Signs, Sabian Symbols, and What It All Means

This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this Solstice Solar Eclipse chart. We are now at the far side of the year between Bundle patterns, and now are solidly in a Bowl pattern. The next 4 weeks (and 5+ years!) requires that we reorient however we need to, since destiny’s on the move for us all! We now have 5 planets retrograde, showing this Eclipse will shut down a lot of unfinished business from the past.

This month puts the focus on the sign Cancer, with a huge dose of Capricorn and Pisces with a strong backdrop in Aquarius. This one gives us a chance to turn in a new direction in the future as many old Cancer things fall away from our lives in the house where this Eclipse falls. Because of 5 planets retrograde, expect karmic returns. There may also be “reversals” in decisions, but given we’re in the middle of a long term period of “tag team retrogrades,” I’d say flexibility, humility, practicality, and a sense of play and humor are what’s needed to stay on track.

As I told you in part 1, the Moon and Saturn dominate the stage, with Mercury also prominent on center stage through being the closing planet of the Bowl pattern. We’re now at the far side of the Great Compression of 2020, with those numerous conjunctions in Capricorn between January and March determining future patterns for years and decades to come. Coming oppositions from Cancer will bring many things to the surface directly related to those conjunctions!

As I explained in the main article on The Great Compressions of Early 2020, 2021, and 2022, in January through March 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!

As you understand by now, different months bring us different Jones Patterns, depending on the position of the Moon and the inner planets relative to the outer planets. 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 the other outer planets in Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, and ends with Uranus in Taurus. Now that the inner planets are in Gemini and Cancer, they’re outside the outer planet span and approaching their oppositions to planets in Capricorn, soon to be joined by Saturn.

So given where they are, it’s a hemispheric distribution with all the planets in a 170 degree span. With all the outer planets in a span of 105 degrees, less than a third of the sky (excluding TransPluto, since Jones didn’t use it in defining his patterns), it means that since early May the Jones pattern in the sky is primarily influenced by the position of the inner planets, which will shift the pattern continuously between now and November. In this chart, the Eclipse, Mercury and Venus are all on the far side of the occupied span, making this pattern an almost perfect Bowl, as the span is very close to the 180 ideal.

So What is a “Bowl Pattern” and how does it work?

This type of spread, with all the planets occupying approximately half of the signs with an empty half opposite the occupies half, creates a “special type of conscious selfhood,” which Dr. Jones says “marks the Bowl type of temperament. He goes on to state “Fundamentally it is an extreme self-containment,” which “holds things, and a Bowl individual is one who always has something to bear.”

He goes on to state that with the Bowl, “the whole dynamic of man, his total power of achievement, arises in his instinctive realization that he is set off against a definite part of the world, that there is a complete segment of experience from which he is excluded in some subtle fashion. The Bowl not only holds something, but also places whatever it holds into relationship with a larger consideration.”

Dr. Jones continues that “the occupied segment of the Bowl horoscope reveals the activity and organization of the self, since planets are significant according to their place by sign and house, and the unoccupied segment becomes a challenge to existence, or the need and emptiness to which the native must direct his attention. The outstanding characteristic of the Bowl temperament is its marked sense of what is self-contained in contrast with what the self cannot hold, and this take an everyday form in an advocacy of some cause, the furtherance of a mission, an introspective concern over the purpose of experience.”

He concludes his explanation of how the pattern works with “The Bowl native always has something to give to his fellows, whether literally or psychologically, whether constructively or vindictively, because his orientation to the world arises from division; that is, frustration and uncertainty. The leading planets, determined in exactly the same way as for the Locomotive pattern, give a point of application, and shows where and how the native seeks to carry out his mission or gain his everyday justification for existence.”

He brings up another important point of analysis, as he states “the leading planet is of secondary importance in the Bowl pattern, unless it is found in a strong opposition or cosmic cross. The fundamental attack on the problems of life by the Bowl individual is indicated more significantly by the tilt or house-position of the Bowl-segment.”

He concludes this section by stating “the Bowl character is definitely more self-expending, or self-seeking, and more practically interested in what things mean and what they are. It continually throws the emphasis from the signs into the houses. It a general way the Bowl tends to ‘scoop up’ things and initiate experience when the position of the leading planet ranges from the fourth cusp, up and over the ascendant, to the midheaven cusp, and then inclines to “capture” things or consummate various phases of life when the leading planet is placed similarly from the tenth angle down over the descendant to the nadir.”

At this Penumbral Solar Eclipse New Moon, Pluto (in extremely close forming conjunction with Jupiter!) is the opening planet and Mercury the closing planet in the Bowl. Approach all experience with an eye to the seeds of what needs organization and/or purification, using economy of energy to order what’s sprouting or what’s being eliminated. This is going to yield extreme and dramatic Plutonic entrances into every day and every experience. And as Jupiter is dancing with Pluto, cultivate playfulness and humor even if things seem very intense!

With Mercury retrograde closing, keep researching, taking a new look at how to understand what needs to be understood. Expect returns and reversals after things seem completed, or karmic returns related to whether the process “grounded the spiritual in the material” or not. Be adaptable as you lead with both social-emotional and individual-mental spiritual Group Performance, and closes with individual-mental and spiritual Decisions.

The Outer Planets Anchor the Pattern of Half the Sky

In 2020 Jupiter entered the outer planet occupied span, and will be there for several years. This year it is making multiple conjunctions with Pluto, expanding that powerful energy wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. While Pluto leads the span at the present time, Jupiter is again conjunct Pluto, after which it will again lead the outer planet occupied span through December 2020. It then enters Aquarius and conjuncts Saturn at 1 Aquarius, launching us into a new 20 year and 200 year era! Be willing to reorganize your life as needed, and you will find power flowing to you and from you as we move into a vaster tide of evolution this year, setting long term wave forms into motion related to Aquarius.

Because Jupiter has been closing on 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.

Though the outer planets expanded to a wide spread these past 20 years since the last Saturn conjunct Uranus, the outers are now compressing. Both Jupiter and Saturn already made their karmic rendezvous with Pluto, with Jupiter making a second one now and a third one late in the year. The great Compressions each year for the next 2 years will create a several month set of “Bundle” patterns, since at times the planets will all be within a 120 degree span as they were in January, February, and March. Because Mars will not conjunct Uranus until January 2021, it too will remain inside the outer planet span for the next 7 months.

In this Solar Eclipse New Moon, we’re back to two very intense occupied spans. The first occupied span is between Pluto at 25 Capricorn through Saturn at 1 Aquarius, with three planets in a 6+ degree span! The second occupied span is between Venus on its stationary direct degree and Mercury on its stationary retrograde degree, with four planets in an 38+ degree span. That makes these sectors very high focus these next 4 weeks (and 5+ years!).

The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon Solar Eclipse

A New Moon sets the seed forms for what the following month will demonstrate. This Lunation falls at 1 Cancer, and it is said that the first third decan) of any sign deals with the actional, material, and physical levels of life, and being the first decan of Cancer it has a sub-influence of Cancer with an added dose of Venus. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.

The symbol for the 1st degree of Cancer is “A furled and an unfurled flag displayed from a vessel.” In the Astrology of Personality, where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, he offers that this degree is one of “a nascent desire to align oneself with a larger and more significant life trend,” “compelling decision,” and “repolarization.”

In the Astrological Mandala, he says this degree is one of “a radical change of allegiance exteriorized in a symbolical act: a point of no return.” He states that in the larger cycle that began at 1 Aries, “this is a moment of crisis, a turning point” on “the ‘ship’ which symbolizes the ego-consciousness floating … on the sea of the vast Unconscious.”

This is a turning point in the larger cycle, where “the ‘collective’ will gradually overcomes the ‘individual,’ even though at this stage the power to make a decision based in free will is most powerful. He says here the “consciousness accepts a process of fundamental reorientation, implying the stabilization of (our) energies.” He states this degree falls in the Span of Expansion, Act of Stabilization, and is the first degree on the Actional level of the Scene of Decision.

Dr. Jones says this degree is about a “the extremes to which an individual will go in the practical allegiances” we meet in life, and of our “capacity to compromise or reverse any stand (we) may take whenever this suits (our) ultimate ends.” He states this is a degree of “inflexible determination to further every ambition, and (our) consistent preparation for every eventuality that might be anticipated.”

He offers we will not be happy unless we can feel “a step ahead of ourselves,” and offers the keyword ADAPTABILITY. He states that when this degree works positively, it is “a gift for highly profitable adjustment in every developing relationship with others.”

From this symbol we see that the theme of the next month and all this Eclipse will take away over the next 5 years involves our need to adapt to a more profitable direction in our lives and relationships. As a result of losses, we’ll align ourselves with a larger life, or because we are accepting a more responsible role in our world we’ll lose some things. In any case, we’ll all reorient how we see and think about things to allow an expansion to take place.

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 are finishing a long run of no transit to transit oppositions except for when the Moon is outside the occupied span. That means we’ll resume oppositional energies in the next few months, since the transits of Cancer, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio will generate transit to transit oppositions. Of course those with planets in Cancer, Leo, Virgo and Scorpio have already been dealing with oppositions due to the outer planets, which will continue for some time to come (Aquarius now drops out until December; 2021 and 2022 will pose numerous oppositions to planets in Leo in our charts!) Coming weeks will continue the oppositions to natal planets we may have in Libra, Sagittarius and Capricorn.

This Lunation has fewer aspects than usual, mostly favorable. The main emphasis is the quantity of spiritual aspects in play, with extraordinary productivity indicated by the sextiles. High specialization is promised down the road if we do our research and/or rehearsals in coming weeks.

The Lunation makes a conjunction with Mercury, a quindecile with Venus, triseptile to Jupiter, quincunx to Saturn, septile to Uranus, and triseptile to Pluto. The septile and triseptiles set the Grand Irrationality into motion, promising us all new craziness in the atmosphere, a hard edge to many choices and changes requiring cooperation with others, and many endings as we turn major life corners. If you have something near 24-28 Capricorn, 16-20 Pisces, 8-12 Taurus, 29 Gemini-3 Cancer, 20-24 Leo, 11-15 Libra, and 3-7 Sagittarius, expect your life to take at least one dramatic turn in the near future!

Besides the Lunation aspects, we also see Mercury decile Venus, conjunct the Sun, tredecile Mars, Pentelftile Saturn, and bielftile Uranus; and Venus is quindecile the Sun, while refraining from a trine to Saturn and quintile to Neptune.

Outer planet aspects include Mars sextile Jupiter, sextile Saturn semisquare Uranus and sextile Pluto; Jupiter is biseptile Uranus, sextile Neptune, and conjunct Pluto; Saturn is Trielftile Uranus and septile Neptune, and Uranus is biseptile Pluto via Jupiter.

With Jupiter in close conjunction with Pluto and in the same part of the sky as Saturn for the rest of this year and into the next, we continue to be in a time of “expansive sobriety” or “sober expansion,” launching numerous cycles of new visions, adventures, and truths, set to a new understanding of responsibility. With the septiles, biseptile, and triseptiles, it’s another time of numerous “forks in the road of destiny” for all of humanity!

Special Configurations in Evolutionary Astrology

There are two main aspect configurations in play, both involving the Grand Irrationality. The first involves the Eclipse septile Uranus and triseptile Jupiter and Pluto, with Jupiter conjunct Pluto biseptile Uranus. This lights up THREE points of the seven pointed Star of Destiny represented by the Grand Irrationality V.2. This launches us into another highly irrational month, season, and 5 year period with a very hard edge and some people rebelling for no sane reason. I gave you the zones earlier.

We also have Saturn septile Neptune, giving us an echo of the first Grand Irrationality in play between 1994-2018. These zones are slightly later than the GIV2, and will bring major future oriented choices and changes to those with planets or points near 29 Capricorn-3 Aquarius, 20-24 Pisces, 12-16 Taurus, 3-7 Cancer, 24-28 Leo, 15-19 Libra, and 7-11 Sagittarius. If you have something in one or more of these zones, you’ll be making long term choices based in how you position yourself within the collective.

The Rhombus Diamond

As you’ve read in other articles, Uranus is involved in a “bottom tone” of friction in the collective consciousness because of its long wave semisquare to Neptune, anchoring the octile-driven “Rhombus Diamond” configuration with intense “cutting, grinding, and polishing” energies wherever we have the very early degrees of Taurus and Scorpio, as well as the middle degrees of Pisces and Virgo. This month it’s not triggered by any planet, and Uranus is temporarily not semisquare Neptune.

As you know if you’ve been reading this column for any length of time, the waxing Uranus semisquare Neptune marks a crucial point of shift in the opening of their very long wave cycle, and is a major significator of our unsettled times. This very frictional energy has been with us a while and though off and on at this time, will continue to be with us a LONG time! That aspect anchors a frictional configuration that is kicked into play whenever planets pass through early Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, and mid-Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. It is especially powerful when a planet transits mid-Virgo and early Scorpio.

As the planets make various octile aspects to these Uranus and Neptune, those phase shifts generate a LOT of tension in the atmosphere, creating a grind for us where they fall in our chart. This semisquare is indicative or the hard edge all of us are going through as we try to find how our individuality fits into the collective atmosphere, and why there is so much friction between the transpersonal Uranian forces and the transpersonal Neptunian forces at this time.

As I told you in the September 2017 Rhombus Diamond articles, when it’s active we can expect solar flares and plasma eruptions, warping in the electromagnetic field, breakaway impulses, sideways explosions, and all equivalent human behavior symbolized by these octile aspects testing our clarity. It has presented all of us with certain questions. What is your role as you would define it? Reject timidity and uncertainty, and find your place in the larger scheme of things.

Explaining Harmonics

This month is an outlier. We now move from a huge number of aspects in the specializing series to only a few. In those series, we have 2 quindeciles, 1 decile, and 1 tredecile. We also have a few spiritual series aspects this month, mainly invoking our need for faith in overcoming dualities of various types. This month we have no aspects in the novile series, showing less gestation and realization. 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.

In an oddity, we have several aspects in the 11th harmonic Elftile series. This is also irrational, and mark points where we must make leaps of faith to practice a form of mastery over duality. This month we have 1 Bielftile, 1 Trielftile, and 1 Pentelftile.

In the nonrational septile series, we have the 3 septiles, 2 biseptiles, and 4 triseptiles mentioned earlier. These are extremely powerful, and as they involve the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto on the one hand, and Saturn and Neptune on the other, you can see we have heavy choices and changes across many signs.

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 6 signs in an extremely imbalanced element distribution. We have 0 planets in Fire (inspiration and warmth), 5 in Water (feelings and experiencing), 2 in Air (relatedness and communicating), and 3 planets in Earth (practical grounding). This month we have Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer represented, with no planet in the other signs.

Air and Earth are “cool” elements, while Fire and Water are “hot” elements. With this distribution, things are balanced between hot and cold, but the excess of Water and Earth can lead to mud. Generate inspiration from a proactive coordination of life and “striking your own flints,” and use this time to share information with others, or see what information you will need in the future so you can reach out then.

Because the New Moon falls in early Cancer, Venus stationary direct in Gemini is the planet currently leading the Sun. That means “the Gateway to the Light” involves Venus, the planet of beauty, appreciation, value, and sense of aesthetic the gatekeeper of the planetary energy we need to approach the Greater Light. Be open to new information and new ways of relating to others on the basis of emotional discoveries, and you’ll find the knowledge you need which will ensure you power, influence, and goods which will lead you to the Light.

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. This Lunation continues the pattern from the last Full Moon. As a process of moving through events, the most effective “firing sequence” for approaching life and experience involves leading with our feelings, then deciding, then thinking.

This pattern leads with feelings, and then makes decisions and acts based in those feelings. While it is tempting to move back into more feeling after the actions, after we make our decisions and/or act, it will be important to get new information to come to a new vision or understanding. Once we get the right view or understanding, then a new feeling-experience will naturally arise that points the way to the next action.

So when you are moved by a feeling or experience, it will naturally lead to decisions on the basis of those feeling experiences, which should be followed by a search for new information, new ideas, new interpretations, and new views. We’ll be “feeling our way” into new experiences, then deciding and acting on the basis of those feelings. After a decision or action, then we’ll have to find newer, more up to date information, facts, and understanding so we can get a new vision.

So learn and teach through anecdotes, seeing how others handled things practically, or how you handed things practically in the past. Let your thinking and communicating and envisioning follow your actions, and let your feelings follow a new understanding, a new perception, or a new view. Just remember that with Venus retrograde going direct and Mercury just barely into its retrograde, where a thing leaves off will not be all there is to it. This one brings returns, but also the need to address old visions and old understanding to make it more up to date and in synch with the popular feeling.

Summing Up

This Lunation shows us turning a Cosmic Corner as we move in a new direction. This one “lowers one flag and raises a new one.” The “Cosmic Recycler” quality of the eclipse will shut down something we’ve made a part of our daily life, and no doubt old connections and sentimentalities will go by the wayside. Many old needs, many old lines of supply, many things we’ve taken for granted will end.

This gives us a look back even as we begin to move forward in our relationships and the quest for knowledge which will feed our effectiveness in the future. We continue to build emerging structures, preparing for the dawning of a 20 year Aquarian era. The preliminary pulse was set into motion when Mars and Saturn joined up at 1 Aquarius, the same degree of the coming Jupiter/Saturn conjunction marking a new 20 and 200 year era! We have now “graduated into a new realm of Being,” and are in a 6 weeks period of doing some review work to get new information about our relationships and our ideas.

Because of so many septile related aspects, things are going to have a hard edge with major forks in the road in those areas of our lives. This is a time to know what will sustain us in the future, and examine who we care for and who cares for us. We’re still discovering new standards to admire and demonstrate, and are awakening to a new dedication while understanding the wisdom of going our own way and doing what we have to do in our own way.

As this New Moon Eclipse occurs in early Cancer with Mercury retrograde in that sign, we can discover something new by looking back on the old. This is a time when we begin a new direction, with feelings running very high as we find the cooperative pioneering group work we want to do. This is a time when we can heal into our Higher Self by mentoring and/or being mentored in how to see emotion-rousing images from the past in a new meaning, helping us see who we are in a different light.

Because of Pluto and Jupiter’s dance in late Capricorn most of this year, if there is work to be done, be willing to rise to the occasion, learning practical group skills and wielding power with economy and precision. This is the Grace accompanying the Lord of the Underworld, showing us the heights and the depths, and how even if we find ourselves in hell, we don’t have to suffer.

We’re now in the transition between the old way which is no more, and the coming Grand Mutation at 1 Aquarius in December. The recent Great Compression in Capricorn set forces into motion in this bridge year between the old promise and the new 200 year Era coming with the Grand Mutation of 2020! By how we respond to the new emerging Aquarian energy, we’re positioning ourselves in a greater work which has already begun and changes life as we know it by January 2021.

We’ve been in a time when angels and divine help are in the air, as well as redemption and forms of trained creative expression. We are now in the last phase of humanity’s “liberating ordeal.” Many things change for the better by late June, though it may not appear like that.

We’re all practicing our newly awakened “special quality” in our personality to find our way of expressing our Higher Self. We are still being trained in some long term group work, where we can find nourishment among those with whom we are linked on a Soul level. A new group of Spiritual communities is forming 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 in its home sign of Aquarius for the first time since 1993 makes it 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.

Saturn continues to hold court in its home sign of Aquarius. 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, and in Aquarius, takes the “organized personal structure” we built in Capricorn and lifts the vision to a greater good for the greatest number, allowing a more rarified side of Saturn to come forth, helping bring fixity to the 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.

Part 1 here

Part 2 here