New Moon in Capricorn / Cardinal Grand Cross



by Tom Thomson

 
This one happens at around 11:15 am GMT on New Year's Day.

And holy crap, what is there to write about this kind of intensity? It's so stark.

Here is a Pavement tune for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9FYkXEFlE8

& another, while we're listening to Pavement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NPeykShUVA

New moon in Capricorn conjunct Mercury and Pluto (deep, austere thought and communication). Opposite Jupiter in Cancer (big emotion), squaring Mars in Libra (social aggression, or a drive for relationship) and Uranus in Aries (individual revolt). It's a cardinal grand cross again, jagged and tense, demanding change.

What austere, difficult story is being initiated here? Is it about the beginning of an ending? Or the beginning of something absolutely true - all dross stripped away? All illusions burnt away.

A dream flayed alive, all stripped down like a winter tree... But surviving.

& this was on the other side of the Simple Machines 7" with that Scrawl song, so I'll include it. Holiday joy. Haven't heard these in a long time.

Yeah, it's Capricorn time again. Dark of the year, but with the promise of new light. The landscape in hibernation: stark and quiet, no frippery. The trees hoarding their light deep underground; enduring.

Earthly incarnation is hard going. That's the message of Capricorn...it's hard going and you will have to work for your security. And there will be times where you're stripped of everything but essentials, standing out in the cold wind and just holding on.

Capricorn is also about building something solid and reliable. Committement. What have you achieved this year...what can you build on? What are you committed to?

If you have committed to something unreliable, you'll know. With this cardinal grand cross in effect...you'll know because it will be battered to bits.

--Where I live, the winds were so high last night I thought the roof was going to fly off. It held.

But the same sort of testing is in effect with regard to relationships and investments of all kinds. Venus - ruler of love and money issues - is in Capricorn, demanding solidity.

And this lunation is disposited by Saturn, ruler of Capricorn. Saturn is about limitation. Duty, rules, karma...also fear, constriction, loss.

Saturn is in Scorpio now, so the karmic load is pretty damn heavy and dark. Not a lot of leeway here. We are facing into the consequences of collective patterns, not just our individual ones...and the changes required of us, especially in relationships, are profound.

Failing deep commitement and the will to relate profoundly, we are likely to see some shocking nastiness under these skies. People either get it or they don't. Either they're doing the work, striving for integrity and decency...or they aren't. It's that stark.

And the ones who aren't, you'll want to stay away from these days...they'll be loose cannons. If a person hasn't established some sort of bedrock ground to stand on via their words and actions...avoid them if you can, for your own safety.

People will be stressed and tense, overburdened and easily pissed off. And sudden violence is quite possible, given the Uranus-Mars opposition.

Sudden accidents are also likely, so drive carefully please!

Yeah...stark is the word for this new moon allright. But Jupiter in Cancer is also about faith and hope and emotional buoyancy. And Capricorn is about faith too. However dead and stripped-down the landscape looks...we are past the solstice, the days are getting longer. Grim endurance is not a permanent condition - soon enough it'll be spring again.

Happy New Year!

And no, it will not be an easy one. But we are getting used to this state of affairs by now, right? If we've come this far we can go the distance.

Here is a link to hexagram 32 from the I Ching. It's about enduring, persevering. Staying balanced amid the changes. It's a good hexagram for the skies at the minute.

http://deoxy.org/iching/32

by Toshi Yoshida



Full Moon in Gemini / Uranus Direct



by Ivan Bilibin

Ok, this Gemini full moon hits exactitude at 26 degrees Gemini on the 17th Dec, around 9:30 am GMT. And then at around midnight on the 18th, Uranus goes direct at 8 degrees Aries after a four-month retrograde period (since July 17). And all this ushers in a very fraught and edgy holiday season.

Let's look at the full moon first. This one appears to be about communication, big-style. The sun will be conjunct Mercury in truth-seeking (but sometimes bombastic and verbose) Sagittarius, opposing the moon in restless, chatty Gemini.

A Gemini moon is not very emotional: it needs mental and verbal stimulation first and foremost. Witty banter, wordplay, amusement, gossip, news headlines, reality tv: it's pretty value-free. It just needs to keep jittering around from one thing to the next - to avoid boredom and stagnation.

Gemini is like the Internet: a network of loosely associated content. You can surf from one link to the next forever but you never exactly get anywhere--and that's the whole point. It's not about getting from here to there or finding meaning or seeking out capital-T Truth - that's what Sagittarius is for. Gemini is more about knitting something together: networking. And shallow as it may seem, nothing really exists outside of this networking. Our minds and lives and communities are emergent properties of the network.

So for example we have a lot of individual trades creating a marketplace, or a community's life emerging from the back-and-forth of individual conversations among people. Or the communication of neurons in the brain collectively creating a mind.

Gemini is about information, communication, commerce. Thought - but the actual physical process of thought, not the products. The leap of a signal across the neural synapse: the intangible, lightning fast transmission. With Gemini, it's not the actual message that matters but the act of messaging. The messenger isn't supposed to read the message or interpret it or act upon it, only convey it.

And this relates to the association of Gemini with twins: in order for there to be a message, there has to be a gap to be bridged: a separation. A duality or polarity, as between two neurons in the synapse. Or the cathode and anode in a battery... Duality is what calls the intermediating spark into being.

(JEDWARD BREAK!!! I'M SORRY.)

Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, is represented as a winged messenger in the mythology, with a cloak of invisibility. A merchant, a trickster and a thief; volatile ('mercurial') and hard to pin down. A real jumpy, nervous, shiny chicken of a god, always rushing around on some errand or another, stopping along the way to perform random little acts of mischief.

Anyway, back to the full moon. This Gemini moon is disposited by (and in opposition to) Mercury in Sagittarius, and this is problematic for our shiny chicken messenger. This is a face-off between the need for distraction, stimulation and networking, vs. a drive for meaning and truth. And Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, is in Cancer and trining Saturn in Scorpio--so this is about a sustained, steady drive for emotional truth, deep soul engagement and opening up old emotional wounds so they can heal.

How do you jitter around at paties, relaying gossip and talking about the Kardashians or whatever...and be profound and true at the same time? It's pretty damn hard. It could wind up looking like the Jedward video above. Gemini backed up by Jupiter in Cancer: big spurts of female water & a pair of manic teenagers jumping around singing about true love.

(Ok YES I KNOW, that Jedward thing is deeply disturbing.)

Anyway it's likely people will be playing out the two polarities of this dichotomy in their interactions:

some will be jiggling from foot to foot nervously while others try to engage them in long-winded philosophical dissertations.
Some will be replying to deep and heartfelt revelations with ridiculous and inappropriate jokes.
Some will be going on internet dates and spilling their guts to uncomfortable strangers.
Some will be blurting dark family secrets at lighthearted social gatherings.
Some will be blogging about the esoteric meaning of Gemini in windy Sagittarian style, then inserting Jedward videos to illustrate.
Some will be taking absurd selfies at Mandela's funeral and they are the president of the goddamn United States, show some dignitas already please.

Etc etc.

So awkward! --And hey, what about that guy who was supposed to be doing the sign language at Mandela's funeral and it turned out he was only flapping his arms around? Amazing! That is a Gemini-Sagittarius conflict story if ever there was one. "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"...except of course it didn't involve sound or fury; it was just dumb.

Anyway, the above examples are pretty harmless and amusing...I'm trying to keep things light, Gemini-style. But Gemini is known for twisting the truth, and the truth is, this stuff isn't really light. For one thing, Mars is in Libra now - the signifier of war in the sign of social harmony - and social faux pas are a big deal. A very very big deal, as Libra moves into cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto. People will be very edgy and the consequences of breaches of social etiquette may be severe - and potentially traumatic.

And Uranus, which represents sudden shock, is going direct after the full moon, with Mars in opposition: so things can get explosive and dangerous very quickly. You do not fuck with people under these skies. And if they fuck with you...well I guess you'll have to resist the urge to annihilate them. Unless they really really deserve it, and you are willing to deal with the consequences (such as going to jail for the next 40 years).

Things can turn on a dime and get violent and out-of-control very quickly, so be careful. This is the whole holiday season we're talking about: the second half of December and the first week of January, roughly. The potential for family conflict, with Jupiter in Cancer aspecting Mars, Uranus and Pluto, is very high. There could be breakthroughs as well: big beneficial shifts in relational power dynamics. But these kind of changes don't come without discomfort, and the energies at work here look very uncomfortable.

Anyway, Happy Christmas; Happy New Year. Stay safe and take no chances. Pace yourself, make sure you get enough rest, avoid risky situations. Use your words carefully. You probably say dumb things when you're drunk; we all do. But the consequences over the next few weeks could be serious, so be careful about holiday drinking.

There is a new moon in Capricorn on New Year's Day, and it looks like a doozy. Conjunct the sun, Mercury and Pluto in Capricorn, and aspecting Mars, Jupiter and Uranus in a Cardinal Grand Cross. I'll write more on it later. Suffice it to say for now: things are going to change in a big way this holiday season; there's no way around it. Let's see what happens.

"May all your crises be opportunities!" sayeth thee Philosoraptor

(as he devours yr brain...)

New Moon in Sagittarius

This new moon happens at 11 degrees Sagittarius on the 3rd of December, just after midnight (GMT), and it represents a bit of emotional bouyancy and relief after months of very stark skies.

Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign symbolically represented by a centaur with a bow and arrow: a creature half-human, half-horse, shooting its intention and drive toward some far-off target. And the sign is like that: nomadic, half-wild, adventurous, unsuited to settled life. It wants space and freedom, open sky and a change of air. It is always literally or metaphorically galloping over the plains, seeking what's past the horizon; never content with staying within the staid old boundaries.

It's like this poem:

http://www.portablepoetry.com/poems/alfredlord_tennyson/ulysses.html

"I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades For ever and forever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!"

Yep, that's very Sag.

& this: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

That's the purpose, the goal. The never-ending seeking is itself the goal - each provisional goal, attained, is only a marker along the way, never the end in itself.

And notice Ulysses is totally unexcited by the prospect of hanging out with his aging wife in Ithaca and administering his domestic domain... Man what a boring-ass scene that is, when he could be out sailing off the edge of the known world. It's wonderful, isn't it? I think it is. He is unable to accept stagnation - he'd rather die.

Anyway, here are some Sagittarius keywords and phrases: restless, optimistic, outward-looking, expansive, happy-go-lucky, generous, blunt. OTT, funny, randy, full of hot air.

Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, and Jupiter is about luck, blessings, expansion, higher education, teaching, faith. It's probably no coincidence that Jupiter (the 'great benefic' in astrology) is a gas giant, the biggest planet in the solar system, holding some of the largest moons in the system within its massive gravitational field. The four inner ones were named after some of the Roman god's multifarious sexual exploits by Galileo. Big huge randy gaseous guru planet, over-the-top everything, full of lightning and howling winds and storms the size of the Earth—it's interesting how the astrological meanings of planets line up with the actual physical objects. (Remember the meanings were devised long before the physical objects were observed via probe or telescope.)

But that line of thought would lead me into a digression I will not follow right now. (Digressions - especially philosophical ones - are very Sag too!)

A moon in Sagittarius is symbolic of a happy, roving, freedom-loving sort of emotional tone — a great need for space and broadened horizons, an emotional buoyancy. We can all use this after the difficulties of the past year — we can use a bit of a lift.

And this particular Sagittarius moon is in mutual reception with Jupiter in Cancer. This is a beneficial relationship, and the theme of emotional buoyancy is um, further buoyed up! Further inflated. It looks pretty happy and cheerful really. Nice time to eat way too many holiday snacks and hang with the fam', singing rousing holiday carols around the hearth and weeping and telling dirty jokes and shooting each other with little water pistols and whatnot.

Might as well...it's been a grindingly difficult year for so many, and the one ahead is gonna be no picnic either. This new moon is about getting a much-needed breather, a jolt of hope and fresh air and light in the midst of difficulty and darkness.

The moon and sun in Sagittarius will be trine Uranus in Aries, and this represents more uplift, more energy and future-directed hope and faith. And Jupiter in Cancer will be trining Mercury and Saturn in Scorpio: this stabilises the emotional tone and facilitates deep communication. It will very likely be possible to examine old relational patterns and emotional wounds in depth, especially family ones...and to gain some sort of freedom from them; to transcend them. People are going to be less likely to want to stay stuck in the past, dwelling on their petty little personal grievances...and this is great, needless to say. Because under Saturn in Scorpio, the weight of all that old grievance, combined with the knowledge of collective difficulty...well it can be too much. It's lovely to get a breather like this. Thanks Jupiter!

The new moon will also be squaring Chiron in Pisces, so here's the catch: this is only a breather. The awareness of pain and loss will never be far from the surface, however festive and rambunctious things may get. The undercurrents here are deep and serious, and they are not going to be going anywhere for a while.

So enjoy yourself, drink some freaking eggnog with a triple shot of rum, bask in the affection of your crazy family... and set your intentions for a cheerful holiday season. Come the full moon in two weeks, Mars will be in the early degrees of Libra, just entering Uranus-Pluto cardinal t-square territory. And then things are likely to get considerably more jagged and uncomfortable.

OK, I have another poem about this new moon. T.S. Eliot this time.

http://poetry.rapgenius.com/Ts-eliot-marina-lyrics#note-2052767

"The awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships." Yep, that's it exactly.

The boat may be falling apart; forgetfulness and awareness of death ever-present. And yet there are other shores calling like birds from the fog. Very like Tennyson's Ulysses, really: an old man facing decrepitude and death, but fired with the spirit of enthusiasm and adventure nevertheless.

Well whatever rapids and whirlpools lie ahead, we can resolve to face them with that same exploratory spirit. "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."




"Otherworld" Andrew Wyeth