by Robert Wilkinson
New Moon coming tomorrow! Over the next 4 weeks the New Moon in Gemini will show us how to integrate our personality and view life from the angle of the Higher Self. See how all the differences and distinctions merge in a higher view, and open to a more Soul-ful existence. This one takes us into the unknown on another intense adventure! And even though Neptune and Pluto are not in orb, we have septiles to Uranus and triseptiles to Pluto, triggering a variation on The Grand Irrationality
This is the sixth New Moon of the Saturn in Capricorn era! That planet continues to be exceptionally important in several ways, through aspects and dispositorship. This Lunation takes us into the final Locomotive pattern until late August, and the final Locomotive with both the leading and closing planet in Water signs for many years.
This is the ninth New Moon with Jupiter in Scorpio, and it continues to be extraordinarily powerful as it is the leading edge of the Locomotive. That implies a sense of adventure will help us focus and demonstrate the deep transformational energies that predominate at this time. Also, Jupiter is again exactly making a “fateful septile” in the closing phase of its 20 year cycle with Saturn, which is a time of choice based in the hard inner adjustment associated with the stress or crises of the recent semisquare. I’ll offer more about the aspects 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 distributive, integrative, challenging, adaptive, adventurous, and “destiny producing” New Moon occurs at 23 Gemini on June 13 at 12:43 pm PDT, 3:43 pm EDT, and 8:43 pm BST. This will bring us into the Light of seeing how various parts of our life fit together as seen from “the upper chamber of consciousness,” and how we can find emotional joy within a social context if we’re willing to interact with the world. This one has fewer aspects than usual, but they are incredibly powerful, with a lot of septile-series aspects!
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 at 25 Taurus set the seed for the following Full Moon with the Sun at 9 Gemini and the Moon at 9 Sagittarius. This one at 23 Gemini will have a Full Moon in about 2 weeks with the Sun at 7 Cancer and the Moon at 7 Capricorn. 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 outside the outer planet occupied zone between Jupiter and Uranus. Now that Venus is in late Cancer, about to enter Leo, and Mercury has also entered Cancer, we continue many months of inner planets occupying the empty zone between Gemini and Libra.
As I mentioned, once Venus moved into Cancer, we left the long term Bowl pattern we’ve been in for many months, and won’t frame things in terms of the duality of that pattern. We now have all the planets in about 2/3 of the signs, with an empty 1/3 span. This makes it a “Locomotive” Jones pattern.
As Jupiter is the entry planet to the Locomotive, we continue to learn to manage Scorpio energy skillfully to achieve best momentum into the future. Here it will be useful to remember that this “expansive Scorpio” influence is opposite Uranus in Taurus, and though it isn’t forming, that sign axis is still the focus of the “Tension of Opposites” we’ll be learning to navigate the next few months, along with the other oppositions to come involving Saturn, Pluto, and Mars. Much of what began when the inner planets were in Capricorn and Aquarius is about to break the surface of Life in the coming weeks.
Remember that through the end of this year, Uranus is teaching us to listen to our inner voice to find our place in the Cosmic Choir. The April New Moon in Aries put the focus squarely on that part of our spiritual training, and the May New Moon featured Uranus at the all-important last degree of Aries, helping us to awaken to our field of effective activity. This New Moon is the first with Uranus in Taurus at the degree of the electrical storm, so get ready to have your life transformed in a dramatic way!
We’re all “singing our song” within a greater harmony symbolized by the Cosmic Choir, so be alert to those you’re singing with, and the changes in the songs being sung in different life contexts. 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 Gemini energy wherever it falls in our chart. This opens up a period of transfer of ideas and personality integration in harmonious ways. With the very powerful Saturn trine Uranus in Earth signs, continue to see how established structures can be renovated in unique or specialized ways, and how the new, original, and/or revolutionary can be given a solid structure in unique or specialized ways. When in doubt, be imaginative, see the harmonics in situations, and overcome fear! 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 Gemini has Mercury in Cancer as the ruler of both the Sun and Moon. Mercury in Cancer is a bit sensitive, but also aware of what is needed for security, as well as what must be gathered to achieve its ambition. This will also give more sensitivity and immediacy to the Gemini New Moon.
Mercury in Cancer is ruled by the Moon in Gemini, putting them in “mutual reception.” This mutual reception, along with the other two “final dispositors,” rules all the other planets in the sky. As the planets move through Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, we’re in a time of shifting dispositors. So while this Lunation has a heavy Mercury and Moon emphasis, we’ve moved out of the past few months of everything being dominated by Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.
Still, because Mars will rule Jupiter and be in a Saturn-ruled sign until November, Saturn will be a major stage manager for all these planets! Now that Uranus has left Aries, Saturn will no longer rule that revolutionary energy except the second week of November when Uranus takes its last encore in Aries and Mars is at the end of Saturn-ruled Aquarius. For now, Uranus is ruled by Venus, which will move from Cancer to Scorpio between now and the end of the year, so those signs will be the backdrop to Uranus’ revolutionary energies awakening all of us wherever it transits in our charts.
So the Moon and Mercury rule the Lunation, Venus, and Uranus, with Saturn ruling Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto in this chart. 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, the Lunation brings it front and center, as it makes a triseptile to Pluto. Add that the Lunation makes an exact septile to Uranus and Venus makes a biseptile to Jupiter, and we have major action in River City these next 4 weeks!
his also initiates a period when Uranus will biseptile Pluto, promising even weirder events than we’ve come to know during the Grand Irrationality. This biseptile will be associated with “extraordinary irrationality,” and becomes closer over the next few months, so get ready for a lot of irrational events affecting all of us. It may not make sense, and doesn’t have to. We just have to learn to navigate with a steady hand and an eye for abrupt changes.
This means we can’t relax too much as we navigate the “forks in the road of destiny” in the near future. It gets triggered every few weeks by transits, and 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, 20-24 Capricorn, 12-16 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.
As you can see, Uranus will be pulled into the configuration as it gets further into Taurus, so even when Neptune makes a constant sextile to Pluto by this time next year, we’ll be in the thick of Uranus biseptile Pluto, which will mark a time of some very wild rides! So Neptune will continue to move forward out of the Pisces zone, but Uranus will have begun its non-stop occupancy of the Taurus zone nonstop by this time next year.
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 3 Aries. Chiron has not been in this “face” of Aries since 1968-1970, and hasn’t seen this exact degree since the period between Spring 1968 and January 1970. 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 is now squarely in the transition zone between late Pisces and early Aries! Chiron entered Aries for the first time in this era on April 17, 2018, marking a new period of Chironic healing energies. It is now on the same degree where it will go SRX in July, and then retrograde in August and September 2018 before re-entering Pisces on September 25.
It then goes SD at 28 Pisces in December, re-enters Aries on February 18, 2019, and makes its next pass over this degree in April 2019. Once it re-enters Aries on February 18, it will remain in Aries until 2026 when it enters Taurus.
With Chiron at the end of Pisces and beginning of Aries in 2018, 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 “identify with a larger life.” Based in fears and insecurities we’ve already overcome, we can now become examples for others who also struggle with these things. This degree is about healing into our Higher Self by becoming some sort of Avatar or grounding energy for a collective need or yearning.
As it will retrograde back into Pisces in a few months, keep your focus on how things fall apart at the end of long cycles even as new forms and views present themselves. We have had a long mentoring in learning closure rituals, and much that we’ve let go of created the space for the new life emerging.
We have been shown how to bless a lot as it flows down the time stream. We’ve been taught how to let go of dogmas, let go of beliefs that have us stuck in ambivalence or suffering, and we’ve heal by having compassion for ourselves and the suffering we share with the world. Now we heal by living in the NOW, embracing the new life with humor and a sense that we’re being led to identify with a larger Life and collective work.
As Chiron passed through late Pisces, it heralded what will be “dreamed into collective consciousness” by Neptune these next 7 years. This has brought and will bring echoes in the collective consciousness related to the various Uranus stations from 2008-2010, and specifically the Jupiter conjunctions to Uranus during 2010. Chiron mentored us and gave us mentoring techniques which 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. Now that it’s entered Aries, we are finding ways to mentor and be mentored in Aries. We are now healing into our higher Self by moving into direct action, securing our initial position in the new Life, leading to a vision of a larger role to play in the future as an inspiration to others.
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 17 Pisces, the degree it will occupy when it goes stationary retrograde in about a week. Neptune hasn’t occupied this degree since 1855-56; the themes of 17 Pisces involve participating in some collective “rebirth,” showing ourselves at our best in a larger call to renewal we hear with others.
So Neptune is now “dreaming” into collective consciousness the same themes Chiron introduced to us between 2014-2015. 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 minds have been introduced to a deeper and vaster Soul realm and our testing has begun.
Because Neptune has entered the second half of Pisces, where it hasn’t been since 1855-57, it indicates that collective consciousness in 2018-2020 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 first 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 conjuncted the North Node while making Grand Fire trines with Saturn and Uranus.
The NN degree is the 7th degree of Leo. The Sabian Symbol is "The constellations in the sky.” In the original Jones class notes Dane Rudhyar published in The Astrology of Personality, he states this degree symbolizes a “sense of primordial wonder and awe before life,” “unquenchable faith in a spiritual being complementing our own,” and “Realization.”
In The Astrological Mandala,, Rudhyar offers this degree refers to “the power of basic spiritual values which refer to man’s common humanity and to all enduring archetypes.” He states this is about the stars symbolizing “basic and archetypal” experiences that all of humanity shares across the miles and centuries, and that the constellations represent a sense of “order in existence” that show us both our own psychological projections upon Cosmos, as well as the Cosmic projection of order on humanity.
He further tells us that here “we deal with archetypal factors which endure through a long series of generations,” and show us how “the nearly unchanging patterns of star groups are opposed to... ever changing fashions and social ideals,” showing us “permanence.” This degree falls in the Span of Assurance, and is the second degree in the Scene of Combustion on the emotional-cultural level.
Dr. Marc E Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “the infinite regression in all universal reality” demonstrating that it’s fruitless to abandon the known for the unknown, and that though cosmos is illimitable in our ability to quest to the extent of whatever is meaningful to us, our “assurance lies within (our) own being and experience.” As he states, “the stars are (our) confirmation, never (our) explanation.”
He offers us the keyword SURITY. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “consistent effectiveness in understanding and self-ordering.”
So the North Node, our line of greatest evolutionary development, indicates these next 4 weeks point to growth through seeing permanent patterns, and the dance we as individuals do within these unchanging patterns which “confirm” who and what we are, but never “determine” who and what we are. We should be able to see some relatively permanent patterns beyond those that change, and find new forms of self-expression, creativity, and a sense of awe in the face of experiences which transcend our limited perceptions in the moment.
The next four weeks are a time to see that which changes and that which doesn’t, and come to some deep realizations about how we are the projection of an element of Cosmic reality that transcends our limited existence and changing interpretations. Grow through seeing the more permanent patterns in your life, and see your personality as the area of joyous work by your Soul to make you a perfect servant of the true, the good, and the beautiful.
If appropriate, be wholehearted and demonstrative in some creative way, or some way that expresses the heart. This can generate or develop spontaneity, and leads to powerful manifestations of Spirit! This is growth through rousing self and others through creative or heart-felt demonstrations of authentic self-expression.
These will express through the South Node at 7 Aquarius. The themes are the manifestation of things born from Cosmos, freed from local conditions, which constitute the emergence of a global awareness or reality from all that has not been realized up to this point. This way to contribute on a social, emotional, or cultural level involves “a demonstration of the illimitable potentialities to be found in each immediate moment of self-realization.” So grow through seeing the patterns of your permanent Self, expressed through things you couldn’t imagine before now!
Summing Up
I’ll close today by telling you to use this synthesizing and electrifying New Moon to shine the Light of seeing a higher vision and understanding of the relationship of the self to the Self. Though we have three sesquisquares which show a somewhat irritating and annoying time, keep blending the old with the new, the traditional with the innovative, and note the atmospheres that allow you forms of social-spiritual renewal.
This New Moon puts the focus squarely on moving out beyond the known and familiar while valuing standards you want to carry with you. Approach all situations as “the world of the 5 senses and the mind as the playground of God and Soul.” With Saturn where it is, a new law is being announced, and a new vision is preparing to launch. Just be patient, since it’s not time yet. That will come in September, when Mars is again direct in motion.
With Mercury in early Cancer and Venus in late Cancer, we’ve all been through recent shifts in direction and our loyalties. Because of Jupiter leading the Locomotive, and preparing to go direct in a few weeks, use Jupiter in Scorpio to open doors to unknown worlds. We’ve been in radical transfiguration since January, with a renewal in May.
Last month I asked certain questions that bear repeating from now through early September. How have you transfigured in the past that brought you here? What have you done well that you can now let go of? What have you done well in the past that shows you who you have become? What did you once hope for or expect to happen that did, but in ways you hadn’t imagined, that showed you the Light of your Heart? By meditating on these questions for a few days or weeks, you will realize things about your process you never knew before. Enjoy the journey!
We have a host of extraordinary aspects I’ll discuss in part 2. We have major forks in the road, as well as specialization and what I term “frictional polishing.” By this time next month, many lives will have changed in some fairly dramatic ways!
Last year’s Solar Eclipses in Pisces and Leo quickened us, and we’ve been eliminating a lot of expectancies, considerations, and 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. Since the recent Eclipses, we’re now dropping old ideals and elements of the past, clearing the way to do new work with new people.
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. We saw a greater Selfhood, and had opportunities to expand our hearts, our Light, our Fire, and our inspiration. This New Moon is the Light of Exteriorization on the Social-Cultural levels of life expressing itself through our ability to integrate our personality and view life from the angle of the Higher Self, so be happy and sing your song!
Use this New Moon’s Gemini influence to find new ways of viewing and communicating what you know. Join in cooperative “exercises,” be aware of the new “law” governing your life these past few months, and become an example of strength, awareness, and courage in your society. Things may seem out of balance and won’t make much sense, but nothing has to make sense. The only thing that matters is us consciously establishing ourselves in our Soul, and finding confidence in the “superiority of our true Self.”
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
Robert, I've been studying this first segment of the New Moon report for the last hour. I attempted to answer the questions you offer and also took a look at the new moons in July, August and September. I am struck with the profound shift underway.
Reading between the lines you so carefully crafted, I am enormously touched with the profound truth you offer here.
And now on to Part 2, with much gratitude for the work you are called to do.
Posted by: Jo Garceau | June 13, 2018 at 10:01 AM