Tarot University ArkLetters: New Moon Notes

By Christine Payne-Towler
ArkLetter 52
NewMoon Chart, June 22, 2009

Wow, conjunction city! Can anyone say 'urge to merge'? Last month we had a spate of close contacts, but this month, there are three pairs of moving bodies that are each literally sharing the same degree.

This NewMoon is the first and primal pair, since this provides the reason for constructing the chart in the first place. The companion conjunctions are occurring between Mars/Venus and Neptune/Jupiter (these two are retrograde). This makes my job easier, because mathematically, the more bodies that act together, the fewer aspects there are to talk about. But of course, the circumstance adds interpretive complication in another way, because so many aspects turn into triangulations (of a sort), having extra partners mixed up in the deal. (Sounds like a mini-lesson in relationships right there!)

But first things first -- This NewMoon happens in the first degree of Cancer, thus roughly coinciding with Summer Solstice. Ahhh, high summer! It might not be feeling exactly solstice-y this year, what with global climate change bringing unseasonable storms and all. But the governor of the seasons is the tilt of the Earth, and that has hit its southernmost point of inclination. Now that our longest day (in the Northern hemisphere) has passed, we'll spend the summer season cultivating, harvesting and preparing for the 'endarkenment' to come. The curve in time is bending us back to the future, even as we bask in the long days still left to us.

This NewMoon in Cancer puts us in mind of the Great Mother archetype. Even hard-core patriarchal societies have representations of the Divine Mother somewhere in their pantheon, because everybody in the human world comes from a mother, whether we know her or not. Optimists like to paint Her in the most tender and compassionate colors, to suit their own wishes no doubt. But notice; just as NewMoon comes to exactitude in the 36 hours after Solstice, the SoLunar pair enters opposition with Pluto, our border-guard at the edge of the Solar System, who is retrograding (appearing to move backwards) across the first degrees of Capricorn. For some, this might reactivate an internalized bitch-mother image, an implacable Medusa, the controlling hag of horror stories who cripples, castrates or devours any who approach. We all have this one in our anxiety closets too! So we would be wise not to toy with the awesome and mysterious energy that our Great Mother archetype represents. Approach Her respectfully, humbly, fully aware that She brought you into this world, and She can take you out!

As a point of emphasis, let's also remember that the Venus/Mars pair are semi square the NewMoon and sesquiquadrate Pluto. So our current partnerships, be they creative, sexual, familial, or professional will be resonating on a similar, stressed frequency, ensuring that at all three levels of the self -- inner (Sun/Moon), interpersonal (Mars/Venus) and archetypal (Pluto) are throbbing with various intensities of irritation from clashing agendas. Something is pissing off the Great Mother, and the blowback is coming at us from every direction! Therefore each one of us has to look within, look around and look up to get our instructions about how to de-stimulate the inflammation and disharmony flooding our systems.

It is also necessary to note that this NewMoon is happening so close to the beginning of Cancer (at 1+ degrees) that next month's NewMoon will end up happening in Cancer as well (at 29 + degrees). This is called a 'blue moon', and it happens because the orbit of the moon is several days shy of the average length of a calendar month. What this means for us is that this whole sign of Cancer is extra fully charged, doubly empowered, and juiced with a maximum chance at birthing something we can benefit from. Let's take this as a sign that our 'spiritual womb' (the imagination) is extra fertile this year, giving us better than average odds that this time of year can offer a creative jumping-off point.

Leaving the Bucket Behind

Since the NewMoon of November of '08, these charts have been cycling through a constantly adjusting 'bucket' formation with Saturn as the handle. This month, like the last, NewMoon is one lip of the bucket and Pluto is the other. After this month, our long-standing figure is about to break up, for better or for worse. On the plus side, Saturn has been reining us all in with an iron hand, especially during his retrograde period. It might feel like a great liberation to finally have his boot off our necks.

On the negative side, having Saturn as our governator has probably also placed some needed restraint on the forces that were threatening to tear the world economy apart during the holiday season and into the New Year. As the headlines have been saying, the global consumer has made a radical about-face in the last six months, becoming a net saver instead of spending far ahead of his means. (Nothing like a little bit of Virgo sobriety to remind us where the bottom line is!) But what will happen when the leash comes off for good and we are left to our own recognizance?

Headlines are showing pessimism amid concern that the economic fixes implemented so far might lack the power to turn the tide. I'm wondering -- have we acquired the level of focus and discipline we need to maintain our well being going forward, even if the whole world goes writhing through a restructuring? We will see what happens the rest of the summer, as Saturn recovers lost ground, completes his Virgo period and enters Libra at the end of October. But for now I will suggest that everybody should remain extremely alert and conservative. Waste not, want not says Saturn in Virgo!

Archetype Alley

Before we get down to particulars, I just want to point out the primordial relationships being highlighted by this chart:

Sun/Moon in Cancer = rebirth of the Divine Parent within
Venus/Mars in Taurus = yin/yang balance, functional androgyny in the body/mind
Jupiter/Neptune in Aquarius = individual fortune meets collective fate
Saturn/Uranus = known limits as opposed to unknown & unlimited
NewMoon/Pluto = the Lights shine a beam into the Underworld

Wow, awesome! I guess we're all put on notice, eh?

Major Figures

There is enough "personality" in this chart to keep us very busy. (The children born on this day are bound to have fascinating trajectories!) But I'm just going to discuss the issues and influences coming from these, the most focal arrangements:

    *The Nodes have a quincunx/semisextile relationship with the NewMoon's opposition to Pluto. Together they make a narrow butterfly figure of crossed oppositions (drawn in orange), closed on both sides with a quincunx, and also from South Node to NewMoon with a semisextile (all drawn in brown). My guess is that there is a greater chance of experiencing relevant intuitions, synchronicities and happy accidents under an influence like this. The 12th harmonic (quincunx and semisextile family) is very psychic, very permeable to being influenced by invisible forces, so this looks like a chance to sense more deeply into events than one is usually aware of doing.

     *Venus/Mars has a semi square with the NewMoon and a sesquiquadrate with Pluto. This kind of relationship is usually experienced as friction-y, confrontational, irritating, demonstrating a paranoid or hostile attitude. Perhaps the rebirth signified by NewMoon is challenging one's habitual Mars/Venus balance, which might stimulate some grouchy or resistant behaviors. I would advise noticing the feelings, but not acting on them. Most often the purpose for these kinds of distractions is to highlight promises we have made to ourselves in other people's names. Once we can take ownership of the misunderstanding, it will likely clear up spontaneously.

    *Saturn is sesquiquadrate North Node and semi square South Node (mirroring the figure above on the opposite side of the chart). In this case the issue of friction or discomfort could be the necessity of restraining ourselves within the footprint of past karmas. These two stress-based triangles (which cross at the bottom) extend the little 'wings' of the first butterfly into a larger, more bat-like shape.

    *The Venus/Mars unit has a lovely earth trine with Saturn, which extends like outstretched arms to the tips of each 'wing'. Now we are seeing a very sophisticated and subtle figure. The challenge is to use intuition to catch ourselves in the act of reflexively blaming outside circumstances for our discomforts. Those who have been trying, during this time of instability, to take responsibility for themselves will accept this suggestion to seek out and clean up every unconscious corner where we are leaking energy through learned helplessness. When we willingly engage both sides of our body/mind (Venus and Mars in Taurus), and start finding action steps we can take on our own steam to overcome our hurtles, then we won't be caught hanging back, waiting around for others anymore. Suddenly what has felt like a drear and plodding course can take flight and soar!

    *The trine from Mars/Venus to Saturn is mediated by novile relationships extending to both tips from Jupiter/Neptune, making it a triangle involving three planets in earth signs and two in air. I'm taking this as a special instruction to "trust in Allah..." (Jupiter/Neptune in Aquarius) "...but tie your camel" (Mars/Venus in Taurus trine Saturn in Virgo). We saw above, after all, that Jupiter has the significance of "good fortune" while Neptune has more of the feeling of a "fatal delusion". Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference up close! Luckily, the sign of Aquarius adds an element of detachment, perspective, and neutral overview, which even sometimes allows us to learn from other people's mistakes before they happen to us. Because of this, I'm going to suggest that readers should pay curious attention when people are relating their life challenges and sharing how they found their workarounds. There's a good chance that you will be receiving solid information to assist your own near-future situation whether you realize it yet or not.

    *Saturn quintile NewMoon/ tridecile Pluto. This adds creativity and Divine communion to Saturn's function as the handle of this bucket. Quintiles and deciles are divisions of the circle by 5 and 10. (These are the same angles, 72 degrees and 36 degrees, from which the amazingly intricate Islamic mosaics are constructed.) I think that Saturn is triangulating with NewMoon and Pluto in the search for the 'next divine world order'. I don't say this to mean a global industrial/military complex, but rather to mean "a new way of fairly valuing, distributing and utilizing the world's remaining resources". Don't wait for changes to be imposed on you!   No need for carrot-and-stick systems (Pluto retrograde in Capricorn) for those who embrace the greater good (Saturn in Virgo) in humble service to the Divine Mother (NewMoon in Cancer). You will naturally want to tailor your personal solutions to be as inclusive and communal as possible, so that you can be a source of help that is truly helpful.

There are a few other aspects between the planets that I haven't mentioned, but you can elaborate upon them at leisure. The main message I have felt necessary to convey here is that we have an opportunity, during this Cancer NewMoon and the next, to strengthen our internalized nurturing, care giving parent. When we sink our roots in home, family, and the simple sustaining rituals that make the difference between stress and flow, we then automatically keep our aspirations in scale with our capacities. Since the hallmark of the bubble era before the crash was irrational exuberance, the aftermath has to compensate and rebalance through voluntary simplicity. It is important to refrain from overspending energy on entertaining distractions -- not only because we should focus on creating the safety-net that will take us through the upcoming winter, but also because there's a fountain of intuition starting to bubble up and we want to be serene enough to hear it's music. Yes there is stress, and there is no way to completely insulate oneself from contact with the Plutonian forces of the underworld that are bubbling up right now. Nevertheless, if we take the posture of openness to learning a better way, we might just find ourselves on the right side of circumstances, including receiving a chance to correct our course midstream.   Stay open to communications from Great Mother, even if they come to you couched as a forceful correction. You have a lifetime of lessons observed and lived to draw from, so keep searching for those memories that can show you the way out of these complications and back to a simpler pattern. There's only a few things that matter, but those things matter very much. Keep sight of them and you'll be able to remain roughy on course through this very transformative month

CURRENT STAGE OF THE MOON - June 22, 2009:

NewMoon is at 1+ Cancer, on Monday June 22nd, at 3:36 PM (EDT) / 12:36 PM (PDT). From this moment, the Moon begins to wax, or increase.

FUTURE STAGES:

2nd Quarter, Waxing Half Moon at 7+ Libra, Monday June 29th, at 7:29 AM (EDT) / 4:29 AM (PDT).

Full Moon at 15+ Capricorn on Tuesday July 7th, at 5:22 AM (EDT) / 2:22 AM (PDT). From this moment, the Moon begins to wane, or decrease.

4th Quarter, Waning Half Moon at 23+ Aries on Wednesday July 15th at 5:54 AM (EDT) / 2:54 AM (PDT).

Next NewMoon 29+ Cancer, on Monday June 22nd, on Tuesday July 21 at 10:35 PM (EDT)/7:35 PM (PDT) From this moment, the Moon begins to wax, or increase.

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