8:32 am  AHST  7/17/2023
  11:32 am    PDT 7/17/2023

  2:32  pm   EDT  7/17/2023
  6:32  pm  GMT 7/17/2023

Enter the Darkness to Find the Light

Once again, as at the last Full Moon, we have a lunation chart that has no planets in the Air element, signifying that the emphasis of our thoughts is now placed in the background, and what we have on our plate to work with are primarily our physical sensations (Earth) and our feelings and emotions (Water). Fire is also present in this chart, as Mercury and Venus are in Leo, and Chiron and Eris, two minor planetary bodies are in Aries. But as for thinking our way through things, we need to put that on the back burner, and save it for reflecting upon our experiences after we have lived them.

This New Moon cycle begins with Sun and Moon in opposition to Pluto, both forming a T-square to Eris and Chiron (in 90˚ aspect). Each monthly cycle, the chart’s aspects (planetary angles) show us the energetic frequencies at play. Whenever there’s Pluto so strongly angled in a chart, there’s a deep dive happening, down to the bottom of the oceans of the unconscious, or rather, the depths are pulling on us to become aware of what’s down there. And almost always what’s down there is there because we don’t want it to interfere with our carefully controlled lives. So it takes some self-care, and deep breathing, as Pluto strips away what’s no longer useful, and we allow for change.

And then we have the energies of Eris and Chiron. Eris the troublemaker, the exposer, the unwanted and uninvited guest at the wedding, is going to show up this month. She’s going to “spoil” things by her unseemly behavior, or by reflecting to us the feelings she embodies that we’d rather not look at. She often represents the despised aspects of the Feminine. And Chiron’s presence reminds us of the truth of our woundedness, of the parts of ourselves we can’t change, but that give us insight into the woundedness of others, and thus — of compassion.

And so we’re going to need to cultivate compassion, for ourselves as well as others, if we are to navigate the energies of this Moon cycle. Mars, newly in Virgo, now opposes Saturn in Pisces. That is a signature of frustrated desires, usually from our experience of some limitation imposed upon us from someone or something else. It may involve our work or our health (Virgo) or relationships that are strained in some ways. Saturn in Pisces is asking us to listen to our inner guidance, which we ignore at our own peril. But our ego (Mars) may not want to listen.

Venus has been squaring (forming a right angle to) Uranus, with a creative “busting out” urge for freedom that we may or may not want to follow. With Mercury squaring Jupiter, we may have grandiose ideas of things to accomplish, as a way of avoiding the depths that Pluto is pulling us into. Or, using the energy of this square in a balanced way, we may be able to shape-shift into something we hadn’t previously imagined we could be. It’s about how we’re going to work the energies around us, with a willingness to go with the river, rather than against it.

We’re beginning an important planetary cycle that has not happened since the 1920’s, and that is of Uranus in a trine (harmonious 120˚angle) to Pluto. These two slow-moving planets formed a trine during the Roaring Twenties, a time of immense industrial, technological and political “progress” in the US, when the automobile became readily available, “time-saving” appliances were marketed, jazz, movies, a whole new media culture was being born. We’d just been through a horrific World War as well as a worldwide pandemic. The glamour of Hollywood began to spread into our dreams and common imagery. Also politically there was enormous graft and corruption, racism, and the hypocrisy of Prohibition, which encouraged the development of underworld organizations. The KKK grew in membership, campaigning on the grounds that the loose morals of the 20’s were destroying America, a familiar ring in today’s political climate.

Though Uranus and Pluto are about 7 degrees from the exact angle of a trine, they will continue to slowly get closer, and reach exactitude three years from now, in July of 2026, and last through 2028. Uranus is the revolutionary, the electric charge that jolts us out of complacency, and Pluto’s job is always to break down what is outmoded and corrupt and then to renovate and build anew. My guess is that this is the time of a new culture about to be born, based upon the disillusionment of “glamour” and “riches” and the need for sharing of resources (since they are dwindling fast) as well as respect for all Life forms, especially our dear sweet Earth. This involves the processing and letting go of colonialism in all its forms, especially the colonizing of our minds through media and Big Brother types of propaganda, as well as centuries of patriarchal ways of doing business. We surely have a ways to go, but I believe that what we are seeing now in the decay of society, precedes the rebirth of a culture of a necessary global unity.

Venus is also going retrograde this month on the 22^nd. She will be retrograde for about 40 days (and forty nights). She will pass in front of the Sun in what’s called the “inferior conjunction” which is the beginning of her 584 day passage from evening star to morning star and back to evening star again. This is kind of the New Moon of the Venus cycle in relationship to the Earth. [1] By the second week of August, she will be reborn as a morning “star” for the next approximately nine months.

As a cycle for humanity, this new beginning with Venus signifies a shift in our relationship to the heart, to creativity, to our relationships. Venus will be in Leo (which rules the heart) for the next four months, due to the timing of her retrograde, as opposed to the usual 4 weeks. This accents a rebirth of creative self-expression, of “art as the best revenge.” We may find new creativity surfacing in our lives, and in our relationships. But as this is a more interior time, that creativity may ask us first to navigate the uncertain waters of the unconscious, to allow for important Plutonian renovation and the clearing out of the old to make room for new ideas, new ways of living with the often onerous task of being alive in these times, here on Planet Earth.

[1] Astrologically those born with a Venus Lucifer (bringer of the morning light) in their chart often are emotionally spontaneous, and more extraverted in the Venus realms, whereas Venus Hesperus (meaning Western) people tend more toward introversion and receptivity in their relationships.