- Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means -

This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this New Moon chart. We are now in the midst of a huge planetary compression in Aquarius, which brings another Bundle Jones pattern. The next month puts the focus on the birth of new understanding based in greater truths so we may educate and be educated these next 4 weeks.

The last decan of Aquarius is the most theoretical and idealistic of the three, as it weights, judges, and balances the requirements needed to manage the group effort toward the collective vision. We are now totally launched into a new era, with major developments to come as Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter all transit this New Moon degree in the near and distant future.

As you know, the December Solstice accompanied the Grand Mutation at 1 Aquarius, setting a new 20 year Aquarian theme into motion for the entire world. Many old structures and assumptions will be set aside in coming years, and a broader vision, a broader understanding, and a broader “atmosphere of synthesis” will help us all see the interrelationships to things. This begins many decades of ending the extreme sense of separateness bred by the Earth materialism of the past 200 years.

The Capricorn Compressions Are Over and Aquarius Compressions Are Here!

This time brings the fulfillment, renewal, and mutation of many things promised by the many conjunctions in Capricorn last January and March. As I explained in the main article on The Great Compressions of Early 2020, 2021, and 2022, in January through March 2020 we experienced the second of four consecutive compressions of planets. The first was in early 2019 when all the planets were bundled in about one third of the sky. Throughout 2019 they expanded into half and then two thirds of the sky, creating a Bowl and then Locomotive Jones pattern, with the Moon adjusting the pattern based in its position.

We again contracted into a Bowl in January 2020 while hitting maximum compression in March which created a Bundle chart, the rarest pattern of all! While the inner planets have all traveled outside the Bundle since May 2020, they clustered in a narrow range in the last half of January into early February, creating a Bundle pattern again. The maximum compression was around January 19-21 when all of the planets were within a 101 degree span, creating a very intense zone of activity wherever we have late Capricorn through early Taurus. This is a very crowded house, with 10 distinct energies occupying less than 1/3 of the total space!

Depending on the position of the Moon and the inner planets relative to the outer planets, different months bring us different Jones Patterns. These patterns operate their own independent influence, regardless of which planet is in which sign.

Currently, the outer planet occupied span begins with Pluto in late Capricorn, and proceeds through Saturn and Jupiter in early Aquarius, Neptune in Pisces, and ends with Uranus in Taurus. Now that the inner planets are in between mid-through late Aquarius, they’re solidly in the outer planet occupied span, even as Mars continues to draw away from the span since its conjunction with Uranus.

So given the positions, the planets are spread out in 1/3 of the total 360 degree field in a somewhat asymmetrical distribution. With all the outer planets in a span of 101+ degrees, less than a third of the sky (excluding TransPluto, since Jones didn’t use it in defining his patterns), it means that the Jones pattern in the sky is primarily influenced by the position of the inner planets. In this chart, we have six planets in Aquarius sandwiched between Neptune and Pluto, and because the entire occupied planetary span is 112+ degrees, this is a classic “Bundle” Jones pattern.

The Bundle Pattern and how it works

This type of spread, with all the planets occupying approximately one third of the signs with two thirds unoccupied, creates “the least common of the seven basic differentiations,” and creates a “bunching of interests or the intensive self-gathering which is least responsive to any universal stimulus” and as Dr. Jones noted in a section on another pattern, a “special obsession with some particularly narrowed aspect of experience” which characterizes the Bundle people.

He continues that “the meaning of the concentration of the ten planets in one single third of the zodiac is that the course of the native’s life is held to certain narrow bounds of opportunism,” and they are “almost completely inhibited, in contrast with the outstanding lack of inhibition in the Splash pattern. He then goes on to say that “Characteristic of the Bundle type is an outstanding capacity for making much of little, or for building small beginnings into great and often unanticipated final results.” He also notes this type can mold their world “by some highly centralized force of self-concentration.” This type is not universal in the slightest, but rather “brings universe to center.”

With Pluto in Capricorn leading the concentration of planets, and thus the entry to the entire pattern, it shows we need to be transformationally disciplined and organized as we enter into a deeper union with the World Soul. As Pluto is relentless in its purifying power, this is a time to note the seeds of the future, and use “Economy of Energy” as the means to bring forth “mutations from Cosmos” as per the Saturn degree ruling all the planets in the sky.

Those of us who learned “structured mobilization” when Jupiter was in Capricorn can now demonstrate a mature and compassionate mind being fearless in its experience of the NOW. This month puts the spotlight on communicating how we’ve managed difficult interactions in the past as the means to deal with them in the future. Here we need a sense of humor and detachment to deal with those who stubbornly cling to old ways and means.

With Mars in Taurus closing the Bundle, find ways to allow a new spontaneity to come forth. This is about purifying the mind so the eternal potential can operate through us. Be slow, steady, pleasant and determined to bring forth the new life, the new land, the new vision, and the new effort indicated by Mars in Taurus. We’ve already embraced “a new quality of Being rendering the old patterns obsolete,” and at this time, since Pluto will continue to open the span of experience for months to come, and Mars in Taurus will end the span of experience also for months to come, use the Earth trine to cultivate practical ways of encouraging friendly competition while cleaning out all which obstructs your connection with the World Soul. This leads with individual, mental, and spiritual Crystallization, and closes with actional-material confirmation.

The Outer Planets Anchor the Pattern of A Third of the Sky

Because Jupiter has been approaching the outer planet span for several years, it has played a major part in how we entered life experience. It's why sometimes these past few years have seemed like a wild ride, an adventure, a quest, and more! With willingness, power, vision, and greater possibilities to contribute to a greater future good, we are now in the midst of a Cosmic “judgment day,” and must choose how we will express ourselves in our world, for better or worse. This has prepared us for the forceful awakening happening now, with the great mobilization happening.

In 2020 Jupiter entered the outer planet occupied span, and will be there for several years. Last year it made multiple conjunctions with Pluto, expanding and purifying that powerful energy wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. After Jupiter’s third and final conjunction with Pluto in November, Pluto again leads the outer planet occupied span for decades to come as that occupied span opens up after Jupiter conjuncts Uranus and moves into Gemini in 2024.

That means we’ll have “competing conjunctions” in the larger global tides, since those Capricorn conjunctions will be in play for quite a while, along with the Mars conjunct Saturn coupled with the Grand Mutation Jupiter conjunct with Saturn, both at 1 Aquarius. The Aquarian conjunctions launched a new 20 year and 200 year era, so take a look at how you organized, reorganized, or restructured your life in 2020 and see how you prepared to find power flowing to you and from you as we all move into a vaster tide of evolution related to long term Aquarian wave forms.

In this New Moon, we have two intense occupied spans. The first is the Lunation plus Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn all within a 16+ degree span, and the second is Mars and Uranus at 8-19 Taurus. This month the inner planets are all concentrated between Venus at 12 Aquarius and the Lunation at 24 Aquarius, making that 10+ degree span the primary personal focus. Those two sectors will be very highly active these next 4 weeks.

The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon

A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following month will demonstrate. This Lunation falls at 24 Aquarius, and it is said that the last third decan) of any sign deals with the individual, mental, and spiritual levels of life, and being the third decan of Aquarius it has a sub-influence of Libra with an added dose of the Moon. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.

The Sabian Symbol we’ve been given for the 24th degree of Aquarius is "A man turning his back on his passions and teaching from his experience.” In the original notes from the Marc Jones class on the symbols published in The Astrology of Personality, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “utilization of experience and passion by the intelligence that remains un-involved,” “self-conquering,” and “genuine dispassion.”

In The Astrological Mandala, he states this degree involves "the constructive use to which difficult past experiences can be put as examples for those who are still striving to overcome their passions.” He offers that “every type of experience can be made to serve a spiritual purpose,” and that anyone can be an example to those who are still struggling to discipline “the compulsive drives of their emotional-biological natures.” He continues “whoever has managed a difficult performance contributes to the collective wisdom” of their community and humankind.

He states that “every achievement is to be passed on to those who may be inspired by it” to greater efforts, and puts forth that “it is the responsibility of anyone who has taken one step ahead in (their) evolution to help others to take that step. This is true education. The keyword is communicability.” He says it falls in the span of Perspective, and it's the fourth degree of the emotional-cultural level of the scene of Management in the Act of Capitalization.

According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of “the complete self-obsession which human individuality may exhibit” in terms of “a sensitiveness to the world and its exactions.” He states there is value in “a generous and broad participation in everyday life, and the necessity that any personal refinement be preserved through the sharing of its rewards.”

He continues “The self assimilates itself to its own higher vision and so achieves an outer selflessness,” and gives us the keyword SERENITY. He says that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is "effective accomplishment through a genuine peace of inner understanding.”

From this symbol we see that the theme of the next month involves techniques of communicating wisdom based in our direct experience for the purpose of teaching others who deal with those things. Given Mercury’s retrograde, one of three things is happening; a) we’re looking back at the past when we were able to help others to deal with their lower natures; b) we’re looking with new eyes at recent events requiring us to ways to communicate intelligently our disciplines of dispassion; or c) we can see how to rededicate ourselves in the future to achieve a offer the world our wisdom.

Important Aspects

Remember that in reading a Lunation chart (as well as a horary, inceptional, electional, or any event chart) the forming aspects show things to come, while separating aspects show things already past. Partile separating aspects show what’s been going on in the Now. This section covers only forming and partile separating aspects.

We’re done with our run of transit to transit oppositions except for when the Moon is outside the occupied span. Those with planets in late Cancer, early Leo, mid-Virgo, and early Scorpio have already been dealing with oppositions due to the outer planets, which will continue for some time to come, especially through Leo and early Virgo due to the transits of Jupiter and Saturn this year. Coming weeks will continue the oppositions to natal planets we may have in the signs listed above.

There are very few aspects in the Lunation chart. In fact, probably fewer than almost all the Lunations of the past year! Obviously we’re in the thick of the conflicts which will last all year and beyond, due to the Saturn square Uranus. This month we have only one significant transformational evolutionary configuration, that being the Grand Irrationality triggered by Uranus biseptile Pluto.

The aspects include the Lunation vigintile Saturn, quintile Uranus, and semisextile Pluto; Mercury conjunct Venus and Jupiter, binovile Uranus and elftile Neptune; Venus square Mars, conjunct Jupiter, decile Neptune, and vigintile Pluto; and Mars is biseptile Saturn, sextile Neptune, and trine Pluto.

Outer planet aspects are very few. We see Jupiter decile Neptune and vigintile Pluto; Saturn square Uranus, and Uranus biseptile Pluto.

Special Configurations in Evolutionary Astrology

As noted, this month there is one evolutionary configuration directly in play, and noted it’s the Grand Irrationality with Uranus biseptile Pluto. These two continue to anchor the seven pointed Star of Destiny, indicating major choices and changes to any planets or points we may have near 24-28 Capricorn, 15-19 Pisces, 6-10 Taurus, 27 Gemini-1 Cancer, 18-22 Leo, 10-14 Libra, and 2-6 Sagittarius. If you have something in one or more of these zones, you’ve been making crucial long term choices all year about how you want to position yourself within a greater collective work.

Explaining Harmonics

As I mentioned, this month doesn’t have many aspects. The major ones include the Lunation promising high specialization by its quintile to Uranus, Mercury conjunct Venus and Jupiter, Venus square Mars and conjunct Jupiter, the very powerful “three note chord” indicated by Mars sextile Neptune and trine Pluto, and the ubiquitous Saturn square Uranus.

We have more than a few specializing aspects, with 4 vigintiles, 2 deciles, and 2 quintiles. Spiritual aspects include only 1 binovile from Mercury to Uranus, showing what’s revealed may take some time to be made manifest, but also that patterns which have been gestating for a while are now coming to the fore so we can see what’s coming down the road. Basically, the 9th harmonic indicates things which need to be put on the shelf for a while, or that which has been gestating can now move forward. If you want to know more about this important “spiritual gestation” series which mark points of potential spiritual realization and integration, there are several articles in the archives.

This month we have 1 elftile, and in the nonrational septile series, we have 2 biseptiles. The former indicate that faith is required to deal with some dualities, and the latter indicate the “follow up choices and changes” to prior forks in the road of destiny.

Venus and Jupiter provide release via the square to Mars, which builds through the sextile and trine, even if things may get weird due to the biseptile to Saturn. Those most affected by this “fork in the road of destiny” have planets or points near 5-9 Aquarius, 26-30 Pisces, 17-21 Taurus, 9-13 Cancer, 1-5 Virgo, 22-26 Libra, and 14-18 Sagittarius. If you have any of these zones active, count of some peculiar twists and turns as “new continents arise fresh and green” in your life!

The novile (9th harmonic), septile (7th harmonic) and elftile (11th harmonic) series all feature spiritual aspects. All novile series aspects represent gestative energies that can lead to great spiritual realizations. Septile series aspects represent forks in the road of destiny, while the elftile series aspects represent issues and points of evolution where we confront the need to resolve some sort of duality by making a leap of faith to attain a form of mastery over that type of duality. This series tests our faith.

The quintile and biquintile (5th harmonic) and related 10th (decile and tredecile), 15th (quindecile), and 20th harmonic (vigintile) aspects are all specialization aspects. You can find more by going to Astrology Class on the Specializing Aspects Pt. 1 – The Quintile and Biquintile, and Astrology Class on the Specializing Aspects Part 2 – The Decile, Tredecile, Quindecile and the Vigintile.

You can find out more about the spiritual aspects (septile, novile, and elftile series) by referencing this brief overview of the Spiritual aspects, complete with glyphs for all of them.

Element Balance and Who’s Leading the Sun

This month we have the 10 traditional planets occupying 4 signs in a very imbalanced element distribution. We have no planets in Fire (inspiration and warmth), 3 planets in Earth (practical grounding, 1 in Water (feelings and experiencing), and 6 in Air (relatedness and communicating). This month we have Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, and Taurus represented, with no planet in the other signs.

Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, we are in the equivalent of a polar freeze! We have no “lightness and brightness” of Fire, with the only Water the vast collective fog of Neptune in Pisces. Any “lightness” comes from the Aquarian energy, and all of the heaviness comes from the Earth in this chart.

Because the New Moon falls in late Aquarius, Mercury retrograde at 17 Aquarius is the planet currently leading the Sun. That means “the Gateway to the Light” involves Mercury, the “Guide of Souls” as the way to approach the Greater Light. Mercury is exalted in Aquarius, so whatever reviews, reflections, rehearsals, or returns promised by Mercury will lead us to new mutations based in Cosmic pulses, given Saturn rules Mercury (and the Lunation) from its home sign of Aquarius. Given Mercury’s degree, we need to cultivate protective mechanisms as we rest after “striking gold.”

The current sequence at present of Deciding, Feeling, and Thinking

We’ve been through several different sequences over the past few months. There are six patterns, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. We are now in a time of shifting patterns, and this Lunation begins a new one. As a process of moving through events, over the next 4 weeks the most effective “firing sequence” for approaching life and experience involves leading with our feelings, then thinking, communicating, and getting new information before we make decisions.

This pattern leads with it feelings and hunches to find its way into new views, new understanding, and new perceptions. The trick (especially with Mercury retrograde) is not to get caught in a loop of wanting more and more information when it’s time to act. When we get a vision, understanding, or communication, then it will be important to make a decision and act on it. Once we make the decision, then a new feeling experience will help us renew our effort to find the right view so we can again act with clarity.

So follow your feelings, and then search for information to confirm or deny those hunches. After you’ve allowed your feelings to move you into a search for meaning, information, or a vision, then reduce everything to a simple fact based on which you can make a clear and simple decision you can act on.

Those with deciding/doing at the end of their pattern always need to remember they are on a journey of ten thousand decisions which allow them to take it one step at a time. So during this time period, open to a deeper feeling-knowing, but strive for objectivity and a new view or understanding of whatever presents itself. Then when you’ve considered the information or vision from enough angles, make your decision and take the single step to move everything forward that one step.

So when you are moved by a feeling or experience, it will naturally lead to a quest for new information or a new vision or understanding. Once we get the view or understanding we need, then make your decision and act accordingly. You will find a new feeling-experience naturally arises after the decision and/or action, which will naturally lead to a quest for even more information or understanding.

Summing Up

This New Moon in Aquarius continues the dawning of a new day! This opens a broader Aquarian view of the infinite possibilities in front of us. We are moving into unknown broader views of the interrelatedness of things, continuing our journey into the new 200 year Air Era which will eventually kill out the roots of materialistic separateness. Everything is future oriented, and this New Moon sets a lot of Aquarian patterns which will be expanded by Jupiter this year and crystallized by Saturn this year and next.

Those who can understand the bigger trends will be lifted up as if on wings. This continues to power up the “graduation into a new realm of Being” we began this time last year, and with Aquarius so strong, we continue to live our truths on our own terms within the greater collective consciousness we live in, knowing who our Spiritual Brothers and Sisters are.

Expect a huge acceleration and expansion beginning in April 2021, so move into the quickening with understanding and breadth of vision. Get a new idea, a new understanding, a new way of viewing the possibilities.

Because the recent Sagittarius Solar Eclipse will be powerful for a long time to come, taking some things away, remember that what’s left will be a balanced way of being happy. If you feel called to mediate, or do prayers and meditations to interrupt or mitigate karma (to whatever degree is permitted), even if you don’t know how to do what to do then imitate a way to do it anyway!

Do not clutch, and learn to dance with the swirl of inspired energies freeing you for greater things. We’ve now entered a period of living our highest inspired teachings, and are no longer bound to the old Earth interpretations and explanations. While we are still feeling the effects of the Capricorn energies set loose in 2020, we also have crossed the threshold of an era unknown to humanity since the 13th and 14th centuries. Even then, we were still in the depth of the Age of Pisces, so the awakening of new ideas then were relative to the old era, whereas what’s coming involves wave after wave of Aquarian energies, pushing us to the coming Great Age emerging in the second half of this century.

These long wave Aquarian pulses were initially set into motion by the Mars conjunct Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, 2020. This marked the initiation of certain archetypal Aquarian preliminary structures offered by Saturn. The promise and potential of the new Aquarian pulse then began to expand into a greater social and cultural vision beginning at the Jupiter conjunction with Saturn, the Grand Mutation of the Solstice also at 1 Aquarius. So we have 20 years of Aquarian energies set into motion by that conjunction!

Of note is that Mars will transit Aquarius in March and April 2022, giving a new impetus to the Aquarian structures which begin to grow in 2021. After that, the next time Mars transits Aquarius is February and March 2024. It will conjunct Pluto at 1 Aquarius in February about 3 weeks after Pluto’s first ingress into Aquarius. That begins the Pluto in Aquarius “generation” of the 21st century which lasts until 2043. As there will be a Jupiter conjunction with Pluto at 15 Aquarius in 2033, we’ll see the “expansion of the Angels of the Age of Aquarius” at that time.

We are all actively in a long term “metamorphosis” which will open a new adventure for all of us by the Summer of 2021. And because the last two degrees of Aquarius show us what the end of the coming Age of Aquarius is about, last year helped us remember we are Beings of Light, a Superstar shining the Light of our Eternal Love into our world.

Last year’s Solar Eclipses have helped us all turn a Cosmic Corner and move in a new direction. We’ve “lowered one flag and raised a new one” and will continue to do so for many months and years. The “Cosmic Recycler” quality of the Cancer eclipse is helping remove old habits and sentimentalities, and many things which used to be familiar patterns in our lives have ended, are ending, or will end.

Both Eclipses are removing all we do not need in our Cancer and Sagittarius response in the houses they fell in. The Sag Eclipse is removing all which blocks our happiness, and I’m certainly looking forward to the restoration of more humor, more freedom, more largeness of vision, and greater truths and futures promised as old obsolete Sag forms are taken away.

Keep it simple as you further the bonds of fellowship with others who are in your spiritual community. We have entered a long term period of focusing on the fellowship between people, ridding ourselves of preconceptions and opening to a greater sense of grounded connection with our Spiritual Brothers and Sisters.

We’ve awakened to and been practicing some “special quality” in our personality to find new ways of expressing our Higher Self. We have been in training for long term group work, where we can find nourishment among those with whom we are linked on a Soul level. New groups of Spiritual communities formed last year and will continue to form this year, and those which are Aquarian in nature will be “lifted on the wings of angels” in 2021. We are learning not to play to the generic confusion, irrationality, and misleading notions. Revolution is in the air! And when you find things and people of eternal worth, value them with all your heart.

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

Saturn has now begun its long stay in its home sign of Aquarius. We still have the individual, mental, and spiritual levels of the group work set into motion last year, but now have entered a new quality of Saturn’s nature. In Aquarius, Saturn continues to be the final dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius from now through 2023. It was a major influence in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Eclipses, continuing its years-long power behind events.

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.

Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization. We now can use the “organized personal structure” we built in in Capricorn and move into our greater Aquarian group work to concretize a spiritual ideal for the future, with an eye to the greatest good for the greatest number. We now continue our structuring and restructuring to fix our spiritual energy making our spiritual life come alive.

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.

Here’s part 1 on this stabilizing, visionary, communicative and educative New Moon, with the overview, dispositors, the Grand Irrationality, Nodes, and more!

The February 2021 New Moon at 24 Aquarius Pt. 1 - Who Does It Affect and for How Long?

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

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with persmission from Robert Wilkinson.