The New Moon at the Aries Equinox and Pluto

March 17th ~ 24th

“Joys of Spring” by René Lelong

i thank you God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky: and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun’s birthday: this is the birth day of life and love and wings and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) ~ e.e. cummings

The last of the super new moons this year, the New Moon in the very first degree of the first sign of the zodiac, falls on the Aries Equinox this year. The first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere. Like a glorious rebirth, the New Moon in Aries is sextile to, and ushering in the Pluto ingress into the sign of Aquarius on the 23rd of March. Like an infant fresh from the womb, filled with this new life force, the New Moon at 0º Aries 50’ is beckoning us onto a path of profound transformation.

New Moons are about new starts, new beginnings. Fresh out of the gate, the sign of Aries is filled with potential. The Sun’s ingress into Aries, coinciding with a New Moon, sets the tone not only for the month, but for the full year ahead. The New Moon in Aries always brings an opportunity for renewal. All the more so with Pluto casting its influence over this Moon. A sense of empowerment arises when we figure out who we are and find our place in the scheme of things. The New Moon in Aries sextile Pluto aims to do precisely that.

This is a Moon about rebuilding, getting second chances, and reinventing ourselves and our lives. It dares us to take on challenges that require focus, determination and a strong will. The influence of Pluto can make us feel as if we are on a mission. And if you were to have your own mission statement, what might that be? What sort of person are you aspiring to be? In what ways do you want to grow and/or evolve? Use this Moon to set the intention to do so. It is powerful and forward moving.

This can be heartening following the Mars/Neptune square last week wreaking its existential despair. The New Moon is still within range of a conjunction to Neptune and square raging Mars. But it is separating. And Mars is now approaching a stabilizing trine to Saturn. Whatever demons we were battling are in retreat, even though they may be leaving a bittersweet trail of tears behind them. Know that Aries looks to the future, and does not dwell on what was. And with the courage of a mighty warrior, takes on all challenges.

The New Moon on Tuesday is an excellent Moon to work with if you are wanting to start something new, or reinvest an intention, a venture, an initiative with some super charged Aries energy. If you wish to set intentions or make affirmations with the New Moon, do so after the New Moon on March 21st, (1:23 PM EDT; 10:23 AM PDT; and 5:23 PM British Standard Time); and thru the Crescent Moon on the 24th. Even better to do so when the Moon is still in Aries, and when the Sun/Moon are above the horizon (during day hours).

The sign of Aries is a sign of new beginnings, eager and ready to get going. It is especially good for doing things that we need to do ourselves, under our own steam. Great for competitions, or things that require physical energy and initiative. Aries can bring us the motivation to do things that we normally would not have the courage, daring or energy to be bothered with. So lace up those running shoes, it’s time to get moving.

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives, may we greet it with enthusiasm and an open heart.  

Some possible intentions or affirmations for the New Moon in Aries might be:

  • In life there are no problems, only challenges to be faced and overcome.

  • I trust my instincts to bring me where I need to be.

  • I am filled with the courage and strength to take on even the most daunting of challenges.

  • I embrace new beginnings with anticipation and eagerness to get started.

  • May I embody the spirit of a warrior hero, rushing headlong into life.

  • I have faith in my ability to take the initiative, putting all doubts aside.

Through our scientific and technological genius we’ve made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers ~ or we will all perish together as fools.~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pluto at the very last minute of the last degree of Capricorn finally crosses over into Aquarius on March 23rd,  just a little over a day after the New Moon. For the past 3 years that Saturn has been in Aquarius, we have all been in Aquarius school. Learning the ropes. Figuring out what this whole new Aquarius era is going to involve. Saturn in Aquarius was like the school of hard knocks. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Stumbling over ourselves in the process. We were just barely getting our footing. But whereas Saturn in Aquarius was like an undergrad degree, Pluto in Aquarius is going to be the master class.

And we’re only just getting started. Pluto will only be in this first degree of Aquarius for 11 weeks, before it retrogrades back into Capricorn again on June 11th. This is its inaugural debut as it just barely dips its Plutonian toe into the roiling air waves of Aquarius. We are being introduced into the Pluto in Aquarius era in increments, beginning with this initial visit, followed by a deeper dive early in 2024, and then finally entering Aquarius in November 2024, where it will remain thru 2043/44.

Pluto has an unusually elliptical orbit, in that it spends different lengths of time in each sign. It’s longest stay is in the sign of Taurus (31 years), its shortest (12 years) in Scorpio. It took Pluto 15 years to move through Capricorn. It will be 20 years in Aquarius. But whichever sign Pluto moves through it has this remarkable capacity to transform and redefine our relationship to what that sign means generally in society, as well as what it means to us personally.

Also note that Pluto may not change your actual quadrant house when it changes signs this week. It will continue to function in that department of life, but through a different lens and value system. With this initial dip into the Pluto in Aquarius era, we are just getting acclimated to what those values are, or may be going forward.

Ultimately there will be social changes, which will impact everyone. There is no doubt. And we will explore these further with next week’s post. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius from 1777/78 thru 1798, we had the French Revolution (liberté, egalité, fraternité) which began in 1789 and culminated with the Reign of Terror in 1799; the Americans were still in the throes of their own Revolutionary War ending with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. And then there was the Industrial Revolution (remember the cotton gin?), and the impact it had on the global economy (not to mention the environment).

The time Pluto was in Aquarius before that (1532-1553) led off with Calvin’s Protestant reformation in France; Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the establishment of the Church of England; not to mention Copernicus’ revolutionary manuscript (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium) was finally published, supporting the heliocentric theory that the planets revolved around the Sun, not the Earth. Talk about a mind-bender!

Pluto in Aquarius has this capacity to transform, and yes, revolutionize the world in remarkable ways. The closest we can come to these vast revolutionary eras in our most recent history, can be correlated with the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in the 1960’s when we had the Civil Rights Movement, the vast anti-war demonstrations, the Women’s Movement and more. So even a small dip into Aquarius this year has the potential to change our world view in remarkable, and yes, perhaps even revolutionary ways. Be prepared to be amazed.

Saturn In Pisces For Virgo?

Virgo girlVirgo will be directly affected by Saturn’s transit through Pisces.  Saturn will oppose Virgo from Pisces so you’re likely to meet Saturn outside yourself and I’ll explain. I’m the Virgo, speeding down the road, where I meet a cop!  I … Read More…

Twin stories. Saturn in Gemini

 What is most noticeable about twins is that they are the same. 

 


I am stating the obvious, however this is essential.

 

Have you read The Purloined Letter, by Edgar Alan Poe? In this story, detectives are searching a room for a letter that is hidden in plain sight… and they don’t find it! Similarly, the occult meanings of symbols are often too obvious to be noticed. 

 

So look! The twins are two and they are the same. They can talk. They can understand very well what they mean. Twins sometimes develop a language that only them can understand. This is called cryptophasia. 

 

There are jokes brothers and sisters can tell and be the only one to understand. There are jokes that make French people laugh, but not English, and vice versa. Fortunately we have enough in common to be able to appreciate a good deal of humour.  

 

We could draw a Venn diagram: two overlapping circles. In the shared space, jokes both French and English find funny. In that area, we are like twins. Chinese people may not understand our complicity. As for the rest of the diagram, we are strangers; mutual understanding, if possible at all, will require some learning (which is another of the themes associated with Gemini)

 

The symbol shows twins. It’s an archetypal image. It’s about being similar, like twins, or in a less perfect way, like brothers and sisters, or in an even less perfect way, like compatriots among foreigners. 

 

We are on a spectrum. The extreme opposite of Gemini could be a human and a weird creature from another planet. Now, if a movie starts with extraterrestrials crossing the intersidereal space on a flying saucer to meet us, what follows is either complete war, or a touching story about finding similarities. The most moving moment will be when the alien makes a joke and laughs with humans. When we laugh together, we understand each other so well we are like twins!

 

The symbol of the twins is a good example of how the language of symbols work: the picture shows perfect similarity, it means similarity, which is a necessary condition for contact, communication, mutual understanding, exchanges, and whatever derives from these main roads of meaning. 

 

Now, to be more or less similar, we also need to be two, and two is not just two, it is the beginning of many. With Gemini there are others. Others are inevitably different. Even true twins are not the same person. Gemini shows being the same and being different in one picture. With otherness comes variety, multiplicity, and with this comes curiosity and desire to learn more 

 

So you see, it’s possible to start exploring a zodiac sign and understand a few important things without talking about mythology. We can learn more by meditating on the story of Castor and Pollux, or do some research about Babylonian mythology, where the zodiac signs are from, and learn that there were twin gods guarding the entry of the underworld… 

 

As soon as we are two, there is a distance between the two. Taking it from there appears another spectrum: we can be close or distant. The greatest distance between two beings is being separated by death. Is this distance real or is it an illusion the twins invite us to dissipate? At soul level, can we ever be separated? Can we still communicate? Ask a medium… 

 

With Gemini comes breathing, a bodily function that underlies talking. Breathing also demonstrates duality: we breathe in, out, in, out and again. The breath connects inside and outside. The twins are twin worlds. 

 

Let’s now throw the spanner of Saturn into the Gemini works. 

 

The Aquarius side of Saturn is Air like Gemini, but Fixed. 

 

The twins are having a chat but what they are talking about is a complex mental structure. Big Ideas take more time to communicate than bits of information. Plato used the dialogue form in his writings. Meeting Socrates was always somehow heavier than a little chat about the weather with your neighbour. 

 

Socrates kept challenging his interlocutors, asking them questions about the meaning of their words, until they became utterly confused by their own contradictions. You would be wise to know that you don’t know, but what can you do but shut up after that? Annoying others maybe… 

 

If you have Saturn in Gemini, you have an inner Socrates. You may wish he drank the hemlock and left you free to enjoy easy going conversations, but you can’t help it, there are always motives for headaches. Philosophical semantics (the study or science of meaning in language) tends to focus on the principle of compositionality in order to explain the relationship between meaningful parts and whole sentences, you see what I mean. Saturn in Gemini gives you a lot of homework. 

 

You may be thinking: “Wait! I’ve always heard that philosophy belongs to Jupiter!” and you’re right. Philosophy, broadening our horizons, looking at the bigger picture is typically what Jupiter does. Plato’s myth of the cavern is typical of Jupiter: we look at our human condition from a higher or broader point of view, we realise there is more to it that meets the ordinary eye, we get an intuition of a superior order…

But look at what Socrates  does: he keeps asking “Yes, but…” questions. He referred to himself as a gadfly and to his philosophical investigations as annoying but necessary. This is more like Saturn. 

 

Jupiter and Saturn are like Yes and No, they mean opposite things but they are inseparable. 

 

Socrates’ ways have a definite Saturnian style, they apply to the way we use words and think, that is Gemini. 

 

Saturn in Gemini may also manifest as a speech impediment or a learning disability. With Saturn, Gemini forgets how to be mutable. 

This is just a thread of interpretation, there must be many others.

 

Saturn in Gemini may prefer repeating well known interpretations given by experienced authors in reference books, and fear the leap of faith towards personal understanding that Jupiter would take. However, with time and study, Saturn, one day, decides it can do it as well. 

 

The Capricorn side of Saturn wants achievements, not pure intellectual stuff. I have a friend who has a dominant Saturn in Gemini, conjuncting her MC from the 9th house side. When I met her, she was leading an English as a second language for adults school. She studied linguistics. She had various professional activities over the years.  

 

I’ll leave you wondering. Can the twins become old? Can you think of other threads to follow? Symbols are inexhaustible. I’m sure it would be possible to write a whole treatise about Saturn in Gemini, and there would still remain a lot to say… 

 

Jean-Marc

https://www.jeanmarcpierson.com/