ARIES NEW MOON April 8, 2024

The New Moon will take place on April 8, 2024 at 2:21 pm.

At every New Moon, the Sun and Moon come into perfect alignment. The Moon represents your emotions and your subconscious. The Sun represents your ego and conscious self. At a New Moon, the Moon and the Sun occupy the same exact degree of the zodiac, giving you an opportunity to bring what you're subconsciously creating in your life into better alignment with what you consciously want. This makes New Moons the perfect time for setting intentions. You can expect to see the results of whatever intentions you set in approximately six months’ time.

This New Moon takes place in the sign of Aries. As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries holds an initiating energy. Unlike the soft, mystical energies of Pisces that were all about dissolving and letting go, Aries brings a bold, assertive independence that's ready to make something happen. In his positive expression, Aries is an igniting spark. He's bold and courageous. Aries is the energy that draws life in the spring from a seemingly dead landscape. Aries cracks open dormant seeds and pushes green shoots through the soil toward the sun. Aries is pure life force in motion, seeking individuation.

Aries is a channel for primal desires, sexual energy and survival instincts. With Aries, you can go after what you want and appropriately defend yourself. His gifts are courage and independence. In his negative expression, Aries can be brash, recklessly impulsive and argumentative. His misdirected fire can keep him fighting or batting heads just for the sake of fighting.

This New Moon is also a solar eclipse. This is the fourth eclipse in the series of six eclipses within the Aries/Libra polarity that began last April. Eclipses have the power to illuminate things that have been hidden in shadow. Eclipses are also initiating portals for long-term change, with the energy of an eclipse being felt for sixth months or longer.

In Aries/Libra, we explore the polarity of “self” and “other.” Aries is all about individuality. He's independent, assertive and goes after what he wants. His symbol is the ram, and he's quite comfortable aggressively driving head-first into things. Libra is more focused on balance and relationship. She likes harmony and peace and is willing to negotiate and use diplomacy to keep the ship sailing straight. Libra's symbol is the scales, which can swing up and down, sometimes finding balance, but at other times showing the places where we're out of sync.

Overall, this eclipse series has been about deepening our understanding of ourselves through our relationships with others. Others always provide a mirror of sorts, either reflecting something in your own shadow or something you haven't yet claimed in your life. An Aries eclipse can illuminate where you may not be acting as your authentic self, or where you need to bring more of your authentic self into your relationships.

This eclipse is tipped more towards the Aries side of the polarity, so learning how to rely more on yourself, to claim more of your authentic self, and to express what you want within your relationships is favored. We also must consider others. Watch for Aries' tendency to be brash, bossy or selfish. Healthy confidence is not the same as bossiness, unchecked willfulness or false bravado.

ASPECTS

Conjunction to Mercury

Conjunctions blend energies together. Here, Aries' energy will be blended with the energy of retrograde Mercury, the messenger. Mercury rules the mind, the way you think about things, the way you learn and the way you communicate with others. Mercury is responsible for all the little connections you make in any given day. He's at home in educational institutions and is responsible for helping you assimilate what you experience. You'll find his energy twining through your relationships with friends and siblings, as well as through your daily exchanges with strangers and colleagues.

In Mercury’s retrograde motion, we go back over something in our minds. We look again at the details and gather what we’ve learned before we can move forward. Mercury is retrograde at the time of the eclipse, so although Aries is ready to get something going, it may be hard to see exactly what your path forward is. We may need to be content taking the next, small, visible step, without necessarily knowing where it will take us just yet.

Mercury retrograde may also indicate that the battles that Aries needs to fight are inner ones, especially of the mind. This combination can show us the inward, mental traps that keep us in repeating patterns. It also provides the fortitude, courage and raw fire needed to finally break through them. Are there places where you find yourself fighting the same battles? Are you fighting just to fight or out of habit? In what ways are you just fighting yourself?

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

Last month, Pisces tried to teach us how to surrender and find inner peace. With Mercury turning inward and going back over something at this New Moon and eclipse, we may be able to see how our repeating thoughts and ways of doing things are making us miserable or keeping us from the peace that is our right. Aries is poised to launch or break through something. It may be that his fire and courage are exactly what we need to finally break the hold our own thoughts and patterns have upon us.

Aries tends to learn through experience and action, so don’t be afraid to take action or try something new. Again, this may be an outward action, or it may be trying something new internally or in the way you think or speak to yourself. This energy is helpful for developing confidence and learning how to take charge of your life. It’s an excellent opportunity to reevaluate your relationship with yourself.

Although the path forward may not be clear just yet, it seems like Aries will be initiating something big here. Be honest with yourself about what you need and want, as well as brave enough to communicate that to others. With Mercury involved, how we think and communicate is key. Don’t be afraid to fight the good battles, but keep one eye on what’s going on in the inner landscape at all times. Keep letting go of what stands in your way, especially if it's your own thoughts. This energy feels a little like the countdown before the rocket takes off. Now is the time to course correct to something more authentic or balanced.

Mars (the ruler of Aries) is also moving toward conjunction with Saturn. That means that, even if things feel frustrating, there will be enough disciplined energy and determination to overcome any obstacles we encounter down the road.

Some questions to consider for this cycle:

What do I want?
Where do I need to take action?
What habitual thought patterns might be contributing to the challenges I’m facing in my life right now?
In what ways am I just fighting myself?
Where do I need to start over or try something new?
Where have I been inauthentic?
Where do I need to find my courage?
Where do I need to individuate?
What risks am I willing to take?
How can I bring more of my authentic self into my relationships?

PERSONALIZED MOON READING

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PISCES NEW MOON
March 10, 2024

The New Moon will take place on March 10, 2024 at 5:00 am.

This New Moon takes place in the sign of Pisces. Pisces is a mystical, magical sign. Here, your spiritual guides and guardians are close by. You can tap into the energy of All-That-Is. In Pisces, you’re given access to deep, spiritual understanding and the kind of faith that can move mountains. As the last sign of the zodiac, Pisces is where everything returns back to Source. In Pisces, all dualities are reconciled. Human, ego experience is transcended and the unconditional love and light of spirit is known.

Pisces is represented by two fish connected to each other but swimming in opposite directions through the vast sea of eternity. The fish are swimming in both directions, uniting all dualities, as they feel their way along subtle currents. Pisces is both the beginning and the end, as well as the state of being where the concepts of beginning and end have no meaning. Here, everything is given over to Source and the flow of life, because Pisces understands that separation is an illusion. Everything IS Source, so the only thing that can be surrendered is illusion. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.

This capacity to tap into everything all at once and flow with life is why Pisces is the sign of artists and mystics. Through Pisces, it's possible to bring forth visionary art, channel life-changing poetry, receive clear intuitive guidance, miraculously heal, communicate with your angels and hear celestial music. But these gifts can only be given to the degree that you're willing to completely surrender, in trust, to divine will. Pisces can show you the secrets of life, but the depth of the wisdom Pisces holds is beyond the understanding of the human ego. This is why Pisces can feel so illusory and changeable. It's easy to fall into delusion in the face of such vastness. The price for truly claiming Pisces' wisdom is a willingness to surrender, in faith, everything you think you know and everything you think you are.

Pisces is willing to swim in any direction and in all directions, without preference, knowing that all currents are equal because they inevitably flow back to Source. In short, Pisces knows how to feel the way. As you surrender more and more of your personal ego to this greater wisdom, Pisces helps you gradually understand that YOU are the current, and that the current is also GOD. These are concepts the human ego simply cannot grasp, which is why every Piscean journey involves letting go of personal will and sense of self. The key word is always surrender.

Two of the archetypes for Pisces are the "guru" and the "addict." Though these two, spiritual paths may seem very different on the surface, they are both paths of relinquishment of the ego. Pisces holds no attachment to any particular idea or way, understanding that a path of relinquishment through suffering is of equal value to a path of relinquishment through discipline and meditation. Both develop faith and wisdom through surrender, help you transcend the ego, and bring you closer to the truth of who you are.

Because Pisces holds no judgement and always offers what’s needed, you never really know what Pisces will bring. Sometimes, gifts of intuition, artistic inspiration, faith and divine connection are what’s needed to release the personal will. Other times, we must dive into dark waters with the gifts of suffering, cleansing destruction, tribulation or heartbreak in order to find the deepest truths.

Sometimes, the letting go that Pisces requires is difficult, and the human ego experiences suffering. The small, human ego is a false sense of self that hides a magnificent truth. It fights to hold onto its illusions, and it’s the fighting that actually creates the suffering. Pisces’ task is not to bring suffering, but to carry you into the experiences necessary to break all illusions of suffering. Pisces knows the truth of who you are, and it will gently coax you along whatever currents are available to guide you back to this truth. Pisces is aligned with the highest truths and flows with unconditional love. Pisces understands the course of your path of healing and is eager to bestow you with unimaginable treasures. With Pisces, it’s always safe to have faith and let go.

ASPECTS

Sextile to Uranus

This New Moon is in aspect to Uranus. Uranus is the great awakener. He’s an electric body that inspires and initiates change. Uranus helps us break out of constricting patterns. His energy can sometimes feel erratic, as he’s attuned to higher frequences and future currents. Uranus is all about progress and movement. He calls us into the future and asks us to step out of the stuck patterns and expectations of others or society that hold us back.

With Uranus in positive aspect to this New Moon, the visionary qualities of Pisces are amplified. The dreams Uranus sparks may be radical dreams of peace, inspiration, unity or compassion. This aspect increases the likelihood of making progress towards an inspired dream or even a radically different future.

Saturn and Neptune in Pisces

Although not in close aspect, both Saturn and Neptune are in proximity to the New Moon and are moving forward in the sign of Pisces. These two great bodies have very different energies. Saturn is a slow, persistent taskmaster that insists you do the hard work necessary to build something of value. He’s tied to physical manifestation, so his proximity increases the potential to bring a dream into reality.

Neptune aligns more closely with the mystical energies of Pisces. Neptune is artistic, compassionate and inspiring. Neptune calls to us through the mists, like a distant lighthouse illuminating the spiritual path before us. The New Moon is moving away from Saturn and toward Neptune, meaning there’s both a connection to our responsibilities and our material ground, as well as a reaching towards something more inspiring.

Saturn is also the karma keeper of the zodiac, and I get the feeling that one of the things this Pisces New Moon is asking us to let go of is old karmic patterns that keep us locked in unnecessary suffering. Hard work and persistence have their place, but hard work for the sake of work and persistently replaying loops of karmic baggage are not helpful. With both Neptune and Uranus out in front of this New Moon, we’re being asked to release some of this heaviness and move not only in the direction of our dreams, but into a free and inspired future.

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

This New Moon is the perfect time to take a leap of faith. Anything involving creativity, imagination or visualization is favored. Pisces is a peaceful sign that invites us to dream. It would be wise to make time for art and/or meditation during this cycle. Pisces gives us access to the unconscious like no other sign, so it’s a perfect time to face both your conscious and subconscious fears. In Pisces, it’s also easier to surrender and accept life as it is. This is a wonderful New Moon for embracing imperfection (as an expression of a deeper perfection) and going with the flow.

With Neptune out in front of this Moon and Uranus calling from even further ahead, we’re all being asked to step, in complete trust, onto the inspired, but unknown paths that lie before us. Don’t let fear stop you. Connect with your inner and spiritual resources, feel the direction, and take the step opening in front of you. This is not an exercise in will, but in surrender. Trust what life is bringing you, let go of what you need to let go of, and allow life to carry you forward.

It’s also easier to tap into unity consciousness or the “perfection that lies within imperfection” with this New Moon. Any spiritual practice that involves releasing judgement or practicing unconditional love and unconditional trust will yield spiritual rewards. Make time for rest, creating music or dreaming. It’s difficult to feel the subtle currents when you’re barreling ahead at top speed, so take a breath and listen for your own inner voice. Ask for help, and then let go and allow life to carry you.

Some questions to consider for this cycle:

Where am I holding on too tightly or trying too hard?
Where can I release judgement?
How can I make space for creativity in my life?
What inspires me?
What future timeline is calling to me?
What spiritual practices have meaning for me?
What attachments and fears am I willing to surrender?
Where do I need to open to spiritual wisdom and guidance or humbly ask for spiritual support?
What am I feeling drawn to?
Where do I need to take a leap of faith?

AQUARIUS NEW MOON
Feburary 9, 2024

The New Moon will take place on February 9, 2024 at 5:58 pm.

This New Moon takes place in the sign of Aquarius. Aquarius oversees all kinds of collective endeavors, showing us all the ways in which mankind is connected. He holds the energy of friendship, brotherhood, group engagement, inventiveness, change and humanitarian causes. His energy is unique and revitalizing. He’s practical and determined, but also free-thinking and imaginative. This is a creative, sometimes destabilizing, mix that can offer intense or sudden change in the way things are being done or thought of.

Aquarius is primarily a future-oriented energy. Through Aquarius, we can tap into what lies just around the corner for humanity. Aquarius can offer you a glimpse of something just beyond your understanding or just outside “your box.” When you tap into Aquarian currents, it’s possible to suddenly understand something you couldn’t understand before. It’s also possible to bring back ideas that exist somewhere in the future and plant them in the here and now.

Although Aquarian visions can feel inspiring, Aquarius is actually very practical, almost to the point of seeming unfeeling. Aquarius is more “human” centered than heart centered. Aquarian love is platonic love. He’s not driven by soft or messy feelings but by an understanding of what’s right and useful in a collective sense.

It’s Aquarius who offers a vision to a scientist on the verge of a major breakthrough. He’s also the sign that channels new technological advancements, new ways of thinking, and the impersonal practicality necessary for curbing the illogical passions of mankind. Aquarian energy is present whenever a group of people come together to decide upon a principled and logical course of action for the future, guided by a desire to maximize the general good and establish a higher order.

Because of this future-focus, Aquarius can feel rebellious. His ideas are oftentimes seen as radical, paradigm busting or even crazy because they force us to stretch beyond our limited ways of looking at things. Aquarius is the sign that brings us fantastic inventions (like computers and cell phones) or startling new ways of looking at life (like the idea that “All Men are Created Equal”). In many ways, you can think of Aquarius as an energetic bridge between the present and the future. Everything that comes across the Aquarian bridge is considered somewhat revolutionary because it’s literally from another time and place.

Aquarius has two ruling planets that hold this bridge, like two feet planted on different continents. Those planets are Saturn and Uranus. Saturn is the authority figure of the skies. He’s the karma keeper, the father-figure, and represents stability, determination and the status quo. Saturn can feel cold and harsh, and is oftentimes associated with difficulty, as the lessons he brings have to do with constriction, containment, discipline and responsibility. Uranus, on the other hand, is the rebellious freethinker of the skies. He has an electric energy that can strike suddenly, sparking a new invention or igniting a revolution.

Aquarius holds the energy of both of these planets, bridging the status quo of the here and now with all kinds of future potentials. Aquarius knows where the places of connection are, and can channel the highest potential between them. In Aquarius, disparate fields of knowledge can connect in service of some higher good. With this capacity, Aquarius is capable of bridging even radically different ways of thinking, such as spirituality and science.

Aquarius’ symbol is the “water bearer,” and the Greek myth associated with his constellation speaks of an intelligent, eccentric boy who’s taken to heaven to bear water for the gods. At one point, in an emotional outburst, the boy pours all the water in his cup over the Greek lands below, creating a flood and transforming the land. This myth really captures the essence of Aquarius – both the potential for pouring the wisdom of heaven down upon us mortals, and the potential for the waters of emotion (when not properly contained) to wreak havoc as it transforms the human landscape.

When the New Moon takes place in Aquarius, we step into the energy of change. New Moons offer new beginnings, and Aquarius brings the energy of something entirely new and different than what we currently know, so there’s a double dose of newness with this New Moon. This energy encourages you to learn something new, meet someone new, reach out to your communities or social networks, and make progressive change in your life. It also asks you to develop some of Saturn’s discipline and detachment from your passions and stronger emotions, so you can break free from destructive, illogical patterns of behavior.

At his best, Aquarian energy can help you collaborate with others, make new connections, make room in your life for different opinions and viewpoints, and break free from constrictions. Aquarius is all about freedom: freedom within your relationships, within your work environment, within your communities. Aquarian freedom is freedom to build a life that uniquely suits you. Although Aquarius offers a defiant kind of selfhood, there’s also a strong team mentality here. Aquarius asks that we each show up in our uniqueness and contribute to some larger cause. Aquarius grants full permission to own your peculiarities, and to love and respect others for theirs.

At his worst, Aquarius "pours too much water," and his rebellious movement toward change and breaking free, combined with the group focus, manifests as revolutionary group think or mob-mentality. Sometimes Aquarius’ visions from the future are simply too radical or different for the bulk of humanity to embrace. Then we have the Aquarian need for change and independence manifesting as emotionally rebellious behavior, not grounded in logic or higher principles. Even here, however, Aquarius holds the bridge, connecting the past to the future. Progress is inevitable with Aquarius. How strongly we resist the change is what determines how messy the transition from the old to the new will be.

ASPECTS

Square to Uranus

Uranus is forming a tight square to this New Moon. Squares are places of friction and tension, and here we have Uranus (the ruler of Aquarius) at odds with this New Moon. Uranus can be rebellious, impulsive, abrupt and innovative. He oftentimes brings unavoidable change or surprises. Uranus encourages us to step outside of our comfort zone. In a hard square with the New Moon, Uranus is upping the ante for change.

Uranus is currently in the sign of Taurus. Taurus is related to resources, material matters and tradition. Taurus is quite comfortable with the status quo. When Uranus moves through Taurus, he works to upend many of our most cherished (and potentially stifling) traditions. Uranian change is necessary change. Because we prefer security, this can feel quite unsettling, especially in the sign of material comfort and stability.

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

With an Aquarius New Moon, there’s a higher likelihood of making connections that are important to your future, especially through friends or social groups. This cycle is good for solving problems that require “out of the box” thinking. It's a good time to challenge the ways in which you hold yourself back out of conformity. It’s also a good time to work on emotionally detaching yourself from relationships or situations where you feel historically bound, while still honoring your true responsibilities and commitments.

This combination of energy is good for sustained growth in a new direction. It brings opportunities to connect with your communities in new ways. This energy is focused, determined and concentrated, though there’s a danger of being too stubborn or not opening to a wider understanding of your life. It heralds a time of unexpected liberation. It’s a cycle of progressive change, though some of that change may completely surprise you or feel destabilizing.

Despite his humanitarian streak, Aquarius needs a lot of independence, so this is a good time to create a little distance in any place that feels confining. One of the highest expressions of Aquarian energies can be realized when you have enough space and freedom to know and embrace what makes you unique. When this inner connection is strong, it’s easier for Aquarius to create that energetic bridge between who you uniquely are and what the world needs in order to anchor in a more humanistic future. If you think of Aquarius as the electricity of inspiration, then the freedom to really be who you are is like a lightning rod. Once the connection is made, future currents can flow through and ignite change.

Some questions to ask yourself during this cycle:

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What’s unique about me?
Where do I hold back who I really am?
If I wasn’t afraid of being judged, what might I try?
What do I want to create in my life in the coming years?
Where has my life grown stagnant?
Where am I resisting change?
Where do I feel drawn to contribute?
What social groups or organizations do I want to engage with?
Where do I need to break free?
Where do I need to reclaim my inner authority?

CAPRICORN NEW MOON
January 11, 2024

The New Moon occurs in Capricorn on Thursday, January 11th at 6:55 am.

This New Moon occurs in the sign of Capricorn. Capricorn is the steady builder and father-figure of the skies. His focus is on practical, real-world matters, and he's willing to work hard, with resourcefulness and discipline, to accomplish his task. He's wise, committed and constant. His essence is structure. He focuses on achievement, maturity and responsibility. Under a Capricorn New Moon, it's time to get down to business.

The symbol for Capricorn is the sea goat, a mythical creature with the body and tail of a fish and the front hooves and head of a goat. Although Capricorn isn't built for quick change, his watery half gives him access to deep emotions and creativity, while his upper half helps him plod steadily along as he climbs the mountain of success. This energy is great for building a sense of security, advancing in your work, creating order, taking practical steps towards building something lasting, etc. Capricorn can ground big hopes and dreams into reality. In Capricorn, it's all about manifesting and slow building. Whatever you create under Capricorn's influence is built to “stand the test of time.”

Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the “karma keeper” of the zodiac. Saturn's lessons are oftentimes laced with karma and can have a feeling of being fated. He demands that we honor our commitments and responsibilities, “get real,” or create some kind of order in our lives. Saturn can't be fooled by half-measures. He demands that you stay with something until it's done, never letting you off the hook, even when things get hard and you just want to give up. Under Saturn, we all learn that responsible boundaries and rules actually offer us freedom. With healthy boundaries and rules, we are free to focus, free from chaos, etc. Although structure can feel limiting, it can also support and direct energies in a productive way.

Saturn, in his unending quest to build something of permanence and real value, can feel heavy, demanding, moralistic and miserable, especially in the places where we've failed to develop discipline, are trying to shirk responsibility, or have been failing to put in the long hours and hard work that the job requires. Wherever Saturn shows up, it's time to measure progress in some area of your life. If you're falling short, Saturn will hold you accountable, offering real-life lessons in whatever you need to work on. If you've been working hard, he's also quite ready to reward you, or help you make a solid, new start in the right direction.

At this New Moon, Saturn is in Pisces and is sextiling Jupiter. When Saturn is in positive aspect to Jupiter, there’s the potential for sustained growth of some kind. This is an excellent aspect for business endeavors of any kind. Pisces brings in cosmic energy, so there’s also the potential here for finding and/or more deeply committing to your “life’s work” or work your soul more deeply resonates with. This is more a path than an event. Saturn is steady and can help you take whatever steps are necessary to get you there.

As the sign that holds “father energy,” New Moons in Capricorn can also bring up subconscious father issues or issues with authority. This indicates a learning and transformation cycle around the things we’ve learned from our individual and collective fathers and our own, patriarchal tendencies, which now reside in the subconscious, likely as moralistic or strict ideas about what’s right, necessary and prudent in life, especially with regard to material success. Under a Capricorn New Moon, we can more easily contact our own rigidly-structured beliefs or ways of interacting. Some of these beliefs are built to stand the test of time. Others are distortions that need to be stripped away, so that a new foundation can be built upon.

ASPECTS

Trine to Uranus in Taurus

The New Moon is trining Uranus, the planet of sudden change and freedom. Trines are places where energies are in alignment, so although Uranus is disruptive, and Capricorn likes order and structure, at this New Moon, they’re working together in perfect harmony. Whatever practical steps Capricorn is asking for, it’s going to involve change, or maybe even a “wake up” call of some sort. Uranus is the planet of liberation and sudden insight. In harmony with Capricorn, this New Moon can show you not only what you’ve been unable to see or understand before, but the practical steps necessary to build a lasting and sustainable sense of inner freedom.

Conjunction to Pluto in Capricorn

The New Moon is also loosely conjunct Pluto, the planet of deep transformation and rebirth. Pluto is moving through the last degrees of Capricorn, meaning he’s working at transforming Capricornian beliefs that we all hold collectively – questions around structure, discipline, ambition, material success, patriarchal systems, authority, etc. Pluto moves slowly, getting down under the hidden material that lies in distortion or in shadow. These distortions usually involve questions of control and power or abuse of power.

As the ruler of the underworld and of the cycle of birth-death-rebirth, Pluto asks us to go into our deepest fears, to let some part of ourselves die in the fires of purification and then be reborn as something new. Pluto almost always asks us to transform our shadow material so we can be more empowered on the other side of that rebirth. That means there’s the chance that something will have to be released or destroyed, so that something better can be built.

Sextile to Neptune in Pisces

Neptune carries a spiritualizing effect and sextiles are supportive aspects. Although Neptune can feel confusing or disorienting, the energy is in harmony here, so this influence is likely to be inspirational, or offer a chance to let go of something that’s causing you suffering. Neptune and Capricorn can help you take practical, steady steps toward building the life of your dreams, or for finding your soul’s place in this material world.

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

Capricorn is about structure, discipline and hard work, but the aspects to this New Moon bring in an interesting mix of inspiration and impulse for change. Capricorn is a slow, foundation-building energy that can help you ground something into concrete reality. Uranus can help you wake-up, see something new, or break free from some external or internal restriction, so you can have a deeper sense of freedom. Pluto can help you work through the deep, hidden material that keeps you disempowered, and Neptune is offering the potential for spiritual breakthrough as well as inspiration to go after your soul’s dreams.

Altogether this is a powerful New Moon for the grounding and real-world manifestation of your dreams. It’s a time for setting practical, inspired goals or setting off strongly in a new direction. We’re all being asked to commit more deeply to something and to recognize our responsibilities, though here we may be talking about committing more to our own freedom and recognizing the responsibility we have to bring the gifts of our soul into the world in a real way. This New Moon is ideal for slowly and steadily nurturing your dreams into reality.

Questions to consider as you navigate this moon cycle:

Where do I need more structure?
Where do I need to commit myself more?
Where do I need to reformulate my ideas around structure and responsibility?
What’s the big dream? What will it take to make it a reality? Am I willing to commit?
What did I learn about achievement/success/security from my father?
What beliefs do I need to let go of, in order to feel more empowered and free?
What structures in my daily life would best support my soul?
Where do I need to be more disciplined?

SAGITTARIUS NEW MOON

December 12, 2023

The New Moon occurs in Sagittarius on Tuesday, December 12th at 6:31 pm.

This New Moon occurs in the sign of Sagittarius. Sagittarius is the gypsy and philosopher of the zodiac. His essence is expansion. Sagittarius is eager to learn, travel and grow. Ruled by Jupiter (the planet of luck and expansion), Sagittarius represents the capacity to step back and see things from a higher perspective. He’s open-hearted and open-minded, and eager to meet people with different worldviews. He wants to travel the world, read every book in the library, and climb the highest peak so he can obtain the most-expansive view possible. The energy of a Sagittarius New Moon can feel uplifting and full of hope.

The symbol for Sagittarius is a centaur with a bow and arrow. As a centaur, Sagittarius bridges two worlds. He’s capable of using his higher, evolved mind to understand and interface with his primal nature. As an archer, his eyes are always looking out toward the horizon, taking aim. Sagittarius wanders and seeks connection with everything that lies just beyond his understanding. He’s curious, but also more attuned to intuition and belief than to science or facts. He’s always reaching toward some bigger goal and looking for new experiences. Sagittarius is the hope that keeps us chasing after our dreams. He’s the optimism that helps us see the larger meaning of life’s lessons. He’s the power of faith and belief to overcome doubt and fear, and the drive to find the answers to life’s biggest questions. Sagittarius teaches us how to overcome the lower aspects of our own animal nature, without losing our innate sense of freedom.

Sagittarius, like all signs, can express both positively and negatively. In his positive expression, Sagittarius helps you reach beyond yourself, over your less-evolved impulses, learn new things and develop an expansive life philosophy. In his negative expression, Sagittarius can become an aimless wanderer, always seeking something new, always reaching toward some unattainable goal and never grounding his expansiveness in a practical way. Sagittarius also carries the danger of over-expansion, over-doing and greed or gluttony. He can become reckless or undisciplined and fall into patterns of excess. When he believes his view is the “right” or only view, he’s in danger of embracing ideals at the expense of practicalities or real-world people. He can latch onto philosophies that require judgement of others without compassion or become fanatical in his search for truth and meaning. Then, he may try to indoctrinate others into his own philosophy rather than encouraging them to find their own.

ASPECTS TO NEW MOON

Conjunction to Mars

Conjunctions blend energies, and here we have the energy of Mars blending with this Sagittarius New Moon. Mars is the warrior of the skies, and he’s all about taking action, oftentimes impulsively. Mars is all bold assertiveness and independence, as he’s a channel for primal desires and survival instincts. He can be the igniting spark that gets something started. He can help you go after what you want or fight or defend yourself, when necessary. Mars is a planet of action, not thought. That means, he can also be brash, reckless and argumentative. He can quickly start a fire, without really thinking things through. He’s courageous and bold, with an edge that benefits from a little tempering.

In conjunction with an expansive, wide-open Sagittarius New Moon, there’s a lot of energy for newness and expansion, with the danger of recklessness or impulsiveness. Ruled by Jupiter (the planet of expansion), Sagittarius can easily over-do, over-eat, over-extend, etc. Although Sagittarius can help you expand your horizons, learn new things and find the answers to life’s most important questions, with Mars egging him on, it would be wise to take a breath and pause before jumping into anything too quickly.

Mars can also be argumentative, and with Sagittarius, we’re talking about philosophical argumentativeness. Be wary of getting drawn into philosophical arguments with family or friends, as there’s definitely the potential to say something you’d later regret, or to burn the whole house down. Use the fighting spirit of Mars for the positive expressions of Sagittarius – fight for the right to define your personal belief system (without trying to convince others you’re right); defend yourself when someone is trying to limit you (without making them bad or wrong or trying to limit them in response). Aggressively go after your own growth edge. Take the leaps that you’ve been wanting to take for a very long time. Just don’t throw yourself off a cliff on a whim.

Square to Neptune

Squares are places of tension. Here, we have the energy of the New Moon at odds with Neptune, the planet of spirituality and inner peace, but also of deception, self-deception and confusion. Neptune is plugged into All-That-Is, so there’s a direct connection to divine source here. But divine source energy expresses in many ways, and they’re not all love and light. Sometimes spiritual truths can only be found on paths of suffering. Although Neptune is your channel to pure divinity, it’s also your channel to everything else under the sun, including the energies of suffering and self-sacrifice. Neptune, in its most positive expression, strips away all your ego constructs (not always gently) and shows you the secrets of the universe. But there’s a whole lot of potential for delusion and confusion with Neptune, as the energies are just so big.

Although Neptune and Sagittarius aren’t naturally at odds, they are pitted against each other at this New Moon. This increases the danger for making leaps into cavernous pits or jumping head first into something that’s a complete delusion. With impulsive Mars involved, we have the potential for breaking through restrictions and discovering ultimate, spiritual truths or for colossal lapses of judgement.

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

The energies of a Sagittarius New Moon cycle are all about expansion, hope, faith and belief. Sagittarius always holds the potential to see and/or take aim at larger dreams and goals, as well as to expand your understanding of the higher purpose and meaning in your life experiences. Mars offers some juice, courage and independence that could start you on a whole new path.

The dangers lie in over-extending or overreaching, as well as in that nebulous Neptune square. Neptune is notoriously hard to read or understand, because the energies are so all-encompassing. You just can’t nail Neptune down. I’d especially watch for deceptive ideas or people masquerading as spiritual truths or spiritual leaders. With Neptune, your guides, guardians and spiritual helpers are always close by and willing to offer a hand, so do your best to connect directly with them if you’re in doubt. It also wouldn’t hurt to get the perspective of a trusted advisor – someone with good discernment who isn’t too close to whatever is in question. There’s a lot of tension here, meaning it might be messy, have a back and forth feel to it, or take you somewhere on a very round-about path.

There’s a lot of potential for expansion here. Just stay grounded and think things through before taking any leaps.

Some questions to consider as you navigate this moon cycle:

What is my highest potential?
What is my Big Dream?
What’s stopping me from going after it?
Where do I feel drawn to go?
What do I feel drawn to learn more about?
Where do I feel excitement?
How can I experience more hope, faith and belief in my everyday life?
How do I keep myself small, and can I give myself permission to be big?
Where do I need to be brave?
Where do I need to take a risk?

PERSONALIZED MOON READING

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SYMBOLS

The symbol for the New Moon is:

Sun and Moon at 21 Sagittarius:

Toads singing at night.
X marks the spot. Plugged in to universal currents of energy and awareness. You listen and look toward the collective, universal voice and resonance, pervasively sensing how the inner worlds synchronize with the outer worlds. A magical, shamanic realm in all respects, working from the sacred circle and the cone of light. Alchemical transmutation from state to state and world to world. In touch with the borderline, hugging the edges. You feel especially keen to taste and feel what needs to happen, what wants to arise, tapping the pulse of the times and speaking for all of those who stay tuned in for further developments.

Mars at 14 Sagittarius:

A terrarium filled with carnivorous plants.
Deposited in the jungle, the pit, the open sewer; exposed mercilessly to the worst chaos, multiplicity, and darkness the world has to offer. Toughened, seasoned, tempered under duress. Forced to get it. Magnetizing the collective crises and subcurrents can give you a crash course in what has happened to the world and what must be done about it. You feel especially keenly pulled to participate in situations where anything goes and you must live by your wits or else. This is the fast, hard way to get a refresher course in the tortures and the plagues, in order to come up with solutions and alternatives of the most avid, incisive, and irresistible kind.

Neptune at 25 Pisces:

People and animals frightened during an eclipse.
Going deep and going far, yet emotionally afraid and bereft. Impelled by great force of being to carry on with destiny strides forward; you are periodically swamped by onslaughts of everything feared coming true. Being certain and being terrorized. The exquisite gift of pulling yourself through the enactment of personal, collective, and ancestral nightmares. You feel a consecration to what is coming into being on the expanded horizon, and a warrior's courage in always going back and grappling with the lingering shadows. A mission that cannot be refused. And a sense of purpose that defies its own collapse and rises from the ashes repeatedly.

SCORPIO NEW MOON
November 13, 2023

The New Moon occurs in Scorpio on Monday, November 13th at 4:28 am.

This New Moon occurs in the sign of Scorpio. Scorpio is the deepest, most-intense sign of the zodiac. His essence is transformation and his gift is power. He’s passionate, resourceful, focused and deeply perceptive. He rules over questions of intimacy, control and money. Scorpio wants to dive deep into the subconscious waters, look at everything dark or hidden, and work to transform it. Because shadow places tend to hold a lot of energy, this transformation process is deeply empowering. It can release energy that’s been trapped in shadow-creating. When you’re willing to consciously work with Scorpio energy, this energy can be freed and reintegrated back into your personal energy field, so that it can be used more consciously. As a result, you become more empowered, in the truest sense of the word.

Working with Scorpio energy can feel unnerving, as it’s a deeply penetrating energy that’s not afraid of death. Scorpio power is soul power, which is sometimes hard to recognize on the material plane. For this reason, Scorpio energy can oftentimes come out sideways. His promise of personal empowerment gets mistaken for “worldly power.” Then, his energy is distorted and can manifest as abuse of power. Financial power is then used to control. Sexual power is used to manipulate. Power can even be sought as a goal in itself.

Like all signs, Scorpio can express in both positive, life-affirming ways and negative, life-negating ways. In his positive expression, Scorpio is the shaman, willing to walk through dark or dangerous territory to reclaim a piece of your soul. In his negative expression, Scorpio is the power-hungry materialist, willing to sacrifice his own soul in order to exert control over others. However Scorpio expresses, there’s an intensity to it. His power to heal runs deep. So does his power to destroy.

Scorpio has two symbols – the Scorpion and the Phoenix. As the Scorpion, he can strike quickly with a deadly sting. He can puncture the skin, find your deepest wound, and exploit it. The Phoenix is the evolved expression of Scorpio energy. The Phoenix has been destroyed in the fires of purification and has risen again from its own ashes. The Phoenix contains all the power and intensity of Scorpio, but with a capacity to “rise above” and wield that power in life-affirming ways. The path of the Phoenix is not an easy one to walk, as it requires a willingness to let parts of yourself die and be reborn. Only in Scorpio’s fires can your soul be purified to the degree necessary to claim the power of the Phoenix.

With the New Moon in Scorpio, there’s a deeply transformative, initiating energy. This New Moon holds the energy for change, new beginnings, endings and transformation, especially around questions of personal power, intimacy, finances and sexuality. This New Moon can show you where you’re disempowered (through compulsive behaviors, addictions, debt, toxic relationships, etc.), and give you the energy to transform these places and reclaim your power. This is not an easy path to walk. It requires a willingness to surrender, to let parts of yourself or your life die away, so that the new can be born from the ashes of the old.

Although this energy can feel dramatic, the gifts are well-worth the effort. With Scorpio’s deep, ensouled power, you can soar above many of the material traps that keep you disempowered. You can see more truly, face dark things more easily, and develop a deeper trust in life and in yourself.

ASPECTS TO NEW MOON

Conjunction to Mars

This New Moon is conjunct Mars, the God of War, whose energy is bold, daring, courageous and quick to act. Mars can act like an initiating fire. He brings an assertive independence that’s ready to make something happen. In his positive expression, Mars is an igniting spark. He's a channel for primal desires and survival instincts. Mars knows how to go after what he wants and how to defend himself.

When a planet is conjunct the New Moon, it adds its energy to the New Moon energy. With Mars coloring this Scorpio New Moon, we’ve got Scorpio’s intense energy of transformation combining with Mars’ courage, independence and willingness to act. Mars on his own can lack direction or stability. He may charge ahead without thinking things through. It’s difficult for Mars to “course correct.” He starts strongly in a direction and goes until the fire burns out.

A Scorpio New Moon, however, is anchored in deep places. If we’re tapped into the Phoenix energy of Scorpio, this New Moon has the power to initiate deep changes in a positive direction. The danger, of course, lies in the shadow aspect of Scorpio. If Mars pushes forward from shadow desire, his igniting spark could create strong shadow drama, power struggles, financial challenges or distorted experiences around intimacy and healthy connection.

Mars can be brash, recklessly impulsive and argumentative. His misdirected fire can keep him fighting just for the sake of fighting, leaving a charred landscape behind. Scorpio holds the energy of destruction, so the good news is that even if Mars heads off in a shadow direction, Scorpio is capable of guiding the ship so that whatever gets burned to the ground is exactly what needs to be burned to the ground. The question is how dramatically the change will be experienced.

Opposition to Uranus

This New Moon is also opposite Uranus. Uranus is primarily a future-oriented planet. He’s the rebellious free thinker of the skies. His job is to liberate you from beliefs that are no longer serving you and situations that have become stagnant or over-structured. Because he’s so attuned to change, he can be erratic or unpredictable. He has an electric energy that can strike suddenly, sparking a new invention or igniting a revolution. Uranus is like a lightning bolt. He can help you suddenly understand or see something you couldn’t before. Or he can completely disrupt the status quo in the blink of an eye. With Uranus, we either “breakdown” or “breakthrough.”

Mars and Uranus are a fiery duo, and here, they’re set opposite each other. We have all kinds of fire and energy for change here, but the igniting spark of Mars is set opposite the electric energy of Uranus. In challenging aspect to each other, these two create an erratic, rebellious energy, that can be volatile. Fortunately, Uranus is in retrograde motion right now, meaning some of his impulse towards change is actually directed inward. In retrograde, Uranus asks us to look within, to make change inside, then to move forward in a slower pace than he would in forward motion. Retrograde Uranus is still electric, but with a calmer expression.

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

The potential for change and transformation are quite strong with this cycle. Scorpio’s attunement to deep transformation set against Uranus’ rebellious, forward-thinking energy creates a bit of a pressure cooker for rapid transformation. If you’re willing to face your deepest fears and surrender to your own spiritual or material “death,” then this New Moon can be quite magical. You must be willing to look at the darkness, accept it, and walk through it, however, even if you believe doing so will destroy you. When you’re willing to do this, Scorpio can stream all kinds of magically transforming energies into your life, give you parts of your soul back, and show you what it feels like to be truly empowered and unafraid.

Uranus in retrograde can teach you to be adaptable and open to the unexpected. He can show you how to embrace your uniqueness. Mars and Uranus together create a strong drive to push forward and begin again or start something totally different or new. They’re supplying plenty of fuel for change here, and a lot of it is directed inward, although there will certainly be outward manifestations of whatever that inward change is.

This New Moon is ideal for self-mastery. It can help you get control over addictions of any kind. Anything that makes you feel out of control (debt, addiction, compulsive behaviors or thoughts, etc.) can be overcome here. It will be easier to release emotional fears and burdens during this cycle. That makes it a perfect time for introspection or deep, personal process work. Take the time now to dig a little deeper and see what’s really underneath it all. Then, be willing to surrender whatever darkness you find, and open to change, even if you don’t know what that looks like. The more willing you are to trust in the process of life, the easier the release will be.

Scorpio is asking you to move forward with your life by leaving some of your fears behind. If this Scorpio New Moon cycle brings change to your door, you can utilize this energy by trying to face what life has brought, knowing it’s opening a door to something new. Surrender what must be surrendered, get support where needed, and allow yourself to be transformed.

Some questions to consider during this cycle:

Where have things grown stagnant in my life?
Where do I feel out of control?
Where am I engaging in self-destructive behaviors?
What passions have I buried?
Where am I willing to change?
Where am I willing to look deeper, even if it means seeing things I don’t want to see?
Where do I need to gain control of my life?
What am I ready to let go of?
Where have I given my power away?
Where am I ingesting poisonous things?
What might be missing in my life? What am I really looking for?

SYMBOLS

The symbol for the New Moon is:

Sun and Moon at 21 Scorpio:

A pair of glasses with no lenses in them.

Brutally direct vision and will focused straight down the middle. An outrageously maverick sensibility, convinced that seeing it all just like it is, is the only way to go. Defiant of roles, masks, and secondary references. Hugely unimpressed by any form of privilege or specialness. Desperate to break through all barriers, to go for the jugular vein. Neither temperate nor balanced in any sense. In the path of bluntly insisting upon your right of way you encounter huge shadows, and you are sorely tempted to assume that they come from the others. But eventually, the hard way, the truth makes itself known that ornery self-righteousness casts its own formidable shadows, and each and every one of these lays a claim upon you, you cannot refuse. Only when the rage has turned to love do the karmic shadows disperse and bare existence then become a true place to be.

LIBRA NEW MOON

October 14, 2023

The New Moon occurs in Libra on October 14th at 1:56 pm.

At every New Moon, the Sun and Moon come into perfect alignment. The Moon represents our emotions and our subconscious. The Sun represents our ego and conscious self. At a New Moon, the Moon and the Sun occupy the same exact degree of the zodiac, giving us an opportunity to bring what we're subconsciously creating in our lives into better alignment with what we consciously want. This makes New Moons the perfect time for setting intentions. You can expect to see the results of intentions you set now in approximately six months time.

Libra is the lover, artist and peacemaker of the skies. Her essence is harmony, beauty and balance. She seeks to create fairness and establish equilibrium. Libra understands we're all on the same team. Her symbol is “the scales,” and she’s especially adept at synthesizing opposites. More than any other sign, Libra rules relationships.

When the New Moon is here, a new learning cycle involving our primary relationships is beginning. A New Moon in Libra can show you where your relationships are out of balance. It can help you reset or rebalance your relationships, so they're more harmonious and fair.

Libra is in a polarity with Aries, the most direct, instinctual and self-directed signs. Aries is willing to fight for what it wants. Libra, on the other hand, is quite willing to compromise to keep the peace. Libra’s shadow-side or negative energy involves the potential for compromising too much. Additionally, in trying to see all sides of things and be fair, Libra can be quite indecisive. Because Libra is so attuned to relationship, there’s a danger of codependent behavior or loss of self within the relational space, as well.

This New Moon is also an “annular” solar eclipse. In an annular eclipse, the Moon passes in front of the Sun without blocking the entire Sun. The part of the Sun still visible appears like a “ring of fire” around the dark face of the Moon. Eclipses always add a little extra something to the mix. Eclipses bring new beginnings and new opportunities, magnifying the energy of a New Moon. They can initiate deep change, which then unfolds and integrates gradually over the coming months. Eclipses can help you realize what you want. They can reveal what’s been hidden in your subconscious and help you see what you haven’t been able to see before.

ASPECTS

Conjunction to Mercury

The New Moon is conjunct Mercury. Mercury, as the messenger of the Gods, rules communication and learning. Conjunctions blend energies. With the Libra New Moon conjunct Mercury, the way you think about your relationships and how you communicate within them are highlighted. In Libra, Mercury can think and communicate in balanced ways. Mercury here is diplomatic and fair-minded.

Libra is ruled by Venus, the planet of love and romance. Although Venus isn't directly aspecting this New Moon, it’s naturally emphasized at a Libra New Moon. At the time of the New Moon, Venus is making aspects to Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. Altogether, these aspects bring in the energy of steady, determined activity and forward motion (Saturn and Mars), along with an ability to grow and evolve (Jupiter). There’s a potential here for relationships to advance to the next level, to take steady steps toward improvement, and to evolve and change in ways that are beneficial for everyone concerned.

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

Rebalancing relationships is highly favored under this New Moon. Libra can help you make peace with those around you and establish more harmony in your environment. It’s a time to recognize our partners as teammates rather than adversaries. Negotiations under a Libra New Moon can also be quite effective, as Libra can express her needs in very diplomatic ways.

As eclipses have a way of “shaking things up,” consider waiting a day or two after this New Moon for setting intentions. Any intentions you set at this New Moon will need to be given extra space to evolve as the eclipse reveals new information.

Some questions to consider at this New Moon:

What does partnership mean to me?
What do I long for in relationship?
Where can I create more peace and harmony in my life?
What holds me back from asking for what I want in relationship?
Where can I embrace change in my life?
What in my life feels out of balance?
What can I do to create more balance in this area?

PERSONALIZED MOON READING

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SYMBOLS

The symbol for the New Moon is:

Sun and Moon at 22 Libra:

A CHILD GIVING BIRDS A DRINK AT A FOUNTAIN.

KEYNOTE: The concern of simple souls for the welfare and happiness of less-evolved beings who thirst for life renewal.

Man, who has built the fountain — perhaps on arid land and through skillful work — gives the life-bestowing water to the thirsting birds. He does not go to the sea, but he brings the purified, drinkable water to the birds needing it. The connection between "child" and "birds" implies a spontaneous, naive rapport at the spiritual level, a soul-touch at the level of pure feelings. What you received from the Infinite, you can give to the finite beings that thirst for it. Man does not need to destroy nature's wilderness through greed and carelessness; he can transform this wilderness into a garden, whose singing fountains will attract birds. Keyword for this degree: SOLICITUDE.

VIRGO NEW MOON

September 14, 2023

The New Moon takes place in Virgo on Thursday, September 14, 2023 at 9:40 pm.

At every New Moon, the Sun and Moon come into perfect alignment. The Moon represents our emotions and our subconscious. The Sun represents our ego and conscious self. At a New Moon, the Moon and the Sun occupy the same exact degree of the zodiac, giving us an opportunity to bring what we're subconsciously creating in our lives into better alignment with what we consciously want. This makes New Moons the perfect time for setting intentions. You can expect to see the results of whatever intentions you set at this New Moon approximately six months from now.

Virgo is the sign of the priestess and healer. She works meticulously and dutifully, with a focus on detail and getting things "just right." In her positive expression, Virgo energy is purifying and healing. She can clean, organize and put order to any area of your life that would benefit from a little discipline and discernment. Virgo energy, in its negative expression, can be self-sacrificing, shaming, nit-picky or perfectionist.

With Virgo, there’s oftentimes a sexual undercurrent. In ancient times, priestesses were trained in the use of sexual energy for healing. With the rise of Christianity, a strong split between sexual energy and religion developed. Virgo aligns with purity and purification, but in doing so, can deny her own sexual energy, which then goes into shadow and can become distorted. When this happens, her gift of discipline and discernment can become puritanical. Her willingness to work in service to a higher power can become self-sacrificing, and Virgo becomes the martyr.

Because Virgo is willing to work, she oftentimes is associated with the work you do in the world. This isn't necessarily the work you do to make money or as a career, but the work you do in service of a higher power or the places in your life where you feel duty-bound. Virgo can help you create meaningful ritual in your life and connect with the most sacred part of yourself. She can help you learn how to honor yourself and how to bow to the God within.

Under a Virgo New Moon, it's a great time to get organized, fine-tune your routines and schedules, and steadily work at improving something in your life. Virgo is analytical, intelligent, helpful and conscientious. Virgo can also be critical, so watch for critical thoughts about yourself and others, as well as a need for things to be perfect. Virgo's desire for order and improvement can skew towards perfectionism, and then Virgo's discipline and discernment can become heavy-handed and rigid.

ASPECTS

Trine to Uranus

This New Moon is being trined by Uranus, the planet of change and rebelliousness. Uranus holds electric energies of change, innovation, discovery and progress, and trines are places where there's an easy alignment. With Uranus trining the New Moon, there's an influx of creative, thinking-outside-of-the-box energy being funneled into this cycle. Uranus can offer a new perspective on long-standing patterns. With Uranus, there's always a high probability of suddenly seeing something that's been there all along but that you simply didn't notice.

Together, Uranus and the Virgo New Moon can inspire great change that's carried out in small steps. Uranus can get things going, sometimes in surprising or unexpected ways. Virgo loves making sure all the boxes are being checked and the details are in order. Together these two can inspire real change, specifically in the area of health, work and your day-to-day routine.

Uranus entered Taurus in 2018 and will remain there until 2025. Taurus is the sign of grounded, material reality. Taurus is where we fully enjoy life's simple pleasures, like good food, music, and fuzzy slippers on a cold night. In Taurus, Uranus' electric energy of change can feel disruptive. Taurus is known to be stubborn and fixed in his ways, and Uranus is all about change, so there's a natural clash of the titans here. Historically, there's been all kinds of societal disruption when Uranus is in Taurus. (The last time they met was during the Great Depression, when the world was on the verge of WWII.) Certainly, we've experienced the turbulence of Uranus in Taurus these past few years, with COVID disrupting almost every aspect of material life, and with ongoing political and social upheaval and conflict.

But Taurus is ruled by Venus, the goddess of love, so in many ways, Uranus in Taurus embodies "revolutionary femininity." Feminine energy is about wholeness, and Uranus in this very feminine sign demands we recognize the ways in which we're all connected, even if we'd rather not. Under Uranus in Taurus, the Social Security Act and other radical, social programs came online, all mandating that we take care of those most in need.

In Taurus, Uranus can disrupt long-standing traditions, patterns of relating and even our sense of identity and security. In its more challenging expression, this combo can ruthlessly destabilize foundational things, creating havoc. In its positive expression, Uranus in Taurus dismantles entrenched, historical patterns that are dysfunctional, replacing them with more egalitarian and connective ways of relating.

Opposition to Neptune

The New Moon is also in opposition to Neptune, the "great dissolver" of the skies. Oppositions are places where two energies are set against each other. Here, you have Neptune, with his ability to surrender everything to God and allow things to evolve as they will, set against Virgo, with her focus on details and making sure everything is going according to plan.

Oppositions are places where we have to work to blend these two energies together and find some kind of middle ground. In its highest expression, this combination can show us how to focus on what's right in front of us with discipline and positive intention, without getting too stuck on it going a certain way. Neptune can offer great vision and inspiration but can also be vague and confusing, because the energy Neptune holds is so spiritualized. Where Virgo focuses on the small thing that's right in front of her, Neptune is looking into the cosmos, writing poetry, and dreaming big dreams.

There's a danger here of falling into fantasy and becoming fanatical about making it a reality. But there's also the potential to take high-level, spiritual inspiration and ground it, through diligent work, in the mundane world.

WORKING WITH THIS NEW MOON

Virgo New Moons are a great time to focus on body-mind-spirit health and well-being. Virgo is a simple, practical energy that can ground us in our daily routines. This is a good time to set up routines to help manage your day-to-day life. Anything that requires organization and consistency can benefit from a Virgo Moon, so make a list of what you'd like to accomplish and then start checking the items off.

Virgo can also help you build your powers of discrimination, and help you see what's working and what isn't. She can help you transform your work habits and self-care efforts so they're more effective and serve a higher purpose. As the New Moon is also a great time to start something, this Virgo New Moon can help you launch new projects that require a focus on details.

Uranus adds some electricity to the mix, so there certainly could be some disruption to your routines with this combination. Ultimately, however, any disruption is in service of progress, so there's room to experiment and harness these energies for change and growth. Watch for radicalization and demands for perfection. With Neptune involved, it's also a good time to ask your spiritual guides and guardians to light the way. Watch for disillusionment, confusion or vagueness. Where the next step isn't clear, pray or meditate for guidance, and then use Virgo's healthy discernment to determine where your energy should be going. This combination can help you clean, organize or order your life in inspirational and innovative ways.

Some questions to consider for this cycle:

Where is change most needed in my life?
What is holding me back from embracing change?
Where do I need to be more discerning?
What serious work do I need to be focusing on?
What practical routines can I put in place right now that would serve my health and well-being?
Where can I be of service to others?

SYMBOLS

The symbols for the New Moon are:

Sun and Moon at 22 Virgo

A woman writing with the tip of her fingernail.
Sharply attuned. Self-consistent. Always telling the same story in variations--autobiography. So much to say, such a lineage to articulate and reveal. Being brilliantly tuned in to every nuance of your own superfine sensibility and not missing a stitch. Eerily intent upon staying on course and witnessing how it is done, why it is done, with dispassionate gaze. Selected by destiny to be the one to exemplify the way it should be done. Willing and able to do this forever and do nothing else. So straight and narrow that it becomes idiosyncratic and Self-referential. The name of the game is to call the shots, to stay on top of the situation and to tap every level of intelligence to make your way purely and precisely where you were intended to be, in the master plan being followed utterly.

Uranus at 23 Taurus

A salamander glowing red-orange.
Burning up with the inner flame of creative activity in the soul realms. The inner life raging with power--an insistent force. A level of attunement to the central flame of your being that will not quit. The impassioned desire to manifest perfectly what lives inside. The alchemical intention to burn away the dross and return to pristine selfhood at long last. An extremely sharply motivated path of development. Difficult to harness, yet the mastery called for is just what you seek to embody, and anything more reasonable seems easy and lazy. One-pointed drive to strip away all but self and be true to self in a fashion which will burn a hole in the world.

Neptune at 27 Pisces

A ritual sand painting.
Earth magic works upon the imagination to turn around old patterns and lost worlds by seeing it all with a different pair of eyes. The one who stayed under in a trance of automatic repetition, a regressive loop, is crying out for soul retrieval, is searching for whole new ways to feel and experience the way the energies move. Everything depends upon how you hold it, the field of assumptions and yearnings. For there is a tremendous ability here to follow a subtle track right through the middle of the lingering trances into a heightened experience of what this has all been about for so long. Searching for a deeper path through, learning it is there and not being able to carry forward any other way.

LEO NEW MOON

August 16, 2023

The New Moon will occur in Leo on Wednesday, August 16, 2023 at 5:36 am.

At every New Moon, the Sun and Moon come into perfect alignment. The Moon represents our emotions and our subconscious. The Sun represents our ego and conscious self. At a New Moon, the Moon and the Sun occupy the same exact degree of the zodiac, giving us an opportunity to bring what we're subconsciously creating in our lives into better alignment with what we consciously want. This makes New Moons the perfect time for setting intentions. You can expect to see your intention evolving over the next few weeks, and to see the results of whatever intentions you set in approximately six months’ time.

Leo rules the heart and is the sign of creativity and authentic self-expression, childlike playfulness, romance, spontaneity, and Christ-like love and light. The symbol for Leo is the lion, and there's a certain authority and pride to Leo's energy. Leo is ruled by the Sun, the brightest light in our solar system. The Sun shines because of what it is. In doing so, it offers light and warmth to the world. Like the Sun, Leo can be very warm and generous. No other sign can channel light and Christ-consciousness quite like Leo can.

The highest expression of Leo's energy comes when you fully embrace your unique light and shine that light unabashedly. Like the Sun, your unique, divine expression is a gift, offering light and warmth to all of humanity. We all have something special to offer. The darkness won't be eradicated until each of us finds that light within, along with the courage to live it.

Because this energy is so big and so bright, we can easily stumble into “ego” under Leo's influence. Leo can be fame- or follower-seeking, and oftentimes falls under the lure of ego as a substitute for authentic self-expression. At its worst, Leo is attention-grabbing, standing on stage and making loud gestures that mimic authentic self-expression. Leo can be extremely dramatic. In a world that worships big egos, this kind of performance entertains, draws attention and attracts followers. When it’s rewarded in this way, Leo’s dysfunction can crystallize, so that the performance itself, and/or the reflection that others offer in response, become mistaken for true self-expression. The false ego is strengthened as a result, and the real light and warmth that Leo is capable of channeling is lost. With Leo, we have to ask ourselves, "Why am I doing this?" Is it an expression of who you authentically are? Or are you trying to impress?

At this New Moon, consider setting an intention around your personal journey, creativity, self-worth, courage, self-expression or playfulness. Courage is rewarded under a Leo New Moon, so consider what your "hero's journey" looks like. How does the light within you want to express? Because of its connection to spontaneity and playfulness, a Leo New Moon is also the perfect time to reclaim your inner child. Ask yourself, "What gives me joy?" As a child, how did you like to play? When no one was watching, what did you do for fun?

ASPECTS

Conjunction to Venus

This New Moon is conjunct Venus, which is currently retrograde. Venus is the planet of romantic love, money, beauty and values. Venus loves the good life and simple pleasures, but she's also capable of tapping into deeper currents. The things that "feel good" to each of us are oftentimes reflections of our deeper values.

When Venus is in retrograde, if you're paying attention and are willing to look beneath the level of surface comfort, you can tap into the deeper, even subconscious, values that motivate your life. Now is the time to rethink what you truly value or care about. This New Moon can help you more closely align your life to match whatever those deeper values are. Venus is a romantic, relational planet, so this "rethinking" may be directly related to love and romance, but it also may be tied to money or other resources.

There's certainly work required to claim the potential here. In Leo, Venus can be more showy and outwardly focused. Truly looking within requires a degree of courage. It's sometimes difficult to admit to the values that you've aligned your life with, especially when those values are shallow or outwardly focused. But Leo has courage to spare and has the capacity to tap into the core essence that lives within each of us.

At its best, this Venus conjunction can help you align your life with more love and light, enliven existing relationships or help launch new ones. If you take the time to get clear about what you truly care about, this New Moon can help you build a relationship that's anchored in deeper values, either with a new partner or an existing one.

At its worst, Venus could easily get tripped up at the ego level here. Then, instead of touching those deeper values, the "rethinking" is more anchored in pride, ego, surface beauty and comfort. There's also a danger of overestimating the value of money, beauty or creature comforts in a way that fails to look at what lies behind that level of experience. If Venus gets tripped up at the surface level, expect more dramatic, over-the-top interactions, declarations or experiences which are more about show and display than any deeper truth.

Square to Uranus

This New Moon is also in a direct square to Uranus. Uranus is the change-maker of the skies. Whenever he shows up, we can expect surprises, sudden turnarounds, dramatic change, and even rebellion. Uranus is an electric planet that has direct ties to future currents, so his energy usually feels disruptive. Uranus is currently in Taurus, which is ruled by Venus, so there's definitely a disruptive quality to Venus' retrograde movement.

Uranus' energy can feel shocking, as his main purpose is to shake you loose from patterns that aren't working and to thrust you unceremoniously out of your comfort zone. Under a Uranus transit, you're likely to have sudden epiphanies or uncover shocking revelations that change how you feel or think about things. In Taurus, Uranus can disrupt your most stable, fixed patterns of thinking and relating. Taurus likes things to stay just the way they are, thank you very much. He wants the bills to get paid, to have good food on the table every night, and for everything to move along in a predictable, comfortable fashion. Uranus here can feel especially disruptive, as he's basically trying to overturn years of tradition.

Mercury and Mars in Virgo

Although they're not directly aspecting this New Moon, both Mercury and Mars are in Virgo. Mercury rules communication and Mars is our healthy aggression and self-assertion. Virgo is a very precise, ritualistic energy. She has a lot to do with overall health. These two planets, together in Virgo, can be precise, direct and self-assertive when it comes to communication. There's a strong potential here for clean, direct and helpful communication in the relational sphere. The danger lies in communication that becomes nit-picky and aggressive, or just an expression of loud, selfish demands for perfection.

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

There's certainly the potential for a lot of drama and disruption with this New Moon, especially in the areas of resources and relationships. With Venus rethinking her most established values (with a strong push from Uranus), there's definitely the potential for drama or a sudden "change of heart." That's not necessarily a bad thing, although this mix is likely to feel generally disruptive and could easily create a degree of nervous tension.

The more we resist the change Uranus is insisting upon, the more difficult and dramatic the realignment will be. My advice is to use the strong potentials for positive change here. Do the hard work of looking at what motivates your patterns of relating. If you look past the surface level, what kind of values are your relationships currently aligned with? This is the part that requires some of that Leonine courage.

When you've done the hard, digging work, spend some time breathing into your core, holding the intention to align with what is most true inside of you. Notice where the outward expression isn't matching your deepest core (which is ultimately a place of love, forgiveness, compassion and acceptance).

Then ask yourself what small (or huge) step you can take to bring your relationships as they currently exist into greater alignment with your core essence and your deepest values. This may mean reworking some of your most-ingrained relational patterns, but the potential upgrade is well worth the work. With this New Moon, your relationships can become more playful, spontaneous and romantic. They can be transformed by the light that radiates from deep within.

Some questions to consider for this cycle:

What are the values I want to embody in my relationships?
Where do I need to have more courage?
Where do I want to express myself more?
What shadow or hidden values are underlying my life right now?
How can I bring forward more of my inner child?
Where is my ego getting in the way?
What am I most proud of in myself? How can I let that part of me be seen more?
Where is change most needed in my life?
What is holding me back from embracing change?

SYMBOLS

The symbols for the New Moon are:

Sun and Moon at 24 Leo

Sunrise over Stonehenge.
Immortal stature. Undiminished interior presence. A throwback to heroic times and places, character elevated, the universal code upheld, you are stalwart, uncompromising, and even rabid. Vertical understanding and allegiance. Exquisite sensibility. Nobility and the core of human nature embodied. You have a subtle undertone of magic and miracle, yet you're often overtly quiet, simple, and straight. All goes into the spirit, poignant and evocative and moving.

Venus at 19 Leo

A hummingbird feeding at a trumpet vine.
Heightened perception exquisitely poised, brilliant and as fast as can be. You have the genius of seeing things, knowing things, and being there. Overflowing with destiny-bounty earned over many lifetimes, yet you bring all this through with a fine-tuned ability to land in the situation at hand with only as much as can be worked with. You are guided to follow an extraordinary course through the world, which features the perfect opportunities to tap what is inside in so many different ways. The blessings, the grace, the heart's wonder are superfull. As this way of being ripens and matures, it becomes even better. Then you begin to draw out from others the same kinds of marvels and wonders, and to make it possible for the vibrancies to spread and grow. With a wildfire capacity to spread good news and bring affirmative realizations wherever they are needed in generous profusion, you work with ever more effortless capacity to bring this world alive.

Uranus at 24 Taurus

A man with no mouth.
Nothing to say, everything to do. The self cannot be articulated because it is far too busily pressed out into emergency mobilization twenty-four hours a day. No personal life, no personal world, no personal self. Just fantastic availability to the call, the collective vigil, entered upon willingly and selflessly. The demands and rigors of this position and stance are punishing and extreme. You are so hardpressed, so rabidly attentive that nothing else exists. The assignment is clear, brutally so. Be on the spot at every level, maintain order, keep everything going and stay tuned to everything unusual and strange. Follow it out, keep it in your sights and make absolutely sure that you stay sober, integrity sworn and minutely diligent to hold the center and uphold the law with a steadfastness that is beyond belief, and simply true.

GEMINI NEW MOON
June 18, 2023

The New Moon will take place on Sunday, June 18, 2023 at 12:35 am.

At every New Moon, the Sun and Moon come into perfect alignment. The Moon represents your emotions and your subconscious. The Sun represents your ego and conscious self. At a New Moon, the Moon and the Sun occupy the same exact degree of the zodiac, giving you an opportunity to bring what you're subconsciously creating in your life into better alignment with what you consciously want. This makes New Moons the perfect time for setting intentions. You can expect to see your intention evolving over the next few weeks, and to see the results of whatever intentions you set in approximately six months’ time.

This New Moon is taking place in the sign of Gemini. Gemini is the most curious and communicative sign of the zodiac. Gemini is where we learn, explore and gather information, though Gemini can also be highly distractible and find it difficult to focus. In Gemini, we explore anything and everything, like a butterfly flitting from one flower to the next. We explore for the sake of exploring. We gather lots of bits of data, as if we're briefly stopping to look at many, individual pieces of a puzzle. Gemini never steps back to see the larger picture, because Gemini is delighted by the movement itself. The focus is on the small, quick connections and the little bits of information or messages that are encountered along the way.

The symbol for Gemini is the twins, and you could say the essence of Gemini is duality. It's through Gemini that we accept the illusion of duality. Gemini lives in the black and white world of "rational" thinking, where everything seems to exist in opposing pairs. In Gemini, we happily split ourselves into parts and see the world as a collection of separate data points. I use quotes around the word "rational" because Gemini also grants the capacity to hold logically incompatible or even conflicting beliefs simultaneously (such as being "Pro Life" while supporting the death penalty).

Because Gemini holds all duality, his movement can feel like bouncing between alternating currents. Gemini can happily move along with one current and then suddenly reverse direction when a different current is picked up. In Gemini, we can split ourselves a thousand different ways, and somehow hold it all together. This can create all kinds of confusion or misdirection, and it becomes very easy to get lost in the polarization.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, who is depicted as a young man wearing winged shoes and carrying a staff with two entwining snakes. You can think of the staff as representing the underlying unity of life, with the two entwined snakes representing seemingly opposing forces (masculine and feminine, dark and light, etc.). Each only exists because of the other, so although they appear to be separate, they are inseparably entwined.

This symbol of duality reveals both the positive and negative potentials of Gemini. Positively, Gemini offers us the opportunity to experience variety. We can explore many things, enjoying the journey without focusing on the destination. Negatively, Gemini's focus can be so in-the-moment that we forget duality is actually an illusion. Gemini willingly pretends, so we can joyfully move with all the alternating currents. It's pleasurable and distracting, but it's really all just a trick of the mind. There's a unifying force that lies behind all the dazzling movement and contrasting potentials, and in Gemini, it's all too easy to forget that.

Because there's so much trickery here, things are never quite as they seem with Gemini. Mercury was considered the god of commerce because he rules over all the little connections that make our economy run, but also the god of thieves and liars, because of this underlying trick of the mind he plays with us. If you fall too deeply for the trick, and believe too fully in duality, it becomes easy to narrow your thinking and believe you can somehow exclude everything that falls outside the idea or thing you're focused on. Then we see the shadow side of Gemini's deception, which can be used to make wrong, separate or exclude anyone who seems to be holding an opposing view or opinion. Gemini can easily get caught up in the pleasure of the small connections and movements and then forget that it's all just small pieces of some larger puzzle.

Mercury does serve a higher purpose, as well. He is, ultimately, a messenger of the Gods, and in his travels here and there, he grants little glimpses of the truth he holds hidden within that staff. Duality is an illusion. And each small bit of data he provides does contribute in a small way to an understanding of that bigger truth. If you travel long enough, you begin to sense the underlying sameness of seemingly contrasting places.

If you want to experience the transcendent potential that's hidden within Gemini, you have to be willing to look at apparent opposites with the understanding that they're actually just expressions of some deeper, unified current. You have to allow Gemini to take you down many roads and explore many different things, withholding judgement even as you make choices. We also have to be willing to ask ourselves about the many lies we each tell ourselves, and the ways in which we use those lies to exclude or separate others.

ASPECTS

Square to Neptune

This New Moon is forming a square with Neptune. Neptune is the most spiritual planet of the skies. It's sometimes known as the "Great Dissolver," as Neptune asks you to keep surrendering your ego definitions so you can know more of the truth of who you ultimately are. In Neptune, you can melt back into Divine Source and know the oneness of all things. Neptune is creative, imaginative and magical. All your guides and guardians are easily contacted through Neptune. The highest potential of this transit lies in seeing through Gemini's ultimate illusion of duality.

Unfortunately, the ego doesn't like the concept of "surrender," and so Neptune transits can oftentimes lead us into confusion or illusion. With Gemini involved, there's a stronger potential for all kinds of mind tricks - deep confusion, illusion, or disillusionment. The Moon brings in your subconscious and emotional material, so there's a wide range of paths to get lost upon here. Neptune alters your perceptions, so it may be difficult to see clearly or to see where you're going. We could easily get caught up in separative fantasy here. It might even be difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. It would be easy to follow the sparkly lights down a wayward path.

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

This New Moon cycle offers you an opportunity to express some of the positive energies of Gemini, which include improving your communication or social skills, listening to others, making new connections, questioning what you think you know, learning through following your impulses and seeing where they lead, etc. Above all, Gemini is curious, and that curiosity can be put to good use if you're willing to hold a "beginner's mind." That means putting aside everything you think you know and just "noticing what you notice," without trying to draw too big of a conclusion about what that single data point might mean. Remember, this energy is changeable, so there's room for things to evolve here.

Make space for Spirit in this playful curiosity. Together, Neptune and Gemini can create a very magical, playful energy that can carry you along through a mystical wonderland, where nothing is exactly as it seems, but where everything is ultimately connected. If you're prone to fantasy or wayward impulses, then be sure to stay grounded and keep asking yourself the right questions. Is this loving? Am I in reality?

Discernment will be key for navigating this combination of energies. Meditate and make space for creativity but stay grounded in reality. Let Gemini's playful curiosity move you forward with an open mind, but remember those ultimate truths and keep reaching for unification over separation. Choose love over fear. Gemini is ultimately a friendly, playful energy, so let yourself be playfully curious about life. If you're willing to surrender some of what you think you already know, then Neptune might be willing to reveal to you some of the deeper mysteries.

Some questions to consider for this cycle:

What calls to me?
What impulse should I let myself follow?
Where do I need to gather more learning?
What am I curious about?
Where have I fallen too far into separative thinking?
Who have I excluded?
What do I need to communicate?
What long-held ideas am I willing to question or surrender right now?
What lies am I telling myself?

SYMBOLS

Sun and Moon at 27 Gemini:

Much food stored in a cool cave.
Taking your greatest attributes, tucking them away for safe keeping and going on without them. Daring yourself to operate without the huge advantage of knowing everything ahead of time, and dropping down into the position of moving by primal instincts, each moment naked and following the live track of what arises. Turning yourself into a wide open, vastly impressionable, fluent, and flexible front line participant, but keeping on ice the most astounding array of greater gifts--the ones that are too much for this world now. And being quite inwardly assured that sooner or later you can and will draw upon and tap into the greater frequencies of awareness, in order to take the path even further along than spontaneous presence could begin to imagine.

Neptune at 28 Pisces:

A hoard of monkeys chattering.
Possession by local spirits in mischievous, playful fashion. Cast into an abyss. Dumped out of status and specialness and made to be hyper-receptive to whatever is moving here--an abandoned center, karmically sacrificed to learn both humility and the lessons of the street. The state of mind random, chaotic, inspirational, capricious, given to every kind of spirit passing through. Sorely troubled, yet fantastically out of touch. A regressive loop with powerful emanations. The feeling is that something must be done and that this will require a change of heart. But you gotta go deep, and it takes a whole lot of desperation to turn this one around.

TAURUS NEW MOON
May 19, 2023

The New Moon will take place on May 19, 2023 at 11:52 am.

This New Moon is in the sign of Taurus. Taurus is one of the most materially oriented signs in the zodiac. Taurus is where we fully enjoy life's simple pleasures, like good food, music, and fuzzy slippers on a cold night. In Taurus, the fire of Aries finds a place to land, and impulsive desires are molded into solid, realistic plans. Taurus explores questions of value. That means, he rules over money (as an expression of material value), but also your values in general. In Taurus, we must ask, "What's of value to me?" Surely, good food, pleasurable pursuits and material possessions can fall under this category, but so does more philosophical ideas like kindness, peace or freedom.

Taurus is a stable energy (some would say stubborn, and they'd also be correct). He focuses on the development of resources (including inner resources). In some ways, Taurus is the sign where you prove yourself to yourself. Here, you build something real in the world, and in the process, develop self-worth, too.

Taurus is ruled by Venus, the goddess of sensual pleasure and love. That means Taurus holds a lot of influence over your love relationships, which is really just another area of life where we explore the question, "What do I value?" The symbol for Taurus is the bull, representing strength, tenacity, virility and power. Bulls are generally peaceful creatures, happy to graze in fields and be left alone. If bothered, however, they'll charge, and the same is true for Taurus. Although generally a peaceful and calm sign, the bull can also have a wicked temper, especially when their lives become unstable or insecure in any way.

When Taurus energy is balanced, it's self-reliant, resourceful, stable, sensual and abundant. In distortion, the bull can be materialistic, possessive, stubborn, self-indulgent, lazy or greedy. When Taurus energy is lacking, life can feel austere, stark, wasteful or lacking in value.

ASPECTS

Trine to Pluto/Sextile to Mars

Pluto and Mars are both in supportive aspects with this New Moon. That means the drive and fire of Mars and the power and control of Pluto will both be available for whatever Taurus wants to build in your life.

Pluto and Mars, however, are in opposition with each other. Oppositions occur where two energies are being set against each other, and when these two powerhouses are set against each other, conflict is likely. Pluto rules deep transformations, and Mars is pure fire. Although they're not natural enemies, when they clash, it may seem like "the powers that be" are erecting obstacles in your path to keep you from getting what you want. Mars and Pluto are both powerful, aggressive planets. In opposition, it can feel like your drive and ambition are being challenged or tested. Anger or frustration is more likely under this transit, as well as the temptation to be ruthless, to try to control others or to force something to change.

With the stabilizing energy of a Taurus New Moon involved, there's a good chance all of this fire and conflict will actually help you learn the patience that's necessary to achieve your aspirations. Any adversity you overcome will only make you stronger now and will likely move you closer to building something of value in your life. The bull is well-equipped for persevering through barriers and restrictions. He can teach you how to wield your personal power in appropriate ways. Although the Pluto-Mars opposition can feel a little tense, if you're willing to plod along slowly like the bull and wait for the appropriate moment to charge, then this combination can lend determination and motivation to a New Moon seeking to build something of value in your life.

Trine to Neptune

Neptune is also in supportive aspect of this New Moon, meaning the energies of peace, inspiration and connection are available to help Taurus build whatever he wants to build. Neptune is the most spiritual planet of the skies, so "trust in the process" as much as you can, because there are higher powers at work here. Whenever Neptune is involved, you would do well to release all expectations, accept what's happening with compassion, and go within for your answers. Dreaming or visioning under Neptune's influence is always wise, as the channels are more open with Neptune as your guide.

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

Overall, this New Moon feels positive, life-affirming and pleasurable. There's certainly a push here to build something, and there may be some fire and frustration, or even some conflict and the feeling of needing to fight through obstacles or fight to control yourself or others, but overall, Taurus is generally content and willing to patiently persevere. This is a good New Moon to reevaluate your relationships and your relationship with money. It's also a good time to get clear about what you value and assess the degree to which your life is in alignment with those values. Neptune can offer a higher vision if you're in need of one. Taurus is all about pleasure and focuses on the physical, so make sure you include mundane values (such as having good food, shelter and the resources you need to pursue what feels good to you) as part of your assessment.

Some questions to consider for this cycle:

What do I value most?
Is my life in alignment with what I value?
If not, how can I work, in practical ways, toward changing that?
What makes me feel comfortable?
What makes me feel secure?
Am I making enough space for pleasure in my life?
Where do I need to be more self-reliant?
Where do I need to create more stability?
What do I need to prove to myself?

SYMBOLS

Sun and Moon at 29 Taurus:

A man amuses himself by drawing strange shapes.
Crystallized imagination. The inside of the inside remembered and evoked whimsically. There is no form, no pattern, no binding reality. Dreaming the world into being from a greatly bemused stance--other. Twinkling observer-witness consciousness. Off on tangents that call, a life, a cycle, a realm set aside for inventive play without boundaries. You feel exultant in the freedom. Swept away beautifully. Answerable to nobody and nothing except the muse.

Pluto at 1 Aquarius:

A two-headed calf.
Taking a good look at things with an eager eye brings you right into the middle of the dilemma of polarities. As you stand there faced with the different sides, you are impartial; neither side pulls you more sharply than the other. Immense opportunity. Huge challenge. You have vital potential for brilliant synthesis, but a subtle temptation to think too long. A schooling in alchemy in every moment--do you find what is ready to emerge or do you think about it? Progressive evolution draws you through all your mistakes into all that can be.

Mars at 30 Cancer:

Wild grapes growing everywhere.
Drawing forth the very best in everything. Selecting out the quintessence, the most vital part, and offering it nurturance and acknowledgment. A celestial quality of perception. Being entirely capable of persuading just about anybody that life is good, that marvelous things are at hand, and that we are all in this together. Sisterhood, brotherhood, camaraderie unlimited. You sense into the place where the situation resolves and completes itself by creative release. You have the epochal realization that there is nothing to hang onto, and that when the containers are broken open, all the vibrancy spills out and blesses the whole. An instantaneous impulse informed by much experience, becoming the instinct for bringing out the truth and letting Earth-life hold sway as a pageantry of trust in the wisdom of the life-force, with nothing to hold back.

Neptune at 28 Pisces:

ARIES NEW MOON
April 20, 2023

The New Moon will take place on April 20, 2023 at 12:11 am.

This New Moon is the second New Moon in the sign of Aries. The first took place last month and occurred in the first degree of Aries. This one occurs in the last degree of Aries, so we're basically getting a complete schooling in the energies of Aries. This New Moon will also coincide with a solar eclipse which starts off the Aries-Libra eclipse cycle.

Eclipses always come in cycles, repeating in a pair of signs every few months over the course of about a year and a half (we'll have six eclipses in the Aries-Libra pair between now and 2025). To understand the energy of eclipses, we need to look at the celestial bodies that are involved - the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. When the light of the Sun or Moon are "eclipsed," we take a step into what's hidden or shadowed.

Solar eclipses, like the one this month, have a similar energy to a New Moon, but intensified. (Lunar eclipses have a similar energy to a Full Moon.) Eclipses can have the effect of jump-starting something in your life or initiating long-term change. You can tell what area of your life will be impacted by looking at the house in your personal chart that the eclipse falls in. The energy will be even more focused if the eclipse falls in proximity to an angle or planet in your personal chart. If you'd like to know how this will impact you personally, you can order a Personal Moon Reading here.

When we enter the Aries-Libra cycle of eclipses, the long-term focus is on the "self-other" polarity. Aries is all about individuality. He's independent, assertive and goes after what he wants. His symbol is the ram, and he's quite comfortable driving head-first into combat. Libra is more focused on balance and relationship. She likes harmony and peace and is willing to negotiate and use diplomacy to keep the ship sailing straight. Libra's symbol is the scales, which can swing up and down, sometimes finding balance, but at other times showing the places where we're out of sync. Overall, this eclipse cycle can help you deepen your understanding of yourself through your relationships with others. Others always provide a mirror of sorts, either reflecting something in your own shadow or something you haven't yet claimed in your life.

As I mentioned last month, Aries holds an initiating energy. He's all about bold, assertive action. Aries is always eager to start something new, and can be deeply frustrated, dissatisfied or angry when he's thwarted. With this second Aries New Moon occurring with an eclipse, we again have a double dose of Aries' energy (last month, Aries came with the Spring Equinox, another "get things going" energy). If last month's New Moon didn't get something going for you personally and instead you're feeling more of the frustration factor of Aries, there's a good chance this New Moon will move the needle, perhaps by intensifying that frustration until it becomes so intolerable, you simply have to do something about it. Remember that Aries is a channel for primal desires and survival instincts, including anger. Aries helps you go after what you want and appropriately defend yourself. Under a second Aries New Moon, it's easier to create healthy boundaries, to stand up for yourself, or make something happen.

With all that fire, this New Moon will be especially supportive of engaging personal plans, finding your courage, claiming your independence, and asserting your will. Aries is a sign that learns through experience and action, so this is a great time to express yourself, to take steps to revitalize your life, or to take a risk. With the Aries-Libra eclipse cycle gearing up, this is also a time for reevaluating your relationships. Long-term growth and change, especially within the relational space, is on the horizon.

This combination is perfect for learning how to assert yourself with healthy confidence, while also considering the feelings of others. This eclipse is tipped more towards the Aries side of the polarity, so learning how to rely more on yourself, to claim more of your authentic self, and to express what you want within your relationships is favored. Watch for Aries' tendency to be brash, bossy or selfish, but when in doubt, err on the side of putting your needs ahead of others for a while and see what happens.

ASPECTS

Square to Pluto

The New Moon is making several aspects. The first is a square to Pluto, the God of the Underworld. Pluto rules your personal shadowland. In a personal chart, Pluto represents your deepest, soul wounds and desires. He carries you into your shadow work, slowly transforming you and helping you fully claim your personal power. Pluto sees things from a great distance. He's aware of long-term, soul patterns and can follow the threads of experience from one lifetime to the next. In essence, Pluto knows "where all the bodies are buried," and he's not afraid to dig them up, even if you've completely forgotten they even exist or would prefer to let them lie.

Squares are places of tension or friction, so Aries' desire for forward motion is being thwarted or slowed down by whatever lies in Pluto's shadowland territory. This combination of energy can feel frustrating and disempowering, but ultimately is the perfect combination for tackling the hidden things that repeatedly undermine your efforts. With Pluto, there's always a deep transformation potential - a death or letting go and then a rebirth. Changes and endings are necessary for growth. Here, Pluto is throwing up obstacles to slow Aries down. This isn't merely to frustrate your desires, but as a strong invitation to really wrestle with your fears and deepest wounds.

Conjunction to Jupiter

Jupiter is considered a benevolent planet that magnifies everything it touches. Generally, Jupiter is positive, abundant and full of hope. Jupiter magnifying an Aries' New Moon can bring resourcefulness and new opportunity. But more isn't always better, and here we have some danger of Jupiter magnifying the negative aspects of Aries, as well as the positive. This combination can give you a stronger boost in the direction of movement and change, of declaring your independence or taking a risk. It can also encourage you to take unwise risks or to risk too much. Jupiter could also magnify the frustration or anger factor of Aries. That could ultimately help you really get things going or push through something, or it could get you in trouble...it all depends on how you use the energy.

Depending on how willing you are to do Pluto's shadow work, Jupiter could also magnify the cruel, destructive or controlling aspects of your dark psyche that you're not aware of. Because there's a relational eclipse involved, if you're not willing to look directly at those difficult places, you may find yourself confronting them out in the world with other people who embody them and mirror them back to you.

Sextile to Saturn

Saturn is the hardest working planet of the skies. He rules over structure and acts as the "karma-keeper" for mankind. Whenever Saturn turns up, he demands that we be disciplined and do the hard work necessary to build something real and of value. If we're lazy or unwilling to take up Saturn's task, we then experience the more negative aspects of Saturn - difficulty, delay, hardship, etc. Saturn isn't necessarily trying to make your life difficult just for kicks. It's that he knows what it will take to really build something, and he doesn't tolerate shoddy work or half-efforts.

If you're willing to really put your nose to the grindstone, however, Saturn is quite willing to offer you real-world rewards. Here, Saturn is in a positive aspect with the New Moon, meaning he's lending some discipline to Aries' drive and fire. This is a great combination of energy for not only going after something but for sustaining the effort long enough to achieve it.

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

This New Moon is offering more fuel to the fire that was started by last month's New Moon. You may feel an even stronger desire for achievement or independence, with the danger of frustrating disappointment in the places where it doesn't manifest. This combination gives you the energy to persist and move through obstacles, especially the most powerful, hidden ones that lie in your own psyche. Watch for power struggles and competitiveness that isn't healthy.

Whatever challenges this cycle brings, remember that the ultimate goal is not only personal transformation but achievement of your deepest desires. The intense fire of Aries, coupled with Pluto's natural intensity, may actually ignite your life force in a way that nothing else can. Expect tests around claiming your personal power and asserting your needs within your environment and in your relationships. If you've been trapped in relationships or circumstances that constrain your ability to express your needs and desire, you may find yourself growing increasingly angry with this combination of energies. Endings, change, and new beginnings are strongly favored, so don't be afraid to look in the dark closets of your psyche and allow the pure life force of Aries to help you strike a new, more empowered path forward.

All in all, these energies are offering a big push forward, and if you're willing to do the hard, inner and outer work, there's great opportunity to start fresh somewhere, to build something new and of value, to seize opportunities that may arise, and to claim more of your personal power.

Some questions to consider for this cycle:

What do I want?
Where do I need to take action?
Where have I not been true to my authentic self?
What demons do I need to finally face to create the life I want?
Where do I need to start over or try something new?
Where do I need to find my courage?
Where do I need to individuate?
Am I willing to risk conflict with others?
How can I take charge of my life?

SYMBOLS

The Sun and Moon at 30 Aries:

An anatomist delivers a lecture on the kidneys.
Knowing about the things that others would rather pass on by. Absorbed within the excremental, the margins, the cracks. Preoccupied with matters of critical awareness and pragmatic considerations. You somewhat decadently repeat over and again patterns of viewing yourself and others as dysfunctional machines or poorly-put-together bits and pieces. Being so conversant with the little mind that you are a walking encyclopedia of trivia, having made it your business to specialize in determining what has gone wrong, what is the problem here. Ultimately and essentially, playing back variations on one's self-image as being off course and hopelessly wrong-headed. Given to exaggerated negative impressions. At times even condemning self and world to being unworthy and unredeemable.

Pluto at 1 Aquarius

Jupiter at 24 Aries

A harp which plays itself.
Joy and freedom are perfect companions along the greater way. Joy celebrates existence with a passion and a power and a fervent insistency. Freedom keeps on opening the context to make it more universal, more resonant, and more karma-free. Moving along this way is a creative feast of self-discovery and exploration of the edges. When selfhood is free to improvise and is open-ended, it is an unqualified blessing. You most especially demonstrate and embody a self-generative style and substance that is wildly needed and inspirationally infused into the collective bloodstream. So that we can get on with innovations and limitless worlds and feel confident that there is somebody there pioneering the bold reaches forward who is too foolish to stop for anything.

Saturn at 5 Pisces

Thousands of gold nuggets glistening at the bottom of a clear stream.
Subtle senses. You sense the subtle depths of experience and find therein glory, majesty, and divine power. Your eyes inside are open in places others are blind. You are shown the wonders of the deep, yet an immense destiny challenges. For this is a selfless realm, utterly selfless. Can you uphold the inner light in its own pure radiance? It takes great courage, for you will be flooded by collective contents and asked to serve totally. Can you rise to this? Or will special colorings shadow this realm? Only true inspiration can show the way. And if there comes instead the idea of it, the received image, the secondary version, all will be illusory and like fool's gold, of a shallow consistency, losing all savor.

ARIES NEW MOON April 8, 2024

ASPECTS

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

PERSONALIZED MOON READING

PISCES NEW MOON March 10, 2024

ASPECTS

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

AQUARIUS NEW MOON Feburary 9, 2024

ASPECTS

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WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

PERSONALIZED MOON READING

CAPRICORN NEW MOON January 11, 2024

ASPECTS

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

SAGITTARIUS NEW MOON

December 12, 2023

ASPECTS TO NEW MOON

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

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PERSONALIZED MOON READING

SYMBOLS

SCORPIO NEW MOON November 13, 2023

ASPECTS TO NEW MOON

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

SYMBOLS

LIBRA NEW MOON October 14, 2023

ASPECTS

WORKING WITH THIS MOON CYCLE

PERSONALIZED MOON READING

SYMBOLS

VIRGO NEW MOON September 14, 2023

ASPECTS

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WORKING WITH THIS NEW MOON

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SYMBOLS

LEO NEW MOON August 16, 2023

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ASPECTS

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WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

SYMBOLS

GEMINI NEW MOON June 18, 2023

ASPECTS

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

SYMBOLS

TAURUS NEW MOON May 19, 2023

ASPECTS

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

SYMBOLS

ARIES NEW MOON April 20, 2023

ASPECTS

WORKING WITH THIS CYCLE

SYMBOLS

PISCES NEW MOON
March 10, 2024

AQUARIUS NEW MOON
Feburary 9, 2024

CAPRICORN NEW MOON
January 11, 2024

SCORPIO NEW MOON
November 13, 2023

LIBRA NEW MOON

October 14, 2023

VIRGO NEW MOON

September 14, 2023

LEO NEW MOON

August 16, 2023

GEMINI NEW MOON
June 18, 2023

TAURUS NEW MOON
May 19, 2023

ARIES NEW MOON
April 20, 2023