This article covers significant aspects, degree symbols, and other important factors in this Gemini New Moon chart. We are now moving away from a long term Bundle pattern, and now that there is a significant Gemini presence we have again moved into a Bowl pattern. The next 4 weeks requires us to keep our purpose in mind with so many scattered cross currents indicated by the Gemini squares to Mars and Neptune in Pisces. This is a turning to address all that has been repressed by ego and now demands recognition.

This month puts the focus on the sign Gemini, with a huge dose of Capricorn and Pisces with a strong backdrop in Aquarius. This one gives us a chance to do some sorting and sifting, taking a new look at what we value and why. There may be constant “reversals” in decisions, but given we’re entering a long term period of “tag team retrogrades,” I’d say flexibility, humility, practicality, and a sense of humor are what’s needed to stay on track.

As I told you in part 1, Saturn still dominates the stage, with Mercury also prominent on center stage through being the dispositor of the Lunation. We’re now past the Great Compression of 2020, with those numerous conjunctions in Capricorn between January and March determining future patterns for years and decades to come!

As I explained in the main article on The Great Compressions of Early 2020, 2021, and 2022, we’ve now just 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, they’re outside the outer planet span, but as they are not yet in opposition to the planets in Capricorn, it’s a hemispheric distribution with the entire occupied span 146 degrees. With all the outer planets in a span of 103 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, Mercury and Venus are both far away from the occupied span, making this pattern an imperfect Bowl, as the span is 146 degrees, far away from the 180 ideal. So it’s a less than ideal Bowl Jones pattern.

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 New Moon, Pluto is the opening planet and the Mercury/Venus conjunction the closing planets 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. With Mercury and Venus retrograde closing, keep learning, keep spreading the news, see the deeper factors forcing themselves to the surface of people and situations, and be adaptable. This leads with social and emotional Group Performance, and closes with social and emotional Exteriorization.

Mercury and Venus build through their biquintile with Jupiter, and release through their square to Neptune. Those squares require that we get clear about what roles we’re playing or not playing, and never allow confusion or ambivalence to put ourselves down. Keep working through to the real meaning of situations, understand the significance of each stage of any process, and find the cooperation you need without feeling like life’s antagonistic. Go deep to see how your challenges are related to generic human motives and folly, and use examples from your own life to teach others.

The Outer Planets Anchor the Pattern of Half the Sky

In 2020 Jupiter has entered the outer planet occupied span, and will be there for several years. This year it will make 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, now that Jupiter is retrograde it will 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, with Jupiter and Saturn already making their karmic rendezvous with Pluto to be followed by their conjunctions with Neptune over the coming years. The great Compressions each year for the next few 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 8 months.

In this New Moon, we’re back to two very intense occupied spans. The first occupied span is between Pluto at 25 Capricorn through Saturn at 2 Aquarius, with three planets in a 7+ degree span! The second occupied span is between the Lunation and the Mercury/Venus conjunction, with four planets in an 18+ degree span. That makes these sectors very high focus 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 3 Gemini, 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 Gemini it has a sub-influence of Gemini with an added dose of Jupiter. While I've given you a sense of this degree up to now, this is where we go into depth.

The symbol for the 3rd degree of Gemini is “The Garden of the Tuileries.” In the original Marc Jones class notes on the symbols published in The Astrology of Personality, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “A degree of genuine aristocracy and perfection of behavior,” “Self-fulfillment in form and tradition,” and “collective strength.”

We are told in The Astrological Mandala that this symbolizes "the formalization of collective ideals through the application of reason and order to newly discovered aspects of nature.” He states this symbol represent the “classical spirit and its need for order and symmetry” in order to take “the new spirit of discovery” and consolidate “the gains made by the collective mind.”

He offers that this third stage symbol brings the two before it “to the state of clear and lucid, but also formalized, conceptualization,” where there is clarity but also “ego-centralization and the worship of formalism.” He states this degree falls in the Span of Zeal, Act of Differentiation, and Scene of Discovery on the Actional level.

Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “the self-confidence and authority which come to (us) through social position and wealth,” and our ability to bring “our capabilities to some graceful and exquisite self-expression.” He states these “are the more exalted or immortal constants of everyday values, evident as they are given a solid foundation in human achievement or are preserved” by others with those concerns.

He offers us the keyword LUXURY. He states that when this degree is operating in a positive way, it is one of “the creative stability which enables each individual to participate in the full gamut of satisfactions developed and cherished by (others) as well as ourselves.”

From this symbol we see that the theme of the next month involves perfecting our behavior to fulfill a social ideal by applying principles of order and reason to our discoveries. This promises self-confidence and types of “social position” where we may exhibit our more graceful self-expression. There is great creative potential for those with a clear vision, as well as satisfaction.

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 now in a long run of no transit to transit oppositions except for when the Moon is outside the occupied span. That means there will be lessened oppositional energies in the next few months, except of course for those with planets in Cancer, Leo, and Virgo who will be affected by the transits since planets continue to move through Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces during coming months.

This Lunation has quite a few aspects, with several extraordinarily dynamic aspects in play. There are a huge number of specializing aspects in the chart, showing the beginning of many partially formed unique gifts and circumstances to come down the road, with extraordinary intuitive capabilities with the Lunation quintile Neptune.

The Lunation makes a Vigintile to Mercury and Venus, square to Mars, a trine to Saturn, a quindecile to Uranus and a quintile to Neptune. The quintile to Neptune opens up voids where we’ll find gifts and unique qualities, so if you have something near 19-23 Pisces, 1-5 Gemini, 13-17 Leo, 25-29 Libra, or 7-11 Capricorn, expect special gifts and circumstances!

Besides the Lunation aspects, we also see Mercury conjunct Venus, vigintile the Sun, biseptile Mars, biquintile Jupiter, semisquare Uranus and square Neptune; and Benus is Vigintile the Sun, biseptile Mars, biquintile Jupiter, sesquisquare Saturn, novile Uranus, and square Neptune.

Outer planet aspects include Mars novile Jupiter, decile Saturn, sextile Uranus, conjunct Neptune, and semisquare Pluto; Jupiter is biseptile Uranus and conjunct Pluto; Saturn is Trielftile Uranus, and Uranus is biseptile Pluto. Uranus has now moved out of the semisquare with Neptune, but with Mercury semisquare Uranus and square Neptune, we still have some of those “cutting, grinding, and polishing” qualities of that aspect.

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 biseptiles, it’s another “fork in the road of destiny” for all of humanity!

Special Configurations in Evolutionary Astrology

There are three main aspect configurations in play. The first involves Jupiter and Pluto biseptile Uranus, triggering the Grand Irrationality V.2. anew. This returns us to a highly irrational time, with a very hard edge and some people rebelling for no sane reason. This is setting major forces into play for those with planets near 24-28 Capricorn, 15-19 Pisces, 6-10 Taurus, 28 Gemini- 2 Cancer, 20-24 Leo, 11-15 Libra, and 2-6 Sagittarius.

We also have both Mercury and Venus biseptile Mars, creating a second zone of “choice and change” creating “forks in the road of destiny” in our late Gemini and early Pisces areas affecting all houses and signs where we have Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio. The zones most affected by this biseptile are 5-9 Pisces, 27 Aries- 1 Taurus, 19-23 Gemini, 10-14 Leo, 1-5 Libra, 22-26 Scorpio, and 14-18 Capricorn. If you have something in any of these zones, Mercury, Venus, and Mars are putting you at a major point of decision affecting your destiny in months to come!

We also have two major multiple squares happening. Mercury and Venus are square Neptune, and the Lunation is square Mars. The first helps us use imitation and exercise, humor and attention to details, to navigate the cross currents and confusion in the air. The second helps us plan several moves out, feel a new love, see our invisible helpers and inner powers, and know how to use the down times productively.

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. As noted, in this chart Mercury activates the pattern by making a semisquare with Uranus and a square to Neptune.

The Rhombus Diamond configuration was perfected last September when the Moon is in Scorpio was semisquare Venus in mid-Virgo, opposed Uranus, and sesquisquare Neptune at the same time as Venus opposed Neptune and sesquisquared Uranus. Since then and into the future, it will be perfected every time the Moon and Ascendant are in early Scorpio and mid-Virgo at the same time.

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 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 NO aspects in the specializing series last month to a huge number! In those series, we have 4 vigintiles, 2 quindeciles, 1 decile, 2 quintiles, and 2 biquintiles. This month also flips the number of spiritual series aspects from the many last month to a few this month. In the novile series aspects, we have only 2 noviles. You can find out more about this important “spiritual gestation” series which mark points of potential spiritual realization and integration in the archives.

In an oddity, we also have only one aspect from 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 Trielftile.

In the nonrational septile series, we have the 4 biseptiles mentioned earlier. These are extremely powerful, and as they involve Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto on the one hand, and Mercury, Venus, and Mars 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 5 signs in an extremely imbalanced element distribution. We have 0 planets in Fire (inspiration and warmth), 2 in Water (feelings and experiencing), 5 in Air (relatedness and communicating), and 3 planets in Earth (practical grounding). This month we have Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Taurus, and Gemini 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 much colder than usual with no Fire and little Water. 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 Gemini, Uranus in Taurus is the planet currently leading the Sun. That means “the Gateway to the Light” involves Uranus, the awakener, renovator, and revolutionizer who brings forth our spiritual individuality the gatekeeper of the planetary energy we need to approach the Greater Light. Be open to unique and unusual awakenings, and you’ll find ways to bring happiness to others in dark hours which will lead you to the Light.

Uranus in Taurus as the “entry to the Light” shows a time when our originality and genius can lead us to illumination! This is the Divine Revolutionary gatekeeping for the Great Light. Be open to flashes of inspiration which show you how to build for the future in simple, direct, and steady ways. This brings revolutionary new ideas which help the Light specialize in unique ways, offering us all a chance to “turn the Cosmic Prayer Wheel,” consciously moving through what we know we must do and fulfilling the substance of our Being.

With Uranus the way to “anticipate the Light,” be pure in heart” and see your Divine Self as servant of some collective need. Be willing to build your determination and endurance, guided by the eternally creative Spirit which always calls you to a greater adventure in discovering and expressing your individuality. Our ability to generate gentle determination can lead us to a greater Light of a new view of things, money, resources, and a new way to ground our new awakened life. Our Self-awareness and willingness to do what we have to do will give us access to the Great 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 begins a time of ever-changing patterns. As a process of moving through events, the most effective “firing sequence” for approaching life and experience over the next 4 weeks involves leading with our decisions and actions, then feeling, and then thinking.

This pattern is very strong, and leads with deciding and acting, followed by feeling and experiencing what those decisions and actions mean on deep levels. Ideally, those deep feelings then can lead us to a new vision, a new understanding, or a communication that can lead us to a different view.

So make a decision and act as needed, and after the decision or action, sit with the feelings and experience them, bringing them to the surface of your consciousness and get clear about what you’re feeling and why. After you’re clear about what you’re feeling, then go get new information and update your perceptual files and what you think you know, or what’s being communicated. That will lead naturally to a new set of decisions and actions.

Summing Up

This Lunation shows us formalizing some of our discoveries to show our purpose to our world. 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 doing some review work in for the rest of May and all of June to get new information about our relationships and our ideas.

Because of some many mutable square, remember flexibility is a virtue, but too much flexibility has no strength. Keep open to what is seeking to come up which was repressed before now, since the Soul is going to be intervening and overriding personality and ego considerations.

As this New Moon occurs in early Gemini, we now have an ability to discover something new by looking back on the old. This is a time when we are seeking perfection of form in a time of rampant cross currents, especially for any planets we have in early or late Mutable signs, mid Cardinal signs, or early Fixed signs. This is a time when we can heal into our Higher Self by mentoring and/or being mentored in how to concentrate and see the whole picture rather than our subjective take on things.

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. 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 now re-enter the final 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 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.