4th January 2011

Although today’s New Moon is in Capricorn, there a deep and dark undercurrent of Scorpionic energy riding it’s wave, and that darkest of feminine energies Lilith plays an important role.  The hidden depth and secret power that has been wrapped in the suppressed wrath of the feminine has awakened, because we now have the compassionate container to express it cleanly.  It seems possible that the feminine aspect of men is more strongly affected by the energies this week.

It’s happening in the Root Chakra, so it will deal with fear, emotional anxiety, depression and any core issues of security and survival you might be holding onto.  Physically it will be about sexual issues, legs, feet.  the immune and adrenal systems.

I want to start out by looking at some more subtle influences and then move onto the big issues – like Jupiter – Uranus opposite Makemake in the Solar Plexus Centre having a powerful effect on the emotions, and  Saturn – Haumea connecting with the Nodes, bringing the body into alignment with our hearts and our soul geometry.

Firstly, there is the strong ongoing theme of unravelling family patterns.  Pluto in the Gate of Joy in the Root Centre is driving this process, reclaiming our authority over our own lives, listening to our own inner voice without dominating others or being dominated (Kassandra in 58.1), letting go of reactive impulses to make a fast break and escape restrictions rather than engage fully with our own lives (Icarus in 58.2).  We need to look beyond the struggle to see what we are struggling towards and focus on that outcome (Pallas in 58.3).  We can’t dictate how things will turn out, but neither should we shy away from knowing what we would prefer.

Adding to this is Apollo conjunct in the Sun and Moon (38.3), representing a tendency for families to keep on doing the same things generation after generation.  The solution on offer is to be aware of your vulnerability in this process, to experience how you might feel attacked, humiliated or shamed in the way things are usually done.  You need to know about this.

You need to know, because this is a moment for you to take charge of your own life if ever there was one.  The chance to blame others has evolved into a higher level of personal responsibility.  We are growing up, achieving mastery.  Nemesis in 18.1 says, turn and face your demons and name them as your own.  The I Ching speaks of facing down the angry old ghosts of the ancestors and saying ‘this is my life’.  We are making repairs and they are based on our own guidance, our own consciousness, rather than being based on long-held but mistaken bandaid measures.  This is why we have to do things so slowly and deliberately at the moment, because we are cutting new pathways of life.

Eros is conjunct the Sun and Moon, calling you out to new soul partnerships, although the reveal may feel dangerous to your newfound vulnerability.   Eros seeks to raise the masculine creative principal from one of domination to a soul partnership with the feminine.  This partnership gives rise to passion, attraction, potency and vitality.  Eros in such a crucial and significant position on this Solar Eclipse indicates a major shift in the way the masculine operates on this planet.

Up in the Throat Centre, another harbinger of the new masculine, Pan, is conjunct Sedna in Gate 23, dissolving our attachment to status and roles, to goals and outcomes, allowing us to become more gentle and accepting and open.  We may not be receiving what we expected from life just now, but it is more juicy and filled with promise than we can possibly imagine from a place where we have become drunk and lost on more superficial treasures.  Eros in Capricorn (38) and Pan in Taurus (23) indicate an earthy sensuality and  a powerful recovery of the masculine sexual and creative potency.

And the feminine?  There are two Liliths – an asteroid and the Dark Moon.  The asteroid Lilith (in 14.3) conjunct Venus, has the power to shift relationships – to self and others – to dedicate our lives to something higher than conflict, strife and struggle.   She can let go of her need to control.  We are facing in the right direction, we simply need to be receptive rather than willful.  The Dark Moon Lilith in (25.3), is a pointer to where we can let go and connect to the beloved in the form of the absolute, here we are being asked to release our attachment to anything other than our own simple and vulnerable innocence, to open to greater vistas of self.  She is paving the way for Jupiter and Uranus, who are both headed back towards the Gate of Innocence – Jupiter moves on 13th January and Uranus on 7th February.

It’s vital that the feminine energy opens up to receive the new masculine.  If it’s not received, the masculine energy remains essentially impotent and infertile, not even knowing it’s own potential for creation.

Eros’ soul mate Psyche is in Gate 35 with Chaos.  This is the Gate that brings Jupiter and Uranus to the Throat for expression.  The TNO Chaos is there as well.  While Eros is supporting us to feel physically safe, Psyche is helping us clarify our tendency to try to intuit what others are thinking or feeling about us.  She is working in the realm of our emotional sense of safety.  Our own wrong thinking and the emotional response we have to it creates an obstacle.  We believe ourselves to be attacked, isolated, unsafe.  Psyche says to take pause, to create a space where we can apprehend the true opportunity and gift in the situation.  “like a net that, without moving, catches fish while the water flows on through.”  In this pause you may feel uncertain, but Chaos promises a new form is taking shape, a new beginning is arising.

And sitting there all alone – isolated – is Mars in the Crown Chakra.  A gate of huge power to release the unseen and unknown into the consciousness of humanity.  There is nothing in Gate 24, so this activation will only affect those who have Gate 24 in their own designs.  The first stirrings of the new masculine, occuring in the old masculine arena of Capricorn.  I have seen some astrologers suggesting that this New Moon and Solar Eclipse are about strengthening the structure of the existing masculine and recommending we work hard and seek status and success.  This is a complete misreading of the deeper shift that’s going on here.

There is a spirit and connection to flow here that is our saviour within.

Inner truth is opening up a flow of change; existing frameworks and agreements of all kinds can no longer be taken for granted.  there is guidance available that can lead you towards good fortune – but it’s as well to be vigilant for other factors that may complicate matters and disturb your peace:  half hidden needs or beliefs, other people’s influence, or divergent, mutually incompatible desires.

And what of the Jupiter – Uranus conjunction?  It’s in the Solar Plexus Chakra, which deals with emotions, in Gate 36.5, opposing dwarf planet MakeMake in Gate 6.6.  In the last of these conjunctions, Jupiter and Uranus, seek our mastery, our ability to operate without approval (Uranus) from our own sense of purpose and meaning (Jupiter).

The Sabian Symbol for this eclipse is “An Ancient Bas-Relief Carved in Granite Remains a Witness to a Long-Forgotten Culture.”  This is extraordinary, given the activation to Makemake and the history of ‘spoils to the victor’ that he brings to consciousness.  (more here)

Makemake, like the Easter Island statues, is a sentinel for a life lived in harmony with the abundance of nature – sensual, sexual, living each moment with each other in joyful celebration.  Makemake’s long forgotten polynesian culture on the island of Rapa Nui was destroyed by the Europeans who believed their ways were superior.   On a personal level Makemake represents an integration of that oppressor within, to see clearly how our desire for status and material goods has led us out of the garden.  It’s about integration of the superior and inferior selves at all levels – the ego who believes an Armani suit and a pair of Manolos makes us superior (and it’s hard to resist given we were raised in this culture), believing an iPhone makes us connected, and that judging others as less ‘spiritually advanced’ makes us more so.

Makemake in 6.6 tells us that we will never win.  Because the concept of winning and losing is an illusion.  So why are we competing?  Why are we struggling?  Why are we fighting?  These are ways to trap ourselves in a constant struggle for scraps, trying to protect ourselves against loss.  If we fight, we always lose.  Our culture has trained our body, mind and emotions for conflict, for pessimism, for loss.  It’s time we stop believing in it.

And last, but not least, is Saturn conjunct Haumea in the Spleen Centre.  I say not least because this New Moon is about our material wellbeing – our ability to come out of our conditioned self-isolation and create joyful abundant community.  This self-isolation may be so subtle many of us are unaware of the power it holds over our lives.  It is a watershed for the integration of the individual into the collective.  The individual may see it as a death rather than a rebirth, but the that’s how the ego rolls!

It is, in a way, a rebirth, completing our physical birth as we develop emotional stability and clarity that allows our bodies to experience life on earth as they were designed to do – in Bliss, Pleasure and Ecstacy.  Don’t take my word for it, these are the names of Psyche and Eros’ three children.  They are part of a prophecy for the full integration of duality.