The New Moon in Cancer occurs at 4:01 AM PDT of the 4th at 12 degrees 53 minutes, and the most striking feature of the event is that it forms a loose Mystic Rectangle involving the Sun-Moon/ Earth axis, which includes Mercury conjoined the Sun-Moon and Pluto conjoined the Earth, and the Nodal axis which also has Neptune conjoined the South Node and Jupiter conjoined the North, though with our normally tight (2 degrees or less) New Moon orbs, not all of those bodies and points would be considered in aspect to some of the others. A configuration is able to pull in things that might not otherwise be considered in contact by its sheer power of connection (that is, the power of each part is amplified by being part of a configuration; it’s as if being part of a pattern extends the orb of each body–or maybe we should think of it as the pattern pulling energies into play by proximity to one of the config’s elements). With the Mystic Rectangle formed by this New Moon, a kind of synergy is added to what begins or is seeded: whatever’s born arises from the convergence of a number of factors involving what we care about (Cancer) vs. what exists right now (Capricorn).

The ease with which these various combinations meld and then amplify is what the Mystic Rectangle is all about. There’s Neptune-South Node in Pisces=we either create from the past or use something imagined or created in the past, or we find that past imaginings were illusions, fantasies, or deceptions; Pluto-Earth=material changes, or changes to what we count on or find familiar, to the structure of our lives via both the concrete and rules, boundaries, restrictions, or a transformation or destruction of the ‘real world’ landscape; North Node-Jupiter=opportunities for the future, optimism about the future, or something learned or conveyed (facts) that shape the future; Moon-Sun-Mercury=what we care about we think about, and it acts upon and is acted upon by the other parts of the configuration. The overall picture is one of creative response to change that teaches us something, or from which we learn, and this creates future opportunities, even creates the future itself. Be aware: the tendency may be to live too much in our heads, to see an idea coalesce and then believe we ‘have done’ merely by the thinking. This is a NM that offers a great deal of mental ‘fodder’, but that will support material new starts, even more completely and thoroughly than we might think.

We should note the wide, separating quincunx of the New Moon to Saturn=this may lend an aura of ‘too late’ or unreality to our ideas and efforts–but this is an illusion (Saturn sq Neptune). The Sun is also parallel Venus today, suggesting there’s gain to be had in simply being conscious–and that’s good news. The NM is also in wide square to Zeus, and with Pluto-Earth, forms a tense T-square=the ambition and desire picture may make or break the material changes we allow to come forward–and that means this could be the pivotal issue that decides what precisely in our world changes, as we measure all potential alterations against how well they serve the ambition and desire picture.

The Sabian for the New Moon is, ‘A Hand With A Prominent Thumb Is Held Out For Study’. In palmistry the thumb seems to indicate flexibility and Willfulness of the individual; in a cultural context, we might say it suggests a certain disrespect of others (thumbing one’s nose at something) or a signal that one wants to be ‘taken along for the ride’ (hitchhiking). But the thing that might be most important about the thumb is that it is our ‘opposable digit’–that is, the placement of the thumb in relation to the other fingers offers us as a species an enormous advantage, and is said to be the reason we dominate the earth.

So what does this mean for the NM? The fact that the thumb is mentioned as prominent implies that what begins at this point may be more a matter of Will and skill, combined, than of anything else. Too, the hand is being ‘held out for study’, which echoes involvement of the Nodal axis in the Mystic Rectangle, and may signal the importance, the future-determining ‘stuff’, that the New Moon events will bring. No matter what, it does point to the Self-determining nature of the events and our reactions to them; whether we are Willful or flexible, disdainful, or just going with the flow, we have to admit that it’s our choice, with how we fare resting firmly in our ability to exploit our most unique capabilities and skills.

Our New Moon daily word image is a man standing on a beach, being circled by a large dragonfly. I observed this, and haven’t been able to light on a definitive meaning, though it’s ripe for a few jokes (he’s the ‘Mother of Dragonflies’, for instance!) I finally decided that what it really ‘says’ is something about our interconnectedness with Nature, that we are far more part of the picture at a fundamental level than we consciously realize, just one element in an elemental world. Notice your own interaction with Nature today, especially in any ways you might hold yourself apart, recoil from contact or reality, or see yourself as ‘above’ other life forms; if you have these kinds of reactions or thoughts, they will point directly to areas where you are lacking realistic awareness of the natural order (which is, in essence, a place where the playing field is absolutely level), or where you have somehow removed yourself from it.

I wish someone would yell at me when I forget a Moon event chart–finally, here it is!