1:57 am  AHST  01/11/2024
  3:57 am    PST  01/11/2024
  6:57 am    EST  01/11/2024
  11:57 am   GMT 01/11/2024

With this New Moon, we are collectively on the razor’s edge of fate. Set at 20˚ of Capricorn and at a tight, nearly exact (challenging) right angle to the 20˚ Nodes in the chart—those significators of past and future karma—this New Moon asks us in essence, which side of the fence are we on? How are we to dedicate our lives to making the changes necessary in a world teetering on the edge of self-destruction in so many ways, the most basic of them the biosphere’s ability to sustain human life?

The South Node in astrology is the point in one’s natal chart that speaks to the accomplishments of the past, to what we’ve brought into this lifetime. None of us is born as a blank slate, we all emerge with a panoply of ancestral gifts and challenges, standing as we do in the middle of what our past has given us and our inescapable immersion into the present moment with its choices.

The North Node is the horizon line, what lies before us, and astrology helps us to see what kinds of influences (by sign and house) best help us to work with the karma we’ve been dealt and what to aim for, what our calling in this lifetime is. It often feels as though it is our greatest challenge, as the North Node is always opposite by sign and house placement to the South Node, to what is most known and familiar. It’s a lesson in working with the union of the opposites, as Carl Jung stated, which concerns the ego’s idea of itself with its societal and familial conditioning, versus the messages and life lessons from the unconscious (our dreams and “fate”) that we seek to make sense of.

Collectively, the Nodes in a current chart deal with the larger picture, that of humanity’s past karma and how we can best aim to go in the direction of healing. This New Moon, new beginning, since it is so precisely angular to the Nodes, asks us to look at the North Node’s lessons.

The North Node happens to be in Aries now, with two dwarf planets on either side of it, Chiron and Eris. Aries at its best, concerns how we use our aggression, the right use of energy, asserting, standing up to what needs to be called out. Eris, the goddess of “discord” is known for pointing out the shadow qualities of any situation, happy to call out hypocrisy and pretension. Chiron represents the need to heal the most untenable wounds of our time, such as racism, war, trauma, the deleterious effects of capitalism on our ways of doing business as human beings, as well as our rapaciousness toward our Planet Earth.

In short, we are this month at a turning point, energetically. The New Moon’s sign asks us to become responsible, response-able, to what we are called to do to contribute to the healing necessary for ourselves, for the planet. Pluto at the very last minutes of its tenure in Capricorn—a tenure that has included the Pluto Return of the US— is asking us to restructure our society, much as it did in its last tenure in Capricorn in 1776. Chiron and Eris at the gates of this opening to our future show us it is a passage that will not be pretty, or orderly. (Eris stations direct just hours after this New Moon, signaling the intensification of Eris figures in our society¹as agents of discordant change, not always those with our best interests in mind.) Healing, as we all know, often begins with a crisis, which is an opportunity for change.

The tides are turning, whether the media and public events reflect that, or not. Pluto is about to enter the sign of Aquarius for the next 20 years on January 20^th, the same day that the Sun also enters Aquarius. Again, we look to the planets as symbolic events, reflective of the movements of our psyche, both personal and collective. On a large scale, Pluto governs what is evolving in the zeitgeist of humanity. In Capricorn we saw major changes in the breakdown of societal order. Pluto’s transit into Capricorn began with bank failure (2008) and ended with them as well. The old guards of racism, capitalism, the war machine, and patriarchy are becoming caricatures of themselves as they lose meaning and power in the minds of the people. They’re in the forefront of tragedy and power grabs worldwide. When Pluto moves into Aquarius, we will see major shifts in how we organize ourselves, what power we give to authority, how we need to join together to avert global disasters, regardless of our personal beliefs. Pluto’s last visit through Aquarius (1778-1798) saw huge changes in the zeitgeist: The American, French and Industrial Revolutions to name the biggies.

There is no doubt that technology, and its shadow, will play an important role in the coming Aquarian age for the next 20 years, as its ruler Uranus governs all things electrical and innovative. And Uranus is strongly trine (makes a harmonious angle of 120˚) to this New Moon. How this age manifests is really up to the collective mindset, which is influenced every moment by each one of us individually. We really have little awareness of how important our individual acts are in determining the course of history. It’s referred to as the butterfly effect², wherein the smallest of effects can cause much larger consequences. Good to remember when we’re feeling at our most powerless!

The most exact aspect in this chart is Venus in Sagittarius in a harmonious trine to Chiron. (Exact by 08 minutes of a degree). Sagittarius is a very social fire sign, emphasizing the qualities of optimism, amidst the challenges of new areas of experience. It’s the kind of love that can spark our wounded natures with possibilities of new ways of living, learning how to bring a sense of possibility, even excitement, to our most cynical and pessimistic thoughts. Love is always the healing agent for the deepest wounds in our lives.

1 Such as MTG

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect