by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Aquarius indicates a time when we will need to launch our vision, and give actuality to the symbols that show us a higher, greater way to contribute to our lives and our world. It's a time of enormous creativity, so generate power and have no fear!
This is the seventeenth New Moon since the launch of the Saturn in Sagittarius era in late September 2015, and that planet figures in very important ways in this Lunation. 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 with Jupiter in Libra and ends with Uranus in Aries, the sign of Electric Fire!
As Jupiter in Libra also leads the Bowl, it provides the entry to the rest of the planetary energies at this time. When in doubt, be diplomatic, pleasant, reasonable, and expansive in your sense of how to smooth things out for everyone! Alternately, stand up for peace, justice, what’s fair, and see what’s out of balance to find your way to contribute to the general harmony.
Libra is the sign of relationships, reconsideration of proportionality, and the dance of interactivity. It is a time to lead all activity with new ideals and new ideas. We’re “communing with others” who understand us, and how have retired from something preparing to leap forward into a new way of living in 2017. I’ll explain more about the Bowl and why it’s so important in part 2.
This New Moon in Aquarius marks a radical emergent turning point in the Jupiter in Libra era, and stabilizes what began in early October. It will also bring up echoes of whatever was awakened in Spring 1997 when Uranus went SRX on this degree and SD on the same degree in October 1998. It will also echo 2001, since Neptune went SRX at 9 Aquarius that Spring, as well as SD in October 2002.
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 visionary, activating, and specializing New Moon that prepares us to use power in the present to establish power in the future and completes our understanding of why we had to “exercise” during the recent Mercury retrograde occurs at 9 Aquarius on January 27 at 4:07 pm PST, 7:07 EST, and January 28 at 12:07 am GMT. Aquarius broadens the view of how the personal power of Capricorn can contribute to a greater good for a greater number, now and into the future.
This New Moon is the ninth in a sequence where the Sun falls in the same sign as the Sun in the next Full Moon. We are now in a different pattern than we were during the 16 months before the 2016 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 Aquarius, and the coming Full Moon Sun will also be in Aquarius. Since I explain this phenomenon and what it means in the Full Moon articles, you will learn more from consulting recent Full Moon articles.
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 and made pleasing in Libra, purified and focused 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
We are now done with many months of shifting Jones patterns. Up through last 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. A few months ago it shifted into the Bowl pattern that will dominate every New Moon through March 2017.
This chart has many important forming aspects, including the Lunation making a tredecile to Jupiter and quintile to Uranus, creating a very powerful and serendipitious configuration that will bring forth many gifts and talents in those who are willing to demonstrate them. Add the Lunation septile Mars and collecting the light reactivating the recent Venus square Saturn by cutting a double semisquare, and you have a very dynamic 4 weeks ahead! Be creative in your responses, and you could find a new heart expression that will come forth as the transits activate the fire trine between Saturn and Uranus, opening up a strong void in Leo.
This New Moon will jump start Aquarius energy wherever it falls in our chart. With this Lunation, we enter into a period where we can launch some social or emotional vision, see a bigger picture of a freer future, and be gifted in some unexpected ways that will be perfect for our circumstances. Aquarius deals with seeing a larger social order and good where all can come together to work for the greater good. This is where we find our innate nobility, and craft a realm that is perfect for what we need to offer to our world.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Aquarius makes Saturn in Sagittarius the worldly ruler and Uranus in Aries the spiritual ruler of the Lunation. That makes Saturn’s ruler Jupiter in Libra, which is ruled by Venus in Pisces, which is ruled by Jupiter in Libra. That makes Venus, Jupiter and Saturn major players in the “chain of dispositors,” since they rule all the other planets directly or indirectly except Mars in Pisces, which is spiritually ruled by Neptune in its home in the same sign. At this time, since Neptune is the spiritual ruler of Pisces, it figures as a “final dispositor” in its own oceanic realm.
In this Lunation Venus and Jupiter are in mutual reception, making them the primary governing influences for all the other planets except the Moon. Planets involved in a chain of dispositors or a mutual reception are both “closed loop” powerful self-reinforcing energies that dominate the backdrop for all the other planets in the map. You can find out more about dispositors in general, chains of dispositors, and mutual reception by going to dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.
In a strange anomaly, a few months back we had no planet leading the Lunation. However, since the Inferior Conjunction between the Sun and Mercury took place in late December and slipped back into Sag, now Pluto leads the New Moon, itself being led by its ruler Saturn. This shows the coming weeks to be radically transformative and purifying, with many seeds of the future that were promised in October, November, and December to sprout quickly. As Mercury is on its SRX degree, from here we move on!
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, though Mercury conjuncts Pluto, it’s out of orb to Neptune, and so this influence will be more generalized than specifically activated. Still, watch for coming Sun and Mercury septiles to Pluto and conjunctions to Neptune in late February and early March, since the Grand Irrationality will be kicked into high gear at that time!
This configuration is set into motion by any septile-series aspect to Neptune or Pluto, and was activated when Mars conjuncted Pluto and septiled Neptune, and triggered again when Venus made the same transit, as well as when each of these septiled Pluto and conjuncted Neptune in late December and early January. All of this is within the umbra of late September’s Sun conjunct Jupiter triseptile Neptune, keeping the energy active throughout various points in this Sun-Jupiter in Libra cycle lasting through next October. Each time there’s a transit to any of the 7 zones, it profoundly affects 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 13-17 Leo, 4-8 Libra, 25-29 Scorpio, 17-21 Capricorn, 9-13 Pisces, 30 Aries-4 Taurus, and 21-25 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 have offered this segment each month for years to give you a broader perspective on the collective atmosphere, and the long wave changes humanity is going through. This will be the last one in the old format, which I’ll reserve for crucial points in the year in the future, updating the information as needed.
Now that Neptune and Chiron 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 the fifty-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 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. Chiron has not been in this “face” of Pisces since 1965-1967, and is now moving forward over this degree for the third time since March 2016. 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 demonstrating powers hidden within, and surrendering to a greater effectiveness, even if we have no idea how it’s happening. Here we heal ourselves and others through active mastery of life, or submitting to what life is showing us about our potential.
Neptune shows us how to merge the sacred and the everyday in our lives. Over the past several years, we have 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 completed our realizations of these lessons, and prepared us to move forward. This chart has Neptune direct at 11 Pisces. We’ve now solidly launched into a newer spiritual realm, where our ego mind has been introduced to a deeper and vaster Soul realm.
We originally “entered this sanctuary” in the Spring of 2016, and got a review in August and September. We now move forward with a third and final angle of understanding about this new realm, since Neptune’s retrograde this year will only move back to 12 Pisces.
Beginning June 2016, we were introduced to a new ideal of courage and focused will power within a greater cause or dedication. After it went RX, we reviewed the lessons of April-May and July-August 2016 when we were tested to prove we are qualified to occupy the “spiritual office” we have accepted during those periods. Last year and this one 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 11 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 was in a zone 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 awakened December 2012 and stabilized the Summer of 2013, 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 skillful expression in our lives.
Because of where Neptune went RX last June, 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 fifteenth 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 the first decan of Virgo brings a more specific focus on growth in that direction. We now are going to develop through the Saturn skills and disciplines we confronted when it transited this degree in Sept-Oct 2007, March 2008, and June 2008. Those were times when the ongoing lessons of the world involved the themes of this degree.
This NN degree is the 4th degree of Virgo, which we are told is “A colored child is playing with white children.” In "the Astrology of Personality" we read this is a symbol of “underlying fellowship of all life underneath social creeds,” “stimulating sense of distinctness,” and “rising above contrasts.” In the Astrological Mandala it states this symbolizes “overcoming sociocultural prejudices,” and becoming free from biases of the particular social mores we were brought up with. This is a degree where we learn what forms are significant and which are not.
Dr. Jones states this is a degree of “the actual illimitability of human relationships,” where we are building elements of our character into “the fabric of both a whole self and an integrated group.” Here we learn to appreciate individual differences in responses that are the basis of a greater satisfaction. The keyword is INTIMACY, and when operating positively, he says this degree is “successful participation in every possible variety of experience.”
So the North Node, our line of greatest evolutional development, indicates these next 4 weeks point to growth via innocence in our relationships, overcoming prejudices as we find a greater intimacy. As this is in close conjunction to TransPluto, clearly we have entered a time of growth through compassionate practical service that unifies and redeems the best function of situations utilizing Divine Discrimination to understand what fits where.
I’ll close today by offering that this New Moon will help us all launch a vision, and use powers that will anticipate major skills to come by Autumn. This shows us the “future in the making,” and as we dream, we shall see the new law of our lives made manifest. Purify, organize, reorganize, and there will be abundant gifts and special circumstances for those who know how to flow down the time stream, closing an old chapter and anticipating the new.
Open to a greater spiritual maturity to prepare for the adventure promised by this New Moon! We’ve seen the natural and enjoyable roles we must embrace to enjoy our lives, and now can face the future, secure in knowing who we want to journey with in the future. This continues to promise extraordinary productivity, specialization, and serendipitous events and circumstances for those who can respond joyously to the life renewal right in front of them.
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Given Saturn is the dispositor of the New Moon, Mercury, and Pluto, and makes a very powerful and favorable sextile with Jupiter (and will for many months to come), you will be assisted in navigating these strong tides of destiny by taking a look at the material I present in my new book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and being Pluto’s dispositor, is a behind the scenes power in how the ongoing transformational Shivaic force of our times is expressed.
This book takes an entirely new look at our inner Saturn and the power it gives us to take command of our lives and destiny. If Saturn represents all that limits us and holds us back, it’s only because we must master those lessons so we may become spiritual adults and fulfill our purpose for being alive on Earth. By knowing our Saturnian strengths, we can overcome fear and any sense of victimization or powerlessness.
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and gives the reader the power to understand why some things happened when they did. Throughout the book, it offers ways for us to “make friends” with this part of our existence and take command of our destiny. As you read each chapter, you’ll become more aware of all the factors assisting Soul growth through understanding how our Saturn lessons relate to Dharma (our Highest Spiritual Function) and various types of karma, both those we cause and those which are "Sacred Wounds" leading us to a greater compassion and understanding.
And as you've just sampled, we explore the concept of Saturn representing our Ring-Pass-Not, or that part of us which is limited while we learn certain lessons related to our understanding of who we are and why we can or cannot do certain things. As our Saturn expands its understanding and wisdom, then our Ring-Pass-Not expands so we can find purpose and meaning in each chapter of life. It is the secret to our power to guide our own evolution as we become conscious of the meaning of why we are on Earth.
The second part of the book examines how Saturn cycles mark major points of choice and change throughout life, and what we can expect when Saturn makes conjunctions, squares, and oppositions to our planets and Ascendant. There are tables assisting the reader to know when Saturn was in each sign, so even those with little or no understanding of astrology can track the timing on their major life changes. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the Saturn Return, perhaps the most important times in life when our decisions profoundly shape our future.
Part two closes with a chapter on one of the most crucial factors in our personal unfoldment: how the progressed Moon and transiting Saturn cycles track each other throughout life and relate to our emotional growth, and a chapter on a global phenomenon happening since 2003 impacting everyone on Earth. The Epilogue offers a few insights about living “the spiritual life,” and opens dimensions of higher and broader possibilities of personal evolution, regardless of which path to Truth we may be on.
This is a book you will reference many times for many reasons, and each time you pick it up you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight on each page. This book can help you throw off all the attitudes and memories which have held you back from finding and living the life and purpose you’ve been searching for since you were young. Welcome to the journey of self-discovery, and finding your power to live your life on your own terms, fulfilling your reason for being alive as an Eternal having human experiences!
Please order your copy today! You can go to the Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend page and order your copy of either the paperback or the ebook. It's also available as an ebook on B&N's Nook. I’ve been told that people who live overseas can get their copy much faster by going through Amazon. And if you would, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the bigger the boost on their site.
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2017 Robert Wilkinson
My Jupiter is on Virgo 3 06, Sabian Symbol Virgo 4.
Posted by: Ricki | January 26, 2017 at 12:09 PM
Thanks Robert. Certainly the times are being charged with a higher energy that will allow us to see things with a wider lens. If so, lots of positive is in front of us regardless of appearances pointing the other way.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | January 27, 2017 at 05:33 AM
I have transiting Pluto on my natal Saturn. Been rough! Since Pluto is almost on my ascendant and in my 12th. Nothing easy about that. waiting to see whats on the other side. All I can do is rest for now
Posted by: Cindy Davenport | January 31, 2017 at 05:09 PM
Neptune is conj my natal Sun (3'4 Pi) & Black Moon Lilith (12'33 Pi). Chiron's conj my natal Jupiter (24'10 Pi) & Venus (28'43 Pi). I've been attracting a lot of hostile, unstable feminine energy with uncanny synchronicity for a while now. It's been helpful to remain stoic and, a lot of work to stay somewhat grounded. I've decided to hermit myself, in true Pisces fashion, in my home til the rest of February blows over.
We cannot overstate the importance, value & benefits of much needed R&R.
Thank you, Robert for your light & insight.
Posted by: ThanQ | February 18, 2017 at 09:29 PM