by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Libra indicates a time when we will get recalibrated, finding a new perspective. With is one, we return to the roots to find the means to express the truths we know.
This is the thirteenth New Moon since the launch of the Saturn in Sagittarius era in late September 2015 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 maintains the Bowl Jones pattern, which begins in Earth and ends with Uranus in Aries, the sign of Electric Fire!
Libra is the sign of relationships, reconsideration of proportionality, and the dance of interactivity. It is where we confront new archetypes and ideas. It is how Aries externalizes, and so represents the nuances of authentic self expression.
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 idealistic, initiatory, and balancing New Moon helping us to return to the source as a reference to an ideal occurs at 9 Libra on September 30 at 5:11 pm PDT, 8:11 pm EDT, and 1:11 am BST October 1. This one helps us do needed repair work as we accept a new technique to exemplify an archetype on the social or emotional level. This one anticipate major developments in October, so get ready to show what you know!
This New Moon is the fifth in a sequence where the Sun falls in the same sign as the Sun in the next Full Moon. This shifts what we’ve been dealing with for the 16 months before the last New Moon in Gemini, where the New Moon Sun was different than the subsequent Full Moon Sun. In other words, we’ve now returned to the “normal order” of Lunations, because this New Moon Sun is in Libra, and the coming Full Moon Sun will also be in Libra. Since I explain this phenomenon and what it means in the Full Moon articles, you will learn more from consulting the last Full Moon articles, or the coming Full Moon articles 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 finishes several months of shifting Jones patterns. Up through the Summer we had a run of Bucket Patterns that dominated off and on for most of the past several years. Then we had a Splay with a tripod of Water energies, and then moved into a Locomotive followed by a Splay. This month shifts again, since we are now in a Bowl pattern that will last through March 2017.
This chart has many important forming aspects, including a powerful productive sextile to Saturn and quincunx to Neptune. We also see Mercury quincunx Uranus, Venus septile Mars and trine Neptune, Mars square Jupiter and Jupiter sextile Saturn and triseptile Neptune, setting the Grand Irrationality into motion again for the next month. This shows major forks in the road of destiny for those with planets or angles in any of the 7 active zones of the Grand Irrationality.
Because the Lunation and Jupiter are in Libra, you can bet that sector will be highly active over the next 4 weeks. This New Moon will jumpstart Libra energy wherever it falls in our chart. With this Lunation, we enter into a period where we need to return to the source as we launch a new law in our lives, and show what we’ve learned to put our knowledge to the test. This begins the expansive growth of the lessons Saturn brought us in 2010-2011.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Libra makes Venus in Scorpio the ruler of the Lunation. That makes Venus’ ruler Mars in Capricorn, and that’s ruled by Saturn in Sagittarius, it makes Jupiter in Libra the final factor in the Chain of Dispositors. Other than this chain, only Mercury and Neptune as “standalone” rulers are outside the chain. You can find out more about dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.
We’ve now moved from having no planet leading the Lunation for two months to Jupiter leading the Lunation. That makes this a teaching and learning New Moon, with communication the major theme. Interestingly, we also have Mercury in Virgo leading the entire Bowl Pattern, making Mercury in Virgo and Jupiter in Libra primary leading energies for the next four weeks.
A New Look At Mercury Retrograde
Even though Mercury is direct in motion, it still occupies its “shadow zone” through early October. If you haven't already gotten one, please get your copy of the award-winning expanded 2nd edition of my pioneering book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde.
It’s got everything you could ever want to know about the Mercury retrograde process, what we can expect when it occurs in different signs, and the many beneficial things that can be accomplished during a Mercury retrograde period. 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 new look at what’s been and will be happening 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 purchase a paperback edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. You can also get a Kindle ebook at that site, or go to Barnes and Noble for a copy on Nook. (Please note that if you go to amazon, make sure you're ordering the 2015 edition, and not the earlier one. There are plenty of used ones for sale, but they are far inferior to the newest edition.)
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. In this Lunation, we have a major activation due to Jupiter triseptile Neptune, expanding on the last New Moon’s Venus triseptile Neptune. And the recent Sun conjunct Jupiter triseptile Neptune will have an impact on the coming year’s Jupiter in Libra!
This is the next in the yearly triggers of the Grand Irrationality, and creates big forks in the road in the world at large. This will profoundly affect those with a planet or angle in any of the 7 “hot zones” defining the phenomenon. 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 brings Neptune into a close septile with Pluto, during those months the configuration acts as a simultaneous “pulse” that activates Neptune and Pluto at the same time. However, as we get into late Spring through mid-Autumn, we’re experiencing a lag in how Neptune and Pluto operate, since they’re now 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 10-14 Leo, 2-6 Libra, 23-27 Scorpio, 15-19 Capricorn, 7-11 Pisces, 28 Aries- 2 Taurus, and 19-23 Gemini. 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. This event requires that we put our spiritual knowledge and truth to the test, and live the teachings we believe!
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-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 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 23 Pisces. This is the first time Chiron has been in this zone since 1966-1968. It is now retrograde, and moving back over the span it traversed earlier this year. The coming weeks are important indicators of the future, since Chiron will go stationary direct in late 2017 at 25 Pisces. Consider this a front end look at Chironic themes that are in play for about a year and a half 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 giving something vital of ourselves to substantiate a form of power or understanding beyond our normal awareness.
Neptune shows us how to merge the sacred and the everyday in our lives. Over the past several years, we have come to understand the ideals we believe in, heard a call to a life renewal, dumped excess and 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 has Neptune retrograde at 10 Pisces, giving us a review of the larger issues that began April through August 2015 and became clearer in Feb-March 2016. As it is the degree where Neptune will go stationary direct in a few weeks, it establishes a platform to the collective atmosphere, after which it will resume forward motion and in 2017 take us into unknown zones.
In recent months we were introduced to a new ideal of courage and focused will power within a greater cause or dedication. We “entered the sanctuary” where our minds were introduced to Soul realms in March and early April, and were then tested to prove we are qualified to occupy the “spiritual office” we have accepted before now in April and May. 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.
Because Neptune is at 10 Pisces, the collective atmosphere is related to the quickening in collective consciousness awakened by Uranus in 2005-2006. Though we will be finishing up some lessons related to earlier degrees in Pisces through 2017, we are now in a culminative zone, since Neptune has not been in this face of Pisces since 1852-1854. By April, we will be in an entirely new era in Neptune’s influence on the collective consciousness!
As Neptune has not experienced this span of Pisces since the 1850s, it indicates that collective consciousness in 2014-2016 is in a zone that is filled with turmoil historically. Given Pluto is also in a zone where it last was in the 1770s, it would seem revolution is in the air!
Over the past 24 months, we’ve strengthened our intuition and emotional intelligence, as well as a greater feeling-connection of our positioning within a vaster field. We now can take a final look at how we’ve mastered “flying by the seat of our pants,” and come to a new mastery in our lives. Because of where Neptune went RX a few months ago, it’s part of a larger phase of showing courage and valor in demonstrating our ability to focus will power to be the vehicle for Divine Will to manifest in our world. We’ve been tested, and faced forms of collective wisdom to re-affirm our purpose. Some have received revelations about God or Truth, which will be key factors in the courage we have to demonstrate and the will power we have to focus now, but with the added theme of taking a new look or finding a new understanding related to our personality’s entrance into the Soul realm.
The North Node
This is the eleventh 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 mid Virgo brings a more specific focus on growth in that direction. We now are in the middle of several 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 mid-Virgo in August and September 2008.
This NN degree is 13 Virgo, which we are told is “A strong hand supplanting political hysteria.” This degree shows our line of greatest evolutional development these next 4 weeks involves refining our practical service in our world, and cultivating the ability to intervene in situations and bring order out of chaos, or calm in the midst of instability. It’s the power to dramatize personal potentials, and shows that personality, when trained and focused, can be the vehicle for higher things to be made manifest.
As it is now back in the first half of Virgo, we are developing the Jupiterian skills and lessons when it occupied this degree in October 2015, and is next to the degree where Jupiter went stationary direct in May 2016. This process is related to the structures Saturn first offered us in September 2008 and where it went stationary direct in May 2009. We continue to grow through individual, mental, and spiritual forms of Divine Discrimination, seeing how the parts related to the whole.
I’ll close today by reminding you that there is high productivity promised by the Lunation plus Jupiter sextile Saturn and an ease of flow shown by Venus trine Neptune. The major friction comes from the Lunation quincunx Neptune, Mercury quincunx Uranus, and Mars square Jupiter, which I’ll go into a little more in part 2.
This Lunation will take us back to source so we can establish a renewed contact with ideals we hold deep within as reference points to what we consider excellence. Open to a new role to play, showing what you know, communicating the truths you believe in. This one helps us reverse decay, find elementary understanding, and become crafted to demonstrate some form of perfection.
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
A very promising New Moon. Thanks fir the post Robert.
Ready for part two!
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | September 30, 2016 at 11:56 AM
"This one helps us do needed reapir work as we accept a new technique to exemplify an archetype on the social or emotional level."
That's good to know, because I emotionally/spiritually broke down on the side of the road right as the NM perfected. :/
Thank you for being the only astrologer to call it for what it is rather than making it all lovey-dovey Conj-Jupiter-In-Libra-Love-Is-In-The-Air.
Posted by: bomega | October 01, 2016 at 12:25 AM
Thanks Robert...am feeling this one big time..
IMAGINE the Roast Mother Earth has in mind?
For an entire sex has been maligned
No where in the Universe this imbalance you'll find...
Posted by: sue | October 01, 2016 at 09:24 AM