A New Moon lands at 23 degrees 13 minutes of Capricorn on January 13, 2021 (5 AM UTC), dark velvet-sultry, augural, ringed by a Plutonian aura of nuclear power. The planet of death, rebirth and survival sits one degree away from the two luminaries, with the New Moon itself occurring in very close proximity to the exact spot (22°46) where the infamous Saturn/Pluto conjunction took place one year ago, in January 2020.

The metamorphic demands of this New Moon are peremptory. Like every New Moon, this, too, marks the beginning of a cycle. Pluto says not so fast, however. Not before we clear the field of the rubble and reminders of what life was before we named the fears we never thought we would know so viscerally and that linger, perhaps, like meteoroids in our orbit. This New Moon is laborious and exacting; Saturn and Pluto, one propelling us towards the heights and the latter luring us down into the depths, are passing the torch of sacred destruction to us so we can burn away the debris.

With a caveat — the slow and steady nature of Saturn, cosmic architect, is not one that yields instant results. It takes bravery to part with the past while standing on the edge of a future we’re yet to see.  Perhaps, as much as we might want to stretch beyond that edge, the center is a safer place for now. Coming back to center, drinking from the well of surrender — how about we try to be tender with ourselves in the dark of this indurated Moon, while we do things nobody taught us to do.

Like finishing the work that Saturn and Pluto have started in a world that is pretty much still riddled with abuse, oppression and injustice, while at the same time striving to do so in a way that doesn’t replicate the same punitive frameworks on a smaller scale, within our communities, with those we love, with ourselves. Or facing the parts of ourselves that still inhabit the hologram of our past.  Cleansing. Shifting. Applying. Pruning away. Dismantling cages. Digging all the way down to the hidden chambers where Hades keeps his riches. Discovering new resources. Holding the vision. Holding the vision. Holding the vision.

Image by Vladyslav Dushenkovsky on Pexels