This month’s New Moon falls on January 27, at 7:08 pm EST. The chart, predictive for the month ahead, features a number of powerful aspects that demand and catalyze change.
Venus in under considerable stress. She represents women, money, art, and relationships in a chart, and is in a challenging aspect to Saturn, so look for restrictions being imposed (or attempted) in these areas. But keep in mind that some restrictions can help bring appropriate, targeted growth and development. Ethical considerations and discussions around where responsibility falls will be both in the news and manifesting in our personal lives.
Uranus represents the cutting edge of change — interestingly, it can manifest as bleeding-edge conservatism as well as the far-out liberalism and revolutionary ideals it is usually associated with. Uranus enjoys extremes, and is deeply concerned with social mores — both breaking and shaping them. As the modern ruler of Aquarius, Uranus joins Saturn, Aquarius’ ancient ruler, in dominating this New Moon chart.
Saturn’s grip on this chart is strong. The planet of unpleasant-sounding things like boundaries and discipline, it can actually be a very beneficent planet, bringing long-lasting rewards to those who do the work. It is also a creative planet — keep in mind that a creative endeavor within time and space needs some limits. The canvas has an edge, the song a beginning and an end, the sculpture, a specific shape. Saturn helps us turn our ideas into reality
This month’s New Moon suggests that you might want to look at the limits you choose, the limits you allow, and the limits that are chosen for you (gravity, for instance). Pay particular attention to the ones you allow, because that’s where you have the best opportunity to make changes in your life.
This chart also speaks to the ways we avoid fully engaging with life, how we tend to give away our power and how we can reclaim it. We allow limits to be imposed on us externally that are damaging to us, and pretend they are OK. The damage can be healed by changing the external circumstances, or changing your internal circumstances.
An externally imposed limit, if fully accepted internally, becomes a personal responsibility. Look at the limits that are imposed upon you by others. Do you accept them, or simply tolerate them? Once you’ve identified what you are just tolerating, it’s time to make some changes.
Fear is often what drives our tolerance of limitations, our tendency to give away our power, and makes us circle the wagons around our comfortable ruts. This is a good month to examine what you fear and how that fear affects your life. Other people’s opinions often figure strongly in our fears, as do imagined worst-case scenarios, and buried shame. It may be time to weigh the consequences you fear against the clear and present consequences of living in fear — powerlessness, personal restriction, and spiritual stagnation.
This month is a good time to focus on catching fearful thought patterns and changing them. Make a point of doing a reality check when you find your imagination serving up worst-case scenarios. You may want to enlist a friend’s help, because sometimes it takes two to rein in one active imagination.
You might also want to look at exactly whose opinions you care about. Some people’s opinions are worth cultivating and considering. But too often we can find ourselves bowing to those who are thoughtlessly spouting conventional thinking, ideas and beliefs that are, as Mark Twain put it, “…gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”
Do you care what these people think? Really? Why? Your individual expression is important — don’t let yourself be limited unnecessarily. Give yourself the freedom to be who you are instead of living behind a mask of socially-prescribed thinking and behavior. Go ahead and break the mold!
And On the National Stage…
When a New Moon chart is cast for Washington, DC, it is predictive for the country for the month ahead. This means the government, of course, but also, to one degree or another depending on the individual natal chart, predictive for everyone in the country. Here’s a look at that chart.
The New Moon conjunction in Aquarius in the sixth house is at the midpoint of the Saturn-Venus square, and therefore semi-squaring both planets. This is the only aspect the New Moon makes. We are looking at financial restriction that is likely to be focused on the health, military, civil service, and our relationships with other countries. (Astrology students: Note which planets rule which houses.) So, yes, health insurance (as well as other health-related industries) military funding, civil service jobs and the labor force are all likely to be front and center in the news. And the news, financially, will be at best surprising, at worst, quite restrictive. Expect sudden, unexpected shifts and changes in all these areas, and considerable confusion and misdirection in the area of foreign diplomacy.
The seventh house, ruled by Uranus and Saturn in this chart, and inhabited by Neptune, indicates one-on-one relationships. This is commonly thought of in terms of marriage, but in fact, this house rules all relationships between equals, particularly things like contracts and business exchanges. It also rules legal actions.
Both Uranus and Saturn are challenged in this chart, and Neptune frequently brings confusion, deceit, misdirection, misunderstanding, and a disconnection from reality. We can get caught up in fantasy and lies, but eventually the curtain is pulled aside and reality is introduced into the situation. This month, on a national level, relationships will be highlighted and probably fraught. But upheaval can bring needed change, so when you find yourself in the midst of a shakeup, see if you can use some of that energy to catalyze changes you know need to happen. Humans have a tendency to get in comfortable ruts. Objective awareness and a sense of adventure will go a long way towards making this month easier and more productive.
Other offers that Neptune brings to the table include expansive, empathetic, and compassionate spirituality, and transformative art. Working in tandem with the Aquarian ability to take the long view and stay objective, we can see through illusion and deception if we make the effort to discern the spiritual and emotional realities behind a situation. Then we can empathize, but not get sucked in to the drama. Of course, the choice to do this work is one that must be made consciously. We need to invite the Observer and the Artist to the table, then be willing to hear what those parts of us have to say.
Mercury is in a close approaching conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn, and square to Uranus in Aries. Jupiter and Uranus are in opposition to each other, with Jupiter also squaring Pluto. These aspects will be in effect through March, and repeat in September.
Business, in all its ramifications, is emphasized, and under tremendous pressure to transform. (The oil and pharma industries seem particularly likely to be affected) There’s also an emphasis on children’s issues, particularly schooling, as well as the arts and recreation. Changes are happening in these areas — and changes are being fought. Structures (both real and intellectual) are being demolished, but new ones are not yet in place. Make your decisions with that in mind.
One interesting feature of this chart is that the ascendant is only 10 minutes away from Donald Trump’s natal ascendant. He’ll find that this month is all about him — though he may not be as happy with that state of affairs as he might wish.
If you’d like some guidance on how these aspects can be used to move your life in the direction you want it to go, contact me, and we’ll set up a consultation.
