A New Moon of Intensity of Inner Purpose

Sunday’s Scorpio New Moon, taking place late morning or mid-day, depending on location, in early evening for Europe, makes for a thoughtful and poetically active time. The Sun and Moon are closely conjunct Mercury and all three are in trine with numinous Neptune, a configuration that is often seen in the natal charts of musicians and poets. As an example, Bob Dylan has Mercury in close square with Neptune, with the Moon in trine. The Sunday configuration implies that by looking within ourselves in meditative gaze, and attempting to “close our eyes to see,” we will be able to expand our perceptions of the non-physical world of mystical realties that lie beyond the purely physical plane of surface events and normative thinking. Our ideas, if we let them, will thus come just a little closer to conscious understanding of the full range of our human experience, including the almost entirely unseen world of Spirit. The veil between the worlds of manifestation and of worlds beyond the physical grows thin, just in time for the Halloween celebration in a similar vein. Then, too, in this Sunday’s configuration the outer planet energies of Saturn, Uranus and Pluto are also powerfully invoked. Because this New Moon configuration kicks off the Scorpio monthly cycle, we are in for a potent month of November, when the major structural transformation in which we have been engaged for several years now, both individually and collectively, gains momentum and intensity.

There are several other outer planet factors in this potent New Moon patterning, strong because they are configured with inner planets in combination. Venus is found less than a degree away from Saturn, as the latter restrictive and conservative planet closes in on Pluto, by parallel. Pluto, too, has strong support, since Venus is also found in a perfect semi-sextile aspect with Pluto. Mars, a few degrees away from Pluto, still in Capricorn, having recently collided with the dark energies of this powerhouse planetary archetype, squares Eris exactly, and Uranus by a little more than a degree. Then we have Neptune, with Mercury in perfect trine, as indicated above. What does all this outer planet energy indicate? Why, nothing less than a potent new emphasis on the massive and ongoing metamorphosis of these fractious times, that affects each one of us on an individual level, as can also be seen in the contortions of the surrounding collective.

The way to make it through these difficult days of intensity depends on finding your own inner compass, what feels absolutely right for you, in the midst of everything. This depends in part upon spiritual grounding, which may or may not have anything at all to do with the institutional forms of religious practice in which 20th century society believed. The key lies in determining whatever it is that truly works for you in the deepest layers of your being, far removed from the dictates of consensus thought, and this makes for (not coincidentally) a powerful chime with the symbolism of Eris, the new planet beyond Pluto. Eris is also strongly invoked in this New Moon, as indicated above. As a Feminine Warrior for soul intention, Eris symbolizes what is true for each one of us in the deepest interior realms of our being, and what is therefore well worth fighting for.

Jupiter, leading the planetary pattern of this New Moon configuration from his vantage point in mid-Libra, is also strongly placed, giving emphasis to relationship issues, and to positive, and largely spiritual, solutions. It is true that we all need each other, either in terms of one-on-one support or else in the more general way of friendship and solidarity. We also need to be able, in the final analysis, to rely upon ourselves at these most profound levels of internal understanding.

The Sabian Symbol for this New Moon degree is the eighth of Scorpio: “The Moon shining across a lake,” which brings the motif of calm, spiritual confidence, based in a natural setting, and of the Water element. These of course support factors of important soul connection within ourselves, in the deeper layers of our being. Marc Edmund Jones references “the magic on which [we] always may call, when facing any problem of inner or psychological adjustment.” He goes on to say, “implicit in the symbolism is a fellowship of feeling which leads to all romance and which enables human hearts to gain their moments of release from the outer compulsions upon them and thus achieve their … more enduring orientation.” Indeed, the world of Nature, and of Spirit, supports us in all that we do, if only we have the grace and the presence of mind to turn our inner gaze to it.