by Robert Wilkinson
Solar eclipse New Moon coming soon! The next month will be a time when truth and forgiveness will be front and center, with liberation in the air! This shines a light on our ability to join with others, past and present, and will remove blockages to our healing into our Higher Self. Look at it as a past promise being redeemed in roundabout ways.
This Lunation introduces a new focus wherever we have 20 Aries, a culmination of how we focus our power in action. As all the planets are still within a 109+ degree span, that’s the focus of a lot of activity in our charts, with a lot of “cosmic recycling” to occur in the house where we have 20 Aries. The pull of the North Node will help us shed a lot of ambivalencies and superficialities in our mid-Libra sector.
This is a time when past disappointments are being left behind, leaving us stronger and more resilient. We’ve gotten a new look at expectations and assumptions and seen them from a different angle of understanding. Again, with Mercury retrograde in this eclipse, it’s a “back to the future” energy, with echoes of reconsidering what Uranus awakened in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
The heavy Pisces presence requires patience, discipline, and willingness to forgive, let go, and bless the past things which have inhibited our natural expression. The heavy Aries requires us to face the truth, tell the truth, and live our integrity. The heavy Taurus presence is showing us the path to a much higher “ecstatic” state of consciousness as we embrace the “new time, new way, and new day” Uranus is leading us into. Be joyous that you’ve made it here, that things are moving forward, and the hindrances of the past are no more.
An Overview of the 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 activating, cooperative, initiating, strengthening, future-oriented and forgiving Total eclipse New Moon at 20 Aries occurs at 11:21 am PDT, 2:21 pm EDT, 7:21 pm BST on April 8. This is the next phase of Lunations with Pluto in Aquarius, showing us the sprouting of Aquarian seeds of the future which will impact generations to come.
In Jan/Feb, Mercury, Venus, and Mars all conjuncted Pluto and set new forms of 1 Aquarius into motion. These are core Plutonic principles related to the global future oriented work in motion since 2020. Any conjunction with Pluto brings pinpoint clarity and a penetrating insight to the core of whatever is coming together.
We are now in a time of the Sun shining Light on all of us in our Aries sector, giving us strength and momentum propelling us into the future. As noted earlier, we’re just barely coming out of the last Grand Compression for 330 years, with all planets still within a fairly narrow degree span. This eclipse removes all blockages to our ability to move swiftly into the future and join with others to overcome difficulty of some sort. Much will leap forward when Mars transits Aries and Taurus between May and July.
This New Moon will jumpstart Aries energy wherever it falls in our chart. As that sign is now a focus of activity, along with a healthy dose of Pisces and Taurus, use your clear view of future patterns and the new lands you’re entering to shed your inhibitions and leap with vigor and courage into the rapidly unfolding future right in front of us. We’re still being “galvanized into action” to deal with some sort of “cosmic visitation,” even if it’s very subtle.
So What Rules the Lunation?
This New Moon in Aries has Mars in Pisces as its worldly ruler, and Pluto in Aquarius as its spiritual ruler. As Aries is in the axis of the Archetype of the Lover/Relator, it puts the focus on relationships and how to be genuinely ourselves when interacting with others. So this begins a new dance of internal and external relating these next four weeks (as well as many years into the future).
The Lunation/eclipse is ruled by Mars, which is ruled by Jupiter in Taurus, which is ruled by Venus in Aries, which is ruled by Mars in Pisces. This is a closed chain of dispositors which share the power of ruling all the other planets except Neptune, which occupies its home sign continuing as a long wave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness.
So this month all the planets are ruled by the “chain of dispositors” created by Mars, Jupiter, and Venus. These rule all the other planets except Neptune. 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 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). I term these the “Natural” pattern and the “Alternate” pattern, since the Natural pattern shows a continuity of the Light, whereas the Alternate pattern bridges the Light across two signs.
28 months ago we began the pattern which ended in April 2023 where the New Moon Sun was in the same sign as the following Full Moon Sun. Each pattern has its importance in the Soli-Lunar sequence, and at the end of the Natural pattern we shifted into a pattern which “bridges the Light” across two different Light signs in the Lunation cycle.
The New Moon Solar eclipse at 30 Aries in 2023 was the first in the new sequence, as the subsequent Full Moon Lunar eclipse was at 15 Taurus/Scorpio, indicating the Light of the seed forms of that New Moon was illuminated in the next sign energy two weeks later. This month the New Moon Sun is in Aries while the Full Moon Sun is in Taurus. This indicates that while the seed forms of the New Moon are of an Aries nature, the fulfillment in form at the Full Moon illuminates Taurus energy. This New Moon falls at 20 Aries, and the Full Moon two weeks from now falls at 5 Taurus/Scorpio.
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.
Eclipses Effects in Play
The 2023 eclipses have been removing parts of our lives where we have 30 Aries, 22 Libra, 6 Libra/Aries, and both 6 and 15 Taurus/Scorpio. We’re all learning to refocus our methods and our area of effective expression, found new things to nurture and care about, and removed many obstructions to our ability to “tear away from the known and familiar, gambling on a dream.” We now know old methods don’t work as we continue our work of bridge building. We’re now eliminating old facets of self-expression while either seeing the results of what we visualized before now, or seeing the need for a more careful visualization of what we want to see made manifest.
We are now freed of many old limitations and concerns. The Libra eclipse is showing us the value to surrender to the new ways of life we’re already living. What is the purpose to what you leave behind and what you’re moving into? And this Solar eclipse is giving us a spectacular light show and marks the beginning of another period of shutting down some things in our Aries/Libra sectors so we may grow toward the stellium conjunct the North Node in Aries.
Jupiter and Saturn
Jupiter is at 20 Taurus and headed toward its conjunction with Uranus at 22 Taurus, giving us all a 12 year adventure into new lives. That conjunction will be on a degree which liberates us into a new life wherever we have 22 Taurus.
While Jupiter remains in Taurus, it brings its energy to the sign which enjoys life to the fullest, so continue to accept the expanded capacity for a greater joy taking birth! As this month shows Venus semisquare Jupiter, keep putting your best self forward, show sticktoitiveness, and don’t settle for lesser things when greater things are at stake. Jupiter tredecile Pluto brings unexpected blessings and serendipity for those with planets in that 10th harmonic configuration field. I’ll discuss that tomorrow.
With Mars conjunct and Saturn semisquare Pluto, we begin our year-long trial of staying on track despite widespread chaos. If you’re confused, look inward rather than outward, since we’ll all being called to be our own “pathfinder” or “wayshower” this year. It is now in its shadow zone where we’re getting our first pass over the span from 13-20 Pisces which will guarantee we receive what we need for nourishment in the future.
June 2023 through February 2024 called us all to forms of life renewal, and now we’ve mastered certain Pisces energies and can flow into the next stage of our life renewal as we exchange energies with our Spiritual Sisters and Brothers within the One Life.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
This is the fourteenth New Moon of the Saturn in Pisces era. We are now in the fifth year of the cycle set into motion at Saturn’s rare and very powerful conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn in January 2020, which I discuss a few paragraphs down.
Taking a look back, 2020 brought a “cosmic visitation” which mobilized us to “escape from adverse conditions.” That year Nature challenged us to listen, look, and learn that we are not separate from Her, and evaluate what parts of our Self-discipline and limitations worked and which didn’t. Whatever happened then will erupt in new forms this year and next thanks to Pluto!
2021 involved spiritual acceleration by getting a vision and a plan, with “New mutations” arising from Cosmos in late 2021 and all of 2022. June 2022 marked a threshold in our emergent Aquarian work when we began to learn how to administer “spiritual power” effectively. We then had to "rise to some emergency" and overcome something “out of control" between October 2022 and March 2023. Since the Summer of 2023 we’ve gone through a renewal, and now are in a time of showing our skill.
One of Saturn’s divine qualities is understanding as a prelude to wisdom. With Jupiter’s transit through Aquarius leading the Saturn transit, Saturn tracked what Jupiter opened. As 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. This year and next Saturn structures what opened when Jupiter was in Pisces.
Who Leads the Light?
At this time, Venus at 5 Aries is the “gateway to the Light.” This indicates the “entry to illumination” involves an awareness of why our affections are moved spontaneously, and why we immediately like or dislike something or someone. With Venus leading the light at 5 Aries, be willing to “levitate” in your view of people, or at least transcend old ways of relating to others.
Venus will continue to lead the Sun (except when the Moon is between it and the Sun) until the coming Inferior conjunction of Mercury with the Sun on April 11. After that Mercury will continue to be the Gateway to the Light until the Sun conjuncts Uranus. The study of which planet leads the Sun is a crucial but often overlooked part of understanding how the planets work in sequence.
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn now sails the open seas of Pisces, the part of us learning how to be spiritually mature and grateful for our understanding of healthy boundaries and self-disciplines is now in a seascape of the collective feelings of all humanity over all time. This is a powerful restructuring spiritual force wherever we have early Pisces in our chart. Saturn now leads us in a Master Class in compassion and forgiveness practices, and learning a sober view of the collective human condition.
Between 2018 and early 2023, Saturn taught us to be more spiritually effective within a group work than we were before that period. It taught us skills we’ve used since then in the areas where we have Capricorn and Aquarius, and now helps us achieve closures so that we’ll be able to jump into the new era coming when Saturn enters Aries in May of 2025.
Making friends with our inner Saturn is the most important thing we can do to fulfill our spiritual destiny. If you want to know more about your power to throw off oppressive chains, limitations, and fears, 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.
The book offers ways to take command of your power to steer your life in a conscious way, using Saturn’s strengths and skills to master life on your own terms. As Saturn is such a dominant energy in life, by owning our ability to demonstrate Saturn's virtues, 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.
A Look Back - The Great Compression of 2020 in Capricorn Still Affects Us
As I mentioned earlier, we’re now beginning the fifth year of a long term focus wherever we have late Capricorn and early Aquarius in our charts. 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 then began 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 the Capricorn conjunctions set in motion in 2020, we reorganized our lives wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. These cycles will impact all of us for some time to come. Especially with three Jupiter conjunctions with Pluto that year, it’s easy to see that for better or worse things were “expansively purified.”
When Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, 2020, it set a cycle into motion which began to expand into a global system at the December 2020 Grand Mutation on the same degree. 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 less materialism than the past 200 years, with more focus on our commonality and ability to share ideas over the next 200.
That Aquarian pulse is renewed each year at this time, especially with Mars also giving another two year boost to the energies. This year we’re almost at the end of the last “Great Compression” for 330 years, so pay attention to what’s going on in your Aquarius and Pisces sectors!
Saturn in Aquarius led us to understand a more timeless role to play to help create a better world. Since then we have deepened with Saturn in Pisces. As always, Saturn in the harvest signs at the end of the zodiac challenge us to ask “What is our purpose? What structures and self-disciplines do we need to fulfill the ideal of that purpose?”
Neptune in Pisces and Chiron in Aries
In this chart, Chiron is direct at 20 Aries, giving us yet another look at how to “heal into our Higher Self” through the themes of that degree. As 20 Aries is also the degree of this eclipse, it shows a need to join with others to help all overcome a “seasonal barrenness or lack” of some sort. Or it could be that we’ve been doing that and it’s going to come to an end these next 5 years. I believe we’ll all be given opportunities to mentor or be mentored in assisting or being assisted in some way. This will help us focus our potency or move us toward our potential. Chiron will remain in its shadow zone through April 18 when it moves us into a new level of social or emotional potency, eventually going SRX at 24 Aries.
In the bigger picture, Jupiter’s conjunction with Chiron in early 2023 began a very long wave healing and mentoring cycles wherever we have mid- Aries. Because Chiron’s last direct station was at 16 Aries, it means in 2024 Chiron is mentoring us and teaching us how to heal into our Higher Self through getting a new inspiration while seeing the relationship between the conscious and unconscious sides of life.
This continues our adventure related to Chiron’s healing and mentoring energies in the second decan of Aries. We now have two major Chironic themes in play: one was set into motion when Mars conjuncted Chiron in Aries in 2022, which I explained in Mars Conjunct Chiron at 16 Aries. The other major Chironic cycle was set into motion when Chiron went stationary direct recently, which I wrote about in Astrology Healing Cycles in 2024 - Chiron Stationary Direct at 16 Aries.
So Aries continues to dominate the Mars/Chiron cycle, with a new long wave Chironic pulse added at the Jupiter/Chiron cycle which began at 15 Aries in March 2023. This began a new cycle of “the expansive healer,” “opportunities to mentor and be mentored,” and "healing and teaching through humor." The last Jupiter/Chiron conjunction happened in late Aquarius in 2009, and this one lasts through 2036 when they meet again at 17 Gemini. This is an important cycle which will help us “heal into our Higher Self” at crucial points over the next 13 years.
Neptune now approaches the end of its depth immersion in its home sign of Pisces, and now is in its long term stay in the last decan, ruled by Scorpio with an added dose of Mars. This is “the end of the end” of the 360 degree “Whole Cycle,” and so encompasses all of the ghosts and unfulfilled mysteries of this past 150 year cycle since it was last here. It also allows us to purify and forgive much of the past and move into a deeper compassion regarding suffering humanity.
This New Moon shows Neptune at 29 Pisces, a degree of the whole breaking into its parts, or the penultimate point in any whole cycle where the last of the remains of the past are set free. This Lunation eclipse clearly indicates that many larger energies are about to dissolve as a prelude to a new collective mindset coming in mid-2025. We will see an acceleration in this “disintegration” energy when Mars conjuncts Neptune on this degree in late April. The end of Pisces allows us expanded “non-local knowing.”
Summing Up - The Big Picture
The Capricorn conjunctions of early 2020 continue to condition the long wave cycles unfolding since then even as we simultaneously build a new Aquarian social-spiritual ideal. Jupiter raced through Pisces and Aries at perihelion after its time in Aquarius and opened infinite potentials to be actualized over the next 20 years. What Jupiter opened in 2021, Saturn crystallized in 2022, and the promise of fortunate endings made when Jupiter was in early Pisces May through July 2021 and again in early 2022 is now being made real by Saturn.
Recent and current Solar and Lunar eclipses continue to remove old elements of our previous “field and focus” so we may move into new ways of doing our Being. This continues the shutting down of old ways of “doing our Being” in our Aries and Libra sectors. Continue to release, “let go, let god,” and get clear about where your heart’s loyalties are.
We’re now at a stage where, having heard Saturn’s “call to self-renewal,” we can now flow forward into our mastery, our archetypal Self, and our part to play in the bigger picture of our spiritual journey. With Saturn in Pisces, while endings may feel heavy, the immediately lightness which follows will help us move easily into a new life adventure. We’re now “rehearsing before the battle.”
We are now solidly in the dawning of the emergent Pluto in Aquarius era, with new work to be done and new lands appearing. This is a turning point in our relationships, so express your heart, your play, your creativity, and see how all of these are related to relationships in the past. We are now on a new adventure, so enjoy the initiatives and the productivity of Jupiter in favorable aspect to Saturn through May 2024. This eases the pace as we anchor the dawning Plutonic seeds of the emerging Aquarian era, so things will be very “transitional” from now through 2025.
Summing Up – The Immediate Picture
Because we have all the inner planets within the outer planet span, the primary focus for the next month is in the larger span between 2 Aquarius and 22 Taurus, and more specifically in the 41+ degree span between Mars at 14 Pisces and Mercury at 25 Aries. The Lunar and Solar eclipses put a major focus on the nodes, so remember that in this North Node in Aries/South Node in Libra era, Aries wants to get it in gear and Libra wants to look good doing it! As the North Node is in Aries, be willing “to boldly go where you’ve never gone before.”
Because everything is compressed at this time it may feel like a crowded house wherever we have Pisces, Aries, and Taurus. These signs are where our transpersonal orientation by house feeds our individual self, so remember you’re learning your unique part to play in the larger future-oriented group work. Show Divine Grace and forgiveness when you can, and accept it by demonstrating gratitude and appreciation in boldly embracing your new life which has opened.
As Jupiter in Taurus is still one of the final dispositors for all the other planets except Neptune, allow your expansive imagination to fuse with your deep feelings in simple, straightforward ways shown by Jupiter in Taurus. Be open to higher “ecstatic” states of consciousness, as we’re approaching our new “home, land, and work” after a time of ordeal. The bridges we’ve built before now will lead to an “explosion of uniqueness” to come this month where we’ll use those bridges to enter into a new realm of ideas in Gemini.
Again, we’re now at the back end of the time of maximum compression as the planets will soon begin to expand beyond their current 108 degree span. We’re now in a period where all the inner planets have conjuncted or will conjunct the outer planets, ending the old transpersonal cycles and launching new ones.
Final Thoughts
In 2021-2022, we cultivated new heart strengths as a result of “spiritual linkage through emotional stress” and “the blessings which come forth after the death of useless things.” We’re now living new roles in new relationships as we play our part in the Aquarian energy field growing stronger by the month.
Capricorn helped us to find new forms of social power, while Aquarius takes it into a much vaster context of a greater good. As you journey into the unknown “new lands” promised by Mercury’s last SD point, remember enlightenment is a verb, not a noun, and our connection with the World Soul allows us to act in harmony with “All That Is.”
Because of our total immersion in Aquarian energy in 2021-2022, we’ve received innovative ideas and know who our spiritual allies are. In the past 3 years we’ve broken away, broken free, and broken through whatever used to block our flow. We approach a new cooperative era, and we’re now in a time of new initiatives!
We’re still becoming more conscious of our interrelatedness within the spiritual field and moving through an immersion in a new sensitivity to the generic human condition. The new era dawning will show us that we are in fact individual sparks of Light within an infinite ocean of Light. We are not separate from any other thing, since all things are Light and therefore we are one with All.
This is the beginning of the beginning of a new 200 year era. The powerful forces being released at times 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!
And now, a word from our sponsor!
Because Venus occupies 5 Aries, leads the Sun, and is one of the three planets in the “Chain of Dispositors” ruling all the other planets besides Neptune, She has tremendous power behind the scenes. She is highly movable in Aries, and this month shows us ways of “self-transcendence” in relationships.
She is a renewing force in this Lunation, and will help us value the newness in all things. Allow yourself to be renewed in your relationships, taking a new look or giving a new value to your friends and Spiritual Brothers and Sisters. Have faith, and if you can make a leap into a new realm, have confidence and then DO IT! Once She moves across the Lunation degree, we’ll see the value in the compassion, empathy, and sense of connectedness we’re cultivating these next few weeks. All of this will show in the house where we have 20 Aries.
If you want to know more about Venus in Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and all the other signs, as well as explore your ability to change what and who you attract to your lives, finding your heart’s desire and a lot of joyous relationships which fulfill your Soul, please consider getting your copy of my book, The Magic of Venus: Friendships, Soul Mates, and Twin Flames.
It’s the most comprehensive book on Venus ever written, and takes a deep dive into how our Venus shapes why we like or don’t like the people and things we do, and how we can change our patterns of attraction to make future relationships more fulfilling. It explains the world of relationship from the angles of psychology, astrology, spirituality, and worldly experience.
I’ve heard it helps people find strength to turn away from unhealthy relationships and understand how not to attract anything similar in the future. It examines the qualities in healthy relationships and friendships, and offers tips on how to create long lasting personal relationships and friendships, why Soul Mates come into our lives, and how to know the difference between a Soul Mate and our Twin Flame.
It has chapters on the qualities of each sign’s natural mate, the qualities of Venus in each sign, Venus retrograde, and when crucial choices and changes are made, affecting who we attract in the future. It was written for both astrologers and lay people, and as it has a thousand gems for better relationships, with self, others, and Source, please consider getting your copy by going to the link above! (And when you’re done, please leave a review on Amazon, since it helps the book and all other books on astrology as well!)
See you soon with part 3, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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