Come down to Earth! (We’ll need to!) The New Moon in Taurus, the earthiest of Earth signs, being a fixed earth sign, is the energy of strength which comes from groundedness, and stubborn adherence to what we know to be true, real, and valid. But there’s trouble afoot. There’s an energy of dissent, of fogginess, even of deception in this chart that we must be aware of. We need to know what ground we stand upon in order to approach the many changes in the world around us. We are certainly witnessing the shifting sands of politics here in the US and worldwide. What’s true anymore? Looking within, we find the answers.

This New Moon is sextile (forms a harmonious 60˚ angle) to the planet Neptune, the amorphous unconscious energy that promises redemption, but as we approach that territory we often get sidetracked by our own fantasies of co-dependence, of wanting to be saved, rescued, or recused from responsibility. And in this New Moon chart, Neptune is in a T-square (forms a right angle to two other planets that are in opposition) to Mars in Gemini opposing Jupiter in Sagittarius. Translation: Jupiter in Sagittarius is boundless optimism, Mars in Gemini may talk itself into tangles trying to reason out the details, and Neptune’s square to both of them places it all under water, in a foggy unresolved continuing debate. OR! If we tune in to Neptune’s fount of inspiration, we may be able to harness the hopefulness of Jupiter, while using Mars to break those insightful ideas down into actionable form.

But we do need to ground ourselves (Taurus) in those actions which are available to us, able to be tasked and completed. We may want to ascend a great mountain of an ideal, but we must begin with a single step and create stepping-stones along the watery way. Earth signs are realistic, and ask us to take time to move ahead but also to have some sort of a plan, even if it’s one that’s subject to change as we go along.

Trouble afoot: Eris, the goddess of strife and discord is now in between Mercury and Venus, the two personal planets that govern our reasoning and our Eros.  All three in the very Mars-ruled sign of Aries, the sign of action, bravado, battles and daring. We may get ourselves into hot water by not pausing and breathing deeply and asking our heart for its feedback. How did Eris (the sister of Mars) get to be cast as the trouble-maker? Well, for one thing, she was left out of an event that was so “special” that no one wanted to risk her upsetting everyone, with her propensity to hold shadowy energies. And when she found out, her spiteful energy was activated. She’s a very dark energy only because everyone else wanted to see themselves as full of light, beauty, power, etc. And as my Jungian analyst used to say, “Someone has to carry it!” And so Eris is really a goddess born of our own denial of our wholeness, of the reality that we all carry both the dark and the light within ourselves. 

So this New Moon gives us the opportunity to test out consciously carrying our darkness along with our light, and in so doing, perhaps avoiding a great deal of trouble and being victimized by others who, perhaps unconsciously, worship at the altar of Eris. And with Eris forming a tight square (challenging 90˚ angle) to Pluto, our relationship to our personal (and global) power is being deeply challenged by events occurring around us. And yet this New Moon forms a trine (a harmonious 120˚ angle) to the Saturn/Pluto conjunction, which means if we approach our lives this month with this sense of owning both our goodness and our shadowy selves, we can get a great deal accomplished, perhaps even surprise ourselves with the power (Pluto) and discipline (Saturn) to surpass our previous expectations of what we can achieve.

Achieving great things gives us a sense of accomplishment, but we must always guard against inflation. Jupiter forms an exact trine to Eris, and trines Mercury and Venus as well, so as we are greatly stimulated by optimistic possibility, we must guard against the very inflationary energy that makes Eris rub her hands together and plan her next devious escapade. Remember to ground ourselves, breathe, look down at our feet and watch for the banana peel!