by Robert Wilkinson
This is the fifth of SIX consecutive New Moons at the 24th degree of their signs! We’re in a long run of learning techniques on the emotional-social level of half of our reality!
This New Moon will continue to power up our “graduation into a new realm of Being” in play since this time last year. This will be a phase of productivity related to the December 2020 Total Solar Eclipse at 24 Sagittarius which has been restoring balance to our lives through removing blocks to our happiness. We now move into a greater transformation based in seeing the light of prior difficult experiences, with a focus on finding truth through education leading to a birth of new or broader understanding.
Because Mars is now direct in motion and speeding up, things should feel like they’re moving forward a bit quicker than they did the last half of 2020. This New Moon brings forth “the Child born from the Cosmic Egg,” indicating limitless potential is ours once we allow ourselves to trust our “inner barometer” and embrace the future rather than cling to any part of the past! We’ve just finished hitting maximum compression for this year, as the entire span of planets continues to occupy only 1/3 of the entire zodiac.
An Overview of the New Moon
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 social-emotional communicative and managing New Moon at 24 Aquarius occurs at 11:06 am PST, 7:06 pm GMT on February 11. This one allows “the future to stand revealed,” with a focus on broad fellowship and our ability to educate and be educated so that the birth of a new understanding may take place. While the intensity of Saturn square Uranus continues, we also have the very fortunate and specializing quintile made by the Lunation to Uranus and the fateful biseptile from Mars to Saturn, showing a turning point in our destiny wherever it falls in our chart. Because of the stellium in Aquarius, understanding the bigger picture will be an asset for all who want to leap into their greater role to play.
This friction of Saturn square Uranus is helping us to understand subconscious factors and become more receptive to higher subtler realizations, as well as see the permanent patterns behind all things even as there is tremendous catabolic activity breaking down old structures, rules, and limitations. As I noted earlier this is the fifth 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.
As I offered last month, note that the New Moons of October, November, and December were all outside the outer planet occupied span, whereas the New Moons of January, February, and March all fall within the occupied span. So the initial three of the six represent the harvest of the old, while the 2021 New Moons represent an opening of the new Aquarius energies which will dominate the next 20 years, as well as the next two millennia after the mid-point of this century.
As Aquarius is a Fixed sign, this Lunation begins a month of lighting up and vitalizing all the Aquarian cycles set into motion March and December 2021, as well as more recent ones vitalized in January and February as the inner planets transited 1 Aquarius and went on to conjunct Saturn and Jupiter and each other. This continues the expansion of vision confirming the worth of Capricorn structures built in 2020, and prepares us to expand into a new life based in our “graduation into a new realm of Being” set into motion in May 2020!
We now rapidly advance into the new Aquarian Era which began at the Grand Mutation at 1 Aquarius in late December, with Mercury bringing us a review of the many signs and signals of the new energy currently flooding the atmosphere. As noted, we’re currently in another great compression, and this New Moon sets future patterns into motion which will be expanded by Jupiter throughout this year and crystallized into structures by Saturn in 2022.
This New Moon will jumpstart Aquarius energy wherever it falls in our chart. Wherever we have Aquarius will be a focus of a widespread and varied activity in our lives, and brings together the rulers of all the signs except Aries and Scorpio, so 10 different areas of life are now subject to the modifications of the light of techniques of emotional and social energy management.
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 Saturn 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 set in motion then, 2020 was 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! Last month’s New Moon activated those conjunctions in new ways.
The last conjunction in the 2020 series was when Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, setting a cycle into motion which began to expand into a global system at the Grand Mutation. That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction launched 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 2020 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 because Aquarius energies have replaced the Capricorn energies which dominated the past 2 years, Saturn remains 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 except Mars are within the outer planet occupied span between late Capricorn and early Taurus, with one third of the zodiac occupied and the other 2/3 unoccupied. Because everything is compressed in a narrow span, we won’t have any planet to planet oppositions for a while 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 this June!
Just keep in mind that anyone with planets in Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Scorpio 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 is the eighth month of the New Moon Sun being in a different sign than the following Full Moon Sun. This is an important phase in the Soli-Lunar sequence, since we have different Light signs in the Lunation cycle! While this month’s New Moon is at 24 Aquarius, the coming Full Moon Sun is at 9 Pisces.
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 are now back in the reversed order 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
We had four New Moons with Saturn in early Aquarius between March and June 2020 before it went back into Capricorn. This is the second New Moon of the new Saturn in Aquarius era which will last until the New Moon of February 2023. We now begin the second year of the cycle set into motion at its rare and very powerful conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn last January, but with an Aquarian energy present.
Taking a look back, in 2018 Saturn helped us get beyond fear; in 2019 Saturn taught us through some sort of “planned group behavior.” 2020 taught us to deal with a “cosmic visitation” which has “galvanized us into action” to “escape from adverse conditions.” In 2020 Nature challenged us to listen, look, and learn that we are not separate from Her, and evaluate what parts of our Self-disciplines and duties work and which ones don’t.
One of Saturn’s divine qualities is understanding as a prelude to wisdom. With Jupiter leading the way into Aquarius where Saturn will follow, when Saturn traverses the span where Jupiter has danced it will crystallize its understanding of what that span of experience is about, and how we can use it wisely if we find the right structure and discipline. At the present time, this understanding is to be found in being educated to see a broader truth and vision, as well as ways of anticipating the future.
This is the second New Moon of the Jupiter in Aquarius 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. Now that Jupiter is no longer in the sign of its “fall,” it is liberated to be lighter and freer in the friendly Air of Aquarius.
Jupiter is now helping the rapid expansion of the emergent Aquarian energies set into motion for the next 20 years when Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius jumpstarted into long wave forms at the Grand Mutation. Expect major developments to continue to come forth wherever you have 1 Aquarius in your chart. The expansive view we took in the Spring of 2020 is going to yield more idealistic group work and relationships this year, and show us our “indestructability” in some interesting ways
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 learning 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.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Aquarius has Saturn as its worldly ruler, and Uranus as its spiritual ruler. As Saturn is in its home sign of Aquarius, it rules itself and maintains preeminence as the backdrop to everything happening. Saturn in Aquarius and Neptune in Pisces are the main players sharing power as final dispositors for all the other planetary energies.
This month we find the Lunation, Mercury, Venus Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto ruled by Saturn; as usual, Neptune continues as a longwave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness. That makes Saturn the dominant backdrop to most of the planetary action, though Pluto is very strong as the planet opening the Bundle 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 New Moon shows no 7th harmonic aspects to Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto, even though it will be activated as the Moon transits any of the 7 “hot zones,” as well as when planets move through mid-Pisces and septile both Uranus and Pluto when conjuncting Neptune.
So this month we get a little break from the larger “forks in the road of Destiny” where late Capricorn and early Taurus fall in our charts. This configuration is associated with the 7-pointed “Star of Destiny” active at this hard edge in history. 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 23-27 Capricorn, 14-18 Pisces, 6-10 Taurus, 27 Gemini-1 Cancer, 19-23 Leo, 10-14 Libra, and 1-5 Sagittarius.
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 2021 – Long Wave Collective Healing and Mentoring.
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 direct at 7 Aries, a degree it initially occupied in April and when retrograde in October 2020. This is the last pass over that degree, giving us healing and mentoring by allowing us to operate on multiple levels of life and “finding fulfillment and happiness” in all. This marks the final pass of Chiron through the 7th and 8th degrees of Aries, since it will move forward into the second decan before retrograding back to 8 Aries early next year. You can get a better sense of how Chiron has mentored us since last Summer by going to the article Astrology Healing Cycles – Mars Conjunct Chiron Stationary Retrograde at 10 Aries.
Having heard our inner voice and “taken a walk with our wisdom,” Neptune is now bringing us to a promised nourishment “at the end of our day of labor” we first experienced March-April 2020 and again September-October 2020. This is our last experience of this phase, since Neptune will only retrograde back to 21 Pisces at the end of this year.
The North Node
This is the tenth 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 ways to integrate our understanding through our sense of “alienness, but also independence from our environment.” We are learning “conscious self-sustainment in spite of outer conditions” as we join with others who “speak our language.”
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 happening 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 have found and will continue to find easy growth and many good things to come. Planets in disharmony with late Capricorn have either changed how they operate due to last year’s squares and oppositions, or have become mechanisms we can use to release the dynamic potential of coming years. We now are in 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. Our metamorphosis will be seen in a new light and we’ll find new adventures this month and March, launching into a new world of experience beginning May.
Uranus continues to revolutionize us in our Taurus sector, and having given us ways to “think in the future” while “returning to ancient sources of being,” we now can move forward into a revolutionary new condition of life! This is the next phase in our quest to find “transcendent security,” with the emphasis on renewal of long term rewards. As a result of the Summer Solstice 2020 Eclipse, we’ve been “lowering one flag and raising a new one,” reorienting toward a more secure, playful, and fun course, if we’ve been open to it, and the recent one in Sagittarius is removing all which could block our happiness.
Summing Up – The Immediate Picture
We are now in a year of heavy squares between Aquarius and Taurus! In this New Moon, Saturn square Uranus is exact, but because of other aspects it should lead us to turn corners related to our individual genius so the emergent “mutations born from Cosmos” can begin to take shape. Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter are all bringing forth new Aquarian manifestations, helping us use the emergent Aquarius focus to release the Uranian potential, bringing positive Leo and Scorpio energies into circumstances to balance the power of the squares. Because the void created by a square is both the problem and the solution, show heart, strength, nobility, courage, concentration, and the willingness to release to attract. Understanding which Leo and/or Scorpio qualities are needed in conflicts or resistant circumstances will yield good results.
Continue to manage the cooperative building energies bringing forth new structures with your friends, see the power of symbols, take the long view, and be still as you hear the inner voice birthing a new understanding of where you fit into the larger whole. Go deep, and understand the power of the subconscious mind as it responds productively or destructively to transformational experiences.
Mercury retrograde continues to bring us signs, signals, and opportunities to fulfill a greater vision of possibilities in group work, so embrace the adventure in transformation! We are seeing what we want to commit to, or add to, in the way of our spiritual interactions and the values we share with others who also seek higher awareness.
If 2020 was a crucial point of emergent power, this year is one of persisting in a great vision despite the friction from forces which don’t want to budge. People with planets in the first 10 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius are the most affected, with Aquarians having a real opportunity to break into a new adventure if they accepted the right discipline in 2019 and 2020.
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! As 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. The pressure’s up, so see the humor in things as you tune into your inner “barometer” allowing you to know today what the “atmosphere” will be tomorrow. Even though the conflict between the old and the new continues, take heart, get focused, and eliminate all you no longer need or which would block your happiness.
Because of the intense shift to Aquarian energy, 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, helping us to “cut to the chase,” see the most efficient means to attain our ends, and allow new inspiration and energy to come up into manifestation, remembering this is a time when the old is resisting the new.
We now expand our understanding of our experience in ways which can be communicated to others. This continues our adventure in realizing consciousness is as much a verb as a noun. Healing and integrative disciplines are favored, as are any memories of the past which show us how we needed “protective mechanisms” to guard us as we rested after “finding gold.” There is great understanding to be found and/or demonstrated through pleasing forms which anticipate the future. Embrace the great unifying vision and techniques to manage your social and emotional life.
This is the beginning of the beginning of a new 200 year era. The powerful forces being released at this time may be chaotic, violent, intractable, and irrational, but there is power in our unified vision of a better future. Stay clear about what your vision is, and let go of all which prevents you from flying free with your Spiritual Brothers and Sisters into a better future. Keep the course steady despite the compressed tensions of this time, and know we’re on our way into the future together!
See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2021 Robert Wilkinson
Fascinating article, Robert. As usual! I've been looking at this whole Taurus-Aquarius square from the angle of "Whole" or "Full-bodied" individuals (Taurus) coming into, as you say, "Collaborative Group Work" (Aquarius). It's very clear to me that this square is ultimately productive and is helping us develop the "fullness" of who we are so that we can come into these new "Tribal" circles with the greatness that allows us to embody the beauty of the collaborative meeting.
"If 2020 was a crucial point of emergent power, this year is one of persisting in a great vision despite the friction from forces which don’t want to budge."
Yes, I think this is a by-product of the growth and expansion Jupiter has been expressing and manifesting through Aquarius. I think the "old programming", as it were, from both the Piscean Age and the dregs of the Capricornian transits which brought up "worn and torn Earth archetypes", is being de-conditioned in favor of the new Aquarian archetypes which are helping, through the aforementioned expansion of Jupiter and the crystallization and pruning of Saturn, to really form that vision but that also physical manifestation of the Consensus Circle of the Sea of Humanity. Uranus in Taurus is helping us receive the inspiration and insight from Higher Mind that brings us into a greater connection to and realization of the Body, the Manifest World, our Senses, our Assets, and our Values.
I also do resonate with the point you have been making for awhile that these New Moons (and I think Full Moons?) are indeed serving the purpose of removing blocks or blindspots which prevent happiness and joy from entering our lives. I've been noticing this detox within happening for the past couple of weeks.
I have Mercury at 3 degrees Aquarius and Venus at 7 degrees Aquarius so the movement and passage of Jupiter and Saturn to and past these natal positions has left a profound affect on me and a profound amount of development and evolution. I feel I am now able to help meet people in that Circle and help DO that collaborative "group work" when the time comes for it.
I think mentally and emotionally there has been some re-patterning going on as well as i've had to discard old thought forms and emotional forms in favor of new awareness and new realization of the importance of my Community (Aquarius) and my Physicality/Physical presence in this world (Taurus). What a journey since the Grand Conjunction on Dec. 21st!
I look forward to part 2 of this article. :)
Posted by: Damien Ruud | February 09, 2021 at 02:04 PM
Excellent as always Robert. Will copy and post in Esoteric Astrology. Thank you.
Posted by: Bonnie Orgren | February 11, 2021 at 10:56 AM