by Robert Wilkinson
Add that this is the third of SIX consecutive New Moons at the 24th degree of their signs, and it seems we’re in a long run of learning techniques on the emotional-social level of half of our reality!
This New Moon Solar Eclipse is distinctively productive, specializing, and anticipatory, and restores balance to our lives through removing blocks to our happiness. “The Bluebird of Happiness” is about to land at our home! This “gathers our power,” and allows spirit to mediate in our lives, opening grace and blocking certain patterns.
Venus makes the final sextiles from Scorpio to Capricorn, finishing that phase of productivity at the end of the Capricorn lessons of the year, with a strong productive magnetic pull to the future allowing a lot to get accomplished in a short time. We’ve resolved a lot of karma these past 8 weeks, and gained new heart strengths. We now stand on the threshold of new forms of personal power.
Because Mars is now direct in motion and speeding up, things should feel like they’re moving forward. I’ve certainly gotten more done the past month than in the two months before then! Find balanced ways to show your power to get things done quickly and efficiently, as we now need “knowledge and skill to meet the demands of a stage yet to come.”
An Overview of the Total Eclipse New Moon
Today we’ll do an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In part 3 we’ll cover Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.
This liberating, balancing, joyous Total Solar Eclipse New Moon at 24 Sagittarius occurs at 8:17 am PST, 4:17 pm GMT on December 14. This is “the end of the end before the beginning,” and any friction will lead to a “polishing our vehicle for happiness” with many gifts and blessings, both partial and full, personal and interactive. As I noted earlier this is the third of six consecutive New Moons at the 24th degree of their signs. This sets an aspect pattern into play relative to the outer planets (esp. Pluto and Neptune) so take a look at the unfolding of these aspect patterns over past months to get a sense of where we’ve been and where we’re going.
You will note that the New Moons of October, November, and December have been approaching the outer planet occupied span, whereas the New Moons of January, February, and March all fall within the occupied span. So the first three of the six represent the harvest, while the 2021 New Moons represent an opening of Aquarius energies.
As Sagittarius is a Mutable sign, this Eclipse begins a month (and 5 years!) of anticipation, freedom, vision, and new possibilities. When in doubt, throw out the old rules which only create blockages, get rid of attitudes which inhibit your happiness, and allow yourself to remember just how free you are. This year we’ve built structures which will serve us next year, and had them tested by the extreme conflicts of July through October. We can now reorganize what we need to and eliminate what we no longer need as we live the deep truths we’ve been taught since 2014.
We now rapidly approach the threshold of a new Aquarian Era beginning at the Grand Mutation at 1 Aquarius in late December, with another great compression coming in January. We’ve now completed a phase of the evolutionary configuration involving Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in 7th harmonic aspects, showing recent “forks in the road of destiny” have now set the course for the future.
This New Moon Eclipse will jumpstart late Sagittarius energy wherever it falls in our chart. This Lunation builds through the favorable Scorpio to Capricorn sextiles so the productive Cap energy can fulfill that sign as both Jupiter and Saturn prepare to enter Aquarius. When in doubt, imitate a better way, or at the very least, learn how to dance with the life changes which are showing us our freedom to be happy.
In 2019 and 2020, January brought incredible concentrations of planets in a narrow span between early Capricorn and early Taurus. However, as Jupiter and Saturn move into Aquarius, that sign will be the focus of planetary compressions in 2021 and 2022. By early February 2021, we’ll have Sun, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn all in Aquarius!
The Great Compression
In the first 90 days of 2020, we had a “Great Compression” of planets involving Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all making conjunctions in the last decan of Capricorn, setting off a number of cycles, one of which will last 33 years! We have now begun an accelerated phase of our collective spiritual evolution which will take us from the threshold of the Age of Aquarius into the Age itself. You can find out more about the very powerful Sun, Mercury, and Saturn's conjunctions with Pluto by revisiting The Great Compression of January 2020 – Mercury, Sun, Saturn and Pluto all Conjunct in Capricorn. That lays out the long wave patterns set into motion then.
Because of all the Capricorn conjunctions now set in motion, we’ve been in a year of multiple reorganizations wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. The forms were set into motion in January, accelerated during Mars’ transit of Capricorn in March when it conjuncted the January points and made its own contacts with Jupiter and Pluto. When we add the fact that Jupiter danced back and forth on all those conjunction points between 21-25 Capricorn this entire year, it’s easy to see that for better or worse things have been expanding!
The last conjunction in this series was when Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, setting a cycle into motion which will expand in huge ways beginning at the Grand Mutation coming in just a few days! That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction launches both a new 20 year Aquarian cycle AND a new 200 year era of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in Air signs. That means no more of the materialism of the past 200 years, with more of a focus on our commonality and ability to share ideas over the next 200!
Saturn’s 90 day visit to Aquarius in April, May, and June began the countdown to a new 200 year era! On this “Edge of Cosmic Time” we have been offered visions of a greater good for a greater number, and as usual, because Capricorn energies are still so strong, Saturn is a major player on the main stage, helping us see a more timeless role to play to help create a better world. What is your purpose? What structures and self-disciplines do you need to fulfill the ideal of that purpose?
Occupied Signs and Oppositions
We’re now in a period where all the inner planets are approaching the outer planet occupied span between late Capricorn and early Taurus, with one half of the zodiac occupied and the other half unoccupied. We’re done with all planet to planet oppositions for the year except for those made by the Moon when it’s in Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Scorpio. In fact, we won’t have another opposition involving a planet other than the Moon until Mars opposes Pluto next June!
As I told you last month, Mars is finally done hammering and being hammered! There are no more oppositions for many months to come, and only one square from Mars to Pluto while it’s still in Aries. Mars has been greatly benefited by the Sagittarius transits this year, allowing the fiery inspiration to be released through the discipline and structures we’ve built. Alternately, the positive expression of Mars in Aries is that “the god of war” in his home sign has had the ability to put the brakes on the Capricorn stellium when the limitations became too oppressive. As Mars will occupy Aries until January 2021, we have been and will continue to “flame on” for several more weeks.
Even though our transit to transit oppositions from Virgo to Neptune, Libra to Mars, and Scorpio to Uranus are done for the year, anyone with planets in Cancer, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio have had and will have some VERY long wave outer planet oppositions in their charts, with potential for very high awareness and a realization of how to ground a new ideal, a new public function, and a new way of related to their larger spiritual group. The various types of the “Tension of Opposites” involved in those signs will come to the fore as the recent Lunar and current Solar Eclipses take away old Gemini, Cancer, Sagittarius, and Capricorn patterns, allowing newer ones to take shape.
The Sun/Moon Sequence and Its Shifts
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 are currently well into the “alternate” Sun/Moon relationships, as this New Moon Solar Eclipse is the sixth month of the New Moon Sun being in a different sign than the following Full Moon Sun. This is an important shift in the Soli-Lunar sequence, since now we have different Light signs in the Lunation cycle! While this month’s New Moon is at 24 Sagittarius, the coming Full Moon Sun is at 9 Capricorn.
In July 2017 the New Moon Sun was at 1 Leo, which was the fifteenth in that sequence. The next Full Moon had the Sun at 16 Leo, and finished the run of Full Moons with the Sun in the same sign as the preceding New Moon Sun. The following New Moon was the August 2017 Solar Eclipse at 29 Leo which portended the devastation of America, 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.
We were in this “reversed order” between August 2017 and April 2019. Between April 2019 and June 2020 we were back in “the natural order.” We have now shifted again into a pattern which will last through August 2021. I also explain more about this phenomenon and what it means in the 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.
Jupiter and Saturn
This is the last of six New Moons finishing up Saturn’s stay in Capricorn, and this year marked the beginning of many new Saturn cycles. In 2018 Saturn helped us get beyond fear; in 2019 Saturn taught us through some sort of “planned group behavior.” We are still in the first year of all which will follow its rare and very powerful conjunction with Pluto in January, and this Solar Eclipse is the closing phase of our “final exams” about “Group Performance” on an individual, mental, and spiritual level of experience.
From April on, we’ve all been through a “cosmic visitation” which has “galvanized us into action” to “escape from adverse conditions.” Nature has challenged us to listen, look, and learn that we are not separate from Her, and during these months of Saturn in Capricorn, we’ve been forced to evaluate what parts of our Self-disciplines and duties work and which ones don’t.
This is the thirteenth and final New Moon of the Jupiter in Capricorn era! We have been learning how to use “structured humor” or “disciplined adventure” or “structured abundance” to utilize what we’re building in an emotional, social, individual, and spiritual way. This one is direct on a degree of “reading the tea leaves,” showing a technique of personal power in service to some group work.
Jupiter will play a major part in the rapid expansion of the coming Aquarian energies! The initial pulse of the next 20 years was set when Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius, and you can bet that as Saturn returns to that point in late December and is immediately joined by Jupiter, we will see a great leap forward of the promise of that Aquarian vision. Expect major developments wherever you have 1 Aquarius in your chart.
Even though Jupiter’s conjunctions with Pluto are now past, remember they set long wave transformational energies into motion at 23 and 25 Capricorn which will be in play through 2033, so maintain your vigilance! We’ve been learning how to have a sense of humor despite the heaviness of the times, and have learned how to play, since taking things too seriously for too long makes life heavy. There are many ways to play, just as there are many ways to find humor. We’re solidly in a phase of group work, and the expansive view we have taken this year will yield more idealistic group work and relationships next year!
So What Rules the Lunation?
This Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius has Jupiter as its worldly ruler, and Neptune as its spiritual ruler. As Jupiter is in Capricorn, it is ruled by Saturn in its home sign of Capricorn. We continue to have Mars in Aries, Saturn in Capricorn, and Neptune in Pisces as the main players sharing power as final dispositors for all the other planetary energies.
This month we find the Lunation, Mercury, Jupiter, and Pluto ruled by Saturn; Venus and Uranus are ruled by Mars, and as usual, Neptune continues as a longwave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness. That makes Mars and Saturn the dominant backdrop to most of the planetary action, though Venus is very strong as the planet opening the Bowl Jones pattern. 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.
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn plays such a large part in ruling the stage of Life for many months and even years to come, if you haven’t gotten your copy already, please give yourself the timeless gift of my book, Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. We all need to make friends with our inner Saturn if we would claim our power to fulfill our higher purpose for being alive as Spirits in the material world.
This book shows you the way to take command of your power to steer your life in a conscious way, using Saturn’s strengths and skills to be led to mastering life on our own terms. As Saturn is such a dominant energy at this time, by owning our ability to manifest the best of Saturn's virtues in our world, we take command of our destiny and become the living purpose we were born to make manifest!
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and will assist your understanding of how your life experiences assisted your Soul growth and power to turn away from unhelpful karmic cause and effect patterns. Each time you re-read any part of it you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight helping you throw off attitudes which frustrate your ability to live your higher Purpose on your own terms.
Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this New Moon?
Because this section is so long, I decided to create an article which explains what it is, how long it’s been in effect, and which zones of the zodiac have been most impacted and when. You can find all you need to know about this configuration associated with widespread irrationality and hard-edged “forks in the road of destiny” we’ve all confronted at various times by going to The Grand Irrationality.
We continue to have the configuration activated by Uranus biseptile Pluto, putting a very hard transformational edge in our nonrational times. This Eclipse shows Venus in septile to Pluto, but in quadranovile to Uranus. So it’s the closing “fork in the road of Destiny” in many of our relationships, especially those which frustrate or help us in our search for “transcendent security.” This activates three points of this 7-pointed “Star of Destiny,” indicating we are still at a hard edge in history at this time. Because Uranus and Pluto are constant factors in the configuration, it keeps nonrational energies in play for those with a planet or point in any of the 7 affected “hot zones” near 22-26 Capricorn, 14-18 Pisces, 6-10 Taurus, 27 Gemini-1 Cancer, 19-23 Leo, 10-14 Libra, and 1-5 Sagittarius.
Of course the energies are in full force each time the Moon transits those zones, as well as when Venus transits in early Sagittarius septile the Capricorn planets, biseptile Neptune, and triseptile Uranus. So we continue to be in a season of a heightened Grand Irrationality influence!
Neptune in Pisces and Chiron in Aries
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. Because this section has gotten so large over the years, I’ve decided it deserves its own article, which I’ll link to in coming months and update as needed.
If you’re wondering about why we’re all navigating the fogs and confusions in the collective atmosphere, or why we’re healing into our Higher Self in a different way that we used to, when you’re done here please check out Neptune and Chiron in Early 2020 – Long Wave Collective Healing and Mentoring. I’ll be updating that information over the next few weeks.
In that article I go into detail about the Chiron-Neptune conjunction in late Aquarius, and how each of those planets have been manifesting in Pisces. Now that Chiron is in Aries, we truly are mentoring and being mentored in a much different way than we were when Chiron was in Pisces! Please check out the article to know more.
In this chart, Chiron is at 5 Aries, where it is about to go stationary direct. This degree is now a platform helping us heal by seeing the next phase of our “self-transcendence.” During its recent retrograde we’ve had to reconsider events and images of our past, and find a new meaning which helps us see more abstractly. You can find out more by going to the article Astrology Healing Cycles – Mars Conjunct Chiron Stationary Retrograde at 10 Aries.
Neptune is now bringing us to another vast experience of wisdom, so listen to the inner voice and maybe you will “take a walk with your Teacher,” or at least understand what you are here to perpetuate into the future. As 19 Pisces was the degree where Neptune went stationary direct later in November, it’s time to settle into the wisdom we know and the wisdom imparted to us over the past two years, knowing what we have to do to find promised nourishment “at the end of our day of labor.”
The North Node
This is the eighth Lunation with the North Node in Gemini and the South Node in Sagittarius! This is pulling us to grow through our quest for knowledge and understanding which can be demonstrated by our ethical and spiritual values. The coming 4 weeks indicate the line of greatest development is related to sending and receiving information, seeing “the prodigal distribution of life resources,” and finding ways to externalize our ideas and understanding. This relates to the theme of Venus retrograde this past May and June, which was “richness of life in associations based in natural instincts,” and “warmth of simple living.” Remember how late Spring helped you balance mind and body, self and others in natural ways. This brings a new level of development based in our retrograde experience of May and June.
Summing Up - The Big Picture
The good news is we are done with the conflicts of 2020! The bad news is we have tremendously intense and different conflicts to come in 2021 involving new signs and new areas of our charts. While the January through March 2020 conjunctions still govern the cycles set into motion then, these configure with our natal planets in countless ways, and planets in harmony with late Capricorn in our charts will find easy growth and many good things to come. Planets in disharmony with late Capricorn have either changed how they operate due to this year’s squares and oppositions, or will become mechanisms we can use to release the dynamic potential of coming years. We now are a time of using the Capricorn energies of the past to feed the Aquarian energies of the future.
We all “graduated into a new realm of Being” in May, and between then and now have all been through a metamorphosis learning to navigate in a new social or group structure. Uranus continues to revolutionize us in our Taurus sector, and is now giving us another look at “thinking in the future,” preparing for one last “return to ancient sources of being” before we blow the doors wide open in Aquarius!
This is the next phase in our quest to find “transcendent security,” with the emphasis on renewal of long term rewards. Mars’ transit of Capricorn in March set multiple cycles activating Dharma into motion, including the Superior Conjunction, Mercury and the Sun conjunctions with Saturn and Pluto, as well as Saturn’s conjunction with Pluto. Along with these, Mars also set more cycles into motion when it conjuncted Jupiter and Pluto, culminating in the conjunction with Saturn at 1 Aquarius, setting the Grand Mutation formative pulses into motion. We’ve now launched 200 years of coming changes!
Past and present Eclipses have quickened us and shown us the need to eliminate old expectancies, considerations, and excess baggage, as well as any old ghosts and elements of pride that would hinder our hearts from its authentic self-expression. We have gotten clear about our priorities and what we should and should not expect of ourselves and others.
As a result of the 2018 Eclipses, we’ve hit the end of an old quest, attained some ambition, and now are learning a new freedom and togetherness. The 2019 Eclipses in Capricorn and Cancer have continued to remove old patterns from those sectors of our charts, with this “Cosmic Recycling” energy again set into play by the December 2019 Eclipse. The Solstice 2020 Eclipse has been helping us lower one flag and raise a new one, reorienting toward a more secure, playful, and fun course, if we’ve been open to it.
Summing Up – The Immediate Picture
We are now finishing a year of intense mobilization in the part of our lives where we have Capricorn and Aquarius. We’ve been immersed in Capricorn energies while experiencing the waves of the Light of Aquarius in April, May, and June. We’ve now culminated the conflicts of July, August, September and October, and can use the Sagittarius freedom and sense of adventure to experience happiness, bringing balance to our year of conflict.
This opens the door to a greater vision of possibilities in group work, so embrace the adventure in transformation! Thanks to Mercury’s direct station, we’re been learning to use power in alternating ways. When it’s time to be forceful, be forceful, and when it’s time to be soft in your approach, decrease the flame under the pot! We’re still learning a new way to apply various forms of power, so open your heart and mind to using either or both in appropriate ways, shifting between the two when necessary.
Mars in Aries has brought an entirely new phase of life for all of us! As Aries is the lower (waxing) square to Capricorn, this year was a crucial point of emergent power. How it’s being used has been either productive or destructive, depending on how the Capricorn stellium has been structured before now. Despite the conflicts, we’ve actually been in a time of great potential inspiration and practical expression if we haven’t jumped the gun or gotten impatient with the process.
This is the fulfillment of our Capricorn experience. We’ve been through intense periods of purification and self-discipline, and Saturn’s patient, gentle, and wise understanding has given us a vision which mobilizes us and prepared us for the group work already in motion. Jupiter has expanded our humor and imagination, as well as truth and ethics, and we now move forward toward a greater ideal.
We now have trained to use power efficiently and get to demonstrate our discipline, maturity, and ability to craft our lives with an understanding of natural boundaries. All of this serves the “new quality of being rendering the old patterns obsolete” we’ve awakened to since the Summer of 2019 now in dynamic manifestation! Be efficient and visionary as you move through your “liberation from adverse conditions,” since the building Aquarian Age energies cannot be stopped nor contained.
Stay clear about your long term best interests, and allow what attracts you to transform your everyday life and relationships. Things are now favorably intense and moving in a productive way. Change your view, change your attitude, see the humor and blessings in things, and let go of baggage from the past.
Open to innovative ideas and the momentum pulling your to break away, break free, and break through whatever is blocking the flow. We approach a new cooperative era, and Mars is speeding up. This will help us see the power of our faith to overcome duality and ill will. As Sagittarius is “Fire by Friction,” we’re opening to a greater truth and vision which stimulates evolution. This is inspiration spread far and wide.
This continues our adventure in realizing consciousness is as much a verb as a noun. See the promise, see what has been slowed down and/or reworked to attain that promise off and on throughout the year, and go deeper into your compassion, allowing Divine Grace to override unhelpful karmas.
The is the end of the end and the point just before the beginning of a new 200 year era. The Fire of this Eclipse will help stabilize heart strengths and offers a wider view. Stay clear about your boundaries and duties, and turn toward the bigger picture of a much larger future on the way! Keep the course steady despite the imbalance of this time, and know you’ve almost made it through the cross currents!
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2020 Robert Wilkinson
Comments