by Robert Wilkinson
This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this Cancer New Moon Eclipse chart. This Lunation will continue to help us integrate our personality so we can live a more Soul-ful life. This allows us to realize some form of ambition through “putting on a show,” or demonstrating our skill and mastery in some social way. With 4 powerful septile-series aspects in play, destiny is on the move in all our lives these next 4 weeks (and 2+ years)!
As you understand by now, different months bring us different Jones Patterns, depending on the position of the Moon and the inner planets relative to the outer planets. These patterns operate their own independent influence, regardless of which planet is in which sign.
Currently, the outer planet occupied span begins with Jupiter in Scorpio, and proceeds through outer planets in Capricorn, Pisces, and Taurus. This is a hemispheric distribution, with all the outer planets in about half the signs (excluding TransPluto, since Jones didn’t use it in defining his patterns). That means the pattern du jour is primarily influenced by the position of the inner planets, shifting the pattern every so often.
Last month we had an open trine span between Cancer and Scorpio, creating a Locomotive pattern. Now the inner planets are in Cancer, Leo, and Virgo, part of the empty half outside the outer planets. Since the inner planets will continue to move through the void approaching Jupiter, and Mercury’s about to go retrograde, we won’t have a Locomotive again until September.
Long term, as Jupiter closes in on its conjunction with Saturn during the next few years, there will be times when most of the planets will be compressed into very narrow spans centered around Sagittarius and Capricorn. Though the outer planets have been expanding out to a wide spread these past 20 years since the last Saturn conjunct Uranus, the outers are now compressing, with Jupiter and Saturn headed to a karmic rendezvous with Pluto and Neptune over the coming years. Due to the compression, by early 2020 we will see the first “Bundle” in many years, since the planets will all be within a 120 degree span.
Since all the planets are spread out among many signs and there’s no empty trine, we’ve moved out of the Locomotive pattern. Because we have two Grand Trines at work right now, it’s clearly a “Splay” Jones pattern. This will dominate the next 4 weeks.
So What is a “Splay Pattern” and how does it work?
This chart is fairly spread out in terms of planets in signs, since the 10 planets occupy 8 signs and are fairly spread out around the zodiacal wheel. As there are two Grand Trines, it creates a “tripod” type of positioning, with all the planets in odd angles to each other with differing distributions among the signs, it creates a “Splay” Jones Pattern. As Marc Jones put it, “the arrangement is neither even nor symmetrical,” revealing “strong and sharp aggregations of the planets at irregular points.”
Dr. Jones states “This suggests highly individual or purposeful emphases in the life, where the temperament juts out into experiences according to its own very special tastes.” This pattern “makes its own anchorage in existence,” and has a quality of “rugged resistance to pigeonholing, either in the near conventional compartments of nature, or in the idea-pockets of associates.”
He goes on to state this pattern gives a “persistent emphasis on individuality,” and the “spokelike emphases of the planetary groupings” are random, but have a “tripod” footing and approach to life circumstances. He says this pattern “reveals a very intensive personality who cannot be limited to any single steady point of application.” This temperament is “particular and impersonal in its interests,” rather than “universal-impersonal” or “particular-personal.”
This implies that affairs will be diversely spread out, some will not mesh well with others, and there will be a “hub and spoke" quality to what happens these next 4 weeks, as well as 2+ years. This spread shows a wide diversity of things going on that promote individuality. As we also had a Splay at the June Solstice, these energies will surely dominate our near future!
The Outer Planets Anchor the Pattern of Half the Sky
In the past 5 years, Jupiter has at various times been the nozzle or handle for recurring Bucket patterns, focusing energies through Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio. When we haven’t had Bucket patterns, Jupiter has also been the leading edge of both Bowl and Locomotive configurations when no planets have occupied Leo, Virgo, and Libra.
Now it’s moving closer to the occupied span involving Saturn, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus. As it will still lead the outer planet occupied span through December 2020, Jupiter continues to play a major part in how we enter or focus other planetary energies. It's why sometimes these past few years have seemed like a wild ride, an adventure, a quest, and more!
Saturn continues to lead the occupied outer planet span between Capricorn and Taurus, and is the ruler of both Mars and Jupiter at this time. That indicates we’re all dealing with social and cultural affairs as seen through the lens of Saturn. Want to “move Mars?” Use Saturn. Going through a Plutonic experience? Use good Saturn skills you’ve developed, and you’ll do fine. While things can be heavy with this placement, as I offer in my book on Saturn, it’s also the gateway to perfecting your personality and taking command of your life.
While it continues to make its trine with Uranus in Earth, 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. Venus in trine to both makes the future an extraordinarily favorable time to use our Venus function to understanding how to innovate what is established, and how to stabilize the new.
Get over the preconceptions that are preventing you from mobilizing, welcome your invisible helpers, use your imagination, get ready for new experiences to come, and you could just find your “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” in a few weeks. Just remember that every entry into a new world means saying goodbye to something of the old that you can’t take with you into your new life.
In this New Moon, the most intense occupied span (in this chart the Lunation plus Mercury and Venus) is 4 planets in 52+ degrees, making that the major focus. As there are no planets in signs just before or after this span, this is the primary focus of activity. Of course, we also have Mars, Saturn, and Pluto in the 32+ degrees between early Capricorn and early Aquarius, so that too will continue to be associated with a lot of activity wherever it falls in our chart.
This month we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 8 signs, showing a widespread distribution with an extremely heavy presence in Earth and Water signs. This month we have Scorpio, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Taurus, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo represented, with no planet in the other signs.
The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon
A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following month will demonstrate. This Lunation falls at 21 Cancer, the sign of primal innocence and our instinctive integrity. It is said that the last third (decan) of any sign deals with the individual, mental, and spiritual levels of life, and being the third decan of Cancer it has a sub-influence of Pisces. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.
The symbol for the 21st degree of Cancer is "A Prima Donna singing.” In the original Jones class notes from The Astrology of Personality, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “Elevation and popularization of human values through art as a social factor,” and “Supreme realization of the life ambition.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he goes on to say that this degree symbolizes “the emotional reward accompanying cultural success.” He says this is a degree of “pouring our energy into the skillful externalization of the great images of (a) culture,” where we are part of a story, or mythos, embodying “some of the most basic images and emotions characterizing the culture.”
He goes on to say here “we find the drive toward individualization… by means of cultural activity glorified in social and financial success.” He goes on to challenge us to examine what we believe is “success.” He says this degree falls in the Span of Ingenuousess, Act of Stabilization, and Scene of Consolidation on the Emotional-Social level.
Dr. Jones says this is a degree of “an inevitable culmination for individual opportunity, and of an enduring contribution of skill and talent” so the Soul can rediscover itself. He states “here the popularization of human values becomes a creative encouragement” that helps us lose our separate sense of self for a time, where “Perfection is sought as a certainty of self-continuance.”
He offers us the keyword EXCELLENCE. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree “is an overflowing richness of self through its full command of its own deep and genuine potentials.”
So the theme of this Cancer Eclipse involves the light of some sort of successful performance, or fulfillment of an ambition, within a social or cultural setup. This is the light of personality integration operating in the social matrix of our lives, showing us what success would look like, or showing us a success we’ve already accomplished. By relating everything to how integral it is to our daily existence, and seeing how to integrate various new factors into our personalities while eliminating old ones, we’ll come to know our authentic Self as we stand here and now.
Important Aspects
Remember that in reading a Lunation chart (as well as a horary, inceptional, electional, or any event chart) the forming aspects show things to come, while separating aspects show things already past. This section covers only forming aspects.
As mentioned in part 1, the Lunation chart has a mixed bag of aspects. We have a bunch, some powerful, some spiritual, some hard, with the 7th harmonic dominating the landscape!
Forming (and closely partile separating) frictional aspects include the Lunation opposition Pluto; Mercury sesquisquare Saturn, and through two quincunxes to Neptune and Pluto, the nozzle of a Yod, or Finger of God; Venus semisquare Sun, opposition Neptune, and sesquisquare Pluto; Mars square Uranus; and Uranus semisquare Neptune. This gives us lots of annoying, aggravating, or irritating interactive circumstances, but almost no crises to speak of other than the ongoing Mars square Uranus, indicating its own frictional field of operation in early Fixed signs.
The oppositions create “Axes of Awareness,” so it’s great for examining things from contrasting points of view. The quincunxes show adjustments and “expansions through sacrifice,” and with Mercury where it is, magic’s in the air! Sesquisquares are annoying and agitating, but only so we can mobilize in some creative or regenerative way.
The Mars square Uranus has been in play since May, and primarily affect everyone born the last10 days of April, July, October, and January. As this will last through the end of September, grow through cultivating positive Leo and Scorpio energies.
The waxing Uranus semisquare Neptune marks a crucial point of shift in the opening of their very long wave cycle. Uranus semisquare Neptune is an indicator of our unsettled times, and specifically impacts those with planets near the late degrees of the Cardinal signs and any of the middle degrees of the Mutable signs.
This very frictional energy has been with us a while and will continue to be with us a LONG time! That aspect anchors a very frictional configuration that is kicked into play whenever planets pass through late Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, very early Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, and mid-Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. It is especially powerful when a planet transits mid-Virgo and late Libra.
As the planets make various octile aspects to these Uranus and Neptune, those phase shifts generate a LOT of tension and friction in the atmosphere, creating a grind for us wherever we have mid-Mutable and late Cardinal sectors. I believe this semisquare is entirely behind the inner hard choices all of us are considering right now in how our individuality fits into the collective atmosphere, and why there is so much friction between the transpersonal Uranian forces and the transpersonal Neptunian forces at this time.
Last Autumn, this “Rhombus Diamond” octile was created during the transits of the mid-Virgo and late Libra zones. Again, this is a “cutting, grinding, and polishing” type of frictional energy that can lead to awareness via the opposition(s) and the ability to act productively even in impossible conditions.
As I told you in the September 2017 Rhombus Diamond articles, we can expect solar flares and plasma eruptions, warping in the electromagnetic field, breakaway impulses, sideways explosions, and all equivalent human behavior symbolized by these octile aspects testing our clarity. It has presented all of us with certain questions. What is your role as you would define it? Reject timidity and uncertainty, and find your place in the larger scheme of things.
Now to the favorable aspects. There are so many important spiritual aspects going on that it’s a great time to make the most of what’s coming forth!
Inner planet favorable forming (and partile separating) aspects include the Lunation quindecile Mercury, pentelftile Saturn, and binovile Uranus; Mercury is vigintile Venus and biseptile Uranus; and Venus is triseptile Mars, and as noted before makes a Grand Earth Trine with Saturn and Uranus.
Outer planet favorable aspects include Mars elftile Saturn, novile Neptune, and vigintile Pluto; Jupiter septile Saturn, trine Neptune, and bielftile Pluto; Saturn trine Uranus and quintile Neptune; and Uranus biseptile Pluto. Again, partile separating aspects are still powerful, since they indicate the period immediately past which led to the NOW.
I spoke of the Grand Irrationality and Uranus biseptile Pluto earier in this series. I’ve also frequently explained Jupiter septile Saturn, since the entire world seems to be a multiple forks in the road of its collective destiny. This Lunation adds Mercury biseptile Uranus to the mix, as does Venus triseptile Mars. So for this Eclipse, we literally have FOUR nonrational zones of 7 signs each in different parts of the zodiac.
Jupiter septile Saturn is a huge event, since it is part of the larger “seeds of future destiny” being formed by Jupiter at its closing phase with Saturn. Those most affected by this septile have planets and points near 12-16 Scorpio, 3-7 Capricorn, 24-28 Aquarius, 16-20 Aries, 8-12 Gemini, 29 Cancer-3 Leo, and 20-24 Virgo. If you have something near these points, you are definitely at a fork in the road of your larger social-cultural destiny!
I gave you the zones for the Grand Irrationality earlier in this series, which includes the Uranus, Pluto, and Mercury positions. The only other one is Venus triseptile Mars, opening up zones around 27 Pisces-1 Aries, 18-22 Taurus, 10-14 Cancer, 2-6 Virgo, 23-27 Libra, 14-18 Sagittarius, and 6-10 Aquarius. As you can see, we have zones involving Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto spanning literally 38 degrees at a time, 7 times around! This makes for multi-level “forks in the road of destiny” period of time.
The first involves the Venus and Mars zones, the second involves the Jupiter and Saturn zones, and the third involves the Uranus and Pluto zones. As you can see, this will affect all signs either on a worldly or spiritual level, and will put choices and changes on our plates in these areas of our chart.
Taken together, the spiritual and specializing aspects seriously outweigh both the harmonious and the frictional. Of the specializing aspects, we have 2 quindeciles, 1 quintile, and 2 vigintiles. Of the spiritual aspects, we have 1 septile, 2 biseptiles, 1 triseptile, 1 novile, 2 binoviles, 1 elftile, 1 bielftile, and 2 pentelftiles.
The novile (9th harmonic), septile (7th harmonic) and elftile (11th harmonic) series all feature spiritual aspects. All novile series aspects represent gestative energies that can lead to great spiritual realizations. Septile series aspects in this New Moon, they represent forks in the road of destiny, while the elftile series aspects represent issues requiring we resolve some sort of duality by making a leap of faith to attain a form of mastery over that type of duality.
The quintile and biquintile (5th harmonic) and related 10th (decile and tredecile), 15th (quindecile), and 20th harmonic (vigintile) aspects are all specialization aspects. You can find more by going to Astrology Class on the Specializing Aspects Pt. 1 – The Quintile and Biquintile, and Astrology Class on the Specializing Aspects Part 2 – The Decile, Tredecile, Quindecile and the Vigintile.
You can find out more about the spiritual aspects (septile, novile, and elftile series) by referencing this brief overview of the Spiritual aspects, complete with glyphs for all of them.
Element Balance
This month we move back into a very skewed element balance. Of the traditional 10 planets, in this chart there are 4 planets in Water, 4 in Earth, 1 in Fire, and 1 in Air. This is a LOT of Earth and Water, and a serious lack of Fire and Air. This indicates a very heavy emphasis on feelings and experiencing (Water), balanced by practical grounding (Earth), with not a lot of relatedness and communicating element (Air) or inspiration and warmth (Fire).
Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, things will be balanced, with a lot of Earth to keep it all grounded and a lot of Water to keep it fluid. Still, remember that with so much Earth and Water, this combo makes either mud or bricks, depending on how you work with the material. So while some will find a sensitivity as they organize things so they further an “enlightened self-interest,” others will find themselves “stuck in the mud” of defensive calculations.
Because no planet immediately leads the Lunation, we have to go back to Uranus in Taurus to find the planet before the Lunation. That implies this will be a revolutionary time, with many lives electrified by Uranus at 3 Taurus. This is a point of “natural growth” for the new individuality we’ve been experiencing May.
The current sequence at present of Deciding, Feeling, and Thinking
We’ve been through several different sequences over the past few months. There are six patterns, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. This New Moon Eclipse continues the pattern begun at the last New Moon.
As a process of moving through events, the most effective “firing sequence” for approaching life and experience at present involves leading with our decisions and actions, and then searching for new information, new understanding, or a new vision that will help us to get clear about something, followed by the need to reference our feelings and what we’re experiencing as a result of those insights, memories, understanding, or vision.
After we decide or act and then think, research, revision, rehearse, or review our understanding, we then need to go deep within to feel the implications of those ideas and visions. So get it in gear, and then go get new information or new ways of seeing things, and then feel your feelings and check in about how you’re experiencing those thoughts, or that information or vision you are sensing.
This pattern is great for getting things done, but needs to move beyond just finding the information that confirms its decisions, and learn to feel the implications of the vision or information. Once the experience of the vision or understand has occurred, then it’s safe to act in ways that further that understanding.
So for the next 4 weeks (and 2 years!), do what you have to do with focused intention, and then find a vision and/or understanding. Once you know what you need to know, then take time to go deeply into your feelings about what was done that led to that understanding or vision. This pattern reminds us that though our lives are filled with actions and ideas, from time to time we need to stop and feel what we’ve done and check in with ourselves about what we’re experiencing.
Summing Up
2017’s Fire trine between Saturn in Sagittarius and Uranus in Aries stabilized unique forms of heart expression, love, or creativity. This helped launch the final phase of our “escape from a narrow destiny” begun in the Summer of 2016. While the Fire trine is long gone, we can stabilize that inspired fiery energy via the long term Saturn in Earthy Cap trine to Uranus in Earthy Taurus.
Much has been quickened since the Spring of 2017, and we have been eliminating all that would prevent our spiritual Self from demonstrating itself with ease. This is the seventh New Moon of the Saturn in Capricorn era, showing us “promises to keep, and miles to go before (we) sleep,” to quote the legendary Frost. We trained in 2017, and each will reap a promised blessing in 2018.
This is the tenth New Moon with Jupiter in Scorpio, and you can bet that as Jupiter transits the various Scorpio eclipses, Lunations, and planetary stations over the next 4 months, many things promised by those events will become blessings, opportunities, and liberating factors in life. With Jupiter in Scorpio as our “lead-in” to our outer planet experiences, get a laser focus and be as efficient as you can as you live a grand adventure in going deeper and experiencing a greater intensity! Again, all of this is showing us our integrity under pressured conditions.
We are still in the process of a long term major transformation period, so see this time as a good exercise period, like getting ready for an adventure that's just begun and still has a long way to go. We’re learning cooperative interactive group work, understanding a new law of our Life, and are getting beyond the known and familiar.
As the planets swirl backward and forward at various speeds at various times, see what must be slowed down and redone, or re-planned, or re-configured so that it will move forward more easily in September. Take this time to concentrate, finish what you have to, be practical and fluid, and keep growing through embracing other values that may be foreign to you, but don’t contradict your own.
Jupiter continues to help us eliminate past patterns to clear the space for future patterns to emerge as Saturn continues to help us with the disciplines we need to learn to express our Spiritual Maturity. These two planets, along with Uranus and Pluto, are part of the greater “irrational times” we live in, with a lot of things making no sense at all. Just remember that often success is found by not losing our cool when everyone else is, so that when the storm is past we haven’t made things worse, and may even have made them better!
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn is now in its home sign of Capricorn for the first time since 1991, it is the final dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius from now through 2023. It was a ruler of the Aquarius eclipses, making it an important factor for the next few years, and it will continue to play a different and powerful part in world affairs between March and November because Mars is transiting those signs during that time. That makes Saturn a major force to be reckoned with in 2018!
Add the fact that it’s doing a very interesting dance with Uranus all of 2018, and now that they’re again forming a trine between May and October involving Capricorn and Taurus, it’s the next chapter in us learning how to blend past and future together and craft your future destiny. After the 2017 Fire trines between these planets stabilizing Electric Fire and distributive “Fire by Friction,” this will provide practical grounding to our efforts.
In 2017, we stabilized Electric Fire, harmonized with Distributive Fire by Friction, and learned to express it in loving, creative forms of Solar Fire between July and September during the Grand Fire trines, as well as every month when the Moon was in Leo. 2017 was the next step in understanding the movement of Fire in our lives, which will yield to Earth understanding in a few months!
This will help us organize and simplify our Saturn-Uranus “dance of individualization” in our charts. You can learn more about cooperating with Saturn and Uranus to create your future destiny by taking a look at the material in my book “Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend.” Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and in Capricorn, will help bring an “organized personal structure” to the Uranian energies infused with concentrated doses of spiritual energy that is making our spiritual life come alive.
Our inner Saturn gives us the power to take command of our lives and destiny. Saturn shows us how to become spiritual adults and fulfill our purpose for being alive on Earth. By knowing our Saturnian strengths, we can overcome fear and any sense of victimization or powerlessness.
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and gives the reader the power to understand why some things happened when they did. Throughout the book, it offers ways for us to “make friends” with this part of our existence and take command of our destiny. As you read each chapter, you’ll become more aware of all the factors assisting Soul growth through understanding how our Saturn lessons relate to Dharma (our Highest Spiritual Function) and various types of karma, both those we cause and those which are "Sacred Wounds" leading us to a greater compassion and understanding.
The second part of the book examines how Saturn cycles mark major points of choice and change throughout life, and what we can expect when Saturn makes conjunctions, squares, and oppositions to our planets and Ascendant. There are tables assisting the reader to know when Saturn was in each sign, so even those with little or no understanding of astrology can track the timing on their major life changes. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the Saturn Return, perhaps the most important times in life when our decisions profoundly shape our future.
Part two closes with a chapter on one of the most crucial factors in our personal unfoldment: how the progressed Moon and transiting Saturn cycles track each other throughout life and relate to our emotional growth, and a chapter on a global phenomenon happening since 2003 impacting everyone on Earth. The Epilogue offers a few insights about living “the spiritual life,” and opens dimensions of higher and broader possibilities of personal evolution, regardless of which path to Truth we may be on.
This is a book you will reference many times for many reasons, and each time you pick it up you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight on each page. This book can help you throw off all the attitudes and memories which have held you back from finding and living the life and purpose you’ve been searching for since you were young. Welcome to the journey of self-discovery, and finding your power to live your life on your own terms, fulfilling your reason for being alive as an Eternal having human experiences!
Please order your copy today! You can go to the Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend page and order your copy of either the paperback or the ebook. It's also available as an ebook on B&N's Nook. I’ve been told that people who live overseas can get their copy much faster by going through Amazon. And if you would, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the bigger the boost on their site.
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
Many thanks for the information regarding the Eclipse and the New Moon. Things are in motion, while some may take their time, progress is being made amidst the irrationality we may enocounter every so often.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | July 13, 2018 at 10:08 AM