A New Moon of Inner Commitment and Nebulous Progress

Friday evening’s Cancer New Moon features an important trine between nebulous Neptune and the mid-Cancer placement of Mars, located in the same watery and emotional sign as the Sun and Moon. Also to be found in early Cancer is Mercury, making of this next thirty days a quietly emotional and thoughtful time of deep introspection, and uncertain and potentially spiritual outcomes. This is quite a watery month, emotionally rich and full of the tendency to look backward as well as forward. Sometimes the past can indeed be an excellent guide to the future if only by way of what you wish to avoid or eliminate. And, indeed, with Pluto also strongly configured in this New Moon, there is great energy for personal transformation and for letting go of that which no longer serves you. Saturn is also in exact trine with Eris, the new planet beyond Pluto, signifying a spiritual warrior energy, so that you might encounter a strong feeling for finding your true values, deep inside, and sticking to them.

In this New Moon configuration, Venus in her own sign of Taurus is found to be closely aligned with Pluto’s position in Capricorn, being in the same degree. This is thus a partile trine that exists for the timing of this New Moon in particular and for the thirty-day Cancer lunation cycle that follows, even as Venus moves on to Gemini early next month. With Venus in combination with Pluto we might expect greater depth in all our relationship interactions. We want to know more. Love at this juncture is never superficial, and even the more casual of our connections have this tendency to go deep. We are engaged in looking beneath the covers of the interaction for the underlying motivation. The benefit is that we forge closer bonds, especially with romantic partners, because of the greater depth of the intended connection.

With Pluto strongly configured, and with Saturn within orb of a trine with Uranus, as well as with Eris, there continues to be structural transformation in the air. You might want to be asking yourself what it is that you need to let go of, and what within you is preventing this from happening. We could say habit, and it is true that ingrained patterns are difficult to break. There is usually fear involved as well, fear of the unknown. Often, says Shakespeare, “we would rather bear those ills we have, than to fly to others that we know not of.” With greater self-awareness, we have the chance to change all that, and make a stab at inhabiting the greater life that we know that we have within us to fulfill.

The Sabian symbol for this New Moon degree may be instructive. It is the third degree of Cancer: “A man, bundled up in fur, leading a shaggy deer.” One is immediately drawn to the comparison of man and Nature, since both the man and the deer are similarly insulated against the cold. Further, they are making their way through the world together, making their accommodation to the elements in order to survive. Marc Edmund Jones has, “Here is a repudiation of most normal experience as unnecessarily self-limiting in its accepted opportunities and boundaries. Life is taken as real or rewarding only as it can be carried on from something known to some unknown, which will provide a real challenge ahead.” Indeed, we all need this challenge in our lives, to move beyond previous high-water marks of achievement into the truest expression of ourselves. Undoubtedly there is risk involved, and the courage of our convictions to move ourselves forward by whatever means necessary, and no matter what it takes.