This is early tomorrow, the 17th January. It's exact at 2:15 am UTC.
We have a big stellium in Capricorn for this: the sun, moon,Venus and Pluto are conjunct in the later part of the sign, and Mercury, Lilith and Saturn are conjunct at the beginning. It's a serious dose of a very serious, work-and-achievement focused sign. We are at the start of a long uphill climb.
New moons represent new beginnings, and this is our first new moon of 2018, and the first with Saturn in his home sign of Capricorn. The symbolism is of a sober, intensely pragmatic new start, especially as regards love and money matters. This is the right time to begin something – but it has to be something grounded in the real world, not fantasy. Capricorn works with the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. What's valuable to this sign is what's solid, tangible and secure, and what's built slowly and carefully, step by step. Rome wasn't built in a day.
With Saturn in Capricorn, we are working to create solid foundations for future security. And I mean WORKING – Saturn rewards effort. You get back what you put in and there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Mars and Jupiter in Scorpio beneficially aspect this new moon, meaning there's a lot of very focused energy to be poured into new projects, and big potential gains to be had.
But Uranus squares the new moon from the end of Aries, and this denotes disruption. Don't expect things to run easily – there will be blockages, shocks and setbacks. But if you're willing to work with them, they can lead to beneficial adaptations to changed circumstances.
The point of the Uranus square is innovation, which can be difficult for traditionalist Capricorn. But doing the same old thing the same old way will not work anymore – we are rewriting the rule-book.
We saw this breakaway Uranian influence at the full moon in Cancer two weeks ago, and it continues for this new moon. We'll be dealing with the conflict between following established rules vs. creating an entirely new operating system all this year.
As at the Cancer full moon, this applies to women especially. We have Venus and the moon squaring Uranus, and Lilith conjunct Mercury and Saturn in Capricorn. That's a lot of fed-up, enraged female energy – but it's also articulate, independent, authoritative and decisive. There is a theme of women examining their relationship with authority and power, and taking responsibility for their own security.
Mary Beard is my mascot for this new moon – she embodies this energy. She's a classical scholar – very Capricorn – who has brought the world of ancient Rome to life in documentaries aimed at a popular audience, and with an emphasis on the lives of ordinary people – very innovative and Uranian. She is also a Lilith figure, a target of vicious misogynist bullying and derision because of her refusal to conform to societal beauty standards – and she has made a point of standing up to the bullies and exposing them. She also published a book on women and power last year. More power to her.
The stellium in Capricorn at this new moon gives a serious emotional tone to the month ahead – but the moon, Venus and the sun will be moving into Uranus-ruled Aquarius over the next week. Also Mars shifts signs on the 26th January, from dark Scorpio to happy-go-lucky Sagittarius. So it's not all heaviness and gloom. Things should start to feel lighter and zingier as we move toward the full moon in Leo on the 31st January, which looks a bit revelatory and surprising! I'll write about it closer to the time.
It's the first lunation of 2018, and a beautiful, strong start to the year.
The moon in her own sign of Cancer will be part of a grand trine in the water signs involving Mars and Jupiter in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. This represents some profound, cathartic emotional stuff.
If that were all, it'd be nice but unfocused – just kind of turbulently emotional and sentimental. But this grand water trine is also part of a kite formation involving the sun, Venus and Pluto – in Capricorn, sign of structure, rules and authority. So clearly, this is emotion that can be powerfully directed toward achieving something of great practical value for yourself.
And it involves a changing of the guard – an internal revolution. Uranus stations direct in Aries, sign of bravery and raw selfhood, 12 hours later on the same day as the full moon is exact.
We are still in the lunar cycle opened by the new moon in Sagittarius two weeks ago, and it's a humdinger. It's all about graduating to another level – and this full moon represents the moment where things click internally. Emotional clarity about the road ahead is at hand – you'll get a feeling for what will be required of you.
It's definitely not about repeating the same old played-out stories (especially re. love and money). It's about setting solid foundations for a different, truer kind of life. There is a breakout energy to this - in addition to Uranus shifting direction, we also have Lilith, representing female rage and rebellion conjunct the sun and Venus in Capricorn. So this is an important full moon for women especially, and it's about breaking out of stereotypical female roles (nurturer, mother, nurse etc), reclaiming power, standing up for what YOU want for a change, and not caring if you're called a bitch for it!
Recall that Saturn switched signs just after the new moon – and now at the full moon, we have Uranus stationing direct. Saturn is about structure and rules, and Uranus is about novelty and rebellion – so these shifts signify the start of a new order. It's a big theme of 2018, and Uranus and Saturn will be working in tandem through the year to ground the (potentially shocking and uncomfortable) changes.
With Saturn now in Capricorn, it's time to stop pontificating and start building. It's not about your philosophy or your dreams anymore – it's about what works in the real world. It's time to act like a grown up and get real about what you desire, what you actually need for security at the most basic level, and what you can realistically achieve. No frippery or dreamy bullshit – we are not in pie-in-the-sky land anymore.
And given the turbulent emotionalism of a full moon in Cancer, please remember that you're not a child. You're an adult with responsibilities, and your first responsibility is to take care of yourself, because you're no good to anyone else otherwise.
Boundaries, standards, realism, independence, integrity and WORK. These are your Saturn in Capricorn keywords. The sky is emphasising these themes right now, and it's going to get even more stripped-down and real in the months ahead. We have four planets in Capricorn now (Saturn, Venus, the sun and Pluto), but for the new moon in Capricorn on the 17th January, Mercury and the moon will be there as well. That's a very heavy dose of a very heavy sign.
Things might feel harsh and dull for the next couple of months, as reality sets in. Keep your nose to the grindstone and your eyes on the prize. Saturn will help you achieve whatever you're looking to achieve – provided it's realistic, and provided you work for it. Progress may be slow and full of setbacks, but it'll happen.
This is on Monday the 28th September, 3:50 am (GMT).
We are in the middle of a tough week, and we're headed towards an intense and difficult full moon.
It's a supermoon, meaning the moon will be at the closest point to earth in her orbit, and will therefore appear freaking huge.
It is also a lunar eclipse, the fourth in a much-hyped tetrad of “blood moons” which some people believe heralds the end of the world, as in the Book of Revelations or some such shit.
Well I don't think it'll be the end of the world. But it does look quite violent. And as eclipses represent supercharged culminations or endings, the effects of this one will be long-term. So it's good to approach this with caution.
But before we look at it, let's look at the week leading up to it. What a crazy week.
We had the equinox – the balance-point of light and dark, the hinge between seasons – on the 23rd September (Wednesday), as the sun moved into Libra, sign of balance and harmonious relationship. And straight into conjunction with the north node at 1 degree Libra. Meaning Libran themes of balance, fairness and relating to the Other are paramount right now. This is the aim of the whole story, remember. It is about relational harmony and balance, even as everything is falling to shit around you. Civility and basic manners will get you far.
They will be needed, as we have all kinds of mental and interpersonal misunderstanding and nastiness going on right now. This is courtesy of retrograde Mercury in Libra, in lousy aspect to Uranus and Pluto. The Mercury-Pluto square was exact on the 24th September (Thursday) – and on the same day, we had Pluto, king of hell, stationing direct. Painful.
This is the sort of thing that incites verbal nastiness and suspicion. Or obsessive, stinging doubt and worry. Very mentally uncomfortable and lacerating stuff.
So there's just some very ugly, painful and dangerous – but potentially honest and transformative – thought and communication going on here. These influences are in effect (and culminating) at the full moon. And remember this full moon is in Aries, a fiery, warlike, impulsive sign. So there is the possibility of verbally eviscerating people, blowtorching your relationships all to hell...Or setting things on a new footing via radical honesty.
We also had Mars moving into Virgo in the early hours of the 25th (Friday), straight into a square with Saturn in Sagittarius. This Mars-Saturn square speaks of extreme frustration and potential cruelty. You put it together with the Mercury-Pluto stuff, and it's the perfect set-up for all kinds of nastiness. This can be internal (in your own head) or interpersonal – but there's so much pressure involved in this, it might feel like your head's in a vice. Or you might be on the receiving end of nastiness coming from other people.
Again, civility and basic manners will get you far with this. Seeing all sides of a story, not just your own prejudices. Fighting for accommodation and compromise, instead of fighting to 'win'. With the north node at 1 degree Libra, the story is supposed to be about 'we', not 'me'.
OK, and here's something kind of amazing about this eclipse: it involves a massive and very interesting clash of female archetypes. The sun in Libra will be conjunct Lilith (the lunar apogee) and asteroid Juno; the moon in Aries will be conjunct Vesta.
As we've seen, the north node in Libra is about a focus on relational issues - so these should be all lit up at this time. And the relationship story, as influenced by these three female celestial points, is a real wife vs. mistress dynamic. Or Madonna/whore.
Juno is named after the long-suffering and perpetually enraged wife of philandering Jupiter, king of the gods. She represents the good wife and mother: the woman who stays within the bounds of established patriarchal order and gets served a shit sandwich in exchange for her fidelity, over and over again. In the mythology, Juno's fury at Jupiter's recurrent betrayals was directed in extremely cruel ways toward his conquests, not at him. (Nevermind that these 'other women' were often actually raped by Jupiter.)
Lilith on the other hand represents a bitch goddess or outlaw woman – someone who cannot be held within patriarchal norms, who refuses to submit to any authority save her own, and is ostracised and demonised for her independence. Classic temptress / mistress stuff here. This is the one who lures men to their doom...a representation of dark, uncontrollable, wild feminine power and rage.
So these two opposite, but equally angry, destructive and powerful archetypes of femininity are hanging out together in Libra, the sign of balance and interrelationship. And on the freaking equinox to boot, the balance-point of light and shadow, the time of year when the day and the dark become equal. And at a full moon eclipse. I think it's all highly significant!
Plus we have Vesta conjunct the moon in Aries, and this is another powerful female influence. Vesta was the goddess of hearth and home, and keeper of the sacred flame. In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins were women specially chosen to tend Vesta's temple fire, the heart of the city of Rome. They took a vow of celibacy for 30 years, and were freed of the ordinary obligations and strictures put upon women in a rigidly patriarchal society. They were highly respected and independent – as long as they kept to their vows. Because the life of the city was thought to depend on their sexual purity and integrity, Vestals who transgressed their vows were scourged and buried alive.
So we have these three very powerful archetypes of femininity bound up with the eclipse – but all three are to some extent defined by their relation to patriarchal structures of control over women. They are also defined by their relation to their own sexuality, and by how female sexuality is contained and controlled within patriarchal structures.
We have Juno, the married one who outwardly is highly revered and respected because of her association with a powerful man – she gets to be freakin Queen of Heaven after all. But inwardly she's frustrated, dishonored, hurt and furious at his infidelities – and she takes her jealous rage out on other women.
We have Lilith, the dark temptress who could not give a fuck about marriage or respectability or 'belonging' to a man – but she's also defined by her bitterness and destructive rage because of her treatment by men.
And we have Vesta, the sacred virgin, whole and complete unto herself, independent and respected – as long as she renounces her sexuality in service to the patriarchal state.
It's all very interesting! These archetypes, when you look into them, are a lot more alike than they might seem at first glance. They are all images of dishonored or feared (or tightly controlled) female power.
And with Pluto in Capricorn (representing rotten, corrupt old power structures which must fall away or be transformed) squaring this full moon, maybe it's a good time to look at how we are all affected by these constricting gender dynamics. Things have to change. The 'good' wife, the 'other woman', the saintly Madonna – these are shitty roles for women to be caught in, and they put women at odds with each other in a destructive way. They don't serve men too well either: they prevent men from seeing women as actual, complex human beings.
I keep thinking of this movie. Saddest thing ever:
Or this one:
Or this song:
Anyway, all in all, a very powerful and intense eclipse - for women especially. Potentially very shocking, cruel and hurtful thought and communication - but it can also liberating.
I think the sacred hearth-fire imagery associated with Vesta is a key thing to focus on. As Vesta is in Aries, which has to do with selfhood, I think it's all about defining your own internal core of meaning / value / intergrity / autonomy. What do you hold pure and inviolate; what fires do you devote yourself to keeping lit, no matter what? What is sacred to you at your core, and how do you protect and nurture it?
If we can keep the focus on what keeps our internal heart(h) fires lit, it should be easier to transcend the rage and darkness associated with the Lilith/Juno stuff.
Anyway, beware of nastiness directed toward you or coming out of your mouth – maybe cut people some slack this week, because this moon will be stressful enough. And remember your manners (Libra). Basic civility is pretty important right now.
(I'm nominating Spock as patron saint of this full moon.)
This is tomorrow: 10th August, around 7:10 pm (GMT).
It'll be the largest full moon of the year – the moon will be at perigee, the point in her orbit where she's closest to Earth. Very intense.
I'm going to try to be brief for a change, because I don't have a lot of time to write this!
What we have this full moon are a lot of intense, clashing energies coming from fixed signs. The sun and Mercury in Leo will be opposing the moon in Aquarius, and these poles will be squared by Mars and Saturn in Scorpio.
Fixed signs are...fixed, basically. Stubborn, intractable. They don't negotiate – they insist. Aquarius insists on its ideology and its vision for the future, Leo on its personal importance, Scorpio on its security and control.
What we've been seeing in the news these past weeks are a bunch of conflicts that look hopelessly intractable, involving ideological differences that admit of no resolution.
And the world is getting drawn in, taking sides. It's a kind of contagion - & it's getting out of control. (“Out of control” is how the WHO is now characterising Ebola in West Africa.)
There's a lot of emotionally charged rhetoric going on...a lot of terror and panic. There are bombs raining down on a lot of places right now.
Mars and Saturn are traditionally known as the two 'malefic' planets, and having them mixed up with this full moon is...tough. It's bad enough to have the two of them conjunct: Mars-Saturn contacts are known for their violence and cruelty.
But also they are conjunct in Scorpio, sign of extremes. Black-or-white, all-or-nothing. So we are looking at extreme cruelty and no middle ground – scorched earth. Utter savagery.
Plus Mars and Saturn are squaring the sun and Mercury in Leo, which can be read as hubris and bombast on steroids.
And also they're squaring the moon in Aquarius, which can be about emotional shock and disconnection – shell shock. Or emotional polarization, or dogmatism.
So you can see how bad this can get...how this full moon lights up a very apocalyptic storyline. You have only to turn on the news these days to see these themes playing themselves out. It's tragic.
But remember the word 'apocalypse' comes from the Greek for 'revelation' or 'uncovering'. That's the potential good in this scenario: it represents an intensely powerful potential for revelation, mental clarity, objectivity, deep understanding. Maybe not on a global political scale – though one can dream. But on a personal level, definitely.
Aquarius is about humanitarian ideals and our shared vision for the future. At worst it can be rigid and dogmatic, but at best it is rational, unsentimental, independent-minded – and very concerned with the well-being of the collective, and with creating a better future.
These are all necessary qualities when you're trying to negotiate a peace deal or bring aid to a warzone or see through propaganda. Cool-headedness and clarity are very important right now, what with the overblown and emotionally-driven rhetoric we're being exposed to on all sides.
So in the spirit of Aquarian progressivism and optimism, I am determined to see this full moon as a good thing...as an opening for some kind of rationality and intelligence to get through to a world that is imploding with hatred and violence.
Something nice about this full moon: despite the fact that it is bound up with the two malefics (Mars and Saturn), we are also moving into a conjunction involving the two benefics (Venus and Jupiter). Venus is currently in the late degrees of Cancer, applying into conjunction with Jupiter in Leo, exact on the 18th August. This aspect represents some kind of luck or blessing - something lovely. So that's good, and much-needed.
The sun and moon also make some very nice aspects to the north node in Libra and also to the moon's dispositor, Uranus in Aries. Meaning this story is ultimately not about war, but about a struggle for peace, justice and right relationship. And this struggle takes place on an individual as well as a collective level - though the individual level is actually where it can make the most difference.
It is about thinking for yourself, exercising emotional restraint and discrimination, expressing yourself clearly and calmly... even when self-expression has the potential to get you ostracised. Lilith (a point representing the lunar apogee, or the point in the moon's orbit at which the moon will be furthest from Earth) is conjunct the sun and Mercury in Leo, and this carries the risk of ostracism via communication. But the message of Lilith is that it's better to be alone and free than to go along with the status quo and be enslaved. Even if it means you're demonised for it.
Lilith, in the Jewish tradition, was Adam's first wife, who refused to be made subject to him and was exiled from Eden. She was known as the mother of demons after that.
Well there are plenty of people out there willing to demonise (or worse) anyone who thinks differently from them these days, we know this.
Anyway, because of all these planets in Leo (Jupiter, Mercury, the sun, and in a few days Venus) opposing or squaring planets in signs that deal with the collective (Aquarius and Scorpio) I am inclined to think that this is about a personal, individual response to collective patterns.
That's only one way of reading it, of course. But I think luck and hope (Jupiter) are dependent on how we filter these collective currents through our individual psyches, and how we express ourselves (Leo).
Because the moon is in such an unemotional sign, I think it's probably a good idea to avoid getting too emotionally worked up over the panic-inducing things that are happening. The problems the world is dealing with are a direct result of people losing any sense of proportion or equanimity. And with Mars and Saturn in Scorpio, extremism has very dangerous consequences.
It doesn't matter what form your extremism takes. Leftists can be every bit as extreme in their views as radical Islamists. You have to take the other side of the story into account: that is the message of the north node in Libra, the sign of relating and fairness. You have to take other people's views and experiences into account. Maybe actively seeking out other points of view is a good antidote to extremism...we can easily spend our lives surrounded by people who agree with us and back up our opinions, and information sources that confirm our prejudices. The way things are going, that's a recipe for collective disaster.
Anyway, to sum up: it's extreme, violent weather out there. If you focus on changing yourself, freeing your mind and avoiding personal extremism, you'll be better off and maybe you'll be of benefit to others.
Don't surrender your mind to anyone or anything – not to a dogma or to an emotional appeal or a cause. Try to think for yourself and stay objective. If you feel yourself being swayed by panic or moral outrage, try to take a step back – there is detachment and clarity on offer if you want it.
Maybe ask yourself: "what would Spock do?"
And try to express yourself even if it feels isolating. That's the only way people get to hear alternate points of view at all.
