A New Moon at the Aries Point is the most bare, exposed, fresh, even raw of beginnings, a seminal point of germination, discovery, inception, origination. In Aries we have initiation, both in the sense of the start of something new, and in the sense of being brought or accepted into something–both are personal, in that they are happening to the individual, but one speaks of a new venture, occurrence, or climate, while the other speaks of something that exists already, into which we enter and become a part. At the Aries Point, we are the Initiate; expect to become, to gain an aspect of identity that you did not carry before, and that you probably won’t be able to anticipate.

The New Moon perfects at 10:23 AM PDT at 00 Aries 49 sits at the rough midpoint of the Pluto-Sedna trine, with the sextile to Pluto catching Saturn at its midpoint. Like nesting dolls the contacts are, at first glance, hidden beneath what appears to be a much more obvious aspect. A trine between Sedna and Pluto suggests ease of change, or transformation, or even destruction, but to a facet of the inner landscape: to the instincts, those things we ‘know but don’t know’ (with the obvious possibility that something like this will become conscious), or to those ‘blind spot’ materials or factors that everyone else can see, but for us is the critical ‘missing part’ to understanding a situation or relationship. Add Saturn, and we add the potential for materialization of this change, or the idea that we may try to make the change ourselves, only to meet barriers. If you do encounter limits, these will be Universe-provided ‘safety rails’ that future hindsight will reveal to have been blessings in disguise. Note, too, that matters around this aspect will have begun to coalesce before the New Moon–the Lunar event simply brings it to our attention, as either our intuition or feelings are stirred.

There’s a squine (that squirrely trine-square mash-up of 105 degrees) of the New Moon to Pallas in Cancer, notable not just because of the conflicting energies of positive and negative but because with both NM and Pallas in Cardinal signs, this might be the agent behind actions we take and choices we make–that is, one informed by the wisdom inherent in caring (Pallas in Cancer)–that is, the way what we care about, and the way we feel about it, automatically means we will approach it in the best way we know how. When we don’t want to mess things up, we invariably do what’s smartest (or what appears smartest to us!) There may be both the feeling one needs to do something, and that one wants to, but either this hasn’t been clear before or hesitation, for a variety of reasons, has kept the urge in stasis.

The New Moon is semi-square to Venus-Juno in Taurus, which are tightly conjoined (only two minutes apart), suggesting a little tension over resources, or conflict over what some (especially the partner) needs for comfort and security. The Lunar event will simply show that the need is unmet, and possibly not even recognized, before now. Smart money says pay attention to this–it’s the kind of thing that can grow beneath the surface and fuel big blow-ups later.

The Sabian for the New Moon is, ‘A Woman Just Risen From The Sea; A Seal Is Embracing Her’. The connection to the goddess Sedna is apparent, so emphasizing Sedna’s place in the astrological equation. That’s the instinctual nature, those things we know in our bones but may not hold in consciousness, those things we are not cognizant of but are putting out into the world anyway–others see this, we don’t–and this affects our choices, actions, and relationships. This suggests to me that all of what happens now is coming directly from the primal and instinctual natures, and particularly applying to the way all of us live in (at least) two worlds: personal and public, professional and intimate, seen and secret, and so on. For more on the relevance of this symbol, you might enjoy “Sealskin, Soulskin’ from Dr. C.P. Estes’ book, ‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’.

Don’t expect anything to have its final form; what happens at this New Moon is protean, in the sense that it’s so new in some way that it possesses an endless number of potential directions. Just know that this beginning may be raw, yet unformed, but certainly a herald of a whole new epoch.