by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Taurus indicates a time when we will understand that as we let go of the past, we open the door to self-renewal. Here we confront “a new quality of being which renders the old patterns obsolete.” Dream well, since you’re sending out a tone that will affect your future.
This is the twentieth 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 the final “Bucket” Jones pattern for a long time to come, 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 as you continue to say goodbye to the past.
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 “doing repair and/or reconstruction work” so be joyous in reconstructing elements of your past showing that as you left the past behind in prior times, it opened the door to who you are today. 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 stabilizing, renewing, closing and initiating New Moon that opens the door to a new life occurs at 7 Taurus on April 26 at 5:16 am PDT, 8:16 am EDT, and 1:16 pm BST. Taurus is where we solidify the Aries’ quality of entering new ways of being ourselves, and can settle into a stable groove of gathering what we need to support the new ways.
This New Moon is the twelfth 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, since then we’ve been experiencing the “normal order” of Lunations, because this New Moon Sun is in Taurus, and the coming Full Moon Sun will also be in Taurus. 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 or Bucket 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 gets farther into 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 relatively few forming aspects, and none are frictional except Mars sesquisquare Pluto and Jupiter quincunx Neptune. The Lunation makes only one aspect, that being an extremely serendipitous tredecile to Pluto. This will bring forth interactive unique conditions and gifts, like seeing the sprouting of seeds of a new revelation which will show us the “new quality of being” and why some things have ended or are ending.
Of note are Mercury retrograde conjunct Uranus, giving us flashes of brilliant insight that can open our imagination so we can “reclaim an opportunity we thought was lost,” and Venus quintile Pluto and Jupiter quintile Saturn. Add Mars novile Uranus and binovile Neptune, and many things we’ve been waiting for will show up in the next 4 weeks. Spiritual revelations are everywhere these next 4 weeks, especially for those with planets or angles near 4-8 degrees of the Air signs, 14-18 degrees of the Water signs, and 24-28 degrees of the Fire signs.
This New Moon will jump start Taurus energy wherever it falls in our chart. With this Lunation, we are in a time where we can and should follow through on saying goodbye, forgiving much, and allowing the past to give way to the future once we get clear about the law we want to live by in the future. We’ve cultivated receptivity to wisdom forces and forms, and are on the threshold of redeeming a promise of some sort we’ve been anticipating since last Summer.
This is a time to look at your "response-ability," to see what you can do, or need to do, or need to learn to do, to anchor the new life that is opening. Saturn leads the occupied span, so in taking responsibility, see things from the widest possible angle, with an eye to anticipating the power and authorship to come later this year.
Because we’re still under the influence of Mercury retrograde, the next 4 weeks will be a final look back to see a) what has ended that opened a new life, b) what must end so we can experience a renewal, or c) what “buried bodies need to be exhumed” so we can make sure we buried the right thing back then.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Taurus has Venus in Pisces as the worldly ruler and TransPluto in Virgo as the spiritual ruler of the Lunation. Venus’ ruler is Jupiter in Libra, 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 Venus is exalted in Pisces, it’s an excellent time to learn about forgiveness and compassion as we prepare to cut loose into a new way of life. Venus has very favorable aspects in this Lunation, so we have the ability to achieve high specialization based in our Venus experiences since February.
So at this time, Venus and Jupiter 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, TransPluto is showing us another dimension of Divine Discrimination and Spiritual Service, and as it’s ruled by Mercury, be inventive, be unique, revolutionize your thinking, and use your imagination to claim a renewed possibility. 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 2 months ago. 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 was activated in a big way when Mercury moved between 1-5 Taurus, where it went SRX in early April as prelude to being powered up when the Sun moved through that span in the past week. 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 this 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 28 Pisces. This is the same degree where Jupiter conjuncted Uranus in 2010, so we should get flashes of how we’ve been healed or mentored since then. Chiron has not been in this “face” of Pisces since 1966-1968, and this is the first of three passes over this degree, giving us a glimpse of the time after it goes stationary direct in late 2018 on this degree.
As Chiron and 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 have been and are being shown healing and mentoring techniques that can help us deal with the larger collective atmosphere in the years to come.
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 that we all have the capacity to achieve an abundant state of life, perfectly suited to who we are. This degree releases power, so listen to “the call of the universal mind to your heart.” This comes as part of a larger cycle of purification and closure. Here we heal into our higher Self by forgiving much and enjoying even more as we experience the end of a long cycle.
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. The March 2017 Solar Eclipse in Pisces 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 14 Pisces, which is an unknown zone for Neptune and the world. 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. We’ve now moved into learning a technique of “camouflage” so that we can do what we have to do without being unnecessarily exposed or hassled by the world. Worth is being made evident as part of further testing during 2017, which is opening a “Sacred Space” for each of us, where we may awaken to a greater role, let go of fear, and learn from those who are true custodians of Soul force.
Because Neptune is at 14 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. Now that we are past Neptune’s previous forward station, we are 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 2014-2017 is 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 eighteenth 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 2007, and more importantly, the platform of our Saturn lessons that began when it went stationary direct on this degree in April-May 2008.
This NN degree is the 2nd degree of Virgo, which we are told is “A large white cross upraised." Rudhyar says this symbolizes "a liberating ordeal," where we learn to allow compassion and understanding to arise from the crucifixions of the ego. It is a degree of "dominance of environment through individualistic self-realization," "eminence at the cost of struggle," and "full self-assurance."
We are told that this symbolizes "the wisdom and compassion which only the experience of suffering and isolation can bring," where we must go beyond "the state of ego-subjectivity" in order to see and learn wisdom. This symbol forces us all to learn detachment through the "crucifixion of the ego-centered emotional life." We are also promised this "experience of the Cross" will lead us to Spiritual Initiation, which is an entry to a greater Way, Truth, Life, and Community.
He says it falls in the span of "Idealization," and it's the second degree of the actional level of the scene of Characterization in the Act of Stabilization. So we'll use our Mercury function to see what characterizes that which must be crucified to stabilize a greater compassion and/or understanding.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the keyword is GLORIFICATION. He states this is a degree of "conscious stewardship through which (we sustain our) more enduring values" through "an uncompromising testimony to (our) deeper allegiances." He says "moral courage is a dynamic for all transcendental achievement," and "fearlessness is a corrective for the maladjustments of both individual and society," and when positive, "an utterly selfless enlistment in some dramatic service for the ultimate welfare of humankind."
So the North Node, our line of greatest evolutional development, indicates these next 4 weeks point to growth via “liberating ordeals” that allow our compassion to come forth. As this is in close conjunction to TransPluto, and TransPluto has been dancing on this degree for a while, 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 an old life order must disintegrate and be left behind if we are to be open to a new way to live. Since the Solar Eclipse in Pisces “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, and await the revelation to come.
Because of our reflections and rewinds during the Venus retrograde period from early March to now, we’re already reprogramming our subconscious minds regarding how old relationships liberated us, or freed us from responsibilities we no longer needed. While Mercury is still retrograde, keep looking back as a preparation to move forward in the very near future, and find new ways to view old things to open your imagination and bury whatever needs to be buried from the past.
This is the time to take responsibility for steering the process of your passage from the rapidly fading old life into the new way being opened. The new day has dawned; now it’s time to get into a groove of allowing a new way to come while seeing the chaotic past as something fading down the time stream. There are new opportunities as well as old promises to be redeemed. Be the Light of your most genuine and enjoyable self, and say goodbye to the past.
A New Look at Mercury Retrograde
Mercury is now past the Inferior Conjunction, and has begun to speed up en route to going stationary direct at 25 Aries on May 3. It will remain in its “shadow zone” through May 20-21, so the retrograde influence will continue to be strong during the next 4 weeks that this New Moon is in effect. If you want to know more about the various things in play during this retrograde, or how your life was affected by this retrograde, 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
Lots of good information here. Thank you Robert.
Posted by: sw | April 25, 2017 at 01:56 PM
I really needed this, thank you. Do you think the Neptune in Pisces Conjunct my Mercury is contributing to this Dreamscape feeling I have?
It is hard to focus, but it does feel like there is a lot healing going on. Not an easy process, especially with the nodes and Chiron.
"Chiron is at 28 Pisces. This is the same degree where Jupiter conjuncted Uranus in 2010, so we should get flashes of how we’ve been healed or mentored since then. Chiron has not been in this “face” of Pisces since 1966-1968, and this is the first of three passs over this degree, giving us a glimpse of the time after it goes stationary direct in late 2018 on this degree."
In 2010 I had a heart attack and was within 2 minutes of dying. Right now I'm feeling some of that angst. Will I have to go through that 3x's? Then not so surprisingly, in the 60's that was when my family began falling apart.
Now here we all are, and a lot of the healing I believe is that, all what we, as a collective have experienced has not been healthy. We are tired of it, and we know we should not accept it, because it would be to our detriment. Like me having to be brave, and having to make changes because I saw I was ultimately dying under the dysfunctions, mine and the collective. Hope I'm making sense. :)
Posted by: Scarlett Manning | May 02, 2017 at 03:40 PM