Resolution and Revolution – New Moon In Aquarius

Monday Monday, can’t trust that day
-John Phillips/The Mamas and the Papas

This month’s New Moon will take place in early Aquarius on Monday at 2:40 am EST. The occasion will be an opportunity to initiate a process of inner resolution that will prepare you to encounter an outer revolution. It begins with the day itself. Monday is named after the Moon, a sacred reference.

In most of the world, Monday is also the start of the secular week, when many of us are obliged to resume rowing in the vessels owned and operated by the one percent. At this point in our history, few are consciously aware of the discrepancy between the sacred name and profane use of the day, but on some level all of us can feel it. 

A similar dissonance will starkly express in the astrology associated with this New Moon. Fortunately, the exact same configuration of Sun, Moon and planets will indicate a means to reduce the deeper roots of unrest inside of you. This Aquarius New Moon will thus mark a beginning in more ways than one. By definition, the conjunction of luminaries (Sun and Moon) will initiate a lunar cycle. By coincidence, it will start a week. In your life, the timing is such that you will be presented with an unprecedented conceptual means to resolve the inner discord that has held you captive below the decks of commerce and culture.

The dissonance in this New Moon begins with Aquarius itself (disclosure: the author is a solar Aquarius). It is a sign thoroughly fraught with contradictions, both symbolic and apparent. Following sensibly cardinal Capricorn and preceding credibly mutable Pisces confers a fixed quality that necessarily conflicts with the associated element of air. Think about it — fixed air? To paraphrase Bob Dylan, one may as well try and catch the wind. The glyphs commonly used to depict Aquarius only add to the disconcerting mix.

Wherever you see a pictographic representation of Aquarius, it is either two wavy lines (a pan-cultural symbol for water) or a human being, usually of indeterminate gender, carrying and/or decanting a large ewer or jug of water. Is that any way to brand a masculine air sign? Would any corporation or institution commission such a conflicted logo? Would any software developer design such an unfriendly icon?  It is therefore no surprise that those of Aquarian lineage often grow up wondering what we are, while finding that same cognitive confusion (and the discomfort it causes) characterizing how others feel about us. It is in the orthodox ruling planets of Aquarius, however, that the native discrepancies of the sign truly emerge in the workings of astrology in general, and Monday’s New Moon in particular.

The ancients considered Saturn, the limiter and definer, to be ruler of Aquarius. It was appropriate in some ways, given that the namesake deity set a precedent by overthrowing authority and establishing a new order. On the whole, however, Saturn was a hand-me-down from Capricorn, and thus ill-fitting. Still, there was one other thing that lingered like a time bomb. Saturn was the edge of the known solar system for most of human history, and by implication, the boundary within which our consciousness was contained. In 1781, the bomb went off, pushing the boundary out. The container has been expanding ever since since. 

Uranus was officially discovered in 1781 by British astronomer William Herschel. The timing of that discovery corresponded with an abrupt, unexpected, unprecedented and disconcerting acceleration of human events which we have never fully caught up with, and from which we have never truly recovered. Yet, it is in the course those same events that our highest aspirations have reached their most pronounced realization. Even the name, Uranus, representing the entity deposed by Saturn, implied that everything humanity had brought to Earth was coming to fruition, for better or for worse. In all of the din, the Promethean archetype of Uranus was appropriately, but never quite formally, assigned to Aquarius, which in turn resolved into a dynamic sign of fully realized diametric oppositions.

When the luminaries conjoin on Monday, they will be positioned to trigger the Aquarian dissonance in a series of aspects that will revolve around the zodiac. The inevitable discomfort of corresponding occurrences revolving around the world will almost certainly find balance, however, in a consequential opportunity for synthesis. Relating to outside events, the New Moon will form a sextile to Uranus on the Aries Point, where the world happens to everybody all at once. Uranus, in turn, will be conjoined in Aries with the dwarf planet Ceres, as if to bet the farm on the uncertain outcome of what happens to each and all together. Mars, the ruler of Aries, will station retrograde in Virgo within hours of the New Moon, symbolically forcing issues and assuring that what needs to happen will not be avoided. Finally, Mercury, the ruler of Virgo, will form a concurrent earth trine to Mars from Capricorn to confirm that, yes, this is quite real. The inner choices we will face in that mutually precipitating revolution of aspects will be represented by Capricorn’s ruler, Saturn, and its complement, Jupiter.

The crux of choice represented by the New Moon in Aquarius will be symbolized when the conjoined luminaries square the out-of-sign opposition between Jupiter in early Taurus and Saturn, slowing to a stop in the last degree of Libra. Sun, archetype of consciousness, merging with the intuitive and subliminal archetype of the Moon means that your whole self will be present to the internal tension of a titanic T-square. On the one side, Jupiter will encourage you to overcome a sense of absolute vulnerability and embrace the unknown to do what you have never even allowed yourself to imagine. On the other side, Saturn will admonish you to work within your limits or suffer the consequences. For each of us, the details of that conundrum will differ, as will the means to find the middle way of resolution. The only thing that we will have in common will be the moment and the opportunity that comes with it.

The outcome of what starts for you with the Aquarius New Moon will therefore not be as contingent on what you do, so much as how you do it. If you can manage to remain aware of a scenario with the outer world on a roll and your inner conscience at a crossroads, you will recognize the corresponding events, impressions, and feelings for what they are, and see them in their place. Following that vision with action will, in turn, be your means to an inner resolution. If in two weeks, that resolution develops to match what the Full Moon looks and feels like, you will better know how to chart your own course and navigate your own vessel through the outer revolution which is already and undeniably under way.

Offered In Service            

21 thoughts on “Resolution and Revolution – New Moon In Aquarius”

  2. Dear Len, solar Aquarian brother, & all the brilliant posters (be, et al)

    I always feel so welcomed in my … “uniqueness” here @ PW and as an Aquarian this means a lot to me. Please know how much it means to me to feel the open-hearted vibe that permeates all the pieces and posts.

    The wavy lines … while I got somewhere along the way it was about water; me, I think of the lines as electrical energy (focusing intensely on the modern ruler) and/or my initials (kinda), one atop the other.

    mary
    ps: cannot believe how long it’s taken me to get here … seems I could not have gotten the message(s) any way other than to be jobless and vulnerable (read needy) for such a long tiem. And there I was thinking this was about a Neptune transit. Man, it is all, we are all so … dense and connected, it blows me away … constantly.
    pps: happy birthday Len … reckon the auspicious day looms in our future, eh? may it be a grand one!

  3. Sam: Thank you. Red underwear is a good idea, will start looking for some.

    aword: Thank you for the Hurdy-Gurdy lyric. Still feeling bad about the error.

    susyc: Yes, this is me/my writing.

    Jann: Non-directive is nearly always a viable alternative and the path less taken.

    Carrie: Sending a prayer out for the safe passage of your partner.

    amelie: Thank you for your kind words.

    Brendan: Happy impending birthday, Feb friend.

  4. Carrie, I’m keeping your sweet man in mind today and this evening praying for his safety and safe return home to you and yours. My man used to travel so I recognize your anxiety. Bless you!

  6. Good luck susyc.

    Len, this is priceless…as usual.

    Today, after his full teaching day, my husband drives to a small town on the rez and will not return until tomorrow night. That means driving on a desolate road…at night…on Friday night….on the rez. Do I have to say it? Drinking is a problem on the rez. Then, a storm is forecast to be coming which means he may be driving home tomorrow night in a storm. Flagstaff is high altitude which can mean snow and black ice and he won’t hit town until after dark. So I am feeling a bit anxious.

    If anyone here is into praying, sending energy, or whatever to ease my mind and keep him safe, please don’t hesitate (unless it involves any sacrifice of any kind :::said in jest:::).

    Ever since my brothers had a serious accident in 1984, I have not felt relaxed when someone I care about is driving on long trips away from me.

    Yeah I know….I have to work on that. And I have been; for over 20 years. Maybe Monday’s Mars Rx in Virgo will help with that.

  7. Seems that there are many of us facing career/work changes/choices now, or soon: susyc, aword, carrie… many others.

    “If you can manage to remain aware of a scenario with the outer world on a roll and your inner conscience at a crossroads, you will recognize the corresponding events, impressions, and feelings for what they are, and see them in their place. Following that vision with action will, in turn, be your means to an inner resolution. If in two weeks, that resolution develops to match what the Full Moon looks and feels like, you will better know how to chart your own course and navigate your own vessel through the outer revolution which is already and undeniably under way.”

    Crossroads, indeed.

    I have been wrestling for over a decade on what to do if I’m not a lawyer. Since I have specialized in real estate transactions and people don’t use lawyers for that any more – they use internet forms and “trust” the lenders to make sure all it correct (right… that’s worked real well, hasn’t it?), my income (never great) has dwindled while expenses did not. The only thing that increased was the debt until I said “no more.” All lawyers are not part of the 1% (at least when it comes to wealth; when it comes to attitude, there are way too many like the 1%.)

    I have come to appreciate the space and time afforded by fewer clients and less work, to use that space and time to clean up things and learn to forego anxiety, fear and worry to just be. So, too, have I realized that it is not what am I to “do” but rather what am I to “be” since (as said before) I am a human being not a human doing.

    I have the training to be an interfaith/multi-faith spiritual advisor. Talk about polarities, or at least that is the case for me since the spiritual advisor training is as a “non-directive” spiritual director – not telling the advisee what to do, but rather asking the questions that open windows and doors.

    Being a lawyer trying to change careers after almost thirty-five years has been like wearing a pair of concrete boots and trying to jump from a sinking boat into new waters.

    “In your life, the timing is such that you will be presented with an unprecedented conceptual means to resolve the inner discord that has held you captive below the decks of commerce and culture.”

    Thanks, Len, for your usual eloquent “non-directive” direction. Gotta get rid of the damned concrete boots, pitch them overboard and chart the course. Thanks PW!!

    JannKinz

  8. Wow, so interesting! Len is this you writing? An Aquarius. An air sign with a water signature, both qualities not taking well to being pinned down in my experience. Well, to fish, water IS air. So maybe we can pin it down that way.

    This Aquarian new moon and Mars retrograde do seem to require a careful threading of the needle. I’m out of work and looking for a new direction, and want to give myself time to develop my opportunities and interests, but have to find a way to pay for that time and not go too far in the hole to do it. I don’t want to get forced into choosing something that I don’t really want. Well, I have to do the footwork; I have to apply for unemployment, I have to get my taxes done, I have to figure out where to economize in order to get by. I do not have unlimited time. But I think I can take SOME time. So between Saturn’s admonishments and Jupiter’s encouragements, I believe I can thread the needle. Wish me luck guyz!

  10. Very nice, Len. Like you, I’m a February Sun, and your observations fit very well, and truly describe much about me. I’ll just bask in the glow of the month to come and enjoy my journey yet to come.

    May your birthday be care free and enjoyable!

  11. Hm..Len, two parallel wavy lines: equivalent? symbiotic? electrically charged but fluid?

    Donavan or Dylan? Not the same, but ah yes! equivalent. symbiotic. perhaps acoustically charged rather than electrical, but still fluid nonetheless. And parallel as in both are poets who use musical scoring for structure? Squeezed between Capricorn and Pisces you say?

    Ha. It’s a GREAT logo. And Be, I don’t know that being a MoonGoat is much better…but it’s no bull.

    The cyclical nature of the Hero’s journey? I’ve been working to understand what the new journey is -as it seems to keep cropping up in my other work, just need to give it space to grow so that I can recognize it.

    Thanks, Len; you are my Hurdy-Gurdy Man:

    “Thrown like a star in my vast sleep
    I open my eyes to take a peep
    To find that I was by the sea
    Gazing with tranquillity.
    ‘Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
    Came singing songs of love,
    …
    Histories of ages past
    Unenlightened shadows cast
    Down through all eternity
    The crying of humanity.

    ‘Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
    Came singing songs of love…”

  12. be: You are never a bother, you are an asset. Thank you once again for the benefit of your erudition. Gonna mark that aspect “just under 9 years from now”. May both of us be able to see it through.

    mystes: Thank you also for your cogent observations and for giving us the benefit of your lunar connection. The idea of romancing the other side of the cycle is something to try.

    Huffy: Thank you for your kind words.

    Amanda: Thank you for taking us to a deeper and broader perception of the current Ceres position with the resource of the hyperlink.

  13. Hugging Scorpio: Nothing to hide, it’s Feb Five – i was conceived on Beltaine and born on Imbolc. That year the New Moon was after my birth so i’m a water dragon.

  14. Dear Len,
    Having some familiarity with your character on print at least, I will guess that you will not tell your readers your birthday. So let me wish you a most wonderful Birthday and may the Sun bless you as you have blessed us with your beautiful writing.
    Hugging Scorpio

  17. Listen, I don’t want to be a pest, but I’m re-reading Liz Greene (The Luminaries) where she talks about the Sun and the “Hero’s Journey” and it struck me as being pertinent to your story today Len. Just a bit of it here. . . .

    “. . (it is difficult to articulate it in terms of concrete goals). . because the Sun is not really concerned with the concrete world as its final destination. Material reality is the domain of the Moon, and often what we think of as goals in the first half of life are really the lunar security needs translating themselves into mundane terms. Solar goals are INNER, and are concerned with self-realisiation and experiencing one’s life as special and meaningful.” Hence the hero’s journey to find oneself.

    You know; that inner discord? Well, I wanted to point this out because sometimes we think of lunar – feelings, needs – as being “inner”, and solar as being ego-oriented, and therefore “outer”. So this very learned lady explains it in a way that is just the opposite view. I guess it can be either or both ways, depending on what the subject is and how it is viewed, right? I hope I didn’t make it worse for your confused Aquarian Sun, and mystes, who you callin’ a mooncow girlfriend?
    be

  18. ERRATUM NOTICE: The song referred to (“Try and Catch the Wind”) was authored by Donovan, not Dylan. May all readers please find it in their hearts to forgive this solar Aquarius. May Donovan and Dylan likewise forgive the error.

  19. Thank you for bringing up the Italian cruise ship tragedy, Be. My heart feels so sore about that terrible and unnecessary loss of life. And I feel it quite keenly because I know the island of Giglio really well. It has just transpired that the tragedy happened because the captain was going too fast (too close to land, and at night to boot), it was mainly a problem of speed. Ugh! On another note “I don’t like Mondays” either. And thanks Len for another priceless blog – that I haven’t as yet been able to give the proper reading it deserves. Will do so asap. xx

  20. Greetings, mooncalves,

    Yes… about those Mondays. Part of my sanity strategy (to the extent that it has been successful) has been to take Mondays off. Offoff. When everyone else is groaning into their firstday desks, I take my little Cancerian heart on the weekly holiday. I may work on Sunday, but by golly Moonday is *mine*.

    I am an Aq Moon, and this is an esp. important one. Luna sits in H2/H8, so I am going to spend some time working on my exit strategy from this current workcycle – which is to say, entrè to the next one. It’s funny, last year at this time I was aware, but oblivious to the energy. It was as if there was simply no way to meet Her gifts.

    In contrast, I walked the greenbelt last night, struck by how vivacious the sky was without its Lunar veils. I love my Ruler, really I do, but having been born on a Full Moon, I tend to romance the other side of the cycle.

    So thank you, PW for the gentle tap on the wrist. Counting up. . .

    ***
    **
    *

  21. Len, your are a hoot! And don’t think I didn’t catch that “bet the farm” reference to Ceres. Seriously though, it is so like you Aquarians to look beyond the “now” while most of us are trying to figure out which way is up. You are right, it is that Jupiter opposition to Saturn we must use as a frame to chart our course. As it slowly begins to fade away from the clarity of its opposition, we get a last chance to get our bearings as they relate to the society we belong to.

    I believe you, like me, see the symbolism in the Italian cruise ship running aground, with many losing their lives in what was supposed to be a fun, safe time. Who takes responsibility for the chaos? Who will pay the price for what has been lost and can’t be replaced? Not too unlike these governments whose leaders have been looking out for their own skins while foresaking those who entrusted their lives and livelihoods to said leaders. It is something we all face don’t we? Do we continue to duke it out the “duality way” or do we step up to the plate and assume some responsibility for our part in the disaster. Aquarius is the only way to rise above the impasse; all for one and one for all.

    Just under 9 years from now Jupiter and Saturn will be conjunct again in a degree very near where this new moon will take place. On that day there will be a square between the Sun at 0 Capricorn and the Moon at 0 Aries, echoing the Pluto square Uranus positions of now. I hope we all cross that threshold knowing we learned from these incredibly testing times what we needed to learn to move into that new era.
    be

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