What’s Happening in August...

This New Moon puts the focus on admiring the best in contrasting views and approaches rather than get into angry confrontations about our differences. This is a very beneficial New Moon, even if it will be somewhat disruptive!

This Lunation will play out on the emotional and social levels of life, with freedom in the air and the need to remember that as we embrace the new, often the old answers cannot confirm the new conditions of existence. There are profound things to “hear” in the coming months, with the need to “rise to the occasion” in some way to bring something under control. Much of the conflict this month will be directly related to the coming long term conflict promised by Saturn square Uranus while Saturn occupies its stationary direct degree at 19 Aquarius.

The next four weeks will open a lot of doors which we’ll go through after mid-December, and those who are sensitive and gentle will make great progress. This is a month of “the revolution of the purified mind,” with unique and/or brilliant insights available to those with inspired receptivity or receptive inspiration. Venus is leading us to strength coupled with flexibility.

This Lunation introduces a new focus wherever we have 6 Leo, which is an energy of “cross generational aesthetic admiration.” This New Moon is very favorably linked with the May Wesak Full Moon, as well as the Solar Eclipse at 11 Taurus which was activated in a big way recently when Mars transited that degree. This year’s Taurus eclipses continue to remove everything in our “garden of life and mind” which is past its expiration date while giving us ample opportunities to show we are qualified to occupy our “spiritual office.” We’ve now begun several months of learning how to utilize spiritual power effectively as a result of recent tests in managing our mind.

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, inspired, fiery and creative-expressive New Moon at 6 Leo occurs at 10:55 am PDT, 6:55 pm BST on July 28. We’re now in a time of the year when we have a very strong Taurus, Cancer, and Leo presence, with Aries in the background. We’ve finished a period when the Aries transits have brought us wisdom, promise, and a lot of power to move things forward. The healing process we’ve begun this Spring will bring major benefits from late December through April 2023.

Because of what was opened in the Pisces transits, we’ve gotten closure on old memories and ghosts while learning how to tune into the vaster “feeling field.” Remember that given the collective frustration and anguish, just because you feel something it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you!

We’ve all experienced the larger “feeling field” associated with Pisces. That’s opened us to collective sorrows beyond description. However, because we’re here to feel all there is to feel and keep our equilibrium despite being tossed in the tempest of timeless human emotions, this has been and continues to be the perfect time to practice dispassion by accepting a greater compassion for the human condition.

The Aries energies set into motion when Mars conjuncted Jupiter in Aries has brought us to a more “here and now” action-oriented frame of expansion. When in doubt, have courage to take the initiative to get things in motion, since in the NOW there is no past or future to distract us. The Taurus energies helped us stabilize the new beginnings, with prior transits of Gemini and Cancer opening new understanding and ways to consolidate our gains.

We’re now done with a Spring which was the end of the end of a long wave cycle, bringing forth experiences of feeling inspired, uplifted, deep, overwhelmed, and launched all at the same time. Things have begun to open which will catch fire in 2023. This is going to be a dramatic time of spiritual realizations, despite the apparent differences in those realizations. Our recent “reshuffling of the tribes” on a very deep level can now benefit us all through embracing diverse views and approaches.

This New Moon will jumpstart Leo energy wherever it falls in our chart. Wherever we have Leo will be a focus of activity, so open to a newer heart-felt responses to social and creative challenges. As Leo is a Fixed sign, this Lunation begins a month of self-sustaining inspired engagements which express our hearts, further our creative interactions, and show us “how to play the game with honor and skill” in our new realm on social and emotional levels.

A Look Back - The Great Compression of 2020 in Capricorn Still Affects Us

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 Saturn cycles, one of which will last 33 years! We then began 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 the Capricorn conjunctions set in motion in 2020, we reorganized our lives wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. These cycles will impact all of us for some time to come. Especially with three Jupiter conjunctions with Pluto that year, it’s easy to see that for better or worse things were “expansively purified.” All that was promised by these cycles was renewed in late February and early March 2022 as Venus and Mars transited all the conjunction points.

When Mars conjuncted Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, 2020, it set a cycle into motion which began to expand into a global system at the December 2020 Grand Mutation. That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction launched 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! All of this began a new expression when Venus and Mars made their conjunction on that point in early March.

Saturn in Aquarius is leading us to understand 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? We began work on those structures in 2020 which led us to a greater vision in 2021. As Venus is now biseptile Saturn and Mars is sextile Saturn, we turn a corner with maximum productivity as some things melt down while other things are consolidated.

Occupied Signs and Oppositions

Because of the transits into Cancer and Leo, we’re again in the time of the year when we’ll have inner planets making oppositions to the outer planets. We’ve already had Mercury and the Sun opposed Pluto, and they’re on their way to oppose Saturn. Venus is now beginning its string of oppositions beginning with Pluto, so we’re now in a time when the outer planet cycles set into motion in January, February, and March will begin to externalize in the world.

Of course, if we have planets in late Cancer, late Leo, late Virgo, or mid-Scorpio we are going through some VERY long wave outer planet oppositions, with potential for very high awareness of how to ground new ideals, new public expression, and new ways to related to your 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, and Capricorn patterns, allowing newer ones to take shape.

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). I term these the “Natural” pattern and the “Alternate” pattern, since the Natural pattern shows a continuity of the Light, whereas the Alternate pattern bridges the Light across two signs.

Ten months ago we began a new pattern of the New Moon Sun being in the same sign as the following Full Moon Sun. Each pattern has its importance in the Soli-Lunar sequence, and now we no longer “bridge the Light” across two different Light signs in the Lunation cycle. This month’s New Moon is at 6 Leo, and the coming Full Moon will be at 2o Leo/Aquarius, indicating the Light of the seed forms of the New Moon will be illuminated in the same sign energy two weeks from now.

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 twentieth New Moon of the Saturn in Aquarius era which will last until the New Moon of February 2023. We are now midway in the third year of the cycle set into motion at its rare and very powerful conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn in January 2020, with a current Aquarian influence due to Saturn.

Taking a look back, 2020 brought us a “cosmic visitation” which “galvanized us into action” to “escape from adverse conditions.” That year Nature challenged us to listen, look, and learn that we are not separate from Her, and evaluate what parts of our Self-disciplines and duties work and which ones didn’t.

The lesson of 2021 involved learning a technique of spiritual acceleration by getting a vision, a plan, and a time to begin whatever will short cut the time needed for expanded awareness and effectiveness. Saturn has been teaching us “the way within to outer success,” with a promise of “direct accomplishment.” These began to be realized in January 2022. Its direct station in October 2021 indicates we’ve been in a period of “new mutations based in Cosmos” coming forth, unrelated to past or local conditions. In other words, it’s safe to say we have had a lot showing up since October which is a fresh “emanation” from Spirit.

One of Saturn’s divine qualities is understanding as a prelude to wisdom. With Jupiter’s transit through Aquarius leading the Saturn transit, Saturn is tracking what Jupiter opened. As Saturn traverses the span where Jupiter has danced, it will crystallize its understanding of what that span of experience is about, and how we can use it wisely if we find the right structure and discipline.

Having finished our experience of the Jupiter in Aquarius era, we took a deep dive into the vast Piscean ocean which Jupiter calls home. In late May it entered Aries, where it will stay until it slips back to the last two degrees of Pisces in November and December. Jupiter in Aquarius gave us a new level of awareness, which we learned to feel more deeply in Pisces so that we can launch new initiatives this Summer which will take off like rocket ships in 2023! We’re definitely on a 20 year journey into Aquarius experiences based in the two 2020 conjunctions of Mars/Saturn and Jupiter/Saturn at 1 Aquarius.

Also remember Jupiter conjuncted Pluto three times in 2020, setting long wave transformational energies into motion at 23 and 25 Capricorn which will be in play through 2033. These conjunction themes have been renewed by the transit of Venus and Mars over these degrees, and now that Venus and Mars conjuncted at 1 Aquarius and conjunct Saturn in late Aquarius, we’ve begun yet another set of global Aquarian energies which will come forth over the next year.

So What Rules the Lunation?

This New Moon in Leo has the Sun as its worldly ruler and the Moon as its spiritual ruler. The Moon is in Leo, so the Sun rules the Lunation. As Leo is in the axis of the Ruler/Orphan, it adds an element of nobility and “shining self sufficiency” with the need to make sure to balance ruling with serving, allowing ego-will to serve Divine Will.

Mercury is in Leo, making the Sun its ruler. Venus is in Cancer, ruled by the Moon and therefore the Sun. Mars in Taurus is ruled by Venus which is ruled by the Sun, and Jupiter is ruled by Mars. Saturn is in its home sign of Aquarius, making it the ruler of Pluto in Capricorn. Uranus is in Taurus, making the Sun its final ruler, and as usual, Neptune is still in its home sign, continuing as a longwave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness.

So we’re back to having three planets in their home signs, or “final dispositors,” this month, with the Sun the dominate force behind the scenes due to it ruling all the planets except Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto. 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 is still a major force to be reckoned with this year and next, bringing “cosmic mutations” which now challenge our skill at managing and utilizing spiritual power, it plays a large part in ruling the social and cultural cycles in our lives. It will continue to dominate the stage of Life for many months and even years to come, so if you haven’t already gotten a copy, 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 created an article which explains what it is, how long it’s been in effect, and which signs 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. (I’ll be updating it soon.)

This Lunation keeps The Grand Irrationality in full focus, as Mars conjuncts Uranus and septiles Neptune! This precipitates unexpected, or rebellious, or innovative, or hard edged choices and changes in the collective field. This continues the non-stop activation of the configuration by transits in mid-Taurus, early Cancer, late Leo, and late Libra. The next activation takes place with the transits between 28 Leo and 2 Virgo.

The configuration is also activated when the Moon transits any of the 7 “hot zones,” as well as when planets make 7th harmonic angles to Uranus and Neptune. This configuration is associated with the 7-pointed “Star of Destiny” active at this hard edge in history. Because at this time Uranus and Neptune are constant factors in the configuration, it keeps nonrational energies in play for those with a planet or point in any of the 7 affected “hot zones” near 2-6 Aquarius, 24-28 Pisces, 16-20 Taurus, 7-11 Cancer, 28 Leo-2 Virgo, 20-24 Libra, and 11-15 Sagittarius.

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 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 2022 – 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 manifested in Pisces. Because Chiron is in Aries, we 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 still at 17 Aries, its SRX degree. It will continue to retrograde back until it goes direct at 12 Aries in December. Then it moves forward again, finally hitting 20 Aries by next July. You can see how the dance Jupiter will do with Chiron this year and next will radically expand our healing and mentoring wherever we have 18-22 Aries.

That implies the themes of 17 Aries are extremely important at this time through next Spring, indicating Chiron is mentoring and teaching us how to heal into our Higher Self through knowing when to withdraw from people and situations with dignity. This begins a period of reflecting on how we’ve understood the dance of the visible world with the invisible world, opened to a greater understanding of the “relationships between (the) conscious and unconscious sides of life,” seen a greater purpose, joined the inner male and inner female, and allowed a new identity to reveal itself. We now revisit the actional level of “potency” and the individual and spiritual level of “Is-Be-Ness.”

We are now solidly into Chiron’s healing and mentoring energies in the second decan of Aries. For the past 2 years, we’ve gotten a new understanding about how we’ve “reinterpreted old images in a new light of understanding” since the 2020 Mars/Chiron conjunction at 10 Aries. You can find out more about the themes of 10 Aries at Astrology Healing Cycles - Mars Conjunct Chiron Stationary Retrograde at 10 Aries. So Aries dominated the past Mars/Chiron cycle, and we just began a new one with the recent Mars Conjunct Chiron at 16 Aries which takes us into the future.

Neptune continues to take us deeper into Pisces, and now is beginning its long term stay in the last decan, ruled by Scorpio with an added dose of Mars. This is “the end of the end” of the 360 degree “Whole Cycle,” and so encompasses all of the ghosts and unfulfilled mysteries of this past 150 year cycle since it was last here. It also allows us to purify and forgive much of the past and move into a deeper compassion regarding suffering humanity.

Having heard our inner voice, “taken a walk with our wisdom,” and received our promised nourishment “at the end of our day of labor,” we’ve now learned entirely new ways to “touch and be touched,” whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. Since last Summer, we’ve all been awakened to an expanded tactile awareness, giving us more of a kinesthetic experience of learning. You can learn more about the primary and secondary methods of how we learn all we learn by going to The Seven Different Types of Learning Styles – Pt. 1 and The Seven Different Types of Learning and Teaching Styles – Pt. 2

This New Moon shows Neptune on its retrograde station at 26 Pisces, a degree of “the poetry of inner being” where we can see the value of each Being dealing with a given thing in their own way. Rudhyar says this is a degree where we realize “the fallacy of totalitarianism,” learning that each of us gets to respond as we will to a generic event or experience. As this is the retrograde station, we’ll be dealing with this for many months to come. Remember too that the recent Jupiter conjunct Neptune has begun to open us to a sense of our interrelatedness with others in our spiritual field. This expanded “non-local knowing” was launched with that conjunction, and will be a focus for the next 13 years.

The North Node

This is the seventh New Moon with the North Node in Taurus and the South Node in Scorpio. During the time the Nodes were in Gemini/Sag, we grew through our quest for knowledge and understanding demonstrating our ethical and spiritual values. Now, with the Nodes in Taurus and Scorpio, we must examine the meaning of value and substance in our lives, letting go of stagnant emotions and obsolete things. In this chart, the line of greatest development is on a degree of “mystical and ecstatic states of consciousness” pulling us into our new life developing these past two months. We now have a new sense of mission which will confirm something in our emotional or social life. Keep it simple, pleasant, and stable as you move forward into the unknown, leaving behind the lesser and opening to receiving the greater.

Summing Up - The Big Picture

The Capricorn conjunctions of early 2020 continue to condition the long wave cycles unfolding since then as we continue to use those structures to fulfill the emergent Aquarian energies. Jupiter has raced through Pisces after its time in Aquarius and opened infinite potentials which will be actualized over the next 20 years. What Jupiter opened in 2021, Saturn will crystallize in 2022 and 2023, with major transfigurations to come in 2023.

We are in a time of learning to spot “seed forms” to make our expression more precise and efficient. Having opened to a wider experience of life’s Oneness, concentrate to see the whole picture while allowing yourself to be transformed by the spiritual energy pouring out into the world since the Full Moon of Gemini/Sagittarius. Be efficient in your adaptations, and keep eliminating all in your “garden of life and mind” which you don’t want to deal with.

All of us are learning to listen to the inner voice, do our own thing, and embrace a new spontaneity by cleaning out our mind’s attachments to perceptions and interpretations. We continue our training to be more effective in utilizing forms of spiritual power during the second half of this year. The learning began at Jupiter’s direct station last September, and now Saturn is bringing structure and form to that training.

Since Jupiter is at the beginning of Aries and was just conjuncted by Mars, embrace the new with enthusiasm and courage! This is the time to jump into action with an eye to core principles and goals. It’s a great time to do our own thing in our own way as we demonstrate our capacity to use spiritual power effectively. We continue to be in a time of receiving rewards from Spirit for our courage and willingness to rise to some occasion as a prelude to events this Autumn of challenges and “exaggerations of our life problems” which will expand us.

Summing Up – The Immediate Picture

This Lunation brings the Light of accepting alternative views and approaches on the emotional and social levels of life, and brings new lines of seeing that it takes all kinds to make a world, and all of us together are more aware, capable, and knowledgeable than we are separately. This is an expansive month, so make the most of it!

This period is very dynamic, open, expressive, and dramatic, with genius in the air. Just beware of eccentric or erratic people, or situations which are potentially volatile due to unpredictability. The old answers won’t be useful to deal with new conditions, so be strong and flexible as you find yourself on some sort of life stage.

Bring the unique, progressive, or pioneering genius of the moment into practical expression, move “from anticipation to accomplishment,” and anchor the theory in practice. If you are moved to embrace a progressive cause or idea, give it a test drive, but remember things can become weird in a heartbeat due to the erratic volatility of Mercury square Mars conjunct Uranus! Demonstrate good Scorpio and Aquarius skills to deal with fixed conflicts.

With Venus leading the Sun, people are important, and with Cancer as the entry to the Great Light, look for the beauty in the tender strength indicated by Venus in that sign. With Venus sextile Mars and Uranus and tredecile Neptune, your feelings will lead you through any lack of clarity into simple productivity. Overall, the aspects are very favorable, which I’ll discuss in the next part.

This is a time to get a lot done, since Mercury will soon slow to go retrograde in early September. Put your energy into the new beginnings started by the Mars/Jupiter conjunction in Aries, since this is the natural time to let all of it expand in some creative or playful way. Open to the dynamic potential of this time, remembering that crosscurrents will be in the air by late August as a prelude to the coming Mars retrograde between October and December.

Final Thoughts

We’ve already hit a turning point in our tests of using spiritual power and/or magnetism wisely, with new heart strengths coming forth all Summer via “spiritual linkage through emotional stress” and “the blessings which come forth after the death of useless things.” Accept the new roles, new realizations, and new duties which may seem like you’ve done them before. Continue to ride the waves of a gigantic future opening to you wherever you have Aquarius and Aries in your chart, welcoming the new, the promise, the protection, and the adventure. Remember enlightenment is a verb, not a noun, and our connection with the World Soul allows us to act in harmony with “All That Is.”

Even though the long term conflict between the old and the new is not yet completed, take heart, get focused, and continue to eliminate all you no longer need or which would block your happiness. Because of our total immersion in Aquarian energy in 2021, we’ve received innovative ideas and know who our spiritual allies are. In the past 18 months we’ve broken away, broken free, and broken through whatever used to block our flow. We approach a new cooperative era, and the next few weeks give opportunities to demonstrate our skill and mastery of process.

We’re still becoming more conscious of our interrelatedness within the spiritual field and moving through an immersion in a new sensitivity to the generic human condition. The new era dawning will show us that we are in fact individual sparks of Light within an infinite ocean of Light. We are not separate from any other thing, since all things are Light and therefore we are one with All.

This is the beginning of the beginning of a new 200 year era. The powerful forces being released at times may be chaotic, violent, intractable, and irrational, but there is power in our unified vision of a better future. Stay clear about what your vision is, and let go of all which prevents you from flying free with your Spiritual Brothers and Sisters into a better future. Keep the course steady despite the compressed tensions of this time, and know we’re on our way into the future together!

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

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

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