by Robert Wilkinson
Over the next 4 weeks the New Moon in Pisces will show us how to use our creative imagination and power to forgive and let go as we move into a strange Spring and even stranger Summer.
This is the third 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 sixth New Moon with Jupiter in Scorpio, and it continues to be extraordinarily powerful as it is the leading planet of the Bowl. That implies a sense of adventure will help us embrace the deep transformational energies that predominate at this time. Also, Jupiter is now making a semisquare in the closing phase of its 20 year cycle with Saturn, creating inner crises of adjustment. I'll explain more in part 2 of this series.
Like the last New Moon at the end of Aquarius, 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 vigintile with Mercury and a square to Mars. I’ll offer more about the aspects in part 2.
Jupiter is the dispositor of this Lunation, and that planet, plus Mars, rules everything except Saturn and Neptune. While the Saturn-dominated inner planets in Capricorn and Aquarius are now done for the year, once Mars enters its exaltation sign of Capricorn, Saturn will again be a primary backdrop to all the other planetary energies. So while the New Moon is primarily ruled by the Mars-Jupiter mutual reception, once Mars enters Cap, Saturn is back front and center as the stage manager for all the other planets!
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 sensitive, intuitive, procrastinating and oceanic New Moon occurs at 27 Pisces on March 17 at 6:12 am PDT, 9:12 am EDT, and 1:12 pm GMT (UT). This will show us how we’ve incorporated inspiring experiences to transform our everyday life since the Summer of 2016, and give us a vision of opportunities to come in the Autumn. This is the end of the end, and will show us how to use our imagination to “dominate circumstances.”
Pisces is the sign of the fish and our connectedness with all of life across space and time in the vast ocean of consciousness. It is where we “let go, let God,” forgiving much as the old dreams and nightmares flow down the time stream. T is where Aquarius, the sign of the Angel and our greater Life together beyond the separateness of ego, finds emotional connectedness with other lives in the larger field. Pisces takes the greater vision of the greatest good for the greatest number and give it depth and breadth of feeling.
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 2017 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 Solar Eclipse at 28 Aquarius set the seed for the following Full Moon with the Sun at 12 Pisces and the Moon at 12 Virgo. This one at 27 Pisces will have a Full Moon in about 2 weeks with the Sun at 11 Aries and the Moon at 11 Libra. 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 through the transits in Aries. Once Venus enters Taurus at the end of March, we begin many months of inner planets occupying the empty zone between Taurus and Scorpio.
Once the planets move into late Gemini, we’ll leave the long term Bowl pattern we’ve been in. The Bowl puts a focus on 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 finishing with Uranus in Aries energy, which should bring us clarity and freedom of understanding.
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 when in the span between mid-Gemini and mid-Virgo, 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 Pisces energy wherever it falls in our chart. The Lunation at the end of Pisces puts the spotlight on what was promised during the Jupiter-Uranus conjunctions in late Pisces in 2010-2011. We’ve let go of a lot since then, and received rewards and blessings at the end of a long wave period in our lives.
Of major importance is that Saturn is now forming a very favorable and serendipitous tredecile to Uranus 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 Pisces has Jupiter as the worldly ruler of the Lunation, and Neptune as the spiritual ruler. Jupiter in Scorpio is very powerful. This gives a strong backdrop of Fixed Water to the New Moon. As Neptune is in its home sign of Pisces, it rules its own domain for many years to come.
Jupiter in Scorpio is ruled by Mars and Pluto, and Mars is in Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter in Scorpio, so 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.
Mars in Jupiter’s sign and Jupiter in Mars’ sign creates a powerful mutual reception that is the final dispositor for all the other planets except Neptune. The mutual reception is a very powerful “closed loop” of self-referencing, self-reinforcing energy.
So Mars and Jupiter rule all the other planets until Mars enters Capricorn. 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 last year, as well as the recent March 1 Full Moon with Sun septile Pluto. The Eclipse in the configuration 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 the inner planets transit early Taurus, making biseptiles to Pluto and then septiles to Neptune.
That means it’ll be triggered in early April by Venus making a biseptile to Pluto and then a septile to Neptune, 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 about 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 16-20 Leo, 8-12 Libra, 29 Scorpio-3 Sag, 21-25 Capricorn, 13-17 Pisces, 4-8 Taurus, and 25-29 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 7 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 29 Pisces. Chiron has not been in this “face” of Pisces since 1966-1968. Jupiter and Uranus transited this span several times in 2010-2011, and what was awakened then and since then has prepared us for the current opportunities to heal or be mentored into our individuality.
Chiron first occupied this degree between May and August 2017, going SRX on this degree during that time. It is now making its second 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. It will again retrograde over this degree late this year before going SD and making one last transit over this degree in early 2019 en route to re-entering Aries where it will remain until 2026 when it enters Taurus.
With Chiron at the end of Pisces and about to enter Aries, 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 one of its last passes through this part of Pisces, requiring us to see how things fall apart at the end of long cycles. We are being mentored in closure rituals. 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 15 Pisces, the degree where it went SRX in June 2017. The themes of this degree involve looking at necessities and ignoring appearances, rehearsing “before the battle,” a “potent compulsion of a great task to be performed,” and “opportunity seized.” We are told this “is a challenge to make the best of the situation from which there is no immediate extrication,” and bring “genuine efficiency and real adventure to common objectives.”
So Neptune is now “dreaming” into collective consciousness the same themes Chiron introduced to us between 2013-2015. As you can see, both Neptune and Chiron have been taking us into a far vaster collective healing and mentoring than we’ve known in many decades. Collectively, we’re now solidly in 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). It now is on the threshold of moving into unknown zones in April 2018, where it proceeds to its RX station at 17 Pisces in June.
We finished some lessons related to earlier degrees in Pisces in 2017, echoing when it last was in the face of Pisces between 1852-1854. In early April, Neptune will enter a new face of Pisces, where it hasn’t been since 1854-1856. As Neptune has not experienced this span of Pisces since then, it indicates that collective consciousness in 2014-2018 is in a zone filled with turmoil historically. Given Pluto is also in a zone where it last was in 1772, it would seem a “pre-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 2017. 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.
This NN is the same as it was at the last New Moon. 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 mystical healing New Moon to begin to prepare for the adventure that’s coming. There are some very important harmonious and specializing aspects in this Lunation, along with some very frictional aspects involving the Lunation square Mars. Also, Uranus again forms a semisquare with Neptune, setting 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 now are at the end of an old phase, and prepare for a newer, more structured and/or responsible way to do our Being.
Remember too we are still “under the beams” of the recent Solar and Lunar Eclipses. While the Solar Eclipse was fairly weak, the Lunar Eclipse of Jan 31 at 12 Aquarius/Leo indicates we’re still leaving elements of our past behind, seeing what we have to do, and redeeming a promise first awakened in the Summer of 2016.
Since the March 2017 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 mentor and be mentored as we heal into the Light and Form presenting itself these next 2 weeks. This is the end of the end and the beginning of the beginning. We have Mars about to enter Capricorn and change the chemical formula for the entire sky, and the approaching Mercury retrograde will give us all a different understanding of recent and current events.
As Mars is on the exact degree of Mercury’s Dec 2017 retrograde station promising us all a blessing, this activates that degree. Expect to give and receive blessings over the next 4 weeks, so have an adventurous attitude as you embrace a more effective role in your world. This is a strange “back to the past to see the future clearly” type of energy.
Use this New Moon’s Piscean influence to “tune in” these next 4 weeks. Intensify your mediations, and/or stop the chatter of the ego mind, let go, and flow into the infinite. Some things are at an end; be forgiving and compassionate as you let them go. Some things have begun, but need review; that period is just ahead of us.
See your dance of relationships as the pure principle of Unconditional Love expressing itself through you, as best you are able. Allow Cosmos to work through you, and you will catch glimpses of your higher fulfillment and purpose as they exist as images in your subconscious mind waiting to be awakened by superconsciousness. It’s an adventure in opening to a higher, broader, and deeper connection to collective consciousness. Use your imagination, and you could re-claim and opportunity you thought had slipped away.
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
I think the North node Sabian degree is well-expressed by the nation-wide walkout of high school students.
Posted by: Denise | March 15, 2018 at 08:31 PM
Beautifully expressed and very clear.
Thanks Robert, see you in part 2 as you say.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | March 16, 2018 at 11:03 AM
And the current political field(s) around the world is/are very individualistic and disruptive in nature.
Posted by: [email protected] | March 16, 2018 at 01:36 PM