by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks (and 3 years plus) the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Aquarius will show us how we’ve prepared for this time since we “saw the vision” in 2009-2010, and/or how we need to prepare for what’s coming down the road in the future.
This is the second New Moon of the Saturn in Capricorn era! That planet continues to be exceptionally important in several ways, through aspects and dispositorship. This Lunation continues a long term series of Bowl patterns.
This is the fifth New Moon with Jupiter in Scorpio, and it continues to be extraordinarily powerful as it is the leading planet of the Bowl. It is now in the closing phase in its 20 year cycle with Saturn, which I’ll explain in part 2 of this series.
Like the last New Moon at the end of Capricorn, this is another “promissory” New Moon, with much to come after a crucial transition symbolized by the New Moon at the end of its sign. Still, the New Moon is not Void of Course, since it makes a powerful exact forming septile with Saturn. I’ll offer more about the aspects in part 2.
As noted, Saturn is now the dispositor of this Lunation, as well as Mercury and Pluto, and occupies its home sign of Earthy Capricorn. Expect all Saturn-ruled matters to feel very differently than they did past year, with this New Moon marking the second time Saturn leaves a Capricorn imprint on the Lunation. The next 4 weeks are totally dominated by Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars!
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, anticipatory, spontaneous and management-oriented Partial Eclipse New Moon occurs at 28 Aquarius on February 15 at 1:05 pm PST, 4:05 pm EST, and 9:05 pm GMT (UT). This will show us the need to “think in the future,” and work with foresight, preparing for what we see is coming our way. This is the emergent turning point in new obligations to be met, new duties to be accepted, new “laws of life” we must pay attention to, and new authorship of our charting our own course as we embrace a more serious destiny.
We are now solidly in the “alternate” Sun/Moon relationship than we knew before last Summer. The July 2017 New Moon at 1 Leo was the fifteenth and last in a sequence where the Sun fell in the same sign as the Sun in the next Full Moon. There are two patterns: one with the Sun in the same sign as the Sun in the following Full Moon (New Moon between 1-15 degrees of a sign), and one with the Sun in a different sign than it’s in at the following Full Moon (New Moon between 16-30 degrees of a sign).
We were in the first pattern up to the Solar Eclipse at 29 Leo, when we shifted to the second (reverse) pattern, since that New Moon Solar Eclipse was followed by a Full Moon with the Sun at 14 Virgo and Moon at 14 Pisces. The past New Moon at 27 Capricorn had a “Supermoon” Full Moon Lunar Eclipse with the Sun at 12 Aquarius and the Moon at 12 Leo. This one at 28 Aquarius will have a Full Moon in about 2 weeks with the Sun at 12 Pisces and the Moon at 12 Virgo. The last time we had this “different order” was during the 16 months before the 2016 New Moon in Gemini. 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 have now entered a time when the inner planets are beginning to cluster together, which will continue for many months to come. We are now in a standard long term Bowl pattern except for when the Moon is between late Gemini and late Virgo. This means we’ll be more aware of what we possess and what we don’t, with an emphasis on duality. At this time, we’ve been leading with Scorpio qualities, showing us the need to evaluate our expectancies, and finish with Uranus in Aries energy, which should bring us clarity.
While Mars led the Bowl before its conjunction with Jupiter, now Jupiter leads the Bowl. Except for when the Moon creates a Bucket or Locomotive, this will last through mid-May 2018, after which the pattern becomes a Locomotive with the empty span defined by Venus in Cancer and Jupiter in Scorpio.
Because of where Uranus is, as unique or unexpected events present themselves for your awareness, in 2017-2018 we are learning to listen to our inner voice to find our place in the Cosmic Choir. Here it’s useful to remember that in any choir, there are times to sing unisons, times to sing harmonies, times to sing solo, and times not to sing at all. Even when we’re not singing, we’re still part of the choir. What is your part to sing? Be as clear as you can about what you can offer to the harmony of the whole, and keep training to bring it forth!
This New Moon will jumpstart Aquarius energy wherever it falls in our chart. Again, this puts the spotlight on what was promised during the 2009-2010 period, and anticipates much to come in the near future. Much that we are focused on during this period will sprout wings between 2021 and 2023 when Jupiter and then Saturn conjunct all the occupied Aquarius positions in this chart.
This Eclipse will externalize many things related to the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse in late Leo. An outstanding feature of that was the Grand Fire Trine involving Saturn trine Uranus (in play all of 2017) which gave us the ability to cultivate heart strength, creativity, and the Solar Fire by which we became our Eternal Light that can never be extinguished. By developing new heart strengths via the Fire trine, using Jupiter in Libra to express different kinds of power in balanced, rhythmic ways, we learned to adjust to the natural rhythm of the NOW.
Though that trine is now separating until May, it’s now forming a very favorable and serendipitious tredecile that will be in play for many weeks. This will be highly specializing and bring forth gifts and unique circumstances perfect for our situations, as a prelude to the return of Saturn trine Uranus in the Spring, this time from the Earth signs of Capricorn to Taurus.
Continue to see how established structures can be renovated, and how the new, original, and/or revolutionary can be given a solid structure. When in doubt, be spontaneous! This allows innovation in reasonable, practical ways, and finds power in blending the past with the future.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Aquarius has Saturn as the worldly ruler of the Lunation, and Uranus as the spiritual ruler. Saturn in its home sign of Capricorn is very powerful. This gives a strong backdrop of Cardinal Earth to the New Moon. As Uranus is ruled by Mars and Pluto, and Mars is in Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter in Scorpio, we have two very strong backdrop influences here. Mars in Sagittarius favors spontaneity, with Jupiter adding the needed focus and magnetism to bring us closer to the rebirth we’re waiting for.
We have Saturn as dispositor of planets in Aquarius, with the Mars-Jupiter mutual reception as dispositors for all the other planets except for the split influence of Venus in Pisces co-ruled by Jupiter and Neptune. The mutual reception is a very powerful “closed loop” of self-referencing, self-reinforcing energy. Still, Saturn is the strongest influence right now as it is in its home sign.
So Saturn rules the Lunation, Mercury, and Pluto, with Mars ruling Venus, Jupiter, and Uranus, itself ruled by Jupiter. As usual Neptune continues as a “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness. In any case, 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 8 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. In this chart, there are no septile series aspects to either of those planets, so it’s not a primary configuration these next 4 weeks.
However, it will always be triggered by transits which happen every few weeks, so we can’t relax too much as we navigate the “forks in the road of destiny” at the end of this long wave period. The configuration will be triggered again when Venus, Mercury, and the Sun make septiles to Pluto followed shortly by their conjunction with Neptune during the last 9 days of February and the first few days of March.
After that, it’ll be triggered in early April by Venus making a septile to Neptune and biseptile to Pluto, and again in late April when the Sun makes the same aspects, followed by Mars conjuncting Pluto and septiling Neptune in late April and early May. Of course, the Moon triggers it 7 times each month. 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 experience a lag in how Neptune and Pluto operate, since they’re out of the septile and again approach the sextile they made from 1942-1995. This will become more evident in the Spring.
The current degree spans that trigger this transformative mass configuration are around 15-19 Leo, 6-10 Libra, 28 Scorpio-2 Sag, 20-24 Capricorn, 12-15 Pisces, 3-7 Taurus, and 24-28 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 allow what’s been stuffed down to come up to the surface of our lives, and see how we can allow use the available power wisely.
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 6 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 27 Pisces. Chiron has not been in this “face” of Pisces since 1966-1968. Uranus transited this span several times between April 2009 and March 2010, as did Jupiter in May and the entire period between September 2010 and February 2011. What was awakened then and since then has prepared us for the current opportunities to heal or be mentored into our individuality.
Chiron is now making its third and final pass over this degree on its way to entering Aries for the first time on April 17, 2018, marking a new era of Chironic healing energies. We are now in an important position in space-time, since we must fully embrace compassion and a vast understanding of ourselves as Spirits having human experiences. And to be human is to be flawed. Those flaws provide the spur for us to overcome them by transmuting them into strengths and skills that serve a higher purpose in our lives.
Chiron now mentors us forward, urging us to use our creative imagination to visualize ways and means to take control of some life circumstance. Again, it’s now on its last pass through this part of Pisces, requiring the purification we did in the past to prepare us to finish our Piscean Chironic mentoring experience. Learn when closure is needed, and find ways to achieve it.
Bless a lot as it flows down the time stream. Let go of dogmas, let go of beliefs that have you stuck in ambivalence or suffering, and heal by having compassion for yourself and what suffering you share with the world. We are offered a deeper Soul contact this month, so make the most of it!
As Chiron and Neptune pass through late 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. We are closing in on the end of the Chiron in Pisces era, and continue to purify and find closure, healing 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 to achieve some social goal, been offered higher responsibilities, and been shown what spiritual goals we’re fit to accomplish. The March 2017 Solar Eclipse in Pisces continues to assist us in releasing 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, its third pass over this point, and the degree where Neptune will go stationary direct in November after its 2018 retrograde period. The themes of this degree involve public worth, finding an appropriate “camouflage,” and "the use of intelligence and mental subtlety as a protection against storms and trials." We are told it is a technique of using spiritual will, courage, cleverness, and adaptability to move through the trials of life.
As you can see, both Neptune and Chiron are giving us a sense of the transition between recent years and a future yet to show up. Collectively, 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 “proved our qualifications,” as per the theme of the Sabian Symbol for 12 Pisces. That was the platform from which Neptune has moved forward through its shadow zone (12-15 Pisces), before it moves into unknown zones in April 2018.
Though we finished some lessons related to earlier degrees in Pisces in 2017, we are now in a culminative zone, since Neptune has not been in this face of Pisces since 1852-1854. As Neptune has not experienced this span of Pisces since then, 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!
The North Node
We’re now solidly in the North Node in Leo and South Node in Aquarius era, showing our greatest development is now in a different element and mode of expression than it was before May. When the NN is in Leo, our greatest development is through our ability to love, to create, to play, to be spontaneous, and to be wholehearted in “tending the Solar Fire” that shows the world our heart’s strength and desire. Because the SN is in Aquarius, we will demonstrate these qualities through dispassion, idealism, working for the greatest good for the greatest number, and finding others in our true spiritual group of world servers.
The North Node in the second decan of Leo brings a more specific focus on growth in that direction. This created a great growth in heart energy last Summer as the inner planets conjunct the North Node while making Grand Fire trines with Saturn and Uranus.
The NN degree is the 15th degree of Leo which we are told is “A pageant.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of “Spectacular, dramatic release of subconscious energies,” “Self-exaltation for social approval,” and “Self-indulgence and license.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he says this degree involves “the more or less sensational release of energies in a form dramatizing the unconscious aspirations of man’s primitive and instinctual nature.” He states this degree shows us the fulfillment of a form of “combustion,” bringing others to a state of “emotional excitement, and perhaps incandescence. He continues that this symbol shows us that any spontaneous expression that arouses others must be planned carefully so that it gives “concrete form to the desires and expectations of the collective...”
Here “theatricality” is fully expressed, and this degree offers that “the mind of the individual is able to give a public demonstration of (our) ability to sway (others) by a dramatic presentation of popularized ideals.” He says it falls in the span of Assurance, and it’s the fifth and final degree of the individual, mental, and spiritual level of the scene of Combustion in the Act of Stabilization.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of “man’s constant delight in exhibiting the fruits of his achievement, and of a naivete’ dramatized in the world… through a very human pride in common works and co-operative accomplishment.” He continues that “there is high magic in the public display of all the things in which the least of individuals may have had some minor part, and out of it comes a sense of fellowship through which the whole is revealed in an over-all excellence and every last inarticulate ideal somehow is exalted.”
He offers us the keyword of DEMONSTRATION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “an irresistible heightening of self-significance across the whole face of experience.”
So the North Node, our line of greatest evolutionary development, indicates these next 4 weeks point to growth through cooperative works, and that fellowship can develop through the contributions of each to the whole effort that brings forth a natural excellence. If appropriate, put on the show you’ve trained to do, and be wholehearted and demonstrative in some creative way, or some way that expresses the heart. This fulfills spontaneity, and leads to powerful releases!
This is growth through “putting on the show,” and rousing others through creative or heart-felt demonstrations of authentic self-expression. These will express through the South Node at 15 Aquarius. The themes are the fulfillment of a vision and/or experience of our individual contribution to our society or culture, where we find harmony, “beatitude,” and happiness from playing our part. This is a degree of loyalty, cooperation, consistency, and completeness.
Summing Up
I’ll close today by telling you to use this visionary New Moon to begin to prepare for what’s coming. There are some very important harmonious and specializing aspects in this Lunation, along with some fairly challenging aspects involving Venus and Mars. And, now that Uranus is again forming a semisquare with Neptune, it sets up future “cutting and grinding” times as multiple Octile series aspects are triggered each time a planet moves through late Capricorn, mid-Pisces, and late Aries, as well as when the Moon moves through the late degrees of ALL the Cardinal signs and the middle degrees of ALL the Mutable signs.
Last year’s Solar Eclipses in Pisces and Leo quickened us, and eliminated a lot of expectancies and considerations that are now so much excess baggage. We continue to dump all kinds of old ghosts and elements of pride that would hinder our hearts from its authentic self-expression, and are getting clear about our priorities and what we should and should not expect of ourselves and others. We have now entered a new phase of choice and change, with the septiles to Saturn indicating it’s time to get beyond ego fears and limitations by accepting the new “law of life” we’ll be under after this New Moon Solar Eclipse.
Since last March’s 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.
In 2017 we experienced a more natural or creative self-expression, and the dawning of a new day that will last for many years to come, so enjoy the lightness and brightness. We now have glimpsed a greater Selfhood, and had opportunities to expand our hearts, our Light, our Fire, and our inspiration.
Be the Light of your transfigured deepened Self, and accept the opportunity to go deeper into your experience of life, others, and the beauty of our existence. This Lunation shows us the future before it happens, where foresight is everything. This is a good time for embracing a new identity, and opportunities to transform the animal into the supernatural.
This New Moon shows us how to intensify our striving in an organized and responsible way as we link the worldly and spiritual dimensions of our lives. Try to “think in the future,” and be more spontaneous in “adventurous self-expression.” This is a new drumbeat, a new dance, a turning point in what rules we’re living under, and a time to stand for what you believe in while growing into unknown ways of doing your Being.
See you soon with part 3, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
Hi Robert, can you expand on what you mean by what was promised back in 2009-10?
I'm asking because my life was extremely eventful on the very day of the Uranus-Jupiter conjunction at 0 Aries, and also the conjunction at 27, 28 Pisces.
It was so eventful that I've kind of been waiting all these years to discover what exactly the purpose was of those eventful times. Sort of like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Oddly, 2010 seems like it was yesterday.
So, I'm not quite sure about the promise part.
Thanks,
Michael
Posted by: Michael | February 14, 2018 at 05:47 PM