by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Taurus indicates a time when we will mobilize, stabilize, and many things will be more concrete than they have been recently. This one brings clarity, insights, and glimpses of a new life that’s already begun.
This is the eighth 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 2015. There are a number of important aspects in play which I’ll discuss in part two. This Lunation continues a Bucket Jones pattern, with Jupiter as the handle and focal director. This gives an added emphasis to Virgo energies as an important nozzle to express the energies of the other planets, and continues our lessons of practical vision, ordered seeking, getting a plan, and glimpsing a form of grounded cultural fulfillment.
This Lunation also continues to accent “the tension of opposites,” due to the forming Jupiter opposition to Neptune, with Saturn still putting friction via its square to Neptune from Sagittarius, throwing the void into Gemini. This will continue for many lunations to come, culminating in the Grand Mutable Crosses of June that I term a “Great Fracturing.” We will have tremendous opportunities to achieve forms of personality integration before then, and whatever is fractured will create space for us to recombine the pieces into new forms of service.
Even though Jupiter’s square to Saturn is separating, it is still held in force by their relationships to Neptune. Because both the Jupiter square to Saturn and the Saturn square to Neptune are waning they are culminative, and shows tension between the expansive principle and the limiting principle, setting up both gear grinds and liberating experiences within challenging circumstances in the collective consciousness.
The main challenge with Jupiter square Saturn is to make sure that our values are supporting our ambitions, and that we are willing to use what we have to expand in some way or seize an opportunity. It is a conflict between radical expansion and the rules and limits of our lives. It requires using time as our ally to achieved measured expansion, and not allow rules or discouragement to block our possibilities.
As with all squares, the trick is to see how to use the energies of each planet to release the favorable energies inherent in both planets making the square. For example, we can use Saturn to release favorable Jupiter energies created by the Mercury and Venus trines to Jupiter and Venus’ sextile to Neptune, generating favorable Scorpio energy that’s released by Saturn into Gemini.
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 stabilizing, activating, faith-inducing New Moon focusing our ability to use spiritual energy to counter material density occurs at 17 Taurus on May 6 at 12:29 pm PDT, 3:29 pm EDT, and 8:29 pm BST. This one continues the stability indicated by past, present, and future Grand Earth trines, and activates spiritual potential. Here we can find that which cuts through darkness, despair, and feelings of isolation, and brings renewals of love, hope, and adventures for those who are alert and ready to act.
This New Moon is the sixteenth 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 Taurus, the coming Full Moon Sun will be in Gemini. 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
This Lunation continues the Bucket Pattern that’s been in play off and on for several years. That makes Jupiter in Virgo extraordinarily important in how we get a handle on life, and how to release the energies of this time period. This chart has many important forming aspects, including the New Moon, Mercury, and Venus all trine Pluto, with Mercury retrograde and Venus “collecting the light” and re-creating the Grand Earth Trine recently made by the Sun.
Other important aspects include the Lunation bielftile to Neptune, Mercury triseptile to Saturn, and Venus biquintile Saturn. The biquintile is a unique interactive aspect, promising that as we’ve cultivated our gifts up to now, we’ll be specializing the areas this aspect falls, as well as the other three void points of this potential 5 pointed Star pattern. This will bring forth gifts and unique circumstances for those with planets or angles near 7-11 Taurus, 19-23 Cancer, 1-5 Libra, 13-17 Sagittarius, and 25-29 Aquarius.
There’s also a pentelftile from Mercury to Mars, and a binovile from Mars to Jupiter. The 9th harmonic aspects (novile) and 11th harmonic aspects (elftiles) are angles related to spiritual development. You can find more about these series and more by using the site google box to find the articles in the archives related to these aspects.
Since there are quite a few 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.
Because so many planets are concentrated in Taurus, you can bet that sector will be highly active over the next 4 weeks. This New Moon will jumpstart Taurus energy wherever it falls in our chart. With such a heavy emphasis in that sign, it’s time to continue to solidify what has begun this Spring, and follow through any way you need to. When in doubt, just do it the only way you know how!
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Taurus makes Venus the worldly ruler of the Lunation, and TransPluto the spiritual ruler of the Lunation. Because Venus is in Taurus and TransPluto is in Virgo, even though they make no forming aspect it still indicates the Earth elements is a major spiritual factor behind what is initiated at this New Moon.
Venus in its home sign of Taurus makes it the final dispositor for all the other planetary energies except Neptune, and its trine to Jupiter again makes the Jupiter in Virgo influence very powerful. You can find out more about dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.
Because Venus in Taurus leads the Lunation, the energies leading the Light are social, aesthetic, seeking beauty and balance, as well as ways to create happiness in dark hours, or sound an “antiphonic” tone to bring hope where it’s grim. It shows that our relationships will take on an added importance these next 4 weeks, and we’ll have excellent opportunities to embrace relationships and values that will be important in our future, as well as stabilize our life and material affairs.
A New Look At Mercury Retrograde
Because Mercury retrograde plays an extremely important part in this Lunation, 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.
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, or 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 heads up 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!
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.
It’s been triggered in quite a few Lunations this year already. This one is one of the rare Lunations that doesn’t have one or more planets triggering the Grand Irrationality, though there is a very important triseptile between Mercury and Saturn, showing returns related to that “destiny producing” aspect wherever it falls in our charts. It also shows that the world is having to take a new look at past cooperative collective energies already in play. Much will come forth in about 3-4 and then 10-11 days as the Sun and then Venus make their triseptiles to Saturn.
The next time the Grand Irrationality will be put into play, creating big forks in the road in the world at large, will be when planets transit through 20-25 Gemini in June. That will profoundly affect those with a planet or angle in any of the 7 “hot zones,” and coming after the Great Fracturing, should help propel some into a different direction that they thought they were going before then!
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 9-13 Pisces, 30 Aries- 4 Taurus, 21-25 Gemini, 12-16 Leo, 3-7 Libra, 25-29 Scorpio, and 17-21 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 Great 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 fifty-first 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 1 Pisces - the Cusp 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 25 Pisces. This is the first time Chiron has been on this degree since 1966-1967. It will of course retrograde over this degree in a few months, and then go direct and pass over it again. It will finally go stationary direct on this exact degree in late 2017, so consider this a front end look at Chironic themes that are in play for almost 2 years to come.
As Chiron and then Neptune pass through Pisces, we shall see echoes in the collective consciousness related to the various Uranus stations from 2008-2010, and specifically the Jupiter conjunctions to Uranus during 2010. We shall also be shown healing and mentoring techniques that will dominate collective consciousness when it too goes through its purification from 2022-2024.
Chiron transits help each of us heal anew through our positioning within collective consciousness, assisting us to find ways to mentor and be mentored in Piscean ways. This one has the themes of purifying our personalities so that the Soul can shine forth without being obscured by selfishness, egotism, and dualistic morality. Here we heal ourselves and others through a larger purified vision, and letting go of a lot of lesser qualities, whether through compassion, forgiveness, or just ending old egoic habits.
Neptune shows 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 has been established these past several years. 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.
2016 completes our realizations of these lessons, and prepares us to move forward. This chart shows us that those who have “entered the sanctuary” where our minds were introduced to Soul realms are now in a testing phase, where we show that we are qualified to occupy the “spiritual office” we have accepted before now. This year and next we are moving into a Sacred Space, awakening to a greater role, letting go of fear, and learning from those who are true custodians of Soul force.
In this chart Neptune is at 12 Pisces, reinforcing the quickening in collective consciousness awakened by Uranus in 2005-2006. While we’re still finishing up some lessons related to earlier degrees in Pisces through 2017, this marks the first time that Neptune has been in this face of Pisces since 1852-1853. That opens an entirely new era in Neptune’s influence on the collective consciousness!
Because Neptune has not experienced this span of 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 22 months, we’ve strengthened our intuition and emotional intelligence, as well as a greater feeling-connection of our positioning within a vaster field.
This introduces the theme of moving through a testing period, where we are facing forms of collective wisdom so that we can re-affirm our purpose. Some will receive major revelations about God or Truth, which will be key factors in the courage we will have to demonstrate and the will power we will have to focus in the near future. As is the case at this time of Jupiter in Virgo serving as the balancing pole and focus point via its opposition to Neptune, keep learning how to be functionally precise in moving through the larger fogs and vast feelings in the collective atmosphere.
Now that Neptune has moved past its previously occupied span, collective consciousness has again entered 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 is now officially in uncharted waters that it has not experienced since 1852-1854.
The North Node
This is the sixth 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 late February 2009, and again in August 2009.
This NN degree is 21 Virgo, which we extensively explored in the September Solar Eclipse articles, since that Eclipse fell on this exact degree. This is the degree of “A Girls’ Basketball Team,” showing our line of greatest evolutional development these next 4 weeks involves “physical wholesomeness as prelude to inner integration,” and the need for “self evaluation.”
Again, as this was the degree of the September 2015 solar Eclipse, the next month will show us how we’ve grown since then. There will be a pull to see how what has ended or been taken away since then was necessary to create the space for Jupiter’s expansion to open without hindrance as it transits this degree for the third and last time this July. We are still learning and teaching through emotional, social, and/or cultural forms of experimentation, so join with other to practice interactive practical skills.
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 in play each time we have transits in the middle degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. This square is indicative of the global collision between a new humanity and an old slave/control system so evident in recent years.
Now that Uranus has been in direct motion for several months, the square continues to separate, and will never be exact again for many years. Finally! Just stay alert for those times when the Moon makes conjunctions, squares, and oppositions when in Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, and when Venus, Sun, and Mercury activate the T-square between late June and mid-July.
I’ll close today by reminding you that the powerful Grand Earth Trines shows us the continued stabilization of many areas of our lives and an ability to take a new look or get new information or perspective on what’s been developing over the past several weeks. These stable elements can help us stay grounded as the Mutable T-square continues to put pressure on those parts of our lives to break up stagnant patterns associated with the previously mentioned Jupiter square Saturn, Jupiter opposed Neptune, and Saturn square Neptune factors in play for the next two months. Let go of the ghosts of the past, stay alertly ready to act, don’t fall into distress at not knowing what will come, and cultivate long distance communication techniques.
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
"Even though Jupiter’s square to Saturn is separating, it is still held in force by their relationships to Neptune."
A million thanks for validating what I have been trying to get across to people for years, Robert!!! Those who seem to insist these energies are only valid when they're exact frustrate many, I'm sure. Your words are reassuring that I'm not alone. :) The sentence and the full paragraph in which you wrote it are pure nectar for the soul!
Posted by: Michelle Young | May 05, 2016 at 12:52 PM
Splendid assessment. I learned a lot about what's been happening since 2006 as well as a new emphasis on releasing old ego stuff in order to work together on the spiritual plane. Thanks!
Posted by: Jo Garceau | May 05, 2016 at 01:00 PM
'We’re already solidly in the Dreamscape...'
Beautifully written, Robert. Reminds me of a truth told by the late, great Bill Hicks: 'Life is but a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.' Perhaps you'll write about him sometime.
Posted by: Esther, London, UK | May 06, 2016 at 01:05 AM
Thanks Robert. Helpful as always. Ready for the next as I know it will also be of help to gain perspective on collective and individual issues.
Soon I will be travelling again to meet the third and last stage of all the late 2015 and early 2016 changes and opportunities that have arisen with so much power. This post is very in tune with what is happening as I am sure the next will be.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | May 06, 2016 at 02:57 AM
Wasn't Prince a Gemini...?
That his death has stirred up truths so long ignored by the toxic lame stream media...
Is any one taking note on the statistics? 5% of the world's population is given 80% of the pain killers doled out by a corrupted health 'care'...not to mention the subsequent heroin problems...
Go you Grand Earth trine more Truths needed...
Posted by: sue | May 06, 2016 at 08:51 AM