Tarot University ArkLetters: New Moon Notes

By Christine Payne-Towler
ArkLetter 24, March, 2007

Right now the snake of the year takes its tail in its mouth and completes the circle. This is when the last becomes first, a magical tipping point after the close of the final Moon cycle of the old year but before the entry of the Sun into Aries. The old year is dead, long live the New Year!

Again this month I have put the lion's share of the energy into writing up some comments, this time on the outer planet retrogrades. Hopefully they will prove useful when forward progress seems to be derailed temporarily.

This month's NewMoon is awash in Pisces energy, flooding away the boundary-markers of the past in the process of leaving behind fresh sediments for the future. Here on the West Coast of the Americas, the bulk of the Pisces clump is in the 6th house, but wherever it shows up for the reader, it will force you to employ your filters because of all the muck it stirs up and the cloud of effluvium it releases. Put everything in your life into a blender at once, spin for a short eternity, and pour. This is the psyche at the Pisces NewMoon.

Accompanying the NewMoon at this moment are a North Node/Uranus conjunction and Mercury, who has just slid in across the cusp from Aquarius. I'm just as glad as everybody else that there's a healthy thirteen degrees between Uranus and the Lights now, as that Sun conjunct Uranus during the FullMoon two weeks ago was just about all a body should have to bear! The North Node looks like a modifying influence, inclining towards self-comprehension and enlightened calm, so perhaps the abruptness and explosiveness of Uranus can now be harnessed more reliably to our goals from this point forward.

Meanwhile having Mercury straddling the cusp like that gives a communication bridge between the mutable water of Pisces and the fixed air of Aquarius, where Mars and Neptune still reside. Some people think that Uranus rules Aquarius and Neptune rules Pisces, so there's another cross-pollination to contemplate. Mostly it looks like the seeds of far-seeing Aquarius' vision of a better future are falling into prepared ground this NewMoon, and there's nothing wrong with that. You might consider resisting the urge to start weeding right away, just in case some new and exotic growth from upstream might be trying to reveal itself to you.

Focal to this chart is the near-exact square between the NewMoon and Pluto. This aspect is so tight it squeaks, which is the kind of thing that makes an astrologer sit up and take notice. I connect Pluto with passion and power so motivating that it transforms the individual into a force of nature. Under the influence of Pluto, a random, mild-mannered member of the lumpen proletariat can become an unstoppable force. Once one is transformed by a power larger than oneself, there is suddenly courage, eloquence, sturdiness, charisma, and a host of other qualities that were not available before. If Pluto wants to give the NewMoon a hotfoot, I consider this a good thing. You late-sign Pisces people might want to fasten your seat belts, however!

Don't expect to be able to look right into yourself or your situation and see these forces revealing their fingerprints moment to moment, however. Pluto, Neptune and Uranus are invisible to the naked eye, orbiting beyond the last visible planet, Saturn. Although legitimate debate exists about the relative planet-hood of both Pluto and Neptune, these three "invisible" bodies create their effects behind the scenes, creeping around the fringes of consciousness, leaving few traces of their presence yet catalyzing vast transformations nevertheless. The way you can trace their presence in your life is by their effects:

Uranus induces shock and awe like a bolt of lightning, driving more current through our nervous systems than we ever thought we could carry. One is blindsided and sent into overdrive by the sudden eruption of the unimaginable. Acts of genius may ensue, but at least as often the result is adrenaline-rich chaos.
Neptune brings inundations of mystical emotions, involuntary trances and visionary states. Self is swept away into the vastness, to return irreparably changed. Inspiration and depression vie for one's loyalty until the message is interpreted and integrated.
Pluto turns up the heat and compression, quietly building up pressures for months or years before ripping a hole in the landscape like Mount St. Helens. One finally gets up the courage to "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" It's terrifying and exhilarating!

Let us also remember that these planets, like all the visible ones, have been orbiting this Sun for eons, long before there were sensitive, dramatic little humans running around on Earth personalizing everything that happens. How can I imagine for even a moment that these deep-space bodies give a flying fig about what happens to me down here in rural America anyway? They don't. But what they do is provide moving, ever-changing symbolism whereby we can discuss the energies and trends that come together to create our human experience. In a world that is steadily coming awake to itself, having concepts that easily cross cultural borders and still refer to the same thing is helpful. Astrology gives us an objective way to talk about our subjective reality, and the value of that transcends simplistic evaluations like literality or visible causality.

All that being said, it should probably be mentioned that all three outer planets are paired with inner planets in this chart. Uranus and NewMoon share a sign, Neptune is sharing with Mars and Pluto is sharing with Jupiter. Therefore, personal issues get swept up into collective currents that could accidentally distort our private experience if we are not careful. For example: NewMoon feelings of spiritual purity, baptism and emotional rebirth are natural and to be expected. But where they get into danger is when they become entangled with expectations of anomalies like frogs raining from the sky and having your identity replaced by a walk-in from off the planet. Do not get caught up in the belief that as of now all the usual rules of reality have been revoked! Gravity will still be binding you, your bank account is not suddenly multiplying without effort, frankly, and most of the world is going along quite a bit like normal. Let the internal sensation of newness and transformation be enough for the moment, and see what miracles you can make of that.

Martian ambitions and drives might feel blunted momentarily as the warlike one crosses the degree of Neptune, but I'd like you to imagine that he is being deepened, refined and subtleized by this contact rather than just damped and suppressed. Mars can be so imperious and arbitrary when he's not minding his manners, that sometimes it is helpful when a larger authority comes along and puts him under some discipline. In this case Neptune is constraining him from advancing his private self-interest, which is invariably too narrow to serve the collective well-being. Neptune is tutoring Mars in taking a universal view on his own impulsiveness, and not allowing himself the luxury of action until the widest possible swath of creation can benefit from the results. Neptune is challenging Mars to become as disinterestedly generous and abundant as Nature herself is.

Jupitarian impulses are being made radioactive by Pluto's presence, which suggests that we are in the position to be poisoned by our pleasures unless we willingly accept some limitations. The rule of Jupiter is that he expands and multiplies whatever he touches. In a world where obesity is becoming epidemic and everybody is addicted to multiple "enhancers", there is a risk for not being able to say no. The concept of inflation applies here, whether it's ego-inflation, monetary inflation, or some other kind. There's a danger of all proportion becoming diluted into vapor as the sense of entitlement expands to fit the space. Luckily for those who aren't rebellious, Jupiter has a trine with retrograde Saturn in Leo, so there's an influence of moderation and sobriety coming in there.

Due to the concentration of this yet-another-bucket chart, the only two planets that have not been mentioned yet are Venus and Saturn. Venus has made it back to one of her two home signs; she's just one and a half degrees into Taurus at the moment of NewMoon. Like a cow newly let out to pasture in spring, she's reveling in the new growth, the increasing light and warmth, and the first blooms of the season. All she wants is to bliss out in the field chewing her cud, listening to the frogs, the birds and the newly hatching bugs, blessing the Sun and the Earth and everything in between. Whether for good or for ill, however, she has a fairly close trine with Pluto, and it's this trine that holds eight out of nine planets in the bucket (only Jupiter is outside it, and that not by much, as he's widely conjunct with Pluto). This arc between Taurus and Sagittarius, between Real and Ideal, or between the natural and the supernatural, needs to be opened and deepened because it could help in the redemption of the world. Venus in Taurus represents all those life forces and forms that don't speak human languages, and don't have a lobbyist in Congress. Pluto in Sagittarius represents our current frenzy to manipulate matter to the nth degree. How shall we align these seeming opposites? My vote goes to natural family values, all souls equal under the Sun.

Now we are back to Saturn, our old friend and Karma buddy, applier of the brakes and collector of the bill. He will remain retrograde for another full month, to be just straightening out as the next ArkLetter is set to fly. How has it felt, my friends? Had any corrections on that stiff-necked pride lately? How about that stubborn bad habit you just can't break, the stonewalling, or the fixed conviction that your description of reality should be privileged over others' experience? Yeah, I thought so -- Saturn's work is never done! Lucky for us we have another month of retrograde action during which to humble ourselves, before Saturn recapitulates his lost ground over the summer. With all that back-and-forth repetition of these lessons, no doubt a few insights will be retained, to stand us in good stead later. Slowly but surely we can retrain our reflexes from their ancient, dysfunctional settings to new and more enlightened, more authentic responses. It's never too late to learn new dance steps!

Blessings on you, dear readers, and may the birth of Aries and spring provide a rebirth of body, heart, mind and soul.

_______________________________

CURRENT STAGE OF THE MOON

NewMoon and Solar Eclipse at 28+ Pisces, Sunday March 18, mid-evening. From this moment, the moon begins to wax, or increase.
FUTURE STAGES
2nd Quarter, Waxing Half Moon at 4+ Cancer, Sunday March 25th, high noon.
Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at 12+ Libra, Monday April 2nd, late morning to high noon. At this point the Moon begins to wane, or decrease.
4th Quarter, Waning Half Moon at 20+ Capricorn, Tuesday April 10th, late morning to high noon.
NewMoon and Solar Eclipse at 27+ Aries, Tuesday April 17, early in the morning. From this moment, the moon begins to wax, or increase.

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