My first thought when I was drawing up this chart was "this is going to be a disruptive one!" It wasn't just the Virgo NewMoon opposing Uranus in Pisces that made me feel this way. It was also the energies of Saturn being so prominent in Leo, while Jupiter and Venus are sequestered together in Libra, in the zone of unconsciousness behind the Ascendant.
I know this sounds like gibberish to folks who are not of the astrological persuasion, but give me a chance to unpack it, and you might get a sense of what I mean!
The NewMoon in Virgo is a presage of fall. The sign itself is the last one in summer, and as I look out over the park surrounding my home, I can see this already in the trees. Though we had a lovely season, the first wave of leaves is now drying out and falling. The neighbor's fall-blooming Japanese Anemones are in full show. This is the beginning of the end, which is the feeling of a NewMoon in Virgo always. We know the inevitable is on its way, and though we still treat every sunny afternoon and warm evening like it's Mayday, we know it's not. The evenings are noticeably shortening, which makes that intuitive voice whisper "time to conserve energy, don't waste yourself". We start adding more covers to the bed. NewMoon in Virgo sees the future coming, and that foreknowledge sends a chill down our spine.
Given that tendency, that opposition aspect thrown at the NewMoon by Uranus suggests an unwelcome agitation. Uranus is the cosmic swizzle stick, the electroshock therapy planet, and its touch is more like lightning than Virgo usually likes. Virgo prefers order and rational progress along planned lines, whereas Uranus induces shock and awe with its pyrotechnics, and is seldom subtle or predictable. The fact that it has been tenanting the sign Pisces has damped Uranus down a bit, but those people who are actually under this planet's current effects still struggle to be able to carry the voltage.
Don't get me wrong -- I don't think Uranus is a bad planet, nor do I think an opposition is a bad aspect. In fact, the upshot of combining Uranus with the NewMoon by opposition ought to have the ultimate effect of awakening, evolution and coming into consciousness. I just notice that Uranus often appears with the crack of a whip, rather than creeping in on little cat feet. Plus, both the Sun and the Moon have to cross the exact-opposition point with Uranus (who is moving very slowly retrograde at 8+ degrees) before they come into their own conjunction at 11+ degrees, so that creates two separate situations where something extraordinary can happen just before the Sun and Moon kiss and start the new cycle. I fear a bit of fireworks where the sparking of Uranus could set Virgo's tinder ablaze, giving the NewMoon a hotfoot that radically shifts the intended agenda.
In the adjoining sign of Leo, which occupies the highest heavens here in the northern half of the Pacific Time Zone, we find Saturn in the early degrees of the sign and Mercury in the later ones. Saturn does not have a lot of aspects in this chart, even by my system, but one that stands out is his sesquiquadrate to Pluto in Sagittarius.
<>Remembering that Saturn is the taskmaster, the paternal authority-figure who tests us and grades us and holds us back if we don't pass with flying colors, there can be a feeling of stern oversight present as he looks down upon the world from his temporary throne in Leo. There might be cause to fear his autocratic judgments, even as he exposes our denial in those life areas where we are failing to live up to our own "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts".
Adding Pluto to the mix from another volatile fire sign, and connecting them together with this tense, irritable, fractious sesquiquadrate aspect sounds like a recipe for friction and stress of some kind. Pluto wants to induce evolutionary mutations by whatever means, and is bidding to become the signature planet for the degradation of the ecology through the poisons of technology. Saturn scrutinizes for the chain of responsibility and metes out the appropriate punishments for heedless immaturity, while Pluto presses in from all sides saying 'grow up fast, because ignorance can be fatal'.
Another aspect that Saturn is experiencing is a Quintile with Jupiter, which is actually a good and creative indication. Saturn and Jupiter together guard the polarity of Obligation/Opportunity, so there's some hope to be had from this -- that what Saturn taxes us and takes away in Leo, Jupiter might manage to replace in Libra. Usually quintiles (being the fraction of 1/5) are optimistic, innovative, half-full types of aspects that induce the sense that something interesting may yet come out of the fertile chaos.
So let us make every effort to stay positive on this occasion, remembering that this life comes with no promises, but lots of chances to start fresh and reset our compass newly. If Jupiter wants to send positive signals to stressed Saturn over our heads at NewMoon, let each one surrender to the challenge and benefit as best we can, fully assenting to the exacting price that will be paid for the chance to focus in on our personal and relationship best interests. (More about the goings-on in Libra below.)
Meanwhile, there's this Mercury up there as well, also looking down from a high elevation and following in the trail of the NewMoon at 28+ Leo. Some astrologers might even see the Mercury and NewMoon as sharing a wide conjunction. In the Seattle chart, they all co-occupy the 10th house, with Mercury marking the Midheaven. Any way we look at it, Mercury is "together" with the NewMoon, though in the previous sign. I take this to mean that the often-fierce critique coming from the Virgo Lights (who ask -- is this efficient? is it sustainable? is it going to help us get through the winter?) is spotlighting the ego's abundant skills at "spinning the story of me", one of Mercury's dubious gifts. With Mercury on the edge of leaving Leo (sign of performance, attention-seeking and drama), and just about to step into his own natural home in Virgo, (sign of cool analytical reasoning and planning), a sharp change of approach is called for. He's getting a sense that he might have played the fool card, the romance card, the drama card a few times too many. He's noting that his previous extravagances and flights of fancy are not useful for the work now coming to hand. Time for Mercury to tighten his screws!
Mercury's strongest aspect other than his contingency with the NewMoon is a septile to the Jupiter/Venus pair in Libra, which means he's getting feedback from those relationships that have matured over time. He's just finding out how well or badly his performance coincides with his stated intentions, in the eyes of long-term companions and friends. Septiles (1/7 aspects) reflect the pressure of performance-demand, which requires that we bridle our freedom-loving self-will to the necessities of self-discipline, (as we see in the Chariot card #7 in the Tarot Trumps). Mercury expressing through Leo energy can perhaps be accused of acting out various roles rather than intelligently pondering his choices. But once he crosses over into the realm of Virgo priorities (which happens on Sept. 5th), all that noise, heat and light will be seen as distractions from the practical work of providing the tangible needs of the tribe for the coming fall and winter. From the 12th house of dreamtime and unbounded feelings, the Libra planets echo back their relationship considerations: Who will you want to spend time with when the days are short and cold? Who matters to you when the floodlights of ego have been extinguished for the duration? Who wants to be there for you when times get hard, as they always do? If Mercury's priorities during the summer have been to flatter the ego and raise its profile, there might be a letdown when challenging feedback comes back from the "good friends and family" who were pushed aside in the process.
Let me now speak about the Jupiter/Venus conjunction in Libra, as this has already been touched upon several times in a glancing way. Many people consider such a conjunction an unmitigated positive event, because Jupiter has been known for at least two thousand years as the "great benefic", while Venus has been titled the "lesser benefic" in terms of bringing good fortune and joy. By all rights, these two coming together in Venus' home sign ought to be fortunate, and certainly it is to some degree. With them tenanting the harmonious sign of Libra together like twins, making every effort to cast an accepting and generous glow around the place, the results can be wonderful for a person who is conscious of their own "blind spot". I'm speaking here of a person who has done their spiritual and psychic homework, and therefore is no longer harboring self-destructive impulses. However, the location that Jupiter and Venus are co-occupying is actually a somewhat obscure set of degrees in Libra, where the only aspects that each of them have with other planets are challenging in one way or another. Let me go through the roster and detail them out, and you might see why I say this:
The dominant figure that Jupiter makes is the classic Pythagorean 3-4-5 triangle -- an inconjunct to Mars in Taurus, combined with a trine to Neptune in Aquarius and closed by the subsequent square from Neptune to Mars. This is sometimes called a Harmonic Grand Trine, a figure that sadly, sounds more enjoyable than it is. The trine between the Jupiter and Neptune feels pretty comfortable and natural, since Jupiter and Neptune reinforce each other's mysticism and positive fantasies of collective enlightenment in the rational dialogue between Libra and Aquarius. However, the inconjunct to Mars in Taurus raises irritating issues with Mars' tendencies towards self-indulgence, as he gives himself license to take and consume whatever arouses his prodigious appetites. Remember, Venus rules both Taurus and Libra, so she might not think kindly of her opposite, Mars, getting into the Taurus cupboards and helping himself to all of her beauty, bounty and abundance with such a sense of entitlement and heedless self-gratification! Plus, Jupiter's tendency to multiply whatever he touches (his keynote is "increase, for good or for ill") can lead to the delusion of exaggerating his positives to cover up for any negatives -- something that won't wash for long in the accountability-rich communication sigh of Libra. Eventually comes that moment where the positive billing shreds to reveal the inadequate follow-through, and at that point, what will the Jupiter/Mars inconjunct answer to Venus when she asks "what in the world were you two thinking?!"
The inconjunct is an aspect that the ancients didn't use, because they considered it to be universally baleful and unhelpful -- 5/12 is a stressed and lopsided fraction by any measure. I may not agree with everything my astrological kin of yore taught, but I have noticed over thirty years of astrological practice that the inconjunct aspect is generally experienced as being stressful and even grinding in expression, even though the results often end up being helpful in the long run. One can liken this aspect to the pain of having a boil lanced or a bone set -- the result is healing, but the cause and the fix were traumatic. So this kind of aspect between Mars and Jupiter suggests that any residual self-ism that we are carrying at this time will be telegraphed directly into our long-term relationships, where it will hurt the ones we love in ways that might be hard to forgive and forget. Added to the planet Neptune's spacey, often unrealistic and impractical fantasizing, the trine to Jupiter's irrational exuberance and the square to heedless and impulsive me-first Mars gives us the potential of getting caught in the act of our right hand righteously denying what our left hand is selfishly enacting. This is never a good thing in relationship, especially if it originates from the "blind spot" of the 12th house, as it does for those of us who live on the West Coast of the USA. In this circumstance, the only viable strategy is to avoid even trying to defend, rationalize or explain our obvious lapse of judgment, surrendering instead to the truth of the matter -- which has probably been clear to those around us for a long time already, but which took a tricky aspect like this to force us to look directly at and see!
Meanwhile, the dominant figure affecting the Venus (in her home sign and cozied up to Jupiter) is a sextile to Pluto, which we already saw is also the disruptor of Saturn in Leo. Trines and sextiles enable ease of flow and quick exchanges, so now we have the image of Venus being encouraged to make "instant mutations" by Pluto, regardless of whether her companion Jupiter is able to move that fast or not (he's not, but he'll be within the orb of this sextile by the 14th of September anyway, will or nil!) In my neighborhood, there's actually a trine from Pluto to the MC, which throws another sextile back to the Venus, making a closed figure of 1/3 and 1/6 fractions. (Visualize the Star of David, and you can actually see how the trines and sextiles support each other in their perfectly symmetrical mathematics.) In most cases, this kind of figure is seen as beneficent, especially with Venus at the "point" of the resulting triangle. But, remember, Pluto is the one cementing the baseline (the trine to the Seattle MC), and Pluto is mutagenic in the extreme. Nothing "normal" can be counted on from him. Matter of fact, nothing that Pluto produces can be manipulated or controlled by human agencies at all, as Pluto is one of those far-out planets we can't see with the naked eye, but need instruments to locate and measure. With easy-access and open-flowing trines and sextiles energizing Pluto's path to Venus, there's no braking action to dull his effectiveness. Therefore he's free to irradiate the Venus (and later the Jupiter) with irresistible subconscious energies to manifest something hitherto unpredicted and unseen, whether that's really warranted in the situation or not. Yipes! Chaos can result in even the most tightly controlled situations, and the ego is helpless to resist the sneaker-wave that seems to be emerging out of nowhere.
Speaking of the outer planets, one thing I haven't mentioned yet is the three-sided septile figure that exists between Pluto, Neptune and the NewMoon at the time of this chart. (The 1/7 aspect is between Neptune and Pluto, then the 2/7 runs from Pluto to the NewMoon, and then the 3/7 shoots back from NewMoon to Neptune again.) Septiles, as I said earlier, create pressure to "put up or shut up" regarding claims made or promises unfulfilled. Pluto in Sagittarius is so fired-up about bringing on the future the he can't stop to think about the effect his unstoppable intensity will have on the present. Meanwhile Neptune retrograding in Aquarius is casting a somniferous cloud of stupefying nostrums around in lieu of actual wisdom ("the government will take care of it", "your check is in the mail", "no harm can come to you as long as you take this pill from the doctor" and etc.)
Together these two conspire to distract the conscious Self being reborn at NewMoon from its willful resolve to get organized, cut back the chaos, and simplify in the name of sustainability. Each of us has to get a grip on ourselves and shake off the hypnosis that constantly tempts us into inertia through the media, the culture, and our own lazy thinking. That Virgo NewMoon is trying to arouse us from our stupor while there is still time to get a grip on our fates and steer ourselves towards safer harbors for fall and winter. The fact that Uranus is simultaneously targeting the NewMoon by opposition ups the ante considerably. The NewMoon is receiving stimulation from all three of the invisibles at once, one dramatically and two subtly, ensuring that this rebirth moment carries a potential punch in our interior lives, whether or not we see a corresponding shift in the outer world.
So do I have any "thumbnail advice" for my readers, to carry forward with them through the subsequent month? For one thing, my suggestion would be that we give ourselves the fearless moral inventory that the 12-step programs are so famous for. This means, we must cop to ourselves, wherever in our lives we have been blowing it. Don't wait until crushing outer circumstances come and shake you from your complacent state -- just get up and confront the obvious! This may or may not involve cleaning up patterns with other people, but if that is the case, do not shy away from taking your true responsibilities on yourself before anybody has to ask you to.
You have a small window of opportunity within which you can see how the future will shape up if present trends aren't amended. So if there's any chance for a course-correction before you begin to elicit negative feedback from others, this is the moment. Be single-minded, be realistic, be self-disciplined and then take care of that list of needed changes that you have been deferring. Remember that old taylor's line, "a stitch in time saves nine", and dutifully make those nips and tucks that have been awaiting your attention. To the extent that you reduce your dependencies, tighten up your budget, plan out your future steps and lay in the needed supplies for the predictable challenges of the near future, you will be much freer to help others should a situation of need start to overtake you. Let us learn the lessons of these grievous and chastening times, and quit waiting for "somebody else" to take our lives in hand. Do it yourself, and do it now!
USE THE TAROT ARKLETTERS TO ATTUNE WITH THE NEW MOON
Our publication date and time corresponds to the New Moon each month. This month the Moon is conjunction the Sun at 2+Virgo. As an astrologer-symbolist, I habitually tie my activities to the cycle of the Moon. If you would like, you can use the Tarot ArkLetters to help you track the moon's phase:
Current Phase of Moon: New and waxing, in Virgo, Saturday, September 3rd, mid- to late morning (in the USA)
2nd Quarter, in Sagitarius, Sunday, September 11th, early morning
Full, in Pisces Saturday, September 17th, early evening. At this point the Moon begins to wane.
4th Quarter, in Cancer, Saturday, September 24th, just before midnight.
Newmoon, in Libra, Monday, October 3rd, early morning.
New Moon Notes by
Research: Esoteric Tarot, Literature and Practice;
Author: Divinatory text at Tarot.com
Author: The Underground Stream;
Bishop, Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Founder: Tarot University;
_______________________________
Subscribe to the Tarot ArkLetters VIA
http://noreah.typepad.com/tarot_arkletters/2005/04/subscribe.html
The Tarot ArkLetters are a publication of Christine Payne-Towler, founder of Tarot University Online. Christine offers classes, readings, and private sessions.
*copyright 2005 christine payne-towler all rights reserved*
Comments