By Christine Payne-Towler
ArkLetter 36
NewMoon Chart, March 7, 2008
It has been quite a powerful period between last NewMoon
and this one, including that stunner of an eclipse at FullMoon February
20. I'm sure that most of us have been feeling that special thrill
that comes when the days grow appreciably longer, even though those new
afternoons are still filled with drizzle and grey skies. We
northern-hemisphere folks can't help but feel the steady up tick of the
temperature too, as inexorable as the returning light. The old year is
leaving us! Are we really ready to let it go?
In
this NewMoon chart we see over half a chart's worth of planets in the
winter signs. However, in just a few hours the Moon, and in a few days
the Sun, will have completed their conjunction with Uranus and broken
free from the pack mentality that has shadowed us all through winter.
Hopefully, the tide will have turned on the surging emotional chaos
that such a conjunction can easily engender. After this we will no
longer be beholden to any of the Outer Planets, which have loomed like
monoliths over the last few months. In a few weeks we'll cross the
Spring Equinox and will leave this watery, mutable, dissolving state
behind for the cardinal push and fiery excitement that Aries brings.
Gradually we will leave behind that memory of being manhandled by
forces so huge and impersonal that our unique reality seems like a mote
of dust in the wind. Once this clutch of intensities is well and truly
past, we might begin to envision brighter times coming our way after
all.
This month the winter bundle has distilled itself into two discreet clumps -- the Pisces clump, and the Aquarius clump. The Pisces clump, consisting of NewMoon and Uranus, has nothing sparking it by opposition (though the opposite point is 17+ Virgo, for those who are watching). NewMoon's conjunction with Uranus is the wake-up, shake-up aspect this month. Uranus has been giving real snap to the otherwise kinder and gentler sign of Pisces during the years of his stay here, so with the near-exact rebirth conjunction happening right in his face, he's fully enlivened and showing his stuff!
The position of Pisces in the sequence is that of "the last, who
shall be first", a phrase which has much in common with "the meek who
will inherit the Earth". Some people speak about this sign as if it was
weak and victim-prone, but that's an old stereotype that doesn't hold
up to the test of experience. Pisces holds the position that the Fool
has in the sequence of the Trumps -- the very last element that gets
welded to the first element to close the circle and make the cycle.
Since a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, it's time to admit
that Pisces' power of endurance belies its humble and low profile
demeanor. Think of all the mutable water people there are in this
world, arguably 1/12th of the population. If those who have been
directly affected by this Uranus transit have not been shocked and awed
into the idiot-savant state by now, then we have to grant that Pisces
energies possess special powers of neutralization, damping and
diffusing whatever they touch. (... Perhaps the rest of us ought to be
taking notes!)
From the point of view of the signs, the Pisces
premise is that of the World Servant and "last one standing" at the end
of the passing cycle. The Pisces thinks like this -- "if I go out in a
blaze of glory, who is going to be here to clean up the mess and turn
out the lights?" Pisces is utterly clear that there is no need for a
fight. The great gift of the Pisces energy is that of stillness,
unblinking witnessing, and compassionate acceptance in the face of
those possessed by desire, greed, and contention. Pisces presides over
the final solution, be that dissolution or a resolution. Here at the
time beyond the end and before the beginning, there is nothing to do
and nowhere to go. Consciousness alone remains after all the plots and
all the dramas have played out. Pisces knows that there is nothing but
the turning of the Wheel. Everything created is eventually devoured by
time, and Pisces provides the stage or blank slate upon which the whole
cycle is played out.
Today, from this blank-slate state of
Pisces, the NewMoon offers us rebirth in the virgin waters of
transformation. And right beside the NewMoon, a mere one-degree away,
is the outer planet Uranus, the electrical swizzler and intensifier of
the zodiac. Anything touched by Uranus goes into overdrive instantly,
which leads either to genius or chaos, depending on the constitution of
the conjuncting body. I have no fear for the integrity of the Sun or
the Moon in dealing with Uranian energies -- all the energy of the
solar system comes from the Sun in the first place. Meanwhile, the
Moon's job around the Earth is to digest and harmonize the solar system
and cosmic energies that are bombarding the planet from every
direction. In truth, it's our fragile human psyches that I am
concerned with, so recently dunked in the Neptunian ocean of dreamtime
lethargy, then zapped by the FullMoon Eclipse, all while still trying
to sort out the huge Pluto event that has been playing out on the cusp
of Capricorn the last few months. Do we really need a direct hit from
Uranus right at NewMoon?
Ah, well, I guess it's during sequences like this that we learn what is
real for us, and what powers we have to make a difference in our own
manner of living. As you look around your current reality, take note of
the truly permanent objects that remain standing after all the 'shake,
rattle and roll' of the last few months. What you are looking at are
the naked bones of the landscape of your life. Take note of what you
are working with here, because whatever else grows over the top of this
in the coming year will perforce be anchored in the scene before you
right now.
The
only other traditional aspect the NewMoon has is the sextile to Jupiter
in Capricorn, joining a triangle of sorts that's completed by Mars down
in Cancer. Ordinarily we would not bother ourselves with this
mismatched triangle, but the presence of NewMoon brings the figure
forward and challenges us to think about it. Plus, Mars is all
powered-up via his direct and very exact opposition to Pluto in
earliest Capricorn. Mars ends up with an aspect with nearly every
planet in this chart, so whenever he joins into a conversation he
swings a lot of weight. Meanwhile, Jupiter is the ruler of the
NewMoon, as it's happening in his sign of Pisces (a fact that is
strengthened for those of us living in Pacific Time, where NewMoon's in
the 12th house). It's clear that the conversation between NewMoon,
Jupiter and Mars will have an issue of some kind, even if the triangle
is oddly shaped and the third side is "just" an enabling 5/11th. Think
of this as a "sneaker wave" and watch your flanks!
The aspects we are dealing with here are a biseptile from Mars and a
sextile from Jupiter. The contribution of Mars to the NewMoon rebirth
is a lot of vitality added to the growth cycle (Cancer), from the point
of the new theme's conception to its point of independence. Mars' high
energy is moving through a septile-family aspect (AKA a 7th harmonic),
implying that there's a karmic dimension that might need to be dealt
with later if that vitality is not trained and handled properly at its
first manifestation. Meanwhile, the Jupiter sextile (a half-trine)
contributes stability, ease of flow and substantiation, something that
Pisces energies welcome happily. The septile/sextile convergence of
highly energized Mars and bountiful and abundant Jupiter, ruler of the
NewMoon, should provide a lovely boost for whatever wants to come
through, as long as we are ready for the responsibility that will come
along too.
Meanwhile,
the Aquarius clump -- consisting of first Mercury, then Neptune/Venus
in the same degree, then the North Node -- is also at the
convergence-point of a septile-family aspect and a trine, interestingly
enough. The two outlying planets triangulating with the Capricorn clump
in this case are Mars and Pluto, staring each other down across the
summer/fall solstice signs. What a roiling, boiling exchange of
energies this is! Mars pecks and pushes with all the vehemence of a
mother defending her children (Cancer), while Pluto bears down
implacably from the patriarchal throne of ownership and material
control (Capricorn). This configuration creates a chance to review the
left-hemisphere/right-hemisphere argument that goes on within each of
us about the difficulty of prioritizing "feelings" versus "things". 
This time it's Mars that throws the trine to the North Node, while
Pluto throws the septiles to Venus/Neptune and Mercury. In this
context Mars is the 'good guy', the booster of evolution and broadened
horizons, staunch supporter of the infinite potential of the future.
Pluto, however, seems to have a somewhat challenging stance towards
Mercury, Neptune and Venus, if for no other reason than he's in an
earth sign now and doesn't trust all that Aquarian visionary questing.
Pluto is of the "show me now" persuasion these days, so he's testing
the Aquarius kids to see if they are just smoke and mirrors. If the
power of the Group Mind is going to come together and get something
done, we had better use this Pluto septile to Mercury/Neptune/Venus
just the way a kid uses that little plastic lens to ignite an ant on
the sidewalk. It's time to concentrate, snap out of the herd trance
and take action on those good ideas! Pluto will prod and Mars will
pull, and maybe we'll find ourselves coming awake, collectively, to our
power as a people.
What I haven't mentioned
yet is that Saturn is placed at the handle of a bucket, the edges of
which are Pluto and Mars. He's also retrograde, which generally
means "grouchy and touchy". Simultaneously, as ruler of both Capricorn
and Aquarius, Saturn is directly affecting the five planets occupying
those two signs, even though he makes no aspects other than to Pluto.
When we strip off the house cusps and the fancy 'modern' aspects,
looking only at the overall planetary relationships and Essential
Dignities, there's no missing that Saturn is the silent master of the
chart. He's 13 degrees ahead of the opposition-point of the NewMoon,
but being the only planet in the heavens for multiple signs in either
direction, we probably ought to be viewing that entire area -- from
3 to 18 Virgo -- as an avalanche waiting to be triggered. For
anybody who is strong in the Earth signs, this could provide a
dramatic opportunity to advance oneself amidst the general shakeup.
For those who have strong holdings in the mutable signs, it might feel
more like a tough exam with an unsympathetic teacher. For the rest of
us, it's a reminder that one should never allow one's accounts to run
on too long without checking up on them.
As noted, the Aquarius clump abuts the North Node, who’s opposite part
contacts the Saturn in Virgo (weakly right now, but it'll be active for
several months). Saturn is also making a trine with Pluto that will be
getting stronger till the beginning of May. Each of these items --
Saturn, Pluto, and the Nodes -- are slow moving, and all of them are
hovering near the cusps between their respective signs for an extended
period. The oppositions between the North Node and Saturn (and by
extension, Mars and Pluto) imply a struggle for objectivity and self-determinism
while facing a headwind, challenging convention, or testing your ideas
against others with different objectives. I'm guessing that the
Pluto-Saturn trine will lobby from both earth signs to challenge any Aquarian utopianism that dares to hope for a grass roots uprising.
In a perfect world, the crossed oppositions of the Nodes and the
Mars/Pluto would produce a Mystical Rectangle: the long sides of the
rectangle comprised of the Saturn/Pluto and the Mars/North Node trines,
and the short sides comprised of sextiles between Mars/Saturn and
Pluto/Aquarian triplets. That type of figure might help us arrive at
the collective "aha" that we need so very badly right now. But, alas,
such perfection is not meant to be. We have the trines and the
oppositions, but the sextiles that would grease the wheels and make
everything seem easy are just beyond our reach. We can hold enlightened
ideals like harmony, mutual understanding and commitment to a shared
future, but those dreams and visions don't translate easily into
structures on the ground, in time and space among our millions
worldwide. This chart encourages us to become very philosophical, to
retreat down into the safety of our Pisces root-mats, and to cede our
desired outcomes to those karmic minders of natural consequences, the
septile family. 
If
there were anything I want to say to wrap this up, it would be that we
are within two weeks of being tossed up out of the Piscean dreamtime,
that oceanic and infinite matrix of possibility. This "place" holds
everything that ever happened, ever could or will happen, even things
that can't happen in the literal sense. In the Dreamtime we can
experience all the things that are too risky to envision in the
material plane. We have a few more weeks of it, so we shouldn't just
waste it. Remember, once the Wheel of the Year drops us on those fiery
Aries shores, we'll have to shed our fins, close our gills, stand up
and walk like humans again!
Now is the moment, the very last moment, to "work" untrammeled in
the Inner Planes. If there are things about your inner life that you
want to rearrange, things that need to be edited, retrained, enhanced,
or just explored, this is the time to plant your flag and set your
intention. Do something willfully different with your meditations, your
reverie, and your eyes-closed feet-up moments. Step out of your resting
body and then look back at yourself -- what does that body waste too
much time/energy doing? Spend not enough time/energy doing? Make the
necessary adjustment suggested by your deep-interior intuitions, and
you will watch the whole upcoming year unfold in a new and better way.
During the month of Pisces we have free access to the
Subconscious, the staging area wherein we deconstruct the episodes of
the past and dream up the future. Nature arranges everything so that we
will be highly motivated to take more time out when it's cold and
miserable outside, but many of us ignore that and carry on with our
electrified and over stimulated lives heedless of the signals. For the
next two weeks we will still be technically in the season of winter,
and the doors to the Dreamtime will still be wide open. Go within!
Know thyself! Whatever you find will serve you as a lodestone for the
whole next year.
_______________________________
CURRENT STAGE OF THE MOON - March 7, 2008:
NewMoon is on March 7 at 17+ Pisces on Friday March 7th, 12:15 PM (ET) - 9:15 AM
(PT) From this moment, the Moon begins to wax, or increase.
FUTURE STAGES:
1st Quarter, Waxing Half Moon at 24+ Gemini, on Friday, March 14th,
6:47 AM(ET) -- 3:47 AM(PT).
Full Moon at 1+ Libra on Friday March 21, at 2:41 PM (ET) -- 11:41 AM
(PT). At this point the Moon begins to wane, or decrease.
4th Quarter, Waning Half Moon at 9+ Capricorn on Saturday, March 29th
at 5:48 PM (ET) - 2:48 PM (PT).
Next NewMoon 16+ Aries , on Saturday April 5, 11:56 PM (ET) - 8:56
PM (PT). From this moment, the Moon begins to wax, or increase.
ArkLetter 36
March 7, 2008
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