New Moon in Aquarius

Happy Chinese New Year!

Hexagram 1 ("The Creative") from the I Ching seems fitting here...

This new moon is Monday the 8th February at 2:38 pm GMT.

OK, so it looks like a jolt – a big reboot. Aquarius is liberating, progressive, erratic and shocking – like a lightning bolt. Abrupt, good at sudden beginnings and endings. Freaky oddball electrical energy, like a dragon made out of lightning.

Plus we have Mars in Scorpio squaring the new moon, adding a surge of uncomfortable emotional drive and irritation. This is the kind of thing that makes you want to jump out of your skin or break something.

There is a deep push for personal freedom and authenticity encoded in these aspects. Something - maybe everything! - has to change.

Also there's the potential for a lot of stupid viciousness and power struggles, if the necessary freedom and changes are blocked.

Recall the full moon in Leo two weeks ago. Drama drama drama! Plus, messes that must be dealt with, revelations, shocks, hidden things coming to light.

OK, so this new moon is a continuation of that theme.

As of this past week, Venus is tangled up with Mercury and Pluto, and squaring Uranus. This represents a value shift, a jolting re-assessment in love and money matters - maybe as a result of whatever has been brought to light over the past few weeks.

Sudden shifts - endings and beginnings - are likely in relationship and money matters at this time. The shifts could also be in your values. The status quo just won't cut it anymore, with these aspects - deep structural change is needed.

Something new and strange wants to happen! So if you're dealing with intense frustration at this time, it might be worth asking yourself: "how am I boxing myself in; how am I failing to be fully true? How am I blocking change and progress and dragons made of lightning?"

The Venus-Pluto conjunction is about dead loves coming back from the grave, true love and commitment, romantic obsession, betrayal, manipulation, addiction, toxicity – human bondage in all its best and worst forms. Also sex, money, power, control, possession. There's nothing light about it, especially in sober, serious Capricorn. You add in the square to Uranus, and it's Indian soap opera time.

OK, so hopefully your life is not as intense (or dumb) as all that, but you get the picture.

Happily, Jupiter in Virgo sends beneficial aspects to Venus, Pluto and Mercury. This affords some buoyancy, cosmic benevolence, perspective and humor to situations that might otherwise be very fraught and gloomy.

We also have Saturn in Sagittarius beneficially aspecting the new moon and Uranus in Aries, and this grounds and stabilises the tense, erratic energy. There's a real future to be built.

And there's plenty of balance on hand. Whatever new direction you're headed in, whatever your vision for the future, whatever you have to change about your circumstances so that your life looks less like an Indian soap opera - it is entirely possible to make your dreams a reality. It will just take focus, planning and sustained work.

The right way to deal with the power surge of this new moon is to channel it into things that support freedom, authenticity and progress for you and your wider community. No hidden agendas, no manipulation, no passive aggression. Everything out in the open, fair and egalitarian and objective.

The worst way is to use all this jolting electricity to shock, hurt and manipulate. There's plenty of potential for that here. Aquarius can be cold to the point of cruelty, and Mars in Scorpio knows exactly where to stick a knife for maximum damage. Both of these signs are fixed: they don't back down.

It's like a dinosaur battle in Jurassic Park - intensely violent and reptilian. Needless to say, if you find yourself in the path of any dinosaur battles, best not to get involved. Best keep the hell away, if you can. Dinosaurs are not rational and they don't care if you become collateral damage.

If you are the dinosaur battling it out, I don't know what to tell you - except, nobody wins; nobody prevails. With Jupiter and the north node in Virgo, it pays to be humble and to keep a low profile.

The really nice thing about this new moon is that it represents a new direction: a surge for freedom, a shedding of old restraints, and a fierce drive to be yourself in all your freaky glory. You get to shed something that's been draining and dogging you.

Wherever this falls in your chart is where you'll feel a lightning bolt of clarity and personal authenticity. There's really no reason to stifle your true self anymore – what have you got to lose? The world needs everyone's weirdness.

Bearing this out, Lilith, taboo 'mother of demons' and emblem of the dark feminine, is beneficially aspecting the new moon - and this is good for women especially, but it supports everyone's suppressed wildness. Go ahead and speak your mind, say what you really think and feel, be your real self and not the respectable facade you think you should be. Cut loose and be true - "be the change you want to see", as they say.

But at the same time, remember the message of Jupiter and the north node in Virgo, and Saturn in Sagittarius. Perspective, humility, good boundaries and grown-up behaviour, please.