magic of understanding to any specific difficulty.”
So this New Moon will activate and mobilize us wherever it falls in our charts. We may see the Light of the forms of wisdom we opened to in 2012, or in some way the wisdom that influenced the entire world then will be the focus of what’s up in the world these next 4 weeks. So take a new look at “motives and meanings” that give your life direction and order, and open to a greater understanding that can bring magic to your life.
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.
This Lunation makes makes three major aspects and one minor aspect. It’s conjunct Mercury retrograde which “collects the light” and reactivates the trine to Jupiter, which with the trine to Pluto makes for a VERY powerful Grand Earth Trine involving 4 planets in Taurus trine Jupiter and Pluto. The Lunation is also bielftile Neptune, showing faith in a form of enthusiastic self-mobilization will help us oversome some duality or dualistic life condition.
Other important inner planet aspects (besides the Grand Earth Trine) include Mercury conjunct Venus, pentelftile Mars, and triseptile Saturn, Venus biquintile Saturn, vigintile Uranus and sextile Neptune, and Mars binovile Jupiter. As described in part one, the biquintile is a unique interactive aspect, and sets up voids that will create energies related to a 5 pointed Star pattern. I gave you the affected areas in that article.
The binovile, bielftile, and pentelftile are spiritual aspects. All novile series aspects introduce an element of gestation, whether something is going into it or coming out from a gestative period. These aspects hold the promise of realization and revelation, pointing us toward whatever spiritual pulse governs the planetary interaction.
The elftile series aspect all show some phase of learning to overcome some form of duality by making a leap of faith that will lead to mastery, and the vigintile (18 degrees) is a minor sub-harmonic aspect of the 10th harmonic series that gives the beginning of specialization that takes further shape at the decile and quintile.
The major outer planet aspects involve Jupiter opposed Neptune and Saturn square Neptune. The trines provides harmony and understanding in those areas affected, while the off-set Mutable T-square releases a tremendous amount of energy into Gemini, showing us the way to integration or re-integration of those “distributive” energies. That would make Jupiter a very dominant influence in this chart, since it’s the handle of the Bucket, part of multiple Grand Earth Trines, and part of the Mutable T-square!
Element Balance
Of the traditional 10 planets, there are 3 planets in Fire signs, 1 in Water, 6 in Earth, and 0 in Air. This indicates a major emphasis on inspiration and practicality, with some continued vast feelings and zero relatedness. Whether practical inspiration, or inspired practicality, it’s time to mobilize whether others agree with you or not.
Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, things will be fairly balanced, with strong Earth energy to stabilize everything as we move through the twists and turns of having 5 planets retrograde!
The current sequence at present of Feeling, Deciding, and Thinking
We’ve been through several different sequences over the past few months. There are six patterns, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. This one continues the New Moon pattern.
As a process of moving through events, the most effective “firing sequence” for approaching life and experience during the next 4 weeks involves an initial stage of feeling our way into decisions and actions. Then, after we have made a decision and/or acted on that feeling, it is important to get newer, updated 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.
So the atmosphere will be one of leading with our feelings, then making decisions on the basis of those feelings, and then finding new ideas and new interpretations. The trick with this pattern is not to get trapped in old assumptions and views. In this pattern, once we’ve come to fundamental facts that allow us to act, then we need to find a newer way to envision the process.
So “feel your way” into new experiences, then make decisions and act on the basis of those feelings. This pattern is great for learning and teaching through anecdotes, seeing how to handle things practically, or how others are doing that. 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.
Summing Up
We’re still in a long term situation where we can keep things relatively steady and stable despite the multiple fractures in front of all of us. This is a time of “favorable disintegration,” and by the time Mars goes direct in late June we will not feel as blocked as we have in the past.
This New Moon will generate activity wherever we have mid-Taurus in our charts, so be enthusiastic as you breathe into a natural momentum and use your spiritual awareness to guide practical matters. Pay attention to details, and keep it all simple, solid, and enjoyable as you explore ways to move through this slowed-down time of so many retrogrades.
Because of its association with the global Wisdom of the 2012 Wesak that led us all through a membrane of “feeling-knowing” in December 2012, we should see a renewal of that global “world teaching” in a form appropriate to our evolved awareness. And in another interesting correlation, Mercury retrograde in this chart is the exact degree of Mercury in the recent 2016 Wesak Festival Full Moon of 2 weeks ago! So the next 4 weeks will bring echoes of both the 2012 Wesak wisdom AND the 2016 Wesak wisdom.
As I gave you in one of the 2016 Wesak articles, the wisdom we are now getting a new look at will show us it’s a new time, a new way, and a new day in our lives. While there may be delays in fulfilling the promise, it only shows there are things to be reworked, re-planned, and un-done to be re-done, once we get a different look at things. Many will reconnect with some ideas and views they may have forgotten, remember a different way they used to be, or find themselves having to renew an old skill.
Because of so many planets retrograde now and the near future, be willing to go slow, take a new look or a new approach to whatever you need to, and keep it simple, practical, and enjoyable as we move through the Earth trines. Everything in the wisdom we’re learning through deliberate, slow, and steady action will move forward as a result of the challenge to transformation indicated by the coming Mars stationary direct point.
The Virgo energy serving as the focus for the occupied half of the map should help us be practical in how we express the new adventures initiated when Mercury, the Sun, Mars, and Venus were in Virgo making their conjunctions to Jupiter between August and October. This should bring a grounded practicality and productive use of power that will be a permanent part of our tool box in 2016.
A New Look At Mercury Retrograde
Because Mercury retrograde plays an extremely important part in this Lunation, and the liberation promised will be part of the wisdom teaching of 2016, you may want to learn all you can about its influence. If you haven't already gotten your copy, you may want to buy a copy of the award-winning expanded 2nd edition of my pioneering book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde.
The first major work on Mercury retrograde ever written, it offers in-depth information about possible ways that Mercury retrograde in the various signs and houses can manifest, and what the entire Mercury Retrograde phenomenon is about. If you want to know how to use the Mercury retrograde in Taurus energies to best effect, you’ll want a copy of the book.
By knowing more about 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. And you can get a deeper understanding of how retrogrades impact us by taking a look at the 2016 Mercury retrograde periods in Aquarius/Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn/Sagittarius. It’s all in the book!
Here's the Amazon link to the page where you can order your paperback or ebook copy of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. It is an invaluable resource for understanding past, present, and future Mercury retrogrades, so get your copy today. Just make sure you get the 2015 edition, and not the 1997 first edition, since the second is a far superior product!
See you soon with articles on the Inferior conjunction between the Sun and Mercury and Jupiter going stationary direct!
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Thank you Robert, a great follow up on the clues and concepts from the previous post.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | May 08, 2016 at 02:52 AM