Happy New Moon in Aquarius! The time in the lunar calendar when we plant our intentions in support of humanitarian aims, group connections, friendship, intellect, technology, science, and the future. Aquarius is the sign of the genius, the visionary, and the oddball that forges his or her own path. Aquarius invents that things that we didn’t even realize we needed. (How did we survive without our smart phones??) New moons are also a new beginnings and this one is exact on January 30, 2014 at 4:39 pm EST at 10 degrees Aquarius.
As new moons go, this one thankfully lacks the bite of the previous Capricorn New Moon. In the chart above, for example, the new moon makes a supportive sextile (60 degrees) to Uranus in Aries, which invites us to get a little zany and break out of old, restrictive patterns and to not be afraid of setting ourselves apart from the pack. But when we start to dig into the different planetary placements, there’s a lot more to this new moon.
First, Venus is stationing and will turn direct on January 31. Hello! She’s been retrograde since December 21, 2013 and now she’s pivoting on the Uranus/Pluto square. This tells us that behind the scenes of this new moon is a deeper process having to do with love, value, power, attraction, long term commitment, and an evolutionary shift. The Venus retrograde cycle is 40 days long — a number that comes up again and again in religion and mythology. We’ve been in the desert and now it’s time to return home.
Venus on the Uranus/Pluto square is a shock to our values, a death and rebirth in all things related to commitment and relationship. On Pluto, she is forever transformed, often via an uncomfortable realization that propels us forward in our evolution. Pluto can also be the healer, but it means leaving something behind forever. Plus Saturn, the ruler of the Aquarius New Moon, is hanging out in Scorpio, underscoring this whole process of Plutonian rebirth out of the ashes of the old. Did I mention Jupiter opposite Pluto too? Two titans of power and wealth facing off? These are seismic shifts that cannot be ignored.
Second, think back to November 3, 2013. Anything of any significance going on around that time? You may want to give it some thought because the new moon squares (90 degrees) the November solar eclipse degree. When a planet or a lunation makes a hard angle to an eclipse, it gets activated and so something seeded at that time is now up for review. Are you moving forward or do you need to make adjustments? It’s also a bit wide, but the new moon square the lunar nodes is also a spiritual imperative to cultivate strong Aquarian values right now — something that we may have shunned or had problems integrating in the past.
In all, this is another marker in a 6 month period of intense evolution that began with the Capricorn New Moon of January 1 and will last until July when the Sun, Jupiter, and Mars will shift out of cardinal signs. Venus stationed on the Uranus/Pluto square is an opportunity. If you’ve needed deep healing on love, relationships, value, and power, call upon Pluto to help you transform the old. The Aquarius New Moon is another opportunity to look towards the future and vision something entirely new. How will you cultivate your inner genius and reinvent yourself? This is your moment.
If you’d like to actively work with the energy of the Aquarius New Moon, I’ve teamed up with Bevin Branlandingham of Queer Fat Femme to create an exercise specifically timed for the new moon. You can learn more about it here and in Part Three of the exercise. And there’s always my lunar manifestation ritual!
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