Tarot University ArkLetters: New Moon Notes; December 1, 2005

December's NewMoon sends us on an exploration of oddball aspects and aspect patterns. Although studded with plenty of the usual trines, squares, oppositions and conjunctions, the real drama and intrigue of this chart comes from the higher harmonics such as the septile (1/7), decile (1/10), semisextile (1/12) and the very subtle 1/11th aspect. [Its official name is an "undecile" but I call it the "elf" aspect because elf is German for eleven, and also suits the unexpected qualities of the aspect....]

A Classic Grand Trine
First things first: The pattern that provides the backbone for this chart is a Harmonic Grand Trine (a classic Pythagorean 3-4-5 triangle) between the Sagittarius NewMoon, Mars in Taurus (retrograde) and Saturn in Leo (retrograde). The square (Mars/Saturn), trine (Saturn/NewMoon), and inconjunct (Mars/NewMoon) that make the three sides of this triangle are essentially multiples of the 30-degree aspect, the semisextile.

Astrologers have learned to interpret an angle the length of three semisextiles as stressful, four semisextiles as harmonious, and five semisextiles as mysterious and destabilizing. Since all these aspects are made up of the same 30-degree building block, I think of the whole family as the "coming to consciousness" aspects, ranging from the conjunction, through the semisextile, the sextile, the square, the trine, the inconjunct and finally the opposition. Each variant represents another stage of awareness, from nascent through fulsome.

Unlike the classic Grand Trine, which typically has all three points in signs of the same element, the Harmonic Grand Trine (3-4-5) is not symmetrical and therefore mixes modes and elements in a disconcerting way. Let's take it apart aspect by aspect:

The most harmonious side of this figure is the trine between the NewMoon and Saturn. This aspect harnesses the fixed fire of Leo to the mutable fire of Sagittarius, giving stodgy, sober Saturn a magnificent outlet for whatever compression or frustration might be accumulating due to his retrograde. In the Pacific Time zone, this trine arcs between the 8th house and the first, where the NewMoon self-immolates and takes rebirth in the 10th degree of Sagittarius.

Whatever dreams were planted during that last FullMoon would now be sprouted in the warmth of this fire trine. Those seeds of the soul hardy enough to open, like those of some trees, in this heat will be kindled and sprout forth. Therefore we don't need to take Saturn's reversal amiss, but understand that he is scouring the roots of motivation, remembering and reawakening those core energetic drives which fuel one's passion for experience and growth. Saturn is saying to the NewMoon, "All Clear; I've secured the backstops; now we won't lose progress when you kick out the jams". Hence the tremendous power of this mutable NewMoon -- it has been stabilized by Saturn in fixed Leo, holding tough.

Next we have to look at the fixed square between Saturn and Mars. This one is a stubborn irritant, playing out not only in fixed signs, but fixed houses as well (at least on the West Coast). Mars does not enjoy plowing around in the mud of Taurus, especially going retrograde, which implies backtracking and repeating past problems.

Given all the aspects that Mars collects in this chart, I would say he is grouchy at best, and potentially damaging if stressed. He's showing something like the feeling of a hormonal teenager taking his frustrations out on a steadfast and harassed parent (Saturn). Also, Mars' opposition with Jupiter in Scorpio is making him exaggerate his sense of victimization, while his sesququadrate with Pluto makes him rumble, belch smoke, and threaten to explode. Mars just feels bad and he doesn't care who knows it! (If you resemble this as you read along, do everything you can to depersonalize the feelings. Realize that the entire Earth is feeling the same way you are, and it's no one person's fault. Remember, moves made in haste are later regretted at leisure!)

The final side of the Harmonic Grand Trine is the inconjunct between Mars and the NewMoon. Certainly, this is another source of Mars' overall irritation. An inconjunct is unsettling and vaguely menacing, because it always comes into consciousness by way of the blind spot. Ancient astrologers did not use this aspect because by the doctrine of essential dignities, a planet sits in a kind of dead zone if it takes a station roughly 30 degrees ahead or behind the opposition aspect. Modern astrologers have placed the inconjunct aspect (also known as a quincunx) back into the aspect pantheon, but often as not still don't know exactly what to do with it. My solution is to view it as the struggle to open to something "other" in a situation where the two forces being connected are failing to find an automatic harmony (as they might with a trine).

In this case, the NewMoon is blazing with the mutable fire of Sagittarius, which Mars is usually sympathetic to. However, with his feet pointing backwards in Taurus' thick sludge, Mars seems to fear that the NewMoon's heat would harden the mess all around him into concrete, fixing him forever in his least-favorite environment. (We all have had times when we feared to admit to a problem, because of the dread of becoming its owner -- as if we weren't already hip-deep in it!)

The self-assertive Mars longs for his native fire, but it is dangerous to him right now, a paradox that rubs his normally impulsive will the wrong way. By becoming almost obsessed with the awareness of what he cannot have, he is nearly ill with "come here/go away" energies clashing within and around him. We all have to hope that our Taurean automated habits will prove to be of the sturdiness to support sanity and reason at times like this! Anything that Taurus can delegate to the autopilot functions will happen correctly. However, one should expect the Mars to be hissing and spitting with backed-up energies that he is not at liberty to release directly right now. He is forced to chew it all over slow and steady, like a proper bull in the field, and not look for short cuts to relieve himself of his paradoxes.

But what else is present along with this Harmonic Grand Trine? For one, there's a mirroring 2-3-5 triangle sent by Uranus in Pisces, squaring the NewMoon and sextiling the Mars. In a perfect world, this smaller harmonic trine would have perfect symmetry with the larger one, including a second inconjunct running from Uranus to Saturn. (The full figure would be made of NewMoon, Uranus, Mars and Saturn, in a pattern with crossed inconjuncts bridged at the sides by squares, closed across the top by a trine, and finalized at the bottom by a sextile.) Unaccountably, however, the Uranus has just the perfect amount of inexactitude to be connecting with Saturn through a triseptile (3/7, 154 degrees), rather than an inconjunct (5/12, 150 degrees). How creative, how irregular, how Uranian!

Septiles are a reflection of the odd, prime, pivotal number seven, therefore we can attribute fateful, karmic, or destiny-duty implications to this conversation between Saturn and Uranus. Additionally, Saturn is, in myth, the one who put a limit on (or castrated) infinity (Uranos) to create time and space (Chronos). Therefore one might notice the turbulence of a titanic struggle going on between one's sense of duty and responsibility to this world (Saturn) versus one's unbounded and unscripted narcissistic genius/chaos complex (Uranus). In this struggle, there is no outer bad guy, only interior forces that have to be balanced through an act of self-definition. Nobody else can do this work for us; we each have to make these choices ourselves.

Ultimately, the full aspect pattern reveals itself to be a complex five-point geometric figure that draws in the Jupiter in Scorpio as well, not only by opposition to Mars, but by trine to Uranus, and even (to some astrologers) through a *wide* square to Saturn (making a T-square with the Jupiter/ Mars opposition). Again the position is slightly askew with the Jupiter, so the figure closes with a 1/11th between Jupiter and the NewMoon, adding a timeless, parallel-reality "deja vu" feeling to the entire arrangement. There's an aura of the unknown to that Uranus/Saturn triseptile and the elf between the Jupiter and the NewMoon, which keeps this from being a totally regular figure of all 30-degree-family aspects. It seems that both of these aspects open the figure to influences from outside the known and visible world of time and space.

This eleventh harmonic creates a very slippery sensation. It's as if time was for a minute folded, and a portion of the past or future superimposes itself upon the present and gives a dimensionality that isn't usually present. For a moment, your Inner Child looks out into your current life. Alternately, your own future self drops a bit of wisdom on the path for you to find. It's as if you are hearing an echo, but from another time rather than another place. The sense of contacting parallel versions of yourself is very strong, and can be quite enlightening. So where else do we see the eleventh harmonic at work?

Within the sophisticated mathematical figure already described, the elf between Jupiter and the NewMoon can be credited with bringing the contents of the Scorpio "deeps" to the Sagittarius bonfire to be transformed. Meanwhile, the planet Uranus sends a square to the NewMoon and a trine to Jupiter, hence completing another (irregular) Harmonic Trine. That same Jupiter/NewMoon elf extends itself into a full elf triangle by linking up with Neptune in Aquarius, throwing a 2/elfs and 3/elfs back to the baseline. Interestingly enough, Saturn has an aspect with all three points on this elf triangle, extending an opposition to Neptune, a trine to the NewMoon and a (wide) square to Jupiter. What do you suppose all that feedback from past and future selves will telegraph back to the Saturn, who as we mentioned before, is "scouring the roots of motivation"? How can we bring the moral force and soul-based wisdom of our past and future selves to bear on our immediate lives and circumstances? The triseptile between Uranus and Saturn reminds us that whatever decision we make in this area will be enshrined in our karma for future unwinding, so our choices have to be foresighted and sustainable "unto the seventh generation."

There's actually a full septile-family triangle between Saturn, Uranus and Mercury, taking in two fixed signs and one mutable, two water signs and one fire. The fact that two of the planets involved here represent the collective life of humanity (because they are slow-moving, therefore impacting huge masses of people through the tides of the collective unconscious) also suggests that the consequences of this figure might sneak in on little cat feet, only slowly dawning to consciousness at the tipping point, when the effect is irreversible. The third very personal point in the septile trine is Mercury. He shows up in the 12th house (in PST), insisting that we who care about tracking these subtle background forces will need to "turn around in our own aura" to catch ourselves in the act of knowing what we ordinarily don't let ourselves know. It's an unmistakable shamanic challenge, but one that all of us with an interest in human potential need to try and take up.

Scrutinizing a bit further, we can see that elf aspects create several other figures in this chart as well. Note the triangle formed by Mars squaring Saturn, who septiles Mercury, who throws a 5/elf back to Mars. This looks like a moment in which one can become conscious of how far one has come towards maturity, self-control, and foresight. (Do not be surprised if that moment also includes self-mortification, cringing remorse, and deep soul vows to do better next time!)

For those on the West Coast, there's also a 5/elf, biseptile, sextile figure between the local Virgo Midheaven, the Mercury in Scorpio (just behind the local Ascendant), and Uranus in Pisces. (Mars is happy to make a foursome out of it, since he aspects all three corners.) This Mercury has put himself in the most "occult" place in the chart, in Scorpio and at the end of the 4th quadrant, so we have to think of him as being a mystery, waiting to be discovered and unpacked. Let's assume that his septile triangle with Saturn and Uranus, his elf-aspect with Mars, and the novile that ties Mercury into the Neptune//Saturn opposition are all efforts for this hidden treasure to find his voice and speak from the Mystery. Deep contemplation and careful listening appear to be the best methods of access to his hidden realm at this time.

Finally, there's another Bow Tie present in this chart, this time described by the oppositions of Jupiter/Mars and Neptune/Saturn. This figure is closed on the Saturn/Mars side with a square, but on the Jupiter/Neptune side with a 3/elf. Make note that this figure takes in all the planetary oppositions in the chart. Also the scope of that 3/elf aspect itself covers seven of the ten planets in the chart. Only Uranus is left out of inclusion in the impacted degrees (Scorpio to Aquarius, Taurus to Leo). This figure might represent a kind of "bull's eye" that allows the conscious participant to put the whole chart in context.

Across most of the U.S., this chart balances a crowded ascendant side with a sparse but mathematically potent descendant side. Between the two of them, Saturn and Mars affect everything else in this chart. With so much invested in the introspective, interiorized rising side of the chart, we all get an excuse to witness our private process and think ourselves through more completely. There is no excuse for remaining in the self-imposed dark of unconsciousness with this NewMoon in Sagittarius! The main question is, are we willing to put our cherished illusions into the NewMoon bonfire and allow them to come back to us smelted down and refined, rewarding with fresh insight? If so, this is a great chance for a new lease on life!

blessings,

Christine

Current Phase of Moon: New and waxing, Thursday, December 1st, in Sagittarius 10 degrees, mid-morning (in the USA)
2nd Quarter, Moon in Pisces; Thursday, December 8, in the wee hours after midnight.
Full, Moon in Gemini; Thursday, December 15, mid to late morning At this point the Moon begins to wane, or decrease.
4th Quarter, Moon in Libra Friday, December 23, nearly noon to early afternoon.
Last NewMoon of the Year, in Capricorn, Friday, December 30, mid-morning.

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE and EASE OF REFERENCE, HERE ARE THE LINKS IN THIS POST:

OFF-PAGE LINKS:
http://www.adze.com/astro/aspects.html#12
http://www.newage-directory.com/harmonic.htm
http://www.rcmp-learning.org/docs/ecdd1222.htm#A%20Perceived%20Sense%20of%20Victimization
http://www.pathfinder-one.com/Pages/articles/mikeL.htm
http://www.emofree.com/newcomer.htm
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/blindspot1.html
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=60598&threshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=134&tid=160&mode=thread&cid=5718511
http://www.futureme.org/
http://www.jrmooneyham.com/dest.html
http://www.nexial.org/bmi/autevol/ghw_conc.htm
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_newactivism.html
http://www.diamondway.org/bt/bt6ole.htm

LINKS THROUGH IMAGES:
http://noreah.typepad.com/image_library/images/dec1newmoonchart.jpg
http://cura.free.fr/xxv/21sepp2.html
http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/fireuse/rxfire/born/
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/volcano.html
http://thinkingaboutart.blogs.com/art/2004/11/gregg_chadwick_.html
http://graphics.ucsd.edu/courses/rendering/2005/jkelly/index.html
http://www.karmapa.org/gallery/lifestory/karmapa_2004/slides/Karma%20Guen%2004.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050926.html
http://www.artworksmontana.com/pages/Sara-Tabbert-Web/pages/Time-Rising.htm

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*Christine Payne-Towler*
Research: Esoteric Tarot, Literature and Practice;
Publisher, The Tarot Arkletters
Bishop, Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Founder: Tarot University;
Author: The Underground Stream;

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The Tarot ArkLetters are a publication of Christine Payne-Towler, founder of Tarot University Online. Christine offers classes, readings, and private sessions.