A New Moon in Taurus may ask if we are born from our environment, a material, sensuous Being with qualities and personality fully formed and fully intact, or if we are born into our environment formless, a tabula rasa upon which our surroundings write their influence? Of course, in absolute terms when we’re born, or re-born as part of the Lunar cycle, we’re neither totally unformed nor are all our characteristics already determined; anyone who’s dealt with an infant knows they’re distinctive from birth, even as they are learning and changing all the time, and so it is with us all through our lives: we live, we grow, and even as we develop we’re aware that there are some responses, feelings, traits that have always been within us.

Any New Moon offers us a moment of re-birth, a moment in which, in areas related to the sign and the House it occupies in our natal chart, we can begin again; with Taurus we focus on our surroundings, the atmosphere, our assets, what we have or are missing (and related to this, what we need, find comfort in materially, and what personal expression and power we derive from our wealth or talents), such that we may feel the sign concerns things outside ourselves, and so outside our influence or control. An easy mistake to make; that’s why we are obligated to remind ourselves that where we are in life, and what surrounds us, is a direct and undeniable result of each and every decision we’ve ever made. The outside matches the inside, not one-for-one, but in ways where many things are more subtle, cumulative, or far-reaching, extending into our futures and or sending tendrils of meaning and re-interpretation back into the past.

This New Moon sparks at 12:30 PM PDT of the 27th at 7 Taurus 46, conjoined (and moving toward perfection of the conjunction with) the asteroid Circe=the child of gods, but described as a sorceress and minor goddess, Circe is chiefly known now as having used her power to turn men into pigs just to keep the one she desired (Odysseus) trapped on her island. Like so many people used to wielding power, used to getting her way, Circe didn’t see how she was encroaching on others’ boundaries, that she was behaving in abusive and controlling ways, simply because to people who process power the way she does, others aren’t as real as she is–she’s a narcissist.

Together the New Moon/ Sun-Moon conjunction and Circe act as one arm of a Grand Cross made up of Mars in Leo conjoined the asteroid Karma, Pluto in Aquarius, and Black Moon Lilith and the asteroid Hekate in Scorpio. In a more conventional interpretation only the T-square would be considered, with Hekate (the one who shows the way) ignored–which may be the case even as we note Hekate’s presence, because it’s conjoined the Black Moon Lilith point, urging us to bury the info we’re being given about which way and how to go.

So, conscious of this tendency to skip over what’s uncomfortable or inconvenient, especially if it illuminates the direction we should take, we look at the other energies in play: Mars in Leo makes us want to act or choose, to our own glory or for our own Will or purposes; Pluto in Aquarius may, in this Lunar light, take on an unusually negative tone: awareness of Higher Mind, taking an intellectual tack, being inventive or innovative, may feel destructive–or, change and transformation seem to be required to move successfully into the future. Either way, the pressure is intense–and so may be the fear.

But, we haven’t addressed one element: the asteroid Karma in Leo conjoined Mars. Here we have a chicken-or-egg situation: do we act or choose because we’re meeting some facet of our Karma, something we have created ourselves and now must face (or embrace–it could be a good thing), or are we creating Karma with our actions and choices? Inevitably, both are true, in the larger scheme of things, but the label of ‘Karmic’ is one we should use with care; really, either everything is Karmic, or nothing is. Mayhap we should read this, then, as facilitating something we deserve–no more, no less–and no matter where or from whom this appears to come, we as individuals have earned it (Leo).

One other thing worth mention: the New Moon is at the midpoint of another energy picture, a trine among Requiem in Cancer and a conjunction of Orpheus and Damocles in Pisces. Requiem in the sign of Lunar sensitivity and emotions suggests an end to something, a feeling or caring situation memorialized which reflects the presence of Pluto in the larger equation. Orpheus attempted to retrieve his beloved from Hades, only to fail when he lost trust and looked back, violating the only order he’d been given; combine this ‘blowing his big break’ with the story of the Sword of Damocles, wherein it’s made clear that with enormous privilege comes a much higher level of danger/ threat, and we get a portrait of an individual granted extraordinary favor who then, either through his own misbehavior or through a newfound awareness, loses what he so deeply wanted. He is disabused of the idea either that he deserves an exception to the very rules of life and death, or that those with a particular status are immune from these rules. The Moon-Sun, then, poised between these, may imply that a particular idea about what one desires will need, one way or another, to die.

The Sabian for this New Moon is a little startling: ‘A Sleigh On Land Uncovered By Snow’. We’re given a symbol of movement that’s in a totally unsuitable environment. This just reiterates that the ‘old’ idea of how to move forward needs revision–and certainly, that what we find comfortable and secure may need to be revised, updated–because how many of us regularly drive a sleigh anymore? You see what I mean.

That New Moon in Taurus gives us a re-birth in what’s not just materially important or possible, but in what we want and deserve. Awareness grows, likely through emotional processes, and so our ideas about what brings comfort, prosperity, or security, particularly on an individual level, change as well. We’re re-vivified through a process of assessment and evaluation–and we are shown in the light of the New Moon exactly what we must do, what direction we must take, to make it happen. We’re, in some important way, back from the dead, in the Taurean areas of our life. Enjoy it.