The Moon enters its Cancer home about 8:30 pm EDT tonight. Shortly after Midnight EDT Thursday morning, Luna catches up with the Cancer Sun for the monthly conjunction of the luminaries we call the New Moon. All conjunctions represent a symbolic merger and the literal beginning of a new cycle for the participants.
Of all the lights in the sky, the Sun and Moon are brightest and most important to life on Earth. Hence, the start of a luminary cycle is considered preeminent, with an initiative that carries over to the whole zodiac. Since this week’s Cancer New Moon takes place in the cardinal sign distinguished by elemental water, its image of initiative is amplified to that of a headwaters, originating a long and voluminous flow.
When the Sun enters cardinal signs, a new season begins. Other objects in cardinal territory emulate the Sun, initiating something of their own. It is thus worthwhile to observe what other events are functioning as tributaries to the headwaters of this week’s Cancer New Moon. Any such observation must necessarily begin with Uranus and Pluto.
The cardinal square between Uranus (holding forth from fiery Aries), and Pluto (manifesting from earthy Capricorn), dominates our era. Within this era is an epoch of peak intensity, lasting nearly three years, marked by seven occasions when the Uranus-Pluto square is exact. We entered that epoch less than a month ago with the first such occasion. Concurrent with this week’s Cancer New Moon, Mars gets into the act, implying a further pinnacle of energy within the epoch.
Mars, in the words of preeminent astrologer Robert Hand, “is an energy planet.” In a few days, just as the luminaries exact their Cancer conjunction (New Moon), Mars will be contributing its energy from the elemental air of cardinal Libra. It will precisely oppose Uranus while less than a degree removed from its own brief cardinal square to Pluto. The net result will be a very temporary cardinal T-square which has been building since last week. The T-square brings all of astrology’s elements into cardinal play just as life-giving water is being distinguished by the luminaries as most conspicuous of all. In addition, the Cancer New Moon will form an inconspicuous, but nonetheless meaningful cardinal aspect of its own, with an object relegated to the lower levels of astrology’s hierarchy: a centaur named Bienor.
Astrology has a hierarchy. The Sun and Moon come first. Not just because the luminaries are the most evident and important celestial bodies, but because so much of astrology can be derived from or integrated back to them. Next in importance are the classical planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) visible to the unaided eye for as long as there has been life on Earth, but significant only to the consciousness of those who could discern them from stars. Finally, there are objects discovered by science, often serendipitously named, with the dates and data of their discovery either correlating the ephemeral to the historical, or gradually accumulating meaning through repeated and successive correspondence.
Uranus and Pluto are among the former, connecting periods of history through the mutual aspects of their long orbital periods. Smaller, swifter, often more recently discovered objects are in the latter category, serving to augment our understanding even as we develop our interpretation. Among those so-called minor objects is the centaur Bienor.
Bienor’s orbit oscillates between Saturn, the most remote of classical planets, and Uranus, the first discovered by science, connecting to the headwaters of modern astrology. Since its own August 27, 2000 discovery in watery Pisces two days before a New Moon, Bienor has developed a history of repeated and successive correspondence to both the luminaries and cardinal initiatives.
Bienor made its first post-discovery entry to Aries auspiciously, in precise opposition to the Sun for the September 23, 2007 Libra equinox. Shortly thereafter, Bienor took a brief retrograde ride back to Pisces to set up an encore. On February 8, 2008 Bienor entered Aries a second time on the day after an annular solar eclipse. After demonstrating an affinity for such momentous luminary and cardinal point occasions, it should not be surprising that Bienor would also correspond to significant headwaters in human history. Eric picked up on the trend over four years ago.
In February 2008, Eric wrote of Bienor’s connection with “events that have been unique and happened for the first time in the history of mankind.” Supporting that assertion is the astrology of the first humans landing on the Moon in 1969, with undiscovered Bienor conjoining the Libra Moon in opposition to the Aries Point. Other such incidents were later noted by Eric’s long-time collaborator, Finnish astrologer Kirsti Melto, among them a watershed speech and a meeting from which an entire generation’s identity flowed.
On a hot August day in 1963, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the greatest oratory of the 20th Century from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC as the blazing Sun overhead conjoined with Bienor, Venus and Uranus (with Pluto close at hand). The consciousness which made an entire generation receptive to Reverend King’s appeal to our better nature was, in part, seeded in the previous decade.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met in July of 1957 when, as Kirsti recorded, the “Sun was conjunct Bienor in Cancer.” Based on such examples of Bienor’s association with the luminaries, with cardinal expression and correlated events in human history, you may be wondering about now. You may wonder who will now step up to fill the shoes of daring explorers, visionaries and the artists who have initiated the flow from divine inspiration to human potential in our recent past. For an answer, you may want to consult your local mirror.
If the astrology of this week’s Cancer New Moon means anything, it means that it’s your turn. With Mars applying a very clear, present and, above all, immediate energy to the aspect that defines our era, the message is to act. With Bienor’s square to the New Moon plainly indicating that, this time, the flow originates from within all of us together, all at once, you need but ask yourself two questions and be guided by the answers to act as only you can. If not you, who? If not now, when? Act on what you know and merge with the flow. You are the headwaters of our time.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Mystes – as always you are correct in an absolute sense. There were ugly happenings today in pattyland, but now I can be a jedi princess and rise above! Thanks!
May the force be with us!
Patty, my love, I think those days are long gone. When ‘real deprivation’ hits, people will just retreat to their SUVs, turn on Rush and go blank until they get to the bottom of their Big Gulps.
At that point they’ll start looking for the ammunition.
This is why the only way through this wormhole is to become a Jedi master of whatever amuses you most. The one thing about selfish violence is that it is pretty easy to turn back on itself.
Argonauts, man the mirrors!
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My mom told us a story now and then about a family that had a nice beef roast during the depression – a neighbor. They boiled the bone over and over to make more soup or stew. Another neighbor was having company and asked the family with the beef bone if they could borrow their bone to make a pot of soup. They loaned the bone to the neighbor!! Yes, she said ‘loaned.’ Just think, we feel deprived if we can’t have dinner out at least once a week. Maybe everyone needs a big dose of going without, to appreciate having real community.
Cool beans mystes. . I was unaware of that facet of Hecate’s repetoire. Thanks for sharing!
Len,
It is only one among many “developing events” this cycle, and it was Hopi that gave it direction (for me).
be
Thanks, Be! Hecate is conjunct Luna/Sol for this Neue? Most curious if we think about her role as guardian of ‘crossroads.’ (Not exactly crossroads –that’s Hermes’ province– Hecate’s role is/was to preside over the T, the moment that one chooses to go left or right). Given that all of the bases are *fully* loaded, this signals an extra potency to the Neue. I will approach with the proper mix of abandon and deliberation.
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Huffy: You are most welcome.
Chief Niwots Son: You make a very good point, and i agree with your distinction between science and technology. Your suggestion has made a difference for me and my life.
aword: Thank you for your perceptive and kind words.
be: Thank you for pulling together the Cardinal Luminary Initiative with not only a cogent sense of beauty, but also the potent connection to developing events. i share your concern and than you for you sharing yours.
Lunesoleil: Please accept my thanks as well.
Thank you Len 🙂 for the always exciting details wish you a wonderful July Moon news (:) 🙂 )
Len,
I always appreciate the inclusion of minor planets in your offerings, especially when they have such intriguing stories to go with them. Bienor, for the little we know of him through myth, seems to have an evolving theme, or maybe a theme about evolving would be a better phrase. Without your remarks and Eric’s observations I might have missed the fact that the New Moon chart set for Washington DC has Bienor (along with Lachesis’ and her ‘interruption-interception’ trademark) on the ascendant. They are opposite Hopi (corn products, etc.) on the descendant, and not to be outdone, Hekate and her mysterious intuitive knowledge gained from life passages, is conjunct the Sun and New Moon in this family sign of Cancer.
In an attempt to put it together in some way, I see this Cardinal Luminary inititiative (from the perspective of the U.S. Capital) as a first-time ever intervention involving an attempt to find a balanced agreement with corn producers and their products through a conscious as well as intuitive understanding of events. By adding the Sabian Symbol for the New Moon in Cancer it gets even more interesting. . . A Violent Storm In A Canyon Filled With Expensive Homes. . which Dane Rudhyar then indicates it means that “the challenge to meet a crisis situation produced by uncontrollable karmic forces that could lead to a successful CATHARSIS.”
As Asclepius (healing) and Panacea (relief) are trine the New Moon from Pisces we can flesh out the picture even further. With Photographica opposite the New Moon in the 10th house, the heartbreaking scenes of drought-stricken farm land and lack of produce that are being shown on our televisions is bringing to our (mass) consciousness the fact that we are all in this together.
That’s how I see this Cancer New Moon, for our country anyway.
be
Interesting you should point that out, Chief Niwots Son. It is my “understanding” (visavis whatever connection to the void/all that is) that we are in the process of ‘raising our awareness’ into a place where there is much more of an integration of what we now call “science”, “technology” and “self” – something that without due process of step by step live experience would probably bring disbelief (as in “the world is round”).
But we will believe it when we “see” it.
Len, thank you so much for your patience and poetry. Your teaching through repetition bit by bit brings the basic training to a point of understanding while your poetry keeps repetition from being tedious, rather each lesson is like flying fresh on the wings of a summer breeze.
Thank you.
Insightful as always Len. Something you said stood out and I want to explore it a bit.
“there are objects discovered by science”
Astrology, even when practiced back in the day with just the naked eye is a form of science. Another way to state your point is “objects discovered through human-made technology,” which brings the outer planets and other such objects more closely into relationship with human beings. If is through our own efforts that we have discovered these small, far away, yet important neighbors in our solar system. In much the same way, perhaps they represent what we can discover in ourselves and our Tribe of Humanity through effort and inquiry, the subtle psychological shadings and long-term patterns represented by the objects we discover.
It is almost as if we were gifted a certain amount of insight via the luminaries and wanderers we could see with the naked eye, and then could find more insight in the mirror of the sky if and when we evolved to a certain level of consciousness.
PS- The whole science as technology thing is a pet-peeve of mine, because it limits science, and our reality, to only that which can be detected through technology. And as we know, reality is much bigger and stranger than what our toys tell us.
Peace
It’s those frisky centaurs again! “If not now, when?” I love this quote – it’s one of my favourites (and title of wonderful book, too). Thank you, Len, for this fascinating and inspiring piece.