An Aquarius New Moon of Renewed Activism

Friday’s Aquarius New Moon, kicking off the lunation cycle of most of February, makes for a socially active time when the tendency is to look to the surrounding culture for its strengths and weaknesses. The biggest news with this New Moon is that, once again, Uranus and also the new planet, Eris, are quite prominent. With the very powerful Full Moon of last January 12th, Jupiter was found to be in exact alignment with Eris, opposed, and only 2 degrees off from Uranus. Now, because Jupiter is getting ready to station one degree further, at 23 degrees of Libra, this same opposition remains active through March. The combination of Uranus and Eris spells revolutionary activism for deep intention, plain and simple, what I have been calling “everyone an activist.” Since Eris is a feminine warrior energy, it is also very appropriate that the massively successful Women’s March on Washington recently took place under this powerful configuration.

This New Moon configuration is another quite potent lunation. Because of the Sun and Moon being located in Aquarius, the sign that Uranus rules, the revolutionary atmosphere is further emphasized. The New Moon degree is also in precise quintile with Uranus. This planetary archetype, sometimes called The Awakener, or the Trickster, implies opening to new realities which can show up rather suddenly. Strange events become the norm, as we are seeing with the new government in the U.S., untried, just beginning to learn how to handle the great responsibility of that office, and making a mistake or two along the way. The power of the grass-roots movement that very nearly swept Bernie Sanders into the White House is still alive and well, acting as a counter-force to the most egregious of the errors and attitudes, positing a liberal point of view that could amount to a significant balance to the conservatism of the incoming administration.

Saturn in Sagittarius is still also very much an important part of this lunation, being in close semi-square to the Sun and Moon, and aspecting Jupiter and Uranus. Jupiter makes an almost perfect sextile to Saturn, a degree and a quarter from exact, while Saturn makes a close trine aspect to Eris and also to Uranus, The Saturn-Uranus trine is indicative of the polarities within the social structure that are currently very much evidenced this winter, especially here in the U.S. You might be asking yourself, how does Saturn in aspect to Uranus affect individuals as well as societies? Saturn represents the principle of thoroughness and a conservative approach of holding back, while Uranus is all about suddenly launching out in new directions without a thought to the implicit drawbacks. The offbeat idea is the perfect choice. These two archetypes are therefore antithetical in their energies, and you may be feeling a combination of each of these types of impulse. A push-pull is created that could leave you uncertain of whether to take that relatively wild action, versus holding back. Or on the other hand, you might move forward a little recklessly but then come to second guess yourself even while implementing novel plans. The trick is, once you know your mind, to listen to another point of view and yet not be swayed.

The Sabian symbol for this New Moon is interesting, being, for the ninth degree of Aquarius, “A flag turned into an eagle.” This symbol seems appropriate for these times, the eagle being a specifically American emblem. Then too, in language evoking Uranus and Eris, Marc Edmund Jones references “self-dedication,” and “man’s inexhaustibly fertile imagination or genius for significant self-representation, and … rising to every situation in terms of its most rewarding potentials. Here is his [or her] contribution of enduring purpose to all things by his [or her] vision of their worth, and his [or her] determination to make this evident.” Indeed this is the time for activism of a non-shallow kind, for a determination to rise to the occasion of our era and help to shape its most profound vision.