The quality of each New Moon helps guide our intention setting accordingly, and the New Moon of April 18, 2015 is active, bold, and deeply shifting.  Occurring in Aries at the 29th degree, this New Moon has the fitting sabian symbol of the “Music of the Spheres.” To Dane Rudhyar this meant finding our part to play on our path within the evolution of life on our planet, as “the immense Chord of the harmony of the universe” resounds around us (An Astrological Mandala, p. 70).  This Aries New Moon will produce a Plutonic chord that will strike us at a core level, as it is ruled by Mars in Taurus and Pluto will have stationed in Capricorn during the dark of the Moon leading up to the New Moon.  On April 16, 2015 Pluto stations retrograde at 15°33′ of Capricorn, and it will remain retrograde until September 24, 2015 when it stations direct at 12°59′ of Capricorn.  Saturn is the only other retrograde planet impacting us now, yet this is paramount to reflect upon as Saturn signifies our structures and conditioning, and when Saturn appears to move backward from our perspective on Earth it opens us to the potential of re-structuring our lives and consciousness while in a process of our past conditioning being stripped away.  Pluto stationing to move retrograde in timing with this Aries New Moon amplifies the potency of Saturn retrograde in Sagittarius when we confront the past conditioning of our societal and belief system influences at a core, soul level.  Along these lines it is important to realize that the South Node of Saturn is in Capricorn, and so Saturn is deeply bound for us to these past societal conditioning influences on our soul and personality.

Part of societal conditioning often involves influencing people to ambitiously pursue self-rewards within the existing power structure, whether that be through monetary and material trappings or public recognition.  Instead, in accordance with the music made by the spheres of this New Moon we can tune into the evolving needs of our environment and the people living in our global society, discerning the attributes we possess that can serve some of these needs.  We need to be careful of past conditioning influences that make us hold back from the visions that can make both ourselves and others feel more fulfilled within:  if we notice we are afraid to pursue something because of not having enough money or social status, we need to be aware of how we could be severely restricting not only our future life, but the future lives of others we would bring joy and inspiration to by pursuing our desired vision.  This New Moon follows the past Moon cycles of eclipses, and we are working with a potent energy field that has not only called us to let go of past attachments, but also to welcome in a new vision of a more fulfilling and authentic life we can live.  At this Aries New Moon, we only need to focus on setting an intention to manifest the life we want to live:  there are numerous astrological aspects in the coming months to help us figure out how to make it happen on a more practical and grounded level.

The personal planets Mars, Mercury, and Venus are all extremely significant guides for us in the coming Moon cycle, Mars in particular as the ruler of the New Moon, and Mercury applying to a conjunction with Mars in Taurus at the time of the New Moon.  Mars in Taurus has a grounded, determined quality that can help us patiently build our new structure brick by brick with great care and attention to our inner pleasure in the process.  Mercury in the days following the New Moon will become an Evening Star again and shift into the phase of it’s cycle that can help us reflect upon and integrate all of the deep material of our psyche that was stirred up recently by the eclipses and the square between Pluto and Uranus.  Mars and Mercury together in Taurus are crucially in trine to the stationing Pluto in Capricorn, and are also in square to a conjunction of Jupiter and Juno in Leo.  These aspects can activate an assertive actualization of our creativity in pursuit of expansive conceptions for ourselves and within our relationships with others, and our actions along these lines will be more effective when rooted in genuineness rather than self-glamour.   The trine between Pluto with the conjunction of Mars and Mercury means the deeply felt reverberations of our soul that have coincided with Pluto stationing in square to Uranus can help fertilize and seed goals and purpose aligned with our inner values instead of outwardly conditioned values.

Mercury in Taurus is furthermore in a mutual reception with Venus in Gemini through the semi-sextile aspect between them, another indication of magic being available when we center on a path forward to bring us inner pleasure. Most noteworthy in connection to Venus in Gemini, Venus at this Aries New Moon is opposite Saturn in Sagittarius and their opposition creates a t-quare with Neptune in Pisces.  This aspect accentuates the tension between our fantasies and reality that has come up with the square between Saturn and Neptune in the past couple of months, and in the waning Moon cycle in between the Lunar Eclipse on April 4 and the New Moon of April 18, we have had to confront the aspects of our desired dream that needed to be adjusted and re-aligned with our actual reality.  Yet the containment of an active, inquisitive Venus in Gemini within the structure of Saturn also serves as a container to hold an expansion of our consciousness.  It’s like when you find someone you fall so deeply in love with that you know you want to devote yourself to them exclusively, instead of feeling restricted by solely desiring them in contrast to the plethora of other potential romantic partners in your environment, you feel radiantly alive and bursting with new growth and potential from within.  Neptune in Pisces in square to this opposition between Venus in Gemini and Saturn retrograde in Sagittarius calls us to dissolve the conditioned belief systems we have held around our outer relationships and inner values, and open our heart and mind to receive more bliss as we release the limiting beliefs about ourselves we realize now were delusional.

Venus goes “out of bounds” in extreme declination following the New Moon, adding a wild, rebellious vibe to the expansively curious qualities put on by Venus while in her time in the sign of Gemini.  Additionally, Venus is an especially vivid Evening Star of sheer brilliance for us at night now. Though briefly tempered by her transit through the t-square with Saturn in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces, Venus will remain out of bounds for the rest of April and through May, meaning she will be more likely than normal to do as she pleases.  The intentions we seed at this New Moon carry the quality of the t-square between Venus, Neptune, and Saturn, however, and some deep soul searching and questioning can arise in correlation.   Since Venus is also in trine to the North Node of the Moon in Libra, and sextile the South Node of the Moon in Aries, whatever is getting stirred up for us with this transit is going to be nutritive for soulful strengthening and personal evolution. One significant archetype that connects with the t-square between Venus, Saturn, and Neptune and this theme of a dark night of the soul leading to personal redemption is Lilith.  The Lilith asteroid #1181 is at 16° of Scorpio and so creates an additional t-square through being opposite the Mars and Mercury conjunction in Taurus and in square to Jupiter in Leo.  In addition, Black Moon Lilith is at 16° Virgo and forming a Grand Earth Trine with Pluto stationing in Capricorn and Mars conjunct Mercury in Taurus.

On the one hand, Lilith symbolizes our core wound of rejection, wherever we have felt excluded by others, ostracized, or unaccepted.  This is most prevalent in the t-square created by the Lilith asteroid in Scorpio with Jupiter in Leo and the Mars and Mercury conjunction in Taurus.  This can also connect with where we have felt oppressed by the dominant culture, such as through sexism, racism, or any other form of persecution.  The more we can become aware of this wound and realize it’s impact on us through contemplation, the more we can open to resolution and redemption through the Grand Earth Trine created by Black Moon Lilith in Virgo with Pluto and the Mars-Mercury conjunction.  In the process of contemplating our past wounds of rejection, we will realize how we have projected this personal suffering onto others or attempted to distract ourselves from our personal pain through pursuits that are more about escapism than connecting with the deeper recesses of our soul.  As a result we can strip away these aspects we discern are false about ourselves, and re-focus on the qualities we recognize as being embedded in our essential nature.  When we live from our authenticity, we discover the quality of Lilith that does what she wants to do for her Self and those she cares about and does not care about accommodating or pleasing others when it does not feel genuine to do so.

A further facilitator of our healing at this Aries New Moon is Vesta in Pisces, as Vesta is exactly conjunct Neptune in Pisces and so acting as a mediating agent between the transpersonal, otherworldly Neptune, the intimately personal Venus in Gemini, and the societal conditioning Saturn in Sagittarius.  Vesta is devotional and capable of sustaining incredible focus as a container of Spirit, and so brings us a greater capacity to tap into the oceanic field of Neptune with our perception in order to receive guidance in how to liberate ourselves from the past conditioning signified by Venus being opposite Saturn retrograde in Sagittarius.  Vesta in this position can also involve breaking with past conditioning concerning our belief systems around our sexuality, including religious conditioning, so that we become unashamed to express our sexuality in whatever way is sacred for us.  Vesta has the diligence and discipline to stand firm within the constriction of Saturn and the dissolving of Neptune and channel charged, purifying energy for us to express through Venus.

The Aries III Decan where the New Moon occurs is associated with the Four of Wands card in tarot, illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith as holding two female figures hoisting fragrant flowers in celebration under a garland and within a container of four sturdy rods, with a bridge and a castle-like structure in the background.  The Aries III decan is ruled by Venus, and Austin Coppock in 36 Faces noted that Eros was also attached to this decan in the fragmentary Hellenistic text The 36 Airs of the Zodiac.   Coppock analyzed this decan as signifying “The Burning Rose” as it’s symbol, as it holds “the power of the spirit to unify and seduce, to motivate and to bond those of confluent passions” (p. 64).  Coppock discerned that we find in the final decan of Aries “the power of art to overcome hostility,” such as the ability of a singer, speaker, comedian, or dancer on stage to transcend the hostility of an audience through their heartfelt performance that can inspire and arouse the passions of an unruly crowd (p. 64).  Yet Coppock cautions:

There is a remarkable potency here-  to create a commonality of spirit even in the most hostile conditions.  Yet the bonds that form here often require that intensity to endure.  The bond shared by military men, the celebrated esprit de corps, decays outside of war’s pressures.  The audience members soon forget the performers who so moved them.  In love’s battlefield, once the friction and fire of the first conjunctio, with its terror and elation, have subsided, the lamp of raw passion burns low.  A less volatile fuel is required for the flame to continue on.  ( p. 65)

Thus it is imperative for our burning Venusian passions that can be aroused at this time to channel the ecstatic heights of Eros into our creativity and relationships with the presence of mind to ground back into our more mundane reality and work with the more earthy energy signified by Mars in Taurus that rules this New Moon and is conjunct Mercury.  Again, an excellent guide for this facilitation is Vesta, the master of sustaining our inner fire, as she is exactly conjunct Neptune in Pisces and in square to Venus in Gemini and Saturn in Sagittarius at this New Moon.  Vesta brings with her the type of inner contemplation that Dane Rudhyar felt was imperative to attune with the cosmic order expressed through “The Music of the Spheres” symbol of this New Moon:

The message to the seeker for meaning which is implied in this symbol is TO LISTEN TO THE INNER VOICE; to listen without personalizing this Voice in a glamor-producing manner.  It is the Voice of the Whole, of which one begins to realize that one is a tiny little part- yet a significant part, for every note of the universal Chord has its place and its ineradicable meaning.  (Rudhyar, p. 70)

There is an epic symphony playing to lend your harmony to:  through your participation you will help create it’s next movement.

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Rudhyar, Dane. (1974). An Astrological Mandala: the cycle of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases. Vintage.