New Moon in Aries

This is on the 18th April, around 8 pm GMT. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, so a new moon in Aries is like the real New Year. So happy New Year!

The sun and moon will be conjunct at 28 degrees Aries, and they will be pretty much un-aspected by everything else in the sky. This is self-contained and intense - a big burst of fiery will, courage and absolutely self-focused energy.

Mars (will, drive, energy) - the dispositor of the new moon - is now in slow, steady, realistic Taurus. He is conjunct Mercury (mental energy) and squaring Jupiter (expansion, enthusiasm). He is also in harmonious aspect with Pluto.

This is the will and energy to get a job done, and to get it done properly. Bravery and energy combined with realistic thinking and unswerving will.

I like this a lot. New moons are about new beginnings, and whatever you initiate at this new moon – be it a new project, a situation, an intention – it will have real sticking-power and force behind it. The force that through the green fuse drives the flower. 

Appropriately, the poem linked above is about the life force containing a death drive as well. Pluto – which symbolises death, rebirth, metamorphosis and transformation - goes retrograde the day before the new moon (17th April). This is about a deep, relentless and internal process of transformation. Self-transformation - as we are dealing with Aries, the sign of ME! in all its raw urgency.

Re. Pluto retrograde: you want to know how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly?

It's not pretty - it's actually kind of nauseating.

“First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out.”

Did you think metamorphosis was supposed to be all adorable and sweet, like in a children's book? Ha!

Transformation on this order is not a 'nice' process. It's primal, disgusting, gruelling – also relentless and intense. This is Plutonic depth-work. Self-digestion.

Like the phoenix, which resurrects itself by destroying itself...

(by FJ Bertuch)

On a psychological level, this is like the Dark Night of the Soul, or the Nigredo in alchemy – the place you come to when you've burnt out on what you used to believe in and are forced to look into the darkness and unknown in yourself – because there's nowhere else to look, everything external has broken down as a source of meaning.

This kind of breakdown is necessary for growth (see here), but it's about as pleasant as the caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation detailed above.

OK, I don't mean that we're all gonna be digested alive or have to go through the Dark Night of the Soul...though plenty of people will need that kind of inwardness, pressure and darkness for their further growth.

But I do think some kind of internal reckoning is required, for just about everyone - and that's what this Pluto retrograde is about.

We've come through a very trying time over the past few years - the Uranus square Pluto years (2012-2015). The pressure for deep, systemic change in our lives has been intense. Many of us have been through some crazy shit, and things will never be the same again. It's like the aftermath of a natural disaster. The scales have fallen from our eyes in potentially traumatic ways...and we may have lost things we thought we couldn't live without.

And here we are, still alive! And what was strong enough to survive has survived. Look around you – look at what in your life is still standing, still functional, still sustaining you. Of course nothing is permanent, but whatever has stood the test for you over the past few years has to be pretty damn strong. Whatever wasn't strong enough will be gone.

I think externally, things will be settling now. We will not be dealing with the same levels of external shock and urgency.

But internally, there is a need to process the changes we've been through – to come to terms with all this upheaval on a personal level. And to not slack off in our efforts to get clear of old conditioning.

It's like, you have a house that's been half-destroyed by a tornado, and it's looking pretty bad. You are not gonna be able to do a patch-up job here. You will probably have to strip it down to the foundations, and then assess the stability of the foundations before you rebuild – maybe even re-cast the foundations. And what you build will be entirely new. Even if you re-use old materials, you're not going to build the same house.

Or you may have found yourself in a new world, building a new life. And maybe structurally, this new life is sound! I hope it is. Because you are going to have to be looking at the structural integrity of it – all the stuff you mightn't have wanted to think about, in the initial euphoria of newness and change – till the early autumn of this year. It's not as easy to establish the new as we might like. It can take a lot longer than we thought it would.

But we have Pluto retrograding through Capricorn till September 2015, through territory he was in during the final Uranus-Pluto square...and we also have Saturn (karmic necessity) grinding backward through Sagittarius and into Scorpio, sign of psychological depth and healing. Pluto and Saturn will be in mutual reception again (each in the others' sign, fostering an easy dialogue between these energies) from mid-June to mid September.

Saturn will finally leave Scorpio (till 2041!) on the 18th September, a few days ahead of Pluto stationing direct on the 25th September.

So basically, these two heavyweights will be working in concert to facilitate psychological depth work, restructuring and processing – it's very important this summer. Especially coming as it does after the revolutionary and historic Uranus-Pluto squares.

Remember external change is just not good enough. More than that will be demanded of us. There is a level of deep psychological insight and realism demanded, before you can fully inhabit the place you're standing now – and before you can move forward.

Reinforcing the "reality check" theme, we'll also have Venus (now in sparkly, hyperactive Gemini) involved in a fairly painful t-square with Neptune in Pisces and Saturn in Sagittarius for the new moon. With Venus involved, this has to do with relationship and money matters especially – but also self-esteem and values. We are looking at dreams vs. realities in these areas – longings and delusions (Neptune) vs. pragmatism and boundaries (Saturn). And some potentially painful disillusion and loss.

From Charlotte Joko Beck's “Everyday Zen”:

“In a relationship, whenever we sense unease -that point where it doesn't suit us - a big question mark should shoot up as to what is going on with us. How we can practice with the unease? I am not saying that all relationships should be continued forever, because the point of a relationship has nothing to do with the relationship itself. The point of relationship is the added power that life gets in working with it as a channel. A good relationship gives life more power. If two people are strong together, then life has a more powerful channel than it has with two single people. It's almost as though a third and larger channel has been formed. That is what life is looking for. It doesn't care about whether you are "happy" in your relationship. What it is looking for is a channel, and it wants that channel to be powerful. If it's not powerful life would just as soon discard it. Life doesn't care about your relationship. It is looking for channels for its power so it can function maximally. That functioning is what you are all about; all this drama about you and him or her is of no interest to life. Life is looking for a channel and, like a strong wind, it will beat on a relationship to test it. If the relationship can't take the testing, then either the relationship needs to grow in strength so that it can take it, or it may need to dissolve so something new and fresh can emerge from the ruins. Whether it crashes or not is less important than what is learned. Many people marry, for instance, when nothing is being served by their relationship. I am not advocating that people dissolve their marriages, of course. I simply mean that we often misinterpret what marriage is about. When a relationship isn't working, it means that the partners are preoccupied with "I": "What I want is . . ." or "This isn't right for me." If there is little wanting, then the relationship is strong and it will function. That's all life is interested in. As a separate ego with your separate desires, you are of no importance to life. And all weak relationships reflect the fact that somebody wants something for himself or herself.”

Remember the north node is in Libra, sign of balance, harmony and right relationship - so relational issues are highlighted. I think the above passage is one of the most useful and interesting perspectives on relationships I've read, and it's directly relevant to the themes of the new moon - so I'll leave you with it.

Full Moon Eclipse in Libra

 Justice card from the Tarot (see here)

This is on the 4th April, around 1 pm GMT.

It's quite an emotionally raw and jagged scenario. Full of potential relational conflict and harsh words that can never be taken back – so please be very careful what comes out of your mouth, and try to abide calmly with whatever crazy aggro shit other people say to you. Try to stay rational, balanced, polite and civilised. Try to do the decent thing, even when the people around you are acting like infantile dickheads.

I expect it'll be kind of hard to do. The path of least resistance here is rage. And in some cases, it will be justified.

If there are things you really must say in the interests of justice, or in order to expose shoddy relational dynamics – well that's one good use of this energy. Just be quite sure that you really want to be rid of whatever (or whoever) you're verbally blowtorching – and permanently. If you're not entirely sure about it, hold back! Words have the potential to be explosive, traumatic, painfully blunt and incisive...and final (and this holds true for the next week or so, as Mercury in Aries transits the Uranus-Pluto square).

Full moons represent endings, and this one is an eclipse, meaning it is a supercharged ending. It involves the Aries (me) and Libra (we) axis: self-will vs. partnership. So it is inherently about relationships. We are closing the book on a lot of corrupt, manipulative, imbalanced relational dynamics here. They might be social, familial or one-on-one...but some kind of ugly interpersonal conflict is likely to erupt. If you have planets or chart angles in the mid-degrees of the cardinal signs especially (Aries, Libra, Cancer and Capricorn), be prepared for a jolt.

The moon in Libra will be conjunct the north node (karmic direction) in Libra – so ultimately this story is about a deep need for peace, justice, balance and right relationship. Reciprocity. This need is the focus of the story: the goal.

But the full moon is also bound up with the now-finished, but still potent Uranus-Pluto square – so superficial harmony and whitewashing just will not do. Not when there are deep, insidious wrongs and grievances to be addressed. The shitty dynamics need to be followed to their roots – and that means dealing with some very uncomfortable feelings and entrenched mental habits.

The painful relational patterns we find ourselves stuck in have deep roots, and we mostly play them out unconsciously.  Some of them we can trace to our families, and some go back further: they are archetypal and collective. But it's never only about the current scenario or person that's triggering you – it goes a lot deeper.

So whatever issues crop up for you this full moon, remember that the real point is not getting rid of the person or the situation – though you may have to do that; it may be well past time to do that.

It's really about recognizing, working through and transforming the pattern.

What deeply-ingrained, instinctual relational story - familial or societal - are you playing out? Do you want to keep on doing this?

And how do you stop being a puppet in this drama? How do you change the story or reinterpret it, so that you're no longer just reading out your lines like a robot – you're improvising something new, creating something new?

from an older post:

“Relationships are our crucibles of transformation these days, with the north node in Libra. Libra (ruled by Venus) is the sign of balance, harmony, fairness, partnership and right relationship. It is about bridging polarities – 'marrying' them into a workable whole. So that is what we're trying to achieve in this story – balance, peace, workable relationships, justice. But the way things are set up, getting there involves a fierce fight.

The south node, representative of what we are trying to move away from, is in Mars-ruled Aries – and this can be about self-will, anger, war, going it alone. Selfishness: 'me' as opposed to Libra's 'we'. This is the path of least resistance now, and it means self-sabotage is an ever-present danger.

For the past few months, we've had the Uranus-Pluto square mixed up in a cardinal t-square with the nodes of the moon in Aries and Libra. This is an aspect pattern forcing radical change and upheaval, in relationships especially. There is a definite gender theme to it – there are historical injustices and imbalances in relationships that need to be examined and addressed. We don't get to blindly continue the same old gender-based power dynamics and games, going forward – the rot underlying that stuff has become a lot more obvious than it used to be. People are just not having it anymore.”

This full moon looks like an end-point for relational issues we've been dealing with since the start of this year – mid-January to be specific, when the nodes of the moon in Libra and Aries lined up with the Uranus-Pluto square. (Well actually, for a lot longer than that. For our whole lives maybe. But things are likely to have come to a head early this year, forcing changes to our deeply ingrained patterns.)

The dispositors of the nodes – relationship planets Mars and Venus – are now in Taurus. This is a grounded, realistic, settled energy – meaning things have been solidified or decided. The course is set – Taurus holds stubbornly to its plan of action and powers its way calmly through obstacles.

You can draw upon this background calm and resolve if you start feeling overwhelmed by the tensions of this full moon. Remember the important thing is to stick with what makes you feel happy, stable and secure in yourself. If you have that internal sense of groundedness, it's a lot harder for others to drag you into their power plays and dramas.

Anyway, overall, this doesn't look like a fun full moon– but it does represent closure, which is a nice thing to have.

And after we've put this shit to bed, we do have some good things ahead of us. Jupiter in Leo resumes direct motion on the 8th April, after a retrograde period that started on the 8th December of last year - this is a big jolt of luck, happiness and creativity.

The summer ahead is colored by a trine between Jupiter and Uranus in Aries – meaning we have an open road before us, full of happy possibilities. Travel, excitement, creativity, romance, adventure, woo!

And we are officially FINISHED with the Uranus-Pluto square series, thank Christ. That jarring, hellish energy will be waning from here on in. Things are settling into their new order.

There are just a few loose ends to be tied up before we can properly move on, and that's where we're at now with this full moon...

You may not even need external conflict to attain the closure on offer. It may be enough to deal with this in yourself – to put whatever this is about for you to rest in yourself.

But it does look likely that there'll be interpersonal drama going on, so please stay aware and careful.

Here's some Kipling to get us through...

(though I would amend the last line! It shouldn't be about being a Man - but an honourable human being.)

And here's a link to Hexagram 21 in the I Ching – all about dealing with issues of law, justice and punishment.

And here's Ma'at, Eqyptian goddess of truth -

"Maat represents the ethical and moral principle that every Egyptian citizen was expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were expected to act with honor and truth in manners that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, and god."

It's no different for any of us today. There are moral laws at work in the world, and we transgress these at our peril.

And with Saturn retrograding and headed back into Scorpio (June-September of this year - I wrote about it here) - matters of social justice take on an added weight and importance. You will get back what you've given. If you've done harm, karma's going to be a bitch.

Do as you would be done by - it's that simple and basic.

Happy Easter to all!