- What’s Happening in August-September -

This New Moon is the second month of the New Moon Sun being in a different sign than the following Full Moon Sun. This is an important shift in the Soli-Lunar sequence, since now we have different Light signs in the Lunation cycle!

This New Moon brings us to a threshold of new activities at the dawning of a new day in a season of hostilities. We achieved awareness of polarization during last month when the New Moon was exactly opposed Saturn. We’ve had a month of “weighing alternatives at thresholds of new experiences,” as well as “the seeds of tension” because of the ongoing squares from Aries to Capricorn. This month continues last month’s theme of a) taking a balanced careful approach to all interactions, or b) “breaking on through to the other side” using practicality and directness to cut through defensive stances.

An Overview of the New Moon

Today we’ll do an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In part 2 we’ll cover Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.

This stabilizing, creative-expressive New Moon at 27 Leo occurs at 7:42 pm PDT Aug 18, 3:42 am BST August 19. This one begins a period of work, adjustment, sacrifice, and abundance for those who have a creative imagination and began to reach out to a greater life of interactions these past few weeks. The alternatives we’ve been weighing are infusing our choices during this storm zone in play throughout August.

The past month put us all at yet another gigantic fork in the road of human destiny due to the Lunation biseptile Mars coupled with the evolutionary configuration involving Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune also in 7th harmonic aspects. That continues to move us throughout this time of enormous conflict and cross currents which are challenging our equilibrium and sense of perspective and proportion. As we learn to seek fairness and justice this Summer, we’ll have the tools to deal with the inflamed conflicts indicated by the ongoing Mars in Aries squares to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto in Capricorn.

The planets continue to widen the compression of January through March, and have been in a somewhat stable Bowl Jones pattern for a while. The Capricorn stellium has opened many to a contact with the World Soul, and the coming weeks show an emphasis on quickening the pace, receiving seeds of rewards, and our spiritual community also climbing the same mountain we are.

This New Moon will jumpstart late Leo energy wherever it falls in our chart. Because of the quincunx to with Saturn, we must adjust in some way related to the new responsibilities and structures which have surfaced, or related to others’ self-serving behavior now that we’ve seen it for what it is this past month. Needless rules and restrictions which stifle creativity must be changed or sacrificed altogether.

The Great Compression

In the first 90 days of 2020, we had a “Great Compression” of planets involving Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all making conjunctions in the last decan of Capricorn, setting off a number of cycles, one of which will last 33 years! We have now begun an accelerated phase of our collective spiritual evolution which will take us from the threshold of the Age of Aquarius into the Age itself. You can find out more about the very powerful Sun, Mercury, and Saturn's conjunctions with Pluto by revisiting The Great Compression of January 2020 – Mercury, Sun, Saturn and Pluto all Conjunct in Capricorn. That lays out the long wave patterns set into motion then.

Because of all the Capricorn conjunctions now set in motion, we are in the heart of a great reorganization. The forms were set into motion in January, accelerated during Mars’ transit of Capricorn in March when it conjuncted the January points and made its own contacts with Jupiter and Pluto. When we add the fact that Jupiter will be dancing back and forth on all those conjunction points between 21-25 Capricorn this entire year, it’s easy to see that for better or worse things will be expanding!

The last conjunction in this series was when Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, setting a cycle into motion which will expand in huge ways beginning at the Grand Mutation of late 2020. That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction launches both a new 20 year Aquarian cycle AND a new 200 year era of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in Air signs. That means no more of the materialism of the past 200 years, with more of a focus on our commonality and ability to share ideas over the next 200!

We’ve now finished the first 90 day period of Saturn’s first visit to Aquarius in April, May, and June. The countdown to a new 200 year era has begun! On this “Edge of Cosmic Time” we have been offered visions of a greater good for a greater number, and as usual, because Capricorn energies are still so strong, Saturn is a major player on the main stage, helping us see a more timeless role to play to help create a better world. What is your purpose? What structures and self-disciplines do you need to fulfill the ideal of that purpose?

Occupied Signs and Oppositions

We’re now in a period where we have two heavily occupied areas in our charts; the late Capricorn sector, with Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto there, and our Leo sector with Sun, Moon, and Mercury in that sign. These are where we will have a lot of activity in our charts.

Because Mars is in the second half of Aries, we’re officially in the storm zone! The Sun and Mercury made stabilizing trines to Mars over the past 2+ weeks during its squares to Jupiter and Pluto, but now it’s pretty much going to be square Saturn for the next8 weeks! The positive expression of Mars in Aries is that “the god of war” in his home sign is certainly able to put the brakes on the Capricorn stellium when bureaucracy or rules become too oppressive. As Mars will occupy Aries until January 2021, prepare to “flame on” for many months to come!

We have now begun a time of the year when we’ll experience many transit to transit oppositions. Last month’s oppositions began the exteriorization of those Capricorn energies set into motion in January and March. Still, keep in mind that anyone with planets in Cancer, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio will have some VERY long wave outer planet oppositions in their charts, with potential for very high awareness and a realization of how to ground a new ideal, a new public function, and a new way of related to their larger spiritual group. The various types of the “Tension of Opposites” involved in those signs will come to the fore as the recent Eclipses take away old Gemini, Cancer, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarian patterns, allowing newer ones to take shape as Jupiter and Saturn occupy those signs.

The Sun/Moon Sequence and Its Shifts

There are two patterns: one with the Sun in the same sign as the Sun in the following Full Moon (New Moon between 1-15 degrees of a sign), and one with the Sun in a different sign than it’s in at the following Full Moon (New Moon between 16-30 degrees of a sign).

At this point in time, we are at the very beginning of “alternate” Sun/Moon relationships, where the Sun of the New Moon is in the previous sign as the Sun of the following Full Moon. So while this month’s New Moon is at 27 Leo, the coming Full Moon Sun is at 11 Virgo.

Up to now, since the April 2019 New Moon we’ve had the New Moon Sun in the same sign as the next Full Moon Sun. In some respects, we are paralleling the July 2017 sequence, given the last New Moon was an Eclipse with the Full Moon Sun also in Cancer. Last month changed the sequence.

In July 2017 the New Moon Sun was at 1 Leo, which was the fifteenth in that sequence. The next Full Moon had the Sun at 16 Leo, and finished the run of Full Moons with the Sun in the same sign as the preceding New Moon Sun. The following New Moon was the August 2017 Solar Eclipse at 29 Leo which portended the devastation of America, when we shifted to the second (reverse) pattern, since that New Moon Solar Eclipse was followed by a Full Moon with the Sun at 14 Virgo and Moon at 14 Pisces.

We were in this “reversed order” between August 2017 and April 2019. Between April 2019 and June 2020 we were back in “the natural order.” We have now shifted again into a pattern which will last through August 2021. I also explain more about this phenomenon and what it means in the Full Moon articles.

The New Moons and Full Moons are “God’s footprints in time.” Each shows the next in the 12 phases of how things come to be each year. The cycle could be described as follows: Life energy is initiated in Aries, substantiated in Taurus, explored in Gemini, grounded in Cancer, renewed and creatively expressed in Leo, refined and ordered in Virgo, balanced and made pleasing in Libra, purified and focused in Scorpio, expanded in Sagittarius, organized in Capricorn, solidified into a vision in Aquarius, and ended/perpetuated in Pisces.

Jupiter and Saturn

This is the second of six New Moons finishing up Saturn’s stay in Capricorn, and we’ve now begun many new Saturn cycles. In 2018 Saturn helped us get beyond fear; in 2019 Saturn taught us through some sort of “planned group behavior.” We are still in the first year of its rare and very powerful conjunction with Pluto in January, and are back being taught a second time about “Group Performance” on an individual, mental, and spiritual level of experience.

We’ve already been through a “cosmic visitation” which is “galvanizing us into action” to “escape from adverse conditions.” This is a time when Nature is challenging us to listen, look, and learn that we are not separate from Her, and during these months of Saturn in Capricorn, it’s time to re-evaluate our Self-disciplines and duties.

This is the ninth New Moon of the Jupiter in Capricorn era! We can now use “structured humor” or “disciplined adventure” or “structured abundance” to utilize what we’re building in an emotional, social, and cultural way. This one is retrograde on the degree of “accelerated growth” through quickening the pace of what we accept. This dynamic period will yield dividends after October

We are now past the second Jupiter conjunction with Pluto, but be vigilant! It’s still as intense as it gets, so be adventurous and have a sense of humor as you get to the core of any matter. Remember to play, since taking things too seriously for too long makes life heavy. There are many ways to play, just as there are many ways to find humor. We’re solidly in a phase of group performance, and the expansive view we take this year will yield even greater group work next year!

So What Rules the Lunation?

This New Moon in Leo has the Sun as its ruler, and as the Sun is in its home sign of Leo, it is the main player on center stage (even if it’s also sharing that stage with other major players!) As Mercury is in Leo, it too is ruled by the Sun, as is Venus, since Venus in Cancer is ruled by the Moon, ruled by the Sun. As Uranus is in Taurus, ruled by Venus, it too is ultimately ruled by the Sun. Heart fire is in the air!

This month we have four planets in their home signs; The Sun, Mars, Saturn and Neptune, with the Sun ruling the Lunation, Mercury, Venus, and Uranus, Mars ruling itself, and Saturn ruling all the other planets except Neptune. That makes the Sun, Mars, and Saturn overwhelming influences behind planetary affairs. As usual, Neptune continues as a longwave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness. You can find out more about dispositors in general, chains of dispositors, and mutual reception by going to dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

Because Saturn plays such a large part in ruling the stage of Life for many months and even years to come, if you haven’t gotten your copy already, please give yourself the timeless gift of my book, Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. We all need to make friends with our inner Saturn if we would claim our power to fulfill our higher purpose for being alive as Spirits in the material world.

This book shows you the way to take command of your power to steer your life in a conscious way, using Saturn’s strengths and skills to be led to mastering life on our own terms. As Saturn is such a dominant energy at this time, by owning our ability to manifest the best of Saturn's virtues in our world, we take command of our destiny and become the living purpose we were born to make manifest!

It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and will assist your understanding of how your life experiences assisted your Soul growth and power to turn away from unhelpful karmic cause and effect patterns. Each time you re-read any part of it you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight helping you throw off attitudes which frustrate your ability to live your higher Purpose on your own terms.

Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this New Moon?

Because this section is so long, I decided to create an article which explains what it is, how long it’s been in effect, and which zones of the zodiac have been most impacted and when. You can find all you need to know about this configuration associated with widespread irrationality and hard-edged “forks in the road of destiny” we’ve all confronted at various times by going to The Grand Irrationality.

This is the first Lunation where we don’t have a planet activating the configuration. Yes, Saturn is barely separating from its biseptile to Uranus, and Uranus is barely separating from its septile to Neptune, keeping the energies in play for those with a planet or point in any of the 7 affected “hot zones.” Still, the energies will be back in full force each time the Moon transits those zones, as well as when Libra transits begin to biseptile Capricorn planets while also in triseptile to Uranus and Neptune. So while it’s not specifically triggered at this time, we continue to be in a season of a heightened Grand Irrationality influence!

Neptune in Pisces and Chiron in Aries

I have offered this segment each month for years to give you a broader perspective on the collective atmosphere, and the long wave changes humanity is going through. Because this section has gotten so large over the years, I’ve decided it deserves its own article, which I’ll link to in coming months and update as needed.

If you’re wondering about why we’re all navigating the fogs and confusions in the collective atmosphere, or why we’re healing into our Higher Self in a different way that we used to, when you’re done here please check out Neptune and Chiron in Early 2020 – Long Wave Collective Healing and Mentoring.

In that article I go into detail about the Chiron-Neptune conjunction in late Aquarius, and how each of those planets have been manifesting in Pisces. Now that Chiron is in Aries, we truly are mentoring and being mentored in a much different way than we were when Chiron was in Pisces! Please check out the article to know more.

In this chart, Chiron is at 9 Aries, helping us to heal by concentrating in ways that help us see the bigger picture. Its retrograde station has launched a period of us having to reconsider events and images of our past, and find a new meaning which helps us see more abstractly. You can find out more by going to the article Astrology Healing Cycles – Mars Conjunct Chiron Stationary Retrograde at 10 Aries. Neptune is still retrograde on its stationary degree and teaching us how to touch and be touched so we may cultivate our faith.

The North Node

This is the fourth Lunation with the North Node in Gemini and the South Node in Sagittarius! The coming 4 weeks indicate the line of greatest development is though releasing the past, being liberated from pressures we no longer need to bear. This is the time to regather resources for new attempts while letting go of what is no longer appropriate to our life. We are all being pulled magnetically to a new view, a new understanding, and a new expression of a higher individual standard of excellence expressed in our own unique way.

We’re now done with the era of North Node in Cancer/South Node in Capricorn era which began November 2018, during which we’ve grown through contacting our primal innocence as we cooperate within the web of Life. We now are in the North Node in Gemini/South Node in Sagittarius era, where we will grow through our quest for knowledge and understanding which can be demonstrated by our ethical and spiritual values.

In November 2018 we left the North Node in Leo and South Node in Aquarius era which began in May 2017, and entered the NN in Cancer and SN in Capricorn era. During the time of the NN was in Cancer, our greatest development was through our ability to be tender, caring, and nurturing of all that we feel close to. We have been pulled to evolve through the “Mother principle,” and using “enlightened self-interest” to gather what we need to make our lives more secure. Because the was in Capricorn, we demonstrated these qualities through being mature and responsible, organized and willing to work to demonstrate our personal skills in forms of social power.

Summing Up - The Big Picture

We are now in a season of crosscurrents, conflicts, creativity and hard adjustments to make things simpler and easier. This is the next phase of the new late Capricorn and early Aquarius cycles where the January and March conjunctions fell in our chart. These configure with our natal planets in countless ways, but generally speaking, planets in harmony with late Capricorn in our charts will find easy growth and many good things to come. Planets in disharmony with late Capricorn will either have to change how they operate, or will become mechanisms we can use to release the dynamic potential of coming years. We continue to be in a phase of full mobilization in moving toward whatever we have trained to do.

We all “graduated into a new realm of Being” in May, and since then have transformed some aspect of our lives. We’ve all been through a metamorphosis and are learning to navigate in a new social or group structure. Uranus continues to revolutionize us in our Taurus sector, and as it’s on its stationary RX degree, we shall see how well we’ve “partnered with Nature” by seeing how our garden, whether of personality or Life, is doing. We are grounding our awakened “new quality of Being rendering the old patterns obsolete,” and are now at a turning point with our “Garden of Spiritual Purpose.

This is the next phase in our quest to find “transcendent security,” with the emphasis on play and comfort rather than austerity. Mars’ transit of Capricorn in March set multiple cycles activating Dharma into motion, including the Superior Conjunction, Mercury and the Sun conjunctions with Saturn and Pluto, as well as Saturn’s conjunction with Pluto. Along with these, Mars also set more cycles into motion when it conjuncted Jupiter and Pluto, culminating in the conjunction with Saturn at 1 Aquarius, setting the Grand Mutation formative pulses into motion. We’ve now launched 200 years of coming changes!

2017’s Solar Eclipses in Pisces and Leo, and 2018’s Eclipses in Aquarius, Cancer and Leo have quickened us, and we’ve been eliminating a lot of expectancies, considerations, and excess baggage. We continue to dump all kinds of old ghosts and elements of pride that would hinder our hearts from its authentic self-expression, and are getting clear about our priorities and what we should and should not expect of ourselves and others.

As a result of the 2018 Eclipses, we’ve hit the end of an old quest, attained some ambition, and now are learning a new freedom and togetherness. The 2019 Eclipses in Capricorn and Cancer have continued to remove old patterns from those sectors of our charts, with this “Cosmic Recycling” energy again set into play by the recent late December and mid-January Eclipses. The Solstice Eclipse helps us lower one flag and raise a new one, reorienting toward a more secure, playful, and fun course, if we’re open to it.

Summing Up – The Immediate Picture

We are now in a long period of intense mobilization in the part of our lives where we have Capricorn and Aquarius. We’ve been immersed in Capricorn energies while experiencing the waves of the Light of Aquarius in April, May, and June. We’ve quickened as new life themes are presenting themselves.

Mars in Aries has brought an entirely new phase of life for all of us! As Aries is the lower square to Capricorn, this is a crucial point of emergent power. How it’s being used is either productive or destructive, depending on how the Capricorn stellium has been structured before now. This is definitely a time when we have been in conflicts and can see more coming, but also the potential inspiration and practical expression possible if we don’t jump the gun or get too impatient with the process. Again, right now we need to practice good Cancer and Libra traits. Tenderness, balance, care, nurture, balance, perspective, moderation – and balance - are all good skills to cultivate now.

The very long Mercury square Mars generated voids in Libra and Capricorn, giving us an early practicum on how to generate good Libra skills in the face of conflicted Aries and Capricorn friction. And the Cancerian transits have shown us how to deal with the Cardinal T-squares of September and October, since those Cancer voids will require the Cancer skills in the previous paragraph we’re developing in July!

The long term friction coming between Mars in Aries and the stellium in Capricorn requires our full mobilization, navigating the generic tensions with equilibrium, humor, and awareness of the need for protection against heightened aggressive elements. Though things will be very intense because of Jupiter so close to Pluto, there is no better time to purify ourselves and the parts of our life related to our late Capricorn sector.

Saturn’s patient, gentle, and wise understanding has given us a vision which mobilizes us and prepared us for the group work already in motion. Jupiter is expanding our capacity to bring humor and imagination, as well as truth and ethics, to any task or situation. As they are still retrograde, we get to take a look back at what needs more reorganization.

Venus encourages us to see the humor and/or irony in situations, and if necessary, puncture another’s “ego pomposity.” Venus is picking up speed after its May/June retrograde, and we’re still learning to find the knowledge we need to assure us appropriate influence in the future. Remember the Venus inferior conjunction was a fusion of “Life and Likes” us on a degree of telepathy. Take a new look at those flashes of insight you’ve having, and coax out the telepathic possibilities.

Because of the continued oppositional and square influences, especially Mars to Saturn and Venus to Jupiter, this is a time of needless disputes, distractive hassling by people who don’t have self-discipline, and in extreme cases, hard edged self-serving rebelliousness and/or passive aggression. Take all of it with the proverbial “grain of salt,” not giving the illusion more power than it deserves, which is none. April, May, and June set Aquarian patterns into motion which are now revealing themselves, so “think outside of the box” and join with others, preparing to do a greater work which will outlive you!

We now have trained to use power efficiently and get to demonstrate our discipline, maturity, and ability to craft our lives with an understanding of natural boundaries. All of this serves the “new quality of being rendering the old patterns obsolete” we’ve awakened to since last Summer now in dynamic manifestation! Be efficient and visionary as you move through your “liberation from adverse conditions,” since the building Aquarian Age energies cannot be stopped nor contained.

Show sensitivity, persistence, humor, play, creativity, and a sense of perspective while staying clear about where your best interests are. Feel your way to new forms of spiritual practice where you can release elements of your individuality in natural and genuine ways. This continues the larger turning point in time where new directions will be taken. Surrender the worldly to attain an experience of greater awareness of Being at One with Life itself, and allow a new identity to reveal itself.

This is where we examine “the road not taken,” with “promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep.” See the promise, see what must be slowed down and/or reworked to attain that promise, and simplify, simplify, simplify, since the creative expression will soon be shaped as planets move through Virgo. And of course adjust as needed to open your power of creative visualization!

See you soon with part 2, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!

© Copyright 2020 Robert Wilkinson - https://www.aquariuspapers.com

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with persmission from Robert Wilkinson.