The New Moon perfects at 4:00 AM PDT at 25 Virgo–those are some nice round numbers, aren’t they? (And as an aside, don’t read anything into that–numbers are a human-created system–there’s no mystical meaning in neither having minutes.) The NM noviles Vesta, right away telling us that what begins at this time is something that carries a spark of genius, in terms of the way it can instigate important commitments, can dedicate our energies to what really matters to us, and can bring the spiritual into interactions. What is birthed right now matters, to the Soul, to the psyche, and to the manifestations of these in the life, as they arise from our own accounting and critique (Virgo) of who we are (the Sun) and how we feel (the Moon).

The New Moon, which is of course conjoined the Sun and opposed the Earth, also happens to square the Nodal axis. The Nodes are not bodies but ‘markers’, in a sense, of the points at any one time when the Moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic, and so can be thought of as energetic placeholders, adding depth to analysis of the Moon’s situation at any particular point, and indicating the direction of a general energy stream moving from South Node to North. Since this Grand Cross consists of the event bodies (New Moon-Sun), one that’s always linked to the Sun anyway (the ever-opposing Earth), and these extremity markers (the Nodes), no one could be faulted for thinking this isn’t truly relevant to the event–but it is, simply because this likely signals the kind of ongoing tension typical to a GC that is kicked off by the New Moon event. That is, what starts at the NM simultaneously brings forward questions of identity and role (the Sun), the past (South Node), and the direction we’re headed in life (North Node), and this happens as a logical matter of course, and again marking the depth of meaning behind the NM itself and giving events the sense that decisions and choices must be made.

The New Moon trines Pluto and is in close trine to Saturn, suggesting just how easily profound change may occur, particularly in ways that change the material reality or that create structure or limit restraints. Further, Sedna could be considered to fill in a loose Earth Grand Trine with Saturn, indicating that either our instincts and intuitive faculties, or those matters we carry in our ‘blind spot’, become instrumental in events. Do we have a choice here as to whether we get a leg up with accurate instinctual perceptions or suffer at the hands of matters we just aren’t conscious of? No, probably not, though we can do our best to stay open to change, and so to Truth–a willingness to see and know may be our most important asset.

The New Moon in Virgo forms quincunxes to the Black Moon Lilith point and to Mars, the latter of which is still stationary in Aries, poised to break backward in apparent motion. The light dawning with the New Moon may slowly begin to illuminate what we need to do about matters we’ve ignored or denied–but whether that comes as a flash of knowledge all at once, or seeps in over the coming days, can’t be known, and considering that Mars is technically already retrograde, may imply that we don’t do anything, but instead learn what must be done, and then reserve action for a later date.

The NM also makes a sesquiquadrate to Uranus. This points out to us the need to ‘make peace’ with our own uniqueness. Too often we seek to subdue, distort for acceptability’s sake, or otherwise hide what is most true to ourselves, partly out of fear: to be known and seen is to be vulnerable, and partly out of a desire to be accepted. But, this Moon event will help us see, even if it’s only in some small way, how embracing a unique part of ourselves will make us truer to who we are at a Soul level. Special note: if you have something 8 and 12 degrees Aquarius, then that natal placement fills in the base of a Fist of God with Uranus and New Moon as apex. The suggestion is that Moon events might come directly from a clash between your most unusual qualities and the natal energy as they try to ‘get along’. For you the ‘recipe’ for making the most of New Moon events very firmly rests in the need to accept something you up until now may have seen as too ‘out there’ to be incorporated as a part of the identity–but now you must find a way.

The Sabian symbol for the New Moon is, ‘A Flag At Half-Mast In Front Of A Public Building’. The editor in me wants to correct that to say ‘half-staff’ as half-mast is only shipboard–and then I wonder, is that ‘mistake’ part of the message itself? Is it meant to convey that the mourning of loss and show of respect shown by lowering a flag is actually, in some strange way, misplaced? Maybe it draws our attention to an area we have been mourning, something that brings us sadness, only to point out to us that we are sad either about the ‘wrong’ component of the situation, or that we are misunderstanding our own mourning, either the need to or the need not to (which in some circles could be seen as unacceptable and so punished). In any case, this sadness has a public component, a public ‘face’, so that we may be challenged to examine whether what we are told we should be mourning really matters to us, or whether we are mourning something else entirely in private, participating in group sadness as a way to find ‘cover’ for our real feelings. Whatever happens at the New Moon, it may involve the loss of a feeling state (real or pretend) that moves us by its subtraction closer to living a most genuine life.