by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Aries indicates a time when we will move into a new life era and new receptivity to forms of the Ageless Wisdom, as well as mobilize for some sort of “gain.” We’re still getting concentrated doses of spiritual energy that is moving us toward individualization that will express as an interest in more permanent wisdom forms rather than superficial appearance.
This is the nineteenth 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 is another “Bucket” Jones pattern, with Jupiter as the nozzle, or focal determinator, for all the other planets.
As Jupiter in Libra is how we can get a handle on focusing and expressing the other planetary energies, it shows how to manage these forces. 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. As Jupiter also has an influence of what we expect, imagine, and hope for, be balanced in how you express those Libra energies through the “electric Fire” of the stellium in Aries.
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 Bucket and why it’s so important in part 2.
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 initiating, quickening, and stabilizing New Moon that accelerates our movement into a new life and helps us embrace dynamic change in the NOW occurs at 8 Aries on March 27 at 7:57 pm PDT, 10:57 pm EDT, and 2:57 am GMT March 28. Aries is where we enter into a new way of being ourselves, and can make a break from past ambivalence or procrastination.
This New Moon is the eleventh 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 Aries, and the coming Full Moon Sun will also be in Aries. 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 finished with a long run of New Moons forming a Bowl Jones pattern, since Mars is now well outside the hemisphere defined by planets in the signs between Libra and Aries. As mentioned earlier, we’re now in a Bucket pattern, and by May we’ll be back in a Locomotive pattern when Mars is in Gemini, showing things will be somewhat imbalanced and yet very dynamic in what’s getting done. By mid-May, as Mars approaches the trine to Jupiter and opposition to Saturn, we’ll have a very powerful Rectangle helping us all make progress despite multiple oppositional energies.
This chart has many important forming aspects, including the Lunation making a wide opposition to Jupiter and conjunction with Uranus and a binovile with Pluto. This will power up the search for balanced perspective as we experience huge doses of spiritual energy, molding our Being through awakening to being influenced by the Ageless Wisdom. Though it will take a while for these energies to acquire concrete form, by our mobilization these next 4 weeks we will “set the foundation” for the spiritual energies to be grounded in the future.
Of note are Mercury trine Saturn, helping us see the blessings that come after the death of useless things, and giving us coordination abilities to bring the higher and lower together within us so that we may have our worth revealed this Summer. By what we’ve left behind, and what we’re leaving behind as a result of recent eclipses, we shall have a clean slate to express our wisdom this Summer.
This New Moon will jump start Aries energy wherever it falls in our chart. With this Lunation, we are in a time where we can and should throw ourselves fully into some social task to be accomplished with a cheerful attitude. Cultivate receptivity to wisdom forces and forms, and wholeheartedly embrace the new day that has dawned in your life. The next 4 weeks will be a final look back to see a) what has ended that opened a new life, and/or b) what must end so we can experience a renewal.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Aries has Mars in Taurus as the worldly ruler and Pluto in Capricorn as the spiritual ruler of the Lunation. Mars’ ruler is Venus in Aries, creating a “mutual reception,” a very powerful self-reinforcing closed energy loop. This mutual reception is the backdrop to all the other planets except Neptune in its home in Pisces.
As Mars and Venus are both in signs of “exile” (opposite the signs they rule), but neither are afflicted by frictional forming aspects (except for the out of sign square between Venus and Saturn), I would say keep it steady, simple, and enjoyable as you continue to see how old relationship issues helped liberate you from responsibilities, rules, and limitations that may not have been yours to begin with. Unearth old internalized hurts and see how you are free to be yourself in the here and now.
So at this time, Venus and Mars are the worldly rulers of all the other planets except Neptune, the spiritual ruler of Pisces, which is the “final dispositor” in its own oceanic realm. In the spiritual realm, Pluto is showing us it’s time to rehearse, and as it’s ruled by Saturn, the value in combining beauty and functionality. 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.
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 past Lunations, including the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Pisces. That means humanity at large is in for major choices and changes over the next few years, which will certainly keep things dynamic, if unstable! This configuration is set into motion by any conjunction with or septile-series aspect to Neptune or Pluto.
It will be activated again when Mercury moves between 1-5 Taurus, where it will go SRX in early April as prelude to being powered up when the Sun moves through that span in late April. These make biseptiles to Pluto and septiles to Neptune. Then Mercury will move through early Taurus again the third week of May, just before Mars moves through the Gemini zone during the last week of May and makes a triseptile to Pluto and a biseptile to Neptune.
All of this is within the umbra of the late September 2016 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! Add its influence in Solar Eclipses that can last for years, and it’s no surprise that 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, 26-30 Scorpio, 18-22 Capricorn, 10-14 Pisces, 1-5 Taurus, and 22-26 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 in Pisces
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. However, since they have long passed the cusp of the Great Age, I am no longer going to post this segment as I have, and will instead post the entire piece updated at key points in the Neptune cycle in the future.
Because Neptune and Chiron have been in Pisces for 5 years, 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.
The last half of 2011 helped many break out of their "chrysalis" and transform their lives and relationships. 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 Spring and Summer of 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 this chart, Chiron is at 26 Pisces. This is the same degree where Chiron went stationary retrograde in June of 2016. It has not been in this “face” of Pisces since 1966-1968, and this is the second pass over this degree, preparing us for a third pass in October, and a final pass in Jan-Feb 2018.
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 understanding “the poetry of our life” and helps us heal into our Higher Self by doing our own thing in our own way, and blessing others to do the same. This comes as part of a larger cycle of purification and closure. Here we heal ourselves and others through our “uncertainty of self-discovery,” where we don’t commit to something until we feel a deeper realization.
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. Last month’s Pisces Solar Eclipse will help us release the last baggage we no longer need over the next few years.
2016 completed our realizations of these lessons, and prepared us to move forward. This chart has Neptune direct at 13 Pisces, the exact degree where it, like Chiron, went stationary retrograde in June 2016. We’re now solidly launched into a newer spiritual realm, where our ego mind has been introduced to a deeper and vaster Soul realm and our testing has begun.
We originally “entered this sanctuary” in the Spring of 2016, and got a review in August and September. In 2017 we’re “proving our qualifications,” as Neptune’s retrograde will move back from 15 to 12 Pisces, its SD degree later this year.
Beginning June 2016, we were introduced to a new ideal of courage and focused will power within a greater cause or dedication. That theme is again front and center in this New Moon. We are all being tested, and 2017 opens a “Sacred Space” for each of us, where we may awaken to a greater role, letting go of fear, and learning from those who are true custodians of Soul force.
Because Neptune is at 13 Pisces, the collective atmosphere is related to the quickening in collective consciousness awakened by Uranus in 2006-2007. 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!
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 seventeenth 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. As I mentioned earlier in this series, 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 (and 5+ years) 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.
Summing Up
I’ll close today by offering that this New Moon will show us that it’s okay to be cheerful even when overburdened by things that all must be taken care of at the same time. Since last month’s Solar Eclipse, “the race has begun,” and there’s no time for hesitancy or unnecessary considerations. Do what needs to be done quickly and efficiently, and let the ghosts of the past flow down the time stream. Forgive much, let go of much, give away all you no longer need.
Because of our reflections and rewinds up to now during this Venus retrograde, we’re already reprogramming our subconscious minds regarding how old relationships liberated us, or freed us from responsibilities we no longer needed. Slow down, listen to the inner voice, be receptive to spiritual impressions streaming in like a warm wind, and see how old betrayals and old opportunities that were not opportunities redirected you to learn to act in your best interests.
The new day has dawned; it’s time to enjoy your life playing the role you were born to play, and join with others so all may overcome some form of “coldness” or “barrenness” or “deprivation.” See the Light of who you ARE beneath and beyond ego opinions and assumptions, whether your own or another’s.
Aries teaches us that we do not need permission to embrace an authentic self-expression with enthusiasm. Aries is naturally itself, and cannot be any other way than it IS. Aries shows us how to act with initiative in our own “enlightened self-interest,” and not spend time worrying about what others think.
A New Look at Mercury Retrograde
Mercury has now entered its “shadow zone,” rapidly slowing as a prelude to going stationary retrograde at 5 Taurus on April 9-10. If you want to prepare for the coming retrograde, and get some clues about what to expect from Mercury retrograde in Taurus and Aries, if you don’t have it already, you may want to get your copy of the improved and expanded 2nd edition of “A New Look At Mercury Retrograde."
There's a lot of material on Mercury Retrograde in the signs, houses, what it means for each sign, when it happens, and Mercury Retrograde celebrities and historical events you'll never find in any other source. To get your copy of this resource that you'll use for a long time to come, 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.)
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2017 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks Robert, very interesting and enlightening.
Ready for part 2.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | March 27, 2017 at 03:28 AM
Robert, your posts are always so enlightening. Thank you for writing & sharing. I'm interested in getting a personal reading from you. Can we get in touch via email?
Posted by: Tiara | March 27, 2017 at 04:36 AM
What to start when jupiter is in libra and venus is retrograde (in aries, where it doesn't belong?)?
I see myself drawn in to change - not expected or even wanted.
If I seek spiritual life - and still in struggle in physical limits.
Is it just a break - force to learn something more in this small path of Life?
What if spiritual energy is just "kundalini sydrome"? Feeling bad.
And still all you can do is your best spiritual practice.
Tomorrow I read your text once more. Nice to have you here guiding.
Doing your best :)
Posted by: helina | March 27, 2017 at 12:52 PM
Thank you Robert. Appreciate the following comment that you shared---
"I would say keep it steady, simple, and enjoyable as you continue to see how old relationship issues helped liberate you from responsibilities, rules, and limitations that may not have been yours to begin with."
Posted by: Bonnie Orgren | March 28, 2017 at 05:36 AM