Tarot University ArkLetters: New Moon Notes, Late August, 2008

By Christine Payne-Towler
ArkLetter 42
NewMoon Chart, August 30, 2008

This NewMoon tells us "hurry up and wait". It makes us hit the ground running, taking on the big issues from the first moment and pushing us through our paces in record time. After two weeks of relative intensity, however, it leaves us stalled in calm water for the second half of the month, stewing in our own juices so to speak. There is no time to waste between now and FullMoon on September 15th, but then, paradoxically, you're likely to have a blank slate for nearly two weeks after. One could take this downtime as permission to "laze in a daze", but that would be a sad waste of a potentially fertile period at the end of the month. Let's affirm the idea that once you have hit your marks in the first two weeks, you will have made some space around you to take on the 'bigger picture' work.

I describe the coming month this way because of the half-full/half-empty structure of the chart. It’s not a perfect split, but all of the moving bodies in the sky stand between Virgo and Pisces this month, which stacks up to be a classic "hemispheric" chart according to the texts. The full footprint is a touch wider than 180 degrees, but my copy of Michael Meyers' Handbook for the Humanistic Astrologer gives it the seal of approval anyway:

"This pattern is typified by a chart with all planets (parts, nodes and other abstract points are not included when considering planetary patterns) found within approximately 180 degrees, leaving half of the chart empty while the other half is full. Ideally there should be no empty houses within the occupied half (though this is unusual), and never more than two.

The hemispheric pattern is basically dualistic in principle, and in some instances it may be difficult to determine to what extent compensation is acting as a motivating force within the personality. Any situation such as this, which involves a clear-cut dualism, is almost bound to involve compensation to some degree. Initially, one may feel the individual's attention could be drawn and held almost exclusively by the activities symbolized by the full hemisphere, with the empty hemisphere's life experiences being of relative unimportance. This is not always true; the empty space may provide the person with a feeling and need to explore the unknown. Another way of viewing this situation is considering the occupied hemisphere as representative of the individual's goals and ideals, his obvious potential, with the empty hemisphere symbolic of pure potential and the life experiences that must be integrated and brought together within the individual's personality." (p. 140)

One practical way of taking guidance from this pattern would be to follow the Moon day to day through the month. By circling the zodiac from the NewMoon point, traveling at Luna's actual rate of motion in the sky, it becomes obvious that there's half a month of powerful, significant action slated, during which every moving body in the Solar System will be traversed and lit up by the Moon. This plays out between today and the FullMoon, two weeks from now. After that, the moon will glide quietly through the untenanted signs of Aries through Leo, granting half a month of quiescent digestion and meditation on the issues that were raised at the outset. Luna will continue to make aspects to the points highlighted in this chart by opposition, trine, square and etc., but nothing is as persuasive as a conjunction to activate new developments and set off new chains of consequences. Even if it's not normally our style, this month we are likely to feel pressured to "shoot first, ask questions later".

Let's break it down to particular calendar days: Today through Monday will be full of busy-ness and "issues". (Moon transiting Saturn, Venus, Mercury and Mars after NewMoon, between Virgo and Libra). Following the crazy Labor Day weekend, those considerations will take a break during Moon's transit through the end of Libra, all of Scorpio, and most of Sagittarius (Tuesday the 2nd through the following Monday the 7th). Then, between September 8th and 12th, just as Jupiter leaves his retrograde, the Moon will cross the Pluto/Jupiter area, implying liberating confrontations and tests of courage. Within another few days, Moon will cross Neptune (12th-13th), at which point we might have to watch some of our cherished illusions be crushed and dissolved. Finally, on the 15th the FullMoon will transit Uranus, giving us what could prove to be the final kick-in-the-pants towards letting go of the past and moving on to higher ground. That's it! After that, we are set loose, on our own recognizance.

As you can see from Meyers' notes above, we are not to imagine that nothing's going on during the empty half of this month. This is more a case of needing to take care of foreground issues right away, in a timely fashion. We want our attention to be free to expand during the second half of the month, away from the "knowns" and towards the "only-suspecteds". After all, on September 23rd the summer will be officially over and fall will be upon us in no uncertain terms. Fortuitously, due to Jupiter coming out of retrograde in a timely fashion, we are heading into a few months wherein Saturn and Jupiter are trine to each other in Earth signs. Even with Jupiter feeling debilitated by his placement in Capricorn, we want to be in the very best position to take advantage of that trine! Therefore, I think this "calm space" that's trying to settle in at the end of September and the turn of the season needs to be spent on planning, organizing, and rechecking one's safety net.

NewMoon/Saturn Conjunction in Virgo

My loyal readers have been hearing me harp on this message for a year already, and I'm not going to spare you this month either. Get your house in order! I don't mean just your physical house, though there's probably a project or two you could get done while you are at it. It is time to get your financial house in order as well. I know that Saturn will remain in Virgo till July of 2010, so some people might be tempted to think they have time to "work it out". But fortunate Jupiter, our Great Benefic and overall good-times man, only stays till January 2009 in Capricorn, and then he's moving on and won't be back again for a dozen years. Even if Jupiter doesn't particularly like his time in Capricorn, it's the only sign in which he can get this level of deep structural work done. Therefore, we are on notice to strike while the iron is hot.

Also let me remind you, we won't have another NewMoon in Virgo for a year, and this one is very powerful because of the conjunction with Saturn. On all those accounts, this month is declaring itself to be "ground zero" for makeovers, reframes, and course corrections. If you have lifestyle changes to make, get 'er done. Want to make a difference in your long-term health? There could not be a better time! Virgo is the harvest season, so there's lots of opportunity to get closure on your efforts of the past. Fruits are ripening and herbs are setting seed -- no harm in taking the cue.

This is also an extraordinary period in our culture, which is likely to bring us experiences and challenges that many of us have never seen in our lifetimes. So I say to those who are worried about where the global economy is going to take us in the coming year (who isn't?) -- Be smart! Cut your expenses firmly, my friends, and beef up both your savings and your food stores. We are entering a period that is potentially very difficult, and there's not much any of us are going to be able to do to fend it off, other than let go of our frivolities of old. No more fiddling while Rome burns! Every person within reach of this message needs to wake up and realize that this is not a rehearsal! We must all start thinking hard along lines of need/don't need, and apply this strict measure to everything that you have previously taken for granted. If there was ever a thought that crossed your mind about how "someday I need to clean up my act...” then NOW IS THE TIME.

Figures Containing The NewMoon

There are only two three-sided figures that contain the NewMoon, and both of them exist due to the flexibility of the elf (1/11) aspect. I tend to think the eleventh harmonic works something like tofu does when added to old favorite recipes -- providing a significant increase in food value while soaking up the flavors of everything around it. Let's see what my readers think...

The most focal of the NewMoon figures brings together NewMoon/Saturn with Neptune/North Node and Jupiter, weaving them together in trines, noviles and elfs. Because of the 3/6/9 harmonics, this figure has the potential to add quite a bit of higher-mind thinking to the Earth trine that Jupiter applies to the NewMoon bundle. It is Jupiter's retrograde motion that is pressing the trine to the NewMoon and Saturn, so this is one of those cases where we have to somehow understand retrogradation as a good thing. Idealistic Jupiter is trying to nail down some of the long-term benefit that comes from thinking in strongly earthy terms. The practicality that both the sign of Capricorn and the planet Saturn demand keeps both sides of this trine grounded in real-time and fully aware of the bottom line. Plus, with the sign of Virgo being so focal and emphasized, those who can marshal patience and attentiveness can squeeze blessings out of the fine print, from between the lines.

The contribution of Neptune and the N. Node to this figure imply an intuitive awareness of future trends and incoming developments. As the special sensitivities sharpen and the 'handwriting on the wall' gets more distinct, we get the opportunity to trust our core knowing and steer our ship of state in the directions that will work best for us. Only a high-degree of self-knowledge will allow one to make these fateful choices on the fly, at the actual rate they emerge in real life. That is why I suggest you keep your lifestyle and economy lean and mean in these changeable times. The person who succeeds is often the person who keeps enough flexibility around them to move in whatever direction presents the greatest advantage. You don't want to be beholden to myriad whims of the empty-headed past right when the future is crashing in like a big wave!

Because it is influenced by the stressful eighth harmonic (division of the circle by 4 and 8) rather than the more serene and easygoing divisions by 3, 6 and 9, the second NewMoon aspect figure has an entirely different feeling about it than the first. In this case, NewMoon has a semisextile (1/12) to Mars, which is sesquiquadrate (3/8) to Neptune. The third side of this triangle is the 5/11 between NewMoon and Neptune. This elf-family aspect can't help but take on the stressful flavor of the sesquiquadrate and the dubiosity of the semisextile, leading to an overall sensation of self-protective cynicism and resistance to hope. The Mars/Neptune sesquiquadrate is also echoed in a Mercury/N.Node sesquiquadrate as well, putting a crimp in the imagination and throwing a pall of pessimism into the mix in a way that could prove unfortunate. But don't let me put you off paying attention to the people and situations that make you feel these friction-y, push-pull feelings! We stand to learn a lot from examining the unspoken assumptions that our frustrations lay bare. Note the way this figure is nested in with the 3/6/9 figure above -- the one and the other are intimately intertwined at their NewMoon/Neptune/Nodes backbone. One could even say the these two triangles are the left and right hand of a four-sided figure, although the two "hands", Mars and Jupiter, don't have a direct aspect between them personally. In this case especially, we see how flexible the elf aspect is, to complete two such different-feeling figures so transparently, without adding or subtracting anything. (Hmmmm... maybe another good analogue for the elf aspect is "catalyst".)

Enigmatic Mercury and the Libra Triumvirate

Luckily Mercury is close with Venus, who has a very optimistic biquintile with Neptune. Together they offer another bit of counterpoint to the above remarks about the stressful stuff. Mercury is otherwise not a very active figure in this chart, preferring to stand behind either Venus or Mars and merge with their aspects, rather than depart from their protective camouflage and take actions in his own light. He seems to be holding tightly onto the right to remain undecided and keep his options wide open to the very last minute. Since Mercury is not committing to any particular style or form, we are each on our own as to the best way to use him. Let me suggest that he can be employed to reflect the part of ourselves that is sympathetic with whatever we are looking at in the world. In other words, he can be employed for his translator function, to help us decode the symbolism of our outer lives and match it up with the symbolism of our inner lives, thus vastly increasing our existential coherence. (He can probably also be helpful in translating Venus to Mars and vice versa!)

This little trinity of Venus, Mercury and Mars seems to be emphasizing the need for each of us to cultivate ourselves as if we were complete-within-ourselves, not really even gendered at all. I know this is a difficult thing to envision in a culture that is so addicted to sex, appearances, and ranking based on perceived sexual attractiveness. But any time you see Mars and Venus together, one has to try on the consciousness of a self-sufficient androgyny, not pulled into either/or by the presence of the opposites, but instead made more whole and complete by adoption of an 'and/and' operative style. Try this on for size: but for a single chromosome, you would be the opposite sex. The very same body you live in is equally capable of manifesting as either male or female, and only this one detail made the difference. Within each of us, and not very far from the surface either, lives the "the opposite-sex person that I also am". Once we get in touch with this part of ourselves, our sense of self begins to take on true substantiality and we stop looking around for people to project our "other half" onto. Gradually, that which is visible (the explicit gender) reveals the invisible, and that which is invisible (the implicit gender) informs the visible. Eventually, we are One within ourselves, and no amount of outer chaos will be able to split us in two and make the two fight against each other, ever again. What a relief!

That being said, every Mars/Venus conjunction signifies a moment of self-inseminating consciousness, self-fertile and infinitely recombinant. This is another meditation on the theme of equals-and-opposites, like the full and empty halves of the chart, or the circulating opposites of the yin/yang symbol. During such moments, our two sides can experience their mutual admiration and attraction, recognizing themselves in each other and embracing across the great divide. In this chart, we get the added assistance of Mercury the Caduceus and Shape-shifter standing between and increasing their interpenetration, fusing them together at the center like the corpus collosum does for the brain. We might say that the primary sensation of Mercury in this chart is the feeling of being aware of one's multidimensionality. One begins to notice that, even as you are riding around in your own consciousness embedded in your own 'story', you can still extend empathy outside yourself and experience things (especially yourself) from the point of view of others with whom you might share the moment. During these episodes, the claustrophobically dominant sense of self is relieved, and we get to dilute ourselves in the collective flux. This is also a welcome development, for those who will allow it.

The shape of the Mercury glyph echoes the double helix of our DNA. Did you hear that scientists have recently declared that human DNA expression is controlled by the workings of one's mind and emotional life? There's a key to grab hold of and run with! I apply this reality directly to the Venus/Mercury/Mars conjunction we see in this chart. Inside of every cell of our body is a weaving of our maternal and paternal inheritance. With our own use of consciousness we both bind and liberate our inherent potentials, hour-to-hour, year-to-year. This tripartite conjunction with hermaphroditic overtones is a great opportunity for us to rise above polarization in duality and complete our interior Mother/Father/Self trinity. The goal is to become conscious of the conversation going on in the triangulation, inside the "I". The benefits of getting to this place are legion. After all, we cannot have objectivity about what is coming at us from the outside world unless we are already clear about what our interior cast of characters is already creating!

Some Words on Essential Dignities

When we look at a chart for the ancient alignments, we are putting ourselves back in time to a period where there was no divergence between the constellations of the sky, the houses of the chart and the seasons of the year. From this archetypal vantage point, we look at how the planets are responding to their placements and the degree to which they can support themselves in a positive expression. One could think of these influences as pertaining to the subconscious or reptile-brain level, because these methods are founded upon our oldest understanding of how the planets' relations affect us. In the life of an individual, perhaps they are only background noise. But on the mass level, Essential Dignities encapsulate the group mood, the collective trends and inclinations built into us as a species. They will indicate the instinctive and natural direction for energies to flow, as well as the directions that are inherently likely to cause the most trouble. (For those who would like to investigate a helpful and straightforward page about Essential Dignities, see: http://www.skyscript.co.uk/dig2.html).

This NewMoon, Venus is in her own sign and decan, which is a lovely, comfortable, gracious and abundant place for her to sit. She is preceding the Sun into her own sign, and the situation makes her glow with happiness. No matter what her house placement or aspects are, Venus has made it to home ground, and she's pleased about that for as long as she can stay (till September 23rd, to be exact). This kind of energy is wonderful for entertaining and creating situations where you can enjoy your friends and loved ones as a group. The Libra modality is to invite your favorite people over to the house and have a free-for-all day of it, encouraging everybody to hang out, commingle and discover their commonalities. Nothing would bring Venus greater joy than to see her friends and co-conspirators clustered around the BBQ, paying Frisbee and croquet, listening to music and talking about the things that matter. That bundle of Virgo nerves, implying an exacting critique, might seem daunting (I'll never get this house clean enough for Mom!) but if you just do the best you can, the resulting event will be worth the energy spent to get ready.

And speaking of the Virgo bundle, Saturn is not only enjoying his placement in the Earth sign Virgo, but he's in his own decan within the sign, which some say is nearly as good as being in his own domicile. It's as if Saturn is visiting a favorite vacation spot, enjoying the scenery at the home of a close relative (Mercury) who respects and admires him. Saturn feels relaxed here, understood, and welcomed, so he is more inclined to administer his Virgoian harvest tasks with a charitable demeanor and beneficent tone. This is an extremely good placement for Saturn, conjunct NewMoon as it is, because that trine from fallen and retrograde Jupiter could otherwise be the sign of a tippy situation going down a slippery slope.

In truth, any risk attributable to Jupiter seems to have to do with imagination and morale rather than the actual situation in its facts and data. By this I mean Jupiter's fallen and retrograde condition leaves him vulnerable to losing altitude despite his natural action as the Great Benefic. He is depressed at the moment, doing things he doesn't like doing in a territory where he feels like an alien. Hence, he's not much help with the business of soldiering on, as Saturn is requiring that we do. Luckily, in his retrogradation, Jupiter is pointing his face back to the NewMoon and Saturn, who are encouraging Jupiter (via their trine) to keep his nose to the grindstone and get the job done by the New Year. Saturn can help NewMoon hold strong against Jupiter's foregone conclusion that he's "heavied out" and overwhelmed, that everything is going to hell in a hand basket. In point of fact, as discussed above, if one can submit one's rebellious will to scrutinizing all the fine-tuned details of the present situation, one is likely to find the 'fix' right close at hand, ready to be activated to save the bacon. Believe it and focus! This is the moment to recalibrate your course and reset your expectations.

Having already mentioned Jupiter that leaves Mars in his detriment to account for. We know that Mars is uncomfortable in Libra because he has no patience for the sappy, romantic, lugubrious sentimentality that Venus goes in for. It's not that he doesn't like it in its place, but he'd rather be an occasional spectator than a participant. Libra is what's known as Mars' 12th house sign, meaning that if you constructed a chart with Mars-ruled Scorpio on the Ascendant, the sign of Libra would fall into the 12th house. (And if you did the same with Mars-ruled Aries on the ascendant, like the chart of the natural year, then you see that Pisces also stands in the same relationship.) A planet going through it's 12th house sign 'feels its mortality' so to speak. The limiting conditions of the 12th house sign cast a shadow over the house in question and put the transiting planet in touch with it's fears and concerns.

Therefore, I expect Mars to be trying to play the 'good guest' while secretly scanning the scene for the exits. His actual departure from Libra will happen on the 4th of October, and at that time he will become as happy as Venus is now, and Venus will be as debilitated as Mars is now. This is yet another reason why we should take advantage of Venus' comfort in her domicile while we can. Create some happy memories this month, and make sure the bonds you have with friends and family are strong and up to date. Then when it's Mars' turn to flourish in Scorpio, you can press the hard questions that might be necessary while the warmth of recent appreciation and understanding is still close in memory.

For those who are interested in learning more about the ancient paradigm that brings us the Essential dignities mode, the page http://www.skyscript.co.uk/triplicities.html, features the Triplicity method of analysis, which has its own deep logic regarding staging and timing when interpreting a chart. The explanation itself makes short shrift of a process of development that probably took a long time to smooth out and synthesize into a body of rules; no doubt one would have to read more broadly to fully understand this nuance of ancient chart reading. The thing that becomes obvious from first glance, however, is the value and importance of decanates in ancient astrology. This model of Triplicity rulers is the third different technique we have seen coming down to us from history, governing the Zodiacal signs through their 10-degree segments. All three models divide up the 7 visible planets around the decans in such a way that each sign gets three "rulers", which flavor the decans uniquely and link the action of that sign with other signs and planets around the Wheel.

A person learning astrology during a time previous to the Renaissance would likely be exposed to only one, or possibly two of these systems, but I have never seen all three compared and contrasted in the same source. What I would suggest to the serious student of astrology would be to take the time to analyze several well-known birth charts by all three methods (one's own, close friends or relatives, even a famous person or two), and see which system makes the most sense to you in application. Since astrologers have made good use and gotten some level of results from each method through the centuries, we don't have to judge them on a "pass/fail" system. Instead we can investigate the merits of each method and find the one(s) that are the most compatible with the way our own minds assemble meaning. Similar to the various systems of correspondences that inhabit the Tarot decks, a serious practitioner needs to drill down into their art and think their way through these nuances, in order to understand why they are using the approach that they ultimately select.

There are a few other three-sided figures to be investigated in this chart, which I will leave up to the reader to study. These include:

Mars/Uranus/N.Node, all in elfs!
Venus/Neptune/Pluto
Mars/Neptune/Jupiter
Mars/Pluto/Neptune

A Final Word

If there is one overarching message that emanates from this chart, it is this: Hoe your row, my friend, and don't spend time daydreaming, watching the clouds or looking over the fence at the neighbor's crop. There is work to do, it's laid out all around you, so put your glasses on and get down to business. Basically, the only way out of the current situation is "through", in the sense that you can't fly or dig or swim yourself to a different spot from here -- you will have to work your way out of the place you find yourself today. This is not bad work or nasty work or evil work, despite what your preferences and big opinions are at the moment. It's simply harvest season! The consequences of the last 9 month's action are heaped up around you, and you don't get to rest till you have it all cleaned up, organized, and put away.

http://germantowncommunityfarm.blogspot.com/

This is no big deal really, we learned the basics in grade school, but over time we have allowed ourselves to develop a case of "attitude" about having to face down our self-created messes. All that is required is the realiz ation that nobody else will be able to take care of these details as well as you, because nobody else cares as much as you do about these things. Anything you ignore at this point is likely to be broken apart and dissipated by the incoming blasts of winter -- whether we are talking about a crop in the garden, teeth in the mouth, or money stashed under the mattress. You don't have to threaten yourself with wholesale disaster to realize that this is the month to start preparing for the cold, dark days ahead. Invest your time, energy, and extra money into making sure that your bases are covered, that you aren't putting off today what might be too late tomorrow. This doesn't mean turn your back on the world, only that you can't be there for others when your own situation is half-assed and hanging undone. So, to increase our own peace of mind as well as make us more useful for any upcoming contingencies, take this time to bring your personal reality into order.

And then, when you get things all cleaned up and ship-shape, don't forget to have a party! Everybody deserves to celebrate a job well done.

_______________________________

CURRENT STAGE OF THE MOON - August 30, 2008:

NewMoon is at 7+ Virgo on Saturday, August 30th, at 3:59 PM (EDT) -- 12:59 PM (PDT). From this moment, the Moon begins to wax, or increase.

FUTURE STAGES:

1st Quarter, Waxing Half Moon at 15+ Sagittarius, on Sunday, September 7th, at 10:05 AM (EDT) -- 7:05 AM (PDT).
Full Moon at 22+ Pisces on STuesday September 15th, at 6:14 AM (EDT) -- 2:14 AM (PDT). From this moment, the Moon begins to wane, or decrease.
4th Quarter, Waning Half Moon at 29+ Gemini on overnight of Sunday, September 21 and Monday September 22, at 1:05 AM (EDT) -- 10:05 PM (PDT).
Next NewMoon 6+ Libra on Monday September 29th at 4:12 AM (EDT)-- 1:12 AM (PDT) From this moment, the Moon begins to wax, or increase.

Subscribe to the TAROT ARKLETTERS

Classes, Readings, and Private Sessions on personal and business matters

1-800-981-3582

TAROT ARKLETTERS are published by:
Christine Payne-Towler and Noreah Press

Tarot Interpretation & Charts
Tarot Reading text creation at Tarot.com
Bishop, Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Founder: Tarot University Online
Author: The Underground Stream

Since the copyright information for images is radically inconsistent across the web (and even this site), we attempt (!) to attribute images where appropriate by placing a relevant link connecting the originating site when possible. Anyone objecting to the use of their image in this free publication can have it removed immediately - Ed.